Author's Note: So we're back! Somehow I managed to crank out an almost 6k word chapter in a week, and yet I struggled with some 3.5k word chapters recently. I have no idea what's up with that. Now, there are a lot of POV switches in this chapter, but I did them at times when I thought it made sense. Anyway, this marks the end of Arc 3. Look forward to a new Lost Tales chapter soon!

Also, if you want to get into a place with other lovers of MHA, and specifically IzuJirou stuff, come on and join this Discord server that I'm on:

/eFtmT8cTbY

We're only kind of crazy, and not at all a cult... except, we also kind of are. Anyway, yeah, join that!

Or maybe you want something a bit less niche with still a lot of great authors? If so, I have another server!

6ZCTyGy7zZ

I hope you enjoy this chapter! It's cross-posted on Ao3 as well. Leave a review if you want to. I welcome the feedback! See you next time.

"You all know the stakes of today's combat, right?" Izuku asked his group as they approached a different area of training ground beta than they had seen the prior week.

"I know that you've already expressed interest in Todoroki and Kirishima. So you don't want to lose to them." Mei explained. "There's probably more to it than that, though."

"Yeah, you seemed pretty adamant about those other three being in this group too." Himiko pointed out.

"You're right. I saw how the other three did at the Sports Festival, and I am interested in them as well. They performed well, and if they're up for it, I'd want them to help us." Izuku explained, stepping onto the grounds. It was only a matter of time before the students would be there for the day's combat exercise.

"I'm intrigued by the addition of both Kirishima and Tetsutetsu." Fumikage added.

"They have basically the same quirk!" Dark Shadow added.

"Looking at it on a surface level, yes." Izuku said. "But there are some key differences. Becoming physically harder might protect against physical attacks, but what could it do against extreme heat or cold? What would it do against our soon to be very own Todoroki?"

"You've mentioned this before, Snake Eyes." Hitoshi said.

"NightHawk, and by extension, Dark Shadow, weren't there. What harm is there in another explanation?" Izuku asked.

"That's fair. But the mention of Todoroki is new this time around. Thinking about team attacks already. What a leader we have. Nerd." Mei said, rolling her eyes.

"I know, I know. It's still too early to really think about that kind of thing, but my mind has been moving a lot faster recently, even when I don't activate Analysis. Is it a possible passive effect? I have no idea. Something to think on later." Izuku got sidetracked. "Anyway, what I'm saying is that there are enough differences that would be situationally better for one than the other, and that's enough for me to want both."

"Fair enough." Kyouka shrugged. "Do we have a strategy this time? They're likely to be stronger competition than the past groups. Even if there are only five of them."

"I was actually thinking of splitting up." Izuku said. Nobody reacted. "Further than we already had done in prior matches." Izuku clarified. After that, there was a small chorus of "oh"s. "They won't expect it. We've moved as a few small units thus far. Having us all be separate from each other completely, barring a single person that can move back and forth quickly, can and most likely will catch them off guard. They've had the longest to study us. They have expectations. Time to break them." Everyone nodded in agreement.

"So who is gonna take on whom?" Mei asked.

"I'm thinking that Heartquake and Mastermind will guard the hostages this time. There are two headstrong members of their team that will likely barrel through everything to get to the hostages. Let them come. Heartquake, they turn solid. Your ranged soundwaves won't do much, but if you manage to stick your jacks into one of them, then it's bound to hurt. And Mastermind is self-explanatory."

"Hell yeah. I'll take 'em down." Kyouka smiled wide enough that even with her mask on, everyone else was still able to tell.

"NightHawk, you are on recond duty. And by that, I mean you will take out their recon: Tokage."

"That is doable for me." Fumikage nodded.

"Overwatch, you're going to be the best at tracking someone who is slippery. You'll take on Honenuki. I know that your glue won't do much to him if he just softens it and escapes, but I know that you have other tricks up your sleeve."

"You're damn right I have other tricks up my sleeve. I have quite a few babies that I have brought for testing purposes! They haven't needed to be used yet, though. But today seems to be the day!" Mei was clearly excited.

