A/N: Sorry this one came out so late compared to the normal schedule, guys. Had some kind of flu (no, not Covid- the bastard has yet to get me!) that knocked me on my ass for the better part of a week. But I'm back now, and it's story time!

Let's see how Red Riot and Kai do on their official debut as heroes!

Debut

"You're with Fat Gum?" Tsukauchi sounded surprised on the other end of the phone line. "I'd have thought you'd go with a bigger agency."

"Gang Orca was too busy to take me on for this semester," Kurai half-lied, leaning back in his chair and putting his hand in Mina's. She was sitting on the edge of his bed, having wanted to be present for the conversation about to take place. "Regardless, I did as you asked."

"Yes, you did," the detective replied. "All right, here's how it is; my resources are already stretched pretty thin trying to run down leads on the League's whereabouts. Gran Torino and I don't have the time to actively help you on your end of the investigation, but I will give you access to the files I have regarding the villains and the all of police officers that have tangled with them."

Kurai raised an eyebrow at that, even though the detective couldn't see him. "Doesn't that include basically everybody in the Kamino department? Pretty sure my dad had you all working overtime during the Kamino Ward cleanup."

"I only logged the officers that had anything to do with the raid itself, not the cleanup effort," Tsukauchi replied, relieving the young hero. "It's still over seventy men, and there's no guarantee that you'll find anything even remotely connecting them to the League. If we're being honest, your theory is kind of thin on paper."

"You saying you don't think it's worth pursuing?"

"If I thought that, I would have shut you down as soon as this came to my desk," the other man answered. "My gut says that you're onto something, and I can't ignore the fact that All For One may have his fingers in the Police Force, even if it's just a hunch."

"I just think it's weird that he seemed to know that you guys were going to show up," Kurai shrugged. "Someone must have talked, and since my father isn't alive anymore, I can't exactly question him about it. My only option is to profile the officers involved and hope that I find something that tells me what I need to know."

"No offense, but I hope you don't find anything linking my coworkers to that monster," Tsukauchi said dryly, causing Kurai to roll his eyes.

"You know what I mean," he muttered. "In any case, you have my thanks, detective. I'll let you know if I find anything in the profiles."

"Good luck, kid." The line went dead, and Kurai put his phone in his pocket.

Turning toward his girlfriend, he asked, "What do you think?"

"I'm honestly worried about what you might find, but I also know that it'd be way worse to just let you keep wondering about it," she sighed. "And I know that because you've got the legal green light, you're gonna keep going on this case, no matter what I say, so I might as well help you out in any way that I can."

Kurai smiled at Mina before he leaned forward and kissed her softly, to her surprise and delight. When he pulled back, she asked, "What was that for?"

"A few things," he answered as he leaned back in his seat. "Mostly for being awesome about this whole mess that I call my life, but also because you're pretty cute."

"Hehe," Mina giggled happily. "You know you're the only person that ever called me that, outside of my family?"

"Seriously?" Kurai was surprised. His girlfriend was a looker, there was no questioning that, at least, in his eyes.

"Sure, I've got the whole 'pep in my step' and the hot pink that'll stick out in a crowd, but no one's ever said it was 'cute', you know?" She tapped the skin next to her right eye a couple of times before she blinked at him. "I think these mostly were what put people off when they got close enough to wanna talk to me, but I could be wrong." Mina shrugged as she added, "I had a lotta friends in middle school, but none of the boys really looked at me the way that they looked at some of my classmates, you know? Not saying I wanted a date or anything like that, but I guess it was… I dunno? It was bummer, wondering if there was something wrong with me that nobody wanted to at least chat me up."

Kurai realized that, without meaning to, he had opened up a door to some of Mina's deeply-rooted insecurities, something she had very few of. Trying to measure his words carefully, he said, "Well, like I told you, I like your horns- they make you look cool. And your eyes, well…" He made sure to maintain strong eye contact as he added, "What can I say? Normal is overrated, and if they keep other guys from looking too closely, then I appreciate them all the more."

Mina blinked at him a few times before a devilish smile creased her face as she leaned forward and said, "Smooth talk like that is gonna get you in trouble, mister."

"Hang on a- mph!"

Late that night, two villains with gigantification-type quirks were duking it out in the middle of a busy city block near the freeway- a sure disaster in the making. The police were radioing for heroes to come help them when they got a big surprise.

