Do You Still Feel the Weakness in Your Knees (When You Think About Finally Waking Up From a Dream)?

"So tell me, why do the words resound and shift in the narrative as I read it slowly now? So can we walk across, across the threshold before our hearts all give out?"

('Elder Engineers' by 'Valiant Hearts')

Izuku walked into his apartment and hung his keys up.

He flicked the switch for the light on and looked down at himself. His Edgeshot shirt was ruined, ripped at the armpits and with flecks of blood on it, and probably shredded in the back. His jeans were torn apart too, and one of his shoes was cut open at the front.

That's probably from Rip Tide's face, he thought with amusement. Melissa's specialized armor had protected his foot, but that went under his normal shoes.

He groaned and bent over, planning to take his shoes off and go die a little bit in the shower, when he realized there was an envelope that had been slid under his door. He didn't catch it at first - he'd nearly stepped on it, actually. He picked it up and frowned when he saw the writing on the front.

Hey, Superhero, it said in neat, familiar looking handwriting. He quickly opened it and pulled out a small note.

Hi, Midoriya. Thanks for coming on that job. I made sure the systems for the lab were out of commission before I left, so no one will be using it anytime soon. I know I promised to tell you what I'm after, but the truth is that it wasn't there. So I can't tell you yet. I won't ask you to directly assist me on jobs anymore, but you'll see me around.

Good luck. - O

Izuku sighed and reached up to set the note on the little shelf he had put in his front hall for knick knacks. He started to set the envelope down when another piece of paper fell out of it.

He caught it and stared at it in confusion with furrowed brows. It was a thicker piece of paper, folded once - and it appeared to be some kind of marketing material. He unfolded it and found that it was an advertisement for the grand opening of a casino in less than a week. He groaned and grabbed his phone, snapping a picture and sending it to Tsukauchi along with the caption 'she left this in my apartment.' Then he stuffed his phone back in his pocket and set the envelope and advertisement on his little shelf. He was just standing there now like an idiot, in a ruined outfit in his front hallway, and he was really, truly starting to question his life choices. He dragged his hands down his face and sighed, before moving to finally take off his shoes.

I need coffee, he thought absentmindedly. He wondered how much coffee he could drink before it replaced his blood. Maybe Aizawa would know the answer to that.

Once free of his shoes, he set them down by the garbage - he had more than one pair and ordered them custom-made these days anyway since they were 'official merchandise' - and moved into the kitchen.

He quickly put together a pot of coffee and set it to brew, then padded down the hallway to his bathroom. He figured he could take a shower in the time it took to finish the coffee.

Another sleep, another nightmare.

He stands there in the woods, watching his younger self, Mezo, and Shouto sprint blindly through the forest. He decides to follow at a brisk jog, already knowing how this will end. He always knows how they will end, and that's one of the worst parts.

The battle against Muscular was furious and draining, even if Izuku won in the end. But little Izuku is so obviously wounded even though he succeeded in protecting Kouta. After dealing with Dark Shadow on top of that, little izuku is barely holding it together.

They had run into Tsuyu as well, struggling alone against Himiko Toga. They protected their classmate, but Tsuyu was badly wounded and had to be bandaged with Shouto's shirt, leaving him only in his undershirt. Izuku's older self follows along at a brisk pace, already feeling sorrow as he knows what things are building to.

Older Izuku comes to a stop at the edge of a clearing, just behind the younger boys. The three younger Heroes-in-training also stand there, shocked. There's no one else there.

They are too late. They were too slow.

Fumikage and Kacchan are taken right out from under them and they aren't even able to put up a fight. Little Izuku screams, though the dream is silent. Izuku remembers how utterly anguished he was at that moment, and how that scream took the last of his strength.

Shouto's mouth is moving, but there is no sound. Adult Izuku remembers perfectly all the same. Shouto is urging Mezo to come back with him to Tsuyu, who had been left against a tree, so they can make sure she is still okay. His younger self is already passing out from pain and blood loss. When his younger self passes out, the scene flickers.

