Her eyes groggily opened as the morning sun flooded her room. There was a brief moment of confusion as it dawned on her that she had fallen completely asleep yesterday. Feeling her body rested but heavy, she took her time to get up from bed and glanced at the sunlight coming through her window. It looked oddly beautiful.

She slowly fetched her phone, and browsed her alarms. They were all turned off. Perhaps she simply was too sleepy to remember deactivating them.

Blinking a few times, she noticed the time. She had less than 15 minutes to have breakfast and go to class. That wasn't good.

Freaking out, she started to look for her school uniform. However, it was to no avail, as there was not enough light to find them. Frustrated by the fact, she abruptly pushed the curtains open.

Her sight was blinded by the sudden change of brightness.

And then her eyes focused.

It was like the first time she had observed the surrounding area. Most trees had lost their orange leaves, only to leave the bark lightly covered in frost. The sun, even though it was shining at full force, was not strong enough to melt it down. Its rays bounced off the icy surfaces and glittered every now and then.

She rubbed her eyes and looked out again. They felt really perceptive this morning. But there wasn't any time for that.

The school uniform was neatly folded on top of her desk chair. There wasn't any hesitation as she quickly undressed, not without having the usual troubles of doing things hastily, and put on her uniform.

With a bit of skill with her hands, she touched her school bag with her five fingers and pushed it to the entrance of her room. As it was floating away, she entered her personal bathroom.

Her eyes lingered for a moment on the glass, as if confirming that she was still on her own body, before brushing her bed hair. It took longer than she wanted, and the tearing out of some hair, but she finished it in record time. There was no way she could have breakfast and reach class in time, so she brushed her teeth as well.

She checked her phone. Less than 10 minutes

Before heading out, a sudden intrusive thought made its way into her mind. Jumping off the window could save her a lot of time. With her quirk,there was barely any consequence.

Altered by the lack of time, she didn't think twice about it. Grabbing everything she needed, she opened the window and stepped out to the small balcony. For some reason, she had forgotten her room was on the fourth floor. But it was too late to back down. Making herself weightless, she slowly floated down thanks to the weight of her clothes and shoes, and ran towards the school building.

Her eyes wandered off into the surroundings, but she stopped them. Reaching class in time was the only objective there was at the moment. And as the U.A. building appeared in frame, her breathing finally calmed down.

With one final sprint, she almost crashed into the class door.

Her schoolmates greeted and questioned her whereabouts, but she didn't have time to answer as the teacher entered the room.

Ectoplasm wasn't exactly the best lecturer of U.A., but at the very least he explained things when you had any questions. Something her middle school math teachers didn't do. Perhaps that's why maths wasn't exactly her strongest subject. However, he had a downside. He was very intimidating and you couldn't tell what he was thinking. Was he judging you? Praising you? Who knew!

So when Ectoplasm pointed at her to solve a complex math problem, she jumped in her seat. She wasn't paying attention, perhaps he realised that.

Slowly rising from her seat, she headed to the chalkboard. With a mere glance, she mentally accepted her failure. There were too little numbers and too many letters on that impossible task.

A nervous wreck, she picked up the chalk Ectoplasm offered her, and breathed in. She only had to try and fail. There wasn't anything wrong with that. Failing is part of life, a part of learning. Would Einstein have stopped when he found a roadblock? No! So what if she wasn't paying attention? She could learn from her mistakes, and not repeat them. That's what she had to do. Just admit she was daydreaming, and be done with this.

With a resigned sigh, she put down the chalk. And stared dumbfounded at the completed math problem. When did she do that?

Ectoplasm inspected the task for a few seconds before nodding and commending her with his completely neutral voice.

Uraraka stood there for a few more seconds, wide-eyed and confused. Perhaps for the normal outlooker there wasn't anything wrong with it. But she knew.

That wasn't her handwriting.

Tanaka stood silently as he stared at the eyes of the puppet. The windows of the soul. They were perfect. He knew they were.