Nejire floated above the scene of the battle, an impish grin on her face as yellow energy swirled around her feet and hands. Aiming her palms at the two brawlers, she let her power build up and surge forth, knocking the both of them off-balance. "Hey now, why are you guys fighting?" she asked them as they tried to regain their footing. "Is it because you have the same quirk? That'd be weird."

One of the fighters, a man with the head of a shark, let out a rumbling growl as he tried to get up, but that wasn't about to happen on the heroine's watch. Flashing another cute smile, she called out, "Your turn, girls!"

"Crescent Gravity Combo…!" Uravity called out from above, using her powers to keep herself and a ton of loose rubble afloat.

"Rose Shower!" Crescent Rose's higher-pitched voice echoed across the night sky, accompanied by a red blur that shot down from above, right in between the two villains, the slipstream she generated carrying the loose rock that Uravity had prepared for her. The second that she landed, she swung her huge scythe twice in either direction before she sped out of the way of the oncoming storm of rock and wind.

By the time the dust had settled, the two villains were on the ground, shrunk down to their original sizes, and covered in bruises. Each of them also had a deep cut on the back of one of their legs, which led to a curious look from Uravity toward her classmate. As soon as she saw it, Crescent Rose shrugged and asked, "What? I didn't want them to run away if we lost them in the dust cloud, so I cut their hamstrings. Now they can't go anywhere but a hospital."

"Wow, is that what you would've done to Mirio if you'd had your scythe?" Nejire asked as she floated down to stand next to the freshmen students. "I gotta know!"

"Nah, my Uncle Crow always told me that if you're getting your weapon out, you gotta be ready to play for keeps," the red-caped girl answered.

"A wise policy," said another woman's voice. This one belonged to Ryukyu, the Dragon Heroine, and the lady responsible for the work-study heroes. She was a tall woman with golden eyes and ash-blonde hair, wearing a dress that resembled red dragon's scales, as befitted her quirk. Her persona was charming-yet-commanding, and the three student heroes had each found themselves quickly respecting her.

Their mentor smiled as she added, "Well done, all of you. Nejire, you've been improving on your attack timing; much better than before." Nejire giggled as nodded her head rapidly in acceptance of the compliment while Ryukyu turned toward the newest additions to her agency. "You two really are something special. Nejire told me as much, but I must say that seeing it in person was an experience in it of itself. You both handled yourselves without fear in the face of something I would have had difficulty with during my first days as a hero."

"Aw, thanks," Uravity said sheepishly. "I was actually expecting to be a lot more nervous than I was."

"Yeah, but you've had to fight villains and Bakugo before," Crescent Rose reminded her with a bright grin. "I think it'd be hard to get really scared after stuff like that."

"I mean it," Ryukyu told them, grabbing their attention again. "You did very well. In fact, there's a matter of interest that I'd like to discuss with you in greater detail once we're done with patrol for the night. For now, I'll leave it at letting you know that Nighteye's agency has requested a joint effort for an investigation that he's been working on for some time, now."

"Nighteye?" Uravity couldn't help but perk up at the name. After all, she knew about it fairly well, thanks to a certain boy with messy green hair.

"Hey, isn't that where Midoriya is working?" Crescent Rose inquired.

That evening was also set to be Kai and Red Riot's first hero patrol alongside Fat Gum and Sun Eater. The three UA students took the train to their supervisor's agency, and quickly changed into their hero gear as soon as they had arrived. While they were on the way, Kurai took the time to review some of the arrest records and accomplishments of the officers involved with the Kamino incident, but nothing raised a red flag. He wished that he could ask Akarui for his help, but since he wasn't a fully licensed pro with his own agency, he couldn't requisition civilian help for an active investigation, especially one that he wasn't even leading on. He would have to do this the hard way if he wanted the answers he was seeking.

For now, though, he had more immediate concerns. He was walking behind Fat Gum alongside his two classmates, one of them raring to go and full of excitement, while the other looked as though he wished he was anywhere but there. The BMI hero turned around as they travelled through the busy nighttime street, his mouth full of another meatball. "Sorry to eat while we work, but there's been so many fights lately that I can't eat enough to keep up," the big man apologized. It was no secret that crime was rapidly on the rise now that All Might was retired, and the heroes were struggling to keep the peace. "The local agencies need some more close-quarters combat fighters, so you two are just what the doctor ordered!" Kurai could technically be considered both a long and short-range fighter, but he could see where the man was going with Kirishima- after all, it wasn't like he could spam energy blasts in a suburban setting like this without risking injury to a civilian.

