-December 17 - [Day 5] -

'Stratonite, originally named Terranite, is a metal commonly theorized as one of the possible origin of Quirks, with its ability to change its own molecular structure in accordance to the Quirk gene exposed to it. As such, it is the most common ingredient in hero equipments and other Quirk-assisted technologies-

Wait… that's not right… damn I got the sentence wrong!

Uh… crap! I need to memorize-

Chitose's eyes suddenly shot open, mind immediately wondering about the odd thought in her mind just a while ago. Why is she mentally reciting something? Why Stratonite out of all things? She tried to recall such an event that required the memorization of Stratonite details, and the only thing she could remember is her report on the subject back in her college days.

She raised an eyebrow at the thought. It's been a few days now and she still somehow keeps randomly remembering things from the past in the general age range she currently found herself in.

'The two's got to be connected…'

She focused back on the present, green eyes staring at the dark ceiling. Remembering all the things that happened last night, she tried to sit up straight, only now noticing that someone must have placed a blanket on her as she slept on the sofa. The entire house is dark, with the woman - Inko Midoriya by the name, sleeping on a shikibuton just behind the sofa nearby, her head turned away from her.

Chitose surveyed her surroundings, but just as she finished one section she suddenly felt a sharp sting of pain on her back. She was about to reach on her back yet all her joints are now suddenly painful, with her swollen right eye also joining in.

'The hell?!' she thought, noticing symptoms of flu. Could this be because of the freezing cold temperatures last night she had to endure? But that was only a few minutes at maximum! How could she get sick so easily?

'I can't get sick now! That would just slow me down!'

Chitose immediately felt her forehead, and to her frustration, it felt quite warm to the touch. But on the bright side, she's not bogged down yet, nor feeling tired, but she knew she's about to be, basing off of her joint pains.

'As long as I'm pretending to be fine, I'm all good. Now what time is it-'

The sound of an opening door interrupted her thoughts and she immediately turned her attention to the general direction of where she heard it. By her observation, it came from a door located right behind some huge furniture. Fortunately, there's a wall clock hanging nearby, and she could see the time as 5am in the morning.

Chitose lowered her head as she heard footsteps approach - followed closely by the sounds of a light switch being flicked on and the area near the door lighting up. She remembered Inko saying she has a son, and immediately lowered herself onto the sofa, covering herself with the sheets given to her. Why did she hide fully knowing it's not going to accomplish anything? Not even she knows.

"Mom?" she heard a faint voice belonging to the son. Chitose wondered if ever Inko said anything about a husband but she quickly brushed it off. "Why are you sleeping here? Is there a spider again?" she heard the voice the second time, but this time a lot closer.

She heard the mother mutter something incomprehensible in response, her voice sounding like she was awake this whole time.

"What? You took someone in again?"

Chitose listened carefully in an attempt to check if ever the mother had any ill intentions against her. In preparation just in case Inko is planning something, Chitose planted one palm onto the sofa and activated her Quirk to turn it into a remote explosive. She then did the same to the blankets and all the other nearby things she could reach.

She then tuned back to their conversation, getting her mind ready if ever the two made an attempt, at which she'll blow up everything in quick succession as fast as her young self can detonate things. The only drawback is that her explosive abilities are currently reverted to its earlier stage – meaning it doesn't have the punch she was hoping for, nor she can detonate them all at once in one giant blast. Furthermore, while weaker explosives can easily bypass the Backforce barrier and actually injure people as compared to stronger ones that are only capable of harmless knockback, she could easily get herself within the blast radius as well. She's already injured, it's not worth risking injuring herself even further.

'Why the hell am I even thinking Inko's a gang boss?!' she instantly thought, noticing how much she's overreacting.

"Oh, it's a she this time?"

Chitose once again heard the son whisper. But no matter how hard she tried to listen, she can't hear whatever the mother is replying.

The young woman tried to peek her head out to try and see something, but hesitated at the very last moment as her glowing green eyes are easily seen in the dark. Realizing she can't do anything more, she decided to just go back to pretending to be asleep.

Her eyes suddenly felt heavy, but that's not much of a problem. As long as she can stay awake and listen, she's fine.

She fell asleep again shortly after.

….…[o]…...

