A/N Hello everyone! I'm still here! I am so sorry for the long delay with this chapter. Between writer's block, some unexpected life changes and just life in general I was struggling to get this chapter put together. Things should start moving quickly now. There are some chapters I'm excited about coming up so hopefully writer's block will stay at bay!

Thank you to everyone who has stuck around and for those who are new to this story! We are coming up on 1 year that I've been writing this story and we just passed over 3000 views! I am in utter disbelief and so very humbled that you all have shown so much love to this story!

As always, I love seeing comments from my readers and try to respond back as often as I can!

All the Love and Light to you all!
Kahelle

Chapter 27 - Remembering

"I wish you could be here to see us off."

Aine smiled at Emma through the screen of her phone, "I know. Maybe next time."

Christopher's face appeared behind Emma, the chaotic noise of the airport humming from around them "We should be back next month for another development meeting." He placed his hands on Emma's shoulders as he spoke.

"Hopefully, we've already figured out some things so you…"

Aine put her finger to her lips, interrupting Emma "Careful, you never know who is listening." Emma nodded in understanding, "Message me on this line as soon as you get home."

"I will. Aine?"

"Hm?"

Emma looked to Christopher and then back to the screen before shifting into German, "Bitte tun Sie nichts Voreiliges. Ich verspreche, wir geben nicht auf. (Please don't do anything hasty. I promise we aren't giving up.)"

"Ich werde mein Bestes geben, lass es mich wissen, sobald du wieder zu Hause landest. (I will do my best, let me know as soon as you touch down back home)."

A garbled announcement echoed over the phone, "That's us, babe. We better get going." Christopher gently squeezed Emma's shoulders before leaving view.

"Okay, go on. I'll catch up." Emma said looking off-screen before turning back to the phone, "We will text you the moment we can. We love you!"

"I love you both too." Emma smiled and waved as the call ended.

Aine dropped the phone into a drawer in her desk before picking up the small bento she had brought for lunch. No sooner had she opened the container when someone knocked at her door. She resealed the meal and set it to the side before going to answer the door.

A familiar shock of green hair greeted her as she opened the door to her office.

Midoriya only froze for a moment before quickly bowing, "I'm sorry for missing our appointment. I hope you'll forgive me." The apology tumbled out of his mouth, a slight nervous tremble in his voice.

She stopped, slightly taken aback at the abrupt apology. Aine hadn't reported his absence the day before and didn't even mention it to Shouta. In all honesty, with everything that had happened the week before, she didn't blame the kid for not coming that day.

"Midoriya, there is no apology necessary. I have a little bit of time left before my first afternoon appointment. Come in and we can talk." she stepped to the side as Midoriya looked up at her questioningly before giving a short nod and walking into the room.

She gently closed the door behind them and walked past him to sit in the chair across from the couch, motioning for him to have a seat.

"So, let's start by addressing the elephant in the room: the reason why you missed your appointment with me yesterday." Aine leaned back in the chair, crossing her legs, and holding her knee with her hands.

Midoriya sat quietly, his eyes fixed on a spot in the floor and his hands fisted tightly on his knees.

She continued, "I'm going to say a few things and I want you to tell me if I'm on the right track. Just a simple yes or no will suffice. To keep it fair, you can ask me questions as well in the same manner."

He looked up at her and nodded.

"Ok, " She leaned forward, placing both feet on the floor with her elbows resting on her knees. "You were never a 'late-bloomer', you were quirkless up until the day of the entrance exam correct?"

He nodded.

She waited for him to ask a question. When he stayed silent, she continued "You were told to keep this quirk a secret from everyone, correct?"

Green eyes lifted from the carpet to look straight at her as he nodded yet again.

She paused as she watched him begin to fidget slightly, "You understood all of the dangers not just of being a hero but of holding All Might's power before you agreed to this?"

The first hesitation. Midoriya's eyes fell back to the carpet as he slowly shook his head "no".

Aine felt her jaw clench but kept her expression as neutral as she could. "I see." He looked up as if trying to read her inner thoughts through her eyes.

"Can…can I ask some before.."

She gestured in the affirmative, Midoriya took a deep breath, "Ok. Um. You are or were a villain."

Aine flinched, Damn, right to the point. He must have caught her hesitation as he seemed to lean forward in anticipation of her answer. She nodded and added, "The latter."

"And you worked for All for One?"

