-x- Shoto -x-

Shoto slammed through the portal and into another room, far from the camp. All sounds and smells of the forest and the people there disappeared. "Hey, hey, he followed us!"

"Ooh, he's cute!" a woman said, a teenager in a school uniform.

"It's you," Shigaraki said in a dark voice. Shoto was surrounded by villains.

"Shoto!" Bakugo shouted, but he was chopped in the back of the neck and knocked out, thrown against the wall like a ragdoll. Shoto let the burn in his throat worsen, imagining himself starving. He could not be shocked right now, so he rampaged. In the small space, he kicked off of walls, using his super strength alone and not his quirk. The space was too small to use his midrange quirk.

He punched the girl in the face so hard he heard her nose break. He was barely touched by Shigaraki's hand, his arm dissolving but healing again. The fire guy who'd burnt him, whose burns were lingering, shot flames at him, but he was pumping blood so fast now that it healed over.

"Fuck!" He jumped into the glasses of the bar, grabbed a shattered bottle and swiped it across the big lipped guy's face. He screamed. The last attack he did, as they were shouting at Kurogiri to get him out, as he was too fast to throw out and too wild to hold down and capture, was to grab Shigaraki's extended arm and yank.

His arm was ripped apart, separated from his shoulder, as he screamed in agony. Blood splattered all over Shoto and his pupils dilated. He was about to really attack before he jumped into a portal in front of him, and was dropped into the ocean, no land in sight, Shigaraki's arm still in his grasp.

-x- Izuku -x-

Hiding away so nobody saw his arms healing, Izuku sat against a tree, empty and in shock. His best friends were gone. All the villains that were there - gone. No trace of them, sound or smell. He was alone in this area of the woods. He should be helping others, but he needed his arms to heal. Shoji and Tokoyami would know.

How badly damaged his arms were, and how they would miraculously heal with no help from Recovery Girl. Tokoyami was still out of control, but Izuku couldn't bring himself to move to help. Not that he had any way to help. He had no light source, and it would be another six hours until the sun rose.

Thinking of that, he remembered that Shoto had been shirtless. The villains would not spare him clothes, and if he wasn't that target, probably wouldn't keep him for long. Then he'd burn to death by the sun. Standing up, he decided to follow the scent of Shoto, where he'd been. Izuku was a terrible hero, in shock and pain. He couldn't help anyone right now.

He blamed his arms. Yeah, it was only because of his arms. Nobody had come to his screaming, as they were all occupied with their own things, even though the villains were gone now. They were running from the gas, or getting others away from the gas. Or they were running from the fire that continued to burn.

The thing he found fairly quickly was Shoto's choker. It had been torn apart and no longer functioned. He couldn't pick it up, his fingers having no feeling. He head and felt the bones doing their absolute best to reform, piece by shattered piece. Another reminder: he was not invincible. It would heal, but the injuries could have prevented him from saving his best friends.

That muscle man ruined it all. He would blame him. It wasn't that Izuku fucked up, it was that everything around him ruined it. He wasn't responsible for losing them when they were right there. Right there! If he'd been fast enough, he could have caught them. None of the villains should know he was a vampire. They would find out fast that Shoto was one. Six hours until the sun rose. They had to find him in those six hours. But where would he have gone? Where was their base of operations, and would they stay there for long?

Shigaraki was not there this time, but the warp man was. He had smelled it, the portals. He knew it had to be the League. They hadn't died off from their catastrophic failure. All Might hadn't even been there at the time, and the students took care of them all. They abandoned the only villain who had actually left an impact, the barcode guy.

God, that was so long ago. It felt so long ago, but it was only a bit under two months. Izuku's arms healed faster as he stared down at Shoto's choker, which made him feel safe. What was he going through now? His brows furrowed, and he looked down at his arms, forcing himself to heal faster. He watched as his arms quickly untwisted, the serrated skin healing over, bones repairing themselves.

He heard them shifting, and then opened and closed his fists, lifted them up and inspecting them. He flexed, and things felt just fine. He picked up the choker and stuffed it in his pocket before he headed to camp. The gas was dispelled somehow. How long had he stared at the broken piece of equipment?

