"Who the fuck are you?" Inko scowled through rapid breaths.

Izuku stared at his mother in utter shock. His mouth opened and closed, not quite sure what to say, only knowing that he had to utter something to show his surprise at, not only this being the first time he'd ever heard her curse, but also at the unexpectedness of the whole situation.

"I-I, Mom- I can e-explain–"

There was an audible sigh, distinctly laced with disappointment that stung at Izuku. Inko ran her hand through her green locks — her sweating skin glistening under the light peering from the apartment's entrance — and shot a furrowed glare at her son.

"Come to me, Izuku."

"I–"

"Now." Her voice left no room for argument. Nodding shakily, Izuku threw a glance at his teacher before he hastened to his mother's side all the while trying to avoid her sharp gaze.

Inko's eyes ran all over Izuku's figure, softening when she spotted no injuries, only for the venom to return in full force when they darted over to the white-haired woman. Her thoughts were running wild on speculations, but wishing to remain reasonable, she took a deep breath and said, "You haven't answered my question."

By this point, Frieren had already guessed who the woman before her was. Not wishing to further draw her ire, Frieren remained curt in her response. "I offer my apology. I'm Izuku's teacher and my name is Frieren."

While internally raising an eyebrow at her lack of honorifics, Inko shook those thoughts away to press for more info. "Frieren-san, right? May I ask for what goal have you been teaching my son?"

"Certainly. Izuku here wanted to join U–"

"J-Join a good college! I-It's sti-still far a-away, but, heh, I-I just wanted to prepare. Y-You know?" Izuku abruptly said, having quickly moved so that he now stood between the two women. Frieren blinked, not at all expecting his interruption.

From Inko's widened eyes, it was clear she felt the same.

"...That's a first." His mother said after a short moment. Her tone still belied her disbelief, yet amidst the tonnage of distrust, Izuku could sense some willingness to hear him out. "You've never told me that."

"I was a bit nervous to tell you, Mom." The boy expressed, looking at her straight in the eye. A moment later they darted away as his feet shifted about. "I-I... I do– don't wa-want to b-be a H-Hero anymore. So... don't get me wrong, I still plan on getting into U.A. just... into th-the G-General E-Education Course. And after that... a good college." He licked his dry lips, watching his mother's reaction out of the corner of his vision.

He found her expression to be... unreadable. As if her face mirrored a maelstrom of two opposing forces, far too chaotic to make any sense out of it. Izuku had an inkling that she doubted his words.

"So d-don't worry, mom. I'll be safe."

With that single sentence, she slowly took a breather as her expression wavered. Glancing at Frieren, then back at Izuku, the woman sighed.

"I..." Inko shook her head, her eyes slowly gaining a picture of faint resolve. "I believe you, Izuku." Despite her shaky words, the desire for her son's words to be true rang a genuine tune.

Inko's eyes flickered over to Frieren. Her gaze scrutinized her for what felt like an eternity, yet in reality, it was only a brief moment. She turned to Izuku, a resolute look having occupied her expression. "You go back to our room first, Izuku. Here," She gave him the key card. "there's some katsudon inside. Your favorite. Come on, hurry up before it gets cold."

Izuku glanced at Frieren. Noticing the pleading look on his face, she nodded in reassurance. With his worries seemingly alleviated, the boy trudged back into his apartment, only occasionally glancing back at them.

A soft wind breezed past the two women, staring at each other wordlessly. Eventually, the silence was torn through by Inko's voice.

"I want you to tell me the truth. What have you been doing with my Izuku?"

Frieren's answer arrived almost at the same time her words came to an end, as if she had already anticipated that question. "I have been his teacher the past few weeks." She said curtly.

Inko pursed her lips at the white-haired woman's answer. Her mind was a tumultuous storm where on one hand, she doesn't believe anything that comes out of Frieren's mouth while on the other, she wishes to believe her son's own words. The struggle caused her to stay silent after almost each one of Frieren's vague answers.

"...Where are the payments coming from? For your services. I'm sure I would know if Izuku has been pulling out some money from his bank account."

"I am doing this simply because I want to, not for any compensation." Well... that was a partial truth, Frieren admitted within the confines of her mind.