In the next moment, adult Izuku is standing with his younger self, watching on a big screen as his mentor faces down his archnemesis. Little Izuku is in tears as he stands in the crowd with his friends. The other kids are also heartbroken, and the older Izuku feels tears on his face too at the sight.

On the screen, Kamino Ward is obliterated, buildings crushed and ground down to dust around All for One. The news crews are trying to keep everything steady on film, but the camera person is shaking and the view is consequently distorted. In front of the archvillain stands All Might, bruised, broken, and with the last of his power dying down like a fading flame. All for One says something cruel, but Izuku can't hear him. No one can, as all of Japan watches the Symbol of Peace prepare to die with bated breath and tears on their faces.

All for One flicks his wrist and Dark Shadow emerges from his body, horribly twisted and turned blood red with four clawed arms and vivid white glowing eyes. Dark Shadow is massive in the moonlight, crimson lightning crackling along its body, and screams silently into the dream before lunging at All Might.

All Might gets to his feet, preparing to challenge his nemesis one final time. In the end, both All for One and All Might die that night - and Izuku is left without a mentor to guide him in his training.

Fumikage doesn't survive his encounter with All for One, and the fallout on UA is immense. They introduce a boarding school system after that and Izuku's mother doesn't want him to go. Izuku remembers tearful arguments with her and his insistence that he needed to go, that it had to matter.

He went to Fumikage's funeral and couldn't even tell Fumikage's parents that he had failed to save their son.

Izuku woke up gasping for air, before he could see well enough to know where he was.

He realized he was sitting in his reclining chair in his living room, clothed in his pajamas. He was drenched in sweat, and looked over to find a cold cup of coffee sitting on his end table. He turned to the windows and saw that light was poking through the blinds; it must've been early morning now. He groaned and pushed the handle on the recliner to put it back down. He hadn't meant to fall asleep there; he was going to write in one of his notebooks for a bit before going to bed. He would say that he was grateful for the sleep, but that would be a lie these days. It wasn't restful sleep, and he barely functioned with the sleep he got.

"Nana," he began, "and Toshinori - and all the rest of you. For one night, may I please have a break?"

Predictably, there was no response, and Izuku just sighed. He suspected today would be a very long day.

Sometimes, Izuku wondered if there was something off with the world, something fundamental, so deep that he couldn't place it. It was a thought that came to him unprompted occasionally, a fleeting idea that would wiggle into the back of his mind, before escaping just as quickly.

Sometimes, he wondered if it was even his own thought at all.

The next two weeks passed by in a blur for him.

He still went out on patrol. One day there was a hostage situation, another day he helped stop an out of control train. He fought a couple of villains here and there but most of them were small-time. It was like when a natural disaster was heading towards a place of nature and all the local fauna ran for cover in the face of the change in air pressure.

The big villains had all retreated into hiding.

The natural disaster was the impending announcement of the new Hero rankings as well as an accompanying charity gala, Izuku believed. The events were rapidly approaching and Izuku did not look forward to them very much.

Stratosphere hit four times in those two weeks; an unusual change in habits, Izuku noted. She usually spaced her jobs out to avoid attracting attention. Izuku was present at those four incidents, and it wasn't a coincidence at all.

The first one was the casino, naturally.

"You're sure it's going to be tonight?" Frostfire asked as he looked out through his binoculars into the city night. Izuku rolled his eyes from Frostfire's right as his cape billowed in the wind. They were standing on a rooftop of a mid-sized skyscraper across the main strip, watching as the opening night events unfolded.

There were a lot of people at the casino, which was shaped kind of like a stadium and had all kinds of flashing decorations and spotlights lighting up the night sky for the event. There were also a lot of rich people there coming and going, and Izuku knew it was a prime target for someone like Stratosphere. Cars were constantly stopping to drop people off and traffic had pretty much come to a crawl.

As they watched, Tentacole spoke up from Frostfire's left.

