Bleary eyed, Kaina took a sip of coffee as she leaned against the police cruiser, using it as much as a crutch to stay on her feet as she was to get a momentary respite. 48 hours after the self-proclaimed League of Villains attacked the U.A. Sports Festival and the HPSC was running her ragged. The attack had been televised across the country and made global headlines. It was, to be frank, a disaster of national proportions for Japan.

The politicians were spouting their usual rhetoric that everything was fine, but the public was in a panic. The HPSC was coming under fire for their 'lackluster response' to the situation, but U.A. had it the worst; students were leaving in droves, either transferring to other schools for their own safety, or being pulled out by their parents. There were mutterings that the school should be shut down, but Kaina doubted it would actually happen. U.A. had produced some of the most well known Heroes in the country; four of the current top five on the Hero billboard were U.A. alumni with another five heroes spread across the top 20. Still, perhaps their saving grace was that even though students were dropping like flies, not a single Hero Course student had withdrawn or requested a transfer.

The sniper heroine had watched the press conference Nezu'd held the day after the attack. The rat had praised the heroes and students for their prompt response to the crisis, citing how they'd acted quickly to protect and evacuate the civilians. He'd then driven in just how rare teleportation and warp Quirks were and the difficulty that came with defending against them before moving on to state that U.A., which was already cited as the school with the best security system in the country, would be upgrading their defenses under the supervision of Power Loader and Nezu himself. The press had tried to find a chink in the chimera's armor, but Nezu had warded them off like the political genius he was.

Exhaustion weighing her down Kaina sighed before taking another drink; the announcement wouldn't make Daitoryo happy. The President had been looking for an 'in' at U.A. for years but the school was an impenetrable fortress under Nezu's supervision. The rat had just as many connections, favors, and blackmail material as any career politician, and with his ability to predict just how the dominoes would fall using his Quirk, Nezu could make a single phone call and start a chain reaction that could topple countries. Okay, that might have been a bit of an exaggeration, Aizawa knew about her, about Keigo, but he was an underground Hero and knew that speaking out about the darkside of the Hero industry would paint a target on his back. On the other hand, Nezu could probably bring down the commission whenever he desired, but knew that doing so would lead to a void in power that could be filled by any number of unknowns, some of which might not be as charitable to a non-human as the HPSC was to him. What was the saying? "Better the devil you know than the one you don't?"

The squealing of children tore Kaina away from her thoughts, and she turned to see a gaggle of school children racing towards her. "Lady!"

"It's Nagant! I told you it was her!"

"Can we shake your hand?"

Huffing fondly, Nagant smiled, pushing away her exhaustion, "For you guys? Sure, as a special treat." So saying she stretched out her hand towards the children looking up at her with awe. A hand coated in blood. Kaina recoiled, pulling her arm back to her chest as the rapid thumping of her heart filled her ears. Her breaths became rushed, and her smile felt unnatural on her face. She tried to force it off but couldn't, it was plastered on and wouldn't budge.

"We're huge fans! Shake our hands!" She could feel the blood seeping into her costume; hot, wet, sticky… fresh.

"SorryIhearsomeonecallingformesoIgottago." She sprinted away, the groans of the children ringing out behind her. Ducking into a nearby alley Kaina collapsed to the ground behind a dumpster, head in her hands. What was happening to her?

You're having a panic attack.

No, I'm not.

Rapid breathing, reminders of trauma.

There's nothing traumatic about my job.

Then why are you cowering behind a dumpster? Because of some children?

Children, children like Eri who looked up to her in awe as a Hero, because that's what they thought she was. Someone that protected them, kept them safe. Children that didn't know about the blood staining her hands. Kaina could only imagine the horror on their faces if they knew the truth, knew about the dozens she'd killed, both hero and villain alike, to preserve the oh so valuable peace Daitoryo was always droning on about. Would they still ask for her to shake their hands if they knew the truth? Thank her for all she'd done? No, they'd be disgusted, horrified, and so would Eri.