Inko's eyes narrowed, trying to break through the woman's true thoughts: only to end up in utter failure. Either she was telling the truth or she had an impeccable poker face.

A hint of vulnerability started to show in her voice. "Why did you not tell his parent that you're teaching him? Especially for such... long periods of time."

There was a short pause before the mother was gifted an answer. "...I did not think it necessary. It's just teaching the usual subjects one would learn at school." That wasn't a lie either... if one were to say it many thousand years ago, when magic still reigned the land.

With a proper mentor, teaching magic could be compared to teaching someone swimming. There's a chance of injury but it's otherwise safe.

Inko sighed. Though she was not very satisfied with the answers, by now she already accepted that the truth could only be given by her son. She smiled pleasantly, masking her thoughts. For now, she had to throw her suspicions aside and simply look at Frieren as her son's teacher. "Thank you so much for indulging me... Frieren-san, right? No last names?"

Frieren nodded to both her questions.

Of course, the green-haired mother immediately adopted a look eerily similar to how Izuku appeared when he first discovered she had no last name. The amused elf waved off her assumption. "It's a culture thing. I didn't go to an orphanage."

Inko blinked before she let out a relieved breath. "That's good. My mind has just been going into a lot of speculations recently. I hope you can forgive me." Her lips twisted into a bitter smile. "It's just that... as his mother, I'm just fretting a lot since Izuku's been lying to me and he never has done that. He's a very good boy, so I know he won't try to do anything illegal or wrong but... I can't help but worry I'll lose him. After my husband died... he's the only one I have left."

"I... I can understand that." Frieren said as her gaze softened. She felt her heart pang; seeing Inko fret so much about the possibility of losing Izuku... it reminded Frieren of herself, so many years ago, when she grieved over the loss of Stark and Fern's grand bloodline spanning many millennium—her children.

Inko appeared hopeful. "I see... So- so, you won't mind telling me what Izuku's been up to, right?"

Frieren smirked at her ploy. 'You're ten thousand years short of fooling me! ...Or is it more than that?' She shook her head. "He has already told you the truth. He's studying to get into a good college in the far future."

Inko let out a resigned sigh. "I hope so."

"Still..." The teacher smiled. "He'll be safe. I can promise you that, at least."

The mother took her words with a grain of salt. After all, the woman in front of her was a stranger; she could not fully trust her words quite yet. Nevertheless... she felt her worries somewhat quelled. "Thank you, Frieren-san."

"It's my pleasure, Inko."

The green-haired woman's serene expression twitched. No honorifics and immediately using her first name? Inko initially thought she referred to her son that way because they already grew close but, evidently, she spoke to everyone that way. 'What an odd woman.' A cool breeze went by, causing the greennette to shiver.

"Is that all...?"

"...Yes. Yeah, yeah sure." Inko nodded. "I have no other questions."

"I see. I'm happy to help. Anyway, I should get going now. It's getting late." Her son's teacher awkwardly offered a goodbye before she turned on her heels and walked away.

"Yeah. I should go too. My son's waiting for me." She stood there in silence as she watched her turn a corner, her white twin pony-tails fluttering in the wind. Letting out a sigh, she looked over her shoulder to the looming apartment complex. The lights in her room were on.

"...I should actually go cook some katsudon for Izuku." She said with a slightly guilty tone.

Aldera Junior High is a rather well-known school in Musutafu due to it's open encouragement of the students to pursue a Hero-related career. While other schools often push this agenda while swathed under various red herrings to make it seem like that isn't their intention, Aldera is one of the very few schools that have no qualms about shoving it right in your face.

In a world where everyone values Heroes more than many other professions, through their marketing, Aldera managed to become a rather large and in-demand school.

Of course... there was still a reason why most schools aren't so open about their underlying intent. In a place where all the Quirk-obsessed youngsters gather, discrimination would only experience a major shift to the skies.

Izuku let out a deep sigh as he opened his eyes, his concentration broken by the piercing toll of the bell. He joined the streams of students making their way to class, all the while ignoring the mocking laughter echoing behind him.

Katsuki's former 'friends' — if they were even that to begin with — jeered and chatted derisively about the Quirkless boy. His expression darkened.

"What the hell was that loser doing?"

