December 25 - Day 13

Chitose slowly opened her eyes, yawning as she stretched her arms. Almost immediately she noticed the faint rays of the sun filtering through the blinds of the balcony window. It was a marvelous sight, and certainly so picturesque it was like a painting exhibit in a museum-

!

Chitose abruptly paused her observations and squinted her eyes over to double-check what she saw. Apparently her eyes are not fooling her, it's already morning the next day – in which she further confirmed by raising up one arm and doing a quick check on her Curious Flattener wristwatch. What she thought was a quick break last night ultimately ended up into sleep, and she didn't even get to have dinner.

Mentally shrugging, she then turned her attention to Izuku, who's still somehow on her chest, and still fast asleep. A light smile automatically tugged on her lips seeing him still all comfortable down there, as well as feeling her cheeks heat up just a little bit. It was honestly adorable-

Her eyes shot wide open as one immense realization struck her mind. 'Wait… if it's already morning then that means…' She slowly turned her head to the right, towards the only bed in the room, nervousness quickly filling up her system.

There was a person on the bed, its back turned to them. Chitose immediately recognized the person as Inko.

'You've got to be kidding me…' she thought to herself as she ran a palm down her face, feeling a massive surge of embarrassment. It's obvious that the woman clearly saw her and Izuku hugging each other and sleeping together last night. The thought alone is enough to make her facepalm some more, 'Oh come on…'. But in the midst of facepalming hard the second time, she happened to glance over to her left side - towards the general direction of the door.

There's another person, sleeping on a shikibuton on the floor. It's Toshinori Yagi – who also has his back turned to them.

'WHAT THE HELL?!' Chitose mentally panicked, realizing that not just one but two people saw her and Izuku sleeping together while hugging each other. One is already embarrassing enough, but two?! Seriously? It just had to be two?! Almost immediately she looked around if ever there's a third person with them. Thankfully, much to her relief, there is no third person.

?

'Well technically All Might saw us too when she delivered Inko here…' Chitose thought to herself, face all blank upon realizing that there is, indeed, a third person who saw the two of them last night. And to make things even worse it just had to be the country's Number One hero. 'Oh great… just great… why does every good thing happening to me just got to have something that immediately counters it?'

Chitose rolled her eyes and once again facepalmed hard a third time, feeling her embarrassment surging further. 'Out of all the things to happen on literally the morning of Christmas-' she abruptly stopped upon feeling Izuku lightly shift a bit, instantly setting her attention to him.

Thinking she doesn't need more embarrassment very early into Christmas morning, she carefully pushed Izuku off of her chest and gently placed him on the floor, making sure to cushion his head with some of his sweaters. Afterwards, she quietly stood up and sneaked towards the door, quickly unlocked it, and hurriedly stepped outside before hastily closing it back - during all that time her face is burning with heat.

'I have a whole lot of explaining to do…'

Taking one deep breath and letting out a long drawn-out exhale, and then a second time, and then a third time, she eventually started walking down towards the right side of the hallway. She doesn't know what's there, nor what she's planning to actually do, all she knows is that she's embarrassed as all hell and hopefully walking about would eventually ease her mind (hopefully).

As expected of the hallways, and completely in line with what Mr. Yagi said last night, it's completely empty and quiet, almost a little too quiet for her liking, and soon enough the eerie silence of the halls began to make way for her faintly audible racing heartbeat. She was about to think of ways to hopefully slow it down when a random thought suddenly appeared in her mind.

'Chitose! Some very cute guy literally slept on your chest last night! You might actually have a chance with him! Shoot your shot!' the thought said, in which Chitose quickly recognized as her hopeless romantic young self. Rolling her eyes, she continued walking.

'Shut up, in case you've forgotten I'm literally 43 years old… or wait, was I 41? 45? Crap I'm already forgetting my original age-'

'Exactly! You're not your old self anymore! You're a whole lot younger! You're so young you already forgot what your original age is! Yay! That makes it WAY less creepy!'

Chitose abruptly stopped, scratching the left side of her head in irritation. It's already bad enough that she got caught whatever she did with Izuku last night, and now her young self is bugging her about him, making her feel even more embarrassed. 'You DO know it's still creepy, right? Also do I have to remind you he once said that we look like a beached whale stuffed with mayonnaise rotting under the scorching heat of a dying planet? You DO know Midoriya also thinks we're ugly like anyone else, right? Notice how he doesn't compliment how I look?'

'That's because you'll just get offended! Duh! After all he's did for you, he probably thinks you're cute too! He said you have an adorable heartbeat! Awww!'

'Shut up, you're just setting us up for disappointment…' Chitose sighed afterwards, fully remembering all the (romantic) rejections she received all throughout her life. While Izuku may have definitely done far more for her than anyone else in her entire life (and of course she's grateful for it all), but it's best to just stay on the safe side. At the end of the day, he already figured out she's part of a villainous organization anyway – and that's a massive dealbreaker as it is.

