Entropy

by Imperium42

Midoriya Izuku didn't change overnight. The process was slow and gradual, the end result of a life filled with rejections and roadblocks- but everyone has a breaking point. Destruction brings renewal, and with the death of his old dream, Izuku has found a new one- one he intends to share. All orderly systems descend into chaos. No one is immune to entropy, heroes least of all.

25. At the Edge of Night

Chapter 25: At the Edge of Night

One Year Ago

U.A. Sports Festival

"There you go, dearie, you should be all patched up now!"

A warm, kind smile on her wrinkled face, Recovery Girl gave Kendo a gentle pat on the shoulder, and reached down to begin untying the bandages on her hands and arms.

"It sounds like you've still got some time before the next round, too. You try and be a bit more careful this time, do you hear me? I don't want to see you in here again looking even worse after it's over!"

"I'll do my best," Itsuka replied, rubbing the back of her head sheepishly, "but I don't want to make any promises I have to end up breaking… looks like we'll have tough opponents no matter which pair wins out there."

A loud, rumbling boom shook the infirmary to punctuate her point, followed by muffled cheers from the crowd, and Kendo rose back to her feet from the bed Recovery Girl had treated her on, curiosity flashing across her face. If I hurry, I could still see the end of the fight.

"Take it easy, now!" The school nurse chided, her hands on her hips. "It's not good to stand up so fast after treatment! I don't want you fainting on me!"

"Haha! What's this about Young Kendo fainting?!"

Puffed up in his muscled form, All Might burst through the doorway with his trademark bravado, his arms locked in a flexing pose that wouldn't have looked out of place in a bodybuilding competition. Once Toshinori had glanced around the room to make sure that the three of them were alone, he shrank back down in a puff of steam, patting out the wrinkles of his now-baggy suit as Recovery Girl hobbled over to fetch a tissue for the inevitable cough of blood that followed.

"Sorry about that, just being cautious. Tell me though, how are you feeling? You looked pretty bruised up after that last match – I wanted to check in on you sooner, but I got caught up chatting with a few other students on the way over here."

"Well, I'd be lying if I said Kirishima and Kaminari's coordination didn't take me by surprise." Kendo glanced over at the jagged black singe marks and tears on the PE uniform she'd stripped out of – she was wearing a nondescript white infirmary gown at the moment. "They were really something else… even at 10%, every hit I landed on Red Riot was like punching solid metal. He just wouldn't budge."

The final round of the ongoing Sports Festival was a tournament-style series of battles just like the year before, but with teams of two determined by their scores from the previous round, and a slightly tweaked set of rules. There was no 'out of bounds' victory condition this time around – along with knocking them unconscious or forcing them to verbally admit defeat, either team could win by immobilizing the other with a pair of specially designed magnetic handcuffs supplied by the Support Department, to be fastened around the opponent's wrist or ankle – any one limb would do. Additionally, the stage itself was a shifting concrete maze constructed by Cementoss instead of a standard flat plain, taking up nearly the entirety of the arena floor. In the semifinal round, Kendo and her partner, Shiozaki, had faced off against the dynamic duo of Chargebolt and Red Riot. Despite a strong start from Itsuka and Ibara, Denki and Eijiro had very nearly pulled off a successful rally to defeat them, thanks to the sheer, immovable strength of Kirishima's Unbreakable and the unexpected accuracy and power of Kaminari's new ultimate moves, Chain Lightning and Paralyzing Shock.

"I guess I didn't expect to have to use a 100% punch to take them out," Kendo murmured, flexing her newly healed right hand. Just minutes ago, every bone in it had been broken after the conclusion of the fight, along with a few in her left. "I'm just glad no one was injured too badly."

It had been less than a year since she inherited All Might's power, but even after interning with Gran Torino and now Sir Nighteye, Itsuka could still only muster around twenty to thirty percent of One For All's full power at any given time without injuring herself. In most fights, she kept it hovering around 10% outside of major attacks, a technique nicknamed "Constant Charging" that she'd perfected under Gran Torino.

"Those two are making fast progress," All Might said with a nod of agreement. "They were formidable opponents, and they'll be fine heroes. In defeating them, you've already taken a huge step towards making this debut a success – even more than before, the pros in the audience are beginning to take note of you."

Kendo nodded solemnly, thinking back to the promise she'd made to him that morning, before the start of the festival: the promise that today would be her debut to the world, her declaration that "I am here". Whether or not I live up to my word all depends on this final round, she reminded herself, as anxiety began to gnaw once more at her stomach.

"How's it going out there?" Battle Fist strode over to a nearby locker as she spoke, pulled back a changing curtain, and began to slip into one of the spare PE uniforms that the infirmary had on hand. "I can hear that it's not over yet."

A few more booms sounded off outside on cue, echoing down the adjacent hallway as the audience whooped and roared in excitement. In the most anticipated fight of the day so far, Bakugo and Ashido were currently facing off against Todoroki and Uraraka: it was a clash between two powerhouse teams who had wiped the floor with all their opposition thus far, all thanks to a series of surprisingly well-coordinated strategies from both duos. When the brackets had been released earlier in the afternoon, Kendo had overheard several pros and hero students alike joking that Ground Zero and Coldflame's clash would be the tournament's real final round: it was up to her to prove them wrong.

"It's certainly been a breathtaking spectacle," Toshinori replied, one hand on his chin as he stared off in the opposite direction from the curtain. "When you're ready, we should go and watch – it would be wise for you to keep studying the other students' moves like you were earlier."

"Already on it!"

By the time All Might turned around, Battle Fist was already dressed and walking out the door, a grin on her face as she gestured for him to catch up. When they reached the hero course's section of the stands, fully integrated between classes 2-A and 2-B unlike last year, the battle was in the midst of a thundering climax. Massive chunks of concrete and ice were raining down on half the stage like meteors, an attack Kendo quickly recognized as one of Uraraka's ultimate moves; Bakugo and Ashido were struggling to defend themselves with a series of explosions and a veil of high-strength acid as Coldflame skated around atop the maze walls to flank them, and Uravity floated high above the chaos.

"Whoa, what a show." Coming up behind a group of her classmates, Kendo threw her arms around Kodai and Tetsutetsu's shoulders. The two had been on a team together, but lost in the first round against Kirishima and Kaminari; as it turned out, Real Steel's solid metal body was a perfect conductor for Chargebolt's electrical attacks, a weakness Denki had readily exploited. Tetsutetsu jumped in surprise at Itsuka's sudden return, but Yui simply turned and gave her a soft smile.

"Ah, there you are. I was hoping you would get here in time to see the end of this match."

"You and me both. Wait, so why isn't Bakugo using a Howitzer Impact to clear that debris like he did last year?"

"Because he's almost tapped out," Tetsutetsu replied, pointing to the numerous smoking craters scattered across the arena. "He's already used like four or five massive explosions to wipe out Todoroki's ice attacks – I think he's getting close to his quirk's limit."

"No way!" Kirishima cried in dismay. Kendo's former opponent was standing to Tetsutetsu's left, and still had a few bandages wrapped around chest and forearms from their fight. "Come on, Bakugo, you got this!" Once he had finished cheering Katsuki on, Eijiro turned to Itsuka and held out a hand – when she took it, he pulled her in for a one-armed bro-hug, a serious expression on his face.

"Thanks for an amazing fight, dude. I won't lie, I was really hoping to square off against Bakugo and Ashido in the finals, but that was probably the manliest showdown I've ever been part of."

"Absolutely. Trust me, that was probably the hardest I've fought in my life – there were so many moments it could've gone either way. Your Unbreakable is awesome!"

"You're missing the fight, Kendo," cut in Shiozaki, tugging with one hand at Itsuka's shoulder as another cheer went up all around them.

"Ah, Ibara! Sorry for not finding you sooner! You're right – come on, let's take some more notes!"

In the end, it would be nearly two more minutes before the battle finally came to an end in a dizzyingly narrow victory for Bakugo and Ashido. Feigning exhaustion and defeat, the two had managed to lure Todoroki and Uraraka into letting their guard down before unleashing a final, last-resort combo attack that propelled Mina high enough in the air to take down Ochako with a devastating kick while Katsuki overpowered Shoto in close quarters.

"That's gonna be a lot to live up to," Kendo whispered in All Might's ear, her eyes still the size of saucers as Bakugo raised his fist and let out an echoing cry of triumph atop a pile of rubble, half his PE uniform burned away. Toshinori was back in his muscled form, and had to kneel down in a comical pose to hear her over the sound of the cheering audience, but nodded gravely all the same; the two had retreated to the mouth of the adjacent hallway for a degree of privacy, though they could still see out into the arena.

"Indeed, it was quite the show of power. But think of it this way, Young Kendo – because this fight was so impressive, Young Bakugo's team will now be the favorites to win the final round, and defeating them will make an even stronger debut statement than before."

"I can't help but agree," another voice declared from beside them; Itsuka turned around to find Sir Nighteye looming over her, a hint of a grin on his face.

"Ah, so you did make it after all! I'm so glad you're here, Sasaki!" All Might wrapped his former sidekick in a tight hug with a peal of laughter, and Kendo smiled at the sight; the two had managed to reconcile shortly after she began her new internship with Nighteye, and were on the steady road towards becoming close friends again.

"Thank you, Toshinori. You, ah… you can let go now."

"Good to see you, Sir!" Itsuka chimed in, as Nighteye extricated himself from All Might's muscular grip.

"You as well, Kendo. I regret that I couldn't make it earlier – there was still a patrol I was scheduled to lead before I came. But I'm here in time to watch your proper debut fight, at least. It seems like it'll be quite the interesting matchup for the first place title."

Sir straightened his glasses and glanced down of the floor of the arena, where all four of the competitors were being led to the infirmary for varying degrees of injuries. Even from here, though, they could clearly see the wide, confident grin on Bakugo's face as he limped towards the exit, and Kendo felt her mouth draw into an uneasy frown. It'll be a little while before he and Ashido are healed up enough to start the final round, but at this point I honestly don't know what else I could do to prepare. Nothing we saw in the final two minutes changed the basics of the strategy Ibara and I came up with earlier.

"I wish I could tell you what to expect, Sir. Mina's one thing – we get along well, and I know all about her fighting style – but I've never really talked with Ground Zero all that much, or trained with him, for that matter. I mean, I've been watching his moves and his technique all day, and I've seen my friends go against him in interclass scrimmages. But his personality, what makes him tick? I'm not so sure what he's really after, aside from trying to win. Like, there must be something else driving him to push so hard, right? The guy's a mystery to me."

"Fascinating," Nighteye replied, one hand perched contemplatively on his chin as his golden eyes beamed down at her with half-hidden pride; though he did his best to conceal it with his fingers, she could tell that he was smiling. "I can see you've taken my leseson about watching your opponents carefully to heart. To know how your enemy will move is one thing, but to know why is another matter entirely. Keep going like this, and you'll be able to predict his every move, even without the aid of a quirk like mine. Speaking of predictions, though…" Sir reached out and tapped his intern on the shoulder, gazing into her eyes as his own pupils began to glow and rotate with the dull purple light of Foresight.

"Huh? What are you…?" Kendo exchanged a confused glance with All Might. "What happened to not looking people's futures anymore?"

"Ah, no need to worry about that." Nighteye gave them an innocent smile, his eyes back to gold again. "I wasn't looking at your distant future; I only watched about half an hour ahead. It may seem rather self-serving, but as someone who's quite invested in your performance today, I would hate to watch this battle in constant suspense. It's much easier when I know how the fight will end."

"I see…" Kendo murmured, mimicking his contemplative pose as she mulled over the idea. "So, uh… is there any chance you could let me know how things turn out?" She gave him a winning grin, and clapped her hands together for effect. "…Pretty please? I also happen to hate the suspense."

Nighteye chuckled dismissively and raised one eyebrow, incredulous.

