It took a few days for things to move forward after Izuku brought Hitoshi in on the plan. During that time, it felt as though Izuku could breathe easier than he ever had before. Sharing his thoughts and feelings with his friends had brought him out of that dark place he'd been in and allowed him to stop for a minute and relax. He and Ochako spent time together, running together in the mornings and studying together in the afternoons, since it was getting closer to their final exams as they passed into the back half of February. The alone time with her was nice, and Izuku found himself distracted from his notetaking a number of times during their study sessions, and Ochako became the one who made Izuku focus up. It was hard not to simply stare at her now that he didn't have to hide how he felt anymore. He supposed he'd never had to hide anything, but it was still great. Izuku and Hitoshi hung out more, making up for the time he'd been spending obsessing over things that didn't do anything to correct his mistakes. He and Tsu spent more time together as well as Izuku finally made good on his promise and put more effort into their friendship. It felt good to make more time with the people he loved more than anything in the world, except for his mother obviously. Since he wasn't actively working on the plan anymore, he could do that for them, and being around his three best friends was as good a feeling as he remembered it being.

However, good things come to those who wait. Not long after he'd repaired things with his friends, he was stopped in the halls after classes had ended for the day by a student he'd never met before. She was shorter than Izuku, with dark hair in a ponytail and a strange headband that had two bells on either side, a flat screw head jutting out of one and a screwdriver head from the other. She wore black overalls like the ones Izuku had seen support course students wear, and it clicked. The student told him that Hatsume had sent her to get him for her, and to tell him that she'd finished the item he'd ordered. Izuku thanked the girl and ducked back into the classroom where he and Hitoshi explained to Ochako and Tsu that they were going to the development studio to ask about costume upgrades. The two of them took off toward the studio after that, excitement mingling with anxiety, at least for Izuku. He found himself accidentally Floating an inch or two off the ground every so often as they got closer to the studio, and he had to calm down before entering the workshop, which thankfully did not blow up in his face upon entry. Hitoshi would never let him down if he was the one to bear witness to that unfortunate habit.

"Midoriya!" Hatsume cheered. It looked like all of her classmates had vacated the studio, which seemed like a good idea considering that she'd brought out some kind of whining device that spun around on her work table. She caught it with both arms and leaned on it until it stopped whirring. "And … blanking on your name, but I know that face!"

"Hatsume, this is Shinso, a classmate of mine. He's also in the know about the item I asked you about," Izuku said, craning his neck to see if Hatsume's teacher was around.

"Oh, the brainwasher guy! How are those Persona Chords holding up?" Hatsume said, getting in Hitoshi's face as she proceeded to ramble off a dozen questions about his support items. He met her every step forward with a step back until his back was against the wall. "Have you noticed any tearing on your binding cloth? What's the tensile strength of that thing? How do you control it? Do you need any other gadgets? Smoke bombs, flashbangs, caltrops, noise-makers? You're an ambush predator, so you can't be too prepared, right?"

Hitoshi's expression didn't grow any more annoyed as she went on, but he wasn't warming up to Hatsume's particular energy. "Extroverts," he sighed, but fixed his tone. "That's all taken care of during regular costume maintenance. You should know, considering that you're part of that process."

"Oh, excellent!" Hatsume all but yelled, her head swivelling around so that her gaze met Izuku's.

"Hatsume, what about the item you made for us?" Izuku asked, pre-empting the nearly inevitable event that she pointed her questions about gear upgrades at him and derailed the conversation even further.

"Right! Since you're both in the know, I can tell you all about my baby right now!" She rummaged through one of the deep cabinets under her work table and stuffed the once-spinning orb inside. Hatsume showed off another device from inside the drawer and grinned. It was a flat, circular device that bore an aperture on one side and was flat on the other side, and was a little bigger than Izuku's eye. The thin edge had ridges in it that seemed like more than just a pleasing design. It was a cool, metallic grey, with black shutters layered around the aperture. "Ta-da!"

"It's a … what is it?" Hitoshi said, peering at the item with an unimpressed stare as he returned to Izuku's side from the far wall.

"It's a camera!" Hatsume said. She held it up and showed it off. "It can see with high-definition up to two kilometres away, and with standard-definition up to five. The back of it will stick to just about anything! One of my classmates, Furasu — that's the girl I sent to get you — she got a peek at what I was doing with your camera and designed an app which exclusively receives the signal that the camera puts out and saves the footage, because it's always recording what it sees, even now. Don't worry about it running out of battery, though! We just got a shipment of self-charging batteries from I-Island at the beginning of the term, so it basically won't ever stop recording. What do you think?"

