Note: fanfiction dot net is being super wonky right now and will not allow me to paste my formatted document. I've copied over my plain text onto the site and reformatted what I could but there's oodles of italics and such that just isn't there. If that doesn't bother you, great! If it does, please head on over to Questionable Questing or Spacebattles to read this story for now. Similarly, I won't be uploading the other 14 updates chapters until they fix this because it's taken me WAY too long to get this far and I've just given up. QQ and SB have the other updated chapters also. I'll fix it here eventually, but in the meantime, head over there!

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Thank you for your patience, everyone. HHEX wins the guaranteed update poll on pa treon basically every month but Emiya-sensei comes in second place with incredible frequency. I felt bad having to put things off for so long.

There have been minor revisions made to basically every chapter leading up to this one, which I'll be uploading shortly after the full release of chapter 15. It's unnecessary to go back and re-read, I think, but if it's something that you intend to do anyway (it's been a while) then I recommend waiting until those are up.

I'll also be redrawing all of the illustrations for ES.

Speaking of illustrations, thank you to everyone on pa treon who voted for the chapter 15 illustration. That one will be up first.

If you are someone who is already subbed to my pa treon and you'd like this story (or any other one of my stories) to come back around a little sooner, this is a friendly reminder that all tier patrons can vote on the guaranteed monthly update. Again, Househusband EX is the fan-fav rn but the update frequency is really keeping momentum on its side.

But I digress. I hope everything reads well after such a long break; I took extra care to write this as if my continued Togashi-isms don't happen.

Big thanks to all of you!

X

"Ah, thanks… Ya look pretty red in the face, kid. Everything all right?"

Momo snapped out of her own little world, blinking owlishly at the foreign hero who had just put his cell phone… actually, she had no idea where his cell phone went. The man was wearing a pretty skin-tight blue hero costume that didn't look like it would allow for many pockets.

"Oh! Oh. Yes, sorry."

The man didn't look convinced. He leaned forward, his face appearing larger and his look of scrutiny more intrusive. She instinctively looked away and started to ramble.

"Really, it's nothing!" she stressed. "I gave Archer-sensei your phone like you asked and just got a little caught off guard is all. Mirko-san was with him, so—not that there's anything wrong with that—" her eyes widened, realising that she might've already said too much. "But no wait forget I said—"

The hero hummed.

"Mirko, huh? That his woman?"

How could he say it like that!?

She couldn't even deny it properly; she started babbling again. What kind of impression was she giving to this person she didn't even know! In a sense he and Sensei were colleagues, so at least—no! All the more reason not to give false impressions! She didn't know anything for sure. It was all presumptions on her part. Sure, they were living together and they were probably doing things and now they were on a date at the sports festival and she interrupted that too and—

The foreign hero burst into a raucous laughing fit, tears in his eyes. "Wow, who woulda thought, huh? How long has he been seeing her?"

"He's not! It's just that when I went to their house—"

"They live together?"

"No!" she screeched pathetically. Why was she so bad at this!? "I just caught them in the middle of something, is all!"

"She's his booty call?"

Momo dropped onto her haunches and curled into a ball.

"Hua… Sensei, I'm sorry!"

The hero reeled himself back, his laugh turning into a softer chuckle as he leaned forward to pat the girl on the shoulder comfortingly.

"Ah. Uh. My mistake. I was just teasing. Honest! Archer is a friend of mine, so hearing about the love life of a guy like that is funny to me."

She paused her moping and looked up in surprise.

"Eh?" The exclamation came out a little louder than Momo anticipated. "You're friends? But you—"

"I'm not from here," the international hero agreed before she could finish her thought. "Archer was around my parts for a good long while, you know. We've been through a lot together."

Her eyes widened; he grinned.

"I haven't introduced myself properly, right?" He stuck his hand out and helped her back onto her feet. "Thanks for the help, Kid. I doubt I'm very popular all the way out here, but I'm the Irish hero: Cu Chulainn… Just in case you wanted to know. Haha!"

X

"Are you ready~ everyone?"

Katsuki could hear Present Mic's voice all the way from the walkway of the arena, loud as it was. His ears were then assaulted by the crowd's raucous cheers following the announcement, but his mind was busying itself just enough for him not to notice.

Who is the hero that Bakugou Katsuki wants to be?

A little while before the start of the sports festival, Sensei had pulled him aside to relay a pretty straightforward message.

Get your act together.

But it wasn't that straightforward, now was it? People had been telling him to get his act together his whole life. His parents, teachers, coaches, whatever. They told him that he didn't get long with the other kids. That he was a bully.

