The TV broadcast was continuing on. "You speak of the students' safety," the reporter barreled on ahead, "Mr. Eraserhead, but they say that during the incident you urged the students to fight, right? Please explain what you intentions were."

"Because we were unable to fully grasp the situation," said Sensei "I made the judgment, in order to avoid the worst possible outcome."

"The worst possible outcome, you say? 26 injured, one kidnapped. Would you not call that the worst possible outcome?"

"In that situation, the worst possible outcome I was envisioning was one in which the students helplessly became murder victims."

"The majority of injuries were caused by the gas attack," said Principal Nezu. "We have ascertained that the gas had hypnotic properties and was the product of one of the villains' quirks. Thanks to Ms. Kendo and Mr. Tetsutetsu's swift response, none of the students suffered any more serious injuries. We are also seeing to the mental care of the students, but at the present moment we have no indications of severe emotional trauma or anything of that sort."

"A silver lining, so to speak?" asked the reporter.

"We believe the worst has been avoided as long as the students still have their futures."

"Could you also say the same for the kidnapped student, Bakugou? Winner of your Sports Festival; his a cats of resistance against the powerful villain from the Hedoro incident. Because of his personal history, one might think that he's got a tough hero personality, but on the other hand, we saw the violent nature he displayed in the finals. His attitude leading up to the award ceremony and whatnot. He has exhibited signs of mental instability. What if his abduction was intended to exploit that behavior? What if deceptive words taint him, leading him astray to his kidnappers' path of evil?"

"What transpired was the result of my own shortcomings," said Sensei, bowing on screen. "However, what happened at the Sports Festival - that points to the strength of his ideals. There is no one else more in pursuit of becoming the 'top hero'. If the villains perceived that as a weakness to exploit, then I would say that they are being foolish."

"Do you have a firm basis for your position?" asked the Reporter. "This is not a problem of how you feel. I am asking if you have a concrete plan for this matter."

"By no means are we standing by and doing nothing," said Principal Nezu. "We are currently carrying out an investigation in collaboration with the police. We will absolutely get our student back."

We went off then, at Yaoyorozu's initiative. It was time to get going.

Yaoyorozu had led us to an alleyway, leaving behind the crowds and the press conference.

"This is the location the tracking device is pointing to," she said.

"So this is their hideout," said Kirishima. "Sure looks like it, huh?"

"I don't know," said Yaoyorozu. "As far as we have confirmed, the villains haven't moved from here the whole day. Just because the villains are here doesn't necessarily mean that Bakugou is here as well. Right now we have to calmly take into account all of the information we have as we stand here today."

"We don't have anyone here who excels at sneaky activities like Jirou or Hagakure," I reminded them. "Just so you know, if I judge that things are even the slightest bit dangerous, I will stop you! Because you're my friends, I won't hesitate to tell the police, got it?"

"Thank you, Iida," said Midoriya. "Let's think about it. All our options." And he went on another mumbling marathon.

"It's been a while since I've seen him mumbling like that," I said.

"In true Midoriya fashion," said Yaoyorozu.

Right. Once you've made up your mind, you won't be stopped…you can't be stopped! As your friend and rival, I respect that about you. But I can't cede any more to you than I already have. This time I'll be the one to protect you.

So we were on our mission to raid them. And with no real plan as to what to do.

We crept in closer to the building - big faded warehouse, surrounded by weeds, a dirty stone wall, a few shrubs. The lights were all out, and the windows shut up.

"There aren't any lights on," Kirishima muttered. "Doesn't seem like anyone's inside."

Todoroki turned to him. "Best place to hide a tree is in a forest. A warehouse could make for a good cover."

"There are weeds everywhere around the front door," mumbled Midoriya. "Maybe there's another entrance somewhere? Some way or other we've got to confirm what's going on inside…"

"Hey, you!" shouted unfamiliar voices and we all jumped, and turned. Two drunks in business suits stood there leering at Yaoyorozu, one reaching out a hand at her as if he wanted to grab her.

"Hostess! what are you up to, hostess? Come get a drink with us!" he drooled.

The other smacked his head. "Cut it out, idiot!"

Midoriya and I, standing between them and Yaoyorozu like sentinels, started babbling their cover identities. "We're just cruising!"

"All right!"

Todoroki however quickly stomped away, muttering, "Let's get out of here."