Aizawa approached him quickly. Before he said anything, Izuku told him, "Kacchan was taken by the villains. Shoto jumped into the portal after him. They're gone." His voice and face were flat and emotionless. Aizawa sighed through his nose.

"Did you see anything to know where they went?"

"No. But Shoto was injured and shirtless. We have to find him before the sun rises," Izuku said, panic finally seeping into his voice.

"We'll find him. Don't worry, he's resourceful and smart. He'll keep himself safe. And probably save Bakugo. Go get some blood, you're pale." His voice was softer when he saw the tears finally fall from Izuku's eyes.

When Shoji looked over, Izuku ignored his questions about his arms. Tokoyami had seen it, too, but he was unconscious at the moment, Dark Shadow under control. If anyone understood how he must have felt, it was Shoto and Izuku. Both had been out of control, their bodies doing what they didn't want them to, knowing what was going on, but blacking out a bit each time.

Though Shoto didn't remember much about his rampage when he was nine. He went to get some water from the camp, wishing he could drink some blood to get more energy back, but he couldn't. When he returned to camp, Kirishima ran up to him, eyes wide and pleading. "I was too late."

"Wh-Where's Shoto?" he asked.

"He jumped into the portal after Kacchan. Both of them are gone." The students who weren't injured all looked horrified. Two of their classmates were gone, who knows where. Only Kirishima and Izuku knew why finding them before the sun rose was a must. No, everyone knew that he had a skin condition, but they didn't know the sun could kill him. Would his body be anywhere, or would it all be ashes?

Would they ever find his remains if he did die? Izuku bit his lip, face crumpling and tears pouring. Iida came over and hugged him, which was rare. He wasn't usually very physically affectionate. Izuku didn't hug him back, he'd rather have Shoto and his warm hugs. Iida was still, clearly not usually somebody to hug easily.

"Thanks, Iida," he said quietly. The class representative backed away. He was more upset over Shoto being gone than Bakugo.

An hour later, and everyone was on busses to head back out of the ruined camp, the fire put out but having burnt a lot of the area. Izuku sat in the front by Aizawa. This wasn't fast enough. But on their way back to school, there was a loud thud on the roof of the bus. Izuku heard who it was, the sounds of flapping wings.

A head peeked upside down on the window, knocking on it. Aizawa was shocked, but opened the window. "Yo, I'm here for the Shoto search party," Hawks said over the wind. "Mind pulling over a minute and letting me in?" The bus stopped just enough for Hawks to enter. It was a bit cramped with his wings, that were smacking Kaminari in the face as he sat down next to him. Before Izuku and Aiazawa could speak, Hawks said, "I have a plan. Thanks for messaging me, Chicklet. I'll help out."

The bus was quiet. Hawks turned to them all. "Eavesdropping isn't very nice. Come, you probably have lots to talk about." The students couldn't find anything to talk about, so Hawks took out his phone and messaged so nobody could hear.

My plan is to use Midoriya to find them. I'll fly him around until he catches the scent of either Bakugo or Shoto. Fast, easy and not too obvious to the villains. It's still night time, we have a small window of time if he's still alive. Izuku flinched and Aizawa glared at Hawks. But he was just being honest and not sugarcoating things.

"That plan is reckless. What will you do once you find them?" Aizawa asked, though he wasn't sounding angry or short, they were on a time crunch, more than a normal kidnapping.

"Back up. Number three hero here, I'm sure I could gather lots of heroes. All Might's your teacher, right? He has pull, too. Besides, the hero world has been trying to find the League. Even if they were/are lead by some snot nosed brat." He sounded sour.

Izuku pulled the choker out and held it in his hand. "We have more than one time crunch."

"Shit," Hawks swore. Shoto needed a lot of blood a day. He was sure the villains would not just provide blood for him, and if he got really thirsty, he'd have to feed off a human. And if he refused to, if he tried to stick it out, he'd only be putting more people in danger. Each day that passed could result in another rampage. Only he wasn't weakened severely, and he was stronger than he was those years ago.

This could become a very messy situation. Aizawa was on the phone already, and Hawks got on his own headset, calling people. This was to save Shoto and Bakugo, and hopefully prevent innocent deaths. He felt they were putting more emphasis on Shoto, but Bakugo was equally as important.

