"I have to go," I told Torino that morning, not even bothering with sleep or changing out of my gear. The gear could double as day wear, most likely. Already packing up some spare clothes as I think of a place to go. Where would be the best place for the test, how long would he wait. Would he come for Torino, would he challenge Yagi even though he was All Might? Was he watching now? I went to the cabinet to grab a few protein bars.

"Kid, what's going on," Torino was suspicious, nothing else he really could be with this type of behavior.

"It.. I need to go and see someone, I shouldn't be gone more than a month," Zipping up the bag and slinging it over my shoulder moving for the door.

"Kid," Torino was in front of me in a small blur of movement. "Talk to me, you know you can trust me."

"And I need you to trust me," Unwilling to risk the old man. He was fast, skilled, experienced, but he was also untainted. Free of my taint even with all the time we had spent together. "Don't follow me, let me do this." Unwilling to give the man anything, unwilling to risk Dullahan deciding to kill him. He was so compact that even a stab meant to pin down no matter the location could be deadly for him. And even if He would be willing to not fight All Might, that would not spare Torino. The warning rested heavily in my boot. No, Dullahan wouldn't spare Torino

POV Torino

Izuku had been gone for a week. That morning when she had come home she completely ignored her normal routine, clutching a knife tight in her hand. Ignoring the blood that dripped from her palm. The blade looked like that of a miniature katana and the biggest thing. She refused to look me in the eye. Keeping her face mask on and moving fast. Making a go bag and scrambling.

The worse part is it became abundantly clear after she left we had no way to contact or track her. The girl vanishing into thin air with an ease only experience had. Why Toshinori hadn't given her a phone yet was beyond me.

Now sitting in Nezu's office the rat was having far too much fun with Toshinori as the big lug figited and squirmed. Looking at the doors no doubt wanting to continue his search high and low for the kid.

"Well," Nezu finally spoke after giving all of us a cup of tea and Toshinori had finished his cup. "I do have news, Viridian has been spotted in the Kimono ward last night. That had the both of us straightening up.

"Viridian is known to stay within the Glades and the outskirts," I grunted, the kid was territorial, even if she hid her instincts well behind having a schedule even if she did shift something daily. She was a creature of habit and up and moving entire prefectures let alone cities was not normal behavior.

"Viridian is not the only strange sighting in Kimono," Eraserhead spoke, leaning against the corner closest to the rat. The man had kept mostly quiet as he drank his coffee. "Stain has been seen in Yokohama city," Yagi went completely still. Stain wasn't just a known hero killer, he also killed small time crooks and vigilantes. To hear Izuku was in the same city as Stain. "Viridian is known for working alone, but my contacts have old tales. Ones that suggest Viridian has contacts with the Children of Stain."

"I'm sorry, what?" The title was unfamiliar to me as well, and with Toshinori also being a spotlight hero, he wasn't privy to the intel that underground heroes hoarded amongst themselves.

"A sad story," Nezu hummed sadly, sympathy that the Rat was no doubt faking lacing his tone. "Children, with no where else to go, taken in by Stain. This is the only thing we know. This group is very secretive and while Stain is in the name the group is not criminal. More organized like a support and therapy group. While some do turn to crime or choose to try and follow in Stain's footsteps there is never enough information to implicate the group." Nezu tutted.

"A vigilante from that group doesn't speak well for her chances." Eraserhead grunted.

"Explain," I growled low at the Underground hero. Not liking the comment one bit. What exactly was the girl entangled in?

"The Children of Stain, are usually increasingly targeted by Stain himself.

POV Aizawa

"Are you sure the kid is even going to be here," I asked the old hero tiredly. The entire situation was entirely strange. All Might and Gran Torino had come to Nezu a second time in the week looking for help to find the winged girl. The young teen had seemed to be a flight risk when I had first seen her in the car garage when she had come for a placement test. Yet there was something else about her. She recognized us both. The spark there and gone so quickly and her eyes if not on us eyeing different points of entry. There only because All Might was there. She had definitely been armed too.

"No," Torino spoke as we moved through the more impoverished areas of the Kimono ward. "But the sighting is all we have."

"Is the winged girl really Viridian?" Asking one of the questions on my list. It was strange, to know that All Might of all people was knowingly housing and supporting a vigilante. Even if it was the old pro who was officially her guardian. Not that she knew it. Hearing the intricate plans that the old pro and All Might had set into place to support the vigilante was also something completely out of left field. Viridian had at this point definitely gotten herself entangled with the two heroes far too much to simply run away.

"Yes," Torino answered once more. "And the only reason we are telling you is because of the agreement with the damned rat." The old man was far from pleased with having to give away the information about his charge.

"And she said she was meeting with someone," The old man only sent a glare my way, very clearly done with the questions being sent his way.

"Look here, Zygote," The man perched sideways on a pipe as he glared at me at eye level. "That brat, is important, even if she is just a stray." That was a little offensive, my best cats were strays. "We might not have her life story in some damned folder, but that kid has gone through something. I know you have seen it." He jabbed his finger at me. "You wouldn't have lived this long if you hadn't noticed when you first met her. Now either stop with the stupid questions and help me actually find her, or go home." He snipped before moving to bounce off.

