A/N: Alright, people! Time to get started on some answers regarding our mystery girl.

Soul Purpose

The intruder that had attacked UA was currently on the defensive against Hado and Amajiki of the Big Three, using unbelievable speed and strength to evade octopus tentacles and energy blasts from multiple sides, all while knocking flat any of the other heroes who made the mistake of getting too close to her in an effort to assist their peers. Most of the time, they couldn't even see where the intruder was- only where she had been. Whenever she did appear clearly, she was trailing some kind of white energy as she delivered concussive blows to her opponents. After about half of the students had been knocked down in this manner, Amajiki grunted out, "All of you need to stay back! We can't go all-out with you getting in the way, and she's just picking you off! Let us handle her!"

"He's right!" Iida shouted as he held back Kirishima and Kaminari from charging in. "All of us should wait for an opening at a distance- there's nothing we can do at the moment!" Despite these words, he worried for their upperclassmen. Whoever this girl was, she had single-handedly demolished most of their strongest classmates and knocked down all of their teachers in less than two minutes. He had the feeling that even Kurai and Togata would have had a hard time against this new threat, and even though Izuku had their late friend's powers now, he didn't know how to use them very well.

"Gah!" Kirishima growled as Amajiki's body began to rapidly transform before their eyes. "I hate not being able to help them! This is just like our fight on Nabu!"

"Perhaps, but we cannot rush in simply because we feel frustration," Tokoyami murmured, Dark Shadow hovering over his shoulder at the ready. "For now let us observe- perhaps our assistance will not be necessary."

"Vast Hybrid: Chimera Ent!" Amajiki shouted as his body doubled in mass, his skin hardening into bark and his muscles transforming into thick wood, courtesy of an apple that he had eaten that morning. From his back, the wings that he had sprouted grew even larger and swept him up in the air, giving him an edge in height over the girl, who was now recoiling from a Gring Wave delivered by Hado.

Moving in faster than one might have expected of someone with his mass, Amajiki charged at the evasive girl, reaching out with his hand to ensnare her with a thick barrier of roots and grapevines before crashing into her with a the full force of his bulk and momentum, sending dust and snow up in the air around them with a teeth-jarring impact that others around them could feel from several yards away. When there was no sound coming from within the cloud of white, Hado edged closer and asked, "Tamaki? You okay in there?"

"Yeah," he answered, filling everyone around them with profound relief. "I've got her underfoo- Wait, what the-? Augh!" The transformed hero flew out of the snow cloud and crashed into Hado, pinning her beneath the crushing weight of the semi-conscious boy with a cry of surprise.

"What happened?!" Kirishima cried out as the snow around the intruder dissipated to reveal the girl getting to her feet and brushing the shrubbery out of her hair and cape. "What's this girl made out of?!"

"Guys," Izuku said from behind them in a low tone, determination in his voice. "I need you to buy me a few seconds. I'm gonna try something, and I haven't had a lot of practice with it yet."

"While they're doing that, I'll lend you a hand," Weiss said as she stood beside Iida, the rest of her teammates having already been knocked out. "I think I have an idea of what you're up to, and I'm better suited to lending long-range support since I don't have my sword on me."

"Thanks," the greenette replied as he cupped his hands by his ribcage.

"We got you, buddy," Kirishima said as his body hardened.

"Let's go, Dark Shadow!" Tokoyami shouted as he sent the creature forth, causing their assailant to speed away from them, giving Iida time to unleash his Recipro Turbo and go running after her. Ojiro and Todoroki also joined in the fight, all of them moving to come at the girl from different directions. None of them really expected to win the fight, but if Izuku had a plan, then it was probably their best option to play their parts.

The girl's eyes flicked in several directions in the instant before she moved again, backhanding Dark Shadow toward its master before she ducked a full-speed roundhouse kick from Iida, followed by straight shot to his stomach that caused him to vomit his breakfast onto the snow. She finished him off with a blow to his leg that hyperextended the limb, causing him to scream in pain and collapse where he was, incapable of fighting any longer. This freed her up to deal with Ojiro, which she did by grabbing his tail and using it to upend him, slamming his head into the ground hard enough to render him insensate and then tossing him at Todoroki, who had to slow himself in order to catch up his comrade, which proved to be a mistake. The second that his attention was diverted from the girl, she darted toward him and clubbed him over the head while he was busy catching his friend, causing them both to crash on the ice that he had conjured.

Dark Shadow was on her again, so she evaded its claws and kicked up snow in the face of Kirishima, who had arrived in time to try and get a sneak attack on the girl, to no avail. Tetsutetsu almost got her from the opposite direction, but his metallic form glinted even in the dim light, so his approach had not been the stealthiest one, which she turned into her advantage when she grabbed him by the foot and swung him like an oversized bat to knock Dark Shadow away, followed by a devastating blow to Kirishima's head that knocked both him and his rival out cold on the snow among their beaten allies.

