A/N: Okay, one more rehash of the month of January for our heroes, but fear not! There will be answers to questions that have been building up throughout this phase, and a... Well, I'll leave that surprise for the end of the chapter.

Enjoy!


Phase 5: Chapter 14 (Finale)

In the Absence of a Loved One

Mina woke with a shiver as her subconscious finally managed to alert her to the fact that her body temperature had dropped enough to warrant goosebumps and mild discomfort. Looking down at herself, she saw through bleary eyes in the pre-dawn light that one of her legs was somehow on top of her comforter while the corresponding arm was hanging loosely off the bed entirely. She let out a groan when her clock told her that she still had two hours before she was supposed to wake up before yanking her limbs back under the covers and waited for her body heat to do its job to warm the rebellious limbs back up.

She had always been a heavy sleeper, and so her unconscious habit of tossing and turning had never bothered her before. Now, though, there was something that she was missing desperately- something that had always brought her comfort and warmth to chase away the nightmares that did manage to wake her on occasion. As she squeezed her eyes shut against the stinging that had become an all-too-familiar companion in the mornings, she remembered all the mornings that she had woken up beneath an extra set of blankets that Kurai would put on her so that she didn't end up getting cold during the night, and the evenings when memories of the awful battles they had been forced to endure kept her from falling asleep until he put his arms around her, lulling her into a realm of more pleasant dreams that lasted until she woke up full of energy and enough cheer to face the day.

It had been over a month since she had felt the security and comfort that came with having Kurai by her side whenever she needed him, and it was starting to take a physical toll on her in ways that she hadn't expected. She obviously didn't sleep well, she had started to lose weight in spite of forcing herself to maintain her regular eating habits, and she hadn't had the energy- or inclination- to practice her breakdancing since Nabu Island. She could barely drag herself through the days at school, and it was all she could do to perform her duties at her work study with passable adequacy. Hagakure and Aoyama had picked up on her lack of strength and had done what they could to help her while they were out on patrol, but there was only so much that they could do without making it seem as though they were doing all of the work for her.

Mina had truly done her best to not let Kurai's current situation affect her too badly, but her efforts seemed doomed to failure every time she reflected upon the fact that the boy she loved might never make it out of the hospital the way that she remembered him being. She tried to hold out hope for his sanity to be mended, but as she well knew, Kurai had a long streak of fairly rotten luck.

He promised that he would make it back to me, she thought as she shivered under the blankets again.

Of course, the darker, doubting part of her mind took that moment to hiss, And what good is a promise from him? He already broke his word to me when it really mattered. Why should I believe him this time?

As the ugly thoughts stole into her brain, she felt tears sink into her pillow while she was forced to remember their final moments together on Nabu Island. She could see his broken body, feel the hot blood covering her arms as she held him close, taste the ash in the air as the smell of burning earth assaulted her nose, all as the winds from Nine's storm howled above their heads. That was the last memory she could recall before she had woken up in a makeshift hospital room with Yaoyorozu waiting by her bedside, the tears flowing down her face telling Mina what had happened before the words were even spoken.

In some ways, it felt as though that had been the last time she had seen the Kurai she had fallen in love with. Even now, she still loved him, but it was as though he was a hollowed-out version of the boy she had gotten to know over the last year. It's not his fault, she fiercely reminded herself, forcing the traitorous thoughts out of her head. I'm not the same person I was when I started at UA, and I haven't suffered even half as much as he has!

The part of her mind that craved self-pity now took the time to remind her that because she loved him the way that she did, she too had suffered because of his actions. He never listened to me when I worried about him, she thought involuntarily. Makes it easy to wonder if he ever really cared at all…

"Augh!" she growled as she threw her covers off herself and sat up so that she could start smacking her head with her pillow. Stop it, stop it, stop it! She screamed internally. He made mistakes, just like anyone else can! He was put in impossible situations, and he did the best that he could! Stop blaming him for that!

Eventually, the silent screams turned into audible ones that she vented into her pillow as she rocked back and forth, praying to Kurai's ancestors that he would be able to find peace in this world with her before she lost her mind, too.


It wasn't until the sun was rising and Izuku found Mina running on the school track that she was reminded that it was Sunday, meaning that there were no classes for them to attend later. Maybe I can catch a few winks before I go out on patrol tonight, she thought as her friend asked to join her on a jog around the campus, which she agreed to. Given her recent marathon of nightmares and bouts of anxiety, she chalked the thought up to wishful thinking, but it wasn't going to stop her from trying once she'd had breakfast and a shower. Is this what Kurai felt like after I-island and the summer camp?

She well remembered how the bags under his eyes had formed in the week following those horrid events, as well as the pallor of his skin as his strength of mind began to fail him. She knew that if she bothered to take a solid look in the mirror right now, the similarities in their appearances would be startling- and given how different they looked, any parallels between their visages would be disconcerting in the extreme.

Trying to ignore the melancholic thoughts that were plaguing them, the two students jogged in relative silence for some time before Izuku decided to try and break it. "I didn't know you ran," he said as they rounded a corner where a wooden bench had a few icicles hanging off its back.

"I used to do it a lot more often before I started dating Kurai," she panted, a little more out of breath than her friend, having been running for nearly an hour already. "He hates cardio, though, so when I go jogging, I still have to do it by myself, which is no fun."

"Well, if you ever need a partner to train with, I usually go running every other morning," Izuku offered. "It might make for a nice change of pace, having someone else to run with."

"I might take you up on that," Mina replied, a little sluggishly. "I'm not usually… up this early, though."

"Kurai did say you were a late sleeper," Izuku said with a slightly nostalgic smile. When all he got from his running partner was silence, he wiped the grin away and apologized by saying, "Sorry, that was insensitive."

"You're fine," she told him. "He's right, I do like to sleep a lot. Having bad dreams doesn't help that to happen, though."

Izuku winced before he told her, "I'm sorry, Ashido. Have you talked to Recovery Girl? I know Kurai was able to sleep a lot better after she prescribed him some medicine."

"Haven't had time," Mina gasped as they started up a small incline. "Between school, homework, and work studies, we barely have time to eat, much less have any free time."

"If Kurai was here and acting like this, wouldn't you tell him to make time?" Izuku asked bluntly, causing his friend to slow her jog until they both came to stop, their breaths fogging up the air between them as they faced each other.

Eventually, Mina dropped her gaze away from his and nodded slowly. "Yeah," she mumbled. "I would. I have."

"I'm sure that when he comes back, he wouldn't want to see you in a similar state to the one that he was in when everything with the League of Villains really got started," Izuku added, keeping his tone gentle. "Ochaco keeps telling me that the best way I can help her be a hero is to take care of myself, and I think the same applies here. Kurai may not be a hero anymore, but if he's gonna succeed in life, he'll need you to take care of yourself, too."

"I know," Mina said as her fists clenched and her arms shook. "But why does it feel like that doesn't apply to him?"

"What do you-?"

"If I'm supposed to take care of myself for his sake, why didn't he ever take care of himself for mine?!" Mina burst out, unable to contain the thoughts any longer. Tears poured out of her eyes as she glared at Izuku, who backed up a pace as she started to shout, "I did everything that I could to support him, to believe in him when he said that he would never fight unless he believed he could make it back to me! But when we all told him- when I told him- that he needed to stay out of the fight, he just wouldn't listen!"

She nearly collapsed from exhaustion right there, but Izuku managed to keep her from falling by catching her up, which let her pound weakly on his chest in frustration. "It's not fair…" she sobbed. "If I can't keep him safe from himself… who's supposed to do it? What did I do wrong…? What should I have done differently…? I just want him to be okay…"

Izuku was at a loss for what to do in this situation. He was used to being the one unable to control his tears while someone else told him to get his act together or just waited for the crying to stop. He doubted that either of those things were going to help in this situation, so he wracked his brain to try and find a solution for the mess he now found himself in.

