"It… makes a certain amount of sense," Izuku admitted quietly, as the four of them huddled together. "Cipher always seemed to know everything, right? I mean, he couldn't get inside people's heads without permission, but he knew things, most of which he couldn't have been there for. I guess that's where the weirdness knowledge is coming from."

But why now? Shouto'd had Cipher's powers for months at this point. Why would he only now start gaining more of Cipher's abilities? Or seeing his memories, for that matter?

"Things started feeling strange after Weirdmageddon," Shouto said softly. "It was just small things at first, so I didn't really think too much about it." His knees were tucked in, his arms hugging them, and despite their best efforts, he was still staring off into space.

"Maybe it was some sort of, I don't know, fail-safe?" Ochako suggested, her voice wavering. "For if he died, I mean."

Mina shuddered. "Do you think that's why Shouto got those chaos flames in the first place? Because Cipher anticipated this?"

Shouto shook his head. "I don't think so. When Ford and I first encountered him during Weirdmageddon, he seemed surprised that I had them. Or maybe he was just surprised that I could actually use them well enough to temporarily unfreeze Ford? Or he didn't think I'd actually try to use them against him? I don't… I don't know." He pulled his legs in closer. "Cipher… he kept calling me his puppet. Because of the puppet show, I thought, but what if…? Mina almost died because of me last time. If it happens again…"

"It wasn't your fault!" Mina practically snapped. "We already told you, you can't blame yourself for that. And you can't blame yourself for this either."

There was a long moment of silence, and Izuku swallowed.

Cipher was supposed to be gone. He wasn't supposed to be able to hurt them anymore. He certainly wasn't supposed to be affecting Izuku's friend like this.

"We need to talk to Ford," Izuku finally said. "If anyone knows how to fix this, it's him."

"But how?" Mina threw her hands up in the air. "There still isn't a portal we can go through, which means they haven't figured things out on the other side yet."

"Maybe the loci could help?" Ochako suggested. "Can it even reach us here? It had to know something in order to bring us over the first time."

"Maybe?" They all waited while Mina concentrated for a moment. Then she groaned and hung her head dejectedly. "No use. If there is a way to contact it, it won't be the same way we could in Gravity Falls."

Izuku hummed. "It did manage to open Kurogiri's portal, though. Maybe it's able to use a portal quirk to make portals between worlds? So, theoretically, if we managed to get Kurogiri to open a portal, could we contact the loci through that?" He frowned. "But he's in Tartarus now anyways, and he would never help heroes in training like us. Especially if he had nothing to gain for it."

They all thought on this for a moment.

"Kurogiri wouldn't…" Shouto started hesitantly. "...But Shirakumo might."

Ochako turned to him curiously. "Shirakumo?"

Shouto shrugged. "It was one of the things I saw. Another weirdness knowledge moment, I guess. But it's like with All for One, there's a sort of certainty there, and I'm sure it's the case."

"And?" Mina prompted.

Shouto took a deep breath. "Kurogiri… I think - I know - he's like Nomu. He was experimented on and turned into Kurogiri, that's not who he originally is. His actual name is Shirakumo, and I think… Shirakumo is the kind of person who would help us."

And considering everything that had been going on, Izuku had no reason to doubt that. "So if we could make Kurogiri remember being Shirakumo, or somehow reverse whatever process made Shirakumo into something like Nomu, then maybe we could actually contact the loci and Gravity Falls? Plus, if he wasn't originally a villain, then we should at least try and save him from being forced into being a villain, right? But we'd need to know we could help Shirakumo before we attempted anything like that…"

He trailed off, then looked at Shouto. "Like using magic chaos flames that can do just about anything. Plus, if all this Cipher stuff was connected to using your flames, it probably wouldn't be getting worse because you haven't used them that much lately, so it should be fine."

Shouto met his gaze, then looked down at his hands wearily. "It's still a risk. While my flames do what I want most of the time now, it's not a hundred percent."

