After Hawks had claimed to have somewhere 'off-the-grid' their ragtag bunch of disappointments could go to recover and discuss what the fuck had just happened, Kaina hadn't been entirely sure what to expect. The run-down apartment block in a dodgy neighbourhood infused with the scent of blood and other fluids? That had been in the region of what she was thinking.

"Heya-"

"No."

Having a front door slammed in their face by an old woman who wasn't even half Kaina's size? That was a new one.

"Hey, come on." Hawks knocked on the door again. "Don't be like that." and again. "You know you love me!" and again. "I need healing!"

"You mean 'we'."

"Come on, you're fine." Hawks insisted.

"I have second upon third-degree burns!" Endeavour clearly wasn't amused. "And she is in dire need of medical attention!"

"Says who." Kaina stretched her arms out, and she only heard a couple of bones cracking that time. She was fine. "Give me some booze and a bed; I'll be good by this time tomorrow."

"Didn't you fall out of a building?"

"It was only like 5 stories, tops." and she only had some light burns, barely even first-degree. That and some severe bruising, abrasions, maybe some broken ribs; nothing serious. If Hawks hadn't promised free alcohol, Kaina could've found some dingy bar, got drunk, and passed out by now. Guess this is what she got for a trusting a hErO for anything.

But before Hawks could respond to her entirely reasonable point, a voice came back from beyond the door. "You shouldn't drink after being injured." the old woman opened the door again, this time holding it open for more than a single word. "It can lead to increased inflammation and infection risk, reduces rate of angiogenesis-"

"But it's a hell of an anaesthetic." Kaina rebutted any existing or future argument. Clearly the woman agreed, as she simply sighed in defeat.

"Kids these days…"

"I'm thirty-nine."

"Exactly."

Despite the old woman's blatant defamation, she left the door open and Hawks promptly took it as a sign to go in. After a brief glaring match between Kaina and Endeavour over who would go in first, she eventually went in after the old woman smacked Hawks over the back of the head for 'poor manners' over not letting the lady go first. If anyone claimed the sight gave Kaina an amused smile, she'd deny it.

The room itself, meanwhile, was the complete opposite of what you'd expect from outside. A well-kept living room with comfortable and spotless pink cushioned chairs, glass-paned wooden cabinets with high-quality tumblers, flutes and all manner of other glasses stood out to Kaina, but they were perhaps less prominent than countless photos and memorabilia from Pro Heroes. The place was all but immaculate, save for a glass and cigarette that had clearly just been put down.

Endeavour was the first to point out the connection: "You're the old U.A. nurse – Recovery Girl."

"Old?!" and was promptly made the second of their group to be smacked around the back of the head by Recovery Girl's cane. "I'm matured, thank you very much!"

"That wasn't-"

"Flamefuck's ageism aside," Kaina ignored the indignant face Endeavour made at that, "Can we move this along? I'm only here for the free bar." pleasantries were for people that were necessary to please or actually pleasant to be around (in Kaina's experience, it was usually the former). She was more than ready to be anywhere else.

"Why did I let you in again?"

Hawks tried to intervene, "Because despite your grumpy exterior you still have the heart of a medical Hero and can't deny a plucky, rogueishly handsome-"

"Oh, right." Recovery Girl pulled out some medical supplies from a cabinet in an adjoining room. A quick peek told Kaina it was overflowing with surgical equipment. "Because you'd be more of a pain if I ignored you."

"You know it!" Hawks didn't have even a hint of shame in his smile. "Also I have that juicy under-the-table HPSC funding and resources."

"I am running low on a few things." she admitted after finishing taking bits and pieces from one of the cabinets. Looking the supplies over, Kaina realised that despite her protests she'd already been gathering everything needed to treat the burns, bruises and minor cuts their group had accumulated. "Well don't all of you just stand around, I do have those seats for a reason."

After that, Kaina was granted a merciful moment in a quiet room. She couldn't let her guard down, of course. She was with an angry washed-out abuser, a HPSC dog, and a bitter old woman. But she could afford to lie down and close her eyes for a moment, and allow said bitter old woman to make sure any wounds from earlier wouldn't get infected or swell too much or cause severe internal bleeding or any minor nuisances like that.

"So about earlier." and then Hawks had to interrupt the peace and quiet.

"Hold on." Recovery Girl pulled out some sort of pills, "Not as tasty as gummies, I'm afraid. But they should ease any fatigue from my Quirk."

"Hey, what is-" before Kaina could get the question out, Recovery Girl stretched out her lips to give Kaina a kiss on the cheek. She decided to close her eyes and not react, too tired to deal with whatever the hell was happening but a little bit relieved she never went to U.A. if this was standard medical procedure. Instead, she focused on something more relevant. "Do you have any booze I can take these with?"