"What will I do?" Himiko asked.

"Changeling, you're going to do what you do best and ambush people. Stalk around the battles, and if anyone's fights turn south, jump in and swing it back in our favor." Izuku explained.

"Yes sir!" Himiko saluted.

"And don't forget to collect the blood from people." Izuku said.

"Haven't been forgetting this entire week. I have so many vials!" Himiko said.

"More babies!" Mei exclaimed happily.

"So what about you, Snake Eyes? What are you doing?" Kyouka asked.

"I'm going to fight Todoroki." Izuku said confidently. Everyone else went dead silent.

Kyouka took a deep breath. "Alright, if you think you can handle it. Changeling, make sure to keep a good eye on our leader's fight." She pointed at Himiko first, and then to Izuku. Himiko just saluted again.

"Yeah, I'll be careful. I've only seen him use his ice, but I'm sure that I'll be able to use that to my advantage." Izuku said. Before he could continue, however, the sound of approaching footsteps caught their attention. Out walked Shouta and the five students for today.

"It's good to see that you're here on time." Shouta nodded. "Are you all ready for today's fight?"

"We are." Izuku nodded, squaring off to Shouta. "Are they?"

Todoroki stepped forward with determination in his eyes. "We are."

"Good." Izuku said. "We're leaving now. We'll let you know when we're ready." Izuku said. Shouta simply nodded, and the six of them disappeared into alleyways, onto rooftops, and into whatever shadows they could find.


"Oh, they're totally gonna lose." Kaminari said from the observatory. He was still nursing his arm where that one knife girl had stabbed him a few days prior. "Todoroki is gonna wipe the floor with them. The dude's quirk is crazy powerful."

"None of us have even seen Changeling or Mastermind use their quirks yet." Yaoyorozu commented. "They're at a disadvantage. Snake Eyes is smart. It's still a wonder why Aizawa-sensei would even want them here after all the stuff that he had said about vigilantes still being criminals."

"Aizawa-sensei talks about rationality quite often, but with this entire situation, I haven't seen any, kero." Asui said.

"You're right…" Uraraka said. "I wonder if there's a reason behind it. It's kind of bordering on obsession from the looks of it."

"I bet it's a pride thing. They probably beat him up a few times and got butthurt about it." Kaminari offered.

"I… I wouldn't doubt that theory, actually." Yaoyorozu said.

"Quiet down up there." Vlad King said. "They're about to start the match. And obviously, my kids from 1-B will be the MVPs of it."

All of the class 1-A kids deadpanned at that and turned their attention back to the screen to see the action.


"They're in position. You're good to go." Shouta said before waving the kids off.

All five of them walked in together. They had been talking for a few days, at least once after every combat session that they had watched, and decided that sticking as one group wouldn't be as good for hostage rescue, none of the other groups had even gotten to the hostages yet. And if they got split up, everyone had their role that they would play.

And so, the five of them walked down the central street of this area of ground beta.

"I'm gonna start scouting a bit." Setsuna said, detaching her head and floating through the air. She surveyed for a few seconds before she saw a few things that caught her eye. The glint and shimmer of metal reflecting sunlight. She kept her eyes where they were, but sent her mouth back down to her comrades. "There's some metal on the rooftops of buildings up ahead. Something to keep in mind."

"Thanks, Tokage." Shouto said, immediately looking towards the rooftops. Overwatch had been seen on them quite frequently during the past few matches.

"If I need to, I can make a quick departure." Honenuki said. "I'm able to swim through the softened material. I should be able to make an escape should the situation get hairy."

"Very flexible of you!" Tetstutetsu said with a laugh. "And manly! Right, Kirishima?" Kirishima was oddly quiet, obviously on guard, but also deep in thought. "Kirishima?" Tetsutetsu repeated.

"Oh, sorry. Yeah, manly." Kirishima agreed.

Before anyone else could say anything, though, Setsuna's mouth started talking again. "Evasive maneuvers! Those metal things are moving!"

