Chapter 8

A New World

It had been six weeks since the accident. There was still no sign of Leto or any way home. Deku had E-mailed this universe's Leto one more time, then taken the hint and stopped trying to contact her. He hadn't tried to find anyone else from home – it had gone so badly the last two times he had.

Mr. Aizawa had asked Deku if he'd thought about finishing school here – Chisaki could get him falsified papers so he could register wherever he wanted at the start of the next year and claim to have just moved to the area. And Deku was thinking that over, sort of – he might have to stay here for some time, maybe even forever. But he didn't know what school would help him prepare to keep his vow, or for life if he ever did return to his world, so he shoved the question to the back of his mind.

It would have been easy to get very discouraged, if not for the manga taking off like crazy. It seemed like it was everywhere – every time Deku took the bus to and from the SDMR building, he would see at least one person reading it on their phone. Emi had made a few full paintings of key scenes, which she signed with the pseudonym "Painter of Light," and gave them to Deku to in turn give to the SDMR for auction. They raised a stunning amount of money – Deku felt very bad that Emi couldn't add them to her portfolio, but she just shook her head when he raised the concern. "My parents are rich as heck, I don't need the money. I'm just glad to help," she said with a careless shrug.

"It's not the money, I'm sorry you won't get the credit."

"With how mad this story makes some people, I'm okay with that. I see what people say, and it makes them so happy – that's the important part. I don't need them to know it was me. But I would be … upset if the ones that are unhappy knew." That was fair enough.

Because some people were mad. Shimura had gotten Deku a better laptop which came pre-loaded with several kinds of security software, and sent him to a training on cybersecurity. He'd been the youngest person in it – most of the other trainees were adults that had to protect pharmacological and technical data from corporate espionage. It was intimidating, but it only made Deku feel surer that the manga was worthwhile – it had the right people very mad.

Deku only gave the story to Emi in very small chunks, so that it wouldn't disrupt her schoolwork too much, but she'd given them enough of a headstart with her frantic work that first week and he published in small enough chunks that they weren't in any danger of interrupting the posting schedule for some time. He tried to convince Shimura that it didn't take long to write it (because it really didn't, unlike an actual mangaka he was able to impart his story telepathically to his artist) but he'd still insisted on getting someone else to run the youth social media pages. Deku didn't miss the dull side of that job, or the endless hate DMs and comments, but he did miss moments like when Toga's friend reached out to him. That, and a few other times, he'd felt like he was someone on the other end of a very important line, waiting to hear cries for help.

But seeing the light One For All brought made him sure he'd made the right decision.

Tenko hadn't expected to hear from Yuri or her mother again. But here was her mother's number on his screen. "Hello?"

It was the girl herself that answered, using her mother's phone to call. "Tenko! Do you want to come watch me swim on Friday?"

"You're going to swim?" he asked, already trying to think what he could drop.

"I wasn't going to but …" she was quiet. "I know this is dumb, I'm not a little kid. But … Iruka would swim, even if the coach was cruel. I know she's not real but … I want to be true to myself, the way she is. And part of that is … I want to swim, no matter what people think." Iruka, the little dolphin girl from Midoriya's manga. The one that he was ninety-three percent certain was based on Asui.

"That's wonderful, Yuri. That's not dumb, fiction can show us our best selves and …" Should he mention it? He wouldn't give a name. "I know the young woman she's based on."

"What? Really? Is there really someone like that?" Yuri asked, her voice high pitched with excitement.

"Yes! She is … like you said, she's true to herself. I'm so happy for you, Yuri, what time is the meet?"

There was a knock on the door, but he ignored it until he'd marked the time on his calendar and said goodbye and good luck to the young swimmer. "It's not locked."

The door opened, and a very harried looking middle-aged man in a gray suit and Gigi Yamaguchi both spilled into the tiny office.

"I'm sorry, I tried to stop him," Gigi said fiercely.

Tenko started to ask who the man was, but then he recognized him, with intense displeasure that he probably didn't entirely keep off his face, as the assembly member that had the single worst record in regards to metahuman rights of any politician in Tokyo.