"Yes."

"But you don't anymore?"

"No."

He gave an audible exhale of relief, "Sorry, just had to make sure."

"It's fine, Midoriya." She glanced at the clock, only about 5 minutes before her next appointment would be arriving, "Enough time for one more question. Would you like to ask one or answer one?"

He began to fiddle with his hands, "I'll ask. Were you going to advise me to give One For All back?"

There it was. Aine paused for a moment as she ran through the hypothetical in her head, "Yes."

The teen's entire body fell, as his eyes focused back on their earlier spot on the carpet "Oh."

"However…" his eyes snapped up to her, "It would have only been advice. I would not have pressured you to give it up and if you said no that would have been the end of the discussion." She leaned forward and put her hand on the boy's shoulder, "With what I know of All for One and those under his employ, I will continue to worry for you and those you care about. So, no matter what I will be in your corner whether you need advice, information or…"

"I AM HERE! I AM HERE!"

Midoriya startled, fumbling to turn off the alarm chiming from his watch.

"Is that?"

He held it out towards her, "It's the Limited Edition All Might 20 Year Celebration watch. They only made a handful of these to celebrate All Might's 20-Year streak as the Number One Hero." He pulled his arm back close to him as he ran his fingers over the glass watch face, "I had a replica one, but it got broken during training one day. Sasaki is thinning down his hero collection to make more room in his dorm and gave this to me. He said he was going to get rid of it anyways but knew that I'd take better care of it than anyone else."

Aine looked quizzically at Midoriya as he stood preparing to leave, "Why is he needing to thin down his collection?"

"Oh! You must not have heard; they are moving some of the other classes into the same dorms. Something about a supervision issue. It doesn't seem to affect the hero courses but the students in the General Studies and Business courses are being moved into the empty rooms in the 1C dorm."

Consolidating the kids into fewer dorms? Are they really spreading the hero staff so thin?

"Anyways, I…uh…better get to the lockers to get ready for training." Midoriya stood rubbing the back of his neck with his hand.

Aine nodded, "Thank you for coming by, Midoriya. I'm glad we were able to clear the air a little bit."

He gave a half nod towards her as a big smile crossed his face, "Yeah, me too." Aine started back towards her desk and forgotten bento as he headed for the door.

"Miss Satterfield?"

Aine looked up to see him standing with one hand on the doorknob turning to look at her with a kind smile, "I've met villains before who were not bad people and I know of heroes who were not good people. I believe everyone deserves a chance to be better, you know?" Without waiting for her answer, he opened the door and stepped into the hallway just as the bell rang for the end of the lunch hour.

She just stood for a moment, his words hanging in the air.

The week passed in relative normalcy. Most of the fervor over the campus restrictions had died down. Several students in the third-year hero courses were already being cleared to return to work studies and regular off campus access.

The pro-hero teachers were being worn thin and even with the third-year hero students returning to action it didn't seem to help lessen the load. She watched as each day seemed to wear her coworkers and her friends down.

"Tsukauchi seems to think that they will have all third-year and second-year hero students cleared before the end of the week." Shouta leaned forward, holding a mug of tea between his hands as he rested his arms on his knees. Exhaustion rolled off of him in almost palpable waves, "So far they've only been able to fully rule out a small population of students. Even those he cleared are still under surveillance once they set foot off campus."

Aine sat cross-legged on the couch next to him, a warm mug held in her hands as well. The weather had begun to turn colder with mid-December inching closer and closer. "Does he have any estimation on when they might be able to narrow down who the target is?"

Shouta placed his mug on the table before leaning back and pinching the bridge of his nose. "They were hoping to have it narrowed down before the Winter break starts but they seem to keep hitting dead ends. They've narrowed down those with risk-factors, sure, but so far most of the information has been vague at best and unusable at worst. It's a kid with a quirk the doctor wants to get his hands on which could be practically anybody at UA."

He glanced at the clock before stretching to stand, "Togata should be on his way with Eri. I should get going, are you coming for dinner tonight?"

Aine gathered the mugs and walked to the kitchen, "Not tonight, I'm afraid. I have some session notes to finish this evening."

"Eri will be disappointed. She's gotten used to you eating with us." Shouta slid his hands into his pockets, his back to the kitchen.

"I don't think she is the only one disappointed." Aine emerged from the kitchen and walked up behind him, slipping her arms through his to embrace him - resting her head against his back, "Tomorrow night, I promise."