Okay? And?

None of that mattered. It shouldn't have mattered. Why did other people have to like him? If someone was doing something they shouldn't, why should he have to be nice about it? Why was his worth as a person—as a hero—tied to people who didn't even want to be anything more than the bugs biting at his ankles?

No one saw it his way for fifteen years. For fifteen years he thought he was crazy because everyone had been telling him that he was a bad person and he just couldn't understand why.

But Sensei explicitly told him not to try to be a "better version" of everybody else. He told his student to be a better version of himself.

Of Bakugou Katsuki.

Because there wasn't anything wrong with being Bakugou Katsuki. He just had to be better at it.

He wasn't going crazy. Even if it was just one person, someone could wrap their heads around what it was like to be him. Why that person was a by-the-books hero like Archer, he didn't know, but he didn't think it was his place to question it.

The boy tugged at the collar of his track uniform and took a deep breath.

There wasn't much time left before the next event. The last two—the obstacle race thing and the horse thing—weren't all that important beyond getting rid of the riff raff. This was where he needed to get his head in the game. The one-on-one tournament… he'd take his first step here and show who was Number One.

"Kacchan!"

It was a recognizable voice calling out to him. He snapped his head to the side to face—

"Deku."

The little shitstick was standing squarely right smack in the middle of the passageway leading into the arena, either purposefully or inadvertently blocking the way. He had a pretty resolute look on his face for once, but Deku was Deku. It could really be either one.

The green-haired boy coughed into his fist awkwardly.

"I'm…" he trailed off, then quickly tried to find his words upon seeing the blonde's impatient glare. "I'm stronger than I used to be."

Kasuki could only lift a brow questioningly.

Well, yeah. That much was obvious.

"So?"

Before, such a dismissive answer would have been enough to get him off his back. Deku was unrelenting right now.

"...I haven't mentioned this to anyone yet, but a really strong hero took me under her wing recently," the once-weakling went on to say, staring down at his clenched fist. "She showed me that… I've been doing a lot of things wrong. For a long time. Since the beginning even. And so…"

Deku glared at him with more conviction than he'd ever seen from him.

"Kacchan. Things are different now! I'm different now. I won't let you walk all over me anymore."

Katsuki scoffed.

"So—"

"And I can tell things are different for you too. Aren't they? Whatever it was that Emiya-sensei told you that day… you took it to heart. I know it."

His mouth snapped shut and stayed that way. Partly because he didn't know what to say, but mostly because he just didn't feel like talking to Deku right now.

He tried walking past the green-haired boy, but annoyingly enough, the dickwad shuffled to the side to cut him off.

"Emiya-sensei and Mirko should be here today. In front of them both, let's show them which one of us has improved the most."

Lowering his shoulder, Katsuki forced his way through.

"Wha-hey!"

This was exactly why this conversation wasn't worth it.

"You have a strong quirk now," Katsuki admitted, not turning back around to let the other boy see his face. "Maybe it's something that you had the whole time—"

"It's not like that!"

"...Yeah. I don't think so either. You don't act like someone who's grown up with a quirk as strong as yours is."

"A-ah!" There was that stutter. "Well, uh. I'm a late bloomer, so it's taking me a while to get used to everything—"

Katsuki blocked him out once he started rambling. He still didn't get it, did he? Deku was acting like this was about how good he was at using the thing.

It was never about that.

The blonde turned around just enough for Deku to see his fiery glare. The dunce finally shut his trap.

"If you keep worrying about looking over your shoulder, you'll trip over what's right in front of you," Katsuki muttered, his voice barely loud enough to be heard for once. "Your quirk is worth something. Congratulations. But are you? I don't care if Sensei sees me win; his approval doesn't make me any better of a hero."

That was about as much as he was willing to say on the matter.

Katsuki had done a lot of growing. So had Deku, admittedly, but that guy still had a long way to go.

It wasn't Katsuki's job to make sure that he'd catch up.

X

Stain's hospital room was quiet. Dangerous criminal that he was, it made sense; there were no other patients here, only Arthur, Detective Tsukauchi and the bed that he was shackled to.

The villain stared at them impassively as he'd been doing since the moment he woke up. The two men were more than happy to wait for him to be forthcoming, however. Stain must've known that telling them what they wanted to know now would be less of a hassle for him in the long run.

"It was the HPSC."

He spoke so suddenly that they almost missed it.

"Come again?" Tsukauchi asked, stepping away from the wall.

