Shouta Aizawa was NOT happy to be woken up so early. Nezu had called at the ungodly hour of 4:30 am, only a few hours after Shouta's patrol had ended, and told him to help investigate a breakout from Still water prison. So, grumbling and groaning, Shouta dragged himself out of his warm house and trudged to one of the worst prisons in the country.

Still water prison had a reputation for its less than stellar conditions, guards, and survival rate. It was where lower-class villains with weak quirks were sent to serve out their sentences. Due to the nature of the prisoner's quirks, Still water received less funding and support than bigger prisons like Tartarus. The guards were less trained and more prone to violence, the food was unappetizing to say the least, and the prisoners were allowed to run around like feral dogs. In short, Still water was not Shouta's favorite place and he was not happy to be there.

Upon his arrival at Still water, the erasure hero met up with Nezu and the warden to start the investigation on a breakout.

"It was just one prisoner?" Nezu was already typing away at the computer, attempting to pull up the camera feeds while he spoke.

"Yes, but he is a really bad one. Boys in here call him the feral child and I'll be damned if he doesn't live up to the name." the name 'feral child' seemed vaguely familiar to Shouta, but he couldn't place were, so he just let the warden continue. "The kid's in a fight almost every day, wrecking the peace in my prison. I have no idea how the kid got out though, he doesn't even have a quirk." The warden spoke with clear distain for the prisoner's quirk status.

Shouta set aside the quirk discrimination the warden was showing to focus of the use of the word 'kid'. Twice. "What do you mean 'the kid'?" the hero struggled to keep his voice level and he could see Nezu's ear twitch, meaning he had caught the wording too.

"Ah, well.." Shouta could see the warden sweating. Good. "Legally he is an adult, he is just a bit younger than most of the prisoners-"

"How much younger?" The hero didn't even try to hide the growl in his voice.

"I don't see how that matters in regards to his breakout-" the warden tried but Shouta cut him off again.

"HOW MUCH YOUNGER?!" Even Nezu had stopped typing as the two waited with bated breath for the warden's answer.

"Fourteen." The one-word answer had Shouta's blood boiling. How dare they put a literal child in prison?! In the worst prison around?! What could possibly justify that?!

"Get me his file." The warden scampered away, tripping over his own feet while to follow Nezu's order. Shouta turned back to his employer to see what progress he had made with the cameras. "It appears as though the cameras were malfunctioning during the breakout. As well as several other times throughout the last few months."

Shouta felt his blood freeze. "All the cameras?" the hero wasn't sure if he wanted the answer.

"No, just this one." anyone else wouldn't have been able to hear it, but Shouta knew that Nezu was pissed. He hated the imprisonment and mistreatment of children, even if they weren't his students.

Just then the warden came back with the thinnest file Shouta had ever seen. If this prisoner had really been as bad as the warden said, shouldn't he have a bigger file with all his marks in it? The hero opened the file to find a single sheet of almost blank paper. The only information it had was the prisoner's name (Izuku Midoriya), his quirk status, his crime (petty theft), and an incarceration date. From over four years ago.

"What the hell is this?!" Shouta slammed the file back down onto the table where both Nezu and the warden, who was now visibly shaking, could see it.

"That's the prisoner's file, like you wanted-" Shouta was so done with this coward of a man.

"No! this is bull shit! You imprisoned a minor for four years for petty theft?! That is two years max for an adult, repeat offender!" the erasure hero cut off his rant as he felt a paw on his shoulder. He turned to look at Nezu to see anger blazing in the rat's eyes. Oh, this prison wasn't going to last through the night, was it?

"My employee is quite right. This is unacceptable. You have been wrongly imprisoning someone, a child, for no foreseeable reason. You will be lucky if all that costs you is your job." Nezu's calm voice was laced with fury. The principle of UA was promising pain for this man and all the men who followed him.

"But he's quirkless-" the warden tried protesting.

"Has nothing to do with the crimes you and the justice system had committed against him. Believe me when I tell you that I will find every judge, cop, and hero that was involved in this case and I will make them pay for their wrong doings." Nezu finished with an aggressive stare into the warden's eyes, daring him to say anything else.

Once the silence had stretched on for an uncomfortable amount of time, Nezu jumped down from the table and motioned for Shouta to follow him, which the hero gladly did. "If that is all then my employee and I shall be on our way. I would recommend you use the next few hours to try to find a new job suitable to your situation while you still can. I don't think this one is the right fit for you."

With that, Nezu and Shouta walked out the door, leaving the warden standing in his own office with his jaw hanging open in shock.

The two heroes walked in silence for a little while, until they were a respectable distance from the prison, before Shouta had to ask; "So, what is our play?"

Nezu sighed. "We will still have to find this Izuku Midoriya. I don't intend to send him back to prison," Nezu had noticed the momentary outrage that must have shown of Shouta's face. "But we still need to find him. I have a feeling that he didn't break himself out. There was no evidence of a breakout, almost as though the boy had simply walked through the bars and disappeared. But without a quirk..." the principle trailed off, leaving Shouta to fill in the blanks.

"This is going to be a pain, isn't it?" The erasure hero was already grieving the sleep this case was going to cost him.

Nezu only chuckled at his employee's pain. "I'm afraid it is. I only hope he hasn't turned to villainy, or worse, been taken by villains. The child's reputation… well, its nothing to sneeze at."

At Nezu's words Shouta remembered where he had heard the name 'the feral child'. It was a case four years ago that took place in the undercity. some vigilante was chasing away heroes and cops. Nezu had asked if Shouta wanted to be involved but he had declined due to his already full schedule.

If he had accepted, could he have helped the kid? Shouta shook the thought away. He couldn't deal in 'what if's'. Not anymore. He could only work to fix what he could.

"Okay. Where do we start?"