A/N: Sorry this one took so long to put up, guys. It's been a mix of the flu that just won't quit and a couple of other things happening in my life that have left me feeling worn down and distracted. But I'm here now, and I should be able to get back into my usual schedule.

Quick reminder that the two-year anniversary for this story is coming up soon, which means there will a bonus chapter inbound, as well as some new pieces of artwork that I've been working for some time now.

But that's still a few weeks out, so for now, enjoy the aftermath (or don't) of Kurai's decision.

Moving On

It wasn't noticeable, at first.

Nothing seemed any different to the students in Class 1-A than they had been since the first League attack. Ever since then, the other students in UA had stared, whispered, and even pointed when they thought that the hero course kids weren't looking. The fact that they were some of the very few freshmen who had managed to gain their provisional licenses had only been more of a reason for them to be noticed by their fellow school mates as of late.

It wasn't until a week after Nighteye's joint meeting and Moka's arrest that the hero course students finally picked up on the fact that something was off. Kurai's mother had cut a deal with Tsukauchi in which she confessed to her and her husband having dealings with All For One and withholding information from the authorities, in exchange for her son's name being kept completely free of implicit guilt, even by association. No one would know about the fact that his quirk had come from All For One, which kept him safe from close scrutiny, and she would go to prison for no less than fifty years, with slim chances of parole. The official statement that went on to be given by the department to the media was that All For One had threatened Kurai and Akarui's lives unless his parents complied with his demands. It was shortly after Kurai had been made aware of this, and news of his father's treachery had been forced to be released to the public, that things began to shift in a more troubling direction.

Their first real clue was when the group was heading off to gym gamma for training when a third-year student from the business course knocked shoulders with Kurai, which he completely ignored. The other boy, however, stopped where he was and said, "Hey! First year! Watch where you're going!"

Kurai continued to ignore him, not in the mood for whatever antics the senior had in mind. The older student didn't like this, because he started walking after the class and shouted again. "You should pay attention when someone's trying to talk to you!"

"Hey, come on man, let it go," Kirishima said peaceably. "We're just tryin' to get to class on time, same as you. Let's just go our separate ways and call it a day, all right?"

"Tch!" The senior spat as he turned around and walked away. However, the redhead did hear him muttering, "First the League hits us twice and gets away with it, now the teachers are careless enough to let someone like him in? This school is going to crap."

"The heck was his deal?" Kaminari asked as he stood by Kirishima, looking puzzled.

"I dunno, man," the 'hardening' student answered as he went to follow the others. "Maybe he's just having a bad day. It happens."

However, things only started to intensify from thereon. In the days that followed, more and more students started to give Kurai looks of disgust as he walked by them, while others made a point to stay a certain distance away from him. It wasn't just the upperclassmen, either; everyone seemed to be either wary of or hostile toward Kurai, and it was starting to get on his classmates' nerves. What was almost stranger to them was how he ignored the way people were starting to treat him, and instead kept himself busy with his academics and his work study. One day, a sophomore even knocked his lunch tray off of his table right in front of him, and the only thing he did about it was let out a grunt of irritation and move to get back in the lunch line.

As there were still a lot of people moving out and about, Kurai's friends couldn't see exactly who had done the deed, but now they were all getting mad about it. "Okay, what the hell is going on with this school all of a sudden?" Mina demanded of no one in particular. "Why does it seem like everyone has it out for my boyfriend?"

"Yeah, I know that a lot of students don't like us because of the League attacks, but none of us have been outright harassed like this," Ochaco said with a worried look over her shoulder at Kurai, who had a blank look on his face. It seemed to be pretty much the only face he would make after he had arrested his mother.

"What's almost worse is that he doesn't push back!" Mina complained as she folded her arms and scowled at her food. "Ugh, bullies suck. He's having a hard time as it is, why can't he ever catch a break?"

"I'm worried about him, too," Iida commented as he put down his chopsticks. "He reminds me of myself when I became obsessed with hunting down Stain."

"I don't think that's it, though," Midoriya said as he put down his utensils on his barely-touched food. "He's not mad or obsessing over anything. After all, there's nothing left for him to pursue in the way of a case or a suspect. He just seems… done in."

"Do you think this was the straw that broke the camel's back?" Todoroki asked from the next table over. He was sitting across from Blake, who had been making a point to try and spend more time with Kurai's friend group. This seemed to come from a mixed desire to better know the boy that she had survived alongside, as well as Yang and Ruby telling her that she needed more friends.

