Chapter 22

Tooru landed gently on the porch making as little noise as possible. Pressing her palm against the hidden earpiece, she opened up a communication line with everyone in the police van.

"I.G. calling Base," the stealth heroine whispered softly. "Base, do you copy?"

"We got you I.G.," Aizawa's voice instantly replied. "Status?"

"All's quiet. Proceeding forward."

Standing up, Tooru carefully made her along the deck's edge to avoid any traps that might be set up. There was also the risk of sensors, so she made sure to watch her every step and scrutinize every piece of wood before moving forward even an inch.

With the gap between her and the backdoor cleared of any surprises, the stealth hero crouched down and called her teacher again. "Back entrance clear, proceeding inside."

"Negative I.G.," the underground hero ordered. "Give us a moment before proceeding. Shouto has an idea."

Tooru nodded unconsciously curling up further in her hiding spot. When the principal had come to get the trio from class today, none of them thought they would be mounting a rescue mission for Eri. They hadn't even known she was missing.

Aizawa had met the three students in the parking lot, explaining the situation to them on the way over to the police station.

One of the yakuza who had previously held the child hostage had attacked Mirio-sempai and kidnapped her. The dark aura surrounding the car as the three students when they heard this joined their teacher's—thoughts of what they would do to Eri's kidnapper filling their heads as they drove.

Thankfully for them that the area surrounding the house wasn't completely devoid of life as previously thought. A forest that they could hide in was not too far away. After explaining the quirk of the criminal who had taken class 2-A's favourite little sister Uraraka had used her quirk on Tooru to make her float over to the house as undetectable as always.

The stealth heroine barely heard her male classmate's voice before the backyard was completely frozen over in ice. Seconds later, steam could be seen rising from the ground before.

*BOOM* *BOOM* *BOOM*

The ground shook as one explosion triggered another making Tooru glad that she had taken Air Ochako rather than risking a walk across the minefield. Waiting a few minutes to disarm anyone who would undoubtedly come to investigate the sudden noise, Tooru palmed her communication device again.

"I.G. to Base," the invisible heroine spoke. "No hostiles inside pro-"

VROOM VROOM

Tooru barely had time to think upon hearing the sound of the engine before she was jumping over the railing and making her way to the front of the house. Time seemed to slow down like you saw in movies as the van nearly hit her as it peeled out of the garage. Its drivers face entirely covered up by a large collar and hat, but Eri clearly visible and scared in the passenger's seat.

"B*cough*ase,*cough cough*," Tooru said, waving her hands to dissipate some of the dirt that had been kicked up when the van drove away. "Hostile has the Unicorn, *cough* I repeat Unicorn is in the van with Hostile."

Dabi nervously looked behind her at the dust cloud eyes looking for any enemies. One second, she and Eri were loading food supplies and anything else that might have been useful into the van. The next explosions were going off. Not wanting to take any chances, Dabi shoved Eri into the front seat, taking just a moment to make sure that her seatbelt was nice and tight before slamming her foot on the gas.

"Dabi," Eri spoke nervously, looking at the woman dressed in Chronostasis clothes with wide eyes. "What's happening?"

"I don't know, kid," Dabi said, taking one hand off the wheel and grabbing Eri's in a feeble attempt to keep her calm. "Asshole must have booby-trapped the place in case we ever escaped. Bet he never thought we'- OH SHIT!"

Dabi slammed on the breaks turning the wheel as something with many teeth landed in the middle of the road. The cremation user felt her stomach give an unhappy heave as she kept driving as fast as she could. If the road was out, then she would just have to make it to the forest; the trees would provide cover well the two ran.

Thinking that this could be some of the yakuza's friends or allies, Dabi just continued driving straight. Not noticing the large sheet of ice that shot out along the ground as Shouto jumped off Ryukyu's back.

As they made their way closer to the forest, Dabi tried to hit the breaks except for thanks to the ice they weren't working. Moving the wheel proved to be just as useless, and a large tree was getting closer and closer.

Reacting on instinct, Dabi quickly undid her seatbelt and threw herself at Eri wrapping her arms around the girl as they collided with a tree. The villain fell backwards at the impact her back and head hit the dashboard hard falling unconscious, to the sound of the horn and Eri shouting.

