Trigger warning: vague reference to suicide. Literally seven words, not even an explicit use of the word, but it's still there.

Before today's chapter: I got another piece of fan art! Bunny over on AO3 drew Aiko. You can find it on my Tumblr (same name as here, cannibalisticapple). It's so great, I love the detail on her eyes~ On that note, I'm going to push through my procrastination and finally draw her this weekend. If I don't, I encourage you to give me a hard time.

Chapter 38

.::Impulse and Determination::.

Over the past two weeks, Eijirou had started to get used to Ashido's sudden weirdness. At first it had been jarring to have her shouting for him from across the lunchroom, or even just to see her waiting for him outside the apartment building every morning so they could walk to school together. Her oddly clingy behavior had been a weird and abrupt change, as had the bizarre amnesia, but at some point it had started to become normal, even weirdly... nice.

He'd never really interacted with Ashido or Kirameki even at their middle school, and he certainly never spoke to Anjou. But even so, Ashido just had this magnetic charm to her. Being around her made him feel light and comfortable, like his life had gotten just a little bit brighter. After being alone for so long, he figured that her weird behavior was a small price to pay for the friendly company, even if it ended up getting him on house arrest.

Eijirou thought that at this point, even if Ashido continued to surprise him, he would be able to deal with it fine. Nothing could ever be as shocking as when she'd run straight into that villain fight after all.

Clearly, he was wrong.

"You believe her?" he blurted, staring at Anjou in shock. Somehow, this was his breaking point. Not Ashido claiming she came from another world—one where they both went to UA and learned from All Might—or even her claiming there were other people from another world. At this point he might just be numb to Ashido's weirdness, or maybe he was just so overwhelmed that he hadn't really processed all of it yet. It was a really crazy story after all, and it still didn't feel quite real.

But Anjou always seemed cool and rational. She was easily the voice of reason in their group, the one who'd always rein in the others' more chaotic tendencies. So, yeah, he guessed it made sense that Anjou believing Ashido's insane story would be what shocked him most.

Next to him Ashido let out a delighted squeal loud enough to make him wince, basically bouncing in place as she gave Anjou a face-splitting grin so big it almost looked painful. "You actually believe me!? Thank you so, SO much An-chan! You are officially my best friend here!"

For her part the teal-haired girl held up a hand. "Slow down, I'm not sure I fully believe it yet," she said, and Ashido's bouncing stopped, her smile fading to a look of confusion.

"But, you just said—"

"It's more complicated than that," Anjou cut in, and she sounded oddly... tired. "I don't know if you're actually from another world. It could be a bunch of implanted memories like these guys are saying. But at this point, there's too many details that check out to ignore."

"Check out?" Eijirou repeated, and Anjou nodded, still looking frustrated.

"I can't explain everything, but some of the stuff Ashido's saying—she's talking about people and things she shouldn't know."

"And what does that mean?" Kirameki asked, her tone a bit irritated now. Eijirou couldn't blame her, he was confused by this too. Anjou huffed and crossed her arms, eyes closed with a look of concentration as she seemed to consider her response.

"Look, I can't tell you guys everything because there's a lot of complicated stuff involved that I can't just tell anyone, okay?" she finally said. "It's not my place to talk about it, and again, like I said, it's really complicated. But just now, Ashido described a bunch of people I know she shouldn't know."

"Really?" Ashido perked up, eyes shining. "Who? Who?"

"I'm not answering that right now," Anjou said flatly, and Ashido deflated in obvious disappointment. "All that matters is that some of those names she listed are real people, and I know she wouldn't have met them or know about their Quirks. Like Todoroki." That got their attention.

"Todoroki?" Eijirou asked, eyebrows furrowing. "What's so special about him? I mean, he's kinda a public figure anyway, right?" Todoroki Shouto had been plastered all over the news a year prior when he disappeared. While the media hadn't given all the details about him—not even showing a picture of his face, so that villains wouldn't be as likely to recognize him—it wouldn't be that hard to find details on him. There were a few photos from before Endeavor started hiding his family from the public.