"Why ask a question like that when you already know that the answer is no?"

"…Well, it was worth a try, I guess. But you're right, Sir. Bakugo Katsuki…" She glanced out again to the arena, and the smoking craters of sheer devastation that Ground Zero had left behind. "I'll defeat him with my own power. That will be my introduction to the world."

---

Two Days after the Graduation Attack

Downtown Tokyo, Shinjuku Ward

"…and that's all from our sports team. Now, on to the weather! After a high of thirty this afternoon, our evening forecast shows temperatures remaining warm and balmy through the night, with a low of twenty-two and more rain in the early morning. Be on the lookout for traffic and possible flooding on your commute tomorrow! At least five additional centimeters of precipitation are-"

A frown crossing her face, Kendo reached up to the windowsill and switched off the radio, leaving the cramped living room in relative silence before the sounds of the busy market below began to filter from outside. It was a good apartment, for the price, with a good location; she was just a few minutes' walk or subway ride from half a dozen important agencies, including those of Lemillion, Best Jeanist, and Endeavor, along with the former agency of All Might, which was in the early stages of being converted into a museum dedicated to Toshinori's life and legend. He had helped her find this spot shortly before his death, a three-room suite perched above a trendy street full of shops and bars. To help shoulder the dizzying costs of living in downtown Tokyo, Kendo had settled on two roommates; Kodai would be moving in over the weekend, and Jiro was out on patrol until midnight, after dumping her things in her bedroom just a few hours prior.

For her part, Itsuka was still sprawled on the bare wooden floor of their modest living room following a full day of work with her detachment of the task force, a towel spread beneath her as she raised a handheld fan above her head. The meager amount of cool wind it provided was little in the way of relief from the mind-boggling humidity that had settled in over the course of the afternoon; though she'd stripped down to a tank-top and gym shorts, her body still felt soaked with perspiration from head to toe.

"Of course the AC's still not fixed," Kendo muttered, glaring over at the defective wall-mounted unit in question. It didn't seem like much of a problem when I moved in yesterday, but then again, it was only twenty degrees outside then. I can't believe it's only April – it's still too early in the year for it to be this hot!

It would be another day at least before maintenance could come by to fix it, according to the landlady. In the meantime, Itsuka knew full well that the best option would be to take refuge in any one of the half dozen climate-controlled cafes or pubs on the street below, but that would require movement, effort, and getting dressed, three concepts her aching body remained staunchly opposed to. Her stomach produced a loud, insistent rumble just moments later, a strongly worded reminder that lethargy had its limiting factors, but cooking dinner was out of the question. Using the stove would make the room even hotter, not to mention the fact that she hadn't had time to stock the kitchen with any ingredients yet. Accordingly, Kendo had already ordered in; with no TV, no energy, and no roommates lounging around to talk to, there was nothing to do but wait until the food arrived, exhausted and stewing in sweat.

Well, I guess there's at least one thing I could get a head start on. Switching the handheld fan to a higher setting as she rose shakily to her feet, Itsuka grabbed her keys from her pocket and walked over to the pile of her moving boxes stacked against the common room's far wall, still untouched since she arrived the previous night. The apartment itself was still completely bare, with blank white walls cast aglow in the flashing neon patterns of the signs from across the street. Their furniture was all due to arrive over the weekend, along with the router for the wi-fi; for now, the closest thing Kendo had to a bed was a well-worn blue sleeping bag spread out in the corner.

"Let's start with you," Kendo muttered under her breath, pulling one box out from the stack and slicing the tape open with her key. "Now what was in this one again?"

A moment later, she regretted asking. The box was full of odds and ends, thrown in together at the last moment in a decidedly haphazard fashion. At the very top of the disorganized pile, though, sat Itsuka's U.A. diploma, still wrapped in a neat, unopened scroll, sealed with red wax; along with the rest of the graduates, she'd received hers in the mail a day prior, a conciliatory gesture from a school that no longer existed. Unwanted memories flooded into her mind at the sight: memories of screaming and chaos and crumbling walls, of Seraph and Overhaul's voices taunting them over the loudspeakers. Swearing softly under her breath, Kendo screwed her eyes shut and tried to clear her mind, to distract herself by thinking of something else, anything else, but to no avail. She could still see them in front of her: Uraraka and Aizawa, their broken, lifeless bodies lying in the dirt amid growing pools of blood. Two days later, the images were still seared into her mind like a brand; she'd been right in front of them when they died, grounded and paralyzed and powerless, just a stone's throw away but unable to lift a finger to save them. It had been a waking nightmare, and no amount of therapy or counseling or mental discipline would ever be able to completely erase the experience; she'd been forced to come to terms with that fact over the past few days.

Your fault, a voice inside her head whispered, quiet yet insistent. It's your fault. They were within your reach – you had a chance to save them, and you failed. In the end, none of your power or training made a difference. In the end, all you could do was sit by and watch them fade away.

Just like it was with All Might.

You really haven't changed at all, have you?

By the time she realized she was crying, her cheeks were already wet with tears, and a heavy lump was weighing on her throat. Shaking her head in frustration as she mumbled another string of profanities, Itsuka reached up and tried to wipe the tears away with her wrist, only to recoil in pain when the sweat beaded on her skin began to sting at her eyes with a vengeance. A ragged sigh escaped her lips, and after a moment to blink away the pain, Kendo closed the box, rose back to her feet, and stared once more down at the diploma resting in her hand. Instead of despair, anger flared up inside her this time, bitter and intense – anger at Seraph, at all the former students in the Syndicate, at herself. Alongside the more justified strains of hatred, there was a fair share of irrational rage mixed in too: anger at U.A. for failing to detect the security breaches, anger at Endeavor and the teachers for not helping her when she leapt off the stage to try and save Uravity and Eraserhead, anger at the protestors and journalists Overhaul had taken hostage for being there in the first place. Her free hand tensed into a tightly clenched fist, and she felt a sudden urge to destroy the diploma, to grind it to dust between her fingers or toss it on the stove and let it burn. Itsuka settled instead for chucking the scroll across the room, hard enough to leave a noticeable dent in the far wall with a loud crack. Even after the ream of wood and paper fell broken to the floor, though, her body refused to stop trembling, and she sunk once more to her knees.

"I don't want it," she muttered aloud, her breath catching in her throat catching in her throat as she spoke. "I don't want to have to stare at a piece of paper that I haven't earned."

Reflecting a flash of dappled neon light from one of the signs outside, the screen of her phone caught her attention out of the corner of her eye from where she'd set it on the floor, and within moments she was scrolling desperately through her contacts, struggling to blink away the tears so she could see the names clearly. Someone, anyone… I need to talk to someone other than myself, or things are going to end up badly at this rate. I'd rather chat with Bakugo fucking Katsuki than be alone with my thoughts for one more goddamn second. Maybe Tetsu, or Kyouka?! She scrolled to each of their names in turn, but Tetsutetsu and Jiro both had bright red "busy" markers next to their pictures, an indication that they were currently clocked in as on-duty over the Hero Network. God, that's right, they both have patrols for Fenrir tonight. Jeanist can be a real dick when it comes to scheduling shifts.

Kendo thumbed past a few more names – Hagakure, Setsuna, Juzo – before finally settling on Kodai, the one she'd been looking for. Yui picked up on the second ring; Kendo's pounding heart began to slow again the moment her calm, monotone voice filtered through the speaker.

"Hello? Itsuka?"

"H-hi, Yui, it's me. How, uh… how are you? I-is now a good time?"

"I'm good – I'm out with a friend right now, but we can talk if you'd like. I'm sure she wouldn't mind."

"Ah, okay. Sorry, I don't want to interrupt! We can talk later!"

"No," Kodai replied, her tone still calm, but more insistent this time. "I already told you it's alright. Are you okay? Did something happen? You sound like you've been crying, Itsuka."

Always straightforward, this one. As usual. Kendo sighed and shook her head, trying to force a smile back onto her face.

"I mean, yeah, a bit. But I don't want to talk about that right now – let's talk about you. Are you with someone from our class? I haven't had a chance to catch up with most of them since… well, you know. It's been two days of nonstop damage control since then. I feel like I've barely had a moment to catch my breath until now."

"I saw Kinoko and Yanagi yesterday," Yui answered, "but no, you haven't met this friend before, actually. She goes to university in Tokyo."

"Ooh, can I say hi?!" A voice in the background asked excitedly, followed by the sound of shuffling as the phone changed hands. "Hey, is this Kendo? Yui talks so much about you!" The girl's voice was bright and cheery, and an image of a preppy, smartly dressed college student quickly appeared in Itsuka's head.

"Yeah, it is. Sorry again for butting in on your time with Yui, uh…"

"Asuka!" The girl finished. "But you can call me Katou if you'd like! Wow, this is crazy! I can't believe I'm talking with the actual Battle Fist right now! You're so famous, and such an inspiration! My boyfriend and I are huge fans of you!"

"Thank you! It means a lot to me to hear that." Kendo forced herself to smile and put on an equally amicable tone, though in reality she wanted desperately to steer the conversation away from hero work. "So how do you know Yui? Are you guys friends from childhood or something?"

"Nope! Believe it or not, we actually met just a month or two ago. We were both studying at the same café, sitting next to each other. Then I noticed she was doing problems from the exact same calculus textbook as me, so I asked if she wanted to compare answers, and it just went from there! You guys are doing some really advanced math for high schoolers – I'm still struggling with integrals in university!"

"You don't have to tell me twice," Itsuka said, her smile slightly more genuine this time. "I barely survived that section of our written final last week. Yui, on the other hand, is practically a prodigy with that kind of stuff. She could go straight into a job as a professor if she ever needed a break from hero work."

"That's an exaggeration," Kodai declared in the background, and Kendo chuckled.

"Don't let her be modest! She always tries to sell herself short."

"I won't, don't worry! Trust me, I've seen how talented she is. And speaking of modesty, can I just say how amazing it is that all you graduates from U.A. are still out there working after what happened? You poor things, forced to watch something so horrible, and then for your school and teachers to be blamed for it by the press… I mean, at least that girl Carmilla and a few of the other villains were captured, but still, I don't know how I'd cope if I saw something like that firsthand!"

"We… we all have our own ways," Itsuka replied, mostly failing in her attempt to project confidence. God, I was really hoping things wouldn't come back to this topic. Moments later, though, a knock at the door spared her the pain of continuing the conversation. "Ah, sorry, I think my dinner's here! It was great to meet you, Katou, tell Yui I can't wait to see her soon!"

"Oh, okay! Will do, and likewise!"

Kendo breathed a sigh of relief the moment she ended the call, then glanced down to make sure her appearance was somewhat decent before starting over towards the door. Just in time. I hope they included utensils and some napkins, or else this might get messy. When she opened it, though, her eager grin died a swift death, replaced by an expression of shock.

"…You're not katsudon."

"You bet your ass I'm not. So are you just gonna stand there and gawk at me, or are you gonna invite me inside?" His brows furrowed in impatience, Bakugo continued to glower at Itsuka until she snapped out of her stupor and stepped to the side, nodding for him to enter. Still dressed in his hero costume, Katsuki had a six-pack of beer gripped in one gloved hand, and glanced around the common room with a judgmental gaze before setting it down on the kitchen counter.

"So, uh…" Drawing the door shut again, Kendo turned to face him and crossed her arms defensively. "Can I… help you? Did you get lost looking for Kaminari's place or something?"

"What kind of stupid question is that? Did you lose your memory when you got hit by that bullet on Monday? We agreed the other week that we'd meet up and talk after graduation. I figured I'd better get it over with sooner rather than later. Jesus, is this place a sauna?"

"You get used to it. So what's this, then? A peace offering?" She gestured to the beers, one eyebrow raised.

"Call it whatever the hell you want. I was thirsty." His lips turned down in a scowl, Katsuki tore two cans off and tossed one over to her before cracking open his own. "Not that I'd mind forgetting most of today either."

