Her life was cloaked in fear.
The fear of being found again, the words from his lips haunting every thought, every move.

The call had been sent in earlier, of a couple quarreling by the lakeside, escalation slow but tangible, like a gas leak growing in scent.

He had kept closer tabs as of late, with the recent death disrupting both their lives.
He'd feared something like this might happen.
And so he promised himself to keep a more vigilant eye on the boy- now practically a man.
He had not been vigilant enough.

Kagami Lake was beautiful this year; at least there was a silver lining to his impromptu visit to the area.

The roar of a voice finally burst the simmering gas pipe, permeating the air with its arsenic.

"Your power isn't a gift; quirks are not gifts, they're instruments of death."

The water crashed against itself, against the man, wild and frantic, golden seaweed clinging to one of his arms as he fought the water.

Pale hands rose from the surface, clinging to life.

She was cold- deathly so, her lips a pale shade of blue. If he didn't hurry, she would doubtlessly suffer neurological damage.

He pushed the man away and moved up the slope of dampened grass, ignoring the depraved shouts of his ward.

"I'll find you. I'll kill you."

He had failed more than one person that day.


Despite the passing of time the memory's teeth still stuck like fangs in his conscious, venomous and tangible.
Of the nearly drowned woman's face, and the boy-grown-man he'd silently guarded for over a decade.

"Hannei Tsutomi's true- or rather original- name was Kishi Otani. Her identity was erased upon request as a line of protection against her then-significant other."

It was rather odd, having two well-trained, menacing pro heroes sitting in his shabby living room, hanging from his every word. Toshinori's interest made sense- any sort of injustice, from abusive cases to jaywalking, had always piqued his over-earnest concern.

The other male, however, was swirling black hole.

Sorahiko couldn't recall the last time someone had gotten the drop on him- immediately, too. For a marginal second he'd feared for his safety based on the wolves howling in the man's features before recognizing the goggles around his neck.

He was a different substance altogether, eddied in urgency and something dark, strikingly terrifying.
There would be little point in mincing words; Eraser Head had not come here to play games.

"Your master- the wielder of One for All before you- had a son, whom she put into adoption for his own safety. I always kept tabs on the boy, made sure he stayed out of trouble, that kind of thing."

He paused to allow the information to sink in. The pale face behind the scarf remained immobile, unfazed by this intel. His student, however, went rigid. "She…"

"Had a child, yes. After the death of her husband she feared her son's identity would eventually fall into the hands of her enemies and wanted to keep that from happening. I acted as a silent guardian and overlooked his foster upbringing from afar."

"He was the man in the incident?" True to his reputation, Eraser Head did not do foreplay. Torino turned his attention to him, nodded.

"His mother had recently passed-" Which reminded him to bring up a similar topic with Toshi concerning his young, naive protege, though now was certainly not the time. He simply dealt Toshinori a knowing look, for now. "-and I was fearful how her death might impact him. He'd never understood how she could leave him, even if it was for his own protection."

How foolish the child had been. Nana Shimura had given everything- everything- to keep him safe. In the end, even her own life.

Eraser Head seemed to be piecing the story together faster than Toshinori, dark eyes widening as he snatched the pieces from Sorahiko's hands.

"What did you see, when you arrived at Manami lake?"

Fear. Hurt.
Rage.

"Kishi Utani and Kotaru Shimura were in a relationship at the time of Nana's death. For whatever reason, they were having a dispute on the lake shore. He was-"

"He was what?" Though urgent, Eraser Head was surprisingly gentle, recognizing the elder's struggle to format the memory into audible reality. To release it onto the world, again.

"Kotaro was attempting to drown Kishi Otani in the lake."

Toshinori startled, breath a sharp, astonished gasp.
But something else sprinted across Aizawa's features, fled into his eyes like a dying star.

This meant something to him; something more than just a revealed event from the past.

"What did you do."
His lips barely parted for the statement, too detached for the question's inflection. The pendulum broke free from the twenty-seven year restraint, crashed against Sorahiko's ribs with precision.

"Kishi Otani was shaken up but alive, stable by the next morning. Terrified of Kotaro coming back. In exchange for not pressing charges, I worked with the government and protection agency to have Kishi Otani erased from the books-"

"Did you know?"