"I hear something," he said ominously. Izuku and Frostfire both turned to their fellow Hero, who had created a mouth with his right hand and a few ears with his left. He was straining to hear something and he turned his head to them looking perturbed.

All three were minorly startled when there was an explosion in the roof of the casino across the way and a bunch of people on motorcycles came flying out of the night and ramping over cars right into the crowds. Izuku blinked in confusion a few times as he looked at the unfolding scene. There were people in suits - obviously security of some kind - running around frantically, then he saw little popping flashes of light from both the people in suits and the people on the motorcycles.

Gunfire.

"I'm pretty sure it's going to be tonight," Izuku said dryly, and Frostfire rolled his eyes at Izuku and set the binoculars down among their little stakeout pile of gear and snacks. Then he turned to Tentacole first with renewed determination.

"Tentacole, you come with me and we can cover the civilians. I'm guessing the guys in suits aren't supposed to have that many guns." Frostfire turned back to Izuku and nodded firmly. "Jade Rabbit, you'll probably want to go to the casino vault. I'm guessing that's where the party is."

"I love parties," Izuku replied sarcastically, and both of his fellow Heroes chuckled. Then Tentacole jumped onto Frostfire's back for a ride as he took a long trail of ice down the building they were on, almost like he was snowboarding. Izuku glowed like an emerald shooting star as he took off into the night, and his flying leap let him clear the whole road and land right into the crowd of people.

Izuku quickly discerned that there were two gangs involved as he ran past the stream of panicking civilians. One group was coming out of the casino and largely wore formal wear; most carried small arms or had obvious combat quirks. They also had assault rifles and other things that legitimate security personnel probably shouldn't have had. The other group was a large motorcycle gang, wearing helmets and heavy gear and riding in from off the road.

Delightful.

Izuku sidestepped the first motorcycle guy that tried to run him over and took him right off his cycle with his arm. He was so strong with One for All that his planted feet didn't move at all, and the motorcycle went flying and caught one of the formal wear guys sideways. The formal wear guy yelped in surprise and tumbled with bullets going wide into the air while Izuku slammed the motorcycle guy into the ground so hard the concrete cracked under him.

Neither one of them got up from that, and Izuku took off in a sprint, content to let Frostfire and Tentacole handle it from there.

There were more of the formal wear guys inside, and Izuku dealt with them quickly by spinning around in an arc with Blackwhip and sending them all flying. The gang members started surrendering after that and the police arrived soon after.

When Izuku got to the vault it was already open and very dark inside. He cautiously stepped forward and flicked his flashlight on, but didn't find anything of note at first. Curiously, there was still plenty of money and valuables there. Izuku knew that Stratosphere couldn't just carry off the whole vault, and it was obviously ransacked, but he couldn't even tell what she had taken. He inspected things for a while, theorizing as to what was going on. Then he left, planning to assist the police in rounding up the gang members.

Later investigation and interrogation of the gang members, once they got back to Detective Tsukauchi, revealed that the formal wear gang were the ones who owned the casino from behind the scenes and they were storing plans for modified injection tools there, intended for Trigger. The motorcycle guys had been a rival gang trying to steal the plans - and any money they could carry - for themselves as a power play.

That did not bode well to Izuku.

When he got home that night there was another note for him from Stratosphere under his door, this time directing him to the maiden voyage of a cruise ship, the Esmerelda, happening two days later.

"Do you have any idea how much seafood I ate for this mission?" Suneater whined softly as they stood on the main deck of the Esmerelda, near the side edge of the ship in the middle. Izuku turned to his blue-haired friend and fellow Hero with a bemused expression on his face, as did their other partner, Froppy.

"Ribbit, I thought you liked seafood, Suneater," Froppy deadpanned. Izuku tilted his head at Suneater, then leaned forward to share a confused glance with Froppy on the other side, who just shrugged in turn.