Eventually, he decided to go with honesty. "Ashido… I don't know what I'm supposed to tell you," he said slowly as he put his hands on her shoulders. "I've been asking myself the same questions whenever I get the chance, but I haven't been able to come up with anything." Mina pulled back to see that Izuku was giving her a pained smile as tears began to gather at the corner of his eyes in a manner similar to hers'. "I don't know what else we could have done to keep him safe. Maybe I could have given One For All to you, or Ochaco, or even Kacchan, if I had just tried to reach you. Maybe that would have let us save him, but I don't know that for certain. And besides, I told him that when I gave him the quirk that he was the only one I wanted to give it to, because he was the first to realize that it was time for a change in the way that the quirk was used. That it was time for the bearer to fight alongside others instead of trying to shoulder the burden alone."

"But… he ended up doing that, anyway," she sniffled as she dashed at her eyes, now feeling embarrassed by her outburst. "He fought until he couldn't fight, and then he kept going, just like All Might did."

"No, not exactly," Izuku replied, doing his best to hold eye contact with the girl. "He wasn't trying to take on his own burdens all alone. He took on the ones that I inherited in addition to his own so that I wouldn't be alone, just like how you did everything you could to take on his burdens so that he wouldn't be alone. Standing on his own didn't get him killed…" His voice caught before he forced himself to swallow the lump in his throat and say, "The truth is… I killed him… because I couldn't stand on my own against Nine… and I asked him to stand with me, even knowing that he couldn't possibly survive it if he did… Ashido, I'm so sorry!"

The dam broke and Izuku started to bawl his eyes out as he continued to hang on to Mina's shoulders like a lifeline while his arms shook heavily with the weight of burdens unseen. "I killed Kurai!" he repeated in a broken voice. "I killed… the guy who reached out and helped me to master One For All! The guy you loved! The first person who treated me like family other than my mom! I killed him!" Heaving in a deep lungful of cold air, Izuku just managed to gasp out, "I'm sorry I haven't said anything before now, but…! I'm so sorry, Ashido! After I got him killed, his last act was to make sure that I could still become a hero… But all I've done is resent him ever since… Please… can you ever forgive me for what I did to him… and you…?"

Mina did her best to support the crying boy from the awkward angle of his grasp on her shoulders while she tried to process what he was saying, and what he had asked of her. As she struggled to come up with a reply, an image of Kurai's wry grin and a phrase he had used several times when people had apologized to him popped in her head. Doing her best to take in a shaky breath, she told the boy, "There's… nothing to forgive, Izuku." When the boy continued to cry, she reached up and placed her own hands on his quaking shoulders in a similar manner to how he had done with her while she said, "You're right… Maybe things could have gone differently if One For All had gone to someone else… But we'll never know, and what could have been doesn't really matter. We can only act on what we have now- which is what he did, in the end. I know that, and you know that, even if it doesn't make it hurt any less."

"Then… what do we do… now?" Izuku gasped out through the spasms shaking his body. "What do we do different… so that this never happens again?"

"Kurai has already removed himself from the equation of heroics," Mina sighed as she felt more tears slide down her face. "Maybe that's why I feel so lost… I want him safe, but I don't know how to keep moving forward as a hero without being able to chase after him."

"I know what you mean," Izuku admitted weakly. "All Might was my role model, but after years of chasing after Kacchan, Kurai became the hero who was actually in my life. I want to be a hero who stands tall with a smile on my face whenever people need me… But now the hero who always stood his ground… can't. And it makes me wonder if there's something out there that could break me… like he's broken, now." His body gave vent to another violent shudder before he mumbled, "I don't want to put anyone around me through that…"

The two of them were quiet, save for their sniffles as they tried in vain to stifle their tears while they held on to one another amid the falling snow of early winter. Eventually, Mina released her friend and dashed at her eyes while she said, "We're not gonna do ourselves any favors by just standing out here. I know I said I'd go a lap around campus, but I think I'd better head back to my room."

"Yeah," Izuku replied as he straightened himself up and wiped at his own face. "I understand. I think that I'll finish my run and then head back, though."

"For sure," Mina nodded in a subdued manner. Before her friend could leave, though, she did say, "Thanks, Izuku."

"For what?"

"For listening," she told him. "And for saying everything that you did. It helps knowing that I'm not the only one wrestling with all of this, even though things are technically getting better."

"I guess misery really does love company," Izuku said with a hint of black humor. He was also quick to add, "Thank you for listening to me, too. I'm sorry I laid more on top of what you were already dealing with."

"No, it's good for me to know where you're at with all of this, seeing as you've got Kurai's old power," she reminded him. "But, now that I think about it, there's at least one thing that you can do to help yourself with all of this."

"There is?" he asked with a hint of eagerness.

"Yeah," Mina said with a sad smile. "The next time you're feeling this twisted up inside, don't just keep it bottled up. Talk to Ochaco. She'll be there for you, and it'll be better for the both of you to confide in each other. Plus, she knows you better than I do, so maybe she'll have some actual ideas of what you should do right now. And don't even start with the 'I don't wanna bother her' crap. That's the kind of stuff that got Kurai ripping pieces of his arm off when we first moved into the dorms, remember?" Izuku flinched at the memory of that night, and seeing that her point had gone home, Mina nodded and started to walk slowly back toward the direction of the freshman living quarters. "See you later, Izuku."

"Later, Ashi-"

"You know my name, boy!"

"Later… Mina?"

"Better."


Two days later, Mina was still feeling pretty crummy, but after a private talk with Ochaco, Izuku seemed to have some of his old drive and determination fueling his actions again. Following up on Eri's first display against the robots, he took up his turn in order to test his control over Energon. In public- under Endeavor's watch alongside Todoroki and Bakugo- he had made sure to only use the quirk to enhance his physical strength and reflexes, and not utilize the energy blasts that he could also produce, as he had yet to come up with a convincing excuse for the sudden change to his power set. He wasn't very good at regulating the amount of power that he released yet, but thanks to some notes that Kurai had left for him before being taken to Itomori, as well as input from Akarui, he was already making swift progress.

In order to demonstrate said progress, he destroyed half of his targets with a series of punches and kicks, while the other half were brought down by a handful of compact lasers that vaguely resembled Bakugo's AP Shot: Auto-Cannon. It couldn't exactly be called a super move just yet, as the maneuver lacked its own unique spin from Deku, but it was a start in the right direction, especially since he wasn't just aiming and hoping for the best in terms of energy release. Of course, it was also enough to set his explosive rival off on another rant about how his fighting style wasn't up for grabs by losers who couldn't control their own powers, leaving several of the people in his class laughing quietly on the sidelines.

Once he had managed to get away from Bakugo- mostly because it was the other boy's turn to have a go at the robots- Izuku made his way over to the girls, whom each congratulated him on his new level of control. "You're a little stiff with some of those moves, but you're looking a lot like Kurai did when he first came to UA," Mina complimented him.

"Well, some of it has to do with the fact that I can only let my emotions into my actions so much before I start to lose control, so I'm kind of walking a tightrope every time I use the quirk," he admitted with a nervous laugh. "I'm glad that my bones aren't at risk for breaking anymore, but I can't wait to use that device that Akarui made for me, when the time comes."

"When the time comes?" Eri asked him with a slightly tilted head. "Why haven't you used it already? Wouldn't it be easier to control Energon if you used the device now?"

"Yeah, but the device that Aki made for him won't work unless Izuku completely drains his body of his energy reserves while he's wearing it," Mina explained to the other girl. "That's more power than in a country's worth of weapons- it's not something he can just fire up with the safety on. He'd have to go all-out for real."

"But wait, when Kurai fought alongside Deku and All Might, he wasn't releasing anywhere near as much power as when he fought the Nomu in Fukuoka, or when he fought on Nabu," Ochaco pointed out. "Did he really use up all of his strength on I-island?"

"There's a few factors that explain that," Izuku replied as explosions began to tear up the battle droids in the background. "The first is that by the time Kurai even put on the device, he was already pretty tired, having fought his way past two hundred floors' worth of guards and a few villains. Second is that his body wasn't as strong as it was when we fought together against Nine, so he had less energy to vent to begin with. The third factor is just a theory on Akarui's part, but he thinks that even though his chakra centers had no bearing on the way that his power was released before he altered his neurology, corrupted chakra may have still impeded the energy flow from the beginning. Remember, every time he unlocked a new chakra, he'd get stronger in general."