Toshinori had been in a stupor; he glanced at Aizawa when he voiced this strange question. Tendrils of hair were lifting around his shoulders, writhing in the wake of his stirring anger. The red of his eyes matched the color of the memory. Viperous.
Knowing.
"Did you know she was pregnant with his child?"

Sorahiko Torino didn't have to speak- his expression was answer enough.

Every sound left the room- the world.

Toshinori Yagi dwelled in a state of statelessness, unbound from reality.

All this time.
A red string, tied to each other, unseen, unknown.

"I had sworn to Nana Shimura to protect her son-"
"You protected an attempted murderer." Aizawa had become undone, barely able to contain the trembling moving from his fingers to the rise of his shoulders.
"Kotaro was admitted into a hospital and underwent severe rehabilitation-"
"Did you consider the effects this had on Kishi Otani, before you threw her away into obscurity? Did you consider how this would affect her unborn child?"

The nightmares of drowning. The fear of quirks. The running.

"Kishi Otanti was evaluated at the hospital and remained there until the birth of her child."

Toshinori couldn't breathe.
Eraser Head's face grew two shades past ivory.
The pendulum swung back, shattering the other wall of ribs.

"As a...precaution, in the event Otani rejected the pregnancy."

Aizawa's hair fell back with gravity; with it, his body, slumping against the chair. Torino looked halfway between grief and exasperation.

"Chiyo was born a normal, healthy baby. There was no question Kishi loved her, and both were released soon after. Kotaro remained in rehabilitation for nearly a year and never once attempted to contact Kishi- even if he'd tried, doing so had been made impossible."

"Did he know, about...'' Toshinori spoke for the first time, voice cracked over a skillet. The world was just beginning to bleed back into his senses, like a mountain of sand through the eye of a needle. His mentor shook his head.

"As part of our agreement, Kotaro was never made aware of Chiyo's existence."

Hannei Tsutomi- Kishi Otani- whoever, was a victim to a corrupt system, dealt a poor hand and plagued by a traumatic past she never fully reconciled, imprinting upon her daughter the very same fear.

Through Japan's acknowledgement laws, Hannei had every legal right to bestow Chiyo with her new given last name; it never would've raised an alarm when applying to schools, jobs, the like.

And yet the realization of her lineage, her powerful, world-recognized grandmother, his mentor, who passed the power of One for All to his very genes, gave Toshinori Yagi pause.

Chiyo Shimura, granddaughter of Nana Shimura.

"Where are you going?"
Aizawa had risen, steps uncharacteristically disjointed for someone whose natural gait was usually so lithe.

This meeting, while informative of her past, did nothing to change Chiyo's future. The archaic computers twenty-seven years ago wouldn't have had the features society had grown accustomed to now, like automatic back-ups and fail-safes. Kishi Otani's file had been permanently erased from existence and any information concerning her quirk along with it.

He could focus on the realities- the very likely mental trauma Hannei had and continued to suffer from, the negligence of the hero society in a handful of manners Chiyo would have a field day over- later, when she was safely at home.

"I know you must not understand my actions- I'm willing to live with that. I am sorry I can't provide more information than what I've given you."

Aizawa didn't waste a breath on answering.

"Where will you go now?" Toshinori hurried after him. He'd been polite enough to bow a good-bye to his master but not stable enough to acknowledge him any further. Gran Torino, wisely, didn't follow.

Chiyo Shimura.

"After the USJ attack, Chiyo's memory of Manami Seto began to reform. She located her through the database at UA-"

"You don't intend to seek her out tonight, do you?"

Night had indeed surrounded them. Aizawa hadn't even noticed. If Chiyo were here, she'd make some ridiculous comment about the sun "tucking in for the night" and laugh at her own nonsensical joke. His stomach clenched a little tighter.

"It's irrational to waste time. At the very least, we can access Seto's information and arrive first thing tomorrow-"
"What about school? We have work tomorrow morning anyway- why not wait until then to do this?"

Something was off. Toshinori had all but smashed the faculty door off its hinges less than twelve hours ago and shouted in his face about urgency even more recently, believing Aizawa wasn't taking this seriously enough.
Now he was haphazardly throwing traffic cones on their route, creating unnecessary detours.