"The Safety Commission," Stain repeated, his expression unchanging as he allowed his head to roll back into a more neutral position; he stared at the white ceiling blankly. "No one could reach Archer's phone, right? It wasn't just him. I doubt you'd have been able to reach any hero in Japan at the time… or at least, any of them with a number that the HPSC knows of. It should be all of them."

Arthur's eyes widened imperceptibly. He crossed his arms.

"Why?"

The blonde's question wasn't incredibly profound, but it was still the most obvious one to ask.

Stain chuckled.

"'Why' what? Why did they do it? Why do I know this? Why am I telling you?"

"Playing games with us won't win you any favours in court," Tsukauchi reminded the bedridden man gruffly.

"I hold no delusions as to what's to come once I leave this hospital room, Detective. I'd need that favour to come from God Himself for it to make any difference. I'm at peace with that."

The villain allowed the pair to stew in a silence of his own creation for a few seconds longer before deciding to pick up on his last thought.

"They hired me to assassinate Lady Nagant," Stain revealed.

With surprising calm, Tsukauchi walked up to the man's bedside and rested his palm on the bedframe's side rail. It wasn't a threat necessarily, but it was noticeable nonetheless.

"That's one hell of a statement, Hero Killer. Have any proof?"

Stain scoffed.

"I'm not doing your job for you."

"Then why tell us at all?" Arthur prodded him from across the room.

The villain smirked. With a face like his, it wasn't a pleasant thing.

"Archer had been putting in work, you know. It wouldn't have been much longer before Nagant got transferred to a lower security facility on good behaviour. But that couldn't happen, obviously. The Safety Commission has hands all over Tartarus; if she yaps around here it's no skin off their backs, but if she decided to spill the beans once she got out, then… they wouldn't take that risk."

"And that's where you come in," Tsukauchi concluded.

"But that doesn't explain the theatrics," Arthur prodded, unsatisfied. The man was unusually riled up now. "Or what they're trying to cover up, for that matter."

"I'm not an idiot," Stain spat. "The Association used me and I used them. It's that simple. I'm good, but not good enough to keep doing what I'm doing forever. I was going to get caught before I made a real difference, inevitably. There was a chance at something if Nagant took my out and agreed to team up, but well… no matter. It was already over for me at that point and the association didn't expect me to make it out anyway. Neither did I! So I took a chance. I left crumbs, slowed down comms to and from Tartarus just long enough for Archer to get here before anyone else. I knew he would."

"Sounds like a shot in the dark to me," Tsukauchi countered.

"He's Archer," Stain rebutted simply.

Arthur marched up to the end of the bed and frustratedly slammed his metal-plated hand down on the mattress. A loud creaking noise cut through the room, but it didn't seem to be enough for anyone on the other side of the doors to check in on them.

"Stop beating around the bush," the foreign hero muttered darkly, his public-facing cool demeanour cracking a little. "Why, Stain. Why the HPSC. Why Lady Nagant. Why Archer. Tell me why."

Not once did the villain's demented smile leave him.

"You don't think I'm the first Hero Killer, do you?"

While Arthur was still glaring back defiantly, Stain's question sent a chill down Tsukauchi's spine.

"You don't mean—"

"Lady Nagant didn't go 'crazy'; she's just a dog of the system! Like me!" Stain spat out, mania bleeding into his tone. "Heroes aren't real. They're just normal people and they fuck up. The Association needs to keep them in line somehow, right?"

The detective's eyes widened in horror, his mind piecing things together. Arthur took a slow couple of steps back.

"She was done with it, though," the villain continued. "She tried to leave, but they didn't like that. They tossed her in the slammer so that she couldn't say anything and they started using villains to pick up the slack. Less messy that way, maybe."

"Archer," Arthur muttered. "He was—"

"Her student," Tsukauchi answered before Stain could fan the fires any more than he already had. "He doesn't have anything to do with this, though. He never knew."

"Right," the grinning man agreed easily. "Still, he's his father's son, through and through."

The hero and detective whipped their heads toward him in unison.

"What do you mean by that," Tsukauchi demanded more than he asked.

Stain laughed in their faces.

"Why don't you ask Nagant?"

"...Let's go," Arthur suggested, turning about-face and making his way back to the door.

The detective watched him unsurely.

"Arthur?"

"We're not getting anything more out of him. I'm sure of it. If he's sending us on a wild goose chase… so be it."

Tsukauchi gave the Hero Killer one last look before sighing and following the blonde out. A pair of heavily-armed guards opened the door for them with a nod and locked it tight behind them.

The detective placed a hand on the hero's shoulders before he could get far.

"Arthur."

He was given an inquisitive look.

