The Hero & The Demon

Chapter Eleven

If it wasn't for the fact that Kage knew from personal experience what it felt like, he was sure he would think himself to be dead.

But no, death was empty. Death was cold and distant. It stripped a person bare and left nothing to its victims, not even the strength to feel offended by its arrival. The very last thing to go was one's fear, and Kage wasn't completely sure if it ever left. It certainly seemed to be with him now, especially given what had happened.

What had happened? His eyes were closed, but he could feel that he was laid down on a bed of some kind. He had to assume he had been taken either back to Tsukauchi, or more likely the UA nurse's office. He could tell from the pain in his everything that he had clearly injured himself somehow, and severely at that. But the last thing he remembered was the zero-pointer rising from the ground and him being stuck on its head.

After that, everything got blurry. He couldn't recall anything clearly, though he remembered a few feelings. Fear, shame, an overwhelming panic. It was probably a bad sign that he was so used to such that it didn't surprise him in the slightest. It was a shame he couldn't explain anything about his situation – he'd probably make one lucky therapist very rich.

What surprised him most was a vague sense of gratitude he recalled at the very end. Someone had helped him. He tried to think, but no names sprang to mind. He knew that Izuku and Bakugou were both away in different battle centres. Of the other future students of UA, he only knew a few. Tenya Iida and Ochako Uraraka wouldn't have been anywhere nearby, but he couldn't say anything for certain about the rest, with the exceptions being Todoroki and Yaoyorozu, who wouldn't have been present at all.

He fought the fog in his head and tried to piece together what had happened. He had fallen, right? Even if he couldn't be certain, it seemed like the most likely scenario regardless. He didn't know anyone in class 1A who had flight capabilities who would have been in the area. Class 1B was a maybe, only because he didn't often remember them in much detail. If Neito Monoma had been present, he could have copied someone's Quirk to save him.

It was possible that his saviour was someone new, as well. There would certainly be other applicants, plenty who never appeared in canon. He wondered if he might have given someone enough rescue points to cause a shift in the classes. His hope was already to swap in for at least one student, but changing another seat opened up more potential problems. His knowledge of the future was based around several particular people. If things went differently, he couldn't guarantee things anymore.

He wouldn't be sure he could protect them.

"You can barely protect yourself." He admitted with some frustration. The fact that he needed to be saved at all was a clear indicator of that. He knew the robots wouldn't kill anyone. There was no reason for him to freak out. But, when in danger, he still found himself unable to escape the dreaded memories of his demise.

He needed to get over that, and soon. If he had lost his cool like that in an actually dangerous situation, he would be forced to relive it. He didn't want that.

And yet, some part of him felt glad he had held onto the memory. In a sick way, it was all he had left of his past.

Gods, that hypothetical therapist would be a millionaire if they could peer into Kage's head.

He couldn't bring himself to move. Whatever had happened had clearly left him in a significant amount of pain, although strangely, Kage found himself surprised it wasn't worse. It felt awful, but he was expecting absolute screaming agony. On that scale, he was getting more of a six than the eleven out of ten he was sure awaited him.

"I guess I've been healed a little since the incident." Kage reasoned. He heard a door opening, though he still didn't wish to open his eyes and check his surroundings just yet. It was likely mere paranoia, but some part of him seemed to worry about consequences if he was shown to clearly be well.

"Miss Recovery Girl!" A young woman spoke up, and Kage heard a chair scrape against the floor. Had she been sitting next to him? Perhaps he was hearing his saviour. If he was, it seemed they weren't anyone who he recognised. He made a note to account for that later. A part of him insisted he needed to protect her, but he tried to dismiss that thought.

He needed to protect everyone. Someone being an unknown didn't warrant any more or less action than anyone else on his part, and it felt disrespectful to assume so. He didn't want to be caught off-guard because he thought that only canon people mattered. He knew better than that in other parts of his life, he just needed to internalise it for heroics.

"My word…" Recovery Girl seemed shocked by something. Kage braced himself to hear an especially bad diagnosis as she rushed over towards him. "Did you do anything, miss Kinzoku?"

Kage took note of the name.

"No!" Kinzoku quickly stepped back. "I-I promise, he just…did this on his own. It was weird to watch. His body was sort of…flickering, I guess? It's hard to describe." Kage tried to avoid showing confusion on his face, but he doubted he was being very successful. He had many abilities, but self-healing hadn't seemed to be one before. Then again, it was possible he just didn't take injuries bad enough to notice.