Sure enough, small metal canisters glinted in the afternoon sun as they crested over the edges of the roofs along the main street. They fell onto the street below and bounced once, then twice, and on the third bounce, exploded into a purple gas that covered the street in front of them.

"Split up!" Shouto yelled. "Be careful of the gas!"

Honenuki immediately sank into the ground. Tokage's body split up into various pieces and flew off in a different direction. Shouto ran into a nearby alleyway. Kirishima and Tetsutetsu simply held their breath and dashed through the gas. Once on the other side, Kirishima turned to his ally.

"If they're setting this trap for us here, that must mean that we were on the right track."

"That's exactly what I was thinking! Manly!"

"Let's go!" Kirishima yelled before taking off in the direction they were facing. Coincidentally, this was exactly what was expected of them, so they set up the hostages directly in the path. It was rather obvious which building Heartquake and Mastermind were in, too, especially when they were both looking down into the street from the windows. Right in Kirishima's and Tetsutetsu's line of sight.

So they pushed forward, barreling through the door and charging up the stairs. They burst through door after door on their way to the two vigilantes. The final door wasn't even closed.

Kirishima and Tetsutetsu stepped into the room filled with robotic mannequins tied up along the walls, the word "hostage" scrawled across their foreheads.

"So you've made it." Heartquake said as she turned around.

"We're here to take you down!" Kirishima said.

"I'm sure you think you are. But you're not going to." Mastermind challenged. "You're at a disadvantage. Do you know why?"

"We're not at a disadv-" Kirishima answered before freezing mid sentence.

Tetsutetsu immediately made his body turn into iron. "What did you do? What happened to him?" He rushed the duo with a flurry of punches.

"It's simple." Mastermind said as he dodged out of the way of the attack. "I lied." He ducked under another punch that was thrown out by Tetsutetsu. Only to be caught with another one that connected with his gut. He slid across the ground and shakily stood up, coughing a bit as he did so.

Tetsutetsu walked towards him, visibly angry. "Whatever you did to my bro, get rid of it!" One punch. Two punches. Three punches all riddled Mastermind as he struggled to stand up from the assault. Before another blow could be landed, however, Heartquake jumped onto Tetsutetsu's back and plugged her jacks into his metal skin.

A harsh ringing sound flooded Tetsutetsu's mind as he began to feel shaky. He tried to wrench the girl around his neck off, but with the way that everything was being shaken, including his vision, he couldn't get a good grip. Heartquake braced her feet against the floor and pushed him towards the window. She was still pulsing her heartbeat into Tetsutetsu to make it so that he was still disoriented.

In the chaos that was this sound echoing through his metallic body, he reached out for whatever was nearest to him and grabbed hold of Heartquake herself as he broke through the window and began to fall.

Heartquake quickly maneuvered the two of them mid-air so that Tetsutetsu was on the bottom and braced for impact. As the two of them connected on the ground, Heartquake tucked into a roll before standing and quickly cuffing her opponent. Mastermind slowly and shakily stood up after seeing if his comrade was okay. He made his way over to Kirishima, put a cuff on him, and then nudged him hard enough to break the brainwashing.

"-antage!" Kirishima yelled.

"Hey now, calm down." Mastermind said, covering his ears.

"What happened?" Kirishima asked.

"You fell for my quirk. Your partner got captured, and now you did too. Like I said, you were at a disadvantage." Mastermind took a deep breath before sitting on the ground. Next to Kirishima.

"So what now?"

"Now we wait until the rest of your team is taken down. It won't be too long now." Mastermind answered. "In the meantime, I suppose I should tell you that our leader sends his regards. Have you given any more thought into us?"

"I…" Kirishima trailed off. He was about to finish when a massive ice spire pierced the sky, followed by the sound of a deep roar.

"Well, looks like things are getting interesting." Mastermind said, standing up. "Just give it some more thought." He patted Kirishima on the back.

"Wait!" Kirishima said, getting up to follow him.


As soon as Honenuki surfaced from his softened ground into an alleyway, he felt a rather painful impact on his right arm. He looked down at the point of pain to see a glob of bright pink goo covering the right half of his body.