"You were on recon duty with Miruko and Tentacole earlier this morning, right?" Glancing down at her phone to check whether her actual dinner had arrived yet, Kendo leaned against the windowsill and took a long sip of beer. "Did something happen?"

"We ran into a group of anti-hero protestors blocking the road on the way to the mission site. Real charming fuckers, screaming in our faces and everything." Unfastening his grenade-like gauntlets, he set them both on the floor next to the fridge, shook his head in frustration, and took a deep swig from his can. "Bunch of Sydicate-sympathizing conspiracy theorists. They were violating the new city ordinance about civil demonstration permits, so we had to help the police round them all up and arrest them. They were assholes, trust me, and they deserved to get locked up. It made me sick to my stomach to hear them spouting Seraph's propaganda on the street. But at the same time, it was just… weird, somehow. I felt like a goddamn hired thug. It… it didn't feel like something All Might would do."

A long moment of silence stretched out between them after that, punctuated only by chatter from the street below and a far-off police siren.

"It comes with the territory, I guess," Kendo finally responded, her tone tentative and reluctant. "Upholding the law, you know? Aside from saving people, that's one of the primary duties of any hero. You won't always agree with everything the law dictates, but it's the only thing that's separating us from people like the Syndicate. It's the reason why I still take the train or my motorcycle on the weekends, instead of just flying everywhere I go for the sake of convenience." She glanced down at the can of beer in her hand, and chuckled. "Just think about it – if they hadn't lowered the legal drinking age from twenty to seventeen last year, we'd all be serial offenders already."

"Pretty sure a few of us were still underage when we started," Bakugo muttered under his breath. "But forget about that, you're missing the point! The government's really been cracking down with the laws lately, right? I mean, don't even get me started on this curfew bullshit. It's so goddamn annoying!"

"Hmm, is it almost that late already?" Kendo glanced down at the clock on her phone and frowned. "Man, I hope my delivery driver has enough time to get back before they start to close the roads."

A knock at the door came moments later, and within a minute Itsuka was eating katsudon on the floor while Katsuki sat across from her sipping beer, an ambivalent expression on his face.

"I feel obligated to offer you some," she mumbled through a mouthful of pork and rice, but he swiftly shook his head.

"Fuck that, I don't want your handouts."

"Charming today, aren't we?"

"Shut it. To be honest, though…" He glanced inquisitively around the quiet apartment, his blond brows furrowed. "I didn't actually think you'd be alone. Where are Ears and Metalhead?"

"Oh, is that what you call him? Not bad, compared to some of the other names you've come up with."

"He's a pretty alright guy, I guess." Bakugo shrugged and quietly shook his head, as if he was desperately trying to dissuade himself of the notion that he and Real Steel had become friends. "He visited you yet? I expected you two to be all lovey-dovey 24/7 now that you're official." He put a particular, venomous emphasis on the last word, enough to send an involuntary flush of red across Kendo's cheeks.

"I don't know," she replied defensively, crossing her arms, "has he?" She threw a pointed glance toward the brown paper grocery that was currently serving as the apartment's interim trashcan; a handful of opened condom wrappers were visible at the top of the pile. Tetsutetsu had stopped by last night, before Jiro or anyone else arrived, and hadn't ended up leaving until the start of his shift the next day.

"Gross. Don't make me think about that shit." Bakugo stuck his tongue out in disgust, then buried his face back in his beer. "You haven't even told him yet, have you?"

"Well… we weren't dating at the time, so…"

"Oh, try telling him that. You're not fooling anyone, Ms. Perfect. You two were dating alright, and the only one who didn't realize it was you. At the end of the day, you fucked up as badly as I did."

They both drew deep from their respective cans at that, and hit empty almost in unison; Katsuki stood to grab another pair of beers, but Itsuka directed him to the fridge instead.

"Back behind the juice and coffee, there's some sake. It was a housewarming present from my aunt and uncle."

"Fancy stuff," Bakugo muttered, pulling out the bottle in question. It was already a third of the way empty; she and Tetsu had made substantial progress on it last night. "What are we doing for cups?"

"Eh, we were just drinking straight from the bottle yesterday. But I guess there might be some in here…" Shuffling over to the moving box she'd opened earlier, Kendo plunged her hands in and withdrew two coffee mugs. Good enough, I guess.

"Just swear to me that this won't turn out like last time," Katsuki growled as he poured their respective drinks. "I'm trying to unwind, not fuck up my relationship a second time."

"Why do you need me to swear that?" Itsuka shot back. "That should be a mutual agreement, unless you're still insisting that it was all my fault."

He gave her a grunt of something resembling acknowledgement after an uncomfortably long span of silence; they exchanged a nod before mumbling a quiet 'cheers' and sipping from their respective mugs.

"Camie seems like she's handling it pretty well," Kendo offered after a few more seconds of struggling for something to say.

"Well, after like a week of ghosting me, yeah, things are alright now. She was actually in town for the graduation, she'd been coordinating with my parents to surprise me at my favorite ramen place after the ceremony. It didn't work out that way in the end, obviously, but… we've spent a lot of time together since then." An almost imperceptibly small grin appeared on his face; he was about to continue, then suddenly frowned. "Wait a goddamn minute. How the hell do you how she's handling it? Did you text her about it?!"

"No, I swear!" Itsuka held her hands up defensively. "I ran into her at the hospital last weekend, and she brought it up on her own, in very vague terms."

"The hospital?" Bakugo raised one eyebrow. "What were you two doing there?"

"She and Rodin were visiting Gale Force, and I was visiting Midoriya's mother," Kendo answered evenly. Might as well bring this up sooner rather than later. She paused to take nother sip of sake to steel her nerves, and watched his expression carefully as she continued. "We talked about Seraph's childhood and background, the turning points in his life that may have led him to where he is now. That mean anything to you?"

"…Why would it?" He muttered, deflecting his gaze over to the window.

"Don't play dumb. Unlike almost everything else, you're not good at it." Her mouth set in a grim, determined line, Itsuka set down her sake, pushed her half-eaten pork bowl aside, and rose to her feet, glaring down at Katsuki as he did his best to avoid eye contact. "I'm tired of these games, Bakugo. Talk to me."

After a few moments of fidgeting beneath her gaze, Ground Zero stood as well. Instead of answering her, though, he turned and began to fiddle with the dial of the radio she'd set on the windowsill, flipping rapidly through a variety of programs in intermittent bursts of static and sound.

"…and that concludes our five-day forecast. Now, for a-"

"…in a huge development, number three-ranked hero Miruko has unseated reigning champion Mount Lady in our fifth annual listeners' poll for sexiest-"

"…authorities are still silent whether they have uncovered any direct evidence linking Syndicate operatives to the recent spike in violent, organized criminal activity across all major-"

"…another forty-thee individuals were taken into custody last night in Tokyo alone for violation of the new curfew and random stop policies, with similar legal measures expected to be taken in Osaka and Kyoto in the coming weeks. Protests over these measures have increased rapidly in size and number as-"

"…only Detnerat offers a guaranteed one-year return policy for any defective products! Call our toll-free number in the next ten minutes for instant-"

"…it may not be the polite thing to say, but we have to ask ourselves how much of the blame for this latest disaster rests squarely on U.A.'s shoulders. After the security breach on the Black Day that saw All Might murdered on school grounds, what kind of negligence does it take on the part of the administration to go ahead with-"

All at once he turned the radio off again and looked back at Kendo, his expression suddenly dead serious.

"If you haven't noticed, there's a lot of bad shit going down right now, and not just here – things are starting to fall apart all over the goddamn country. This whole task force, the fight against the Syndicate? We're losing. There are thousands of heroes and a dozen of them, but we've been losing ever since the Black Day, and people are starting to notice. I hate losing, so you better fucking believe I'll bust my ass day-in and day-out until all this fixed, but I don't see how talking about my childhood is going to contribute one goddamn iota towards that goal. I don't owe you a in-depth explanation of every shitty thing I did when I was a kid."

"You do when that explanation could mean the difference between winning and losing!" Itsuka shot back, her fist clenched in frustration. "Something happened between you and Izuku, something important, and knowing that information could help us understand why he's doing all this, what's making him tick! Maybe you haven't noticed, but I don't like losing any more than you do. So frankly, I couldn't care less what the hell you did to him; I'm not going to give you a lecture on ethics, or gossip about it to my friends. I only want to know so we can improve our odds of winning! Can't you get that?!"

A loud, friendly chime echoed through the streets outside before Katsuki could answer, followed by a woman's bright and cheery voice.

"The time is now 9:45 PM. Curfew will take effect in fifteen minutes. Citizens without a valid public safety license or labor access permit should take any and all necessary measures to return to their place of residence by 10:00 PM. Violations of this policy may result in fines or detainment. The Public Safety Commission thanks you for your cooperation!"

The announcement repeated after thirty seconds, and glancing out the half-open window, Kendo could see crowds people filtering down the market street below en masse, in the direction of the nearest train station. Many of them were complaining loudly about the curfew as they stepped out of bars and restaurants; when several police officers and a hero Itsuka recognized as Rocklock turned the corner from a nearby side street and began to direct the flow of people, their anger quickly found a focus.

"Why the hell are you heroes treating us like children?!" One visibly drunk salaryman yelled, his movements clumsy and sluggish as he pointed an accusing finger in Rocklock's direction. "I just got off work at nine, and you're telling me I have to go home now?! How's bossing us normal people around supposed to help you catch those goddamn villains?!"

Several other people halted their exodus to echo his sentiments, and soon a small crowd had gathered around the hero and policemen, booing and hissing; one man even hurled the half-eaten remains of a hamburger at the group, but Rocklock froze the discarded food midair before it struck him. Kendo felt her muscles tensing out of instinct as she prepared herself to leap down and intervene if necessary- out of the corner of her eye, she could see that Bakugo was doing the same. When she looked back at the crowd, though, Rocklock had grabbed a megaphone from one of the cops, and was beginning to speak.

"I understand why you're all mad!" He cried, loud enough to silence most of the discontented civilians. "To be honest, I'm pretty damn mad too – mad that it had to come to this in the first place. I know it doesn't seem fair, or right, because it isn't. I'm not gonna lie to you, and make some fancy speech about why you should really appreciate this curfew at the end of the day. It sucks, I know. But for now, it's necessary – necessary to keep you all safe, and to give our fellow policemen and heroes the chance they need to track down the villains who have been doing their best to subjugate this city with fear and violence. So I won't ask you to like the curfew, or the random ID checks. You can hate them if you want. But please, just bear with them for now, and know that we're all working hard to make sure things can go back to normal as soon as possible."

The crowd that had assembled swiftly began to dissolve, and Kendo breathed a sigh of relief as the drunken salaryman and his fellow malcontents reluctantly continued on their way to the trains, leaving Rocklock and the policemen free to go about their duties once more. But despite the renewed air of calm and order, she had a nagging feeling that the same scene was likely playing out dozens of times over across the city. They won't all be resolved as peacefully as this one.

"Not bad," Katsuki muttered, one brow raised in approval. "That speech was a little rough around the edges, but it worked in a pinch, I guess."

"Don't act like you would've done any better." Kendo elbowed him playfully in the side, then hurried over to her katsudon and sake before he could hit her back, sliding gracefully back into her seat on the floor. "Admit it: you would've gotten smacked in the face by that burger, then gone ballistic yelling at everyone until they finally ran home out of sheer terror."

"I would've gotten them to leave a hell of a lot faster than he did. I choose to see that as efficiency."

"Hmm." Itsuka shook her head in amusement and took another few bites of her food, chewing in silence while Bakugo settled down across from her again and began to scroll through his phone.

"I feel it too," She finally said, after what felt like an endless stretch of quiet. "What you were talking about. That creeping sense that we're not going to win this. That we're all sliding helplessly towards the edge of… something irreversible."