"Not the first few times," Mina replied with a slight frown as she recalled events during their second semester. "He stayed pretty consistent right up until he found out about his dad, which is when he kinda hit a wall in terms of physical progress."

"Really?" Ochaco asked as her eyes drifted upward in thought. "I actually thought that he slowed down after that. Once we managed to rescue Eri, he got back up to full steam- at least, what we thought was full steam for him."

"And after his fight in Fukuoka, he started getting even more powerful than before," Izuku reminded them. "At first, I had just attributed his lack of strength as a side effect of his depressive state at the time, but looking back on it, there may have been more to it than that."

"You think that some of his chakra centers that had been open got clogged up because of the news about his father, and the way that people were treating him at school?" Mina guessed, to which the boy nodded quickly. "That makes sense, looking back on it."

"Akarui told me that once a chakra point is cleansed, that doesn't mean it'll stay that way for good," Izuku told them. "With the way that I've been able to use the quirk so far, when I measure it against how much power Kurai was able to utilize, I'd like to think that I have three, maybe four clean chakra points. I won't know for sure until I have a chance to make use of the alteration device, but it's good that I don't have to completely start figuring this thing out from scratch."

"About figuring things out, I might have a way to help you develop your fighting style a little more," Eri said as she idly scratched a spot behind her horn.

"You do?" Ochaco asked, looking as surprised as Mina did in that moment. "But, you have Deku's old quirk. Shouldn't the teaching thing be the other way around?"

"I'm already receiving help from him and All Might," Eri replied with a little smile. "I may not have ever received Energon, but I saw Deku in action with it plenty of times in the future. I couldn't give him all the technical details for what he did with the quirk, but if I outline some of the ultimate moves that he used, it might help him develop his fighting style a little faster than if he did it on his own."

"Hey, Deku!" Bakugo shouted as he started walking toward their group, his hands sizzling as he left a pile of demolished robots in his wake. "How're them apples, huh?! I smoked your pathetic time for this exercise!"

"This is amazing!" Izuku said excitedly as his eyes shone at Eri. "I've always done my best to learn from people who came before me- which is only natural, if you think about it- but if we can pull this off, then this means that I'll actually be learning from someone who hasn't even come around yet- the pro version of me!"

"Don't ignore me, Deku!"


That Wednesday, the majority of the students were in from their work studies, so they took the time to share in the task of making dinner with each other. They were pleasantly surprised when Akarui also showed up, having been able to take a break out of his busy schedule to join them for a bit. At first, it seemed as though it was going to be a good end to what had been a long day of hard work, but of course, Class A's rotten luck had yet to run out.

In spite of their efforts to look at Akarui as someone with his own accomplishments and contributions to their cause to make, it was impossible for everyone to look at him without seeing his brother. Until recently, many of them had never even met him before he was in the wheelchair, which had done nothing good for his physical constitution, but it certainly made him look different from Kurai. Now though, even in spite of the fact that he had a different-sounding voice, different eyes, and a different hair color than his brother, he still resembled him very strongly- especially if one remembered how Kurai had looked before the events of the summer camp. Even his mannerisms and intonations tended to match that of his elder sibling's.

Obviously, emotions were still running high, and even though it had been days since Kurai's departure, partway into their conversation about whether or not Todoroki would become the next wielder of One For All, Akarui excused himself and fairly ran out the building. Mina hesitated after standing up in her chair, unsure if she should go after him or not, and then found herself looking at her friends for guidance. Unfortunately, they looked just as lost on what to do as she felt, so she stayed like a deer frozen in the headlights until there was a knock at the door that Akarui had just run out of.

The entire gathering of students stood up from their seats as four people whom they had never seen before came walking in, all of them wearing their school's uniform. Two were boys, one with blond, scraggly hair, and the other with a long, black ponytail. The other pair were girls, one of whom had an excitable look about her, and the other being a stunning beauty with strong red hair. "Hello," said the last girl with a friendly wave. "Is this class 1-A?"

"Pyrrha!" Ruby exclaimed excitedly as she bolted toward the new students. To the collective surprise of their classmates, Pyrrha was actually able to hold her ground against a tackle-hug from the energetic younger girl.

"Nora, what's shakin'?!" Yang said as she delivered a bone-jarring fist bump to the shorter girl with orange hair, who met the blow with a savage grin that many of the others in the room found to be a little unsettling.

"Ren, you're looking well," Weiss said as she greeted the young man with black hair while studiously ignoring the smile and wave from his blond companion.

"It's good to see you, Weiss," he answered as he inclined his head as a way of polite greeting. "I must admit, Second Amendment hasn't felt the same without Team RWBY among its numbers."

"You mean it's less chaotic."

"My original statement still stands."

"Jaune!" Ruby squealed as she threw herself from Pyrrha to the blond boy, who- unlike his companion- was not ready for the enthusiastic greeting, and quickly found himself lying on the floor with his eyes slightly crossed from the impact.

"Ruby, you're gonna kill me one of these days," he groaned.

"Good to see you, Pyrrha," Blake said while moving toward the beautiful redhead. "We were bummed when you guys didn't make it in time for the semester to begin."

"Yes, well, some of the paperwork took a little longer to go through than Professor Ozpin thought it would," Pyrrha replied with an apologetic smile. "I'm simply glad to see all of you again, regardless of the timing."

"Uh… Anyone wanna do introductions?" Jiro asked before the eight students could keep talking.

"Oh, right!" Yang grinned as she turned to face the others. "Sorry about that, guys. Team JNPR, meet Class 1-A; the awesomest gang in this whole school! Class A, meet Jauney Boy Arc, Lie Ren, Nora Valkyrie, and Pyrrha Nikos! They're the second-coolest team at our old school!"

"Nu-uh!" Nora protested before anyone else could begin to make individual introductions. "We've got the Queen of the Castle on our team! We're the coolest!"

"We've got the youngest student and team captain to make it into Second Amendment, our team is better!" Yang shot back.

"We've got the better cook!"

"You've got Jaune!"

"Hey!"

"You've got the Ice Queen!"

"Hey!"

"Have you nothing to say in your leader's defense?!" Jaune protested from where he was being pulled up by a giggling Ruby.

"Yeah!" Yang grinned at Nora, who was now giving her a stink eye. "Got anything you can say on behalf of your fearless leader?"

In response, the smaller girl's face split into another unnerving smile before she said, "I don't need to. We have Pyrrha Nikos on our team."

Yang started to protest, and then visibly deflated. "Dammit, she's got us there," she grumbled. "Fine, you win this one. Welcome to UA, guys."

"Looks like things are about to liven up even more around here," Ochaco grinned as she and the others moved toward the newcomers.

"All things considered, that doesn't sound so bad," Izuku chuckled as he went to follow her.


Everyone quickly made their rounds of introductions while the Americans did their best to memorize the names and faces of their new schoolmates. It helped that Yang had a habit of taking pictures and emailing them to her friends back home as a way of letting them know how they were doing, so they were at least somewhat familiar with the appearances of most of them.

About midway through the introductions- after Eri had joined them and introduced herself- yet another set of newcomers arrived. Although they had never met them before, it was easy for the freshmen to tell who they were on sight. "Hey, girls!" said a muscular blond man as he walked in and held his arms out wide. "Where's my hug?"

"Dad!" Somewhat to the surprise of everyone in the room, neither Ruby nor Yang held any reservations about crashing into their father for a group hug in front of all their friends, Team JNPR practically being shoved aside in the process.

"That's kinda embarrassing," Mina commented in an aside to Ochaco. "And that's coming from me."

"I think it's sweet," the gravity girl replied as she looked on with a smile.

Any further words were disrupted when there was a short burst of rose petals from Ruby that ended with her hanging off the arm of a scruffy-looking man who smelled like he had just come out of a dive bar. "Uncle Crow!" she squealed, looking more excited than the others had ever seen her. "Did you miss me?! Did you?! Didyoudidyoudidyou?!"