"I know, right? Who even meditates in public?"

"A runt of the litter like him, I guess."

Their banter was the main instigator for the unpleasant look on Izuku's face. However... it wasn't due to what the bullies thought. No, Izuku did not take their words to heart — he never did.

What ticked him off was that they were unapologetically loud. In fact, it was due to this that it took Izuku's mind nearly 10 minutes just to concentrate enough to the point where he could gather mana, leaving only 5 minutes for him to do so. This has been the case for the past few weeks and Izuku simply could not stand them.

Even worse, the teachers weren't doing anything, a far cry from how they discourage bullying during the Principal's speeches.

'How does Frieren-sensei do it?' He thought covetously. The woman could seemingly go into that zen-like state in an instant, no matter how much noise polluted the area.

Izuku soon arrived back in class and quietly settled into his seat. The room was abound with chatter, each blending into one incessant hubbub.

...Yeah, he wasn't about to meditate here.

The door suddenly opened with a click. Almost immediately, the class went into a deathly silence as the teacher set down a vibrant blue binder on his desk. Greeted by such stillness, the man clasped his hands smilingly.

"Let's begin the lesson."

While he would have preferred to be meditating and gathering mana right now, Izuku knew he still couldn't neglect studies entirely. After all, even U.A. still applies the essential materials like math, history, etc., so with a resigned sigh he took out his notebook and a moment later his pen danced across the pages.

Right now, the teacher was droning about the beginning of the Age of Quirks and the various effects it had on the modern world.

"As we all know, in the year 624, the world was in a state of utter turmoil as the president for the U.S. at the time has just been assassinated. Suffice to say, the world was on the precipice on experiencing yet another global-scale war. But then... a baby in China glowed light from his skin. Thus, began the Age of Quirks."

'The impending war was diverted as much effort was dealt in handling superpowered criminals from their own countries, Heroes emerged, and so on.' Izuku summed up the rest of the tale in his mind. Realizing that the teacher was basically about to reiterate what he already knew from the previous grade, Izuku let out a low grumble under his breath as he rested his head on the table.

Izuku glanced at the clock.

'Still 3 hours before I can train with Frieren-sensei...' He whimpered.

Well... class wasn't that bad. Bakugo was being rather silent, dutifully taking notes and, while Izuku initially assumed the teacher was repeating much of what is already considered common knowledge, that only applies to the man's introduction of the current material. In reality, it was much more interesting, detailing what is commonly known as 'The Dark Age' when the world was thrown into chaos and ruin as more Villains began to appear.

"...the Villain's elusive figure', who is rumored to have ruled over Japan with an absolute force akin to the government, remains someone whose identity have never been figured out. He is only referred to as the Dark Lord, a title gained from his major role in throwing Japan into it's very own 'The Dark Age'."

"The other Villain who has never been found, though not at a scale similar to the Dark Lord, is no less terrifying. This serial killer often steals the brains of the victims for undetermined purposes and commits these crimes with unparalleled efficiency; combine that with the Villain's mysterious but extremely versatile Quirk, leads to another Villain whose identity has remained unknown. This brutal criminal is often dubbed one thing by those who have caught small glimpses of them..."

"The Demon."

Frieren woke up to the quiet rustlings of the forest around her. Lifting herself off of her silken bed — which took great effort to do in and of itself — she let out a soft yawn as she stretched her nimble body. Her hair was not tied up, so the pure white strands cascaded down her figure.

She did some menial activities to get prepared for the day.

She took a shower straight out of bed and threw on casual clothes for the public gaze, making sure it's comfortable but not too revealing. Right after, she walked over to a reflective surface and expertly tied her hair into two ponytails. Glancing at the desk beside the mirror, her gaze landed on an intricate floral-themed hair piece as well as a simple yet durable wrist accessory; that lasted for a short moment before her lids flickered, with her now focused on a ring with similar embellishments to the hair piece. She slipped it in her finger.

Standing up, she trudged out of her bedroom and out into a space that served as both a kitchen and a living room. This area is connected to a total of four doors: the bedroom, the study room where she delves deep into history, the storage room, and the door that leads to the porch.