"No, Kurai's too stubborn for that," Mina answered her classmate. "If anything, I've never seen him work so hard at his studies and training, and that's saying something. He's not giving up, that's for sure."

"What a shame," said a familiar, pretentious voice that grated on the nerves of the seated students. "Here some of us were hoping that UA could go back to boasting a population of the nation's most exemplary student body, as opposed to having a mole amidst the fine seeds that are being sown here."

"What do you want, Monoma?" Mina growled at the blond boy that seemed to hate her class.

"Nothing much," he said with faux smile. "Just to be able to attend the school of my dreams without wondering if one of us is secretly painting a bull's-eye on our backs when we're not looking."

It took a second for the others to realize what he was implicating, and when they did, Mina was furious. "You wanna repeat that, you little weasel?!" she snarled, starting to get out of her seat, but being yanked back down by Iida under the smug gaze of Monoma, who was clearly enjoying himself.

"Don't," the class representative warned the pink girl in a lowered tone. "This won't help Kurai. Attacking another student over a difference of opinion won't solve anything."

"That little-!"

"Monoma, I suggest you get back to your table and let us eat in peace," Yaoyorozu said as she stood up from where she had been talking to Jiro and Asui. "We don't have a quarrel with you, nor should you have one with Hikari. He's one of the most heroic people in our course, no doubt."

"You could do to learn a few things from the guy," Sero said with a slight snicker at the other boy, who turned his nose up further at them.

"How naïve," he pretended to sigh. "Haven't you ever heard the old saying, 'like father, like son'? Commissioner Hogo-sha was, by all appearances, a model officer. Yet now, it has been brought to light that he was in the pocket of the mastermind behind Kamino Ward! How much longer before our fellow classmate's façade falls apart, too?"

"You think that Kurai would sacrifice his arm for a cover story?" Midoriya demanded as he shot to his feet, surprising everyone with the level of anger he was displaying. Even Monoma was taken aback for a second, but he quickly recomposed himself.

"It's the perfect cover," he said assuredly. "He comes in as the ideal hero course candidate in terms of both power, and mannerisms. Then he performs a beautifully heroic sacrifice on behalf of someone who most people wouldn't feel was worth saving. It's too perfect, if you ask me."

"No one asked you," Ochaco said with a frown as she tugged on Midoriya's sleeve to gently urge him back into his seat. "Leave us alone, Monoma. Nobody's done anything to you, least of all, Kurai."

"Nothing that we can prove, anyway," the blond student sneered. "Why, I would wager that he-"

"Move."

The tables went dead quiet, as did the intruder, when they realized who was standing behind him. Monoma slowly turned around to see Kurai standing there, a new lunch tray in hand, and a stoic expression on his face.

"Excuse me?" Monoma asked him.

"You heard me fine the first time," Kurai replied without so much as blinking. "I'm hungry, and I've had a long morning. I want to eat lunch with my friends. I'm telling you to move so I can get on with my day."

For a moment, the others tensed, wondering what would happen if the arrogant student from class 1-B didn't do as he was being ordered. Would Kurai strike him? Would he finally let down the walls that had to be containing his pent-up emotions? Would Monoma get what was coming to him?

They didn't get the chance to find out. The blond student stepped aside and went past Kurai's left, departing with the remark, "Sorry to go this way, but I wouldn't want to get tetanus if I got caught on your shiny upgrade, there."

Mina looked ready to throw acid at the boy, but Kurai moved in between her and their antagonist with a negative shake of his head. "Don't bother," he said as he sat down calmly.

"Why not?" she demanded, frustrated that Monoma had just spoken so badly of her boyfriend, and that he seemed unwilling to do anything about it. "Why are you being so accepting of all of this crap, Kurai? It's not your fault that you were born into the family you were!" All around them, the noise level in the lunch hall resumed a somewhat normal level as the onlookers realized that nothing exciting was going on.

"I know that, and they know that, in their heads," he said softly as he reached for his food while the people in the cafeteria around them made a point of resuming more normal activities. "But they want someone to pin the blame on, and since the League is still out there, untouchable, they focus that negative energy on me, someone they can reach and act against. Frankly, they're not worth the effort that it would take for me to fight back. Even if I did, most of them would just say that it lends to the theory that I am some kind of traitor. And if we tried to get the teachers involved, what are they supposed to do? If the staff takes action against an offending party, everyone else will just spin it as favoritism for our class, which won't do you guys any good."