"Yeah, but the details of his Quirk aren't public," Anjou replied dryly. "And her description of it is accurate." That made Eijirou and Kirameki perk up, because the news definitely hadn't mentioned his Quirk.

"Hold on, how do you know that?" Kirameki asked, beating him to the punch. "Do you, like, know him or something?"

"Nope," Anjou said. "Never met him, doubt I'd be able to recognize him on the streets. But I know someone who's friends with his brother, and his description matches up perfectly with Ashido's." She raised a hand to count off points on her fingers. "Super strong dual Quirk, way stronger than Endeavor's, with a preference for the ice side. And also a bunch of daddy issues."

The others were silent as they absorbed this. "...So basically, you never saw it, but got this information from someone who never saw it either, but heard about it from his brother," Kirameki summarized, and she nodded.

"Pretty much." Kirameki did not look impressed.

"That's an actual 'friend of a friend' thing. That's not even, like, second-hand information. It's closer to, like, third-hand." She crossed her arms with a huff. "An-chan, I love and respect you, but I seriously question the validity of that. I've heard enough gossip at school to know how much actual details can get lost in those sort of chains."

"My source is known for being fairly accurate," Anjou replied dryly, and sighed as she continued, "But look, that's just one detail. There's other stuff too, like Jirou Kyouka—who is a real person in Hosu."

"And how do you know that?" Kirameki challenged, and Anjou looked at her phone.

"Because someone I know asked me to run a background check on her." That made everyone freeze, just staring at her in shock. Anjou tapped at the screen a few times before turning it to them, showing what looked like a blond guy with a guitar in a rocker pose, and a little blond girl next to him. "Her dad's a famous musician, Jirou Kyoutoku. She appeared in a photo shoot for a magazine with him a few years ago."

Eijirou stared at the photo in silence, just taking it in. Aside from the long blond hair, the father-daughter duo barely resembled each other. She looked weirdly out of place next to him in his studio setup, wearing a nice-looking light blue dress and red glasses that made a stark contrast with the father's hole-ridden band shirt and jeans.

Even Ashido was squinting at the picutre. "That... That looks like Jirou, but she has purple hair," she said slowly. "And no glasses. And—I don't think I've ever seen her in a dress like that. You can't even see her earphone jacks!"

"Yeah, it's probably a disguise to protect her from nosy people," Anjou said, turning the phone back to herself. "The article doesn't even mention her name, they just wanted a shot of him and his daughter because he talked about being a single dad. Funny you mention earphone jacks though, because her mom definitely had those," she added lightly. "Same goes with the purple hair. Guess she took after her mom more."

"Uh, can we go back to the part where someone asked you to do a background check on her?" Eijirou piped up meekly. He had so many questions about that, and honestly he was a little afraid of the answers.

"I can't say why, but I promise it's nothing illegal or shady," Anjou said with a shrug, which did the exact opposite of reassure him. Eijirou froze up in silent panic as Anjou continued way too casually after saying something like that, "Anyways, I did find out that a Jirou Kyouka lives in Hosu. There's a fancy school there for kids who might be at higher risk of being targeted, so it checks out.

"And that school is also rumored to be attended by Ingenium's brother and the Yaoyorozu heiress," she added with a pointed look at Ashido. "At the very least, the school got sizable donations from those two families this year, and the frequency of patrols by the Idaten Agency in its area have picked up around there since this spring."

"Is this information usually available to the public?" Eijirou asked, feeling increasingly alarmed because this didn't sound like stuff they'd be telling everyone in press releases.

"Nope," Anjou deadpanned, and either didn't notice or (more likely) blatantly ignored his growing panic as she pocketed her phone. "Either way, it's one hell of a coincidence for Ashido to remember all these names that absolutely aren't public knowledge. I don't even know those two's given names. And that's just the stuff I'm comfortable sharing," she added with a shrug, while Eijirou just stared.

If that's what she's comfortable sharing, then what else is there!? He wanted to ask that, but the potential answer scared him too much so he kept his mouth shut. Everything Anjou had mentioned so far sounded potentially highly illegal—including the assurance that it wasn't—so he really dreaded what the heck she didn't feel comfortable sharing with them.