"Dabi … DABI!" Eri screamed, shaking the woman's shoulders, not sure what to do, feeling tears starting to gather in her eyes. "WAKE UP!"

Sniffling a little, Eri tried to wipe the tears from her eyes, but they just wouldn't stop. Hiccupping Eri started to cry, calling out the name of the one person she wanted more than anything. "Shouta … Shouta … D-daddy."

The van door was torn open, and Eri turned to see the answer to her pleas answered since standing her with floating hair and red eyes was Aizawa. "ERI!"

"Daddy!" the girl shouted, launching towards the man. Aizawa's eyes went wide as she hugged him the damn breaking and tears now flowing started soaking into the hero's scarf.

Not paying the slightest bit of attention to the unconscious driver Aizawa turned around and attempted to give Eri over to Uraraka. But, the girl held on tightly to the underground hero shaking her head red eyes wide with panic.

"You have to help her daddy," Eri said, pointing towards the van. "Dabi's hurt."

Freezing at the name of the villain, Shouta placed a hand on Eri's head as he put her on the ground. "Eri … did Dabi take you?"

Eri shook her head so fast Shouta was afraid it would pop off. "Chrono had her, and we escaped, but then there were explosions and big teeth and -"

"Calm down," Aizawa said, putting his hand on Eri's head and giving her a tense smile. "Go with Uravity, ok. I'll look after Dabi."

"Promise," Eri said, holding out her pinky.

Shouta sighed and hooked it with his own. "Promise."

With Eri being led away by his student Aizawa carefully climbed into the van having his capture scarf ready encase the villain lashed out. Hitting her leg gently, remembering that the woman was pregnant, Aizawa waited for some smart-aleck remark.

When nothing came, he reached out lifting the hat off expecting angry turquoise. Instead the underground hero was greeted with a pained looking expression on the woman's face. Cursing softly Aizawa completely removed the hat carefully, noticing the red standing out vibrantly against the cheap black dye. Reaching around carefully and feeling the back of Dabi's head, his fingers quickly found something wet.

Pulling back his now red-stained fingers, Aizawa undid the jacket Dabi was wearing as Tsukauchi opened the driver's door eyes widening in shock. "Is that?"

"Call the ambulance in now and get Todoroki over here," Aizawa ordered. He lifted up the woman's shirt a little to place his hands on either side of her belly, praying for a sign of life from within.

One. Two. Kick … One. Two. Kick

Letting out a sigh of relief, Aizawa looked up and saw the hot and cold quirk user standing there looking at Dabi with wide eyes.

"Sir,"

"Quick make a ramp," the teacher ordered, taking the top part of his uniform and folding it up to place behind Dabi's head. He was glad he had decided to wear the two-piece one today.

Looking back up, Aizawa saw that Todoroki was still frozen as he stared at the villain's eyes wide in shock. "Todoroki!"

Blue and grey eyes immediately snapped to his teacher. "Sir … she …"

"I know," Shouta said, trying to remain as calm as possible. "But right now, I need that ice ramp."

Whatever shock the duel quirk wielder was in quickly passed. Making the ice ramp with speed Aizawa hadn't seen since his fight against Sero in the first-year sport's festival. The younger hero even put some ice on the sides. Carefully sliding her out of the van and onto the ground a reasonable distance away from the wrecked vehicle.

Eri immediately ran away from her spot in-between the female heroes and came to sit next to Dabi, grabbing her hand and holding it.

"Aizawa," Ryukyu walked over now in her smaller form, looking down at the unconscious villain. "Isn't that -"

"Yes," the underground hero nodded, looking at the dragon hero before giving each of his students a firm look. "Listen up because this is top secret. A few weeks ago, the League of Villains contacted U.A. and the Anti-LOV task force asking for our help. As you can see, one of their own was taken just like Eri, but unlike Eri, they didn't know who did it."

"Sir," Uraraka raised her hand. "Why would you help them, after everything the League has done."

