A/N: Okay, now that I've finally finished kicking whatever the hell infected my lungs over the last couple of weeks, I'm back on schedule! Let's wrap up this (kind of) filler arc!

The Real Deal

Kurai was seated at a small table in a gray room with few windows and secured gates on both ends of the area. He could hear the stern voices of the guards reprimanding some of their charges, and sincerely hoped that there would not be an altercation, because the last thing he needed was for an inmate to cause trouble while he- a provisionally licensed hero- was present and capable of doing something about such a situation. He knew that it had taken a lot of pull from Fat Gum to arrange this meeting on such a short notice, so the last thing Kurai wanted to do was endanger the man's standing in the hero community with his actions.

I'm just glad that he agreed to do me the solid, Kurai admitted to himself as he found his eyes wandering the drab room again.

He gave a small start of alarm when a buzzer sounded across the room, drawing his attention to a worn-looking person dressed in gray with a number running down her shirt. Her hair had a lot more silver in it than he remembered, and she was moving more slowly as she was accompanied by a guard, too. Her gaze was downcast, so he couldn't see her face, but he was certain that he would see signs of premature aging there, too.

Before he could stop himself, Kurai stood up and asked, "Mom?"

Moka Hogo-sha stopped and looked up from the floor, her violet eyes going wide as she recognized her visitor. "Kurai?" she asked softly as her shoulders lifted a bit. "Is that you?"

"Yeah," he said as the guard urged Moka forward so that they could approach the table where her son was standing. "I… hope you don't mind a surprise visit."

"Not at all," she said as she reached out and seized his hands in hers' before the guard could stop her. "I'm so glad to see you, son."

"No physical contact," the guard said, but Kurai decided that he wasn't going to stand there and take that.

"She wasn't arrested for any violent crimes, and I'm the guy who put her in here," he said in a hard tone. He was dressed in his hero costume and had his license on him, so he technically had a right to reprimand the guard if he found her conduct inappropriate. "The last thing I'm gonna do is help her escape, and there's no way she'd ever hurt me."

"You're a family member, it's a conflict of interest," the guard deadpanned. "Please step away from the prisoner before I am forced to terminate this visit prematurely."

"It's okay, son," Moka said as she released his hands and stepped back. "Why don't we sit down?"

"Alright," he conceded with a slight grunt before the guard moved to attach Moka's cuffs and chain to a link on the table, which would greatly restrict her movements. Once that was done, he waited for the guard to move away and stand against the wall with a stony expression before he muttered, "Regular ray of sunshine in here, isn't it?"

"It's prison, Kurai," Moka shrugged. "This is the way it's supposed to be for criminals. And to be honest, I don't have it so bad compared to a lot of the other inmates in gen pop. But, let's not talk about that. How are you?"

"Uh…" he stalled for a moment, before an awkward smile worked its way across his face. "Sorry, I'm not sure where to begin," he admitted. "I wasn't even thinking of coming here for a while longer, if I'm being honest. I'm kinda at a loss for what we should talk about." That wasn't the complete truth, but he wasn't sure how he should transfer from their current topic to that of him getting engaged while he was a freshman in high school, at least two years and change away from even having a career.

Moka gave him a sad smile before she told him, "If we're both being honest, I'm surprised that you would ever visit me in the first place. I fully expected to never see you again."

Kurai felt his gut twinge with guilt at those words, but he pushed it down in favor of saying, "Well, your other son is pretty damn persuasive, so thank him when you see him again." He knew that his brother had come to see their mother several times, but he didn't comment much on the topics that came up during said visits.

"Language, son."

"Oh, come on," he said as he rolled his eyes to heaven. "Every time."

"I may be a convicted criminal, but I am still your mother," she said as she smiled with tears pooling in the corner of her eyes. "I saw your fight in Fukuoka, Kurai. I may not have a right to it, but I'm very proud of you."

"Why, for beating the Nomu, or totally showing up Endeavor on his debut as the number one hero?" he managed to say with a slight snicker, which made her smile widen a little.

"Yes," she answered, which made him laugh a little more. Then she said, "I do have to admit that I am curious as to what prompted this sudden change of heart. Has something happened with Akarui?"

"No, he's fine," Kurai said as he made a negative gesture with his hands. "At least, as fine as he can be. No, I'm here because of something that's come up in my life. Well, two somethings." With a wry smile, he asked, "Got time in your schedule for your problem child?"

"You and Akarui are both my problem children."

"I would pretend to be offended by that if it weren't so true," he sighed as he drummed his artificial fingers on the table. "Alright, here it is. You heard anything about how the heroes are getting spread too thin with all the rise in criminal activity?"

"Of course."