Kirameki lacked his reservations though—or rather, she just didn't care about how Anjou got that information. "If you don't know their given names, how do you know she does?" she asked. "You're not doing a very good job of convincing me."

"Like I said, that's just what I'm comfortable sharing," Anjou retorted, unphased by Kirameki's doubt. "There's other stuff she said that I know is accurate, and she definitely should not know it." That had Eijirou calming down again, his unease giving way to curiosity. So then that must mean she recognized some of the other names Ashido mentioned, right? It would explain why she'd asked Ashido to list off her classmates.

"I'm... still kinda confused," the girl in question admitted almost sheepishly, but perked up as she added, "But if it means you might believe me, that's good enough for me!"

"It still sounds too weird to be true," Kirameki said with a frown, and Ashido shot her a sour look. "Even if Mina does know all those names, doesn't it still seem more likely it was all planted in her head than, you know, coming from another dimension? Maybe they're using her as bait for all these kids who're way more valuable."

"Yeah, it does," Anjou agreed surprisingly easily, and Ashido made an offended sound at that. "But there's still some stuff that's too specific to really check out with me. Like..." She trailed off, and Eijirou stiffened as her eyes flitted his way, lingering for just a few seconds before returning to Ashido. "Well, let's just say some details are too randomly specific to be logical for implanted memories."

What the hell? Eijirou frowned, because no way did she look at him randomly before saying something like that for no reason. Call him crazy or maybe paranoid, but he felt sure that she was referring to something about him with that vague line. Ashido and Kirameki didn't seem to notice though, and he didn't have time to dwell on it before Anjou shrugged and spoke again. "Look, forget it. I've already said enough. I think there is something going on here though, especially since we know Infinity Girl is an actual, real teenage girl and is missing."

"We do?" Kirameki asked in genuine surprise, and Anjou snorted.

"Yeah, we do," she replied dryly. "Remember how Ashido mentioned a surprise visit from the hero Midnight on Sunday? You know, right before you two started yelling at each other?" Kirameki winced at the reminder but her eyes were no less wide with shock, Eijirou similarly stunned. With the quick flow of the conversation and fight he'd forgotten that part completely, but Ashido had mentioned a detective came to ask her about Infinity Girl.

"Oh," Kirameki said lamely, and turned to Ashido with a grimace. "Sorry, Mina."

"I'll think about accepting your apology," Ashido said with a haughty sniff, crossing her arms and turning her head away.

"So yeah, we know that Infinity Girl is an actual, missing teenage girl," Anjou repeated. "And Ashido was right with all that stuff about her profile name. The timing of Infinity Girl making her profile and then finding and friending Ashido is way too close to just be a coincidence. I'm willing to bet she has all those memories too, and something happened that made her run away."

"Or maybe she just got tired of sitting around and doing nothing," Ashido muttered under her breath, scowling at her feet. Eijirou frowned as he looked at her, his mind still whirring from just—well, everything. This was a lot to take in, and while he still had a lot of doubts, Anjou made some pretty convincing arguments.

"Okay, so if this is true, then shouldn't we go to Oracle or some other Pro Hero?" he asked, and Kirameki perked up.

"Yeah!" she agreed with a vigorous nod. "I mean, if this is fake then there's obviously, like, some giant trap! And if all this multi-dimension stuff actually is real, then this is way over our heads! We should absolutely go to a hero, like, now!"

"We can't because reasons," Anjou replied testily, and that was probably the least satisfactory answer ever but her obvious irritation made Eijirou wary of asking again. She gave an aggravated sigh and crossed her arms with a frown. "Look, under pretty much any other circumstances, I'd be all for going to the Pros. But right now, there's a lot of stuff going on that I can't mention, and if the Pros get involved it'll make things messy for a lot of people.

"Take it from a foster kid," she added. "Good intentions do jackshit when the legal system and bureaucracy gets involved. If we go to them now, Ashido will probably be whisked away and it'll be weeks before they actually do anything productive. With something this big, they'll want to verify as much as possible before making any moves, and that'll take ages."

