I am back from my break and it's good to be back! Now, if you're reading this on Ao3, there have been some changes but to avoid violating the rules again, I won't say what it was. Just know that the actual chapters haven't been changed except for one thing, which is Izuku's nickname. When I spoke with other authors, they pointed out that Deku wouldn't work for him since he's had a quirk which everyone knew about since he was 6, so I came up with a new one. Also, I've finally finished Witch from Mercury and damn, that was a good show.

Chapter 10: New Friends, New Look

He didn't know how long they remained down there, but they traveled for a while before they had to leave, Koharu detected a large methane pocket a ways down the line and while they could survive a blast just fine, Hasaki wasn't like them. Hoping that they had put enough distance between their last known location and the current, he slowly climbed a ladder and moved a manhole cover out of the way, letting the light of the nearby buildings come in. Extinguishing his flame which they had been using as a torch, he let Koharu slip off him and look around, the snake returning a few minutes later confirming they were in the clear.

Getting up, he helped Hisaki out, the woman looking none too pleased with their escape route, choosing to glare at him as he tried to laugh it off, but she silenced him when her hair shifted into tendrilled blades. Deciding that it would be better for his health to focus on other things, he looked around the place, trying to make sense of where they were based on what he had seen. "I would say we're around 12 blocks away from where we went."

"Just 12 blocks? We went through the goddamn sewers for just 12 blocks?!" Hasaki yelled as quietly as she could, with Midoriya backing away from her lest she take her anger out on him. It wasn't like he liked crawling through sewers, nor could he have known that the sewers in the city were a lot…dirtier than back home. All that meant that both were covered in grime, the worse of the two being Hisaki as she hadn't planned to step outside tonight, never mind fight and then flee from villains and heroes alike.

"W-what do you want me to do? Any further and we risk setting off a methane explosion!" He tried to explain as she pointed up to the skies, where it might have been silent but she knew that could change in an instant.

"Hawks is after us, 12 blocks is nothing to him." She had heard and seen the news stories, knowing that Hawks was the master of speed and quick take-downs, second only to the big man himself in that regard. Before he could reply, Koharu hissed something in his ear, her eyes flickering to the buildings on either side of them in the alley.

Seeing that Hisaki didn't understand a word his friend said, he had to interpret for her. "Koharu's right, if Hawks owns the skies, we need to find a hole to hide in." Her eyes widened just a second before narrowing into a glare.

"If you suggest the sewers again," He raised his hands in an 'X' sign, shaking his head to dispel that notion before she got really angry.

"No, I think she means a building," He pointed to them, though both looked to be residential/business, not the sort they could barge into so early in the morning without someone making a fuss that drew unwanted attention. "Somewhere we can get a shower and a place to rest for the…is it morning by now?"

Taking a breath to calm down, even if she was exhausted from her lack of sleep and annoying night, she looked around and unlike him, recognised the area they were in. With that in mind, she knew of a place they could hunker down in. "There's just one place like that open at this ungodly hour," She walked past him out into the thankfully empty street, turning her head to look at him standing there like an idiot, an adorable idiot but an idiot all the same. "Follow me."

He did exactly that, trusting that as a native of the area, she'd know it far better than he could. While the streets had much more people, just like earlier, most were people that weren't in the business and poking their noses in other people's business so the most the dirty-looking thug and his girlfriend got was a raised eyebrow or an amused snort but nothing more which was a godsend, even if he wanted to be swallowed by the ground when someone in an alley yelled that he shouldn't have 'got his babe so dirty outside the sheets'.

If Hisaki was affected by such comments, she didn't show it as she seemed to have better control over herself when given time to get composed, so he followed her example and walked, letting her lead him by the end till they finally reached their destination, the sight of which nearly caused him to suffer a mental reboot. "I-I-you can't be serious!" His face went as red as her hair as he looked up to the clear love Hotel, its sign of 'Couple's Coral' did little to sway him from thinking about what sorts of secret affairs and one-night stands happened in those walls.

