TRIGGER WARNING NOW: Assault, mentions of sexual assault against minors(17 and under), death, body fluids, grooming. This chapter is just fucked up. I'm sorry my mind came here. You can skip down to the end of the chapter if you're uncomfortable, as that's really the only important part of this chapter. Thank you for reading and sorry it took so long for this chapter to come out.

Sunday-lessons with Aizawa and Shinso. Cuddle time with Katsuki until dinner, then a card game with the others until bed.

Monday-Classes, more practice in the gym for ultimate moves. Detention with Vlad King and Monoma. Walk with Katsuki back to the dorms, eat dinner, and do homework until bed.

Tuesday-More classes, this time Hero Theory, mathematics, English, and Reading Comprehension. Lessons with Aizawa and Shinso, then dinner, homework and maybe a breath to hug Katsuki before bed.

Wednesday-Back to practice in the gym. Detention. Dinner, homework, bed.

Thursday-Classes, focusing more on Hero Theory. Lessons with Aizawa and Shinso, no dinner, homework, pass out at desk.

Friday-

I'm ready to sleep for six days, she thinks to herself as she pulls on one of the hoodies Katsuki gave her and a pair of sweatpants. She pulls her hair out of her hoodie and rubs her eye, shaking her head. I haven't even thought about how I was going to sneak off the grounds…I mean, everyone's asleep…

She sighs softly, opening her door and poking her head out to look either way down the hall. She steps out and gently closes it behind her, wincing as it makes a soft click. The dorms this late are dark, little lights along the floor bringing some light to the bleak black. Thank god the boy's dorms are in a different wing…Katsuki is a lighter sleeper than he lets on.

She shuffles down the hall, careful on the steps to not make a noise. The four flights down almost kill her as much as they do walking up, but she makes it regardless. She gets to the bottom floor and stops, stiffening as she hears the fridge open and close. Who the hell is up this late?

"Leinei?" Denki mumbles, having gotten a bottle of water and rubbing his eye with the palm of his hand. "Why are you still up? Couldn't sleep?" he adds, yawning after. "Water usually helps me but I always have to pee after…"

"I'm just going on a run," she replies, pointing at the door. "I didn't wear myself out enough today, so the fresh air will do me good."

"M'okay," he replies, waving at her as he heads towards the boys' dorms. "See you in the morning, Lei…"

"Sweet dreams, Denki," she calls softly, waving at his back before hurrying to the door. She slips out of it and shivers feeling the night air. Now, I think there was a path here somewhere that led to a way to get out of here without alerting the teachers. She heads into one of the clumps of trees to see if she could find the wall surrounding the campus. I can easily climb one of these trees and jump over it…Might fuck my ankle up on the landing though…

She shakes her head, careful with the underbrush and tree roots to not make a noise and alert anyone who may have been patrolling or on a late night run. Her heart is slamming in her chest, her anxiety skyrocketing. If a teacher catches me, I'm in so much fucking trouble. If it's Aizawa, I might be expelled. That wouldn't look good on my record at all; I really would be a failure then.

Just turn around and go back to bed. Go crawl into the bed with Katsuki. You haven't spent any time with him at all this week. You don't have to do this.

But if I don't, who knows what he'll do. He already threatened his parents. I can't-no, I won't let him do that. I can't let him live through a hell like that. This is something I can do to help him, the way he's helped me.

"Son of a crabby apple," she growls out loud, starting to scale a tree and find a limb that was at least even to the wall bordering the school. The spot she had found leads down into one of the alleys on either side of the campus, and would provide just enough cover for her to jump down. She takes a breath, shimmying to the end of the branch and feeling it dip just slightly under her weight. She swallows the ever growing fear and anxiety inside her, carefully sliding her feet underneath her and standing in a crouch. Thank god for Aizawa's balance training. I probably would have a face planted in the dirt by now.

She takes another breath and springs off the branch, barely grabbing the edge of the wall and slamming her body into the cement. It knocks the wind out of her, her gasping for breath as she digs the toes of her shoes against the wall and pushes herself up. She takes another deep breath, tears in her eyes as she rubs her chest where she hit the wall. That's going to bruise like hell tomorrow.

She eases her way across the wall and lowers herself down the other side, her arms groaning in pain before she lets go and lands in a deep crouch. Thank god. I wouldn't be able to explain a sprained ankle to the teachers tomorrow. She gets up and brushes herself off, heading down the back way away from the entrance of the school, no idea how she's going to get back in without help.

The walk to the train station and the ride to Hosu was easy enough. No one wanted to question a girl in sweatpants and a hoodie with dark circles under her eyes and a fading handprint on her throat. I honestly probably look like a villain to them. Heh. How ironic.