"But that's absolutely ridiculous!" Iida exclaimed with a frown. "You're more heroic than almost anyone I know! I agree that fighting back directly would be a waste of time and resources on your part, but there has to be something we can do to convince people that you're trustworthy!"

"I don't care what they think," Kurai shrugged as he took turns looking at each of his friends in the eyes. "As long as I've got a few people that have my back, people can speculate and point fingers all that they want, it doesn't matter to me. People's perceptions of events don't alter the facts of reality, and the fact is, I will become a hero, whether people like me or not."

"We do have your back," Midoriya promised him again. "And you're gonna be an amazing hero that everyone looks up to someday, I know it."

Everyone? Kurai thought as his face cracked with the tiniest smile. Not in a million years. Though I can't lie, it'd be nice to have at least one person that saw me as their hero.

In spite of the added hardships that the student body was casually dumping on Kurai, he continued to excel in his classes and impress Fat Gum with his field work. He and the others that were involved in the work studies said nothing about Eri or their upcoming mission, even to each other, unless it was behind locked doors, and even then it was only in whispers. However, the knowledge of that little girl being tormented by her father and exploited for the Hassaikai's purposes drove them to push harder than their classmates, especially during physical tests and quirk training, and it was showing in how they were improving their prowess much quicker than the others. This irritated Bakugo, and he demanded at one point to know just what kinds of tricks they had been picking up while they were away from school, though they all shut him down when he did.

Still, the same knowledge that was driving them was also tormenting them, especially Midoriya, who felt most responsible for her current plight. He was losing sleep over it, and more often than not, he and Kurai would come inside with bruises from how hard they had been training their quirks in their spare hours. Their girlfriends worried about the amount of effort that they were putting into bettering their powers, as it seemed like they were dangerously close to overworking themselves, but they both insisted that they were training well within their limitations.

For Izuku, that limitation had recently been raised, thanks to all of the intensive training during the camp, preparing for the provisional license exam, and his combat lessons with his friend. He was no longer limited to a mere five percent of his power, but instead could now push his body to handle just over one-tenth of One For All's energies without harming himself.

"Eleven percent?" Kurai gasped as they both powered down one evening. "Seems like a weird number, if you ask me."

"Yeah, well, I've probably been able to use more than five for a while now, but I just didn't notice because of how hard I've been concentrating on maintaining the limit that I started out with when I first used the Full Cowling technique," he panted as they sat down across from each other in the brightly-lit gym. "I guess I haven't been paying attention to how much I've actually improved."

"You've definitely improved your ability to give me new scrapes," Kurai chuckled as he looked at his left arm, where there was a patch of skin that had been scraped off by one of Izuku's hammer fists when he failed to properly evade. "Still… I think my own power's grown, too."

"Not surprising, given how much we've been working out, and how hard you've been hitting this week during training," Izuku said as he rubbed his sore ribs, but Kurai was already shaking his head in the negative.

"No, it's not just that," he said as his metal hand patted his stomach. "It was weird, but a few days back, the morning after everything went down… I think I unlocked one of my chakra."

"You did?" The green-haired boy was surprised, and of course, intrigued. "Which one?"

"The Manipura, I think," Kurai answered with a shrug. "It's the one that deals with willpower, and it's blocked by shame."

"Wait, I thought you were trying to unlock the base chakra?" his friend asked with a slight frown. "The survival one, right?"

"Muladhara," Kurai nodded. "That one is blocked by fear. Honestly, I thought that one would be unsealed, too, but I think it's actually locked up again, and I can't tell why. After all, what's left for me to be afraid of?"

Izuku pondered that for a moment before he asked, "Are you maybe afraid of losing Mina?"

"I guess," Kurai mused, though he didn't look convinced. "That's certainly possible, but that doesn't feel like the right answer. She's training to be a hero, and as such, I'd like to think that I know that she can take care of herself, even if I'm not there to look after her."

"I don't know what it could be, then," Midoriya said with an apologetic look. "Sorry I can't be more help."

"No reason to be sorry," Kurai shrugged. "I'm sure that when I find the answer, I'll kick myself for overlooking it, but I'm not going to tear my hair out about it now, when we've got more important things to worry about. For example, I don't know what will happen when I channel my quirk through the Manipura chakra, like I do with the Ajna and Anahata."