He was the real target, but why? What made him be what the villains wanted, went through all that trouble for? He couldn't think of anything for them to put that much work into. To torture him? But if they were to torture Kacchan, they defintiely would have wanted Shoto and Izuku, who helped kill that monster, helped stop so many villains at USJ. Shoto did the most damage with his quirk.

He wasn't a target, he just jumped in after his friend. When they got to a rest stop to use the bathroom, Hawks was ready to start his plan. "Eraserhead, call as many heroes as you can. I'm gonna try and find Shoto with Izuku here." He already gave Aizawa his number and tracking password, which would show his location based on the tracker inside of Hawks' headphones.

"You better keep my student safe or else," Aizawa said.

"He's my student, too," Hawks said. "Okay, kid, I'm gonna hold you under the chest when I fly, like I did before. But we'll be going faster. Do you need glasses?"

"No, my eyes can handle wind pressure. From running," he said. Hawks nodded, and picked him up, flying away while everyone open the windows and shouted good lucks for them.

"Alright, what is the range you can track scents?" he called. Izuku could hear him just fine.

"I haven't tested it formally. But I can hear about a mile, scent is situational. But I know Kacchan would be screaming angrily. Shoto… he's a lot quieter. I would be able to find them if I'm in range, though."

"Alright, well, Japan is about 146,000 square miles. I'll fly us to the biggest cities, and in the slums of those areas. Based on what little I know of the attack on USJ, it was a bunch of canon fodder and hooligans. They had to have come from a low quality place, like so many villains do," Hawks explained. Izuku was in awe of flying, but with his newfound, very striking lesson, he could easily die if he fell from that height.

But he trusted Hawks not to hurt him. "Thank you. For helping," Izuku said, shouting over the wind so Hawks could hear him with his human quality ears.

"Of course. I help my subordinates. Especially since he's just a kid. Now, get smellin'!" Izuku did, breathing in deeply.

-x- Shoto -x-

It was a miracle Shoto made it to land. He was able to tell it was indeed Japan from a shipwrecked boat at the nasty coast. The writing on it was in Japanese. It was a lucky find. He was shirtless, and his sunblock could not possibly be thick enough by now to protect him. He was exhausted from the swim, as he couldn't keep any ice straight in the waves. So he swam the whole way, attributing that to his vampire stuff.

The sky was still dark and the moon high, so he wasn't in danger of burning just yet. He had to find some way of communication to call back to get picked up. He had no idea where Bakugo was, though. He got nothing from the surroundings to show where the hell they'd been taken, and where he'd been sent away from.

But he'd damaged them a lot. He probaby blinded the big guy with fat lips, and had ripped off one of Shigaraki's whole arms. Meaning his quirk was halved. He used his hands. Well, hand. Shoto had taken his arm with him, so there was no reattaching it. Fuckng asshole got what he deserved.

Hopefully that didn't fuck over Bakugo and he was able to get out. Shoto was just glad he did some damage. Any damage was good, but a whole arm was pretty nasty. Now they knew that he wasn't normal, though. Oh well. There wasn't much he could do about it now. Besides, Hawks realized what they were from the sports festival, surely others had as well, if they were paying close attention.

He was on a beach, one that wasn't populated. He'd lost one shoe a long time ago, so he only had one remaining. He had pants on, with a huge hole from being impaled through them, and one shoe. That was it. Looking at the sky, he had no idea what time it was. How long he'd been swimming.

Never would he go in the ocean again. The blackness above and below was terrifying. He'd imagined giant monsters, sharks, coming after him, flailing uselessly in the water. He was a vampire, but that didn't mean he couldn't eventually drown. But it was scary, and he was just glad to be back on land. He listened closely, but heard no people. He smelled no people. Which was good for him when he got thirsty, but was bad on trying to find a way back home. Izuku had watched them both disappear.

He had to be worried over both of them, but perhaps Shoto especially. He needed blood and was unprotected from the sun as he was now. He walked into the forest, and started to hike up, as the only way to get off the beach was to head upwards. There was no second glance at the sea where he'd been dumped.

Kurogiri, as he'd heard his name was, probably thought he was dead. Or maybe he hadn't known where he dumped Shoto. It was better for him if they thought he'd died for now. He had no idea how close his current location was to their base of operations, a bar.

