"Who's this?" Kacchan asked, pointing vaguely to the next page of the sketchbook. Izuku, sitting on his bedroom floor with the blonde to his right, had been flipping through the drawings reverently for about fifteen minutes now. He was going to have to find an appropriate place in his room to hide it. Perhaps under his bed somewhere? Disguised among boxes of hero merchandise?

"That's Arch, Alexey Osinov," Izuku provided. This was a quick sketch and the man was somewhat difficult to recognize. "He died in the war. No one really knows details. I think that the stories saying he was raiding a Siberian labor camp are probably false? Russia had been forced to stop doing those kinds of things by then and conflict with the MLA was deescalating, but it's possible there was a black site..."

"Who's this?" Kacchan asked immediately as Izuku turned the page.

The greenette shook his head. "I don't know."

"Huh? Don't ya' know everyone? I mean, you were sort of one of their commanders, right?"

"N-no, Kacchan. It's not like that at all. I told you I have dreams but I only know what I see in them. There's no broader context. It took me forever to even figure out that I was Bit Weasel, especially since there's the changeling Switcher so even if I saw someone's face I couldn't be sure it was actually them."

"Huh. Okay... sure?" the blonde threw his hands up. "What the hell happened to you nerd?"

Izuku sighed, shaking his head. "I'm going to find out. It's just a matter of time at this point. I'm remembering more and more."

"Are you sure you don't want to at least tell Aizawa? You trust the guy, right?"

"I mean... yeah but... I--he'll--maybe he wouldn't tell if I asked him not to? But he sort of has to, right, if it seems like I might be... you know what I mean and I don't want to put him in that

position and I don't want to give someone the chance--I can't. I just can't." Kacchan sighed. "What was he like?"

"Uh... who?"

"Destro."

How to put that into words... "He was a good sport when Kuma destroyed us both in snowball fights."

The blonde blinked. "Go on."

"Chris was a hard worker, studying constantly for a pair of demanding majors and excelling. He was pretending to be quirkless when I met him. So was I--I mean Bit Weasel, for that matter, and Kuma, too. No one seems to know what Kuma's quirk was, but she definitely had one. Uh... Chris, yeah. He was realistic. He understood that the world was unfair and he tried to live with it until it killed someone he loved and he cried his eyes out and then got angry enough to fight. He was blunt, had a dry sense of humor, took most things in stride and didn't mind being the butt of a joke so long as it was a good one. He liked mecha anime but he would yell at the characters "don't be an idiot" and things like that and we would have to "shush" him. You couldn't take him to a movie because he'd constantly whisper in your ear about how stupid the characters were being or how something was inaccurate." Izuku had witnessed, many months ago, an attempt to take Destro to see Invasion of the Body Snatchers and mostly forgotten about it because it had been so vague. "He had no patience for fools, in fantasy or in real life." The greenette felt a familiar ache in his chest return and tried to ignore it.

Kacchan considered all of this. "That's... got nothing in common with anything I have ever heard or thought."

"No. The victors write history, you know. I wonder... if I were to go to New Zealand, Switzerland, Costa Rica, the US, or Canada whether it would be easier to find accurate information about the MLA. The war either ended at a negotiating table in all those places or never happened at all. The MLA never fought Canada or the US; there was too much internal political turmoil going on for America to pay much attention to the MLA War and quirk regulation was declared unconstitutional there so the MLA had no reason to be angry with the US, not that anyone in their right mind would try to fight America. That's like getting involved in a land war in Asia..." Katsuki snorted. "Sorry, I'm rambling again."

Kacchan shook his head. "Don't worry about it. It's... interesting, and given what's going on in your life right now I need to know about it."

"W-why?"

The blonde gave him an exasperated look. "So I can help you, you idiot. Can't do much if I don't know anything about what the hell's going on."

"Oh."

"Did you not expect help? Clearly you did or you wouldn't have asked me to come with you in the first place, or was I just your least bad option?"