"Divine Eye and Giving Heart, right?" Midoriya recalled, to which Kurai nodded at. "What makes you so sure that you're right about this one? You were never certain on the other."

"It just makes sense to me," Kurai answered with another shrug. "When I felt something… shift inside, I was making a promise to myself- a vow about the kind of hero that I'm going to become. Never have I felt so sure about what direction my life should take as I did then, Izuku. Because of everything that I have been through- including knowing what my parents have put me through- I will never doubt my path again."

"When have you ever doubted that becoming a hero was the right thing to do?" Midoriya wondered aloud. "You've always seemed as sure I am that this is what we're meant to do."

"That's because I'm really good at hiding my doubts, pal," Kurai admitted with a dry chuckle. "But I have doubted, multiple times now. When Akarui was put in a wheelchair, when I lost my arm and came back from the dead, when my father died, when I destroyed his legacy and put my mother in prison… I've doubted a lot, Izuku, and I always carried shame for having those doubts, when Akarui, you, and our friends have done nothing but support me." He shook his head doggedly and said, "No more."

Izuku nodded before he stood up and said, "Sounds like you have plenty of willpower to me. I can see why you'd think it's that chakra that got unsealed." He cocked his head slightly before asking, "Did you want to try out your new power, now? You've helped me develop Full Cowling this much, so why don't we focus on your quirk for a while?"

"I'd love to, but we're out of time for the evening," Kurai sighed as he pointed at the clock on the gym wall, which showed that they had ten minutes before their curfew demanded that they be in their dorms. "I'd say we should try it out tomorrow, but I had to miss date night with Mina last week because of work, and your birthday is on Saturday. Maybe on Sunday?"

"Sure. I kinda forgot it was coming up," Midoriya admitted as they helped each other to get to their feet. "Are you and the girls planning something?"

"I have no idea what Ochaco is up to," Kurai managed to lie convincingly. It helped that he was still breathing hard from the workout, which helped to conceal any tells that might tip his friend off. "I think Sato is gonna make you a cake like he did for Mina, and I'm sure some of our classmates will have well-wishes, but I haven't planned anything. Sorry."

"Don't worry," Midoriya told him. "Most years, my mom would just take me out somewhere and get me whatever All Might merchandise I wanted at the time. It's not like I had enough friends to have a party, you know?"

"Yeah, no thanks to Bakugo," Kurai grumbled. Before Midoriya could say anything, he held up his hands and said, "Yeah, I know. He's keeping our secret, and he kinda showed remorse for some stuff. He still behaves like an ass most of the time, which doesn't help his case."

"I know," Midoriya sighed. He knew that this was a subject that they were never going to completely see eye to eye on, so it was better to just move on with their day instead of arguing in circles about it. "Come on. We should get back and make dinner before it gets too late."

"Like the hour we make our dinner matters," Kurai snorted. "I know that neither of us are sleeping much."

"Is it that obvious?"

"Not unless you're trying to make a new fashion statement by coloring those circles under your eyes. I'd say your fashion sense sucks, in that case, but half of my wardrobe is Shounen merch, so what do I know?"

"What?"

"I don't know, I'm tired."

Once they'd had dinner, Kurai excused himself for a brief phone call, which he came back from with a frown. "What's wrong, sweetie?" Mina asked him as he sat back down in front of his open math book and picked up a pencil.

"Well, Akarui tells me that he has officially been put into the legal care of my aunt," he said as he started to scribble down his answer to the question that he had been in the middle of before he left. "Problem is, the system isn't quite sure what to do with me."

"Why not?" she asked him with concern.

"I was signed over into the care of UA when Mom agreed to let me move here and be a part of the dorm system," Kurai answered as he finished scratching the paper with the graphite. "Technically, you and everyone else are part of a joint custody deal between the school and your parents. Now, the school is the only entity with any legal power over me, and they're not sure how- or even if- they should go about sharing custody of me with Aunt Sakura."

"Don't you get a say in it?" Mina looked a little perplexed, but more than anything, she was still worried for his well-being.

"Not much, seeing as I'm still a minor," he sighed. "For now, I'll just have to wait and see what happens. I doubt they'll keep me waiting long, but who knows?"

Very early the next morning, well before the sun would rise, five students in the class 'A' dorms were roused from their tentative slumbers by the buzzing of their phones, each one containing the same message. By some unknown agreement, the five sidekicks knew to gather in the common area in total silence as soon as they got the message, not even bothering to change out of their sleeping attire.

