Takaki and Bakugou just stood there in silence—one shocked and one fearful—but both seemingly in an anxious trance of anticipation.

The girl stared at the blonde with glassy, unfocused eyes, but the longer she stood there, the clearer her vision got. She forced herself to take a step forward, and then another.

They were painfully slow at first, but she found herself making more distance than Bakugou seemed to be capable of at that moment. The closer she got, the more details she could make out: details that she wasn't exactly sure what to make of. The way his hands shook by his sides, unable to move more than that single centimeter of uncontrolled fidgets back and forth—it was so uncharacteristic that it would have set her on edge if she hadn't already been on the verge of a breakdown all day.

As she took a few more strides—ones that got steadily faster and smoothers—she saw the way his eyes had a familiar glossy quality to them. She noticed the way that they stared at the ground, but not directly focused on anything or spot in particular.

But it was the blank, traumatized expression on his face that really did her in. It tugged at her heartstrings, and—in spite of the fear and the looming instinct to run and hide—compelled her to rapidly close the last of the distance between them.

Despite her sudden change in pace, Bakugou didn't react at all. Instead, he simply remained seemingly fixated on the nothing where his gaze was aimed, shaking hands and all.

Takaki regretted getting closer at the very last second, however, as the irrational fear built up exponentially. She wasn't sure how much of this was whatever effect from her dad's quirk and what was her own natural reaction, but either way it didn't matter.

Although she wasn't inclined to speak at the moment, she knew that she would have to in order to ground the blonde teenager that was completely unresponsive merely an arm's length in front of her. Well, it was either that or using touch to ground him, but the red-head wasn't exactly sure of what his response would be to that.

There was a high chance of him physically lashing out, although part of that was from how often he had physically assaulted both her (and Midoriya-kun, as her mind couldn't help but interject guiltily) without being in a compromised mental state.

And so, she forced herself to open her mouth and call his name.

It didn't come out quite right on the first try, instead just a disjointed whisper escaped from her lips rather than the intended name. But she kept trying, repeating his name as closely as she could while her lips and voice box refused to cooperate with her.

She did it softly, and every minute or so to keep it from being so repetitive that it became stressful.

The last thing either of them needed was for the blonde to have a panic attack while coming out of a major dissociative episode. Either he would get violent and attack her or he would pass out from over-exertion.

But as she continued to attempt to bring Bakugou out of his stupor, her mind steadied and began to wander. If his episode was this bad… could he have perhaps been affected by the effects of her father's quirk. Whatever that may be, exactly.

She couldn't for the life of her figure out how or why that would be the case, but Bakugou wasn't normally like this. He didn't have any anxiety disorders or other issues, so the only thing that could possibly explain this situation was the inexplicable feeling that her father's quirk provided her.

During the nights where she had borderline manic episodes, Takaki spent her time frantically writing everything that she knew about her father's work and her father's quirk. It was a coping method, a way to try and take control of something that was out of her hands in her fucked up life. Her therapist had explained it to her, but she didn't care either way. It was just something she did at this point.

Initially, Takaki had assumed that the quirk revolved around proximity. But she was unsure if that was only with regards to the side-effects or if it also had to do with the activation.

Now, however, if Bakugou was truly feeling the effects of it, there was no way it could be through proximity. Her father would have never come into contact with the blonde without physically—and very likely verbally as well—taking out his anger on the teenager.

Unless it had been a chance meeting and the quirk had been applied to Bakugou directly, in which case this might be a big problem.

Was that why Bakugou had gone to her house? To get the effects of the quirk removed?

Did that mean that this was the direct effect of his quirk? But then what about the weird feeling she occasionally experienced? Was it all some kind of residual effect?

Regardless of the actual answers to her rhetorical questions, she could feel herself become more and more afraid of the truth.

But before she could work herself into another panic attack, a sudden hand clamped on her shoulder. She let out a quiet yelp before quickly stifling it out of habit. Her head whipped around to meet Bakugou's still-unsteady gaze, although it finally seemed like he was coherent.

When had she stopped calling his name? And when had she looked away from him?

"Wh-what's…" he let out, almost wheezing. It was odd, since there was no reason for him to be out of breath, but it seemed like it was less a problem with his breathing as it was with him trying to force words out of his mouth while his vocal chords just wouldn't cooperate with him.

Why did everything Bakugou was dealing with at the moment remind her of herself? Why did she have to suddenly relate so much to him despite hating him for everything he did to her and Midoriya-kun? She hated it!

She hated the way her heart clenched in sympathy, how could see herself reflected in his red eyes, and the way all the out-of-place emotions written all over his face made it obvious how he didn't feel like himself at the present moment.

A feeling she held close to her chest, one that she resented yet felt was only her problem.