"U-uhh..." Izuku had expected help, but he had expected minimum help. He'd figured Kacchan would run away from him as fast as possible at the first opportunity although he had trusted his old friend to keep his silence.

His face must have been easy to read because Katsuki raised an eyebrow then said, "have a little faith, nerd. So. What now?"

"I... guess we go to internships and try to forget about this for the moment?" Izuku was getting very good at putting aside his ongoing personal crises to focus on immediate necessities.

"What about that bunker? Should we... no, there's no way to say where it is without explaining how we found the damn thing..."

Izuku shook his head. "I don't think there's reason to tell anyone. It's stood alone for decades. Why disturb it now?"

"'Cause there's a hell of a lot of guns down there and if you knew where it was when you were possessed then someone else knows, too."

"They could have taken those weapons at any time," Izuku pointed out. "I don't think anyone ever plans to go back down there, Kacchan and... it's like a tomb, almost. That's how it feels. I don't want to disturb the silence." The ghosts deserved their peace.

Katsuki blinked, considering this. "Fair points I suppose. Not like people can't get illegal weapons other places, anyway. Fine. On to worrying about internships I guess."

"Still haven't chosen a mentor?"

"I'm working on it, nerd. What about you?"

"Not quite sure yet. Kesagiri Man, maybe, or perhaps False Flag or Undermine," Izuku replied. "Don't think I've heard of them."

"They mostly do underground and undercover work. Sometimes Kesagiri Man joins teams of frontliners, but not often. Undermine does some underground and undercover work. False Flag is exclusively an undercover hero. No one seems to have any idea what she looks like or what her quirk is."

"Sounds like some interesting choices. I'm thinking of interning with Best Jeanist." "Oh, really?"

"Yeah. The offer letter was really weird, though."

"In what sense?"

"Well, at the bottom there's a post script where it informs me that, should I accept this offer, I acknowledge the "clear and very present risk of being tied to a chair while Best Jeanist styles your hair for the better part of an hour every day.""

Izuku blinked. "Who... wrote that?"

"I think it was probably the man himself, which makes it extra weird? Maybe he's just tired of interns complaining when he ties them to chairs and gives them Mohawks or whatever and wants to make sure the next victim can't bitch at him?"

"Kacchan," Izuku said, trying not to burst into guffaws, "I think you have to take that offer just to figure out what's going on with that."

Katsuki sighed. "Maybe, but I don't like being tied to chairs." "When have you ever been tied to a chair?"

"You don't know everything about me, nerd."

The last order of business before internships was picking hero names. Midnight was running the class because Aizawa was "patently terrible at this." Izuku had spent a good long time thinking about his code name even though monikers didn't matter so much for underground and undercover operatives. Eraserhead was in the minority in that his name actually reflected his power; typically underground names were intentionally chosen so as to have nothing to do with one's abilities. Code names were used to identify operatives but not meant to provide any information either to fans or foes. Izuku had received internship offers from a few heroes whose names reflected their abilities and fighting styles such as Kesagiri Man and Mirrorist. He had more offers from people with names like False Flag, Agent 57, Shuffleboard, Ratatoskr (whose powers were in no ways related to squirrels or climbing the World Tree) and Dr. Noble.

Anyway, there was far less pressure on Izuku than on his classmates destined for frontline and rescue work. "I totally forgot about this," Kacchan swore profusely under his breath. "I haven't thought about this in like, a whole year!" Kirishima, who had overheard this, attempted to stifle his laughter. "Oh, shut up," the blonde groused at the red head. Meanwhile, Ashido named herself "Alien Queen." Apparently Aoyama was going to be "Cannot Stop Twinkling" and Izuku had a premonition about the unfavorable way that was going to be abbreviated in years to come.

"Want to be Thundercracker?" Izuku asked Kacchan, not because he thought that was a particularly fitting name but because sometimes it was necessary to prime the pump of another's creative process.

