Aldera Junior High was a three storied building. The Ground Floor contained a modest reception, a canteen and the kindergarten area. The First Floor consisted of entirely recreational activities, from music to drama. Even if the school didn't provide a slew of choices, it was undeniable that the choices were there. The Second Floor consisted of the rest of the classes.

Even as the sun continued to rise, children slowly began filtering out of the building and into the playground for recess. Some played with their friends while some sat under the trees and sat with others. One lone child sat on the roof, far away from the ledge and reading a book that he handled like a priceless treasure.

Izuku had only recently found this refuge. Not many people dared to come to the roof, partly because there was a risk of getting locked out and partly because there were the usual rumours of a ghost.

Izuku had decided that he would take a ghost over Katsuki any day.

After making sure the door remained open, he had spent a good half of recess making sure he was alone.

Okay, maybe he might've been a little scared of the supposed ghost and had made sure there were no residents, corporeal or human.

Izuku hummed as he read the latest book Mase had sent him. A smile played on his lips as he realised how much the man had changed his life.

After making sure he had reached home, he dropped by now and then to make sure Izuku was okay, a fact that his mother initially found suspicious but let it be when she realised he was bringing Izuku out of his shell.

He remembered the day when he had finally debated with the man.

"Tell me, have you read the works of Lard, Holm and Taiko?" He had asked Izuku, who simply blinked at him. Izuku wasn't sure if he was talking about books or people.

Seeing his confusion seemed to have made Mase realise who he was talking to.

"Ah, sorry! Sometimes I forget you're 5."

Izuku blushed as he realised as he was being complimented. He liked Mase because he never went beating around the bush. He made the point and then used references to prove his point.

"Is it something I should know?" Izuku had tentatively asked. He had stopped stuttering around Mase, something which the man attributed to how comfortable Izuku felt around him.

Mase seemed to think for a second before asking a question.

"Do you think all Hero's are good?"

Izuku was about to say the usual. Of course they were, they were HERO'S. But he paused as a memory pushed itself forward.

A man clad in a red and white costume looked at Izuku before saying, "I have more important things to do."

That day had made Izuku realise that the world wasn't composed of right and wrong. He had gone online, seen if what happened was a one-off or had occurred multiple times. Although there was nothing reported against StarShot, there were many other rumours about other Hero's.

Even if Izuku didn't understand the big words they used, he knew it was something Hero's shouldn't do.

Izuku held back his reflexive response and slowly replied.

"Before, I thought that all Hero's were good. But I saw some reports on the Internet about something called traffic-uh traffic ring?"

Mase smiled at him before correcting him.

"Trafficking. It's when people buy or sell things that are considered illegal."

"Right. That. There were reports about Hero's doing that. Although the Hero's didn't have any official complaint, the people who wrote the article were fired."

Mase reared his eyebrows in surprise.

"How did you find out that they were fired?"

Izuku laid out his approach.

"I wanted to see if they wrote any more articles about it. Mother says they're called 'follow ups'. When I searched for it, there weren't any follow ups. So I typed their names into the search bar, I got many old articles, some which even said good things about the previous Hero, but there weren't any new ones. So I kept on scrolling until I found a small article saying 'two journalists were released due to journalistic mal-mal-"

Mase saved him the effort by saying the word himself, "Malpractice."

Izuku have him a look of relief before continuing on, "I asked Mom about it. She said that though she didn't know exactly why, it meant that they were fired."

Izuku paused before a second before asking Mase, "What does that mean?"

"Malpractice means when people don't do what they're supposed to. For example, if you go to a doctor and he gives you medicine for a cold when you have a fever. Even if it's an honest mistake on his part, the wrong medicine could've hurt you. So it's the doctors fault. That's called malpractice."

Izuku seemed to dwell on his words for sometime before saying, "So it's basically not doing your job correctly."

Mase nodded before adding on, "And when it causes an injury. If it doesn't cause an injury then it's negligence."

Izuku then asked something that had been bothering him for a while, "I understand the doctor part. How do reporters do the malpractice thing?"

Mase collected his thoughts before continuing, "Reporters are supposed to report on actual events. If a fire breaks out, they're supposed to tell where the fire was, how much damage it did and more relevant details. Journalistic malpractice is when reporters make up events in order to support their own views. In other words they lie in order to make people believe in what they think."

Izuku nodded his head as Mase spoke. It all made sense in his head except one thing.

"How is it malpractice then? It's supposed to hurt someone in order to be bad. How do you hurt someone with a report?"

Mase seemed to think on it before presenting a situation to Izuku.

"Look at it this way. Imagine there's a Hero. Hero's help people and people allow themselves to be helped because they trust Hero's. Understood so far?" Mase asked Izuku who nodded.

"The trust people have in Hero's is what allows them to do their jobs. Imagine what happens when someone says that the Hero is doing things they're supposed to stop."

A light bulb went off in Izuku's head. He looked towards Mase who simply waited for him to say what he thought.

"The Hero's lose that trust. They can't help people because the people don't trust them. And it...hurts the Hero because they can't do their job anymore."

Mase had a proud smile etched onto his face. He felt like a proud mother hen who had seen her chicks first flight. Mase brushed aside the fact that chickens couldn't fly in favour of the appropriate metaphor. And because he didn't know what else chickens did.

Izuku's smile died down as he realised something else.

"That means the reporters...lied?"

Mase sighed. Izuku was only 5 years old. He knew that eventually he would be exposed to the dark underbelly of society...but it still felt too soon.

"Sometimes Izuku, people who tell the truth are punished."

"Punished? But...it's the truth. You get punished when you do something bad."

Mase winced as he realised his error.

"Okay, that was my fault. Punished isn't the correct term. Do you know what consequences mean?"

Izuku nodded his head so quickly that Mase worried for the kid's neck. One day the boy would nod his head off. Mase was sure of it.

"Whatever people do has consequences."

Izuku chewed his thumb as he thought about the statement.

"Even the good things?"

"Especially the good things."