She cooked a Hamburg steak as usual for herself — supplied by the local population of boars — and set it down on the table. Despite being alone, the wooden surface stretched rather widely. A total of 7 seats were slotted for the table: there were 3 on each side, with the single head spot occupied by Frieren. Each chair were given a plate and utensils though hers was the only one that had food on it.

She ate the meat in silence.

All of a sudden she smiled, having just recalled a memory. It was quite a funny one. After finding Aureole, Stark challenged Eisen to a match of who could eat the most Hamburg steaks. Needless to say, the former lost and the resulting puke from the red-haired apprentice stained the table... and a bit of Fern's dress.

What happened next was nothing short of an erupting volcano of pure anger.

She laughed at that distant memory. Of course, within the nearly silent space of her home, that was an unsettling sight.

No more memories came to her mind that morning.

Licking off the crumbs on her lips, Frieren shook away the slight ache she felt in her heart. Her eyes panned over to her clock. 'Thirty minutes left before four P.M. I should head over to the beach.'

With that thought in mind, she quickly changed her clothes and walked out of her cozy cabin in the woods. Greeting the cool breeze with a smile, she first hurried down the few flights of stairs on her porch and gazed across the green expanse in front of her, where various plants sprouted from the soil: proof of her efforts to cultivate them over the years. Steel fences were raised on the perimeter of the farm and along the barrier itself there were a few seemingly mundane scarecrows littered about.

She raised her staff and a moment later, a dark cloud undulated along with a shower of nourishing water, pitter-pattering upon the rather large farm. She gave particularly much attention to a corner of the garden, one that is visibly more recent than the other plants; these were taken from the seeds of the fruits she had bought from the "LAWSON" store, the same time as when that rock-skinned amateur tried robbing from the store. The elf soon finished watering her field and Frieren smiled at the sight of it now glistening and fed.

The elf walked down the dirt road that led her to the gate. Stopping just before the aforementioned, Frieren petted the scarecrow next to her.

"Guard the garden as usual, alright?"

What was once seemingly a normal scarecrow suddenly stiffly turned to Frieren, two yellow orbs burning in the eye sockets; in fact, all of them moved with eerie synchronization. In one, fully concordant voice, the strawmen echoed out, "Understood, Master Frieren."

She felt her lips quirk into a smile.

Frieren walked through the silver gates and into the quiet forest, she trudged through grounds thrown disarray by wild tree roots peeking to the surface and the occasional mounds which she made sure to avoid. Eventually, as the trees started to shrink in numbers and the sky grew ever more expansive, the elf raised her hand... and pushed.

Visible to her eyes only, it was as if she was pressing against a thick layer of mucus, spreading and fighting against the mana surrounding her. This went on for a long stretch of land — around 20 meters or so — until she finally broke through. The mucus splashed and reverberated, the droplets returning to the greater body soon after, akin to a vertical sight of a fish breaking through the pond's surface.

She looked over her shoulder as the wall of mana reformed into a serene pond once more.

It was a spell that erected a barrier. Different than most barrier spells, Trieben actually doesn't act like a sort of wall. It affects the mind of anyone who goes into it's width without being protected by mana and impels them to change courses, away from the center of the spell; in this case, from her quaint cabin.

A useful spell, certainly, especially considering the fact that the only magic users left in the world were herself and Izuku.

On the infinitesimally low chance that there does exist someone capable of magic... well, she would be very eager to meet a fellow magic user outside of her influence. She does not hold much hope for this.

Free of Treiben's influence at long last, Frieren clasped her staff as it materialized and she soon soared into the skies. Gliding alongside a flock of birds, the elf closed her eyes as the cool wind streaked past her and the sun's rays hit her face, allowing her memory alone to guide her to the beach.

Rapidly approaching their usual meeting spot, Frieren thought back to her meeting with her student's mother yesterday. It was hard for her to not empathize with the woman's plea. Though she wasn't a mother per se, she already had experience aplenty when it comes to taking care of children, whether that be a younger Fern or those mischievous little kids, grandkids, grand-grankids, and so on: the fruits of her apprentice's marriage with Stark.

Even if their faces have begun to blur for her these past few years.

'Seems like I overestimated myself.' She bitterly thought as she internally apologized to Old Man Voll.