Crow eyed his niece with a quirked eyebrow before he grinned at her and said, "Nope."

"Yay!"

"Hey, I missed you!" Taiyang complained as Yang disengaged from the hug. "Don't I count?"

"How'd you guys get here so fast?" his elder daughter asked as she looked between the two men. "I thought you said your flight didn't get in until tomorrow."

"How do you think we got here?" her father answered, his irritation at his brother-in-law already forgotten. "We used our legs!"

"Ow," Kaminari grunted as several of the others each cringed at the obvious attempt at a joke.

"Now, I'd like to take a moment to thank all of the sidewalks for keeping me off the streets!" Taiyang went on, causing even more of the students to cringe.

"Well, now we see where Yang gets her stupid sense of humor," Mina muttered as their classmate tried in vain to contain her laughter while Ruby and Crow looked on with something like exasperated disdain.

"Hey, I'm on a roll!" Taiyang quipped as he reached for a nearby plate and plucked a bread piece off of it with a goofy smile on his face, leading his other daughter and his comrade to look at him with downright disappointment.

"Dad, it might've been 'butter' if you never started," Yang snickered, causing everyone around them to cringe even harder.

"Ugh, was that joke made of paper?" her father snorted, barely containing his laughter.

This effort turned out to be fruitless after him and Yang both shouted out, "Because it was 'tear'-able!" As they devolved into a mass of loud laughter, everyone turned toward Crow, who was already reaching for his hip flask.

"And people wonder why I carry this thing around," he muttered.

"Sir! Consuming alcohol on campus is strictly prohibited!" Iida tried to protest.

Crow shrugged at him before saying, "I don't care." Then he downed the drink while the class rep looked on with an open jaw and a look that showed just how lost he was with how to proceed with this situation.

"Crow, you're a bad influence!" Taiyang shouted at the other man, his smile gone. "Would it kill you not to bring your drinking problem to one place?! Just one?!"

"It's only a problem when I run out."

Mina turned toward Weiss, who was rubbing the bridge of her nose with her eyes shut tight. "Is it always like this with them around?" she asked the pale girl.

"Honestly, one of the reasons I wanted to apply for the exchange program to this school was to get away from their family squabbles," Weiss groaned.

"You guys have Smash Bros?" Crow asked as he walked toward the TV with Ruby still hanging off of his arm. "I'll drop the flask for tomorrow if one of you pipsqueaks can beat me."

"Kaminari! Midoriya! Bakugo!" Iida cried as he turned toward the three other boys, who all flinched at the desperation on his face. "You must defeat him! Put all of the hours of mind-numbing, time-wasting nonsense you've ever accumulated to use in defeating this miscreant!"

"Wait, why me?!" Izuku yelped as he was handed a controller and made to sit in front of the TV while the others snatched up their own devices, even as Ruby and Yang followed suit.

"Because you seem to have a rather obscene level of luck when playing this game!" Iida told him as he powered the Nintendo up and waited for the loading screen. "We need all the advantages we can get to defeat this madman!"

"Don't put Deku's stupid luck on the same level as my skills!" Bakugo demanded.

"I don't think I've ever seen Iida so fired up about a game before," Mina said to Eri, unable to keep a little smile from working its way onto her face. Of course, it soon died away when she mumbled, "Here's something to tell Kurai about, next visit."

Eri looked at her with sympathy before she asked, "Any idea of when that'll be?"

"Probably not for a couple of weeks," she mumbled. "Classes and homework are kicking my butt, and then there's work studies, so that amount of free time isn't really a thing for me right now. We are able to exchange letters, and I'm supposed to get a fifteen-minute phone call with him tomorrow, at least. So… there's that."

"Why not tell him about it tomorrow, then?" Eri asked her.

"It's not the same if I can't show him the faces he was making," Mina said with a forced smile. "Some things are just better done in person."


Somehow, Mina managed to drag herself through the next day and finish up her assignments before it was time for Kurai's call to come in. She probably didn't do a very good job on a fair amount of it, but at this point, she really didn't care. She had gotten by with less effort earlier in the year, and as long as she was earning passing grades, she felt that she had fulfilled her obligations as a student as well as she could be expected to under the circumstances.

Of course, as fate would have it, the one time she worked to finish her assignments early was the best set of circumstances where she should have taken her time. Kurai had mentioned that he would be allowed to call sometime between six and eight in the evening, so she had made sure to get her work done by the earliest possible moment. Unfortunately, she wound up pacing back and forth in her room, waiting for her phone to ring for more than an hour as several bad scenarios danced around in her head, each one worse than the last.

By the time the phone did ring, Mina was sweating lightly and her legs were sore from all the non-stop walking in circles. Recognizing the hospital's phone number on her screen, she drew in a breath and answered the call with a shaky, "Hello?"

"Hi," came the reply, Kurai's tone sounding a lot lighter than she had expected it to. "Sorry it took me so long to call- the guy before me was having trouble deciding which personality was going to talk to his mother."

"Well, make sure you give each of those personalities a talking to for me after this," Mina said, her voice still trembling as a little smile working its way across her face as she finally sat down on her bed, her legs practically groaning in relief. She ignored the tears sliding down her face as she added, "It's so good to hear your voice."

"Yours' too," he replied, sounding like he was smiling. "It feels like I've been waiting for a lot longer than two weeks for this to happen."

"I know what you mean," she laughed in a choked voice. "How have you been? Making progress with your counseling?"

"Yeah, actually," he admitted, which surprised her. Given how sullen and resentful he had been when he had been admitted, she had expected it to be some time before he would willingly open up to anyone. As if he could sense her intrigue, he went on to explain, "Doctor Kentaro referred me to this lady who kinda had a similar childhood to me- her parents were killed in a villain attack while she wound up losing a few pieces of her body during the same incident. Obviously, it's not the same thing as what happened to me, but it does help to know that she can at least empathize with my circumstances."

Mina breathed out an audible sigh of relief before she said, "I'm so glad to hear that, Kurai. Seriously, I can't even tell you how good it is to hear this from you."

"Well, it hasn't all been a cakewalk and good progress," he admitted, causing her to sit up a little straighter than before. "I… kinda did something stupid on New Year's Eve."

She blinked a couple of times before she asked, "What did you do, exactly?"

"I may have gotten myself kicked out of a group session after waking up on the wrong side of the bed," he told her. "I've been behaving since then."

"Kurai! Why would you-?!" She paused before she could really get started, something he had said finally clicking into place for her. "Did you say this happened on New Year's?"

"Yeah," he said in a small voice.

She closed her eyes before murmuring, "It was your birthday."

"Yeah."

Mina swallowed past the lump in her throat before she managed to say, "I'm sorry you had to spend it alone. That must've been hard." Because he was there under a different identity, he had also gone in with a different birth date, meaning that even if the hospital would have been willing to do something nice for him, they would not have known to do so on the correct day.

"Well, I can't exactly blame anyone other than myself for the way it turned out," he replied in a resigned tone. "I'm responsible for being in here." Before she could say anything to the contrary, he decided to press on and say, "Sorry, I shouldn't be using this time to complain- we can do a makeup celebration when I get out of here. How are you holding up? Did you get in with a work study that you wanted?"

"Oh, er… Yeah." Mina stumbled over her response a little, not having expected the sudden change in topic, though she supposed it made sense, seeing as Kurai probably didn't want to start getting too emotional in a room where any number of people could see him. "I got in with Yoroi Musha, the number nine hero. Aoyama and Hagakure are doing it with me."

"Hey, that's awesome," Kurai responded, sounding like he was smiling again. "I'm proud of you."

"Thanks, but it hasn't been easy," she admitted, allowing some of her exhaustion to leak into her tone. "I know it'd be hard under the best of circumstances, but with everything that's been going on, I feel like I'm just barely keeping my head above water. I… Dammit, Kurai, I really miss you."

"I miss you too," he replied, also sounding tired. "I promise I'm doing my best to get out of here, and to do it the right way. I want to make it back to you so that you won't have to worry about where my head is when I get out."

