Izuku spent most of the next few days distracted. Every time he wasn't on patrol or in the office, he found himself thinking of Mina's note, or of Mina herself, staggering into the agency covered in blood and burns.

Izuku had seen a lot of injuries over the years; a lot of those were his own, to boot. Even if he hadn't spent most of his school days blowing his limbs apart, though, he'd become all too familiar with grievous wounds since then. Civilians, fellow heroes, villains…himself again… in the half a decade since he'd graduated from UA, Izuku had seen plenty of pain and blood. But none of it, none of it, had affected him quite like Mina collapsing into his arms had.

For a single, awful moment, Izuku had thought she was dying. The state of her clothes had meant he couldn't tell how badly she was hurt, so his mind had run with the sheer amount of blood staining her pink skin, imagining a situation that was far, far worse than it actually was. Even then, though, Izuku shouldn't have been so frozen, shouldn't have had to fight off panic the way he had. He'd stared at Mina's unconscious face for what felt like an eternity before training and expertise had finally let him force himself into action. The whole time, too, he'd been agonizing over what he would do if he screwed up, if he couldn't fix it, if she kept bleeding until she bled out-

She hadn't. That was the important part. Izuku had saved her. But that hadn't been the end of his turmoil.

When Mina had woken up again, Izuku had made a fucking fool of himself, babbling and stammering like he was a fifteen-year-old meeting All Might for the first time all over again. He'd thought he'd outgrown those old anxieties and insecurities; being the undisputed greatest hero in Japan tended to do wonders for your self-confidence. But no, the moment he'd met Mina's golden eyes, the awkward embarrassment had returned in full force. What was wrong with him?

Equally confusing had been the rage Izuku had felt when he'd learned that Mina's injuries came from Bakugo of all people. Indignation at a hero he knew dishing out unnecessary violence was one thing, but the desire to crush Bakugo, to actually hurt him? That was new, and it scared Izuku to his core.

And then the day came, and Izuku's life got even more complicated.

As he anxiously watched the clock, waiting until he could slip out and go to meet Mina on the first level, Izuku was jarred from his thoughts by a rough, hasty knock on his door. Startled, he called out, "Come in!"

The door was shouldered open, revealing Ejiro's broad form. Izuku braced himself for some witty remark or friendly teasing, but another look at Ejiro's face put that to rest. Ejiro was all business; more than that, there was a dark cloud behind his eyes, a grimness Izuku hadn't seen since…

A city turned to dust. A mission gone so horribly, awfully wrong that nothing could ever have fixed it. A war.

"What's going on?" Izuku asked instantly, not even needing to ask to know something was wrong.

Ejiro slipped into the office…but he wasn't alone. Behind him, clutching a file and looking more than a little intimidated, was-

Izuku got even more confused. "Akari?" he called out as Ejiro closed the door behind the young sidekick.

Akari nodded, the look on her face suggesting she would have been trembling if her spine wasn't ramrod-straight. Setting her face into a grim arrangement that felt like a parody of the thunderclouds on Ejiro's, she nodded and said, "Hello, Atlas."

Izuku raised an eyebrow. "Call me Izuku," he said automatically. Akari's eyes widened, and she flinched a little. Izuku felt himself smile.

Before Akari could start getting confused again, Ejiro interrupted, "Look, I'm as fond of ribbing the sidekicks as much as the next guy, but this is important."

Instantly, Izuku grew grimmer, and more confused. Anything serious enough to make Ejiro stop joking around was serious. He sat up in his chair, fingers folding together as he leaned forwards.

"Let's hear it then," he replied, brisk and businesslike.

Akari hesitated, turning to look at Ejiro as if expecting him to speak. Ejiro gestured at the table, as if telling her, "Well? Get to it."

Taking a deep breath, Akari put the file she'd been carrying down on Izuku's desk. She opened it, and Izuku felt himself shift into his own version of the look on Ejiro's face. Stormy and grim, with eyes that stared into the past.

"What were you doing with Himiko Toga's case file?" Izuku asked evenly, tonelessly.

Akari hesitated for a second, but quickly answered, "I-I had some spare time on my hands the other day, and a thought crossed my mind, a-about the case. I thought-"

Izuku waved her off before Akari's explanation could turn into a babble. "Alright, that makes sense," he assured her.