She walks to the same alley she had met with Dabi before, careful to make sure no one was following her before she turns down the way. She has her hands in the front pocket of her hoodie, picking at her nails and sliding the opposing nail underneath the other. Once she gets to the alley, she takes her arms out of the pocket and pulls the sleeves down over her hands.

"You're late, Mouse," a voice says behind her. She stiffens and turns on her heel, facing him as he smirks underneath his facemask. "Were you getting cold feet?"

"N-no, we aren't supposed to leave campus," she replies, crossing her arms across her chest. He raises an eyebrow seeing the white skull on the front of her hoodie. "What? It's true. It's part of the new rules implemented. If I'm caught, I'll be in serious trouble."

"That's not one of yours," he remarks, gesturing for her to follow him.

"What, the hoodie? Yeah it is," she says, half telling the truth as she obeys. "I can't help you don't know my tastes anymore."

"I know you wouldn't wear something with a skull on it. Must be that Bakugo kid's then."

"And what if it is?" she tells him, getting defensive. He tilts his head, watching the way the fire lights in her eyes again. He exhales softly and shrugs, looking forward again.

"I would suggest not wearing it around me."

"I would suggest keeping your half assed opinion to yourself. I'm only here because you threatened his family."

"So you wouldn't be if I threatened yours?"

"My family can take care of themselves."

Them huh? That's right~ Mr. Compress said Hawks is her brother. That should come in handy…

"Of course. They are pro heroes after all. If you worried about them, that would mean they're weak," he continues, shrugging as they make the turn onto the next open road. She glared at him out of the corner of her eyes. "I'm just saying. His parents are what? Nobodies in the hero community?"

"Oh, you mean like you?" she replies, getting irritated with his beratment of Mitsuki and Masaru. "But then you are discussed in the hero community. Just y'know with your kill list following your name?"

"Someone has a mouth on her today."

"No, I have a mouth every day. What you're hearing is attitude," she says, enunciating every word as she nods slowly. A vein ticks out in his forehead as his smirk falls and he grabs her arm, relishing the flinch that follows and the way the fight drains from her face as he stops and leans down by her ear.

"I'd watch it, Mouse," he murmurs. "We have a mutual agreement not to discuss our separate ends, but I promise you, keep mouthing off and I will enjoy searing your lips shut. Think that famous nurse of yours can save that pretty mouth?"

She says nothing, setting her lips in a thin line until he lets her go. She rubs the spot he grabbed, watching as he walks ahead of her. You got him riled up too. Nice to know he has buttons you can push. She pushes a breath out slowly between pursed lips, shaking her head as she jogs to catch up to him.

"So, what are we working on today? Have to warn you, classes have been ramped up, so I may be better than last time," she boasts, only to feel uneasy as he laughs, them heading towards the warehouse from last week. "What's that for?"

"You'll see," he hums. "Since you took your time getting here, I figured I'd have extra time to prepare this week's lesson plan."

"Sheesh, you're starting to sound like a teacher. Did the big bad villain go back to school for his teaching license?"

"You're on thin ice, little mouse," he warns again. "I'm really not liking this attitude of yours."

"Oh would you rather I be the same blubbering girl from the alley three months ago?" she scoffs. "It's called personal growth. Something you should study."

"You think you're funny," he scoffs, wrenching the door open of the warehouse like last time. He gestures for her to walk in, her head down as a bad feeling twists her stomach. There's muffled whimpers coming from a dark corner of the building, and the overwhelming feeling of dread coiling in her stomach makes her feel so nauseous, she wants to turn and run out. The screeching metal of the door closing behind her says otherwise.

"What are you doing? Who else is here?" she asks, her voice hitching as panic tightens her chest. "Dabi-"

"Shh," he breathes by her ear before brushing past her. "Just wait and see."

"I don't want to wait and see, what's going on?" she demands, her voice an octave higher than before. "What are you doing?"

He walks over to the darkened corner, a humanlike cry of pain resounding as he drags out a beaten and bloody man to the middle of the warehouse. Her hands come to her mouth as he throws the man to the ground and digs his heel into his side. The man sobs, struggling and squirming against the restraints.

"What the hell is wrong with you!" She yells, horrified. "Let him go!"

She runs over and shoves Dabi away from him, getting onto her knees to help the man sit up. The villain smirks as Leinei asks an array of questions to ensure the man's sentience, his injuries. Her voice is shaking, the beaten man's blood seeping onto her hoodie and her hands.

"Careful, Mouse," Dabi warns, crouching down with his hands clasped. "He's a murderer like I am. But he likes to play with little girls. Well, girls around your age. The difference between him and me, he doesn't leave his toys pure when they depart us."

"Wh-what?"

She lets go of the man, horrified as he falls back to the ground with a muffled whine. She falls back on her ass, her breath coming out quick and short as Dabi laughs, shaking his head.

