A/N: Shorter chapter, but no less important. Next one will be longer!
A soft ding echoed in the empty office, taking Nedzu's attention away from his paperwork for a moment.
Picking up the phone, he scrolled through his mail until he came to the most recent. Smiling, he opened it and scanned the screen.
"Hm," he murmured. "Let's see… quite a lot of names here."
Attached photos of mugshots, varying apathetic or mean stares at the camera, greeted him along with their information. Villains of many different quirk types and areas of the country were in this list - and all of them could do some good.
He stopped on one name in particular. "Hm…"
After several long minutes of writing down names and thoughtfully scrolling through the email, he finally typed a new one to send to the Commission.
"More… search parties… to Tokyo and Besupin City…" he trailed off. "And… send."
There was a moment of silence in the grand office as he stared at his phone after the email was sent.
"We're getting closer," he told himself as he set the phone down and went back to work. "All For One will be back in Tartarus before spring."
A loud beep sounded from the three heroes' phones as they walked the streets of Tokyo.
Endeavor and his two tagalongs paused, pulling out their phones.
"All For One spotted in Saitama Prefecture?" Todoroki questioned, looking up at his father.
"He's that far away from us?" Bakugou added, incredulous. "I would have thought he'd be far north or south by now."
"Perhaps he's been hiding in plain sight." With a grunt, the Number One slipped his phone back into its pocket and gestured forward. "Come along. We'll be searching Saitama Prefecture from now on."
The two students obeyed, pocketing their own devices and catching up to him.
"Father." Todoroki spoke up suddenly.
"What?" The flaming hero glanced back.
"About Besupin Academy… do you think it's a coincidence that All For One chose Saitama to hide in?"
"What do you mean?" He questioned. "There are plenty of places to hide."
"But Midoriya is still missing," he insisted. "And if All For One took him…"
"We don't even know that he did take Deku at this point." Bakugou retorted.
"For all we know, the boy is in hiding with All Might." Endeavor answered shortly. "What makes you think of a hero academy? You think he's hiding in Besupin City?"
"It's… a hunch," the boy admitted.
"I doubt that nerd would bring attention to himself by going to a hero school if he was trying to hide from All For One," Bakugou pointed out, his lip curling into a sneer at the mention of the villain. "Besides, there are better schools to go to. He'd sooner go to Shiketsu than some no-name school like that."
"Just because you paid it no mind doesn't mean it isn't an option, you know." Todoroki gave him a cool look before lengthening his stride to catch up to his father.
"We have a month before the search will be called off." Said the man tersely. "By the end of December, should he not be found, he'll be considered dead."
Todoroki and Bakugou stiffened. The latter's hands clenched into fists.
"We'd better find him fast then," Todoroki said nonchalantly, as if his heart hadn't squeezed anxiously at the possibility.