A/N: Alright, everyone, speed run is officially over! From here on out, we will be resuming the normal bi-weekly schedule for releasing the chapters/podcast episodes.

I do hope that everyone in the States has themselves a great Independence Day for 2023!

P.S. Heavy themes of disturbed minds will be involved in the story going forward for some time. Viewer discretion is advised.

Lost

"I've worked a lot of cases in my time, and I thought that I'd seen everything, but somehow you guys have actually managed to bring me a patient that I'm absolutely baffled by," said Doctor Kentaro. He was a psychologist who specialized in handling cases that involved heroes dealing with post-traumatic stress disorders, and an old friend of Principal Nezu. The small creature and Aizawa had come along with Kurai to a diagnostic appointment, which they hoped would reveal the source of the issue that seemed to be causing the boy to hallucinate.

"Has his brain been damaged by his death and subsequent resurrection, then?" Nezu asked worriedly, while Aizawa remained as stone-faced as ever.

"Frankly speaking, when you told me about the sequence of events leading to his being brought here, I was expecting there to be some kind of neurological or chemical deterioration," Kentaro said with a shake of his head. "The thing is, the CT scan didn't show us anything, and following that, even the MRI showed completely normal brain functions."

"So… there's nothing wrong with him?" Nezu asked, looking baffled.

"There shouldn't be anything wrong with him," Kentaro said carefully. "I was almost starting to wonder if he hadn't faked the whole thing, but something caught my eye when we ran his bloodwork."

"That being?" Aizawa asked, a little impatiently.

"His adrenaline and cortisol levels were pretty high for someone faking a hallucination," the doctor told them. "There was also the fact that he had the shakes for a while, and the CT scan showed that he wasn't doing it on purpose. He's genuinely terrified of something."

"So what do we do now?" Nezu inquired.

"My recommendation is that he be placed in an environment where we can keep a constant monitoring of his psychological state," Kentaro answered after a moment of thought. "I can't help him if I can't find the source of the disturbance in his psyche, and that's obviously going to take more time than what a simple introductory visit allows for. There's a hospital that I can recommend which has an excellent recovery rate for the mentally disturbed where I'll be able to have a team observe him. We'll also be able to offer consistent counseling for him."

"Do you think that will do him any good, if you don't know what's wrong with his mind?" Aizawa questioned.

"I don't know," Kentaro admitted. "As I said, I've never seen a case like his before. He has all the physical symptoms of someone who has been frightened by a hallucination, except for in his neural pathways. That being said, I highly doubt that he'll get better on his own." He paused before he added, "If you'd like to get a second opinion, I understand. Maybe another doctor will see something that I've missed, and he'll be on his way to a treatment process that sees him to his old self."

"I doubt that," Aizawa muttered into his scarf. "He's been through too much to ever return to his old self."

"Something on your mind, Eraserhead?" Kentaro asked, looking curious.

"Just that you should keep in mind going forward that Hikari has probably been through more than all of the pros you've treated up to now," the other man shrugged. "There's also the fact that he doesn't want to recover so that he can be a hero again. He wants to come away from our world entirely."

Kentaro's eyebrows rose in surprise, but all he said in response was, "Do I have your permission to move forward with my treatment plan, then? He'll have to move out of the dorms if we do this." He knew that UA had tightened up its security astronomically over the last year due to villain activities, and he didn't see these two just giving up their charge without some kind of conditions in mind.

"As long as we put him into your care under a different name, and we can send a hero we trust to work undercover as one of the staff while he stays there, he should be safe," Nezu answered. "He hardly looks like he did when he left for Nabu Island, having vanquished the Nomu in Fukuoka. We haven't allowed the media on our campus since his revival, so no one has an image of what he looks like now."

The doctor had to concede that principal had a good point. In fact, when Kurai had been brought to his office, he had hardly recognized the boy as the same one who had surpassed Endeavor and Hawks in Fukuoka back in late autumn. With silver-white hair, no robotic limb, and a slumped posture, the chances that anyone would recognize him in public was pretty slim, especially if he went with a different name. And on the off-chance that he was recognized by someone with villainous intents, he would have a hero to watch him most of the time- not to mention that there was the thought that it would be incredibly foolhardy to frighten someone as unstable- and powerful- as Kurai.