"Don't get carried away. I'm sure you want to get to the bottom of the Tartarus break-ins as soon as possible, and now Stain brought Archer into this… point is, don't stretch yourself thin, here. Let the police pick up the slack where we can, all right?"

Arthur gave him an unreadable look for a second or two before it was replaced with a friendly smile.

"Of course, Detective. I'll be sure to take your words to heart."

X

The drive back from the station was a quiet one, but Rumi kind of expected it to be this way. Takeuchi and the twink went off to ask Stain some questions, but they said it was in everyone's best interest if Shirou stayed out of it. He was pretty involved because his mentor was involved and, well…

Yeah.

Still, she couldn't recall that many times when she was around him and neither one of them said anything. She didn't like it.

"Do you want to stop by the hospital?" Rumi offered. "To visit Lady Nagant."

For a second, she didn't think he was going to answer.

"No," he decided. "She'll be fine. More than that, though, I'm a hero and a teacher and I have a responsibility to be at the sports festival. Going back to the arena is what's best, I think."

Best for Archer or best for Shirou?

There was a tightness in her chest.

There was so much that she wanted to say. She wanted to reassure him. She wanted to take some of the worry or the pain away from him. In some way—any way. But she just didn't know how. It wasn't in her nature.

"It's funny seeing you being the pissy one for once," she remarked, keeping her eyes on the road over the top of her maybe-too-high-up steering wheel.

He stopped staring out the window so that he could give her a good stink eye. She couldn't see it but she could feel it.

"At least you're self aware," he bit back.

"Super moody. Like a middle schooler."

"Rumi…"

"'No one understands my pain'," she recited, lowering her voice mockingly. "'An evil power burns strongly within me'. Like that."

He crossed his arms with a huff, definitely not helping his case.

"Just drive."

For a little while, she did just that. Losing himself to his thoughts again, he allowed his head to lean against the windshield.

"Sorry," Rumi. said clearly.

It was so sudden that he didn't realise that she said it at all at first. His neck cranked back toward her but her eyes were still planted firmly ahead.

"Huh?"

"I wanted to lighten the mood but I just made an ass of myself instead. I'm sorry," she repeated.

He opened his mouth to say something, but he didn't know what to say. Shirou shook his head and tried again.

"No, it's—it's fine."

"Mm."

"Thanks. For the thought, I think."

She scoffed. He turned away again with his scowl a little lighter than it was a moment ago.

X

"Do your job."

"I'm doing my job!"

"You're always slacking off!"

"Jeez. You're impossible, you know that? A girl isn't allowed to handle her personal business anymore or something?"

"You weren't! You were playing a mobile game! This is serious, you—"

"Yo. Can I leave my truck here?"

Kamui Woods and Mt Lady cut their squabble short. The two heroes, stationed outside UA Academy's arena, watched as a large american pickup truck pulled up and parked just a few paces away from them: right in the staff and maintenance crew parking.

Sticking her head and arm out the driver-side window was Mirko.

Mt Lady needed a moment to find her words. She had only been a hero for a few months now so there wasn't much of an opportunity to meet the top dogs… this was how she met Japan's number one female hero? While she was caught red-handed arguing with her stupid colleague about Henshin Impact?

"Oh, uh—"

"No, sorry," Kamui Woods declined before she could get a word in, stickler for the rules as he was. "This area is staff only."

"I'm a hero," was Mirko's snappy rebuttal. "I'm literally staff."

Tree-Brain shook his head.

"Sorry, Ma'am, event management only. Rules are rules."

Gah! So uncool! Didn't this guy know that he was embarrassing them both? Didn't he know who this was!? Gosh, Mirko was gonna think she was a total goodie two-shoes now! This sucked!

"But I parked here earlier," Mirko insisted, sounding fed up. Mt Lady wanted to find a nice hold to die in.

"Well, uh, you weren't supposed to," Branch-Dick kept going.

Mt Lady was two seconds away from intervening before someone stepped out from the passenger side.

"I'm sorry about her," a man's voice apologised before the guy could round the corner of the stupidly-big lifted truck. "Can we work something out? I'm the teacher of the kids participating today."

A very recognizable hero with white streaks peppered throughout his head of red hair. He smiled at them kindly.

Kamui Woods started babbling incoherently.

"O-Oh! Of course, Archer! Here's fine. Please follow us: we'll escort you."

Mt Lady stared at her partner incredulously. Was this guy serious?

"Ah. Thanks."

"Tche."

After locking the door and forcing Archer to carry her keys in one of his pockets, the two top pros followed the newbies as they woodenly escorted them into the arena. This really wasn't necessary, right? They obviously knew where they were going!