"I think it's too risky, too," Ashido piped up sheepishly, and both Eijirou and Kirameki spun to face her in shock. She had an awkward grimace on her face, scratching the back of her neck as she avoided looking at them. "I mean, obviously I thought about it, and if I'd been able to find a Pro on like, week one, I totally would have told them everything. But this world's just—it's sooo different from mine! It feels like there's villains everywhere, and I don't even know like half the heroes here!"

She shook her head, tugging at her hair around her horns again with a pinched-looking frown. "I just don't know! It's all so different and scary! What if I tell someone but they're actually secretly a bad guy? Or, or what if they're the ones who did this to me somehow and I didn't know!? Like, maybe they didn't realize it happened to me, so they need to silence me!"

As she began rambling and growing increasingly panicked Eijirou just stared. He kind of wanted to say she was overthinking it, but given the multiverse bombshell, she might not be. Once again, Kirameki had no such reservations though. "...Mina, you've been spending this whole weekend thinking about this, haven't you?" she asked flatly, and Ashido flailed her arms with a distressed whine.

"Yes! There's just nothing to do but think! And I know it's stupid and I'm totally overthinking a ton of it, but I just keep running out of other stuff to do so I keep going over all the worst case scenarios because I feel like I can't do anything!"

"That's because you can't right now," Anjou said bluntly, making Ashido whine in dismay. "At least, not here."

That caught their attention. "Hold on," Kirameki said, whirling to face her. "Are you saying—?"

"Yeah." Anjou nodded. "Ashido needs to leave Kamino. I already explained why going to the Pros would take too long, it'd be easier to handle it more directly."

"But we don't know what to do either!" Eijirou blurted, unable to help himself. "I mean, I kinda get what you're saying about the Pros, but if even they don't know where to start, then what could we do?"

Anjou didn't respond right away, her mouth thinning and eyebrows furrowing as she looked away. "I... have some leads," she admitted reluctantly, and all three of them went frozen and slack-jawed with shock. The look on her face made it clear she didn't want to admit it, and it seemed like she had to force herself to speak as she continued, "I can't... explain what they are right now, but... there's a reason I'm willing to believe Ashido.

"And that's also why I'm so reluctant to get to the Pros," she added more seriously, turning her gaze back to them with an odd fire in her eyes. "I need to find out what's going on with Ashido's memories. This is bigger than either of you can imagine—bigger than any of us can, probably. If she goes to the Pros, chances are we'll never find out the full story, and I can't do that. So if we handle it ourselves, we can find out the truth sooner. And that means Ashido needs to leave."

Eijirou just stared in silent shock. What? This was just... insane, his brain felt like it could barely handle this. "Anjou, this—this is still insane!" Kirameki sputtered. "I don't get what's going on, but this sounds really dangerous. Mina's already probably a target, and you're saying she should run away? That's just—"

"I'll do it." The words made Kirameki falter, whirling to stare at Ashido in shock. The pink-skinned girl stared at Anjou with a serious expression, her eyes full of a fiery resolve that took Eijirou by surprise. "What do I have to do?"

"Mina?" Kirameki whispered, eyes wide.

"First we need to get rid of your phone," Anjou said, holding out her palm. "Even if the history's clean, people can get all sorts of information out of it with the right Quirks."

"What!?" Kirameki yelped. "That's just—"

"Fine." Ashido didn't hesitate, grabbing her phone from the table and holding it to Anjou with a stony expression. "Destroy it or whatever you have to do, I don't care." The lack of hesitation in her voice silenced Kirameki, and Eijirou felt his stomach flip. That look on her face reminded him of the way she'd looked when they heard that explosion on Friday, before she took off running to dive into a fight.

She was serious. She was absolutely serious. Maybe he should have realized that from the start, but seeing her hand over her phone and even give permission to just destroy it with zero hesitation finally cemented it.

"Hold on, seriously?" he whispered, feeling his mouth twitch into a nervous, borderline hysteric smile. "Ashido, this is kind of a huge decision! Shouldn't you think this through, like, a little more?"

