Izuku was overcome with a thousand thoughts, all careening in his mind without a hint of order. Stain held him tighter, one hand resting on the back of Izuku's head and the teen let out the first words that managed to untangle themselves from the rest of the chaos in his brain.

"I just stabbed you!" It was a shaky mumble and Stain laughed and oh God, I've missed him so much Izuku though as he held onto his mentor with all the strength he had left.

"I'll be fine." Stain pulled back, so much honest worry in his eyes. "Wh-"

Izuku's hands shot out before the smile even dropped from his face. Anyone, and I do mean anyone, that ever had the guts to interrupt the Hero Killer midword was bound to die. Anyone except the panicked teen currently covering Stain's mouth with wide eyes. He probably looked so odd, gaze flicking from side to side as if speaking any louder would get them killed.

Down here, it still might, Izuku's terror told him.

There was no rational way of explaining the reaction, but Stain didn't need that right now. He only gave the other two, equally terrified youngsters a look before something seemed to click in place and the concerned parent morphed into the cold, calculating persona that the Hero Killer moniker deserved.

'Where?' Stain mouthed, katana in hand. He was looking for someone to strike and Izuku had to be particularly careful about where he pointed them next; his friends were right there, after all. He gave the hallway behind Stain a long look, making sure that no one else was coming, and then he gingerly stepped back into Morse's cell. She clung to Hara for dear life with the crooks of her elbows, her hands still covering her own mouth, while Hara pulled them both back. Pink and brown eyes, not enough for two pairs, looked at Stain with unconcealed fear even when the man didn't step into the tiny space. Gently, almost like he was afraid to mess up, Izuku pointed at the microphone on the ceiling. He hadn't as much as dented the metal and felt covering around it, he noticed with a grimace. Stain looked at it but didn't move, and Izuku swallowed. Hara gave him a little nod and Izuku took one of the various tools on the ground so that he could carefully, oh so carefully, tap at it. It was faint, but you could hear the tapping coming from one of the speakers on the stairs, and Stain's eyes flashed.

Stain pointed down the hall with a nod and Izuku leaned down to help Hara, hesitating only enough for it to be obvious. Morse's pink orbs peeked at him from behind her improvised cape and, while they held no accusations, Izuku couldn't help but notice that she still looked at him with some of the surprise she'd shown when he'd punched her. Hara said he'd done what was necessary but did she get that?

"Umm…" Izuku cleared his throat, offering his arms to whoever would take them. Was he offering a hug or help? Seriously, was he five or just stupid?

A gentle hand wrapped around his forearm, another more firm one grasping his other hand. He snapped out of his mental funk immediately, helping his two companions to their feet with the use of the wall. They weren't even completely out of the way when Stain stepped forward, silent as a shadow.

Izuku watched as Stain frowned in thought, giving the protective case a testing tap before he wrapped his hand around it—his hand was big enough to effortlessly encompass the whole diameter of the thing—and pulled it down. It didn't come off right away, but an expert stab and a twist did the trick and the metal bowl came down, screws and all.

Hara's brow shot up and the corner of Izuku's mouth tilted upward.

Stain ripped the microphone off the ceiling and then stomped on it for good measure, making it look almost personal, and then he hit his hand against the cell door a few times; the echo was the only sound that followed, no digital echo coming from outside, and Morse whimpered in relief. Izuku's heart skipped a beat and Hara shivered, making Morse flash them a panicked glance. Her hands pressed around her mouth even harder and Izuku felt as if he'd kicked a puppy.

Silently, Stain watched every millisecond of the interaction.

"It's ok," He reassured, but she just shook her head.

"I guess the vest got deactivated, huh?" Hara hummed, looking at the quirk-suppressing garment hastily attached to Morse's torso. They were both still whispering a little.

