It ended up being faster to get to the front doors of the station instead of the employee entrance, so the first person Izuku saw upon walking in was Saito chatting with a civilian. She glanced up, smile wide when she saw him. "Little Midoriya! You made it through the first day without getting stabbed!"

The woman Saito had been assisting looked around, panicked. "Who got stabbed?"

"No one did!" Saito exclaimed. "It's worth a celebration!"

Glancing back, Izuku was glad to see the secretary walking to the desk. "Hey, Watanabe! Do you mind helping this woman finish filling her report? Officer Saito is needed in the back."

"Oh, certainly Detective Midoriya. The others are waiting for you."

Hauling Saito behind him, Izuku hissed, "You can't just bring up getting stabbed in front of civilians, you'll freak them out."

"Well sue me for being glad you're alive," she said, pouting.

"Eyy, it's Little Midoriya, and he's not even bleeding," someone else called over the back room.

Several people shouted their congratulations, and above them he heard a panicked Takane asking someone, "Is he usually bleeding? Why would he be bleeding?"

"It's an inside joke, don't worry about it," Izuku said hastily. "Why don't you join me in Detective Tsukauchi's office?"

He looked terrified, even more than usual now that he was in plainclothes, but he followed Izuku into the detective's office without a word.

"Good to see you both made it back safely," Naomasa said. "Sit down, let's hear what you've found."

Takane still looked stressed out just to be there, so Izuku started debriefing the two on any important information he'd discovered, hoping the other officer would relax, at least marginally.

"One of the groups had been planning a raid on Dead Eyes in a couple of days. I've warned them off of it, but there's no guarantee that they're actually going to listen to me. It's definitely going to kickstart some sort of conflict with Dead Eyes if it does happen, so I'm going to monitor the situation as closely as possible. As soon as anything happens, I will let both of you know," Izuku said in closing.

"We'll distribute this information accordingly, Midoriya, thank you. If conflict does arise, do you have any preference on how it should be handled?" Tsukauchi asked.

"This may change based on what Takane says, but we want primarily police personnel – keep the number of heroes involved minimal, and make sure that they work well together." Izuku steepled his fingers, thinking intently. "We have to work cohesively. Individually these people aren't terribly dangerous, but you will be facing the as a whole. If you guys aren't unified during this operation, someone will get hurt."

"Thank you, detective. Takane, what do you have for us today?"

"I don't have much, and I'm sorry for that. I did successfully infiltrate Dead Eyes, but there is no trust established yet," the officer said, scratching the back of his head. "I'm afraid I won't know anything is in the works until we're actually in the middle of it."

"Things rarely go as planned, especially with criminal organizations like this," Izuku promised. "We didn't expect you to become the gang leader overnight, you're doing great. When something is happening, all you have to do is let us know."

"Both of you are expected to put your lives above the mission. Now get out of here." Tsukauchi said, shooing them out. He met Izuku's eyes, and he after all these years, Izuku could tell exactly what he was trying to communicate: try to calm Takane.

"Thank you," the younger two said in unison before standing up. As they left, the officers called out encouragements.

"Keep up the good work, boys!"

"Make sure you two don't get stabbed!"

"We're all depending on you!"

Takane was looking paler by the moment as Izuku hauled him out of the station. "I don't know that I'm cut out for things like this, Midoriya. And why does everyone keep talking about getting stabbed? Is that normal on undercover missions?!"

"I wouldn't say it's normal, exactly, but my first couple undercover missions were… high-stress situations. Just remember, we don't want or need you to be a vital part of Dead Eyes, you're just a background member there to warn us if they're about to make a move. If you can safely bail out at that point, then please do. There's no need to put yourself in danger, we're only stationed where we are to alert the proper channels in time so civilians don't get hurt during the battle."

The other man inhaled sharply. "I know that, but I never thought I would be doing something like this, especially so soon out of the Police Academy."

"Neither did I," Izuku assured him. "If it would make you feel better, you and I will go get dinner, and we'll make a plan as foolproof as we can manage. Deal?"

After a moment Takane nodded. "Deal."

And they did exactly that. It seemed to at least marginally calm Takane, and then it was time for them to go. Izuku had a few, precious hours with Eri before it was her bedtime – he would be gone long before she woke up the next morning.

As he was tucking her in, her big, crimson eyes met his. "You're going to be okay during this mission, right Dadku?"

"I've learned a lot about staying safe since I met you, Eri. As long as everyone else does their job, I'll be just fine," Izuku said, ruffling her hair. "Besides, I need to be there for your dance recital, so I have to be okay!"

"You promise you'll be back in time?"

"I pinky promise," Izuku said, offering his pinky. As he locked fingers with her, he internally swore to himself that it would be true – if he had to cause a gang war himself, he would be there for Eri's dance recital.

