One day. Twenty-four hours. A full 1,440 minutes.

That's how much time had passed ever since the article was posted onto the "Heroes Daily" Instagram page. And to say that Shiozaki was absolutely embarrassed would be putting it mildly.

When the vine haired woman woke up that morning, part of her was hoping that it was all just some weird dream she had after eating too many sweets. But after checking her phone, she quickly realized that wasn't the case. For the entire day, Shiozaki had to deal with random civilians here and there asking her about it while she was out on patrol. The woman could barely go a full hour without someone saying that her and her "boyfriend" looked good together. And she couldn't help but feel more and more embarrassed each time it happened.

Surprisingly enough, none of her friends teased her about the situation. Even Tokage and Yu were more sympathetic and consoling as opposed to their usually chaotic selves. Which definitely seemed out of character for the two of them. But seeing as the vine haired woman was so obviously stressed out about what happened, her friends decided to take it easy on her for the time being.

However, the worst of it came when the woman's mother unexpectedly called and asked her about it the night it happened. Apparently one of her friends at church told her about the article. And Shiozaki had to quickly explain what happened before the woman got the wrong idea.

In spite of all that, there was one major problem that the vine haired heroine was still facing. And that was the fact that she hadn't seen Midoriya at all since finding out about the article.

To be honest, Shiozaki had no clue what to do when it came to her green haired neighbor. It wasn't like she could just walk over to his apartment and talk to him about it. The mere thought of even looking at Midoriya right now was enough to make her stomach turn. For all she knew, Midoriya more than likely found out about the article already and decided to avoid her for the time being. And frankly, she wouldn't have blamed him for coming to that conclusion.

Now that she thought about it, the whole thing was most certainly an issue for him too. A "Hero Hunter" being seen hanging out with a hero. It practically sounded like it was meant to be some sort of taboo. Although she had no real knowledge about NPSC Inspectors or their work, Shiozaki would imagine that something like this wasn't exactly a good thing for someone in his position.

'Ugh...why did this have to happen?' The vine haired woman groaned.

Seriously, why did this have to happen? Shiozaki was far from a popular hero as far as she was concerned. And she certainly didn't have enough notoriety to warrant having to worry about paparazzi tracking her movements. Or at least, she thought she didn't.

Sure everyone knew that she worked under Shinji and Yu. Both of whom being one the most well known hero couples in Japan. But "Vine" was just your average local hero in Kanagawa. She highly doubted that anyone outside of the prefecture would even be remotely interested in her personal life.

The woman honestly didn't even understand why hero paparazzi was still a thing. It had been years since Japan had gotten rid of the official government hero rankings. All they had now was just popularity polls done by different media outlets. The kind of thing that people could vote on every now and then. And she never came close to being as relevant as individuals like Shinji, Yu or even Honenuki.

No matter how much she tried to deny it, at some point Shiozaki was going to have to confront Midoriya about this. Even though none of this was actually her fault, she still felt the need to apologize to the man for what happened. And hopefully he would be understanding enough to forgive her.

Just when she thought she was starting to get on friendly terms with the man, something like this had to happen. Needless to say, it was a complete and utter disaster.

'Dear Lord, please give me strength to make it through this trial….'

~Down The Hall~

"Yup...definitely a date." Chief Inspector Kaniko giggled as she swung her legs over the edge of the sofa.

"It wasn't a date!" Midoriya protested for what felt like the hundredth time in the last hour.

"Are ya' sure about that? These pictures sure look like you two were on a date." The woman continued laughing as she showed him the infamous photos.

"I already told you! I just randomly bumped into her at the bowling alley. We played one game and ended up walking back home together. And we just so happened to stop by a crepe stand on the way. Not a date, it was all just a coincidence!"

"So entertainment and food? Those are pretty much the two basic requirements for a date y'know."

"Ugh..." The green haired man threw his head back.

At the moment, the two Inspectors were sitting inside Midoriya's apartment. Kaniko had taken it upon herself to pay her assistant a visit immediately after leaving work to talk about what happened. Much like everyone else, the crab-themed woman was absolutely shocked when saw the photos of Midoriya and Shiozaki yesterday. And naturally she was going to do everything in her power to get to the bottom of what was going on. But after the green haired man explained the situation, all she could do was simply laugh at how hilarious the whole thing was to her.

"C'mon Izu-chan, y'know I'm just messing with ya' right?"

"I do but..." The man sighed. "Just...what the hell?! I didn't even know anyone was following us. And I still don't understand why it was a big enough deal to post on that page anyway."

"Well from what I read, everyone thought that Vine was one of those 'pure maidens'. Seeing her out and about with a strapping young lad like yourself was definitely worth some attention." Kaniko explained with a smile. "Oh man, you really should'a read the comments! I had no idea that women were so thirsty nowadays."