As if unsurprised that Izuku had managed to more or less read her mind, Akari simply nodded and continued, "Well, I had a thought about the case. I guess it's not a thought, really. More like a hunch. Or-or a suspicion."

Izuku's eyes narrowed. For all that she was prone to hero worship and a little bit of awkwardness, he hadn't hired Akari because she was useless. In fact, under the youthful glint in her eye, she had the makings of a top-notch detective. If she had a hunch about something, it was probably worth looking into.

But still, the subject of that hunch…

Izuku was so deep in thought, he had to force himself to focus back on Akari as she continued, "So, uh, I took a look through what we've got on her, and I realized-Himiko Toga hasn't been seen in the flesh in nearly eight years, right?"

Izuku nodded slowly, his expression darkening. Toga was the last member of the League of Villains who was still at large. She'd slipped through any number of nets in those chaotic, frantic days at the end of the war, when Izuku had defeated Shigaraki in a battle that still gave him nightmares. None of the others had, and the last rogue Nomu had been cleaned up a couple years back…but Toga was a loose end. A very dangerous loose end. Izuku knew half his old classmates still had some sort of secret code they used to identify each other, lest Toga infiltrate their ranks and butcher them like she'd done far too many times.

"Yes," Izuku confirmed, eyes fixed on the desk as Akari spread out various documents; alleged sightings, psychoanalyses, maps, quirk breakdowns, warrants. "We managed to get close to catching her once or twice in the first year or so, but after that…she disappeared. Our best guess is that she either fled the country, or…"

Izuku hesitated. For some reason, as his lips tried to form the next word, golden eyes flashed in his mind. Toga had them, slitted and catlike-and some witnesses said that those eyes often remained even when she transformed, a tell that you were dealing with one of the worst serial killers in recent Japanese history.

But no, the eyes Izuku was thinking of weren't Toga's. They were deeper gold, not the sickly yellow of bile or a predator's glinting gaze; they were more like the sun, or the twinkle of long lost treasure. They were Mina's eyes, and Izuku knew exactly why they'd come to mind.

Seeing Izuku hesitate, Akari weakly asked, "Or…what?"

Izuku met her eyes, and smiled apologetically. He responded, "Or that she disappeared into the Depths."

Akari's eyes widened in understanding. The Depths, the massive shadow city in the deepest, most labyrinthine part of the Underground, was more or less the perfect hiding spot for anyone fleeing the law. Heroes almost never went down there-it was simply too dangerous, too confusing, and too risky. The government encouraged that-it preferred to forget the Depths even existed, content to leave those unwilling to keep the peace in their own little world. A world so deadly to heroes that every attempt to clean it up had ended in blood.

For the first time, Ejiro spoke up, adding, "That's always been the theory that makes the most sense to me. For someone like Toga, it would have been much harder to flee the country right after the war-there was security everywhere, and even she couldn't have gotten past all of it. Far simpler to just…melt away into the Depths. Nobody ever goes down there unless they don't have any other choice."

Keeping thoughts of Mina as far into the back of his mind as he could, Izuku retorted, "But we still would have noticed if we had a serial killer down here. Toga doesn't strike me as the kind to just stop killing people. Hell, we're pretty sure her quirk makes her crave blood. Someone would have spotted a trail of bodies like that."

"Um, about that," Akari interrupted awkwardly, flushing red as Izuku turned to her. "I…think I can help with that."

Izuku nearly bolted upright. It took real effort to keep himself under control as he replied, "Well, let's see what you've got, then."

Akari nodded, leaning over the desk as she pulled out a new document. As she worked, she said, "I had the same thought you just did while I was looking over the file. There's only been a few murders in the last seven or eight years that fit Toga's MO, and they're separated by huge spans of time with no killings at all. That's another strike against it being her-from what we know, Toga feels the "urge to kill" or whatever you want to call it fairly regularly. I don't see why or how that could have changed. Plus, the people who were killed were found all over the Underground-not clustered in the lower levels like you would reasonably expect. Definitely not connected-or so I thought."

Akari paused, clearly checking to see if her audience was falling. A specter of her awkwardness seemed to creep back in, having vanished once she got down to business.

In the few moments of silence, Izuku looked at Ejiro. "She brought this to you first?" he assumed.

Ejiro nodded, burly arms crossed over his chest. "Yeah," he confirmed. "I wouldn't have brought it to you if I thought there was nothing here."