"Well, in order to try and stopgap the problem, the Hero's Safety Commission is reaching out to schools with students that have provisional licenses and is asking for their help," he told her. When he noticed that she was beginning to pale, he rushed to say, "We're not being deployed to anyplace with a high crime rate. Principal Nezu made certain that our school's freshman and sophomore classes would be sent to areas where the crime rate was very low, and we'd be doing community support more than anything."

"Deployed?" Moka repeated, looking a little more relaxed, but still apprehensive. "How long are these assignments going to be? And where will you go if crime is on the rise everywhere?"

"I… can't tell you where we're going," he admitted a little sadly. "That'd be a major security breach if I told an inmate where my class was headed, even if she is my mother."

"Yes, I see your point," Moka said as she nodded in understanding, somewhat to his surprise. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have asked."

"No, I set a bad precedent when I got defensive with the guard," he sighed as he lowered his head in apology. "Sorry about that."

"Don't worry about it," his mother assured him. "I know you can't tell me where, but can you tell me for how long this assignment will last?"

"A month," he told her. "We'll be back just in time for Christmas. Maybe Akarui and I will be able to visit together when I get back."

"That would be nice," Moka nodded with another smile. "It really is wonderful to see you, Kurai."

"Even though I'm the one who put you in here?" His words were delivered softly, but it was easy to hear the amount of self-loathing that they contained.

"Son, you were right to put me in here," his mother said, bringing his attention back to her so that he could see the kind smile that she was giving him. "Your father and I wanted to do what was best for you, but as all parents do, we made a mistake. Every mistake has consequences, and now I am simply paying the price equal to the crime that was committed. If your father were still alive, I know he would say the same thing. After all, it's what he dedicated his life to doing- enforcing the law, even if it was hypocritical in nature."

"Well, I'd prefer to have a selfish hypocrite of a father as opposed to an honest murderer," Kurai sighed. "I suppose there's that."

"I'm sorry, what?" his mother said with a frown.

"It's a reference to a song from Naruto," he answered with a dogged shake of his head. "Sorry, bad time to be bringing up my childhood obsessions."

"Perhaps, but I suppose it's comforting to see you acting like yourself, in spite of everything that has happened," Moka said with a slightly quizzical smile on her face. "Speaking of which, you said that something else important had happened?"

"Oh yeah," he said as he reached up and scratched at his head nervously. "Um… I…"

"Five minutes," the guard called from the side of the room.

Kurai drew in a breath to tell her where she could stick her five minutes, but was stopped by his mother saying, "Don't even start, son."

"…Yes, ma'am," he said as he subsided, knowing that causing a scene would do nothing good for his mother, nor would it extend their visiting time. "Okay, here it is, then… Mina and I want to get married as soon as we finish at UA." His mother blinked in surprise several times at her son, though he was unable to tell which emotion exactly was causing the silence that had afflicted her following his declaration. "Uh… Mom? You okay?"

"Talk to your Aunt Sakura the next time you go to our house," she suddenly said, her eyes still wide with apparent surprise. "Tell her the news, and she'll have something from me to you."

"Wha-? Mom, this isn't happening anytime soon," Kurai chuckled, still unsure as to what was going through his mother's mind at that moment. "If you somehow have some kind of wedding present arranged for me, it can wait."

"It's not a wedding gift," Moka said with a shake of her head. "But it is something that I wish I could give you in person to celebrate with our family. Just do me a favor and bring Ashido with you the next time you come to visit without Akarui, alright?"

"Mom, what's up with the cryptic delivery?" Kurai asked with a confused expression on his face. "What did you get me?"

"It's something from both me and your father," his mother said, which got him to shut up immediately.

Before Moka could say anything else, an alarm began to sound throughout the building, and the shouting in the background intensified. "Oh, come on!" Kurai growled as he looked over his shoulder. "Can't I go anywhere without something violent happening?!"

"Sorry, Hikari, but we have to go into lockdown," the guard said as she approached and began to undo the fastener that was keeping his mother chained to the table. "You'll need to leave with another guard."

Kurai hesitated, but when his mother met his gaze and nodded, he smiled a little bit. "Balls to that," he said as he stood tall and turned his back on the two women. "I'm a hero, so I'm not leaving until the situation is resolved."

"You can't just-"

"I can and I will," Kurai said as he approached the gate where the sounds were coming from, reaching into his pocket as he went. As soon as he reached the entrance, he held up his hero license to the guard and said, "I'm a hero, let me through so I can assist in containing the situation."

The guard nodded and allowed him to pass without any protest. From the shouts coming through the radios, it sounded as though someone had gotten jumped up on a quirk booster and was now trying to kill members of a rival gang in the yard.

