Hello all,

So you are probably wondering, "Hey Grim, what's with this new story? Aren't you on Hiatus?"

Truth is, yes and no.

I am off Hiatus now, but chapters will be slower to come out but much more significant in scale.

I've decided to try and write bigger chapters for my stories regarding character development. One of the issues I ran into with Bearer and GG, was that I was bouncing from major arc to major arc, with very little character interaction and growth.

Something I did not like, so I have decided to try a new format and see how well it works.

So for the next little bit, This story will have a few chapters written and posted to establish the story and interest. Meanwhile, both Bearer and GG will be worked on, though any "non-major" arcs will have larger chapters.

I.E.: Before, the chapters with Kyoka's Date and Mina's Date were going to be their own thing before going to I-island; however, with how things are going to work now, I'm going to combine both those chapters together, as well as splice in some other developments (like kit acquisitions). This means it will be a massive chapter (I am thinking over 20k words in itself) but then when we get to I-Island, it will revert back to the old style, with multiple smaller chapters but the story progresses, before another big character-building chapter or two before the Training Forest.

Same thing with Green Gaul, because I don't want to make the same mistakes with it like I did with early Bearer.

So, sit back, enjoy this first chapter, and I will warn you now.

POSSIBLE MAIN MANGA STORY SPOILERS!

Also, any "otherworldly" language will be "translated" for the viewers with ()'s

Enjoy!

[I do not own the rights to My Hero Academia or Monster Hunter, they belong to their respected owners.]

Chapter 1
"Twice fallen, now returned"

A flash of light illuminated the park where Ochako Uraraka, hero name "Uravity", stood alongside her fellow pro hero Mina Ashido, better known as "Alien Queen", as they patrolled the darkened area, both nearly jumping in fright from the sudden lightning storm above them.

Typically, both women usually stuck to the city and its labyrinth of alleyways; however, there had been numerous reports of strange sounds and shadows lurking about the area with such frequency that the Hero Commission had requested their agency to investigate the matter, given the area was an important area for the members.

After all, it was where the villainous All for One was finally defeated, thus ridding the world of a great evil that had he survived, the world would be a far darker place.

And all it had cost was the life of one Izuku Midoriya.

After collecting themselves, both women giggled to one another at just how silly it was to be suddenly jump scared by lightning. After all, they had survived three years of pranks from Kaminari before graduating.

"Geez, what are we? First years still? Jumping at every shadow and bright light like it was Aizawa patrolling the dorms just before curfew." Mina continued to giggle while Ochako snickered lightly.

"If I recall, you were the reason he had to take those nightly patrols."

The pink-skinned woman stuck her tongue out at her friend before smirking, "Yea, yea… but it's not my fault the dates I went on lasted past curfew!"

"I'm still shocked how you found time to date, even now, given how hard Aizawa pushed us and how busy we have been lately."

"Spontaneous dates mostly." Mina shrugged, before placing her hands behind her head and looking up at the storm clouds, "But speaking of being busy, some freaky weather we have been having, huh?"

"You mean all the storms?" Ochako said as she too looked up, her arms across her costume-covered chest; despite how much she "matured" over the last few years, her costume remained relatively the same, though there had been upgrades made to it for better mobility and durability.

How Mei performed these feats without causing massive explosions as she did in her years at UA would forever boggle the brunette's mind.

"Yea, they just show up and start getting all weird… you think it's someone's quirk?" Mina asked as the two made their way towards the center of the park, her black and golden eyes looking at her friend.

"I don't think so… but I mean, given how powerful quirks are getting with every generation…." Ochako sighed softly, scratching her cheek deep in thought.

"I'd bet he'd tell us if it was a quirk or not." Mina said, nudging her head towards the statue standing not too far from them. Ochako went stiff for a moment before she and Mina slowly continued their walk toward the statue.

It had been seven years since that horrible day, where the final battle between All for One and the then-current wielder of One for All, a quirk that would continually grow stronger with every new generation that passed and could be transferred to a new wielder, had fought and both died.

While she and many of her former classmates had been off dealing with the various Nomu's and villains under All for One's control, Midoriya had raced from one battlefield to another, first taking out the villain's 'pupil' Shigaraki, who at this point was more of a meat puppet for his 'Sensei', one that could be a new host for the consciousness of All for One.

No one blamed Midoriya for what he had to do, as it was part of the initial plan.

Once the "disintegrator" was removed, Izuku raced to face off against the villain himself. And after what seemed to be an eternity of a fight, Midoriya had completed the nearly two-century-long plan of ending the "Symbol of Evil".