Izuku nodded. Detective work may not have been Ejiro's specialty-he was much more of a direct frontline hero-but he know enough to poke holes in dumb ideas. If he couldn't find any here…

Izuku gestured for Akari to continue, which she did. "I was pretty sure the scattered killings were unconnected at first," she said. "Sure, they fit Toga's style-multiple stab wounds, signs of being ambushed, d…drained of all their blood…but they were just too far apart, chronologically and geographically. But…then I realized something."

Akari exhaled softly, flipping a piece of paper around to face Izuku. He looked at it closely. It was a list of names. Names he wasn't familiar with-and he knew the possible Toga victims' names by heart. He'd studied that case extensively, determined to bring Toga in. He'd never found anything.

Akari told him, "There's a lot of problems with the system for reporting missing or dead people, especially the lower you get in the city. It's entirely possible we're missing well over half of those cases-more, if you factor in the Depths."

Izuku's eyes widened as he began to put the pieces together himself. He hadn't even thought of that. He'd been so focused on the cases he could solve, that he'd forgotten to wonder how many he didn't even know about.

"Of course," he hissed. "She would stick to the Depths-there's far less risk she'd ever be noticed there. She could kill a dozen people a day and we'd never know."

"Then what about the cases we already suspected?" Ejiro pointed out. "A lot of them were found in the upper levels. One was even on the first!"

Akari nodded. "I thought that too," she agreed. "But then I checked those cases again. And I found something they had in common."

Izuku and Ejiro's eyes widened as she showed them a series of pages, each one a case report. The location had been highlighted on each of them.

Ejiro swore, as did Izuku. "The tunnels," they said in unison.

Akari's eyes were grim. "The tunnels," she agreed. "Every single case we do know about was found somewhere in the old smugglers' networks. There's probably more they missed, but…well, there would be nothing stopping Toga from only hunting in the Depths. Maybe she comes up every now and then for a riskier target. Maybe she's being opportunistic, or…well, we know Toga often kills people she's attracted to, for one reason or another. Maybe that has something to do with it."

Izuku nodded to himself, though his frustration with himself was starting to mount. "It doesn't even matter," he cursed. "The important thing is, she's probably been using those tunnels for years, and we never fucking thought of it."

"Probably," Akari admitted, clearly too focused to even care about her idol's language. "And…well, that's not the only thing I think she's doing."

Izuku raised an eyebrow, especially as she nodded to the list of names that was still in his hand. "That list," she told him. "It's as many names as I could find for people found murdered in or near the Depths. Specifically, any of them who matched Toga's MO."

Izuku's eyes roamed down the list, taking in the names. There were so many. And the dates…they stretched over years. One death a month, perhaps slightly less. Name after name after name.

"So many people I've failed," he thought.

"I compared that list to the handful of cases we already had," Akari continued, "And they line up perfectly. We didn't have a couple of scattered murders that just happened to look like Toga's style. We…we had the tip of the iceberg. All the gaps in the timeline-they're filled by that list. And that's not all."

Izuku's heart sank even lower. "It's not?" he replied, sounding more than a little stunned.

Akari nodded. "I checked the names there against the quirk registries on another hunch," she said. "Nearly two thirds of the ones who I got matches for were mutants…and I'm willing to bet the real percentage is higher. Mutants are far more likely to never get their quirks registered at all."

Izuku's heart froze in his chest. All he could think of in that fraction of a second was Mina.

Ejiro rolled his shoulders as he stood up from where he'd been leaning against the wall. "This is the one bit of it that doesn't make sense to me," he admitted. "It's not like Toga has anything against mutants-hell, the League actively recruited them. I can't figure out why she'd just start killing them."

"Simple," Izuku muttered, nearly to himself. "Mutants are about the most vulnerable and isolated population imaginable down here. Most of them probably lived alone, or spent a lot of time in situations where they wouldn't be missed. Nobody would have cared if they went missing-and nobody would have fallen over themselves to find out what was happening, either. Perfect targets."

As Izuku finished, he realized Ejiro and Akari were both staring at him. He felt himself blush, just a little. "What?" he asked.

Ejiro held his gaze for a moment longer, then shook his head. "Never mind," he replied. "Didn't realize you were so knowledgeable about mutants, that's all."

Izuku winced internally. He'd learned most of that from Mina, just from reading between the lines of what she'd said.