As Moka watched him go, the guard asked, "Is he seriously gonna run in there without any backup?"

"Did you not see the footage from Fukuoka the day that the Hero Billboard Charts were announced?" Moka replied as she was led away. "None of those inmates stand a chance against my son."

Mera, a villainess with a water emission quirk, was laughing as she pinned one of her rivals to the corner of the yard's fence, using a high-pressure water jet that fired from the sole of her foot to drown the other woman where she cowered. Her victim, an inmate named Yumehara, had been flailing desperately when the attack first started, but now she was hardly moving at all. The thought that she had already killed her crossed Mera's mind, but she was having too much fun to stop. Anyone else who had tried to interfere had been driven away either by another violent burst of water, or one of Mera's gang members, so now all the other inmates would do was watch with an abject interest as yet another one of their cells was about to have a vacancy.

This was before someone dove into the powerful jet of water, blocking the stream from striking Yumehara, and causing Mera to take a step back in confusion and outrage. "Who the hell do you think you are?!" she demanded as the newcomer knelt in front of the downed woman and placed their fingers against her neck.

Without acknowledging her, the newcomer laid the other woman on her back and then gave her chest a couple of hard pumps, which sent water spewing out of her mouth as she coughed and began to struggle for air once again.

"Hey!" Mera said as she started forward, furious that anyone had the gall to interfere with her business. "You got a death wish, kid?!" For now she could see, as the newcomer shifted Yumehara into a recovery position, that they were young, though the shock of silver hair on the side of his head made it difficult to tell from certain angles. He was a young man, just old enough to be in high school by the looks of it, but he was dressed in what looked to be a hero's costume. He also appeared to have an artificial right arm, but in her drug-addled state, Mera couldn't remember why she should care about any of these details. After all, why would any of it matter when she killed him?

"Get lined up to go back in your cells," he said in a tone that had the ring of authority. Shifting his gaze slightly, he broadened his address to the entire yard as he said, "All of you."

"No one ignores me when I-!"

Clang! Thump.

Kai's metal fist slammed into Mera's face, knocking her senseless and sending her unconscious form crashing into the waterlogged grass beneath her. The speed at which this had happened surprised many of the inmates- most of them hadn't even seen it actually occur. All they knew was that one of the prison's biggest bruisers had been flattened in a single blow, delivered by what looked like a child hero.

Seeing their reluctance to get moving, the young man took a couple of steps forward before he told them, "I am the Guardian Hero, Kai. If you know about the events of the Nomu attack in Fukuoka, you'll know that I'm the guy who made Endeavor's ultimate move look like a birthday candle compared to a bonfire. I'm sure that there are those among you who don't find me intimidating, but I don't really care. If you don't get your asses in line to go back to your cells on your own by the time the guards arrive, know that it will be my personal pleasure to knock each and every one of your teeth in."

By the end of proceedings, it turned out that there was not a single inmate who didn't believe him.

"You're all packed up back at the dorm?" Kurai asked as he and Mina approached his childhood home, having been dropped off by Cementoss, who said that he would be back by ten that evening.

"Yeah, you asked me like five times before we left," she said with a slight roll of her eyes. "My stuff is with the rest of the class' bags next to yours' so they can load it onto the bus that we're taking in the morning. Now stop worrying so much, we'll be fine."

"Sorry, I can't help it."

"You didn't worry this much when we went to I-island together," she pointed out.

"We weren't going on assignment to work as heroes," he countered. "We're gonna be all on our own, and that's kind of a daunting thought. Whenever we've had questions, we've been able to talk to our teachers, but where we're going, we're gonna be the ones who are supposed to have all the answers. Oh crap, is this what being a teacher feels like all the time?" He paused, a look of mild panic in his eyes.

"Kurai!" Mina said before she pulled his face in and kissed him for less than a second. "You gotta calm down, dude. Those are tomorrow's problems, and if we're being real, Iida and Yaomomo probably have it covered. We have enough to think about just with us tonight, so let's worry about this, first."

"…Right," he said as he shook himself. "Sorry about that."

"I love you, dork."

"I love you, too. Thanks for coming with me to this."

"Of course," Mina said with a smile before she gave him another kiss that landed on his cheek. "Let's do this."

The two of them had been given permission to visit Kurai's childhood home for dinner so that he could spend some time with his family before they went on their mission to Nabu Island. They had already spent breakfast with Mina's parents, which had been a pleasant affair. They had been nervous in approaching the subject of them wanting to get married once they were done with school, but both her mother and father had been surprisingly open to the idea. Having expected more resistance, Kurai had very carefully laid out his reasons for wanting to be with Mina for the rest of his life to the older couple, having expected her father to fully drop his smile and wring his neck at any given point. Her parents had some concerns, of course, but they were both adamant that this was ultimately their choice, and as long as they were both sincere about their intent, they would support the two of them.