Itsuka set down her chopsticks and looked up at Katsuki, making no effort to conceal the look of anxiety and fear on her face.

"All Might spent his whole life building up something invisible. I don't know what to call it, but it's bigger than just the Symbol of Peace. We were able to grow up in a society that felt safe and secure and stable; the generations before us didn't have that luxury. But now, what he created, it's…"

"Crumbling away," Bakugo finished, his eyes lowered to the floor. He tilted his head back and drained the rest of his mug, then set it aside and leaned back against the wall with a sigh, his eyes closed. "From the moment I realized you were his successor, I always wondered why. Why it had to be you, when I was the one who'd worshipped him as long as I can remember, the one who was stronger and faster, the one who was special. That's what everyone had been telling me, ever since my quick manifested. That I was special, that my ability was special. So I believed them. And nothing in my life contradicted that belief, until the first time I fought you, at that Sports Festival."

All at once Ground Zero sat up and leaned forward, staring directly at her. His expression was neither angry nor sad, though; more than anything else, he looked tired, almost detached.

"You made me so fucking mad, Kendo. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn't understand it, couldn't accept it. Spending the past year and a half watching you get showered with fame and praise, the way they paraded you and All Might around on TV like a two-person act… it drove me up the goddamn wall. I really did hate you. I hated you because you were so fucking hard to hate. You weren't some spineless loser; you were popular, talented, attractive, strong, smart… you didn't have a single goddamn flaw, as far as I could tell, but that only pissed me off more. Eventually the emotions I was feeling toward you were so strong that… I got confused. And I let things go out of control." He trailed off and averted his gaze, but only for a brief moment.

"But we've already talked enough about that. We know it was a mistake. It doesn't change the fact that for a year and a half, I was convinced that I could do better than you – that if only I'd gotten the chance that you did, that I could be an even worthier successor, an even greater symbol. But these past few weeks …" He ran his hands through his hair, his expression twisted by a sudden flash of pain and regret. "I was one of the last people who saw All Might, on his way to the roof with Toga. I should've noticed that something was off, that it wasn't right for someone to be leading him away from the fight… I had a chance to save him, to end all of this then and there. But I didn't see it. I always told myself that I'd repay him for saving me from the League back in my first year, but in the end, I never did."

"You're being too hard on yourself," Kendo cut in, scooting closer to him across the floor and extending a tentative hand. "There was no possible way you could've known that it was Carmilla he was with. Hindsight is 20/20, but in the moment, you had more important things to worry about. And just look at what you did the other day – you're one of the main reasons we finally captured Toga! If you hadn't-"

"Don't act like that's a victory!" Bakugo shouted back at her, his voice close to breaking. "She was just a goddamn distraction! As long as they still have Twice, it doesn't make a goddamn difference who we capture if they can just keep making doubles of them!"

Kendo tried to find a rebuttal for that, and swiftly failed. It was true that even with their limited numbers, practically no personnel setback was too great for the Syndicate to overcome with the array of quirks they had on hand, particularly Twice and Pandora's. Sir and Jeanist have already designated them as the two highest-level targets in the Syndicate aside from Seraph himself. Her lips drawn in a frown, she glanced up and watched Ground Zero in silence as he continued.

"The moment I heard from Reptilia that it was Carmilla, I got tunnel vision; I decided right that second that I was gonna bring her down, and finally get revenge for what she did to All Might. I tuned out everything else that was happening, and went straight at her with everything I had, the first chance I got."

Katsuki shrugged his shoulders, and buried his face in his hands in attempt to hide the fact that he was on the verge of tears.

"Well, I got her." His voice was hollow, empty. "Not that it made any difference to Uraraka. Or Eraser. Or Vlad."

"You can't blame yourself," Kendo blurted out of instinct. "It's not your fault. You did everything you could."

She'd addressed those three phrases to herself countless times over the past few weeks, ever since All Might died in her arms. By now she'd repeated the words so many times that they'd practically lost all meaning to her, and the angry glance she received from Bakugo moments later told her that he didn't find much solace in them either.

"Can't blame myself? Not my fault? What kind of bullshit platitudes are those?! I was there, I had the chance to do something more, to save them, but I wasted it because I was too focused on a personal grudge! Don't ask me not to blame myself when I know damn well that you feel the same way I do."

He nodded over toward her broken diploma and the dent it had left in the wall, and Kendo felt her face flush with shame and embarrassment as she leaned over to grab the scroll off the floor.

"This is… look, I just…"

"Don't make up excuses," he snapped, shaking his head as she stuffed the broken wood and torn paper back into the box it had come from. "It's like I told you before, you're a shit liar."

"So what do you want to do, then? Sit here and cry together, thinking about how badly we failed?" She let out a ragged sigh, and wiped again at her watery eyes. "I've done enough of that lately. I'm not doing it again tonight. Let me save up some tears, at least – we have three funerals to go to this weekend."

"As if I could forget." Katsuki replied, his voice low and strained. "I just wish that… Roundface, she always…" He trailed off midsentence, then turned and grabbed hold of the bottle of sake again, wiping furiously at his eyes.

Before he could pour himself more, though, Kendo stood abruptly, and cracked her knuckles.

"Let's fight."

"Eh?" Ground Zero cast a skeptical glance up at her, and she extended a hand in reply. We can't keep going on like this, Itsuka had decided, around and around in circles of grief. We both cared about Ochako in our own way, and Eraser, and Vlad – we're both hurting. These emotions need to go somewhere. Setting aside the method we used last time, combat is the easiest outlet for him. Maybe it is for me too.

"We agreed we'd do this after graduation too, right? A big rematch to settle things? I dunno about you, but I'd say it beats the hell out moping around and drinking 'til we black out."

"We're… actually doing this? Here, right now?" Confused at first, Bakugo's expression quickly lit up with an eager grin, and he pushed himself back up to his feet, ignoring her hand. "Lemme get this straight – you're giving me permission to trash your place? Because this isn't gonna be pretty." Miniature explosions began to light up across his fingers and palms like firecrackers, but Kendo crossed her arms and shook her head.

"You trying to get me evicted two days after I moved in? If you want a real all-out showdown, put it on my calendar, and we'll book a slot at a licensed combat arena. But for right now, I say we do this old-school. No quirks, just straight physical ability. Standard judo rules: no punches, kicks, or blows to the face – I don't want to worry about cleaning blood off my floors. You win if you can complete a full-body throw, a choke, or a successful pin."

"Yeah, yeah I know how it works." Bakugo cracked his neck back and forth, then began to strip the studded green-orange gloves from his hands. "I had some friends in the judo club in middle school, I helped them practice a few times. Actually, I almost…" He trailed off midsentence, and his eyes narrowed. "Hold up. Isn't your dad a big-shot judo champ or something?"

"He's one of the only three living tenth-rank Kokodan grandmasters, as a matter of fact." She grinned, and raised an eyebrow. "Don't tell me that makes you nervous."

"As if! I bet you're just scared that I'll find out you didn't learn shit from him!" Once he'd stripped his costume of all its potentially harmful elements, he fell into a fairly close approximation of a classic offensive stance, both hands outstretched like claws; Kendo shook her head in bemused exasperation before doing the same. Moments later, though, a lightbulb went off in her head, and she ducked down to rummage once more through the box she'd opened earlier.

"Eh? What are you doing now? Looking for your daddy's training manual?!"

"Nope." Itsuka quickly found what she was looking for, a well-worn headband emblazoned with the white and red of the Japanese flag and the slightly faded characters for "certain victory" in bold black lettering. "My good luck charm! I wore this for every match when I did judo back in middle school. I was captain of the team my second and third years!"

"Oh, of course you were," Katsuki scoffed, rolling his eyes. "Come on, are we doing this, or are you gonna keep boring me with pointless stories? Stop stalling and square the fuck up!"

"Fine, fine, have it your way." Once she'd finished tying the band around her head, Itsuka stepped forward, snapped to attention, and fell into a deep bow; halfway back up, she paused and glanced across at her opponent. "Come on, you do it too."

"Nah, I think I'll pass."

Kendo felt a vein on her temple twinge in annoyance, but kept her voice as measured as possible.

"You can't pass on this. It's literally the first rule. The match can't start until both judoka bow."

In retrospect, I should've anticipated that he'd have trouble here, she mused, still frozen in place with her arms rigid at her sides. But I can't back down now. Whether he'll admit it out loud or not, we've come pretty far towards making things right between us. I'm not letting him backslide at the first opportunity. If he can't exchange even the most basic sign of mutual respect, then we might as well go back to square one.

"Screw the rules! We're not at a competition, why does it matter?!"

"Because we're in my apartment, and I say so. If you don't bow, you don't get to fight me, bottom line."

"Wha… that's not-"

"The door's right there."

After a few seconds of silence, Katsuki finally relented and joined her in the bow, mumbling a string of profanities under his breath all the while. They both fell silent again after that, though, and began to pace around each other in a wide circle, searching for an opening to strike. Bakugo was the first to lunge forward, grabbing at her arm and the neck of her shirt. A classic grapple, she noted, countering with iron grips on his right wrist and left forearm. Guess it wasn't just empty bragging when he said he's done this before. His eyes narrowed in frustration, Katsuki pushed back with equal force, and swept his foot forward in a wide arc, prompting a yelp of surprise from Itsuka as she released her grip and hopped backwards with no time to spare – he would have sent her tumbling to the floor if she'd been half a heartbeat slower.

"Hey, you can't do that! You can try and trip me, but foot sweeps are illegal – this is judo, not jujitsu!"

"Seriously?! God, that's lame!"

Unlike his last infraction, though, Bakugo didn't try to argue with her this time, and Kendo breathed a sigh of relief as they both darted back toward each other. They were locked together again within moments, and Kendo felt a drop of sweat roll lazily down her brow as she hunched low and struggled to keep her balance, her muscles aching with exertion all the while. Given that she'd spent all of her middle school judo career facing off with other girls, aside from practice bouts with her father, Ground Zero was undoubtedly the strongest opponent she'd ever faced in terms of sheer physical ability; his relative lack of finesse and technique was the only thing that held him back. After another few seconds of back-and-forth stalemate, Katsuki grunted in anger and surged forward, pushing with his arms and core in an attempt to break the grapple and overpower her with sheer strength – it was exactly what Itsuka had been waiting for. In the span of a heartbeat, she slacked her defense on her left side, dipped her shoulder downwards, and wrapped her arms firmly around her opponent's torso, using his own momentum to vault him back over her shoulder and onto the floor with a resounding thud.

"Ippon!" Kendo bellowed, leaping up in the air with a whoop of joy as Bakugo scrambled back to his feet. "Damn, I've still got it!"

"Yeah, yeah, very impressive. Best two out of three." It was a statement, not a question; he was already circling her again by the time her feet touched the ground.

"Ugh, fine. Sore loser much?"

"Shut it, I was just warming up."

"Funny, that's what they all say."

Rather than retort, Katsuki lunged forward again and latched onto her shirt in two different places; given the positioning, Kendo mentally thanked her past self for being too lazy to take off her sports bra, then pushed back with vigor, shifting her body downwards in an attempt to get the angle for another throw. Instead of trying to brute-force her into submission like last time, though, Bakugo slackened his grip and side-stepped around her, moving with a degree of speed and agility that Itsuka hadn't expected out of him after a full day of hero work. Before she could think to duck or dodge, he was behind her, and had her wrapped in a chokehold with one wiry arm, the other wrapping her dominant arm in a half nelson. Her eyes widening in surprise, Kendo tried to use her core to twist herself out of his grip, but he only tightened it in reply, and her already diminished air supply was cut to nothing. Tensing her legs, she hooked one foot around his ankle and pulled, but Katuski bent his knees and clung to his balance with unshakable tenacity. A few seconds of struggling later, she could her feel her cheeks beginning to go red from asphyxiation, and with no other choice, she slapped at his arm with her free hand. Damn, I can't believe I got so careless. He's good at learning as he fights – I should've known he wouldn't fall for the same trick again.