"I had way too much seafood," Suneater moaned, and his stomach audibly gurgled. Izuku snorted at that and gave Suneater a little pat on the back. The poor guy was a great Hero, he really was, but he was even more of a social disaster than Izuku if such a thing were even possible. He'd never really been the same after Mirio died, though, and Izuku never held it against him.

"Alright, Jade Rabbit, what the heck are we here for, ribbit?" Froppy asked once she also gave an encouraging shoulder pat to Suneater.

All three had gotten on the ship in their Hero costumes and carefully stayed out of sight as much as they could. It wasn't strictly speaking a secret that they were on the ship, but they also didn't announce their presence either.

"Well… that's a good-"

There was the sound of gunfire and all three Heroes leaned over the side of the ship. Below, they could barely make out some men wearing all black, with tactical gear and guns, quickly rushing through the panicking crowds and barking orders for civilians to file over to the main ballroom of the ship.

So it was going to be a hostage situation then, and they were already in a good position to foil it.

"…question," Izuku finished awkwardly, and when he looked up Froppy looked very determined as she pulled her goggles over her eyes and Suneater had a crab claw instead of one of his hands. They both looked to him for leadership and he smiled sheepishly. All his friends from UA had such faith in him and he always wondered to himself what he'd done to really earn that.

"Froppy, you should see if they've got a boat, and probably sink that and take out any guys still there."

"Ribbit, already done," she said confidently, and Izuku nodded at her. Then she leaped over the side and there was a splash as she hit the water with a perfect dive. It was dark out, but he could just make out her hitting the black water by the lights of the ship. Izuku turned back to Suneater with a wide grin.

"I'm gonna look for the leader of this group. I'm guessing they're mercenaries, so I'll go check the front of the ship." Suneater nodded, but Izuku leaned around him and looked carefully towards the bow of the ship. He saw a commotion and people running away. "Correction, I'm definitely guessing the leader is at the front of the ship. You should go to the ballroom and rain on their parade."

"I brought some horse meat just for the occasion," Suneater said with a small smile. Izuku held up his hand and gave Suneater a high-five, then the two men took off in opposite directions.

Green lightning crackled around Izuku as he went and he came to a skidding stop at the bow of the ship. It had little fountains and other water features built in there and the deck was made of varnished wood. Most of the fancy rich people were running away and there was a small group of armed mercenaries along with a really big guy who was also an eel.

"Jade Rabbit! How nice to see you at our show!" The eel-man said, and Izuku barely ducked a stunningly quick strike from the man's eel jaws. It was like his whole neck was a stretchy-snake and his skin crackled with electricity. Izuku's own body roared to life with One for All and he gave the mercenaries a look of pure, angry determination as they started to level assault rifles at him.

Then the deck beneath his feet shattered when he disappeared.

He hit the first mercenary guy on the far left like a freight train, and the mercenary went flying and hit the front edge of the deck with a crack. His gun discharged into the air, distracting the other mercenaries as they tried to figure out what the hell happened. Izuku spun and threw out Blackwhip in an arc like a giant flail, and the eel-man barely ducked it. His two mercenary underlings weren't as quick on the draw, and Blackwhip threw them back towards the wall of the ship where people could enter and exit the inside. They dented the wall on impact and didn't get back up.

Izuku bobbed and weaved through a couple of attempted bites and strikes from the eel-man, before one finally connected with a painful surge of electricity to his left shoulder. Izuku yelped as the eel-man drove him to one knee, and the eel-man tried to crunch into Izuku's armor. The armor held even if his outer costume was a bit shredded, and Izuku grit his teeth and drew back his right fist. One for All exploded around him as the deck began to buckle under the force, and he saw the eel-man hesitated as he realized exactly how much more he had bitten off compared to what he could chew.

Izuku punched him once, hard, and the eel-man let go of him and looked dazed as he took a step back. Blessedly that made the electric surge in Izuku's body also go away, and Izuku slumped forward for a moment as One for All died, catching himself with one hand on the deck. Then he looked back up with fire in his eyes, and before the eel-man could react he jumped up into the air in a blaze of lightning and brought down his fists clenched together like a volleyball spike on the villain.