They hadn't expected the villainous fiend to have a 'contingency' plan should he fail. From what Ochako had been told, the dead man's body suddenly expanded like a balloon, catching everyone off guard before an explosion happened, seeing Izuku within the blast. When the dust had settled, nothing was left but a barren smoking crater.

Seven years later, a park had been erected where the crater had once been, the very center of the explosion that killed Izuku Midoriya, and in the exact spot where the boy had fallen was a larger-than-life statue of him, standing proud and looking in the direction of the rising sun every morning and along the base of raised metal sculpture, were all the names of Heroes and civilians who had lost their lives during the horrific time. As both women looked upon the visage of their old friend, Ochako couldn't help noticing that even now, people were still leaving flowers at the base of the monument, possibly for the other names, but the gravity-negating woman smiled to see many of the bouquets were being held in red shoes, similar to the ones her fallen friend had.

"I miss him…." Mina said, staring up at the statue, as her words brought Ochako out of her thoughts, "I was just starting to get to know him just after the school festival, and then that whole vigilante thing happened... and we learned about One for All afterward."

"Honestly, he'd give Todoroki a run for his money for the number one spot." Mina continued with a fond smile while Ochako gently nodded, keeping a neutral face, though small tears started to form at the ends of her eyes, "Heck, I'd be he'd have that position on lockdown like All Might did."

"He wouldn't care too much about the position…." Ochako said softly, looking towards her pink-skinned friend now, "He was more concerned about helping people and ensuring they knew everything would be ok."

"Yea…" Mina said fondly, sighing a moment before looking back up to the clouds, seeing the lightning start to shimmer and dance within the darkness, "Hey Ocho… there's something weird going on up there."

"Hmm?" Ochako said, turning her gaze towards the skies when several bolts of lightning suddenly shot down, striking the earth with a thunderous kaboom that made both women shriek from the loudness of the impact several hundred yards in the thick brush of the park forest.

Ochako was the first to recover, shaking Mina gently to get her attention, "Mina! Are you alright?"

"Y-yea…" The 'alien girl' said, a little shaken, before slapping her cheeks to refocus, "But that was crazy! I thought the skyscrapers had lightning rods to prevent crap like that from happening!"

"Same, but we can't predict things like that.." Ochako said as she looked towards the place the bolt of electricity had struck; she opened her mouth to tell her pink-skinned comrade that they should go and see the damage and make sure there were no fires from the strike, but her suggestion was silenced when the loud, shrill, and unearthly sounding screech bellowed from deep within the brush of the park's treeline, both women froze as a loud thumping sound could be heard heading towards them before nearly got trampled over by a strange creature rushing past them, roaring out loud.

As both women quickly got up to their feet, awestruck by the sight of a creature not of this world as it had stopped a fair distance from them, bouncing up and down and constantly shrieking as it did.

The creature was massive, to say the least; when its beaked head would rise up, it looked nearly two and a half stories tall, its body very spindly looking and almost lizard-like. However, the beak and its odd feet looked like a mix between a parrot and a chicken, respectively, with an elongated tail whipping around wildly as if uncontrollable while the goofy-looking animal just kept shrieking.

A glint of a large dagger caught the heroine's attention as they could see a person riding the beast, bringing the blade down with various stabs that caused the beast to scream in pain and agony. Ochako watched as the person rode the bird… well, monster, for the lack of a better word, as she gawked at the display.

Mina, however, was not one to watch someone killing a random creature.

"HEY! KNOCK IT OFF-" ("No! It's too dangerous, right meow!") Another high-pitched cry came from behind the two women, both turning their heads to see what looked like an armored cat dash towards them, drifting to a halt and raising up on its two hind legs with its green arms and paws stretched out, ("The meow-nster is sick! It cannot be ca-purred! Meowster is doing what he needs to… to…")

The creature suddenly began to trail off, its gaze hidden under its bulky metallic helmet looking directly at Mina; the silence was heavy between the three before the roar of the beast caught their attention, along with the cry of surprise coming from the rider being sent flying off of it, directly into-

"NO! NOT THE STATUE!" Ochako cried aghast as the heavily armored person collided directly into the body of Izuku Midoriya, knocking it off its pedestal and hitting the ground with a loud 'CLANG' sound. The rider shook his head from the blow beside the fallen boy's visage before suddenly rolling away as the three-clawed foot of the bird creature came right down on top of it, crumpling it under the weight and impact of the strike. The armored man, given the sound of the grunt he gave when he got to his feet, was staring down the monster as the women and cat watched from afar; the beast caw'd in a raspy tone of voice.