"Fascinating." Recovery Girl said in apparent awe. Then, without any sort of warning, she tapped Kage on the head. He was forced to blink his eyes open. The room was bright, with mostly white walls and a white roof. There were sheets around his bed, but they didn't seem to have been used. Recovery Girl looked just how he remembered from the series – short, old and very kind. Her eyes were narrow and she had a visor over her face, as well as her trademark dress and lab-coat costume. She had apparently gotten onto a chair positioned at a desk next to the bed, and her cane was left leaning against the desk.

Kinzoku stood on the other side of the bed. As Kage had deduced, there was a small blue chair next to her that she had clearly scrambled out of. She had short, sky-blue hair. A part of it covered one of her eyes. The one Kage could see was green. She was wearing a yellow t-shirt and had what looked like the upper half of a jumpsuit tied around her waist. She wore the rest, a pale blue coloured pair of trousers with white lines down the sides.

She was pale and thinner than Kage had expected. He wasn't sure if her Quirk would compensate for a lack of apparent physical strength or if he was simply misjudging her. Some people were much more than they appeared, after all.

"If you're awake, it's best that I take a look at you. What's your name, young man?" Recovery Girl's tone was somewhat warm, but distinctly professional. She sounded just a little on edge. Kage didn't know how, but he could only assume he had offended her. No doubt he had done something exceedingly reckless to end up here.

"Kage Sekai." He said. He still didn't remember his real name. He had been hoping that a surge in power might have caused something to slip back into his head, but alas, no luck. He tried to sit up, but his body protested and Recovery Girl placed a hand on his shoulder to force him back down.

"Don't bother, mister Sekai. You may have recovered somewhat on your own, but you're still not quite ready to get moving just yet." Kage frowned, but didn't protest. He hated being bedridden. Not being able to do anything was terrible, and Kage always had so much to do! There were still so many things he needed to prepare and train for.

"There's no need to get angry, young man."

"I'm not-!" Kage tried to petulantly protest, but the tone in his own voice forced him to stop. He took a deep breath. "I just don't want to fall behind."

"Fall behind what?" Kinzoku asked. Her arms were folded and she was looking at Kage with a confused expression, possibly a little frustrated. "In case you forgot, the exam ended. You blew up a big robot, I flew around a bunch of little robots, we're good."

"Wait, what do you mean I blew it up?" Kage asked. Recovery Girl and Kinzoku looked at one another, then to Kage. Both of their faces shifted to concern. Kinzoku in particular looked worried, as though she was expecting chastisement for Kage's condition.

That was stupid. The only person he could blame was himself.

"What's the last thing you remember?" Kinzoku asked. Kage focused for a moment, trying to think back to what had happened before he fell unconscious. The events remained blurry to him. He lightly shook his head.

"Getting stuck on the zero-pointer's head, I think. It's a mess after that." He admitted. "I can sort of remember what I was feeling, but not what I was doing. Which apparently included blowing up giant robots, which sucks because I would very much like to know how to blow giant things up." Kinzoku snorted, which made Kage smile. It was nice to bring some levity to the situation. It helped keep him from panicking, too.

"Well, as far as we can gather, you cut a way inside the machine, then proceeded to explode inside it, tearing it completely in two." Recovery Girl was glancing at him whilst she pulled up some information on a computer. "If I had to guess, it seems like an extreme version of your energy blast power was set off by stress. Did you see anything inside that might have set you off?"

"It was cold and dark." Kage said. "I don't think I could see anything, which made it worse. I…I think I got worried about the air in there, or the lack of it." A vivid sensation filled him for a moment as he allowed the memories to return as best he could. Things still weren't clear completely, but there was some clarity he was regaining.

"It felt like a coffin." He admitted. "Somehow, I felt sure I was going to die."

"I see." Recovery Girl nodded, then typed some notes on the computer. It looked like a file on him, though he couldn't make out any details from his position. "Well, there's a very real chance you might have if miss Kinzoku here hadn't been around to help you! I get that these exams can be stressful for kids your age, but you mustn't panic like that in a crisis. If anyone else had been nearby, that could have been a disaster." Kage gulped. The zero-pointer was a pretty massive machine. If any of the metal from its broken form had hit someone below, Kage wasn't sure he'd be able to live with himself.