"Hm... no, doesn't..." Kacchan worried his lip, staring at his whiteboard. "Midoriya?" Midnight called him up.

"Fossa," he answered, showing his whiteboard. Underground and undercover heroes usually did not have associated titles like "The Martial Arts Hero" or "The Many Limbed Hero" and Izuku didn't feel the need to come up with one. He had spent a long time thinking about all the relatives of mongooses and weasels--small but agile and startlingly efficient creatures much as Izuku strove to be--trying to decide which name to borrow. Eventually, he decided that the largest and most ferocious predator of Madagascar would serve him well.

Midnight considered this. "You're going to be underground or undercover, correct?" "I am."

"This will be perfect, then. Bakugou?"

Kacchan held up a whiteboard that read, "C4."

"Hmmm..." Midnight considered. "I guess it's alright? I think you could probably find something catchier and more fitting for a quirk like yours. You plan to be frontline, I believe?"

"Yeah I... I just forgot to think about it." Kacchan actually blushed.

A few more classmates settled on their names. Iida was using his first name for now. Given that the "Ingenium" name was passed down through the family (Iida's grandfather had taken it first) perhaps the class president was next in line for that or another heritable title and intended to wait on naming. Todoroki had decided to be "The Frosty Hero: Zuko." Midnight had gently tried to talk him out of it, but Todoroki was not to be deterred. The grin on his face made it evident he was convinced all future pain caused by such a name would be well worth it for the absolute conniption fit his father would have.

Kacchan came back to the front of the class with a sign that read, "The Dynamite Hero: Crater" and this time Midnight approved. It would be a good name. Crater was a sharp, powerful, catchy phrase that would serve a frontliner well.

"Wish I'd known to start thinking about that yesterday," Kacchan sighed as they went to lunch. "And now internships are practically here..."

"Did you decide on your mentor?" Izuku asked.

"I figured I'll go with Best Jeanist... I can survive being tied to a chair for an hour each day. I'll just bring a book or something."

Izuku snorted. "I decided to intern with Kesagiri Man. Aizawa said that he was most likely to be tolerant of a quirkless individual, or, well, Aizawa doesn't know most of the other people who made me offers but he knows Kesagiri Man wouldn't care."

"Good for you, nerd. Keep in touch alright?"

"Of course. I imagine Ojiro and Shouji will want to keep track of us, too." "There's going to be a lot of text messages flying around next week." Indeed.

Fighting with a full fledged sword was not at all the same as fighting with a long knife. Izuku did not, apparently, instinctually know how to use a katana, but Kesagiri said he was picking it up startlingly quickly, "likely due to your previous training."

Izuku had arrived at the nondescript building on the first day of internships, stared at the address on "Cherry Blossom Calligraphy School" then at the identical address on his offer letter and wondered where it had all gone wrong. A moment later a moderately tall, raven haired and hook nosed man in plain clothes had stepped out, greeted him, pulled him inside and handed him a sword. Izuku had not managed to even introduce himself before he was busy with drills.

Presumably the man who had greeted him was Kesagiri himself. The man didn't actually have sidekicks, did he?

The practicing went on with minimal commentary for a full two hours. Izuku, not accustomed to carrying such a heavy weapon for such spans of time, felt his arms shaking and faltering. His de facto drill sergeant noticed as well and called for training to end.

"You really know your footwork," the man said, nodding. "You are accustomed to smaller blades, I presume?"

"Yes, uh..."

"I am Kesagiri Man. You can call me Konno. Let's adjourn to the kitchenette for now." The kitchenette looked a lot like Izuku's kitchen at home, all be it more modern and so clean it sparkled. Everything was sparkly and modern. The underground hero's agency didn't much look like a hero agency and that was the point. The windows were one-way, so anyone regarding the "Calligraphy School" from the outside would not be able to see the large, open practice room, the storage closets full of equipment or the spiral stairs descending into the basement. Izuku imagined there was probably a panic room downstairs as well as an office and perhaps a records closet.