"Waiting around while things get worse is also a risk," Mina said gently.

"We still need to figure out how to get to Kurogiri to do all this in the first place," Ochako pointed out. "He's currently in a max security prison. If we just went up to the guards and said "Hey, we need to release a villain so we can undo some human experimentation and open a portal to another world!" They'd never believe us. There's no way they'd help."

"Or worse, they would believe us," Mina pointed out. "And then suddenly the government knows about other worlds and our supernatural powers, and we all know how well that went back in Gravity Falls. I don't know about you guys, but I don't want to have to escape before getting locked up in a government facility again. We're trying to undo some experiments, not get experimented on ourselves."

"So then, what options do we have? Break Kurogiri out ourselves?"

There was another pause.

"I mean. This wouldn't be our first prison break-in," Shouto pointed out.

"Sure, but last time it was a small prison in a small town, not a max security prison," Ochako reminded him. "If we want to do this, we'll need to be a lot more careful."

"It would be in our best interest to make it look like Kurogiri broke himself out," Izuku mused, considering the idea. "Then once he remembers being Shirakumo again, we can say we found him like that. Either that or, if need be, we can say that we found him as Kurogiri and helped him remember. And I did bring a lot of the tech McGucket and I worked on back during our last prison break, which would definitely be useful because no one here has dealt with how… creatively McGucket makes his things before."

Mina nodded along. "That sounds good. How long do you think it would take for everything to be upgraded to "breaking into Tartarus" level? And we'll still need to come up with a solid plan."

"About a week, I think. Maybe a bit more," Izuku admitted. "Just to be sure. And if Ford manages to get a hold of us before then, we can just switch plans. I mean, I still think that if Shirakumo was forced into villainy then we shouldn't leave him like this, but we might not need to break in either."

"We'll keep things low-key until then," Ochako agreed. She reached over and squeezed Shouto's hand. "We'll fix this. We promise."

"I know," Shouto said softly. "We will."

Mina smiled. "And we can definitely do low-key for the next week. I mean, how hard could it be?"

Shouta was pretty sure his four problem children were going to be the death of him.

They had, finally, returned to the USJ so that the students could actually have their rescue class. Thirteen was well enough to join them, and had insisted on it. All Might was actually on time, which made a nice change. And while most of the students seemed to be nervous at first, they were also eager to finally learn the lesson that the villains had interrupted.

And then there were the world-travelers.

He'd been aware that they'd been visiting the USJ for quirk training purposes since returning, so it wasn't that much of a surprise when they were less initially cautious than the rest of the class.

No, the problems started afterwards, when they'd actually gotten to working on rescue training. For Midoriya, Uraraka, and Ashido, Thirteen had placed them in the ruins zone. Midoriya's volatile quirk didn't only break his bones, but had also caused massive amounts of damage each time he used it. Being in a zone with lots of buildings sensitive to collapse would force him to think more creatively. Ashido was placed there for similar reasons, with how potentially destructive her acid could be around unstable structures. Uraraka's zero gravity would be useful, but like the others, she would need to learn how to use it carefully.

For Todoroki, Shouta insisted he go to the conflagration zone. It would be important for him to learn how to work in an environment where his ice wouldn't be nearly as effective. While Shouta had noticed that Todoroki wasn't using his fire at all for the first few days, besides to melt his ice, he'd used it occasionally since, which meant it was less of an issue and more of a choice to favor one side over the other. He still used his ice far more often though, and Shouta hoped to push him out of his comfort zone.

First there was Midoriya. As soon as their group's lecture was over, and the objective to secure a "civilian" (In this case a doll with a tracker in it) without creating more damage to the doll or the surrounding structures was announced, Midoriya started glowing with green sparks and shot off like lightning. Midoriya's "civilian" was secured within minutes, with no damage to the doll or his surroundings, and he was the first one back.

Arriving back at the starting point, Midoriya beamed at Shouta's raised eyebrow. "I learned how to use my quirk without breaking my bones, Sensei!"