"I understand. I'll make sure it doesn't happen again." He swore. Recovery Girl, for some reason, didn't seem satisfied by this. She sighed.

"From what you've described, it sounds like you may have experienced some kind of traumatic breakdown in there." Kage wasn't sure he liked that description, but he didn't think he could protest its accuracy. "I won't be too harsh on you this time for that, but it's something you need to take more care to learn how to deal with. Simply telling me you won't do it again isn't enough."

"Then…what can I do?"

"Well, what have you been doing up until now?" Recovery Girl asked, turning her chair back towards him. Kage thought carefully on how to answer. He doubted that bringing up his other mental breakdowns and panic attacks would be helpful, even if they had been increasingly less frequent until now. He was on the verge of getting used to his new life – or so he hoped.

Other than that, it had all been training and preparations for the entrance exam. Dedicated studying, both at school and back at Tsukauchi's apartment. Intense physical training at the Gunhead Martial Arts Gym, as well as some aid to Izuku's training.

He recounted this to Recovery Girl, though he didn't mention Izuku by name. It was unlikely, but he worried that she might have assumed he helped Izuku cheat his way to power somehow if she knew he was involved. He also knew that she was aware of One For All, so he had to be careful to not make it seem like he knew anything he wasn't supposed to.

"That's it?" Kinzoku asked, her head tilted. Kage shrugged his shoulders.

"I think so. I don't have a lot going on in my life." He admitted. Kinzoku frowned a him, her brow furrowing.

"I'll say!" She said. "What about friends? Hobbies? Literally anything that isn't all about getting into this stupid school. Ah, no offence, miss Recovery Girl." She cringed back a little as she spoke, though Recovery Girl just laughed.

"None taken! If this school wasn't stupid, I'd be out of a job." She laughed. Kage chuckled as well, though he could tell that her laugh was just a little forced. It was clear she was carrying some resentment with her about how much this school needed her. Understandable, Kage thought. If he had to constantly deal with excessively injured teenagers on a day-to-day basis, he'd probably resent whoever put him in that position too.

Oh, right. He was going to spend every day in the future with excessively injured teenagers. Well, he already had a head-start on hating himself!

"I have friends!" Kage protested. Izuku was totally a friend, and he got along decently well with a lot of people from Aldera. Granted, he didn't really hang out with them much at all besides school stuff, but that wasn't the point!

"How many of them do you spend any time with that isn't about heroics?" Kinzoku said with a smirk. Kage opened his mouth to respond, then closed it. She kinda had him there. Even things like helping Sawaru with student council stuff was at least partially so he'd look better to UA. There was very little in his life that wasn't dedicated to his heroic ambitions. But that made sense to him – he had knowledge and power that others didn't, it was his responsibility to focus on the most important things, the ways to save people.

He couldn't say he deserved anything else.

"Alright then, it's settled." Kinzoku sighed. She jerked a thumb to herself. "My name's Sora, and now we're friends. And because we're friends, after the exam's all wrapped up, we are going to hang out and do something fun that is in no way tied to any hero stuff that makes everyone crazy." Kage scrambled for words for a moment, unsure what to make of this bizarre declaration.

"Wait, don't you want to be a hero too?" She looked at him as he asked, then turned away. She looked conflicted.

"You heard me say 'everyone', right?" She said, sounding oddly defeated. She spun back to him before he could comment on it, adopting a somewhat forced but energetic grin. "Besides, I saved your life today. You owe me."

"I guess that makes sense," Kage acknowledged. "But if I owe you my life, why are you cool with just hanging out? Is that really a fair trade?" Kinzoku – or Sora, since she had decided they were friends now – groaned, putting both hands on her face.

"Do you have to make it so dramatic?" She complained. "This is your problem! You're too caught up in trying to be a hero, you've not done anything about being a person. That's no good, dude!" Her words struck him with enough force that he almost flinched back. It was true, he hadn't done much to define himself as a person more than a hero.

But, did he have the right to do that when the life he was in was stolen? What business did he have defining an identity that wasn't his to begin with?

"She makes a good point, you know." They both turned to Recovery Girl, who was smiling at the interaction. "Any good hero will tell you that taking care of your own needs is the best way to be ready to help others. Wishing to aid at a moment's notice is commendable, but heroes are allowed to care for themselves, too. You'd be surprised how often that lesson fails to sink in for some." She chuckled, shaking her head.