"Maybe? Or maybe we just didn't–"

The katana came dangerously close to all of their faces, Morse jumping back an entire foot in the air and pulling the other two with her. Stain gave them all an unamused look, his initial compassion now hidden behind sixteen years of killings. It reminded him of how Stain and he had initially met, the killer almost stabbing him in the face while he hid behind a dumpster.

Good times.

"Stain?" Izuku asked, attempting to stand in front of his friends only to get pushed back with the side of the blade. Stain narrowed his eyes at the other two, giving them both a very analytical once over not unlike the one he usually gave to targets that survived their initial strikes.

"His name, do you know it?" Stain asked, the blade aimed at Hara's good eye. The yakuza frowned, his back straightening.

"Yeah, I… why?"

"What is it?"

"...Hara." Izuku said. A single brown eye glanced his way, but Izuku was solely looking at his mentor. That weird something was flashing in those red eyes—that look that Stain got when he didn't want to talk about something personal, or whenever he felt conflicted—and Izuku had the urge to hug his father figure and never let go in a million years.

"We don't know her name but we call her Morse," Izuku supplied further, wondering if more information would break the spell. It didn't.

"...So, you're Hara Yukio?" Stain asked the other man. Hara blinked, clearly taken aback, but his shoulders remained tense even when he nodded.

"What of it?"

Stain scoffed at the brave front, taking a piece of paper—no, a photo—out of his back pocket and impolitely offering it to the yakuza.

"Consider yourself lucky, then." Stain offered cryptically. Izuku half expected the killer to assassinate Hara then and there, but he stood still until Hara hesitantly took the picture with shaking hands. Stain only waited long enough to confirm that Hara knew what he was looking at before turning towards Izuku.

"Can you walk?" His voice was softer now, if only by a tad, but Izuku was too distracted to truly appreciate the sentiment. Behind his mentor, Hara was trembling and mumbling, his hand clutching at the bandages around his head and a bizarre-looking smile pulling at his lips.

"What?" Izuku whispered, running a hand through his hair. What the hell was happening? "How do you… Why?"

"Is this real?" Hara asked suddenly, his brown iris shining with enough emotion to make Izuku want to start crying himself. Actually, it was enough to do something else. Hara begged for something, some clarification about someone sending for him, but the words barely registered as he slumped against the wall with his head in his hands. He was gonna pass out, wasn't he? No, it didn't feel like that? It felt more like he was slipping away, his eyes flashing white. He had to ground himself, but Hara had been careless with his words and now Izuku was left wondering if he was in the white room, tied to that chair and living through that first quirk that could make him see things that weren't real.

No, it was real. It had to be. The article was over, Curious had said so herself, there was no need to use that on him anymore.

But wasn't this whole thing oh so convenient? Wasn't it his dream, his very idea of faith, that Stain would somehow find him and take him away from all the pain and horror? Was this not exactly what his mind would conjure up if he was asked about the word 'hope'?

No, no, he couldn't doubt it. He couldn't, it'd be too cruel, not even Curious would do this. Would she? Would someone that had offered him a book and a light and clothes, go back on their word like this? She hadn't lied before, would she start now? Would she? Was he in the white room? Was–

"Enough!" Stain barked, and the ground trembled beneath them. Morse and Hara held onto one another and Izuku's panic seemed to pause as his survival instincts kicked in. He'd ended up on one knee in his crisis, but he wasn't crying, which was good. Stain eyed the ceiling with distrust and waited for the shaking to stop before speaking again, loud and clear.

"Your boss sent for you and the stuff you lost, take that or leave it, I don't give a shit. Now stop asking questions before I rethink my decision of honoring my deal with a criminal of such low level and disgusting morals."

Stain's voice left no room for argument and Izuku took in the sound like a starving man, finding so much comfort in the words and tone. This was real, it was real. It had to be. His mind couldn't take it otherwise.

"N-no! No, I, please, I'm sorry!" Hara hurriedly apologized, hand clasping the bandages around his wounded eye. "I just didn't expect it, that's all! I…"

"What's happening out there?" Izuku asked loudly, straightening as if he'd been shocked and forcing himself to calm down. Hara took the opportunity to regain his composure.