The momentum and force sent the villain through most of the ship and the eel-man hit the ground on one of the lower decks with a deafening boom and cracking of the floor. Izuku landed next to him through the hole in the deck and panted, then moved to check if the eel-man still had a pulse. He wasn't precisely sure where to check for that but noted that the villain was still breathing.

"God damn, Superhero, you almost sank the ship!"

Izuku snapped his gaze up and to his left and found Stratosphere in costume, with a little pack on her back and her helmeted face tilted at him.

"Oh, it's you! Get back here!" Izuku said in a low voice, and Stratosphere took one step back in surprise.

He surged forward - and this time, he sidestepped the taser projectile she shot out from her utility wrist-guard. He hit her with an open palm - and not very much of One for All, knowing she wouldn't be able to absorb that much impact - and sent her flying backwards down the hallway behind her.

The part of the ship they were in was more industrial, a part of the maintenance section and made of gray metal with pipes along the walls. Stratosphere used her quirk in a pink glow to prevent herself from bowling over, barely landing on her feet, and she only just managed to duck Izuku's next arm chop as he was already on her. He threw two more punches before pausing, as he realized she wasn't even trying to fight back.

Izuku stilled, standing in a wide combat stance and breathing hard, and Stratosphere also stopped after taking a few steps back. He wished he could see her expression, and he wasn't sure if it was because he felt bad or because he wanted to see how much he'd gotten the better of her this time.

"This is why I never try to fight you, Superhero," she said quietly, and Izuku frowned.

"Did you find what you're looking for?" He asked, and she nodded slowly. "Will you… Will you keep letting me know where you're going, if I let you go?"

"Depends, Superhero. Still gonna help me out?" Stratosphere said cheekily. He could hear the silly grin she probably had on her face. She was breathing pretty hard though, and he saw her bring her left hand to her chest and his frown deepened as he wondered if he'd actually hurt her.

"Maybe. You know you can't stand up to me in close-quarters, right?"

"Of course. I was just coming over to help you out. I didn't realize how thoroughly you would ruin the mercenary commander's day," she confessed. Izuku's frown morphed into a small smile, then he waved her off.

"I never saw you," he said in a serious tone. Stratosphere gave him a little mock salute and took off, and Izuku strongly wondered if he was making the right decision or not. Still, he suspected it would be better to let her keep doing her thing for now… and maybe he just couldn't bring himself to capture her yet.

After the villains were detained by the Japanese Coast Guard, they found out that the cruise ship was owned by a relatively obscure Japanese industrialist - who was looking to move into pharmaceuticals as well. Said industrialist was later arrested, as it turned out that he had hired the villains to attack his own ship to commit insurance fraud.

The second week proceeded similarly, with a lot more action than Izuku really liked to have in his life.

After he got home from the Esmeralda he found a note from Stratosphere regarding an armored JSDF convoy that would be escorting some Canadian diplomatic officials from Kyoto to Tokyo. Izuku found that very strange, given that it was a six hour drive and the Canadians could've just landed in Tokyo. He began to suspect that it was a set up as he and Tsukauchi briefed for the mission, so he took it on his own without any backup.

Izuku stood there on a rooftop, watching the freeway with binoculars as the convoy passed. He theorized that this was the spot where the action would happen if it was to go down at all, and Stratosphere's note had supported that by alluding to major businesses and tourist attractions in the area of the building he was on. The freeway was mostly cleared on one side, as the convoy had forward elements that pushed civilian traffic out of the way and local authorities were shutting down on-ramps to accommodate things.

Izuku felt all the hair in his neck stand up and looked up, only for his jaw to fall open as he watched three large villains - and they must have been villains in context, he decided immediately - drop right out of the sky. There was a plane flying overhead and it looked like some kind of unmarked commercial jet, so he was guessing they dove from there. The three villains landed with their parachutes a little bit ahead of the convoy, and Izuku watched the convoy come to a hard stop, then soldiers began to file out. The villains were huge guys; one had a hippo quirk, one had a quirk that made his body look like it was made of wrought iron, and one could turn his hands into giant tower shields.