Ruby and Ochaco arrived in tandem with Eijiro, and they were soon joined by Izuku and Kurai. "You guys got it, too?" the redhead asked his friends.

"Time to go get Eri," Kurai nodded. "I messaged Amajiki; he says that we need to get our hero gear and meet Mister Aizawa at the front of the school so we can get to the train station and head for Nighteye's agency." He wished that he could tell Mina that they were about to head out, but the gag order from Nighteye was still in effect.

"About time," Ruby said, looking uncharacteristically serious. "Let's go kick some Yakuza butt."

While the others walked ahead of them on the path, briefcases in hand, Ochaco took a minute to hold Izuku back a little, as to have a quiet talk with him. "Are you okay?" he asked her once they were a few meters behind the others.

"I'm pretty nervous," she admitted as she gripped his hand, making sure not to let her last finger touch his skin. "I'd like it if we could go into this together, like we did at the licensing exam, but since we're working with different agencies, I dunno about the chances of that happening."

"I wish we could, too," he agreed somberly. He perked up just a little bit as he added, "But someday, when we're pro, we can go on as many missions together as we want, right?"

"Yeah," she said as she forced a smile onto her face. "And when we do, I won't hold you back, I promise." She needed him to know that, now more than ever; that she wouldn't keep him from charging onward, full tilt, until he reached his goal, no matter what that aim was.

"You've never held me back," he said as he leaned in closer, extra courage somehow making its way into his actions. "From the beginning of my journey at UA, you've been pushing me forward. You were the first person I saved with my quirk, after all." He kissed the top of her head, which turned them both into scarlet messes, but he didn't regret his actions one bit. Ochaco definitely wasn't complaining, either.

They were all in costume and at the meeting place by seven o' clock to coordinate with the other heroes and the police that would be joining them on the raid. Kurai silently regarded the officers that were to work with them, noting their precinct and recognizing their sergeant and a couple of the men by name. In the past, he would have greeted them gladly, knowing that he would have been able to share in a mutual working respect, but the way things were now…

I don't need to start anything on accident, he decided as he got his scouter set on his ear. If they have an issue with me, hopefully they can keep it to themselves.

"Okay, guys, who's pumped and ready to do this?!" Togata suddenly asked them eagerly, practically oozing excess energy. "We're gonna be heroes today, are ya with me?!" He was already dressed in his red-and-white hero outfit that transformed his identity into that of Lemillion- the hero that would go on to save a million lives.

"He's looking better," Amajiki commented in a low tone.

"Hey, hey, are you guys nervous?" Hado asked them cheerily as she bounced on the balls of her feet. "It's totally okay if you are!"

"I am," Ochaco admitted a little shakily.

"Show me someone who isn't at least a little nervous, and I'll show you an idiot," Kurai muttered, drawing the surprised attention of his school mates. Noticing their looks, he shrugged and added, "Yakuza have survived a lot of changing times, you know? There's a reason that they're still around, and isn't just because they're lucky. I hate 'em, but that doesn't mean I can discount the fact they're crafty bastards. Fighting them isn't gonna be a cakewalk."

"You seem pretty certain that there's gonna be a fight," Eijiro commented as he checked to make sure that his costume's sleeves were holding up okay.

"You really think a guy as cautious as Nighteye would call in twenty-something heroes if he wasn't expecting some violent resistance?" his friend inquired wryly.

"Well… Maybe they'll just do the smart thing and hand the girl over once they realize that they've been caught?" Ruby asked hopefully.

"With the last leader, I wouldn't have been surprised if they set up a fall guy to take the blame for abusing the girl in order to ensure the survival of the rest of the clan. Eri would be released without much fuss, and the majority of the syndicate gets to keep their hands clean of anything incriminating. But this Chisaki guy is different, at least, according to the intel we have on him," Kurai muttered. "Prior Yakuza leaders have made it a point to distance themselves from the imagery of being an actual villain, but he actually calls himself 'Overhaul' and isn't afraid to get his own hands dirty, even if we haven't been able to prove it just yet. He doesn't seem like the kind of guy to back down, either."

"How do you know about the last guy?" Togata asked him curiously.

"Dad mentioned him a few times," the boy answered. "Said he was simultaneously the least and most irritating out of the modern-day Yakuza leaders, because he had a real strict code of honor that he abided by. It made it just about impossible to tie anything to him, but at least he wasn't in favor of initiating gang wars like some of the others were."