"That's amazing, Hatsume!" Izuku said. He didn't really know what to think other than how incredible it was that she'd managed to do all that on the side as well as keep up with her actual schoolwork. He'd thought his planning had been stressful. This was a whole other feat of multitasking. "I can't thank you enough for how you've helped us!"

"Just put it to good use. That's enough thanks for me!" Hatsume said, passing the little camera to Izuku.

She quickly showed him how to activate the function that allowed it to stick to walls and other surfaces. It turned out that the ridges were buttons that activated different functions. One button activated a stream to the app, which Hatsume downloaded for them on their phones — it took a bit for Izuku to convince Hitoshi that there'd be a phone for him to get back from her by the time she was done with it — and another of the buttons activated an electromagnetic plate that allowed the tiny device to adhere to surfaces. There were probably other functions, which Izuku absolutely had not asked for but which Hatsume likely hadn't been able to stop herself from adding, but they didn't have time to explore those, and they weren't truly needed. Izuku thanked Hatsume again, and then he and Hitoshi took off toward the dorms so that they could hide the camera and plan their next move.

That night, Izuku and Hitoshi nailed down their plan for getting permission to leave campus at nighttime. If they got caught sneaking out of UA, then they were screwed, so they had to get permission somehow. They eventually decided to take advantage of a home visit. The two of them asked Aizawa, and Hitoshi's presence must have had an effect, because Izuku could have sworn he was going to say no before Hitoshi had made it clear that he was going to be joining Izuku if permission was granted for them to leave campus for the night. Aizawa ended up giving them the green light and they celebrated once they were out of his sight. Things were progressing much more smoothly now that Hitoshi was on board. Izuku didn't think Hitoshi was the sole reason the plan was working, even though he was a big help, as he was quicker with his words than Izuku could hope he would ever be. It was just having someone on his side that made Izuku feel like he could really pull this off. Izuku knew he was smart and capable, but two heads were always better than one, especially when Hitoshi was also an intelligent planner. As Hatsume had said, he was an ambush predator, and ambush predators were always prepared.

With that all taken care of, all that they needed to do then was wait until the weekend came around again, which happened quicker than Izuku had anticipated. A lot of things were moving faster than Izuku had expected recently, which wasn't necessarily a bad thing, but he sometimes wished he could have a moment to catch his breath. This was what he'd chosen, though, so he'd roll with the punches. Izuku and Hitoshi took the few days they had before the home visit to gather the tools they'd need for the job. Izuku had all the tools he needed ini his own Quirks and the camera Hatsume had made for them. Hitoshi mentioned a few times that he was considering sneaking his binding cloth out among his clothes in his overnight bag, but decided against it. This needed to be perfect, and the binding cloth was a random element they hadn't agreed upon beforehand, so he left it out of his things as he packed for an overnight stay at the Midoriyas' apartment. Aside from finally getting out there and taking action after so long staying still at school, Izuku was also excited about the home visit itself. He was excited for his mother to meet his best friend after so long. The giddiness that he felt as the two of them left campus in the afternoon on Saturday made him feel like a little kid, and he had to remind himself that he was. Sixteen was not as grown up as he'd once thought it was.

Once they arrived at the apartment, Inko immediately wrapped Izuku in a suffocating hug, right at the front door before they'd even stepped inside. "I've missed you so much!"

"It's only been a couple of weeks," Izuku stammered.

"Too many weeks without seeing that my baby is safe and sound!" she said. She continued crushing Izuku in that hug until Hitoshi made himself known off to his side by laughing at him. Izuku just knew he was the target of Hitoshi's bark of a laugh. Inko let her son breathe as she bowed quickly. "And you must be Shinso! I've heard so many great things about you. Please come in!"

The three of them went inside and Inko quickly organised tea for the boys. Upon request, Hitoshi was supplied with a cup of coffee instead, which was odd, as Izuku had never known that they had coffee in the apartment. Neither he nor Inko had ever been interested in it. The living room quickly filled with voices, and Izuku was once again left impressed by and slightly jealous of Hitoshi's ability to strike up a conversation with any kind of person. He and Ochako got along because they both had somewhat crude senses of humour, he and Tsu got along because they both preferred quiet, honest conversation, he and Izuku got along because of their burning passion for heroics, and Hitoshi was the first one to make a remark to Katsuki when he saw an opening, which usually started a screaming match, which was what passed for talking with Katsuki Bakugo. He really was a people-person, even if he didn't seem to actually enjoy interacting with the different kinds of personalities he could easily gel with. He was almost too good at matching Inko's precise conversational pace, as it wasn't long before she pulled out the classic move — the photo album. Izuku wasn't able to put a stop to that before Hitoshi ended up wheezing out a laugh at a picture of him in a costume of Star and Stripe, the number one American hero, from back when he was five. He had agonised over that costume for weeks, making sure the number of little hair tufts was exactly right. Izuku used Blackwhip to steal the album out of Hitoshi's hands, and Floated up to the ceiling so that none of them could steal it from him. Izuku was proven wrong about that assumption when Inko's improved telekinesis pulled the heavy album and Izuku down to the ground and kept him there. He had forgotten about that.

