Izuku flexed his fingers. It had taken a few days, far longer than he'd have liked, but he was finally getting the hang of the increased power One for All granted him. This was the first day he hadn't burned himself in the recoil.

Todoroki had almost looked disappointed when Izuku shot five consecutive blasts without burning himself; he'd been freezing a layer of ice over Izuku's hands to protect them while Izuku figured it out, but Izuku no longer needed the training wheels.

And it was about time, if it had taken any longer he might have gone insane. It was disconcerting to suddenly have no idea what to expect from his quirk. Everything else in his life was out of control, so it was nice to have this back to normal. Or at least something like normal. Not to mention the provisional license exam was in four days and he'd really like to be able to rely on his quirk for it.

Now, with one less thing to stress over, he could devote more of his brainpower to stressing about his mother.

He dreamed of fire and screams, jerking awake at two in the morning and flat out refusing to go back to sleep after that. It was earlier than usual, but he was used to his nightmares ruining his sleep at this point. They'd been in the dorms for a little over a week, but he'd already made it a routine to go down and make tea before coming back up to his room to research.

Surprisingly, he wasn't the only one up in the forbidden hours of morning. He'd run into Todoroki and Iida on separate occasions, and he'd come down to find Hagakure crying on the kitchen floor one night. There'd been evidence of other classmates milling around in the middle of the night, cabinets left open and the kettle already warm when he came down.

It was heartbreaking to realize he wasn't the only one dealing with nightmares, but after everything their class had gone through, it didn't really surprise him. He'd already told Aizawa about it, and the school was in the middle of creating their own counseling department. Once the new term officially started, Class 1A would have a few mandatory sessions.

The kitchen was dark and quiet when he made it down there. It was still early, so he hadn't expected otherwise. He made his tea and took it back upstairs to his room, sipping it while waiting for his computer to wake up.

For the last few days, he'd been reading every dragon legend he could get his hands on, and when that hadn't shed any light on the riddle he'd gone back to the dark webs to find his father the old fashioned way. He logged into one of his more trusted forums, laughing silently to himself when he thought of it as 'trusted.' He trusted it to have some kind of info, but it usually wasn't the info he wanted.

He lost himself in the thread until his phone went off an hour later with a text message. He pushed against his desk and rolled his chair across the room to grab it off his nightstand, and then slowly used his heels to drag the chair back while he checked it.

Bakugou

Hey

Izuku frowned at it. Katsuki didn't usually text just to talk, especially in the middle of the night. He'd yelled at several of their classmates for waking him up with their nonstop texting.

Midoriya

Hey! What's up?

Katsuki didn't answer, which only made Izuku worry. He was debating whether or not he should go up to Katsuki's room when there was a timid knock on his door.

Logically, it made sense for it to be Katsuki, but Izuku still had a hard time putting such a soft knock together with Katsuki.

Katsuki stood in the hall with his hands shoved in his pockets, hunched in on himself. His eyes were puffy, dried tear tracks on his cheeks. "Can I come in?"

Izuku shook off the surprise. "Yeah, of course." He stepped aside and let him in.

Katsuki made a beeline for Izuku's bed, flopping down on his side and staring at the floor.

Izuku lowered himself onto his desk chair again. "Is everything okay?" It wasn't a secret that Izuku was usually up half the night, but he hadn't heard that Katsuki had been having nightmares.

Really, he should have predicted that a long time ago.

"Do you think All Might hates me?" Katsuki asked. Izuku hesitated to call his voice soft or quiet, but it had that middle-of-the-night-when-nothing-is-real quality to it.

"Of course he doesn't hate you, why would you think that?"

"It was my fault he had to retire."

Izuku blinked. "In what world is it your fault?"

"He had to fight that weirdo because of me, because I wasn't strong enough to keep from getting kidnapped or get out of there myself." His hands grabbed at Izuku's sheets, and he was trying to bury his face in Izuku's pillow.

The idea that Katsuki was in any way responsible for All Might's retirement was absolutely ridiculous. Izuku had to take a second to process that those words had really just left his best friend's mouth before he could form a response.

"He was thinking of retiring anyway," Izuku admitted. "I'm not supposed to tell you this, but he came to UA to find a successor to pass on his legacy."