"Clearly," Shouta agreed, a little impressed but unwilling to show it. "Good job. When did that happen?" He very clearly remembered that quirks didn't work in that other world, after all.

"Oh, it was two days ago! Turns out I was just thinking about my quirk all wrong. "

Two days with this much progress? Maybe Shouta was more than a little impressed. That was a lot of progress in a very short amount of time. Although he still wasn't sure how "thinking about one's quirk wrong" conflated to "break all the bones in one's body."

He was about to ask, but then Ashido and Uraraka emerged from nearby buildings, Uraraka on the ground floor and Ashido on the roof.

"Got it!" Ashido held up her doll triumphantly, then jumped right off the roof. Shouta was rushing forward immediately - except before he got there, a light blue glow surrounded Ashido, and she landed gently on the ground, high-fiving Uraraka, whose hands were lit up with that same glow.

A glow that was not a part of Uraraka's quirk.

Deal with that afterwards. Trying to calm his own heart rate, Shouta turned to Ashido instead. "What, exactly, was that supposed to be just there?"

Ashido blinked. "You mean jumping off that building? I knew Ochako would catch me."

"And if she wasn't there? If she was too slow to react?" Shouta pointed out. "In this scenario, you also have a civilian that you're trying to protect. This isn't the time for risky maneuvers."

"It wasn't risky!" Ashido protested. "I only jumped because I knew she could catch me. We've done it plenty of times before, from much higher places." Despite clearly intending her towards to be reassuring, this did not reassure him in the slightest. "If I thought she couldn't do it for some reason, I wouldn't risk it. I'd just grapple down instead." And she pulled out a grappling hook, for emphasis.

"There wasn't any risk involved, I promise," Uraraka agreed. "I knew what she was doing, and I knew I could catch her."

Shouta raised an eyebrow. "You planned this out beforehand?"

"Well, no, but we've done it enough times that I know when my friends are relying on me to catch them."

Fantastic. Shouta pinched the bridge of his nose.

The two girls clearly weren't lying, but that just opened up a bunch more questions. It meant that during the months they were gone, the students had developed the sort of reflexive trust that usually only pro hero teams had. It also meant that they'd been in enough situations where they'd needed to develop that trust - or they'd just thrown themselves off of things for fun. Shouta wasn't sure which one he'd prefer.

He turned back to Uraraka. "That wasn't your quirk, that you just used."

Uraraka smiled back at him. "It wasn't." Shouta stared at her. Uraraka just kept smiling back. "Shouldn't we get back to the exercise, Sensei?"

"We will talk about this later." Quirk or not, as her homeroom teacher, Shouta needed to know about developments like these.

Thankfully, the rest of their exercise proceeded fairly normally. Until Ashido lifted up a life-size busted car.

And then there was Todoroki. Who, Shouta noted as everyone had gathered back in the central plaza at the end of the class, tired but happy, had smudges of concealer that must've come off in the conflagration zone, the yellowing of bruises underneath.

Shouta intended to pull him to the side after class, but didn't get the chance - Todoroki had slipped away as soon as everything was over, along with the other three.

That didn't mean Shouta had forgotten, however. And he was certainly going to keep an eye on it.

Tenya was worried for his friends.

Of course, he knew they could take care of themselves. Even when some of their classmates had quietly (or in Bakugou's case, loudly) wondered why those four specifically had been taken, Tenya was sure they would be alright. Midoriya and Uraraka were strong and crafty, Todoroki had already shown his skill, and while he hadn't known Ashido at the time, he was sure she would be safe with the other three.

Then they'd been rescued, and any doubts the rest of the class might've had about their capabilities went right out the window the moment Midoriya dodged Bakugou's explosions, and Uraraka shrunk Bakugou down to miniature and put him in the Jar.

(They'd used the Jar twice again since then, once more for Bakugou, and another time for Mineta, who had attempted to spy on the girls while they were changing and therefore was sentenced to being placed on a high shelf away from everyone else for their next class. The Time-Out-Jar was a very useful thing.)

