Posted originally on the Archive_of_Our_Own at https://archiveofourown.org/ works/14019582. Rating: Explicit Archive Warning: Graphic_Depictions_Of_Violence, Major_Character_Death, Underage Category: M/M Fandom: 僕のヒーローアカデミア_|_Boku_no_Hero_Academia_|_My_Hero_Academia Relationship: Bakugou_Katsuki/Midoriya_Izuku, Kirishima_Eijirou/Todoroki_Shouto Character: Bakugou_Katsuki, Midoriya_Izuku, Midoriya_Inko, Yaoyorozu_Momo, Shinsou Hitoshi, Iida_Tenya, Original_Characters, Other_Character_Tags_to_Be Added, Background_&_Cameo_Characters Additional Tags: Other_Additional_Tags_to_Be_Added, Codependency, Blood, Violence, Minor Character_Death, Alternate_Universe_-_Ajin, AJIN_characters, It's_gonna be_a_wild_ride_folks, there_are_going_to_be_a_lot_of_Cameos, Just_Roll With_It Series: Part 20 of standing_in_awe_of_death Stats: Published: 2018-03-19 Updated: 2018-03-30 Chapters: 6/? Words: 21222 ****** euthanasia ****** by Ramabear_(RyMagnatar) Summary With the Sport Festival fast becoming part of the past, Izuku and Katsuki head into their week-long field training brimming with excitement and they're not the only ones! Hitoshi's signed up with an agency that claims a familiarity with his quirk. Momo has decided to pursue the medical side of pro-hero recovery work. Tenya is on a personal quest to find and dismantle the man who murdered his brother. Others in their class hope to pursue their dreams, one step at a time with their temporary mentors. At the very least, the week starts off with quite a bang. Notes i have no more warnings for you. if you're this far in, you know what you're here for. this is the stain arc. enjoy. See the end of the work for more notes ***** hey what up, its us, your boys ***** Chapter Notes enjoy this early release chapter yall. its not april yet, but who cares. time is a lie and once im done with this i can get back to brotherhood. “This is the place, right Kacchan?” Izuku asked, looking up at the short, unimpressive building tucked in between a massage parlour and, as far as Izuku could tell, some sort of banking headquarters. He had a piece of paper in his hand that told him the address and the numbers above the front door of the building matched the number on the paper he held, but it didn’t look like a hero agency. For one thing, the windows looked tinted, making it hard to see inside, and besides a small logo and some hours on the front door, there was nothing that declared it was the Vigilance agency at all. The logo itself was just a white clam shell with a rising sun behind it with the word Vigilance written on the shell. “It’s got to be the place,” Katsuki said. “Where the fuck else could it be if it wasn’t this place?” He took the paper out of Izuku’s hand and looked at it. Then he too looked up at the number above the door. There were at least three stories to the building, maybe four. It was hard to tell because some of the windows on the side stretched all the way up the wall and some of them didn’t. Plus, it looked like there was fencing up above on the roof, which, well, did that count as another floor? Izuku wasn’t sure at all. They stood there for another minute or two in uncertainty. Then Katsuki jammed the paper into his pocket and grabbed Izuku by the wrist. He pulled him towards the door with a grim determination that Izuku quickly adopted. They had been instructed to wear civilian clothes to the agency, but bring their hero outfits with them, which they had in a pair of matching backpacks on their backs. For all intents and purposes, they looked like a couple of random teens just walking into some weird office building, though Izuku hoped it would look somewhat more heroic once he was inside. Though, once he was there, he had to wonder if a hero agency was supposed to have the feel of a hotel lobby to it, at least in the entrance. The floor was polished to almost a mirror finish and front and center there was a large circular desk with one woman sitting behind it. She had sharp, angular features and a prominent nose and she looked at them with the eyes of a hawk, riveted to them almost immediately. Her hair was the color of fire and her skin a dark brown like fired clay and she wore a bright blue blouse. Izuku hesitated a step when her eyes turned to him and for one second it felt like she knew everything he knew, that she could see every thought in his head, that she knew him like she washim. It was incredibly unnerving and he stumbled to a stop halfway to the desk because of the feeling. Katsuki was only a half- step ahead of him. His grip on Izuku’s wrist tightened considerably but Izuku barely even felt it. The woman looked at them in complete silence for one minute and then two. She blinked once during that whole time. Izuku instinctively held his breath until his lungs burned and he had to gasp for breath. Then she looked down at something at her desk and plucked two pages from a stack. She slid them across the desk and produced two pens from god knew where and smiled. It was the smile that let Izuku unlock his knees and breathe easy. “Bakugou Katsuki,” the woman said, her voice was soft but carried well across the otherwise empty room, “Midoriya Izuku, welcome to Vigilance Demolition and Recovery Agency. Please sign these waivers while I contact your mentors so that they may begin the introductory phase of your morning.” Izuku nodded and took a step forward. He had to tug a little on Katsuki’s arm but only twice before he walked too. They got to the desk, which was still pretty ominous up close but slightly less so once he could see the untidy stacks of paper, the small potted cactus she had and a couple of framed pictures of, presumably, family members tucked to the side. Up close he was also able to see her name tag attached to her blouse. “Um,” Izuku said, picking up the pen, “It’s nice to meet you, Ms. Era.” She gave him a slow, considering blink and for half a second Izuku felt pinned. But then she gave that approving smile again and said, “Just Era will suit me. I do not have a gender and thus do not prefer gendered pronouns.” “Oh,” Izuku flushed and looked to Katsuki. Katsuki was looking at the paper they were supposed to be signing and steadfastly not looking at Izuku or Era. “Sorry about that,” Izuku said lamely. “It’s just that you… I’ll just um… sign this.” He switched his pen to his other hand but that’s when Katsuki got involved and tightened his grip. Izuku was beginning to notice a lack of feeling in his right hand and he cleared his through, “Kacchan-” “Don’t sign it until I’m done fucking reading it,” Katsuki growled out. “Haven’t you fucking learned anything?” He went back to reading through the page. Izuku looked at it and noticed at second look that it had a lot more text squeezed on there than he’d previously thought. The font was fairly small, as if it were all being smashed onto one page. Izuku looked sheepishly towards Era, but they didn’t seem to mind Katsuki’s reading too much. They simply turned towards the computer tucked off to the side of the desk and began using the mouse and typing on the keyboard. Finally, Katsuki let go of Izuku’s wrist and nodded to him. “It looks okay,” he said, “They’ll take responsibility if something really shitty happens to us, but if we fuck around and get people hurt, they’ll make sure we own our mistakes. Which makes sense, I guess.” Izuku nodded back. He flexed his hand a little bit, working the blood back into his fingers, and then managed to sign his name on his page. He slid it over to Era along with Katsuki’s. They took the pages, looked them over, and tucked them away. Then they reached under the edge of the desk and pushed a button or something because there was the distant flash of a light and Izuku noticed, for the first time, a set of double doors at the back of the room. “That will lead you towards the stairwell,” Era said, turning and gesturing to the double doors, “The basement floor holds the in-agency gym and locker rooms where you will do any and all indoor training and changing into your uniforms. The first floor is the bullpen of the recovery unit. The second floor is the bullpen of the demolitions unit. The third floor holds the infirmary unit and the offices of our sister-agency Vitality Squad. Your mentors should be coming out very soon to meet with you. As I just let them know you were here.” “Thanks,” Izuku said. Katsuki grabbed him by the wrist again and began hauling him off before he could say anything else. Izuku hurried to keep up with him. His heart began to beat faster in his chest as he anticipated meeting his mentor. He had read a little bit on the man online, finding some articles after googling the agency and the man who had founded it. He was pretty young and had started the agency on his own, without any older hero partners or outside funding, which was pretty unusual. He had a quirk that was described as some sort of heightened mental awareness and was registered, as far as Izuku had been able to read as “Heightened Intuition”. Izuku figured he probably wasn’t much of a fighting hero, but didn’t think that made him weak in any way. After all, he apparently worked side by side with the others of his team to rescue people trapped in dangerous debris like at the stadium so he had to have somestrength to him. The picture of him that Izuku had seen, standing a few feet from the edge of a sudden sinkhole that had dropped half of a cafe down twenty feet, showed a young looking man with brown hair and brown eyes who didn’t seem very intimidating. Katsuki hadn’t been impressed by him, but Izuku had liked the way he looked. Katsuki pushed open the right door. Izuku bit his lower lip. To his surprise, there was one woman who waited for them in the stairwell. To his even greater surprise, he recognized her. “Xanna?” Izuku exclaimed. With her hands on her hips, Xanna grinned at them. “Boys! So good to see you again!” “What are youdoing here?” Katsuki demanded. “Don’t tell me you’re actually a hero.” “Oh don’t be like that,” Xanna laughed, “I’m very much a hero! I’m part of the recovery squad, actually. In fact, I was there when the stadium collapsed. I think Izuku and I ran across each other, though he was so covered in dirt at the time I hardly got a good scent on him.” Izuku flushed. But that spurred a thought in him that he hadn’t had since the stadium. “Oh!” he stepped forward, “That man that I led you to in the rubble. Did he get out okay? I never found out anything about him.” Xanna blinked, “You… have no idea who that was, do you?” Izuku shook his head. “Ohhhhh man. Wowie. Okay,” Xanna dragged a hand through her hair. Then she leaned in, cupping one hand around her mouth and whispering, “Typically we try to preserve the whole personal information thing but technically you guys are part of the agency for a week. So as long as you don’t go around talking about this then-” The door behind Xanna opened and she stopped mid-sentence. A shorter individual stepped into the small room and said with a frown, “Boss wants to see the kids now, Xanna, bring them in already.” After meeting with Era, Izuku was more aware of misgendering and now worried, with this far more androgynous person, about calling them by the wrong gender. He must have looked at them nervously because they looked at him, and Katsuki, for a moment and then pat their chest with one hand, “I’m Cheery. Xanna’s my partner out in the field and deskmate in the pen. Come on in, kids, the boss is ready to see you.” “I was only greeting them,” Xanna complained as they walked towards Cheery. She stepped in behind Izuku and murmured, “I’ll tell you about the guy you rescued later, champ.” Then she winked. Izuku nodded distractedly. They had just entered the first floor room, which was larger than he had anticipated, and had a whole lot going on. The first thing that caught his eye was the bright flash of pink on the other side of the room. Outwards from that Izuku noticed that there were a half dozen people sitting at desks and another half dozen standing around the sides. There was a general division between them, not just sitting and standing, but clothing as well. He hadn’t really noticed it on Xanna or Cheery, but they, and everyone else around the desks in the middle, wore a bluish-grey full piece uniform. They looked almost like a maintenance crew, just without any reflective parts to their outfits. Conversely, the ones standing, including the person with pink hair, wore the same outfit but with a dark brick-red color. A lot of them had the sleeves rolled up or entirely removed, baring lithe arms and shoulders and the occasional tattoo. One or two, on both sets, had their top jacket unzipped to reveal either a plain white or black shirt beneath. Izuku caught Katsuki’s hand in his own to get his attention, then, when he had it, he murmured, “They’re not in hero uniforms?” Katsuki nodded slightly, but before he could say anything, Cheery stopped and gestured for them to continue on. They walked up the center of the room, down the middle aisle between the desks and towards the door of the office there. This is where the person with the pink hair stood, now no longer talking, but watching with arms folded across her chest and a slight smile on her lips. She stood next to a man who was just a little shorter than her. He wore the blue uniform while she wore the red one and he stepped forward, hand extended, as they approached. “Welcome to Vigilance Agency,” the man said. Izuku recognized him from his online searching and so he held out his hand to greet him without hesitation. “My name is Tsunayoshi Sawada. You can call me Boss Tsuna. I’m the one who founded Vigilance with the help of my friend here. I run the recovery half of the agency, where you, Midoriya, will be spending your time this week.” Izuku nodded, “Thank you. I’m looking forward to it!” The woman stepped up, “My name is Sakura Haruno. You can call me Boss Haruno,” She held out her hand and when she shook Izuku’s it was firm and brisk, but not painful. “I run the demolition half and also all the internal discipline of the agency. If you two have any issues, bring them to me. Bakugou,” she said, shifting her attention to Katsuki. She shook his hand as well, “You’ll be spending