With that said, even if she understands where Inko's coming from, she stands by her decision to have Izuku be the one to tell the truth.

Soon, she descended and opened her eyes. Her gaze quickly scanned over the beach: the trash — while still staining a majority of the sands and gravel — has thinned a lot since the first day of their training here. Amidst the hills of rusting scraps on a particularly clean breadth of sand, she spotted on her little eyes a speck of green.

The boy was sitting cross-legged with a serene expression and a still bearing. When she landed behind him — not loudly but not silently either — and Izuku did nothing to respond, it became evident to her that he still lacked the basic precautions one needed during mana gathering.

How reckless of him.

Out of a mixture of irritation and desire to make him learn his lesson, she aimed her staff at the calmly receding tide... and a sphere of water the size of a two-story house floated above the oblivious boy. She kept it stationary as droplets of water occasionally fell on his face. Soon enough, his lids stuttered open and Izuku gazed up at the sky, his eyes growing wider the longer he stared.

"Huh...?"

She gave him just enough time to comprehend the sheer size of what lay above him but not nearly enough for him to get away. There was a high-pitched shriek as her apprentice was doused with water, the undulating waves whisking him away to the shoreline and pushing against the piles of rusted steel around.

Izuku sputtered a mouthful of seawater, cringing at the saltiness. His gaze spotted Frieren and he just knew she was the one who did it. "S-Sensei! Wha-What was that for?"

"You were not paying attention to your surroundings, Izuku." She said with a displeased tone, trying her best to hide her amusement. "What if it wasn't me who snuck up on you? What if it was a Villain? You must remain between a state of focusing on gathering mana and a state lucid enough to notice what is going on around you. Of course, you'll eventually be able to extend your mana to sense your surroundings while still gathering mana, but that is a rather far amount of time... in your future."

Not being able to refute her point, Izuku looked away in shame. "...But mastering that takes time... right?"

Frieren nodded. "Around a week or even two weeks."

"That's... That's a long time."

"A week or two is not long, Izuku, even from a human's perspective."

"Y-Yeah, I know, but..." He pursed his lips, seemingly in a thoughtful state. A moment later, he shook his head. "...Nevermind. Let's just... Let's begin training again, sensei."

With a brow quirked from confusion, she nodded still.

Two Weeks Later...

As the sun began to sink under the horizon, blanketing the sky in an orange mist, Frieren clasped her hands. "Good. You've progressed plenty." She said as she glanced at the pile of rocks nearby. That mound was once a small golem, shattered to smithereens when Izuku saw it.

The rock golem was not exactly capable of great stealth; even in it's smallest form, it's slow and lumbering movements are hard not to notice. But that wasn't the point of what she was trying to achieve. Due to being a golem whose body is pulled from the nature around them with mininum mana needed to control it on Frieren's side, the rock golem was, of course, difficult to differentiate from the natural mana around. There are many Quirks capable of hiding a person from the five senses, but as far as she knew, the amount of Quirks that could hide one's mana simply does not exist. So, as long as Izuku could sense the golem, he could likely sense any human.

"That's..." Izuku panted as he stared up at her, a hopeful look in his eyes. "...all, right?"

Frieren shook her head, wiping off that look from his face. She pointed to the scarecrow behind him, the straws that make up it's face quirking into a — toothy? — grin. "You still haven't managed to sense the scarecrow. At this rate... I'd predict at least another 3 weeks or a month until you can."

"That much more...?" Izuku murmured with a disgruntled expression. "But... I've been training this technique since we began."

"This is already astonishing progress. Most people, without proper technique, would take years for them to reach your current level. Advancements in huma—" She shook her head, silently berating her loose mouth. "my study techniques have shortened that time into around 3 months. With your talent, you managed to further shorten that time into half."

Remorse began to trickle into him, but nevertheless, that look of bitterness remained deeply etched onto his expression. "I-I get it and I'm thankful but... but..." Izuku pursed his lips.

Frieren's brows bent down in quiet contemplation. While Izuku has always been at least somewhat impatient with the expected length of the mana gathering process — inferred: expanding his core to a level reasonable enough for constant abuse expected from her spell-training methods — it was never to this degree. So why the sudden shift?