Man and monster slowly began to circle around one another, the man pulling a shortsword and a shield from his back. And now, having a good view of the former rider, both heroines gasped in awe at what the person was wearing, considering he wasn't flopping about and stabbing the creature.

It looked to be a heavily-modified medieval suit of armor, though along parts where it would be considered a weak point for most humans were thick red plates of scales infused into the get-up, many of which adorned with black spikes that seemed to meld into the fiery reds or protruded out like on the shoulder pads and helmet.

Speaking of the helmet, it looked to be entirely made of the stuff, though a metallic visor rested upon the forehead, covering the face of the man in complete darkness, partially due to the low light surrounding them.

If one could actually call them that, the sword and shield were teal in color, with yellow ridges along the sides of the shield and making up the 'blade' of the sword, with a white tuft of hair covering the hilt of the bizarre weapon.

The two slowly stopped, the man's back facing towards the heroines as the beast shrieked loudly once more, raising its wings and 'ears' up in a way to make itself look bigger and intimidate the man. However, the desired effect hadn't happened as the man slammed his sword against the shield, a crack of lightning racing across the blade as he brought the protection close to his body and called out in a strange language neither Mina nor Ochako could understand.

The creature, obviously irritated by the 'taunt' suddenly launched itself, roaring wildly.

That, however, was its final mistake as the shrieking squawking of the creature was interrupted by an under-the-chin slam of the man's shield, launching him up into the air with crackling lightning surrounding his body while he did so. Everyone watched as he somersaulted in the air, both hands gripping the sword's hilt and pointing the blade downwards. And with a squelching sound, as well as a loud thud from the impact of the beast's body into the ground with dust billowing out from underneath it, a twist of the blade was all that was needed to put the dying creature out of its misery.

Silence once again overtook the park, the armored 'knight' slowly pushing off his knees to stand back up, flicking the sword to remove any excess blood and gore before storing it on his back again. Raising a clawed gauntlet under his helm, the man began to speak in that strange language once again, ("Mochi! Let's get this thing carved and hauled back to the Guild before the local pred…a… tor's…")

The man's muffled voice slowly petered out as he finally took in his surroundings, his helmet looking to and fro in shock and silence before he grunted loudly from being tackled to the ground, knocking off his helmet in the process when he landed on his back.

"FREEZE, VILLAIN!" Ochako shouted, wrestling to hold the odd man down, straddling him with her legs in a way to rest atop his own and keep them down while trying to force his arms against the partially destroyed stone walkway, "YOU ARE UNDER ARREST FOR ANIMAL CRUELTY, DESTRUCTION OF A MEMORIAL, AND-" The gravity-defying woman stopped speaking as her words caught in her throat, her skin going pale in color as her brown eyes met emerald colored ones.

As the two kept staring at one another, panting gently, what with Ochako having dashed towards the man and his ludicrous battle just moments ago. A wailing cry from behind Ochako knocked the two out of their inner thoughts, causing the heroine to turn her head slightly back to see what was happening.

("Meow-ster! HELP ME!")

"Hold still, ya little furball!" Mina shouted, holding up the cat by its arms and away from her, the feline kicking and hissing loudly to no avail as Mina looked towards Ochako, "Hey, Uravity! Why did you stop giving the guy his rights?"

Quickly turning towards the familiar face staring at her in complete shock, with his perfect diamond-shaped freckles on his rosy cheeks, Ochako realized her position. Her face blossomed into a bright red, suddenly leaping off the man, inadvertently kneeing him in the gut and causing him to grunt in pain.

"Hey, girl! Why are you letting him go-YOWCH!" Mina cried out, the graze of a toe claw catching her arm and forcing the pink-skinned woman to drop her quarry, at which point, the feline bee-lined towards the recovering man.

Mina rushed over to the now standing straight Ochako, clearly looking mad from the scratch and how her friend was acting. As she was about to ask Ochako what the hell she was doing, Mina stopped herself as she could hear the brunette mutter to herself, tears starting to fall down the corners of her eyes as Ochako kept staring in the direction of the struggling man.

"-itsimpossiblehesdeadverydeadhowcanhebealiveohgodizukusalive-"

"Ochako, girl, what's got you so spooked?" Mina asked as she looked in the direction her friend was. She stilled in her movements at the now sitting man, her bright pink skin slowly growing paler in fright as she watched him push back his thick and curly green mane of hair from his face. At the same time, the feline creature went up to him and placed its paws on his knee.