"Glad to be of help, sir," Red Riot said eagerly. "We're just grateful for this opportunity to learn from you!"

"What he said," Kai grinned while he tapped a button on the side of his scouter, making sure that it was updated with the latest maps of the area, which it was. Akarui doesn't miss a trick, he thought while the facial recognition scanner went to work on multiple people in the crowd. Because he'd been given access to the Hero web, the device now had an even more comprehensive list of villains and petty criminals, as well as suspects in active investigations, which would alert him as soon as he saw one. His brother was not allowed access to the network, but he'd taught Kurai how to update the database in his scouter, so it wasn't a problem.

"Well, I'm glad to have two capable new guys with me," the bulky man grinned back. "Sun Eater here is pretty good, but the only one who doesn't believe it is him. Maybe spending some time with you guys will help him cheer up a bit."

"I swear he asked me to sign on with him just to have someone to torment…" Sun Eater groaned as he pulled the hood on his hero costume lower so that it hid his face. "This is the worst…"

"So, he's always like this?" Kai asked their supervisor while Red Riot tried to encourage the withdrawn senior.

"Just wait until you see him in action," Fat Gum assured the younger students. "He's gonna blow you away."

Kai decided to take the man's word for it, but it wasn't like he really doubted it, either. If Amajiki was part of the Big Three- if he was anywhere within a mile of how good Togata was- he had to be amazing. It was just hard to picture it with the older boy trying to hide himself in his own cowl.

Just as they were about to cross a street, they heard shouts of alarm coming from a couple of blocks back. "Well, they're at it again," Fat Gum said as he finished his last morsel and started jogging toward the source of the commotion, his three trainees hot on his heels.

They quickly ran into a group of small-time thugs that were carrying briefcases full of either cash or contraband, they weren't really sure. Whatever the case was, the heroes weren't about to just let them get away. Fat Gum, for all his hefty bulk, was the first one to move, blocking the five men's escape route and enveloping all of them in a suffocating hug that rendered them incapable of fleeing.

Well, all but one guy, who used some kind of bodily-manipulation-type quirk that let him turn parts of his body flat as a piece of paper. "Uh oh!" Fat Gum called over his shoulder. "I lost one!"

Sun Eater reacted even faster than Kai would have, his fingers transforming into massive octopus tentacles that snatched their opponent out of the air and held him prisoner, despite his struggles. "What the-?!" the man let out a strangled croak. "What kinda freak are you?!" Sun Eater's face fell at the insult, but the second that his quarry tried to escape, he yanked him forward, his other hand transforming into a massive clam shell that smacked the fight out of the thug before he was introduced to the ground and held under a massive, clawed bird's foot.

"That was so awesome!" Red Riot gaped as the five criminals were completely subdued. "It didn't even take 'em five seconds!" Kai nodded in agreement- now it was easy for him to see how Amajiki's power let him stand alongside his more cheerful classmates, in spite of his painfully shy behavior. I guess the ability to manifest anything that he eats would make him a pretty versatile fighter, he mused as the police began to move in for the cleanup.

Meanwhile, the crowd was chanting Sun Eater's name at the behest of Fat Gum, much to the student's horror. Having merely been present to more or less watch the proceedings, Kai and Red Riot stayed behind their upper classman, chuckling to themselves at his petrified reaction to receiving so much positive attention. It had been an exciting moment, yes, but in comparison with all of their other encounters with villains, the two freshman were just happy that nobody had been seriously injured or killed.

That is, right up until a gunshot rang out, and Sun Eater stumbled back while clutching at his arm. The crowd screamed and disintegrated, having realized that there was another villain among them, one who was evidently not afraid to use deadly force. Fat Gum was still trying to keep his original targets from escaping, and the police were trying to figure out if anyone else in the crowd was packing heat.

This left only Kai and Red Riot capable of reacting as another gunshot echoed throughout the city block. This time, Red Riot's head snapped back, but only for a split-second, as his quirk had apparently grown strong enough to deflect bullets. This seemed to startle one man in particular, a thin person who began to back away slowly, instead of panicking like everyone around him.