"So that's why that side of me can't move." He nodded to himself. He simply softened the goo and pulled his arm out of it.

"You're going to have to try harder than that to restrain me." He said towards the sky as he looked upwards. His voice was surprisingly calm. There was no response, just a figure jumping across the rooftop that they alleyway sat in between. "Now if you'll excuse me, I'll be going now. I have teammates to assist. I can't have them losing because I'm not there to help." And he retreated down into the ground once more. He swam for a few seconds before surfacing to try to hear or see where his friends were. It was at this moment that he saw a massive ice pillar form in one direction and heard a massive roar from another direction. His head turned to the direction that the roar came from and then sank below the ground again.


Mei had expected that the first round would be softened. It was just a test shot anyway. She had several thousand more of her adhesive rounds. Sacrificing one for a test was nothing. What was frustrating was the fact that she couldn't see where this guy was going most of the time. He was far enough below the surface of the ground that the infrared wouldn't pick up the heat signature. It was only when he was in the process of surfacing that she could get a read on where he was. And so she kept an eye on the ground.

And he quickly surfaced again. So she stopped moving. She was a bit startled by the massive ice spear that just formed to her right in the distance, but she knew that Izuku could handle it. Then came the roar that she could only assume was from Dark Shadow. She saw her target look off in that direction and resubmerge. In the limited time that she could see his heat signature, she was able to see that he was headed in that direction.

So she leapt from rooftop to rooftop in that direction until he surfaced again. Thankfully, she didn't have to wait too long. He appeared in another alleyway directly next to where she was now.

"This is my chance…" She thought. "But how do I capture him? Out of all of my babies, my guns don't work, my grappling hook wouldn't do… Wait! That's it!" She pulled a small metal spherical canister out of a jacket pocket and looked at it. She then noticed that Honenuki had a helmet… "And if he can swim through things, then there must be something in it that makes it so he can breathe. This gas won't do much… I'll have to take the mask off. There's no way I'm strong enough on my own to get it off. Good thing I have a crowbar today."

But before she could put her plan into action, Honenuki slipped below the surface once more. Cursing herself, she began jumping from rooftop to rooftop, hoping to be near where he surfaced again.

Unfortunately for her, that time, she wasn't. And the next two times after that. It seemed that he wasn't able to discern direction very well underneath everything. "That would be understandable, honestly." Mei thought to herself. But she kept trying, and eventually, she managed to be on the rooftop directly next to him when he resurfaced. Pulling her crowbar out of her jacket, she managed to sneak to the edge of the roof without him noticing. And so she put her plan into action. She leapt down from the roof, landing right behind him. Before he could react, her crowbar was on his mask, prying it off of his face. She managed to chip a small bit of it before the crowbar was liquefied.

That didn't matter, though. With her free hand, she jammed the sphere towards his now exposed mouth only for that to be liquefied as well. Fortunately for her and unfortunately for him, the gas began to seep out through the liquid. Soon enough, the alleyway was filled with Midnight's Somnambulist gas, and after a few seconds of struggling, Honenuki fell unconscious.

She dragged him out of the quickly hardening ground and set him up against the wall, cuffing him. She let out the breath that she didn't realize that she was holding and sat down next to him, unaffected by the gas due to the gas mask that comes with every mask that she's ever made. She took out her target. All she had to do was have faith that the others would take theirs out too.


Tokage was in an awkward predicament. She could be anywhere she wanted to in this training ground, and yet, she's been finding herself going into some kind of bunker because she saw a figure dart into there.

So against her better judgment, here she was sneaking into this area. Her body parts floated through a few different hallways until she reached the final room. There was a single figure sitting in the room, a few lit candles sitting on the ground.

"This is kinda freaky, not gonna lie." Tokage said, making her body parts coalesce back together.

"You have come to my domain." Fumikage said, opening his eyes.

"Yeah, you're kinda wacky. This will be over with quickly. Don't worry." She winked and then split up her body parts. They swirled around the room before they began to swirl towards NightHawk.