("Meowster! Are you alright?")

("Yea, Mochi, about as alright as that time when that Kelbi sucker punched us after we got its horn.") The man mused as he looked at the cat before turning his gaze towards the two women, visibly shaking and staring at him.

Slowly raising himself onto his feet, Mochi had moved to stand in front of its master's leg, hissing loudly at the pair, "Mochi! No!" The man said sternly, nearly shocking the girls when he spoke not in that strange language but in their native Japanese.

("But they hurt mew! And that pink one held me up like a fishy over a campfire-")

"That's enough, Mochi! These two are some of the friends I told you about before!" The 'meow-ster' countered as he looked towards the pair, still visibly shaken and not moving from their place.

His emerald eyes kept looking at the pair, ignoring the rest of the world as he slowly began to move towards them, concern clearly on his face for how they were looking at him.

Only to stop as the wailing of police sirens with bright red and blue lights surrounded the small group, police all scrambling out and pointing their guns at the man while a couple of officers moved to pull the two women away and behind some opened police doors.

"FREEZE AND PUT YOUR HANDS UP!" Bellowed a cop with a megaphone, with several clicks of guns being cocked echoing around him.

Looking back and forth between all the armed officers, the man did as he was told, slowly raising his arms in surrender.

All in all, this wasn't precisely what Izuku Midoriya thought returning home would be like.

"Kirishima! It is rude and unbecoming of heroes to slam open doors!" Tenya Iida shouted as he powerwalked after the clearly worried red-haired man, who had stopped in the middle of the police station hallway to turn around and look towards his fellow hero.

"I get it, Ingeni-bro, but we must go check on the girls!"

"Be that as it may, it is still rude to the fine officers doing their paperwork or listening to phone calls!" Iida said aloud before a random officer gently tapped his shoulder, causing both heroes to look at the shorter person.

"Actually, we didn't hear the door slamming against the wall, as it happens all the time, so we tend to ignore it… arguing loudly, however… well…."

Tenya and Kirishima slowly looked around them, seeing the various upset and angry-looking officers and those they were seeing. Both men quickly bowed their heads in apology, with many of their onlookers returning to work as the two raised their heads up, with Tenya speaking first, "We were told Uravity, and Alien Queen were resting here after tonight's incident. Has Froppy arrived yet?"

"Yes, she got here about ten minutes before you two; we got them some blankets and coffee and put them in the break room." The officer said, leading the two heroes towards where their friends were.

"How are they?" asked Kirishima, worry evident on his face as the way the girls were described when they were picked up was something he would never dream of happening while on duty.

"Physically, they are fine, some minor cuts and scrapes which we put some first aid on…." The officer said as eventually, they had led the pair to a quieter part of the police station, where privacy was given to those having dealt with traumatic experiences. Both men could hear the sniffling of one of the girls, and just before Kirishima could touch the doorknob, the officer stopped him, "Before you go in, the person that caused this mess is currently in one of the interrogation rooms, with his… accomplice… being held in an adjacent room."

"Have they decided who is going to interrogate the pair?" Iida asked, his brow furrowed into a deep scowl, clearly upset with the person who did this to two of his good friends.

Having noticed the bi-spectacled young man's dark look, Kirishima placed his hand on Iida's shoulder to try and keep him calm as the officer continued, "Right now, we have Detective Tamakawa looking after the accomplice. For the main perpetrator, we felt that the Chief should be the one to handle him."

"Because of his quirk?" Kirishima asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Well… that… plus the fact that if the person in question *IS* who he says he is… he should handle it." The officer sighed gently, rubbing the top of their head, "Also, Eraserhead will be in the interrogation room as well, just in case it's a Nomu."

Both men solemnly nodded, not having heard the name of those bio-engineered creatures in some time. While the laboratories they were housed in were found and destroyed, no one was sure every single one was found; given how extensive All for One's power base was back then, it would make sense that this was a Nomu.

"But, the only way for the Nomu to be another person would be if they had a quirk similar to that woman, Himiko Toga. But her quirk requires her to ingest the blood of those she wished to transform into." Iida said while rubbing his chin before Kirishima frowned suddenly.

"Wait, you never said who is being interrogated! I mean, if it gave two of our best heroines to break down as we were told… who does it look like? If it's a Nomu, I mean."

"Sadly, that's on a need-to-know basis, orders of the Chief, though if Uravity and Acid Queen want to tell you what they saw, then that should clear up why we are being so secretive about this." The officer replied, gently knocking on the door before a tired-sounding croak of a 'come in' could be heard over the sniffles.