"This is why I don't do social media." Midoriya threw his head back in defeat.

"Eh, don' even worry about it. Stuff like this blows over in a few days at the max. If I were you, I'd starting figuring out a way to explain this Togane-chan without her getting upset."

Oh god, that was another thing too. How exactly was Midoriya going to explain this to his partner? Sure Togane was a rational person who rarely ever put her nose into other people's business. But even she would have questions about why he was seen hanging out with a known hero. Out of everyone in Unit Nine, the 'true shot' quirk user had the biggest axe to grind against heroes. So it would only make sense for her to have at least some issue with him being seen fraternizing with one.

"C'mon Izu-chan, you're makin' a bigger deal out of this than it really is. So what if you're dating Vine? It's not like there's some rule against it. I mean, there's plenty of other Inspectors who're dating or married to heroes." The woman smiled at him.

Thankfully Midoriya knew that Kaniko was just trying to poke fun at him for the sake of a few jokes. In all honesty, the crab-themed woman was actually really worried about the man. As many people already knew, Kaniko was pretty good friends with Fatgum. So the woman had at least some clue about how these things went as far as heroes were concerned. And tabloid sites have a nasty track record with stories they find worthy of their attention. However, she was being honest when she said she believed that all of this would blow over relatively soon.

"Anyways, have ya' spoken to Vine at all?" The woman then asked. Only for Midoriya to shake his head in response. "Wait, really?"

"Yeah..." He said with a sigh. "She hasn't tried to contact me. So I assume that she's trying to avoid me. I don't really blame her though."

"Why haven't you tried to contact her? She's only a few doors down, right? Plus you have her phone number."

"It's...it's too awkward."

It wasn't like Kaniko could really argue with him there. She had no clue what she would do if she was in the same position as him. "Well, I doubt that she doesn't know about the article by now. Maybe she's just embarrassed."

All Midoriya could do was drop his head into his hands. Why was any of this even happening? And how could he have failed to notice that someone was following the green haired duo around? The 'mirage' user considered himself to be a pretty perceptive person. So a blunder of this magnitude definitely made him feel even worse than what was necessary. Fortunately, Kaniko was the only one he had to deal with right now. If Tomioka was here, he would've already started looking into places to hide out for the next few weeks.

Deciding that now would be a good time to give Midoriya a break, Kaniko took it upon herself to order the two of them some takeout. Mainly because she had rushed over to his place right after work and forgot to grab dinner. Although she still wanted to poke fun at her subordinate, there was no point in stressing him out any more than what he already was. Luckily, she knew just the trick to get the man out of this little slump of his.

"There, there, Izu-chan. How 'bout I order us some katsudon? That should cheer ya' up, right?"

-(o)-

~30 minutes later~

Once their food had finally arrived, Midoriya and Kaniko sat down at the coffee table and wasted no time in digging into their meal. While the green haired man was plowing his way through a bowl of his favorite dish, the woman was casually slurping on some udon noodles.

"So, besides you becoming an overnight celebrity how have things been going?" The woman asked in between bites.

"Same old, same old I suppose." He replied.

"How're Inko and Hisashi doing? It feels like forever since I last talked to them."

"They're doing well. My dad got a promotion at his job so he's been always busy. His wife isn't exactly excited about it. And mom's the same as always."

"That's good to hear."

"Don't take this the wrong way, senpai. But I was expecting you to hound me about this whole Shiozaki situation until I was forced to kick you out. You're being surprisingly restrained today." Midoriya then said.

Although Kaniko was the leader of their group and a well respected person, the woman had quite the reputation for being a chaotic mess when she wanted to be. She loved joking around and having fun at people's expense. Especially when it came to her own coworkers and subordinates. So no one could really blame Midoriya for being a bit skeptical with the way that she was acting.

"Oh, believe me! We're definitely not done talking about you and your 'not-girlfriend'. But I decided to cut you some slack for right now. At least until after I'm done with this food." She gave him a devious grin.

"Yeah...that sounds about right." Midoriya sighed.

"Still, even though I've known ya' for years seeing ya' out on the town with a girl is something I wasn' really expecting. Aw man...I still remember when we first met. You could barely talk to a girl without turning into a blushing mess. Now you're out here getting the attention of women all across the country. I'm so proud!"

"I wasn't all that bad." He argued.

"Izu-chan, please... You had the worst case of social anxiety I've ever seen. I mean, I understand why you were like that since you only got your quirk when you were sixteen. But tryin' to have an actual conversation with you was so tough sometimes."

"I know. And I'm glad that you were able to put up with me for so long. But it was hard to break out of that considering what I had to go through when I was younger."