All that in mind, he nodded and said, "Alright, that sounds reasonable to me. I'll need Eraserhead's signature on a few forms before we can get the transfer started. In the meantime, it would be best if you prepare him for the upcoming arrangements."

"Understood," Nezu said as he slid off his chair and bowed to the doctor. "Thank you for agreeing to help us, Kentaro."

"Don't mention it," he answered with a smile. "Just doing my job." He seemed as though he was about to add more, but then his pager beeped, leading him to take it off his belt and frown when he stared at the little screen.

"What is it?" Aizawa asked, though he already had a pretty good idea of what it was about.

"It's Hikari," Kentaro answered. "Seems he's having another hallucination, and he's asked to be sedated. I'd better get down there- you two should come along."

The trio walked in on the fairly distressing sight of Kurai shouting while yanking on his hair as he stumbled around the room in a manner similar to a drunkard. Two nurses were also in the room, both of them looking unsure of how to proceed, given the dangerous nature of the boy's quirk. While they weren't aware of the fact that his quirk had been taken and replaced with something else, they were still right to fear being caught up in the crossfire between him and his tormented mind. "We're done when I say we are!" he snarled before he slammed his head into the wall loud enough for one of the nurses to let out a frightened yelp. "And I say that we've been done since- argh!"

He was suddenly bound by a strong cloth that utterly restricted his movement, which had come from Aizawa's neck after he shouldered his way past the frightened nurse in order to take control of the situation. "You need to calm down," the erasure hero said flatly as Kurai's panicked eyes locked onto his bloodshot ones. The boy was bleeding from his scalp, and already there was swelling at the point of impact. "There's nothing in here that's going to hurt you."

"Do you know that?" Kurai asked heavily as he breathed hard, his eyes glazing over as his vision swam in and out of focus. "Is that… what you know…?"

"Catch him," Aizawa ordered to the nurse that he hadn't pushed aside, even as Kurai's knees began to buckle.

The man barely understood in time to catch Kurai's collapsing body so that he didn't strike his head on the floor again. Once his student was lying down in the recovery position, Aizawa released his hold on the scarf and allowed it to settle back on his shoulders so that the other nurse could help get him onto the bed. Giving the doctor a baleful look, he said, "You've certainly got your work cut out for you."

"I can try to put him back on the right path," Kentaro answered in an equally grave tone. "The real struggle will be when he's released from my care and back into yours'. Even if he doesn't become a hero, he's in for a rough life, if this is going to be a part of it."

"A psychiatric hospital?" Kurai mumbled thickly as he stared down at the papers in front of him, where the words refused to sit still on the page, making it so that he couldn't understand what they were trying to tell him. "For how long?" In spite of his concussive bout, he seemed lucid enough to hold a conversation without risk of breaking down again- at least, for the time being.

He was sitting in a room at the general hospital, having been admitted for his self-inflicted head injury. Aizawa was in the room with him, having been waiting for him to awaken so that they could discuss his future. "Unclear at this point in time," the older man informed him. "They don't know what's wrong with you, and they can't treat you until they do."

"So I might end up in a psych ward for the rest of my life?" Kurai chuckled dryly. "Well, if that isn't the textbook definition of awesome."

"We're putting you in their care under an assumed identity, and there will be a hero of our choosing who will be in the hospital to keep an eye on you, just in case the League somehow gets wind of the fact that you're not on campus anymore. They'll be low-profile, someone the League won't recognize."

"And how will I know them?" Kurai asked as he leaned back against the pillows, closing his eyes as he did.

"I'll inform you of their identity before you're admitted."

"Which will be when, exactly?"

"Sometime tomorrow or the day after."

"Hmm," Kurai mused. One of his eyes snapped open to look at his teacher before he asked, "I'm not going to have any visitors while I'm here, am I?"

"It's up to Doctor Kentaro," Aizawa answered. "Why?"

"I know everyone is gonna be pulling their hair out trying to figure out if I'm okay or not," the boy muttered quietly as his gaze flicked down toward his right arm. "If I'm gonna be absent from their lives for any chunk of time, I'd rather have a chance to tell them why, myself. Last time I disappeared into a hospital without a word, no one thanked me for it. I'd prefer to avoid making that mistake again."