It was a good time other than Hitoshi's insistence that he get a tour through Izuku's most embarrassing memories. By the time they ate dinner, it was dark, and that meant that it was time for step three of the plan to begin. They'd made so many preparations to get to this point, and it was finally time to act. After the two boys helped Inko clean up after dinner, Hitoshi went to Izuku's old room to retrieve the camera while Izuku tried to act as casually as possible.

"Hey, so Shinso and I might go out for a while," he said as he rejoined his mother in the living room.

"Why's that? Is there something you need? I can come with you," Inko said, rising to her feet.

"No, nothing like that. We just like to get a workout in every day if we can, and we missed it this morning getting ready. We were thinking we'd go running like I used to down on the beach," Izuku said. Takoba Beach had remained clean ever since Izuku had cleared it of trash for his training to prepare his body for One for All. It was as good an excuse as any.

"An evening jog sounds nice, but will you two boys be okay out there on your own? Things have been getting a bit rowdy on the streets at night," Inko said, wringing her hands. Izuku knew what she was talking about. All Might's retirement six months ago hadn't sent things into a frenzy, but it had made even the common criminal think that they had a better chance at getting away with their crimes now that the all-powerful Symbol of Peace wasn't watching over them anymore, so even petty thugs were more brazen and quick to violence nowadays.

"We've both got provisional hero licences, Mom. Shinso and I will be okay," Izuku said.

"With how often you get yourself into trouble, Small Might, you can never be sure, though," Hitoshi said as he emerged from Izuku's room with his hand in his pocket.

"Ignore him, he thinks he's funny," Izuku groaned.

"No, I know I'm funny," Hitoshi said, sticking his tongue out at Izuku for an instant. He turned his attention toward Inko. "I'll look out for him, Ms Midoriya. I can make sure he does what I say, too. Watch." Hitoshi shifted his gaze back to Izuku. "Hey."

"Yeah?" Izuku said, baffled, and immediately realised his mistake, but he was already firmly under the influence of Hitoshi's Quirk. His body went numb, and he seemed to watch himself from over his own shoulder. Brainwashing was never fun to get caught by, especially when he wasn't expecting it.

"Hide."

The sound of the word was altered in Izuku's state of hypnosis, like there was a bassy undertone that buzzed in his ears and compelled him to follow the order to the letter. Izuku immediately released a blast of Smokescreen, and his senses were further dulled and flipped upside-down by Danger Sense compensating for his lack of perception. The extrasensory information flooded his brain, and Izuku was supplied with complete knowledge of where everything in the room was. That was taken away just as quickly as Hitoshi released his Brainwashing and Izuku did his best to wave the cloud away, putting one or two percent of One for All into it to dissipate the Smokescreen faster. Once it was all gone, Hitoshi gave Inko a sheepish grin. He at least had the self-awareness to cringe at his impulsive disruption.

"See?" he asked with a laugh.

"I get it." Inko did not look impressed with their ability to manage themselves. "Please do your best to stay out of trouble."

"We promise," Izuku said, and hugged her quickly as thanks for not refusing their request.

Izuku and Hitoshi left the apartment as fast as they could after that, pulling on their shoes and coats quickly. It was getting warmer as they approached springtime, so they didn't strictly need the coats, but it was the least they could do to reassure Inko that they were being considerate. They then calmly walked down the stairs to the ground level and got out onto the street before they pulled their phones out and started making their way out into the city. They followed the map to the warehouse on Izuku's phone, while Hitoshi pulled up the live video feed from the camera on his own, checking that it was up and running before they placed it down anywhere. While they walked, Izuku kept his eyes peeled in case any random person on the street wanted to start something. Danger Sense was quiet, though, so he felt secure in ignoring that for now.