'You could at least try to ask him out while you're still younger. Who knows what he'll say? Maybe this time it would be different? You never know!'

'Shut up! Stop being a creep dammit!' Chitose shook her head and continued walking forward through the empty halls, trying to get the thoughts out. After a few more minutes of walking (and being bothered by her younger self), she eventually reached an unusual open area with two sofa sets and accompanying decorative lamps. There's even a carpet, some coffee tables, and even a stack of magazines underneath them. Overall it looks like a living room set, and a rather classy one at that.

Chitose thought about staying there for a while to sort her thoughts out, but as soon as she took one step towards it she noticed that her hair is still a mess, and because of that she decided to just head towards the nearby women's restroom instead. And as with the rest of the high-class theme of the building, the restroom is also well-furnished, clean, and devoid of any strange smells.

She quickly made her way to the sink to wash her face, thinking the cold water would be more than enough to fully wake her up and stop the random nonsensical thoughts of her younger self going through her head.

Surprisingly, it worked. After a brief while upon splashing her face, the thoughts eventually stopped. Her head cleared up. Or is it? She doesn't know for sure. She waited for quite a while if ever a thought would spring back up, but nothing came up. In the end she just found herself staring right into the mirror-

'Oh God I look horrible!' she lightly recoiled in shock upon seeing her full reflection, cringing at how all her facial injuries made her already horrendously unattractive face even worse. Facepalming while shaking her head, she then closed her eyes and took one deep breath, slowly exhaling afterwards. She did it a few times, until her head is clear once more. Now it's just her once again staring at herself in the mirror.

'Okay… what should I tell All Might…?'

…

'Would you do it?' She mentally asked her own reflection as it stared back at her. 'Would you just sell them out just like that? And get a free pass through all of it?'

…

Chitose kept staring down at her own reflection, mind feeling conflicted on what she should tell All Might. As much as how Izuku made valid points about listening to her younger self's opinions and feelings on the matter, among other things that made her think the MLA is not worth it anymore, she found herself simply unable to make a solid choice.

…

'No... I can't do it…'

…

'Yes you should…'

….

'But…'

…

Chitose balled her fists, her irritation growing more and more with each passing attempt to convince herself to just throw out the MLA and be done with them. But after her ninth one, she eventually gave up with an exasperated sigh. She can't do it. She just can't do it. She just can't bring herself to be the entire cause of downfall for the organization she's part of for over 20 years. She just can't. Her treatment there may be a lot lackluster than what she received during her time with the Midoriyas, but it's still generally fine (at least for her), and Re-Destro is literally the reason to her eventual success. For the longest time she thought of them as family…

…

'But they're TERRORISTS…'

…

"Dammit!" Chitose loudly whispered to herself as she stared at her reflection. "Why can't I just make a goddamned decision?! What's wrong with me?!" she added as she ran yet another palm down her face in pure annoyance. By all means it should be easy as with what Izuku said, yet somehow she can't even find a part that's easy. Taking one deep breath and sighing, she cleared her thoughts once more.

"Very well then…" she whispered as she closed her eyes and finger-combed her hair. "Okay okay okay… Plan A…" she opened her eyes again, locking them straight onto her own reflection's. "Plan A: Get Skeptic caught at Feel Good Incorporated, away from anything that could be linked back to the MLA. Try to keep everyone's attention to him and how he planned to murder me." She paused a bit. "The sooner the backstabber gets dealt with, the better. As for the MLA? I'll deal with them later, I'll just cross the bridge when I get there."

Nodding, satisfied with her 'decision', Chitose took one last look at her reflection, before nodding again and leaving.

'Get Skeptic caught first. Deal with the MLA later…' Chitose repeated inside her mind as she exited. 'As for Izuku figuring out I'm a villain, ignore that for now. Izuku's proven himself to be trustworthy enough, he'll not tell anyone else about it. Although I still need to talk to him about it… and about other things as well…'

She could feel her face heating up again, but she managed to quickly shake it off.

'Okay Curious… stick to the plan-' she abruptly stopped upon seeing that there's now a person – its back turned to her, sitting on one of the sofas nearby, wearing an oddly distinctive Russian ushanka hat. Chitose quickly recalled if ever there's already a person there earlier and she just didn't notice. She can't recall the scene exactly, but she's definitely sure the person is not there earlier, its headwear alone just stands out too much for her to not notice it sooner.

"Ah! You're finally done! Took you long enough..." the mystery person suddenly spoke up in a noticeable bored tone, it was a woman. She then slowly turned her head to face Chitose, accompanied by a small friendly wave with her left hand before just letting it dangle off the back of the sofa she's on. "Good morning there!" she added, her facial expression also seemingly mixed in with a significant amount of boredom.