Eri, her little unicorn that had already been through so much. Imagining the little ray of sunshine directing that expression at her broke something inside the Sniper Heroine, and she began to cry. What was her life? She was a murderer masquerading as a hero. The buzzing of her phone cut through Kaina's tears. Heart heavy, she pulled it out to check the number. Sniffling, she rubbed her eyes before answering, trying to sound like everything was fine, that she was just another emotionless cog in the machine. "Yes?"

"It's me," her coordinator said simply, "Now that the first 48 hours have elapsed since the U.A. attack, our specialists say that the odds of us finding any more of the villains involved will decrease exponentially with how much time has elapsed. You're being given the next two days off to use as you please for your unwavering dedication to assisting in the pursuit and capture of these villains. The Hero Public Safety Commission appreciates your efforts and reminds you that you can still be called upon should the need arise." The buzzing of a dead line told Kaina that the call was over and she let the phone fall from her hands to the dirty ground of the alleyway as she buried her head in her arms.

- 20 hours later -

Sitting at the table of her apartment, Kaina leaned her chair backwards precariously as she shoved a chopstick of cup ramen into her mouth. Her phone rested on the mess that was her table, littered with files from various assignments. As Kaina chewed, her eyes once again flickered to the simple two word text sitting stagnant on the screen. Call me. It had been sent last night, but after her little meltdown she was in no mood to call the man on the other end, let alone deal with his silent judgment.

But she couldn't hide forever. Slurping up the last of her lunch, she hit the call button, placing it on speaker before throwing away her trash. A click echoed across the small apartment before Aizawa's voice broke the silence. "Tsutsumi."

"Yeah, what do you want? Shouldn't you be busy, considering the little incident your school had recently?"

"I'm at the hospital. Eri's here."

"What?" Kaina was up in a flash, her chair falling to the ground forgotten as she grabbed her phone and bare essentials. "Is she alright? Was she injured? I'm coming over, let me know which hospital she's in-"

"No." Kaina froze, her hand on her apartment's door knob.

"I'm sorry," she hissed. "Did you just tell me that Eri was in the hospital and then forbid me from seeing her? What right do you have-"

"I'm her guardian," Aizawa said, cutting Kaina off once more. "And Eri's alright. She woke up yesterday. She was at the Sports Festival watching from the teachers box with the other staff. She was never in any danger, but due to the chaos, she had a panic attack. Her Quirk activated, no injuries but it left her exhausted. She was taken to the hospital as a precaution and slept until yesterday afternoon. She wanted to come home, but they wanted to keep her overnight just in case."

Aizawa's calm, simple recounting of events did a good job abating the sniper heroine's worries, even if she would never admit it. "She'll be released into my care within the hour, but I'm not calling you to give you an update on her condition, I'm calling because you've been keeping information from me."

"What?"

"I know the HPSC made you a special counsel for the Shie Hassaikai extermination investigation, Eri's former captors. That was fine, considering what they did to her and your particular 'talents'. I don't expect you to tell me confidential information, but I would at least like you to inform me when you found her rescuer."

"Huh?"

A sigh resonated through the speaker followed shortly after by a ding. He'd sent her an image. Opening it up, Kaina found herself looking at a crayon drawing of a little white haired girl with a horn on her head watching a fight between a beaked figure with a purple collar and a shaggy green haired boy in a suit. Shaggy green hair that was all too familiar.

"What is this?" She questioned weakly. It felt like she was being held hostage again, unable to move without putting everyone around her at risk. She struggled to breathe even as Aizawa answered.

"A photo Eri drew after Nemuri explained that I was teaching future Heroes. She called the green haired one her Hero, claimed he saved her. No one on staff recognized him, and I told Nemuri I would send you a copy of the drawing."

"You didn't."

"No."

"Why?"

