Author's Note: Well, chapter 1 has been rewritten and is now updated, to anyone who cares. I'm gonna be working on rewriting more of the early chapters, but I'll just continue to post the original chapters while I do. Might as well.

Aizawa glanced at his phone as they walked up to the small apartment complex. The problem child hadn't texted him yet, which probably meant that he'd gotten too absorbed and forgotten. He'd need to give the kid an earful about that later, but no news was good news in this case. Midoriya would definitely text him if anything drastic happened.

They had filled Tsukauchi in, to get a policeman involved in the case they needed to remove Himiko from her parents custody. It wasn't often he had seen the man quite so angry, but he was currently composed, outside of the Toga family residence. Nezu had decided to stay at the school and see if he could dig up any more evidence. Knowing the mammal, Aizawa didn't doubt that he would collect enough to thoroughly demolish the school.

Aizawa took a deep breath and knocked on the door. After a few moments, a woman opened it a crack and glared out at them. "What do you want?"

Aizawa watched as Tsukauchi gave her a strained smile and started speaking. "Hello, ma'am." He flashed her his badge. "I'm Detective Tsukauchi, with the Musutafu City Police Department."

With his senses always heightened in case of any sudden emergency, Aizawa heard her grumbling under her breath. "What did that little bitch do this time?" He had hoped that the situation wasn't as bad as he initially predicted, but that sentence didn't give him much optimism.

"We're here to discuss your daughter, Toga Himiko. Do you mind if we come in for a moment?"

"No one! Don't stab anybody, please!" Izuku shook his head. "I-I, uh, it's not that big of a deal. I used to be bullied."

"What do you mean it's not that big of a deal?" Himiko was seething. Izuku had only really seen her smiling or generally looking cheerful, so this intense emotion seemed to come out of nowhere. "Why were you bullied? It makes no sense!"

"Well…" Izuku still wasn't the best at lying, so he needed to incorporate as much truth into it as possible. He couldn't just tell her that he used to be quirkless. "My quirk didn't develop until really late. So the kids at my school picked on me for being a quirkless loser. It's all in the past now though, so please don't worry about it!"

"But you're not a loser! You're the nicest guy I know!" Himiko glared at Izuku.

"It wasn't really that bad. You had it so much worse than I did, so I don't really think I can complain," Izuku argued.

Himiko rolled her eyes. "Yeah, but it makes sense that I'd be beaten up. I'm a villain. There's no reason for you to be bullied."

"Hey." Himiko shivered as Izuku's eyes almost seemed to glow green. "Don't say that. You are not a villain. You don't deserve to be hurt any more than I do."

"No. No, I'm a villain." Himiko suddenly lost a lot of her vigor. As they stared at each other in a tense silence, Izuku had an (admittedly late) realization. It was extremely awkward having this argument with himself. As he realized that, however, her (his?) face started melting.

"Himiko?!"

"Don't worry, this is just how my quirk works. This is what happens when I run out of time or deactivate the quirk on my own." Izuku wanted to write that down in his notebook, especially how her regular voice started to filter through, but he figured that the atmosphere was too tense. His skin started melting off as a gray, sludge-like substance, revealing Himiko's form underneath. Himiko's naked form.

For a second he saw her topless body clearly, before he shrieked and slammed his eyes shut. "P-Put some clothes on!"

He heard Himiko's giggles and the rustling of clothes, and he had to work to calm his steadily beating heart. Perhaps the only good thing about what had just happened (and he was desperately trying to convince himself there was only one good thing) was that the tense atmosphere had been completely blown away.

"You can open your eyes." He obliged, slowly opening his eyes to find a fully clothed Himiko grinning at him.

He sighed, but decided to remain on the topic. He wouldn't just let what she said go. "What did you mean when you said that you're a villain?"

Himiko's face fell, and she averted her eyes, not answering him.

Izuku closed his eyes for a brief second. Of course it wasn't going to be that easy. She was probably scared of losing her only friend, or possibly being taken into custody, depending on what she admitted to. Based on how she reacted, she had likely already done some illegal activities. But he knew she was a good person. Making up his mind, he rose from his seat. Himiko's eyes snapped back to him as he made his way over to the couch she was sitting on. Plopping down next to her, he grabbed her hands in his and stared directly into her eyes. She made a sort of squeaking noise and pink rose across her face, but Izuku was too focused to notice.

"No matter what happens, I will always be your friend. I believe in you, and I won't let anything bad happen. I might not be able to make sure you don't receive any punishment, but I will do my best to convince them to let you off as easily as they can. You can tell me. Do you trust me?"

Himiko's lower lip trembled, and for a second she looked at Izuku with a faint hope in her misty eyes. Then, her gaze steeled and she nodded.

"I…" Her voice came out broken and wobbly, and she took a moment to clear her throat. Izuku patiently waited for her to gather her thoughts. "I… I've cut people before."

Tsukauchi was used to acting polite to people he would rather punch in the face, but that didn't make dealing with Toga Kamiko any less painful. From the moment she had let them into their house, she had viewed them with disdain.

As they took a seat in the kitchen, the foremost room in the house, Kamiko sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose. Aizawa definitely saw the resemblance between her and Himiko, but where Himiko had an almost excessive cheerfulness, Kamiko seemed to have a depressing aura instead. "So, what has my daughter done this time?"

"I beg your pardon?" Tsukauchi scrunched his eyebrows.

"Well, Himiko clearly got in trouble for something, right? I knew that kid would eventually become a villain. I always said-"

"I'm afraid there's some sort of misunderstanding happening here," Tsukauchi interrupted her. "Toga Himiko is not in police custody. I was just coming to inform you that she had been found severely injured in an alleyway, likely the victim of assault. She was taken to a hospital and treated, where she currently remains." Aizawa was impressed by Tsukauchi's diplomatic skills, and his natural ability to lie. They couldn't afford to make her suspect anything and become defensive, but even beside that, Aizawa was impressed by his ability to speak to a woman like this. He doubted he would be able to make it this long before snapping and attacking her on the spot.

"Oh." Kamiko seemed to relax when she heard the news, which infuriated Aizawa to no end. He felt a tap on his hand, likely Tsukauchi reminding him to rein in his anger. "That's all?"

"What do- Yes, that is all that I had to report. I hope you can pass the message onto your husband when he returns." Tsukauchi nearly broke composure, but managed to keep his anger under control. The most important part of the entire operation was coming up next. He couldn't afford to screw it up now. "Though, I am afraid that I have to ask a few questions. Purely due to procedure, so I'm sorry, but I'm required by law to ask you these questions."

Kamiko sighed, but nodded him on. After a few basic questions to let her guard down, Tsukauchi asked the most important question, their entire reason for coming here. "Has Himiko ever suffered any forms of abuse?"

Her shift in demeanor was hardly noticeable. She scoffed, waving her hand. "Abuse? Of course not."

Aizawa would have deemed her as suspicious, but he wasn't the lie detector. Glancing over at Tsukauchi, he saw that the man's hands were clenched so hard that his knuckles were turning white. That, and the way he was deliberately breathing slowly through his nose, was all Aizawa needed to realize that she had just lied, and Tsukauchi had caught her. Immediately, any remaining optimism he'd held towards the situation died.

He would get that girl out of here and take her somewhere safe. And he would make sure these bastards rotted in a cell.