Guild Master here again, again.

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Gamemastersden and then .com

Izuku and Mirio were now at the ESD medical facility where Eri was being kept safe from those who wanted to try and come after her. They were escorted through the facility after receiving their badges and getting their biometrics scanned before entering the building. It was a little intimidating to be back as a visitor rather than a patient since now they realized all the security measures that were in place to secure the building.

Cameras, sensors, armed guards at key points, armored plexi windows, security checkpoints into different sections of the building; this was overkill for something like a normal hospital. To be fair, this place was far from being a normal hospital.

Guided through the building with an armed escort, they were guided to the room that had Eri's current sleeping quarters. Apparently normal visitation needed to have an armed escort at all times for both the hospitals and the individual's safety. Approaching the room, both Mirio and Izuku were a little concerned that Eri was being treated more like a prisoner than a patient when they saw the two armed guards next to the door. Upon closer inspection revealed that they were ornate with flowers and other colorful paper accessories that they could tell were Eri's creations. At least they were glad that the little girl wasn't scared of the guards and even had them wear her gifts.

Entering the room was even more of an unexpected affair. Neither had expected to see the current dorm mother of UA Academy sitting on the bed across from Eri with the dinner tray being the table she used to color something new for the nice men outside her door protecting the girl. It was strange to see her act so naturally and speaking to the white haired man like he was her father. She was rather proud of the little badges she made for the officers that were colored with the letters ESD on the front of the shields.

"Do you think they'll like them?"

A soft chuckle with a hand on her head was all she needed to feel good about the newest of her artworks.

"Why don't you go ask them? I think I would love to have a badge by such a thoughtful and caring young woman such as yourself."

Wanting to go present her gifts, she asked for help to get to the door by just extending her arms out to Haru for him to easily lift her up from under her shoulders. He carried her to the door and greeted the boys who were a little surprised to see Nakamura here with Eri.

"Glad you could make it. Here, let us get these badges of honor to the brave men outside and then we'll talk, okay?"

Eri was still a bit shy in front of the boys while being a bit more comfortable with the ESD officers out front wearing all their combat gear. They could hear the officers kneel and thank the sweet girl as they also gave her a hug. Now done with their affair out of the way, both returned to the two teenagers in the room before Haru put her down on the bed and sat alongside her. Nakamura asked for Izuku to retrieve the bag next to the chair next to him.

From out of the bag he produced a paring knife and several fruits. In his usual speed and accuracy the platter of apples, bananas, oranges, and even peaches were all beautifully arranged in less than a minute.

After turning down the platter of fruit, Midoriya and Togata were asked to pull up a chair next to the bed. After doing so, they patiently waited for Haru to speak first as Eri was softly munching on some tasty fruit.

"You're probably wondering why I'm here."

It was the most obvious question they had since this place was rather well secured for someone like Haru to be on his off time.

"UA asked me to be here since I have experience dealing with childhood trauma. I thought that you two being here could help Eri feel a little better."

An arm wrapped itself around the girl's shoulder as she shyly looked down at her plate before subtly nodding. For him, this was good progress to see her start to voice her own opinions over putting herself down. There was some effort made by the teenage boys to try and speak to her while trying to avoid certain topics like her imprisonment and Chisaki. Her powers was another topic that was warned to be avoided by the nurse up front at the desk.

Talking with the girl required some patience on the older boy's part. WHen she wanted to apologize for something, Nakamura patiently told her that it wasn't something to apologize for when others wanted to do it to be nice. A small thank you gas given that neither of them would ever forget.

Things were progressing well enough, though eventually Eri was starting to get a little sleepy from all the excitement. He tucked her in and even leaned back on the slightly tilted hospital bed with her snuggling into his was on top of the sheets with her being underneath to keep warm. Haru again asked for the boys to pull out a storybook that was tucked away in his bag that he brought along for the little girl.

They found it in no time at all and presented it to Nakamura. Rather than taking the book to read it himself, he asked if the boys wanted to read to her instead. Anybody reading the room could tell that this was Haru getting the boys who saved Eri a chance to connect with her.

Eventually the two of them settled on a sort of setup with Mirio holding the book in front of him and Izuku while giving Eri a look at the colorful illustrations.