Katsuki lifted half his face from his pillow.

"And not strong enough?" Izuku shook his head. "You're one of the strongest people I know. We both got kidnapped, don't forget."

"You escaped."

"I was passed off to someone else and jumped out of a moving car." More than one person had questioned his sanity at that decision, Katsuki included. "If I'd been stuck with the League like you, I don't think I would have escaped."

"They only kidnapped us because they wanted me."

Oh, he was really letting the guilt eat at him over this. Had he been worrying about this ever since Kamino?

"What the League chose to do isn't your fault," Izuku stated firmly. "You didn't ask to be targeted."

"Didn't I, though? I knew the sports festival was public, and I still let my temper get out of control."

"No," Izuku hissed. "The teachers should have deescalated the situation before restraining you like that."

"I shouldn't have gotten that upset. It was just a stupid medal. I didn't earn it, but whatever. It would have been better than villains thinking I'm one of them."

"Do you want me to go storm Principal Nedzu's office again? Because I will." They hadn't known how villains would react to seeing Katsuki like that. Izuku had been concerned about the general public, even. But that didn't excuse their teachers. And it had led to this, where Katsuki wished he'd done something against his own nature to alleviate a tangled nest of misplaced guilt.

"Won't change anything," Katsuki said. "All Might will still be retired."

Izuku switched from his desk chair to his bed, wrapping Katsuki in as much of a hug as he could when they were lying on their sides. "Yes, All Might retired. And that's…unbelievable. But trust me, it wasn't your fault. He mentioned to me before the summer camp that he was going to. And you know All Might wouldn't blame you. He'd make the same decisions even knowing what would happen."

Katsuki clung to him, hiding his face in Izuku's shirt. "I still blame me."

"You always did blame yourself for everything," Izuku muttered. "Other people are responsible for their own choices, you know?"

"Not if you manipulate them into making those choices," Katsuki said.

Izuku had to take a moment to process that, too. Katsuki really had dug himself a nice deep pit of guilt and self-loathing. "You really think you manipulated All Might into choosing to fight that night? Literally none of this was your fault, you didn't consciously choose to do anything, so you definitely didn't manipulate All Might into anything."

"If it's not my fault then that means I'm too weak to protect myself," Katsuki countered. "And that's…that's so much worse." His voice broke, and he clutched at Izuku's back. "I have to be strong so I can protect you this time."

The words felt like a punch to the gut. "Kacchan…"

"I told you I can't lose you again," Katsuki went on. "I can't. I really can't."

Izuku hugged him tighter. "I'm not going anywhere, I promise, not without you. You won't lose me."

Words were beyond Katsuki at this point, but he always had believed in actions over words anyway. He muffled his sobs against Izuku, curling up against him.

Izuku held on to him until he cried himself out, and then when Katsuki made no move to leave he turned off his lamp and let darkness cover the room. They'd have to get up in about two hours, and Izuku wasn't even sure they'd sleep, but resting was better than nothing at this point.

He cast one look at his laptop and the researching he hadn't gotten to, but he didn't regret being here for Katsuki. His best friend had been holding onto this for too long, and after all of the crap Izuku had put him through, he was happy to return the favor for once.

Hopefully Katsuki would remember what Izuku had said when he started to spiral again. This wasn't an issue to be solved overnight, and Izuku would have to push him towards All Might later, too, but they'd get through it.

Xx

The provisional license exam was in three days. Everyone was on edge, and the teachers almost had to bribe the students to convince them to leave the gym. Aizawa liked to see the kids so dedicated, he'd had plenty of classes who'd lacked even half of their determination, but he knew why they were like this.

Facing real villains put things in perspective a lot faster for this class than other classes in the past. These kids already knew what they were really up against, they knew what their shortcomings were. And they were determined to overcome them as fast as possible.

It gave Aizawa some peace of mind to know these kids would be able to defend themselves if anything happened. It meant he could actually focus on his patrols and the actual hero side of his life.

Like following up with his contacts on a missing person's case.

The park was deserted at this time of night, and the old man sitting on the bench had a heavy cane next to him. A cigarette hung from his lips, and the collar of his trench coat was popped up.