"I know," Mina sniffled as she wiped at her eyes, which were already feeling raw. "It's really hard to wait like this… But thanks to Eri, I can wait on you, this time around. So… silver lining?"

"I would say so," Kurai said, which surprised her again. Before she could comment on it, he added, "I might miss my ancestral home, but I miss you more."

Mina's jaw dropped before she managed to get out, "Y-You're just saying that."

"No." His response came in the familiar tone of strength that she remembered him carrying in his bearing, and it was enough to stall any further protests on her part for the moment. "Even though most of my memories of that time are gone, I remember often looking forward to the day when you would join me. If that place had any one flaw, it was that you were not there with me."

Mina's body shook as new tears began to pour down her face. However, this rain of salt did not hurt her eyes like all the ones that had preceded it in the last few weeks. Neither she nor Kurai could have known it, but he had just struck upon what had been eating away at her ever since he had been resurrected; the thought that he would rather be dead than be in her life again. He had certainly made his anger and resentment known at the fact that he had been brought back against his will, but now he had plainly declared that he had spent the better part of an eternity wanting to be at her side again.

Now he furthered the declaration by saying, "I'm not getting out of here for my sake, sweetheart. I'm gonna get out of here so that I can give you the man that you deserve to have."

In spite of herself, Mina felt the corners of her mouth turn upwards while her cheeks warmed with a heat that spread throughout her whole body, chasing away the chill that had settled into her bones over the last few weeks. "You're really trying to get back on my good side, aren't you?" she asked with the faintest hint of giggle lurking in the back of her throat.

"Maybe," he chuckled softly, which drew her lips further upward. His tone then grew serious as he said, "I know it's probably hard to have faith in me since I broke the last promise I made to you, but I'm going to keep this one. I'll spend every day that I'm in here working to make sure that it happens."

Mina's face almost fell, but she forced herself to keep the smile in her voice as she said, "Well… If I remember correctly, you promised that you wouldn't die until all of your hair turned gray. Technically, you kept your word on that end."

"Oh," he said dumbly, which nearly got her to laugh for some absurd reason. "I guess I did. Speaking of which, when everything blows over and I'm able to go out in public again, do you think I should switch it back, or keep it as-is?"

"Assuming you're talking about when the war with the Liberation Front is over… I dunno," she admitted, marveling at the fact that just a few smiles were enough to make her feel so much better than she had been for weeks. "I haven't been around your new do enough to have a solid opinion on it. Guess you'll just have to get out asap so that I can decide sooner instead of later."

"Yes ma'am," Kurai replied. There was a pause on his end, but it wasn't too long before he said, "I've only got five more minutes before I have to go."

"Already?" she asked sadly. "Feels like I hardly got any time with you."

"Well, if I keep doing well, Doctor Kentaro should clear me to have a phone soon, so I'll be able to call you anytime that I'm not in a group activity," he assured her, which made her heart feel a little lighter again.

"For real?"

"Well, they haven't made any progress in the way of a diagnosis, but my moods have mostly stabilized, and I'm being as cooperative as I can, other than that one incident," he informed her. "They're already letting me borrow books from the hospital library, which doesn't sound like a big deal, but there's a girl who's been in here for almost a year, and she's still not allowed to read anything in her room. Granted, that's probably because she has a habit of eating paper, but my point stands."

"I'm glad that you're making the progress that you are," Mina told him. "I really hope they let you have your phone soon."

"I'll make it happen," he promised her. "Oh! Real quick, before I have to go, how's Eri doing?"

"She's settling into life here pretty well," Mina assured him. "I think she's still pinching herself that she's here with us, but the girl kicks ass in class."

"Really?"

"Dude, she ripped through like a hundred of us to get to you the day that she brought you back," she reminded him. "She's got skills."

"Good for her," he said with what sounded like a smile. "I- Yeah, okay, I get it." Kurai let out an exasperated sigh before he said, "I'm being told my time is up. Tell Izuku that once I get my phone back, I wanna talk to him about a few tips concerning Inika."

'Inika', Mina remembered, was the original name for Energon. "Will do," she said quickly. "I love you so much, Kurai."

"I love you too," he replied. "Tell everyone I said hi. And remember; I'm on my way out to you, got it?"

"Got it," she said with a smile. "See you soon."

"Real soon."

With that, the line was disconnected, and she allowed her phone to drop to the bed beside her. She could feel the chill that had permeated her existence trying to creep back into her marrow, but she shook her head and moved to exit her room, a plan in mind to keep the warmth that Kurai had given her for as long as possible. With brisk steps, she crossed the hallway to the boy's side of the dorms and headed right for her boyfriend's room.

She went inside, hardly noticing the cold that came from the heater's days of inactivity, and opened up Kurai's closet. Since the day she had told Kurai that they were going to be spending less time in close proximity to one another, she hadn't been able to set foot inside, but now she found that her feet carried her quite easily. Having become thoroughly familiar with the contents adorning the hangars, she swiftly found the clothing article that she was looking for and pulled it out.

After shaking the piece a few times to get the wrinkles out, she pulled the hoodie over her head and smiled as she felt the soft fabric slide over her arms until the article hung loosely off her body. It was with a light giggle that she thought, I see why he never lets me borrow this thing. It's so comfy! Looking down at herself, she nearly laughed out loud as she reflected on the fact that just a year ago, she'd have dropped dead before touching a clothing item that resembled Vegeta's armor, but here she was.

Even though the sweater had been sitting in a cold room for quite some time, Mina was already feeling traces of the familiar warmth that she had so dearly missed. Kurai waited an eternity before he got to see me again, she thought as she walked out of the room, a smile still on her face. I can wait a few weeks or months. Hell, even if we have to make it a few years, I'll still wait for him.

She hadn't been able to say it out loud, but the fact was that Mina had been afraid that Kurai's efforts to make it out of the hospital would be short-lived, and that he would once again sink into despair at his situation, leaving him as a defeated husk to rot in a psych ward for the rest of his life. It was hard to believe, but with that one phone call, and a solid heart-to-heart, she could smile and face the future again.

The next couple of weeks fairly flew by for the pink girl and her classmates. True to his word, Kurai was able to get his phone privileges restored, allowing for more consistent communication between the two of them, as well as some of his other friends. This allowed him to give Izuku more tips on how to regulate the energy flow of his old quirk, especially when it came to conjuring lasers for attack and defensive purposes.

While it wasn't exactly easy, them still having to be apart, knowing that she could be there for Kurai when she needed to be- and he for her- certainly made the days more bearable. School remained difficult, and the work study harder still, but now Mina didn't feel like she was drowning in a sea of her own inadequacy. It also wasn't exactly great to know that even after nearly a month of him being in the hospital, the doctors had yet to diagnose the source of his mental deterioration. There were no physical signs of schizophrenia, dissociative identity disorder, or psychosis- even extreme bipolar disorder was ruled out through behavioral and blood examinations.

Even so, neither of the young couple were close to giving up hope that he could make it out of the hospital. If nothing else, he was determined to make it out on the merit of exemplary behavior.


At UA, the two freshman hero course classes had started hanging out together more regularly, thanks in no small part to the pre-existing friendship between Teams JNPR and RWBY. Pony from Class B was especially delighted to have more classmates who spoke her native language in her social circle, and the new students were all pretty easy to get along with. Eri seemed to be quietly intrigued by the group whenever they were around, which Mina assumed meant that they had been of some influence in the future, though the white-haired girl never said a word on the matter.

An unspoken benefit of Jaune's team coming to join their classes was that the competition between the two groups of students was reinvigorated, setting them all out at a breakneck pace to compete with each other on the improvement of their skills. Initially, Kendo and some of the other more responsible students in Class B had been wary of Monoma's nastier tendencies that were sure to make a reappearance under such circumstances. However, much to their collective surprise, the normally-antagonistic boy had made no such ploy following Kurai's departure. Not one bad word escaped his lips concerning the former Guardian Hero, which some took to mean that he had finally, finally, taken the teachers' warnings seriously.