"She's persistent," Tokoyami muttered as his quirk's manifestation returned to him. "I don't have much left in me, so I hope you're ready, Midoriya."

"I am," he nodded as the gold-white hex that Weiss had created disappeared from beneath his feet, a bright green orb shining between his palms as he sighted the intruder, who was now making short work of a group of sophomores that had tried to coordinate against her speed by cornering her with some kind of electrical quirk in tandem with a crystal barrier, which she promptly shattered with a swing of her arm.

"I've set up some redirecting hexes, but you have to maintain concentration on the power," Weiss warned him as sweat beaded on her brow. "If you slip up, the attack will fizzle out, and then there's nothing I can do for you."

"I appreciate it," Izuku nodded as the verdant orb flared brighter. "Let's go, Schnee!" He flung his arms forward, shouting, "Kamehameha!" A green laser blasted toward the intruder, who predictably used her speed to evade the attack- but this time the heroes were ready for it.

One of Weiss' blue hexes appeared in front of the laser at an angle, absorbed the light, and then spat it out at the assailant, who seemed surprised for the first time since the battle had begun. She was still able to dodge the attack again, but when she did, another azure hex redirected it at her. Meanwhile, Izuku and Weiss were straining to keep their powers going, waiting for the girl to slip up and get hit. It was becoming an endurance contest, one that the heroes were more than likely to lose unless someone else interfered.

Fortunately, there were a few among the remaining heroes who knew what needed to happen, and they acted accordingly. A third year with a geokinetic quirk slammed his fists into the snow, causing spikes of stone to erupt from below, aiming to either impede the girl's path or wound her directly. Another unleashed an astral projection of herself that would take over the girl's body if it managed to connect while Tsubaraba from class 1-B spat out air disks in an attempt to restrict her movement. All of this was serving to make it more difficult for the girl to evade Izuku's laser, but instead of panicking like they hoped she would, she just got mad.

"All right, that's it!" she grunted as she lashed out with a roundhouse kick that pulverized the stone spikes and sent the chunks flying at the other students, forcing them to scatter. She then hit the ground, sprung back up into the air, and started using the air disks to ricochet around the astral projection and the laser that was still following her while heading toward the student that had shifted the stone to begin with. Something about the way she had dodged sparked a recent memory in Izuku's mind, nearly making him lose concentration, but he forced himself to save the analysis for after they had subdued the mystery girl.

The third-year student tried to conjure a stone shield with his powers, but the girl just punched through the rock and knocked him flat. Still, it made her stop in place for a second, which was what Izuku and Weiss were hoping for. The green Kamehameha was upon the girl, and for a split second, the two freshmen were certain that they were about to get a solid hit in.

Then a ripple of white light covered the girl's right arm as she bare hand smacked the laser away from herself with a violent burst of concentrated air pressure, and right into the largest cluster of remaining students, swallowing them up in a brilliant- if small- explosion that left them scattered like groaning bowling pins. Weiss and Izuku both paled in fright, until the boy noticed something odd about the girl as she surveyed the destruction of his laser. She was clutching at her arm, as if in pain while she staggered back a few paces, her face turned away from theirs' for the moment. Wait, that looks like-!

There was a flash of warm golden light that made the onlookers avert their gazes, and when it was gone, their attacker was standing tall and strong again. Weiss fell to her knees in the snow, her consecutive uses of the more complicated hexes having exhausted her quirk and putting her out of the fight for the time being. There weren't many students left standing, and of those who were, Izuku only knew Kaminari and Sato, neither of whom he had much experience in fighting alongside.

Gritting his teeth, he sent his new quirk surging throughout his body, knowing that if he was going to have a chance at beating this girl, it would have to be with close combat. He knew that so far such efforts had proven to be a mistake, but he just didn't have a good enough handle on using Energon's long-range properties to use them effectively in battle yet. He may not have had as good a handle on the physical application as he did with One For All, but his hand-to-hand knowledge was still sharp.

So he charged into the fray, even as the girl's eyes narrowed and she set her stance firmly in the snow. Putting as much power as he dared into his right arm as soon as he was in range, Izuku shouted, "Texas Smash!"

The girl's body crackled with an energy that he could now see was some kind of bio-lightning as she performed a swift cross block that knocked his heavy blow to the side, diverting force away from her body. She went to follow it up with a back fist that would collide with his shoulders, but he got the jump on her by firing a laser from his fist to check his momentum and throw an elbow in reverse with the same arm that she had knocked away. This time, she caught his blow with her hand and held him in place.