Yet here Bakugou was with the same issues, and she couldn't help but feel fiercely protective of her issues and aggressive toward the blonde for exhibiting them. Which was frankly ridiculous.

So, ignoring her emotions and gut-instincts as he had been doing since first seeing Bakugou and Midoriya-kun walk past the park, she tried to figure out what was going on.

"What… what the hell happened…" she gasped a bit as her throat felt like it was closing up in retaliation for her speech, "-to you."

Luckily for her, Bakugou didn't seem to take much offence—if any at all—to her tone, seemingly too caught up in his own struggles to really care, "Wh-why the fuck… why the fuck would I tell you?"

The indignant anger built up in her chest, "Why the fuck were you.. Why were you at my house? I-I believe that is… relevant to me-"

It would have been amusing the way she could tell the exact moment that Bakugou considered her words and realized that they held logic—but only if she wasn't still barely handling her body's retaliation for speaking and interacting when it had decided against doing anything remotely similar.

"F-fuck," he huffed, ducking his head down and finally—finally—let go of her shoulder.

She instinctively stepped back, out of reach of Bakugou, as he continued.

"What the… what the fuck is wrong with your dad?" he finally forced out, almost entirely cohesive in a way that she couldn't seem to match just quite yet.

She blinked, unsure of what exactly to say to that, how to phrase a response that wouldn't set Bakugou off.

"Don't tell that he's just… always like that?"

"L-like what, Bakugou?" she huffed before taking another cautious—but still subtle—step back.

"Don't give me that shit, why the hell is he like…" she pointedly ignored the way he anxiously clenched and unclenched his fists repeatedly, pretending that it didn't set off her own anxiety once more "Bipolar or some shit. Acting one way for a bit before you say something and he just… he just switches and suddenly becomes different!"

Takaki swallowed nervously, trying her damnedest not to grimace. Bakugou's crimson eyes bore into her dangerously.

"He is, isn't he?" the blonde asked rhetorically, softly. It was almost like he was understanding, but that was ridiculous. How could someone like him have problems with his parents?

He would never understand.

Except, that wasn't true… was it? He seemed to be dealing with some of what she did, so who was she to go around claiming otherwise?

She finally looked away, admitting defeat to their tenuous battle of wills, "So what if he is? Why do you care?"

Bakugou seemed to get the underlying 'why you of all people' that she had implied. Yet, despite the slight and its failure to remain unnoticed, he didn't get angry.

He just seemed… so tired.

After another long moment of silence, he looked back at her house before beginning to walk away. Takaki whipped her head back up in surprise. Why was he leaving so soon? Did he get what he came for? But where was Midoriya-kun?"

"Wh-where are you going?"

He attempted to growl out, "Home," but only managed a small huff of half-hearted irritation that seemed to be more for show than anything.

"Did you… get…? Um, what you came for?" she hesitantly questioned, wondering where—exactly—his momentary patience ended and his anger began.

This time, he did growl as he trudged past her still form, "Fuck no. Your bastard of a father was useless at best and a dick at worst."

She flinched as she turned to watch him walk away, but couldn't really say much of anything to disagree with him. He was right, even though she loathed to admit it.

But exactly ten steps away from her, he froze.

She stared on in mute confusion as he slowly pivoted around to stare at her with a thoughtful expression.

"Wh-what?" she stuttered, trying to pretend that this entire interaction wasn't giving her emotional whiplash like she'd never experienced before.

"Do you… happen... to know what your father's... quirk... is, exactly?" he probed, returning to the soft tone that caught her off-guard as much as it had just a few minutes prior.

"I-" she couldn't seem to form coherent words anymore.

(If she was being honest, the red-head was surprised that her father hadn't stormed out and physically manhandled Bakugou off of their property. Why hadn't he done that? Especially if he made the connection between her and Bakugou. What had they talked about that had made everything so… so wrong? Did it involve her father's quirk? Was that why he hadn't been as rash as he normally was? What was going on here?)

"You do…" his gaze sharpened, "Don't you?"

Takaki's breath caught in her throat at the hint of a threat lacing his tone. She clenched her jaw shut as tightly as she could and shook her head. It was clear that Bakugou didn't completely believe her, but he seemed to let it go, which surprised her greatly.

But instead of continuing to walk away, he just approached her again and held out his hand expectantly.

Expectant for what, she didn't know.

So after a minute, he scoffed and rolled his eyes before clarifying, "Your phone. I have an address that I'd like you to meet me at in an hour or so. I'll explain later, but I need to know whatever you know."

She pursed her lips, eyeing his explosion-producing hand and tentatively palming the phone in her pocket.

"If not for me," he suddenly interjected, a bit of hesitance gracing his words, "then do it for Deku."

Her eyes shot open wide, "For Midoriya-kun? How-"

"I said I'd explain later! Just… please," he pleaded.