Aizawa sat down on the other side of the bench. Streetlights didn't quite reach this one, and the trees behind them kept them invisible to the road. "Broker."

"Eraserhead," the man greeted, his voice gravelly from decades of smoking.

Broker was as honest as they came, in that he was just as likely to give vital information to villains as to heroes. If you were able to pay, he didn't care what label society gave you. But his info was good; he'd been in the business so long and had contacts on both sides of the board, so he had access to information Aizawa could only dream of reaching. For that reason, he and other law enforcers turned a blind eye to his shady activities.

"Find anything worthwhile?" Aizawa asked.

"Depends what you have for me," Broker retorted.

Aizawa pulled a roll of cash from his pocket. He traded information sometimes, but if he was in a hurry Broker was just as happy to accept cash for his info.

He hummed at the money and breathed out a perfect smoke ring. "No one has seen a single green hair on Midoriya Inko's head."

Aizawa frowned. He hadn't expected it to be easy, but this was why he'd reached out to Broker the first night.

"Dragon, on the other hand, has been spotted going in and out of this apartment building around dinnertime every night for the last week." He held up a folded slip of paper between his fingers. "I don't know if your gal is inside or not, but if you want to find Dragon I'd look here."

Aizawa took the paper and left the cash in the man's waiting hand. An apartment building would not have been his first guess. It was too innocent a place to hide a kidnapped woman. Maybe that was what made it ideal. He glanced at the paper to make sure it really was an address and not some phony set up. "Thanks."

Broker thumbed through the cash. "Always happy to help such a well-paying customer."

Aizawa rolled his eyes. His agency was the one that provided the cash, and the paperwork involved was always a nightmare. But relying on underground contacts like this had saved lives in the past, and it would do so again. Like it or not, the best sources of information were sometimes the ones with a skewed moral code.

"Keep yourself out of trouble." Aizawa pushed himself to his feet and walked off down the path.

"Do I ever do anything else?" Broker called after with a wheezy laugh.

Aizawa didn't dignify that with a response. He waited until he was out of the park and out on the main road before putting the address in his phone. He doubted Broker would try anything, it wasn't logical to attack a source of income, but Aizawa wasn't about to take chances.

The apartment building was in Hosu, because of course it had to be so far away. Ideally he'd check it out himself, but it was already eleven at night. Trains weren't running that far anymore, so he'd have to drive, and it would take an hour and a half to get there. Then he'd have to scope it out and decide whether or not to go for it in the middle of the night.

If he did, there was no way he was getting back in time to teach class, and he didn't want to abandon the students with only two days left to train before the exam. That wasn't fair to them, not when he can just as easily ask one of the dozens of heroes in Hosu to swing by and check the building out. If Dragon had made some kind of base there, they'd be able to tell.

He thumbed through his phone to call one of the Hosu agencies when an email came through from Izuku.

"You're supposed to be sleeping, Problem Child," Aizawa sighed. His own sleep schedule was nothing but a pipe dream, but he had to try and impress the importance of one on his students.

He checked the email. A few potential targets of future heists, like usual, and an interesting screenshot of a forum about League of Villains sightings. Looked like someone caught them going into an old warehouse a few days ago along with a member of the Shie Hassaikai.

Izuku had left a note explaining that the Reverse Serum came from a Yakuza group, but he couldn't remember which one.

It was useful information, and not particularly what Aizawa wanted to deal with right now. But this was easier for him to look into from his agency while another hero in Hosu followed up on the apartment lead, so Aizawa turned his feet towards his shoddy agency headquarters and called the Manuel agency.

His agency building was in the more questionable part of town and nothing more than a rented apartment four other heroes shared and called 'headquarters.' One of the bedrooms was a conference room, and the other was the private office for the head of their agency. Aizawa and the other three had shoved desks into the living room space and called it a day.

Part of him had wanted to strike out as an independent, but the thought of handling all that paperwork on his own gave him a headache, so he'd joined up with some other low-rank heroes. Finding other underground heroes had also been a pain, but ultimately worth it as they didn't have to deal with media and PR all the time.

He pulled out the folding chair in front of his desk and booted up his computer, fingers tapping impatiently. He was the only one there that night; they had a rotation for patrols, but he was unavailable for day shifts thanks to UA so the others weren't typically around at night. Pity, if one of the others was here he might have made them do this research.