As she kept a firm grip on him, Izuku felt something eerily familiar coming from the quirk powering the mystery assailant, and his verdant eyes widened as they met with the girl's… red ones? They disengaged, leaping away to be about ten feet away from one another, both of them breathing heavily, steam erupting from their mouths in tandem with their exertions. "You…" he heaved. "Why… How do you have… that power?" He thought that he might be imagining things, but the feelings of nostalgia were too strong for him to dismiss the suspicion that had formed in his head. That and the sudden change in her eye color had planted the beginnings of an idea in the back of his mind. It was an impossible idea, but it persisted as the pair continued to size each other up.

The girl then shook her head slightly and replied, "It'll take too long for me to explain here. I need to show you why I have it before anyone other than you will believe me."

Izuku's breath caught as he realized that she wasn't denying his inquiry, which just led to even more questions bursting into his mind, but the foremost one was; "Who are you?"

The girl's mouth twitched with the tiniest smile before she answered, "Just a cursed child, Deku." Those words checked Izuku like a physical blow as a gust of chilly wind swept across them, revealing the point of an ivory-colored horn protruding from the right side of the girl's head. He recoiled from the sheer force of incomprehension as his half-baked idea was immediately confirmed, which she took as her cue to leave, using her quirk to give her speed that turned her into an electric-riddled blur that swept past the remaining heroes before they could muster one last defense.

"Crap, she's getting away!" Kaminari shouted as they watched her zip toward the gym. He started to run after her, saying, "We gotta catch up!"

"Wait!" Everyone was surprised to see Izuku holding up a hand to indicate that he didn't want any of them to pursue just yet. "I think know who she is! And why she's here!"

The mystery assailant charged into the gym to find only a handful of heroes and one student looking down at her from the stage, the coffin behind them. "I suggest you give up now," Gang Orca rumbled from next to Present Mic and Midnight. "We won't take it easy on a child as strong as you clearly seem to be." The gym had been evacuated of all the other students, so the pros didn't have to worry about collateral damage if another fight broke out.

"Okay, if the hundred-odd hero course students and pros outside couldn't stop me, what makes you think that you're gonna do it?" the girl quipped.

"Don't underestimate us," Mina said as acid coated her arms. "You picked the wrong day to fight UA High." She hadn't left the building, having had a hunch that the attacker might try to come for the gym, though whether or not Kurai had anything to do with it was yet to be seen.

The girl, instead of looking annoyed, gazed at Mina with what seemed to be sympathy before she said, "I'm only here to help you. I promise that I don't want to fight."

"Then why'd you throw down with everyone outside?!" Present Mic demanded. "I'm not buyin' it!"

"What I've come to do can't wait for the normal processing pace for being allowed on campus," the girl replied calmly. "I needed to get here now, before you take Kai to be buried."

"Why is that?" Midnight asked as Present Mic started to sidle away from Gang Orca.

"Because I'm going to save him," the girl answered seriously, causing the heroes to pause in place.

Well, all of them but one, that is. "Acid Bullets!" Mina shouted, sending bolts of vicious liquid at the girl, who sped away from the dangerous substance, her eyes wide in surprise. "How dare you…?" the pink girl was saying as her whole body shook with fury. "There is no saving him! He's gone! Not even Recovery Girl could have helped him, and she's the best in the world! Now you're here to… to… what, mock us?! Get lost before I turn you into a puddle!"

Before the girl could make a reply, Gang Orca and Present Mic combined their sound attacks to aim for the intruder, whose eyes widened as she realized that even she would be in trouble if she was hit by the powerful sonic waves. White energy crackled along her arms as she smashed them into the ground, sending massive stone slabs into the air to intercept the powerful sound waves and keep them from hitting her, as well as obstructing her opponents' field of vision with the concrete chunks and resulting dust cloud. She waited two seconds for the sound to die away before she shot toward the wall at high speed and used it as purchase to send herself flying back toward the pro heroes, who were startled by her sudden appearance in their midst.

Moving even faster now, she punched Gang Orca in the snout before she decked Present Mic and Midnight. Next to go was Cementoss, who she took out by grabbing a dazed Gang Orca and throwing him at the blocky hero, sending them both crashing off the stage and into the dust cloud that was still settling. That left Fat Gum and Mina, who had leaped onto the stage to put herself in between the attacker and Kurai's coffin.

She dealt with the BMI Hero by using his own bulk against him, rather than using brute strength, knowing that such a tactic would be ill-suited for use against a man who could absorb an insane amount of kinetic force and then throw it back in a condensed blow. She waited for him to try and grab her up before she dove underneath his legs and kicked behind his kneecap, sending him falling on his head off the stage, where there was very little fat for him to use as a cushion for the fall, and thus removing him from the equation.