As the officer let the two heroes in, they froze in their place at seeing the state everyone was within the room.

Mina was crying, tears running down her face and messing up some of the 'anti-sweat' makeup she would wear under her trademark mask. Tissues were everywhere as her head was resting against the shoulder of Tsuyu Asui, hero name: Froppy, who was holding one of the pink woman's hands gently with one of her own, while the other was wrapped around Mina's side as she gently hummed something to try and calm her down.

Ochako was sitting in a lone chair in the corner, facing away from the group while looking like she was clutching something red within her grasp, though it was hard to tell what it was from the angle.

Upon seeing the two men enter, Mina gently wiggled herself out of Tsuyu's grasp and was openly bawling now, rushing towards Kirishima, "Oh Kiri! My god, tonight has been… just… WAAAAAH!"

"Mina! Shhh, calm down…." The red-headed male hugged his best friend tenderly, holding her against his firm build and rubbing her back, "Me and Iida-bro are here. Can you tell us what's happened?"

"*Sniff* I... I don't know where to begin!" The acid wielder sobbed gently, "It.. it was all so fast *sniff* and then… when it was all done…." Mina would start to sniffle loudly before breaking down in Kirishima's arms; it was clear they wouldn't get any answers from the very emotional girl.

"Kero, I tried to ask Ochako, but she's been doing nothing but holding that weird helmet and muttering up a storm." Tsuyu said as everyone looked towards the woman, clutching the helmet tightly into her body.

"Perhaps, we should let things calm down a bit first… the Chief will have our answers shortly. Did she or Ashido mention what had caused all of this in the first place?"

As Tenya asked the question, a loud sniffle came from Mina, whereas Ochako merely curled up even more. Tsuyu gently placed her finger on her chin, looking between the pair before speaking.

"They haven't, kero, but what they saw was something none of us would ever take lightly and probably break down just as bad as them; not even you or Todoroki would be able to hold back the emotions, Iida… no offense."

"None was taken, Asui."

"Kero, Tsu… anyway, whatever has these two acting like they are, I'd imagine it would be like seeing someone or something they never thought to see ever again."

Iida brought his hand up to his chin, looking deep in thought, "The question then is, who or what did they see?"

"Izuku Midoriya?" The tired sounding and deep voice of Chief Tsukauchi echoed into the room where the currently hand-cuffed young man was sitting, wearing a very loose and plain shirt where his upper chest armor once was.

The emerald eyes of his prisoner slowly looked up from the table to meet his own deep black, a smile of recognition creeping along his face, "Detective!"

"It's 'Chief' now…." The older man mused, smirking at the innocent chuckle escaping past the young man's lips, "I hope my officers didn't rough you up too badly; your getup was cumbersome to put you into a wagon."

"Y-yea… sorry about that, I would have mentioned how stiff a Rathalos' spikes were, but… I was told to remain quiet when they gave me my rights." The green-haired man looked sheepish, looking back down at the table.

As he did, Tsukauchi would look all along the boy's arms and other visible features. While the seven-year absence had done very well to the former successor of All Might, the Chief did notice several worrying newer scars along his upper arms and peeking from just under the shirt covering his chest.

Ones that looked to be like large claws of some kind.

"This… 'Rathalos'… is it a metal alloy or…?"

"O-oh no… a Rathalos is a giant red wyvern, with poisonous talons and fire-breath; its nickname is the 'King of the Skies', though admittedly, there are a bunch of other wyverns that could easily dethrone your basic variant. Although, a 'Dreadking Rathalos' has been known to even take down Elder Dragons of the same weight class-"

"Midoriya."

"Hmm?" Izuku looked up from the desk to see a rather shocked-looking man on the other side of the table, "O-Oh! I was starting to mutter again, wasn't I?"

"Yes." The Chief said with a grim tone, "As well as I was using my quirk to see if you were telling me the truth, and frankly, I don't know if I can even manage to fathom to believe what you just said was true."

"That's… fair." Izuku chuckled slightly, "Even I have to admit I was skeptical at first when I woke up in the Ancient Forest and ran across the Rathalos and a Deviljho in a turf war while trying to figure out where I was."

"Devil…joe?"

"Yea, a big green T-rex-looking monster that was always hungry and, quite honestly, looked like a giant dill pickle with teeth… that also breathed a black mist with red electricity." Izuku replied without hesitation as if what he was talking about was just everyday knowledge.