We followed him to a nearby vending machine, out of the way of the weirdoes on the street. Now that I looked around, there were still plenty of people hanging around us - drunks out like the ones who'd spotted us, random strangers, possible gangsters…

The five of us stuck close together.

"It's not a lot, but there are still people walking around here.

"We can't do anything that will draw attention. What should we do?"

"Let's go around back. We might have to squeeze a bit, but we're not going to get any information here."

We followed that initiative, and crept around the warehouse, still looking for signs of villains. Nothing yet. We made it to the back, and slipped in between the stone wall and another building, cramped so tight in there was barely space to breathe.

Behind me, Yaoyorozu murmured, "It's so cramped. I'm going to get stuck."

"We can't make any moves unless w'ere confident it's safe," Midoriya was saying. "At least here no one can see us." He looked up and pointed at a window.

"From that height, we should be able to see what's inside."

Todoroki cocked his head a little. "Will you be able to see when it's this dark?"

Yaoyorozu took her sunglasses off. "If that's the case, I can make some night visio-"

"Wait!" Kirishima stopped her. "I actually brought something like that, Yaoyorozu."

"What?" cried Midoriya. "That's amazing. Why?"

"You can get anything online these days," he sighed. "I only bought one, but when I was thinking about how I could help, I figured we might need it."

Midoriya started babbling again. "Isn't that one crazy expensive? Back when I ws thinking about my costume, I saw online that one of those costs like 50,000 yen…"

"Never mind the price, OK?"said Kirishima.

Todoroki told us "Midoriya and Kirishima, you guys look. Iida and I will lift you up."

"So narrow," said Yaoyorozu.

We did what Todoroki said; I lifted up Kirishima, Midoriya on Todoroki's shoulders.

"Don't lean forward too much, all right?" I told him. "We need to be able to run away quickly in case things look dangerous."

"Iida, can you get a little lower?" said Kirishima.

"Tell us what's going on inside, Kirishima!" I asked. HE peered through the window.

"Hm, it's pretty dirty inside, but I don't see anything especially - "

He gasped, stumbled backwards and Midoriya called, "Kirishima!"

"What is it, what did you see?" asked Todoroki.

"inside, to the left…" he muttered, handing the night vision scope to Midoriya. "Look, Midoriya."

Midoriya peered in, then uttered the last thing any of us wanted to hear.

"Nomu…"

But then, nearby, we heard what sounded like a car getting stepped on. Well, that sounds funny, but that's exactly what it was. Mt. Lady had stepped into a truck like a shoe and brought it down on the warehouse. It was her - and other pros -and the blast of wind knocked us over.

We got up from the groud, rubbing the places where we'd all been blasted back into the cement.

"What's happening?" I asked.

Kirishima got up on my shoulders again, and Yaoyorozu on Midoriya's. We took a peek over the wall to see what was going on, and saw a bunch of the Pros -

"Mt, Lady, Gang Orca, Even best Jeanist!" Kirishima cried out.

"And Mr. Tiger too!" added Yaoyorozu. It seemed they'd secured all the Noomu.

It was clear, we weren't needed.

"The heroes were making their move long before we were," I told them, relieved beyond many words.

"Amazing," said Kirishima.

"Well, let's get out of here," I told them. "There's nothing for us to do here!"

Midoriya had lingered behind us. "'Gone with All Might? Is he where Kacchan is?" he murmured.

Yaoyorozu told him, "If All Might's there, there's no reason for us to worry," she reassured him. "Come on. Let's get going."

We headed down the alleyway, but Midoriya had stopped. He was looking back again. In the distance, something like footsteps were coming. Long footsteps we could hear even from this distance. Loud voices from the Prs, sounding like they were panicking. And then -

It happened in an instant. We couldn't even turn around. We had no idea what happened, in a single instant - in less than a second - this man's aura, it made us see death itself. Visions of it, really. I could see us all, stretched in a pool of blood in my head, lying on the ground and broken.

The man floated above the ground - he floated like someone hanging from a rope instead of flying, like Uraraka would. He wore a face mask, filled with pipes, a black suit, dark shoes…no sign of a face, or eyes.

And we could hear now, his raspy voice through the pipe mask. "Just when Tomura was starting to think for himself. And beginning to lead others by himself…if possible, I'd like for you all to stop interfering. Well then, let's get it over with."