He simply shrugged, not trusting himself to come up with a good excuse. After a second, Ejiro and Akari seemed to shrug off their confusion, letting Izuku's mistake slide.

"Whatever," Ejiro said. "The important thing is deciding what we do now."

Izuku nodded. "We still don't know where she is," he pointed out. "The best guess we have right now is "the one place we can't really go."

Akari looked apologetic. "Yeah, I know," she admitted. "Sorry I couldn't be more help."

Izuku glared at her, jabbing a finger as he said, "That's enough of that."

Akari's eyes flared wide, and she promptly shut up. Izuku turned to Ejiro, and asked, "How quickly can we get Holo promoted to a full hero?"

As Akari's eyes practically bugged out of her head, Ejiro replied, "It shouldn't take more than a day or two to do the paperwork."

Akari made a sound that would have been more appropriate coming from a strangled cat. "W-what are you talking about?" she squeaked, her protests weak but frantic. "I've barely been working here for two months!"

Izuku shot her another look. "And you just cracked the case of the most wanted fugitive in Japan wide open after nearly a decade," he finished dryly. "You expect me to not promote you for that kind of work?"

It was a testament to just how shocked Akari was that she once again protested, "B-but I only just graduated from UA, you can't just-"

Izuku raised an eyebrow. "Actually, that's a nice perk of being the greatest hero in Japan," he said teasingly. "I can do whatever I want."

Akari finally fell silent, and practically scurried out of the room as soon as Izuku dismissed her. Judging by the way she clutched the newly-regathered file to her chest, she was probably in the midst of a complete breakdown. As soon as the door closed, Ejiro shook his head and snorted, "You're gonna be the death of that girl one of these days."

Izuku grinned, even as the grim set of his eyes didn't change. "I hope not," he replied. "She's a damn good hero."

Ejiro huffed in agreement, then grew serious again. "The question still stands, though," he reminded Izuku. "We still need to figure out what we're gonna do."

Izuku sighed, the sigh of a veteran recalling a long-ended war. Ejiro's eyes filled with recognition.

"I wish I could tell you I had any ideas," Izuku muttered. "We can't go into the Depths guns blazing, she'd escape before we got anywhere close to her. A small team wouldn't be better-still too much danger."

Ejiro knew all this, and by the look in his eyes, he knew what Izuku's solution would be, too.

"You're not going in alone," he told Izuku sternly.

Izuku smiled weakly. "You read my mind," he replied. "I don't see any other option."

"You'll get killed within five seconds," Ejiro reminded him. "With your luck, it'll be very, very painful."

Izuku frowned. "Look, I don't like this any more than you do-" he began.

"But you're still doing it, because you're a stupid, self-sacrificing moron," Ejiro interrupted. "No. We have to find a different way."

Izuku shook his head. "There is no other way," he responded. "Nobody else could possibly-"

Suddenly, Izuku stopped dead. A thought struck him; he recalled golden eyes and a dark mask. And then he leaped to his feet.

"I have an idea," he said. "There might be someone I can ask for help."

Ejiro frowned. "Am I allowed to know who this mysterious someone is?" he asked dryly.

Izuku swallowed heavily. He didn't like keeping secrets from Ejiro, he really didn't…but he wouldn't betray Mina's trust.

"If this goes well, I'll make sure you meet them," he promised. "But for now…well, consider it a source. They're skittish, though, really skittish. I have to go talk to them, alone."

Ejiro's lips pursed, but they both knew what his response would be. He didn't even bother to argue. Instead, he sighed, "Just…be careful, alright? I've been hearing some bad rumblings about something going on down there. Apparently there's neo-Stain groups making a fuss in the Depths."

"There's always neo-Stain groups making a fuss in the Depths," Izuku said dismissively. "They never do anything."

"This one could be different," Ejiro replied. "Bloodhound gave me a warning about them yesterday-said the underworld's on the move again. You know how independent she is. If it was something she could handle, she wouldn't have told us at all. And if it's got her worried…well, I am too. Don't forget, of all the places Toga could be, with a group of fellow Stain-inspired whackos is probably one of the most likely."

Izuku nodded understandingly. "I'll be careful," he promised, checking his watch. Perfect, it was time to go see Mina. This had worked out brilliantly.

Izuku turned to Ejiro one last time. "I'll be back soon," he said. "Let's say…well, I don't know how the source I've got is gonna respond, so I'm not sure when. But I'll be back, alright?"