"I can't advise consuming alcohol while recovering from injuries, especially under the effect of my Quirk."

"Thanks for the warning." Kaina answered politely. You don't piss off the medic. "Now do you have any booze I can take these with?" despite her grumbling, Recovery Girl wandered off to hopefully do that.

"So, that woman from earlier." of course, Hawks was still hung up on less pressing matters. "You got any idea what her deal was?"

"No more than you." Kaina shrugged, "She can teleport with fire and blew up the floor I was perched on. That help?"

"And why were you there, exactly?" Endeavour decided to get in on their game of 20 questions.

"I dunno." because honestly she still wasn't entirely sure why she'd decided to follow those weirdos. "Poor decision-making skills, I guess." which sounded like a pretty good way to sum up her life, honestly. But for some reason, the two wannabe detectives didn't seem happy with that answer, if their flat stares were anything to go by. She continued with a roll of her eyes, "which entailed following these freaks in suits from the bar I was in."

That got a reaction. They hid their surprise well, especially bird-boy, but Kaina was used to a far more talented breed of liars. "I take it you two have run into them?"

"In a way." so clearly Endeavour wasn't keen to put all his cards on the table either.

"We ran into their aftermath." but Hawks was a bit more open; whether out of earnestness, simple pragmatism or information exchange was hard to tell. "Eight of them?"

"Yep." Kaina nodded in return, "All wearing suits." she paused, "I think."

"You think?" Endeavour echoed.

"Well I know five of them were, but the other three-"

"Were difficult to make out?" Hawks filled in. Evidently they were just rehashing old information.

"Some kind of perception altering Quirk?"

"That was our guess." he shrugged non-committally.

Kaina glanced towards him, "And you don't have any idea about who any of those three are?"

"Nope." Hawks sighed in defeat. "We've might have something resembling a very vague lead, but that's more the group in general." Searching his face, Kaina couldn't see any deception there, but there was no way to know for sure.

That was definitely the Midoriya kid. She'd gone over his face in her mind during the walk over here, and it was the same one she'd seen going through some catch-up articles on what happened while she was away. After racking her memories, she was confident that the white-haired psycho had threatened to kill one of the USJ survivors, who wasn't wearing a suit (and who she'd seen separately at the entrance), while seemingly making demands of someone who was a dead-ringer for a supposedly dead U.A. student, and he had been in a suit.

So that'd give a clear motive for disguising his appearance. But then who were the other two? Why did they draw attention to themselves by lashing out in a shopping centre? Who was the glyph-wielding maniac who attacked them? Why could she make out 'Midoriya' after the fight, but not before? Why did nothing make any sense?

"You seem to have some thoughts." and while she'd been thinking, evidently Endeavour had been watching her reaction.

"I was just wondering if that scowl comes naturally to you, or you have to put in the effort."

"The former-" Endeavour's growl was interrupted by a ping on his phone. Taking it out, the scowl only deepened.

"Do you ever smile?" Kaina hadn't even meant to ask the question. She wasn't even one to talk, it was rare that she popped anything more than a sardonic smirk, but the man just seemed to have two faces: 'pissed' and 'sincerely pissed'.

"Not since my world crumbled around me, no."

"Whoever could've possibly foreseen eugenics ending poorly?"

"It wasn't-" a flame-beard sprang up, surging past Endeavour's face before he consciously pushed it back down. "I was simply trying to ensure that my progeny had a method to fully utilise the potential of my own Quirk without the detrimental side-effects of-"

"Cool motive, still eugenics."

"She's got you there, man." Hawks nodded sagely. "But what's up?"

"What-" Endeavour recomposed himself with another growl. "You remember the… irregularity which pushed me to initially get involved?"

"One of the mystery suits using your dead son's credit card, yeah." and thanks to Hawks, Endeavour had a new expression to add to his repertoire: Frozen save for a single eye twitching.

"Which one?" the fact Kaina even had to ask that question was honestly beyond depressing.

"Someone," Endeavour eventually said through gritted teeth, "was using bank details of my youngest, deceased son." ah, the USJ kid. Meaning 1 mystery suit was a dead U.A. student, and there was reason to suspect at least 2 of them were dead U.A. students. "I initially blocked further payments, but since decided to play a hunch."

"They bought some more crêpes?"

"They bought train tickets." Endeavour scrolled through his phone, "And I have been able to keep track of their movements."

"You know where they are?" Hawks' tone took on a sense of urgency.

"Are, yes. Headed, no." he clicked his tongue. Yeah, unless they were literally on top of the station they were at, trying to catch someone on the subway without a lot more people than they had on-hand would be doomed to failure. "Unfortunately, I believe they may be aware I'm tracking them, or at least believe they have a tail." he showed Hawks the phone.