"Nothing good," Stain hissed. "We need to leave, now,"

"Wait! I need to make sure Morse is okay to go." Izuku had to actually raise his voice, more uncomfortable at the fact that Hara had just turned to leave without a thought than he was with Stain's aloofness. He expected it from his mentor, but Hara's confession that he wouldn't have come back to save him and Morse, had he been in Izuku's position, still hadn't quite sunk in.

Stain gave Izuku a tired look.

"Whatever is wrong with her, fix it. She's a liability otherwise."

"How do you…?"

"I gathered enough," Stain said, kicking at the microphone now laying in pieces at his feet. As if to corroborate, a tiny whimper escaped Morse's lips and a chill visibly went down everyone's spines.

"You have a minute, tops," Stain growled, eyeing the walls in search of cracks.

Izuku moved without hesitation, his mind pushing him to focus on his survival rather than his catastrophic doubts about reality, and he gingerly placed a hand on Morse's shoulder.

"I'm gonna check that vest real quick, okay?" He asked, giving her a soft smile when her eyes peered from behind her coverings. She nodded wordlessly, allowing him to move the curtain so that it was only covering her face and not her torso. She used the extra fabric to cover her mouth further, her shoulders shaking with silent sobs.

Izuku had never personally dealt with quirk-suppressing technology, though he knew the basics of how it worked; Vibrating irregularly and sending out very low frequencies to make it impossible for the user to focus. Hara himself was still wearing his own, the metal squares surrounding each of his forearms but thankfully not holding his wrists together. None of the freed prisoners had been cuffed at the wrists, now that he thought about it, but he stored that in the back of his mind to stay on topic. Because yes, those vests and cuffs and whatever else usually caused a disruption to keep the user under control, but Morse's collar had been designed to cause pain while her quirk was going. It wasn't meant to stop it by shocking her in random patterns, hell, if anything it was probably meant to make her quirk worse.

His heart suddenly dropped, a sick theory conjuring up in his mind.

"There we go," Izuku whispered finally, his hands deftly clicking the last clip into place so that the vest was correctly secured. He wanted to offer her a hug, anything, but her shirt was still soaked in blood, and Izuku knew that he was probably right about her quirk at this point. Because while they'd taken the collar off, the gunshot had burned her face and had torn her shoulder.

The cuffs weren't meant to distract her so that she couldn't use her quirk. The pain probably activated it.

Morse lifted the torn curtain gingerly, one of her hands unclasping her mouth to check at the straps, making sure that everything was in place. Pink eyes glanced at him with a sliver of hope and Izuku felt his heart break in his chest.

"Give it a try." Izuku offered a sweet smile, thankful that Hara nodded by his side. The other man was clearly still on edge, a drop of blood sliding down from where the katana had nicked him on the chin, but he seemed to know how critical it was to get Morse under control.

Hara wouldn't have gone back to save them, Izuku knew that, but with Stain being his ticket out then he would surely play along with whatever both Hero Killer and Disciple demanded. And Izuku was definitely not leaving this poor girl here.

Morse hesitated for a second, so obviously torn about making another noise but also very clearly afraid of upsetting Stain as he looked at her with a cold stare. She readjusted her cape with shaking hands, one hand forcing the other to move away from her mouth and then removing all the cloth that'd been stuffed inside her mouth (Izuku felt oh so guilty at that last part). She inhaled through her nose, tears spilling down her face, and then, in a painful display of fear, she let out a pitiful squeak.

Nothing happened. She licked her lips shakily and Izuku held out his hand so that she would take it, the motion comforting for the both of them.

"It's okay," Izuku reassured, getting her to eventually let out a much louder sound.

Hara's shoulders sagged with relief and Izuku sighed. Morse's crying got much worse and she sheepishly leaned forward until the other two were both holding her.