And that was all he had to do to convince her. Bakugou never requested anything. Everything was handed to him just the way he expected. For him to beg like this was practically akin to grovelling at her feet for how little he ever had to ask for anything. Couple that with the claim that this was for Midoriya-kun and that was enough to convince her that this was something serious.

Just like that, she made her decision, slipping her brand new phone out of her pocket and into Bakugou's sweaty, open palm already unlocked and in the notes app.

Without hesitation, he shifted the phone in his grip between both of his hands and quickly typed out a clearly memorized address before handing the device back to her. She stared at him in surprise at how straight-forward and honest his intention and follow-through was. He hadn't opened any other apps or snooped or kept her phone away from her.

The infamous Bakugou Katsuki was taking something seemingly trivial this serious, which meant that Takaki had to be serious too. It had to be drastically important if he was willing to set everything aside like this. She just had one last thing before she was fully convinced of his honest intentions and true motivations.

But then he began to trudge away once more before she could get a word in edge-wise.

"Wait!" she called, but he didn't stop walking, so she had to yell to him before he rounded the corner of the street, "Why in an hour and not now?!"

Without stopping or turning to face her, he replied in a bone-chilling tone, "Because there's something I have to do first."

And that was that. He had just left her to stand there awkwardly in the middle of her street, halfway to her house from the end of the block.

Frankly, if anyone had been walking down the street at the right time to have witnessed their strange interaction, they probably would have assumed they were mentally disturbed. Though, was that really a lie at the end of the day? She was seeing a therapist and there was no way that Bakugou was completely fine after heavily dissociating for what had probably been at least an hour.

But whatever, he said to meet him at the address he had typed in her phone in an hour… right?

Maybe… maybe she'd confront her dad and meet him there.

She didn't have anything concrete for him, but maybe…

Well maybe she could get it not only for him, but also for herself and her sanity.

Aizawa reluctantly pushed the door to his apartment open, forcing himself to trudge inside and shut the door calmly behind him. He let himself flop ungracefully onto his couch, pushing his head as far into the cushions as they would go and took the deepest breath he had taken in a long while.

He really just wanted to kick and scream and yell about how everything was going to shit and there was nothing he could do about it, but that wouldn't help anything. How was that course of action logical in the slightest? It wasn't.

But damn would it feel good.

He had been so damned worried about Bakugou when he had missed their meeting time, so the pro hero had gone to look in all the possible places he could think of that the angry, blond teenager could possibly think to be.

Unfortunately for him, that list was very short and none of his options were successful. Instead, he wasted over an hour of the loop just running around frantically, hoping that he would catch sight of Bakugou.

Hell, he would have even taken finding Midoriya, because the kid would probably have had a better idea of where Bakugou could have gone and would have jumped at the chance to assist a pro hero, especially an underground pro hero, apparently. (Part of him was still in shock that Midoriya had known who he was, but that wasn't the point here.)

There was no one to be seen on the grounds of Aldera Middle School and the building was likely locked so there was no way anyone was inside, there had been no sign of him at the cat cafe they had met at, any of the places they had run into trouble, or even at Bakugou's own house that he'd had to call Tsukauchi and cash in a favor to discover the address.

Aizawa now wished that he had had the foresight to memorize Bakugou's phone number, because now that he had missed him entirely and their agreed upon meeting time was many hours past, he was trying (and failing) to restrain the building panic and frustration.

This had to be an effect of the loops, because Eraserhead was usually much better at regulating his emotions than this. It wasn't like he didn't have them at all, normally, but at the very least he had a grip and was able to avoid letting them control him when push came to shove.

And well… they were way past the point of shove.

Before he knew it, his cats decided it was a good time to jump onto his back with their heavy-ass paws digging into his ribs and shoulder blades, meowing incessantly for food.

Although, now that he thought about it, he hadn't fed his cats all day.

Sure, he was in a time loop and it wouldn't matter because he could just feed them tomorrow and they'd be just fine and none-the-wiser. But he felt guilty because he couldn't just erase the fact that he forgot to give them a basic necessity like he erased quirks.

He knew that he had forgotten to do something so important, and that was what really mattered.

So despite his bone-deep weariness and emotional exhaustion, Aizawa forced himself to slowly rise from the couch and follow his idiot cats as they bounded excitedly to their food bowl, meowing as though their lives depended on it.

Although, he supposed that they technically did, as they required the pro hero to feed and water them to survive.

Just like the lives of Bakugou and Midoriya depended on Aizawa's ability to stay rational and find a solution. And just like with the cats, he felt so guilty that he had been unable to shield Bakugou from the horror of his… sort-of friend's constant suicides and from the responsibility of escaping the loops.

Even seasoned pro heroes would probably have drawn the line at this turn of events, giving into their own emotions and succumbing to their own hopelessness and inability to maintain their determination and survive off a sheer willpower.