"We've seen enough to know how happy you make our little girl," Mina's father said toward the end of the conversation. "Don't get me wrong, we're surprised that you're talking about taking this step at such a young age, but I also know that we can't possibly understand everything that you two have had to go through to get to where you are. Both of us respect you for what you've endured and how you've kept your head held high after each challenge has passed, Hikari."

"If I'm being honest, sir, the biggest reason I've been able to keep picking myself back up is because of Mina," Kurai admitted as they had threaded their fingers together. "I wouldn't be here without her. The truth is that my wanting to marry her is for fairly selfish reasons- I know where I'd be without her, and it's not a good picture." He made sure to keep firm eye contact with the older man as he said, "Your daughter brings out the best in me, and I intend to repay her by bringing out the best in her for as long as I can. I love her more than anything else I could ever think of."

Mina's parents had smiled at one another before her father stood up and indicated that he wanted Kurai to do the same. Once he had, the older man had shook his hand firmly and said, "I look forward to welcoming another son into my family."

Kurai had felt his eyes well up with tears unexpectedly, and only then did he realize how much he had been missing having an encouraging paternal figure in his life. But he also smiled, because he realized that in a few years, his broken-down family would finally get to increase instead of decrease yet again, and the thought made him incredibly happy.

After that, the time flew by, and before the young couple knew it, they were saying goodbye to her parents, promising to call them at least once a week when they were established on Nabu. Following that, they spent the day getting packed for the trip to the island, playing some games with the other students who were inclined to do so, and generally having a good time. Those who knew of the engagement kept the matter quiet from the teachers- even Iida- as they didn't know how the faculty would react to the idea. Some among them thought that the staff wouldn't care overmuch, but they all agreed that it was best not to risk a confrontation over such a big subject right before they were about to head out for what would be many of their first official hero assignment.

Remembering how well things had gone with her family, Kurai couldn't help but feel as though the other shoe was about to drop. With slightly shaky fingers, the young hero now reached up and rang the doorbell to his old home. He then waited with baited breath until the door opened to reveal Shukin, who was dressed up in a collared shirt and a smile on his face. "Hey, man," he said as he moved to pull a surprised Kurai in for a hug. "It's real good to see you again."

"Uh, you too," he said as he returned the embrace. "I'm kinda surprised that you're this happy to see me, if I'm being honest."

"You're a hero," Shukin shrugged as he pulled back. "You and I both know that means there's gonna be moments a lot less glamorous than what they show on TV all the time."

"So we're good?"

"You gave up your room to me, so I think I still kinda owe you a few," the other boy chuckled before he turned to Mina, who had been waiting patiently in silence. "Sorry for ignoring you for a second. You're his girlfriend, right? Asui? He talks about you all the time." Kurai turned red while Mina started to giggle and Shukin went on to say, "Wait, you're not the frog girl… Kurai! You have a side chick and didn't tell me?! How could you?!"

"I know you're screwing with me, but come on, man," Kurai groaned as Mina started to give into a fit of giggles while Shukin tried desperately to maintain a straight face.

"You're right, though," Mina managed to get out through her stifled laughter. "He does have a side piece at the gym!"

"Oh? How scandalous," Shukin said as he gestured for them to come inside. "Tell me, is this an open relationship? I didn't know Kurai's tastes swung that way."

"Wait 'till you realize who the other guy is."

"It's a guy?! Kurai, what have you been up to?!"

"I am regretting so much of this," the cyborg teen grumbled as he walked inside and took off his shoes while they finally gave vent into full-bellied laughs. "Now I remember why I made a point of not letting you two meet."

"Ah… I like her," his cousin said as he reached out to shake hands with the pink girl. "Nice to meet you. I'm Shukin, Kurai's more handsome older cousin."

"Age before beauty," Kurai snorted, which caused both Mina and Shukin to raise their eyebrows at him.

"He's gotten spunky," Shukin said with something like approval as he released Mina's hand. "Your doing, I take it?"

"That's right," she answered cheerily. "I'm Mina, and it's very nice to meet you."

"You don't prefer to go by Ashido?" the older boy asked.

"Mina's not big on formalities," Kurai reminded him. "Second time we met- first day after class- and she was already hanging all over me."

"Yeah, and I hate to break it you, skinny, but your cousin is way more handsome than you are," Mina told Shukin, who made a face and pretended to be wounded in his heart.

*I never knew you felt that way about me, Ashido.* The three teens turned to see Akarui coming from the dining room, accompanied by a woman who looked a lot like Shukin.