Then there was how they performed in foundational heroics class, all four suddenly excelling every afternoon. Tenya was delighted to see that Midoriya had figured out how to use his quirk without injuring himself, but the others had also improved by leaps and bounds, to the point where Tenya wasn't sure how he was going to catch up.

And, of course, there was how skilled they all seemed to be at hand-to-hand combat, despite only training for a few months. Tenya certainly hadn't realized how skilled they were during the team battle exercise, but they were clearly advanced, Uraraka and Todoroki especially.

Of course, a part of him wondered how they all seemed to have the same teacher for multiple months when they'd only met about a week ago. Combining that with Uraraka's hair change, and Tenya had started to wonder just how long they'd been in the apparently very strange state of Oregon.

But he'd decided not to ask. Whatever had really happened, if they wanted to talk about it, Tenya trusted that they would eventually. Until then, he would respect their privacy.

But now…

"I can see you worrying." Tenya turned to see Yaoyorozu faintly smiling at him from her place behind him in the lunch line. While Tenya had of course had the utmost faith in his friends, he was naturally still worried about them while they were gone, and Yaoyorozu had been the only one to notice. Tenya liked to think that the two of them were something like friends now. "What's going on?"

Tenya sighed, pushing his classes up. "I can't help but feel concerned for our friends," he admitted. "They'd seemed to bounce back from being taken during the first few days of class, but now they all seem… worn thin, I suppose."

Yaoyorozu nodded slowly. "I can see what you mean," she agreed. "They've been retreating into their small group a lot as well, and something is clearly bothering them."

The four of them had certainly been a lot more… insular, Tenya supposed, since returning from Oregon. He did understand - the rest of them had bonded as a class over surviving the villain attack. It only made sense that Midoriya, Uraraka, Todoroki, and Ashido would bond over being taken and sent halfway across the world.

"Indeed." The two of them got their lunches. "I just wish they realized they could come to us for help at least."

He might not know Todoroki and Ashido well, but Midoriya and Uraraka were his friends. He hoped they remembered that.

"Iida! And Yaoyorozu!"

Tenya turned to see Uraraka waving them over, beaming.

"Maybe they're starting to figure it out," Yaoyorozu murmured gently, as the two of them made their way to the table, neatly becoming a group of six.

Ashido grinned at them. "Awesome, you guys can be our tiebreakers."

"What if they're both split on opinions like the rest of us?" Todoroki asked. Ashido waved him off.

"We'll cross that bridge when we get there."

Tenya smiled. "Might I ask what we're being called in as tiebreakers for?"

"Sure thing." Uraraka stuffed some more food into her mouth, swallowed, and continued. "Okay, hypothetical scenario: You've got a pet that someone has just stolen and is hurting right in front of you, but everyone is just letting them do whatever they want. Then you run into a guy who says he's a time traveler, and proves it. He tells you he's there to search for time anomalies, but can't find any. So you borrow his time traveling device to save your pet, but every time you try to save him, fate twists things so he keeps being taken over and over again."

Yaoyorozu frowned. "That sounds both horrible and oddly specific. Why is fate conspiring to hurt your pet? And why is no one helping you?"

"Right!?" Mina agreed vehemently.

"Could the time traveler help you figure out what's going on?" Tenya wondered.

Uraraka shook her head. "He's too busy going on rides, because you're at a fair. Anyways, he eventually does realize, so he comes over and yells at you, but something happens with the time device and you all get sent through a bunch of different time periods, one after another. When you land back in the present, the time police show up and arrest the time traveler for violating the time code, and it turns out you were the anomalies he was meant to look for all along. The time police drag him away, and he swears that he'll go back in time and make sure your parents never meet."

"This is getting somewhat convoluted," Yaoyorozu admitted.

Midoriya chuckled. "Trust us, we know."