"Damn." he whistled, "They've been all over Tokyo."

"Whoever they may be, they are clearly a master of evasive manoeuvrering." a flicker of realisation bloomed on his face, "But despite the erratic patterns, I believe I may have an inkling to their final destination." he began to trail off towards from the end, the ex-Hero somehow managing to make getting up from a fluffy pink seat look dramatic.

"Hey, wait up." Hawks threw a small phone to Endeavour, "Always keep a few handy. Has 1 number in it – stay in touch?"

"I'll consider it." he pocketed the phone. He didn't crush it in his hands or burn it to a crisp, so that was probably a good sign. "I assume you have other plans?"

"Well, depends on what this one's willing to share." he nodded towards Kaina.

"I share more with a drink in hand." what was taking that old woman so long, anyway?

"Very well." Endeavour gave a stiff nod before departing, "Best of luck."

"Ciao." Hawks waved breezily.

"Flameo, hotman." he may have kept walking, but Kaina saw the flicker of irritation in his gait.

But with the burning man gone, a momentary silence returned. Not comfortable like before, filled with an uneasy tension as Kaina waited for Hawks to break it with some stupid joke or easy gesture.

"Don't suppose you'll be more happy to talk now ol' grumpy-pants is gone?" thankfully, he didn't fail to disappoint. Kaina felt her form relax just the smallest amount with the knowledge he wasn't going to go into serious mode without anyone else around.

"'Happy'? Yeah, I don't really do that anymore." she'd take numb any day of the week.

"Ouch." Hawks feigned a laugh, "They say keeping secrets is bad for your health, you know."

"Then you picked the wrong employers, kid."

"First of all: Rude." he pouted, "I'm 24."

"Exactly."

"Second of all: Good to know why you're being so tight-lipped."

… Shit.

Looking his way, Kaina found a slight glint in his eye, a sign of his own small victory. She'd figured the happy-go-lucky attitude had to be some kind of act, tried to keep from giving out any information without acting completely hostile. She'd dealt with more slippery snakes than him in her time, but she'd slipped up.

Guess a decade's long enough to get a little rusty.

"Can you blame me?" she rolled her eyes. Playing defensive would just raise suspicion; better to just roll with what he'd already figured out: She wasn't the Hero Commission's number one fan. "Nowadays all the HPSC seems good for is cleaning up after the League's made a mess. Why would I trust their golden boy with anything?"

"That's a fair point." he nodded in kind, "But they do have a few points going for them." 'they', not 'we'? "Compensating losses caused by the League where possible, like you said. But there's also a big focus on responding to emergencies, as the other departments are falling behind – can't say I was expecting to play firefighter so much when I signed up for this gig. Plus there's outreach centres for the homeless, food banks for people that're struggling- which are supplied by a nationwide system of co-operatives and farms, fyi. New president seemed particularly proud of that one." he had a smile that seemed more genuine with that last point; maybe he was friendly with this 'new president'. Kaina was tempted to write him off as a loss cause on principle.

"And they still deal with criminals not associated with the League." he shrugged, "All sorts, y'know. Petty criminals like purse-snatchers, and random thugs, sure, but the HPSC's information network is pretty impressive, really. Managed to recover all sorts of information from before everything collapsed – suspected weapons cache locations, underground drugs distribution paths," his eyes focused back on Kaina, faux affability completely gone, "Tartarus escapees…"

Kaina froze. He knew. He fucking knew. He'd feigned innocence, plotted his moves, observed the best way to take her down-

Hang on a sec.

If he wanted to neutralise her, whether non-lethally or otherwise, why had he taken her here? Maybe his feathers could flood an enclosed space a bit better, maybe he'd thought Kaina would be worse in close-range combat. But he'd been nearby when she'd tried to fire her close-range shot, so he should know it's possible. And wouldn't manoeuvrability be better for him, seeing as he could literally fly? Wasn't an area with essentially no cover that would defend him from an anti-material shot be naught by a detriment? But above all else:

Why would he wait until the flaming fuckwad had left?

"But if you knew-"

"Why'd I wait so long?" he shrugged again and leant back, his casual appearance all but restored, "Who knows. Maybe I'm overconfident. Or just plain stupid." his eyes sharpened that little bit, "Or maybe I've got bigger problems to deal with right now than badgering an old drunk. Maybe if you would just cut it with the strong silent bullshit and tell me what the hell is going on, then MAYBE I can actually do something useful while you crawl back into some no-name bar and drink yourself to death."

Kaina couldn't hide her surprise at the sudden venom in his voice. After a moment, neither could he.