Behind them, red eyes watched every movement with a predatorial interest. Stain didn't let it show, but he was already dealing with the idea that untangling Izuku from these two individuals would prove far more difficult than he liked, and he remembered the fact that he had actually wanted to punch Izuku for all of his troubles.

The Hero Killer hadn't signed up for any of this, okay?

"Let's go," Stain instructed, already done with the scene. "And be quick."

He offered Izuku a knife and a nod and then he turned to leave.

"Come on," Hara immediately offered help to Morse so they could both start walking and Izuku sighed. He gave the white door at the end of the hall one last, heavy look before he started walking, picking the scalpel off the ground for good measure. He made sure to stand by Morse's side as they passed the one cell that still had someone inside, and he positioned himself so that she couldn't look inside; the occupant had looked like a ghost before the alarm went off and they were perfectly still now, back arched awkwardly. There was no need for Morse to see that. Fearing that they might run into more bodies on their way up, Izuku pulled the curtain over Morse's eyes and she gently held it there.

The way back up felt much longer than it had in the opposite direction. Izuku had practically trashed down the steps before, fueled entirely by panic, but now that Stain was walking ahead, Izuku's legs threatened to give out entirely. He found himself blindly reaching for his mentor as if trying to get led along like a baby elephant, and after the fifth landing Izuku seriously considered faking passing out, more than sure that Stain could easily carry him the rest of the way. But he pushed himself to stay on guard, terrified that they would run into any guards during their ascent. They trudged along silently, all of their steps echoing in the vertical space. Morse held onto Hara as they practically ran after Stain, the latter leading them up onto and past the ground floor two steps at a time, all of them carefully avoiding the few bodies of the prisoners that had either not survived the alarm or were having a hard time recuperating from the ordeal. At one point, one of the lights above them swayed and the three youngsters silently pressed together in anticipation; the tremors hadn't been so bad in the basement, but they all felt afraid of the building dropping on their heads. Izuku honestly never wanted to step into an elevator again, though the reasons went beyond the feeling of plummeting to your death in a metal coffin. Undeterred but clearly upset, the Hero Killer shepherded them up onto the third floor at a pace almost too quick to match; Izuku suspected that he only waited for them out of care and duty. He stood by the door for a moment, listening for anything that he didn't like on the other side, before pushing it open and stepping through. And then he hesitated, cursing under his breath.

"What?" Izuku asked fearfully. In response, the floor shook and dust rained over their heads.

Stain gave him a look that Izuku didn't like one bit; it was a mix of apprehension, anger, and worry that made him want to go back into his cell.

Stain gave Izuku another painful glance. Izuku grabbed onto his mentor's arm, feeling blind.

"Stain?" Izuku leaned in close. Behind him, Hara stared in panic.

"Dabi was supposed to be waiting for us," Stain whispered just to Izuku and the teen had to support himself against the taller man. A million scenarios crossed his mind, painful images flashing behind his eyes, and he had to force them all away. Dabi was strong and smart, he was probably fine. After all, the building wasn't on fire, right? Stain allowed Izuku to stay pressed against him, even steadying him when he thought the teen might fall over. They both wanted to stay like that a moment longer, but the lights on the stairs swayed again and Morse let out a whimper that brought them back to reality.

"...We have to keep moving." Stain spoke through clenched teeth and Izuku felt Morse's hand grip his wrist. With one final look at Izuku, the Hero Killer pushed past the door, just holding it open enough for his posse to run through.

The place was much different than what Izuku expected. Unlike the professional, warm look of the offices twenty floors above them, the space that met him was a sterile white with almost no decorations to be seen. The hallways were tighter and the doors seemed to slide into the wall itself to be opened as if every inch of possible space had been saved. The rooms were lined with windows, the glass covered in a frost-like film to allow for light to pass without compromising the privacy of whatever was going on inside. It was clean, efficient, and barren in a way that bordered on liminal horror. Izuku hated it as soon as he stepped inside, the white walls almost too much for him to face, but said nothing as he followed behind Stain. Morse covered her eyes, settling for doing what Izuku had wanted and grabbing the back of the shirt of the person in front of her to guide herself. She was taller than him, and yet she looked so much like a child.