Izuku stepped up onto the lip of the roof he was on and launched himself with One for All towards the villains. Only the hippo guy turned to notice him as he flew towards them, and he hit the wrought iron guy with a full output kick from One for All that sent him right through the concrete divider of the road in an explosion of force, air pressure and debris. Izuku spun and landed only to duck some quick punches from the hippo guy. Izuku gracefully stepped backwards, only for the tower shield guy to smack him in the back and send him flying with a cry of surprise. He tucked himself into a roll, did a front flip and landed mostly on balance in a crouch, and that put him in between the soldiers and the villains.

"Protect the VIPs!" Izuku called over his shoulder to the soldiers. A JSDF soldier wearing a beret waved with his free hand in a silent command, his other hand still holding his assault rifle, and the soldiers began to walk backwards in a defensive formation.

That was when Izuku heard a whirring noise and looked over to his right. He saw… He saw Stratosphere, and he blinked as she was on a motorcycle. There was a pink glow, and she rode her motorcycle straight up the goddamned wall of a building close to the freeway. Izuku was startled as he turned to look properly, only to yell in surprise when she jumped off the motorcycle and launched it at him, nearly connecting.

"Shit!" Izuku cried out, and he dropped down to his stomach. The motorcycle flew over him and he looked just in time to see it catch the hippo guy in the face and send him sprawling.

"That was a freebie, Superhero," Stratosphere called out cheekily, and Izuku turned back only to see her jump over the side of the freeway in a pink glow before the JSDF soldiers could come after her or shoot in her direction. That was when he realized this one might be different. Maybe he was helping her sabotage somebody else, not complete a job. Maybe she was on the right team for this one.

In the end, he didn't have to deal with the tower shield guy, because Ground Zero dropped out of the sky on top of him like a missile and exploded him into the pavement. Izuku had to listen to Kacchan gloat for ten minutes straight to the responding officers that 'he came in to mop up Deku's mess, what a shitty nerd,' but Izuku just rolled his eyes and ignored it.

Later on, working with Tsukauchi, Izuku found out that the Canadian envoys were part of an attempt to draft a multilateral agreement by North American countries and Japan to ban Trigger usage by the signing countries' militaries - and the villains that attacked them were from a mercenary company with ties to organized crime groups in China.

Izuku wondered whether or not Ochako went rogue for that one, and that maybe it wasn't entirely a game to her after all.

The last note was about a pharmaceutical plant, and it made Izuku uneasy.

He went on that mission with Cellophane and Pinky, and it turned into a shitshow almost immediately - though not because of the mission itself.

"C'mon, Jade Rabbit, you cannot be serious about not having gone on any dates recently," Pinky whined to him as they waited near the outside fence of the pharmaceutical plant. Izuku turned to Pinky with a bemused expression on his face, then leaned over to look at Cellophane.

"Hey man, don't look at me. I'm not gonna stop her," Cellophane said sheepishly. Izuku leaned back forward and raised an eyebrow at Pinky.

"Aren't you two dating now?" Izuku said slyly, and Pinky immediately pouted at him.

"Yes, yes we are, but that's not what we were talking about!" Pinky exclaimed with a great deal of irritation. Izuku just shook his head with a smile and looked away. He loved Mina, he really did. She was one of the nicer people to him when he went to UA, even if she was far too invested in romance for his liking. Still, she was fun and generally kind, and he was glad that she and Hanta were happy now.

Izuku was interrupted from his introspection when one of the big towers of the plant buckled in on itself and collapsed.

"Showtime, people!" Cellophane said with excitement, then he used his tape to jump up to a nearby streetlamp, taking Pinky with him with his other arm around her waist. She cried out a 'woo!' of delight and excitement, and the battle couple took off with a mighty swing over the fence. Izuku smiled at the sight of them as the alarms started blaring in the facility.