Only Mina stood between the girl and her target, now. "I'm warning you," the pink girl said in a shaky voice with a desperate hatred in her caramel eyes. "Last chance to back off, or I really will disintegrate you. The League of Villains can have Kurai's body over my dead one."

The mystery girl gazed at the heroine once again with sympathy while saying, "I'm not here to hurt you or Kai, but I will move you aside if you don't let me through."

"Try it," Mina dared her as her entire body was suddenly coated in a thick layer of acid that caused the wood that she was standing on to hiss and melt as soon as it made contact. "How're you gonna fight me if you can't even touch me?"

The other girl's eyes narrowed before she sped to Mina's left, right at the edge of the stage, and drew her right arm back while she crouched, lightning crawling across it. "Detroit…"

Mina's eyes widened from behind her Acid Avatar as the girl's stance struck her as incredibly familiar. It couldn't be-

"SMASH!"

Without even touching her, the girl's uppercut delivered a concussive blast of wind and lightning that sent Mina flying into the rafters, where she hung helplessly, barely clinging to consciousness, and her acid having been incinerated by the electricity in the attack. Meanwhile, the girl doubled over in agony as her right arm turned an ugly shade of red-purple. A moment's thought from her was enough to undo the damage, but that never made the exertions hurt any less when they happened.

She tiredly shuffled toward the coffin and pried open the lid, breathing a huge sigh of relief when she saw that the body was still in the container. I made it, she thought as she placed a trembling hand on the boy's cold brow, tears running down the sides of her face as she realized that her seemingly impossible goal was really within her grasp. "Time to wake up," she murmured as the horn on the side of her head suddenly increased its size in tandem with the white lightning that began to fill the air around her. "The world still needs you, Kai."

The doors to the gym crashed open, admitting the students from outside that she hadn't knocked out, led by Izuku, who held up his arms to keep the others from advancing any further. "Do it, do it!" he called out, seemingly to the surprise of his peers, though he kept his eyes focused on the girl on the stage, who gave him a tearstained smile of gratitude.

"Thank you, Deku," she said as she looked back down at Kurai, who remained in the clutches of the eternal slumber. "Now to repay every kindness that you two ever gave me…" She drew in a steadying breath and then unleashed the full extent of her powers onto the single target in front of her. One For All, One Hundred Percent! Rewind… SOUL RESTORATION!

Kurai's body was enveloped in a cocoon of white lightning and a golden luminance that was so bright, it forced the onlookers to avert their gazes. The air around them shuddered and warped, sending an unnatural tingle throughout their bodies as they bore witness to a power unimagined. It seemed to last an eternity, and when the light faded, they were almost afraid to look for fear of what the glow might do if it were to return.

When they did manage to work up the courage to look, all they saw was the intruder, breathing heavily over the coffin, the energy having been dissipated from her body. Izuku moved first, clearing the gym in three leaps, landing next to the girl just in time for her to sag and fall over backwards, utterly spent. Instead of pinning her in place like the others expected him to, however, he cradled her in his arms and knelt so that she could rest easily while she tried to catch her breath.

"Are you okay?" he asked her as she kept her eyes shut tight.

"Yeah…" she nodded weakly as Mina leaped onto the stage, having made her way down from the rafters. "Check on… Kai. He didn't wake up, but… I could feel him…."

"Izuku, what the hell is going on?" the pink girl demanded in a shaky voice. "Who is this kid, and why does her power remind me of One For All?"

"Because I… have it," the girl mumbled, her body trembling as the beginnings of a fever began to overtake her. "Please… make sure that Kai is okay. I've never… done that before."

"Do what?!" Mina asked frantically, still unable to comprehend what was going on. "What did you do?!"

The girl cracked open her muted crimson eyes to look blearily at Mina and mumbled, "I… rewound him… his soul… If I did it right, then… he's alive again."

Those words stopped both Mina and Izuku in their tracks. "Rewound?" Mina repeated, even as her body started moving toward Kurai's coffin, almost of its own accord. "How could you-? I thought you had-?"

"Mina, this is gonna sound crazy, but…" Izuku looked down at the shivering girl in his arms as he said, "When I was fighting her, when I came into contact with her quirk, I sensed something familiar. She has One For All… and the reason she can rewind people is because… she's Eri. Our Eri."

Mina's wide eyes swung around to look at the girl while her trembling fingers met Kurai's neck. She noticed two things in that moment; the first being that the girl in Izuku's arms had a long horn protruding from her head that was the exact same color and shape as the girl in UA's charge. Even if the hair color was wrong, a close look showed that the general shape of her facial features certainly lined up with that of the little girl in Aizawa's charge, not to mention that the placing and structure of the horn was unmistakable. The second thing that she registered was that her cold fingers had encountered warm flesh, and she could feel a pulse beating steadily beneath the skin.