When he left Eri's bedroom, silently closing the door behind him, his mother was waiting in the hallway for him.

"Do you really think you'll be back in time for her recital? This isn't a small mission, Izuku."

"I don't intend on breaking any of my promises to Eri. I'll be there, Mom." He smiled, still thrown off by how much taller than her he was, a recent development. "This won't be like my first missions. I'm good at what I do, and this is one of my least dangerous mission yet. But I'm being careful. I'm not doing this to prove myself, I just want to protect people. I can't do that if I get myself stabbed or shot, right?"

Inko looked at him, watery eyes finally overflowing. "I'm so proud of you, my darling boy."

"Thanks Mom," Izuku said, swallowing back tears of his own. There was a strange sense of finality in the interaction, and unease settled in his chest when he had to slip out of the house early that morning – he couldn't risk being tracked.

At the warehouse there was only the night guard awake, as well as the young boy he recognized as the one who'd opened the door for him the first time he'd come. He leaned against the warehouse wall around the corner, out of the guard's view. He was tiny and dirty with a shock of green hair – Izuku had avoided looking at the boy too much for fear of exposing some emotion, but now, with no one to see, Izuku shamelessly stared at him. It was like looking in a mirror, in some ways. Had he not met Detective Tsukauchi, this could have been exactly how he ended up.

"You, what's your name?" Deku asked.

Terrified brown eyes snapped up to his face. "Sir?"

"I asked you what your name was."

"H-Hinata, sir." He swallowed thickly. "Hinata Soji."

"And what exactly do you do around here, Hinata Soji?"

"Nothing! I-I mean, I just do whatever I'm told to, sir. I don't do anything important."

Izuku stared the boy down, easily reading every emotion that crossed the boy's face despite the poor lighting. "Why are you here?"

"Well, I couldn't sleep, and sometimes the night watchmen need someth—"

"No kid, why did you join Viper Gang?"

"I, um… My quirk scares people, sir."

"Persuasion, right? Don't look so shocked, I analyze quirks for a living. For what it's worth, I think it's a fascinating quirk that has countless uses both for good or evil. If you really wanted to, you could even stop our upcoming fight with Dead Eyes. Stand tall, the quirk belongs to you, not the other way around."

The boy stared at him with a form of reverence. At this point, Izuku had seen that same look on countless people's faces, the look of being introduced to the idea that they may hold value outside of their quirk.

Izuku regarded him for a few more moments before saying, "I like you, Hinata. If you agree, from now on you're my shadow. You would be my eyes and ears. Anything you hear that I might want to know, you tell me."

Snapping into a salute that was almost comical, Hinata said, "Yes sir!"

"Calm down, just call me Deku, kid. But this is a two-way deal. If you agree, you're under my protection. If you don't want to be somewhere, you walk the other way with my permission. If you don't want to do something, you tell them you're running an errand for me." Deku offered a hand. "So are you interested?"

"I'll do it, si- uh, Deku." Soji said eagerly, clasping his hand firmly. "Thank you, you won't regret this. I'll do everything you could ever want."

"You're not here to impress me, you're here to help me. And in the meantime we're going to develop your quirk. It could come in very important to us. You strike me as the kind of kid that doesn't want to end up in the middle of a shootout."

"Th-that's right, Deku."

"Well, I don't want one to happen either, but it's going to. Our job is going to be to try and stop it before things get bad. Got it?"

"But why would you want to stop it, sir?"

Glancing around, it didn't appear there was any sort of surveillance, but Izuku didn't want to risk it. "Listen kid, one day I'll tell you, but for now I need you to trust me without question. I've got my reasons for not wanting this, but I also just don't like senseless death. If you're willing to fight, it should be for some reason better than getting your pride hurt."

When he glanced back down, Hinata was staring at him like Izuku himself used to stare at All Might, like he had hung the stars in the sky. It made him feel uncomfortable, but he also remembered being on the other side of things.

Unstrapping the katana from his belt, Izuku sat himself down on the ground, leaning against the filthy warehouse. He patted the even filthier ground next to him, the spot Hinata had been sitting in minutes before. "If we're both committed to being awake at such an unholy hour, we may as well keep each other company."

"Yes, Deku sir."

"Drop the 'sir,' Hinata."

"Yes, Deku."

They sat like that, just talking about Hinata's quirk and how it functioned, and eventually that transitioned into talking about Hinata's life in general. Just having Hinata in his corner was making Izuku feel like he pretty much had everything under control.

All in all, Hinata was making for an excellent friend, regardless of how valuable he was to Izuku's cause. When he was able to overcome his nerves, Hinata was whip-smart and he had a fairly good mind for medicine.

"You wouldn't make a half-bad EMT," Izuku thought out loud, watching the boy almost perfectly mimic the way Izuku had wrapped a sprained ankle. Hinata had officially been his shadow for a week or so at that point, and with his help Izuku had gathered more information than he could have ever dreamed of. "Or a first responder. You've got a lot of promise, kid."