most of your time with my boys this week. If they try to pick a fight with you, you are allowed to accept, so long as all fighting happens on the mats downstairs.” “Does that happen often?” Katsuki asked, with a sidelong look to the three or four red-clad people along the wall. “More often than you’d think with a bunch of grown adults,” Haruno said with a shake of her head. “Dramatic fools, the lot of them.” “She’s really making you guys look bad,” one of the red-clad men said with a snigger. Another one punched him in the shoulder. “She’s talking about you, asshole.” “Oi!” Haruno snapped and they quieted up. She sighed, “I swear, sometimes I wonder about the sanity of employing Uchiha, let alone three of them.” Sawada cleared his throat and Haruno shifted to step back. He gave her a little nod and took Izuku’s attention once more. “Unlike most agencies, with territories that need to be patrolled, our sphere of influence tends to be dictated by the area around disasters. It’s part of the reason why we’re so small an agency, still, because we don’t send people out on patrol on our day to day. Currently, we’re not on active duty as we spent the last week finishing up the work down by the stadium.” Sawada gestured to a pinboard next to the door of, presumably, his office. There were some pictures of the rubble of the stadium, as well as overhead shots and a map with a rough outline of the damaged area. “What I’d like to start with today is finding out your physical limits. You’ll go down to the training area with Haruno and she’ll run you through your paces.” Sawada folded his hands together in front of himself, looking seriously at them, “This job can be both physically and mentally taxing as, during the times of crisis, we work long hours when most other heroes have left the scene. We’ll be testing strength, stamina and some other things down below to see where your physical limits on. “Mental limits are a little harder to test,” Sawada said with a faint little smile. He looked from Izuku to Katsuki and back and the smile grew somewhat, “Though I have a feeling you two are quite mentally hardy.” He turned his head towards Haruno, “I think they’re ready.” “Excellent. Come on boys,” Haruno said. She gestured for them to follow and went towards the side of the room. There was a side door that lead to a stairwell only going down to the basement. Izuku and Katsuki followed. Izuku glanced over his shoulder to see that most of the red-clad adults were following them. “It’s not exactly fighting villains,” Katsuki said under his breath, “but it’s pretty damn heroic to save people out of fucked up buildings, I think.” Izuku nodded. They had known they were going to an unorthodox agency after their online searching, but seeing it in person was different. He still wanted to punch the lights out on a villain, sure, but he wanted to do it with Katsuki and if this was the place that took them both, this was the place they were going to go. The door at the bottom of the stairs opened directly into a room that looked similar to their indoor gyms at the school. There were large pads in the center section of the room. The pads were several inches thick and blue on the top, Izuku could see the bottom edge of them which was a brick red color. Off to the side, there was a separate area that contained several racks of weight lifting equipment. Encircling the entire area was a two lane running track. Haruno stopped a few feet in and gestured to a door on the far side. “That’s the men’s locker. Shisui will help you two get a locker and get some uniforms.” She plucked her own jacket, “We wear these inside the agency because they’re comfortable and they keep us in the mindset that we’re here to do work, not goof off. Most of our heroic costumes can either go on top of this or incorporate this into it, as the fabric is fairly tear-proof and fireproof. When and if we get called out this week for some disaster, we’ll let you two bundle up in your typical uniforms. “Unlike most agencies, we don’t need to be in gear twenty four seven because if we get a call, we’ll have the time to change.” She held up a finger and said with narrowed eyes, “But that doesn’t give you reason to dawdle. Efficiency is key. Now go on, get changed, and meet me back out here.” One of the red-clad adults approached. He had short, curly black hair that was held back by a wide banded headband. He was one of the ones that had his jacket unzipped to show a white shirt beneath.  “Hey,” he said with a wave. “I’m Shisui. Welcome to the Boss’s tenth circle of hell. Come this way to get ready.” “Uh, what?” Izuku asked. He still followed Shisui, who walked backwards towards the locker door. “Boss is pretty notorious for being a hardass,” Shisui said, “She’s kicked so many hopefuls out of the agency because they couldn’t run their paces with her.” Another one of the demolition unit members showed up next to Shisui suddenly. He had longer black hair and wasn’t as tall. He smirked down at them, “Boss is going to make you two wish you never signed up to be heroes.” Shisui very neatly elbowed his coworker in the gut, smiling all the while. “Boys, meet Sasuke. He’s insufferable, yet somehow he manages to keep working here.” “Boss likes me,” Sasuke coughed out as he rubbed his stomach. “Boss likes your brother more like,” Shisui retorted. “She pities you.” Izuku looked to Katsuki, who sighed and shoved past them both to get into the locker room. “If you dumb fucks want to keep jabbering at each other be my fucking guest. C’mon Deku.” Izuku ducked his head to hide his grin and hurried after Katsuki. He was proud of Katsuki for not blowing up on them, but knew that Katsuki was trying hard to impress their bosses. At least, that’s what he figured. He’d almost missed the intense look that Katsuki gave Haruno as they shook hands. The locker room was unremarkably a locker room. They found two empty ones, dumped their bags in them and, by that time, Shisui gave them both their outfits; grey-blue for Izuku and brick-red for Katsuki. They fit okay too, not too long, not too tight. Izuku zipped his up all the way but rolled up the sleeves to his elbows. Katsuki, on the other hand, gave his jacket back to Shisui and demanded one without sleeves. He was given one and Izuku couldn’t help but admire Katsuki’s bare shoulders and arms. He ran his fingers over a bicep while Katsuki tucked in his undershirt. Katsuki paused in his movements and glanced to him. Izuku smiled and continued to run his fingers up towards Katsuki’s shoulder. He only stopped when Katsuki reached up and grabbed his hand. They shared a look. Katsuki’s eyes flicked to the side, towards where Shisui and Sasuke waited for them to finish, and then to Izuku’s hand. Izuku sheepishly grinned and shrugged. Katsuki let him go and Izuku kept his ogling to his eyes only. “You’ve gotten stronger, Kacchan,” Izuku said quietly, “Are you secretly lifting weights without me?” “You’re the one who goes to bed early every fucking night,” Katsuki replied, “So what if I get an extra half hour of lifting time in then?” “Not fair,” Izuku said, but he was smiling and didn’t really mean it, “Those naps you take give you an unfair advantage.” “You just like sleep too much,” Katsuki snorted. “You nap with me, dumbass. Stay up late and do your own workouts or train Usagi or something.” “Will you still love me if my arms are as ripped as yours?” Izuku asked. Katsuki flicked his nose, “Now you’re just being stupid on purpose. C’mon. Let’s go.” Izuku ignored the way that Shisui and Sasuke looked at them, curiously and without shame, like they were cats watching fish beneath the surface of a pond- with Katsuki and Izuku being the fish of course. Izuku couldn’t tell what they were thinking, but so long as they didn’t react badly he thought it would be okay. The one who’s thoughts really mattered was Haruno. He wanted to impress Haruno with his physical ability. She had the air of a tough but fair teacher and he wanted to earn whatever praise she would give. When they got back out into the gym room, they found that Haruno waiting, her hands as fists on her hips and a fire in her green eyes. Izuku hadn’t noticed how bright they were before, but now, with them focused on him and Katsuki with such intensity, he couldn’t help it. She stood as immovable as a statue and commanded all of their attention. Izuku got the feeling that their test had begun the moment they came out of the locker room and his spine stiffened. He was going to impress her. He and Katsuki would both pass. They had to. “Sasuke, head off to the pen,” Haruno said, not taking her eyes off of Izuku and Katsuki, “I’ll just be using Shisui for this one.” He didn’t say anything, but Izuku couldn’t turn to look even if he had. There was the sound of a door opening and shutting and then it was the four of them. There was a flicker of motion and then Shisui appeared at Haruno’s side, grinning, with his arms folded across his chest. “Okay boys,” Haruno said, “We’ll start simple and work up from there. Every task that I’ll be giving you, Shisui here will also be completing, just in case you think it can’t physically be done. We’ll be working with and without quirks, starting with running you through your paces and then going to sparring,” She grinned, slowly at first and then broad as if baring her teeth. “I’ll be your sparring partner. Impress me or you’re out of here.” ***** don't overload it ***** Chapter Notes some of you noticed last chapter that there were a lot of recognizable background characters. please keep in mind that they're functioning pretty much exclusively as cameo and minor characters. i had to make like,,, 20 OCs for this section and i dont actually have that many OCs (in fact all of the ones so far except hamilton have been reintroduced from somewhere else or borrowed from a friend) so i just pulled in characters i knew with strong personalities, skills and the neccessary moral allignments to do the things i needed them to do. i left their names on them because we can all see how terrible i am with coming up with names. i mean, tessa hamilton? really? what the fuck yknow? anyway, i've been doing this since literally the beginning, it's just a bit more obvious with naruto characters, i guess. i won't be going into their lives or anything. they're just there to help move the story along in the way that i want it moved. if it bothers you, sorry buddy, the whole first 15 chapters of this is gonna have narts cameos and then later some other ones pretty prominently. we'll get through it, eventually. maybe around chapter 30 or 45 or something. in any case, enjoy the fic. its....well. we're going somewhere super fun soon :)   “That’s enough.” Haruno’s voice cut through the air with the same smooth authority as all her commands had. Katsuki resisted the urge to sigh with relief as he moved out of the last stretch, limbs trembling and sweat cooling on his skin. He bent over and braced his hands on his knees, closing his eyes for a second so he wouldn’t have to watch the way sweat dripped from his chin to the mat on the floor. He had sweat through the jacket and top that the agency had provided him and shed them halfway through the exercise, leaving his chest bare. He had always gotten sweaty when working out, but this was nothing like any workout he’d done before in his life. The closest thing that Katsuki could compare this to was that time over the summer where Izuku had spent days clearing out the shit from the beach under All Might’s guidance except condensed down into two hours. It was just as exhausting and unrelenting. The only difference was that tires and fridges didn’t look smugly at you as you failed to keep up the pace. Tires and fridges didn’t have a fucking pace to keep up with. Shisui tossed over a towel to Katsuki with the expression of smug superiority that Katsuki really, reallywanted to beat off his face. Katsuki straightened up and caught it in time. He wiped off his face and neck and shoulders, glowering at Shisui from behind the fabric. For his part, Shisui had also shed his jacket and was sweating through his shirt, but he hadn’t removed it yet and he certainly didn’t sound like he was struggling to breathe. Katsuki was too busy being pissed off to be impressed by him. He wanted to beat Shisui. He wanted to be better than Shisui. He was trying to figure out how Shisui wasn’t listed in the top ten heroes if the had this much speed and stamina. Sure, All Might made sense at the top and Katsuki believed that Endeavor could make a claim for the rank of second, but fuckers like Best Jeanist somehow beat out this guy and his boss? How? Was Best Jeanist somehow even fitter than this guy? Or did the unique properties of their quirks really make that much of a difference? Then again, maybe the top heroes never actually fought each other. It was all determined by other stupid shit like popularity and crime saving rates or something. A company like this didn’t really… stop crime, did it? Did that mean there were other heroic agencies like this one? Weird off-the- wall bullshit that isn’t the famous kind of heroics that was all over the news or televisions? Just because Vigilance Agency didn’t patrol or stop active crime, were they lesser heroes or was it more a case of improper designation? Katsuki scrubbed his head with the towel, trying to soak up all that extra moisture from his body and simultaneously clear his thoughts of unnecessary discussion. He was still fuming about that when he felt more than heard Shisui shout a casual “head’s up.” Katsuki reflexively grabbed the item out of the air before it hit his head. It was a bottle of some sports drink and Shisui was half a dozen feet away drinking from his own. A few feet away, Izuku stood with his own towel. He mopped up the sweat on his face with one hand while he talked to Haruno. Katsuki knew from experience that Izuku didn’t sweat as much as he did- it was one of the side effects of his quirk- so he hadn’t bothered to remove more than his jacket. Haruno was the only one of them that didn’t look like she’d just run through over an hour of intense workout training. Of course, she’d been the ones calling all the shots, monitoring them like