"Hello, Assemblyman Bando, how can I help you?"

The man, a wiry man who looked like he'd never unclenched his ass in his life, practically snarled in answer. "Shimura. Did you or did you not receive the multiple inquiries from my office about the seditious materials posted by your organization?" Oh, he didn't even do him the courtesy of Mr., did he? He hated being Mr. Shimura, if he'd been a woman, he would have married by now just to discard his father's name, but to this creep, he was Mr. or nothing.

"Oh I got those, I threw them out since I assumed they were sent to me in error," he said brightly. He'd torn them up, and never wished for his quirk – he liked quirk so much it had replaced every other word for it in his vocabulary – more strongly than in that moment. It would have been so satisfying to watch them turn to dust.

"Are you serious?" the assemblyman asked. No one had defied him to his face before.

"Yes. I couldn't imagine what it was referring to, so I just assumed it was an error."

The man stared at him, aghast. "The series, about the superhero school …" the man clarified, and as soon as he had to clarify, he had to hear how ridiculous it sounded in his own ears. Good.

"Oh! That? Please explain to me how it's seditious." He wasn't quite keeping his tone in check, and he didn't care.

"It's encouraging lawlessness, encouraging young people to go out and just use their mutations publicly …"

"Is … is that what's it's doing? I was under the impression it posited a world where such things are reasonably regulated but harnessed for the public good. Even if it were encouraging people to use their quirks in a currently unlawful way, that doesn't quite meet the definition of sedition, to my admittedly limited knowledge. And even if it were, I don't believe it would be your office responsible for handling the matter."

Tenko had never seen anyone look so constipated in his life. "I want it down."

"Oh well. I wish I could help you. I don't know who posts it." He didn't usually outright lie to people in power – but this bigoted clown was beyond being negotiated with, and Tenko was one thousand percent done with him.

"It's linked to multiple of your organization's social media pages and you've auctioned multiple pieces believed to be from the artist, and concerning material presented in the seditious comic."

"Oh yes, the seditious comic about a superhero school. Well, we're happy to stop linking the new updates and stop receiving the donations, if you insist, Assemblyman, but in all honesty, I think that genie's out of the bottle. People will just go directly to the blog and the artist will find another avenue to distribute their work. And that blog's run by either the author or the artist, so …"

"Cut the crap, Shimura, you know exactly who draws and writes that filth." He knew one of the two and he knew the name of the other, but he wasn't going to let on.

"Prove that I know who draws and who writes the filthy superhero school comic. I don't even know if they're the same person, or if it's a team."

"I will have this place investigated. Not just by the local PD, either, I'll have the National Police tear your servers apart."

"Good luck with that, Assemblyman, but I suspect the police, especially the feds, are probably a little busy to answer the whims of a tinpot dictator that's mad about … what was it again?" The man was silent, beet red with anger. "Gigi? What was the man upset about again?"

"The comic about a superhero school," she said, not even trying to keep a straight face.

"You'd better figure out your place, Shimura, or I will destroy you," Assemblyman Bando said, leaning directly into his personal space. It took every ounce of control Tenko had to keep the smirk off his face.

"Hmmm. Points for effort, but I've been shot before, so forgive me if I'm not quaking in terror at this particular threat. And I do know my place, by the way. My place is in your side, as a thorn you can't pull out no matter how hard you try. I'll be right there until we finally vote you out or you finally grow a heart and a brain. Now please go, I don't have the best relationship with the police, but I do trust they'll show up to remove a trespasser that stormed past the front desk despite protests. And that would just be embarrassing for you in an election year."

They stared at each other for a long moment. Tenko refused to blink. Assemblyman Bando did. "You'll be hearing from the police, Shimura."

"Will I? Hopefully it'll be about the dozen children that go missing from your district every year and turn up with their minds and bodies tampered with. Have a good night, Assemblyman." He slammed the door like a petulant child, and Gigi shot him a look.

"Go after him, make sure he leaves without running into anyone else. He's probably petty enough to get his hands dirty."

"I will but … was it wise to antagonize him?"

"Probably not."

