First I want to apologize for the long wait. The past coupe weeks have been rough and I haven't had a chance to sit and write. Even when I did, I just had lost my mojo and couldn't write a chapter I was satisfied with.

Second I would like to thank projectzer0 for the sweet comment & Bunkerbird 25 for enjoying my story ! Sorry you had a long wait after binge reading !

But I finally managed to finish this chapter, and hopefully you guys enjoy it.

I will try to post something again next week, but I promise I haven't given up on this story just yet!

Chapter 23:

Noriko looked around the room, looking everyone in the eyes until she landed on crimson ones. Bakugo was staring at her intently, though he looked relaxed as he leaned against one of the large windows behind Yaeko's desk.

She had thought a lot about the whole thing all morning, wondering how she was going to start off her story. In the end, she decided it would be best to just rip the band aid off. So, she leaned forward, eyes focused on her hands that were clenched into tight fists.

"I'm going to try and get through this as best as I can. I need you to try and hold your questions until the end unless you really don't understand something."

"This is a long story, and it's going to get confusing because of all the factors behind it. This is Noriko's story as much as it is mine." Yaeko warned seriously.

"I don't understand what Noriko has to do with what happened four years ago." Best Jeanist spoke up, his eyebrows furrowed.

Aizawa nodded his head in agreeance, not understanding what his newest pupil had to do with her sister's arrest. As far as they all knew, Yaeko had killed a pro hero in self-defense.

"Because the reason Yaeko killed pro hero Justice was because he tried to rape me."

Hawks choked on the coffee he had been sipping on, Endeavor's eyes widened, Best Jeanist sat up straight in his seat and Aizawa clutched the handles of his wheelchair so hard his knuckles turned white.

"What?" Todoroki's soft-spoken voice rang out from somewhere on Noriko's left.

"Yeah, sorry that was a lot. I probably should have eased into that but didn't see a need to sugar coat it." Noriko looked over at her older sister.

Yaeko patted her arm reassuringly before looking around the room one last time.

"Justice was a pro hero; he wasn't in the top 10 or even top 20 but he was very well known in Sapporo. He came from a very well-known hero family and was a 4th generation hero. We grew up close to his family's agency, so it was pretty easy to get a job there after graduation." Yaeko spoke up shakily. "At first, I had loved working at the agency, even admired Justice and aspired to be a hero like him. Until everything changed and I started to fear him. It was because it turned out that Justice wasn't the hero I thought he was. His best friend, who was also a sidekick at his agency, Dissoman, used his quirk on me to essentially turn me into a puppet under their control. It was how Justice was able to coerce me into having sexual relations with him. At first, I would wake up in the breakroom sore and confused. I knew something was wrong, but I couldn't remember anything, until one day I actually woke up in the middle of-." Yaeko broke off mid-sentence when she felt a sob rising, to try and compose herself.

"You don't have to go into detail, Imai-san." Best Jeanist said softly, though his eyes were hard with barely suppressed rage.

The rest of the heroes were in a similar state, all looking enraged with varying amounts of pity in their eyes. Noriko felt her irritation spark when she saw the pity, hating the feeling of being pitied.

"Anyway, after that, I tried to make sense of what was happening. Justice gaslit me to try and convince me we were in a consensual relationship. Because I didn't have any proof to show I had been unwilling, I stayed quiet. But I started making plans to leave the agency without letting anyone know. I went back to school to obtain my medical license quietly, without informing my superiors, and it was rough. Between patrols, classes and caring for my sisters, I was functioning on fumes. But I did it, I got my license and retired from full time hero work."

"When she did, we were both confused, after all Justice's family had always been very good to us. His older brother was the hero that caught the villain that killed our parents. But after asking her for weeks why she had such a sudden change of heart, we eventually dropped the subject and just accepted it." Akari mumbled, looking down at her hands that were restless in her lap.

"Eventually, we reached the 4-month mark of me working at this small hospital in Sapporo, and Akari had just started working with a local hero agency. The day everything happened; I was stuck at the hospital beyond my usual end time." Yaeko continued up, looking up at the pro heroes, but her gaze seemed far away.