Then he hardened Blackwhip into five little knives on his hand and cut deftly through the chain-link fence, making himself a little hole to walk through. He wasn't worried at all about Cellophane and Pinky; they might be jokesters in their personal lives, but they were all business when it came time to be serious at work.

Izuku jogged cautiously through the plant and heard the distant sound of buildings collapsing. He found that curious - but more importantly, he found it even more significant that the sounds were getting closer.

"Cellophane, Pinky, what's your status?" He whispered into his earpiece.

"All good, boss man. We're helping some security guards get out. I think there's just one villain!" That was Pinky, and Izuku tilted his head. It felt strange to him that it was just one villain.

"Villain's got a blood quirk, Superhero. Mind the pointy bits."

Izuku blinked twice in confusion and stifled a groan. Every hair on the back of his neck stood up then, so he confidently took two steps backward as a spear of what appeared to be blood crashed into the wall past where he'd just been. It immediately fell down into a puddle and the scent of copper filled the air.

"Ahaha, the number one Hero! Come to stop my fun, fun, fun?!"

Izuku turned the other way and found a crazed man who was suspending himself up in the air on blood tendrils coming from his back. He was wearing what looked like a shredded straightjacket and a full-face mask that only left his eyes and mouth uncovered.

"I'd rather not hurt you, sir, if you need medical help," Izuku called back with a raised eyebrow. He wasn't sure if he meant medical help like a hospital or medical help like a mental health ward, but either one was applicable in context, honestly.

The man responded by throwing another spear of blood at him from his right hand; he had metal nozzles in his skin to accommodate that, Izuku noted distantly. Izuku ducked the spear and heard it hit the wall with a splat. Then he raised his right arm with his left arm bracing it, and his air-directing cuff unfolded. Green lightning exploded around him, and he flicked off an air pressure wave at maximum output.

Just as it had been at his first Sports Festival at UA, the resulting air pressure wave was like a hurricane in a bottle, concentrated by his gauntlets, and the blood-bending man yelped in surprise as he was sent flying. His blood tendrils from his back fell apart into liquid onto the ground, and he flew until he hit some pipes with a crash. Then he fell over and hit the ground, and didn't get back up. Izuku frowned at that. It didn't feel good to fight people who were unwell, even when they were dangerous.

"Not bad, Superhero. Might wanna stop Pinky and Cellophane before they abandon you to go make out somewhere, though."

Izuku looked around with furrowed brows, trying to figure out where the hell Stratosphere was, but he didn't see anything. Then he sighed and shook his head, taking off at a jogging pace to the front of the facility.

"Pinky, Cellophane, please meet me at the front," he said, and he heard Pinky groan into the earpiece.

"But I don't wanna do paperwork!"

The pharmaceutical company that owned the plant turned out to have been secretly conducting illegal experiments with Trigger at the site that was attacked, funded by a group of European criminals and villains. Izuku found out that the blood-bending villain had escaped from a mental health facility only a few days before, and the police suspected he had been broken out and specifically directed to the pharmaceutical plant for that operation.

Now Izuku stood in Tsukauchi's office, next to the detective in his full Hero costume, looking at a large corkboard with images and photographs pinned to it.

It was the next day after the night at the pharmaceutical plant and Izuku worked hard to hide how tired he was. Nana had been showing him repeats of the dreams each night, and it was exhausting with how little he was sleeping.

"It represents a clear shift in M.O.," Tsukauchi said with his hands in his pockets, heedless of Izuku's struggles. Izuku had his hand on his chin and was muttering softly, but he heard Tsukauchi and nodded, barely stifling a yawn.

"I agree," Izuku said, not taking his eyes off the board, and willing his eyelids to stay open. "Until three weeks ago, she only hit corporate targets for theft, and rich individuals - usually men - for blackmail. She also usually waited at least a month in between jobs, if not longer."