While that was certainly plausible, Izuku couldn't help but feel as though they were missing something. They had seen Monoma in action, practically a slave to the narrative that he had constructed in his head about how Kurai was only interested in furthering his own fame while stepping all over Class B in the process, or worse, that he was somehow responsible for the League targeting their student body. He had persisted in these ideals even after being stripped of his license and threatened with outright expulsion from UA entirely, and now? Suddenly he had nothing at all to say of the boy he held responsible for every iota of their school's misery?

Something didn't add up, so the new wielder of Energon resolved to keep an eye on the antagonistic boy until he somehow proved that he had moved on from his obsession. Little did he know that Blake had already run through similar thoughts in private, and had quietly asked Nora to introduce Monoma to her hammer the second that even a hint of his bitter jealousy started to rear its ugly head.

As a result of the new, healthy rivalry between the freshmen, said hero course students continued to excel in their work studies and (mostly) at their school work. Those who had been struggling to come up with a second ultimate move since the licensing exams were able to overcome their stumbling blocks, thanks in no small part to the experiences that they were gaining under their pro supervisors.

Mina was one of the student heroes who already had two moves under her belt, but she had been determined to upgrade one of them to a new level, as well as create a new technique entirely. Before the events of Nabu Island, she had been trying to improve her Acid Veil with Kurai's help, and she finally got the results she wanted when she showcased her new move: Acid Avatar. It was essentially a full-body coating of some of her stronger acids that would protect her from most kinds of attacks and allow her to have a huge advantage whenever she engaged in close-quarters combat. She had been inspired by Kirishima's Unbreakable and Kurai's Endless Resolve, as she recognized the need for a more solid defense whenever she was backed into a corner, and had asked her boyfriend for help in getting a feel for how such a maneuver would work for her.

After showing it off to her friends, she ran her fingers through her hair, trying to shake off the last of the gray substance that had clung to it while giving them all a big smile. "Finally!" she giggled. "Been trying to get that thing to work for months!"

"That's awesome, Mina!" Ochaco congratulated her.

"I'll bet that Kurai will be really impressed when he sees how hard you worked to master it," Izuku added, which got her to smile a little more brightly.

"I know, right?" she said cheerily. "I've also got another move that I wanna show him when he gets out, but it still needs some work before it's ready to be critiqued."

"Is Kai a critical evaluator?" Eri asked curiously.

"Only if I ask him to be," Mina replied before her smile faded as she suppressed a small shudder. "I don't ask him to do it very often, though. He's harsh."

"I know what you mean," Izuku said with a similar look about him, one that Ochaco was also wearing. "He's pretty nice when we're asking for help with our own stuff, but whenever we've tried to learn his techniques precisely, he gets… intense."

"That's a nice way of putting it," Ochaco mumbled.

Eri tilted her head at the three of them before she said, "I didn't realize that you all had derived your fighting styles from him so much."

"Not me, girl," Mina giggled. "I couldn't take the pressure, and his moves don't really work with my style, so we decided to drop the idea of me learning combat from him. These guys, on the other hand…"

"My first internship with Gunhead had me learning his martial arts, and I wanted to expand on it," Ochaco explained. "Kurai's been learning hand-to-hand since he was littler than you are in this time, so he can fight pretty well, even without his quirk. I asked him to teach me in our spare time, and since he was already training with Deku a bunch, it made sense."

"One thing's for sure," Izuku said with a wobbly grin. "We learned a lot about what we were doing wrong. Still, it helped us both to improve, so there's that."

Eri looked between the three of them a few times before she said, "I feel like I want to see one of these training sessions when he comes back. Even if he won't become a hero, I imagine that he wouldn't object to continuing to help you guys out- and me, if he has the time."

"Your funeral, kid," Mina chuckled as she moved to resume her practice.


Kurai was humming cheerily to himself as he walked out of the hospital's library, a handful of old 'Naruto' manga in hand. Knowing that he had to wait until the group attendant was also ready to leave with the other patients, he sat on a bench just outside the large room and promptly opened the first volume, as to keep himself entertained until it was time to go.

As he began to immerse himself in the narrative of Itachi's last battle, his ears picked up on the sounds of another small group approaching the library- adult patients, from the sound of things. Normally, the adult and adolescent patients didn't interact for any length of time, but it wasn't entirely unusual for them to pass each other in the halls as they went to and from their daily activities in different parts of the building. Because this was the case, Kurai didn't bother to look up from his comic until the group had passed him by, save for a solitary figure who had stopped to stand in front of him.

Raising his gaze to look at the person, Kurai was surprised to see a woman with white hair and soft brown eyes who was dressed as a patient of the ward. He could tell that the color of her tresses had nothing to do with her age- she couldn't have been any older than his mother, who was in her late forties. For whatever reason, her face stirred up a sense of familiarity that he couldn't quite place, especially since he was almost positive that he had never interacted with this person before.

"Can I help you?" he decided to ask as he marked his page and shut the book.

"Are you… Madara Kayaba?" she asked in a voice that was nearly as soft as her gaze.

"Depends on who's asking," Kurai answered with a slightly raised eyebrow, the sensation of familiarity growing stronger.

The woman smiled slightly before she replied, "I'm Shoto's mother."

"You're-?" Kurai's eyes widened as the recognition set in before he shot to his feet so that he could bow formally from his waist. "Forgive my rudeness, Mrs. Todoroki," he apologized. "To answer your question, yes, I am Kayaba." Because she was a relative of his classmate, and therefore a connection to his true identity- even if it was a slim one- Shoto had taken it upon himself to visit his mother soon after Kurai was put in the hospital. He explained to her that his friend was there under an assumed identity that needed to be preserved with great care, just on the off chance that they might interact with one another, as they were doing now. Apparently she had agreed to keep the secret, but since Kurai hadn't run into her as of yet, he had honestly forgotten that particular detail until now.

"No, don't be so formal," the woman urged him gently so that he would straighten up and look at her again, even as the rest of her group moved into the reading area. "Please, call me Rei. I'm glad that I'm having a chance to meet the friend that my son has told me so much about."

"He mentioned me?" Kurai inquired. "That can't be good."

Rei laughed a little before she gestured to the spot next to him and asked, "Is that seat taken?"

"No, please have it," he answered as he moved his manga so that she could have an unobstructed area. "Sorry I didn't offer."

"No, you're being very accommodating to a very nosy mother," Rei replied as she sat down with a smile still on her face. "To answer your question, yes, Shoto has written me about you- several times, in fact. He says that you were one of the people who helped him remember the kind of hero he wants to be, and that he's never seen a braver hero- including All Might."

"I didn't take him as one to exaggerate," Kurai chuckled as he ducked his head a little. "Our friend Izuku is the one who really gave him the push to get going- I just helped to keep him pointed in the same direction after he'd gotten started. And I'm not that brave- I can't even face the thought of being a hero anymore." Glancing at the woman out of the corner of his eye, he asked, "Did he mention that I'm leaving the hero course after I get out of here?"

"Yes, but I don't think that changed his opinion of you," she said while keeping that soft smile on her face. "He still thinks that you're a hero worthy of great recognition, given what you did for everyone on Nabu." They were speaking in lowered tones, but even so, Kurai was making sure to keep his eyes and ears out for anyone who might be trying to listen in on their conversation. She hadn't called him by his real name, so his cover was more than likely still intact, but he wanted to be careful.

"I wish he wouldn't," he sighed once he was certain that their conversation was still a private one. "I made a promise to stand my ground, no matter what came my way, and it broke me. People can't rely on me because I can't stand anymore. A hero like that is no good to anyone."

"I think you're assuming that people can only hold respect for you because of what they think you can continue to accomplish, which isn't always the case," Rei said as her smile faded in favor of a look of motherly concern that reminded Kurai of his own mom. "Shoto respects you for what you've already accomplished. The fact that you've lost the ability to continue being a hero doesn't make those previous feats any less worthy of recognition. You held your own under circumstances beyond anything that most people could ever imagine, even in this superhuman society of ours'. It's easy for a lot of people to just brush off villain and hero fights as everyday happenings, but I know it's hardly an easy path to walk, especially when one's childhood is plagued with so much grief. If even half of what Shoto has told me about you is true, I can see why he admires you so much."