At least there was coffee in the kitchen. He jumped up to start the coffee maker while his computer finished loading.

Following leads like this could be the most boring thing in the world sometimes. Aizawa didn't particularly enjoy chaining himself to a computer for hours, but it was the best way to get the preliminary research done. He had access to the various police reports on the Reverse Serum, and he cross-referenced those with the reports on the Shie Hassaikai movements of the last few years.

There were more coincidences than he liked. Trace components of the serum were linked with a heist of a biology lab, demonstrations occurred in the same places the Shie Hassaikai had been active at the time, and a body count followed the path of the demonstration locations. The body count had gone down over the last year, likely the result of fine-tuning the serum.

Aizawa didn't like it. With the implication that Dragon had been selling this serum, refined or not, for the last few years, that tied him to some of these body counts, too. They'd have to dig deeper to find out how involved Dragon was in the process

He folded his hands together and leaned his forehead against them. He couldn't decide if knowing Dragon was tied to the Yakuza made things more confusing or easier for them.

Thankfully, his phone rang and cut through his circling thoughts. He swiped it off the desk and answered.

"Eraser."

"Hey, it's Manual. I checked out that apartment like you asked."

He hadn't expected the pro to handle it himself, but it made no difference, really. "Did you find anything?"

"Security tapes confirm Dragon has been coming in and out the front door. They're in the middle of upgrading their interior cameras, so none of the hall cameras have been operational for the last two weeks."

Of course not. They'd probably be 'in the middle of upgrading' until Dragon was done with the building.

"I did a sweep of the building, but nothing stood out as odd. No guards or blocked rooms or anything. It doesn't seem like the kind of place to stash a hostage, if you ask me."

No, it didn't. If it was a regular apartment building, then Inko could escape whenever she wanted with no guards at her door. It was too soon for Stockholm syndrome to have already sunk in. Granted, he didn't know the nature of their relationship before all this happened. Maybe it wasn't crazy to think she'd willingly stay where he put her, whether out of fear or devotion or what. She had gone with them under her own power.

"I'll stick some people around here this afternoon and follow him in, try and see where he goes," Manual offered.

"Thanks, I appreciate it." The only other option was to go door to door, but that had too many variables. For all they knew, Inko's guard was posted in the apartment with her. She could be confined to a single bedroom. Knocking on the door and announcing their presence could have disastrous results for Inko.

It was better to play it safe and find which apartment she was in first, get as much info as they could. Then they could strategize how best to approach the situation.

"No problem. I'll keep you posted."

They were quick to end the call, and Aizawa compiled his findings from the evening. It was close to three in the morning, and if he wanted any sleep before wrangling children all day he needed to head home.

Xx

This shouldn't be this hard.

That was all Izuku could think as he stared at his notes pinned up all over his room. He hadn't meant to turn his room into some kind of crazy conspiracy board, but it was easier to see everything at once like this, and he didn't risk losing something in a random pile on his desk.

He couldn't deny that having dragon legends pinned up next to criminal activity would probably turn a few heads if he ever let anyone in his room. Katsuki hadn't been paying attention the night before, but Izuku wasn't expecting a repeat of that obliviousness.

It just didn't make sense. Most of the dragon legends he'd found put dragons underwater, as some kind of sea monster or river god. Or they were temple guardians. His father would never make a base underwater, that wasn't practical for a businessman on the move all the time. And a shrine or a temple was possible, but there were so many in Japan how was Izuku supposed to know which one? He couldn't remember his father ever pointing one out while he was a kid.

If Hisashi wanted Izuku to find him, then why give such a vague clue? It had to be easier than this. Maybe Izuku was overthinking it?

"Hey, Sas-uh, Midoriya, dinner is ready!" Kirishima knocked.

"Be right there," Izuku automatically responded.

"Bakugou cooked, he told me tell you he made Katsudon."

Izuku finally looked away from his wall.

"He also said if you're not down there in five minutes he won't give you any."

Sometimes, living with your best friend was a curse, really. Izuku reluctantly followed Kirishima down to the kitchen, glaring at Katsuki.