'Stratonite is a metal that's most commonly agreed upon by scientists and researchers to be the origin of Quirks, basing everything off of its unique ability to adapt to the Quirk gene present in all modern individuals – even those who are considered Quirkless…'

"Dammit! I forgot the correct words again!" Chitose said in light frustration, slowly sitting up and rubbing her eyes, shortly before feeling a sharp sting of pain as she accidentally rubbed the right portion of her face. The sting caused her to abruptly open her eyes, alongside suddenly realizing that she fell asleep again and only woke up now. Looking around, she found that she's still within the Midoriya household and is still on the sofa, with the blanket still over her.

Despite her fears, nothing really happened to her.

Her suitcase is still standing beside her completely untouched.

"Why do I have-" Chitose cut herself off as she turned her head towards the dining room, seeing Inko together with a boy in her late teens that shares a striking resemblance to her.

"Oh look who's awake!"

Chitose's eyes took a good while to fully focus, but she eventually managed to give off a small smile towards the woman in response. Meanwhile the son just stared at her, mouth agape, with a mix of confusion and curiosity etched on his freckled face.

"I uh-"

"Did you sleep well?"

Chitose immediately thought of multiple paths the conversation could go. While she knew she has to leave as soon as possible and try and contact the MLA again, she could feel her flu rising, and she would then be in a huge disadvantage against a villain attack, no matter how powerful her Meta Ability is. On the flip side, she could probably convince the mother to let her stay for a couple more hours, and hopefully the flu has significantly gone down at that point. And then she can leave.

'But wait, I don't have any more cash left-'

"Are you okay miss? Do you want me to call the hosp-"

"No nonono I'm fine!" Chitose immediately stood up, earning a lightly-shocked look from the son after seeing how tall she is, as well as her facial damage. "So what's for breakfast?" she asked in an attempt to lighten the mood, mentally cringing on how awkward she sounded. She only took one step towards them before tripping on her own suitcase, hitting her face onto the arm rest on the other end of the sofa and making her let out a loud yelp of pain and a few swear words in English.

Inko rushed to her side, but Chitose quickly straightened herself before she could even get assisted. As of now it is of her utmost priority to not let anyone in the room touch her or else they might notice that her temperature is higher than normal. While yes her current joint pains made the act of jolting straight incredibly painful, but it's better than showing weakness to people she doesn't even know.

'On the other hand, I could just tell everyone here it's just because of my mutations that's why my temperature is higher than normal. Wait, didn't Inko pat my back last night? Would the excuse still work?'

It took her a while, but Chitose finally got to the dining table, noticing the still-silent son slowly furrowing his brows seeing how swollen half of her face is.

"A-are you okay… miss…?" The son soon asked, the confusion on his face becoming even more apparent. "Your face looks pretty banged up."

"Like I said, she had a villain encounter last night and is now out of money. I can see her from here, freezing on the bus stop alone," Inko said with genuine kindness in her voice. "And now she's got the flu. The poor thing."

"The flu-" Chitose's only good eye widened. How did the mother know?! She hasn't told them anything yet! "I uh- I'm fine."

"I can tell a flu when I see one. If you want, you can stay with us for a little while until you can get your relatives to fetch you here!" Inko said, clasping her hands together. Meanwhile, the son continued to eat, although there's now visible worry in his face. "Now you better eat to keep your strength up if you want to be fully recovered as soon as possible," she added, gesturing towards the food she prepared on the table.

Chitose immediately then thought of more possible scenarios stemming from the moment, seeing the mother somehow suddenly knew she has the flu by looks alone. On one hand, there's nothing really bad at staying a while as she heals up. But on the flip side, what if Inko asked her if she knew any relatives? She has no relatives that she currently knew of, not to mention she already abandoned every single one of her old contacts shortly after becoming part of the MLA.

"Miss, this is the second time you blanked out, are you sure you don't want me to call the-"

"No, I'm fine." Chitose sighed as she sat on the dining room chair, her right hand immediately grabbing the chopsticks neatly placed beside the plate in front of her. "No need for hospitals. It's just a flu," she commented weakly before taking a bite out of the pancake. It was surprisingly bland despite looking delicious, with the flu removing most of her ability to taste.

But it didn't matter, she finished her entire meal and said her thanks afterwards, but stayed where she is.

'Okay, Plan A: Stay for a few hours to heal up, then go to nearest bank to withdraw some cash, and proceed to Kanagawa… Sounds simple enough…'

"How tall are you?"

Chitose suddenly snapped back to the present with the sudden question from Inko's son.

"Uh, 6 foot one? Well actually don't really know," she responded. The son did one small awkward nod and immediately went back to eating his food.

Inko eventually arrived from cleaning a few dishes and told her she'll handle the rest. "By the way do you need any medicine or is your uh- what do you call it? Mutant stuff going to conflict with that?"