"He rapes little girls and slits their throats while he's still inside them." He tilts his head as she wheezes. "Do you think he can be rehabilitated too? Do you think a child murdering rapist can be saved? Be rehabilitated and corrected to be a civilian worthy of walking the streets where he could grab another little girl?"

"I..you..i…"

"Do you really think a single life is worth more than all of the ones he's already taken? Or the ones he'll be able to take if we let him go free?"

"What do you want me to do?" she whimpers, her body shivering as the man looks at her pleadingly. "This-this isn't what we discussed-we can turn him over to the police, that'll-"

"Do what? They'll lock him in a cell, but he'll end up dying anyway. Rapists usually don't get the best treatment in the prisons from fellow inmates or guards. We'd be doing him a favor by killing him now."

"No, we aren't killing anyone!" She protests as the disgusting man squeals like a pig, trying to kick himself away from the others around him. "I'm not a killer, I'm not you!"

"You think heroes don't kill people everyday?" Dabi asks, cocking his head as he stares at the frazzled girl. "Whether by accident or on purpose they do. Villains, civilians, no one is safe. And it's excused as a means of justice or bad accidents. You'd be doing the world a favor by snuffing this miserable excuse of a man out."

"I'm not killing anyone!"

"You don't have a fucking choice," he snaps at her, watching as she recoils. "Use your damn quirk, kill him. This is to help you, so you aren't sitting in the bathroom wanting to kill yourself everytime you accidentally hurt someone. I'm doing this to help you. I care about you, Little Mouse. Let me help you."

She can't catch her breath, her chest so tight no oxygen can get past her throat. She stands up, wobbling a few steps backwards as if drunk and the world's axis is spinning just underneath her unstable feet. She pushes her hair from her face, the blood on her hands leaving the slightest of streaks across her temples and forehead.

Everyone can be rehabilitated.

Everyone deserves a second chance.

Everyone deserves help.

Do I even think that for myself? I'm a monster who's been given so many chances-what's different between him and me? Where does the line in the sand fall? Why do I deserve so many chances…

"Mouse," Dabi breathes, stepping over to the man to come up behind her. He gently holds her shoulders, leaning by her ear. "I know you're scared. I know you. I know you're capable of making the right decision here and now. It's for the greater good of society. A hero has to make those hard decisions to save the people of tomorrow. I know you can make those hard choices."

"I can't. I can't take someone's life. I'm not that person. I can't do it, please don't make me," she pleads, grabbing his wrists. "Touya please. I can't."

"You can," he replies, his voice soft and encouraging. "I know you can. You're so much stronger than you let yourself believe. All you have to do is trust me. I will never lead you down the wrong path."

"Touya, I can't," she tells him, her voice breaking as her vision blurs and her eyes burn. She rests her forehead against his chest, closing her eyes. "I can't. Please, please, if you ever loved me, don't make me."

"Mouse, I have always loved you," he says, wrapping his arms around her and holding her close. "I've only ever wanted to help you. Don't you trust me? Don't you know I'd never lead you astray? I just want to help you become a better hero."

"I can't do it. I can't. Please, please don't make me," she begs, her voice muffled by his coat. "I just want to go home. Please just let me go home."

"Not until he's dead." A strangled cry leaves her throat as he shushes her. "He can't be allowed to live, Little Mouse. He's raped and killed so many girls just like you. How do you know you won't be next? Or one of your classmates? The only way to be truly safe is if he's dead."

"I can't do it…"

"I won't make you." Relief slumps her shoulders. "This time. I will show you how it's done. Next time, you will take the bastard's life. Am I understood?"

She nods as he steps away from her. He grabs her arm and situates her for the front row seat to his little pyrotechnic show. He tilts his head as he studies the beaten rapist on the ground, the way his eyes are glued on the trembling girl besides him. Beneath the fear and the silent pleas, there was lust. And it turned Dabi's stomach seeing him look at his little mouse in such a way.

"Dabi!" she yelps as he kicks the man in the stomach. "Why-"

"Shut up." He crouches down, grabbing the man by the hair and wrenching his head up. "You fucking pervert," he growls as the man whimpers again. "Even on your deathbed, you're still thinking about fucking little girls."

Leinei's blood runs cold, her hands coming to her mouth as he rips the gag from the man's mouth. The man lets out a relieved breath, licking his dry and bloodied lips. Dabi slams his head into the ground and stands again, slamming his heel into his temple.

"Your eyes haven't left her since she showed up," he continues, hunched forward as he grinds his heel into the man's skin. "I bet you wanted to do everything you did to those little girls to her. I bet you were fucking fantasizing about it as she begged not to fucking kill you. Go on, fucking admit it! Tell her how much of a fucking scumbag you are."