"Your dad said that, huh?" said a new voice from behind Kurai, which got him to letting out a small sigh before he turned around to face the speaker.

"Yes, my father said as much," the boy said as he looked up to see the officer who would be coordinating the police efforts for the raid. "Good morning, Sergeant Satoshi."

"Morning," the man replied gruffly. "I didn't know you'd be here, Hogo-sha."

"It's Kai," the young hero replied with a somewhat forced sense of calm. "And yes, I'm here to help."

"Glad to see it," the sergeant said as he held out a hand to the boy. "I know the media's been running a circus with your family name, but I'm glad to have you here."

"Sir?" Kurai asked, though he shook hands with the man in spite of his confusion.

"I don't care what story the news is running, your father was a good man, and a better cop," Satoshi insisted, further catching the boy and his friends off-guard. "You'll be hard-pressed to find a man on the force that doesn't owe him something, whether it's their life or their livelihood, or just a damn coffee break when they really needed it. Your dad looked out for his men, and one mistake, even a bad one like the one that he made, doesn't change all the good that he did. And I know you're gonna do what he raised you to do today, and help shut down these Yakuza bastards."

Kurai knew that the man was speaking under the assumption that All For One would have killed him if his father hadn't done as he was told, and thus his loyalty was somewhat misplaced. However, it was such a welcome change from all the dark looks and whispering that he'd been receiving so far that he couldn't help but crack a smile of relief at the man. "Glad to be working with you and the men from the 212th precinct, sir."

"And we're glad to be working with you… Kai."

It turned out that Chisaki was even more inept as a leader than the heroes had anticipated that he would be. Almost by chance, Nighteye had been able to use his quirk, a clairvoyance-type power called 'Foresight' that allowed him to see into a person's future for the duration of an hour. After encountering one of the gang members, the hero was able to use him to see that Eri was still being kept in the main HQ of the Shie Hassaikai, where her father was seen most often; a testament to the man's careless planning and general recklessness.

A smart guy would have moved her to another shelter, or better yet, to a new property entirely, one that wasn't affiliated with Hassaikai dealings, Kurai thought as they went over the briefing. Oh well; dumbass just made our jobs easier.

The plan was to approach the Hassaikai headquarters at 8:30 that morning, notify the residents that they were in possession of a search-and-seize warrant, and then investigate the premises. They were authorized to use force, preferably non-lethal, but it was a reality of the superhuman world that sometimes not everything worked out nice and neat, especially when dealing with gang members. Nighteye knew the path to Eri's room, but very little else about the place, so they would be entering with limited intelligence, and rumor had it that the Yakuza groups still maintained a tunnel network that ran underground for miles and miles, which had allowed them to evade capture on multiple occasions in the past.

If they have an escape route, that's how they'll do it, Kurai thought while he read through the notes on the HQ facility, which, on the surface, looked like a somewhat modernized temple for shaolin acolytes. He ignored the parts concerning the known Hassaikai gang members, for two reasons. One, he had already memorized most of the names and quirks on the list once he had learned who they were going up against. Two, his scouter had all the information he needed on the gang members, and would pull up the necessary data as soon as the facial recognition had a lock on an enemy during a fight.

Just as he had finished fitting everything in his head that was relevant to the upcoming mission, he and his friends were approached by Aizawa. "Are you all ready?" he asked them. Once he had received a unanimous affirmation that they were as prepared as they could be, he turned toward their resident greenette and said, "I'm going to be keeping a close eye on you, problem child. Understand what I mean?"

"Yes sir!" Izuku nodded. "I won't let you down."

"Good," their teacher replied before shifting his gaze to Kurai, who met his eyes evenly. "Come with me for a minute," he said before leading Kurai to a quieter corner of the room. "Hikari… I just got off the phone with principal Nezu. He and the legal team handling your case have come to a decision, pending your agreement."

"That is?" Kurai inquired, wondering why they were having this kind of discussion now, and why it wasn't with the head of UA himself.

"Because you're already in our dorm system, and your aunt has her hands full taking care of your brother, she's agreed to give the school full custody over you, given the circumstances," Aizawa explained. "You still require an official guardian to handle various legal matters, though. If you're amicable, the principal believes that as your homeroom teacher, I would make the best candidate for such an appointment."