Kurai chuckled before turning a slightly pained gaze on the woman and saying, "I could argue that his childhood was a lot more jacked up than mine. If anything, his resolve is the one that I should be admiring."

"I think anyone could do well to admire my son," Rei agreed with a sad smile. "But again, his accomplishments and determination do nothing to decrease the impact that you've had on him. I'd just like to say thank you, for helping Shoto to become the kind of man he wants to be."

Kurai looked down at his folded hands for a moment before he returned his gaze to the woman's and said, "Miss Rei, I-"

Suddenly, he stopped in mid-sentence, even as a rumble could be felt in the ground. His eyes went wide and he half-stood off the bench that they had occupied while fixing his gaze on the window. Before she could ask him what was wrong, he shouted at the top of his lungs, "Everyone, GET DOWN!"

Then he tackled Rei to the ground, even as the windows exploded inward, the rumbling sound having turned into a bellow that assaulted the ears and rattled their bones while broken glass pelted the wall behind them. A few shards landed on them and dealt some cuts, none of which were serious.

The real problem came when they noticed that the air had become permeated with some kind of green fog, which sent thrills of alarm down their spines as they registered the implications of such a sight. "Bio-weapon!" Kurai shouted as he laid flat on the floor, pulling his shirt up to cover his mouth and nose, urging his new friend to do the same as he did. "Don't stand up, you'll be inhaling more of it! Keep your faces covered!" Rei did as she was told, hoping that whatever this stuff was, it would be treatable, as she was certain that in spite of the precautions he was having them take, they had already breathed in some of the gas.

"What the hell is this stuff?" Kurai muttered, his mind already working as he tried to think of the safest way for them to get out of the broken glass minefield that they were essentially trapped in, as well as what they could do to deal with the gaseous substance, whatever it was.

Before he could form a coherent thought on the subject, he felt the temperature around him drop rapidly, even as a series of screams began to echo throughout the halls of the hospital from all directions. Even more blood-chilling than that was when he noticed the traces of black bio-electricity crackling along his extremities.

"Oh, crap baskets."


Mina, Eri, Izuku, All Might, and Akarui had assembled on Aizawa's summons in the teacher's lounge, the haggard-looking man looking especially disgruntled today. "I'm sure you already know that we've come to discuss Kurai's current condition," he told them without preamble once they were all seated. "Given that you all know more about One For All than I do, I figured it prudent to have each of you present, since what we're about to discuss involves the quirk, even if only partially."

"Is Kurai okay?" Mina asked quickly.

"He's healthy," Akarui answered her. "That's kinda the issue."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"The doctors can't find anything wrong with him, mentally or physically," Aizawa informed them, prompting looks of confusion to cross the room. "They've done everything that they possibly can to figure out what caused his hallucinations and paranoia, both with science and psychic evaluations. Nothing turned up anything out of the ordinary. By all accounts, he should be good to come home."

"So… is he coming home?" Mina asked hopefully.

"It's not that simple," Aizawa said with a shake of his head, leading the girl to look defeated, prompting Eri to put a comforting arm around her. "Believe me, I wish I could authorize his return, but we can't risk him going out of control with such a powerful quirk again. I need your help to try and figure out how and if One For All is involved in this."

"They haven't put him on any medications while he's been in there?" Izuku asked with a thoughtful frown. "That seems strange, given how long it's been since he was admitted."

"If they gave him the wrong kind of medicine, things could go from bad to worse," All Might reminded his protégé. "They haven't been able to diagnose him, or even find anything wrong with the chemicals and hormones in his bloodwork. There's no reason to give him medication, as far as they're concerned."

"Wait," Akarui said as he held up his right hand with his finger pointed upwards. "You said that they hadn't given him any medication?"

"None," Aizawa confirmed, though he quickly frowned. "Actually, they have been giving him quirk suppressants, but they've been shown to have zero effects on a person's mental condition."

"There's always an exception to the rule," Akarui replied, his eyes going wider as he stood up from his chair. "That's it! It's the quirk suppressants! That's what's been keeping him from seeing Kai!"

"Uh, what?" Mina asked with a raised eyebrow.

"It's also why Eri hasn't been able to contact the previous vestiges!" the boy said excitedly, looking at everyone in turn as though he had just invented the cure for cancer. "It all makes sense! I can't believe I didn't think of this before!"

"Hikari, slow down!" Izuku told him. "What are you talking about? What does Kurai taking quirk suppressants have to do with his hallucinations and Eri's problems with One For All?"

"It's all One For All," Akarui replied, his grin widening. "That's the common denominator. It ties everything together because Eri and Kurai have the same quirk."

"Uh, yeah," Mina said, still looking at the boy like he was crazy. "That's been well established."

"No, no, no, you're still not getting it," Akarui said excitedly. "It's not just two versions of the same power, it is literally the same power. It's separated by a span of ten years, but it is the same quirk. So whatever happens to Kurai's power will affect Eri, too!"

"What are you talking about?" Eri asked, a frown of her own coming onto her face. "I haven't had any trouble using One For All."

"Not the physical part, no," Akarui conceded. "If I'm right, the energy that's housed within your body belongs to you, it isn't shared. But the psychic plane where the previous users' vestiges still exist? The ones that Midoriya was able to detect when he fought you, even though he no longer has the quirk? That isn't exclusive to you- I think it can be felt by anyone who's had- or more importantly- has the power."

"And… if Kurai can't reach the vestiges because he can't use the power at all…" Izuku started to say, Akarui's ramblings beginning to make sense to him.

"Eri hasn't been able to talk to the vestiges for weeks now, and it started when Kurai went to the hospital," Akarui said as he smiled triumphantly while everyone else looked dumbstruck. "They weren't ignoring her- they can't be heard because Kurai's muted the connection! It also explains why he saw himself as Kai!"

"You're gonna have to back up and explain that part," Mina said, her head spinning as she tried to process what was being said. "How does his hallucination play into this?"

"It's not a hallucination," Akarui chuckled. "It's him! It's Kurai's vestige! The one who waited for ten years in the dark to have someone who would be worthy to inherit One For All and take up the fight against Shigaraki! No wonder he was pissed at Kurai in this era!"

"But-?! Kurai is still alive!" Mina said as she shook her head. "He can't have a vestige if he still holds the quirk, right?"

"But he can," Eri realized, her eyes now growing wider. "Because I brought One For All into a time when he's still alive, even though his spirit is the one who passed it on to me. That vestige still exists within the psychic realm, along with the other previous holders."

"Young Hikari wasn't hallucinating- he was being confronted by his own vestige!" All Might summarized.

"Yahtzee!" Akarui exclaimed. "Kai from the future is probably pissed off because Kurai just wants to hand the power off to someone else when he has the chance to avenge everyone that Shigaraki killed in the future! That's why One For All beat him up in the hospital! His own vestige used the quirk to get the point across!"

"It wouldn't be the first time something like that has happened," Izuku recalled. "The first time I saw the vestiges in the psychic collective, All For One's brother triggered the quirk, and I wound up breaking my window on accident. I thought it was sleepwalking at the time, but now it makes more sense."

"This poses a more serious problem than we initially thought," Aizawa mused with a deep scowl. "If this really is the case, and Hikari's vestige is hostile enough to enact violence against his own self, he may never be able to pass the quirk on to someone else. There's also the fact that if the previous wielders don't approve of their new host, they can reject them entirely."

"Young Hikari would need to make peace with his future self if he wants to be rid of the power," All Might surmised, looking worried by the prospect. "But he can't do that unless he has access to his powers, which presents us with our original problem- the possibility of an out-of-control One For All."

"There's also the scenario in which future Kurai takes full control over his body," Akarui added, his smile fading in favor of a much grimmer look. When the others looked at him in alarm, he shrugged and said, "I think it's possible. The quirk gets stronger with each new wielder, and Kurai was stupid strong to begin with when it came to him. It's shown that it can control its host's actions to some degree, such as when Midoriya broke his window, and when Kurai slugged himself through a wall. If it goes fully hostile inside his head, and his will is weaker than his self from the future, we might end up with the Kurai from Eri's time. And given how long he spent waiting to get his chance for revenge, I doubt my future brother is gonna be willing to wait before he attacks the Liberation Front, guns blazing."