Ejiro nodded. "I'll hold down the fort," he replied. "Don't get yourself killed this time, yeah?"

Izuku snorted. Then, he slipped out the front door, and was gone.

Drinking in the silence, Ejiro rolled his eyes up to the ceiling. "Moron," he muttered, though it was too fond to be an insult. Not entirely, at least.

Halfway across the city, a figure in a cloak and a mask slipped through the strange landscape of a park. Hero Park, to be exact; the sprawling expanse of trees and grass at the heart of the Underground's first and most beautiful level, growing strong and colorful as if to mock the far-off cave ceiling above them.

At last, the figure settled onto a bench in a mostly-empty section of the park, near the base of the most famous landmark in the Underground: the statues of Craton and Faultline, the hero and villain whose battle had first carved the Underground eight decades earlier. The figure was waiting for someone.

Mina stared up at the dueling statues above her; they were immense, stretching up nearly a hundred feet, nearly to the ceiling, which itself stretched up and up until you could almost forget you were underground. There was so much light, this close to the surface; it shone from immense spotlights, sprang from tasteful lamps dotted across this unearthly garden, gleamed from the golden skin of the titans who had created her whole world. She couldn't help but be drawn to them, as the artist had so clearly intended.

Immortalized in bronze and steel like this, dueling forces of nature tearing each other apart and creating a world in the bargain, was it any wonder that they had been declared gods after their fall? They were the kami of the Underground, guardian spirits whose souls infused everything around them.

From this angle, beneath their golden feet, Mina could make out the faces of both hero and villain. Craton was exactly what all said a hero should be, in body and face; stern and fierce, humble and mighty, confident and utterly certain of victory, all at once. Even through the metal and dust of centuries, you could see it all in the set of his jaw, in the Herculean cast of his muscles; he thrust one fist upwards, his posture rock-solid and unbreakable, oddly reminiscent of All Might at Kamino. He was heroic, undoubtedly; no wonder all the surface-dwellers idolized this statue. It told them that they were right, that they were just, that heroes would always protect them. Stone had responded to his touch and his will, changing form or strength or consistency like a potter molded clay. Thanks to him, the Underground was stable and strong, with unshakeable walls that had knit themselves together at his command.

But Faultline… Faultline's statue was different, and it was the one Mina couldn't look away from. Somehow, the long-ago artist of the centerpiece of the public Underground, the face it showed to the world, had managed to capture Faultline's uniqueness; her golden-bronze skin was cracked and granular, the left side of her body dissolving into motionless sand. Her quirk was one of the strangest Mina had ever seen or heard of, and that was saying something. Faultline's arms turned into earthen claws starting at the elbows, her legs to pillars of sand. The sandy nature of her skin, visible all over as it had been in life, suggested somehow that it might fly apart at the slightest motion. Faultline's hair splayed out behind her, falling loosely down her back as she moved on the balls of her feet, a predator in motion; her body seemed tense, as though she was about to leap above her foe for a killing blow. With her body made of the earth itself, Faultline truly looked inhuman; half devil, half sandstorm, her eyes wild and monstrous, her snarl practically feral. In life, she'd torn great holes into the bowels of the earth, turning acres upon acres of stone to the same deadly sand she was made of in seconds. And even so, she was beautiful; perhaps it was the sight of a woman fighting for her life and loving every second of it that did it, or the way she and Craton managed, even set in thousands of tons of rock and metal, to turn the brutality of a fight to the death into a kind of dance, a contrast of rhythms, a crossing of limbs and lives that would never be matched again.

Craton may be the god of the surface; his shrine at the base of the statues may have been the more attended of the two, full of offerings, tended by all. He had stabilized the Underground, made it a place where humans could live. But Faultline was like Mina; a monster, a criminal, something both less and more than human. She had shaped the Underground, blazed this trail, this way of life for people like her. Intentionally or not, she had given her people a home, in the tunnels she carved with her quirk as she fought the greatest battle Japan had ever seen.

Mina wondered who had won in the end; the hero who fought to protect, or the villain who fought to live, to be seen as human.

A thought came to Mina as she sat down on a bench beneath the titans. She murmured, "I don't know if you saved me or damned me. And I don't know if I should thank you or hate you for it if you did."

Faultline's statue didn't answer.

It wasn't long before Mina's solitude was shattered by the approach of a broad-shouldered figure wearing…a hat and thick-framed glasses?