BOOM!

An explosion rocked the stadium. The following tremors forced everyone up in the stands to brace themselves.

For a moment, the heroes thought that something had gone terribly wrong. Weren't there measures in place to keep everyone safe?

And then the crowd's silence was replaced with thundering cheers.

Mirko and Archer walked up to the nearest railing and tried to get a better look at the ring; Mt Lady and Kamui Woods followed suit.

A cloud of dust had dissipated; the entire platform had been obliterated.

Mt Lady was shocked. It should be time for the one-on-one matches around now. This wasn't the first-years doing this, was it? What the hell were they feeding these kids?

The two combatants faced each other, battered, bruised and bleeding far more than anyone in this competition should have been. These were kids! Why weren't the officiators stopping the matches?

A green-haired boy, green energy flickering from his body like bolts of lighting.

A blonde, hands sizzling. Was he the one that caused the explosions just now?

They looked like they were gonna kill each other! Their faces were really really mean! What the hell was going on?

Mt Lady turned to Mirko—

She and Archer were locked in. The Rabbit Hero was grinning maniacally whereas the Wrought Iron Hero's expression was considerably more subdued… but proud nonetheless.

That's right… she'd heard that Archer was a teacher at UA now. Didn't he mention something like that just a second ago?

…These were his students? Was he teaching them how to be total psychos?

"The incredible first round match-up between Midoriya Izuku and Katsuki Bakugou continues to heat up!"

Why the hell is Present Mic encouraging them? Why is UA like this!?

"They sure are something, aren't they?"

The voice that spoke up behind them was deep and gravelly. It wasn't a particularly loud remark, yet none of the four heroes had trouble hearing it through the cheers of the crowd.

They turned around; Mt Lady and Kamui Woods almost jumped, so caught off guard were they.

Comparatively, Mirko's and Archer's reactions were much more subdued.

"Oh," the Number Two Hero exclaimed quietly. "It's you, Endeavor."

X

X

The door to pro hero Lady Nagant's personal office burst open as the woman herself marched in with a satisfied sigh. Following her was a younger boy: a student who would be her apprentice, if only for a little while.

"That just about does it. Not so bad, right?"

Shirou wiped the sweat off his face with the face towel that his new supervisor threw his way. The purple-haired woman removed her visor and smiled down at him kindly.

The redhead nodded.

"Good!" she shouted, slapping him on the back hard enough to nearly send him tumbling. He glared at her, though she just laughed it off. "There'll be a lot more where that came from. Just because you do well in class doesn't mean I'll go easy on 'ya, okay?"

The UA first-year threw on a more resolute expression.

"I'm counting on it. I think I can learn a lot about my own quirk from you and there's something about the way that you do your hero work that resonates with me. I'm sure that—"

"Slow down, slow down! Take a moment to breathe." She ruffled his hair, which he instinctively pulled away from. "This was just day one. Go home, get some rest and we'll be back tomorrow."

Flushing from embarrassment, he nodded again.

He really was excited to do his first internship with Lady Nagant, though.

He was the top student in his class and he blew the competition out of the proverbial water during the sports festival. He had loads of invites from all kinds of hero agencies. This one was special, though.

Lady Nagant didn't really do internships. She never invited students, so for him to get a letter in his first year? He had to take this chance.

"Hey, uh," he started a little unsurely, "can I ask you a question?"

She blinked.

"Sure."

"Why did you invite me?" he asked, staring elsewhere pensively. "I'm just a first-year, right? I'm sure there are a bunch of upper-years that could learn a lot from a hero like you."

She seemed to think about it for a moment before smiling warmly at him.

"Honestly?"

"Honestly."

Thinking about it for a moment, she rolled her chair out from behind her desk and gave it a pat, silently inviting him to take a seat. The moment he did, she propped herself up on the edge of her desk.

"Your father was… kind of like my mentor."

The boy's eyes widened.

His father? This whole time… there was someone who knew about him?

"Seriously?"

She nodded and patted a flexed bicep.

"Taught me everything I know!" she confirmed. "When I found out about you, I wanted to impart that knowledge to the next generation… I guess."

She seemed unsure of herself there for some reason. Having looked away from him as the explanation came to a half-hearted end, she nearly jumped off the desk when the boy pulled himself into her personal space and smiled brightly.

"Can you tell me more?" he practically begged. "About…"

About 'what' didn't need to be specified.

For a moment, she looked uncomfortable. Like she didn't know what to say. The moment left just as it came, however.

Her smile came back.

"Kiritsugu was a great hero."