"Shh, you're not supposed to tell Kurai," she giggled, which led to the boy himself making a bewildered face.

"What is happening today?" he demanded of no one in particular.

"They're welcoming you home," Sakura said as she moved to embrace her nephew. "It's good to see you again, Kurai."

"It's good to come home, Aunt Sakura," he admitted as he returned the hug, not surprised for the first time that week at how natural it felt to be around his family, even after everything that had happened over the course of the last year.

Sakura then pulled away and moved to greet Mina with the words, "It's so nice to finally meet you, Ashido. You're even prettier in person than in the photos and videos that Kurai sends home."

"Aw, thanks," Mina said as she was given her own hug by the older woman. "I'm glad that I get to meet you, too. Kurai has told me a lot about you guys." It warmed the boy's heart to see Mina being so readily accepted by his remaining family members, and it helped him to relax a little as he started to allow himself to feel as though he had really come home.

Dinner was excellent, and there was plenty of laughter among the five attendees as they each exchanged stories of what had been happening in their lives since Kurai had gone to live in the dorms. Shukin was eager to hear about the details of the fight against the Nomu in Fukuoka, which initially worried Mina, as it was still a relatively fresh experience for Kurai, but he surprised them by giving his cousin a fairly detailed account of the battle from his point of view. However, since his aunt and cousin were not made privy to the origins of his quirk, he left out the parts concerning his motivation for pushing himself so hard against the Nomu, namely how he felt responsible for their creation in the first place.

Once he had finished telling the tale, Shukin shook his head in wonder and said, "Man, you really are gonna be the next All Might."

"I doubt that," Kurai said with a slight snicker. "I'm not as inspiring as he was. Besides, there's another one of my classmates who's a lot more like him than I ever could be. I can't smile every time I face danger, you know?"

"Dude, do you remember when All Might first came on the scene?" Shukin insisted as he laid down his utensils, having finished with his dinner. "There was that video of him saving over a hundred people from that awful wreck and collapsing building. That was just the beginning, and the man became a legend."

"What's your point?" Kurai asked as he tilted his head quizzically.

"Come on, man," Shukin said as he rolled his eyes with a grin. "Look back at your hero career, which has already begun before you're even out of school. You survived an attack from those League psychos, managed to hold off a Nomu that took All Might to beat, and then went on to win the Sport's Festival only a couple of weeks later. Then you fought alongside Gang Orca and took down one of Japan's biggest human trafficking rings, and got the bastard that killed Dad put back in jail- thanks for that, by the way."

"You're welcome?"

"Following that, you stop a major terrorist attack on I-island, which culminates in you fighting alongside All Might himself-"

"Akarui was the only reason that I didn't get myself killed doing that."

"You still did it, even knowing the risks. After that, you survived another attack from the League, and even if you weren't totally handy about the way you escaped-"

"Shukin!" Sakura said, looking mortified until she noticed Kurai trying to contain his laughter.

"Sorry, but that one was pretty funny," he admitted as Mina rolled her eyes at him.

"Point is, you survived, emerged stronger for it, and then got your provisional license, which led to you interning under Fat Gum and putting away the Shie Hassaikai after personally introducing their leader to the dirt. And now we got you doing stuff like that?" He held up his phone to display a video clip of Kurai's final attack against the Shadow Nomu as he went on to say, "People are already talking about you, and it's not just in the comment sections of videos like these, man. I hear folks talking about your debut in school and in the mall, even now, weeks later."

"That does sound a lot like when All Might began his career," Sakura said, having calmed down after she realized that Kurai wasn't going to take offense at his cousin's joke. "Shukin may be on to something, Kurai."

"Whatever happens, happens," Kurai shrugged as he set aside his own utensils. "Honestly, I never planned on getting this much acclaim as a hero. I just want to do my part for our community to the best of my ability, like Dad and Uncle Shiro did."

"Your father and Shiro never sought to be rewarded, either, but their hard work made them stand out to their peers," Sakura told the boy. "They were rewarded for their efforts, and rightly so. If this is what your best brings to the community, you shouldn't shy away from the praise that they give you. You've certainly earned it."

"Just don't go getting a swollen head on us," Shukin grinned as he put his phone away. "If you start acting too big for your britches, we'll end up with a repeat of that time at the beach where Tensei had to save our sorry hides."

"You-! Shut up, or they'll never find your body," Kurai said quickly. "You know the consequences for violating our oath of silence. Besides, if I remember correctly, we were in that mess because you-"

"Boys, boys," Sakura said with a roll of her eyes. "Not at the dinner table, please."

"Wait, I gotta know, what happened on this trip?" Mina said excitedly, her dark eyes shining as she leaned forward in her seat. "Come on, spill."