As the second fact began to sink in, she slowly turned her head to look at Kurai, whose cheeks were no longer gray and pale. His chest was rising and falling steadily as he took in the deep breaths of a peaceful sleep while the familiar sound of his gentle whiffling that had accompanied Mina into the realm of sleep many times now could be heard coming from his partially open mouth. Her hands flung up to her mouth as she let out a strangled choking sound that alarmed Izuku.

"Mina?" he asked worriedly. "What's wrong?"

"He's… He's…" she stuttered, her mouth not responding the way that she wanted it to. "K-Kurai is…" Her breath suddenly caught as a pair of dark eyes flashed open from within the coffin and stayed unblinking for several seconds- long enough for her to see that they had changed from a deep brown to an onyx shade almost as dark as the sclera in her own eyes. Letting out a shaky breath, Mina started to ask, "Kurai, are you-?"

"Gyah!" With a wild shout, the coffin was blasted apart and Kurai rocketed toward the ceiling at a speed that rivalled the intruder's. Only, he didn't stop at the ceiling, smashing his way through the metal and concrete above them, showering the onlookers below him with debris.

Mina used her acid to intercept the larger pieces while Izuku moved to carry the apparently-older Eri out of the danger zone. Once they were safe, the pink student rounded on the other girl and demanded, "What the hell is happening?! Why did he take off like that?! What'd you do to him?!"

"I don't… know…" Eri shuddered as she fought to remain conscious. "I've never… brought someone back to life… who was dead for… more than a few seconds. And I've never… done it on purpose before." With that, she succumbed to her exhaustion and passed out.

"Mina," Izuku said in a clear voice that cut through the confused panic that was threatening to overtake the girl. "We need to go after Kurai and try to get him to calm down. If he's on the loose with my old quirk, he could do some serious damage to others and himself if he's not in his right mind. We can ask Eri whatever we need to once that's happened."

"…Right," she nodded as the other students finally caught up to them.

"What the heck is going on?!" Kaminari panted. "What was that explosion just now?!"

"Who cares, they finally caught the villain!" gasped a third year. "Let's call the office, one of the teachers should be-!"

"She's not a villain," Izuku corrected him, surprising his peers again. "Kaminari, Sato, can I count on you guys to look after her until I get back?"

"Until you get back?" the beefier student asked, looking just as confused as the others. "Where would you go at a time like this?"

"TLDR, this girl brought Kurai back to life, but he seems like he's not in his right mind," Mina said in a rush, causing most of their peers to drop their jaws. "She's not an enemy."

"Brought him back to- what?!" Kaminari sputtered. "How-?!"

"Don't have time to explain right now, we gotta go!" Mina said as she bolted for the door, her acid shredding through her shoes as she used it to skate at high speed across the floor.

"Look after her?" Izuku asked his friends as he stood up with the girl still in his grasp. When Sato just nodded dumbly, he handed her over with the words, "I promise I'll explain when we get back, but she's precious to us, so don't let anything bad happen to her."

"I… Alright," Sato nodded. He might not have had a clue about what was going on, but he knew that he trusted Midoriya- if he was asking them to protect the girl, even after she had torn through the majority of the hero course students, it had to be for a good reason. "We'll look after her, I promise."

"Thank you." With that, Izuku took off after Mina, leaving behind a group of very confused heroes.

It didn't take long for the pair to track the other boy down. They found him in the trees, lashing out at anything within reach as dark lightning crackled along his body, shattering wood and sending gale force winds away from himself as he screamed and babbled gibberish that neither of them could make sense of. In spite of the fact that he had been rewound back to life, his hair had retained its silvery-white appearance, making it seem as though death still had not fully shed its hold on him. Also, unlike when he had first utilized One For All, the bioelectricity coming off of him was black instead of a multitude of colors. Seeing him like this was threatening to break Mina's heart all over again, but she clung fiercely to the hope that they might still be able to save his mind along with his life.

"What do we do?" she asked as they watched Kurai demolish another tree trunk and start pounding on the stump with his foot, turning the wood into pulped mulch from the force of his strikes.

"I say that we should just observe him for the moment," the boy answered after another wind burst swept past them. "If we startle him, we might make things worse, and as I am, I doubt that I can beat him with Energon. There's also the fact that he's not breaking his bones every time he lashes out, which means that he's already using One For All at a higher percentage than I managed to achieve without injuring myself."

"Yeah, speaking of which, how is that Eri back there, and how does she have One For All?" Mina demanded while Kurai head butted a tree with an enraged shout. "There's only one of those quirks, right? It's not like All For One replicated it somehow?"