"…Is there anyone in particular who you want to see while you're here?" his teacher eventually asked.

Both of Kurai's eyebrows went up as he turned his head to look at Aizawa before he said, "You're being awfully accommodating. What brought this on?"

"Don't get used to it," Aizawa deadpanned. "Answer the question before I change my mind."

"Mina, Izuku, Ochaco," Kurai answered, deciding that it wouldn't do to poke at his teacher's buttons any further. "Future Eri, too." What the hell made me think that was a good idea in the first place? he wondered absently. Either my mind is further gone than I thought, or that knock to my head did more damage than my metal hand ever did.

"I'll speak to the doctor while I'm finalizing your paperwork," Aizawa told him as he slowly got to his feet. "In the meantime, here." He tossed a small item that landed on Kurai's chest with a slightly surprising amount of weight as he moved to exit the room.

"My phone?"

"You might not be allowed to have one at the hospital you're going to," the haggard man explained before he stepped outside. "Make good use of it while you can."

"Thank you, sir." Kurai wasn't sure if Aizawa heard him or not, but for now, he planned to take the man's advice.

Aizawa was on his way to deliver the requested forms to Doctor Kentaro when he encountered a somewhat unexpected figure in the hallway. "Here to admire the results of your handiwork?" he asked as he walked past All Might without pausing. It was late at night, so the only people around were the skeleton crew needed to run the graveyard shift. Even so, he made sure to keep his voice down, as to avoid being overheard by any curious eavesdroppers.

"How is he?"

"He's being transferred to another hospital where they can keep monitoring him," the black-haired man answered as the retired hero fell into a stride behind him. "There's no telling how long it will be before they're able to diagnose the problem, much less treat him."

"So in other words, there's no telling when he'll be able to return to school," All Might sighed. He then almost ran into Aizawa, who had come to a full stop in the hallway. "Eraser?"

"As usual, you're still fixated on the one, impossible goal that only you used to be able to reach, never mind what everyone else around you may or may not be capable of," Aizawa answered, his voice sharper than a razor. "Has it occurred to you that Hikari may never be able to attend school like a regular kid again? That he might not even be able to live a normal life at all?"

"Isn't that kinda-?"

"You put ideas in his head, All Might," Aizawa snapped as he turned around on his heel, startling his colleague. "You made him believe that if he didn't rise to the challenge, there would be no one left to take up the fight each time." Jamming a finger into the blond man's bony shoulder, he went on to add, "You told him and Midoriya that because of the powers they had been given, the world was on their shoulders. You got them so wrapped in the idea that because they were your chosen disciples, there could be no one else who would be able to stand against All For One and Shigaraki when the time came. We tell our students to go beyond the limits of their flesh, but do you know what happens when we push them beyond the limits of their minds?"

"Eraser, I didn't-"

"They end up in places like this, All Might," Eraserhead said bitingly, cutting the other man off again. "They come here because they're broken, and there is every chance that they won't recover. Most of the time, heroes come in because an enemy hurt them. Make no mistake, though- Hikari is in here because of your failure to take into account the fact that he's still a child."

All Might stood silently before his coworker for a few seconds, his face red with anger and embarrassment. However, once he was sure that Aizawa wasn't about to interrupt him again, he asked, "Wasn't it always you who spoke up to allow him to remain at UA? The fault for his condition doesn't lie solely on my shoulders."

"If I had known what you were filling his head with ever since I-island, I would have transferred him out of the hero course then and there," Aizawa spat. "He may be a hero, but he's not a messiah. By his own admission, he was never eager to take your place- you practically guilt tripped him into it, and this is the result."

"I did the best that I could with the hand I was dealt, Aizawa, I couldn't be expected to-"

"As a teacher, you're expected to keep the well-being of your students in the forefront of your mind at all times," the dark-haired hero interrupted curtly. "From the beginning of your teaching career at UA, you have continuously shown that you are incapable of adhering to that basic principal of education." Turning back around, he said over his shoulder, "I'd get myself ready for a hearing with the school's legal team, if I were you."