"Sorry, but he's right, we all took an oath of silence," Shukin said as he placed a finger over his lips. "I'll take the secret to my grave."

"Oh come on," Mina pouted before she appealed to her boyfriend. "Sweetie?"

"You really think I'm gonna be the one to tell you what happened?"

"Hmph, then I'll have to go to my favorite source," she said as she crossed her arms and turned to Akarui. "Alright, buddy. What'd you guys get up to that Ingenium had to bail you out?"

*Ingenium didn't do much,* Akarui replied. *Tensei saved our butts.*

"What does that even-? What's the difference?" she asked with a bewildered face while Sakura turned away as if to hide a smile behind her hand.

*That's all you're going to get out of me. We swore a blood oath to never speak of that day.*

"A blood oath?" Mina asked with a raised eyebrow. "Seriously?"

"Yep," Shukin said as he held up his right hand to display a faint scar on his pointer finger that had been made by a knife many years ago. "Signed a rock with our blood and everything. We have matching scars to prove our sincerity." His tone indicated that he was mocking their past juvenile sense of honor, but Mina also knew that he was being serious in that she would never get him to talk.

*You mean, we all had matching scars,* Akarui typed out before he pointed at Kurai, who was holding up his metal hand with a dry expression on his face.

"What do you know about that?" he said with a mischievous tone in his voice. "I don't have the scar anymore. Does that mean it doesn't apply to me?"

"It applies until you die, and you know it!" Shukin said as he pointed a stiff finger at his cousin.

"I already died, does it count?"

"Dude, your heart didn't stop, you never actually-"

"I saw your dad, Shukin."

The laughter that had been going around the table suddenly stopped as all eyes swung toward Kurai, who had fixed his eyes on his cousin and was suddenly wearing a somber face. The skinnier boy shook his head a couple of times before he asked, "You…? You saw Dad? What, like- like a dream?"

"No," Kurai answered slowly as he shook his own head. "It wasn't a dream, man. What I saw… It's beyond anything a dream could ever conjure up. I don't know how to properly explain it, but… I know what I saw. When I died, your dad was the one who was welcoming me into the afterlife." Even Mina had never heard this part of his narrative concerning his injury before, so she was just as surprised as everyone else.

Now that Kurai had let out the beginning of the revelation, he found that he couldn't stop himself from spewing out the rest of the narrative. "The doctor said that I nearly flat lined for only a few seconds, but up where I was, time moves differently, or something to that effect. I was able to spend a few minutes with him- long enough to pass on a message from him to you guys."

To his aunt, the boy said, "He wanted you to know that he's watching over us, and that he sends his love." Turning to Shukin, he said, "As for you, he said to cut it out with the…" He paused, aware of the fact that his aunt had her gaze fixed on him before he said, "Stop going through Grandpa Todoki's stuff." Shukin's jaw dropped in response to that while Sakura's eyes narrowed at her son.

Hoping to steer the conversation away from his cousin's trespass- at least, temporarily- he turned to Mina and said, "He also told me that it wasn't crazy to be in love with you, even at our age. Said that he'd been in love with Aunt Sakura since they were in middle school, and that I shouldn't let anyone tell me otherwise about how I feel for you."

"That is true," Sakura murmured, though she kept a stern gaze levelled on her son, who quailed silently as he realized that, explicit accusation from Kurai or not, his smoking habit had just been found out, and that he was in for it later. "I took a while longer to come around to him, but Shiro pursued me from a very early age."

*How come you never talked about this before?* Akarui asked.

Kurai shifted uncomfortably in his chair as he made the reply, "It's not exactly easy, talking about how I died, especially when the doctors say that I never experienced a bodily death. I'm just used to being shut down whenever I bring the subject up to people. I guess I didn't want to have you guys look at me the same way that all the hospital staff did when I tried to talk about it."

"Kurai, you should know better than that," Mina scolded him, but she did so in a gentle tone. "We, of all people, have your back. I believed you when you told me that you had touched on the afterlife, screw what anyone else says."

"She's right," Shukin said as he refocused his gaze on his cousin. "In fact, as your family, we're gonna have your back even harder than your girlfriend does- no offense, Ashido."

"None taken," she shrugged. Sharing a quick glance with Kurai, who nodded once, she then added, "Especially since what you said is wrong- or at least, it will be a in a couple of years."

"Eh?" Shukin said as he tilted his head in bewilderment. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"It means that Mina and I plan on getting married once we finish school at UA," Kurai declared, causing a deafening silence to stretch out over the dinner table. Turning to his aunt, the boy then said, "Her folks are already on board, and I talked to Mom about it when I visited her in prison the other day. She said that if I told you about it, you would have something from Dad and her to me."