Katsuki raised a brow and shoved a bowl in his hands. "You've been holed up doing research since we got back from training. You weren't coming down without a threat."

"Withholding your Katsudon is just mean, though," Izuku said.

Katsuki pushed him towards a table. "It's your own fault."

"What are you even researching so intently?" Uraraka asked. "It's summer!"

"Are you one of those people who researches for fun?" Kaminari's face twisted in disgust and horror. His bowl was half empty already, and he'd managed to get a piece of rice stuck to his cheek.

Izuku laughed. "No, I'm…trying to solve a riddle."

"Is this the same riddle from the other day?" Todoroki asked.

"Yeah." Izuku tapped his chopsticks against his bowl. "Where would a modern day dragon hide his hoard?"

Katsuki stiffened next to him while the rest of their class shot him weird looks.

"Maybe I'm going about this all wrong, maybe I shouldn't be thinking of dragons literally. He's a fire-breather anyway, so are the old legends even applicable? And he's been emphasizing family lately, so maybe it's more like where would he put his lair?"

Katsuki lightly slapped the back of his head. "Stop muttering like that, it's creepy."

Izuku sighed and leaned back in his chair, staring at the ceiling. "Why is it so hard? Does he want me to find him or not?"

"Wait, who are you looking for?" Kaminari asked.

Others caught on much quicker. "Your father gave you a riddle to find him?" Todoroki asked.

"Yeah, and he left the vaguest clue ever, like I'm just supposed to know where to find the Dragon's Hoard."

They took the news that he was looking for his father in stride, barely pausing to help him figure it out. Aizawa was going to kill him later for dragging them into it. If he'd waited two days the man would have nothing to complain about, and at the rate Izuku was going he'd earn his damn license before he could do anything else whether he liked it or not.

"Hoard is like their treasure, right?" Uraraka asked. "So where would your dad put treasure?"

Izuku threw his hands up. "I don't know, he's moved constantly for the last few years. Which is mostly my fault, but still, he's been nomadic! And he doesn't trust anyone or anything, so he wouldn't just leave it somewhere." He'd bring his treasure with him, whatever he'd determined that to be.

"A lair," Todoroki said, slowly looking up at Izuku. "Dragons put their hoards in a lair."

"Right. But I have no idea where he's made his most recent lair." If that were so easy to find, he'd have sent the heroes after his father a long time ago.

"No, Todoroki might be on to something," Kaminari said. The rice had fallen from his face, so it was a little easier to take him seriously when he had his 'crazy idea' face on. "Your dad's this evil villain, and villains have lairs. So if a dragon were a human, where would they put an evil villain lair?"

The table stared at him for several seconds. On the one hand, it sounded like a genius connection. On the other, it sounded like complete nonsense. Izuku had no idea what to do with that connection, so he leaned towards the latter.

"You mean, if we think of classic villain lairs and combine it with classic dragon lairs?" Uraraka asked.

"Where would you find dragons in legends?" Todoroki asked.

Izuku could recite the list in his sleep, he'd stared at it so much. "Caves, riverbeds, the sea, temples or shrines, mountaintops."

Kaminari slammed both hands on the table. "Your dad totally has a hidden undersea lair!"

"No he doesn't, you idiot," Katsuki sighed into his hands.

"It's too far away from everything," Izuku explained. "And water is a big weakness for him, he wouldn't set up a base in the middle of his biggest weakness."

"It would be the perfect place to hide, though," Uraraka said. She put an elbow on the table and propped her chin up. "Is there some other kind of water-based thing, but like in a city?"

"Do you people even hear the words that leave your mouth?" Katsuki moaned.

"A pool!" Kaminari shouted. "Wait, that's too small for a whole lair. A water park!"

Izuku rubbed his temple. "Yes. My dad set up an evil lair in a water park. He has to use the waterslides to get from meeting to meeting."

Imagining his dad in his full suit sliding down a water slide and then doing business all dripping wet was hilarious, and he'd be recalling that image every night before bed for weeks.

As crazy as Kaminari's idea was, though, Izuku's mind was jumping through possible connections.

"What about an aquarium?" Todoroki asked.

"Oooh, yeah!" Uraraka said. "He'd totally stand there in front of the deep sea exhibit with like all those blue lights behind him."