"At that time, we would rotate who would stay with Noriko. Whenever I got the night shift I would leave after Yaeko got home. That day because she was late, I got impatient and contemplated leaving Noriko home alone since I didn't want to be late to my shift." Akari jumped in, reaching out to grab Yaeko's hand to comfort her. "I was about to do just that, when he showed up." Her lip curled in disgust.

"I never told my sisters about why I really left the agency, nor did I ever tell them that Justice was a bad man." Yaeko's voice was hoarse with emotion. "I was ashamed of it, had no proof and didn't think anyone would believe me over a Pro Hero from a respectable hero family."

"So, when I saw that it was Justice and Dissoman, I didn't think twice about letting them in." Akari stared blankly at the wall, only her leg bouncing up and down rapidly gave away to her unease. "Afterwards I don't remember leaving the house, I just remember being shaken back into reality once I was standing outside of the agency I was working at."

"Meanwhile, I had been in my room doing my homework, when I realized the time and thought it was strange that Yaeko hadn't come find me to help with dinner." Noriko murmured, leaning back in her seat. "As soon as I reached the staircase, I remember hearing Justice and Dissoman talking about Yaeko."

*

"You know what to do when she gets here right?" Justice asked casually, turning his head slightly to look over at his best friend.

"The same thing I've been doing for you since you decided you wanted Yaeko Imai as your personal play toy." Dissoman rolled his eyes as he picked up a picture frame. "Though, I can't blame you, she's a beauty that one. And it seems that it runs in the family. Honestly a shame you had me send her sister away."

"Less messy this way, it's easier to deal with the kid without having to make you overuse your quirk…. Especially with the drawbacks you suffer through. I can't have Yaeko getting away again, especially before I can confirm if she's pregnant or not."

"Yaeko's pregnant?" A thirteen-year-old Noriko couldn't help blurting out from the bottom of the staircase.

"Nori-chan!" Justice plastered on a fake smile, his eyes darting over to look at his best friend. "Long time no see!"

"Is Yaeko pregnant?" Noriko repeated her question, looking at Justice intently, her gaze much more intelligent than he had ever seen for a girl her age.

"Hello, Imai-chan, I don't think we've ever met before." Dissoman cooed, his eyes glowing yellow, and his voice dropping an octave.

Immediately Noriko's eyes clouded over. Justice let out a sigh, dropping into the couch heavily, his eyes roaming over the teenager. It had indeed been a long time since he last saw her. She was growing into her looks, which resembled her oldest sister a lot.

His eyes trailed over her, stopping on her hands which were twitching against her thigh. Yaeko had also shown signs of struggling against his best friends' hypnotic hold, but only once had she been able to break free from it.

"Now, now, Nori-chan, be a good girl and come stand in front of me." Justice's deep voice called out to the young girl.

"What are you doing?" Dissoman asked, quirking an eyebrow at the other pro hero, watching as the girl slowly but surely made her way to him.

"Getting a good look at a possible new toy." Justice chuckled, stretching his arm out to trace his fingers down her arm.

"You're serious?" Dissoman looked shocked. "What about Yaeko?"

"What about her? There is nothing that says I can't have more than one plaything." He shot back, looking over at his best friend. "She won't remember a thing either, right?"

"You should know by now then to doubt my abilities. It'll be just like with her big sister."

"Perfect," Justice smirking viciously. "and after her, all that's missing is Akari-san to complete my collection."

*

"Afterwards, it's a little blurry, but I remember Yaeko getting home just as he made up his mind to have his way with me. He wanted to hurt her by doing to me what he had done to her." Noriko looked up and met Eraserhead's eyes.

His teacher always looked bored or annoyed, so it was surprising to see the level of rage that was currently blazing in his eyes. Part of her wanted to turn to look at a certain red-eyed blonde, but she was scared of seeing pity, or worse, disgust, on his face.

"A side effect of Dissoman's quirk is disorientation and memory loss. We think that because Shinso's quirk is so like Dissoman's, that it triggered something in my memory, and I was able to remember everything that happened while she was under his control."

"And then afterwards, Justice had thrown Noriko across the room as a distraction to get dodge me. She hit her head pretty hard." Yaeko reached up to push back a couple strands of hair from Noriko's forehead to reveal a faded scar that was about 4 inches long and barely noticeable unless you knew to look.