Her mind slowly traced back to when this sharp rise began. It was right after the pair had been confronted by Inko. Frieren was pretty sure Izuku hasn't spilled the truth of what he's learning, so in that case, Inko must be under the impression that he's simply learning mathematics, history, and whatnot.

'Mix in Izuku's very open desire to join U.A. and be a Hero, a job widely considered to be dangerous...' She smiled, satisfied as she came to a conclusion.

"...You wish to assuage your mother's worries, do you not?"

"A-Ah..." Izuku stuttered with widened eyes. Eventually, he hesitantly nodded. "...Yeah." He appeared greatly embarrassed about being exposed.

The elven mage petted his scalp comfortingly, pressing smooth circles into his luscious locks. He looked up as he was met by a reassuring smile.

"I understand that. Honestly, the scarecrow is a tad uneeded, especially since it'll reduce the amount of time you can practice spells later on... so it's probably fine to skip it, for now."

Her words caused his eyes to sparkle with hope.

"With that said, let's continue to expand your mana core."

"Okay!" Izuku nodded eagerly as he crossed his legs and slowly closed his eyes.

A few seconds passed as he seemingly vibrated in his place, as if trying and failing to hold something back. Eventually, he opened his eyes and looked up at his teacher. "Frieren-sensei. Thank you."

The woman nodded. "Your welcome." He continued to remain like that, his body unable to stay in place as the edges of his lips curled up. Amused by his behavior, she tilted her head. "What is it?"

"...You must be really popular with people, sensei."

"Hm?" She blinked, not at all expecting those words. "What makes you say that?"

"You're great at inferring what people are feeling, is what I mean. I don't think I've met someone as perceptive as you are."

Those words caused her lips to part open slightly, a reminiscent breath escaping them. Her lips formed a strange smile, one full of satisfaction and... sadness? Or regret?

"...I've had a lot of time to change."

Yotaro hummed as he walked down the street, his boots clicking loudly against the wet concrete. The skies sobbed heavily, it's tears drowning Musutafu in a somber mood.

He wore a thin raincoat, but it wasn't meant to shield him, really. The elements never affected him, anyway. It was to protect the layers of branded uniforms under it. Bending his upper body ever so slightly forward, he continued to humm as he stared at the series of numbers on his phone.

'...This should be enough for around a month's worth of living expenses... if I'm the only one.' He sighed as he pocketed his phone, frustration accumulating beneath his stone face.

His eyes darted around as he walked back to his apartment. Yotaro trudged on the dark road, eventually turning on his heels with the intent of following the short-cut to his home.

However...

He saw the alley covered by a litany of police tapes, the dull yellow sticking out amidst the dim surroundings. A few cops stood around, their faces visibly drained of color while they fiddled with the hem of their vests.

"Ugh... I want to puke."

"Do we have any clues as to who did this?" Asked a man with short hair and a trench coat.

"Unfortunately not, Tsukauchi-san. Whoever did this... it's as if they knew there would be a shortage on the CCTV here."

"Hm..." 'Tsukauchi', the detective, narrowed his eyes.

Yotaro intended to quickly slip away while none of them paid attention. However, it was as if some outside force suddenly took control, and curiosity got the better of him. He tilted up his head, peering past the bumbling officers and into the alley, enshrouded in darkness.

Narrowing his eyes, he noticed the faint outline of an odd shape. It appeared like something with various contours throughout, only to abruptly end near the top.

He looked thoughtful.

...

Slowly, he recoiled as his eyes widened with a mixture of fear and disbelief. Yotaro hurriedly walked away, trying to shake off the image of what he saw.

But there was no way he could ever forget it.

'A headless corpse...' Despite his stone skin protecting him from the cold rain, he felt a shiver go down his spine. 'Poor fellow. I wonder if he had a family.'

In the end, his feet continued to rapidly patter against the road, mired in the rain. His breathing was shallow as he did. 'What on earth is going on? Just last week, there was a crater in that alley, and now, someone was killed there!'

He slowly began to calm down as he gained more of a distance on the alley. Eventually, he noticed rays of light shooting from the side and onto the asphalt road. Moving up his gaze, his stiff lips ever so slightly pursed.

'LAWSON', he read.