All Might's eyes widened before he sputtered, "You filed an injunction against me?!"

"Dress your best."

"So, do you have any idea of when you'll be allowed to leave?" Ochaco asked, sounding worried over the phone.

"When I'm better," Kurai answered with a shrug. He had his close friends (Mina, Izuku, Ochaco, Todoroki, Tenya, Kirishima, Blake, and Yaoyorozu) on speaker in one of their rooms, he wasn't sure which, since there was no video feed. Future Eri was also present, but she had yet to say a word since the conversation had begun.

"But… that could be years from now!" Iida said, his voice strained.

"Or it could be as little as a few weeks," Kurai countered before the other boy could go on. "The biggest issue right now is that they don't know what's causing the hallucinations. Once they determine that, I'm sure it won't be long before I'm put on a medication to help me keep track of what's what."

"But what if they never find the source of the problem?" Todoroki asked, which was followed by a babble of disapproving sounds and comments from the others.

"Lay off him, guys," Kurai said tiredly. "It's a reasonable enough question. While I don't have a solid answer on that, my guess is that if they go too long without finding the issue, they'll try to find a medicine that will at least help the symptoms, even if it doesn't treat the actual issue itself."

"Can they do that with medicine?" Kirishima asked.

"You ever heard of diabetes mellitus?" Kurai tossed back.

"…That's a type of diabetes, right?"

"It's the kind where the body can't produce insulin- the hormone that turns food into energy- because part of their pancreas is dead," he explained quickly. "There's no cure, short of giving the patient a new pancreas, which as you can imagine, doesn't happen very often. So to keep the patient alive, doctors figure out what type of synthesized insulin is most compatible with their body and teach them to inject it into their body as needed. This lets them live for decades, comparable to what they could have lived if their pancreas worked like normal. Even so, it's not a cure- it's a treatment for the symptom caused by the pancreas failing to do its job correctly."

There was silence on the other end for a few seconds before Ochaco asked, "Since when do you know as much about the endocrine system as Deku does about hero statistics?"

"Uncle Shiro was diabetic," Kurai answered. "It's been a past time of Akarui's to keep up with the latest research concerning the condition, so I'll get an earful of info every now and again. Happens often enough that I remember a thing or two. Mina, I'm pretty sure he was yammering about it when we were at my old house before Nabu, right?"

"I tune out about eighty-five percent of what that guy says," his girlfriend replied, sounding a bit impatient. "What does all that have to do with you?"

"If they can't find the issue itself, they'll have to do some experiments to see which medications best help to manage the symptoms of the psychosis that I've been manifesting," he summarized. "Before any of you freak out at the word 'experiment', allow me to point out that many psych patients don't find the right combination of medications on the first go, even if they have a clear diagnosis. Everyone's bodies react differently to different medicines."

"Do you have any idea of how you're going to continue your education while you're hospitalized?" Yaoyorozu asked now. "Is that even an option in your current state?"

"No idea," Kurai admitted. "I imagine that it'll come up at some point, but for now I think they just want to be sure that I'm not about to run on a rampage at any given moment."

"Why would you do that?" Izuku asked him. "When I went to your room, you were disoriented, not violent."

"It's easy for someone who panics to act in violence by mistake," the hospitalized boy answered. "In my case, however, I tried to headbutt my hallucination, and wound up knocking myself out when I put a dent in the wall."

"You wha-?!"

"What were you hallucinating?" Blake's voice interrupted before Ochaco could finish her utterance of surprise. "What did you see?"

Kurai found himself being quiet for a moment before he answered, "I don't feel like discussing that."

"If you can't tell your closest friends what's troubling you, how do you expect yourself to be able to be honest and open with a shrink you've never met before?" the shadowy girl countered before anyone else could speak. "What did you see?"

"I'm not discussing this," Kurai repeated in a tight voice.

"Leave him alone, Shroud." Eri's voice finally came in over the line, somewhat surprising Kurai. He had honestly almost forgotten that she was in on the conversation since she hadn't said anything up to now. "Is there anything that you need us to bring you, provided that we're able to come visit?" The boy took a moment to remember that when he had first visited her in the hospital, he had asked her almost the exact same question.