Chitose froze for a bit, utterly confused why a random person is suddenly talking to her out of nowhere. She quickly looked back to check if ever the woman is just talking to someone behind her, but found no one.

"Yes I'm talking to you," the woman called, making Chitose face her again.

"Uh-" Chitose abruptly paused, hastily squinting her eyes upon noticing something oddly familiar about the other woman's face – like she'd seen her somewhere before, not in the MLA, but from somewhere else entirely. "You look familiar, have I seen you before?" she asked, lightly tilting her head off to one side and squinting her eyes more in one last attempt to recognize the person.

"Oh. Pardon me I forgot to properly introduce myself." The woman sighed a bit before raising her left hand, placing it on her headwear, and then slowly removing it.

Chitose eye's widened in surprise. "L-Lady Nagant…?" she stammered out, her eyes immediately locking onto and quickly recognizing the unique and highly distinctive hair of the Rifle Heroine. "W-what brings you here?" she asked, discreetly looking around to see if ever there are any more heroes around, but found no one. Nagant is the only other person in the area aside from her.

"All Might called me in, saying something about some Chitose Kizuki, who despite supposedly dying during the Deika City Terror Attack some week ago, is apparently alive and well and only somehow got younger, and that she eventually found herself here. Well actually his call's a bit more complicated, you know how much the big guy loves to use his big words and all that crap." Lady Nagant paused a bit as she cleared her throat. "Anyways, looks like what he said is actually true."

"Well yeah that's kinda correct…" Chitose responded, feeling a strange combination of both uncertainty and nervousness slowly welling up within her. All Might being oddly concerned about her condition is already one thing, but now Lady Nagant? A complete polar opposite of him? An underground hero who basically only 'appears' around 3 to 6 times a year? In fact she hasn't even once officially appeared this year yet despite it almost ending. Her last appearance is literally back then when she was photographed in her sleepwear (which somehow became a 'calendar photo' rivaling actual pin-up photos). Something's not right. She doesn't know what it is, but she can feel it-

"So uh… so I heard some things about you, can you really hold your breath for twenty minutes?" Lady Nagant awkwardly asked, gesturing her left hand around as it dangled on the back of the sofa.

"What…?" Chitose asked back, one eyebrow raising in utter confusion. 'Those weird questions again?' she thought to herself. And just like that, her nervousness quickly dissipated, and instead replaced with that of annoyance and irritation. "Er… All Might already asked me those questions and uh… actually I don't know the answer to that yet and uh-"

"Oh forgive me for sounding rude, I'm just… curious… that's all." Lady Nagant shrugged.

Chitose paused a bit, slightly weirded out by the heroine in front of her speaking one particular word in English, that although crude and crooked and in a strange accent, but she unusually emphasized it at the same time her stare went intense for a brief while.

"Pardon me, my English is a little rusty…" Lady Nagant spoke up again, followed with few short awkward laughs. "Okay that's enough jokes, let's get All Might. I got urgent business to attend to at 9am, let's not drag this any further…" she mumbled as she slowly turned to her left, before reaching out her left hand towards something from behind the coffee table.

Chitose instinctively tilted her head, curious to see what Lady Nagant is reaching for. To her surprise, it's a metal crutch. Almost immediately her mind swirled with multiple questions as to why that is, and why does she have such a particular thing. She was about to ask about it when Nagant fully stood up and turned around, revealing that both her right arm and left leg were encased in a white fiberglass cast. It was also only at this point that Chitose noticed the heroine is wearing an unusual bright orange trench coat over her standard hero outfit, with her hair tucked underneath.

"Underground hero work is real dangerous stuff…" Lady Nagant, with her usual blank expression, mumbled as she began slowly walking towards the hallway where Chitose came from, at the same time gesturing her head towards said blue-skinned young woman nearby to come follow her. "One moment I'm fine and then the next thing I know both these limbs are broken over sideways, bones loudly cracking and all that…"

Chitose couldn't help but cringe, imagining the painful scenario Lady Nagant just talked about. She was about to ask if ever she could elaborate on it when she suddenly remembered something. "Wait a minute, how come your injuries were never reported?"

"We Underground Heroes operate very differently. We live far away from the usual glamorous and colorful world of smiles and costumes. If something happens to us, it's not made public due to reasons I obviously could not tell you." Lady Nagant's voice trailed off as she slowly shuffled through the hallway, her tone reeking of irritation. She said something more, but it was too soft and in a different language Chitose could not understand – It was only then she remembered that Nagant can speak fluent Russian.

"By the way can I ask about what's with these weird questions being thrown at me lately? All Might already asked me yesterday on how long can I hold my breath, and now you too? What's next, you're going to ask me whether I came from Hokkaido?" Chitose asked as she followed along. "Is there something here that I should know about? Is there something about my ability to hold my breath influencing my current state?"