His words seemed to make something snap, because Ashido whirled to face him with a ferocious snarl. "That's all I've been doing for the past two weeks!" she practically roared, her voice heated enough to make him cringe and recoil. "I've been sitting around doing nothing, waiting for this to wear off on its own! But it's not going to, and I have no idea where to even begin with finding out how the hell I got here, let alone how to get back, and now I'm stuck on house arrest because this world's just so screwed up!"

She stamped her foot harshly, lips curling back in displeasure. "I'm sick and tired of it all! I finally have a lead on a bunch of different people, so hell yes, I'm going to do whatever it takes to follow it! I'm a Hero, and it's time I acted like it and take charge instead of just waiting around for whatever!" She turned back to Anjou, hands clenched at her sides as fire burned in her eyes. "So whatever I need to do, tell me. I'll do it."

Anjou met her determined glower with a cool gaze of her own, nodding as she slipped Ashido's phone into her pocket. Next to them Kirameki bit her lip, looking uncomfortable and uncertain, but finally she seemed to settle on something and sighed.

"Fine, what can I do to help?" she asked, and Eijirou whirled to face her with his eyes bulging while Ashido squealed in delight.

"Wait, you're going along with this!?" he blurted, and Kirameki shot him a sour look.

"There's no point in fighting it," she grumbled. "When Mina sets her mind to something, there's no changing it, even if she's being absolutely stupid." She scowled and shook her head. "If she's going to do it anyway, I might as well try to make sure she doesn't get herself even more hurt, y'know?" She glanced at Anjou with a frown as she added, "And besides, if Anjou's treating this so seriously, it's got to be serious."

"It is," Anjou said with a nod. "Believe me, I wouldn't be suggesting this if I thought there was another way." She glanced at Eijirou now, making him stiffen. "That's three people involved. Kirishima, it's your call now. What're you going to do?"

Eijirou just stood in silence for a second, mind momentarily blank. "I... I..." He trailed off, mind still reeling, and looked down with a heavy frown. "I don't know," he whispered weakly. "This is just—it's crazy, you know?" This was all happening so fast, he could barely keep up with it. Today had started so normally, and now they were talking about Ashido just—running away?

"Kiri, you don't have to help us." Ashido's voice snapped him out of his stupor, and he looked over to find her giving him a small, reassuring smile. "I know that this is all crazy, and I get that you're not as tough as my Kiri. I already screwed up your life enough on Friday," she added with a small laugh, the sound oddly bitter. "So I won't get mad if you don't want to get involved."

Ashido looked so sad even as she smiled, and he found himself unable to look at her as his gaze quickly lowered to his feet. "I'm sorry," he said, bowing his head. "This is just—it's too much. I'm really sorry, Ashido."

Kirameki shot him a sympathetic look while Anjou hummed, nodding at his answer. "Alright then," she said. "Kirishima, if you're not going to help, you should go now." He startled at that and looked at her wide-eyed.

"What—"

"From here on out, this has nothing to do with you," Anjou cut in bluntly. She turned to face Eijirou fully now, those turquoise pupils almost unsettling in their intensity. In all the time he'd known her, she rarely looked up from her phone so to be the subject of her focus left him wanting to squirm. "You've already heard too much. After Ashido goes missing, we'll be the first people the police will question. So the less you know, the safer it'll be for everyone."

"I..." Eijirou trailed off, floundering for a response, but then he realized he didn't have one. Anjou was right. He'd made his decision and didn't want to get involved any further than he was. Sticking around to listen to them plan would just go against that.

His hands clenched at his sides and his teeth dug into his lip for a second, before he took a deep, shuddery breath. "Okay," he said quietly, and turned to Ashido with a frown. "I'm really sorry, Ashido. I still think is crazy, but I... I won't tell anyone about this. Just... be safe, okay?"

"I will, Kiri, I promise," she replied with a solemn nod, and then grinned reassuringly as she pumped a fist into the air. "Plus Ultra!"

The enthusiasm startled him, and he blinked in surprise before nodding. "R-right... Plus Ultra, I guess. Well, uh... bye." He gave a small bow before hurrying out, and when he closed the door he just stood in the hall for a moment as he tried to just... process it.

Ashido was leaving now. There really was no doubt left. This was actually happening, and it was all so fast. For the second time in five days, his world had been thrown on its axis.