Not affected by the sight or the implication, Hisaki walked towards the flashy entrance, turning around to look at him over her shoulder, her bright, clear blue eyes looking at him with both amusement and annoyance. "It's our best option, and get your head out of the gutter, I'm not easy." Her statement didn't make things easier for him as she saw steam shoot out his ears like he was an embarrassed cartoon character.

"T-that that wasn't what I was concerned about, that kind of place is for…those things." He tapped his fingers together, having no experience in this front as while other kids could say they had at least gone on a date or two or spoken with girls-he was the black sheep for years. If a girl spoke to him, it was either to state her disgust or mock him. He hadn't even held a girl's hand yet!

"…How the hell are you a runaway and still so innocent?" Hisaki asked him, bewildered that this guy was more like a child than she thought, yet he was skilled enough to fend off villains and escape pros and not for the first time as while they moved through the sewers, he had shared more about himself and how he's been on the run for months now.

"I spent most of my time up in a mountain shrine…" He felt a little embarrassed by that, thinking that she was thinking of him as a little shrine helper boy, a mascot in all but name.

Hisaki giggled, taking some amusement in the situation as she turned to continue it, flipping her hair over her shoulder as she went. "Is that right? Well then, shrine boy, welcome to the dark side." He was still skeptical about this, thinking that perhaps they could find an abandoned building instead, one without any lewd implications but Koharu, sick of his hesitation, bit his cheek.

"Ow!" He yelped as he rubbed the bloodied cheek as Koharu looked him in the eye and told him to follow as it wasn't like they planned to mate and that it was a good spot to hide.

"Even that snake of yours seems to think you're overthinking this." Hisaki laughed, suspecting that his pet was on her side as he grumbled and followed after her. Inside they found that the lobby was predictably deserted with just a receptionist to greet them, the 40-something man looking at something on his phone and only looking up at them once they approached his desk. He gave them a look in his bug-like eyes, which made it hard to guess what he was thinking about them.

Hisaki prayed that the guy thought Midoriya was legal as she knew the guy, a regular customer at one of her old jobs, but that also meant she knew unless they explained things, if he suspected she was with a kid-he'll report them without a second thought and she rather not assault him to keep him quiet. There was also the tiny, totally not big implication that she would…do such things with a guy she just met, Midoriya was the more open about it but that didn't mean she wasn't holding back a fierce blush the entire time they walked here, not helped by the comments they heard.

Lucky for them, the man didn't seem to catch onto any suspicions, or at least nothing above what he was used to seeing from clients. "I would have imagined you would have the patience to wait till you got a room, looks like you two got down and dirty in the gutter." He looked them over again before his nose wrinkled at the smell. "Smells like it too."

"Not even, we just had a little accident, some asshole shoved past us and we tripped." Hisaki lied, coming up with a believable cover story which she hoped Midoriya would be smart enough to go along with. "Bucko over here tried to catch me and failed miserably." He looked surprised that she would add such a detail.

Not seeing any reason to suspect otherwise, the man just chuckled at the misfortune story. "Well, they say it's the thought that counts for whatever that's worth to you."

"It's been a long night and we just want to…vent," He nearly said something else but bit her tongue. "You have a free room or not?"

"We have a couple, what's your price range?" He replied, looking through the spreadsheet for the night and seeing he had a few rooms.

"We'll take the cheapest so long it has a shower." She replied, as much as she wanted to spoil herself, they weren't staying long.

"They all do, and the cheapest will cost you around 5K." He replied as she asked him to point out which room it was, once she knew where it was, she started walking away towards the elevator.

"Midoriya." She said without turning, leaving him to pay for it, either because she didn't have any money or because the guy was meant to pay but didn't know. He just went along with it, pulling out the mercifully untouched cash he had in his pocket and handing the man the required fee.

"Thank you, sir." Bowing to him, he quickly turned to catch up with his…date, leaving a bemused hotel worker to count the cash before finishing the transaction on his end.