A story of a brave little soldier trekking across the land to save the kingdom from an evil wizard. Slowly but surely, within a few minutes the child was fast asleep. As she slept peacefully, Haru brushed her hair out of her face and gently smiled before getting out the bed while giving Eri a stuffed turtle to hug in her sleep. The sight gave Izuku something to think about as he couldn't help but feel a little envious, considering he had hit a bit of a rough patch with Nakamura in recent times.

He guided himself and the young men out the door to speak at a normal volume.

Outside

Smoking out at a bench, Izuku and Mirio were both sipping water bottles Haru got for them. The reasoning for his calling of them here was twofold. He did want to allow them to become closer to the child who never had any real friends, but he also needed their help with something else. Going through his bullet points on Eri's condition was a bit of a downer to hear from the man who seemed to have a decent understanding of the child.

"Her primary issue is that she's been isolated for a very long time after being abandoned by her mother. She currently is conditioned to remain distant to not risk the same sort of emotional trauma that already happened to her."

That would explain the shyness and difficulty speaking to others.

"A child of her age is still developing her concepts of what the world is. She was blamed for being the cause of the initial trauma so she's unable to give herself any value other than being a burden on others. On top of that, she was mentally and physically abused for weeks on end. To her, that was all caused by her own existence."

Hearing such a depressing diagnosis of an innocent girl's psyche truly felt a bit disheartening. That child was far more welcoming of a man who had already become closer to the girl through his methods while those who saved her almost condemned her again in the first place.

"But there is one thing that hasn't happened yet. She hasn't bonded her understanding of trauma and pain directly to herself, so she still has hope to learn differently. If we can show her things can be better and that she has no reason to think she had anything to do with all her trauma… Well, it'll be a decent first step."

Being a realist can have a negative connotation, but it just made Haru more determined to find real solutions to problems he encounters. Izuku found something that Haru just said a bit odd for how things were going between them.

"Wait, us?"

"... I know you're sorry, kiddo. I'm sorry I said those things to you. I still was hurt by what you did, but if we can put things behind us…"

There was a bit of a pause before Haru saw that Midoriya was starting to cry. It was again his job to help those he cared about. Embracing Izuku while he stood next to him, the boy held onto the man he felt was his father and sobbed into his shirt while apologizing over and over. Mirio saw how much Nakamura meant to Izuku; as he also saw how much Midoriya meant to Haru as well.

Later

Haru and Izuku finally managed to bury the lead on things and were now back on speaking terms. Bakugou was still wrestling with what he did, so things still needed time there. The ever vigilant dorm mother was vacuuming another dorm when he got a call on his mobile.

Caller ID was a number he knew was one that came up in a blue moon. Answering it was likely just going to be a thirty second call.

"Nakamura… What?... Then why are you calling me?... Don't call me again over some idiot making videos on the internet."

Nakamura hung up a little annoyed for the reason he got the phone call in the first place. A criminal that stole nothing and just recorded his feats of breaking the law was far from something that warranted his help. Even if it did, that man would certainly have to hit home on something personal to get him to react.

The Next Day

School was all in a buzz with classes all racing to get their projects done asap. The 1-A dorm was buzzing like a beehive with all the worker bees trying to figure out their roles in their band performance. So far the dance was going to be managed by Izuku and Mina being the head choreographers. Music was the next point of affairs with Kyoka being the most experienced with most musical instruments. They needed to have a full ensemble in order to make this whole thing work.

First up was drums. Nobody came up when the question went around, at least willingly. Haru was finishing up the laundry and transporting the clothes of the boys and girls in two heavily loaded baskets when he recommended Katsuki.

An unexpected characteristic of Bakugou considering he often had an explosive temper and kept to himself mostly. When he sat at the drum kit, he tuned the snares and checked the heights for his comfort level before playing a solo like he was trying to overpower the audience in energy. Kyoka asked if Nakamura was the one who taught him how to play after she witnessed the perfect solo. When he said yes, she knew what was about to happen.

"Bakugou! Your grip! I taught you better than that!"

From out the laundry room, everyone heard their dorm mother yell from inside loud enough for Katsuki to hear. He didn't like the grip that Nakamura was talking about since he saw it as a less cool grip that most rock bands didn't even use anymore. He returned to the kit with a more traditional drumming grip to then complete a jazz solo with all the chops that someone with over ten years experience would have had.

The matter was settled with him being their drummer. Kaminari actually did know enough to be a good enough rhythm guitarist while Tokoyami had an impressive amount of range with an ax. It seemed to be that the teams were all settled as the set design were those with more visually impressive abilities.