He gnawed on his lip as he began the walk to his own apartment, mind still racing with everything he'd just heard. Did he believe everything Ashido said? Honestly, he wasn't sure. It would explain a lot of her behavior, and Anjou had made some good points too, but... it was just so crazy. That another world might exist, one where All Might never died, UA still existed, and Ashido had gone there to be a hero—no, not just Ashido, but him too.

It was a world where Eijirou was a student at UA, and that was probably the craziest claim of all.

Eijirou couldn't imagine himself as a hero. Years ago he'd dreamed of it of course—most kids did—but he never thought he really had what it took to, you know, be one. He was shy and nervous all the time, his Quirk didn't do much but harden his skin—hell, the first time he ever used it he cut himself enough to leave a scar. He'd been scared of his own Quirk for years, what kind of hero was that?

No, Ashido was much more easy to imagine in the halls of UA. Her energetic personality and bright smile were just what people would need, and beyond that she had a great Quirk and—and so much more courage than Eijirou ever had. She hadn't hesitated to rush to that villain fight and do everything she could to save that man. He still couldn't say why he'd followed her back then, but he'd only been able to do what she said. She was the type to dive into danger headfirst to save others, just like everyone at UA—

And then suddenly it hit him and he froze midway to his apartment, the breath rushing out of his lungs as his mind came to a stop.

Plus Ultra.

Eijirou didn't realize he'd turned around until he was outside Ashido's door again. He practically pounded on it before turning the doorknob, all but shoving it open and stumbling inside. Ashido, Kirameki and Anjou had apparently started to head to her bedroom after he left, the trio twisting to look at him a few feet from the door.

"Kiri?" Ashido asked with a frown, immediately darting over to his side. "What's wrong? Is everything okay?"

Eijirou couldn't respond right away, leaning forward with his hands on his knees and panting from the exertion of running all the way back to her apartment. Her eyes were filled with unmasked concern as she looked at his exhausted state. Something about that look made his stomach twist uncomfortably, and he swallowed thickly as he tried to ignore the feeling.

"Kirishima, you should really go back to your own apartment," Anjou drawled. "We need to start planning."

He took a final gulp of air, hands clenching atop his knees as he straightened up. "You said Plus Ultra to me," he said, looking Ashido right in the eye, and she paused.

"Uh, yeah?" she said, sounding confused, and he couldn't blame her.

"That's—that's UA's motto, isn't it?"

"Of course it is!" She bobbed her head more vigorously now. "Why else would I say it to you? It's part of my promise to be safe and come back in one piece!"

Eijirou's heart felt like it skipped a beat. "I—I'm really a student there too?" he asked breathlessly, and she paused, her confusion quickly fading and replaced by a bright, beaming smile.

"Of course you are!" she cheered, throwing up her arms with a bright grin. "You're Red Riot, the manliest hero ever!"

Red Riot.

The name echoed in Eijirou's brain as the world seemed to freeze one last time. Suddenly he was a kid again, gazing with awe at a video of Crimson Riot whose Quirk had been so similar to his own, even if it only affected his hair. That same day he'd run downstairs to where his mom had been cooking lunch, a beaming smile on his face as he waved around a drawing of himself as a hero.

Hearing that name from Ashido's lips made something click and Eijirou found himself swallowing, his back straighter than before.

"Ashido, I want to come too," he declared, and her face went slack with shock.

"Woah, what?" Kirameki yelped, eyes practically bulging. "You mean, like—"

"I want to run away with you too," he said, surprising even himself as he said it.

"Really?" Ashido asked, and her face started to light up before abruptly freezing and shifting to a frown. "But, wait—Kiri, this is really dangerous. If you come too, you'll be putting yourself in mega-danger, big time."

"She's right," Anjou interjected, her tone lazy but her gaze critical and harsh as she gazed at Eijirou. "You said it yourself, running away is a big decision. This doesn't even concern you."

