"Intern with Nighteye," states Shouta, shuffling through the papers. He doesn't raise his gaze to the student in front of him. His focus is on the papers, a report that he is to finish working on. "This way you two can work on the case together."

It's been a week since the exam. Shouta is glad the media did not catch wind of the incident at the exam and he would wish it to stay that way. He doesn't need the media to have a field day. Their reputation is not as it had been and Nedzu is doing everything to regain it.

Midoriya looks hesitant about that. The kid has been appearing to lose a lot of sleep lately. Shouta is not sure if it's from meeting with the newest found Champion or because of the case. He has heard of the encounter during the exam. The boy had been so shaken when talking about the incident. The hero's heart had given a squeeze as he knows the horrible feeling of not being able to save someone.

"Is everything okay, Midoriya?" he asks upon receiving no response. He looks up from his papers and sees the boy rubbing his face. "You've been losing sleep after the exam. Is it because of the villain attack? Or is there something else I need to know?"

Midoriya gives him that stupid reassuring smile, one that he uses to direct the conversation away from himself. "I'm fine. I just haven't been able to sleep well. I have too many thoughts and then I can't organize them."

"If you're having trouble sleeping, you can always ask for help."

"Thank you, Aizawa-sensei. I'll keep it in mind." Which is Midoriya-speak for "I hear you but I won't. I'll do my own thing" and that is what the teacher has picked up on from the entire year with the student. He's learned to pick up habits from his students and know what they're actually thinking. This has helped a lot with his hero work and dealing with his students who wouldn't receive help for whatever the reason—pride, untrusting, something. Midoriya is that he doesn't like to trust adults—much less teachers—and he's trying to help him overcome that mindset. Shouta is letting it be clear that the boy can reach a hand out to him.

"Okay. You're free to go. And Midoriya—" The expecting expression has him falter. He wants to tell the boy that he knows—knows of his quirk and where it comes from—but he doesn't. Instead, giving a ghost of a smile, he says, "You've grown a lot and I'm expecting this to help you grow even more." Swallowing his pride, he continues, "I'm really proud of you."

The tears and the shock in his student's eyes hurt. This kid—has he not? No. It's obvious that he hasn't been told that by anyone but his parents. The smile is bright and joyful, the shock is replaced by determination. "And I will keep making you proud, Aizawa-sensei!"

As he rushes out, the underground hero just smiles a little more and sighs. "I know you will, Problem Child."

Nana stands in the hospital room of her protégé, her lips in a thin line. "He's not going to make it past next week. They've finalized their decision," she says, turning to the boy with freckles, Toshinori's protégé. His pale eyes do not move from from the man's body—most likely seeing his life force fade. "Midoriya, you haven't harnessed One For All yet, have you?"

That earns his attention. "No. That will have to wait. Pestilence's child is someone I have a lot to work with. They're nothing like their Persona. But we have to find Time and Envy. I'm following leads on a murder case as well as Imbalance. Something tells me the two are connected."

Yes, the murder case. Imbalance's disappearance. Important things that come before mastering one's quirk. For Death's child to be spread out so thin, it seems to be taking ahold of his mental health. The bags under his eyes don't seem to make her feel any better about the boy. She knows he's a hard worker and that seems to be his flaw more than a strength of his. "Midoriya, please, you have to rest. Let the police deal with the case, let them get the leads and evidence. You have to sleep, go to school, be with friends. Do not let your hard work to get where you are be for nothing."

The boy just sighs. He doesn't see the problem. It seems that he's had this talk before. Doesn't seem to do much good.

"You will wear yourself out if you keep going like this, child." She grasps his shoulders and looks into his eyes. "You may be immortal now, but that does not make you invincible. Your body is as human as it was. Do not do this to yourself. You will collapse and how will you save those you care for if you can't keep going?"

The boy stares at her with wide eyes. "I—you're right," he sighs. "I'm stressed. I have too many things going on and I don't know what to do anymore."

That's what she figured. She's glad to know he trusts her enough to tell her. Nana heard from Aizawa that the boy tends to shy away from telling people his problems and getting help. The woman at the holder of One For All. "How about this? Focus on school and your work study, you can do everything else later. Being a Champion isn't all there is to life. Be a kid and have fun. Don't be so caught up with your championship. Death won't be angry. They'll understand."

