Mina took Izuku into the smuggler's tunnels again; he should probably have been more surprised at the fact they extended even to the first level, but in all honesty, it made sense. No part of the Underground was free of crime, not even the parts it tried so desperately to isolate from the rest. Judging by how easily Mina seemed to navigate the winding, confusing, poorly lit tunnels, she was probably part of that.

Izuku had worked in the Underground for years, and spent much of that chasing criminals through tangled streets and dense knots of tunnels just like these, and he still became hopelessly lost within just a few minutes. Only Mina's hand, clutching his, kept him on track as they made their way downwards for two hours. Izuku wasn't quite sure why he found himself enjoying the touch as much as he did.

As the tunnels grew narrower and the already-sparse lights were winnowed down to one measly bulb perhaps every six hundred feet, Izuku figured they had to be getting close to the bottom of the "official" Underground. That made him think of the vast scale of the city whose hum he could almost feel through the rock around him, like the heartbeat of a sleeping god. Tens of thousands of people, living in caverns and caves that could swallow cathedrals-to say nothing of the shadow city beneath, which some estimates claimed was three times the size of the one above. It made Izuku like an ant in a nest, meaningless in comparison.

If Mina felt the same, she didn't show it. She was perfectly silent as she moved through the tunnels, seemingly navigating on pure memory.

When the silence finally became unbearable, Izuku broke it. "Where are we going again?" he asked softly.

Mina's reply was blunt and curt, if not quite as openly hostile as it had been. She told him, "Well, we can't just start wandering around until we find your serial killer. We need to figure out if there are any leads. And if there's someone you need to find down here…there's only one person I can think to go to. An old friend."

"Some sort of information broker?" Izuku guessed.

Mina shook her head, chuckling, and Izuku tried to ignore just how musical her laugh was. "No, no," she corrected him, "there's a few of those types down here, but they'd all attack you. Being known by the Number One Hero is bad for business. We're going to the only person who might know and won't try to kill you on sight."

Izuku blinked. Ignoring the seemingly casual way Mina talked about his death, he asked, "What makes this person different, then? Why won't they try and kill me on sight?"

As they turned right at an intersection, finding a tunnel that sloped down at an angle nearly too steep to walk, Mina huffed, "You sure do like asking questions, don't you?"

Izuku raised an eyebrow. "When they concern my chances of survival, you bet I do," he replied dryly.

Mina paused for a second. She looked back at him, eyes twinkling under her mask, which she'd refused to take off, even in the tunnels. She said, "You know, I think that's the first time you've ever been sarcastic to me. I didn't think you were capable of it."

Izuku found himself surprised. He'd responded without even thinking about his tone, and pure instinct had drawn out the wit he was most comfortable letting loose around Ejiro or his other friends from UA. Had something about Mina managed to make him drop his guard enough to respond like that? He tried to open his mouth, probably to awkwardly stammer a response, but Mina just rolled her eyes at him.

"Idiot," she said, though there was little force behind it. "Forget I said anything."

Izuku was all too happy to oblige. Still, curiosity, mixed with the ingrained need to know the plan before taking risks-an instinct Eraserhead had, sometimes literally, beaten into him-continued to gnaw at him.

"So," he asked as they headed deeper into this last tunnel, a long, twisting trek that seemed to go on forever. "How do you know this person, exactly?"

Once again, Mina sighed. "Like I said. They're an old friend of mine," she replied, clearly trying to dodge the conversation.

Concern made Izuku less cautious than he probably should have been. He said, "I thought you preferred to be alone."

Mina turned her head ever so slightly, just enough to glare at him out of the corner of her eye. "I do," she agreed. "That's why I live in a cave."

Izuku hesitated for half a second. Then, he softly asked, "But…you have friends? People you trust?"

Mina's eyes darkened, and for half a second, Izuku wanted to slap himself. It seemed like he had a bad habit of crossing the exact lines that Mina didn't want him to, without even meaning to.

Then, Mina turned away from him-perhaps so he couldn't see the sudden pain that flashed in her eyes. "There's a reason I called them an old friend, Izuku," she muttered.

Izuku's heart twinged, and part of him wanted to drop it right there. But he couldn't; the new questions Mina's response had raised were too important, too dangerous. He asked, "So…are you sure it's safe, then?"

Mina snorted. "News flash, Izuku: nowhere down here is safe. Especially not for you," she told him.