"Conventional medicine doesn't work on me, plenty are even toxic-"

"Woah," the son suddenly spoke out, a combination of amazement and curiosity on his face. "Are you an alien-"

"Izuku… Don't be rude," Inko then turned to Chitose. "So you're just going to heal up on your own? Do you have a healing Quirk or is it just your mutant stuff doing the healing for you? How long is that going to take?"

"The latter. It'll just take a few hours."

"Okay then. I suggest you rest for a while. Just tell me when you're ready to call your relatives, okay?"

Chitose nodded and slowly stood up. 'This family ain't bad, I might have to repay them once I get back…' she thought as she walked back towards the living room sofa. She almost tripped halfway again, but managed to catch herself before she could fall. She eventually reached her destination and immediately lied down on the sofa, before sitting up again on the thought that it was already rude enough that she slept there last night.

She turned her attention to her suitcase. While it may look untouched, there's always a chance that it got ransacked last night and just returned to its previous position. She was about to do some inspecting when Inko's son walked by and plugged the TV into the power socket and turned it on before sitting on a nearby empty chair, not paying her any attention at all.

On the television is a morning cartoon – a classic that's been remade over and over again even after two hundred years later. A smile tugged on Chitose's lips as she watched, seeing the all-too familiar blue round robotic cat from the future that pulls all kinds of amazing gadgets from the pouch on its belly. She remembered wanting to buy an entire blu-ray collection back when she was young, but that want never came into fruition as so many things happened since then, and nowadays she's too busy to even watch it.

But maybe someday…

Chitose was about to check the contents of the suitcase when she noticed the son turn his head towards the table, one hand immediately pointing at it and making finger gestures akin to that of a jellyfish. As the son does so, the one cup that's still on the table started levitating towards him. It had no special glowing effects whatsoever and it was just plain levitation, which Chitose found odd since even the most mundane of Meta Abilities normally have some sort of effects to their usage.

The son, successfully grabbing the floating cup after floating towards him, then took a light sip onto it before raising it up to his face.

Chitose could then see a light green glow surrounding the boy's lower jaw. But since he looks like he's actively trying to hide what he's doing, she didn't see what it actually is. Turning her attention back to the suitcase, she zipped it open and began inspecting the interiors, as well as the outer pockets, making sure that really nothing happened to it last night.

She was about to inspect the Quirk-Erasing bullet she found when a thought entered her mind.

'Deika City illusory field'

Chitose's mind drifted towards the strange illusion effect covering Deika City. What happened to it? Is it already gone? Can she now finally return there? What about the destroyed houses and roads? While it's possible that the cloaking is still present since the person who 'casted' it can just cast it again, it could also be gone. Currently for her at this point, there's only one way to find out.

"Uh… I would like to watch the news channel?" she asked the son, who immediately turned his head towards her like he's caught red-handed in doing something, before hurriedly reaching over towards the television and pressing something underneath. The cartoon immediately switched to a news reporter talking about All Might being a UA teacher.

"This whole All Might-as-a-teacher's been going on for over a year now, when are people going to stop?" the son spoke with clear frustration in his voice. "It's like everyday a new version of this stupid news comes up."

Chitose couldn't help but nod. It's been a year ever since All Might decided to become a teacher at UA, saying something that he's aiming to find his 'successor' there – whatever he meant by that, and for some reason news about his employment still dominate television.

She watched on as the country's number one hero, in all his eight-foot glory, put on his trademark smile and said something about eating veggies, respecting your parents, and getting good grades, typical All Might things.

As he continued rambling on and on about the importance of recycling and separating the biodegradables from the non-biodegradeables, Chitose couldn't help but notice injury on the left side of the Number One's abdomen, the outline faintly visible through the skin-tight hero costume he's wearing. It's the injury he received during his battle with a powerful villain (whose identity is hidden for some reason) in Kamino Ward a few months ago. Strangely, All Might immediately left after the battle, when normally in times like those he would have been the one to single-handedly clean the rubble in one fancy punch. Even more strange is that All Might somehow won't accept any interviews pertaining to that fight.

Chitose, as much as she's curious as to why, never really got an answer. All Might's been really private as of lately, which consequently spawned in articles about how he's not that strong anymore, and about the future of Japan. She herself also made a few articles about it, but mostly just to hop in the bandwagon and not really to slander the Number One's name – All Might has too many haters already (as a normal side effect of being famous), and that would just make her articles redundant.