"Imai-sama, that man had gone to look for you originally to confirm if you were pregnant… were you?" Izuko asked in a voice that was both soft and hard at the same time.

His moss-colored eyes were hard, and his lips were pressed together tightly, his eyes focused on his doctor. He was so upset that she had gone through such a horrible ordeal, and on top of that the Hero Commission had condemned her. They stole four years of her life because they tried to hide the crime of a Pro Hero.

Yaeko smiled ruefully at the young boy. "I was Midoriya-chan."

"You lost the kid?" It was Bakugo who spoke up, his expression shocked and a little upset.

"I lost the baby in the fight." Yaeko sighed, her hand coming up to cover her flat stomach. "In my rage, I attacked blindly. I didn't think about anything except hurting him. Which was a mistake considering his quirk. He could turn his arms into any type of weapon, except shooting weapons like guns. He turned his arm into a bat and swung at me to keep me as far as possible from him. At one point he caught me in the stomach and sent be flying through the wall of our apartment. Through the adrenaline, I didn't notice the pain. It wasn't until I caught him, and my heightened emotions caused me to lose control of my quirk and I… killed him, that I snapped out of it."

It was dead silent in the room, no one spoke or breathed really. After a few minutes it started to make Noriko uncomfortable, so she jumped up from the couch and moved to the windows to. She tried to discreetly take deep breaths, but it was getting harder the longer the silence continued.

A hand on her arm made her jump. She turned to face Midoriya, who was looking at her with such a determined face that it took her aback.

"What's with that look, Broccoli head?" She asked wearily, but with no heat.

"Remember what I promised you the first day we met?"

Noriko's eyes widened slightly, remembering the conversation they had when they walked to the hospital together.

*Flashback*

Noriko had turned to look at him with wide eyes. She had expected him to turn away from her, shun her for shit talking heroes. What she hadn't expected was to see his eyes darken, the defeated look she noticed earlier become more prominent. It left her speechless for a moment, unsure of how to respond.

She had never been in this position, having been shut down by the Commission during her sister's trial. She opened her mouth to tell him as much when he suddenly looked up at her, a determined expression flashing across his face.

"I'm sorry for all the harm your family has gone through. I promise that things will be different now, I'll make sure of it because I will become the number one hero and the new symbol of peace. Once this war is over, my friends and I will rebuild the hero society to be better for everyone. And I want you to be a part of this with us because I know you're the right person to help lead this country into a better direction. So, Imai-san, will you be a part of the change and fight for it with us?"

*End of Flashback*

"Yeah." She finally croaked.

"I still stand by it. I'm going to change the system. I will be the next symbol of peace. And I know you'll be one of those standing by my side when I do."

Noriko was silent for a few minutes before she let out a low chuckle. "You are so dramatic, Sniffles."

Immediately his face turned bright red, and he started flailing his arms wildly. This seemed to break the tension in the air, and a few people started laughing while everyone else relaxed.

"Well now that we got through the depressing part of today's segment, we can move on to why we brought you here." Akari clapped her hands together, getting everyone's attention.

"I'm assuming this has to do with the reason behind Noriko's abduction?" Endeavor questioned.

"I wasn't abducted… I was borrowed for a short period of time while Dabi tried to sell me his cause." Noriko retorted, crossing her arms across her chest. "But yes, he wanted to convince me to join the Paranormal Liberation Front, and to recruit my sisters to join as well. His main selling point was this USB drive."

Noriko pulled it out of the pockets of her joggers. All the pros leaned forward; their eyes focused on the drive.

"The files were all encrypted, but I was able to decode it and access them all. It contained all the classified files from the HPS, including the files on us. The original file which contains all the gruesome details of what actually happened 4 years ago, and the fake one which tells a completely different story." Akari explained stoically.

She was still bothered by everything she had read, having spent almost the entire night going through all the files.

"It also contains files on all of the HPSC's best agents." Noriko looked directly at Hawks as she said this. "An entire background on them, a list of all missions – completed or not, etc."

"How did they get their hands on this?" Best Jeanist asked, sounding horrified.

Akari leaned forward, her eyebrows drawn together in frustration. "Great question. My best guess would be Skeptic, but even then, I don't think his skills are good enough to get through the high security protocols that protect the HPSC database."