"Ippon," Bakugo declared with a tone of smug superiority, a wide grin on his face as he released her, and she began to gasp for air again. "How'd that feel, Ms. Perfect?"

"Kinky," Kendo answered with a wink and a sarcastic smirk. "Didn't know you were into that."

"Okay, come back here," he deadpanned, advancing toward her menacingly. "I'm gonna kill you for real this time."

"It's a joke, Jesus Christ!" Kendo nimbly dodged his grab, then realized with a start that the third round had already begun. "Get a goddamn sense of humor! Has the concept of laughing at yourself ever crossed your mind?"

"Eh?! No, why would it?!"

"…I don't know what answer I was expecting."

He lunged forward again with a scowl in reply, and soon the two were locked in another grapple, more ferocious than the last two by far; over the next thirty seconds they took turns pushing and dragging each other across the bare common room, searching desperately for the chance to execute a throw or choke. It all comes down to this, huh? If he beats me at my own game, I'm never going to hear the end of it…

They only missed stepping on her half-finished pork bowl by a hair as they neared the window, and when Kendo finally managed to vault Bakugo off to the side in a half-throw, his body slammed into her stack of moving containers. Impressively, though, Katsuki managed to keep hold of to his footing, and wiped the sweat from his brow as three heavy boxes full of clothing, shoes, and bedsheets tumbled noisily to the floor behind him.

"That all you got? Nice try."

"Oh, you haven't seen anything yet."

Just as they launched into another grapple, though, someone cleared their throat off to the side. Katsuki and Itsuka froze, their hands still locked on each other's shirts, and turned their heads in unison towards the entrance, where Mirio Togata's face was currently phased through Kendo's door.

"Hey, you two! Am I, uh… interrupting something?" Lemillion gave them a wide, amicable smile, and a heavy-handed wink. "We tried knocking, then I heard some commotion from inside, so I wanted to check if everything was alright. If it's a bad time, we can…"

"No, no you're fine! Come in, please!" Battle Fist relinquished her grip on Ground Zero in an instant and bowed in greeting, partially out of instinct and partially to hide how red her face was right now. Jesus, that looked really bad, didn't it? "We were just-"

"I was about to beat her in a judo match," Bakugo interjected, his hands shoved in his pockets as Mirio phased the rest of the way through the door. Like Ground Zero, Lemillion was still in his hero costume, clearly just back from patrol. "You just saved her ass, so I'm sure she's grateful."

"Judo, huh? That's what your dad does, right, Kendo?" Togata beamed at her, his hands on his hips. "That's so cool, we should totally do a match sometime!"

"Definitely! By the way, though, Mirio, what did you mean by 'we'?"

"Oh, that's right!" Lemillion snapped his finger in sudden recollection and chuckled, then turned around and opened the door. "Silly me, I almost forgot you guys can't phase too! Come on in, everyone!"

Thanks to his height, Sir Nighteye was forced to stoop down slightly as he stepped through the doorway, followed close behind by Tokage Setsuna and Kaminari Denki.

"Pardon the intrusion," Sir declared, straightening his glasses. "The four of us recently finished our shift, and Lemillion pointed out that your new apartment was in the area. It was decided by majority vote that we would stop by for a brief visit; I texted you to let you know we were coming." He held up his phone as proof, and Itsuka glanced sheepishly at her own mobile, forgotten on the floor over by her food.

"Sorry, I might not have seen it… Like Ground Zero said, we were doing some sparring."

"Oho, are you sure that was all it was?" Kaminari sidled up to Bakugo with a devious smirk, and nudged him in the side with his elbow, pulling out his phone. "Looks like you two were getting pretty hot and bothered in here. Do I need to let Camie know about this?"

Katsuki snatched Denki's cellphone out of his hand in an instant, and grabbed hold of Chargebolt's collar in the same motion, his brows furrowed in anger.

"I swear to god, Sparky, if one more word comes out of your idiot mouth, I'm gonna-"

"Nah, that's really all they were doing," Setsuna cut in, as one of her eyes suddenly drifted in through the open window to reunite with its socket. "I decided to check if you were home while we were coming up the stairs, so I was able to see a good bit of the action; that was a pretty gnarly chokehold, Bakugo. By the way, is it just me, or does it feel like a sauna in here?" Reptilia fanned at her face as beads of sweat began to appear on her forehead, and tugged at the collar of her scaly, tight-fitting costume.

"I wasn't gonna say anything," Mirio chimed in, "but I was definitely looking forward to getting out of the heat. Are you going for a sweat cleanse or something like that, Kendo? Nejire tells me it's popular these days!"

"No, nothing like that! The stupid AC's just busted, new apartment and all. It'll be another day or two before it's fixed, so I'm doing my best to hold out until then…"

"Eh, why wait that long?" Kaminari glanced up to the unit in question, mounted above her window, and gestured over to Mirio.

"Yo, senpai, can you give me a lift? If the problem is something with the circuits or power supply, I might be able to give it some juice."

"Be careful," Nighteye admonished, shaking his head in disapproval as Togata heaved Denki up on his shoulders so he could reach the box's power cord. "I don't want to have to file an injury report on this."

"No need to worry, Sir!" Kaminari turned back and gave them a confident grin. "I'm pretty sure I'm the most careful person I know."

Kendo and Tokage exchanged a skeptical glance at that, but sure enough, the AC unit sputtered to life moments later with a well-place jolt of electrical energy, and the two girls clapped and cheered for Chargebolt while Nighteye and Ground Zero looked on with arms crossed, unamused.

"There, that should do it!" Denki cried, raising his hands in triumph as he wobbled back and forth on Mirio's shoulders. "Oh man, it already feels so nice!"

A welcome rush of cool air washed over them moments later, and Kendo sighed with relief before turning back to her guests.

"I was already glad that you guys decided to stop by, but after that, my night's pretty much made. I'm so sorry I didn't see your text, Sir, or else I would've cleaned this place up – it's a total mess right now!" She bent down and began to hurriedly pick up the remnants of her dinner, carrying the plastic dishes over to the adjoining kitchen; a dividing wall separated the two spaces, but she could hear Mirio's voice behind her as she shoved everything haphazardly into the sink, then grabbed a pitcher of green tea from the fridge.

"Don't worry, it's not like there's really much to clean! This place is still pretty threadbare, huh?"

"Yeah, I haven't even had time to unpack my boxes yet, as you can probably tell." As she stepped back into the common room with tea in hand, though, Kendo realized with a sinking feeling that her guests were still all standing awkwardly around the room. "God, I'm so sorry, I don't even have anything for you guys to sit on… the furniture won't be getting in until this weekend."

Already embarrassed, Itsuka's face flushed even further when she remembered that her condom wrapper-adorned trashbag was one of the only things set out in plain sight. Oh god, I think I might actually have a heart attack if Sir or Mirio sees that. Even with Tokage confirming our alibi, it would make this whole thing look so much worse. Rapidly formulating an excuse to get it out of the way, she threw a frantic glance over in the bag's direction, only to find that Bakugo was standing directly in front of it; the contents were concealed behind him. Is he… covering for me? An almost imperceptible nod from Katsuki seemed to confirm her suspicions, but Nighteye's voice quickly dragged her back to the situation at hand.

"After a long day of work, I think I speak for all of us when I say that the floor is perfectly suitable. It should be quite sanitary, in fact, seeing how recently you moved in."

"Yup, it's no problem for me!" Denki was the first to take a seat, followed shortly by the others until they were all in a rough circle.

"I must say," Sir commented, as Kendo grabbed a few more mugs from the open box and began to pour her guests tea, "it's quite nostalgic for me to hear that the two of you were sparring together." He nodded in Katsuki and Itsuka's directions, then took a sip of tea from the All Might-themed mug his former intern had chosen for him. "It brings memories of last year's Sports Festival to mind, though it seem that this match wasn't quite so destructive."

"Oh man, I was thinking the same thing!" Denki cried, gesturing expressively with his own mug, emblazoned with Miruko's lunar symbol. "I was still recovering from me and Kirishima's match with Kendo and Shiozaki, but I remember that fight like it was yesterday, it was the highlight of the whole semester!"

"I got blown out of my seat from the shockwaves twice," Setsuna added with a grin. "Remember how Mineta and Shoda got sent flying? Sero had to catch them with his tape!"

"I think I still have it in here somewhere," Kendo murmured, rifling through the box.

It wasn't long before she found what she was looking for, a framed picture of the victors' podium. Half their bodies practically mummified by bandages, Bakugo and Kendo stood together on the first-place tier, flanked by Ashido and Shiozaki; all four of them were holding gold medals, reflective of the unprecedented draw that the match had ended in. Mina and Ibara had handcuffed each other in a mutual elimination, while Katuski and Itsuka had both been knocked unconscious by the sheer power of their attacks, with injuries too severe for a proper two-on-two tiebreaker to be held. For a few minutes after the match ended, there had been utter confusion as to how first place would be decided. In the end it was Principal Nezu who spoke out in favor of declaring a draw, out of concern that holding another match between the two pairs after their full recovery would likely result in a similar level of injuries and destruction.

"Damn, look at you, Katsuki! I'd forgotten how pissed you were at that medal ceremony!" Kaminari pointed at Bakugo in the picture, and stifled a laugh; the picture had captured Ground Zero in the process of chucking his medal at the ground, his expression absolutely livid. The end of the match had marked the beginning of his rivalry with Kendo.

"Because it wasn't a real victory!" Bakugo snapped, scowling. "We knocked each other out before we could finish the damn fight, and they wouldn't let us have a rematch! Then the Sports Festival our third year went back to those stupid foam sword duels for the final round… Some bullshit about ensuring student safety."

"Language," Nighteye chided from across the circle.

"Mina just looks happy to be there." Setsuna giggled and pointed at Ashido's giddy expression, a stark contrast to her partner's.

"Aren't you rooming with her?" Kendo asked, reaching for the pitcher to pour Togata more tea.

"We're still working out the details, but yeah, most likely! Seems like it's gonna be me, her, and Hagakure. But actually, there's, uh… been a recent development on that front." She glanced around the group with an anxious expression before continuing, as if she were steeling herself to say what came next. "If we can get an upgrade to a slightly bigger room, we're gonna try and bring Tsuyu in as well. We've already brought it up with her, we're just… trying to keep it on the down-low for now."

A hush fell over the room for several long seconds once Reptilia had finished speaking, and Kendo felt her gaze drop down to the floor. It was no secret that aside from Ochako's family, Asui was the one who was currently suffering the most from her best friend's brutal death, both mentally and physically. The last Kendo had heard, Froppy was still in the hospital after multiple surgeries on her hip. Just when her tongue had finally begun to heal to an acceptable level, the new injury was likely to put her right back in physical therapy, and would severely impede her ability to hop for at least a few months. There was also significant concern about her emotional wellbeing, given how close she and Uraraka had been. Itsuka was aware that several of her classmates, Setsuna included, had already visited her at the hospital, and was planning to do the same as soon as she had the chance.

I'll probably take the opportunity to visit Snipe and Present Mic too, she noted silently, a frown crossing her face. After losing Eraserhead, Mic has to be just as torn up as Asui. Amid the carnage onstage, Hizashi had only barely escaped the same fate as Vlad King, saved from decapitation by his directional speaker, which had taken the brunt of Kamakiri's blade. His throat had still taken a gruesome slash nonetheless, but Endeavor managed to cauterize the wound before Yamada's blood loss became life-threatening. Snipe, meanwhile, had been dealt a concussion and internal bleeding by the explosion that consumed the main building, but his condition was slowly stabilizing.