"To keep you away? Distance you two? Take your pick, you found him anyway."

"How-"

"Eri saw you sitting next to him during the Sports Festival." No. No, no, no. Memories played through Kaina's mind as the pieces of the puzzle filled themselves in.

'The only thing I've really done purposefully wrong is attack another villainous organization that had something I wanted.'

'This incident is one that the Commission has taken a special interest in,' 'an attack by an as of yet unknown group on the Shie Hassaikai's base of operations.' 'They were researching something, attempting to develop a weapon that would use Eri's blood as a catalyst.'

'What?'

'Quirk erasing bullets.'

'Everyone told Kacchan that he would grow up to be a great hero and it got to his head. He enjoyed testing his Quirk.'

'He used his Quirk on you?'

'It didn't matter to them if I was covered in ash and burns, if my uniform was torn and covered in blood, all that mattered was that I was still Quirkless, useless Midoriya who dared to try and sully their precious Katsuki Bakugo.' 'I learned when I was four that life's unfair. Everything since then has just driven the point home that the system, society is broken.

Discrimination still exists, be it against the Quirkless, mutation Quirks, or those with Quirks dubbed 'villainous.' Our government runs on laws made nearly 200 years ago when Quirks were still developing,' 'Society's fraying at the edges, problems forced down for decades are rising to the surface, and All Might, the symbol of this 'peaceful' era, is appearing less and less. And people are noticing, crime levels all over the country are rising to numbers not seen in decades, and villains are only growing more bold. With all that's happening, can you really claim that society is at peace, that people aren't going about their everyday lives all under the illusion of a faux peace that will fall away when things finally reach a head?'

"Oh, my gods." She whispered horrified, hand rising to her face.

"Tsutsumi? What is it?" Aizawa'd gone hero mode, sensing something was amiss. But she couldn't tell him; if he knew, if the Commission knew, then Eri's life was forfeit. Forget their agreement, Daitoryo would kill the three of them himself and salt the earth where they were buried. If Midoriya was planning on bringing down Quirk society by removing people's Quirks, he threatened not only the Commission, but all of Japan, if not the World, and only she knew.

For a moment, Kaina regretted not killing him in the arena, regardless of the damage Toga would have inflicted immediately afterwards but she shook the feeling off. She couldn't change the past; what mattered now was finding Midoriya and eliminating him before anyone else figured out what his goal was. "Sorry, got to go," Kaina cut Aizawa off. Hanging up, she all but sprinted to her bedroom, throwing on her costume before heading out the door.

Sitting in front of a computer in the HPSC records department, Kaina couldn't help but anxiously tap her fingers against the desk as she waited for the screen to load. As Daitoryo's personal 'enforcer', Lady Nagant's security clearance was much higher than a majority of the other HPSC staff, not just the lower level employees who knew nothing of the agency's darker side, but most of the higher ups as well. It was a reward, a 'sign of trust' Daitoryo had called it when he'd last raised it. Kaina knew that was a lie, her clearance just allowed her to better complete her missions and she suspected that Daitoryo could easily view anything she looked at should he so desire. Thus far, she'd given the president no reason to, and unless she had unusual traffic or investigated matters she shouldn't, Daitoryo would have no reason to start now.

At least, that's what she hoped. If Daitoryo got even a hint of what she believed Midoriya was planning he would do whatever was necessary to prevent the greenete from accomplishing his goal. As her thoughts turned to the villain she was hunting, the computer finally finished loading, Kaina found herself looking at the investigative report for the Musutafu Apartment Collapse.

Reading through it and ignoring the parts that focused on the engineering analysis, Nagnat was able to build a picture in her head of what happened: Pro Hero Slugger arrived at the apartment and encountered an unknown villain. The proceeding battle damaged the apartment enough to cause a collapse, which killed fourteen people, including Inko and Izuku Midoriya. For a moment she stared at the name, the face of the boy it belonged to filling her mind before she shook her head and he faded away.