Her thoughts eventually wandered towards Re-Destro's mech suit, Claustro, and how it was primarily designed with All Might in mind – to be able to deal with him on a one-on-one basis. She could still remember how the Grand Commander endlessly bragged about the Number One supposedly getting weakened by that fight a few months ago, which meant that they would now have a real chance at Liberation.

Chitose immediately snapped back onto the TV screen when she realized that the tidbit about All Might is just a minor segment of the news channel and that their main topic is that there's a terrorist attack in Deika City that occurred just half an hour ago.

"What?!" Chitose blurted out, earning looks from the only two other people in the house.

"What's going on here?" Inko said as she immediately rushed to area. She turned to her son after seeing the stunned look on Chitose's face. "Izuku, what happened?"

"Terrorist attack in Deika City…?" came the slow response of the son. "Looks like the bus bomb incident a few days ago is just a precursor…"

Chitose just stared at the television screen that's now showing a few bank commercials. It would take a little while before it would be reported again-

"Do you have any relatives there?" Inko asked with a worried expression.

"I uh-" Chitose's eyes spun around, trying to think of a good reply. "I live there," she added with a light nod amidst her expressionless face. She then heard a conversation between the mother and son afterwards, but she herself is just focused towards the television, waiting for the Deika City Terror event to be reported again.

It didn't take too long, and the report came again, this time with a different reporter onscreen.

It was a fairly long report, but the condensed form is that there was a terrorist attack at Deika City just thirty minutes ago, involving up to twenty individuals. While their motives were unknown, the civilians fought gallantly and managed to defeat them, but with significant casualties due to the lack of heroes in the area. The report then switched over to compare it to the bus bomb incident just a few days ago, as well as the mysterious hacker involved with it.

Chitose kept her gaze locked onto the television as the reporter did another recap of the event, but this time with an added commentary from the multiple hero agencies around Deika, and couldn't help but raise an eyebrow on the way the event went through.

What she heard is exactly the same thing the Liberation Army is planning: Get the League in to a specific part of Deika, defeat them, and then blame the lack of heroes in the area. But what's strange about the news report is that it's just a random villain group in place of the League of Villains. In fact there's somehow not even a single mention of the League.

Even stranger, there soon appeared a special segment featuring Rikiya Yotsubashi as one of the significant people that was injured during the attack.

Chitose's brows furrowed as she saw a short video footage of the Grand Commander looking forlorn with his head down while sitting on a wheelchair and being pushed back to his room in, what appears to be, a hospital. She was about to brush it off as a silly made-up scenario by some MLA operatives when she noticed that Re-Destro doesn't have any legs left – anything below the knee is just a stump.

The mental image of the severed legs she found at Deika City in the middle of a huge crater suddenly flashed into her mind.

"I didn't get where the terror attack took place, I hope it's not within your neighborhood," Inko said from behind, making the young woman turn to face her.

"Don't worry, I live in the northern section of the city, actually the farthest from the attack," Chitose quickly responded, lightly shrugging.

"You need an ice pack? The swelling looks like it's getting worse."

"No, I'd rather not-" Chitose immediately stopped, noticing Inko suddenly frozen and just staring into the television screen behind her with a horrified expression.

'Chitose Kizuki, Executive Director of Shoowaysha Publishing, was found dead at…'

Chitose's remaining good eye widened upon hearing her name uttered through the television speakers. Turning around, she immediately came face to face with herself, her older form, her own green eyes staring back at her right through the screen. Lightly gazing to the right, she saw Inko's son giving her an awkward side-eye from his seat, before going back to staring into the TV after being caught.

She turned her attention back to the screen and listened for whatever the reporter said about her. Just like Re-Destro, she was said to be in Deika during the attack, and apparently was one of the casualties.

But the one thing that stood out to her are the clothes she's wearing on her portrait. While not easily visible since her photo is just fairly small on the television screen, she could clearly see her orange jacket and her navy blue dress underneath. Furthermore, she recognized her own expression on the photo as the same smug smile she's sporting while standing behind Trumpet and facing the League, just slightly edited to remove the 'smug' look and the background.

Chitose continued her emotionless stare at the television as more and more photos of the casualties appeared, with her recognizing most of them as from her own regiment that's with her during the entire encounter with Toga.

'What the hell…?' the young woman's jaw lightly dropped. And then almost out of instinct, she turned around and lied down on the sofa and covered herself with the blanket that was given to her. Her mind didn't waste any time and started processing the photo.