"Kizuki that's just a joke on my part. All Might told me he asked you about that yesterday, so I decided to ask again just for laughs…" Lady Nagant replied, her tone sounding more bored than before. "Well actually I-"

"NAGANT! THEY DON'T HAVE ANY BORSCHT!" suddenly came a loud male voice from behind them, causing the two to turn around to see what it is. There's no one there. "WHERE THE HELL ARE YOU ANYWAY?!" came another shout.

Lady Nagant grumbled loudly to herself before shouting back, "I'M OVER HERE!"

"Um… there are other people still sleeping, you know?" Chitose awkwardly stated, pointing discreetly towards the general area of the room she came from just as Nagant is readying for another yell. "I'm uh… I'm just giving you a heads-up."

"Soundproof walls, Kizuki, every room in this building has them," the heroine responded, her face still looking bored, before turning back again. "Okay where was I? Oh right! I'M OVER HERE!"

Soon enough, a relatively tall man with a visible muscular build soon appeared from the general direction Nagant is shouting at, jogging straight towards them while awkwardly carrying a duffel bag in his hands instead of just having it slung along his shoulder. "There are no borschts there, ma'am- WOAH!" he stopped upon catching a glimpse of Chitose. "I never knew you're this tall in person!" he added, his expression shocked.

"You look like Stain-" Chitose abruptly stopped upon realizing what she just blurted out. She was about to quickly apologize for it when Lady Nagant beside her hastily raised her left hand.

"Can you leave now? We're kinda busy here," the heroine interrupted. But before the man could even react, she quickly added a loud, "NOW!" immediately causing the man to leave the scene, carrying his duffel bag with him. After a brief while, and a few annoyed mumbles in Russian, Lady Nagant resumed walking. "Don't mind my assistant, it just so happens that he has the exact same hair, the exact same face, and the exact same build as Stain. He gets mistaken as him a lot."

"So he's like his brother from another mother? A doppelganger of sorts?"

"You know what Kizuki, if you're cooperative to us I might let you have a one-on-one interview with him."

"Actually uh… about that…" Chitose's voice trailed off, one hand rising to scratch the side of her head. "Ever since I got into this younger state I kinda lost the mood for journalism and interviews. It's a strange thing. Also I'm technically not a Shoowaysha executive anymore anyways."

"Hmmm? I'll keep that in mind…" Lady Nagant muttered as she slowly kept on walking. After a few more steps, she suddenly stopped and pulled out a phone from one of the front pockets of her trench coat, grumbling something in Russian along the way. "I'm going to take ages with this. Hold on, Kizuki, I'm calling him."

Chitose simply nodded in response, immediately looking behind her afterwards to check if there any more people there, in which she found none-

"Is that… yours…?"

Chitose hastily turned around to see Lady Nagant staring at her chest for a whole one second with a confused expression, before turning to look at her face. "The strange thumping, I mean?" the heroine added, her left hand doing a small gesture to her own chest.

"Actually yeah…" Chitose's voice trailed off and quickly took a few steps back upon realizing that Nagant may be being bothered by her slight externally-audible heartbeat, which is even more pronounced in such a quiet hallway. "You know what I'm gonna go stand here for a while."

Nagant just slowly nodded in response, her head gradually turning to focus back on her phone. "Good," she muttered before rapidly tapping her thumb on the screen, muttering something incomprehensible along the way.

After about 5 seconds, there's a sudden bluish white blur and a gust of wind – that is somehow strong enough be felt considerably, yet weak enough that it didn't even affect the carpet nor the leaves of the potted plants nearby.

All Might has arrived.

Standing in front of them, in full costume, right in the middle of the hallway, his massive form barely even fitting, the Number One did one quick heroic pose before speaking, "I AM HERE! FULLY AWAKE AND READY TO-" All Might abruptly stopped and quickly rubbed his eyes, yawned, removed his bonnet and hastily tossed it to one side, before yawning again, "I AM-"

"Er, All Might, sir?" Lady Nagant interrupted, raising her left hand. "While I do appreciate you trying to help out this poor lady behind me but uh… don't you have an entire country to protect? Where's Yagi? He can probably take it from here. I mean after all we're just going to solve how someone can get suddenly younger and all, as well as some assassination issues and whatnot…" she said, ending her sentence with a slightly exaggerated shrug. "I'll just go have Yagi call you if I need something."

All Might quickly nodded before suddenly turning around and cartoonishly tip-toeing back to the room where Toshinori is located. He then knocked a few times, did one heroic pose at them (that somehow did not hit any of the nearby potted plants nearby), before knocking again. He then stayed still for a few seconds before taking a step back and raising one hand towards them, afterwards he went tip-toeing once again towards another nearby room and proceeded to knock there.