Several Days Before the UA Cultural Festival

Everybody had their work cut out for them with the choreography and special effects team working hand in hand to find an ideal balance between one another. Songwriter was Kyoka with a piece in the works she felt was almost coming together. Once in a while she would run the sheets by Haru for him to give a quick pointer here and there. A few pieces of advice were all he gave her for the entire time she had been working on the song.

While the dance team was going through their musical number once again, a rather familiar face stuck itself out of a nearby bush. Almost everybody wondered what it was that their senior was doing in the bushes. Togata was trying to see what the biggest impact would be after taking an extended break from UA.

"The peaches are ripe-"

"What on earth are you doing, Mirio?"

Walking hand in hand past the odd teenager that went for a joke that fell flat were Eri and Nakamura. She was in a simple outfit with a dress that was absolutely precious on the young child.

"It's okay. Go say hi, Eri."

Her face buried itself into Haru's pant leg and made the teenagers coo at the adorable little act of shyness that they saw. He gently guided her up to say hello.

"... H-hello…"

All the students immediately fell in love with the child. They all came to say hello and introduce themselves to the nervous little girl. Mineta went and gave a greeting that asked Eri to come meet him after ten years, which caused the man walking her into the campus to pick up the boy and kick him like a football over the UA fence into the trees across the street. It was truly bewildering that nobody, not even Aizawa, cared enough about Mineta to even give him a second thought in these cases.

Haru and Togata were here to give Eri a tour of the school festival to try and acclimate her to other people while not having to worry too much about unwanted attention. Carrying Eri in his arms, Haru went along with Izuku and Mirio to go off and explore the campus.

Quite a few students recognized their dorm mother and waved hello to the man while he cradled the curious girl around to see all the interesting happenings that this school was known for. Some students came to say hello to Mirio after his extended break while others came to see who the girl was that Nakamura brought along with him. Ero was a little uncomfortable with all the attention, so he had to shoo away the students who gathered around. Nobody was offended with all the things that Haru does for them, so they all went back to work.

There were other familiar faces in the crowds like Nejire, who was rehearsing for the Ms. UA beauty pageant. Mirio went to say hello to his former partners in crime after not seeing them for so long. While the girl was being her usual aloof self, Amajiki couldn't even look his best friend in the eyes.

Togata had also returned to UA to talk to his friend regarding the incident with Nighteye. Amajiki felt heavily responsible for Nighteye's death and carried the guilt with him wherever he went. Mirio made attempts to go see him after being admitted out of the hospital, but he was unsuccessful. So now he was here where Mirio expected him to be. Without wasting any time, he strode over to the scared senior student and made a strange face that was another joke that fell flat. Nobody laughed, though that wasn't the point. Mirio faced Amajiki and put his arms around him.

"Don't weigh yourself down after Nighteye saved your life. He saved you because he knew you would make an amazing hero; so honor him by giving your best and smile. Even if it hurts or stings, others will be watching Souleater become a legend."

A release of all the guilt that plagued him caused Amajiki to start crying out of relief and sorrow. He never meant to let the hero die, yet he was the one who was saved. Only time could heal such a wound in someone as strong as Amajiki.

Nejire could see her friends were in need of space, so she entertained herself with Izuku. It was kind of nice how he too answered all of her questions like Haru did, so she forced her contact information upon the dazed boy before leaving him a bit confused with what just happened in just a matter of seconds. Haru shrugged and just went along to the next interesting sight.

The development studio had an enormous amount of machinery and mechs for the cultural festival right around the corner. Scanning through all the different robots was almost overwhelming with all the science that was being pushed to create such impressive pieces of equipment.

As per usual, the most energetic of all the students there made herself known to Izuku with Haru covering Eri's eyes as to what the older girl was doing to poor Izuku. Since the last time she had seen Midoriya, Ochaco had used the contact information she received from Mei to get her familiar with the other girls. It would seem that Mei was a bit of a flirt herself and was welcomed with open arms into the rather amusing yet risque chatroom. Izuku was aware that the girl was looking to take him for a test drive, with time being the main obstacle.

Out of nowhere, Mei's precious baby had blown up just then and gave Haru and Izuku to slip away innocuously. Feeling pecking, Haru decided to have the group swing by the cafeteria for a short rest.

UA Cafeteria

"Nakamura! I cha-"

"A coffee, an apple juice, and orange juice please."