"Who woulda thought, a polite crook?" Figured that she would find someone like that, but there was something strange about him that he couldn't quite put his finger on. 'Wait, was that a snake?' Oh yeah, he did see the animal like that on his person, but he waved it off, having seen weirder stuff in his time working there.

Getting to their room, they breathed a sigh of relief, closing the door behind them and making sure it was locked. The sign on the door outside already informed that for privacy reasons, the rooms were all soundproofed, which meant that they didn't need to worry about hearing others getting it on or having someone hear them talking. Collapsing into a seat by the heart-shaped bed, he gestured towards the door leading into the bathroom. "Ladies first."

"I'll be a quirk, I don't want to smell shit on you any more than of myself," Hisaki told him as she walked towards the bathroom, too tied to care as she started striping long way till she was half naked by the time the door closed, leaving their ruined clothes on the floor. Midoriya made a mental note to clean them after he was done, his quirk would come in useful in drying them so they wouldn't have any awkward moments when they'd have to spend the night in their underwear while they dried.

20 minutes later, the door opened and Hisaki walked out wearing one of the hotel's bath robes over herself as Midoriya silently went in, scrubbing himself near raw to get as much of the dirt off his person before using the same for Koharu. Finding that the soap they offered was both cheap and little, he used what remained after Hisaki's turn to clean himself before exiting the place, also covered by a bathrobe. Crashing onto his seat again while Hisaki took the bed, he let out all the exhaustion and stress of the last couple of hours with a single breath.

"Sorry about this…all of it." He drew her attention with his statement, the boy grabbing at his face to smack away his desire to sleep. "I would have wanted our meeting to be less problematic."

Hisaki wanted to snap back at him, but calmer heads prevailed as she extended an olive branch. He wasn't the one that screwed with her night anyway, if anything-he might have saved it. "What did you think it'd be like? Our first meeting?"

"Better, less heroes for one thing." She smiled at his poor attempt at a joke as he combed a hand through his shoulder-length hair. "Other than that, I didn't think too much about it. I'm not the best with people."

"And yet you sought me out, why?" Hisaki asked him, as that seemed like a bad idea waiting to happen. So, he told her. About him and his past, about Nine, about what they sought to create and how he was trying to recruit her the same way he was recruiting, all in the service of a more just world.

"We're after people like us, not just those who are strong, but those who can understand that the world needs to change, it needs to get better. So that people like us can find a place in it, a place to be happy." He finished, as Hisaki took it all in. She had never been recruited by a villain group before. Oh sure, there had been offers, a powerful kid with a chip on her shoulder would always draw offers, but she always turned them down, never seeing the need or not wanting to get onto the group equivalent of the Titanic.

She might have been interested, but that didn't mean she was biting just yet as she crossed her arms, the robe being thick enough so that Midoriya didn't see how her bust was emphasized by the action. "It's foolish. Not just the plan, but to recruit people you barely know. We've only known each other for what, 2-3 hours? Why should I even agree to it? What makes you think I won't just rat you out or stab you in the back later when shit hits the fan?"

"Because," He stood up and walked for his pants, digging through the pocket he pulled out something that Nine had given him before they separated, turning around to show her what that was. "We're alike." In his hand was the news article, the one about her which drew her eyes like a moth to flame. She didn't have the chance to ask him about when he continued.

"I hated it." Looking at his face, she saw that he lacked expression…no, it did, but he was trying to keep them under wraps, a task he wasn't doing too bad of a job which spoke to years of repression.

"My life…old life," He explained, taking a breath as he took his seat again, his mind jumping to those old days. His hand shifting to its other form, he clenched his red-hot stone fist. "Ever since my quirk came in, I was always the troubled child, the problem child, the pyromaniac. That was all everyone saw, all they told me I was and for a long time, I believed it." Koharu wrapped herself around him a little tighter as he dealt with the memories, with the feelings he thought he buried that wormed their way to the surface.