"It was awesome, though," she said, before shuffling off to chase after him.

The succulent began to shrink, and Shota called a stop. "Excellent work, Eri, that's the furthest you've ever reached with your quirk," he said.

Chisaki had come to him, a couple of days after his father died, and said he had no intention of letting him go anytime soon. "I want her to learn to use it," he'd said. "Not just how to stop it. That's her right. I respected her grandfather's wishes while he was alive but … he'll never know, now." Shota didn't trust his motives, but he wasn't wrong about it being Eri's right. And he hadn't wanted to leave Eri anyway, so Shota stayed, and started to work with her on how to use it. Openly, this time.

"Really?" the little girl said with a cheer, and ran down the hall to join him next to the plant. Aiko smiled serenely, and notably didn't correct the little girl for running in the house as she continued packing. She'd been very soft on her ever since her grandfather died.

"Yes, but that's about as far as we can test in this house."

"Can we go outside and try?" she asked.

"Eri. You know better," Aiko said firmly. "Mr. Aizawa will test how far you can go when we get to your grandfather's house."

"Yes ma'am," Eri said, dejected. She was a prisoner now – she always had been, more or less, but her uncle's paranoia had worsened so much she wasn't even allowed into the yard. And the worst part was, Shota couldn't say his fear was unjustified. If All For One was truly his father's murderer, then eyes were on the family, and it was best to keep the little girl inside and safe at all costs.

But it did have costs, horrible costs. Shota put a hand on her shoulder, but said nothing.

What could he say? He couldn't promise it would be okay, he couldn't say it'd be over soon. In so many ways, the little girl was doomed, and he was swimming upstream trying to give her anything to hold onto. Even if they all magically woke up in a world where things were better, where the government had given up on eugenics and All For One was gone, she'd still be being raised in the Yakuza. "Let's work on your time again," he said at last, shifting back to the lesson.

The front door opened. "Uncle Kai!" Eri shouted and ran for him – ever since her grandfather died, her uncle had barely been a presence in the house, not that Shota minded. He kneeled to catch her in his arms.

"Hey, kiddo, how's Rewind?" He refused to admit he'd read Midoriya's manga. He refused to call it a "quirk" even though that parlance was spreading like wildfire. But Shota knew he had read it, because he refused to believe it was a coincidence that he'd suddenly named his own quirk and didn't question why Eri wanted to name hers. No one had done that in their world before the manga, or if they did, it wasn't publicly discussed for obvious reasons.

"It's getting stronger, Uncle Kai, I can feel it," the little girl said fiercely.

"Oh, very good. You better get back to your lesson, then," he said, setting her down and pointing her back to Shota.

They finished work for the day, and Eri went to "help" Aiko pack while Aiko made dinner. Shota kneeled by her to help her help, so Aiko wouldn't have to redo everything the little girl did.

"Mr. Aizawa, when is Izuku going to show what he saved me from?" Eri asked sweetly. Hopefully never, Shota hadn't discussed that with him yet. He was still mulling over the boy's last inquiry – should he show All For One? Was it wise to use the monster of his world and this one, in a story most thought was fiction?

"I don't know if he will show it, or when he will if he does, I don't know what he has planned," Shota said, hoping she dropped it before her inquiries prompted others from her uncle and nanny.

"I really want to see it," the little girl said wistfully.

"Me too, Eri, I'm sure we will. He'll get to it when he gets to it," Chisaki said, and ruffled her hair. He was softer than he had been before his father's death, in the few hours he was home while the rest of them were awake. Whether that was the long hours of separation making the connection more precious, or something else at work Shota couldn't say.

"Uncle Kai, if it weren't for the shadow lord, would our world be like Izuku's?"

"I don't know, kiddo, maybe. A lot of people make the world bad, not just him."

"I hate him, Uncle Kai." The little girl wasn't just parroting what her uncle had told her she should feel – there was heat in her voice. She knew who killed her grandfather, who made her world so small.

"I know," her uncle said at the same time Shota thought it, and patted her back.

And Shota knew the answer to Midoriya's question. Midoriya had to show him, as explicitly, as true to life, as possible. There were too many people that needed to see All Might defeat him to omit it. He'd advise him as soon as dinner was over.