"Yeah!" Ashido bobbed her head. "I already screwed up your life enough by getting you caught up in that villain fight. There's no reason for you to get involved in this any more when you have nothing to do with it—"

"When I was in elementary school, I found out about a Pro Hero named Crimson Riot." The words tumbled out of his mouth almost thoughtlessly, and Ashido clamped her mouth shut with a surprised look as he continued. "Up until then I kinda hated my Quirk. It hurt me the first time I used it so it scared me, but he had a similar one and that made it better. That's when I first really started wanting to be a hero, and when I first thought of the name Red Riot."

His fists clenched at his side, gazing directly into Ashido's eyes as he continued, "But then the UA Massacre happened."

He could see the look of shock on Ashido's face and how Kirameki winced behind her, the brief flicker of horror at the reminder that the event happened. "You don't remember it, but a bunch of kids from our town were there and—and died." He had to force the word out, feeling a bitter taste on his tongue as he did, and saw Ashido wince and her eyes widen. "The days after that were just—awful. I'll never forget it, seeing all those families just crying and torn apart."

Even now he vividly remembered the victims' families being interviewed on the news. People he knew, like Old Mrs. Tomono who lived on their street and always gave him cookies. Or the Masuda family, who owned the small corner shop where he would always get ice cream in the summer. He remembered watching Mrs. Tomono turn into a shell of her former self after losing her grandson, never baking again. The Masuda family had been even worse after the loss of their only child—Eijirou would never forget the double funeral.

Just thinking about it made him want to tear up, his lips pulling back in something close to a grimace as he tried to control his emotions. "When I saw how they reacted, I knew I couldn't let my parents ever go through that," he said. "So I gave up on ever becoming a hero, and never talked about being Red Riot again."

"Kiri..." The name was barely a whisper, Ashido's eyes wide as she stared at him. He could see horror there, concern and sadness and—pity. The last one made Eijirou gulp, the unpleasant feeling in his chest almost unbearable. He'd seen that look all too often over the years, and he hated it.

"But before that," he continued, voice rough, "back when we were still kids. All the other kids at school started making fun of kids who came up with names that were too close to actual Pro Heroes. They'd call those kids fanboys and fangirls, and it was just so—so mean." It felt almost ridiculous saying it now, but he'd been a shy and timid boy, and to be mocked for any reason at all... "So I kept the name Red Riot to myself." He took a deep breath, meeting her surprised gaze squarely. "Not even my parents know about that name."

He could see the understanding register in her eyes, her jaw dropping as she processed just what that meant. For the moment Eijirou turned away, focusing instead on Anjou who looked at him with an almost critical look. "You said I'm not involved, but this other world has me using a name I never told anyone," he declared. "I don't know if Ashido's actually from another world or what, but I want to know why she knows that name."

His voice was steadier than he expected, full of more resolve than he actually felt. He couldn't believe he was actually saying this, but more than that—he couldn't believe he actually meant it. He wanted to know how Ashido got that name, he wanted to find out what was going on with her. Find out if she really was from another world, or if some villain somehow got his secret childhood hero name and inserted it into her memories. More importantly—

He wanted to learn more about the Kirishima Eijirou that Ashido so clearly remembered and admired—and maybe learn how to be that guy.

"I'm going too," he announced, his voice more solid than before, and Anjou cocked her head, considering him for a moment before nodding.

"Fine, if you're sure. There's no going back though."

"I know," he said, and he meant it. He was tired of being a wimp and scared all the time, it was time for him to do something.

Surprise! We get two chapters this week! I don't have any particular reason for the extra update. But I do know that right now, there's a lot of really scary stuff going on in the world, especially here in the US. So I figured maybe some of you might need an extra bit of escapism right now.

Today's chapter has undergone a few rewrites because it is so tricky to figure out how to keep Anjou from revealing too much. Not just from a reader's standpoint, but because she KNOWS that they'll all be questioned by the police after Ashido leaves and she doesn't want Kirishima or Kumiko to have potentially sensitive information. But the end goal's always been the same: Kirishima is leaving with Ashido. I'm excited to finally reach this point, and give a glimpse on just WHY he's so different from canon Kirishima. This is probably the first time I've really touched on the UA Massacre and its aftermath.

Question for next time: none this time. Today's chapter has given you guys plenty of new material for speculation.