Midoriya stares at the woman for the longest time before sighing. "I—I pushed the title away for so long and now—well, I guess I'm trying to make up for it. I can't split myself in thirds anymore. I'm taking courses that Tsukauchi allowed for me, I'm in U.A, villains keep attacking, murder cases are annoying. I just—I'm tired."

Fate's child wakes with a scream in his throat, hair clinging to his forehead with sweat. Wide eyes take in the darkness of the room, only lit up by the nightlight on the far side of the wall, sweeping in an attempt to find the danger which woke and threatens him. Kota sighs quietly and drops his head in his hands, shaking as he attempts to hold back his tears. Nightmares and premonitions are not the greatest for a child. Sometimes they will merge together and he wouldn't be able to distinguish what'll happen until it's too late. He remembers when his first one came in, his parents' final battle, but he thought it was only a nightmare. He was too late, but he was also a child. He couldn't have known and Fate never told him.

Time's champion has been found.

No—they haven't.

Blood coats most of the ground.

He gags at the scene, wanting to scream.

Time's child has been found . . .

Someone's screaming and crying, choking on something.

. . . but at what cost?

Kota gets out of bed, going to Mandalay. The woman is still awake when he walks into the room. She's working on something—he doesn't know what. "Kota?"

The boy is crying and not trying to stop it this time. "Auntie Shino." He hugs her legs and sobs. "Had—had a nightmare," he replies to her question. She doesn't question as she picks him up and sets him on her lap, embracing him.

The woman had been with Ragdoll when her colleague lost her quirk. Mandalay kept hers, much to her own guilt. Ragdoll never has any hard feelings against her—she knows that, but it's hard. Every time she sees or friend, she feels a huge wave of guilt.

Suffocating. She felt like she was being strangled by a snake. Too much. It was too much!

"Everything will be okay, Kota," she whispers, rocking him and he allows her.

Everything will be okay, she reassures herself.

They don't believe it.

STUDENT'S BODY FOUND.
by Yesterday's Horror News.

Body from Ogouichi dam has been identified as a second year student from Shokuto High School. Cause of death has yet to be released but a lot of speculation and theories, a lot of the public believe that the student may be related to the recent serial homicides. As everyone knows, the recent murders have been known as the "Puzzle Games" named by the media outlets. The student's name will not be released in this article as asked by the parents, so if anyone knows who this is, please refrain from saying anything in the comments. The story has not been covered much by the news and will be covered in this article.

On the night the student went missing, they had been going home after a long day from school. The parents reported that their child had stayed longer at school to study and work on after school activities like normal. They had received a message saying they will take longer to get home after missing the train. Either the student had decided to walk home after the text or they decided to wait the train, it hasn't been said. It wasn't until around ten o'clock when the parents finally tried calling after sending numerous of messages. When that didn't work, they called the police. The police would have dismissed the case usually as it wasn't a twenty-four hour missing person, but of course, there was someone in the department to allow them to look into the case. Once they sent a couple of officers to search for the missing student, nothing seemed right. They were nowhere around and not even their phone was found, when asking some people at the station—no one, not even the guards, seen them or remember them. They had asked the ticket booth people and again, no recognition.

The police knew this was a case after the second day of them missing. The student was missing for a week.

Devastation swept this family when their child's body washed up in the dam's water earlier this week.

The law enforcement have been meeting with the mayor to enforce a curfew to avoid this situation from happening again. This would have students get home by 17:00 pm. No teen—hero in training or not—is to be out later by then until this case is solved. Adults will have a longer curfew as to get home from work or go to work. The police still will not release an official statement on what happened.

Why had they ended up going missing? Why end up in a dam? Was this a suicide or a murder?

The police have yet to answer these questions. It seems that they want to keep something under wraps. As the parents have made a statement, their child is not suicidal and has always been a cheerful child. Even the people who were around this student have made statements that the student was never showing signs of any suicidal tendencies or even any depression signs. So if not a murder, why would someone go through so much trouble to hide their want to die for so long?

Of course, everyone has been immediately speculating that this was correlating to the "Puzzle Games" which seems to be targeting the Pro Hero Sir Nighteye. If so, why kill an innocent student to target the hero?

204 comments

So this happened. Poor Midoriya. He can't seem to catch a break with all the insanity in his life. Kota has made a reappearance and Mandalay has a form of survivor's guilt.

So why would the Monochrome Figure kill an innocent student if it was him?

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