Aizawa didn't miss the way Todoroki flinched at the gravity users' words as he reopened up the jacket showing everyone the villain's pregnant middle. "This is highly classified, but as you can see, Dabi was abducted well pregnant. Well, I won't speak to the whole League's motivations the members we met with were very concerned about her and the baby's safety."

"A truce of sorts was struck when we met them," Tsukauchi offered to look at the students and dragon heroine. "In exchange for our help in finding Dabi, the League promised that it would keep its own search solely focused on criminals."

"And then what," Ryukyu said cold eyes looking at the woman who burned down anyone and anything who got in her way. "We just pat her on the head and ship her back to the League?"

Todoroki made a subtle move towards the unconscious Dabi.

Tsukauchi sighed and looked at the transformation hero. "Listen I know this seems like a bad idea -"

"This isn't any villain," Ryukyu interrupted, pointing her finger at Dabi. "This is the woman who nearly killed Endeavor."

"Finding and keeping her safe means that every Nomu under their command isn't released on Japan." Aizawa retorted.

"K-Kōken!"

The adults immediately froze and looked at the two-toned student who stood next to Dabi.

"I would like to request Kōken," Shouto spoke, trying to remain calm.

Shouto couldn't let this chance slip through his fingers, not after everything Izuku had done for him to try and help him. Telling his friend about Tatsuo had been hard enough, but explaining that she might now be going by Dabi nearly sent him into a panic attack. Izuku was everything Shouto thought a hero should be. If he rejected the icy/ hot user because his sister Shouto wasn't sure if he would have recovered.

Instead, Izuku just smiled and took his hand, saying that if it was true that they needed proof. Thus, the two spent an exhausting amount of time on their phones trying to trace Dabi's movements before joining the League.

It took some creative searching, but they had finally narrowed Dabi's first crime to about a year after Tatsuo had disappeared. Given the villain's extreme burns, it wasn't impossible; that was how long it took her to recover.

After finding a few more postings about blue fires and a woman with massive burns, they had started looking into ways to prove Dabi's identity. Izuku said that keeping Dabi out of prison even temporarily was their biggest obstacle.

Her crimes and connections with the League and All for One would undoubtedly guarantee a life sentence in Tartarus. If Dabi was sent there, it could take years for Shouto to climb the ranks and earn enough goodwill with the police to visit her and get answers.

So, the pair had to get creative again, trying to find something. Thankfully Midnight had unknowingly provided them with the answer when she had subbed in on there Hero Law class.

Kōken or Guardianship was a rarely invoked law that only licensed heroes could use. Provisional Licenses also counted if you had over a certain number of hours in the field.

The hero who pleads for Kōken was given custody over a family member who committed a crime. The law first started in the hero industry's infancy as a way for the families of heroes to be safe from being targeted in prison during their trials. In exchange for this protection, the hero puts their own license at risk. It could be taken away if the family member commits any more crimes under their watch.

"Todoroki," Uraraka said not sure what Kōken meant. From the looks the older heroes and detective were giving though it wasn't good. "Do you understand what your doing?"

"Yes," the hot and cold user nodded, looking down at Dabi. "I have reason to believe that Dabi is my missing sister Tatsuo. Until her identity is disproven, I would like to ask that I be given custody over her."

"Todoroki," Aizawa said, looking at his student. Honestly, the underground hero couldn't help slightly impressed by his student. Todoroki's loophole gave him an opportunity in upholding their side of the agreement. "Your sixteen, you can't be given complete custody, especially not over a villain as dangerous as Dabi."

"But sir -"

Aizawa held up his hand. "However, given that you're under my care well at U.A. during the school year, I will second you in your request for Kōken. If Dabi is actually your sister, then U.A. will take custody of her until after she gives birth as to keep her and the baby safe."

~*~*~*Notes*~*~*~

Hi Everyone, I hoped you enjoyed the latest chapter, especially since the students from UA that were picked for the rescue were finally shown.

I have a small confession, though; I've hit a wall with this story. I have a few chapters and scenes half-finished, but if you have any suggestions, please let me know. It could get put into the story or could lead me to some much-needed inspiration.

Still, I hope everyone enjoyed themselves, and I'll see you next time. Until then, please remember to stay safe out there.