"I held back, lived like they told me, played by their rules hoping that maybe, just maybe…they'll accept it." He never wanted to make his mother sad, to disappoint her so even when things got hard, he soldiered on. However, when he looked at her, she could see his smile was bittersweet, resentful but also relieved. "But you can't stop what the heart wants, and mine wishes to burn bright." His body flashed, as his temperature spiked to near transformation as his quirk and soul sang their agreement.

"Not even All Might could look at me with anything but fear when I showed him the real me," She blinked, he had met All Might and got the symbol of peace to look at him in fear. "I hated it, the looks, the isolation, the fear of never knowing when they'll come down on me." Those first few weeks were the hardest, even after he found the temple, he feared that he left a trail and that someone would come for him. That he would wake up in chains in some prison, locked away with the rest of the forgotten.

"It's a hard life…being restrained by others who can't accept the real you." Hisaki didn't know where it came from, but she found herself adding to the sentiment, speaking from the heart as she recalled how she was in a similar place to him. Even before her father's business fell in, she was always the weird girl. After that, she was the dangerous girl, the one who used her hair-like limbs. The one that could slice through steel with ease and had no friends, so she must be a criminal waiting, right?

"But I found creatures that accepted me," He snuggled close to Koharu there, the snake smug at the moment at the title of his first friend in years. "And someone that showed me a better way. If this present won't accept us, why not make a future that will?" He smiled at her, one that said he fully understood what he said, what it would entail and how much of a mountain this would be to even attempt to conquer-but that he didn't care.

That smile and those eyes more than anything resonated with her, the girl feeling herself boarding this crazy ship even as her logical side tried to keep her from doing so. "You still haven't explained the 'how'. How will we confront the heroes, confront the man that holds so much power he can obliterate entire buildings with a single finger, whose mere presence maintains order through force?"

Midoriya shrugged, not at all concerned with that, strangely enough. He knew he was an analytical person, that he tended to think first, second and third but when it came to what he believed, what he knew was right-he never thought of anything else than doing it, methods be damned. " I don't know myself, but if I don't try, if we don't try then this will be all we ever do, always running, always fighting to survive because we don't fit into the place that society wants us to."

"So, what do you say, do you want to try and change things for the better? It'll be fun to have more friends doing it." he reached out a hand towards her, a potential start of a new beginning he didn't know where it would lead them, or how long that journey would take. But despite that, she couldn't help but give him a tired smile as she laughed. It was crazy, the entire thing but that little girl in her, the girl that wanted to hang out with the other kids, that wanted a normal family life-that wished to use her quirk however she damn well pleased was already on board with this, waving back at her on the dock.

"Just now, I'm damn well particular with my hair, so don't complain when we spend our cash, how limited it'll be caring for it." She said as she reached out a hand to shake his.

Izuku was firm in his handshake, as was his smile that got a little brighter despite the fact it must have been close to 3 am. "Not a problem, it's beautiful hair, like my flames."

"And you say you're not good with people, where'd you pick up such charm?" He laughed at her question.

"I honestly just copied what I would read in manga, though I don't think I'll ever pull off what she can do, even if people think I'm into cosplay like her." She blinked at his response, before laughing at it.

"Please, you don't have anything on the cosplay queen, though…" She looked him up and down for a moment. "You do give off the air of someone that likes hina dolls."

"I'll let you know that I'm an action figure guy!" He seemed offended, but the smile on his face gave away how little anger he felt.

"What's the difference?"

"It's in the name!" He replied, but couldn't hold it in and just laughed as she joined in on it.

They continued to laugh as if they had just heard the best joke of the year before eventually calming down, as she wiped a tear from her eye. "God, it's really been years since my last conversation with a friend, if that was enough to crack me up."

"Then we can have many more in the future, after all, I like the weird girl." Midoriya jokes, with Hisaki smiling back at him, both as relaxed as they could.