"I kind of wanted to be a doctor when I was a kid. That was before I ran away, though."

Izuku let the comment slide, even though he desperately wanted to know more. While Hinata was an open book about most things, he had said nothing about his family or the events that had led him to joining the gang. Until he could actually do something to help, it was best left alone. (As it stood, Izuku had sent a picture and name of the boy to Naomasa with strict instructions that he was to be dealt with separately and lightly. If possible Izuku would cut him a deal and send him back home.)

As it stood, things were getting tense around the Viper Gang. Deku had had to stop a series of people from attempting various raids and preemptive attacks on Dead Eyes, but Viper stood in his corner, even if most of the gang's faith in him was starting to waver.

Now that he had a better sense of hwo things were going to go down, Izuku needed to get things in order. He'd kept to his decision to let Tsukauchi pick which heroes were involved. It kind of chafed at Izuku, not planning the details of the upcoming skirmish, but he had traded some of that certainty and predictability for the situation that would both protect the most civilians and allow the police to capture as many members of both gangs as possible.

He only needed another week to get Hinata's quirk strong enough to handle what would be necessary – they might even make it out with little to no casualties, and he wouldn't have an issue making it to Eri's dance recital. Izuku was actually feeling fairly confident about the situation until about three days later.

It was fairly early morning when Izuku's planning was interrupted by a frantic Hinata bursting into the room. "Deku, sir! Hanada and his group are gone! They've already started the raid!"

Ice filled Izuku's veins, and suddenly the entire world felt off-kilter. "No, they've been strictly ordered against it. We're not ready!"

"No one has seen them since last night, but it might not be too late! Viper has people looking for them."

"They wouldn't have gone any of the normal ways, they would be trying to avoid me," Izuku said, moving out the door so frantically that he didn't even grab his katana.

"What do you want me to do?"

Izuku paused. What did he want Hinata to do? His quirk was a marvel, he could persuade anyone within earshot to do anything so long as even a tiny part of said person wanted to do what he was persuading them to do. It reminded him a lot of Shinsou's quirk, but right now it was unstable. The duration and strength of it was unpredictable, especially under high-stress situations.

Scribbling down an address, Izuku finally said, "Go to this police station, specifically this police station. Don't look so scared, I promise they won't arrest you. Tell Detective Tsukauchi that Deku sent you. Stay there, stay safe."

He could practically envision which way Hanada had gone. Deku stayed just long enough to make sure Hinata was well on his way before Deku tore through the streets at a breakneck pace. On high alert for anything remotely related to Viper Gang or Dead Eyes, Izuku nearly tripped over a man who was bent over, attempting to pick up the papers scattered over the sidewalk.

Agitated, Izuku shuffled the papers into a pile, only barely making eye-contact with the man. An unexpected barrage of emotions assaulted Izuku when he realized that this was All Might, his civilian form. He stared at the sunken blue eyes in horror, because his former idol seemed to be the worst omen he could have possibly found.

Breathing deeply, Izuku pressed the papers back into All Might's hand. He could see the assumptions in his eyes – the number one hero was assuming he was a hoodlum, or maybe even a villain. Somehow that knowledge made it easier for him to press the papers into the man's hand and bolt away.

It wasn't much farther until Izuku spotted Hanada moving jauntily across the street like he hadn't just sentenced countless people to death. Realizing too late that he didn't have a sword, Deku barreled at the man, shoving him into a nearby alleyway.

Ignoring his protests of pain, Deku threw him to the ground, pinning his chest down with a foot. "Are you satisfied now that you've betrayed Viper Gang?"

"I knew you would find me no matter which way I went," Hanada panted, winded from the chase. "But it's too late, you can't poison our gang anymore with your plans. Your fear and hesitation is ruining us and our reputation. You're destroying the Viper Gang!"

Deku knew the man couldn't see what he was doing with his mouth thanks to the mask he wore, but that was unnecessary – his eyes held the same weight and temperature of a glacier. When he spoke, his voice was a sharp as the katana he'd forgotten.

"I may have changed the Viper Gang, but congratulations. You've signed the death certificate."

Kit's Korner

Izuku probably should have just left things be – he wasn't even on duty that day. It was supposed to be a fun day downtown with Inko and Eri. The weather was perfect and the streets were fairly empty. Because of the empty streets, it made the man and the young girl look even more noticeable.

He was a tall man, and he looked like he was playing the part of the distinguished gentleman. His dramatic coat, combined with his companion's theater-esque costume would make the average onlooker assume they were in some sort of acting troupe. At least, that was what Izuku's mother supposed on seeing them.

"Oh my, I wonder what sort of play those two might be part of," Inko said, pointing them out to Eri. "It looks quite fun, whatever it is!"