They kept walking when they arrived at the street that the warehouse was on. To get to that low, wide building, they would have had to turn, but they kept going. Izuku turned Hitoshi once they'd overshot the warehouse by about a block, and the hand he used to do so shook on his friend's shoulder. A thrill electrified every nerve in Izuku's body, and by the looks of it, Hitoshi was experiencing a similar excitement. The two of them acted as naturally as they could as they walked down the street just a few hundred metres from where they knew the Children of All for One had been very recently. Izuku led him to the building he'd marked as the ideal location for the camera, and the two of them paused in front of the apartment building that towered over the warehouse and had a clear view of the front. Izuku and Hitoshi scanned the building up and down, and then met each others' eyes with hard expressions on their faces.

"Is it worth it to just fly up and back down?" Hitoshi whispered, even though they were alone on the street.

"Maybe, but it'd be risky," Izuku said, trying his hardest not to look over his shoulder. If he looked like he was nervous, anyone who might have been watching could think he knew they were there and attack. At least he'd have a warning if that happened. Hitoshi wouldn't, and that was what made him decide. "No. Using our Quirks on the street is just asking to get seen, or recognised."

Hitoshi grimaced, confirming for Izuku that they both knew just how bad the latter scenario would be. "So, the stairs?"

"The stairs," Izuku said with a nod.

The two of them entered what seemed to be a run-down lobby. It was really just a wide hallway that led to a couple of rooms that weren't labelled, which Izuku guessed meant they weren't apartments, a marked stairwell at the end of the hall and an elevator just before that. They walked down to the stairwell and Izuku was reminded of his experience during his provisional licensing exam when he and the other examinees had defended a stairwell very similar to this one. This stairwell was definitely less clean, though. They didn't run up the stairs, but they didn't take their time, and in a couple of minutes, they were emerging at the top of the building, the cool night air cutting through the warm clothes they'd put on to satiate Inko. Izuku was not regretting that choice as he shivered up on that rooftop.

Izuku took the camera from Hitoshi and walked over to the edge of the roof. There was a safety rail, but he easily climbed over it and crouched down on the very edge. He looked over at the warehouse and admired the view as Hitoshi came up behind him. Izuku could see just over the building and into the lot behind it, though he couldn't see anything aside from the fact that there was a space behind it. That was relevant, Izuku knew it had to be, so he filed that away for later note taking. He conjured a strand of Blackwhip that wrapped itself tight around the safety rail, and he hung off of it with one foot pressed hard against the outer wall of the building so that he dangled off the side. He activated the adhesive back of the camera and pressed it into the wall, and it hummed for a moment with a high, pulsating sound before falling silent. Izuku readied himself to catch it if it fell, but when he took his hand away from the camera, it stayed put on the concrete wall.

"Did I line it up right?" Izuku asked, his voice just above a whisper so that he could be heard over the breeze.

"You got it," Hitoshi said, staring at the live feed on his phone. "We'll be able to see exactly who comes and goes in real time now."

Izuku and Hitoshi shared a grin. Something seemed to catch Hitoshi's attention, and he frowned down at Izuku. "We've gotta go."

Pulling himself up and flipping over the safety rail, Izuku landed on his feet on the roof and immediately began to power-walk toward the stairwell once again. He and Hitoshi entered the dark, dingy stairwell and stopped once the door was closed behind them and they were pressed against the walls, Izuku following Hitoshi's lead. Hitoshi was breathing hard, but he kept himself composed and didn't give into panic. He peered down the few floors to the bottom of the stairwell, and seemed satisfied that he couldn't see anyone coming up the stairs.

"What did you see?" Izuku asked.

"I don't know. A light, like glare from something shiny," Hitoshi said.

"From where?" Izuku asked again, preparing himself to surrender his spatial awareness in favour of Danger Sense.

"Not from the warehouse. It came from about a block beyond it. From a window, I think," Hitoshi said, leaning over the railing once again to check that nobody was coming up the stairs.

"You think there's a sniper?" Izuku almost yelled.

"I don't know! I just know that I saw something that might be really fucking bad, so we need to get out of here now!" Hitoshi said, though he had a similar problem keeping his voice low.

Izuku nodded and the two of them began running down the stairs. Their feet thundered on the concrete steps, but Izuku couldn't hear it over the rush of blood in his ears. He and Hitoshi made it to the bottom of the stairs and hesitated for only a moment before pushing through the front door and making themselves vulnerable out on the street. They slowed to a casual walk once they were out on the sidewalk, but Izuku kept One for All ready to activate at twenty-two percent, which he'd realised he could now use comfortably during class the day before. Danger Sense wasn't whispering in his ear, but Izuku was still on edge the entire time they walked the streets, and he suspected that was a large part of the reason that Hitoshi was similarly tense the whole way back to the Midoriyas' apartment. If the guy who could detect danger was nervous, then Hitoshi likely figured that he had reason to be on-guard as well.