"That's not what I meant," Izuku replied. "I just want to know…how do you know the person we're going to see is trustworthy?"

Mina came to a halt in the middle of the narrow tunnel, so quickly Izuku nearly fell into her as he scrambled to stop as well. She whirled on him, gold eyes sparking.

"You and your damn questions," she said dangerously. "Listen, I don't know, okay? I haven't talked to them in six fucking years, alright? And we didn't exactly part on great terms. So yeah, there's a non-zero chance they'll take one look at us and try to kill us, but guess what? We don't have another fucking choice."

"Six years?" Izuku thought. "What happened? How did she end up so isolated for so long?"

He couldn't imagine what Mina must have been through. He was pretty sure they were the same age, so she must have been entirely alone since she was eighteen at least. Izuku couldn't fathom how she'd survived so well, or become so skilled with her quirk.

Despite the confusion and concern whirling in his chest, Izuku kept his voice level as he said, "You didn't mention that part earlier."

Mina stepped closer, hooked horns jutting towards Izuku's face. "Of course I didn't," she snapped back. "It was none of your business."

Izuku shot back, "You doing this might get both of us killed. I'm pretty sure that's my business!"

Mina jabbed a finger into Izuku's chest, the shock of the contact nearly making Izuku stagger. The last time she'd willingly touched him, it had been taking his hand off her shoulder, when he'd thought she would burn him alive.

"Listen to me," Mina snarled, her eyes burning with anger. "I owe you nothing. Not an explanation, not my life story, nothing. You agreed to this when you followed me down here. I know exactly how risky what I'm doing is, and I do not need you complaining and arguing with everything I do."

Izuku could barely breathe. Mina was glaring deep into his eyes, and it felt like he would burn up if he didn't look away from those searing gold irises. Even so, something in his chest couldn't be stopped. He whispered, "It's your life too, Mina. I don't want you to die for me."

Mina held his gaze for a moment longer, and finally stepped back. It felt as if a lead weight had suddenly slipped from Izuku's chest. Without hesitating, Mina spun back around and continued moving, motioning for Izuku to follow. Knowing not to push his luck, Izuku followed without a word.

They'd barely gotten moving again before Mina spoke once more, though. Quietly, almost under her breath, Mina muttered, "I'm as confident as I can be that this won't get us killed, Izuku."

Izuku hesitated once again, but curiosity pushed him forward. "Why?" he asked. Before Mina even answered, they reached the end of the tunnel. It looked like a dead end at first, but upon closer inspection…there was a strange mechanism attached to a support beam. Mina hit the mechanism, and the solid rock wall ground apart into the surrounding walls on squeaky, rusted rollers, revealing a darker, narrower tunnel beyond, one with a faint red glow at the end. A secret entrance to the Depths.

Under her mask, Mina scowled, though it was a nervous expression, one rife with pain and vulnerability. "Because," she replied. "The person I want to talk to…they're the closest thing I have to family. The closest thing left, anyway."

Without another word, Mina slipped forwards, into the darkness. After a second's hesitation, Izuku followed her. Behind them, the tunnel ground shut again, as if the earth had swallowed them whole.

A few minutes later, Izuku and Mina finally came out of the tunnel, finding themselves on a narrow, jagged ledge on the edge of the strangest sight Izuku had ever seen: the Depths itself.

The tunnel was little more than a crack in the wall compared to the cavern that yawned open in front of him. This cavern was far different from the ones Izuku was used to, though; instead of flat, man-made cities in the model of the ones aboveground, the Depths was a mess, a chaotic riot of shapes looming in the dim, reddish light. There were half a hundred different levels, some linked by rickety bridges, others isolated and standing alone around a tiny stretch of flatter ground, usually in the corners or carved into the sides of the cavern. The floor below was dotted with deadly-looking stalagmites, forcing structures to wind and clump in the stretches of empty ground. Stalactites ranging in size from a few feet to a hundred meters studded the roof, like the blade of a guillotine hanging above people's daily lives. In places, spires of rock thicker and taller than skyscrapers came together, forming mighty columns that held the whole cavern up. Some of these were festooned in small, crudely-made structures, too, like posters stuck to telephone poles-except these were not posters but neighborhoods, whole communities surviving precariously above hundred-foot drops.