Izuku stared at the two with furrowed brows while Eri nodded slowly. "You two go on ahead, I need to check something out."

"Is everything okay, Izuku?"

"Yeah Dadku, what's wrong?"

"Everything's fine, I just saw someone I thought I might know," he said, practically shoving them into a nearby café.

Once those two were safe, Izuku jogged to catch up with the other two. "Excuse me, sir, are you Gentle Criminal?"

The two villains (could he really call them that, though?) turned around, smiling brightly. The mustached man smiled charmingly, and asked, "Oh my, are you a fan?"

"I've been following you two for a long time, I never miss a video!" Izuku said, embracing his inner fanboy. He paused a moment before gasping exaggeratedly and stage whispering, "Are you in the middle of something right now?"

"My boy, we can't simply tell you something like that, not even for such an avid fan," Gentle said, patting his head. "But I would be more than happy to leave you with an autograph."

"Yes please! Can I get one from La Brava too? And a picture?! I have to tell my friends all about it!"

Gentle Criminal was one of the low-level criminals that their station had been keeping an eye on. His crimes were minor inconveniences at most, but Izuku doubted that they would stay like that for long. Lately on his vlog he'd been promising some major scheme, and based on how antsy the man and his sidekick were acting, it was likely that they were in the thick of it right then.

"Well, one picture wouldn't hurt, I suppose, but we really must be on our way," he said, his eyes darting around.

"Perfect! Say cheese!" Izuku said, snapping a selfie of the three of them. "Oh shoot, I blinked. Can we redo it, it will only—"

"I hate to disappoint a fan, but we have to get going. I hope you enjoy our next video!" he said before using his quirk to soar away.

Izuku made a show of tapping away at his phone, sending the picture to Detective Tsukauchi and everyone at the station that was on duty before stepping forward and gingerly testing the elastic portion of the air that Gentle had created just moments ago.

He'd spent quite a bit of time studying Gentle's quirk – it was a fun one with a lot of possibilities. It was strange to find a quirk that could give any substance an amazing level of elasticity without effecting said substance at all when the quirk wore off. There were a lot of things that Izuku wouldn't mind studying about the quirk, but his first responsibility was capturing the man.

Testing the patch of air, Izuku backed up before giving himself a running start to leap onto the invisible trampoline. It was even more elastic than Izuku had predicted, which left him flailing to where he remembered the next patch of air being. He nearly missed it, which would have been unfortunate on multiple accounts. It took a couple of jumps before he got some semblance of control over them – embarrassingly enough, what ended up helping him was thinking of Eri's recent fascination with ballet. Mimicking the graceful leaping form, Izuku was swiftly catching up to Gentle, and it was silent enough that they hadn't noticed yet.

The elastic patches were rising higher and higher into the sky, and Izuku found himself level with the rooftops of the nearby buildings. He was closing in on Gentle, and now more than ever he had to pay attention to where the man was making these patches so he could potentially overtake him.

A flash of movement caught his eye – right before his foot made contact with the nearest patch, Izuku made eye contact with the hero patrolling nearby. Or rather, the hero student. Shinsou stared at him, completely deadpan before giving him a simple thumbs up.

Izuku choked, his foot making contact weird, leaving him careening in the air far farther than he had intended. With a strangled cry, he not only alerted Gentle Criminal and La Brava to his presence, but he fell forward, hands grasping for anything and everything he could to keep himself from falling.

His hands did find something – Gentle's coat. Izuku screamed as they both plummeted down, and Gentle couldn't concentrate to use his quirk. Internally, Izuku was preparing himself for all of the lectures he would get for his many broken limbs, but luckily their fall was broken by a nearby tree. Roughly every inch of him was scraped or bruised, but he fared better than Gentle. A branch had knocked him out, leaving him dangling by the coat.

Dazed, Izuku barely registered the distressed calls of La Brava. A few minutes later the tree was surrounded by a number of police cars and fire engines while the firefighters extracted the two of them from the tree. One of the firefighters had a healing quirk that took care of most of his scrapes and bruises, at least the visible ones. He gave his statement before rejoining Inko and Eri, and the only long-term evidences of the event were the continuous court dealings with Gentle, and the video of Izuku leaping like a ballerina that made its way through police officers and pro-heroes alike.

A/N: Sorry for the delay on this one guys, as well as the decreased quality of writing. My life has been complete chaos. I thought I was just going to be spending a few days helping some family move, but things have not gone as planned, and I have had ten extra family members living in our house with us, including two-year-old twins. As you can imagine, that's not super great for writing. They're still going to be staying here for the foreseeable future, so I'm not making any promises on when the next chapter will be out.

Anyway, I'm super excited for the next little bit, we're officially at the prologue! I have a lot planned, and I'm excited to see how you guys like it!