"Sorry, that was-"

"If I spill." She didn't want to hear him apologise. It wasn't like anything he'd said wasn't true. Her liver may have been experienced, but it wasn't invulnerable. And maybe he could care about what was happening, so she didn't have to. "You don't haul me off to wherever they're stuffing people now?"

Hawks pushed down his sudden surprise, "Cross my wings and hope to die." he managed to fold his wings into an X behind him. Deciding that holding back her suspicions really wouldn't be of use at this point, Kaina chuckled at the display.

"Interesting choice of words." a small smirk quickly shifted into concern as she began thinking through what she was about to say. "I think I've got a slightly insane idea about who two of those mystery suits are…"

After tailing her brother for almost a full hour, through her old neighbourhood, the subway, and about eleven different run-down, crumbling streets that somehow seemed even worse than the rest of Tokyo, Toru realised something:

I have no idea how to tail people.

It sounded simple enough, right? "Follow person x until they reach place y'; simple. In practice? It turned out a group of 4 people following a teenage boy through three separate subway changes and eleven different streets weren't what you'd call inconspicuous. Should Toru have turned invisible? Yes, almost certainly. But as she didn't think to do so until the second train, would that have just looked more suspicious? She wasn't sure, and she was too busy making sure she didn't lose her brother Doku to ever properly think it through.

What she did know, was that once he eventually ducked into a (presumably) abandoned building through a half-broken tall window in a dark and dismal alley, she was just glad that they'd (presumably) reached the end. An old warehouse about six or seven metres high, old and rusting steel walls visible through a dilapidated wooden veneer.

She also knew her brother was up to probably something dodgy, considering he'd sneaked out from home to go to some old, crumbling warehouse. She'd figured out that much.

"So are we going in?" Cerberus broke the silence as their group stood hidden around a corner, "Or are you just gonna stare at where your brother went in all night?"

"I-" Toru paused. She did want to find out what was going on, but following him in through the broken window just seemed like a recipe for disaster. Trying to silently step through broken glass felt like an oxymoron. Plus, she was invisible, not trained in stealth! Also, she had no idea what the interior of the building was like: Doku had stepped in through what seemed to be a floor-to-ceiling window, but thanks to the dark alley rendered almost pitch-black under the night sky, the only thing she was confident in was that he'd stepped on some glass going in, for the same reason she'd be caught trying the same: it was noisy. Trying to sneak in could easily expose her if there were more windows she couldn't see from this angle. So instead she glanced around the rest of the warehouse. Which turned out to, once again, prove rather difficult considering the sun had set and darkness was steadily setting in-

"Dark Shadow's gonna be fine." she suddenly felt the need to check, "Right?"

"Indeed" Tokoyami nodded in turn, while the Quirk-being in question emerged from behind him to give a big thumbs-up, "As alluded to this past day: I may not have accomplished much of note since-" he winced, "Since your untimely departure. But ensuring Dark Shadow remains in control of himself was a painful quest I was determined to finish."

"I had a go at him whenever he slacked off in training."

"In that case," she glanced up towards the roof, "Think you can get us up there?" while she wasn't an expert at infiltration or anything, she knew one thing which was almost universally a benefit:

Having the high ground.

So they went with that. They found an old dumpster for Tokoyami to stand on, and Dark Shadow was just about able to leap up and reach the top of the roof. Grasping on, he pulled Tokoyami up, and the two were soon able to pull everyone else up one at a time. Toru was able to sneak across the thankfully-not-breaking roof. On the down-side, there was no obvious entrance from the roof. On the up-side, she found a half-broken window beneath them which they should be able to get to with some effort.

Dark Shadow to the rescue again, he was able to reach in and open the window without breaking it further. There was some noise from the old, rusted and slightly squeaky mechanism, but after waiting another couple of minutes to make sure there was no response from inside, it seemed like they'd gotten away with it. Toru considered asking Cerberus to help them down, but promptly concluded it would probably end with a quick trip to the pavement below.

Instead, Dark Shadow proved the true MVP of the infiltration, stretching to lower each of them into the now-open window, allowing them to step into what turned out to be a cold, dark square room with an empty door frame proving the only visible thing of note. As soon as she stepped inside, Toru realised she could hear something echoing from beyond said frame. Pausing to confirm, she soon decided it was the sound of voices, muted by the walls and/or floor.

Following the sound, Toru began creeping through the warehouse. Looking back, she could see Cerberus was able to follow her invisible form from a reasonable distance, with Tokoyami and Monoma in tow, the latter keeping an eye around them along with Dark Shadow. Swapping focus to keeping herself hidden, she crept up to the hallway corner, glancing around the bend.