"That's really great of you!" Mirio was saying, a wide smile on his face as he leaned over towards Tokage. "She's lucky to have such good friends; I know it can't be easy to help her rearrange her housing plans on such short notice, at a time like this. Have you talked to Nejire? I know she's been spending a lot of time with Asui since the incident, since they both work for Ryukyu and all. Maybe you two could plan a surprise for her once everything is worked out!"

"Yeah, maybe…"

"While it's admirable to be there when she needs you," Nighteye cut in, sensing the hesistance in Reptilia's voice, "it's also important that you all give her time and space to heal. Not every young hero is as resilient as yourself, Mirio. Perhaps it would be best to put a pin on the surprise until Froppy has made a full transition to living with her new roommates." He straightened his glasses, and looked back to Setsuna. "For what it's worth, I've spoken with Ryukyu on the matter, and it seems she'll be assisting in any way she can. Feel free to contact her if you encounter any difficulties."

"Sure thing. Do you think you could introduce us? Even if we're not high schoolers anymore, we still only have provisional licenses. It would feel kind of weird for a nobody like me to reach out to a top ten hero like her…"

"That's another thing that will change soon," Togata answered with a hint of a smile. "I can tell them, right, Sir? After this incident, the government is going to be fast-tracking recent hero course graduates like you guys on a track to get your full working licenses as quickly as possible, to increase manpower in the field."

"It's another facet of their response effort," Nighteye clarified. "We'll be going over all of this in more detail at the task force meeting tomorrow, but the success of the Syndicate's attack at U.A. in spite of all the precautions we took has made it clear to the Public Safety Commission that Strike Team Fenrir alone is not enough to safeguard all of Japan from the Syndicate. Until they are soundly defeated, whole-of-society security initiatives are being enacted at a rapid pace, beginning with the curfew and random ID checks here in Tokyo. We'll also be receiving reinforcements; given that Kurogiri allows the Syndicate to operate across the width of the country at whim, regional support teams are currently being organized and approved by Best Jeanist. Once he's completed his selection, we'll have personnel or trusted affiliates in practically every major city in the nation. Nowhere will be out of our reach."

As if on cue, the friendly tone from earlier sounded again over the loudspeakers outside, followed by an equally cheery announcement.

"The time is now 10:00PM. City-wide curfew is now in effect. Any citizens remaining outside their place of residence must possess a valid public safety license or labor access permit. Violations of this policy may result in fines or detainment. The Public Safety Commission thanks you for your cooperation!"

"I still don't know how I feel about this curfew thing," Kaminari declared once the message had repeated, his arms crossed. "What, does the Commission think that they're just gonna stumble on the Syndicate walking the streets at midnight? They don't even need to go outside in the first place, as long as they have Kurogiri. Maybe it would be effective for any number of other villain groups, but under the circumstances, it feels like a knee-jerk reaction to me, just like when they put a ban on internships for students after the Black Day."

Denki's unexpectedly astute argument was met by uncomfortable silence. Every point that he had made was one that had occurred to Itsuka already, and judging from the relatively somber looks on Setsuna and Katsuki's faces, it was the same for them. Sir's expression struck a medium between sympathetic and skeptical, but before he could open his mouth to offer a rebuttal, Kendo interjected. I've already had this argument with myself half a dozen times – I don't need to have it again with other people.

"By the way, what were you guys up to today, before you came here? Hopefully your assignment was more exciting than mine; flying around half the city chasing potential leads on reconnaissance gets old after a while."

"You'll hear our full report tomorrow," Lemillion replied eagerly, "but I guess we can give you a preview. For the most part, we were supervising Toga Himiko's interrogation."

"Oh really?" Her interest piqued, Kendo leaned forward intently; beside her, Bakugo did the same. "And how was that?"

"Really fucking creepy," Tokage replied, then flushed red immediately. "Uhh, sorry. Excuse the language. That chick just makes my skin crawl, you know? I was one of the ones who helped pull her back through the portal after the attack the other day. You remember, right, Bakugo? You were there too."

"How could I forget?" Ground Zero frowned and shook his head. "Even after we yanked her through and the warp gate closed, she was clawing and kicking like some cornered animal. She gave Mudslide a black eye and broken nose, scratched Airshifter's face all to hell with her nails, damn near broke my wrist… then, when we thought we had her subdued, she fucking bit Shishida, tore one of his fingers off and turned into him. Blood everywhere." He sighed, and glanced over at Kendo before shifting his gaze down to the floor.

"It's embarrassing to admit," Tokage continued, "but even with four or five people trying to hold her, she almost slipped away from us. We underestimated her. It wasn't until Endeavor got there that we were finally able to secure her for good. As far as I'm concerned, we were just lucky she didn't have a knife on her, or there would've been deaths. So, given all that, I think it's needless to say that she's in the tightest levels of containment possible, with a huge squad of heroes and guards stationed around her 24/7 while she awaits sentencing. They have this spooky muzzle on her face that they only take off for questioning, and she's straight-jacketed to this big metal rack-type thing too – I feel bad for the poor guys who have to let her down for meals and the bathroom."

"God, yeah, just seeing that whole setup gave me the chills!" Kaminari butted in, nodding vigorously. "I don't think I could stomach going near her, even if they paid me to. It was scary enough watching her from behind a bulletproof glass window." Chargebolt shuddered for effect, and Ground Zero scoffed next to him.

"Wimp. They still haven't transferred her to Tartarus, huh?"

"Not quite yet." Nighteye straightened his glasses. "As of tonight, Camilla is still in temporary detention at an undisclosed location. For official purposes, they're waiting for a judge to hand down her sentence before they can legally imprison her in Tartarus. But practically speaking, the only thing delaying them is the Commission's fear that the Syndicate will attempt a rescue operation while she's in transit to the facility. Jeanist and I have been working with them extensively to plot out the safest route possible; that will be the main topic of our meeting tomorrow. For the time being, consider all other major Fenrir operations temporarily suspended. We'll need all hands on deck for this transfer. We believe we'll receive the all-clear to proceed within the next two days, three at most."

"Understood, Sir." Kendo nodded solemnly. "I look forward to hearing more at the meeting. How did the interrogation itself go, though? I guess it would be a bit too optimistic to hope that she actually gave anything up…"

"To say that she's unwilling to cooperate would be… an understatement." Nighteye replied. "When Carmilla did choose to speak, she mostly attempted to toy with her interrogators psychologically. This included questions about their families and places of residence, graphic warnings about what she would do to them when she escaped, and vivid descriptions of both her past murders and her… Well, her…"

"…Intimate moments with Midoriya," Setsuna finished, sticking out her tongue in disgust. "It was incredibly gross, for the record. She dodged every real question they threw at her, or gave answers that were obviously false. But I guess you'll see for yourself in the morning."

"See for myself?" Itsuka raised an eyebrow. "I thought I was scheduled for more recon tomorrow, with Tentacole, Kamui, and Real Steel."

"You were," Sir answered, "until this evening. There's been a change of plans; now you're part of the guard shift for her cell."

Lemillion looked over to her next, his expression a good deal more serious than usual.

"Over the course of the day, between all the fabrications and scare tactics, Carmilla made one consistent demand: to see you."

"Me?!" Kendo shook her head, confused. "I don't get it… why would she want to see me?"

"Beats me," Kaminari quipped, "but man, for a while there she just wouldn't shut up about you. Talking about how she knows everything about you, and how she might be able to forgive for cutting Seraph's arm off if you if you come to see her, and how beautiful you are… it was real creepy stuff, dude. Gave me the chills."

"Okay, that's enough about Carmilla," Kendo declared, shaking her head. "If I'm gonna have to see her anyway tomorrow, I don't need to think about her any more now. There's another thing I've been meaning to ask, though. Is there any news about Uraraka and Kamakiri? About why they did what they did? No matter how hard I try, I still can't wrap my head around it. There… there must be some other explanation by now, right?"

All the recent graduates' eyes turned to Nighteye and Lemillion in unison, waiting in silent anticipation for an answer. Even more than the attack itself, what had caused the most shock and heartbreak among the U.A. community was the fact that two more potential traitors had revealed themselves in the form of Uravity and Jack Mantis, a final insult that completely undermined two years' worth of efforts by Principal Nezu to ensure that the school was free of turncoats, and put the last nail in U.A.'s coffin. There was still widespread disbelief among many of the students Itsuka had spoken to, fueled by speculation that Togaru and Ochako's 'betrayal' was part of a Syndicate plot, employing Synapse's mind control or some other underhanded tactic to force the two students to act the way they had. Even among the media, details about the two traitors were scarce and speculative, with more sensational headlines than actual, serious reports.

After their numerous conversations following her escape from captivity, Kendo remained ironclad in her certainty that Uraraka would never have willingly turned on them, but there was still the lingering, unanswered question of just how deep the psychological scars from her experience had run, and just what sort of mental trauma and brainwashing she might have been put through. As far as Kamakiri was concerned, Itsuka was just as obstinate: I've known Togaru for three years. He can be a bit of an ass when his competitive side kicks in, and he reminds me a bit too much of Bakugo for my comfort, but he has a heart underneath all the moodiness and aggression. He cares about us, I know it. It can't have been him – he just isn't capable of doing something this horrible.

You thought the same thing about Monoma, the voice in her head whispered; she scowled and pushed it aside.

"Our forensic teams have spent the last two days sweeping the scene of the U.A. attack for clues, not to mention…" Sir sighed, and lowered his voice. "…Not to mention analyzing Uraraka's body. They've had a limited window to do so, given that her funeral is taking place this weekend, but the first round of findings came back today. I'll spare you the more graphic details, but suffice to say her brain shows significant signs of chemical and electronic tampering, along with the trace remains of a metallic implant of some sort. The results of the autopsy won't be ready to be shared publically for some time yet, but I believe it's safe to say that she was not acting of her own will when she took Eraserhead's life and then her own."

"Jesus," Bakugo breathed, running a hand through his hair as Kaminari's eyes widened in horror beside him. "Those evil fucks."

"What about Kamakiri?" Setsuna asked, her voice tinged with worry. Reptilia had been a fair bit closer to Togaru than Ituska; during their second year, there had even been rumors for a while about the two of them secretly dating. "Did they find anything about him?"

"No direct evidence, unfortunately," Lemillion responded. "The goop that Twice's clones leave behind doesn't really give the forensic teams anything to work with, so no one's been able to determine when the real Jack Mantis was replaced by a double. They brought Hound Dog in on the case too, though – he worked over the entire campus grounds, and found the scent trail that Uraraka and Aizawa left behind when they left the main building. It led into the forest before finally turning around and heading to the athletic field where the two of them were killed, but there were other scents present, mixed in with Uravity and Eraser's. Whoever it was sprayed themselves with an odor-blocking compound to try and cover their tracks, but he can tell that there were at least two of them."

"Then it's not out of the question that Shinso was there," Kendo declared, as something resembling hope welled up in her chest. "If he somehow snuck in, he could've been applying his quirk to transmit orders to Kamakiri remotely, and maybe to Uraraka too. That would explain almost everything, right? It's like we thought, there aren't any new traitors, they were just trying to rattle us! Ochako might be gone, but we can still save Togaru! They're probably holding him in their headquarters, with Todoroki!"

"Maybe… We still can't say for sure." Mirio sighed and shook his head before reaching for the pitcher of tea again.

"As we move forward with these investigations, it's incredibly important that none of us jump to any forgone conclusions." Nighteye gave Kendo an admonishing glance, then turned his gaze to the other graduates present. "Confirmation bias: the moment you decide what you believe the outcome of a case to be, all the evidence you collect will begin to skew towards that conclusion. It's a trap that I've seen too many heroes fall into. We must be prepared for any result, no matter how unpleasant."

"God, this is all way too much to think about!" Kaminari wailed in distress, cradling his head in his hands. "When did everything get so complex and twisty? Why can't this case just be nice and simple?!"