During his hike. He stepped on a lot of sharp things, and eventually just made an ice boot. His skin would not like that for too long, but he was tired of stepping on sharp things. He heard animals, smelled them, but none came his way despite the complete ruckus he was making in the quiet night. Not even crickets were chirping, so he was deafening in the otherwise silent forest.

The walk was hard and he slipped a lot. He wasn't up to par, he was shaking, genuinely scared and traumatized. Scared for his own life, and Bakugo's. He hoped that the heroes found him first. He was in the most danger. Shoto could find a cave to hide in or something. It would be a long day, and he'd be playing a losing game by missing an entire day of meals.

He hadn't gone without blood in years, so he didn't know how much he needed to miss to go insane. Or at least partially insane. Bad enough to hurt himself or others. When he finally made it out of the forest, he took in a deep breath, and smelled no people or any scents of things that accompany people.

So he started to walk along the dirt road. He had to get rid of the ice boot as his skin had started to stick to it from the sweat of nervousness. He was tired, so tired. It was an exhausting night, emotionally and physically. His body had done a lot of healing and that took a toll on him and depleted some of the blood content.

It would be nice to be able to feed off of animals, but it didn't work like that. And he couldn't drink from himself without causing problems. He never heard what the problems were, he was only instructed to never do it. So he wouldn't.

Eventually, he made it to the end of the road that went onto a highway. Which was deserted. But then the sun started to rise. Looking around, he found a large tree a bit away from the road, and it had a comically large hollowed trunk. It felt like a joke, but he didn't wait to head inside. He got some more logs and bushes and covered some of the entrance.

Shoto huddled near the back, and managed to sleep, despite the situation and the sunlight nearly touching his toes. He couldn't move an inch, but had never moved around a lot while asleep. So he was able to sleep curled into a ball, unmoving. When he did wake, it was still day time, and he was trapped there until the sun set.

By then, his throat was screaming at him, and his stomach was growling. Not to mention his lips were cracked dry with no water. He didn't only need blood to live, he was going to get dehydrated from lack of normal water soon enough.

When the sun set, he was considerably weaker than the night before, even after all the stress and exertion. His walking pace had slowed. He lost both of his contacts into the ocean, so his red eyes were exposed. Walking along the road, he could tell there was no city close by. Not in walking distance.

He decided to do something stupid, and stuck his thumb out, hoping somebody was charitable to see him, half naked, one boot and looked exhasuted. A man did pick him up. A farmer. "Where ya need to go, kid?"

"The nearest city, please," he said.

"Well, I'm not headin' to the city, but I can get you about three fourths of the way there."

"Thank you," Shoto said with a smile. "Can I ride in the back? I get claustrophobic."

"Sure, but keep your head down. Don't feel like getting a ticket while doin' charity work." Shoto bowed in thanks, and climbed in the back. The truck's back window was closed, so the two couldn't speak. He was clearly a farmer or landscaper, but the plants he had in the back of his truck were not edible. And he wouldn't eat without asking first. Not when he was already doing something kind and helpful.

He was dropped off at a bus stop. He had no money or bus pass, of course, but he waited until a night time bus came. It was full of people, and he had to plug his nose just walking near it. "Got a pass?"

"No, but do you have a phone I can use?"

"No pass, you get nothing." Nobody on the bus tried to help him, some kid in ripped up clothing, looking exhausted. Someone had to have heard his stomach rumble. He asked for some water but the bus doors closed before it got out completely, and drove away. He stood there, watching it leave.

Sighing, and rubbed his forehead and continued his walk. By now he was very thirsty. Shoto was doing his best to ignore it, but the burn in his throat brought back bad memories, and he hadn't gone over 12 hours without blood and by now he'd gone about 24. He was feeling distant and foggy.

But he had to find somewhere to call anybody to come get him. He had no way to look up if shit went down, or how the students were. If any had died in the attack, at least in the gas. He kept walking, his right foot bleeding by now, leaving bloody foot prints along the road. It wasn't healing anymore, either.

Right about now, he really wished he wore a watch. Maybe he'd ask for one when he got back home. They must all be so worried. They had to be scared he'd go on a rampage. Especially now that he had nothing to stop him. His choker was gone. It had been necessary, of course, to take it off. But still.