"But," Tsukauchi said, continuing the thought, "now she's hitting targets that are all connected to organized crime. Some of them are corporate or government fronts, but all are connected via the underground in some way."

"And Trigger," Izuku said, taking his hand off his chin to wave his index finger at the board. Working through the information was keeping him awake, at least. "She's acting like a lure, pulling us in to intervene in these events and ruin the plans of the gangs and mercenaries involved."

"Did she give you a note every time?"

"Yeah," Izuku said with a nod. All of the notes he'd gotten were currently on the corkboard, and the two were really just trying to think out loud.

"It seems like she's using you the same way she did at the 'Crimson Reef.' She tips you off, you go in with backup and take on the main villains from the front, while she steals or sabotages whatever she's after and slips away without any resistance in the back."

"The question is, what is the core? What is linking everything together?" Izuku asked, with a frown on his face. He had pointed out that the incident with the convoy was different, but they had set that aside, content to look at it on its own and pore over the details separately.

"Well, Trigger, I assume. I suspect she's working for one of the older crime bosses, one of the ones that seeped into the cracks Overhaul left behind when you killed him," Tsukauchi said matter-of-factly, and Izuku flinched.

"Right… but we have no idea who it is?" Izuku said, choosing not to bring up painful memories.

"We're working on it. I suspect that it involves the break into Tartarus, but we have no proof she was involved there," Tsukauchi said. Izuku shook his head at that. They didn't have a lot of information to go on there, but they had enough in his opinion to discount her involvement.

"Doubt it, the Tartarus guards and camera footage indicated a team going in from the side and attacking with overwhelming force. That isn't her style, and there's no precedent for that from her."

Tsukauchi pulled his left hand out of his pocket and pointed at a picture of her taken the week prior, in her villain costume, jumping from the Esmerelda to a waiting speedboat. It was taken by a bystander who was hunkering down during the fighting. Izuku pointedly did not bring up his encounter with her on the Esmerelda, and it had taken a lot of creative wording to get that past the detective.

"Hitting organized crime groups and interfering with their plans wasn't her style either, but here we are," Tsukauchi said, but Izuku kept frowning at him. The detective turned back to Izuku with a raised eyebrow.

"No… She told me she wants out, and I believe her," Izuku said, looking at Tsukauchi with absolute conviction. "I think your theory that she's a pawn is correct. There's someone else here acting as the main benefactor of all this, and she's leaving us breadcrumbs to try and find them."

The convoy came back to his mind, and Izuku suspected that this was bigger than mere organized crime. Tsukauchi hummed neutrally at him, though his eyebrow didn't fall.

"If so, I wish she'd leave bigger breadcrumbs," Tsukauchi deadpanned. Izuku nodded, agreeing wholeheartedly with that. He'd tried texting Ochako once, but she didn't answer, and he suspected she tossed that phone.

"The Hero ranking ceremony and charity gala are coming up in a few days. I suspect she'll be there," Izuku said. Tsukauchi's expression turned to shock at that, though Izuku just shrugged.

"She wouldn't dare hit an event with that many Heroes, would she?" Tsukauchi asked breathlessly, sounding suitably horrified.

"I don't think so. She said she sneaks into formal Hero events as her civilian persona. I think she might try to pass me a message there," Izuku said, speculating. Tsukauchi's expression settled into a thoughtful one.

"Do you want to wear a wire and have backup?"

"I don't think that's a good idea. Besides, if I'm not safe as a high-ranking Hero at an event attended mostly by high-ranking Heroes, all the backup in the world won't matter," Izuku pointed out frankly. Tsukauchi nodded, though he certainly didn't look happy about it.

"Fair enough. Make sure if she does show, you get as much as you can from her," he said, as he gestured towards the door. Izuku took that as his cue to leave, but when he got to the door Tsukauchi spoke again. "Hey Midoriya, while you're at it, learn to tie your damn tie properly."

Izuku scowled, and shut the door behind him harder than was necessary. He could hear Tsukauchi laughing at his expense through it as he left.