Mina couldn't hold back a derisive snort as the green-haired man sat down on the bench next to her. "That's your idea of a disguise, Atlas?" she demanded.

Izuku grinned sheepishly at her from beneath those horribly ugly black glasses. "Hey, what can I say? It works," he said.

Mina made a face, even though Izuku couldn't see it. "I sure hope it doesn't," she retorted.

Izuku looked at her oddly. "What, would you rather I get recognized?" he asked.

Rolling her eyes, Mina replied, "I almost wouldn't mind, if it proved people weren't stupid enough to let you get away with such a shitty disguise. You're a six-foot-seven dude with bright green hair. How many of those exist down here?"

Izuku shrugged. "Hey, I don't know how it works so well, either," he admitted. "But it works, so I use it. Besides, it's not like I'll stand out next to a woman wearing a full-body cloak and a mask."

Mina glared at him. "I'm pretty sure I'd stand out more if I wasn't wearing the mask," she reminded him. "So unless you want the headlines tomorrow to be all about how Atlas got spotted with a mutant, I think I'll keep it on, thank you very much."

Izuku winced a little. "I wish you wouldn't say that word like that," he murmured. "Like you hate yourself."

Mina turned her head ever so slightly, just enough so Izuku could see the thoroughly unimpressed look in her eye. "Oh, save your breath," she snorted bitterly. "I don't hate myself. Not for being a mutant, at least."

Izuku raised an eyebrow at that, at how she'd worded it, but something in Mina's gaze told him to drop it, and he wisely decided not to push. Instead, he asked, "So, why did you want to meet me here?"

Mina turned again, staring up at the dueling statues. "I felt bad for skipping out on you the other day," she replied. "That's it, really."

"Was it?" Izuku wondered. He knew Mina wouldn't take kindly to him pushing her on it, so he instead chose to stay quiet.

"Well, I appreciate it," he told her. "It's nice to be able to talk when one of us isn't dying."

Mina laughed then, a soft, quick sound that sounded almost rusty, like she didn't use it much. Izuku couldn't help the faint smile that rose to his lips when he heard it.

"I guess it is," Mina agreed. "Not that I know what to talk about. It's not like I'm a social butterfly or anything."

Izuku nodded sympathetically. "Same here," he admitted, drawing a disbelieving look from Mina.

"Bullshit," she scoffed. "You're the Number One Hero, the biggest deal in town-hell, the biggest deal in the whole country. You're telling me you've got as much of a social life as someone who literally lives in a cave?"

Izuku nodded weakly, and Mina laughed out loud, sharp enough to startle Izuku. Weakly, he admitted, "I'm a bit of a workaholic, if I'm being honest. As a kid, I didn't have a ton of friends-really just Ejiro…sorry, Red Riot. That's still kinda true. Sure, a ton of people always want to know everything about me…but I wouldn't call that friendship, or even really a social life."

Mina raised an eyebrow. "You're serious," she said. "Mr. Famous has a couple of friends, and that's it? Not even some big-titted starlet on your arm?"

Izuku raised an eyebrow, even as something in his chest twinged oddly. "What makes you think I'd have that?" he asked lightly.

Mina returned the expression. "Well, seeing as you've apparently maintained an entirely platonic relationship with a very handsome hero indeed, I have to assume you prefer women," she replied dryly.

Izuku scowled, though it was clearly more humorous than anything. "Why does everyone say Ejiro's handsome?" he demanded. "It better not be the damn beard."

Mina chuckled. "I hate to break it to you…but it's the beard," she told him. "I hate heroes, and even I have to admit he's easy on the eyes."

Izuku rolled his eyes. Deciding to move on (and avoid answering Mina's actual question), he asked, "How about you, then?"

He got a deadpan stare that was obvious even through Mina's mask. "Well, Mister Question Dodger," she replied teasingly, "Where I come from, everyone gets divided into two groups: the people you'd gladly die for, and the people you couldn't give two shits about. And I'm afraid that first group is awfully small for me."

Izuku forced himself to not feel relief at Mina's answer. Instead, he kept up the oddly light banter they'd somehow found themselves falling into, responding, "And where do I fall in that division?"

There was an odd silence. When Izuku met Mina's eye, he found her studying him, a wary light in her gaze that he wasn't sure of.

After another moment of hesitation, she told him, "I haven't decided yet."