"I- I just… Are you sure?" the woman sputtered, still trying to process what she was being told by her nephew who was just shy of turning sixteen.

"Completely," Kurai said as he and Mina intertwined their hands. "I love Mina, and she loves me way more than I deserve. I don't ever plan on letting go of her- I'd never find anyone as good as her."

"Aw," Mina giggled before she leaned over and kissed his hand.

"Dude, what is this?!" Shukin suddenly complained. "You're here getting engaged, and I can't even get a girlfriend! This isn't right! As the elder cousin, I'm the one supposed to be guiding you in the approach of the fairer sex!"

"I doubt you'd be able to teach your cousin anything about any kind of sex," Mina said with a dark smile in just a low enough tone that only Shukin and Kurai could hear, causing her boyfriend to turn bright red while Sakura frowned and leaned a little closer to the teenagers' conversation.

"What was that?" she asked.

"Nothing," Kurai and Shukin both insisted, causing Mina to burst out laughing while Akarui raised a single eyebrow at his brother, who affected to ignore him.

By the time Mina was able to calm down from her laughing fit, Shukin had been made to clear off the table while Sakura took her nephew to his father's old study. "I wasn't expecting you to need these for several more years," she told him as she pulled something out of a small drawer in the desk, only to realize that Kurai wasn't really listening. He was looking at his father's collection of photos and awards that he had received on the walls of the room, lost in his own thoughts.

Knowing that he would need a moment, Sakura stayed quiet while he reached up and touched a photo of his father and uncle, back when they had both recently made detective. The two were nearly identical, save that Kurai's father had worn a neatly trimmed moustache and goatee, while Shiro was clean-shaven. "I miss them," he finally said as he lowered his hand. "I know that Uncle Shiro is watching over me, and I'm sure that he's happy for me, but… What if… Dad isn't able to?"

"Your father enabled a terrible series of crimes, yes," Sakura said as she laid a hand on her nephew's shoulder. "But he did it because he was a father first, and an officer second. I know that if Shiro and I had been put in the same position, we would have made the same choice, a thousand times over. Does that make my husband any less worthy of a seat of honor at our ancestors' table?"

Kurai turned to look at his aunt with solemn eyes before he cast them down and said, "I suppose not."

"Your father is proud of you," Sakura assured him. "I know that as surely as I know my own name, Kurai. And I also know that he would have wanted you to have these." As she said the last words, she held out a small box to her nephew, who cocked his head at the small package.

He took it into his left hand, intrigued to encounter what felt like velvet before he realized that the box opened on a hinge, and his eyes went wide. "Is this-?"

"Open it and see," Sakura told him with a smile.

With trembling metal fingers, Kurai opened the little package and was stunned to see three rings lined up inside of it- two simple bands, and one with a slender, teardrop-shaped diamond set in the crown. They weren't new to his eyes, though. To the contrary, he knew those pieces of metal very well, as he had seen them nearly every day of his life for more than fifteen years on another pair of hands. "These are Mom and Dad's, aren't they?" he asked, though he needed no real confirmation.

"When Shigeru died, your mom set his aside for whichever one of you two boys got married first, and when she was sentenced to prison, she gave me hers' and said to give it to whoever received the other one," Sakura answered. "I think she knew that you would be giving them to Ashido eventually, but I suppose if Akarui beat you to the altar, he would have earned them." She delivered the last part with a smile, which Kurai reciprocated as he felt tears sting his eyes.

"No doubt," he replied past the catch in his throat. "Thank you, Aunt Sakura."

"Thank your mother the next time you see her," his aunt replied with a shake of her head. "I've just kept them hidden away- they weren't mine to give."

"Then I'll thank you for doing so," he said as he shut the box and gave his aunt a hug. "And for looking out for my brother while I've been busy being selfish."

"You've been busy healing from some pretty tragic events," his aunt corrected him. "No one should fault you for that. We're your family, and we love you, Kurai. That means that we'll always be around whenever you're ready to come home. And we'll also be glad to accept a new member of the family through you, when the time comes." As they heard another bout of laughter coming from up the hall, Sakura smiled and added, "I know you've found a great one. Congratulations to the both of you, Kurai."

"Is everyone ready?!" Iida asked the class in front of the ferry that would be taking them to Nabu Island. Aizawa had dropped them off a few minutes prior with one of the school buses, their luggage having already been sent ahead so that it was loaded on the boat by the time that they arrived. There were other passengers going on the ferry, but none of them had taken enough notice of the students other than to give the young group a few curious looks.

"Kinda late to be asking that, isn't it?" Kurai snickered from near the front of the class' gathering. "We're already hours away from the school, so if we forgot anything, oh well."