Katsuki snorted beside him, but Izuku wasn't laughing. The puzzle pieces had finally clicked into place. His dad even said something about an aquarium in the car back in Kamino.

And of all the aquariums in Japan, there was one back in Nurugi that came to mind. Izuku had passed it a hundred times in his patrols.

"Son of a bitch." He looked over at Katsuki. "I know where he is."

Katsuki gave him a long look. Izuku had promised he wouldn't run off without him, and now that he knew where to go he was ready to grab what he needed and then run to the first train he could catch.

"Wait, did we help you figure it out?" Kaminari grinned. "And you all think I'm the dumb one!"

"That hasn't changed," Todoroki stated. He watched Izuku and Katsuki closely, probably guessing exactly what they were about to do. "It might have been better not to."

"Eat your dinner, Izucchan," Katsuki said. "We'll tell Aizawa afterwards."

Izuku scowled and started shoveling pork and rice into his mouth. Katsuki played dirty using a nickname like that, not to mention his Katsudon really was delicious.

More importantly, Izuku was going to need his strength for later.

Xx

Aizawa had fallen asleep at his kitchen table working on lesson plans for the new term. The students had made amazing progress over the summer, which meant they were ready for some tougher practicals to really challenge them.

He was not supposed to fall asleep on them, but with the long hours he kept he was unfortunately rather used to it.

He was also used to random phone calls waking him up, and he answered in his usual gruff manner.

"Hey, Eraser, it's Manual."

He dialed back his murderous intent. "What have you got?"

"Bad news, unfortunately. Dragon never showed today, and when we checked the day's footage he was seen coming in before noon, before I could get anyone stationed nearby. He left with Inko Midoriya, right into a car. Street cams lost them in the industrial side of town."

Aizawa swore. Dragon must have caught wind of Manual snooping around the apartment and decided to move Inko before the heroes could get closer. How could he not have heard? Manual had a bright blue spandex costume, it was hard to miss. He might have even had the security footage bugged to send him an alert whenever someone checked it.

"I'm sorry, Eraser. We've got a BOLO out on the car and Mrs. Midoriya."

"Could you tell what condition Mrs. Midoriya was in?"

"She looked unharmed. She walked out under her own power. I didn't see any bruises on her."

That was something, at least. Dragon didn't seem to be in a rush to harm Inko, so that gave them time. Time they would desperately need since he was going to have to start from square one to find her again.

"Keep me posted if you find anything new," Aizawa said.

Manual promised and that was the end of that. Aizawa pulled up Broker's contact info and asked him to keep his ear to the ground again.

When he put the phone down with a heavy sigh, Hizashi slunk in behind him and rubbed his shoulders. Aizawa ranted about useless flashy heroes, an old familiar rant between the two of them, and Hizashi let him get it out of his system.

"Mrs. Midoriya isn't hurt, though," Hizashi said, pressing a kiss to the top of Aizawa's head. "Focus on the good here."

"You know what's good? I didn't tell Izuku about this lead and get his hopes up." He could only imagine the hell that kid would raise if Aizawa had told them how close they were to finding her just to have her slip through their fingers.

Hizashi laughed. "Yeah, I wouldn't want to be the one to tell him his mom vanished again. The first time was bad enough."

Aizawa snorted. "Bad is an understatement. If his quirk hadn't been acting up, I don't think he would have agreed to stay put where we could see him."

Hizashi hummed. "Tsukauchi still hasn't gotten back to you about that?"

Aizawa leaned his head back against Hizashi, letting his husband run his fingers through his mane of hair. "No. There wasn't much to recover at the warehouse once the fight was over, and that would probably have been where the info we need was."

"Of course," Hizashi said. "I guess as long as Izuku is okay it doesn't matter."

That was the naïve hope. Izuku had gotten his quirk under control again, and he was wholly focused on the exam in a few days. Once he had his license in hand, Aizawa would allow him to help with the investigation for his mom. He'd given up on stopping the kid, and he'd rather work with Izuku than against him.

As long as Izuku stayed okay with no weird side effects from whatever happened to him and stayed focused on training for the exam, Aizawa was reasonably sure they'd be able to tackle everything being thrown at them.

He just hoped Izuku's patience lasted a few more days.