The last thing Midoriya clearly recalls is the announcement made about an hour before when school is supposed to end.
"All students and stuff are free to leave the building. It is strongly recommended that students are picked up by a family member."
Everything after that is a blur.
He distantly remembers realizing Todoroki and Bakugou weren't being picked up by their parents.
He can kind-of remember the car ride home.
He had no memory of what happened for the next three hours.
Now, nearly four hours later, he was sitting alone in his room. He clutched his notebook in one hand and the TV remote in the other. He almost didn't want to turn on the TV, because he was scared to know what happened.
Despite that, he turned on the TV and went to his favourite news channel, FNS Japan /note: "Fake News Stuff Japan- lol I cant name things/
The first thing he saw was a picture of his school. There were burn marks on some of the walls, and there was a massive burn hole where the gym doors had once been. His mouth dropped open.
Whoever did this has a quirk...! A powerful one!
He couldn't help his immediate excitement at the thought of a quirk. He chastised himself a little, telling himself that it was not the time to think about something like a quirk.
Even if it is fascinating...
He redirected his attention back to the news.
Now there was a second picture, showing the inside of the school. Surprisingly, he couldn't see any damage.
How could that have happened? Maybe he was just using his quirk to get in? But why? Wouldn-
He stopped his train of thought and turned back to the news.
No need for that right now. Or ever.
The pictures disappeared and the focus was back on the anchors.
"We do not have a lot of information on the attacker yet, however he has been contained and is in police custody. The police have yet to make an official statement, so we will be going based off of other sources."
Azumi is Midoriya's favourite anchor, because she stays close to the facts and is very logical and analytical.
"Many of you may be wondering what those burn marks are. From what we know right now, those are the result of a very dangerous fire quirk. We don't have any footage of the attacker in action, but there is footage caught by a security camera showing a lot of black smoke rising up from where the attacker entered the building."
Hideyo is Midoriya's least favourite anchor. He manages to be be the most ignorant person Midoriya has ever seen while still saying the most obvious things.
Hideyo looked like he was about to resume speaking, but Azumi cut him off.
"Before we continue, we would like to restate for anyone just joining that there have been no casualties from this attack. Nobody has been injured or killed. We do not have any further information regarding the state of anyone involved. However, we do have some more information on what happened during the attack. Or, more specifically, what ended the attack. Hideyo, would you like to take over?"
"Of course Azumi," he paused to shuffle through his papers, "in a moment here you will all see pictures of what happened, taken by a witness."
Several pictures showed up on screen. They were all very blurry, but you could still see the main subject. A masked person with brilliant red wings, brandishing a feather like a sword.
It's Hawks! It has been so long since he's made an appearance! I have to write this down!
Midoriya flipped open his notebook and grabbed the nearest pen. He wrote down the new information as quickly as possible, trying to keep up with what they were saying.
Hideyo continued talking.
"The quote unquote 'vigilante' Hawks showed up out of nowhere and stopped the attack. We have no clue how he did this, because as soon as he saw he was being filmed he used his feathers to block all of the cameras!"
He must have such amazing control! How does his quirk even work? How can he have such exact control over each of his feathers?
Azumi looked like she was about to begin speaking, but Hideyo resumed talking before she could say anything.
"This brings us to our question that we're sure many of you are asking! Where were the other vigilantes? As many of you may know, there are a few other vigilantes that make appearances much more often than Hawks. However, this time only Hawks showed up. Well, we have a few ideas as to why that might be!
Hideyo shuffled his papers again.
"Our first theory is that the vigilantes don't want to work together, or didn't want to be at the same place at the same time. It is clear that they do not consider themselves to be a team, and often actually avoid being around each other. This could be because they don't want to put each other in danger, but is probably just because they don't get along with each other."
Midoriya quickly dismissed that idea.
Most of them work together relatively often, so that can't be it... Also, what is with him saying they don't get along?
As soon as Hideyo paused Azumi took over and began speaking.
"The second theory is that they were all unavailable. Many people have noticed that the vigilantes are nearly always seen at night, and the only times they have been seen during the day is on weekends! This leads us to believe that they are all busy during the weekdays. They most likely all have jobs, and that is why they could not make an appearance. For more explanation on the vigilantes, please visit our website!"
Midoriya initially decided to ignore that, but then he stopped to think.
I wonder what their jobs would be... if they have them. What do they do?
He blanked. He had no clue what any of them would do as a job. After a minute of thinking about it, he looked back at the news. When he saw that they had moved onto something else, he turned off the TV.
He tapped his fingers on his leg, trying to come up with some sort of idea as to what they would do. He sat there thinking for what must have been five minutes before he decided he probably wouldn't come up with anything.
Then, just as he was about to put away his notebook, he had the sudden feeling that there was something was forgetting.
He searched his mind, trying his hardest to think of anything he was missing.
...
Wait...
Hold on a second...
Before the attack began, there was... something else...
The memory hit him like a bullet.
Kacchan was bleeding.
He was bleeding a lot.
...
And I have proof...
He could feel the cogs whirring in his brain, but he didn't know what he was trying to think of. He felt like he was on the cusp of some great realization... but nothing was coming to him.
Then he remembered something else.
He hesitated, then began flipping through the pages of his notebook.
When he found the page he was looking for, he got a strong sense of trepidation.
He continued anyways.
The notebook page had a picture he had taken of a news clip, showing Sudden /note: one of the vigilantes incase you forgot/ getting stabbed in the arm. He read the text around the picture, reminding himself what happened.
Sudden had gotten stabbed stopping a mugging, and was caught on a security camera.
When he saw the angle and position of the wound, his breath caught in his throat.
This... this is...
He didn't know if he wanted to continue. He shook his head.
I have... I have to. I have to know.
He slowly took out his phone, and opened up the photos gallery. He pulled up the picture he had taken earlier that day.
The picture of Kacchan's bloody arm.
Everything stopped.
He felt like he had the breath pushed out of him.
The bloodstain matched perfectly.