Uraraka laughed. "Right. So then a while later the time traveler shows up, having apparently escaped from time prison, and challenges you to gladiatorial combat, where the winner gets to decide the fate of the loser, and makes it very clear that when he wins, he's going to erase you from existence. But you win instead, and get to decide his fate. What do you do?"

Tenya pondered on this for a moment. "Well, it does seem rude to just throw him back in prison. In this hypothetical scenario, he was arrested for a crime that we, the other person in this situation, technically committed, right?" Next to him, Midoriya nodded along.

"But if his job was to stop anomalies, and he instead started the anomaly by letting all of this happen, then it is technically his fault and he's very bad at his job," Yaoyorozu countered. "Besides, if his solution to this is to challenge us to actual gladiatorial combat with the specific intention of erasing us from existence, then he's committing attempted murder, isn't he? He should be put back in prison."

"That is true. But if he hadn't been put in prison, maybe he wouldn't have attempted murder in the first place," Tenya argued.

Yaoyorozu shook her head. "Uraraka specifically said that he threatened to erase us from existence before being put in prison. It was just after he escaped that he put it into practice."

"An excellent point, and very well thought out! I think I'll agree with you then."

Ashido cheered, and Todoroki looked somewhat smug, while Uraraka pouted and Midoriya sighed.

Another thought occurred to Tenya. "I understand that this was probably only included in the thought exercise as a reason to borrow the time traveling device, but what happens to the pet?"

Ashido waved the question off. "Oh, he gets turned into a bear immediately after. The person who's taking him doesn't want him anymore, and he can change back whenever he wants, so you take him home and everything ends well."

"I… see?" Tenya turned to Yaoyorozu, and she thankfully looked just as befuddled by the conclusion to this plotline as he felt.

Midoriya sent him a commiserating grin. "Sorry, I know it's kind of strange. But thanks for indulging us."

"Of course!" Tenya agreed immediately. "It was a very interesting hypothetical."

"Even if convoluted," Yaoyorozu added, smiling.

And, at the very least, Tenya was relieved to know that his friends still wanted to spend time with him.

Katsuki was pissed.

This wasn't unusual. He was pissed about a lot of things, a lot of the time. But this had been grating on his nerves for ages now.

When they'd been attacked by villains, most of the class stood their ground and fought those bastards. They'd been separated, but they still managed to kick ass. Even Shitty Hair turned out to be useful. Katsuki had blasted that bastard warp villain and helped save All Might.

So why the fuck was everyone obsessed with the four idiots who got themselves sent to America? They didn't even fucking do anything, except wait around for three days until the pros managed to rescue their sorry asses and take them home. Even Icyhot had been useless, and Katsuki had wondered why he'd been so worried about the guy surpassing him.

Except.

Except the minute they'd come back to school, suddenly Deku could avoid him like it was fucking nothing. Suddenly he was looking Katsuki in the eye like they were equals, speaking to him without a trace of his normal idiot stammer, and worst of all, ignoring him, like the thought Katsuki was so beneath him that he wasn't worth bothering with.

Except suddenly Round Face had a flashlight that could shrink him down to centimeters and put him in a fucking jar. And Raccoon Eyes started casually showing off super strength, which was just as impossible as the fact that Deku had hidden his quirk from him all those years.

And apparently that wasn't the only thing Deku was hiding. All four of the bastards were suddenly experts in quirkless combat, even though Katsuki knew that Deku had never actually put any sort of effort into becoming a hero besides those dumb notebooks, and certainly hadn't been training like that.

Except.

Except that they'd all told Aizawa that they'd been training for a few months. All four of them had the exact same answer, and every time Katsuki looked over at them from where he was stuck learning the fucking basics (stuck behind Deku once again-) they'd all fought similarly.

And when Deku started pulling out the lightning and jumping all over the place like a goddamn pinball, they'd been the only ones who weren't surprised.

And there was the little fact about them all suddenly being on a first name basis.

Three days? Three days Katsuki's ass. Somehow, they were gone longer than that. He was sure of it.