Stain's long legs carried him with uncanny speed as he checked every room they passed, every open door that met them seemingly putting him more on edge. Hara's wounded feet left small blood stains on the pristine marbled floor, his limping so exaggerated that Izuku flinched without meaning to. But the man was relentless, and Izuku found himself getting passed by the other more than once. Morse ended up holding onto Izuku, his speed more constant. With every step, Izuku became more and more aware of things that seemed out of place; a broken window, the inside of a room apparently tossed around, a painting smashed on the floor but far away from the nail that had been supporting it on a wall. Not only that, he started to be able to hear noises that belonged on the outside of the building rather than inside. His right ear was still out of commission, only a gentle ringing audible, but he was sure that he could hear yelling unaffected by the echo that the hallways would provide. And then cars and birds and Izuku pulled Morse close just in case.

They rounded a corner and Stain stopped dead in his tracks, making the rest of them freeze in place. Izuku felt a shiver running up his spine as he took in his mentor's expression, a breeze ruffling his dark hair. To the other two, Stain's eyes reflected some extra anger, at most.

To Izuku?

The only thing he could see was honest-to-goodness distress.

Before he could understand the why for that look, Stain gave them all a resolute look.

"Move," Stain ordered, not waiting a second before disappearing. Izuku followed, his panic rising in his throat and threatening to choke him to death.

The wall and windows that led to the outside were mostly gone, scorch marks adorning the inside of the hallway. The metal rods sticking out of the wreckage were bent outwards, telling Izuku that whatever force had caused the destruction had come from the inside of the building. In the distance, no more than 10 blocks away, the telltale shine of blue fire reflected off the ice that broke the once pristine skyline. He shivered, Morse clinging to his side blindly. Stain looked outside, inhaled deeply, and then turned towards his student.

"You good to jump?" Izuku nodded immediately. Hara, on the other hand, started going a little pale.

"I'm sorry, what?"

"The front doors got barred when the alarm went off. You can stay or jump." Stain explained coldly, already turning around to jump himself.

"Stain, wait," Izuku called out, gently untangling Morse from himself and shushing her carefully when she whimpered.

"You're gonna be okay. Just trust me, it'll be one second and then it'll be over." Izuku reassured her, picking her up her with a flash of pain as his limbs protested the effort. Stain gave him a flat look, some impolite retort at the tip of his tongue, but he took the girl without a word. He held on even when she all but clawed at his clothes in search of some solid hold, and Izuku sighed. Thank God her eyes were fully covered or she might not like the expression on Stain's face. No scratch that, she definitely wouldn't allow anyone to hold her over the edge like that, over 50 feet above the ground.

Stain gave Izuku another look, searching for something, before he leaped off, Morse's shrill yell the only evidence that they were doing something most people would find unthinkable. Hara and he looked over the edge and were met with expectant red eyes. Morse was holding onto the Hero Killer for dear life, her form shaky but both standing without issue and Izuku nodded.

"Ok, go," Hara frowned in pure disbelief, eyes darting between the ground below and Izuku by his side. "He'll catch you, it's fine."

"Oh God," Hara mumbled, his remaining toes curling as he stood on the edge. He leaned back instinctually and Izuku sighed.

"Just do it,"

"You go first,"

"No."

Hara sighed.

"Ok, ok. Just. On three, you push me. No, actually push me before that. No, wait, I–"

And then Izuku pushed the yakuza over the edge. Hara disappeared from sight with a rather indignant sound and Izuku jumped down as soon as he knew that he wouldn't accidentally stab himself with either of his weapons. He was prepared to meet rough concrete but he was easily caught by strong arms. He smiled, his mentor giving him a nod before placing him down.