"And I can't say I dislike the pyromaniac." She replied, having found his emerald flames to be beautiful in their own right, as bright as they were warm.

They decided to spend the night there, as while the hotel was typically used for a couple of hours at a time, no rule said they had to leave, so with that in mind, as Midoriya cleaned their clothes and dried them off, Koharu settled into Hisaki's lap, the girl giving him a look when the snake just did that and he merely said 'just go with it' before vanishing into the bathroom with their clothes.

After that, they awkwardly shared the bed as while it was made for two, it was made with the intention that those two would be…intimate so space was at a premium but their exhaustion proved stronger than their embarrassment and they fell asleep, happy that if nothing else, they had made a new friend in this confusing world.

Blinking away the last of the sandman's hold on him, Izuku yawned as he looked around, wondering where he was for a moment before he remembered the previous night. He was about to get up, to look where Hisaki was, but felt a warm body at his side, much closer than it had been before, more than that, he felt his arms wrapped around the warm body. Gulping down his spit, he slowly looked to the side and felt his soul leave his body as he looked right into a pair of her bright, clear blue eyes on a red face.

It had seemed that sometime during the night, she had not only turned to face him but he pulled her into a hug, leaving her face resting in the crock of his neck. If he was anything else, he would be sure that he would have noticed her warm breath on his neck, but he was so used to the heat that he must have not noticed! Not knowing what else to do, he just went with his gut.

"Morning."

Why oh WHY did he say that?!

Instead of a quick death by bladed tendrils of hair, Hisaki remained as embarrassed as him, having woke up a little while earlier, she had more time to process what had happened between them and as much as this was the closest she had ever let a man get to her, she couldn't deny that it was…nice, not just for the fact his warm body was a refreshing change to waking up in her cold bed, but that it was the body of someone that could understand and appreciate her.

Not even that damn snake giving them a smug look could ruin that for her. So, when she heard him predictably fumble his first words of the day, she merely gave him a cheeky smile of her own, even if her face was still red.

"Morning to you, too. We should get out of bed; we need a change of clothes." Hisaki stated, met with Midoriya blinking as if he hadn't quite understood.

"Oh? Oh!" Quick as a flash, he let go of her and nearly fell out of the bed to give her space. "Yes, sorry, I didn't mean to invade your personal space like that, I swear!" He clasped his hands together and bowed low to her, with Hisaki just finding the entire situation funny.

"It's fine, it happened in our sleep." She was just happy that she didn't feel his morning wood or something like that, it helped keep things innocent to her as she got up as well, stretching her arms over her head, she felt the muscles in her arms, shoulders and back tense before relaxing, rolling her neck to get rid of the last of downiness, she turned back to him seeing him still bowing.

"Hey," She walked up to him, smacking on upside the head. "I said it was okay, not like you tried to be a creep and cop a feel."

As he rubbed the back of his head, he stuttered out a flustered reply. "M-my mother raised me better than that!"

"Then there's no issue, now get ready. We had our rest, now we need a change of clothes as I don't know about you, but I'm not leaving town dressed like this," She gestured to herself, and the fact that she was still just wearing a white sleeveless shirt 2 sizes too big for her and black short shorts.

Looking at his clothing, he saw that while he had more of it, he had already lost his jacket and shoes, having tossed those once he decided they were a lost cause after their time down in the sewers. "I suppose we need a change, to throw off the pros." And quite frankly, he didn't like the way he looked in these clothes, they seemed…too formal.

"And because you can't pull off the thug look at all." Hisaki joked as he pouted before a question arose.

"Wait, then where are we going to get them? I don't have that much cash left." He looked through his pockets and found that he just had 20K left.

"Somewhere nice and cheap." Hisaki gave him a smile that reminded him a bit too much of the Cheshire cat from Alice in Wonderland.

"It'll have to be really cheap then." He replied as she giggled, leading them towards the door.