Eventually, he'd gotten sick of the bullshit. Raccoon Eyes seemed the most likely to talk out of the four of them, and she also wasn't an emotionless brick wall like Icyhot or mooning over Deku like Round Face.

He slammed an explosion down on her desk, just to get her attention, and when she looked up, Katsuki couldn't help but grit his teeth at the complete lack of care there.

Raccoon Eyes raised an eyebrow. "You want something?"

"Yeah," Katsuki grit out. "The fucking truth. How long were you really gone for? Because it was three days for us, but it clearly wasn't for you. Don't try to deny it, it's obvious."

"Bakugou!" And there was Four-eyes, charging towards them, hands waving around in the air like a windmill as usual. "That's highly inappropriate! They don't have to answer your questions if they don't want to - especially ones that are worded so rudely!"

"Heh?" The wording of that statement clicked, and Katsuki grinned. So the class president had figured it out as well. Least that meant he wasn't a total moron. But of course he'd be trying to cover for them like this. "What the hell are you talking about? We deserve to know."

"I mean," they both turned to Raccoon eyes. "It's not like we really mind. It's not a secret." Now everyone in the class was looking at them. "Is it?"

She wasn't addressing either of them. Out of the corner of his eyes, Katsuki could see Aizawa leaning in the doorway with a tired expression.

"It's not," their teacher agreed, utterly apathetic.

"Right." Raccoon Eyes shrugged. "So if anyone brought it up, we were gonna tell them. Anyone in this class I mean, not just anyone on the street. But yeah, it was three and a half months."

Now that made a hell of a lot more sense. Fuckers were doing so well because they'd gotten a boost like that and been able to get ahead of everyone else. Katsuki grinned triumphantly.

"Three months?" Shitty Hair said. "Seriously? That's insane!"

And then, once again, the class was focused on those four specifically, asking question after question, and there was Deku in the middle of it, bashfully answering questions, the center of attention again despite Katsuki revealing their lies of omission. He growled and started forward-

-A cold hand rested on his shoulder. Katsuki turned back to see the cold sharp eyes of Icyhot boring into him. "Izuku's had enough crazy people obsessing over him," Icyhot said shortly. "You're not going to be another one."

"What the fuck?" Katsuki sputtered. "You think I'm obsessing over fucking Deku!?"

"That's exactly what it looks like from my perspective," Icyhot told him frankly, in that emotionless tone that Katsuki despised. "It looks like you can't stand the idea of him being successful in any way, much less more successful and more well-liked than you. I haven't forgotten how you almost killed him on the second day of school."

"He dodged, didn't he?" Katsuki scoffed.

"And if he hadn't, you'd be a murderer." For a second, a ghost of a smile flashed across Icyhot's face, looking so out of place there that Katsuki almost did a double-take. Then it passed, and, looking faintly annoyed, Icyhot squeezed his shoulder roughly, before walking past him.

Katsuki stood there, no one looking his way, trying desperately to contain his rage.

He wasn't obsessed with Deku. He wasn't.

He'd fucking show them anyways. Icyhot wanted to mock him like that? Deku wanted to defy him and act like he was better than Katsuki? He'd crush them both at the sports festival. He'd crush Raccoon Eyes and Round Face too, but with Icyhot and Deku, he'd do it decisively.

Then everyone would remember who the best was.

Inko was no fool.

She'd been so excited when her son suddenly developed his quirk, when he'd gotten accepted into the school of his dreams. She'd planned to encourage him with everything she had.

And then suddenly he'd been kidnapped by villains at what was supposed to be the most secure school in the country. After three days of going out of her mind with worry, her son and the three others who were taken came back. Except for them it had been over three months, and three months spent specifically in a world filled with the supernatural.

The changes in Izuku from a few days ago were obvious. Plenty of them were good! Izuku seemed so much more settled into his own skin than before. He'd made friends - actual friends! And three of them! - who clearly loved him dearly, just as much as he loved them. He was so open and happy around them, and it made Inko's heart soar. One of them was apparently his girlfriend now, and of course Inko was so happy for him, even if she was also sad that she'd missed all of this.