There was an ugly silence for a few moments before Aizawa said, "Unfortunately, this is all just supposition on our part until we can prove your theory as fact. And doing that could be disastrous."

"But if we don't do it, Kurai will never be able to move on with his life," Akarui replied with a somber expression. "He'll spend his whole life wondering if he's about to be taken over by his future self, even if he stays on quirk suppressants to prevent that from happening. That's no way to live."

"He's right, we gotta give him a chance to be free," Mina declared. "I'm sure that Izuku and Eri can keep him contained if he goes out of control, right guys?"

"I am stronger than he is, and I know that Deku can reach the same level of strength that Kai once wielded if he needs the power," Eri nodded. "We could handle him."

"Yeah," Izuku nodded, no signs of hesitation on his face as he looked at his teacher. "This is all because I chose him to be the next wielder, Mister Aizawa. You have to give me a chance to fix this- to save him."

"I don't have to do anything," their teacher said in a thin voice, instantly killing their verbal momentum. However, he did also add, "But I agree, he doesn't deserve to live in constant fear like that." He paused again before letting out a sigh and saying, "I'll contact his doctor to get his release from Itomori started. All Might, I'll leave it to you and Nezu to arrange a security detail for his transportation and observation while he still has One For All on campus- can't risk him running amok once he's off the quirk suppressants."

"Understood."

"Is this really happening?" Mina asked hoarsely, something like wonder in her eyes. "Is Kurai really coming home?"

"Don't get too excited, Ashido," Aizawa warned her as he reached for his phone. "He's going to be under strict watch until we can either get One For All out of him, or he makes peace with his vestige, if that even is what's needed."

"I'm not wrong about this," Akarui insisted, looking annoyed at the idea that his theory was even being questioned. "Everything lines up with my hypothesis."

"Even so, I'm not taking any chances."

"…That's fair."

"I don't care if he's under guard," Mina said as she felt joyous tears beginning to slide out of her eyes. "He's coming home…"

Aizawa turned away to roll his eyes when he noticed that his phone was buzzing. Almost simultaneously, All Might's phone began to ring, leading both men to look at one another with frowns.

As they each moved to answer the calls, Eri murmured, "Wonder what the chances are that's unrelated?"

"Low," Akarui answered grimly.

This was confirmed when both men's eyes widened, with All Might's jaw hanging open after a few seconds. "They what?!" he gasped.

"How bad are we talking?" Aizawa asked almost simultaneously.

"Something tells me we should get going," Izuku said, only for Akarui to move toward a small television in the corner. "Hikari, what are you doing?"

"If both of them are getting phone calls that bad, my bet is that it's on the news," he answered over his shoulder while both of the teachers continued to listen with rapt attention to the speakers on the other end of the line. He turned on the TV and quickly changed the channel to one of the more popular news stations.

What they saw made him drop the remote, his fingers having gone slack with horror.

"This just in," said the anchor, looking grim in front of a screen that showed a city that had been shrouded in a green fog. "Some kind of bioweapon has been released in the Kanto ward, and the chaos is frightening to contemplate. We have yet to be able to get word from anyone on the ground, but aerial surveillance has shown what appears to be massive amounts of damage and casualties caused by the civilians' quirks. We're not certain of this, but based on some footage we have from our cameras, it appears that the gas forces people's quirks to go wild, and the results are disturbing."

"Kanto," Izuku breathed as he looked at Mina and Akarui, whose faces had turned deathly pale. "That's where-!"

"Kurai is somewhere in there," Akarui finished for him. "And if that gas really does force quirks into overdrive, our worst fears are about to be put on HD for the world to see."


At that same moment, in a dark room, out of sight from UA, the Paranormal Liberation Front, Humarise, and any other hero agency or criminal syndicate known to the people of Japan, a solitary figure stood amid the soft glow of over a dozen monitors, which were connected to a half-dozen different computers of various makes and models. "The game has changed," they murmured to themselves, even as they observed the different news' reports streaming in from a dozen different channels. One in particular seemed to occupy the speaker's attention, because three monitors suddenly cleared to make room for an enlarged image from channel 23.

In it, one could see the stirrings of something like a storm, save that no storm had ever appeared as such before. The figure before the monitors gave vent to a little smile as they noticed sparks of black lightning being thrown skyward before once again speaking in lowered tones to say, "The game has changed, yes… And even the pieces themselves have been altered… But the rules have returned to working order. Now, this I can really work with."

A trio of other monitors began to flash with pilfered street-camera footage of the hero Deku working alongside Ground Zero and Freezer Burn under Endeavor in recent weeks. To the untrained eye, Deku was fighting much the same as he always had when it came to villains- but the eyes resting upon these videos were far from untrained. They saw the lack of verdant lightning that was the result of the young hero's Full Cowling, despite his continued ability to move and strike at speeds the Iida family would have envied. They saw the subtle- yet concentrated- glow shimmering around a new pair of gauntlets that had replaced his equipment during his excursion to Nabu Island.

With all of those subtle hints having been tugging at his attention, the spectator could now smile at the clear signs of All For One's greatest creation and failure having changed hands once again, as they had known it would.

The speaker then allowed that smile to grow into a fierce, nearly war-like expression before they growled, "Game on, Guardian Hero."


Kurai: I hate you, you jackwagon.

Mataras: I've been called worse.

Akarui: You wanna explain what that last scene was about?

Mataras: New player has entered the stage.

Akarui: No kidding! How informative!

Mataras: You all know what I'm about!

Kurai: This person isn't with the Front?

Mataras: No.

Akarui: Yakuza?

Mataras: No.

Kurai: Humarise?

Mataras: Were you paying attention when the description of their location said that it was nowhere near any of those people?!

Akarui: Hey, just because they're not in the vicinity of those organizations, it doesn't mean that they don't work for/with them.

Mataras: Fair point, but I'll throw our readers a bone and clear things up on that end by saying that no, this person is not affiliated with any of those people.

Kurai: So... what? Are they from the RWBY universe?

Mataras: Definitely not.

Akarui: So, wait... New villain? An original of yours'?

Mataras: Yup. The last movie arc seemed like an opportune time to introduce a new villain of my making, so I figured this might be a good time to do it again.

Kurai: So, introducing another balancing act to the power scale for the heroes' side?

Mataras: Next time on-

Kurai: Answer my question, dammit!

Mataras: He Lives

Akarui: Seems like Kai just might be made to Go Beyond!

Mataras: Plus Ultra!

Kurai: I will put your head on a stick and wave it in front of your weeping mother!

Mataras: Stop acting surprised at my formulas, already!


Next time on Your Hero Academia...

Only a few places had people who had not been completely consumed by the effects of the bioweapon, and all of them had something in common: they were hospitals with patients who had to take drugs to suppress their powers while they were being taken care of. Unfortunately, many of those same people were not sound of mind, and after realizing that they could use their powers, and that the people who had been forcing them to take the suppressants were either deceased or on their way to the afterlife, they did not respond as one might hope.

They quickly turned their temporary homes into battlegrounds for the insane and desperate, with Itomori Hospital possibly being the worst off, given that every patient within its walls were mentally disturbed on some level. It was about to become the cherry on top for the disaster that Humarise had unleashed, but then something completely unexpected happened within its now-damaged walls.

A few of the patients were making a break for the outside when they heard a sharp series of sizzles and crackling coming up behind them. Two of them looked over their shoulders, trying to see what the source was, but their vision was impeded by the gas that still filled the air. They were about to pass it off as just another patient whose quirk had been released by the gas bomb when there was a violent rush of wind that streaked past them, all but knocking them to the floor as its source came to stand between them and the exit that would lead them to freedom.

As they were trying to regain their balance, a young voice called out from within the swirling haze to say with a cold tone, "Get back to your rooms and wait for things to settle down. This is your only chance to do so without needing another hospital."