It had been a grueling night. A lot of weirdos calling the station overnight, even more than there usually were. Definitely a full moon out there tonight. As usual, Yamada was almost oblivious as he walked home in the early morning light, passing everyone else going to work as he was leaving it.

Well, almost oblivious. "What kind of accident? I just saw him!" a little girl asked loudly. She was an elementary school kid, probably a first or second grader, standing beside a black car stopped by the sidewalk. Yamada pulled the earphones from his ears, hoping he hadn't heard that right.

"It was a car accident, your dad left for work and got side swiped by a truck. Your mom asked me to take you to meet her there," a man said smoothly, at a much lower volume. Nope, that didn't sound right. He sped up to get even with them.

"Okay," the little girl said, and opened the back door to climb in.

"Sweetie, do you know this guy?" he asked as she opened the door.

"No, he's a friend of my mom's," she said sheepishly, her hand still on the door handle. She was nervous – she probably thought he was the creep.

"Buddy, clear off, her dad's hurt bad," the driver said. He was a plain man, nothing stood out about his appearance. Unfortunately.

"What hospital?" Yamada asked.

"What?"

"What hospital is the dad in?"

The driver was clearly agitated. "The one two streets over."

"What room?" Yamada persisted.

"I don't know, I'll ask her mom when we get there. Seriously clear off, why don't you mind your business?"

"Sweetie, call your mom."

"She's at the hospital!" the driver protested.

"Call your mom." With shaking hands, the girl reached into her bag for her phone. A little flip phone, like what most parents got their little ones before they trusted them with a smartphone. God, she was so young …

The driver sped away without warning. "Mommy! Is Daddy okay?" The mother spoke, Yamada couldn't make it out. "Your friend said he was in a car accident!" She still didn't realize how close it had been. "He said Dad had been in an accident and you said to take me to the hospital …" Yamada couldn't make out what the mother said, but he heard enough of her voice to know she sounded hysterical. He would have asked to talk to her, but one strange man being with her daughter would not be any more comforting than one trying to lure her into the car. She gave her daughter frenetic instructions. "But Chiyumi kept walking, she didn't want to be tardy again …" A chill went up Yamada's spine. Snatchers worked in pairs, or more. One distracted any other person present – another grabbed the target.

"Sweetie, which way did your friend go?" he demanded, cutting off the little girl's answer to her mom.

"… that way?" the little girl said, confused to the point of tears now, and pointed over her shoulder.

He started to head that way, praying there wasn't a turn the girls had to take and that the snatchers had given up on taking the friend. He fumbled for his own phone, dialing 110 as he half ran. "110, what is your emergency?"

"Hi, I'm on 32nd street heading east, I just stopped one little girl from getting into a strange car and now I'm trying to make sure her friend isn't …"

There. Another little girl in the same uniform as the one who'd almost been lured into the car, walking off the sidewalk into a little park with a man holding her hand. "Chiyumi?" he called, and she looked up instinctively. Yes, she was the target. The man pulled her along faster.

"Chiyumi, wait!" he called, knowing the other passersby probably couldn't tell who was the aggressor in this situation. That didn't matter, they just needed to look, someone needed to keep the girl in place.

"Police are on the way," he just heard the 110 operator say as he shoved his phone in his pocket.

"Stop that guy, that's not his kid!" he shouted, and instead of trying to play it cool, the guy bolted, towing Chiyumi along with him. No one moved, only staring in fright after the snatcher and the little girl. Yamada pushed past them, determined to save at least one kid from whatever the hell happened to them in those four days.

Yamada was very certain he'd have done this much, no matter when he'd witnessed it. But the next part? He wasn't too big to admit that – if he hadn't seen news about a vigilante taking out serial killers with their quirk, and if he hadn't read that online manga everyone was losing their minds about, and seen a character that had almost his exact quirk do something very like this – he wouldn't have done what he did next.