a coach or referee, instructing them on what to do, when to do it, how long to do it and if they were fucking it up or something. Izuku was asking her about one of the stretches she had had them finish up with, asking about muscle strain or something. Katsuki was too distracted by the way that Izuku lookedto bother with the words coming out of his mouth. He rarely got to really look at Izuku while he talked animatedly without having to listen to him too. Katsuki liked how Izuku looked, at that moment, with one hand gesturing, water bottle in hand and sloshing back and forth. His eyes were bright and his skin flushed from their workout. He looked healthy. Alive. He didn’t look anything like the boy who had lain on a metal table, needle in his vein and blood pouring out of his body. Katsuki was overcome with a desire to walk over and kiss Izuku, hard. To bite his lip and leave a mark and demand that Izuku let it heal naturally. “So how long have you been involved with him?” Katsuki jumped but checked himself so he didn’t whirl around to face Shisui. It didn’t help much since Shisui had essentially appeared out of the air next to Katsuki. It was his quirk that let him do that, either some sort of short-range teleportation or super speed, Katsuki wasn’t sure which. Either way what was once a few feet of distance was now inches as Shisui stood beside Katsuki. “What?” Katsuki demanded. “You and Midoriya,” Shisui said with a sidelong glance. His eyes were dark and revealed nothing but his faint amusement, “You two are clearly an item, considering the way you two walk together and talk to each other. I saw you just now, staring at him like you want to eat him alive. How long have you two been involved?” Katsuki shrugged. It wasn’t any of Shisui’s business but… “The beginning of the school year, but we’ve known each other our whole lives.” “Huh,” Shisui said, “I would’ve guessed longer because how familiar you are with each other, more so than most new couples are. But childhood friendship turning into a romantic relationship makes sense too.” Katsuki’s lips twisted into a grimace, but he didn’t correct Shisui on the nature of his childhood relationship to Izuku. There was no point to it, now that Izuku didn’t seem to even remember it half the time. “Deku’s easy to get along with,” Katsuki said instead, “Once you get over his weird shit anyway.” “Weird shit?” Shisui repeated. “Yeah,” Katsuki didn’t elaborate. He focused instead on watching Izuku taking instruction from Haruno, attentively watching the way she demonstrated a more advanced stretching technique. He pulled at that lip that Katsuki wanted to attack, nodding and watching as she talked through her motions. When she’d finished, he put down his towel and bottle and mimicked the movement with Haruno tapping his arm and pressing her palm on his shoulder to adjust his posture. “A word of advice,” Shisui said, dropping his voice down so it didn’t carry, “Keep it on the back burner when you’re at work. There’s no real rule against romantic displays but Haruno will ride your ass if you distract Midoriya or yourself with your relationship.” Katsuki shot him a glare, “She can’t stop us from being together.” “I’m not saying she would try,” Shisui said, “But she’s serious about the work and she’ll take steps if she thinks it’s distracting you two.” “Steps?” Katsuki asked, “Like what?” Shisui shrugged unhelpfully. Katsuki didn’t get an opportunity to question him further because Haruno called out their names, demanding their attention. “Shisui, Bakugou, come over here.” She gestured to them with one hand, the other resting on her hip in a fist. Shisui gave Katsuki an enigmatic smile and obeyed Haruno, leaving Katsuki no choice but to follow. He grumbled wordlessly under his breath and went to stand beside Izuku who beamed at him. He was like the sun, shining brightly despite the creeping exhaustion that came after a hard workout. Katsuki’s eyes kept dropping to his shoulders and arms, which bulged slightly from the workout he’d just gone through. Izuku had opted to keep on his shirt, like Shisui, and had rolled up the sleeves to the shoulders. It was just a bit distracting, which made Katsuki hurriedly turn his attention to Haruno. Maybe she couldn’t separate them permanently, but Haruno certainly had the ability to keep them apart from each other while they were at the agency. Katsuki wasn’t about to be the reason they got in trouble- not when Haruno actually looked sort of pleased with them. She had an almost smile on her lips and a bright look in her eyes. “You both managed to keep up rather well,” Haruno said, looking from Izuku to Katsuki as she spoke to them, “It’s a good sign for how well you’ll do the rest of the week.” Then she gestured to the padding on the floor around them, “Before we move onto the final test, we need to flip all these pads over so that the red side is face up. Shisui, would you mind?” He shook his head and stepped up to the edge of one of the pads. Grabbing it, he turned it so the red side was revealed. There was a faded interlocking stripe pattern on the red side that came from a single dark-colored diamond in the center. Haruno turned towards the lifted up pad and suddenly kicked it, hard. There was a flash across the surface of the material, like a silvery light that flared up from the impact point and radiated outwards like a sound wave or a ripple on a pond. Izuku went "Ohhh" beside Katsuki, audibly impressed. Katsuki blinked, interested in the material as well. “What was that?” Izuku asked, “How did you get it to flash like that? Isn’t it cloth?” He stepped forward, hand outstretched. Katsuki reached forward and grabbed him by the elbow before he could touch it, however, and Izuku gave him a sheepish look. “It’s fine to touch,” Haruno said, stepping back. “This pattern isn’t woven onto the material but is actually part of a quirk. These pads are designed to absorb energy- thermal, kinetic, even a certain amount of electrical energy. They’re used on the pads as dampeners. It’s sort of a low budget quirk-proofing that can be used instead of outfitting a whole room in technologically based dampeners.” Izuku gave Katsuki a quick pleading look and he let go of his arm. Katsuki folded his arms across his chest, shifting so he could look around Izuku at the mat; he didn’t move to touch it, however. Shisui finished flipping the mat over and Izuku went to crouch down beside it. He ran his hand over the material, plucking at his bottom lip with his other hand and muttering about the material and absorption percentages. “Huh,” Katsuki said, “You’d think that a school like UA would have something like that for students to train with.” “It’s not exactly on the public market,” Haruno said with a flash of a smile. She reached up and brushed her hair out of her face. “Not to say it’s illegal, it’s just not available for purchase.” Katsuki’s eyes caught on the green diamond that was in the center of Haruno’s forehead. It wasn’t as big as the one on the mat, no, and it wasn’t the same color either. Then again, a green triangle on a red surface probably wouldn’t look so green if it was at all transparent. “So we need you two to flip all the mats over,” Shisui said suddenly, cutting into Katsuki’s thoughts again. “Right, Boss?” “Right.” Haruno said with an abrupt nod. “Midoriya, Bakugou, you flip over the mats. They should go right where they started, they just need to be red side up.” Katsuki nodded. He turned to the nearest mat on the ground and went to lift it up. He thought nothing of it, having seen Shisui hoist it up and over without a hassle, however, when he found the straps on the side and pulled, he nearly pitched forward on his feet as the mat resisted his efforts. He cursed and changed his grip. He managed to lift it up by bending it in half and then tugging on it to flip it over onto the blue side. He cursed again, louder, as he had to drag it back into place. By the time he’d fixed it, his efforts had gotten Izuku’s attention off the material itself. “Kacchan, lemme help,” Izuku said, getting up. “Yeah, yeah,” Katsuki muttered, but did sort of appreciate it. The size and weight of the mats made them unwieldy for one person, but between the two of them flipping them over was a piece of cake. Soon the entire floor was flipped from blue to red and Izuku was back to curiously examining the surface of one of the mats. He was testing it out by stomping down with his foot on the surface and watching the glow flash across the surface. It wasn’t a very bright light but it was distracting in its swiftness. The only way Katsuki was able to tell that Izuku was adjusting his strength on the stomps is how far the light traveled from the point of impact outwards. On stronger attempts, the light went from the mat he struck to the ones adjacent to it, as the energy passed through from mat to mat. After a few minutes of stomping and testing, Izuku stood up and smiled at Katsuki, satisfied with himself. “I don’t think I could use my full strength on these,” he said as he stepped closer to Katsuki so he could talk quietly, “But I still can’t quite use my full strength without tearing up my muscles anyway. They should be just fine for sparring while using your quirk, Kacchan, though I’m curious to see how the energy absorption works with your explosions. Haruno said it took all kinds, even thermal, which would have an interesting effect on your quirk.” “We could always try it out,” Katsuki said, lifting one hand. Sparks crackled in his palm and Izuku got that excited look on his face that Katsuki loved. They’d spent years testing out Izuku’s quirk, but there rarely were opportunities where they were able to do the same with Katsuki’s. Izuku pointed to a nearby mat, one surrounded by other mats on all sides. “Try to strike directly to the center,” Izuku said, “I think the absorption is the strongest right next to the symbol.” Katsuki nodded. He flexed his fingers and felt the heat gather in his palms. He planted his feet on either side of the diamond shaped mark on the mat and lined up his strike. Sucking in a sharp breath, Katsuki slid one foot back and lifted his hand up. He brought it down in a sweeping arc overhead, sparks flying from his palm just seconds before he struck the surface of the matt. The sound produced was similar to an open palmed slap to a sand filled punching bag. His palm smacked on the resistant cloth and a plume of smoke rose up from the impact point. The heat and flame that generally came with the use of his quirk was overshadowed by the smoke. There still was some, of course, but it had been absorbed by the mat. At the same time he’d hit the mat, a circle of light had flashed across the surface, drowning out the quickly fading light of his quirk. The mat had absorbed not just the heat but the light as well. Katsuki straightened up and blinked down at the mat. There wasn’t even a scorch mark where he’d hit the thing dead on with his quirk. “Fucking incredible,” he muttered. “Try it again,” Izuku said eagerly, “But with both hands. There must be a way to overload it and-” “Oi!” Izuku and Katsuki both jumped at the shout. They turned to see Haruno approaching them with a scowl. “Enough of that there. The mats are performing an important function. If I have to stop to repair one of them, it’ll won’t be pretty for you two.” “You’d kick us out over a busted exercise mat?” Katsuki asked with a scowl that mirrored hers. Izuku frowned as well, “They’re likely to be damaged and possibly destroyed through use in quirk activated sparring battles. Will we be held accountable if you have to repair one after a sparring match?” “Tch, and Sawada says you two are supposed to be intuitive,” Haruno muttered. She shook her head and gestured towards the mat they stood on. “First of all, I said it wouldn’t be pretty. How am I going to teach you to respect the belongings of others if I kick you out on your first mistake. Secondly, give a little attention to the timing. We’re about to do some intensive sparring. If you destroy a mat now, I’ll have to get it repaired before we can continue, and that’s a whole hour of time wasted. If, say, you wait until this afternoon or perhaps tomorrow, to run through your own tests, after gaining permissionto execute them with the agency’s time and materials, then that’s a whole other matter. “You have to be aware of the situation you’re in before you take a course of action,” Haruno said, “If you come to a creek in the middle of the woods and there’s a log that’s fallen across, do you just scamper out onto it and trust the wood is safe enough to walk across? No. You don’t. Because you don’t know how long its been there or how secure it is or if has or hasn’t rotted away.” Haruno rested her hands as fists on her hips, “It’s the same thing here. Those mats don’t belong to you and right now, your time doesn’t belong to you. You’ll get a break later on and then, if you ask first, you can possibly borrow the mats to work with.” Katsuki gave Izuku a sidelong glance. Izuku shrugged slightly and then nodded. Katsuki rolled his eyes in response. He could practically feel Haruno’s blood pressure rising, though, so he let Izuku defuse the situation, stepping back so he wouldn’t get in the way. “We understand,” Izuku said sheepishly. He bowed slightly as he spoke, rubbing the back of his head and presenting the picture of pure apologetic behavior. “We’re sorry. We just got carried away with the strength of the mats.” Haruno nodded sharply. “Just keep in mind that there isn’t an infinite supply of them ready. Now, are you ready for your matches?” Izuku nodded enthusiastically. Katsuki nodded as well. “Midoriya, you’re first,” Haruno said, “Bakugou, go off to the side and wait with Shisui. Midoriya and I will fight until I determine the match to be over, then there will be a brief break and then I’ll fight with Bakugou. After that match, I’ll speak with Sawada and we’ll see whether or not we’ll really be keeping you two this week.” Katsuki turned to Izuku. He gripped him by the arm and leaned in. He gave Izuku a quick hard kiss on the lips and whispered, “Fuck her up, Deku.” Izuku grinned back at Katsuki and gave him a thumbs up. Katsuki mimicked the action and then hurried off the mats. Shisui stood off to the side of the room, where a long, low bench was pulled out to run along the length of the wall. Katsuki eyed him for a moment, wary of the man who sat utterly relaxed on the bench, one leg under the wood and one stretched out in front of himself. “A good luck kiss?” Shisui said teasingly, “Cute. But it probably won’t help much.” His dark eyes shifted out to the cushioned arena. “Haruno’s going to trounce him.” “We’ll see about that,” Katsuki said. He dropped down onto the bench, leaning forward slightly, resting one elbow on his knee and watching intently. He hoped Izuku would win. He really, really wanted Izuku to beat Haruno at her own game. After sliding one foot back and lifting one hand in front of herself, Haruno nodded to Shisui. Shisui cupped one hand around his mouth and began to count down. Katsuki clenched his hands tightly in his lap and watched, hoping for the best.     =============================================================================== ***   ***   Izuku hit the mat with a thud that knocked the wind out of him. He had only seconds to roll backwards, avoiding Haruno’s heel as it came slamming down through the air after him. There was a faint flash of light, as the mat absorbed the extra force of her foot. Izuku kept rolling until he could roll to his feet, hands up defensively. Haruno’s shin struck across his forearms. Izuku dug in his heels but even so he slid backwards under the impact. She grunted and hopped back, lightly bouncing on her toes. She had her fists up and her eyes set on Izuku. “You can’t just take a beating and call yourself the victor,” Haruno said, “A hero needs to know how to fight, not just how to take a hit.” Izuku adjusted his footing, sliding his feet along the surface of the mat so he never lost contact with the floor. He didn’t want to end up flying through the air again. He hunched his shoulders, fists up as he watched the subtle movements of her body. Any telltale sign of motion, any hint to where she was going to strike from next was paramount to his learning her movements. One of Haruno’s feet turned and she bent a knee. Izuku dropped down and rolled forward as she burst into movement, but it wasn’t fast enough. Her toe caught him across the back and his roll went out of his control, sliding him across the mats in a tumble that ended with him pinned with Haruno’s foot planted in the middle of his back. “So far,” Haruno said from above him, “You haven’t even begun to impress me, kid. At this rate, I’m going to suggest to your teachers to send you to general studies.” Izuku struggled under the weight of Haruno’s body, fighting so he could turn his head towards her, “They wouldn’t send me there, I got into the hero course fairly.” “Yeah? Then why are you so keen on being a punching bag? I know you’ve got more in you than that.” She shifted her knee, lessening the weight slightly. “Prove  yourself.” Izuku bit his cheek. He managed to get his hands under himself, but couldn’t push her off, not without tapping into his quirk. But Izuku was hesitant to use his quirk on another person. He hadn’t minded using it to fight Shouto in their match because he’d really been fighting the ice and fire, but Haruno was different. It was fist to fist, leg to leg- if Izuku didn’t watch himself, he’d break her arm, or rib, or worse. The mats they fought on could absorb extra impact, but their bodies were different. “If you give up now,” Haruno said, “You can pack up your shit and go back to school, kid, because I have no use for weaklings.” “I’m not weak,”Izuku spat, glaring up at her. “I’m trying to be careful with my quirk!” “If you don’t put everything you have into taking me down, kid,” Haruno said, leaning over so she pressed down harder on Izuku’s back, “You will never get any work here as a hero, so unless you’re looking for an out, I suggest you get over yourself and come at me.” Haruno pushed off and took a couple steps back. Izuku pushed himself up to his knees. He wiped his hand across the back of his mouth. Without thinking about it, he glanced over to the sidelines, where Katsuki sat, watching with his arms folded tight over his chest. Haruno immediately stepped between them, blocking his view. Izuku glared up at her as he got to his feet. “I know what kind of power you have in you,” Haruno said. “I saw what you did during your matches at the stadium. It was because of that that I told Sawada to put in a sponsorship for you, but if you were faking those fights-” Izuku flexed his limbs, summoning his quirk with a sharp intake of breath and concentration. He felt his muscles bulge with strength, almost crackling with energy. He’d gotten better at sustaining One For All in his limbs for longer periods of time without destroying his muscles and Haruno was going to be the first person he fought while doing so. Haruno’s gaze swept over his arms and then she grinned. The small diamond in the middle of her forehead flashed, along with the ones on the backs of her hands, and she tapped her fists together. “Good. Now let’s take this from the top. Three. Two.” Haruno lunged for Izuku, fist upraised. Izuku knocked her arm aside and ducked under it. He was only a little shorter than her, but he used that to his advantage, aiming a punch for her side. Haruno twisted her body so Izuku’s knuckles only grazed her side but she still ended up pushed to the side from Izuku’s punch. She used the momentum to her advantage, turning to kick Izuku next. He saw a flare of that light, of the diamond that had to be part of her quirk, and braced for impact. This time, when he was hit, he cranked up his quirk in his legs. He dug his heels down, hard and took Haruno’s kick to his side. There was an audible crack and a sharp spike of pain from where her shin hit his ribs, but Izuku ignored that in favor of looping his arm around her leg, capturing it. He turned, pulling on her leg, forcing her to make a choice between balancing on her one foot or falling to the ground. To his surprise, Haruno went to the ground instead, landing on her side and kicking out her other leg to sweep Izuku’s from under him. Izuku didn’t expect the her leg to hit the back of his ankles with the force that they did and he stumbled backwards. He had to let go of her arm to catch himself. They disentangled from each other at the same time. Haruno didn’t waste any time in getting up to her feet, though, she came at Izuku the moment she had her feet and hands underneath herself, pushing off the mats with enough force to make them flash. She headed towards Izuku’s left, but as he turned to block, she revealed it to be a feint and side stepped to plow her shoulder into Izuku’s already tender ribs. Izuku gasped. He saw stars for a second. He grabbed at Haruno, grabbed her arm with one hand and pulled.She followed the wrenching motion- it was either that or have her shoulder pull from its socket- but took advantage of their close proximity to strike out. Izuku winced under the strikes, and quickly realized that unless he used more of his quirk’s strength, Haruno would have him face down on a mat again. So he did what he had to do. With enough energy in his limb to feel the crackling of it along the surface of his skin, buzzing and humming like a hive of angry wasps just below the surface, Izuku swung a backhanded strike at Haruno while he held her arm still with his free hand. She saw the incoming hit just in time to get her other arm up, crossing her body to take the initial force of the hit. Izuku saw her eyes widen as the back of his hand made contact with her forearm. Her other arm was ripped from his grip and the two of them separated, Haruno spinning slightly. Haruno dropped to one knee while she shook out the arm that Izuku had just hit. Izuku wound back his arm to strike. There was no hesitation now, not when she’d asked for this. He ran at her, a shout escaping his mouth as he punched. Haruno dodged by rolling backwards, but Izuku couldn’t check the punch. He followed it through all the way, striking the mat on the ground. There was a blinding flash of light and the sound like a large bag popping. Shreds of foam suddenly filled the air all around Izuku as the mat that he struck exploded from the force of his punch. The sound of laughter brought Izuku out of his razer tight focus on Haruno. He looked to the sidelines to see Shisui laughing, one hand on his head as he looked on in disbelief. Katsuki had a slight smirk on his lips, though he still looked tense with his arms folded across his chest. The distraction was Izuku’s downfall, though. Too late he saw Haruno approaching quickly, an intent expression and her fist drawn back. For a half of a second Izuku thought to meet fist for fist, but his gut instinct told him not to. Instead, he put up an arm to deflect the strike and make one of his own lower on her body. Again, though, she deceived him. Instead of punching, she grabbed him by the arm with both hands, and pivoted on her foot. Izuku let out a yelp as he found himself slung through the air like a bag of rocks and slammed down onto one of the mats next to the destroyed one. Mid-air, Izuku attempted to correct his position but ended up with his arm under himself as he landed. In an instant, Izuku realized that the fresh pain in his arm was indicative of a break. He’d had too many broken bones notto recognize them by feel alone now. With a groan he rolled over, looking down just long enough to be sure that the break wasn’t visible. His skin was  still whole but there was definitely something wrong. Despite that, Izuku got to his feet and put up his good arm. He was still perfectly capable of fighting- adrenaline rushed through his veins and his heart pounded. He wanted to win.He wanted to beat Haruno- “That’s enough,” Haruno declared suddenly, her voice was surprisingly clear. She stood straight and tall and had an expression that Izuku couldn’t quite read. “You’re too injured to continue. We’re done.” “I can keep going,” Izuku claimed. He flexed his good hand and, after a grimace of pain, lifted his broken arm up. “I’m not weak.” Haruno looked at him for a long moment and then made a gesture with her hand. In a moment, Shisui was at Izuku’s side and lay a surprisingly heavy hand on his shoulder. “C’mon kid, to the infirmary we go.” “I don’t need to- Hey!” Izuku yelped as Shisui scooped him up. “Put me down!” “Hold on tight!” Shisui said. One of his hands held Izuku’s damaged arm and squeezed enough that Izuku winced instead of argued. There was a dizzying blur and then the next thing Izuku heard was a door swinging shut as Shisui carried him up some stairs. Izuku’s stomach violently rejected this movement and he made one dry-heaving noise before Shisui set him down. Izuku heaved out the contents of his stomach into a bin that appeared in front of him just as miraculously as Shisui could. He felt a hand on his back, patting soothingly as he wretched. The ground was hard and cool under his knees. Izuku could only use one arm to wrap around the mouth of the bin; his broken arm hung limply at his side. When he’d finished and pushed the can away from himself, Izuku sat back and groaned. “Now will you walk with me to the infirmary, or do I have to carry you again?” Shisui asked. He was crouched beside Izuku, elbows on his knees and his dark eyes watching Izuku. There was something about his face that made Izuku want to smack him, a reaction that caught him somewhat off guard. Izuku shook himself. He smacked his own cheek and then coughed. “Yeah,” he croaked, “Fine. Just promise me you won’t everdo that again.” Shisui smiled, “C’mon. Let’s go.” It wasn’t until Izuku was in the infirmary, being checked in by a normal enough doctor that he realized that technically, Shisui hadn’t made any promises at all. ***** on your feet ***** Katsuki walked over to the edge of the mats. He stepped up onto them and went to the exploded one. He toed at the debris a little bit and then looked up to Haruno. She was looking off to the distance, maybe the wall or the door he couldn’t exactly tell which, and she was frowning. “I take it the destruction of a mat during a sparring session is okay?” He asked, mostly so he could get Haruno to stop doing what she was doing. It was never good news when adults thought too hard about Izuku and it was clear that’s what she was doing. Haruno turned and looked at him. Then she dropped her gaze to the exploded mat and gave an exasperated shake of the head, “He was using the mat in an appropriate way during an agency approved quirk spar. He won’t be in trouble for this.” She looked Katsuki over and her somber expression deepened. “Has he broken bones before?” Katsuki blinked away the vision of Izuku’s battered, bleeding, broken body. “Once or twice.” “Hm,” She murmured, running her thumb across her lower lip thoughtfully, “He’s got a fairly high pain tolerance. That hit to the rib would have put down any other teen…” Her green eyes met Katsuki’s, “Well, maybe.” Katsuki’s spine stiffened and he squared his shoulders. Haruno chuckled dryly and then rolled one shoulder. She rolled the second one soon after and said, “So. Let’s get this debris off of here so we can get our own match started.” Katsuki nodded. He helped her gather up the filling to the mat, which did turn out to be a strange sort of foam- a substance he’d never really encountered before, that was almost like a springy gelatinous foam. It was almost cool to the touch like it was just a shade cooler than room temperature. They gathered that and the cloth cover, which no longer had the diamond marking on the red side, and carried it off the sparring ring. Haruno went to a cupboard built into one of the walls and slid it open to reveal a stack of a few mats inside. With Katsuki’s help, she hauled it out and into place, red side up. There was no mark on this one either. “Try to avoid smashing this one,” she said, “it won’t be able to absorb energy the way the others do. I’ll get it treated later on, but for now, this’ll have to do.” “So all that bullshit about don’t break the mats before was just a load of shit,” Katsuki said, kicking the pad in annoyance. “No,” Haruno said, “It wasn’t. The point still stands that if you’re going to use company property, you have to have company approval. Maintaining this equipment takes a lot of time and effort. If you’re not willing to maintain your equipment in the way it is supposed to be taken care of, then you don’t deserve to have it.” She frowned at him. “Plus, it was the wrong time to pursue your private quirk testing interests. You’re at work. You need to act like you’re at work, which means a certain level of responsibility and behavior.” “Tch,” Katsuki scoffed, but he didn’t really argue. He didn’t really want to argue with Haruno- lest she get too upset and just cancel their match. She’d kept up against Izuku, had even technically beat him through her ability and experience. Haruno was a different sort of fighter than any of his teachers, not just in hand to hand capability, of which he knew Aizawa was also pretty good, but in her expectations and limits. She hadn’t stopped until Izuku’s arm had broken. If not for that, Katsuki didn’t doubt she’d still be pushing at him, finding his other limits. She wasn’t afraid to hit and hit hard, and her willingness to fight, to really fight, excited Katsuki. Finally, someone other than Izuku he could spar with and not have to hold back. This was going to be a great match.   ===============================================================================   Haruno was good. Katsuki had expected this. He had watched her fight against Izuku carefully. Izuku had held back on account of his quirk’s lethality; but Katsuki didn’t have that problem. He wanted to impress Haruno. He wanted to beat Haruno. He wanted to prove that he and Izuku were good enough to be here. He threw himself into the fight the way he would any spar with Izuku. If Haruno said she could take Izuku’s punches, then she could take Katsuki’s too. Katsuki’s liberal use of the firepower of his hands revealed Haruno’s acrobatic skill. She ducked and rolled. She dove and twisted. She flipped and whirled. All the while she simultaneously avoided the worst of Katsuki’s blasts and lashed out with either her fists or her heels and knees. Katsuki could keep up with her speed fairly well. He kept his motions as tight as he could, not following her whenever she skipped out of range. When she dodged his attacks, he could almost predict which way she’d go and what would be headed his way in return- a fist or an elbow or something else. The problem was that Katsuki was quickly becoming exhausted. He’d been on his feet for hours, first through an intense workout and then a previous match. His quirk relied on his sweat and he hadn’t been drinking enough water to keep up with all the morning’s exertion. Katsuki’s palms were starting to go a little dry. As the smoke cleared from his last attack, Katsuki stood, panting, body braced for an attack. Haruno appeared through the smoke, dashing forward with one fist raised. Katsuki ducked under the incoming fist and brought up his other hand to block the next hit he expected. That second fist never came, though. Instead, Haruno grabbed Katsuki’s forearm with her hand, turning his block into a capture. Katsuki twisted his hand around, grabbing her instinctively. Without thinking about it, his palm snapped with a small explosion at point-blank range against Haruno’s skin. Before he could even wince at his own carelessness, there was a flash of light that startled him. It was closer than the mats and contained purely on Haruno’s arm. Katsuki looked up from her arm to her face. The diamond on her forehead looked a lot more obvious now and Haruno grinned. “Gotcha,” she said. Her grip became hard as iron, fingers digging into his skin as her other hand grabbed a fistful of his clothing and turned. She brought him up and over, tossing him over her head like a sack of rice, to land on the mat on his back. For a dizzying moment all Katsuki saw was shining lights. He panted for breath, eyes squeezed shut against the dizziness. His muscles protested when he rolled over to his knees. His body shook as he forced himself to his feet, one hand up defensively. Haruno stood a few feet away, green eyes focused on Katsuki and one hand on her hip. “Are you ready to call it?” Katsuki sneered, “Fuck no.” Haruno watched him motionlessly for a  moment before sighing. “Don’t push yourself unnecessarily. This isn’t a life or death situation.” “I’m not fucking finished,” Katsuki growled back. Haruno’s lips pressed into a thin line. She shifted her stance and then nodded. “Then bring it on.” Katsuki grunted. He steadied himself for a moment or two more before running at Haruno. If he could just knock her down, if he could just wind her a little bit, if he could just prove himself to be worthy- Fire crackled in his palms as he reached Haruno. He expected her to duck or move but she didn’t. She stood perfectly still. Katsuki attacked with the largest explosion he could muster; between both of his palms being dry and his arms shaking from exhaustion, it was the size of one good bomb and it went off right in Haruno’s face. Or so he had intended it to. What he didn’t expect was for Haruno to grab his arms by the wrists and pull them up and over her head. He and Haruno weren’t much different in height so when she pulled his arms up, she had to step into his personal space. Katsuki’s brain short-circuited as he realized that the bomb he set off with his hands happened behindHaruno. There was enough force that they stumbled, Katsuki moving backward and Haruno moving forward, like a pair of barely coordinated dancers. Katsuki began to struggle, tugging on his arms only to be faced with the impossible strength of Haruno’s grip. They were only inches apart, not enough space to bring up a knee and kick, not enough space to do anything but spit and thrash and- Katsuki attempted a headbutt. Haruno jerked her head back and pushed on his arms to keep him away. Her grip shifted. Her thumbs dug into Katsuki’s wrists. Katsuki grit his teeth to keep the pained whine in his throat. “Fucking let go of me!” he shouted. In her grip, his hands felt like they were going numb. A sliver of fear needled its way into his heart and Katsuki’s breathing took on a sharp, panicked edge. “Do you yield?” Haruno asked. Her green eyes bore into Katsuki’s. With her pink hair plaited up around her head, her bright eyes were hard to look away from, hard to avoid. “Fuck you,” Katsuki snarled. His hands curled helplessly as Haruno pressed harder with her thumb against the pressure point of his wrist. “You can’t keep fighting like this,” Haruno said, “You’re no better than Midoriya, who barely knows his own body well enough to catch himself when he falls.” Katsuki balked. Izuku knew his own body. Izuku had studied it for years.He knew everything about what he could survive and how quickly and-- Katsuki’s knees suddenly buckled and it brought him down. Hard. The only reason he stayed upright was because Haruno held him up by his arms. His heartbeat thundered in his ears. Just over that he could hear the rasp of his breath as  he sucked down air. Katsuki gave a tug on his arms, anxious to pull back and away from Haruno so he could catch his breath, so he could regain his footing. Surprisingly, Haruno let him go. He sat back, rubbing at his wrists, not looking at her face and glaring down at the ground. He shifted to get his feet under himself. He hadn’t given up just yet. He’d take a moment then surprise her with an attack- Haruno flicked him in the forehead. Katsuki let out a surprised yelp as he toppled over. His legs behaved like sacks filled with gelatin, trembling and offering him no support. He caught himself on an elbow and shot a glare up at Haruno, who stood above him with her hands on her hips. “If you don’t listen to your body, you’ll run it until it breaks,” Haruno said. She wore a slight frown, a serious, somber expression as she continued, “If you break your body too much, you can kiss your career goodbye, kid.” Katsuki balked, “You’re the one who is running us through a fucking gauntlet. And you’re pissed off about us throwing ourselves into it?” “Tch,” Haruno’s lip curled, “I’m teaching you a lesson, Bakugou, not kicking you out of my Agency. You and your idiot partner pass, but I don’t want you to approach every fight like it will be your last. Get it?” Katsuki opened his mouth to argue, but Haruno kept on, ignoring his interruption. “One day, you’ll have a fight that will be your last good fight. If you want to keep fighting for a long time, you need to listen to your body and do what you need to in order to keep it healthy.” She held up her hand, motioning for him to be quiet, “I know you’re pissed off right now but just shut your mouth and sit still for ten seconds. Think to yourself; is this fight worth being the one I break myself for? Or do I want to be able to get up and fight again?” Katsuki scowled but nodded. His hands still felt weird and his wrists hurt, but everything in his body hurt. With the adrenaline of the fight beginning to wear off, Katsuki was beginning to feel every ache from the last several hours compound together to give him the feeling that he was just a walking bruise. He hadn’t broken anything like Izuku had, but then again, Izuku breaking something meant nothing. In fact, most of Haruno’s speech about keeping the body from breaking meant nothing to Izuku at all. Katsuki had seen him be torn apart and splattered and blown open so many times that they both knew nothing would break Izuku but the shit that was in his head. Still, Katsuki felt a rise of not-quite guilt but it’s shifty cousin in his gut. He could break. He could die. Hecould become a failed, retired hero at too young an age if he tried too hard to keep up with Izuku. Katsuki closed his eyes, squeezing them shut. Izuku was going to leave him behind. Katsuki jumped when a hand settled on his shoulder. He jerked his head back, looking up at Haruno. Her expression had softened somewhat, but there was still the furrow that creased her brow and the frown on her lips. She crouched down to his level, hand resting on his shoulder. “Let’s get you to the infirmary,” she said, “Come on, on your feet.” She stood and held out her hand to him. Katsuki stared at it for a long moment. His hands flexed into a fist and then relaxed. Reaching up, he took her hand and let her help pull him to his feet. He shrugged off any other type of help and Haruno was smart, she didn’t push it. She did follow him to the third floor infirmary, though, which Katsuki thought was almost as bad. ***** dr. nagai ***** The third floor was clearly divided into two primary sections. Katsuki opened the door that led to the stairwell to find a long hallway with three doors. The door on his right was nearest to him, a little less than ten feet away and had a sign on the glass window set into the top half of the door. The sign read Vigilance Infirmary Unit. Farther down the hallway there was another door, but it was too far and at a bad angle, so Katsuki could only see the inset of it. At the far end of the hallway was a door with a red Exitsign lit up above it. Katsuki went to the door and opened it. There was the familiar smell of disinfectant that permeated most sterile environments, but it wasn’t horrifically strong. The main portion of the room was wide open, set up with beds along either wall and a pair of doors along the back that lead off to, presumably, other rooms. There were rails along the ceiling with long floor to ceiling curtains on them in a muted blue color that were used as separation between the beds. At the far end of the room, there was a bed with the curtain pulled around it. Izuku’s bed didn’t have a curtain on it. He sat near the middle of the room, upright on the bed that was adjusted so he was sitting comfortably. He still wore the pants that they had changed into, but his shirt had been removed entirely. There was a bandage across his chest and a much larger one on his arm. A man sat on a stool beside Izuku’s bed, he was holding the splinted arm, turning it carefully and looking it over. When the door opened, he continued what he was doing for a moment before looking up. “Haruno-san,” the man acknowledged. Izuku leaned over to see better around the man’s head. The man had dark hair and eyes and looked almost like another relative of Shisui, except there was something different in his expression. Katsuki couldn’t place it but didn’t really care to, either. He was just happy to see Izuku was well- though finding him in a splint was kind of amusing. “Dr. Nagai,” Haruno greeted back. She reached down to put her hand on Katsuki’s shoulder but he took off just a moment before. Still, she continued, “This is Bakugou. He is the other student that Sawada brought in for us to work with this week. No broken bones on that one, just exhaustion and a little dehydration and some bruising.” Katsuki made it to Izuku’s bed by the time she finished. There was plenty of space on the bed for them both, so he made a little scooting motion with his hand and Izuku complied. The doctor let go of Izuku’s arm and watched him with lifted brows. “You made it, Kaachan,” Izuku said quietly, reaching out to Katsuki. Katsuki gripped his hand tightly in both of his own. “So this is the Kacchan I’ve heard so much about,” Nagai said. Izuku flushed and Katsuki leaned closer to his side. Nagai got to his feet, nudging the stool he was sitting on out of his way. He glanced at Haruno who looked exasperated at Katsuki and Izuku sharing a bed. “Shisui-san mentioned they were being tested on whether or not they’re staying at the agency. If they haven’t passed, I can dismiss them once they’re patched up.” Katsuki’s back stiffened at the implication they had failed. He took a breath to argue but stopped when Izuku’s fingers dug into the back of his hand. He glanced at Izuku, who met his gaze and shook his head slightly. Katsuki exhaled a heavy sigh and sat back. “They passed,” Haruno said. “When they’re both bandaged and ready to work again, send them down to the pen so they can get to work.” She shifted her gaze from Nagai to the boys, settling on Izuku and then Katsuki. “Don’t rush your recovery. I’ll see you two later.” Nagai and Haruno exchanged a brief nod of goodbye and