"I know, I know." She waved off. "But how could I turn my back on such an adorable and talented young man like yourself? I woulda been a real shitty person if I had done that. Oh man, and don't even get me started on having to deal with you after you got your quirk. I don' know how many times I freaked out when ya' just suddenly disappeared out of nowhere."

"Yeah, luckily I got that under control before something bad happened to me." He gave her a slight chuckle.

Midoriya then placed his hand on the left side of his abdomen. Quickly running it up and down his shirt where a large scar was hidden underneath it. One that was about ten centimetres in length. Kaniko was able to see him do so from where she was sitting. And the two sat in silence as a somber mood replaced the cheery atmosphere that was present only a few seconds ago.

"I still can't believe that we never found that guy..." The woman then said with a frown. Dropping her head into one hand while twirling her chopsticks with the other. "After the incident, I looked all over the place to see if I could get any leads. But there was only so much I could do since I was just a regular undercover cop at the time."

"That's just how it goes sometimes." Midoriya tried to reassure her. "Part of me knew that we'd probably never find the guy. It was a one time thing after all. But honestly, I'm just lucky to be alive after what happened."

"At least ya' ended up getting a quirk out of it. As messed up as that sounds. I'll admit though, I still don't understand how exactly that happened."

"Believe me, I'm still having trouble wrapping my head around it too. Sometimes I think that I'm just going to wake up and find out that it was all just some crazy dream. But I'm glad that I ended up getting a quirk though. Even if it was when I was already a teenager. It was nice to finally feel normal for a change." He said.

"And it did help you break outta that shell of yours. So there's that! Togane-chan said that after you went back to school you were like a totally different person."

"Really?" He raised an eyebrow at that. "The two of us didn't really really talk all that much while we were still at Shiketsu."

"Oh yeah!" Kaniko then gave him a toothy smile. "She said that you were flirtin' with girls all over the place! You went from mysterious loner to knockin' down every cute face that came your way. Leaving a trail of broken hearts, jealous boyfriends and wet panties everywhere you went!"

And just like that, the woman was right back to her usually jolly and lighthearted self.

"C'mon, you know I'm not that kind of person. I've never even had a girlfriend before. I doubt that a woman would even look at me in that way." Midoriya countered.

'Bullshit! I've seen the way that Togane-chan looks at you when we're in the office. If that girl was a little more outgoin' she would've already thrown herself at ya'.' Kaniko thought.

Her and Ishikawa had already deduced that Togane had feelings for Midoriya. Honestly, it was part of the reason why she always partnered the two of them up together on missions. The brunette may have been subtle about it, but there were more than a few times Kaniko caught her staring at the man when he wasn't looking. And not just the casual look either. The kind of look that a horny young-adult only gives when she's a couple of drinks away from mounting her prey when he least expects it.

Although Togane was a hard person to read, the woman was way too heavy-handed when it came to her affection. But everyone agreed not to say anything until either her or Midoriya brought it up. It was only a matter of time anyway. But with this situation with Vine going on, Kaniko had a feeling that it was going to happen a lot sooner than later. If anything, this was going to the motivation that Togane needed to finally confess.

"Well...if that 'Heroes Daily' article had any truth to it, then we can definitely say that Vine thinks a bit differently." The woman said jokingly as she brought herself out of her thoughts.

'And we're right back to this. She could've at least let me finish my food first before harassing me about this again.' Midoriya said to himself. "Shiozaki-san is just a nice person. I'm pretty sure that it's just a part of personality."

"Right...and I s'pose that bakin' you a bunch of cookies and invitin' you over to her office was just her being nice. Honestly Izu-chan, you really are clueless when it comes to women. She definitely has a thing for you. The two of you did go out on date after all."

"It wasn't a date!" He immediately protested.

"Whatever you say lover-boy..."

As the night went on, the two friends spent the rest of their time chatting about random topics here and there until Kaniko finally decided to head home. After the crab-themed woman was gone, Midoriya was left to once again ponder over what was going to happen the next time he ran into Shiozaki. He already knew that avoiding her was pretty much impossible. They practically lived right next door to each other. But the fact that she hadn't made any effort to reach out to him did leave him a bit curious.

To be honest, he assumed that she was having a way more difficult time with this than he was. From what he saw on Kaniko's phone, at least a few hundred thousand people had seen the pictures. So there was no way that she was in the dark about it unless she didn't have any social media profiles like he did. However, he imagined that heroes had their own ways of dealing with this sort of thing.

Even if she was avoiding him, it would make a lot of sense. Tabloid articles like that have a habit of getting out of hand to put it mildly. And he'd hate to think that she was in hot water because of him in any way.