"I'll let you know once I've had my restrictions explained more clearly," he replied, glad that the topic of discussion had shifted. "Hopefully, I'll be allowed to have some books to kill my boredom once I get settled in, but I can't think of anything else at the moment."

"Which hospital are you going to?"

"Itomori," Kurai answered Todoroki, his eyes narrowing when he heard the other boy draw in a sharp breath. "What's wrong with that?"

"Nothing," he replied. "That's just the same hospital that my mother has been in all this time."

Kurai decided to thank his friend silently for not saying specifically that it had been more than a decade since she had been put in there to be observed by some of the best doctors in the country. With my luck, maybe I'll make it out in time in time to apply for social services, he thought morosely.

One thing had been made painfully apparent to him through this newest tribulation- there was now no doubt in his mind that his third life in this same body was going to be the worst one of them all.

Once everyone else had bid the boy goodnight, Kurai and Mina were left alone on the phone line. "I guess I'll see you tomorrow, provided that Mister Aizawa is able to get you guys in," he said tiredly.

"Wait, before you go," Mina said, sounding uncertain of herself. "Can I…?"

When her voice trailed off, Kurai prompted her by saying, "What's up?"

"Sorry, but you got really defensive when Belladonna asked earlier, so I didn't know if you'd be willing to tell me… what you saw." Mina's voice dwindled down to nearly a whisper by the end of the sentence, as if she were expecting at any moment for Kurai to shut her down with vehemence. "Was it Moonfish?"

"No, not him," he said quickly. "I'll… tell you, and only you. Please don't tell the others what I saw."

"I won't," she promised. "I told you, even if things aren't quite the same as before, I'll always be in your corner when you need me."

"Thank you," he said gratefully. "Okay then, here it is… I keep seeing myself, as Kai." He waited to see if Mina had anything immediate to say, and when she didn't, he added, "He keeps telling me that I'm not done. At first I was seeing him in the corner of my eye or hearing his voice at the edge of my range, but the other night, he appeared in my mirror, as my reflection. Only, he didn't stay in the mirror. He came out, like he was standing in the room with me, and that's when I really knew that I wasn't just overtired like people had been guessing."

"I'm sorry that happened to you," she said with a warm sympathy that made him miss her enough to bring a lump to his throat. "Can you think of any reason why your hallucination would appear like that?"

"I don't know," he shrugged before letting out a dry laugh. "Maybe it's divine judgement from my ancestors for choosing to turn my back on all the people that I could save with One For All."

"Can they do that?" Mina asked, sounding startled.

"I can't really remember, but I'm not sure that I would put it past them," he answered with another shrug. "When a kid's throwing a tantrum cos he didn't get what he wanted, you spank him, right?"

"My parents never spanked me," Mina reminded him.

"You get the idea," he countered. "Either way, feels like I'm damned to misery."

"What do you mean by that?" his girlfriend asked, her worry increasing.

"Well, if this is some kind of punishment from a higher power or some other entity from the nether, then I see myself having two options," he grumbled. "One, I give in to everyone's expectations and return to being a hero, where I will almost certainly face some kind of heroic and/or horrific death yet again. Two, I keep my resolve to stay out of the life of heroism and am haunted by my own mind for the rest of my Godforsaken life. Since I'm too stubborn to ever go with the first option, I suppose I'd best get used to the idea that my own brain is the enemy from now on."

"Is there no option where you get to live happily ever after?" Mina asked, sounding like she was trying not to cry. "I know it's hard to see right now, Kurai, but there's still good in this life. I'm here for you, and so are all of our friends. You know that, right?"

"I do," he said heavily. "And while I know I'll always have you with me, I don't know that the same can be said for all of our friends."

"How can you-?"

"I've seen it happen, Mina," Kurai interrupted her. "My dad told me all about the friends that he had when he was my age, and about the 'unbreakable' bonds that they formed in the years of their youth. Once they finished school, it wasn't a year before he'd lost consistent contact with all of them, because they each went separate ways in their lives. Some went into business, others moved abroad, a few became heroes, et cetera. The only friends that my father remained close with until he died were the people he shared his everyday life with- his colleagues on the force."