she left out the door, leaving Nagai alone with the boys. Nagai stood there for a moment, hands slid into the pockets of his white lab coat before turning. He wasn’t one for smiling, it was clear. His expression was somber, but not serious to the point of frowning or scowling. There was a sort of intensity around him that made Katsuki wonder what kind of quirk he had. The last doctor they had met had a similar sort of no-nonsense air, but he’d been older and clearly cared less about appearing like a doctor, wearing sweaters and with messy, flyaway hair. Nagai looked so much like a stereotypical doctor with his carefully combed hair and crisp white jacket that Katsuki was a bit surprised he didn’t have glasses to complete the look. Nagai approached on the side of the bed that Katsuki sat on. “Your evaluation would be a touch easier if you were on your own cot,” Nagai said as he drew out rubber gloves from a box attached to the wall beside the bed. They were a sharp blue color and he tugged them on with an absent- mindedness that bespoke of the countless times he had gone through the motion before. “Where do you feel pain?” “I’m just bruised,” Katsuki said, “I hit the mat hard with my knees a couple of times, I guess, but the mats took most of the damage. I- Ouch- Deku-”Katsuki snapped, whipping his head around to glare at Izuku. Izuku blinked. He had poked Katsuki’s side with his finger for some reason but now looked apologetic and somewhat guilty. “Sorry, I didn’t know you were bruised there, Kacchan.” “Let me take a look,” Nagai said, which was easier said than done since it was the side that was against Izuku that had been poked. Ultimately, Katsuki had to turn around and sit facing Izuku on the bed. They both folded up their legs, sitting cross-legged so Nagai could see the spreading purpling bruise on Katsuki’s side. He frowned then, looking at the placement and the mottling of it. Katsuki kept his arm up, tucked behind his neck to give Nagai the visibility he needed, and otherwise stared at the wall just above Izuku’s head. The bruising was really settling into his muscles, now, and Katsuki just wanted to lie down with his cheek on Izuku’s shoulder and take a nap. Even a twenty- minute power nap would be fine enough. “Have you used the restroom between your fight and now?” Nagai asked. Katsuki shook his head. Nagai made a little noise of acknowledgment. He stopped prodding at Katsuki’s bruised side and went away from the bed. Katsuki lowered his arm with a sigh. “Sorry for poking you, Kacchan,” Izuku said quietly. “S’fine,” Katsuki muttered. It wasn’t Izuku’s fault that his bruising hurt so damn much. He winced slightly as he shifted on the bed to get more comfortable. “What are we going to do about that?” He asked, gesturing to Izuku’s bound arm, “Didn’t you tell him you can heal on your own?” Izuku worried his bottom lip between his thumb and forefinger. He didn’t quite meet Katsuki’s gaze. “I did, but he said that until I did so, putting it in a splint was for the best. We can just take it off later, I guess.” Nagai returned then. He carried a large pad in his hands and a roll of two-inch wide bandage cloth. “Arm up, please, Bakugou.” Katsuki obeyed. Nagai began by wrapping a thin layer of the bandage around Katsuki’s middle. Once there was a layer there, he bent the pad thing until something inside of it snapped. He shook it and then lay it against Katsuki’s side. Katsuki winced at the unusual warmth of it, and the pressure caused when Nagai used the bandage cloth to bind it into place. He wrapped until the entire pad was covered, not even a corner of it exposed. Straightening up, Nagai said, “That should be enough for now. However, if you discover blood in your urine later today, come back and see me.” There was a pause and then he tilted his head just a little to the side and looked at Katsuki strangely, with his eyes almost askance, “Unless, you can also mysteriously heal but just not when anybody is looking like Midoriya.” Katsuki’s lip curled at his tone and his words. “Quirks aren’t constantly fucking active,” he snapped, holding up his empty palm as proof. “Deku’s enhancement quirk is like mine, it takes a trigger to become active and if he doesn’t want to fucking trigger it in front of you so fucking what. It doesn’t mean he doesn’t have the ability, it just means its a personal thing.” Nagai regarded Katsuki with the same flat expression as before, wholly unphased by his crassness or his anger. He seemed to be turning over Katsuki’s words in his head while at the same time turning his head to look at Izuku. Izuku looked at him and held his gaze, but the nervous way his good hand tapped along the top of his splinted ‘bad’ arm gave him away. “Mm, interesting,” Nagai said. He began to pull off his gloves, “There’s nothing more I can do for either one of you with regards to your injuries except provide a place for you to rest. If you can be quiet, you can stay here for another hour or so. After that, I’ll dismiss you down to the pen.” “Can we have the curtain closed around us?” Izuku asked. He made it sound like an innocent request as if all they wanted was some privacy when they napped. Nagai nodded. He drew the long curtains shut, closing them off from the rest of the room. They could hear footsteps as he walked away, followed by the sound of another curtain opening and low murmured voices. Katsuki waited until he was sure Nagai wasn’t coming back before he began to move. Favoring his injured side, Katsuki moved back around to be on the same side of the bed as Izuku. Wordlessly, Izuku shifted over and then turned onto his side to give Katsuki space to sit beside him. He reached over Katsuki and grabbed a box that was attached to a cord. The buttons on it adjusted the bed and Izuku used it to decrease the angle of the bed. He took it from about eighty degrees down to forty-five, making it easier to lie down and get comfortable. Katsuki rested his cheek on Izuku’s shoulder and sighed. His spine and muscles finally began to properly relax as Izuku draped his good arm around Katsuki, mindful of his injured side. Katsuki closed his eyes. “Kacchan?” Izuku whispered. From the sound of it, and the feel of his breath on Katsuki’s skin, he had leaned in close. His lips brushed Katsuki’s skin by his ear. Katsuki grunted in reply. “We need to get a replacement for Good Luck,” Izuku said, “My healing isn’t any good if I can’t trigger it on my own.” Katsuki paused. He opened his eyes slightly, turning his head to look at Izuku. Izuku looked down at him earnestly. Katsuki was very aware of how close they were, from Izuku’s knees bumping against his to the smell of his skin filling Katsuki’s nose as he used Izuku’s upper arm as a pillow. Izuku was still shirtless, which Katsuki liked to see and found himself resting his hand on Izuku’s chest, feeling his heartbeat and the texture of the thin bandage he wore and Izuku’s muscles underneath. “Yeah,” he said, “We’ll figure something out.” “I was thinking something like a necklace,” Izuku murmured. “You know how some people have shark teeth on a bit of leather like a necklace? I could do something like that with something small and sharp.” His skin was a little bit cool to the touch, Katsuki noticed. Was Izuku getting cold because he wasn’t wearing a shirt? “Sounds good,” Katsuki said, “It just has to be deep enough to reach the jugular, right?” “Yeah, the neck bleeds the best.” Katsuki’s hand slid up Izuku’s chest and stopped at his collarbone. He traced his finger along the skin, feeling the edge of Izuku’s collarbone. “We’ll go looking this week,” Katsuki said, “And find you something that works.” Izuku smiled. He leaned in again and Katsuki knew from the tilt of his head what he wanted. He lifted his chin and met Izuku’s lips with his own. He felt Izuku’s smile. Izuku continued to kiss him, lips warm and insistent, until Katsuki was flat on his back with Izuku half over him. He didn’t mind it at all, so long as Izuku kept his arms around Katsuki and all he had to do was kiss lazily back. Sheltered in Izuku’s arms, warm from the kisses and Izuku’s body and just a little turned on, Katsuki slipped into a doze.   ===============================================================================   Katsuki woke sharply and all at once, gasping for breath as his eyes flew open. His arm shot out, collided with something warm and with very little give and his fingers dug into that thing. Just before his palm exploded with the use of his quirk, Katsuki’s mind caught up with his awareness and he realized he had grabbed onto an arm. It was Izuku’s arm, to be exact, and it was the fleshy bit where his upper arm met his shoulder that Katsuki dug his fingers into. He panted for breath, looking from Izuku, who had rolled off of the top of him and had fallen asleep and was now startled into consciousness as well, to around the room. Except it wasn’t around the room, really. Their bed was still blocked off from sight because of a curtain. The cloth rippled, stirring from a wind that came from outside. Katsuki let go of Izuku’s arm and sat up. Was it the sound of the door opening or shutting that had woken him up? Perhaps it was the voices, which he could hear but not decipher. “Kacchan?” Izuku asked sleepily, yawning after he spoke. He sat up too, yawning. He rubbed his face with his bad hand and became distracted by his splinted arm. Katsuki told himself to ignore that and to strain his ears. He did, however, motion for Izuku to be quiet. “-before he goes,” a voice was saying. It sounded like Nagai, or at least it had his same direct tone, “The bruising on his side is worrying. Not to mention the other one has a snapped ulna. The splint he’s in won’t hold for shit out in the field.” “Well, why didn’t you put a proper one on?” Another voice asked, also male, and a little more chipper than Nagai. “With a real cast, he’d be able to go out and assist. I mean, it’s not like they’re going to be lifting up the rubble or anything. They’re mostly watching today.” “Midoriya insisted he didn’t need it.” Nagai said, “He says he has a healing quirk.” Katsuki gets distracted from the quiet conversation when Izuku reaches out and grabs his arm. He looks at Izuku and Izuku points at his neck. It’s a wordless request that Katsuki doesn’t need any help translating, not like he needs much help to figure out what Izuku wants these days at all. He turns towards Izuku, who gives a quick smile before assuming the position that will best facilitate his death. With Izuku’s back to Katsuki’s chest, Katsuki puts his arms around Izuku’s head and neck. For a moment, he just runs his fingers through Izuku’s curly hair- a little tangled from their workout before- and then, without warning or any word at all, Katsuki snapped Izuku’s neck. The loud crack is impossible to muffle. Nagai's conversation stops at the sudden sound. Izuku goes limp in Katsuki’s arms. He shifts them around to cradle Izuku properly. There are footsteps and then Katsuki can almost see shadows on the other side of the curtain. Just as a hand grips it and pulls it open, revealing Nagai and guest, Izuku blinks back into consciousness. He doesn’t bother pulling out of Katsuki’s arms, just starts working to get his bandaged arm free. Katsuki looks at Nagai who stares at them with a suspicious look and then looks at the other man. He doesn’t look anything like a doctor. He wears the blue uniform that Sawada’s people wear, has half his head of hair (the top half) dyed blonde, and wears small circular earrings, pierced in each lobe. The earrings are small yellow smiley faces, with X’s for eyes and a curved smile. Izuku manages to tug off the splint and break the suspicious tension by holding it out to Nagai. “I’m all better, doctor.” Nagai steps forward, takes the splint in one hand, and immediately passes it off to the other man. He blinks, takes it and holds onto it awkwardly while Nagai takes Izuku by the wrist and examines his arm. Izuku allows him to do so, smiling all the while. “Without an x-ray, I can’t be sure, but it doesn’t look broken anymore,” Nagai said, “Do you have any residual pain?” Izuku shakes his head. Nagai’s dark eyes flick to Katsuki. “How about you? Still in pain?” His eyes drop from Katsuki’s face to his side, where the bruise is visible around the edges of his bandage. “A little,” Katsuki said, “But I can manage.” Nagai frowns slightly, his eyes lingering on Katsuki’s bandage. “Boss really wants them there,” The stranger pipes up, “Says it’s gonna be a really good one for them.” “Haruno or Sawada?” Nagai asks. “Sawada.” With a little shrug of his shoulders and a sigh, Nagai turns away, taking the used splint from the stranger as he does so. “Fine. They can go. Midoriya looks fine enough and I doubt one will be willing to stay with the other gone.” He pauses in stepping out from inside the curtained area to look over his shoulder, “Bakugou, I want to see you tomorrow morning before you report down in the bullpen. If that bruise isn’t any better, I will need to take a look at it.” Katsuki nods. Then Nagai has walked off, leaving them with the new guy. He looks vaguely familiar, which means he probably was in the bullpen when they got introduced to everyone. He seems friendly enough, smiling as he introduces himself. “I’m Kaito,” he says, “I work down on the recovery side of things with Xanna and the others. Boss Tsuna sent me up here to get you guys. There’s been a collapse and we’ve been called in to help with the recovery.” “A collapse?” Izuku asks, already turning to swing his legs over the side of the bed. “Where? When? What happened?” “It’s in a warehouse district. It happened about half an hour ago.” Kaito answers, and adds with a shrug of one shoulder, “We’re not sure why it happened yet. We’ll know more once we get there. The first responding team has already been dispatched, but Boss Tsuna wants you two there too. It’s time to go now.” Izuku nods. He collects their discarded clothes, which were set aside when they were being examined, and tosses Katsuki’s shirt over. Katsuki pulls it on and hops off the bed as well. Kaito pulls open the curtain and leads the way out. Izuku follows, with Katsuki close behind. At the door, Katsuki