As if a permanent resident of the store, he noticed the green-haired boy alongside the white-haired woman were sitting on steel benches on the outside; there was also the cashier he tried to rob upon the first time he came here. A considerable part of the building jutted out, offering them shelter from the downpour. Their lips were widely open as a merry spirit filled the air.

Yotaro remained there for a moment, his still form hidden behind a lamppost. With his rocky, dark skin, he practically blended into the shade.

"—That's why I really recommend that film. I genuinely think it's the funniest, like, ever."

"Truly?" The white-haired woman said.

"Totally! Me and my family laughed lots while we were watching."

"Hm... I only ever watched one comedy, really. Though there wasn't any dialogue."

Rikika whistled. "Wow. Must be a really old-school one."

Frieren nodded. "It's pretty new. I think it was made by... Charles Chapron."

"You mean Charlie Chaplin?" Izuku deadpanned. "Also, what do you mean new, sensei? He was predominant around the year 497. That's... around three centuries ago."

The woman's eyes thinned into slits as she leaned over to his ear. Her whisper was threatening. "I thought I already told you, my student. I am a great being whom has already lived for ten thousand years: an elf."

"Sure, sensei." Izuku whispered back, obviously taking her words with a grain of salt.

As the long-eared woman — though her ears were round and shortened from her illusionary spell — silently fumed at her student, Rikika gazed at their interaction with an amused smirk. Did they think she couldn't hear them? "Doesn't that make you an old hag?" The cashier said as she stuck out her tongue while already covering her face, anticipating the woman to lash out.

Unexpectedly, however, she chuckled. "Oh, you." An almost adoring tune filled her voice as she rustled Rika's hair.

It was a confusing reaction but the girl couldn't help but lean into Frieren's hand, a cheeky smile on her lips. They straightened, however, when she noticed a figure approaching from the distance.

"Hey! D-Don't move." She yelled as she slowly stood up. Her body visibly shrunk away but she nevertheless tried to stand her ground, gazing at him fiercely as she stood between him and the two behind her.

"N-No, it's okay, R-Rika-san." Izuku assured her. The greenette looked up at the boy. "Hi. I... I know you didn't mean us any harm, back then. Besides... you technically didn't steal anything."

"What...?" Her eyes darted cautiously from Izuku to the rock-skinned boy, then back to her friend and so on. "...Fine." She let out an audible breath. "I swear Izuku, if he does something again then I'm coming for you." Rika whispered to him.

He sweat-dropped, nodding nervously at her jest.

...Or, at least, he hoped it was one.

The boy's loud voice broke through the tense silence. "...I'm here to say sorry. To... all of you, especially that cashier for threatening you like I did."

Hearing his words, Rikika's expression softened considerably but there was still a deeply rooted sense of distrust in her. "...I accept your apology. Besides," She sighed. "you haven't done a crime, as Izuku said."

"Really?" He seemed surprised. "I'm pretty sure threatening someone could be considered as one."

"True, but something like that can't be proven without recordings." Noticing how his face only grew even more confounded, she decided to elaborate. "When you robbed us, the CCTV had broken down. It's all fixed now, though, so don't get any wrong ideas."

"I'm not, I'm not." He said as he raised his hands, though his mind couldn't help but latch onto the odd timing of the camera's malfunction.

"How did that happen?" Frieren asked, feeling curious.

Rikika leaned down, her hand covering her lips as she whispered. "One of the cables had been bitten through. There was a hole in the wall nearby, so I'm guessing a rat bit through it. Though as I said, it's all a-okay now."

"Ah, I see." She nodded.

"Oh, also," Izuku turned to the rock-skinned boy. "I forgot to ask last time we met, but what's your name?"

There was a short silence before he answered. "Yotaro."

"No... last names?" Izuku questioned as a regretful look overtook his face. "I'm sorry..."

"What...?" He raised a brow — or whatever you call the particularly thick stone fragment just above his eyes — as he wondered what on earth was on the green-haired boy's mind.

"He thinks you're an orphan."

Upon hearing the mature woman's words, Yotaro let out a ticklish chuckle. "Seriously? No, no. I'm not an orphan. I just prefer not to tell people my last name."

"Weirdo." Rikika said bluntly. The boy just shrugged, unaffected by her loose mouth.