"Tomorrow night." He grabbed one of her hands, pulling her around in front of him in an almost dance-like movement. "Aine, there is something I would like to ask you before I leave." He held one of her hands in his, his thumb absentmindedly caressing across her knuckles. "You and Eri have a bond. One I've only seen her display with a few other people on campus. Nemuri and Hizashi have been great with watching her but with everything going on it has been harder and harder to coordinate…"

Aine held her hand up to stop him "I'd be happy to watch her for you. When is your next patrol?"

"Thursday night, it won't be a full patrol – just the campus and dorm checks – so I shouldn't be out too late." Shouta released her hands and started rummaging through the pockets on his hero suit. His hand disappeared into one of the pouches he carried and emerged holding an apartment key card, "I had Nedzu make another spare key for my apartment. Here."

Aine took the key card and slipped it into her pocket, "I'm sure he thoroughly interrogated you on it." She said with a half-grin imagining the mischievous rodent tormenting him over the purpose of the key.

Shouta closed his eyes and sighed, "You have no idea." Opening his eyes, he used one hand to tilt her face back towards him, "I really do have to get going. I'll let Eri know that you'll be over for dinner tomorrow night. We will tell her about the arrangement after dinner." He leaned down, kissing her softly. "I love you."

"I love you too. I'll see you in the morning."

As soon as the door closed behind him, Aine got to work clearing her coffee table and spreading out the files she had brought home with her. Two files at the top caught her first focus: "Midoriya, Izuku" and "Sasaki, Osamu". She opened Midoriya's file first reading over the reports she had been sent with her initial request.

Thumbing through the information she had already looked over, she came across a tab she hadn't read. "Behavioral Reprimands"

What is this? She began reading.

Date: August 20, 2XXX

Student: Midoriya Izuku

Incident Report: Student Midoriya Izuku was brought to the office after an altercation with another student. Other student was forced to use quirk in order to defend against repeated physical and verbal attacks. Student Midoriya Izuku was sent to infirmary prior to reprimand meeting for burns accumulated in other student's defensive quirk usage. Student Midoriya Izuku falsely claimed that student used quirk without provocation which was refuted by staff witnesses.

Date: September 5, 2XXX

Student: Midoriya Izuku

Incident Report: Student Midoriya Izuku reported an unauthorized use of a quirk. According to student, a group of students used their quirks to trap him in a supply closet with rodents and insects. When accused students were interviewed, they stated that the incident had not happened as reported but that Student Midoriya Izuku had entered the closet willingly and had accidentally been locked in. Students refuted all claims that quirks were used. It was the determination of the administration that this is another false report from Student Midoriya Izuku. Student was referred to after school detention and assigned community service for falsely reporting his fellow students.

Aine read report after report. Each one ended along the same vein, "Midoriya was lying." "Midoriya was the instigator" "Midoriya acted out of jealousy."

One of the dates looked familiar.

She went in to her room and grabbed the thumb drive out of the hidden compartment on her nightstand. Setting her laptop on top of the files, she quickly opened up the files to the one she remembered. An incident report from September 5 by none other than Naomi Kinoshita.

Incident Report – Student Midoriya Izuku

Date of Incident: September 5, 2XXX

During my conference period, I was returning from a parent meeting when I passed by the custodial supply closet. As I came closer, several students dispersed and ran from the closet. On my approach, I heard the sounds of a student crying from inside the closet. I opened the door to find student Midoriya Izuku in the back corner of the closet. Scratches and other injuries were visible on student, but no obvious source was seen inside of the closet. Student reported to me that other students had used their quirks to push him into the closet with multiple rodents and insects. - Naomi Kinoshita

Report submitted: September 5, 2XXX

Status: Dismissed due to results of administrative investigation

Aine continued through the files, using her phone to take pictures of the physical files and upload the pictures and digital reports side by side. In her opinion, the evidence of a cover-up was blatant with everything in one place. It took hours to get all the files organized and put into a cohesive and encrypted file then transferred via direct link to her burner phone.

"I'm sending you a file to look at as soon as you get a chance. Let me know if this is enough information to hand over to the courts here." Aine sent the text message and started gathering up all of the papers littered across her coffee table. It would take a couple hours for the message to send with an attachment that size.

She glanced at the clock, it was almost midnight.

Nothing to do now but wait.