"That guy!" Kai shouted, sending Energon flooding into his body, even as his target let out a terrified yell and started running away, prompting the two freshman heroes to give chase. "We'll be right back!"

"Wait, don't-!" Sun Eater reached out after them, intending to use his tentacles to snatch up the shooter. However, he was horrified to realize that his powers were not responding to his commands- as if his body had forgotten how to use them at all.

"Sun Eater, we gotta go after them!" Fat Gum shouted as he started after his young wards.

"Wait!" the boy called after him. "I'm not hurt, but my quirk won't activate!"

"Stop running, dude!" Red Riot complained as he and Kai chased the shooter down a back alley. Kai could have easily overshot their quarry, but it was clear that the man had at least a decent aim with a gun, and he didn't feel like ending up with a bullet in his head. He also couldn't risk a knockout blast from his quirk missing the man and causing major damage to an establishment. So he stayed behind his sturdy friend, remembering what Gang Orca and others had said about his reckless tendencies.

If I get myself killed while taking this guy down, what good am I, in the end? He thought as they rounded a corner. A new idea suddenly sprang into his mind as he noticed something on the map display of his scouter, so he muttered to his partner, "Get ready to make a hard left."

"You got it!"

Kai concentrated hard as he stretched out his hand and sent forth two small bursts of energy that whizzed past their enemy and collided a few yards ahead of him, resulting in a small explosion that turned the shooter down the alley that Kai had been hoping for. "He's gone down a dead end," he grinned as they continued the pursuit. "Nothing in there but backdoors to a nightclub and closed shops."

"Nice goin'!" Red Riot crowed as they found the man trembling in the dim light of the back alley, trapped like Kai had planned. There were four bystanders who looked confused about what was going on, so the two boys were quick to put themselves between them and their target. Addressing the shooter, an ugly individual with crooked teeth, the redhead called out, "You shot a guy and then ran off? Not very manly. The least you could've done was try to save your buddies!"

"That's what you're mad about?!" the shooter asked as Red Riot came closer to him, his arms harder than rocks. He drew back his own arm and shouted, "Stay away from me!" Sharp, four-inch blades suddenly sprouted out of his forearm and slashed at his younger opponent, intent on cutting him to the bone.

Instead, the young hero smacked aside the blades without flinching, and then slammed his rock-hard fist into the man's stomach, sending him rolling away. "Red Counter!" the boy shouted. As the man let out a groan, Red Riot warned him, "That was nothin'. Come quietly to the station, or it's gonna get a lot worse. Trust me, my friend here is a lot less likely to play nice than I am."

"He's right," Kai said as he approached the downed man, who started making an unexpected noise as he drew closer. "Wait… Are you actually crying?!"

"Shut up!" the man sobbed. "You know what my quirk does? Pops out ten-centimeter blades like a bunch of dingy box-cutters!" Lifting his head slightly, he cried, "I wanted to save my bros, you jerks, but I don't have enough power to do that! At least I was brave enough to shoot…" As if on reflex, his fingers went for the gun being held in his belt, and Kai knew that it would be bad news if he got ahold of his weapon again.

With a blur of light and humming sound, the gun was suddenly two smoldering pieces of useless metal beneath a deadly bar of yellow light. As the man looked up into the cold eyes of his captor, Kai smiled down at him from above his sword and said, "My quirk lets me cut through a lot more than boxes. I suggest you do the smart thing, unless you want to end up like that gun."

He was further irritated when the man began to weep anew at his feet. "You gotta be kidding me with this," he grumbled as he sheathed his blade and grabbed the man up by his collar, Red Riot moving in close to help with the restraint. "Why do you idiots always complain and cry when you get caught?"

"What'cha talking about?" Red Riot asked him.

"Dad said that the guys with the weapons were always the ones that complained the most when he cuffed them," Kai replied as he forced the shooter to his feet amid his tears and sniffling. "Shut up, guy. If you're gonna whine this much, you should've gone on the straight and narrow."

"I just wanted… to be strong… like the guys I hung around," the man sniffled, even as the two boys heard a soft clink that sent them both on edge. "You two… Don't know anything!" There was a slight hissing sound as he suddenly jammed something into his leg, on the side where Kirishima was approaching, sending the man's body into spasms.