"What?" Aizawa asked simply. Toshinori's features betrayed his faked concern about decency. "What's changed?"

Chiyo Shimura. That's what had changed. His mind still couldn't wrap around the name- the idea of who she truly was. It hesitated his response, re-evaluated the direction of action. "Perhaps...this is for the best."

"What?" Aizawa repeated. In the dark his skin shone like bone. Toshinori hesitated again.

"My- Nana Shimura hid her child in order to protect him from those who would bring harm to him. Are Kishi Otani's actions that different?"

There was no blow-out; he wasn't swept like a brittle bag of bones into the arms of a capturing weapon.
Instead Shota Aizawa turned and continued to his car as if Toshinori hadn't spoken at all.

"Listen, I know this isn't what you want to hear," Toshinori stepped in front of the driver's door, blocking access. "Shimura wanted to protect her family, more than anything-"

"By abandoning her child, yeah. I heard. I got the gist," Aizawa grabbed the handle and ripped open the door only to have Toshinori slam it shut, eyes fierce.

"It's not as simple as that-"

"I think it's very simple, actually," Fighting here would only suck both their energy clean, and a headache was already thrumming across his skull. "Chiyo Tsutomi's life has been ripped apart yet again by an unstable, frightened woman who has her hidden somewhere, probably under some sort of memory distortion. But because you now feel some connection to the situation, you believe your course of action should be followed."

"The League of Villains is after her!" The instantaneous transformation caught Aizawa by surprise. There would be no way of entering the car until the meatsack moved, unless they intended to waste more precious time. "Hannei has kept her safe for decades. You would risk her life just to be with her?"

"You would throw away her life just to abide by your dead mentor's wishes?"

Aizawa should've expected a reaction.
His breath grunted all the same when a hand made contact with his chest, denting him into the car. He clenched his teeth at the impact.

"Don't. Don't pretend it doesn't matter."

"This isn't about you," His fury broke through the floodgates. "She isn't a pet; you can't bottle and sit her on your shelf to be viewed for your pleasure, All Might. She's a human being, with a heart and mind and aspirations. Chiyo has a life here; I'm not letting anyone throw that away from an inflated sense of self-righteousness. Not even you."

"So who's it about then? You? You think because you're in love with her, you know what's best?"
Aizawa looked as if he'd struck him again. Something slimy webbed across Toshinori's gut; his instinct had been correct.
"For whatever reason, Tomura Shigaraki is after her. Opening an investigation and searching her out could lead him right to her."

"And if he already has her?" Aizawa asked quietly. "We have no proof the League of Villains didn't intercept them both somewhere down the line."

Toshinori wavered, both mentally and physically. His time was almost up.

"I understand you want to protect her in memory of your predecessor, and the idea that Hannei- Kishi- has mastered the art of disappearing is appealing to that desire, but take into consideration how it must feel to be the caged bird whose life continues only by the hands of others, clipped and isolated," Again with the animal comparisons, his mind choice to remind him, sinking back into the day at the park, the wendigo of just last week. "She's a prisoner, Toshinori."

There was no doubt his words rang true- even if he didn't want them to. The idea of Chiyo already being in the hands of the League of Villains was also another bitter pill to take.

But it was the way she'd looked at him the last time he'd seen her in person that struck him now. The embers that danced across her features, wild and unafraid and immobilizing him without need of her quirk, before she doused the fire herself, warming like summer as she looked at him.

"You're the closest thing I have to a best friend, but I can't allow you to try and direct my life for me."

How had he forgotten her?

Aizawa opened the car door freely this time.

"While I'd rather not, I'll call it for today. Finding Manami Seto's information tonight would simply lead me to staking the place out," Aizawa admitted. Toshinori gave a single nod before saddling over to the passenger side of the vehicle.

Chiyo was out there, trapped in a dream not fabricated herself.

The clock was ticking.


Author's Note: The first real deviation from the original series- Gran Torino didn't supposedly look after Nana Shimura's child. But what if he had, and for how long? Until he was happily married? Until this event? Hm, hm, hm.
But more importantly- who else knows Chiyo's heritage?