NightHawk stood up and flourished his cloak. The candle light went out immediately. "You're right about that." All of Tokage's attacks were slamming into Fumikage, staggering him. He braced one of his legs and pushed to stand up. "Come forth! Midnight Berserk!"

Tokage's eyes went wide at the size of the monster that began to form around this man as it let out a deafening roar. But instead of retreating, she just doubled her efforts. Each of her strikes became more powerful. They moved faster before each of their strikes. Tokage's head stayed back to observe, but that seemed to be the wrong move as Dark Shadow lashed one of its tendrils out.

It grabbed Tokage's head and slammed it into the wall. She screamed as her face made contact with the hard wall. That had hurt, and she had to think of something quickly. Before she could do anything other than pelt NightHawk with her Scale Storm, her head was bashed into the wall again and again until she reached unconsciousness. Each of her body pieces stopped moving for a second, and then moved to her head, reattaching to her body before everything went limp.

Dark Shadow retreated back into NightHawk, but not before speaking. "Thank you for granting me control."

"Thank you for your help." NightHawk nodded before he cuffed Tokage's unconscious body. He picked her up and took her back to the entrance. It would be better for people to know where she was.


Shouto took a deep breath as soon as he escaped the gas cloud. He placed his hand on his forehead as he sighed. Steeling himself, he pressed onwards. He had to find someone. This was… This was a test for him. For everyone else, it was an exercise, but for this, this was a chance to prove himself useful.

And so he set off down the street, running quickly to find someone.

Only for someone to find him first. He heard the impact of boots on the ground behind him. Turning around, he saw Snake Eyes standing up from the ground. "Hello Shouto Todoroki." Before anything else could be done, Shouto sent a massive ice spire towards his location, not hoping to hurt, but immobilize. The massive spikes of ice reached higher than the buildings around him and pierced the skyline. He didn't see Snake Eyes, though. Had he missed?

The sound of clapping resonated from a nearby building. Snake Eyes exited through another door. "Congratulations, Shouto Todoroki. Your display of power is quite impressive."

"You didn't get hit." It wasn't a question but a statement.

"There was a door right next to where I was standing. You can't see it now, though. It's blocked by the ice. Oh well." Snake Eyes shrugged. "We'll just wait and see what else you can do before your place can be certified."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"You're gonna have to catch me to find out." Snake Eyes said to him. He leapt between the walls that framed the alleyway until he reached the roof. With a thumbs up, Izuku disappeared, obstructed by the rooftop.

Shouto shook off the small mass of ice that had formed along his right arm. He grimaced and looked back up to the rooftop. Sighing, he created some more ice to help him climb to the top of the rooftop, more ice forming along his right side as he did so. Snake Eyes was standing on the rooftop of the building next to him.

"You're slow, Todoroki." Snake Eyes said. "Your ice seems to slow you down, doesn't it? Why is that? Aren't you able to use fire too?"

"I can't…" Shouto said.

"And why not?" Snake Eyes tilted his head to the side.

"It's too close to him. You saw the documents! I can't be him!" Shouto yelled.

"Seems to me that you're not going to commit, then." Snake Eyes sighed. He shrugged. "Well, if you're gonna half-ass this, then I guess you're not really up to be a part of our group."

"What?!" Shouto half-screamed. He sent a wave of ice towards Snake Eyes, who simply stepped to the side.

"If you can't get over yourself to use your power to the best of your ability, then you will be holding your teammates back." Snake Eyes said. "You're not the only one with trauma here. You aren't your father, and if you think that you can get by while only using half of your potential, then you're wrong."

"You're wrong!" Shouto yelled again. Another line of ice, this time, though, Snake Eyes threw some of his dice bombs in the path, blowing up the ice before it hit him.

"Am I, though? If I were a villain right now, your ice would be ineffective. I can destroy it before it even reaches me. And all the while, you grow slower as the ice starts to cover you." Snake Eyes taunted. "You're strong, but you're only holding yourself back, and that can be taken advantage of." He motioned behind Shouto by nodding.