Suddenly, both Izuku and Mina seemed to realize how loaded their conversation was becoming. Their last few words rang out in both of their minds, analyzed again and again. Awkwardness replaced the strange, easy freedom that had flowed with their words just moments earlier. They both fell silent, staring up at the sight of the statues that wrote their conflict in bronze.

At last, Mina asked, "So, why did you come? I honestly wasn't expecting you to show up."

Izuku gathered his thoughts, thinking of Toga and of Mina; of a monster by birth and a monster by choice. Which one had he come for? Both, of course.

But as the start of their conversation came back to him, he forced himself back to business. People were dying, had died already, all on his watch, all because he'd failed. Toga was loose, and he hadn't noticed for years. He had to stop her.

So Izuku replied, "Mina…I need your help."

Mina's eyes narrowed. Izuku hoped desperately that she wasn't assuming all his words about there being no debts to repay had been lies. "Well?" she began. "What do you need from me?"

Izuku sighed, hoping that the fragile, tenuous thing that might have turned into a friendship wasn't about to break. He'd always gotten the sense that one misstep from him would send Mina running, and he'd never see her again. He could only hope that this wasn't a mistake-but he had no other choice.

Izuku began, "There's a villain my agency is chasing. Her name is Himiko Toga. We think she's somewhere in the Depths, but we obviously can't go there. I was hoping you could help me find her."

Suddenly, Mina rose to her feet. "Alright, stop right there," she snapped, her voice vibrating with coiled fury, and something that sounded almost regretful. "No. No, I'm not going to help you."

Izuku froze. This was what he'd been afraid of. Mina didn't stop there, though. She continued, as if to herself, "God, I don't know why I expected anything different from you. As soon as I start letting down my guard, as soon as I start wondering about you-you do exactly what heroes always do."

Izuku's eyes widened. He said, "W-wait, I just-"

Mina cut him off again. Her eyes were blazing behind her mask, now, and she was as angry as Izuku had ever seen her. "Let me make something clear, Atlas," she spat. "I am not going to help you. I'm never going to help you fucking heroes do anything to my home. I'm not going to sell anyone out, period. I'm not an informant, or a snitch, or-or whatever you want to call it. This is what you heroes do, though, isn't it? Find someone down on their luck, and offer them a choice-rot in jail, or betray everyone they've ever known and get paid to do it."

Izuku watched her turn, starting to walk away. Somehow, he knew that if he didn't think fast, this would be his last memory of Mina-watching her disappear, black cloak swishing in the still air, eyes blazing with hate.

He said, "Mina, that's not what I-"

Mina stopped, but she didn't turn. Softly, but with a voice like the edge of a knife, she replied, "It was, Izuku. It was exactly what you said. You want me to help you, a hero, hunt someone down. I've seen people I know dragged off by heroes for the same reasons, you know-they did something up above, and some traitor turned them in for a quick buck from the heroes. I am not gonna do that. Ever. And by asking, you proved you're not the man I was starting to actually believe you were. So fuck off."

Mina started to walk away again-only to be stopped by Izuku's hand, landing on her shoulder. As desperation flooded through him, he didn't have any other choice-his hand clenched her cloak, his eyes wide.

Mina fought down a wave of panic, keeping her veins icy and her mind clear, even as it grew clouded and her chest began to heave. With calm she didn't feel, she turned her head ever so slightly, and said, "You've got three seconds to let go of me, or you lose the hand. We're done, Izuku. I never should have trusted you."

Acid hissed through the pores in her gloves, making Izuku swallow heavily. She meant the threat, he knew-he had one chance to convince her.

"Why does she only call me Izuku when she's angry?" he wondered.

In a voice that was deep and heavy and choked, Izuku said, "Mina, I'm not asking as a hero. I'm asking…I'm asking as someone who wants revenge."

Mina paused. The acid in her palms began to drip free, no longer hissing quite as angrily. She didn't say a word.

Taking the fact he still had two hands as permission to continue, Izuku shakily continued, "Toga…Toga isn't a normal villain. She's the last member of the League of Villains."

Mina's eyes narrowed under the mask. She knew of the League, albeit only from secondhand sources. She also knew Atlas had history with them-history that stretched back nearly a decade.