glances back and, just for a second, he sees Nagai watching them leave, his expression that same unreadable serious expression as before. Except he can tell Nagai isn’t looking at him, but just ahead of him, to where Izuku was a moment before. Their eyes meet and hold. “Kacchan, hurry!” Katsuki breaks first and lets the door swing shut behind himself. ***** NOFA? more like NOPE ***** Chapter Notes yall are so suspicious of the doctor..... well let's put that on the back burner for now and see what some of the other kids are up to, yes? Hitoshi scrutinized the paper note in his hand for several minutes. The note was handwritten, an act of kindness provided for him by his father, along with a portable cup of coffee and a prepared lunch, all laid out for him at the kitchen table that morning. It was a good note, easily legible and detailed. It was full of critical information like where he was supposed to report for his first day at the agency he was training at and what time he was supposed to arrive. It also had other helpful things like tips on making a good impression or who to contact if he got injured, the latter of which being of course necessary but a little ominous. It did not, however, contain any information about what to do if one was to arrive at the address listed only to find a dead and silent building. Hitoshi slowly lifted his head up and regarded the building in front of him. He had checked, double checked and triple checked the number on the side of the brick and every single time it had matched that of the number of the paper he held. This wasbuilding 6090 and it certainly was big enough to be an agency. There just weren’t any lights on, or people around, or unlocked doors to get inside. It was less of a building and more of an impenetrable box. The longer that Hitoshi stood there staring at it, the more stupid he felt. There was no one around. This was clearlythe wrong place. He couldn’t blame the school- they had given the responsibility to the students to make sure they arrived on time to the right place, as if this were a real job. He couldn’t really blame his father either- he’d gone out of his way to help Hitoshi’s first day be a good one. Plus, Hitoshi had looked at the address from what the school had provided and it had been the same 6090 building there as it was on his father’s note. Hitoshi wasn’t even sure he could pin the blame on himself, except for the fact that he was the one who chose this agency to begin with. Hitoshi sighed and rubbed at his forehead. Enough with the blame, that wouldn’t help him any right now. It was more important to figure out what to do next. What could he do? Should he call someone? He didn’t have the contact information for his teachers- at least not the Heroics Department ones. He could just call up the school, but then what if this was a test? He’d picked a slightly unorthodox agency to begin with, one that was a little less about face to face fighting and more stealthy. They were a new agency but they’d sent an enthusiastic letter along with their sponsor, really thinking they could help Hitoshi and, well. That had been nice. So he’d picked them. They had to know he was coming. This had to be on purpose. With that in mind, Hitoshi folded up the note and put it in his pocket. He nodded to himself and set his mind to seriously looking around. If this was a test then he aimed to pass it. The question was, what was the goal of the test? Looking at the shuttered windows and the locked doors and the utterly silent face of the building, it dawned on him like a slow sunrise on a cold winter morning, soft and slow and then blinding in obviousness as it hit the reflective snow. Hitoshi just had to find a way in; thatwas the test.     ===============================================================================     Outside the front door to the warehouse, where a metal awning cast the door in shadow and protected the square of concrete that served as the landing, there was a stack of several brown boxes. Once Cetus caught sight of them, they began to pick up the pace, muttering under their breath as they searched their pockets for their keys with one hand. They had to shift their coffee from one hand to the other to search with their opposite hand. At last they found the keys to the warehouse door tucked into their jacket. “How many damn times do I have to tell them not to leave this shit out here,” Cetus cursed, putting the key in the lock and then bending down to scoop up the boxes. “Damn drones don’t have any respect for the craft.” They shuffled the boxes into being held by the same arm that held the coffee cup in hand and then turned so they could unlock the front door. Cetus stopped as they turned the key. The distinctive chunk sound of the bolt lock sliding out of place was missing. Slowly, Cetus bent back down to put the boxes on the concrete. This time, they set the coffee cup down beside it. They reached one hand into their pocket, fingers curling around the hilt of their smallest knife as they stood and turned the doorknob. It turned smoothly. Cetus gave the door a single, careful push and it swung in on soundless hinges. The only sound was the soft scraping of the rubber against the concrete tile of the entryway. Cetus followed the path of the door quickly and silently, stepping into the dimly lit room with a growing frown and watchful eyes. There wasn’t supposed to be a dim light. There wasn’t supposed to be anylight. All of the windows out onto the street had been blacked out both with a masking vinyl and then boards, to prevent anyone from peeking inside at the goods Cetus kept there. One or two of the windows had fake lights set up, of course, but none of those had been left on overnight. Still, there was a light that crept out around the seam of the door on the other side of the small entryway. Cetus made a judgement call and let the front door swing shut without stopping or slowing it down. The sound of it closing and clicking back into place was audible in the room beyond, Cetus knew that for a fact. They crept silently across the tile floor to the other door and put their back to the wall beside it. This door swung in so Cetus would only have a few seconds before the person on the other side saw them, but a few seconds was more than enough time. The handle turned. The door moved inwards. Cetus tensed. They pulled the knife from their pocket, blade switched out, and reached out with their other hand. They pressed their palm flat against the door and pushed, shoving it inwards and startling the person on the other side into stumbling back and exclaiming in surprise. Cetus followed the inward motion of the door with several quick steps but stopped short as soon as their eyes fell on the intruder. Cetus wasn’t surprised to not recognize the person, but they were shocked at how young the kid was. They ended up staring while the kid stumbled back, regained their footing and looked abashed at nearly falling over, even though that had been Cetus’s intent. There was something almost familiar with the kid, but Cetus couldn’t place his face. The kid wore a vaguely track-suit looking outfit, something that looked like the first or second attempt at a hero’s uniform made out of the shit found in their closet, but he looked too clean, too fresh faced, to be some knock-off hero getting involved in Cetus’s work. Cetus turned their body automatically to disguise the knife held down at their side. There was a long moment of silence as Cetus stared at the kid and the kid looked back, embarrassment turning into unease that manifested in shifting steps and the restless motions of his hands. Cetus looked him over one more time and then slid their hand back into their pocket, deftly closing it back up with a muffled snip sound. “Hey,” Cetus said. “You’re not supposed to be in here.” The tops of the kid’s ears turned red but he didn’t look guiltily away. There was a twist of confusion and then the clench of the jaw that Cetus recognized from the way Xanna would visibly steel herself up to deal with something she didn’t think was going to turn out well. “I’m here for my internship,” he said, “But the door was locked when I got here so I thought…” A pause. Cetus blinked, slow and thoughtful. They didn’t laugh, though they were tempted to. “The door was locked,” they said, “Because you’re not supposed to be in here.” Cetus gestured to the small office room- one of the few in the warehouse that was equipped with furniture like a table and some chairs. It certainly looked like a break room, but Cetus was the primary user of said room. Only on occasion did anyone else set foot in here, and if they did, it was someone like Xanna or a contact. “....I thought it might be a test…” he said and now did look away, guilt written across the bunching of his shoulders. His eyes flicked left and right as if he, too, was wondering what Cetus now wondered- how dumb did you have to be to approach a locked warehouse and think it was a test to get into it? Ah. Well. No. Cetus could understand that kind of test, actually. But being caught by the owner of the warehouse probably wasn’t good for one’s grade. “What kind of teacher makes you break into a locked building in the middle of the day on a Monday?” Cetus asked, “Shouldn’t you be in school?” “I, ah, am,” he said, visibly nervous now. He rubbed at the back of his neck, not making eye contact with Cetus. “At least I’m supposed to be. I was supposed to report to an agency this morning for my field training but I… must have gotten the number wrong somewhere along the lines…” He reached into his pocket and pulled out a paper. Cetus frowned. Field training? What kind of nonsense school sends a kid out to- Agency. “You’re a baby hero?” Cetus said, asking but only rhetorically. All of the little things suddenly click into place, the local Big Name School, the Competition Festival in which this kid had first appeared. It makes sense that they’d use that as a recruiting tool. “Which school are you from? No, don’t tell me. I remember now, you’re Shinsou Hitoshi. I saw your one-on-one match with Endeavor’s kid. Not the most exciting match, but still a good watch. Can you answer something for me, kid?” He nodded stiffly, lips pressed into a thin line. He held that paper in both hands tight enough that the bottom of it crinkled around his fingers. “Why the hell is Yuuei sending a kid out to my neck of the woods?” Cetus asked, “This isn’t exactly a baby hero training center.” “I’m supposed to be meeting with my agency for a week long field training session,” he said. He glanced down to the paper in his hands and then after a moment he handed over the paper. “I’m supposedto meet at NOFA this morning. But I take it… that this isn’t NOFA.” “Hell no it isn’t,” Cetus replied. They took the page and skimmed over it. It was a handwritten note, carefully written and with a lot of extraneous information on it. Cetus looked over it briefly, searching for the important stuff- like addresses or points of contact. “Didn’t you get a name of the person you’re supposed to be meeting?” Shinsou gave Cetus a flat look that was impressive considering the fact that he was intruding and had made an incredibly stupid error. Or at least whoever had provided this paper had fucked up. Cetus turned the paper around and tapped the address line at the top. “You flipped some numbers up here, kid. NOFA is 9090, and you’re at 6090. You want the next block over and down, same corner though.” Cetus handed the paper over with a helpful smile, “Hey, if you hurry, you can make it over there before you’re late for lunch.” Shinsou took the page and looked at it again. That embarrassed red flush to the ears began to spread across the rest of his face. He looked off to the side and Cetus followed his gaze to see that the coffee pot was not only on, but held a fresh brew in it. A twinge of sympathy made Cetus wince but all they did was step to the side and gesture towards the door. “You’ll want to check the second floor window,” Shinsou said, folding up the paper and putting it back in his pocket, “The one facing the street. That’s the one that I opened.” He straightened his shoulders, gave a bow and apologized, “I’m sorry for intruding. I won’t bother you again.” He stepped past Cetus, who watched, leaning out the doorway to make sure that he didn’t stop and get his hands on anything he wasn’t supposed to. As the front door swung shut behind Shinsou, Cetus muttered, “Man, that school needs to get its shit together. Baby heroes shouldn’t be left to wander the streets alone. It’s a dangerous fucking world.” Cetus waited a little longer before going out to fetch the box left on the front porch. Their coffee would be cold by now, but there was a fresh pot waiting so Cetus wasn’t worried. ***** this is the house that jack built ***** Chapter Summary Hitoshi continues to not have a very good day. One block over, but on the same corner as before, Hitoshi found the built out warehouse-turned-agency he was supposed to be in. And boy was it really painfully obvious that this was the right one. There was a big sign above the door with the initials NOFA on it. A pair of people loitered outside, leaning against the walls with their arms crossed, talking.  