Opening it, she flicked some hair over her shoulder as they made their way to the elevator. "Of course, because they're going to give us a great discount of 0 yen." Midoriya blinked at that comment, wondering if he heard it right.

"What?"

"When you said we'll be getting them cheap, I didn't think we'd be robbing the place!" Midoriya yelled at his partner in apparent crime as she hummed a song to herself, looking through a clothing rack for stuff to wear, her forearm already carrying a few pieces that she wanted to try. It would have been a completely normal thing if they hadn't walked into the store, making the manager hostile and forcing the workers and customers to the side, away from the door and windows.

What was even stranger was that this was where she used to work till she was let go, so she knew that the manager tended to be by the entrance to greet potential customers and where the silent alarm was, which he promptly dealt with just in case someone tried to go it with a simply magma hand ripping out and melting the thing.

Looking back at him as she took out a light purple shirt, she replied as if he was the one being weird about this. "What? You said so yourself we didn't have much cash, so why waste the day looking for a second-hand store that we'll still get a discount for when we can do this?" A strand of her hair reached out and pulled something from a nearby shelf.

"It feels wrong," Midoriya replied, looking at their hostages and how terrified they were of them.

"It's just some clothes, we're not going to touch the cash register." She waved that off, the aforementioned register sat untouched as even when the woman she vaguely knew offered to empty it for them, she blew past them and just wanted to get what they came for. And it looked like she had what she wanted as she walked barefoot towards the changing rooms, not caring that it was the men's as it wasn't like anyone would see her.

"Keep an eye on them, will you? I'm going to try some stuff on." She didn't wait for a response as she closed the door behind her, the lack of activity in the store letting them hear her undressing and getting into the first set of clothes she picked.

"Unbelievable, is this really the best time for that? Just take what fits." Midoriya replied, keeping his gaze on the people to ensure they stayed still.

Poking her head out from the door, she called back to him. "I'm sorry, but I'm not going to take chances unless you want us to rob another store if the outfits we pick end up being trash." She raised an eyebrow to challenge him.

"…Carry on." Snorting, she went back to changing as Midoriya took a breath, having not expected this would be his morning but then again, these days things rarely go as he planned. Looking back at the people, he walked over to a mother and child duo, the girl couldn't be any older than 8 as she clung to her mother for dear life, the woman almost as terrified as her.

"Please don't hurt us." She begged him, which made him frown. Why were they so scared? Sure, this was a robbery but they hadn't touched anyone, or been that violent with their threats. He liked to think they had been as gentle as they could be.

"You heard her, we're not here to hurt you or take your money." He repeated what Hisaki had said when they took charge, looking a little displeased when he saw their fear hadn't abated. "I just burnt the alarm, what's the issue?" He didn't even fully change, he could see people being unnerved.

Someone heard him say that last part and tried to move even further away from him. "He's crazy!" Koharu didn't take kindly to that statement and looked ready to handle it but he stopped her.

"Koharu. Don't." She glared at him for that, which he met straight on. While he didn't like the comment, he wouldn't attack them for it.

"How do I look?" He heard Hisaki ask as she stepped out of the changing room, turning in her direction, he felt his eyeballs nearly fall out of his skull.

He had known she was an attractive woman, probably the prettiest girl he had ever seen even when she was just wearing an oversized sleeveless, now she might as well have walked off a runway. She walked out wearing a pale purple blouse with frilled cuffs which fit her figure perfectly, but not too much that it appeared closer to spandex, its collar was upturned with a pearl string necklace of a similar color and black choker with a small red circle in the center of it that drew attention to her swan like neck.

Over it, she wore a short navy-blue dress with a collar so low it dipped down to her waist with a thick brown belt fastened in 3 places around her waist. He had to fight to not let his teenage mind imagine what she'd look like if she hadn't worn the blouse under it. Her hands were covered by a pair of red gloves, her legs covered by frilled, purple thigh-highs which made her legs all the more distracting to his slowly devolving brain. She finished the look with a pair of black boots with knee-high protrusions worn over the top and two bands of red binding them to her calves around the back.