Outside the room they'd come in, the upper floor of the warehouse seemed split into a square maze. Able to make out mostly-broken shutters going down mostly-empty rooms, Toru recognised the sight before her as a temporary storage warehouse; she'd had to deal with one herself whenever her dad 'accidentally' bulk-ordered treats which sold terribly but he just-so-happened to love (though to be fair, he'd 'accidentally' ordered niche treats everyone else loved a good few times, as well).

Snaking along the edge of the rotting laminate hallway, Toru kept a hand to the wall to keep herself oriented amidst the darkness, while creeping along slowly and steadily in case she missed any tripping hazard. Edging forwards, the sound of speaking got louder. It was too muffled to make out any words, but Toru was confident she could hear two speakers, and one of them sounded suspiciously like her brother. Curiosity bolstered, she hurried her pace-

"Wha-" only to trip forwards. She'd been taking it carefully, but in fairness, she'd only been prepared for 'regular' tripping hazards. A hole in the floor, a curled-up piece of laminate, a fallen piece of a metal shutter. She hadn't been prepared for her foot to sink through the floor.

Failing to pull back enough, Toru only succeeded in pulling a leg muscle as she tried to stumble back to a segment of floor that didn't have the smooth texture of falling to death.

*bam* and then to hit her head against the floor she wasn't sinking through. On the bright side, rotting laminate made for a cushy blow.

*crash* on the less-bright side, a concrete floor made for a far harder landing. Toru spun forwards and around, landing on her back to face up at the ceiling. The shock of impact surged through her, and immediately everything ached.

"Ow…" but at least she could still speak – definite plus. She made to get up-

"Halt." only for a freaking sword to be shoved in her face. Eyes widened, she looked up (or down, from her current perspective) to the swordsman. A man, or maybe a teenager, it was hard to tell owing to the fact that his arms and face were covered in scales, save for his black trousers and dark green sleeveless shirt. Quickly glancing him over, he looked like he had some kind of lizard mutation Quirk, and a- is that a capture scarf around his face? He had what looked like a white capture scarf wrapped around his eyes and forehead, with holes cut out for the eyes, as well as a flowing red scarf around his neck. Though with the length and material, the scarf fluttered in the air like a cape. Of course, this all felt secondary to the fact he had a big fuck-off sword seemingly made of a lot of smaller swords wrapped together with- is that duct tape? - currently pointed down at Toru.

Should I go invisible? The idea quickly fell apart upon realising this guy would probably take it as a sign to stab forwards. It was also at this moment that Toru realised the shock of hitting the concrete was the reason she'd become un-invisible in the first place. Plus, it seemed like there was actually light in here, meaning she couldn't just sneak away into the darkness.

Maybe having control over my Quirk isn't so perfect after all…

"What business have you here?"

"Yeah, why were you following me?" looking to the side, Toru found the person she'd been looking for. Though he looked a little different than she remembered.

"What are you wearing?" similar to the lizard-man, her brother Doku had thrown a white capture scarf around his eyes and forehead (along with a new janky-hobo looking haircut of long, messy blonde threads to go with it), and a long red cape adorning his neck. He'd gotten changed into a pair of black trousers like his lizardy friend, and a sleeveless shirt which was pink for some reason.

"Hey, we're asking the questions here-"

"Our attire displays our resolve for all to see!" so despite wearing matching outfits, her brother and lizard-man clearly weren't onexactlythe same page.

"Riiiiight." Toru spoke slowly. "Your resolve to… become homeless?"

"Joke's on you!" lizard-man grinned, "I'm already homeless!"

"Dude." her brother shook his head, "That's not something to- Wait, that's not the point." he pointed to Toru, "I- hey, wait," he stifled a laugh, "Point? Like the sword tip. You get it- ah, nevermind."

"No, no, I get it." Toru faked a smile, "Hilarious, really. Now if your friend would point it away from me, that'd make for a great punchline."

Lizard-man glanced towards Doku, "Is that- I got a bit lost. Am I putting the sword down?"

"I'm pretty sure there were four people trailing me." so evidently Toru's trailing skills needed some work. Not much of a surprise, but still disappointing. "I'm guessing they're nearby?"

"Whaaaat?" Toru tried to wave off the accusation, "Those guys? Nah, they were all 'hey maybe we shouldn't waste our time following some teenager' and left. It's just you guys and me here, nothing to worry about. So if we could put the sword down- OOF!" after slowly, non-threateningly trying to get up, Toru was suddenly flattened back on the ground by an unexpected force.

"Hiya!" despite looking up into Cerberus' big and completely innocent-looking eyes, Toru was not amused by the dog demon belly-flopping on top of her.

"Treachery!" Lizard-man yelled as he pointed the absurd sword between Toru and Cerberus.

"Look, I-" Toru sighed, looking back to Cerberus, "Why did you even come down?"

"Eh." she shrugged, "Zuzu'd be mad if I let you get killed or whatever. Plus this seemed funny." she blinked at Toru, "But why are we on the floor?"