"No, that was my quirk back there," Izuku nodded as he kept his eyes trained on his rampaging friend. "I don't know the 'how' of it, but I recognize the quirk because I could feel the presence of the past holders when I made contact with her. They didn't exactly talk to me, but they were the ones who gave me the idea that somehow, she's Eri." There seemed to be more that he wanted to add, but his gaze suddenly sharpened as he said, "He's slowing down."

Sure enough, Kurai was now standing over a fallen tree, his foot buried in the solid wood where he had dented it, breathing hard and muttering a steady stream of nonsense. Even as they watched, the power of One For All faded from his body, leaving him to fall to his knees as he clutched at the stump of his right arm. Because his brother's prosthetic had been destroyed in his final fight against Nine, they had left the remnants of the limb bare, since a corpse had no need for a replacement arm.

Slowly, cautiously, Izuku and Mina began to stalk toward their friend, ready to move at the slightest provocation of violence from the clearly-unstable boy whose back was now turned toward them. There were about halfway across the ruined patch of trees when Kurai let out a strangled growling sound and clutched at his stump, hard. Mina couldn't keep down a startled cry as blood began to weep from furrows that he had carved into his flesh, and she dashed forward, heedless of any danger that Kurai might pose to her.

"Stop!" she cried she skidded to a stop on her knees behind him, wrapping her hands around his working arm in an effort to prevent further harm from coming to his damaged body. "Kurai, it's okay! You're safe! You're back!"

The boy immediately stilled his movements, and for a moment, Izuku thought that perhaps her voice had called him back to reason. Then Kurai growled in a low tone that was colder than an icicle, "Back? Yes. Safe? Okay? No such thing in this world."

Mina recoiled as if she had been stung, though Kurai remained exactly where he was, staring down at the snow and fallen trees around him. When he seemed unwilling to talk, and Mina was too stunned to formulate words Izuku stepped forward and asked, "Do you… know what happened just now?"

"I was stolen from my rightful resting place and put back in this crude, broken vessel of flesh and bones," Kurai answered in the same flat tone that he had used before. "Sorry if it took me a minute to adjust back to this crappy reality."

"Crappy reali-?" Mina repeated in a strangled sort of voice. "Kurai, what's going on with you? Aren't you glad to be back?" She seemed like she might cry, which would normally lead to Kurai dropping what he was doing in an effort to comfort her, but this time he didn't even turn his head.

"In a word, no," he said bluntly, causing both of his friends to flinch. "I'm not happy. Tell me, how long have I been dead down here?"

"Two weeks?" Izuku answered, confused by the seemingly abrupt subject change.

"Well then for context, I should tell you that where I've been, time means less than nothing," Kurai said in a monotone. "Two weeks down here might be two thousand years up there, or maybe it was as little as two hours. I couldn't tell you."

"What does that have to do with-?"

"I was at peace, standing among my ancestors and able to enjoy my hard-earned rest in a place that transcends human understanding," he interrupted, a harder note creeping into his voice. "To call it perfect would be an insult to the realm, and give the word 'perfection' itself too much credit. I walked among heroes of all ages, and I had the time to learn everything there was to learn about the secrets of the universe itself. There was no conflict, no suffering, no fear, and no need for sacrifices. I was whole, both body and mind, and content. Now I am trapped in a broken vessel that cannot retain the vast majority of the memories that I have of that place, marooned among people who will resent me because I don't share in their joy that I've come back to life, all because they cannot even begin to comprehend what I have been robbed of." He then fell silent, blood continuing to drip into the wood beneath him while a dusting of snow had gathered atop his shoulders and hair.

Izuku had no idea what to say. The last time that Kurai had returned from the afterlife, he had been nowhere near this level of resenting, and he had been in much worse health. Or rather, his body had been in far worse condition- this time it seemed as though his psyche had suffered a far more savage beating than one's body would be capable of enduring. He's almost like a different person, he thought helplessly.

"Do you still love me?" The question came from Mina, who was looking at Kurai's back as if she longed to touch him, but was afraid that he might retaliate.

Kurai's answer took only a few seconds to arrive, but it felt like years to Mina before he said, "Yes."

She let out a long, pent-up breath before she began to shuffle forward while she said, "Then trust that I won't resent you because of things that I can't understand. You and I have never completely understood each other before, so why would that change now?" She paused before saying, "The last time that we talked, you asked me to forgive you for being selfish, and I did. Now I need you to do the same for me, because I don't want to let you go again, not ever. I want to do everything that I can to try and make up for what you've lost, even if I don't understand it. I know I can't understand or replace what was taken, but I don't care. Please, Kurai, let me try to take the place of what you lost." By now she had managed to step up so that she was just one pace behind him, her shivering hand reaching out to touch his shoulder.