Lunch Rush was again ignored when Haru approached the chef for a quick drink order. If he was to serve them drinks, then they would have the best versions of each. Haru returned with their drinks when Togata came in after spending some time again with the old crew.

"So, what do you think?"

There was a thoughtful expression on her face as she thought about all the things she saw and felt inclined to see what would happen. Seeing her look so curious and genuinely invested gave the three men who showed her all the sights a feeling of genuine success. Her heart was slowly opening, so now they were ready to move it towards the right direction. A direction to heal.

"Indeed! That is what we call excitement, dear child!"

On the opposite end of the table of the quartet were Nezu and Midnight. Nezu was being his usual odd self while Midnight was strangely giving Izuku bedroom eyes. Midoriya tried to resist, but he still found it incredible this woman was as erotic as she was. Unbeknownst to him, she wasn't checking him out for fun, but appraising for a test drive. Haru was engaged with light banter with the adults while they were taking their breaks. Regarding the state of the festival, there was a bit of information that Midnight had that was cut off by the eccentric principal.

"I gotta say, it was super convenient that all the law enforcement suddenly stopped-"

"Nonsense! We must celebrate our luck more than anything!"

Nobody gave that odd interruption a second thought, since it wasn't even a revealing piece of insight as to what had actually happened.

A Few Days Earlier

"... Sir, are you sure? This could be dangerous for the students. Even holding the-"

"Then increase staffing. We'll have officers undercover with patrols on the regular. Security system is still regularly sweeped and all we need is to arm ourselves."

Inside of Nezu's office, Nakamura convened a small meeting with the chief of police and ESD representatives to tell them that the UA Cultural festival was to continue as planned. The only reason that Haru didn't stomp out the question was to lead into how he wished to increase security.

"Also, I think we should run a test trial for our newest piece of hardware."

His phone was pulled out to dim the lights in the room to then bring down the overhead projector to display what it was he was talking about. To see the newest in law enforcement tech ready for a trial phase was both exciting and nerve racking to see.

There were no more protests after that bit of news. If anything, this was going to be a momentous day for the ESD with their newest toy ready for use.

Day Before UA Cultural Festival

Everyone was struggling to fit in as much practice as they could. Mina and Izuku were drilling the choreography over and over while the auditorium was still available for their class to use. Kyoka was still going through tech rehearsals with everyone else to know where they all needed to be on the day of the performance. All of them were rushing to compress all their time to do as much as they could in a tight window.

Izuku had been recruited to the tech side of the performance for a single role that nobody else could do. Aoyama was the one to be pulled into the air and transform into a crystal ball as part of the performance, but everyone else was too involved with their own roles. It was mostly just a tug of a rope across a rafter, so the job seemed simple enough. There would still be enough time for him to slip back down before the dance number as well.

Mina ran all of this one night while she and Izuku were going to bed in her room. Since he could never say no to Mina, he agreed as long as she could guarantee that much for him at least. They didn't have sex, but the kiss they shared was more than enough of a reward for making his woman happy.

The evening before the performance, there was a little bit of a malfunction on the harness that Aoyama was meant to use as his way of becoming a disco ball during their live show. There was a significant amount of fraying that made the piece of equipment too dangerous to use.

Kaminari suggested that they have Momo make another one, which was an idea shot down by Izuku since she was already asleep from being too tired. He volunteered to go tomorrow morning instead to go buy one at a convenience store. With all their roles set in stone, the only thing left was to get some sleep.

Outside

"How is she?"

"She's asleep. You're a miracle worker."

Haru was calling Inko, who was with Eri and even caring for the girl. They got along swimmingly ever since they met and it was such a pleasure for Inko to take care of such a sweet child. There was some apprehension over her being scared she was gonna make Ink disappear as well at first. The woman was Eri's favorite in no time at all.

It was the evening the night before the festival and Nakamura was calling in to check up on his woman as well as Eri to make sure they were okay for tomorrow. He was still needed for the sake of the kids about to undertake their day of reckoning at the cultural festival. For now, this was the best he could do.

"Well, just call me if anything comes up."

"Alright. I love you, Haru."

"I love you too, Inko."

A simple and sweet goodbye. Inko put her phone on the charger next to the now sleeping Eri before clicking the lights off and kissing her forehead goodnight. She left the bedroom and shut the door behind her to give the child some space.