"I said on three, you dick.," Hara hissed under his breath.

"You said before that," Izuku had the decency to sound sorry even when that didn't seem to comfort the other man. Stain rolled his eyes discreetly.

The scene outside was just like what Izuku had witnessed from the window; a few buildings smoking, light rubble on the ground, fire, and ice, but not too many people in the immediate vicinity. Izuku cracked his back, more than ready to go assist his friends.

"We should go help Shoto and Dabi," Izuku said, green eyes searching the streets for any sign of green scales and blonde hair. "Where's everyone else?"

"That's not Shoto. He's not here." Stain said forcefully as if he didn't want to speak. Every alarm in Izuku's mind went off.

"What do you mean?"

"We don't have time to look for them, okay?"

"What?!"

"Izuku, listen," Stain grabbed him by the shoulders but Izuku shook his head.

"No, where's everyone else?!"

"Listen!" It was a demand and Izuku shut his mouth immediately. Stain's eyes swam with emotions, things that reminded Izuku of rooftops and wounded heroes, but they didn't last enough to truly analyze.

"We need to go,"

"No." It was absolute, the teen pulling back immediately.

"We don't have time–"

"I'm not leaving without Dabi!"

"We don't know where he and Toga are! They might be d–"

"No!" Izuku yelled back, eyes wild. "We'll look for them, we'll fight if we have to!"

"You can't fight!" Stain screamed, patience long gone. "You'll just get in the way in your current state! Look at yourself, Izuku, you can't do anything!"

Oh. Oh, wow. That hurt a lot more than it should have. Stain was right, of course, he was, but Izuku still felt his hands shake as he clenched his fists. One arm wiped at his face, a vacant attempt at hiding the deviation in his nose, and his eyes stung even when they didn't water. If anything, they felt overly dry. Stain's jaw tightened so much that Izuku half expected to hear a crack, but neither man showed any signs of speaking anymore.

Izuku felt out of breath just from the running he'd done and his body had almost collapsed from Morse's wight, her skinny frame probably not even 50 kilos. Izuku was then reminded of different rooftops, different fights, and wounds, and his left arm itched where his cast had once been.

'The real fighting should be left to the real heroes' Izuku could hear the words now and his lower lips trembled behind his arm.

Stain was right. But that didn't make the fact any less painful.

"Where to?" Izuku asked after a moment, eyes downcast. Stain flinched back all of a millimeter, eyes narrowed, but he didn't allow any other hesitation to show. He turned in a direction that felt random to Izuku and he started walking, Morse and Hara clinging to one another as they followed. Hara had been giving Izuku an odd look for a while now, one reflecting discontent and confusion, but he said nothing. Izuku managed all of three steps before an explosion went off right below Stain's feet.

They were all thrown in different directions, Morse knocking into Izuku and sending them both tumbling to the ground.

"I'd be careful where I go, Hero Killer," A velvety voice spoke up from beyond the explosion, and Izuku's world tilted to the left. "Your accomplice already learned to watch her step the hard way, unfortunately,"

No, Izuku's thoughts fogged over. In his mind, Toga's excited smile and gentle eyes flashed, and his whole body seemed to tense as it had back at the League's hideout right before he'd killed Mustard. Blind and seemingly possessed, Izuku's arm made a full arch as he attempted to throw the scalpel, the lethal blow perfectly aimed at Curious' stupid mouth, but he was stopped at the very end. A large, dark hand wrapped around his forearm with enough strength to get him to let go of his weapon. The hand was big enough to envelop his arm from wrist to elbow and Izuku's eyes widened with bloodlust. Green eyes darted up, looking for a new target, but he was met with a smile.

"I do apologize for not being able to meet you in person before, Midoriya" The newcomer looked down his long nose at Izuku, posture professional and suit spotless. "Perhaps now we'll find some time to speak?"