"Shouldn't we consider the possibility of a spy?" Hawks asked, feeling uncomfortable with the fact that the villains had a copy of his files and worse that Akari had seen it.

"Principle Nezu and the rest of the teachers all considered this when UA was first breached during the USJ Attack a couple years ago." Eraserhead spoke up, a hand coming up to trace the patch covering his eye.

"Please, it's one thing to breach a high school -no matter which school it was and what security features it has- versus the HPSC." Bakugo scoffed.

"He's right. UA has upped their security in order to set up the refuges, but the HSPC is a different ball game with access to resources even beyond the school's reach." Todoroki agreed with him.

"Both of you have a point, but that doesn't mean we should disregard the spy theory completely." Endeavor murmured, deep in thought. After a second his eyes flashed over to the Noriko. "But going back to Dabi, I'm assuming you rejected his offer and that was why he hurt you."

"Yes and no. I didn't accept nor reject his offer, but I also got a little smart with him, which made him lose his temper with me." Noriko shrugged, looking completely unbothered by the fact that she had purposely instigated one of the most wanted villains. "He did leave a meeting time and place for us to tell him what our choice would be."

All the pro's straightened at that, looking at each other with barely contained excitement. "If we have a time and place, we can set up a trap to capture Dabi."

"Wrong." All three Imai sisters said immediately.

"Excuse me?" Hawks blinked, looking between the three.

"Even if you did manage to capture Dabi, assuming you guys are able to take on his back up and him." Yaeko began, ignoring the insulted looks from the pros. "What makes you think he's going to talk and give up Shigaraki?"

Immediately, realization washed over all of them. The problem wouldn't be capturing Dabi, at least none of the pros thought it would be a problem. The hard part would be getting Dabi to cooperate.

"So, what are we meant to do? We need to get Dabi off the streets as much as Shigaraki. And we don't have anyone left to infiltrate their ranks. Hawks has already been ousted and Lady Nagant is in the hospital for switching loyalties mid battle." Best Jeanist sighed.

"But you have us." Akari pointed at herself and Yaeko. "Dabi clearly wants us on his side, will he fully trust us at first? Hell no, he's smarter than that. But we are your best chance to get the inside scope on them."

"No." Hawks immediately rejected the idea, remembering what Bakugo had told him last night about Dabi's interest in her. "You're on his radar, and it doesn't sound good. For all we know, he only wants you three to collect your quirks."

"While I don't disagree that the live action Freddy Krueger has some strange fascination with my sister, I doubt he just wants her quirk. The way he was talking about her makes it seem like he wants her." Noriko looked over at Akari, who's lip curled in disgust. "Which just further proves our point, we are the best people for the job. Or specifically Akari is."

"It would stand to reason that Akari be our point of contact with the villains since she would be the one under less scrutiny. After what happened, Noriko will no doubt be constantly supervised to make sure this doesn't happen again, and me? Well, I'm the last person the HPSC will ever trust, and therefore I'm always going to be under constant watch." Yaeko added, but she didn't look at all happy about it.

"I don't know about this. The HPSC will never approve of this." Best Jeanist murmured.

"Fuck the HPSC." Noriko spat, glaring at Best Jeanist. "Not only did they change history for their selfish benefits and ruined our lives, but they probably have a double-crossing bitch in their ranks spilling national secrets."

"Noriko's right, we can't trust them anymore." Akari stood up and faced the pros with her head held high. "I can't say I ever did. But now more than ever it's clear that we can only trust in each other."

IT was quiet for a moment before anyone spoke up again.

"They're right. I don't like this anymore than any of you, but this is our best shot. The best information we got was from when Hawks was on the inside as a spy. It didn't end the way we hoped, but we've got a second chance to do it better and end this once and for all." Eraserhead said, staring down at his clenched hands.

"You're right. But we have to come up with a plan and multiple backup plans. We won't be sending you in blind, Imai-san. And please trust us to keep you and your sisters safe." Best Jeanist stood and bowed in front of all three sisters.

"Trust is earned, Best Jeanist… and so far you have. But please don't make us regret putting our faith in you." Akari smiled at the pro, returning the bow.