Bakugo, if he was free - even if he wasn't - probably felt bad about being caught and Shoto going after him. He sighed, and ended up collapsing by the side of the road from dehydration and lack of blood. Nobody was there to help, so he picked himself back up, and walked like a zombie along the road.

He finally saw city lights near day break, and found some backyard shed to hide in all day and sleep. It was a big backyard, so no close house where he could smell somebody so easily. He stayed asleep all day, which was nice, he wasn't painfully bored. When the sun did set, he left the shed and backyard, and went around to the front door. Calling the police would be a big help.

He knocked on the door, and saw through the window a man come over. He was tall and seemed older. Opening it, he asked, "You need something?"

"Y-yeah. Can I use a phone?" The man looked at him closer. He saw how tired and pale he was, looking ill, and his red eyes. He walked back inside, and Shoto assumed he was getting his phone, showing some kindness, but instead he came out with a gun which he pointed at Shoto.

"Fuck off, blood sucker. You come near my house and I'll shoot you!" Shoto had his hands up and backed away. He slammed the door shut, and Shoto didn't even bother wiping away the tears. So, he avoided his home, even if he wanted to burn his house and property to the ground for how he treated him.

But now Shoto was scared to call police. He was a thirsty and sick looking vampire. What if they pointed their guns at him, too, and he panicked? He wasn't a little kid anymore, he was fifteen, tall for his age. He didn't look little and helpless. He was still a minor, but still. He was scared, now.

He walked along the street, the words "blood sucker" filtering through his already fairly empty and foggy mind. He felt like shit. How long had it been? Two, three days? Two… yeah, two. He hadn't had any sustenance since then. It was a damn miracle he didn't attack that guy, especially when he turned into an asshole. Well he could have always been an asshole and Shoto assumed the best.

Still with no idea where he was, he kept walking, hoping for help. That somebody would just see him as a sick kid and not a thirsty vampire. Izuku was so lucky he didn't have the red eyes. He walked another few hours, as he was slow, and it was a place that was sparsely populated. It felt like he made no progress, and found a little shack to stay in when the sun rose. But he couldn't sleep as his throat burned. A familiar feeling that left him thinking about the time down there, screaming for help. Getting none.

The hallucinations of the bees, of the man with a pickaxe hammering at his esophagus. He started crying at one point before he started to salivate. Looking even more deranged and less worthy of help or kindness.

When night came, Shoto left again, and walked some more until he found an actual city. The whole place stunk of blood. And blood wasn't a bad smell, it was intoxicating when thirsty. But he didn't know what to do, and didn't want to hurt anybody. Though it was a city, more likely to be searched.

He took a breath through his mouth, and walked into the city passing through houses. He was looking for an empty one. He could smell people inside their homes. His nose was even more sensitive, but only to blood. Anything else around him was drowned out by the smell of blood. He was drooling like a dog, and kept wiping it away, only for more to come, drip down his neck and onto his chest.

When he did find an empty house, he snuck into the backyard, and looked around. He found there was a pool, and he froze it in ice. He climbed onto the roof and iced a big "SOS" on it. He didn't want to break and enter, he didn't want to break any laws, so he did go to the shed in the back. There wasn't much inside.

From where he was, the shed was on the edge of the property in the backyard, it was near a house with people in it. But this was the best place he'd found, and he didn't trust going outside. He started to cough, and the world was blurring. Shoto was unsure of what was causing this, but it didn't matter.

He smelled blood, he wanted it. The sun was still below the horizon. He wouldn't burn. He could be fast, it was only what smelled like an adult woman and three young children. When he started to plan on who to catch first, he finally formed and icicle and slammed it into his leg. The fog cleared at the pain. Now he didn't want to feed off of and probably kill a small family.

He realized he was unable to control himself in his current state. He had to do something to keep himself from hurting innocent people. From drinking from unwilling humans. He had to do something. So he instead did everything.

-x- Izuku -x-

"There! I smell him, Kacchan!" It was early morning, the sun had risen. It was high in the sky, but not directly above. The shadows were still long, but it was the sun. Izuku had sunblock on, and Hawks had given him his jacket so he felt better. It had been awful, needing to apply sunblock when he should be searching for his friends, who were in grave danger.