Based on her clothes and her facial expression in the photo, she deduced that the entire thing was taken literally on the moment she was standing behind Trumpet. But how could someone get that photo when the only cameras that were pointing at her at the time were Skeptic's? Even then, why would someone take that photo and then use it in this manner? Did the person who took that photo knew something's going to happen to her and took it in advance?

She took a deep breath and let out a soft sigh in an attempt to calm herself down, as she can't think much if her own heartbeat is continuously echoing inside her head. She then tuned into the news again from under the covers, slightly wondering how come both the mother and son are eerily quiet.

The news report has since moved on to other topics, but the silence persisted.

Chitose's mind immediately switched back to her apparent death. Could it be a plan of the Liberation Army designed to get her out of the picture because some heroes were beginning to suspect something? How come she didn't know this? There was not a single instance of the plan that involved her faking her own death. Furthermore, the huge crater is somehow not referenced in the news. Is it just an illusion? But what about Re-Destro's severed legs? Why is there a stolen photo of her as if someone in the higher ups knew what's going to happen and took it in advance?

'Something's not right here…' she thought. 'Could it be related to me getting younger for no reason…?'

"Um… Kizuki…?"

Chitose stopped thinking and heard the rather shaky voice of Inko. "Was that… your mother…?" the woman asked.

'Mother…?' Chitose asked herself in her thoughts, before realizing that Inko must have mistook her older form as her own mother. Coincidentally, her own habit of preferring a silent space to think made her look like she was shocked to hear that her parent died from a terrorist attack.

"Um… uhh… I'm sorry…" Came more of Inko's worried ramblings.

Chitose, on the other hand, realizing she could potentially turn this event to her advantage, began assessing the situation. As the handler for almost 95% of MLA's propaganda-spreading business, reading people is second nature to her. So far, Inko looks like she could be easily manipulated, which is now even easier for her now that she thinks her mother just died, on top of her getting sick and being injured.

As for the son, Izuku by the name she heard Inko call him, she has no idea yet. The son is still currently an enigma.

But what's more important is that she could potentially get the mother's support, and that's the good thing. With enough manipulation, she could use the Midoriya household as her temporary staging ground as she figures out what really happened after the Revival Party, and as to why she's suddenly younger, among other things.

'Ha! I'm such a genius!'

"Hello…?"

Chitose could now feel someone tapping her shoulder from under the blanket. 'Oh crap, it's the mother…' she thought to herself as she began to think what to do next. 'Hmmm… so if she thinks my mother really just died… okay, time to turn on the waterworks!'

She has to cry, or at least get her eyes watery. They can't just see her rise up without any tears or else it might break the 'realism'. Here comes a problem, she was never an actress, and keeping her own emotions in check has always been such a gargantuan task. She could remember herself screaming and yelling and being all poetic back then during her encounter with Toga, ironically making her look more insane than her interviewee, just because of sheer excitedness alone. And now that she has her own ulterior motives for a massive win, faking a cry would be the hardest thing ever.

She felt another tap from the mother.

'Okay what if I just remember the saddest thing that's ever happened to me?'

Chitose began recalling all possible events she could use to cry. What about the time when she accidentally detonated her foster father? Or about being completely isolated for almost her entire childhood due to the combination of both her villain-like appearance and lethal Meta Ability? How about the time she ran away from home at age 12, in the middle of the Incident 6-6 mutant genocide? Or how about the time she realized she gave so much for the MLA cause and now she has absolutely no friends she could depend on, and with no more hope of ever having kids due to hitting an early menopause at age 40 - and would likely die alone?

…

All of those may be sad experiences, but she's too busy thinking about the easy win and she can't cry at all.

'Okay, Plan B. I'm going to tell them I have a strange mutation that prevents me from crying. Here goes…'

Chitose slowly uncovered herself, immediately noticing the television is now turned off judging by the lack of sound. Keeping her face expressionless, she slowly sat up but kept her head down as an attempt to look sad. She sat there in silence for a short while, unmoving, yet can feel the presence of both the mother and son right behind her.

"That… was my mother…" Chitose slowly said in a monotonous tone, making sure to firmly grasp her hands on the sofa for extra dramatic effect.

"Do… you have any relatives? Friends perhaps…?" It was the son, sporting the same shaky voice as his mother. "If you want we could uh… call them?"

Chitose knew that's the next question, and appropriately thought of the perfect answer. "My mother made a lot of enemies on her way towards being Executive Director. I never knew any relatives, I grew up alone with her. I never knew my father either."