"HEEEEEYYYYY!" he called, channeling his quirk for all it was worth, aiming high at a tree over the snatcher's head, about a meter down the path from the fleeing pair. It was hard to find the breath to do it on a run, but it worked. A tangle of tree branches came crashing down, and the man and girl skidded to a stop just before they ran right into it. The snatcher tried to pull Chiyumi as he went around it, but she resisted just enough and Yamada took advantage of the lead just enough, that he clearly thought better of it.

He dropped Chiyumi's hand and bolted, vaulting past the tree branches unburdened by his target and into the foliage. "Cover your ears, sweetie," Yamada said, and Chiyumi did so without question. He called after the fleeing snatcher, channeling his quirk yet again, this time directly at the scumbag.

The snatcher fell forward in a heap, covering his ears. There were footsteps behind them, by now two other guys and a woman had run forward to help. Chiyumi threw her arms around Yamada, clinging on for dear life. Instinctively, he put his arms around her in kind. "He said he'd hurt my little brother if I screamed or didn't come with him, he's just a baby," the little girl sobbed into his side. The three who'd run after were on top of the snatcher now, pinning him in place, so that was one less thing to worry about. He should run … but he didn't even consider it. He didn't even think about retaliation from the shadows, about the fact his adult life just got a lot more complicated because he used his quirk in public, all that mattered was the terrified child in his arms.

"It's okay, sweetie, it's okay, I've got you," he reassured. "You're safe." For a long moment, they might as well have been alone in the park, Chiyumi sobbing and clinging to Yamada for reassurance.

But then a cheer went up, and it felt like the whole world had changed.

Chiyumi had been ushered inside as soon as her parents got her home – Hizashi was hamming it up talking to the press, so they didn't seem to mind missing out on the victim. Not that said hamming wasn't earned – it was the first time anyone had stopped a snatcher. A few had tried before, no one had ever succeeded. And he'd gotten himself into a world of pain to do it.

Chiyumi was sitting at her parents' table, holding her infant brother for dear life as she talked to a police officer. She and the officer both looked up as her mother showed him into the kitchen. "Hi, Chiyumi, I'm Tenko Shimura. Is it all right if I sit with you while you speak to the officer?"

"Mmm hmm," she said with a nod, and he took a seat across from her while her mother sat by her, patting her back.

The officer continued – they were trying to get a grip on what he looked like. "Do you think you can meet with an artist to describe him, so we can have a drawing?"

"Yeah, I think I can," Chiyumi said. She held her little brother tighter as she spoke. The baby babbled in protest, but his sister didn't loosen her grip.

"Why did you go with him Chiyumi? Why didn't you cry for help?" the officer asked gently.

Chiyumi shook her head violently. "I couldn't. He said he'd hurt Kiyoshi," she said, and pressed her face against the top of her brother's head. "He said there was someone in the house …"

"That was a bluff, sweetie, there was no one here, Kiyoshi was always safe," her mother tried to reassure her.

"We swept the house to be sure, miss, no one was ever going to hurt your brother," the officer said gently.

Suddenly it was clear as day, as if he'd never forgotten. He was ten-years-old, already on edge because of what he thought was Yuzuru's family misfortune when a man started to walk beside him. Before he could try to speed up or slow down to test if the man was really following him, he spoke, in a low voice, too quiet for passersby to hear. "Walk with me, and don't try to turn off or make a scene. I have a friend following your sister, if you give me any trouble, he'll kill her. Understand?"

He couldn't do this now. He tried to focus, but he was as stricken as his ten-year-old self had been.

The doorbell rang, and everyone at the table but the officer jumped. "If that's the press, I'll lose my mind," Chiyumi's mother said weakly, putting her face in her hands.

"They're not normally that bold, but I'll chase them off if they are," Tenko said, happy to have an excuse to excuse himself. He'd have a smoke and compose his nerves after he told off whoever was trying to bother them.

He opened the door to a little girl Chiyumi's age, her face streaked with tears. "Can … can I see Chiyumi?" she asked, her little voice shaking.

"Keiko?" Chiyumi called from the table.

Without a further word from any adult, Chiyumi handed her brother to her mom and the two ran to each other, meeting in the middle and hugging for dear life, both of them crying. "Is your dad okay?" Chiyumi asked.