"What the-?!"

"Get back!" Kai shouted at his teammate as he retreated several paces. "I don't know what exactly he shot himself up with, but my bet is that it's a quirk enhancer!"

"What now?!" Red Riot asked as the man continued to twitch, and a manic, deranged smile appeared on his face, showing more of his uneven teeth.

"Make sure that no matter what happens, he doesn't hurt the bystanders," Kai said in an aside as he gathered his power inside of his body. "I'm gonna see if I can't scare him into standing down." Raising his voice as his comrade moved to warn off the citizens, Kai shouted at the man, "Hey! You ever watch Dragon Ball as a kid?"

The man's spasms slowly began to die down, and he regarded Kai with a dazed look in his eyes. Taking it as a sign that the man was at least trying to pay a bit of attention on some level, Kai drew in deep breath before he exhaled it in the form of a long, loud war cry that got the ground shaking as he unleashed his energy into the air around him, sending it skyward in a brilliant, terrifying display of power and control that saw to the criminal now taking a step back with wide eyes and a slack jaw. Seeing it, Kai allowed his energy levels to die down while he said, "I don't know what you gave yourself, but a shortcut power boost is not going to cut it against me."

"Not gonna cut it…?" the man slurred as his crazed smile reattached itself to his face. "Let's see about that, kid!" Blades suddenly stuck out of his body at random, far harder and sharper than before, not to mention that their range had extended dramatically. Where before the man could create blades mere centimeters long, his new ones were reaching up into the second stories of the building around them and cutting through brick and mortar.

Kai wasn't paying any attention to that, though. The only thing he saw and heard were the blades themselves. The sharp, cold, biting, tearing blades- the ones that haunted him in his nightmares, even now. Not again! he thought as he backed away rapidly while they began to thrash about the alleyway, fear clutching at his spine with an icy grip and seizing his guts so tightly that he wanted to puke. His stump burned like the heat of Todoroki's flames where his flesh met metal, and he thought, No, don't let it happen again! I can't take it!

Before he could cry out for mercy, there was new movement that registered in his vision. Red Riot had engaged his quirk in his whole body and was now standing between everyone and the powered-up villain, preventing the blades from hurting anybody but himself. He let out a pained cry as the blades managed to cut through even his rock-hard constitution, but he held strong.

"You heroes all talk big, but the world knows your time is up!" the crazed man cackled as his blades ceased thrashing about for a moment. "Things are gonna change! The world will soon belong to guys like me that live in the shadows!" Letting out another giggle, he added, "Aw man… I'm such a crazy frickin' high right now… Haha…!" Fixing his insane glare on Kai and Red Riot, he added, "I think I'll take your advice, kid… I'm gonna go bust up some heroes and save my bros!"

"We won't let you!" Red Riot grunted. "You're not goin' anywhere until you make it past me! And then, you gotta deal with Kai!"

"Who, your friend?" the other man wheezed crazily. "He's got no fight in him! He's even worse than me! He has power, but he doesn't even have the guts to stand up and face the people that he looked down on!"

Kai shivered, feeling the truth of the man's venomous words sinking into the marrow of his being. He's right… he thought as he tried to not to be sick. I have power, but I can't use it to do any good if I can't even stand up to some two-bit criminal on a high!

"You're… wrong!" Red Riot roared as his body began to change, hardening further than ever before. His arms, chest, back, and even his face gained density until he looked like a terrifying rock golem that gave even their drugged-up enemy genuine pause. "Kai's spirit is just like I am right now: Unbreakable! You don't know anything about what he's gone through to get where he is, and how he's still standing in spite of it! He's gonna get on his feet, and he's gonna kick your ass! You hear me?!" The blades had stopped spamming in random directions and were now all concentrated on one area; Red Riot's seemingly indestructible body.

Kai's muscles trembled and he felt ill, but he knew who those last three words were really directed at: him. His classmate was right- he had been through far too much to be stopped by a pathetic thug like this one. My journey… is only beginning…he thought as he forced himself to his feet, his right palm shaking as he gathered power in it. In spite of his fear of those horrible blades, the ones that resembled so strongly the things that had torn his arm off, he got up behind his friend and steeled himself for what was to come.

"I have power…" he growled out loud, trying not to let his voice shake too much. "And I won't waste it… being afraid of people like you!" He ran out from behind Red Riot, finished charging his next attack.