"'Cause I think this guy'll stab us if we try." she nodded towards the sword-wielding lizard-man.

"Your thoughts are correct!" he exclaimed in glee, "So if you move but a single inch-"

"Who cares?" Cerberus asked with genuine confusion, before rolling off Toru and standing up in a flash.

"We didn't say you could move!" Doku yelled at Cerberus as the lizard-man flickered his sword between pointing at Toru and the dog-demon.

"Cool." Cerberus looked towards Toru, "Anyway, what're you gonna do now?"

"Hey, we're asking the questions!"

"Yeah!" Lizard-man backed up Doku by choosing Cerberus as his sword's target and stepping towards her.

"Aw, that's adowable!" Cerberus adopted an infantilising tone, "Wey think thewe a thweat!"

"I'll have you know this sword was blessed by the Hero Killer himself!" he stepped closer to Cerberus, the sword pointed right in her face. "Forged from the fires of victory, blades as conquest from our foes, bindings from the top shelf of Tom's hardware emporium-"

"HRA!" Toru honestly wasn't entirely sure what happened. It was sort of a blur. One moment the sword was pointed at Cerberus' face, and the next? The ends of the blades, about the final foot or so of the total sword, was snapped off. And Cerberus was… eating them.

That- Toru blinked, trying to digest the scene in front of her. What?

"… Ok." Lizard-man sounded equally as confused, glancing between his broken megasword and Cerberus chewing on blades that used to be his. "Did not see that coming."

"How are you even-" Doku pinched the bridge of his nose, "Ok, so she'd got some super-durability Quirk, or something?"

"Sure." Toru shook her head, trying to dispel the surreal insanity that was her (un-)life. "Why not. Anyway, back to the point: What are you doing here?"

"She-" Lizard-man inspected the broken blades of his weapon, "She ate my sword." yeah, so he wasn't going to be very helpful right now.

"We, uh-" her brother snapped his attention back to Toru as she finally got up. If they were going to stand around like lemmings, she wasn't going to stay lying on the dank and dirty floor. "Hey, wait- where are the other two?"

"Should we say something?" the familiar voice of Dark Shadow sounded from above, remarkably clear despite the apparent ceiling between them.

A flick of Doku's hand later, the reason for the clarity became apparent: The ceiling, and thus the floor Toru had fallen through, was fake. At her brother's gesture, a big segment of the ceiling flickered into non-existence, showing a broken rectangular hole about a meter or so wide and maybe three long, eating into the hallway floor of the storey above.

"You've really improved with your Quirk." Toru mumbled almost reflexively. Last she knew, her brother struggled to maintain holograms of basic shapes consisting of singular colours. While it was very dark up there, and a little dark down here, his illusory ceiling/floor was remarkably similar to the genuine article. Maybe if Toru had known it was there and had a moment to investigate it might have been more obvious, but she'd never even had a clue.

Wait- The voices were muffled before though. Did they fake muffling their voices just to lure them down? Did she just get completely outplayed by her dumbass brother?

Hacks. Only explanation. That and timey-wimey shenanigans, probably.

"Thanks, I- wait that's not the point! It-" he paused, "What was the point of this conversation, again?"

"I think Cerberus ate it." Toru deadpanned.

"'Cerberus'?" Doku echoed skeptically. Right, they still have some semblance of common sense. It was easy to forget how quickly Toru's life had lost any semblance of sanity. "You named yourself after an ancient Greek dog?"

Cerberus finished the swords she was chewing on, taking the effort to make the last munches as loud and clanging as possible. "You got a problem with dogs?"

"Say no!" Toru whispered desperately, "For the love of- say no!"

"Oh for-" Monoma grumbled loudly from above them, "Can you go two sentences without going on dead-end tangents?" he gestured at Toru's brother and the Lizard-man, "What are you two doing here?"

"We're-"

"And before you insist on beInG tHe oNes AsKIng thE QuEStioNs, remember you're outnumbered two-to-one, and one of us can apparently devour weaponry."

Doku glanced at Cerberus again, who gave him a very obviously not-friendly smile. Great. Toru had wanted to find out what happened to her family, and now a demon was going to eat her twin's soul. Fantastic.

"… We're here preparing for a mission."

"What 'mission'?"

Lizard-man jumped in, "One to carry out the will of our idol, of the one who foresaw that which could not be seen!" Toru skeptically shifted her gaze back towards her brother.

"He means Stain."

"Who?" Toru was sounding like a broken record at this point. Why wasn't it ever simple? 'Oh, we're here to drink without supervision'. It could've been that easy, but no! Toru needed an exposition dump to have any chance of understanding what was even happening in front of her.