"Chiyumi, I'm sorry, I was dumb … he wasn't in an accident … I'm so sorry …"

Yuzuru hadn't cried. They'd heard that boys don't cry enough times by then, that he'd stifled his tears as he hugged him and said sorry over and over again, until Tenko's father told him he was an idiot and to get out of his house. And then he hadn't seen him again, except at school, and even at school, Yuzuru hadn't talked to him, just sent him, sad, guilty looks.

He'd comforted so many returnees – but never the friends. But those little souls had to be almost as wounded.

He kneeled to be closer to the girls' eyeline. "It's not your fault, Keiko," he said softly. "They use that lie, because it works." Because kids expect the snatchers, or any other dangerous stranger, to look like a sneering monster. Not the plain men like the one Hizashi and the girls had described in the car and the one in custody. All of the warnings from adults about staying away from strangers went right out of their heads as soon as they were confronted with a plain man with a lure like that, using their love of their family or their curiosity about animals or their eagerness to help against them.

"How do you know, sir?" Keiko asked timidly.

"Someone told my friend almost the same thing," he said gently. "And he got in the man's car, and the man left him at the hospital, while his partner took me. He told me he'd hurt my sister – that was a lie too." Chiyumi hugged him, clinging to him as hard as she had to her brother. Keiko held onto her friend, which meant she was half hugging him too.

"Will they come back for me?" Chiyumi asked, her voice shaking.

"I don't know," he answered honestly. "But the police are outside, they'll watch your home …" for as long as I can convince them to stay.

"I'm afraid," Chiyumi said.

"I know. But we're going to keep you safe," he promised. They would. When the police left, he'd have volunteers sit outside and wait and watch, and accompany her to and from school. Maybe they'd start before the police left. He'd sit outside their door every night before he broke that promise.

The doorbell rang again. Reluctantly, Tenko let Chiyumi go and stood to answer the door once again, an acid word for a shameless reporter already on his tongue. But it wasn't a reporter. "We need you outside," Miyake, the white-haired security director, said a little breathlessly.

"What's going on?"

"They're arresting Hizashi." That was unexpected – yes he'd broken at least one statute about using quirks in public, and odds were he wasn't registered, but given the context, Tenko hadn't expected an arrest, or at least not one right now, or he would have already talked to him.

"Now?! They're not even going to wait?"

"Apparently not."

He hurried. Sure enough, the tall blond was standing, calm as the police put him in handcuffs. "Mr. Hizashi, don't say anything."

"We advised him of his rights," the policeman fastening the handcuffs said.

"We'll have an attorney meet you at the station, wait for her." He hadn't relied on the criminal attorney who'd offered her services to the SDMR as often as he had on Todoroki, but he knew her number well. If he'd known the police were going to pull this, he'd have already called her.

"Thanks, man, I don't think I can afford it," Hizashi said weakly.

"Don't worry about that."

"Mr. Hizashi!" a little voice called from the apartment door.

"Chiyumi, stay inside," her mother called after her, but she was already dashing across the building's lawn towards her rescuer.

"Why are you arresting Mr. Hizashi?" she demanded of the policeman.

It was perfect. It was publicity you couldn't have staged in a million years. And Tenko would have given anything to not have it happen. "It's against the law to use any kind of supernatural power in public without direct permission," the officer answered.

"But he saved me!" the little girl protested. "He stopped that man from taking me."

"I'm sure the judge will take that into account," the policeman said, not quite meeting the girl's eyes.

She didn't ask any other questions, but ran to Hizashi's side and hugged him. "It's okay, it'll probably just be a fine," Hizashi said, almost managing a cheerful tone.

"It's not fair," the little girl said, barely loudly enough to be heard, but at least one of the reporters definitely did. Which was good, objectively, but …

"Chiyumi, let's go inside," Tenko said softly, putting out a hand towards her. She took it reluctantly, and he brought her back inside.

"Has he said anything?" the text from Shimura read.