Of course, there was a limit to the extent that pure will could keep a person going, but Aizawa had the feeling that it was the only thing that currently kept Bakugou from dropping in defeat. It was almost a feat, how much stubborn determination existed within the blonde's tiny, angry frame. It was more than a lot of heroes, and seeing as the kid wanted to be a hero, he couldn't help but see that as his future.

But that was all only if they could escape this god-forsaken loop.

Although, it wouldn't be a bad idea to train the kid if they ended up having to kill some time before leaving the miserable time loop. Taking advantage of the opportunity presented and all. It was logical, but for some reason the thought of purposefully staying in the loop any longer than he absolutely had to made him sick.

So he pushed the thought aside as he grabbed the bag of cat food and poured some into the two metal food bowls, comforting himself with the familiar sound of the dry food pellets clinking into each bowl.

He forced himself to ignore his feelings despite them gradually becoming physically overwhelming and slowly reaching the point of overpowering his mental ability to focus, instead choosing to pick up the mostly empty water bowl and clean it out in the kitchen sink before filling it with tap water.

He set it down in the usual place, watching contently as his cats ate their food way too quickly to be good for them. But it was his fault for not feeding them for so long, so he really couldn't comment.

A knock at his door immediately shattered the calm atmosphere that had finally begun to settle over the stressed hero. He tensed when the unexpected knock didn't continue in the pattern that everyone who was welcome at his apartment knew.

If this was Bakugou, he would have remembered such a small detail, as he had every single other time he had come to Aizawa's apartment, so it couldn't be him.

Was it Midoriya? But that wouldn't make any sense unless Bakugou sent him here, and surely he would tell him the knocking pattern… unless he didn't. But that didn't seem like the blonde. He was angry and rash-looking, but he was hardly as impulsive as he seemed.

Maybe Midoriya had come here on his own, having remembered the loops after all, but that still didn't seem right to the hero.

Reluctantly, he creeped towards the door, his hand carefully gripping his capture weapon in preparation for an attack from some of the tails he had picked up from his careless boon. Slowly as he reached the door, he peered through the peephole, only to see a red-headed girl awkwardly standing there looking at her phone anxiously.

He was almost certain that this girl was not one of the tails or assassins that would be targeting him from the library, but it never hurt to be too careful. Paranoia saved lives.

In a split second, he made up his mind and called out gruffly, "Who is this?"

He continued to stare through the peephole, watching as she flinched in surprise and almost dropped her phone—stifling a small snort when it slipped out of her grip and she juggled it for a few seconds before getting her hold on it once more and sighing in almost comically exaggerated relief.

"Um.." she took in a deep breath in an attempt to steel herself before continuing, "B-Bakugou told me to come here?"

Aizawa's eyes widened in surprise, and he quickly tried to decipher if that was true or not.

The people following him could have found Bakugou and—no. That was too ridiculously convoluted, even for assassins that were targeting an experienced underground hero.

There had been no connection between Aizawa and Bakugou in this loop, so unless there was another person looping with them and watching them each time, it would have been impossible to reach that leap in logic. And Eraserhead was completely certain that he would have noticed tailing them.

Unless they had a quirk that prevented it, but that was too many coincidences stacked up to hold any real merit. But this girl that had now shown up at his apartment was now in danger because of the people still watching from afar.

Before he could second guess himself further, he unlocked the door and quickly dragged her inside before closing it and taking one last worried glance outside through the peephole.

"Who are you?" she whispered in fear.

He turned his head and glanced at her curiously, "Bakugou didn't say?"

She shook her head, her long red hair practically whipping her face with how frantically she denied it.

"Hm," he huffed, "Well, I'm a pro hero, kid. If he didn't explain why, then why are you here?"

"He just... gave me this address, told me to meet him here in an hour, and walked away," she shifted her weight awkwardly between her feet, "And that was about forty-five minutes ago. I just couldn't wait any longer. Sorry…"

"No, it's alright. But that still doesn't answer the question of why he told you to come here, kid. Much less who you are."

He watched as the young girl bit her lip and shrunk down a little.

"I'm Takaki Yoshiko… and I think he wanted me to tell you about my father's quirk," she clearly forced out the words, ducking her head as though she was ashamed.

Takaki Yoshiko? The kid that Bakugou mentioned wanting to talk to? Damn, maybe he made more progress than Aizawa had anticipated.

"Hm, well that could be useful, I suppose. Bakugou did mention something about a lead…"

Takaki interrupted hesitantly, "B-but well… I don't… I don't know the exact details, but I… I have several notes about the side effects a-and I'll help in any way I can! For Midoriya-kun!" she shouted the last bit enthusiastically, although it was still shaky.

Aizawa's eyes widened.

For… Midoriya?