Tsukauchi simply stared at the boy, clearly shocked and surprised as to what he was telling him, and all coming back truthful, further worrying the chief of the police as he scribbled down some more notes before speaking once more, "Well… everything you said is truthful, at least to the point where you believe it to be true."

"W-Wait!" Izuku's eyes widened suddenly, "W-what does that mean? Can someone fool your quirk?"

"It's very rare, but if they truly believe in what they are saying, the person can make any lie they tell truthful to my quirk." Tsukauchi said as he finished writing down his notes, ignoring the whisper of 'I knew it!' coming from the young man across the table.

A knock on the door caught both of the occupant's attention; with the chief slowly rising from his chair and strolling towards it, he began to speak again, opening the door, "And one more way to make sure you are who you say you are…."

Izuku's eyes shot open as the still unkempt-looking Aizawa slowly hobbled into the room, his right hand clutching a metallic cane to ease the tension of walking on his prosthetic right leg. Even with an eyepatch, Izuku could tell just how tired Aizawa was and how time had not been too kind to the man as he could clearly see crow's feet at the corner of his one good eye.

His former teacher was staring hard at him, with no emotion on his face, as he stood close to the now-closed door. Izuku met Aizawa's gaze, and for the briefest moments, he swore he saw a look of shock on the erasure hero's face before frowning more harshly.

"I don't know why you called me here, Tsukauchi… it's clear that this is an imposter." Aizawa spoke with finality to his voice, causing Izuku to flinch at the man's words. And while hurtful, Izuku knew it wasn't out of malice, considering he too would be skeptical of a dead student showing up seven years later, seemingly unharmed and no worse for wear.

"He's been truthful since he's been brought in and cooperated with us every step of the way." The other man spoke low to the former Pro Hero.

"Probably just one of those Nomu's with a copy of Toga's quirk, implanted with false memories… like he did to Oboro." Aizawa looked at the Chief of Police before looking back at the 'boy' sitting in the chair, "But, I'll humor you…."

Taking a deep breath, Aizawa closed his eye, pushing back the memories of the former student within the darkness before opening it, his quirk flaring to life and gazing hard at the person in the chair.

One minute…

Three minutes…

Six minutes had passed before Aizawa had to shut his lone eye, the strain of his quirk finally getting to him; as he blinked back some of the pain, he looked to where the still sitting Izuku Midoriya was, with a concerned look on his face, "... Mr. Aizawa."

"... It's illogical." The man said, his face morphing into a look of shock that was pure alien to Izuku, "Y-You… there's no way… I saw-"

"Sir… if you'd like, I can prove I'm not dead and not just some Nomu made to look like me." The boy said, staring at both men now, "With your permission, Chief."

The silent police chief nodded, both men watching as the long-forgotten aura of One for All flared to life, the buzzing sound and sight of electricity flowing around his body as Izuku brought his arms forward, snapping the cuffs he had been in and standing from his chair.

Aizawa watched as his formerly dead student smiled brightly at him as he spoke.

"Mr. Aizawa, I'm still standing."

An hour had passed before a knock on the break room door caught nearly everyone's within the room's attention, albeit Ochako was still facing the corner and holding the "villain's" helmet, clinging to it tightly as Tsukauchi entered and looked at her and sighed before addressing the others, Aizawa following behind him with his stern gaze.

"Mr. Aizawa!" Iida said, moving closer to the pair and bowing before them, "It is good to see you again, despite the circumstances!"

"Iida, calm down… you're going to give me but also yourself a headache with your constant bowing." Aizawa sighed heavily, looking over the room as well, seeing many of his former students looking at him worriedly, "Now... to the matter at hand, have Ashido or Uraraka told you what's going on?"

"Sorry, but no, sir, kero," Tsuyu spoke up from her seat beside Mina, who was now sniffling against Kirishima as he had taken it upon himself to try and settle down his best friend, "Mina goes into hysterics when we tried to ask her, and Ochako has… well… been silent, kero."

"Given the circumstances, I can't fault either of them…." Aizawa looked at the two women before addressing the other three, "Regardless, after some testing and interrogation… the identity of the suspect has been concluded to be positive."

"Sir? Why is your eye red and puffy?" Tsuyu asked, her finger on her chin as Iida looked at the frog-like woman in shock before looking back to his former teacher, who was trying to turn his head, so his one visible eye was not seen.

"Allergies." was all he said, causing Tsuyu to tilt her head some.

"But it looks like you have been crying, kero."