Scrolling down, the sniper heroine found a series of videos, which the report described as being what the security cameras captured of the incident. Unfortunately, the report explained, the majority of the camera footage was lost due to the mysterious, still unexplained, blackout that occurred immediately following the apartment collapse, but what was recovered was able to be released to the public.

Clicking play Nagant watched Slugger enter the building and take an elevator up to the third floor, knocking on a door where he was greeted by an overweight green haired woman, who could only be Inko Midoriya. The two disappeared into the apartment where they remained for nearly an hour at which point a familiar figure appeared on screen. Izuku Midoriya, dressed in a black middle school gakuran, unlocked the apartment door and stepped inside. Shortly after, the camera wobbled as the apartment complex seemingly shuddered multiple times over the next few minutes before the building rumbled loudly, a cloud of dust rose up to fill the camera lens before it cut off entirely.

That was the report, nothing to substantiate Izuku's claims that Slugger had raped and murdered his mother, except the hero not emerging from the apartment after he'd entered. But that meant the villain had to have been in the apartment for Slugger to have fought him. It couldn't have been Izuku, he was Quirkless. Was there someone else there? Why wait until Izuku's arrival before confronting Slugger?

Frowning, Nagant scrolled back up and clicked on Inko Midoriya's name, which opened her profile in a new tab. No criminal history, a job working as a nurse at a local hospital, a Quirk that allowed her to attract small objects to her hands via hand movements, the woman was remarkably ordinary. The only thing notable was her attached autopsy report, a requirement by law for those that perished in villain attacks so the villain could be charged with homicide if the victim's death could be attributed to occurring as a result of the villain's actions. Although her body had been buried in debris, and crushed in various places, the autopsy had found Inko's pelvic region to be unusually bruised and that there was semen in her vagina. Testing had identified the semen as belonging to Yakyu Suragga, otherwise known as the Baseball Hero: Slugger. It wasn't incriminating by itself, the two could have simply been lovers after all, but with Izuku's testimony and the time that elapsed between when Inko let Slugger into the apartment and Izuku's arrival shortly before the unknown villain's attack, Nagant found herself believing Izuku's claims.

Another corrupt hero. Just how long would it have been before Slugger found himself on the other end of her rifle's scope? A month? A year? Longer? How many more lives would he have ruined before the Commission finally decided that he wasn't worth keeping around? Slugger had raped a woman, murdered her, yet he was honored as a hero. Just like Red Riot, like Rhino Beetle, Heathen, Slick, Arson, Nzuri, Omega, Phylange, Everseer, Apoge, and so many more. Heroes that betrayed the trust of those they were sworn to protect, corrupted by what their position offered them. They were villains, yet the public revered them because that was what the HPSC made them out to be: heroes, just like her.

Author's Note:

May the 4th be with you, is anyone else excited for Tales of the Empire or just me? I'd totally be a sith in Star Wars but this isn't the Star Wars fandom this is the MHA one. Anyway new Rival Heirs interlude just dropped, Kaina's questioning her position, that's probably not going to go anywhere. *inconspicuous sip of iced coffee* Anyways next chapter we'll be moving on to the Hero Killer Arc or as I call it the Internship arc pt 1. I'm kind of excited since before I even started writing this story I had an image of a scene in my head and I'm very excited to finally write it down.

Other than that usual comment, follow, favorite. Comments keep me writing and follows, favorites encourage others to check out this story. New question is up on my poll so go vote. I've been playing a lot of Bloodborne recently and now I'm in the mood to do some eldritch writing. Let me know if you'd be interested in that. Subscribe to my pa-treon and special thanks to my $5 demon level patrons:

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Thanks for your continued support. Until next time this is the being whose eldritch harem includes Ebrietas, Kos, and DBD's Entity, signing off

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May 4, 2024

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Anime/Manga: My Hero Academia

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