It was hard to see all this, though, because of how dark it was. Clearly, most of the people here lacked reliable electricity. There was still some light-regions of the cavern were cast in soft, unearthly glows by odd luminescent objects that resembled mushrooms, others dripped with stolen emergency lamps from the tunnels above, or shone with spotlights running off of the occasional generator-these last few must have been responsible for the haze of dirty smoke that drifted over the whole cavern in places. Still more were entirely dark, though

Izuku had never seen a bigger, more chaotic, or more desperate-looking place in his life. He knew the Depths were dangerous and unsafe, a place beyond the reach of any law, where infrastructure was nonexistent and people more or less lived by whatever means they could get their hands on…but he'd never seen it. Not like this.

Mina stepped up beside him, eyes glittering with what might have been bitter amusement at the look on Izuku's face.

"Here you are, Izuku," she said mockingly. "Home sweet home."

Slowly, Izuku turned to her. Mina still hadn't removed her mask or cloak-it seemed she preferred to hide, even here. He said, "I…I hadn't realized how big it was."

Mina snorted, though her eyes seemed distant. "This isn't even close to the biggest cavern," she told him. It seemed impossible-the cave was so vast, the far end of it vanished into haze and darkness, with only the occasional glimmering light to show that something existed that far out. "There's three others that are around this size or bigger. Those are the ones you abovegrounders call the levels of the Depths. The tunnels between them stretch on for miles. Most of them are full of people. In-between, there's hundreds of smaller galleries-maybe thousands. I don't know how far they go. I doubt anyone does."

Izuku couldn't imagine it. If he felt like an ant compared to the size of the Underground, he felt like a speck of dust next to the Depths-he couldn't wrap his head around something that big.

"H-how many people?" he heard himself ask. Mina simply shrugged in response.

"Most of them aren't mutants," she added, pre-empting the next question Izuku had been about to ask. "We're not common, even down here. Plenty of the people here are garden-variety lowlives-or people the abovegrounders don't want. Outsiders, outcasts, those with non-mutant quirks that are still too disturbing or dangerous for your delicate standards. No, better throw those people out too."

Izuku flinched at the bitterness in Mina's voice, and because her words were true. He knew it firsthand-quirkless people, abandoned by their families, locked out of nearly every job, dismissed as worthless to society-ended up here, too. If he hadn't gotten One For All, who knew where he would have gone?

Izuku chanced a look down at the floor of the cavern, where the vast majority of the rickety, haphazardly built structures were. He saw the only way down-a series of huge blocks of stone jutting from the cliff they stood atop, too far apart to walk between; the only thing he could think to do was jumping between them. He knew he could make it, but why was that the only way down from this entrance? Were the people here really capable of making such impossible leaps, when most heroes he knew would struggle?

Mina seemed content to let Izuku stew for a while, but at last, she said more softly, "Let's get moving. This is the cavern where our target lives."

Izuku looked at her curiously. "I thought you said you hadn't seen them in years," he said. "How do you know that they live here?"

Mina met his gaze with the barest ghost of a smirk on her face, though it seemed distant, distracted. "Because," she replied. "He's got a bit of a reputation. Tracking him is as easy as knowing where the gangs that control this place are running scared."

Izuku frowned. "He's a vigilante, then?" he asked, noting that this was the first time Mina had mentioned her old friend's gender. Mina shrugged.

"If you wanna slap a hero word on it, I guess so, yeah," she agreed. "I doubt he'd be thrilled to hear you call him that, though."

Izuku nodded. "I'll keep that in mind when we meet him," he replied.

Mina snorted. "If we meet him," she corrected. "If he sees us and doesn't feel like talking, there's no way we're escaping."

Izuku raised an eyebrow. Trying not to sound arrogant, he retorted, "Uh, I don't know if you recall, but I'm the best hero around. I feel like I've got a decent chance."

Mina stared at him for a moment, utterly silent. Then, she laughed out loud. Izuku watched incredulously as she bent over double in her mirth.

Once she'd regained control of herself, Mina stood back up, wiping away a tear. She finally met his eye again, and replied, "Let me give you a piece of advice. The man we're going to meet is one of the two or three most dangerous people I've met, ever. You…you're maybe fifth on that list. I don't know if you could take him…but judging by how much you struggled to catch me, I doubt it."

Izuku winced. "Fair point," he admitted. "I do have to say, though, you're really not filling me with confidence here."