"Allergies, Asui… don't make me expel you for insubordination."

"But, I've graduated from UA already; you can't threaten me with expulsion, kero." Tsuyu replied as everyone in the room grew quiet, looking at Aizawa, who was grumbling low into his scarf while Tsukauchi was barely trying to hold back his laughter.

"Right, I'm too exhausted for this, might as well rip the band-aid now." Aizawa sighed before turning towards the still open door, "You can come in now, Problem Child."

Everyone stiffed up at the nickname being said, one that Aizawa had refused to call anyone else since the battle of All for One. Their eyes watched as an ominous shadow slowly made itself known upon the open door, with the clanking of what sounded like armor coming their way. Kirishima moved in front of Mina, who was quivering slightly as both Iida and Tsuyu readied themselves to strike, and Ochako had risen up from her seat, clutching the helmet to her chest and ignoring the dull ache of how the spikes felt against her body.

Surely this was a trick? One final ruse from their former homeroom teacher?

Their worries soon died and were replaced with pure shock as none other than Izuku Midoriya had rounded the corner of the doorframe, standing tall and alive while wearing a baggy-looking shirt and the oddest-looking pants and boots. The young man was smiling at them, standing at an impressive 6'1''.

They weren't the only ones looking shocked as Izuku did much the same, though his expression had morphed into a giant and bright smile, "Iida, Kirishima, Asui! It's great to see you guys again!"

"M-Midoriya?.. Is… is it really you?" Iida asked softly, his breath catching in his throat at the emotions and feelings of seeing his once thought-dead friend alive. Izuku just smiled at the former class president, chuckling gently.

"Yea, they had to do a few blood tests while I was being questioned, but…." Izuku started to say, trying to figure out the correct way to best describe to his reunited friend the situation. However, that was put on the back burner when Izuku was suddenly brought into two bear hugs, given to him by Kirishima and Mina together as they shouted.

"Midori!/Midori-bro!"

The green-haired boy was trying to chuckle as the two clung to him, both sobbing harshly as Izuku did his best to get the air back into his lungs, "G-guys! C-Can't breathe!"

"We thought you were dead! So suffer the consequences!" Mina bawled loudly, nuzzling her cheek against his shirt while Kirishima was crying openly, though a big sharp-toothed grin on his face occupied the tears.

"What my horn buddy said, bro! And holy smokes did you not skip out on your workout! Seriously, I don't think I could get that buff!" Kirishima said offhandedly, making Izuku blush and chuckle at the remark, rubbing the back of his head with his now freed arm once the slightly taller pro hero let him go.

"G-given what I had to do while I was away, I think anyone would bulk up." Izuku replied, feeling Mina clung tighter to him when he politely tried to pry her off of him, "A-ashido?"

"Not letting go…." She said gently, her voice muffled slightly as she sniffed against his shirt, now slightly moist from her tears, "If I let go, you may suddenly disappear again."

The silence that filled the room was thick after Mina had said that; Izuku looked down at the pink-skinned woman and slowly wrapped his arms around her, holding her close as if to reassure her that he was staying there.

Mina sniffled gently, looking up to see the smirk on Izuku's lips, "Trust me…" he spoke gently to her as his gaze locked onto hers, "I don't plan on leaving anytime soon, I promise."

Everyone watched for a few silent moments as Mina Ashido, the social butterfly, grew very quiet, her cheeks slowly turning a slight purple before pushing herself off of Izuku, who had blinked in surprise as the embarrassed woman puffed her cheeks and pouted at him, ignoring the way Kirishima had raised his eyebrow at her and slowly beginning to form a shit-eating grin on his lips, "You better not…."

Izuku could only chuckle at her response before he felt the slight tug on his bare arm, looking towards the wide-eyed and blank-looking stare of Tsuyu Asui. The young frog-like woman ribbited gently, and while many could never actually get a sense of what she was feeling, given her quirk traits when it came to facial expressions, Izuku could tell she was gazing hard into his eyes as if searching deep into his soul.

"They are similar, kero…" she spoke gently, causing a few of the others to look confused while she continued, "The same eyes of the young hero in training that had the weight of the world on his shoulders but would always face it with the brightest of smiles, kero, to make sure everyone knew everything would be alright."

Everyone remained silent as Tsuyu gently tilted her head slightly, her free hand moving up to place her finger on her chin, "But, you also have this 'edge' in your eyes… like you're waiting for something to just pounce out and strike you down."