"My body may be failing, but my mind is still sharp as a tack." He let out a contained laugh before sulking down.

His fingers travelled the cheek of the puppet, up and down. Wondering. Questioning himself. The puppet was evolving perfectly. He couldn't contain himself and had tested how the head would look on a test body. He even had foolishly tested if his quirk was still as quick as his mind.

But all the progress was overshadowed by a simple fact.

"U.A. highschool. That isn't good at all." He muttered as he gently put down his tools. "So my Muse is someone remarkable in the end. I should have known, no random schoolgirl could be so inspiring. But…"

He controlled his breath and tried to control the frustration that was corrupting his thoughts.

"How am I supposed to get… anything?"

Hair, nails, skin… just how? A normal girl disappearing would be arrangeable. He had thought of several courses of action, but now they were all implausible.

It was very troublesome. He now understood why a hero showed up yesterday along with a cop. U.A. highschool. He had seen how she entered that building. They probably were monitoring all students too. Worst of all, she was residing there, in the heart of the facilities.

"Calm down. It's my masterpiece. I knew it wasn't going to be easy." He told himself, as if trying to reassure himself.

Snooping around so soon after the heroes had turned up in his household could be very troublesome. He didn't want to damage his retired hero reputation. And he would need everything if he wanted this to continue. Connections, money, information. He had to tread carefully, like in his youth.

With that in mind, he headed out his workshop and looked to his left. She was there, behind the last door of the corridor. This was all for her. Giving up wasn't an option. Not with his daughter and not with his Muse. He couldn't give into despair yet.

The problem was that he was thinking too much into the future. He hadn't even finished the face! Right now, he should focus on what was important. The girl's name, and more info about her in general.

He would do everything he could before using the nuclear option.

Wandering out of his broken front door, he entered the small front yard of his neighbour. The morning sun was chilly, but that didn't stop him from feeling pumped.

He knocked a few times to no avail. Half a minute later,a lanky middle aged man with long black hair opened the door. He stood behind the wooden door, as if reluctant to speak.

"Not going to greet an old friend?" Tanaka said as he hid his hands behind his back.

"What do you want?" The man answered back, hesitant.

"I just need an old debt paid back, for old time's sake." The man quickly tried to close down his door, but Tanaka's feet got in the way. "Getting angry is bad for the heart, so please, don't make me mad."

"Come on, come on! We're retired, right? The fact we're on this peaceful neighbourhood was for… to escape that world!" The slim man staggered back into his house, as Tanaka stood in the doorframe.

"I'm not going back. And you're not going back either." The puppeteer replied with a soft tone. "I'm here for something else. Remember that bank heist, the one where we captured Stonebreaker?"

"I remember not sleeping for two days." The long haired man mentioned as he calmed down. "He knew that he was being monitored, so it was hard to gather intel on him. Turns out, he was playing decoy until the last second."

"And he killed two hostages, not my best job." Tanaka followed. "But you were at your best. We even knew that he had been suffering from kidney stones, something he didn't even know. I need you to do the same. I want to know everything about a young girl."

"Listen, Boss…"

"U.A. student, around 16 or 17 years. Seems to be hiding her accent, but I can't tell yet. She was in the U.A. school festival, not sure if she ended up in an honorable place. I don't have a name yet, I'll give it to you tomorrow."

"But I'm telling you that…"

"I want you to prepare. Tomorrow, when I come here, I want you to be ready to use your quirk just like with Stonebreaker. Be ready for everything. And I can't stress this enough, do not alert their security. I trust in your skills."

The middle aged man seemed ready to speak against his words. But stopped short of answering. Whatever Tanaka said was already set in stone.

"I'll do it, but only if you promise that the debt will be null and void after this."

"Of course, you have my word. You're a good man, Rummager."

"Don't call me that. And… please, tell me I'm not being an accomplice in a murder."

Tanaka glanced at the man before walking out the yard, with a determined glare in his eyes. He only needed to finish the mouth and ears for today. And from there onwards, everything would sail smoothly. Otherwise things would get hairy.