But there were other things as well. There was a sort of heaviness that all four of the children, including her son, carried with them. Izuku had nightmares now, ones he certainly didn't before. There was a horribly longing look in his eyes whenever he talked about the people who'd taken him in, people who Inko had never met but already knew she could never repay for taking care of her boy well enough that he spoke of them like this.

One of his friends, Mina, had apparently needed to learn how to use a gun. Izuku himself seemed to carry a small knife on him at all times, and seemed so uncomfortable without it that Inko didn't have the heart to bring it up.

And again, Inko wasn't a fool. She knew something terrible and dangerous had to have happened to her son and his friends while they were in Gravity Falls. But Izuku refused to tell her.

And there was Todoroki Shouto.

The second time the boy had snuck over to her house, covered in bruises, Inko proposed the idea of taking pictures of his injuries. "For evidence," she'd told him gently, "Just in case." Because despite the fact that Endeavor, the number two hero, someone who the public trusted to protect them, was clearly hurting his son, Shouto refused to leave.

Shouto had blinked at her. "He's the number two hero," he'd said in response, as though the idea of presenting any evidence to someone had a forgone conclusion. As if there was no point in even trying.

"I know," Inko said gently. "But it never hurts to have something recorded, right?"

Shouto didn't respond for a long moment. Then: "Okay."

So while there wasn't much Inko could do for her son's new friend, at least this was something.

And recently, all four of them had seemed more serious, more nervous. Something had happened, the first time the three of them had run to her house, but Inko didn't know what. Izuku wouldn't tell her.

She wanted to tear her hair out with worry, wanted to ask Izuku what she'd done that he didn't trust her with any of this, but she didn't. Not yet. Not while her home seemed to be the only place some of Izuku's friends felt safe in. And Inko was determined to make sure they always felt safe in her home.

Hopefully, that would be enough.

Fuyumi was afraid.

Now, this was nothing new, growing up in the house that she did. With someone like Father, where one small misstep, one misplaced word, could spell disaster, fear was something of an old friend, an emotion she was thoroughly familiar with.

And she certainly wasn't unused to fearing for Shouto, either. She'd seen how horrified her little brother was when he realized Father had hit her, but compared to what he'd done to Shouto, that was nothing. Fuyumi knew that had only been a taste of her brother's pain.

It was why she had stayed, even when she turned eighteen, even when Natsuo moved out the second he could. Despite everything her father had done, to her brothers, to Mom, to her, she still loved him. She couldn't stop. But she wasn't delusional. She was well aware of the kind of person he was. And she couldn't bear to leave Shouto all alone in the house with him for years.

But while the usual fear for him was still there, there was more now.

Fuyumi always noticed things. It was a central part of how she'd survived for so long in their household, by keeping the peace, noticing things, and understanding how her father and brothers worked. And because of those last two skills, it didn't take long to realize that ever since he'd returned from what was apparently a supernatural town in another world's Oregon, something was wrong with Shouto.

It wasn't just that sometimes he'd say things that sounded weird at first but then turned out to be correct. It wasn't the nightmares - he'd had plenty of those before. It was how terrified Shouto seemed to be by it. Like suddenly he was scared of his own thoughts and feelings and knowledge.

Fuyumi knew there was something wrong, but she didn't know what to do about it. So whenever she could, she made sure he could escape the house for the night, could talk with his friends, who mostly likely understood what was going on far better than her. And when Shouto came back the next morning mentioning that Midoriya Inko had asked about taking pictures of the bruises Father gave him, she'd encouraged him to agree, because evidence had always been destroyed before, but this was something.

And so she waited, to see if Shouto ever felt safe enough to explain, or if she found a way to better help him.

Waited, and worried, and hoped.