"'Who'-"

"And before you make some 'oh, where have you been for the past two years lol', comment: We've been gone a while, imagine we have little-to-no idea of what happened the past two years, except the vague knowledge things generally went wrong." better to nip that repeated conversation in the bud now.

Maybe we should make a list of what we know? Just shove it in people's faces whenever they asked how they didn't know anything so they could give the relevant details.

"Oh." Doku paused, "Uh, well- I guess the easiest way to describe him is-"

"An arbiter of JUSTICE!" Lizard-man felt the need to speak up again. "The one who saw through the lies of society, and took action! He who refused to compromise his ideals in a compromised world, who refused to accept glorified civil servants as the moderators of morality, who dealt out swift punishment to-"

"He's a psychotic serial killer who murdered a bunch of Heroes 'cause they took sponsorship money." Monoma gave the abridged version. Toru narrowed her eyes as she scanned over the Lizard-man and her brother again.

"You narrow-minded sheep simply refuse to see the grand ambition of humanity's saviour!"

"Dude…" Doku cringed awkwardly.

"Those 'bunch of Heroes' were mere pawns serving greater, malicious powers, suckling from their teat to enjoy lives of luxury while most were crushed underfoot!"

"Spinner, please…"

"While the great one's methods may have been extreme, he did only that which was necessary! His resolve in the face of scorn and derision is to be lauded!"

"Please stop…"

"You don't seem so gung-ho." Toru noted. It was nice to know her brother had completely lost it since she left.

"Look, I'm just here to fight the League of Villains, alright?" he turned to 'Spinner', "Dude, I agree that Stain had some decent points but-"

"Young one-"

"You're barely 22."

"-While your admirable resolve leads me to forgive your lack of faith in the forerunner-"

"I thought he was the great one." Tokoyami mused.

"I thought he was an arbiter of 'justice'." Cerberus sounded mildly irritated by that title. Translation: Spinner was potentially moments from death.

"Last week he was 'a god'." Doku sighed.

"Just call him the Hero Killer!" Monoma shouted from above them.

"Ok but can we go back to the 'fight the League of Villains' thing?" Toru felt that was an important point.

"Hm?" Doku hummed, "Oh, right, yeah. That's why we're here."

"What happened to keeping that a secret?!" Spinner hissed loudly at him.

"They outnumber us and have her." he gestured towards Cerberus, "I don't want to be killed for withholding information before we even get to the League base. That'd just be embarrassing." said the teenager dressed up like a serial killer for Halloween.

"So-" Toru was keen to keep this conversation on rails for more than a few seconds, "-just to make sure. The reason you snuck out," she pointed to her brother, "was to meet up with him," to Spinner, "to go and, what? Attack some Villains?"

"Not just any Villains." her brother insisted, "Took us a while, but we've finally got a lead on an actual, genuine base used by the League of Villains. We think it might be used for noumu production, but not sure."

"… Noumu?" Toru echoed nervously.

Oh. an image flashed through her mind. A purple, hulking monstrosity in the vague shape of a human. Unnatural. A nightmare. The last thing she'd ever seen before-

Oh no.

"Yeah, they're these- uh, biological weapons which the League use-"

"I know what a Noumu is-" she stopped herself, eyes widening and a cold sweat slowly forming as she played that last sentence back. "'Weapons'? As in plural?" just a single one of those things had killed Todoroki in seconds. Killed Snipe in moments. Killed Toru in less than that. More than one?

"You're going to get yourself killed." she almost whispered the words. What was this, some sick joke? She'd been allowed back on Earth for but a day, and it was just in time to watch her brother die?!

"We'll be fine." her dumbass brother waved off biological machines of death like a nuisance, "They only follow incredibly basic orders, and from what we can tell they're usually used as soldiers, not guards."

"For all their foils, even the League of Villains wouldn't want an ally's demise." and of course the psycho-fanboy was on board, "We believe they cannot be used as guards, as that requires a level of friend-foe judgement which they are incapable of."

"Oh, wellthen, it must be true!" Toru spat back- they were throwing themselves at murderers and they didn't even know what they were walking in to? "And what if you're wrong?! What are you going to fight them with? Pluck, spit and the power of belief?!"

"Our determination, our resolve to see justice done shall ensure even the most foul cretin cannot stand in our way!"

"… Also," Doku coughed, pulling out a- excuse me what. "We have glocks." he turned the pistol he apparently had over in his hand, "At least, I'm pretty sure it's a glock." he carefully put it back in what Toru assumed must be a holster behind his back. "Plus, we've got these." he gestured to a crate behind him which-

"Please don't tell me that crate is filled with guns." Toru pinched the bridge of her nose. No. She refused to believe a teenager and a twenty-whatever could get a crate full of guns in apocalypse-Japan.