"I see. Well, I think it's only right I introduce us, as well. I'm Izuku, though I think you already know that." Yotaro nodded at his words. Izuku then gestured to the two girls around him. "This is Rikika-san and this is my sensei, Frieren."

The rock-skinned boy nodded, committing all their names to memory.

"Ah, also, do you want t-to join u-us?" Izuku asked, though it was met by an instant retort from the resident receptionist.

"Hell no." Rikika shook her head vehemently. "I may have forgiven him, but that doesn't mean I trust this guy." She said as she pointed to the quite literally stone-faced boy.

Yotaro didn't seem bothered by the ruckus. "It's fine. I have somewhere I need to go to, anyway."

"W-Wait!" The stiff boy stopped as he craned his neck to see Izuku. He waited in silence, which Izuku inferred as a sign for him to talk. "T-Thanks. I just wa-wanted to ask... have you considered what I said, b-back then?"

"Back then...?"

"Y-Yeah. I told you that you ca-can be a great Hero, Yotaro-san. So... d-do you want t-to be one?"

There was a deep silence, stretched out for what felt like an eternity though, in reality, has barely even been a minute. "I-I..." He let out a shaky breath that he didn't even realize he had been holding. "It's... I'm still thinking about it."

Izuku nodded in understanding. "It's fine. There's still a lot of time to think about it since not everyone wants to be a Hero anyway, after all."

Yotaro nodded. With that, the boy took one glance at the clock that hanged inside the convenience store. "I need to go."

"Oh... okay." He murmured with a disappointed expression.

He hurried away, his steps echoing more and more mutedly until it disappeared entirely. Yotaro continued to walk with a quickened pace. He wasn't sure what took over him. He knew the gaps in between his many part-time jobs were short, but seeing the cashier girl, his mind couldn't help but be reminded of her fearful expression so many weeks ago.

But he didn't regret taking a short moment off to apologize. The gnawing guilt deep in his heart, though it wasn't entirely gone... it at least abated.

And Izuku, the green-haired boy. His words continued to echo in his mind like a pest, scratching away at his skin. 'Be a Hero, hm...? Yeah, right. As if.'

Unbeknownst to him, Yotaro was going through much of the same doubts as Izuku... though there were some stark contrasts, as well.

Soon, the boy had to shake away those vexing thoughts. A few klicks away from the LAWSON store, he stared up at a building. The structure stood tall with bright red lights radiating off of the letters that made up Music Galore, the store's name.

Without much ceremony, he stepped forward and reached out for the door...

SQUELCH

His jolted backwards in surprise, feeling something hairy present under his boot. Raising it, his eyes slowly widened as viscous flesh was pulled by the underside of his shoe, folded organs and dark crimson pooling out from the corpse. Bits of gray hair stuck to the various parts, allowing Yotaro to guess what the animal once was before it met it's unfortunate end.

'A rat...' He groaned as he rubbed off the sticky bits using his rocky fingers before he then washed it in the pouring rain. 'Disgusting.'

Gazing at the corpse and realizing that it may throw off some potential customers, he took the store's doormat and placed it above the dead rat, before he stomped down his boot on the mound. He muttered a silent apology as he moved the doormat back to it's original position. What little red and pink remained was quickly washed off by the rain.

'Isn't this area supposed to be clean? I guess nowhere is immune to these things.'

He murmured a small apology as he walked through the door, a high-pitched ring resounding through the surroundings. Assaulted by the warm air, he took off his raincoat and the Pizza Hut uniform under it, revealing a green and red themed outfit.

"I'm here, boss."

As Yotaro went on with his day, he didn't realize that a pair of eyes had followed him throughout his journey. The figure, shrouded in a hooded coat, stood in the deep shade of an alley. Rats scurried around the unknown wraith's legs as if in worship.

I apologize for the late update. Admittedly, I was very invested in the Elden Ring DLC — that final boss in particular — but it nevertheless caused my chapter release rate to need a fixer-upper.

To compensate for this, I'll maintain the schedule of one chapter a week whilst trying to release essentially three additional chapters on top of the usual schedule, so that my promise of one chapter a week is technically true. Anyway, as usual, hope you enjoy the chapter and give reviews.