All in all, his intelligence dropped to near nothing as the blood left his brain for his cheeks and another spot.

"Wha?" Was the sound that came out of his eating hole, getting her to laugh at how dumbfounded she looked.

"I'll take that as it's good, it took a while to choose the right one, I had to take stuff from other sets to make it." She told him as she walked up to them, her hair sharpening into bladed tendrils.

"Alright, now it's your turn. Find something you like and get dressed, also take some extra stuff like I did." Hisaki told him as she held up the small bunch of clothing she picked, her hair keeping the people in place while she grabbed a paper bag from behind the till to put her stolen goods into.

Midoriya picked his jaw off the ground and went to it, walking to the deserted men's section to try and find something he would like. The issue was that most of it, he couldn't put his finger on…he didn't vibe with them. It wasn't bad stuff, even if Hisaki said this was a cheaper store, but he didn't like most of what they had. It was only when he saw a small section labeled 'traditional' that he found something he could wear, his eyes shining as he picked through it, grabbing stuff he thought he'd like and either throwing it over his shoulder or putting it back haphazardly. Even better was most of it was flame-resistant!

Skipping into the changing room, he didn't care to remove his clothes, rather he handed the cash he still had to Koharu, who slithered off him before he burst into flames, surprised and terrified screams were heard from the hostages but he cut the flames just as fast, leaving himself in his underwear, his old clothes reduce to ash. A couple of minutes later, the door clicked open as he stepped out for Hisaki to see him.

"How do I look?" Izuku asked, presenting what he had chosen for them. Izuku had chosen to wear a loose light green kimono which left his shoulders exposed with its sleeves so long that they left his hands hidden when his arms were at his side. Around his waist, he tied a purple and red trimmed obi sash with the center of that sash being further secured by a thick yellow string. With his shoulders exposed, underneath the kimono, he wore a light purple hadajuban and a pair of simple sandals to cover his feet. Completing the look was the fact he used a piece of string to tie his messy hair into a ponytail which came down to his shoulders while Koharu had taken her rightful place wrapped around his shoulders.

"It looks good on you, got other stuff to wear?" Hisaki asked as Midoriya lifted a small pile of clothes, seeing them the woman nodded and made her to the employee entrance out back, which would lead them into the alley and away from the public eye. "Then let's go." Grabbing a bag to put these newly acquired clothes, Midoriya to the terrified people and bowed.

"Sorry about this, I hope you have a nice day!" With that, he rushed to follow his partner out the back.

"And when they left, the kid apologized and wished them a good day?" Hawks yawned, still in the process of waking up as he along with a couple of his sidekicks stood to the side of the store, police going through the place and speaking with witnesses.

"That's what they said, they seem to fit the description of the suspects from last night, so we called you in." The policemen replied as they had arrived 10 minutes after the suspects left, but a quick converse of the area revealed that they had been smart and left no trail for them to follow.

"I kinda wish you didn't, I only got a few hours of sleep last night because we searched all over for them." He was up till 3 looking for them but had found squat, he just knew that this would lead to more paperwork.

"I'll keep an eye out for train and bus terminals, but if they manage to avoid me for this long, they might have another way out of town." He stated the obvious, even with his presence, it wasn't like the city was free of crime. Being a port town didn't help the case as it meant that there were always villains creating new smuggling routes. They could have stumbled on any one of those.

"What makes you say they'll skip town?" The cop asked, since as far as he knew, the woman-one Hasaki Kiruka was local. They didn't know who her accomplice was, but they had no reason to think he was different and villains tend to remain in areas they're familiar with.

Hawks knew this, but he also knew that the smarter ones left to find new ground or to escape pros that were onto them. "I have a gut feeling, my good man."

Once more, there was more to be said, but I had to cut things here. The rest can go to the next chapter. That chapter will come out on January 24th.

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