"Quit whining in front of the grown-ups, Sparky." Scowling, Bakugo reached over and grabbed the bottle of sake from earlier, then shoved it into Denki's arms. "Will this shut you up? God knows you seem to love this shit, blabbing the whole graduation about how we should all get wasted with you."

"That's our resident alcoholic for you," Setsuna teased, detaching an eye and a hand and letting them drift over to the six-pack of beer on the kitchen counter. "Mind if I join in too, Kendo? Or were you and Bakugo planning to finish all this booze yourselves until we got here and interrupted your intimate evening?"

"N-no, that's not… I mean, uh, go ahead, I guess…" Kendo cast an embarrassed glance over at Sir, who nodded in silent understanding before rising to his feet.

"Well, it seems it's about the right time of night for me to head back. You've had a hard few days – feel free to enjoy yourselves, but not too much. Mirio, I trust you to ensure that they'll all make it to work tomorrow."

"Don't worry, Sir, I'll keep 'em in check! Pass me one too, Tokage!"

"I'll show you out!" Kendo blurted before her former mentor could slip out the door, shooting up to her feet as a lightbulb went off in her head. Thanks to the others' antics, she'd nearly forgotten, but there was something she needed to ask Nighteye – something important.

Itsuka hurriedly slipped on a pair of sandals and ushered Sir out into the hall; once they were a good distance down towards the elevators, out of earshot from the door, he drew to a halt and turned to face her.

"I assume that there's something you need to speak to me about, yes? If not, I can assure you that escorting me down to the lobby is rather unnecessary."

"No, there is." She took a deep breath, struggling to tame the nervous edge to her voice. "There's something I've been meaning to ask you for a while now. It first occurred to me after the Black Day, but especially since the graduation attack, I just… I know you won't like this, that you'll say it's selfish, but…" She sighed and closed her eyes, steeling herself. No use dancing around it. You just have to bite the bullet and ask. When she opened them again, he was still watching her expectantly, his expression unreadable. Kendo had a nagging feeling that he already knew what her request was going to be, but she pressed forward regardless.

"I want you to use your quirk on me. I want you to look into my future and tell me if we win. Tell me if we beat the Syndicate."

---

The Next Morning

Syndicate Headquarters, Nagoya

"No, no, no, you need to hold the pan more carefully, like this! It's going to fall apart at this rate!"

Shinso watched with a vague, half-hearted sense of interest as Mr. Compress attempted to instruct Twice on the finer mechanics of pancake flipping, looming over Bubaigawara with an impatient expression on his face as he took the skillet in his leather-gloved hands. It was barely 8:00AM, earlier than Hitoshi would normally be awake outside of missions, but there was a strategy meeting scheduled in half an hour, courtesy of Yaoyorozu; as a result, Synapse had the rare privilege of watching the two villains in question struggle through their attempt to cook breakfast as he sipped his morning coffee at the counter, straight black and extra bitter.

In the barstool to his right, Giran was puffing at a cigarette and tapping away on two cellphones at once. To his left, Hatsume was slumped over and sound asleep, mumbling intermittently about her babies as she drooled onto the marble. To be frank, she still reeked of grease and sweat from a long night in the workshop with Doctor Shield, and it was anyone's guess when she'd last showered; Shinso had learned a long time ago that it was a pointless exercise to try and force his girlfriend to maintain proper hygiene when she was working on a passion project, outside of using his quirk on her. Stuck between a cloud of cigarette smoke on one end and mechanical fumes on the other, Hitoshi buried his nose in his cup of coffee and prayed silently for salvation as he glanced back over at their amateur chefs.

"Now watch carefully, my dear Jin," Compress was saying, "it's all in the wrist! It should be one precise, fluid motion, with no effort wasted."

With a trademark flourish, Atsuhiro heaved the pan into motion, only for the pancake in question to fly forward instead of straight up, streaking towards to the back of the stove; Compress caught it with his quirk in the nick of time, then deposited it back in the skillet with a flash of blue light, landing it on the opposite side as originally intended.

"What the hell was that?!" Twice protested, his eyes wide. "You totally screwed that up just now, even worse than me!"

Like Atsuhiro, Bubaigawara usually went without his mask inside their various hideouts – he was currently wearing nothing but a plaid bathrobe over his undershirt and boxers, his tufted blond hair still messy and unkempt from the night before as he shuffled about the kitchen in a pair of bunny-adorned slippers. Compress, by contrast, had already donned an elegant vest on top of his gloves and bowtie, and his silver-tinged black hair was perfectly styled.

"I haven't the slightest idea what you mean," Sako replied with a chuckle. "All of that was intended, of course! Merely a planned demonstration of my quirk's potential. Now, would you kindly check on the eggs and bacon? They'll burn if we're not careful."

"Demonstration my ass," Jin grumbled; he tended briefly to the other two pans on the stovetop, then turned around to face the counter. "You guys agree with me, right? Back me up, there was no way he meant to do that!"

"Mmm… what do you mean the circuit won't connect…" Longshot muttered aloud, shifting in her sleep.

Off to the other side, Giran smirked, and shoved the two burner phones back into his pockets in unison.

"My bad, I wasn't paying attention. But if you ask me, Jin it's too early to be worrying about something like this, no? Just relax a bit, there's no pressure." The smuggler pulled another cigarette from the pack with one hand, and produced a lighter from inside his suave purple coat with the other. "Here, this should help. You love to have your Natural American Spirit in the morning, don't you?"

"I-I do. No, I hate it!"

Within a few moments, Twice was smoking as well, and Shinso let out a sigh into his nearly empty mug. This is getting out of hand – now there are two of them. Synapse was spared further dismay a few moments later, though, when the sound of purring became audible beneath him; he reached down and lifted a midnight-black cat onto his lap, stroking absentmindedly behind its ears as it draped itself over his legs and began to vibrate affectionately.

"Oh, who's this?" Giran raised an eyebrow in curiosity as he set his cigarette down in the ashtray and took a sip from his own mug of coffee; if the distinctive smell of whisky lurking beneath the fumes of tobacco was any indication, he'd spiked the drink liberally. "Did you guys pick up a new member while I was laying low?" He chuckled at his own joke, and Hitoshi waited patiently for the man's laughter to abate before replying.

"This is Tsukuyomi." Synapse smiled softly, and glanced down at the cat's wide yellow eyes as he began to lick Shinso's hand with a tongue the consistency of sandpaper. "I got him about a year ago – usually he stays here at the Nagoya base. His sister should be around here somewhere…"

Hitoshi glanced around to look for the other cat in question, but Twice found her first, hoisting the slightly chubbier calico into the air with a wide smile as she made her way through the kitchen.

"Ah, there's our Kikurage! Aren't you just a gorgeous little lady?"

"Kikurage?" Giran frowned. "You named her after a type of mushroom?"

"What can I say," Shinso replied with a shrug, "they're my favorite kind. Good in ramen."

"Mine too!" Twice added, cradling the cat like a baby. "No, I hate them!"

"The food, Jin, focus on the food!" Compress chided, sliding another finished pancake onto the serving plate. "And besides, you're blowing smoke in the poor thing's face!"

"Oops! My bad, Kikurage, you know I didn't mean that!"

Once Bubaigawara had set the confused calico down on the floor and turned back to the eggs and bacon, Hitoshi rose to his feet and grabbed the cat food from a cabinet, pouring the two their morning meals while they paraded around his feet in excitement. Meanwhile, Giran had turned on the TV in the adjoining living room, and was flipping absentmindedly through the channels when he landed on a morning news show; the camera was currently following Endeavor as he stalked past a crowd of clamoring reporters to the doors of his agency, flanked by two of his sidekicks.

"Do you still have nothing to say about the allegations of domestic abuse that have surfaced from inside your own family following the graduation disaster?!" One reporter was asking, only to be roundly ignored as another half dozen shouted out similar questions. "Your own son has stepped forward to speak about the trauma he and his siblings endured throughout their childhood, Endeavor, not to mention your wife! How do you plan to respond to the charges of neglect and domestic abuse that Todoroki Natsuo filed with a municipal court yesterday?!"

"Give him some space!" One of the sidekicks shouted, a young woman with flaming gold hair who Shinso recognized as Burnin'. While Enji continued on through the doors, she stayed behind to take on the press, shoving back one reporter's mic back when he leaned too far across the partition that had been erected around the tower's entrance. "Nothing has changed from yesterday – the Endeavor Hero Agency continues to dispute the veracity of any and all 'confessions' produced by the Yakuza lieutenant Nemoto Shin. There's no telling how his quirk may have been modified to manipulate his victims' words. Now if you'd please, we have important work ahead of us – namely, tracking down the criminals and terrorists responsible for the attack, and for the continued imprisonment of Endeavor's son, Shoto! We will cooperate with local law enforcement on any legal matters going forward, but our top priorities remain the capture of all members of the Syndicate, and securing Shoto's immediate release! That's all, we have no further comment!"

"Hmm, and how's that going for you so far?" Hatsume murmured through a sleepy grin, rubbing at her bloodshot eyes. "They just sound desperate at this point, like a bunch of broken records."

"I never did like Nemoto, but at least he did something useful before he went and got himself captured." The cats successfully fed, Shinso stepped up to Hatsume's side of the counter and wiped the lingering drool from the side of her mouth with his thumb. "Welcome back, Sleeping Beauty. Was that a nice power nap? I think you got a solid twenty minutes in."

"Mmm, I could go for a few more." Mei leaned over and kissed him gently on the lips; when Hitoshi started to break away under the false impression that a peck was all she wanted, she grabbed onto the collar of his coat and slipped her tongue into his mouth, prompting wolf whistles from Twice and Giran.

"Sorry," Hatsume quipped breathlessly a few long moments later, "just needed a recharge! I'm scheduled for fourteen hours of sleep as soon as this meeting is over – now I should be good to make it until then!"

"Well, you know me – I'm always happy to be of assistance. Just promise me one thing." He reached over and ran his index finger down her cheek, then held it out in front of her to demonstrate how black it had been stained by oil and axle grease. "You have to shower before you pass out. I love you, but you smell like a drum of oil dipped in sweat right now, and I'm not washing our sheets again like last time. I don't want to have to use my quirk again, but I will if I have to."

"Would you look at that, breakfast is ready!"

Nimbly dodging his attempt to grab her by the arm with a surprising degree of agility, Mei darted over to the stove, where Twice and Compress had finally finished cooking, and were setting out plates. On cue, a swirling purple and black portal opened up in the center of the room just moments later, and Yaoyorozu Momo strode through, followed by Kurogiri, Monoma, Overhaul, and Scimitar, the newest full-fledged member of their group. It was Synapse's first time meeting the new recruit in person – the two former U.A. students exchanged a curious glance, and Hitoshi made a mental note to have Neito introduce them later.

"Wonderful timing!" Compress cried, gesturing dramatically to the dining table as he greeted the new arrivals. "Feel free to help yourselves to the food, everyone! Yaoyorozu, Monoma, I already have a kettle boiling for our morning tea!"

"It's still a bit lonely at these gatherings without Tobita around," Pandora lamented once everyone had taken a seat, tracing her fingers along a slender white scar that ran from her left temple down along the line of her cheekbone: a souvenir from her fight with Re-Destro a few days prior, amid the botched recovery operation for Gentle and Spinner. "I do quite miss our banter about all our different blends and varieties. I'm sure he'd appreciate that we're drinking Royal Flush today."

"I still think it's weird that you won't let me fix that scar," said Chisaki, his mask set aside to eat. "It would take about two seconds."

"No, that's quite alright. With the proper organic materials, you could've grown Midoriya a new arm by now, but he's insisted otherwise; my reasoning is the same. It's a marker of my failure, a reminder to be more careful and thorough in my planning going forward. Perhaps I'll consider letting you remove it when I redeem my inadequate performance."

"How very kind of you to volunteer for the lion's share of the blame!" Monoma cried in response, a manic glint in his eye as he poured his tea. "As expected of former Class A, I suppose!"