'Wait...why do I care so much about how she's doing?' He then asked himself.

Seriously, why did he care so much? Midoriya wasn't a callous person by any means. Well, not unless you were a hero or criminal that he tasked with taking care of. But even he found the amount of time he was spending thinking about how the vine haired woman was doing to be a bit odd.

Shiozaki was a hero. If anything, someone in her position would enjoy the jump in notoriety she probably received from those photos. Even if it was minuscule. That's how people in their profession operated. The times may have changed, but at the end of the day heroes were always looking to boost their stocks any way that they could. And no matter how nice Shiozaki may have presented herself to the public, she was probably working on a way to milk that article for as much as she could. This was the same woman who worked under Mt. Lady after all.

'Yeah, that's probably it. She is still a hero at the end of the day.'

He couldn't really help it though. In the past, Midoriya was the kind of person who'd worry about everyone around him. Even when doing so caused him a great deal of physical and emotional harm. But that was back when he was still a dumb kid who foolishly wished to be a hero like everyone else. Before he found out just what kind of people heroes really were.

He wasn't as "soft" these days though. But he'll admit that a small yet sympathetic part of him still seeped out from time to time.

'Oh well, no point in worrying over it right now. If she wants to talk to me about it that's fine. If not, then it is what it is.'

And with that, Midoriya finished cleaning up before hopping into bed. Taking a few minutes to relax before drifting off into dreamworld for the night.

~The Next Day~

After waking up, Midoriya spent the morning running errands and putting in some much needed time at the gym to alleviate a bit of his stress.

Since he still had the rest of the week off, the green haired man had all the time in the world to be lazy and goof off. The only real issue he came upon was trying not to be recognized by anyone who may have seen the article. Over the last couple of days, there had been enough news around the country to where the pictures of him and Shiozaki together was pretty much an afterthought by now. But just to be safe, the 'mirage' quirk user made sure to wear a hat and sunglasses wherever he went.

Luckily, the NPSC's "Ghost" was pretty good at making himself invisible when he needed to be. Even without the use of his quirk. No one even recognized who he was, which was exactly what he wanted.

'I guess having a plain face has it's advantages.' He said to himself jokingly.

It was around two o'clock when Midoriya finally made it back home. Now that he was back, the man took a quick shower before laying down on his sofa to enjoy some nice television. However, just as he was about to get comfortable the sound of a knocking at his door caused him to get up and see who it was.

'That must be the delivery guy.''

Without even bothering to look through the peephole, the green haired man flung the door open. Only to be taken aback by what he saw.

Standing there was none other than Ibara Shiozaki herself. The woman was wearing a pink t-shirt and a pair of brown sweatpants. However, that was the only "normal" thing about her appearance. Midoriya wasn't really the type to comment on someone's appearance unless it was necessary. Especially since he himself was pretty bland to look at. But even he had to admit that his neighbor wasn't exactly in the best condition. Simply put, she looked like shit.

Not only did the vine haired heroine have some noticeable bags under her eyes, a good chunk of her hair was missing. On top of it looking as though she hadn't slept in days. The heroine's usually elegant demeanor was all but gone.

"S-Shiozaki-san?" He nervously greeted her. Already feeling the newly formed pit in his stomach begin to grow.

"Hello, Midoriya-san." The woman spoke in a raspy tone. Even her voice sounded terrible. "H-how are you doing today?"

"I'm doing well, thanks for asking. How about you?"

The look she gave him told Midoriya all that he needed to know. It was plainly obvious to anyone who saw her that she was anything but okay.

"I'd be lying if I said that I was in the best of conditions right now. But uh...if you don't mind Midoriya-san, can I come in for a minute? I'm sure that you already know this, but the two of us need to have...much to discuss."

A/N: I was originally going to make this one long chapter, but splitting it up into two parts just lets me work around a few things better without having too much going on at once. So I hope you guys enjoy it.

1. We're finally starting to get into the mind of Midoriya. He's isn't the super edgy anti-hero society type of guy as we've all seen or expected to see so far. But he definitely has his reservations about heroes as a whole. Why is that you ask? Well...you'll just have to wait and see.

2. I won't take long to reveal the story of how Midoriya got his quirk. But I want the big reveal to happen with certain characters. And I need to get set up a few scenes for that to happen. I alluded to how he came to get a quirk in this chapter, but I'll just let you guys speculate on how it happened. (Hint: All for One was not involved at all.)

3. Do I smell a potential love triangle? I don't know how far I want to push that narrative yet since I've never really done one before, but we'll just see how it goes. Like I previously said, I'm still working my way through how I'm going to navigate this story.

Like always, thanks for reading and don't be afraid to leave a comment/review. And have a nice day!