Fortunately, nothing actually happened on their way back to the apartment. They simply walked in silence, and once they came face to face with Inko, the two boys silently agreed to continue their earlier deception, which was aided by the two of them breathing heavily and sweating slightly. Izuku tried to excuse himself and Hitoshi to his bedroom so they could talk about what had happened, but Inko stopped them and tried to persuade them to stay out in the living room and play a board game or watch a movie with her while they had the time. Izuku felt bad leaving her alone any longer than he'd had to, so he and Hitoshi sat next to her and they watched a movie or two before she got tired and went off to bed. That was when Izuku and Hitoshi began to panic about what exactly had happened and what it meant that Hitoshi had seen the glimmer of light from two blocks away.

"Do you really think they had a sniper?" Izuku asked.

"I don't know!" Hitoshi said. "Did you get any pings from Danger Sense?"

"No," Izuku said. "That means that nobody really saw us, or that they did and followed us instead of attacking. Danger Sense can't normally sense presence, remember? It detects malicious intent."

"Right. So that means that we're either fine or royally screwed," Hitoshi groaned.

"I think we're fine!" Izuku said, shrugging in a casual manner that he had to force. "We didn't do anything super flashy and we did it in the dark! I don't think anyone saw us."

"You hung off a roof!" It sounded bad when he said it like that. "We basically ran all the way home!"

"Hey, don't panic. We need to consider this carefully. Right?" Izuku whispered.

"Right. Slow is smooth, smooth is fast," Hitoshi muttered to himself. Izuku wasn't sure he'd meant to say it out loud with how quiet it was.

"What?" Izuku blurted out.

"Nothing, just a motto Aizawa taught me," Hitoshi said between deep, controlled breaths. "We might be fine. We'll probably be fine. Even if someone did see us, they'll probably think we were just some kids who were messing around."

"Right!" Izuku said, maybe a little too enthusiastically. "There's no reason to suspect that we were followed or anything."

"But …" Hitoshi trailed off. "Just to be sure, can you …?"

"Yeah. Just to be sure."

Izuku sat cross-legged in the air, using Float and Danger Sense simultaneously. His spatial awareness melted away as his equilibrium flipped upside-down and Danger Sense took over his senses. Unconsciously, his hands started turning imaginary dials, tuning the Quirk to detect things it was never meant to. Izuku sent out a ping, and nothing came back, nothing told him that someone wished him harm. He widened his range. Nothing. Sagging with relief, Izuku touched down on the carpet with his own two feet as his whole perception of reality flipped right-side up once again.

"Danger Sense doesn't detect any danger," Izuku said. "I think we're okay."

Hitoshi finally relaxed after that, sagging into the couch as Izuku joined him. The two of them went to bed shortly after that, and Izuku had no dreams, not even the kind that weren't really dreams for him. The vestiges did not appear, even though he could sense that he could call on them at any time like usual. He wondered about them when morning came. Would they approve of what he was doing? Would Yoichi, his uncle — he would never get used to that — think he was doing a good thing? What about the other vestiges who had been on his side up to this point? Izuku was sure Banjo and Shinomori would probably think that he was doing something right, since they were both the type to prefer action to inaction in any case. Banjo had fought All for One twice and Shinomori had taken it upon himself to contribute as much raw power to One for All as he could. En and Nana, though, were different — they were more careful than the others, as En had evaded All for One for years and years while staying active as a hero, while Nana had taken every step she could to guarantee the safety of her family before her passing, even if it hadn't exactly worked out the way she'd hoped. Would they agree on something unanimously for once and believe that what he was doing was necessary? Izuku really didn't know. That wasn't even considering the second and third users, who still ignored him, even if Izuku had come to understand the third user better and the second user would at least appear during his meetings with the vestiges now. That was a start.

Around noon, Aizawa called them to let them know that it was time for them to return to UA. Izuku and Hitoshi gathered their things and said goodbye to Inko shortly after that, and were on their way back to school an hour later. They couldn't discuss things on the train back to campus, so they decided not to speak of what had happened at all until they were alone. On the way back to the dorms, Izuku started getting excited again. They'd done it! They had a camera pointed at the one location they knew the Children were regularly visiting. The investigation was going well! A part of Izuku's mind that sounded suspiciously like Hitoshi wondered if it was going too well, as they hadn't really encountered any real roadblocks apart from Izuku's unwillingness to ask for help previously. He pushed that thought down and promised himself that he would think about it later. What mattered right at that moment was that they'd completed step three of the plan. The next stage of the investigation could commence now — it was time to find out how often the Children were visiting this warehouse, and get a solid visual on the plague doctor and his buddies. Things were only getting started.