Chitose was about to ask what is All Might doing when the Number One hero quickly opened the door in front of him and then entered inside (he somehow fit). A few seconds later out came Toshinori already wearing some sort of business attire and waving back to his room as if All Might left through the balcony window.

Chitose couldn't help but raise an eyebrow at the sight. The order of events leading to it is certainly baffling.

"Hey!" Toshinori immediately called out to them as he began running, his VECTRE phone once again just floating beside him and following him. "I-uh…" he turned to face Chitose as he drew near, "I noticed the door's already unlocked so I went to walk outside a bit!"

"What unlocked door-?" Lady Nagant abruptly stopped as Toshinori raised his right hand up to her face, silencing her.

"Lady Nagant, now is not the right time for that question." Toshinori coughed a bit as he tried to catch his breath. After a few seconds, he quickly stood up straight and composed himself, before gesturing towards the two women to follow him towards the elevator. "Alright, I changed some plans. Let's just have our talk at the ground floor." He cleared his throat afterwards as he walked.

Chitose, on the other hand, just kept quiet all along, hoping Yagi won't say anything or at least reference her certainly-questionable sleeping position with Izuku last night. Thankfully, much to her relief, he didn't say anything at all and just kept quiet as they walked.

"Hey uh, Yagi?" Lady Nagant called out, immediately walking faster to keep up with Toshinori despite her injuries. "The curtains have dropped. Light's all snuffed out. We're completely in the dark. Total shutdown. We tried to call the curtain repairman but he just won't respond!"

"WHAT-?!" Toshinori visibly recoiled but quickly composed himself back. "What…?" he repeated, this time a lot more calmer. "You can't be serious!"

"Hey don't look at me I'm not the home owner here! Ask them! There's literally no advantage to it or whatever, but it still happened… yeah… those guys just really want to go basement dwelling, really…"

Chitose, who's just walking quietly behind them, raised an eyebrow in curiosity. For all the things the two can possibly talk about, they just somehow kept talking about a particular house with black curtains. She raised a hand and opened her lips, about to ask a question, but eventually decided to just back out. For all intents and purposes, the two could just be talking about classified information she obviously can't know about. Understandable.

They eventually passed by the room she slept in. By the small slit of the door left open by All Might, Chitose could see that both Izuku and his mother are still fast asleep. Almost immediately her nervousness spiked, scared as to how Inko might react once she wakes up.

'Calm down, Chitose. if Inko didn't approve of you sleepy-hugging her son, then she would have waken you two up last night, but she didn't!' came a sudden thought inside her head, in which she quickly recognized as her annoying younger self – who's just very eager to get together with Izuku. She could feel yet another thought about to come up, but she just shook her head in response, clearing it instantly. She will be talking about her assassination in any minute now, it's much better to just keep her head clear of any nonsensical thoughts.

After a few more minutes of walking, they soon reached the elevator and in they went.

Chitose stayed at the back. The elevator is somewhat cramped, but the good thing is that there are some ambient tunes playing through the speakers or else the other two people with her might hear her faintly audible rapid heartbeat – that still somehow won't slow down from her little thought earlier.

"Hey Nagant, I heard you'll be removing those casts next week eh?"

Chitose was snapped out of her thoughts as Toshinori made small talk to the heroine beside him.

"Yeah…"

"You won't be doing anything like that again, right?"

"Yeah…"

Chitose just stayed silent at the back, feeling a bit awkward as the two people in front of her make small talk while completely ignoring her-

'So it IS true that they look like modeling clay, interesting…' she automatically thought to herself upon setting her gaze down and happening to lock onto Nagant's strange two-tone hair. 'I wonder if they're-' she abruptly stopped in her thoughts as Toshinori lightly pushed Nagant forward for some reason.

"Hey Yagi, do I need to put on some kind of disguise or something?" The heroine suddenly asked, swiftly turning her head towards Toshinori beside her as the elevator door opened. "Are there any employees around?"

"Nothing really, it's Christmas. But just to be on the safe side, go on ahead," Toshinori replied with a light nod, prompting Nagant to walk outside and then quickly feel around her trench coat using her one usable left arm. "What… are you doing?" he asked upon noticing the strange way the woman is acting.

"He normally stashes masks around here, let me see if- Oh! Found one!" Nagant exclaimed as she pulled out a white mask with random line patterns from a back pocket of the trench coat.

"That looks like Mr. Compress-!" Chitose blurted out and abruptly stopped upon realizing what she just blurted out.

"It's just coincidence, Kizuki. Me looking like I'm wearing Compress's suit is basically the same thing as my assistant looking like Stain, okay? They're just odd coincidences!"