She then heard approaching footsteps. "How did you end up here, exactly?" It was Inko, who sounded like she leaned in, judging by her voice seemingly louder over the end.

"I'd like to be alone for a while…" Chitose said as she slowly lied down and covered herself with the blanket again. She may have looked sad a few moments ago, but now there's an almost-maniacal grin etched on her face, her smile reaching from ear to ear in glee.

'I'm almost in! I didn't even need to say why I'm not crying! Now if only I could convince them to let me stay here for a few more days as I get sorted out, that would be great!'

She then immediately closed her eyes and thought about possible answers to future questions such as for how she really ended up in her current predicament. She almost giggled in excitement as she could just say her mother is a horrible person that gave her the black eye in the first place that's why she ran off! That's perfect! She could turn all her misfortunes into advantages! Oh wait – she can't tell her mother is a horrible person because she already told Inko that it's just a random villain who did it-no wait! Yes she can! She can just say that she got hit so hard by her mother that her head spun around and made her think it was a villain who did it! That's it! She can lie her way to victory!

But what if she go for the extra dramatic route and tell them she had a disagreement with her mother? And then twist the story into 'My mother died and the last thing we did was fight'!

Perfect! The best sob-story I've ever-!

Chitose caught herself mid-giggle, which made her smile even harder after realizing that the sounds she's making are almost akin to that of crying. While she couldn't pretend to cry, her trying to stifle her laughter ironically did the trick!

'Everything's going right for once! This is great! Now the main question is, will they take the bait?'

And not only that, her incessant giggling actually got her teary-eyed, although not enough to be noticeable due to her black sclera. She was in the middle of blinking repeatedly and yawning as to force some more tears out of her eyes when she felt a hand gently patting her shoulder from outside the blanket.

"While you get sorted out, you can stay with us for a while."

"Mom-!"

Chitose instantly stopped her giggling once she heard a loud whisper of objection from the son. She tried to listen in, but now the mother and son were now whispering so quietly she couldn't hear them no matter what. She wondered for a bit what could it be and lightly doubted her acting skills. But in the end her sob story should be enough to convince Inko to let her stay.

"Okay… if you want to stay for a while. You can stay for a while…"

It was the son, his voice sounding normal with a slight hint of annoyance. He was quickly and silently reprimanded by his mother. "Or only until you felt fine to move out, whatever works," the son continued, followed closely by more whispering from the mother.

Chitose's smile slowly turned into a sour expression. The son sounds like he doesn't want her staying with them, which might definitely present a roadblock. While understandable, with living costs currently at an all-time high, she has to try to convince him to let her stay if she is to succeed in her plans. Her experiences at shelters a long time ago proved to be rather hostile for 'mutants' like her, and she would rather not relive that moment anymore.

Maybe if she earned them money he'll let her stay? But that requires a computer-

There were more whispers between the mother and son, some of them Chitose can easily hear. It was another back-and-forth argument, but in the end Inko overruled her son. Chitose knew it's not favorable I the long run, if she has to stay for more than a couple of days, she has to convince the son to-

"Uh- Kizuki…?"

Chitose stopped in her thoughts, hearing the mother's worried voice again.

"I'm going to leave you and Izuku for a while. My job requires me to be there before 10…" The mother then continued talking to her son which, by the sounds Chitose could hear, seems like he was hesitant to have her alone with him in the apartment.

Chitose continued listening in, carefully peeking out from under the covers as she does so. But by the time she had a good view of them, both Midoriyas have now moved out closer to the door and farther from her location, making it now impossible to eavesdrop in their conversation. She ducked down into the covers again once she saw Inko step out the door, closing it behind her after saying her goodbyes.

A few seconds passed, she heard a faint sigh from the son. "Ugh… here we go again…" he said, just audible enough to be deciphered.

'Okay Curious don't screw this up. The plan relies on using this apartment as a staging ground and exploiting the made-up sob story… that the Midoriyas didn't ask about anyway…' Chitose thought to herself, nodding involuntarily, before immediately thinking further about different methods she can use to hopefully persuade Izuku to her side.

And as the one-man propaganda machine of the MLA, it shouldn't be too hard.

'Let's do a little persuading…'

Author's Note:

Writing this, I couldn't help but wonder what Curious's life is as a kid.

Just look at her: She's not attractive like Mina and Bubble Girl, she looks like a villain because of her mutations, and she has an ability to instantly kill a person long after she touched them. Worst part here is that there's literally no way to tell if she 'primed' a person or not.

Everyone must've been scared of her.