"What do you mean?" Shouto turned around to see Changeling lunging at him. He screamed in shock and immediately threw up an ice wall in between them. That stopped the attack in its tracks, but it didn't stop the attack that Snake Eyes had launched into. Three dice bombs landed in front of Shouto, blowing up almost immediately. He was knocked backwards only to get knocked in the face by a boot as Snake Eyes' kick landed a hit against him.

"Don't lose your focus." Snake Eyes taunted. Changeling managed to maneuver around the ice wall and landed a few jabs into Shouto's back., knocking him to the ground. Snake Eyes stood over him and placed a boot on his back. "You're weak. You're not going to work as a hero, let alone one of us if you don't use your power."

"It's his power!" Shouto breathed in shakily. "And I won't use it."

Snake Eyes kicked him in the stomach. "Then you'll fail. It's never been his power. It's always been yours. And now you're going to lose this training because of your stubbornness. Your quirk may be strong, but your resolve is too weak." Snake Eyes grabbed Shouto by the shoulder, pulling him up to a standing position before punching him in the stomach, making him double over again.

Shouto's mind flashed back to his childhood when his father had hit him in the exact same way. The sheer rage for the man that he felt ignited within him, and with that, his left side ignited as well. The ice that was almost encasing his right side began to melt.

Snake Eyes stepped back before he could get burned and took up a fighting stance. As Shouto stood up, Changeling tried to sweep his legs out from underneath him, only to have her leg frozen in place in the process.

"I am not weak.' Shouto said, his left side igniting in a plume of orange fire that crackled towards the sky.

"Then prove it." Snake Eyes replied, staring down the boy. Changeling had managed to hack her leg out of the ice and retreated behind the now melting ice wall, disappearing from view. The raging inferno that Shout created was making it difficult for Snake Eyes to stay in the general vicinity. Shouto simply raised his left hand towards Snake Eyes.

Snake Eyes could feel the change in temperature as Shouto pointed his palm towards him. He preemptively jumped off the roof of the building, grabbing hold of some of the architecture as a means of not falling all the way down to the ground on his own. And Snake Eyes was definitely thankful that he did so as a major explosion of fire billowed out over the rooftops.

Snake Eyes heard a gasp and then a thud before the temperature returned to normal. He climbed back up to see Changeling standing above Shouto's body on the ground.

"I hit a particularly nasty pressure point." Changeling shrugged.

"Good work." Snake Eyes said. "Cuff him. Take some blood if you want." Changeling nodded and went to work. "Checking in. What is the situation for everyone?" He asked over comms.

"Mastermind and I have taken down Kirishima and Tetsutetsu." Heartquake said.

"I took care of Honenuki." Overwatch said.

"Tokage has been defeated." NightHawk added.

"Wonderful." Snake Eyes said. "We have taken down Todoroki. I'll be sending Changeling to collect samples. I'm going to wait until Todoroki wakes up, and then he and I are going to have a talk."

"I'm awake, I just can't move." Shouto said with slight sadness in his voice.

"Alright, I'll get on my way. Let me know where everyone is!" Changeling said over comms, dropping down from the roof.

"Hey!" Snake Eyes yelled into the air. "Wherever the cameras are, we're done! You can stop listening in now!" After a few seconds of waiting, Snake Eyes squatted down next to Shouto. "I'll help you move. Let's have a talk, you and I, alright?" He helped Shouto to his feet and began going down the interior stairwell. Once they got to the bottom floor, Snake Eyes set him down on the ground.

"So what did you want?" Shouto looked up at Snake Eyes.

"You're getting what we both wanted. Welcome aboard." Snake Eyes said.

"What?"

"Nezu found out who we are and is willing to help us." Snake Eyes said.

"He found out who you are? What does he want from you?" Shouto asked.

"He wants us to help him with something. Something that you'll be helping with coming here soon."

"He asked you for help and you just agreed to it?" Shouto asked.

"We didn't have much of a choice." Snake Eyes admitted. "It was either help him or probably be arrested. He knows our names and our faces. We can't do much else. But regardless of that, you won't need to worry about your Work Study. We have permission to take you on as our apprentice."

Shouto's face lit up. "That's… incredible."