Izuku said, "Toga…she's a murderer. The kind that likes killing. She-her quirk is based on blood. She drinks the stuff, then-then turns into whoever's blood she drank. I was…I was fifteen the first time I ran into her. So were my friends. Even now, I-I sometimes have nightmares about her trying to stab me in the heart, wearing Ejiro's face, or-or someone else's. Most of my old classmates have nightmares like that. I…don't hate easy, Mina. I barely hate anyone at all. But Toga? I hate her, for what she did to me and my friends, the fear she made us live under, where you could never be sure if your friend wasn't about to try and kill you because it wasn't your friend, and they'd…they'd been replaced."

Mina was quiet now, the acid all gone. She stood stiffly, facing away from Izuku as he spoke, as he bared his soul, as he told her things he'd never told another person-not even Ejiro, not even All Might himself.

He continued, "Earlier today…I found out that the nightmare wasn't over. She's still here, in this city. In the city I swore to protect. She's been killing all this time, and I…I never even noticed. Dozens of people, murdered because I failed them. Because even though I broke the League, I let her get away. Those people are dead because of my failure, Mina. Someone gave me a list of their names, too. I'm going to memorize every one of them-because I couldn't protect them, so the least I can do is remember them. And then avenge them."

Still, Mina didn't speak. Izuku didn't know if that was good or bad. Another thought came to him, then, and he hoped it would be enough.

"From what we know…she's been targeting mutants," Izuku added. "People the world didn't care about. Not because she hated them…because they were easy prey. Because there was nobody to stop her. Dozens of people-people like you, Mina. She's done more damage to the people of the Underground than any hero. And I'm trying to stop her."

Suddenly, Mina went rigid; Izuku heard her suck in a breath as she seemed to come to a decision. Slowly, her hand came up, fingers touching his, stroking over the back of his hand. She slowly wrapped her hand around his, and Izuku was torn between wanting to flinch and being fascinated by the texture of her skin; soft and gentle and hard all at once, as though calluses had formed on skin that was softer than any human's should have ever been. Ever so gently, Mina lifted Izuku's hand from her shoulder and dropped it, freeing her once again.

And then, out of nowhere, she whirled, making Izuku stumble back as he came face-to-face with those blazing golden eyes once again.

"How long has she been here?" Mina demanded, her voice hard and steady. "How long has she been in this fucking city?"

Izuku blinked in confusion, taken aback by the sudden reversal.

"How long?" Mina repeated, her voice dipping towards a growl as she stalked closer, jabbing a finger towards Izuku.

Eyes wide, Izuku stammered, "S-seven years or so. Probably eight."

There was a pause, a hesitation of the barest fractions of a second. In the deepest, most guarded parts of her mind, Mina thought, "That timeline…it lines up with-"

"Alright, here's the rules," she heard herself say. "You're coming with me, alone, and we're leaving now. You should be good without the disguise, thank God. Most people down there will have never seen you, or even a picture. They know you by the costume and the reputation. You stick close to me, and do not use your quirk. Period. If you do, I'll probably kill you myself."

As suddenly as she'd whirled the first time, Mina did it again. She took three steps, then paused to stare over her shoulder.

"You coming or not?" she demanded, her voice clipped as though she were distracted-and she was, with the pain of old wounds suddenly ripping open.

She hoped against hope it wasn't true, that she could cling to the fanciful dreams of what had happened. But it fit, and if it was true…

Izuku just stared at her for a second. "You-you're gonna help?" he asked, stupidly.

Mina glared at him. "Yes," she confirmed. "Even though I shouldn't. Even though there's a pretty damn good chance it'll just get me killed along with you."

Izuku frowned. "Why?" he asked.

Mina smiled, and there was not a single drop of humor in it. There was murder in her eyes. "Because, it's the first time I've ever seen the mighty Atlas admit to being less than perfect, and I have to admit, I'm a little intrigued," she replied. "Besides…if what you told me is true, then I'm not doing this for you. I'm doing this for myself."

"What's our plan once we get down there?" Izuku asked.

Mina turned away from him, her whole being straining at her to move. She could only think of one person she could go to. It would be awkward, and she'd have to dredge up a lot of old hurts...but she had no other choice. Besides, if her suspicions were true...they had a right to know.

She answered, "I'm gonna call in a favor or two from an old friend."

Izuku looked unsure for a moment, but he didn't have time for second thoughts. Taking a deep breath, he began to follow Mina towards the Depths. Overhead, the twin statues continued their war, on and on into eternity.