"Er… Mr. Yagi?" Chitose turned towards Toshinori, who's in the middle of facepalming hard. "I'm not sure if this is even a valid question, but uh… am I psychedelic-slugged again? Things have been weird ever since this morning. I'm not sure if it's even right to ask considering that-"

"No no no no no! You're not slugged, Kizuki! That will never happen again!" Toshinori said with a raised voice, taking a few steps back towards the outside of the elevator just as Nagant finished putting up her mask and her ushanka hat on. "There's literally no way you would get slugged this time."

"Slugged- Oh! The sociopath slugs!" Lady Nagant whispered loudly, nodding. "I remember…"

"It's Psychedelic slugs, Nagant, not Sociopath…" Toshinori corrected her. In response, the heroine just said one complete sentence in Russian before walking away. "Kizuki, there should be no more slugs today," he spoke as he slowly turned his attention back to Chitose. "How are your legs anyway?"

"My legs are all fine now."

Toshinori nodded before gesturing for her to follow him. At the same time he also did a certain hand gesture towards his floating VECTRE phone and caused it to transform into phone-form right onto his waiting right hand. "I do suppose you're comfortable enough now to let us know about your assassination issue?"

Chitose simply responded with a nod as well and on she went to follow him.

The ground floor of the building is, as far as she can observe, unusually far less decorated than the third floor where they came from. There are no Christmas decorations, nor any other decorations for that matter, it just looks empty. "How come the ground floor looks so plain?" she asked Toshinori, who's just walking in front of her. "The third floor looks so different."

"UA's currently doing a little renovating here, just ignore it. It'll be back to giving off a high-class feel before you know it."

Chitose just responded with another nod and kept on following. But only after a few moments later, after seeing Lady Nagant just standing at a distance beside a long wooden table (seemingly trying to stuff her neon-colored hair within the ear covers of her ushanka), she couldn't help but ask. "What's with her Mr. Compress disguise? I don't get it."

"Fans. She hates 'em."

Nodding yet again, Chitose felt no more need to continue. Heroes ending up too popular and eventually being annoyed by their legions of fans is very much a common thing. She remembered how it was fun at first to write articles about them and take them on interviews, but eventually became repetitive and boring that she eventually stopped it.

After a few more minutes of walking, as well as one more question by Toshinori if her legs are fine (which they are), they soon reached their destination – the long wooden table Lady Nagant is standing by all this time. Chitose immediately noticed how unusually 'spacious' the chosen area is: with just one single table, surrounded by wooden chairs, right in the middle of a very open space devoid of any decorations whatsoever. But in the end it all worked out, with the huge windows and the early morning sun shining into the scene, coupled with the off-white walls, gave everything a very nice look of simplicity.

Toshinori quickly walked over to it and sat on the wooden table itself, not bothering with the chairs. Lady Nagant, on the other hand, slowly began walking over to him. "Okay, so there's this assassination, two times already even, correct?" she asked. "Do you have a list of possible suspects we could investigate-?"

"It's Chikazoku Tomoyasu!" Chitose said out loud, slamming her hands onto the table for more effect. "One of the board members of Feel Good Incorporated! He did it! No one else!" she added as she sat down, glaring all the while towards the other two at the opposite end of the table. "If you want I'll give you two his work schedule."

"Um… give us a moment please?" Lady Nagant raised her left arm before hastily turning around, pulling Toshinori close to her. The two then began a very lengthy conversation. And based on what Chitose could see, they seemed oddly too serious about it considering the only thing she really did say is 'Skeptic did it'.

'Are they not going to ask for any more proof…?' Chitose thought to herself, wondering how come three minutes later, the two are still not done. Now while they're just whispering to each other, she could once again hear something about a 'house with black curtains'-

She stopped her thoughts upon noticing that there's something odd sticking out from Lady Nagant's ushanka, just barely visible from her location. "Hey uh-"

The two stopped their bickering and instantly turned to look at her.

"Uh… I-uh… um, there's a weird red thing sticking out of your headwear…" she continued, tilting her head a little to the left to signify who the person she's referring to. Almost immediately right after she finished Toshinori quicky leaned back and hurriedly plucked the unusual thing out.

A red feather the size of a pen.

Chitose simply shrugged. She thought there would be much more to it, but apparently it's just a feather. "My bad-" she abruptly stopped upon noticing that both Toshinori and Lady Nagant (who now took off her mask) suddenly froze, turned pale, and wide-eyed while staring at the one feather they got, like they saw the Devil himself in it.

"Oh no…" both slowly muttered while their eyes slowly went up to look at each other, all while their faces are contorting into a mix of worry, nervousness, and fear.

And not a moment too soon, a voice yelled out from somewhere nearby not easily visible from their location, "OH YEEESSSSS!" followed closely by the loud sound of boots hitting the tiled floor. "IT'S PARTY TIME FELLAS!"