"Your fear doesn't matter, hero wannabe!" the man shouted back, his eyes rolled back up into his head. "I'm stronger than you, now! You don't matter at all!"

"Maybe not!" Kai roared as he thrust his hand out in front of him, even as some of the blades attacking Red Riot diverted to aim at him. The sight nearly made him falter again, but he kept himself going by shouting, "But the people that are depending on me do matter! Rasengan!" The swirling orb countered and disintegrated most of the blades coming at him, and sending the others off course to smash into their brothers, quickly turning the blades into a giant, tangled mess.

The man screamed in frustration as he realized that he couldn't retract or extend most of his blades as they were. Unbalanced off by his lack of control, he gave the heroes the opening that they so desperately needed.

Red Riot, now relieved of taking the full brunt of the attack, smashed his way through the tangled mess of metal and laid a ringing blow to the man's face, knocking a few of his teeth out and sending him sprawling back on the ground, his body's blades slowly retracting. Kai followed this with a laser blast that struck him in the head and certainly knocked him out, leaving the boy feeing breathless and sick.

"Wasn't that overkill?" Red Riot asked him as they approached.

"Nope…" Kai said in a strangled tone. "But this might be. Hrk!" He leaned over and vomited all over the man that they had just defeated, causing his teammate to recoil in disgust.

"Augh, what the hell, man?!" he demanded.

"I'm hoping that they'll think he did it…" Kai said as he pointed a shaky thumb over his shoulder at the bystanders, who didn't have a good view of what was happening just yet. "I'd rather my debut not be ruined by the fact that a guy scared me so much that I barfed on him. You hit him hard enough that I'm surprised he didn't, anyway."

"Yeah, what was up with that?" Red Riot demanded of his friend.

"I'll explain later, but for now, let's just say that fighting blade-type quirks are on my list of priorities somewhere near drinking liquid cement," Kai said tiredly as he wiped his mouth.

"That's weirdly specific."

As it turned out, Kai and Red Riot were able to pin the vomiting on the villain, as he had taken an accelerant drug and been hit hard enough in the stomach to require medical attention. It was something that the two of them would laugh about for a long time to come. It also allowed them to receive a warm welcome from the bystanders that had witnessed the entire thing.

Fat Gum showed up shortly after the fight had ended, having seen Kai's energy reaching up into the air and following the pointed fingers from the civilians that had seen the heroes chasing the criminal. "Man, you two really cleaned shop," he said as the medics led the unconscious man away on a stretcher. "I was worried when you took off without me and Sun Eater, but you did all right."

"Thank you, sir!" Red Riot replied as he bowed to the larger man, followed by a slightly unsteady Kai.

Seeing it, Fat Gum asked him, "You okay?"

"Yeah, just…" Kai said as he shook his head as if trying to chase off an insect. "The guy did something that reminded me of… well, this." He held up his robotic limb, and it suddenly clicked for his classmate what had happened minutes ago.

"Moonfish," he said in a low voice, causing Kai to flinch. "That's what he reminded you of?" He had seen the criminal in news' reports after the training camp incident, and he had heard what had happened to the other boy from Tokoyami and Shoji, though the others that had been involved were pretty tight-lipped about the whole thing.

"Yeah." Kai's voice was barely a whisper.

Before his friend could say anything else, the pair were approached by a quartet of citizens that had seen the fight. "Excuse us, young men," said an older gentleman. "I just wanted to say, I've been watching heroes for a long time, but you two are the most amazing that I've seen in person! What are your names? I'd love to follow you on the media!"

"Me too!" said a young woman from next to him- his granddaughter, perhaps. The two other guys that were present also seemed eager to have an answer, and the boys saw no reason to deny them.

"I'm Red Riot!" the Sturdy Hero declared proudly with his biggest smile.

"And I'm Kai," the Guardian Hero added with a passable grin of his own.

"Wait, Kai?" said one of the younger men. "I saw you on the news before! You worked with Gang Orca during that crazy slave raid, right?! You were the winner of the Sport's Festival!"

"Yes sir," Kai nodded tiredly.

"You're so cool!" the man laughed.

"Mister Kai, can my granddaughter and I have your autograph?" the older man asked with a hopeful smile as he reached for his pocket. "Yours' too, Red Riot. You've both got yourselves a couple of fans, you hear?"