Before Mina could protest, he overrode her again and said, "It's not that he didn't care about his old friends, or that he grew to dislike them. Every once in a while, they'd see one another, have a beer, catch up, promise to do it sooner next time, and then go years without exchanging so much as a Christmas card, only to do it all over again. They were still friends, but they weren't close like they had promised they would be. Unfortunately, I can only see the same thing happening between me and everyone else in the times to come."

"Kurai, I know you don't wanna hear this right now, but the truth is that you're just trying to find reasons to make yourself more miserable." Mina's voice had taken on a new steel, and the force behind it surprised Kurai. "Even if you're not going to be a hero, I am. And since you're gonna be with me, that means you're sharing my friends with me, knucklehead. Got that?"

"Yes, ma'am." In spite of himself, he couldn't help a little smile from creasing his face. Leave it to Mina to cut to the quick and address the glaring issue that no one else wanted to acknowledge, he thought. "Thank you for being so stubborn."

"I learned from the best," she replied, sounding tired. "Listen, we're supposed to be up in like three hours, so I'm gonna get some sleep, if you're okay to do the same."

"Yeah, sure," he said quickly. "Sorry I kept you up so late- again."

"Eh, I'm sure I'll get you back for it one of these days," she answered with what sounded like a smirk. "Love you, guy."

"Love you too, Mina."

"See you soon." With those last words, the line disconnected, and Kurai was left alone with his thoughts.

The moment that he registered that fact, his eyes narrowed before a familiar set of words rang in his ears. "We're not done," Kai said, appearing to lean against the far wall at the edge of Kurai's peripheral vision.

Don't interact with it, Kurai told himself, shutting his eyes tightly. Don't encourage the delusions, dammit.

"We're not going anywhere," the shade said in the same tone, and in spite of himself, Kurai's eyes flew open as he turned to look more clearly at the apparition. It was the first time that it had said something outside the lines of the promise that it wasn't done with him. "We have work to do."

Great, its vocabulary is expanding, he thought as he resolved to shut his eyes again and try to go to sleep. Hopefully his delusion would leave him to his rest, but he wouldn't have been too surprised if he saw it in his sleep, too. There's a comforting thought.

"If you loved her as much as she loves you, you'd never allow yourself to become such a disappointment," the shade snorted.

Kurai's eyes snapped back over to the ghost, who was wearing a smug grin. "Figures you'd know which buttons to push," he growled as he clenched his fists, all thoughts of ignoring the phantom having been banished from his mind.

"Because we're not done," Kai replied, maintaining his superior-looking smirk.

"You keep saying that like it's gonna change my mind," Kurai snapped as he sat up straighter in bed. "If anything, you're getting me to dig my heels in harder."

"So you'll be content existing as a perpetual disappointment in the eyes of the girl you claim to love?" Kai countered. "She's too kind to say it, but you and I both know what you have become in her eyes."

"Shut up," Kurai snarled. "You're not real- you're just a manifestation of my insecurities and fears. You have no impact on reality."

"We have every impact on your reality," his ghost quipped. "And your resolve has no comparison to our own, which can withstand the passing of the generations."

"What is that, a threat?" Kurai snorted contemptuously. "You'll haunt my descendants after you're done with me?"

"If we are merely a figment of your tortured conscience, then you know that would be ridiculous," Kai smirked.

"This whole thing is ridiculous!"

"And whose fault is that?"

"Bah!"

"You're meant to be a hero, Kurai, and even if we have to browbeat you into it, we'll make sure that you remember that fact, before the end comes," Kai promised his living self. "If you have the power to act, then it is your responsibility to use that power for the good of others, no matter the cost to yourself."

"And when I'm rid of this power, it'll be someone else's responsibility," Kurai shot back. "You'll have no reason to torment me, because I won't be able to do anything to help anyone."

"What makes you think it'll be easy to give up One For All?" his ghost challenged him. "You think it was easy for Izuku to pass on all of his hopes and dreams to you, a dying man? We'll only warn you once to not make light of that sacrifice."

"He placed those hopes in you, dead man," Kurai snorted. "And what are you gonna do, nag me to death? If that's the case, could you hurry it up so I can go back to-?"