Chitose turned to see who it could be, although she already has a guess based on the voice alone. And sure enough, Pro-hero Hawks came strutting down the hall, whistling around and skipping about, generally looking like he's just having a very good time. As he went closer to the scene, Chitose noticed he's wearing some kind of brightly-colored party hat.

The Number Three Hero came ever closer, and then with one flick of his right hand, threw confetti everywhere. "Man I always hate it when my friends throw a party and I'm not invited! But fret not, my good heroic buddies, for I'm in a very forgiving mood today! And since I'm in a very forgiving mood today… FREE HATS!" he yelled out loud, his voice echoing through the halls, as he quickly flew over towards both Toshinori and Nagant and strapped on party hats onto their heads, all while their expressions still stayed on looking absolutely horrified.

"Hey H-Hawks I-I-I can explain!" Nagant yelled out as she took a few steps back, almost falling over backwards. A few moments later Toshinori started backing her up.

Chitose just stayed put, one eyebrow slowly raising in confusion. She already can't understand the whole talk about the 'curtains', as well as the odd coincidences, and now there's Hawks just suddenly arriving into the scene and just somehow scaring both Toshinori and Nagant, all while cheerily complaining about how he's not invited to their party. In the end all she could do is shake her head on the matter. By all means, despite what Toshinori said, she's probably already bit by a Psychedelic Slug again that's why nothing is making sense-

"Oh look who it is! Little Miss Dead Lady from TV Chitose Kizuki!"

Chitose suddenly perked up, hearing Hawks utter out her name. Turning her attention to him, she found the hero already walking over to her, still with a bright smile on his face and for some reason now wearing two party hats side-by-side. "So is it really true that you're really the Chitose Kizuki from TV and you actually didn't die and that you're just suddenly younger?" he asked in a very casual tone.

Chitose opened her lips and was about to answer when she noticed both Toshinori and Nagant (still with their party hats on) in a distance quickly shaking their heads and gesturing as if she shouldn't answer it. She just shrugged them off, at the end of the day she's just bitten by a Psychedelic Slug and none of these will even matter in a few hours or so. "Yes, yes I am," she replied. And in an instant the two behind Hawks facepalmed hard – Nagant even accidentally pulling off strands of her hair in the process.

"Good to know!" Hawks did a small wave and then hurriedly turned around. "What are you two still doing here? It's Christmas! Shouldn't you two be enjoying yourselves and not holing up here in UA? Even the guards are off today! UA is completely unattended and anyone can literally enter and leave!"

Chitose wondered how come Hawks emphasized very specific words about how undefended UA is and all that, but she just let it all slide and enjoyed the show. Hopefully, Toshinori, already knows more than enough at this point to NOT use a defibrillator on her anymore if ever he found her lying down unconscious with a slug attached to her leg – or any part of her rather.

"Hawks I-uh… I… come on! We're just trying to help the poor lady over there, that's all!" Toshinori spoke out loud, raising his hands up as if in surrender.

"Well yeah but it's Christmas! Everyone knows everyone should be with their family this Christmas!"

The conversation continued, meanwhile Chitose is just quietly sitting there, wondering how come this hallucination version of Hawks just keeps highlighting random words.

"Hello everyone!" came a sudden voice from the same direction where Hawks originally came from, instantly stopping the ongoing scene. Chitose turned to to see who it is, noticing the voice once again sounding oddly familiar.

And soon enough the distinctive clacking of shoes got more audible. And from a corner, in arrived UA Principal Nezu, alongside Nagant's assistant, who's just quietly walking behind him (duffel bag no longer in tow). The two stopped to wave at all of them. "Merry Christmas!" Principal Nezu stated with a harmless smile and yet another small wave. He then turned to Hawks. "Hawks tone it down, will you? You're ruining the Christmas spirit!" he calmly said as he slowly walked over to the Number Three hero, accompanied by a strange hand gesture Chitose once again couldn't understand. But still, instead of asking, she just kept quiet and watched, quite noticing how Toshinori and Nagant in a distance looked ever more nervous than before.

"Chitose Kizuki!" Nezu suddenly called, getting her attention. Apparently the principal is now beside her seat and clapping his paws. "I have a very important question to ask you. Is it true that you really came from Chitose City, Hokkaido?"

Chitose's left eye twitched at what she heard. She was about to loudly complain on the weird questions that keep being thrown at her when she reminded herself that she's just in a hallucination anyway. "Yes," she calmly replied, rolling her eyes a bit. "I'm from Chitose City, Hokkaido. Why does everyone keep asking me that-?"

"Good."

Chitose, amidst her boredom at Principal Nezu staring and smiling at her, among other things, suddenly felt a sharp sting of pain on her left shoulder. Naturally, she immediately looked at it and felt around the area where she felt the sting, but couldn't find nor feel anything odd. The pain itself quickly disappeared. "What the…?"