"I take it that you're in agreement, then. You'll be working with us here soon. We'll clear out a room for you. Nezu's worked it out so that you'll be with us the entire time and that your class won't know a thing about it." Snake Eyes explained. "I'm not too sure when it is yet, but you'll be with us, at least for a little bit."

"We were told that they would start in two weeks, but that was at the beginning of this week. So probably a week from now I would say." Shouto said.

"Wonderful." Snake Eyes clapped his hands together. "We'll see you then. I'll send you our address the day before. If you tell anyone this address, know that there will be consequences." Snake Eyes threatened.

"I understand." Shouto nodded. "Is there anything else?"

Before Snake Eyes could answer, Mastermind's voice called out over the comms. "I've talked with Kirishima. He wants to meet with us after his work study is over."

"Yes, there is one last thing. We're going to be recruiting more than just you from your classes."

"Who else are you thinking of?" Shouto asked. "If I'm going to be a member, I want to stay in the loop."

"Let's just say that today's fight wasn't just a tryout for you."

"That may be more difficult than you might think. Aizawa has been keeping people informed about the illegality of vigilante work and how they, and more specifically, you, are dangerous." Shouto cautioned, just becoming able to stand up on his own. "They didn't say much when you all were announced, but after school and during lunches, they've been up in arms about it. Saying that it doesn't make sense for Aizawa to be okay with this. That they're worried about how dangerous you are."

"It seems Aizawa preaches logic while being susceptible to letting his own emotions take over. But in terms of our recruits, you'll find that I can be rather persuasive when I want to be." Snake Eyes said, heading towards the door. As he reached it, he turned around one last time and took his mask off. A rather average looking kid with freckles and green hair was behind that mask, smiling at Shouto. "Make us proud, alright, Shouto?" And with that, he put his mask back on and left Shouto alone.


"So you wanted to talk with me?" Mastermind asked Kirishima.

"You asked about my thoughts on joining… I hadn't messaged you yet…"

"Well, Nakada Oda did tell us about you. Word travels fast. Now, do you have an answer?"

"Not yet… I have a Work Study coming up soon, and that's going to take up a lot of my time… But afterwards… I would like to meet with all of you and talk…" Kirishima said.

"Understood." Mastermind said. He then touched his ear and spoke. "I've talked with Kirishima. He wants to meet with us after his work study is over." He turned back to Kirishima. "Anything else?"

"Are you all doing the right thing?" Kirishima asked.

"We're helping people in ways that heroes can't. We're not hurting anyone but the villains that need to be and those that try to stop us. That's all I can say." Mastermind trailed off, sighing. "Morality has become so subjective that nobody will ever agree on what's right. To us, we are, but I'll leave your judgements to you." He sighed and was silent for a few seconds. The next time he spoke, his voice was much softer. "The villains always think they're right anyway." Mastermind turned around and left through the window after that. Tucking into a roll as he hit the ground, he stood up, and along with Heartquake, stood guard over the two of them until the new member – Changeling – came by and, after some prodding, managed to extract some blood from both himself and Tetsutetsu. And then they were just left alone.

"What am I going to do now?" Kirishima thought to himself as he sat against the wall and slowly slid down to the floor.


"Ah, home sweet home!" Mei yelled as she kicked the doors to their warehouse open.

"We'll need to clean out a room or make a new one. We'll have a new person sleeping here in a week." Izuku said.

"Wait, Shouto's gonna be here in a week?" Hitoshi asked.

"That's what he said. If we're hosting him for his Work Study, aren't we? That's next week." Izuku explained.

"Shit! We have to get stuff ready for him! Ask him what he wants his costume to look like!" Mei said, immediately going into overdrive. "I'll sleep with Hitoshi from now on. Clean out my room!"

"And his name." Hitoshi added. It took him a second before he realized what Mei had just said. "And that's news to me.

"Right, right. I'll send him a quick message." Izuku agreed. He sent the text and then went to noew Mei's old room. There was a lot left to do, but even with this seemingly insignificant thing: costume and name for a new member, it was still enough to make Izuku smile with pride.