Before she went to bed herself, she wanted to check up on something. Approaching Nakamura's couch that had the remote on it, she checked the security layout of the entire festival. Going over all the details was mostly for her as she was going to be in charge of a little girl during the festival. Haru promised a new security measure to push security from almost impossible to impossible, so she wanted to see if it was up and running. The data presented had the new security measure up and running.

With that, she got herself some water before reentering Nakamura's room to fall asleep next to the little girl Inko already considered her own.

The Next Morning

Izuku was up and about to find a twenty four hour convenience store to purchase his rope from. Good cardio took him a long way in his search; which was good since the stores were pretty much all closed around the area of UA. He was certain that his research last night yielded several possible stores. There was no point in griping if it didn't help him in getting rope.

What should have been a quick trip to get some simple rope turned into almost an hour. At the very least he was now equipped with the rope he needed to get the harness working again. The side road he was taking now was more than ideal in cutting down the time on the return trip.

Passing a neglected lot with overgrown grass, he almost ran into someone dressed as if there was a blizzard; even though it was close to seventy two outside. He apologized for the incident and the Gentle did the very same. Midoriya was about to take off again when he noted the unique scent of a tea that Momo served on rare occasions.

"Huh, Golds. Guess that was a cafe."

Those words brought the heavily covered man to a complete halt. The shorter of the duo, who sounded like a girl, tried to get the man to ignore the boy. It was a harmless comment that suddenly got the man to praise the young Midoriya for his knowledge of tea. Being humble, Izuku simply stated that it was a tea he drank when his girlfriend served it every blue moon. Making his assumptions, the man Izuku heard the girl call Gentle had a sharp glint in his eye that made his nerves stand on edge.

Gentle was correct to assume that this child had been served tea at a very wealthy institute and was looking to get back somewhere quick. He himself was on his way to the UA Cultural Festival to bring it to a screeching halt. As his way to make his name known as a Gentle villain.

If he could manage to stop a major hero academy's festival, then surely people would recognize his efforts. Day after day of slaving away at the computer making videos for an apathetic audience was slow and counterintuitive. People weren't taking him seriously since he never veered off when he set his goals while making his goals completely mundane. One of his supposed 'great acts' was literally using an expired voucher for a free pudding cup with a purchase from a convenience store.

Now he was setting his sights to become recognized. This was to be his way of getting his name out there and become known. Not only for him, but for the first and only true fan he's ever had. That girl being the one with him now. He couldn't veer off from his self appointed mission. An apology was given for his sudden outburst before he turned towards the same direction Izuku was taking to get to UA.

"Wait."

Hearing such a commanding voice from such a young teenager was a bit disarming. It actually got him to stop involuntarily when he was trying to ignore all distractions. Both villains were sweating bullets at the command they received.

While they were stewing, Midoriya had a hunch these two weren't as unassuming as he first thought. One fact that was suspicious was the obvious overdressing with the weather said to get even hotter today. Secondly, that look Izuku got was after he mentioned he had an incredibly rare tea as a kid. UA was within walking distance and that school had its fair share of high roller families.

Putting two and two together was a stretch of logic that anybody else would have found mundane. That glint from earlier told Izuku otherwise. With all these added up, the fact that this man was now headed to UA was enough for Izuku to at least test the waters. If he was wrong, he would apologize. If he was right…

Reaching into his back pocket, Izuku pulled out the rather nice wallet that Mina got him last year. Brown leather and all mature, as she called it. He had a very specific piece of identification for situations like this.

"Mind if I ask who you are?"

Much to Gentle's dread, it was a provisional hero license. Right now, this kid was in his right to at least confirm people of suspicion as long as he was within his means. There was no time for him to dally around with a teenage hero so gung ho on fighting a villain. A fight he wanted? Then it was a fight he would get!

"Love-Lover, get the camera out."

That was more than enough evidence for Izuku to knuckle up and get ready for a fight. The wallet was returned to the back pocket and zipped up so that he didn't lose it. He was more concerned about the wallet itself over the things inside of it. It was a gift, after all.

With a flourish and a click of their heel, the self proclaimed villain made his grand entrance for the whole world to see. The camera was rolling for him, after all.

"Ladies and gentlefolk! Allow me to introduce myself as the Gentle Criminal! Today, our goal…"

Another glint in his eye met Izuku's stare as the teen charged One for All.

"Enter UA Academy."