"I take care of myself okay." Kage said, frowning. His diet was much healthier than it had ever been in his old life, he was careful with his education and he did plenty of exercise. All things considered; he had a solid handle on his life so far. Then again, everything he did was tied to the goal of the entrance exam. His routine would probably need adjustment for the time between the exam and actually getting into UA.

"As a hero or as a person?" Sora asked rhetorically. "'Cause as far as I'm hearing, you've only been handling one of those things okay. You need to relax, Kage." Kage couldn't say he was fond of being condescended to like this, but he could concede that Sora had a point. If nothing else, maybe whatever she wanted to do would keep him busy between the exam and waiting for results. And if it made her happy, then he supposed that was helping someone beyond just himself. He could justify that.

He felt a sudden strange chill run across his body. He moved to get up, now inexplicably finding it much easier than it had been just a couple of minutes ago. He hadn't noticed before because he was under thin bedsheets, but his clothes had been restored. He was sure his shirt at least would have been wrecked, but here it was, completely undamaged.

"Did you guys get me a new shirt?" He had to ask. Sora shook her head whilst Recovery Girl watched him with a curious expression. She paced around his bed for a moment, as though expecting to find some explanation upon the mattress. When nothing materialised, she looked back at him.

"Remarkable." She said. "Your Quirk is doing something I've rarely seen – resetting your body. It's not quite the same as healing, but it would appear that your power has some ability to revert things it touches to a previous state in times of crisis." Kage nodded slowly. It made sense, though he couldn't help but wonder why his powers had deemed that necessary when Recovery Girl was right there.

Perhaps they weren't as intelligent as he thought. They had a voice, but that didn't necessarily mean they had full awareness or the same information he did. Or perhaps these weren't his usual powers at work. A lot had been made of the bizarre nature of his powers, and Kage was sure something supernatural was at work. Was it possible that this resetting ability was tied to the body's original Quirk? Did it manifest automatically in his time of need?

A question for later, he decided. He didn't even know where to start on it.

"Well, I suppose that'll be all, then." Recovery Girl spoke up. "If you're well enough to move, you can go on and head home. You're lucky the written exam portion is held tomorrow, young man." Kage gulped, having all but completely forgotten the exam had a written section. He had studied well, so he was reasonably sure he'd be fine, but it made him nervous. Unlike with the practical, he had no idea what to expect.

"Right." He nodded to Recovery Girl. He glanced over at Sora as he stood and stretched himself a little. There was still some pain and numbness, particularly in his upper body, but it was fading quickly. Most likely, this reset took a few minutes for his brain to properly register. The human mind wasn't equipped for sudden change at times.

"I'll catch up, Kage." She said with a smile. She seemed hesitant on something, her smile looking just a little forced. "I wanna ask Recovery Girl about some stuff. See you tomorrow?" She held out a fist. Kage shrugged and bumped it with his own, whereupon she raised hers in an explosion gesture. Kage laughed and did the same.

"See you tomorrow." He agreed before walking off. He wondered what Sora wanted to talk to Recovery Girl about, but he would ask later. He had at least one other friend he wanted to talk to.

Shouta Aizawa usually tried to ignore the practical exams whenever possible.

He was their most vocal opposition among the school faculty, and he felt it was for good reason. The exam was only really suited towards those with strong, combat based Quirks that could be used to take down robots. Sure, it was possible to pass through other means – the robots had switches on their bodies one could use to disable them, and even blocking all their weapons or managing to keep them from moving was counted as dealing with the threat for the purposes of points. But that didn't change the fact that it skewed the results.

Rescue points were another reason he protested the current structure of the exam. If these were going to be so important, he felt it only made sense that students should have known about them. Heroes weren't expected to work without being aware of how saving others benefitted themselves in terms of rankings, so why should students be any different? Nezu had argued that keeping the points as a secret quality allowed for a better test of character – it was a way to tell who had the right heroic instincts.

Aizawa felt that relying on instincts at all was somewhat irrational, but he had allowed the point at the time. Practically no one else supported his view on the exam, and he wasn't very good at changing people's minds. The best he could do would be to filter out students appropriately on his own once they reached him.

He could already see some potentially difficult kids in the mix.

Izuku Midoriya didn't bode well at all, he thought. The boy had managed to scrape by on a massive score of rescue points, but he lacked even a single villain point and his power use had been ridiculously reckless. If that was the only thing he could manage, he wouldn't make it far in UA. He'd send the kid on his way in due time.