Mina took a few steps forwards, away from Izuku. Reaching the edge of the cliff, she turned back to face him. For a moment, he could only stare; the fuzzy glow of the Depths framed the dark, ragged cloak around her shoulders perfectly, turning her body into an indistinct dark shape outlined against the cavern behind. The contrast made her golden eyes seem to shine like beacons, brighter than anything Izuku had ever seen. They seared into him, leaving him speechless at the sheer life they radiated.

"Good," Mina told him. "Down here, you should never be confident of anything."

With that, she spread her arms wide, and tilted backwards over the cliff. Izuku watched with wide eyes as she fell down, sprinting forwards far too slowly. He reached the edge just in time to watch Mina dig her acid-soaked hands and feet into the jagged wall of the cliff, letting her skid her way down to the next flat patch carved from the cliff face.

The moment she reached it, she looked up at him with twinkling eyes that seemed to mock the fading echoes of fear in his chest. "Well?" she called. "You coming or not?"

Izuku sighed. He'd gotten himself into this, he supposed. Nothing to do now but finish it. With the low hum and crackle of lightning, he leaped off the cliff, too.

Just a few minutes later, Izuku and Mina were striding through the busiest part of the Depths they'd seen yet. People walked between rickety shacks, some made of junk materials or scavenged objects, others seemingly carved into the rock itself, and many somewhere in between. It was unmistakably a city every bit as large as the one above-just with no law and no way to build other than with whatever people could get their hands on.

Speaking of those people, Izuku had to fight the urge to stare. Some people wore full-body cloaks and masks like Mina; these, she and Izuku gave a wide berth, an action reciprocated by the mystery figures. Others seemed far less concerned with concealment; Izuku saw plenty of mutants wandering around with little fear, though many seemed even more destitute than the majority of their compatriots. Cat heads, power tool limbs, snake hair, gills, and more; the sheer variety on display down here was stunning to Izuku.

As they wandered through an area that seemed to be something approximating a market, Mina noticed him staring at one woman whose lower face was taken up by a pair of clicking mouthparts that seemingly belonged to some nightmarish insect. She softly said, "Those are the lucky ones."

"The lucky ones?" Izuku echoed questioningly, doing his best to not look too out of place in what felt like a whole different world than the one he'd lived in his whole life.

Beneath her cloak, Mina nodded. "Yeah. Their mutations are minor enough that they can at least live openly down here," she explained. "The abovegrounders may see us all as the same, but they're wrong. Down here…well, the more mutated you are, the shittier your life, basically. Nobody here cares that much if you've got, like, weird-looking skin or metal bits sticking out of you or stuff like that. Full-body animal hybrids have it worse. And if you're really unlucky…you come out like I did. Not even human-looking anymore."

The bitterness and pain in her voice was so thick, Izuku imagined he could have touched it. His vast knowledge on quirks, gained in the dark days of childhood when he thought learning about them would let him get one somehow, honed into a professional skill that let him analyze and strategize faster than any other hero in Japan, confirmed what Mina had told him. The idea of there being "hierarchies" of mutant quirks had existed for years aboveground, as something between ingrained social truth and pseudoscientific theory. Some mutants weren't treated as badly-those with quirks that were simply too useful to be dismissed, or whose quirks somehow drew people to them because of some societal factor, mostly. This latter group were those with flight quirks, or those who somehow "looked cool," a fact that was as sad as it was undeniable. Sometimes, the vainness and obsession with visual appearance that had infused aboveground society were simply too blatant to ignore. The third group of mutants that could sometimes be treated differently than all the others, though, was somehow worse. If you were a woman with a mutant quirk, especially an animal one…well. Somebody somewhere probably got off to that.

Nearly as soon as that dark thought passed through Izuku's mind, his eyes landed on a building near the corner of two "streets" that were really just mostly-clear tracks between ramshackle shops. The structure was larger and seemingly better-built than most others, though that wasn't what was so distracting about it. No, that was the woman out front, wearing an outfit that would have bared just about all the skin she had…had she not had thick orange-and-white fur from head to toe, and a face that somehow landed squarely between human and feline, complete with long whiskers and pointed ears on top of her head. She winked seductively at Izuku, who was now entirely certain just what kind of establishment it was.

Izuku had already started to look away, his face turning red, when Mina chuckled, grabbing him by the wrist and turning him the other direction as they passed the building. "Oh no you don't," she said, her voice half teasing and half serious. "Let's not go there."

Izuku snorted. "I wasn't planning to," he replied.