Yaoyorozu chuckled softly in reply, then glanced up to the empty chair across from her.

"I've been meaning to ask – where is La Brava? Our teatime isn't quite complete without her, no? Not to mention that we need her for the meeting."

"Still asleep, I think." Twice answered through a mouthful of eggs. "She's a late riser, that one. Midoriya's in his room too."

"I'll go get them," Shinso offered, pushing out his chair and starting down the hall. "I need to get up to make myself some more coffee anyway."

Empty mug in hand, he knocked on La Brava's door first, and opened in it when he heard a faint 'come in' from inside. Aiba was glued to her computer when he stepped in, her hair let down from its usual ponytails; the room was dark aside from the glow of the screen.

"You gonna come to breakfast? Meeting's starting soon, you need to be there."

"I know, I've been keeping track of time. I can hear you all talking out there – I know that hussy's already here, fawning over my Gentle. The nerve of her, complaining that he's gone after she gave up on rescuing him!"

"Look, we've already been over this, La Brava, you were at the post-op debrief. Pandora didn't want to leave him or Spinner behind, but she had no other choice. Her team barely made it out alive as is. We'll find another way to get him back."

The short-statured girl crossed her arms and pouted in response, glaring at her monitor. As his eyes adjusted to the light, Shinso realized that it was an image of Momo on the screen, a still captured from the battle with Hawks on the Black Day. Yaoyorozu's shoulder-length black hair was flowing majestically in the wind, bright pink cherry blossoms alight on the breeze behind her as she aimed a capture gun towards the Winged Hero with a stoic, determined expression. One of Manami's ongoing tasks was to continue editing the footage she captured of their various missions, releasing clips and images periodically on the web via scrambled IP addresses: bursts of official Syndicate propaganda, for all effects and purposes. Her uploads almost always went viral on whichever site she chose that day, but were blocked or deleted by government censors just as quickly; it was a constant cycle of ups and downs, but it had the effect of increasing their publicity dramatically, just as Midoriya had first intended when he recruited the duo.

"Ugh, I can't stand it!" Aiba cried, her head in her hands. "Why is she so much more attractive than me?! So tall and pretty and smart! She's gonna steal my Gentle away from me at this rate, I just know it!"

Hitoshi's dark-ringed eyes widened in surprise, and it took him several long seconds to compose a proper reply.

"Wow… I, uh… I'm probably the actual last person you should be consulting about something like this, first of all – assuming you're actually consulting me and not just thinking out loud. For the record, though, I think you've drastically misinterpreted the situation. I'm not particularly good with women, but even I can tell you that Yaoyorozu isn't interested in Gentle like that."

"You liar, Synapse! I know you're just saying that! Gentle's the most handsome, funny, charming man in the world, so there's no way she couldn't already be falling for him! Ugh, this is all my fault, I should've never helped arrange a meeting for him with a group that had so many cute girls in it!"

At that, Shinso's already low threshold of patience reached its limit, and he narrowed his brows in annoyance.

"Apologies for not entertaining this debate any further, but the longer I stand here convincing you to come outside, the longer it's going to take me to get my next cup of coffee, and I want my next cup of coffee, La Brava. If you're not out there at the table within the next minute, I'm going to have to forbid Twice and Chaudron from making another double of Gentle for you until further notice."

"Understood!" Aiba squeaked, leaping up from her chair. She was running down the hall to the kitchen within a matter of seconds, still in her pink pajamas and bright red heart-shaped slippers; Synapse almost laughed at the sight, then started further down the hall to Seraph's bedroom.

Half a dozen paces away from the door, it suddenly creaked open of its own accord, and Midoriya stepped out into the hall in a white bathrobe, an apologetic smile on his face and two of his notebooks in hand. His already untamed hair was even more messy and chaotic than usual, and he was steadily bleeding from several wounds, including two puncture marks just above his collarbone, a small cut on his cheek, and a hastily bandaged slash on his chest.

"Apologies, Hitoshi – I lost track of time for a moment there." He grinned sheepishly, and nodded towards the kitchen. "Shall we, then? I trust the others are here already."

"Depends, I suppose. Is she coming with us?" Smirking, Shinso glanced past Seraph to Toga, who was currently watching them with gleaming golden eyes through the gap in the bedroom door. Her position exposed, Himiko stepped out into the hall to join them, and gave Hitoshi a wide, fanged grin. As was often the case, she was fully naked, with her hair let down around her shoulders and several of her lover's bloodstains visible on various parts of her body.

"I think I'll pass today," Carmilla purred, wrapping her hands around Seraph from behind. "After all, I barely slept last night. Tell them all I say hello, though."

"Of course, Himiko." Synapse nodded respectfully. "Get some rest."

With a friendly wave goodbye, the copy retreated back through the door and closed it behind her. Naturally, Twice had been more than happy to use his quirk to help ease the mental toll that Toga's capture had exacted on their leader over the past few days; though he was skilled at hiding it, Shinso knew full well that Midoriya was still angry and afraid beneath his cool exterior, even now. To his credit, Izuku hadn't yet openly lost his temper around the others, even when Overhaul and Mr. Compress returned from the graduation attack to deliver the unpleasant news. At the time, he had merely replied with stunned silence, clear disbelief that the event Chisaki was describing had come to pass. Once the reality finally sunk in some minutes later, Midoriya had handed over temporary command to Synapse, and retreated into his study to 'formulate a new strategy'. By the time he emerged and resumed his duties the next day, his outward demeanor had returned to normal, but those closest to him knew better than to take the development at face value.

"So tell me, Izuku – how's this new strategy of yours coming along?" Shinso glanced over at Seraph as they neared the end of the hallway. "Do we get to hear what it is yet?"

"All in good time," Midoriya replied, as cryptic as always. "There are other matters we need to attend to first, unfortunately."

A few short minutes later, the plates from breakfast had been cleared away, and the meeting was beginning in earnest, with Seraph seated at the head of the table and Shinso at the opposite end. Giran and Twice were still smoking shamelessly, joined now by Scimitar, but with a full mug of coffee in hand and Kikurage in his lap, Synapse was fairly sure that he could survive the rest of the morning.

"Now, on our agenda for today," Midoriya was saying, tapping expectantly at his opened notebook with the tip of a pen, "Scimitar, we'll be filming your debut video this afternoon. Are your preparations complete, La Brava?"

"Yep!" Aiba replied, looking up from her laptop. "All the cameras are charged and ready. It'll be a recording, not a livestream, so I'll be able to edit it however we want before the upload."

"Excellent. Speaking of uploads, how is our digital footprint doing?"

"Better than ever! Our mentions and views are up tenfold since the graduation attack, and when the videos I post get taken down, other people re-upload them before I even get the chance! Syndicate fan groups are already popping up on the dark web, usually overlapping with the networks anti-hero protestors have been using to organize, and demand for Longshot's weapons and support items has gone through the roof!"

"It's an even better response than we could've hoped for," Momo commented, nodding in approval. "Ordinary people are beginning to do our work for us, without even being asked. Just imagine what they'll be willing to do when we finally go wide with recruitment!"

"That's still far in the future," Izuku countered, his eyes still fixed on his scribbled notes. "But yes, their enthusiasm is certainly a valuable asset; for now, it is our responsibility to keep fanning the flames. To that end, I believe your next mission is nearly ready to commence as well, Pandora. How is your current progress with Todoroki?"

"Things are proceeding precisely as scheduled. With everyone's cooperation, we'll hold his 'induction ceremony' tomorrow night, followed by what he believes to be his first official assignment the next day. As instructed, I've continued to feed him false information about our current plans and infrastructure."

"Perfect. Longshot, what is the status of your joint project with Doctor Shield? Any significant updates?"

"It'll be a few more days before it's ready for a test run, but trust me, the finished product is gonna blow you away!" Hatsume leaned forward eagerly, her eyes wide with delight. "It would've been done yesterday, but something about the design was bugging me, so I scrapped it and started over! The Doc's been getting more and more cooperative as time goes by, and I've only caught him trying to make tools to escape once or twice!"

"His daughter's another question entirely," Overhaul cut in. "If you were hoping she was gonna get Stockholm Syndrome or something, it's not working out – she still tries to break out every day or two, even if my men rough her up afterward. She's broken two guard's noses in the past week alone; it's getting to be a pain to keep holding her like this. As far as I'm concerned, at this rate we should either kill her or ransom her back to the Americans, before they start coming after us too."

"I get what you're saying," Mei replied, "but as of now, the promise we've made of supervised weekly visits with Melissa is one of the main thing motivating David to keep working. The death threats wore out pretty quick, so if he doesn't start to see proof that his daughter's alive and well on a regular basis, then I'm pretty sure he might just shut down entirely."

"Then there's an easy solution," Chisaki countered. "Ransom her back, and have Twice make a copy of her for every visit. How's he supposed to know the difference? Is he gonna break his own daughter's arm to check?"

"Not a bad plan," said Midoriya, his brows furrowed in contemplation. "The only potential flaw is that Melissa's copies would only have memories running up to the moment Twice takes her measurements – she wouldn't be able to form new ones with each successive visit. The illusion would be broken rather quickly.

"I'm sure we could find a work-around…" Yaoyorozu mused, one hand on her chin. "Longshot, perhaps you could record every visit, then implant each successive copy with the relevant memories. With your Baku technology, we could even begin to alter their personalities as we see fit, make him believe that she's coming around to our cause."

"Brilliant." Izuku clapped his hands together, beaming, and Momo blushed visibly in reply. "Absolutely brilliant, Pandora. Twice, make a copy of Longshot after this meeting adjourns, and we'll have her get to work on this."

"You got it, boss!"

"Now, as far as updates from me are concerned…" Seraph flipped a page in his notebook, and nodded to himself as he found the section he was looking for. "As of yesterday, Twice's copy of Toga has already resumed her meetings with the Recruits, with the goal of assessing their impressions of the attack. A few of them have already been productive, of their own accord, though: we now have multiple bugs in Kendo Itsuka's new apartment, thanks to one notably industrious member of our undercover division."

A faint grin on his face, Izuku opened an app on his cellphone, and pointed it at the living room TV. A video feed began to play on the screen moments later – the image was blurry at first, and the sound quality left much to be desired, but both the picture and audio quickly came into focus on a close-up of Kaminari Denki's smiling face.

"There, that should do it!" Chargebolt called, shifting back and forth on Lemillion's shoulders as the rest of Battle Fist's living room came into view, with Sir Nighteye, Ground Zero, and Reptilia all watching him intently alongside Kendo. "Oh man, it already feels so nice!"

Shinso felt his brows raising in interest as he continued to watch the gathering of heroes that the bug had captured; Midoriya let the footage play for another minute or two before finally pausing it.

"As usual," Izuku declared in a thoroughly satisfied tone, "Emperor never disappoints."

---

And so part three of the story begins! Quick poll question for everyone- which of the two 12-chapter arcs did you like best so far, and why? And what are you hoping to see during this one? I like the nice even format, so I'll probably be sticking with an arc of the same length this time around.

As far as this chapter goes, I hope you all enjoyed the flashback at the beginning- it was nice to give All Might a few lines again. I might do a few more brief flashbacks with various other characters if the story calls for it; there's a lot to expand on in the two years of the time skip, especially for the traitors. And speaking of traitors, we get another reveal, although a lot of you already called this one in the reviews. There were quite a few hints dropped regarding Kaminari over the course of this arc, and it's going to be a lot of fun delving further into his motivations. We also got a fight (of sorts) between Kendo and Bakugo, and an important question from Itsuka to Nighteye- any guesses on how he'll reply to her request, or what Midoriya's mysterious new plan might be?

Finally, let me say, guys, I had no idea how satisfying it would be to write scenes involving cats until this chapter. It's going to be incredibly difficult to keep myself from just throwing Tsukuyomi and Kikurage in every Shinso scene from now on.