Katsuki Bakugou was another potential concern, but for different reasons. He had somehow managed to obtain no rescue points at all, something Aizawa was surprised to find was even possible given how the judges seemed to give them out pretty liberally in response to even small actions of aid. He showed great Quirk control and a keen battle sense, but his attitude was a large red flag. Then again, going up against robots skewed this too – people would behave differently against opponents that weren't real people, ones that could be completely destroyed with no moral concern.

Aizawa noted that as his third reason to oppose the entrance exam – it was hardly realistic to the kinds of things students would be expected to face as heroes. Then again, it provided a safe testing ground to observe their peak performance without the worry of restraint. That was something they could be taught later, after all. Aizawa was good at drilling in such lessons.

The third concerning student was one who caught Aizawa off-guard. He recognised the boy, though it had been nearly a year since the last time they had interacted. Kage Sekai had started out well enough in the test. He had rushed in and charged several robots, and his combat skills against them were exemplary. Aizawa had no idea how the boy could have gotten so skilled with sword play in particular, but he would admit to being impressed.

He had said the boy had potential, and it seemed he was correct.

But then, the Yaruki came online.

Yaruki, more commonly identified as simply the zero-pointer, wasn't an enemy that applicants were expected to fight. It existed as an obstacle to be avoided. Heroes needed to know when there was value in avoiding a confrontation as much as there was in getting into a battle. Sometimes, it was better to just keep away from an enemy until someone more suited could offer aid.

Kage Sekai clearly hadn't registered this, given that he had managed to get himself stuck on the machine's head. This seemed to stem from a lack of attention paid to his surroundings, which didn't bode well at all for him. Still, his adaptation to the situation was promising. Stabbing the robot's head to keep himself steady was a solid idea, as was cutting his way inside. It would be easier to get down once he was out of range of its attacks, after all.

But any and all strategy seemed to vanish when he had emerged. Instead, he got out using a move that Aizawa could not help but think of as anything other than insane. Blowing up the machine with such a huge power surge that it seemed to destroy his body was a terrible plan on its own, but the fact that another applicant was so close by made it outright madness. Kage was lucky that Sora Kinzoku had flown back at just the right moment to avoid being caught in the blast.

That power was far beyond anything he had ever been shown to do in the past. The records compiled about Kage's abilities didn't suggest any sort of upper limit to his power besides the fact that overuse led to burnt skin, but this surpassed any previous estimate. As soon as Aizawa saw it, he went over to All-Might.

The man had elected not to act as a judge for this exam, which Aizawa respected. Given his position, anything he said about any future student would surely carry great weight. Better to stay out of it, Aizawa thought. It kept things fair. He was glad that All-Might saw things the same way.

He still watched the practical intently, however. He was in his true form, so his yellow suit hung somewhat off of his frail form. Aizawa was aware that he had suffered grievous injury and this was the best that could be done to save him, but that didn't make it any less of a jarring and concerning sight. It didn't help that the man also had a habit of coughing up blood.

If Aizawa was correct in his assumptions as to who caused those injuries, then he supposed it made sense. All-Might was lucky to have survived at all.

These assumptions were what urged him to approach All-Might as the other teachers were filing out of the observation room. He put a hand on his shoulder, causing the man to jump in surprise. When he turned and saw it was just Aizawa, he relaxed ever so slightly.

"Oh, Shouta. You startled me." He scratched the back of his head and wore an easy grin. Aizawa rolled his eyes inwardly. The man was determined to be friendly, which wasn't the worst thing in the world but wasn't something Aizawa was especially fond of either. They were just co-workers, and barely at that given how late All-Might's employment was. There was no cause for first names.

"Toshinori," He said. If All-Might was going to be familiar with him, he supposed he might as well do the same. If nothing else, skipping over formalities was efficient. There was some decent logic in that. "We need to talk. I assume you saw the Yaruki go down?" All-Might sobered at Aizawa's tone, but took a moment to respond. He raised an eyebrow.

"Yaruki…? Oh, you mean the zero-pointer!" All-Might eventually realised. The man was an exceptionally talented hero, but at times, he also wasn't the brightest. He was always reliable in a battle, but if you needed much else, he wasn't often a first choice. The decision to make him a teacher was as baffling to Aizawa now as it had been the moment Nezu had proposed it months ago.