Kurai blinked a few times in silence, nothing less than surprised by the news. However, he could also see the sense in the idea, and he certainly wasn't dead set against it. Still… "Do I have time to consider the offer?" he asked his teacher calmly.

"Some, yes," Aizawa nodded. "However, you should know that Nezu insisted you be made aware as soon as possible. Since even he doesn't know the details of what's about to happen here, we don't have the luxury of asking for an extension on matters, or else we risked someone catching wind of the situation. He's under some pressure to get the process moving."

"Won't there be some people that won't like this, given everything that's happened?" Kurai asked.

"Every big decision leaves at least one party unhappy," Aizawa stated dryly. "I'll let Nezu know that you're thinking about it. I think the papers have to go through by next Friday, so you have until then to sign them or decline the offer."

"What happens if I choose to decline?"

Aizawa shrugged at that. "Nezu will probably have to take responsibility for you, which doesn't seem very logical, given all of the other responsibilities that he has to manage."

"As opposed to a busy guy like you taking in a walking disaster like me?" Kurai inquired wryly.

Aizawa turned away as he answered, "You're my student. I have to take responsibility for your messes, regardless if there's another legal guardian involved, so it only makes sense that I make less work for somebody that has better things to do with their time than worry about you."

Kurai's lips quirked upwards as he watched the other man walk away. "You worry about me?" he called after his teacher.

Aizawa, of course, chose not to answer that; mostly because he didn't need to.

Kai: You've been reading Harry Potter again, haven't you?

Mataras: Maybe.

Deku: What does that series have to do with this one?

Mataras: I believe that he's referring to how when things should be going well for the protagonists, Rowling has a tendency to throw a wrench in things and just make everyone miserable in the process. In this case, while what Kurai had to do to his family was by no means enviable, he should now be getting a chance to heal and move on from the event with the helps of his friends. Instead, we now have an embittered student body adding to his problems and adding strain to his relationships because you all have different ideas about how he should handle it.

Kai: Throw me a bone, here. Am I actually going to be miserable until the day I die in this story?

Mataras: I don't hand out spoilers... But no, you entire story is not going to be one of misery.

Kai: Okay. As long as we have that clear.

Deku: Are you okay, Mataras? You seem worn out.

Mataras: Like I said, I've been pretty ill (along with my family) these last couple of weeks, and it's taking its toll on me. I'm hoping that I'll be able to record the audio chapter without any issues this week, but we'll see if my throat holds up...

Deku: It's important to keep up your health, you know! If we miss out on a chapter or two while you get well, I'm sure that people will-

Mataras: The anniversary of this story is coming up around the corner (Apr. 4), and I'm not about to miss out on that. If I can do my job as an entertainer, you'd better believe I will.

Kai: If you're committing to that, make sure you're Going Beyond.

Mataras: Plus Ultra. You guys got it.

Deku: Next time- The Calm and the Storm

Next time on Your Hero Academia: Unveiling...

The second that they cleared the wall, Satoshi held up the required paperwork and shouted, "We have a warrant to search the premises on suspicions of illegal drugs manufacturing and sales!"

"What?!" shouted one man among the twenty or so in the courtyard. "How'd they score a warrant?!"

"Who cares? Let's waste these pigs!" grunted another man as he aimed his palm at the lead heroes. The bushes near him began to rustle in response to his quirk, but before he could launch any leafy projectiles, one of the heroes was already right in front of him, his face a stoic mask of hatred and contempt.

"You yakuza trash better watch your mouths," Kai snarled before he slammed his metal fist into the man's jaw, breaking it and sending blood and several teeth flying as he crashed to the ground, insensate. The boy then turned with inhuman speed to catch a metal pipe with the same hand, startling the man that had swung it as he clenched his fist and warped the metal with his steel grip. The man's face registered surprise and then fear before Kurai delivered a thunderous high kick into his sternum, launching him up and over his allies, even as the other heroes and police began to engage. It took several seconds for him to return to earth, crushing two other gang members beneath him when he did.

As Deku and Red Riot caught up to their friend, who fell back into place in the column of heroes following Nighteye, they both had to do a double-take as they caught sight of something on their friend's face that they had never seen before. They had seen Kurai upset many times, irritated, and even angry, but what they saw now was beyond any of that. He was an exceptional fighter, capable of fighting with complete control over his own body so that he did not inflict any manner of permanent injury, even with his robotic limb.

Now though, it was clear that Kai was out for blood.