The thing was, Eijiro had always counted himself lucky to have a friend like Ashido. She'd defended him from bullies in middle school, after all, and then she'd invited him into her D&D group and suddenly he had people who were happy to regularly hang out with him. When they'd both gotten into UA, he was ecstatic, and more so when he found out they were in the same class. She was the kind of person who always seemed cheerful, and able to stand up for whatever she believed in, and he couldn't help but admire that, especially as he worked to reinvent himself for this new school.

And then, along with Midoriya, Todoroki, and Uraraka, she'd gotten kidnapped at the USJ. And now he knew it wasn't three days for them, but three months.

He'd been so terrified when they couldn't find the four of them at the USJ, and so guilt-ridden. If he and Bakugou hadn't jumped in front of Thirteen, the portal villain might not have captured them and sent them away. Or, whatever took advantage of the portal villain to send them to Oregon might not have gotten the chance. Or whatever Midoriya said probably happened. The point was, he'd made things worse for everyone.

And yet he was still here, and the meet-up with Ashido and Midoriya and Todoroki, and Ojiro, Iida, and Yaoyorozu, ready to learn some hand-to-hand moves from each other, like nothing had happened, even though it had.

But if Ashido could accept him even after that, then Eijiro would greatly take the offered hand.

The eight of them started with basic stretches, before going into different katas and movesets, and eventually spars. And it was a ton of fun! Eijiro was so glad he'd agreed to this.

A thought struck him, after one of his spars with Midoriya. "You know, when you said you had a teacher who taught you all of this, is she in Oregon? Is that where you learned this all?"

"Yup!" Ashido confirmed. "Her name is Wendy, and she's amazing."

"Probably the coolest person I know," Todoroki agreed.

Yaoyorozu eyed him, surprised. "Really? The coolest?"

"Yeah. No contest."

"You'd just have to see her in person," Ashido assured Yaoyorozu. "I think you'd all like her." Something melancholy flickered in her expression, and it occurred to Eijiro that if they'd been there for months, of course they would've grown attached to the people there.

"You know," he started hesitantly, "If you ever want to, you know, talk about what happened there, I think we'd all listen."

"Indeed!" Iida agreed quickly. "You're our friends! If you want to share, we'd be happy to listen!" Yaoyorozu and Ojiro quickly chimed in with their own agreements.

Midoriya's eyes were watery. "Thanks, everyone. Maybe… maybe soon, I think."

After the meet-up was over, they all made plans to come again next week, and Eijiro found himself walking to the train beside Ashido and Todoroki.

"Oh!" Ashido clapped her hands suddenly, and Eijiro jumped a little. "Right, I almost forgot! Kirishima, we're introducing Shouto and Ochako to Dungeons and Dragons later today! Do you want to join us?"

"I'd love to!" Eijiro agreed immediately. He still thought about his paladin sometimes, and he'd love to make a new character - hopefully one that could survive the entire campaign. "Do you have any ideas for characters in mind?"

Ashido elbowed Todoroki playfully. "Well, we finally convinced Shouto not to go with a draconic bloodline sorcerer. He's actually going to play something unique!"

Todoroki rolled his eyes fondly. "Like you weren't the same when you first started, Shooting Star."

Eijiro blinked at the nickname, before noting the necklace Ashido had put back on after they were finished sparring. Maybe it was from that?

Except both Ashido and Todoroki had suddenly frozen. And Todoroki looked horrified.

Then Ashido clapped her hands again. "Right! We'll deal with that later. We've got a train to catch for now. Come on!"

And she led them forwards before Eijiro could ask what was wrong.

"We're good, then?" Mina asked quietly.

Izuku took a deep breath and closed his laptop. "Yeah, we're ready. Let's do this tomorrow."

Man, it's almost like all the moral greyness and loss of trust in any and all authorities was leading up to the Mystery Crew deciding to take something much more serious into their own hands.

Next chapter is the breakout itself... as well as a reunion.

I hope you all enjoyed, and please don't forget to leave a review, let me know what you think!