"Yes, the zero-pointer." Aizawa said. "You saw it go down, right?" All-Might briefly paled and seemed sweat profusely, which surprised Aizawa.

"W-w-well, I'm not sure what I-I'd know about the one who took it down." He said quickly. "I've got nothing to do with any of these applicants, even if their strengths may seem similar to mine by sheer coincidence, which this would come under." What the hell was he talking about? Aizawa raised a hand to stop him from rambling further.

"I'm talking about the one taken down by Kage Sekai." He clarified further. All-Might stopped and blinked at him. "The boy you had me and detective Tsukauchi investigate, remember?"

"Oh. Right. Yes." All-Might seemed to relax and then tense in the span of a second, realigning himself with what the conversation was actually about. "I did see that. Rather disturbing stuff. Are injuries like that common with these exams?"

"It varies." Aizawa explained. "Every now and again we get a few overeager and reckless applicants trying to prove something. That's why it's important we have Recovery Girl on standby at all times. But this was noticeably worse than usual. It's rare she has to bring someone to the office." Kage having been carried away by a stretched was indeed alarming on its own. Even Izuku Midoriya's injuries weren't bad enough that one use of her Quirk wouldn't do the job. All-Might nodded thoughtfully.

"Do we have any word on if the boy will be okay?" He asked. Aizawa was slightly surprised that this was his first concern, but quickly recovered. It only made sense that All-Might of all people would be first and foremost worried about an injured child.

"Recovery Girl should be able to handle it. This was bad, but she's seen worse."

"Believe me, I know." All-Might said. Ah, right, Recovery Girl was involved in his surgeries. The ones that left him without his stomach. Come to think of it, Aizawa hadn't had the heart to ask just what All-Might did about food these days. He was curious, but it didn't seem appropriate to ask about, especially when the two were hardly close.

"He'll be perfectly fine." Aizawa insisted. He had no reason to think this would be above Recovery Girl's abilities in the slightest. "I'm sure we'll get an update soon, and probably an earful on the stress this exam puts people through. She tends to do a bit of a lecture every year."

"Sounds about right." All-Might laughed a little, visibly relaxing. "I trust you usually leave by then? You don't seem like the type to let others lecture you."

"Actually, I help with her slideshow presentation." All-Might stared blankly at Aizawa, unable to decide on if he was being truthful or exercising his rare wit. It was the former. Whilst their reasonings differed slightly, both Recovery Girl and Aizawa had issues with the current entrance exam. It may have been a little comical, but helping to share their thoughts was often satisfying. Cathartic, even if nothing tended to come of it. Most of the teachers only half-heartedly paid any attention, though Nezu was an intent listener every time, even though he had by now heard just about every argument.

Nezu seemed to treat it like a sort of media training exercise, coming up with new counters each time to keep them on their toes and treating it like he was being interviewed. Aizawa could respect that. At least it kept the experience useful.

"But we're getting off topic." Aizawa shook his head. All-Might jumped back into focus and gave an apologetic look. Aizawa could forgive the man his curiosity – just about everything from the teacher's side of UA was new to him, after all, - but they did have some important matters to discuss.

"You want to know if this suggests his involvement, right?" All-Might said with sobering seriousness, something Aizawa did not expect from the man. His jovial and relaxed attitude melted away, revealing a refined focus. If only he was like this all the time, Aizawa thought. He nodded.

"That kind of Quirk instability seems unusual from a boy his age, even with his amnesiac status." Aizawa said, folding his arms. "When we first encountered one another, he already showed an instinctive control that showed great promise. Even during the rest of the exam, he seemed fine. I'm concerned that there was something more to this outburst. If what you've mentioned about that man is true, he may have rigged Kage's body somehow." The thought was utterly disgusting, even to Aizawa's usually more jaded and rational mind. But he had to be willing to assume the worst sometimes, and the behaviour wasn't unreasonable for a villain.

All-Might shook his head.

"I don't think so." He said. "I've interacted with Kage since then, and it seems unlikely that he has connections to All For One. The man is cruel and vile enough, but he's surprisingly not one known for subtle plans. He schemes, but if this was part of his plan, he would want us to know it clearly. If I would have to guess about his involvement, it's unlikely." Aizawa nodded.