"Well… when you have to survive ecosystems where anything and everything could make a meal out of you… you have to develop some kind of sense of wariness." Izuku sighed softly, sounding exhausted, which the others had quickly picked up on, "Even if Danger-sense helped out most of the time, there were some situations where it never triggered."

"And these scars?" Tsuyu asked, her fingers slowly trailing up his arm, tracing over the 'fresher' ones while the old ones he had earned during his time at UA long ago were faded, nearly non-existent compared to the thicker lines.

"Those ones…" Izuku said as his eyes watched her fingers for a moment, frowning deep in thought, "I think it was a close call with a Black Diablos? Huh, it's been so long since I thought about that."

"It sounds like a truly terrifying villain, Midoriya." Iida spoke up suddenly, knocking Izuku out of his inner recollection of that particular hunt, where he and his handler were tasked to investigate the recent turf wars between several of the Diablos, only to find it was a sort of weird mating ritual the creatures would partake in, where the females fought for the males.

Sadly, his handler had a penchant for trouble, and soon the pair were running for their lives from a stampede of all those Black Diablos.

"It wasn't a villain, Iida…." Ochako spoke suddenly, with everyone looking towards her as the gravity-nullifying woman tightly held the helmet to her body while staring hard at its owner, "I think it was a creature, similar to that one this… person… killed in front of Mina and me." Ochako frowned hard at Izuku, the evident distrust in her voice from how she addressed him shocked nearly everyone in the room.

"Uraraka!" Iida suddenly said, aghast at the way she was acting, "You heard what the chief said; this is Mid-"

"The real Deku wouldn't just outright kill an innocent creature!" She shouted, her voice echoing off the walls as everyone froze in place, "The real Deku would NEVER kill anyone or anything innocent! He'd find a way to subdue it, so it didn't have to die!"

The tears started to flow down the heroine's eyes, staring hard at the green-haired 'imposter' before her, who wasn't looking at her now, but away and downtrodden. With his silence being her proof of the accusations, Ochako burst into tears, crying openly before rushing past everyone, not before tossing the hard helmet against Izuku's chest, who merely grunted from the impact as both Mina and Tsuyu quickly gave chase to their distraught friend.

Everyone else remained silent for a few moments; the echoing calls for the crying woman's name soon faded away from the room as Izuku slowly knelt down to grab his helmet. Sensing the dropping mood of his returned friend, Kirishima slowly walked up to Izuku's side and placed his hand on the young 'killer's' shoulder, "Sorry about that Midori-bro… She's just upset because she thought you were… well…."

"Dead? Yea… I know, I'd be upset too if someone I thought died returned after such a long time." Izuku said softly, running his thumb over the red scales on his Rathalos helmet, "But she was right."

"Dude, no…"

"The previous me wouldn't take an innocent life… but the Yian Kut-Ku in that park wasn't the first creature to fall under my blade." Izuku admitted sadly, looking at the shocked look on Kirishima and Iida's faces, "It's not something I actively try to do, but that one creature couldn't be subdued… trust me, I tried, and it led to people getting hurt."

"While I am not happy with your final decision, I know better not to question your judgment in matters that I have no way of comprehending." Iida spoke up now, his hand on Izuku's other shoulder, "Give Uraraka some time, perhaps have Asui and Ashido try and calm her down, then you can fully explain what happened to all of us."

"Yea, your right, Iida… thank you."

"Now, the question is, where are you going to be staying." The bi-spectacle young hero said, causing Izuku's eyes to slowly widen, realizing that he had nowhere to stay for the night, "While I am sure your mother would be excited to see you-"

"I… can't." Izuku said softly, looking downtrodden again, "Not yet, at least, she'd have a heart attack or worse if I just suddenly popped up on her doorstep."

"Nor would I recommend that." Aizawa spoke up, catching the looks from his former pupils, "And before you ask, Problem Child, but UA wouldn't be able to house you either. Given your reputation, it would be hard to hide the fact that the person who ended the reign of All for One and "died" doing so, is now just waltzing around the campus."

"Speaking of…" Kirishima said softly, but loud enough for everyone to hear him, "Midori-bro survived… then, doesn't that mean-"

"He's dead." Izuku said with zero emotion and a dark look, "It was the first thing I made sure of after I wound up in that world."

The room grew silent after that admission, though some relief was on both Aizawa's and Tsukauchi's faces from learning about that tidbit of information. The silence was eventually broken when Kirishima slammed his fist into his open palm, "I got it!" He turned to Izuku, beaming a large toothy grin at him, while the green-haired boy raised his eyebrow in interest and possible concern.