"That is not to what I am referring," Iida replied. "I mean to ask, is everyone ready to accept the burden that awaits us on Nabu? I understand that it's a daunting task, but I believe that we are more than prepared to-!"

"Shut up and just get on the boat, Glasses," Bakugo growled as he shouldered his way past. "Let's just get this stupid assignment over with." The rest of the class allowed a ripple of laughter to wash over them, some of them because of Iida's crestfallen expression at having been brushed aside, and others at the fact that Bakugo was irritated that he likely wouldn't be able to use his license to blast any villains for quite some time.

"I don't get what he's so mad about," Yang grinned as she slipped on a pair of aviators and led several of the others up the ramp. "We're gonna have summer time in the middle of the winter. What's not awesome about that?!"

"I'm just glad that we'll be back to the cold weather in time for Christmas," Ruby chirped. "It wouldn't feel like Christmas without chocolate chip cookies and hot chocolate with marshmallows, and those don't feel right unless it's too cold to be outside."

"I'm just glad I won't be at risk for going into hibernation every time someone opens the door, ribbit," Asui commented as she hopped along the ramp.

As Kurai and Mina walked onto the ship, hand-in-hand, they smiled at the sun that was rising in the morning sky. "New day, new adventure," she said as they came to stand at the railing, where they were quickly joined by Ochaco and Izuku.

"One that I'm looking forward to," Kurai grinned to himself. He wondered for a moment if he should have brought the ring that his mother had left for him, but quickly reminded himself that it would be a lot better of a surprise if he gave it to Mina after they had gotten back from their assignment in Nabu. New Year's, he had decided the previous evening. New day, new adventure it is.

"Even if it's new territory, we're gonna have the same attitude that we always have, right?" Ochaco said cheerily. "Team Lightning Drop?"

"Of course," Izuku nodded in tandem with the others. "We'll go beyond!"

"Plus Ultra!"

The group put all of their fists together before letting out another round of cheery laughter. As the ramp began to retract into the boat, Mina suddenly grabbed Kurai's hand and said, "Ooh, come with me!"

"What, why?!"

"There's a scene from Titanic that I wanna recreate!" she insisted as he was dragged along. "Ochaco, you gotta help take a picture!"

"Hey, I didn't agree to this!" Kurai protested.

"You owe me from when you and Kaminari were yelling diving scores at the TV when people were jumping off the boat during the movie!"

"Oh come on, that was friggin' hilarious!"

Deku: So, we're going to be on Nabu Island starting next chapter?

Mataras: No, I was planning on doing a whole chapter about your guys' ride on the ferry. There's so many things I can do with that!

Kai: Sarcasm is not a form of wit.

Mataras: Bite me, let me have some fun. But yes, we will properly begin the movie arc starting next chapter.

Deku: You're pretty excited about this one, aren't you?

Mataras: Hell yeah! Heroes Rising is probably my favorite thing to come out of the franchise (at least thus far), so I'm very eager to integrate it into this version of the story.

Kai: You mentioned in a podcast that we'll be getting an original villain thrown in the mix, right? Any chance we'll see a sketch of them before they appear in the story?

Mataras: Working on it. Once it's done, it'll be up on my Instagram, probably within the next couple of weeks.

Deku: How many chapters is this movie going to stretch across? Two Heroes went on for five chapters, right?

Mataras: Seven, possibly eight, depending on how things progress. Still trying to work out some of the finer details.

Kai: Next time- UA Hero Agency

Deku: We're all ready to Go Beyond!

Mataras: Plus Ultra!

Next time on Your Hero Academia: Ipseity...

Less than an hour into having established their base and communications, the agency was ringing with requests in addition to the standard duties that Yaoyorozu and Iida had set up for the class. Todoroki, Sato, Sero, Shoji, Asui, Kurai, and Yang were assigned to patrolling the local beach while Ruby and Tokoyami would patrol the island on a larger scale, being two of the heroes with quirks that let them get around quickly and easily through most any terrain, though they would assist at the tourist's beach if needed. Everyone else would remain at the office to answer phones and heed the requests as necessary, which had somewhat disgruntled one Mina Ashido, who had wanted to do patrols with her boyfriend.

To that, Iida had initially shot her down vehemently on the grounds that their relationship could prove distracting from their duties, though Yaoyorozu had eventually convinced him that the two did work well together, and that they should be given a chance to at least do a patrol once they had gotten their feet under them. He agreed to let them work together after they had settled in more as an agency, though he warned the both of them that he would tolerate no screw-ups on their end. Kurai had made a rude gesture in response, claiming that his mechanical arm was acting up when Weiss scolded him for his behavior, and dashing out of the office before Iida could get on his case again.