"You know I can't do that," Sending my capture weapon off so I could swing and run after him. The situation had only grown more complicated in the last two days. Stain had been sighted in the Kimono. The entire district was on a buddy system. Heroes were not allowed to go out alone until Stain moved on.

"Hell if I care," He hissed, his words filled with venom yet never once raising his voice, never once giving us away as we moved and searched. The old man taking the time to check every box or nook that might fit the kid as I watched his back for a shadow.

It was as the night was ending the sound of a fight caught our attention and bright us to the next alley only for us both coming to the edge of the roof, a familiar figure in black and viridian green fighting against a red and white blur. The two meet and then split again and again in an ever shifting tempo. Just as I was about to jump in to help the old man dragged me back and low. His hand is like steel around my arm.

"Not yet," He hissed as the two met again, the blades the girl had were not just daggers, the hilts connected to chains coated sparingly in a dark liquid, sparingly just enough to drip every so often onto the ground, the red figure's katana also had a thin coating of blood along the blade. The two didn't speak, again and again they would push and pull. Meeting again and again in a flurry of movement, all until it came to a sickening halt. The girl saw us and in the split second of hesitation two things happened, the man stabbed her in the side with a dagger and the alarm of a timer went off. The man in red pulled away immediately while the girl put pressure on the injury and hissed. Letting her blades fall to the floor, the chains connected to her arms hanging limply.

"Fucking hell, did you have to stab me in the last second," she hissed the question rhetorically at the man, surprisingly calm with her ragged breathing, and now that the two had stopped moving it became clear just who the man was.

He was Stain. This teen came out here to meet Stain.

"You didn't run nearly as long this time," Stain hummed, completely ignoring the vigilante's question.

"What can I say, keeping you out of the Glades seemed like enough of a turn around this year," The teen kept her hands over her bleeding wound, and though she listed to the side she still stood tall.

"Hmm," Somehow the monster seemed almost thoughtful as he eyed the girl. "I heard you have been hanging around two new people. One happens to be a hero." The title dripping with venom and disdain. "I had thought you of all the children would know better than to trust their kind." He took a step towards her, and rather having the self preservation to back down she hissed bending in protectively with her side, pulling one hand away from her injury to rest on one of the chains.

"I have not forgotten," The words seemingly layered in meaning, "Have I passed or are you just waiting for me to bleed out?" The words seemed almost as if she was talking about the weather if she didn't sound so annoyed. Seriously what was with this kid. Stain seemed to size her up for a long moment.

"You pass," He huffed, sheathing his blades on his back. "Your conviction is still strong, for now." He turned away from her, she quickly glanced back up to us before looking back to Stain. "Do not let the hero taint you." and with that Stain walked away, disappearing into the night. Torino waited just a moment longer before releasing his iron grip on my arm and quickly flying down as the teen leaned against the wall and slid down. I was down seconds after him. Pulling out my phone to send for help.

"I told you to trust me," Viridian hissed as Torino moved to check her injuries, searching for more than just her side.

"And I do trust you kid," Torino spoke, his voice never softening even if he was showing a soft side. "It's the world I don't trust. Now hold on, we'll get you to a hospital," The kid snorted at the answer, shaking her head.

"It's nonlethal," She sounded so sure of herself in the response.

"Explain," There is no way she could know. Not when she also asked a known serial killer if he was going to let her live.

"If he wanted me dead, he would have just killed me." And wasn't that a sad sentence, this whole encounter she wasn't afraid. She had fought like someone with something to live for, but yet, she wasn't afraid.

"You are still going to the hospital," Torino was holding firm on Viridian getting medical treatment.

"You are not taking me to a medical center," She hissed again, again not in pain, looking at the girl, her hood down and face mask hanging off one ear. She had nicks and cuts all over her arms, an especially bloody mess of cuts and lacerations seemingly from the chains she had been wielding. Bending down and picking up the connected blade, it was old based on the chipping along the knife's edge and spine. The leather of the handles worn and molded. This wasn't just a weapon of choice, this was a favored weapon that Viridian was not known for wielding, more often known for using the occasional handle or just her hands.

"You obviously need it, you're bleeding heavily from your injuries. Injuries received from fighting a known serial killer!" Torino hissed right back.

"I am not going to a sterile environment and you can not make me, Ricochet." The words said slowly in a deliberation that showed she was very much still in control of her body.

"You,"

"That's enough," getting verbally between the two arguing people. "No 'sterile environments' right," Looking at the teen, she glared at me for a moment. Damn the kid looked young, but only if you ignored her eyes. The emerald green eyes locked with mine, the kid actually squaring me up without even moving. Seemingly deciding whether or not to fight. Where was this kid's sense of self preservation?

"What do you have in mind?" Torino spoke instead of the kid, his own eyes were narrowed yet he was listening. The kid had already given her compromise, now it was a matter of seeing it through.

"We get her to a safe house and call in Recovery Girl," The emerald eyes narrowed, yet no protests came, merely tightening her hand over the still bleeding wound.

"No pain killers, or anything that makes me loopy."

"Kid," Torino protested.

"If you can handle it," Ignoring the protest just like the kid seemed to. She still looked less than pleased. After a moment looking at Torino before looking like she was trying to figure something out. The kid definitely had issues.