"You being from Chitose City, Hokkaido definitely cleared up some confusions, Miss Kizuki. How nice of you to confirm that for us."

Chitose nodded a few times before leaning forward and planting her elbows on the table, an annoyed look on her face. "How long is this hallucination going to take anyway?" she loudly asked before glaring at Toshinori, who's still standing beside Nagant looking nervous, "I thought you said there'll be no more slugs?! Dammit, why the hell am I even asking you? You're obviously just another hallucination!" Chitose paused a bit and took a deep breath and sighed. " Okay okay okay… I don't know how effective this is since you're all just simulations of my mind, but I'm still going to ask: how long am I supposed to be here? I got no time for this!"

"Slugs?" Nezu asked, his smile still not leaving his face. Meanwhile Hawks could be seen giggling to himself. "You mean the excuse Mr. Yagi used so you wouldn't panic and suddenly leave?" The principal took a few steps to turn towards Toshinori, "did I get that right? Psychedelic slugs? And a whole lot of paid actors?"

Chitose froze, her annoyed expression slowly fading. She then heard a weak 'nice excuse there bud' from Nagant's assistant standing just right behind her – seemingly also directed towards Toshinori. "Excuses? Paid actors? What…?" she asked as her vision went blurry for a bit, but unusually not from nervousness. In fact, as much as she knew she should be at least feeling nervous right now, she just can't feel anything other than slight dizziness.

"Miss Kizuki. The slugs aren't real. They're just fakes. Everything is just staged. You were never in a hallucination. What you experienced are all legitimate events."

"Wha-?"

"Chitose Kizuki. Meta Liberation Army. Codename: Curious. Yes, we know everything about you and your little club."

'Know everything…?' Chitose's eyes widened in shock. Almost immediately her mind went back towards the time All Might called her out from within the soundproof multipurpose hall just yesterday, as well as the odd way Lady Nagant said the word Curious just earlier. 'The heroes know about the MLA all this time…?'

"Er… Mr. Principal, sir? Shouldn't we-?" Hawks peeked in and awkwardly asked a question, only for the UA principal to raise a hand to silence him up.

"No Hawks. Let me handle this, I'll just have a word with him later," said Nezu, before gesturing towards the blue-skinned young woman in front of him. "She's from Chitose, Hokkaido, and that's certainly something we can't just throw out of the equation."

"What's with all this…?" Chitose asked, but found her voice trailing off, her dizziness intensifying as well as finding herself somehow not having the will to fight back or do anything similar. Have they drugged her? Is the sting on her shoulder actually sleeping drugs? "I'm feeling sleepy."

"Freeze."

Right after Nezu's words, Chitose felt her body stiffen up, locking her in a sitting position and unable to move anything but her face. Right afterwards she heard the person behind her loudly complain about something tasting horrible.

"Don't worry Miss Kizuki. We won't jail you. You're completely innocent. You may have been a major asset to the MLA's recruitment, as well as in getting the words of Destro far and wide across Japan, but you technically still haven't done a thing yet. You're still innocent. We won't arrest you. We won't jail you. We won't do anything to you. Just stay with us, okay? We'll help you sort out your age-regression and assassination issues." Nezu nodded as he took one step closer and clapped his paws once, his expression not even changing one bit.

Chitose, still stuck and unable to move, found Nezu's words absolutely idiotic and ridiculous. Innocent? Since when the main recruiter of a literal terrorist group is innocent? "That's absurd…" she muttered, already half-asleep. Her thoughts then quickly went over towards the MLA, and their apparent discovery. But for some reason, she can't make a single coherent thought about it. And on top of all that, despite her being frozen in place and surrounded by heroes in every corner with no hope of escape, she just can't feel any panic at all. All she can feel is slight annoyance. She figured it must have been the drugs that are injected to her through her shoulder. "How… how am I innocent…?" she asked, her eyes within minutes of shutting.

"I repeat, you haven't done anything yet. You're completely innocent." Nezu paused, nodding. "And we really want o help out on your dilemmas, one of which you blamed on Skeptic."

"You know Skeptic…?"

"Like I said, we already know everything about the MLA. We know about Re-Destro, Detnerat, the Gunga Mountain Villa, everything." Nezu nodded again. "But them? They're villains, terrorists, and obviously criminals. You, on the other hand, you're not one of them. You're innocent, just a person unknowingly dragged into the dirt."

"You're not making sense… Mr. Principal… You seem to be just making excuses… for me…" Chitose continued, just barely staying awake. 'Dammit… these drugs are really making me feel calm. They're just… it's…' She can't even continue her own thoughts anymore. "So what's going to… happen to me now?" she groggily asked.

"You're going to let us help you."

…

Chitose finally fell asleep.