"Of course not," Mina agreed. "Gotta protect your innocence."

Izuku raised an eyebrow. "Innocence?" he repeated. "You think I'm innocent?"

Mina nodded. "Yep," she replied, the mischievous tone in her voice turning the last letter into a popping sound. "I'm pretty sure you're some sort of maiden who fans herself when people talk about sex. If I don't lead you away from that brothel, who knows what could happen? You could get corrupted!"

Izuku snorted dismissively. He may not have been the type for casual hookups like many of his old classmates had become, but he'd spent the last decade in close proximity to Ejirou Kirishima. He definitely wasn't innocent. "First you assume I'm some sort of playboy, and now you think I'm a blushing virgin?" he asked. "Which is it?"

"I mean, you've got the blushing part down," Mina pointed out, gesturing at his face. Izuku's eyes widened, and he only got redder.

"Ha ha, very funny," he muttered. Mina just snickered as they turned the corner and the building in question vanished from sight.

Somewhere in the back of his head, Izuku noticed that Mina never looked right at the brothel, and even when talking about it, there was something angry in her eyes that seemed to strain at its leash. He wondered why.

Soon, they found another intersection; this time, there were fewer buildings around, though these were larger, and somewhat better made. Of course, that just meant that they were made of stone with mostly-intact roofs and windows, rather than jumbled assortments of wood and metal and plastic.

Gesturing for Izuku to follow, Mina slipped into a narrow space between two shops directly across from the largest of these buildings, which had a surprisingly artistic sign declaring it to be the best bar in the Depths. Somehow, Izuku doubted that advertising.

As soon as he was hidden in the alley alongside Mina, Izuku asked, "So, is your old friend in there?"

"Maybe," Mina replied. "Not sure yet. But if he's anywhere in this part of the cavern, he's here."

Izuku raised an eyebrow. "How do you know that?" he asked.

Mina turned her head away from where she'd been watching the front of the bar to glare at him. "I know these things, idiot," she replied.

When Izuku just kept looking at her expectantly, she sighed and explained, "That bar is the local headquarters for the Claws, one of the most powerful gangs in this part of the Depths; one of the nastiest, too. Basically this whole cavern is their territory. If they've done anything fucked up to anyone recently-and knowing the Claws, they absolutely have-then he'll be here soon. Hell, he might already be here."

Izuku nodded to himself, filing away that information for later. "So, it's a stakeout, then?" he said.

"Call it whatever you want," Mina answered, waving a hand dismissively. "Personally, I prefer "sitting back and enjoying the show."

For a few minutes, they waited silently, concealed from view inside the alleyway. As time dragged on, Izuku found himself wondering if Mina was really right. At least, until there was a shout from inside the bar. Instantly, Mina and Izuku were scrambling back to their feet.

A thought struck Izuku, and he asked softly, "So…what does the guy we're looking for look like?"

Even though Izuku couldn't see her face, he could hear the grin on Mina's lips as she replied, "Your worst nightmare."

Then, something in the building in front of them moved. Suddenly, Izuku heard more shouting, and saw shapes clashing through the cloudy glass windows, like shadow puppets on the wall. Unmistakable sounds of fighting came through the stone walls. Around them, every single person Izuku could see scattered instantly, vanishing so quickly, he knew it was a survival instinct, born of years of dodging gang wars and battles in the lawless caverns. In seconds, the whole street was a ghost town, save for Izuku and Mina.

Izuku felt Mina's hand across his chest, and realized that he'd begun to step forward out of the alley without even realizing it. As he turned his head questioningly towards the cloaked woman, she shook her head silently.

"Heroes," she scoffed. "Please, he doesn't need your help."

"You're sure he's okay?" Izuku asked worriedly, his mind racing with calculations based on the loudness of the fight, the size of the building, and the number of figures he could see moving behind the windows. "He's stuck in there with…ten gangsters, at least."

Mina snorted softly, as the fighting grew more intense. Inside the low stone building, the sound of shattering wood and screams of pain and fear could be heard. It sounded somewhere between a bar fight and a villain takedown, and it took every fiber of Izuku's body to stop him from charging into the fray.

There was a particularly loud cry, and then a man was flung through the roof, the thin metal tearing around his body as he landed with a thud on the rock outside. He didn't get up, and his soft groans were audible even from where Izuku and Mina were.