"Yeah, for sure!" Red Riot laughed heartily as he took a slip of paper and marker from the man. It wasn't uncommon for those that admired heroes to carry loose paper and a pen of some kind, just in case they ran into anybody that they wanted an autograph from. "Now, who's this gonna be for…?"

As he started to write down his hero name, his eyes alight with joy, Fat Gum told Kai in an aside, "You know, you two are off to a lot better start than I did during my debut. Gang Orca's right- you're gonna go far, Kai."

"Right now, I'll be happy to go so far as my bed," the boy mumbled, looking like he'd been up for a week straight. "Not that I'll sleep…"

It was clear that Kurai's fight with the blade villain had rattled him badly, so as soon as he had been discharged from the hospital, Fat Gum told him and Kirishima to go home while he stayed with Amajiki, who needed overnight observation due to how his quirk was acting up. I don't like any of this, he thought as he looked up at the moon from Amajiki's room, having been informed that his protégé's quirk showed signs of reemerging. A weapon that nullifies a person's quirk- even temporarily- can't be a good sign for the hero community, even with All For One behind bars. I got a bad feeling about this…

Bakugo: Why the hell're you taking so damn long to get this thing up and running, huh?!

Mataras: And what the hell are you doing here instead of Deku? I don't remember inviting you.

Bakugo: Don't sass me! I'll kill you!

Kai: You're not fooling anyone with that line. As for why Blasty McSplode is here instead of Midoriya, our resident One For All holder decided to take a personal day.

Mataras: I don't remember approving a-

Kai: Personal. Day. Stop asking questions.

Mataras: What on earth would he do with a personal day?!

Kai: That's not stopping.

Bakugo: Don't ignore me!

Mataras: Okay, you know what? I'm still shaking off the last of that flu, so I don't care enough to argue the point. Let's just get on with this segment. Kai, you've got complaints, I'm sure. Have at it.

Kai: Don't cheapen my tribulations by making them into a cheap gimmick for this part of the chapter!

Mataras: Noted. Moving on...

Bakugo: Hey! Why's it taking so damn long to get to the real action?! So what if your first patrol ended with a fight, that guy was a small fry! Where's the yakuza in all this?!

Mataras: We're getting to that... in a few chapters.

Kai: Figures.

Mataras: Hey! We've got a couple of things to cover before we have you taking on the Shie Hassaikai!

Kai: What's more important than saving an abused little girl?!

Mataras: I didn't say more important', now did I? Trust me, you'll get your chance at rescuing Eri, though whether you succeed or not has yet to be seen.

Bakugo: And you're gonna have Saiyaman wasting his time doing what, exactly?

Mataras: He has clearance to investigate the connection between his father and All For One. What do you think he's going to be doing?

Kai: Wait... Are you saying that I'm close to the answers I want?

Mataras: You're closing in on a clue, but I doubt you're going to like the answers that you get, when all is said and done.

Kai: It's better than being left to wonder.

Mataras: Fair enough.

Bakugo: Next time on this slow-ass story- Just for a While. Kinda lame-ass title is that?!

Kai: Shut up, Bakugo, no one asked you.

Bakugo: Up yours', ya Super Saiyan wannabe!

Mataras: Get ready to Go Beyond, Kai.

Kai: Plus Ultra!

Next time on Your Hero Academia: Unveiling...

Kurai laughed as he walked away, out onto the porch in front of the building, dropping the smile as soon as he was outside. He picked up the phone and answered it, already knowing who would be on the other line. "What's up?"

"Your father was not contacted by anybody outside of the department prior to his call to Officer Matsui," Tsukauchi told him. "The people that did call him are all clean, too. My first thought was that he may have used a burner phone to stay in touch with the League, should he have been working with them, or maybe even spoken to an informant to pass on a message. But when I checked the security footage of him in the hospital the night that you were injured, nothing caught my eye."

"So what does that mean?"

"I think we can safely say that your father had no contact with the League in the days leading up to the raid," Tsukauchi said, causing a dizzying relief to sweep through Kurai. "However, that doesn't explain your diagnosis as a child, nor how your father knew about the bar in the first place. Also…" The boy's relief was gone as soon as it had come when he detected his ally's hesitation.

"What is it?" he asked pensively.