He didn't say anything with his words, but after a few seconds, he nodded once, ever so slightly. Mina didn't give him a chance to reconsider, throwing herself onto the snow beside him as she threw her arms around him and let all the tears fall into his shoulder as she let out a great sob that shook her whole body. For several minutes she alternated between crying and laughing, all while the snow continued to drift onto them and Izuku watched, tears falling from his own eyes as he was finally able to breathe easy, knowing that his friend, his brother in all but blood had come back to them.

Thank you, Eri, he thought tiredly before a jolt of adrenaline surged into him. Oh right, Eri!

The injured students and heroes were being looked at by Recovery Girl in the gym while Kaminari and Sato stood guard over the girl that had attacked them, turning away anyone who tried to come near. "Look man, we're just as confused as you are, but until Midoriya gets back with the answers he promised, nobody's getting through us," Kaminari said to a second-year who was trying to shove his way past them.

"You could be implicating yourself with aiding and abetting a villain, dude! Even if she really brought back the dead guy, do you really wanna-?!"

"Hey guys, let's all pop a couple a chill pills, am I right?" a familiar, cheery voice said from behind them.

"Whoa, Togata?" Sato asked as the tall blond student walked up to them.

"Hey guys!" the senior replied with a big smile. "I heard the fight was over, so I came to check on my peeps. I'm glad that Tamaki and Nejire are doing good, but how are you champs doing?"

"Confused, mostly," Kaminari admitted as he jerked a thumb over his shoulder to indicate the sleeping girl who had caused so much trouble. "Midoriya asked us to look after this chick while he went off with Ashido somewhere. I dunno what's going on, but Hikari's coffin is totally busted, and they said that he somehow came back to life…? Oh, and she's the one who thrashed everybody."

"Whoa, crazy day," Togata said, looking genuinely surprised. When it seemed apparent that Kurai was nowhere nearby, he decided to ask, "Hey, mind if I take a look at this girl? She's KO'd, right?"

"Uh… sure?" Sato shrugged as he moved to let his senior through.

"Hey, why'd you let him through?!"

"Because Togata's cool enough not to attack a sleeping girl, even if she is a villain," Kaminari deadpanned. "Seriously, get lost, dude."

"Don't worry about it," Togata said over his shoulder as he knelt by the girl. "I got this, Nagato, my man." The second-year seemed mollified by this enough that he just gave the two freshmen a dirty look before walking away.

Meanwhile, Togata was eyeing the unconscious girl with great curiosity, as something about her appearance was disturbingly familiar, though he wasn't quite sure what it was that was putting him off. It took him a minute, but then he recognized the horn that was protruding from the girl's head. After that, he started seeing similarities in her facial characteristics that were impossible for him to ignore. This is-! No wait, that can't be right! He shook his head rapidly as he tried to chase the crazy thought from his head that the girl in front of him looked an awful lot like Eri, except that she was several years older than the little girl in his school's care. Besides, she had white hair, not black- maybe this is her older sister? We don't know anything about her family, so I guess it's possible that- Oh boy.

As he had moved his face closer to get a better look, he realized that black was not the girl's natural hair color, and that in fact it had been dyed to be darker while giving way to an off- white near the roots, just like Eri's. Nope, no way, total coincidence, he told himself, remembering that he had left the little girl with Nezu before heading back over to the gym. This is not Eri. Unless… Glancing over his shoulder to make sure that no one was watching him, he then pulled up the fabric on one of her green sleeves- revealing a series of familiar scars that ran along her arms, all the way from her wrists and past her elbows. Oh boy.

As he set down the sleeve, his fingers accidentally brushed against the girl's cape, which was splayed out beneath her body, and it felt familiar to the former hero student. Sure, red capes weren't an uncommon fashion statement among heroes, but this one in particular had a texture that Togata had only ever encountered once before. Uh… how does this girl have my cape? Since his cape had been made with synthesized threads based on his hair, which allowed it to pass through things when he turned incorporeal, he had come to instantly recognize it by touch, since it had a unique texture to it, just as his quirk was unique to him. Granted he hadn't worn it in quite some time, but that wasn't just because he no longer used his hero costume. He had made sure that it had gotten cleaned and repaired before he had given it to Eri as a blanket, so it could keep her safe even when he wasn't around. The little girl treasured it, and there was no way she would have given to anybody, much less a stranger who would attack UA. Plus, the fabric between his fingers looked as though it was getting on the old side, even if the feel of it was unmistakable…

I have a lot of questions now.

"Kaminari, Sato." All three students jumped up and turned in surprise to see Aizawa approaching them, having been healed by Recovery Girl. "What's this I hear about you not letting the other students restrain the assailant?"

"Uh, Midoriya said that we needed to look after her, sir," Kaminari answered nervously. "He seemed like he knew her somehow. Also, it seems like she's the one who brought Hikari back to life, if you can believe it."