Mina's grin was brutal and a little savage as she told him, "Please, he's not stuck in there with them."

The yells of anger had mostly subsided by now, replaced by shrieks of terror. As Izuku watched, two men burst through the front door of the building, eyes wide in fear, sprinting as quickly as they could.

It wasn't fast enough. Two odd, bizarrely shaped limbs shot out from within the building, wrapping around the men as if they were rubber before slamming them together, once, twice, three times. As soon as they stopped moving, they were dumped unceremoniously on the ground, unable to move.

At last, Mina finished, "They're stuck in there with him."

As soon as she finished speaking, the door opened once again, revealing the man behind the violence. Izuku's eyes widened as he was outlined by the red light streaming from the building. In one hand, he effortlessly carried a full-grown man by the neck; his left hand was draped protectively around two young children, siblings by the look of it, who were clinging to each other and trembling.

But his other arms were splayed freely-for he had six, three on either side. There might have been more-Izuku saw the ends of those arms shifting and bubbling, as though reabsorbing previous appendages. The man was immense, taller than Izuku and even broader, which was saying something. Looming from the darkness, backlit by the doorway, he was an imposing figure, even in a simple muscle shirt and cargo pants.

But that wasn't why his mere presence made Izuku's heart skip a few frantic beats. No, that was because of his face.

The man's mouth was an immense gash across the lower half of his face. It stretched impossibly wide, with bulging lips that turned up in the corners like he was smiling evilly. As he let out a breath, panting from exertion, Izuku got a glimpse of jagged teeth and grinding plates, like some unearthly mix of man and sea creature.

Clearly, this man was a mutant of the highest class; he was less blatantly alien than Mina, perhaps, but there was no hiding what he was. His immense height and bulk, his multiplying, extending arms that turned him into a one-man army, and his terrifying face…for a moment, Izuku understood why those at the dawn of the superhuman age had feared mutation quirks so much. It had been men like this that they feared. Even just standing in the middle of an empty street, this man radiated power, his head held high and his body relaxed in a way almost no resident of the Depths ever was. Of course he would be relaxed-he had nothing to fear, not down here, in his world.

The man's eyes landed on Mina and Izuku, who had stepped out into the street, and his mouth tightened into a dangerous grimace. There was only a single shallow cut on his cheek-after taking on ten men single-handedly. And as Izuku watched, that cut sealed itself shut, not even leaving a scar.

"Regeneration?" Izuku thought worriedly. "What the hell is his quirk?"

"Who the hell are you guys?" the immense man called out, eyes hard and deadly.

Izuku opened his mouth, but thought better of it. He held himself rigidly, sizing up the colossal mutant, wondering if things were about to turn ugly.

But then, Mina simply removed her mask.

Instantly, the man's face went pale, his monstrous jaw hanging open as he stared at Mina's face. She looked sorrowful, without a trace of the anger or bitterness or even the wariness she wore so often. Her eyes swam with weak light.

"M-Mina?" he gasped, disbelief plain in his voice. "It…it is you."

"Hey, Mezou," Mina said quietly. "Long time, no see, huh?"

Once he'd recovered from his apparent shock, the man, Mezou, just held her gaze, the look on his face utterly unreadable. There was hope there, and shock, and… joy? All of it was held in check, though, tempered by steely-eyed caution. "I guess it has been," he said slowly. "What…five years now? Six?"

Mina nodded, her face almost regretful. "I know," she admitted. "I never meant to stay away so long. I think-"

Mezou held up one of his extra hands, stopping Mina in her tracks. His eyes were still steely, though they looked troubled, as if he wasn't quite sure how to react to Mina's presence yet. "Look, it's great to see you and everything," he told her, "but I do have to ask: why are you here?"

Mina's face didn't change, no matter the fact that she could smell the ozone beginning to radiate off of Izuku, as though he was preparing for a fight.

Clutching Izuku's wrist tight as a warning, Mina said, "It's important, Mezou. Do you have time to talk?"

Mezou didn't reply for a moment. He looked down at the trembling children by his side, then at the unconscious man in his grip, then back up at the hooded woman in front of him, who stood absurdly in front of the powerfully built green-haired man who looked ready to fight him.

"Who's the abovegrounder?" Mezou asked, raising another one of his many arms to point squarely at Izuku's face.