Hawks dove, and they found Bakugo there, bleeding and staring up at the broken ceiling. It was a building with a bar, the interior in shambles. Hawks called for emergency services immediately. Izuku ran to him, and found mostly superficial wounds. He was out of it. "Izuku…" Bakugo said with a relieved look.

"Hey, Kacchan. What happened?" he asked, touching his face. It looked like he'd been hit in the head based on the blood and the foggy expression.

"Have to find… Shoto. He's n-not here." Izuku bit his lip, but then put on a brave face.

"Well, we'll find him soon. It's just good we found you. You're just as important. I'm sure Kirishima will be happy to see you. We were worried a bit. Where did the villains go?" Looked around, he saw it was a mess, and there was a lot of blood on the counter, a lot of broken glass bottles. Some had blood on them, like they were used as weapons.

"Away… They we-re hurt." An ambulance came immediately, and Bakugo was loaded onto a stretcher. Izuku could smell Shoto there. No, he could tell he'd been their briefly. But he wasn't anymore. Did the villains take him with them? Whose blood was it? It wasn't Shoto's or Kacchan's.

Hawks flew him after the ambulance. He was allowed to speak to Bakugo as a hero, since his questions had to do with public safety. Bakugo was in waiting, he had a few moments before he had his brain checked out. "Bakugo, where's Shoto? What happened?"

Izuku was listening from outside the door, not allowed in. "He attacked… the villains. Portal guy… sent him somewhere- don't know where. You go-tta find him."

"We will. Just worry about yourself," Hawks said, and Bakugo was taken back to get checked out. Izuku was pacing back and forth. Unless they found Kurogiri, then they had no idea where the hell he was sent. He could have been portaled to the Bermuda Triangle for all they knew. But they would not be easy to find.

If they abandoned their place and dumped Bakugo, too, then they weren't sticking around. Izuku wished he knew how much had been done, who'd been injured. But Kacchan wasn't in a state for heavy interrogation. He finally cried out of relief and worry. One of them was alive, and being checked, he'd be fixed.

But the sun was up, and they had no idea where to start looking for Shoto. "We'll find him. I'm not saying that to comfort you, I believe he'll be found. He is smart. I only knew him a few days, but it was already very clear he's smart. Maybe not when it comes to other people, but he is smart. He'd know what to do," Hawks said kindly.

"I don't know what he'd do. He's already hurt people before when he was thirsty. I don't know how long he can last before then. Nobody understands how it hurts, being thirsty. They compare it with being hungry or wanting water. It's not like that, it's impossible to explain, too. We have to find him soon!"

"I have to alert the heroes that the League seems to have bailed in their place. It needs to be inspected, and we need to search for Shoto exclusively." Izuku sat down, and Hawks got him some food from a vending machine. It was a big hospital and many.

Aizawa showed up with Bakugo's mother very soon after they were both called. Mitsuki was frantic, and Aizawa hurried to Izuku, asking for the story. He told both of them that they were flying around and saw Kacchan where he was. He didn't say he smelled him, as she didn't know about the vampire situation.

Once Bakugo was stable, she hurried inside. "What happened, Midoriya."

"He said Shoto attacked them but was sent somewhere by Kurogiri, the warp guy. I didn't get details about what happened but there was a lot of blood and damage to the bar. Sensei, it's morning already. The sun is up."

"I know. All Might called in some people to try and find him. I have to do a press conference to defend UA, so I won't be able to help today, I'm sorry. We'll find him, we have plenty of eyes." Izuku nodded, and wiped his eyes on his sleeve. He had no idea what Shoto was doing, where he was. If he was okay or alive.

He asked, "What does the class think?"

"Shoji and Tokoyami know about your arms healing. Nobody has made the connection yet. I don't know how much longer you can keep it secret. I think it depends on what happens when we find Shoto," he said quietly. His phone buzzed, and he swore. "I need to go. Don't panic. Not yet."

So that meant he could panic another time. He nodded, hoping that UA wouldn't get in too much trouble. But why were they targeted? And why was Kacchan taken, did he ever get a reason? What would happen next?