"Whether or not Midoriya does know her is irrelevant," Aizawa muttered as he drew closer. "And I don't see Hikari anywhere, which just leads me to think that she has a colleague who likely stole the body- villains have done things like that in the past, you know. She attacked our campus, our staff, and worst of all, our students. We need to have her restrained and sent to a cell before she gets a chance to escape."

Just as he reached out to move his students aside, a familiar voice said, "I'd rather you didn't do that just yet. This girl has answers to a lot of questions that I've got."

Everyone within earshot stopped dead in place, many of them with their jaws hanging open. Alone among them, Kaminari said in an aside to Sato, "Dude, I've never believed in ghosts before, but I'm starting to consider it."

"Not a ghost," Kurai said dryly as he regarded his teacher and peers with a hollow look, Mina and Izuku close behind him. "And since we apparently have Eri to thank for all of this, I'd rather get my answers before she ends up anywhere near my mother dearest."

Kai: I WILL F CKING MURDER YOU!

Mataras: Hey, if death hasn't managed to stick to you, what makes you think it's gonna stick to me in here?

Kai: I WILL FIND A WAY! GET OVER HERE, NOW!

Mataras: Oh, what are you gonna do? Fire a Kameha- Wait. No, no. No. Do not-!

Litrosh: Start running.

Mataras: Yep.

Kai: GET BACK HERE, COWARD!

Mataras: Pragmatist!

Litrosh: Seriously, run. He's not messing around.

Mataras: *runs away as fast as superhumanly possible*

Kai: *pursues with murderous intent*

Litrosh: Guess I'm not getting out of this gig anytime soon.

Deku: Are... Is Mataras gonna be okay?

Litrosh: You want to put yourself in the middle of that and find out?

Deku: ...No.

Litrosh: Good. Now, onto announcements, starting with the fact that we will now be resuming our normal bi-weekly release for chapters/podcasts.

Deku: Mataras also put together a couple of new music videos for the podcast, one of which will be going live later today. He'll also be putting up the artwork he used on his Instagram over the next few days.

Litrosh: He's also going to start working on a playthrough of Knights of the Old Republic.

Deku: Wait, what does that have to do with this story?

Litrosh: Nothing, other than the fact he just might be a bigger nerd than you.

Deku: Hey!

Litrosh: Next time, we'll be getting some more solid answers about how Eri came to possess One For All and then wound up in the present circumstances, in the chapter titled 'A Future Past'.

Deku: So she is from the future!

Litrosh: Get ready to learn the story of how she, Akarui, and the heroes of UA really learned to Go Beyond.

Deku: Plus Ultra!

Next time on Your Hero Academia: Renewal...

"What does that have to do with the power now?" Bakugo demanded. "I thought it disappeared when Hikari went six feet under."

"Apparently not," Akarui muttered as he pulled a flash drive from his pocket and plugged it into the computer built into the table. A hologram flashed to life, depicting Aokigahara, where a single red blip indicated the presence of a villain fortress. "This is it. I've been trying to figure out for ages where Shigaraki keeps the quirks he doesn't wanna use for himself, but hasn't made a Nomu to handle them yet. This is where he's keeping One For All."

"How do we know this is good intel?" Bakugo snorted.

"Have I steered you wrong before?"

"…Why wouldn't that quirk-stealing bastard wanna use All Might's power?" Bakugo muttered. When Eri and Togata's eyes widened, he growled out, "Oh really, you didn't figure that one out as soon as we told you that Deku wasn't born with his power?! Come on!"

"That's the thing- I don't think he can use it," Akarui said with a grin. "We might still have a chance to beat Shigaraki, and cut the head off the snake."

"Explain, Saiyabrat."

"After I broke into one of their research archives, I found a lot of files dedicated to people whom they've tried giving One For All to," Akarui began. "Shigaraki used some combination of All For One and a quirk that affects deceased tissue to extract One For All from the remnants of my brother's corpse after he realized that he could do it with Endeavor."

"That's how he got that fire quirk that nearly roasted me last time," Bakugo scowled. "Fantastic." He still had a harsh burn scar on his left arm from that incident. Shigaraki had been trying to destroy the flesh on his palms so that he wouldn't be able to produce his nitro-sweat, but Bakugo had managed to avoid that outcome, though just barely. Eri had offered to rewind the affected tissue, but since it didn't cause him any pain or affect his quirk, Bakugo had also elected to keep the scar, though unlike their resident tech expert, he refused to explain why.

"Exactly," Akarui agreed with a grim expression. "Still, One For All isn't like most quirks- you can't take it by force, no matter who you are. We never really knew why- until now." He clicked a button on the side of the table, and a voice recording began to play.