"So," said the hero, passing Izuku a bottle of water retrieved from a small refrigerator, "where did you train originally?"

"Ah." Somehow Izuku had assumed his mentor would know already, but of course he didn't. How could he? "T-that's a w-weird story." There was nothing for it but to be honest. "In my senior year of junior high I disappeared for a week. When I came back I had no memory of anything that occurred, but I suddenly knew how to fight and use weapons." Konno blinked. "The police never figured out what happened to me, other than I was possessed and used as some sort of... vigilante commando. I-I can get detective Tsukauchi to tell you if you don't believe me, I--"

Konno held up a hand. "No need. I remember hearing about your case. I wasn't directly involved, but the rumor mill grinds quickly in the underground and undercover circles. I have , in fact, heard of possession quirks that can transfer skills. One villain I fought, Lady Violet Eyes, had that ability. It didn't work on the scale that you have experienced, but it was the same general ideas."

"I've never heard of her," Izuku mumbled. "I've spent a lot of time," he admitted, "trying to figure out what happened to me but I never found mention of a quirk that could transfer muscle memory permanently like this."

"What is your quirk?" Konno asked. "I would have mistaken the weapon mastery for your ability had you not told me otherwise."

"I don't have one," Izuku replied. Aizawa had said Kesagiri Man was unlikely to care, but it was still a bitter sentence to speak. The greenette fidgeted, chewing on his lip.

Konno nodded. "Well, that makes things easy in some ways. Do you know what mine is?"

"Combat Calculation," Izuku recited. He had managed to dig up the information from an... admittedly very sketchy chatroom. "You instinctively know what the best attack or defense is when in close combat."

"More or less," Konno nodded. "I know instinctively the overall odds that I, or my opponent, wins the fight and have a similar instinct for how likely the attack or defense I am about to make is to succeed, but I don't necessarily know what the best action would be. Just like you, I depend on

training that has nothing to do with a quirk in order to do my job."

Aizawa had been correct; this was a perfect internship for Izuku. "So, our plan for the week," Kesagiri began, "is going to depend on what you want to experience. You are aware that I mostly work underground or undercover. Occasionally you'll see me working frontline. I always wear a bag over my head." Izuku stifled his snort. Kesagiri Man's actual hero costume could be described that way, but the greenette hadn't expected to hear that from the outfit's owner, let alone in that perfectly humorless tone.

"I considered wearing a bag over my head at the Sports Festival," Izuku admitted. "I don't know what happened to me during my missing week. I hoped no one would recognize me..."

"It is a valid strategy," Konno agreed. "Lottery winners in the middle east often wear bags over their heads to protect their identities." Alright... sure. It was impossible to tell when this man was joking. "I presume you do not plan to work frontline. It would be a poor fit. Are you interested in underground work or undercover work?"

"Both, but I have had more exposure to underground work because Eraserhead is my homeroom teacher this year."

"So it would be fitting to give you some insight into how the undercover world works," the hero nodded, considering carefully. "Today we will just get to know each other. We can practice some more this afternoon after you have a chance to rest. I will also tell you about how a solo hero manages an agency of one. Tomorrow evening, if you agree, I will take you to the Hosu Cage Matches. It is an excellent place to gather information about what is going on in the underworld. There will be many petty villains there. More intelligent and capable villains stay away because they realize that such venues are also frequented by undercover heroes." Izuku needed a notebook now. This was so much information and he had nothing to write on! "There are going to be a large number of rules that you will have to follow while we are in the thick of things. I will go over them with you tomorrow. You will need to obey them to the letter, no questions asked, understand?" Izuku nodded. "Alright. Now, I need to make a purchase from a support company. There is a good deal of paperwork and a few phone calls involved. You will doubtless need to do things like this yourself someday, so I will show you the process."

"Let me get my notebook," Izuku said. Where had his bag ended up?