"Let's go search some more. I called my agency and they're taking over in my absence," Hawks said.

They flew around. No trace of Shoto. The day passed, and Izuku was returned home for the night. He cried almost the entire night, ignoring calls and texts from concerned and confused classmates. UA was being admonished about it all. Word on Shoto's disappearance was not capitalized on.

But people knew. A kid was missing. They just didn't know that said kid could have already killed someone, or could be nothing more than ash. He had nightmares all night, and finally gave up on sleep at 4 in the morning.

-4 days later-

Hawks flew over the coast of Japan, going in zigzag patters to search from above. He couldn't go to every house and question. Heroes were spread thin, and searching the whole country was hard. He was just lucky he could search from above. There was nothing to tell him where to search, if Shoto was even in Japan anymore.

He was flying over a more rural city, but a city nonetheless. It was by the beach, about an hour's walk. He was flying over the neighborhoods when his eyes widened and he smiled at seeing a large "SOS" of reflective light on the roof of a house. The pool in the backyard was frozen, too. He landed on the dewey grass, since it was pretty early morning, and saw the shed had ice over the little window.

If Shoto was in there, he was probably not in a good state. He stayed far from the shed, but sent a small feather over. He managed to lodge it in a gap between the shed door and the floor. It seemed like an ice cage, and was hard to get any sound from.

The vibrations told him that Shoto was definitely not in a good state. "I won't do it again, don't hit mommy." But he was alive. He wasn't ash. Hawks took the feather back, and inspected the house, breaking in by sticking his feather through the door. The place had a security system on that went off until he pressed the button on the wall.

He assumed that the people living here went on vacation for the summer and so weren't there. "Eraserhead, I found him."

"What?! Where?!"

He gave the address. "I think we need to handle this delicately. He's locked himself in a shed, and is muttering to himself. There's nobody else in there with him. At least not alive. I suggest we clear out the nearby homes, and send some sleeping gas inside before breaking through and retrieving him."

"We don't know how long he's been without blood, so that's a good plan. I'll be there, soon. Make sure he stays."

"Yup," Hawks replied.

He waited, sitting on the patio and watching the shed. He had a feather there, and Shoto continue to talk about what he assumed was his awful childhood. To himself, sometimes stifling sobs. Hawks didn't know what he'd find, but didn't really look forward to seeing the state he was in. Eraserhead got there very soon, no doubt speeding the entire way.

When he arrived, police came and the nearby houses were cleared. Aizawa and Hawks put on gas masks as the shed was very carefully, and quietly approached. They screwed a small tube in through the ice, knowing Shoto no doubt knew they were there. The gas filtered inside, and Hawks was able to tell them when he passed out from the vibrations ending and silence filling the shed.

The ice was thick, so they had to use heavy duty equipment to break through the flimsy walls but strong ice barrier. When they shattered it, both Hawks and Aizawa's faces fell deeply into anger and sadness and pity.

It seemed Shoto had not attacked anybody. Or at least tried not to. He was sitting upright, leaning against a block of ice made like the back of a chair. He'd been able to create chains and both hands were locked in crude cuffs, attached to the walls to his left and right. He had a badly broken leg, and was covered in his own blood. Even now, spit poured from his mouth despite how dehydrated he looked.

There were blood residues of bite marks he gave himself. The worst part was that he'd made himself some sort of full head muzzle. It was digging into his face, like he purposely made a line of it, diagonal across his face, that was stuck in the skin. Frostbite had taken hold in most of the iced areas of his body.

He had some empty holes, and there were no weapons, so they both assumed he'd used his own ice to hurt himself. Aizawa entered, and used the hammer to shatter the chains. But he couldn't do the same for the cuffs and the helmet needed to be removed carefully, by doctors. He picked him up, and brought him to the stretcher waiting for him.

It was lucky he was completely knocked out. Hawks said he was muttering to himself, crying, which meant he was probably not of right mind. How long had he gone without blood, food and water? He looked so, so sick.

"Eraser…"

"I see. We'll deal with that later," he said. Shoto's arms and ankles were strapped to the stretcher as he was loaded into the medical helicopter. Aizawa climbed in next to him while Hawks flew beside it on its way to the nearest, large hospital.