Izuku's eyes widened. He spluttered, "Hang on, how do you know-"

Mina and Mezou shot him the exact same unimpressed look. "It's not hard to tell, buddy," Mezou told him dryly. "You look like a fish out of water."

Mina made an agreeing sound, leaving Izuku to sigh in defeat as she turned back to Mezou.

"You're not gonna believe this," Mina said with a hint of humor, "but he's the Number One Hero. I saved his life and now I can't get rid of him. He's like a big sad puppy."

Mezou stared at her with an expression made inscrutable by his inhuman face. It might have been incredulous or disbelieving; Izuku certainly wouldn't have blamed him.

"Are you serious?" Mezou asked.

Mina nodded. "Look, you know I wouldn't lie to you, not about this," she told him.

Mezou seemed to accept that, albeit reluctantly. Slowly, he shifted his gaze to Izuku. Eyes appeared on his lower arms, replacing his hands. Izuku could only stare in shock as those arms multiplied outwards into long tentacles, bringing extra eyes even closer to examine him. He found himself standing straighter, tingles running down his spine under that multi-eyed gaze

At last, Mezou's expression shifted, and looked back at Mina. "You're shitting me," he said. "This is Atlas? I thought he'd be, I don't know…scarier."

Izuku raised an eyebrow as Mina's head swiveled towards him, her expression somewhere between a wince and a smirk.

"It's not worth trying to respond to that, is it?" Izuku said in a long-suffering voice. Mina nodded.

Refocusing on Mezou, Izuku sighed and nodded. He still didn't know if this was going to end badly…maybe he should try to keep Mina out of it. "Yes, I'm Atlas," he confirmed, voice steady and even. "I need your help."

Izuku's attempt to keep Mina from getting hurt backfired as Mezou snorted, crossing his two lower sets of arms over his enormous chest. "If it's just him, you already know what my answer will be," he said, speaking to Mina. He didn't even spare a second glance for Izuku.

Mina shook her head, shooting a brief annoyed glare at Izuku to let him know she did not appreciate his input. "We need your help, Mezou," she corrected. "I'm helping with this."

Mezou's arms remained crossed. Suddenly, his eyes sparked dangerously. "I wasn't aware you'd started helping heroes," he said evenly. The air was suddenly full of menace. Instinctively, Izuku knew this was it; if Mina couldn't answer him, Mezou would attack them. Lightning threatened to flicker to life around him, and it took all the willpower Izuku had to suppress it.

Mina's eyes were every bit as deadly as Mezou's as he met his gaze. "Believe me, Mezou, I am not snitching, or turning on anyone, or doing anything like that," she said, slowly and forcefully. "I'm helping him because…because what he's trying to do helps us, too."

"Oh?" Mezou asked. "And how exactly does letting Atlas run around down here help us?"

Mina took a deep breath. She didn't want to say her suspicions, not in front of Izuku. She'd just told him he had no right to know about her past, and she'd meant it. But this wasn't about him. This was about getting Mezou to help them with their one shot at actually finding out what had happened…and if the voice whispering dark fears in her mind was right, their one shot at getting revenge."

"We think we know what happened to him, Mezou," Mina said quietly.

Mezou's face barely changed-but Mina knew him too well to fall for the poker face. She saw the ever-so-slight widening of his eyes, the way his inhuman lips twitched dangerously.

Mezou stalked closer, covering the breadth of the empty street in just a few steps. He leaned in close to Mina and Izuku, reminding Izuku of just how tall he was. Mezou must have been over seven feet tall-he towered over even Izuku, who had become accustomed to being among the tallest people in any room he'd ever been in. The combination of hitting his growth spurt and One For All's influence had seen to that.

"Mina, you better not be making this up," Mezou said, speaking with a voice that somehow mixed warning and menace and… pleading? "If you're talking about…about him, please tell me you're not lying."

Mina's voice was sharp as she snapped back, "I would never lie, not about this. Never, Mezou."

Mezou drew himself up to his full height, and let out a deep breath. He looked like he'd come to a decision at last.

All of a sudden, Mezou leaned down and whispered something to the children by his side. They nodded slowly at whatever he told them. They sprinted off, presumably heading home. Then, Mezou unceremoniously dropped the gangster in his clutches, who had begun to turn purple from lack of oxygen. He collapsed to the ground like so much garbage.

Then, Mezou stared at Mina and Izuku with an expression of guarded interest, mixed with the pain of old wounds twinging. He told them, "Come with me. Let's talk."