CRACK!

Kurai felt a thunderous force smash him in the face, causing blood to fly from his mouth as he was flung through the wall and into the lobby, where several members of staff let out frightened yells as he went sliding across the floor, dazed and confused. His body hurt all over, and he could barely make out what was going on around him as his jumbled senses each tried to sort out what had just happened to him.

Was I sleeping? he thought once he started to gain control over his line of thinking. Was all of that… a dream?

As his eyes slowly came back into focus amid the sounds of an alarm echoing throughout the early morning hospital, he noticed faint traces of black electricity crackling along his arm, which ended in a fist decorated with spots of blood. Did I hit myself? he wondered stupidly as his jaw throbbed painfully, the lightning fizzling out as he continued to try and pull his mind together.

"Hey, are you okay?!" one of the orderlies asked as he came to kneel next to the semi-conscious boy. "Can you hear me?"

"Yeah…" Kurai slurred, even as he felt his left eye being held open while a bright light shone into it.

"What happened?! Who did this to you?!"

"I don't…" he mumbled, cringing as his face announced its displeasure at being mistreated. As he tried to get the words out, he finally noticed the huge hole that remained in place of what had been the wall which cut off his room from the rest of the hospital. "I wasth…"

"How is he?" another nurse asked as he came to stand by his colleague.

"His eyes are equally reactive to light, and his pulse is strong, but he seems disoriented," the first man answered. "Looks like he took a bad one to the head. His jaw might have a non-displaced fracture."

"We'll take him to get an x-ray to verify," his coworker decided. "Any idea what did this to him?"

"He doesn't seem to know, himself," the first nurse said with a shake of his head. "I checked on him twenty minutes ago, and he was out like a light. I haven't seen anyone go in or out since his guardian left, either."

So I was dreaming, Kurai thought thickly. "I…" he started to say, then winced as his jaw flared with pain.

"It's okay, kid, don't try to talk right now," the second nurse said kindly. "We've got you. We'll put security on alert for a villain with stealth capabilities- for all the good that it'll do…" In spite of his attempts to reassure the boy, he appeared troubled at the thought that someone would try to attack a sick person in their sleep.

"No… villain," Kurai managed to get out, forcing himself to speak past his swollen tongue and jaw.

"What's that?" the first nurse said as he leaned closer to try and hear his charge a little more clearly.

"I…" Kurai grimaced again before he shut his eyes and managed to spit out. "I think… I… did thisth… in my sthleep… My quirk… no conthrol."

The two nurses exchanged looks of alarm before they surveyed the wreckage around them. "Get that x-ray scheduled," the second nurse said after a moment. "I'll get the on-call doc to authorize quirk suppressants. If there's a chance that he's really lost control of a power like that, we don't need another one of these happening."

"Got it," the first attendant nodded. "I'll get him on a gurney in the meantime."

As they hurried to do their jobs, Kurai could only wonder, Am I losing my mind, or is it already lost, and I just hadn't noticed? He would have smiled at the dark piece of humor, but his mouth was killing him, and he could now see Kai standing amid the rubble, glaring angrily at him.

"That was a warning shot," he told the wounded boy. "We won't be so nice next time."

"Given the recent events at your school, how do you expect me to convince the parents that this is a wise career move for their children?"

Nezu measured his thoughts carefully while he looked at the small screen containing the worried image of an old comrade. Eventually, he said, "I don't have all the answers, Ozpin. All I know is that the situation is far graver than even we had come to expect. If we don't gather our forces and prepare them sooner than later, there won't even be a future for those children to defend. I don't know how, but you must convince more students and heroes to come to our aid. It won't be long before the League of Villains and their allies are ready to put Salem's machinations and ambitions to shame."

At that, Ozpin's right eyebrow went up. "You've never been one to exaggerate, Nezu," he murmured. "Is the situation really so grim?"

"Send Crow to investigate if you can't take my word for it, but if you do, please have him do so quickly," Nezu urged his friend. "I don't have an exact timetable for the coming storm, given how certain things have already been altered, but the storm is coming. Please, help us."