"Dabi, please-"

"Shut up, Leinei," he growls, looking over his shoulder at her with glowing blue eyes. She flinches and takes a step back, pulling her sleeves down over her hands again. "Go on. Tell her every sick fucking thing you wanted to do to her from the moment you laid eyes on her. Tell her how fucking hard you are as she sobbed and begged to spare you."

"Pl-please," the man sobs, unmoving under his foot. "Please don't make me. Just kill me, please!"

"Not until you tell her. Show her how fucked up you are, how far beyond saving you are."

"I-I liked hearing her cry," the man says after taking a gulp of air. "I-I liked how sweet and innocent her eyes are, and how caring she is."

"That's not what I said."

"I'm sorry!" the man howls as Dabi digs his heel in further, breaking the skin and blood trickling down into his already swollen eye. "I like them sweet and innocent like her! I liked hearing them beg and plead just how she was doing! I made them beg, beg for me to stop, for me to spare them. But I didn't. I killed them. And I kept going. I liked it, I liked feeling the way the warmth left their bodies as they bled out!"

Leinei feels sick to her stomach, covering her mouth as she stares at Dabi's back and the man pressed into the floor. Bile rises in her throat, burning at her tongue. She didn't want to hear anymore, clenching her eyes shut as she covered her ears instead.

But that didn't block the sound of flames engulfing the man's body, or his tortured screams of agony as the skin was seared from his bones. It didn't block the sickly sweet smell that finally sent her stomach over the edge. She doubles over, retching her dinner onto the dirt of the warehouse floor. Her face is burning, whether from emptying her stomach or from the flames just a few feet away. She retches again, spit and bile hanging in strings from her lips.

"Not everyone can be saved, Leinei," Dabi tells her as she wipes her mouth on the hoodie sleeve. "Not everyone gets a redemption arc. Sometimes, you just have to grit your teeth and end the evil before it gets to you."

Not everyone gets a redemption arc…

Is..he's beyond my reach, isn't he?

Touya…

"Go home, Leinei. I'll clean this mess up. See you next Friday."

"O-okay, b-bye…"

She leaves without waiting for his response, managing to get the door open just enough for her to get through. She can still hear the crackles of the man's body burning to nothing, the smell lingering in her nose as she heads back to the convenience store.

I need to call Keigo. He'll know what to do.

He's going to fucking kill me, but I-I can't. I'm out of my depth, he's better at this than I am. He'll understand. He'll help me.

Side note: Keigo is not an early bird or a night owl. He is more of an afternoon pigeon.

So it can go without saying, being woken up at midnight prior to his only day off, he would not be a happy camper. Regardless of how he feels about being woken up so late, he still comes to Leinei's side, both of them ending up in a darker cafe where no one passes a second glance at Leinei's disheveled state.

"So. You snuck off campus," Keigo says, drinking his coffee after stating that fact. "You met up with a fucking serial killer who was holding a serial rapist and murderer in his grasp," he adds, lowering his voice. "And you're asking me now for help?"

"That..just about tracks," Leinei replies, not looking at him as she picks at the small sandwich she had gotten. Her voice is hoarse and her body is heavy from the adrenaline and the receding emotions that had flooded her system just an hour ago. Keigo groans under his breath, taking another gulp of coffee before setting his cup down. "I'm sorry, I know I should have called and had you with me. I messed up. I thought we were just sparring, since that's all we did last time. I-I didn't think-"

"That's right. You didn't," he hisses at her. She flinches. "I love you, with everything I am. I would die for you and I wouldn't regret it. What in your right mind possessed you to do this? What made you think this was the right move? What if he had turned on you? What if that murderer rapist dude wasn't tied up? What if you come here one day, and the entire League is here waiting for you? What if you're killed because of this?"

"I'm sorry…"

"Lei, I have always had a problem saying no to you. I can't say no to you, because all I see when I look at you is that same six year old girl who was so scared before. So I can't say no because I want to make sure you're happy."

"I know, Keigo, I know, I'm sorry, I didn't-"

"Never again," he hisses. "You will never come here alone again. I will talk to the Commission and your teachers. These extra lessons with Dabi end tonight. You will be staying strictly on campus unless it's for school related activities. Am I understood?"

"Kei…he threatened Katsu's parents," she whispers. The blood drains from his face at her words. "He threatened them and Katsu. I-I can't-I can't put them in danger."

"I will make sure they're okay," he assures her, closing his eyes and pinching the bridge of his nose. "I will talk to the Commission. I will get everything sorted. I need you to not speak a word of this to anyone."

"I'm sorry."

"I know. I know you are. But everything will be fixed. Just focus on school, okay?"

"Okay.."

"Come on," he sighs, getting up and downing the rest of his coffee. He burps afterwards, making Leinei giggle quietly. He smiles. "Let's get you back to school before the teachers realize you're gone."