"No, or if he has no one's told me, I couldn't tell you if he did," Tensei answered. Maybe that was a good thing … if the force was as leaky as Sasaki and Tsukauchi seemed to think, it was good the detective weren't spreading it around if the perp had talked. He did know the guy had an arrest record a half kilometer long and was quirkless – probably waiting to get a power, if the rumors that All For One could transfer them to other people were true. He might not speak – but Tensei would pray that he did, and try to contrive an excuse to bring in one of the PIs to talk to him.

It had been a day since the attempted kidnapping, and there was no further news, good or otherwise. Tenko tried to put it out of his mind as he sat in the bleachers of a tiny public swimming pool, waiting for Yuri's turn to swim.

Yuri swam unbelievably fast. She moved so quickly through the water, at least three times as fast as any of the other girls who had already wrapped up their competitions.

She went back and forth, using different strokes for each lap. The event she'd chosen for her "exhibition swim" was the four-hundred meter medley, exactly so she could show off all of the strokes and how she could swim so fast for so long. The stands were mostly quiet, but it didn't feel hostile it felt … awed.

And it was over, Yuri touched the pool wall on the last lap, and bobbed up and down in the water, waving to her parents and Tenko. She was grinning so broadly. Yuri's father, whom he hadn't met before, erupted into a triumphant cheer, hopping to his feet. "You beat the Olympic record, Yuri!" he roared, holding a timer aloft. Most of the crowd cheered, though a few remained stubbornly unmoved. Including the girl's swim coach, who was sitting with her arms folded near where the girl had come in, managing to beat out Assemblyman Bando for the most constipated expression Tenko had ever seen in his life. Yuri was stunned, her mouth hanging open for a moment before she covered her mouth in surprise, and then she climbed out of the pool in a swift, graceful motion and bowed. Her expression was modest, but radiantly joyful.

"Please tell me you documented that," Tenko said, when he thought his voice would be heard over the applause.

"I recorded the timer on video," the father answered, his face still split with a massive grin. Yes!

"Send me the video, please. Both of you, if it's all right." Her mother had turned her phone's camera to her daughter.

"Of course! Is this going to be a press release?"

"You know it."

The news from yesterday was objectively good – even the coverage of it was different than it had been last month, when an unknown hero had helped apprehend a serial killer. It hadn't died down even after a day, and it was more positive, with only a few naysayers and most of the analysts and newscasters seemed genuinely glad that Present Mic … he wasn't Mic, not in this universe, he was just Mr. Hizashi … had used his quirk to save the little girl, so were most of the people they interviewed in the streets. "It was like something in One For All!" one of them said cheerfully, and Deku's heart lifted a little.

Deku dressed for the night out in his heaviest shirt – he hated to ask, but he was going to have to ask Mr. Aizawa to get him some additional money from Chisaki to get some clothes for the cooler weather.

He met the others at a large street arcade, that had open air carnival games and little cabinets for videogames. Between the company and the games all around, the night flew by.

The only thing that dampened it was seeing the stares, some of them hostile, that Tokoyami and Hino got – every time they went out, Deku noticed it, and it made him feel sick, though the pair didn't seem to mind. They probably had a very thick skin about it, by this point.

It was getting late, and a little cold out. Tokoyami had spent probably way too much money from his weekend job to buy enough tickets to play a game enough times to win Hino a giant teddy bear in a skeleton costume, which she had proudly carted around the rest of the night. As a joke, Togata had done almost the same, and bestowed a furiously blushing Amajiki with a large non-skeletal rabbit, which was also being carted around with them. The night was winding down and they said their goodbyes.

Deku took out his phone to call a rideshare …

And his phone was totally dead. "Shoot!"

"What's wrong?" Togata asked

"I've got to find a charger I can borrow, I was dumb and I let my phone get run down. I needed it to call a ride."

"Oh! That's okay, you can use my phone to call," Togata offered.

"I mean, I was going to call a rideshare … I am pretty sure I have to use my phone for that. But maybe I can just look up the bus schedule …"

"That's all right, I can drop you off," Togata said. He'd borrowed his parents' car to bring Amajiki and Asui here.