Ozpin put his chin into his hand, his fingers covering his mouth as he fiddled with the cane that was resting against his armrest. Nezu waited for what felt like an eternity before he stirred and said, "There are a few more first-year students whose parents I know will support us… I'll send Crow and Taiyang along with them so that they can join in time for your winter semester to begin. I'm sure it will do Ruby and Yang some good to see their father again."

"Thank you," Nezu said with evident relief. "Once this crisis is over, I will do whatever I can to assist you in your own struggles."

"I would appreciate that," Ozpin replied with a wry smile. "The White Fang has been quiet as of late, but Crow says that they still appear to be active, which is far more concerning to me- and why I can't afford to send more accomplished students your way." He almost ended the call there, but a thought seemed to occur to him, leading to him adding, "When my students arrive, be sure to have the teacher keep an open mind when it comes to the team leader. He doesn't appear to be much at first glance, but he tends to surprise people."

"Don't worry," Nezu smiled, a little ruefully. "Eraserhead will not be their homeroom teacher- he has his hands plenty full as it is. Vlad King will be hard on them, but he won't put them under threat of expulsion, especially given the current circumstances."

"Even with our experiences, I find this 'future' Eri's tale a little hard to accept," Ozpin admitted. "Still, it's not as though we can afford to ignore it, and it certainly helps pieces of the puzzle to fall into place that we could not make sense of beforehand. And before you ask, don't worry- I'll use the better part of discretion concerning the matters of All For One and his experiments."

"Once again, I thank you," Nezu nodded. "I'll make the dorm and class arrangements on my end, as well as provide transport for those you're sending."

"I'll have Glynda send you the student profiles of Team JNPR tomorrow morning, then," Ozpin said with a note of finality in his voice. "Take care of my students, Nezu."

"To the best of my ability," the little animal promised.

"Good luck, old friend."

Deku: So, some of Team RWBY's classmates are gonna be joining us?

Kai: Isn't that a few too many characters for you to handle?

Mataras: Certainly, if I were to make them a part of Class 1-A. Just in case you missed it, they're set to join Class 1-B; so while they'll undoubtedly be present for the moments that I need them in this story, they won't be in the spotlight as often as the girls have been.

Kai: So what, I'm out and they're in? Is this some kind of attempt at a balancing act?

Mataras: No.

Kai/Deku: ...

Mataras: Look, anything in the way of a balancing act was done when Future Eri came in to take your place as the next wielder of One For All.

Kai: I don't buy that for a second.

Mataras: Why not?

Deku: Because you have two active versions of One For All in this time for what has to be a very specific reason.

Kai: And we know we're not going to like the reason.

Mataras: Ooh, careful. It's learning.

Deku: Next time- Broken

Kai: Sounds like our writer is setting to Go Beyond with the depressive theme for the time being.

Mataras: Plus Ultra!

Next time on Your Hero Academia: Renewal...

"You're sure you can pull all this off without any concrete evidence being tied to my sister and I?" Weiss asked him dubiously. He was very confident- a little too confident for her liking.

"On the four percent chance that I somehow slip up in erasing my tracks, I'll be in their systems long enough to dig up every dirty little secret they've ever tried to hide," the young boy said, his smile changing from confident to slightly sinister. "If it comes down to it, I'll resort to blackmail- hardly original, but I'm sure your father has more than a few skeletons he'd prefer to remain in the closet."

"You're technically talking about corporate espionage," Weiss muttered. "When all is said and done, you could be arrested for what you're doing."

"Yeah?" Akarui snorted as he held up his hands, his wrists pressed together. "Arrest me then, hero." When all Weiss did was scowl harder at him, Akarui chuckled and stood up from the bed, heading for the door as he said, "There won't be enough evidence to use against me in a court of law, so long as you and Winter don't throw me under the bus, which I know you won't. You know that what I'm doing will help the world, and it's not like I'm robbing anyone who doesn't deserve it."

"You seem to have a much looser moral code than your brother," Weiss muttered as she crossed her arms. "How did that ever come about?"

"Kurai seems to have inherited our uncle's sense of justice and honor," Akarui shrugged as he put his hand on the doorknob. Over his shoulder, he then added, "I guess I got my parents' willingness to bend the rules from the shadows for the sake of the greater good."