"Of course not." Doku brought a sense of relief- "It's guns and ammo."

…

He's fucking with me. She nodded her head at the conclusion. He's gotta be fucking with me. Her brother walked over to the crate and pulled out an assault rifle- he's NOT?!

"What- Did you rob the JSDF?!" It was the only explanation for how they could've got something like that-

"Where have you been for the past-" Doku caught himself, evidently remembering what Toru had said earlier. "No, we didn't rob the JSDF."

"Indeed." Spinner nodded with a smile, "We robbed the coast guard."

Toru tried to take a breath. She really did. "Alright." she slowly managed to scold her face into something resembling a normal expression and not horrified shock and disbelief. "Sure." she put on a smile that was definitely, totally natural. "Why not." after all, why wouldn't the coast guard have stores full of assault rifles it made perfect sense.

"But. Why?" because even if she ignored all the other absurd nonsense she was being faced with, that still didn't answer the question: Why would Doku, her twin brother, probably- no, definitelyher best friend, risk his life to take on some band of sociopaths-

"Do you remember when the League of Villains first attacked?"

… Oh no.

"They-"

"Attacked the USJ." Toru interrupted in a defeated tone. "Killed sixteen students. One of them was your sister." it wasn't hard to guess what happened next. "You were angry. But you expected the Heroes to stop them. They didn't. This Stain guy espoused Vigilante action against 'evil'. Those beliefs pushed you two together somehow. You agreed to fight the League of Villains, or maybe just Villains more generally, rather than Heroes. You investigated, you made costumes, you-" she sighed as she finally put it together, "You even picked a shirt colour that reminded you of your sister." because pink had always been her favourite colour. Stereotypically feminine colour? Latent subconscious preference from the pink specks in her hair? Coincidence? She wasn't sure, but it was true. "You trained your Quirk, armed yourself- even robbed the coastguard. All in preparation for this. All to have a chance of taking on the League of Villains. All to get back at the people- the monsters that took your sister away."

She was really starting to wonder if it would've been a better idea to just reveal her identity from the start.

"… That-" Doku stopped, gawking at Toru in disbelief. "That's right." his face looked like a deer caught in the headlights.

Well, I guess I wanted to be remembered. What was the old saying about wishes and caution? Oh, right, genies were jerks.

"That's… exactly right. How-"

"We're in." Toru nodded her head. For a moment, she entertained the idea of trying to talk him out of it. Maybe she'd reveal her identity, tell him that this isn't what she wanted. But what happened if he didn't believe her? He'd go and get himself killed, most likely refusing any help. And what happened if he did? She was still trying to come to grips with it, but he'd been in a ruined world for over a year now. He'd hated the League for even longer.

Even if he agreed to stop now, even if he was convinced that it wasn't what Toru wanted… Would it last? Would he be able to just go about his life, continue on through a world that was breaking or broken, each fracture caused by the monsters he'd once vowed to stop, each crack a reminder of what they'd done? Toru tried to imagine if the positions were flipped, if she were the one left behind while her brother had been killed a lifetime ago. The image didn't last long; sooner or later, she'd have had to do something to try and make things better. If risking her life was the only way she could think to do it, she would.

Which led her to her conclusion: If she couldn't realistically stop her brother from trying to go after the League, she could tag along. She could do everything in her power to make sure he got through this in one piece. She could make sure his photos stayed up back home for that little bit longer.

And if the best way to do that included getting some payback on the assholes that killed her?

"Let's go pick a fight with League of Villains."

All the better.

A/N:

Ok so this chapter ended up covering less content while being longer than expected so that's FUN. I was planning to have a section for the Izuco and Todorokrew (yes, I know those are terrible, no, I regret nothing), but the chapter just ended up ballooning too much. It was basically a choice between wait another 2 weeks but have a more substantial chapter, or stay on schedule, and for this fic I'm really trying to keep something of a schedule together.

Not to say I didn't enjoy writing this - Nagant's always really fun to write, even if her not being very open is part of why her segment didn't end up covering as much as I had planned. Meanwhile, Toru's realising just how deep a hole her brother's dug himself while she's been away, and is trying to act as a shovel. I realise this has been a bit slow, but I feel it's important to set this up and establish more personal stakes for our main characters going forwards.

But with my rambing done, I'll thank everyone once again for reading, and thank you sincerely for any and all feedback being given etc., but ESPECIALLY the reader ProjectIceMan who commissioned a piece of fanart and it's beautiful. I'd link it, but FFN hates fun; go check this out on AO3 or SpaceBattles if you want to see it (or I might make it the image cover on this site - need to check about permissions etc.).

As per usual, please feel free to leave comments with thoughts, theories, concrit, etc., and hope everyone has a good weekend!