All For One. He knew very little about the infamous villain before recently. He didn't even believe the man was real until the Kage case had started, and since then he had only paid it a little more attention. Investigations into ongoing cases weren't usually his strong suit, and there was little to suggest this man was still active to this day beyond suspicion. If it didn't come from All-Might himself, then Aizawa probably would have ignored it.

"You've interacted with him more recently?" Aizawa asked and All-Might flinched, as though he had said something he wasn't supposed to. "Did anything stick out? Anything more definitive, one way or the other?" Aizawa could trust that All-Might thought that All For One's ego would force him to be more blatant in his strategy, but there was a big difference between that and it being solidly true. If the man was injured like All-Might was, a more subtle and manipulative approach might have been necessitated.

"No, I'm afraid not." All-Might sighed. "I…ran into him whilst doing some exercising. His attitude was perfectly ordinary – kind, selfless, committed to becoming a hero. All the usual things expected of a boy his age. The only things that stick out are his little jokes."

"What kind of jokes?" Aizawa asked. All-Might already seemed to have a strange view on what was ordinary for a teenager, so it wouldn't surprise him if this was nothing. Still, anything could be relevant.

"It's hard to describe." All-Might explained. "He makes these strangely knowing comments. Little things, but they give the impression that he expected them to happen. Once or twice, I've tried asking him about it, and all he ever says is that he's 'well-read'." Aizawa considered. Kage had said that when he had first met the boy. It was how he explained knowing him.

He had no idea what it was supposed to mean, but it was interesting that it had come up more than that encounter. It threw out the assumption that Kage had seen a hero database or police records, but raised the question of just what he did mean.

"Well, that got us nowhere." Aizawa said. "Sorry for wasting your time, All-Might. I hate being paranoid." He went to dismiss the man, but as he did so, he noticed Recovery Girl walking in. The two of them stopped to look at her. The old woman sighed.

"I can guess what this is about." She said. "I'm sure you'll be happy to know that Kage Sekai was the only one with serious injuries today."

All-Might let out a sigh of relief. Recovery Girl shot a quick glare at him, but Aizawa spoke up before she could continue.

"It's a shame that there were any serious injuries, Recovery Girl." He said, glancing over at All-Might, who quickly nodded. The man wasn't trying to be callous or insensitive, and his reaction was reasonable. Alas, Recovery Girl was still easily bothered by the idea of any severe injuries being tolerable in heroics.

She knew and understood the risks better than perhaps anyone else at UA, but that didn't mean she had to like them one bit.

"Of course. Glad you understand, Aizawa." She nodded at him. Recovery Girl was among the UA teachers he respected the most. She had been working at the school even back when he was a student, and some part of him still saw her as his teacher instead of his equal. For her part, Recovery Girl didn't seem to mind this. Between himself, Yamada and Kayama, she was pretty used to it.

"Is he alright?" All-Might asked.

"Better than expected." She replied. "His power seems to include some healing ability of its own. Particularly, it resets his body to a previous state. It's strange, I don't recall ever seeing a Sekai with such a Quirk…" Aizawa raised an eyebrow.

"A Sekai? You've met his family before?" Recovery girl looked up at him with an expression that fused dazed and startled into one face. She placed a hand on her chin.

"I…I believe I might have. Gosh, it's been such a long time since I've thought about it." She said. "I knew of a doctor named Sekai back when I used to teach some medical classes at hospitals. A good man. I think, at least. I'm having the hardest time remembering. Old age taking its toll, I suppose." All-Might and Aizawa looked at each other. Both of them were aware of how Kage Sekai's information had been wiped from records, but memories too?

All For One or not, there was something deeply suspicious going on here.

"It might just be coincidence." Recovery girl waved a hand dismissively. "Plenty of people share the same last name, after all. It doesn't mean anything on its own."

Aizawa wasn't so sure. He nodded politely to Recovery Girl and excused himself from the room. Too much about this situation stood out as unusual for him to ignore.

Kage Sekai was an enigma, and one he felt he had to get to the bottom of.

AN: Got this one done a little earlier than usual, so now you get TWO chapters this week! I'm really enjoying Sora and I can't wait to do more with her and Kage hanging out. It only really occurred to me as I was putting her in that Kage has focused on basically nothing but hero stuff, and that's not healthy. It also reminded me that there's a gap between the entrance exam and getting into UA proper, and he needs more things to do with his time than just train. Speaking of the exam, the written portion being on a different day is a me original, but I just think it makes sense. Let me know if you have any thoughts, and I'll see you next time!