"I'd hate for you to go out of your way," Deku said nervously, not wanting to let the others know he lived in a hotel.

"Come on Midoriya, he's looking for any excuse to drive that old beater around for a little longer," Tsu teased.

"Oh, that's okay then. I'll give you directions."

They continued joking and talking on the way there, and Deku couldn't find it in him to be nervous. "Holy cow, you live here?" Togata asked as they pulled up.

"Yeah, I mean, temporarily. We're moving houses," he lied.

And then his heart thudded to a stop.

He'd completely forgotten Mr. Aizawa hadn't been able to come on Tuesday, and asked if Friday was okay, and the man was pacing back and forth in front of the lobby door, hands locked together behind his head. He'd never seen him so agitated, in either universe. Deku got out of the car sheepishly, wishing everyone a good night. "I'm so sorry!" he called as soon as he shut the door.

"Why weren't you answering your phone?" Mr. Aizawa demanded.

"It died on me, I'm so sorry, I forgot …" Togata hadn't left yet, why?

"Hi, is this your dad?" Togata asked. He'd rolled down the passenger side window, and Amajiki had slid out of sight, hiding behind the rabbit Togata had won for him. Tsu was peering through her window with a look of intense curiosity.

"No," Deku said, at the same time that Mr. Aizawa said, "Yes." "Uh …"

"I'm his stepfather, guess we're still getting on the same page about what that means," Mr. Aizawa said.

"Yeah," Deku agreed nervously, rubbing his neck with one hand.

"Sorry to worry you, we just lost track of time," Togata said diplomatically.

"That's all right, it's a Friday. You weren't the ones at fault. Just make sure he calls me, next time."

"Yes, sir, have a good night," Togata said, and rolled up his window.

They headed inside as Togata drove away. Mr. Aizawa said nothing, ignoring Deku's apologies, as they walked through the lobby. Even once they were in the elevator, there was stony, unbearable silence for another moment before he finally spoke. "I was minutes away from calling Chisaki. I don't know what his honor would have compelled him to do about it, you being searched for by Yakuza who would have been deeply displeased to have their time wasted was within the realm of possibility." Mr. Aizawa said coldly. Deku shivered.

"I'm sorry sir, I forgot, and like I said my phone died so …"

"I don't think you understand how precarious your position is here, Midoriya. I didn't know if you got picked up by the snatchers or any other bad actors, and it's not like I can report you missing to the police."

"What should I do, sir?"

"In the immediate future, be more careful. Keep track of your appointments, keep your cell phone charged, maybe get an emergency power pack for it. In the long-term? Let Chisaki get you documents, so at least I have a pseudonym to use if I have to report you missing." That was such a stark reality everyone lived with here – that your loved ones might go missing any day. It shaped how people lived.

"I'll be more careful, sir," he said sheepishly. Mr. Aizawa didn't answer – only giving him stony silence.

"Akio, it's time to go," Hikaru pleaded. He really wanted to get home – he was worn out from his soccer game, and from keeping his quirk from activating during the game, when he really, really wanted to use it!

"You can go," Akio said without looking at him, still only paying attention to the girl he was flirting with.

"Akio, Mom says we're not supposed to walk alone."

"It's less than a mile, you big baby," Akio said harshly, and gave him a little shove.

Reluctantly, Hikaru started to head that way, making his way through the park towards his home on the other side, keeping a steady pace and keeping his gaze straight forward.

A man fell into step beside him. Hikaru's heart raced but he ignored him. Until he spoke words he never could have ignored. "Walk with me. My friend is watching your mom. If you try to turn off, or make a scene, he'll kill her. Understand?"

It was a lie. Mom said snatchers might lie and tell him his family was in danger, that they'd just done it to a little girl in another district. So he started to run and tried to scream, but the man caught him by the mouth. "Hikaru! You know better than to throw a fit like that! If you're going to act like a baby, I'll have to treat you like one!" the man said loudly, and picked him up, pressing his face into his shoulder. "You stop that," he said harshly, as Hikaru struggled, and started to walk.

Next up: Hope Spot

Another child is missing, but Officer Iida has a plan. Can the community come together to put it into action?