There were lights on and more people in the windows. Most obviously, there were people waiting for him. As soon as Hitoshi came into view of the front door of the building, the man nudged his companion and then hurried into the building. The other one straightened up, smoothed out their outfit and stood at the ready as Hitoshi approached. He kept turning over the words in his head as he tried to come up with an excuse or a reason for his being so late. He could be honest and tell them he had done something incredibly dumb. He could lie and say he got up late. He could take some middle ground and say that he’d gotten pretty lost on his way and had to stop for directions. That last one was true, sort of. While Hitoshi knew that heroes were held up as pillars of honesty and responsibility, he also didn’t want to make a bad first impression. Well, at least not one worse than being over an hour late. To let them know that he’d mistaken another building for theirs, had broken into said building -with no small amount of effort mind you- and had, upon finding no one inside, just waited around… The longer Hitoshi thought about it, the more obviously dumb his actions were. What if that Cetus person hadn’t ever shown up? What if there was no one who went to that warehouse often? What if it hadbeen full of people? What if he’d run into villains or just flat criminals? Hitoshi felt sick to his stomach with the thought of admitting how dumb he’d been. But he had to be honest. He had to tell the truth. That’s what heroes did. Hitoshi approached the man at the front door. Hitoshi couldn’t stop staring at his garish leather jacket. It was almost distracting enough for him to forget the words of his apology budding on his lips. He’d never seen anything so brightly made worn by someone who couldn’t have been more than hired muscle with how broad his shoulders were and how big his chest was. He wore a dark shirt beneath the orange and purple jacket mess and his aviator shades glinted in the light as Hitoshi stopped in front of him. The man was, admittedly, very short in comparison to Hitoshi. He made up for that height deficiency in personality, though, standing with his arms crossed over his chest, chin up and shaded eyes pinning Hitoshi down. Hitoshi cleared his throat. “I’m sorry I-” “Don’t apologize to me, dude,” the man interrupted, “I’m not the boss. I’m just here to make sure you don’t skedaddle before you get cleared.” He lowered his chin slightly, looking at Hitoshi over the rim of his glasses. They were a jarringly bright orange, almost the same color as his leather jacket, and Hitoshi felt his mouth close almost against his will. “You were pretty damn late, kid. Don’t know if you’re still good to come inside, you know what I mean?” Hitoshi nodded. He tucked his hands into his pockets to help hide his nervousness. He waited, standing next to the nameless, orange-purple mess of a human being and tried his very hardest not to stare. He did notice that there was a series of patches on the man’s sleeve. The most prominent of which was the same black icon that was on the door behind his shoulder. It was a hollow, five-pointed star that was hollow in the center except for a trio of circles locked together in a triangular shape. That emblem was black on his shoulder, the only black on his jacket at all. The others were illegible from where Hitoshi stood, except for one on the opposite arm, with a shield-shaped patch and the words Battle Broson the side. After several long minutes, the door swung open and out stepped a much taller man. His bright blue eyes swept over Hitoshi, almost a distraction from his violently red and orange jacket. It was cherry-candy bright and glossy like it had some sort of coating on it. He also had the same black, star emblem on one shoulder and the shield on the other. “He can come in,” the blue-eyed man said. He held the door open for Hitoshi, “But you’ve gotta head straight to the boss.” Hitoshi nodded again. The first man stepped aside and let him pass. Hitoshi swallowed dryly and went in. Just like the outside, the inside of the place was well lit and bustling with activity. Another person in a horrendously bright jacket- this one green and blue with a dash of gold from his glasses and other jewelry- chattered to a jacketless group of people standing around him in a mix of bright green shirts. The blue-eyed man, who accompanied Hitoshi, gestured to the group, “Trainees,” he said, “Don’t worry,” he flashed a crooked smile, “You won’t be set up in that group. We don’t want to lose you within the first five minutes of a job.” The green and gold man heard that, ear twitching as he turned his head around, squawking with indignation. “It was only the one time!” He wore shades too, but on the top of his head. His eyes were as gold as the shade’s frames, flashing in the light as if they were metal and not flesh. “And it wasn’t anyone important anyway.” His gold eyes settled on Hitoshi for a brief moment. Hitoshi licked his lips as a brief surge of confidence swelled inside of him. He couldn’t stop looking into those golden eyes- Bright red got in his way as the blue-eyed man blocked his vision with his body and gave Hitoshi's back a shove. “This way, kid. Ignore the shiny bird with its pretty wings and it can’t do anything but shriek.” “Oi!” Hitoshi heard, but they were moving past this room and into another. Blue eyes kept his hand on Hitoshi’s back, right in the center and just there enough to prod him along whenever he slowed too much. There was just so much to look at if you could get beyond the bright colors. Hitoshi saw a handful of other jacket wearing people- one in blue and red, another in orange and green, one a woman in purple and blue- and everyone else wearing bright shirts to go along with it. Hitoshi slowly picked up on the pattern of the shirts. Certain shirts worked with certain jacket wearers and you could tell by matching up the colors. The second room they passed was the one with the woman in it. She stood up on a chair, directing the actions of the shirts around her like she was in an orchestra; except where an orchestra was arranged in some sort of order, she stood at the center of a maelstrom of chaos. Some were at a whiteboard, writing things down for her and others searching through the storage crates that were laid out around the room. Hitoshi’s slowed to try and read the board, but Blue eyes ushered him onwards. They passed by a mustachioed man in orange and green who was headed in the opposite direction. His expression was unreadable; his green-eyed gaze lingered on Hitoshi for a long time, only switching to Blue eyes at the last moment. Hitoshi looked over his shoulder at the guy, but he just saw him shaking his head a little, looking straight ahead now. Blue eyes never relented. His hand on Hitoshi's back was a constant pressure, ushering him forward and so Hitoshi kept going. Another room they passed, the one with the blue and red jacket, was almost a blur as Hitoshi was hurried past under Blue eye's direction. He very briefly met the red eyes of the man in the jacket and his stomach did loops. He thought he knew angry red from Bakugou’s burning gaze, but the eyes on that otherwise baby-faced man were bright as hot lava and full of rage. It wasn’t until they were passing the next room, also quick-stepped, that Hitoshi realized that the man with the wrathful gaze had been handling what looked like a bomb. Before he could stop and question it, however, they reached a door. It was double wide and made of solid wood. The handle was gilded and a pair of shirts stood outside of it like heralds or guards. They both nodded smartly to Blue eyes and then took one handle and pulled open the doors for him and Hitoshi. “Brace yourself,” Blue eyes muttered under his breath. Hitoshi gave him a quick, curious look, confused at the undertone of disgust in his voice. Blue eyes didn’t look back at him, just stared straight ahead with those striking eyes and an impassive face. After all the rooms and all the colors and the crazy morning he’d had already, Hitoshi was ready for anything. Still, he took a deep breath and stepped into the room. Blue eyes didn’t join him. Instead, he muttered “Good luck, kid,” and stepped back out. The doors swung shut behind Hitoshi and he turned to look at the rest of the room and the boss inside.     ===============================================================================     Hitoshi had read about the fact that a well-placed mirror in a house could make the room seem larger than it was or bring in additional light through reflection. He had even seen the theory in use before; a long mirror at the end of a narrow hallway, giving it extra length and the slightly ominous feeling of someone else being there with you when you see your reflection moving in the near-darkness ahead of you. The feeling that he got when he stepped into this room, his shoe squeaking on the polished floor, was less of that unnaturally-large room feeling and more the one you got when you had a mirror facing into another mirror. The images repeated forever and ever, down an endless scale into minuscule points of darkness, except not quite. Whenever Hitoshi turned his head to look towards the mirror, to see that image receding forever, he only saw his own reflection. The left wall of the room was entirely made out of mirror panels. Floor to ceiling, wall to wall; the whole edge was a perfect mirror and he could watch himself, out of the corner of his eye, walk in about five feet and stop. The right wall of the room was nearly entirely a picture window. There was just a little framing around the edges, just enough to make it not the full wall, and the window opened up to an impossible image. There was a clear beach of white sand and a smooth, tideless ocean of blue-green water. The sun was high above in the image and reflected on the surface of the water. Light glinting off the water would hit the mirrors and bounce back out, creating these little flashes of light that would’ve meant nothing if not for the fact that there seemed to be secret little iridescent, reflective materials hidden all over the room. Light bounced off of the ceiling and fractured out like it struck a disco-ball. The only sound in the room was Hitoshi’s footsteps. He was pretty sure he was the only one moving in the room, though it had another occupant. However, Hitoshi imagined that if he were to stand still there would still be those spots all over the room that flashed and sparkled like a constant shining distraction. It made it hard to focus Hitoshi’s thoughts. He reached up and rubbed at his eyes, growing irritated with the lights already. The center of the room was a circular raised platform about a foot off the ground with a single step down on the front end that was half as tall. On it stood a woman, one hand on her hip, the other resting lightly on the podium at her side. When Hitoshi’s eyes finally focused on her, he wasn’t at all surprised to see she wore a jacket covered in iridescent sequins. She flashed and sparkled just standing there, waiting for him. She had a nice looking face and clear eyes, but they weren’t half as intense as those of the jacket wearing few that Hitoshi had seen already. Hitoshi couldn’t place her age. She seemed mature enough to be the same age as his mother, but wore the clothing and hairstyle of a woman younger than herself. For Hitoshi, the most striking thing about her was her hands. They were a blue so dark they looked black and were shiny like they had been polished. Her long fingers ended in sharp points, making them look like talons, not fingers at all. She drummed them along the top of the podium, adding a faint, rhythmic clicking sound to the otherwise quiet room. “I am The Siren Manaka,” she said suddenly. Her voice had a lilted lyrical tone to it. Hitoshi blinked a few times when listening to her. “Welcome to my world.” Hitoshi was momentarily reminded of Aoyama and felt a little sick to his stomach. If left to himself, he could certainly see Aoyama make a room just like this. He closed his eyes for a second to purge the thought from his mind and when he opened them again, he was focused on Manaka. She was frowning slightly. Her fingers no longer drummed on the top of the stand beside her. “I said,”she repeated herself, “Welcome to my world.” There was a pause and then the addition of, “You must thank me. Very few people are allowed in here.” How unfortunate for them, and for me, Hitoshi thought. His misgivings about this agency only grew more and more intense the longer he stood there. Sure, they seemed like they were busy, but everyone was also inthe buildingnot out on the street actually saving people. And what the hell was this room anyway? He grimaced as he looked at the mirrors again. There was something so incredibly wrong about that mirror. He just couldn’t put his finger on it. “Thanks,” he muttered. Then he added, because his parents hadn’t raised him without manners, a little bow, and an apology, “I’m sorry for arriving late. My directions to the agency weren’t correct and I ended up briefly lost.” “Well you needn’t worry about getting lost anymore,” Manaka said. Her frown was gone now, replaced by a charming smile. “You’re at your new home.” She gestured broadly to the room. Hitoshi was unable to hide his wince. Honestly, he didn’t even try. Manaka pretended not to see it, “We’ll get you an appropriately colored shirt very soon. First, I do need you to take a seat and answer a few questions.” A seat? Hitoshi blinked and looked to where she pointed. He did, in fact, see a chair there. It was the same color wood as the floor which made him wonder if that was how he ended up missing it visually. It was on its own small platform, only about six inches up, and he stepped up to take a seat on it. Manaka smiled at him, pleased with his basic obedience. Manaka walked over. Her heels clicked on the polished floor as she stepped down from her stage, using a single step on the side, and then when she went to Hitoshi. She stood in front of him to ask her questions, reading off a card she had tucked into her pocket. They were, in Hitoshi’s honest opinion, obvious and dumb questions. She asked him to confirm his name and age, both of which she would have gotten from the school. She asked about his height and his fitness level, then segued into grades and relations to his classmates. At that last bit, Hitoshi grimaced and asked, “Why does it matter what kind of relationship I have with my classmates? They’re not here to be taught by you and I am.” Manaka blinked at him, momentarily confused. Whether it was the questioning of her question that confused her, or Hitoshi’s attempt to flatter her to get her to move on from the tedious questioning, he wasn’t sure. Perhaps it was a combination of the two. Either way, once she recovered, she started to walk around him, orbiting his spot like he had a gravitational field. Hitoshi barely resisted the urge to groan aloud in annoyance, but only just. Manaka moved on to questions about his quirk. Hitoshi kept turning his head to keep her in at least one field of vision, but she always stepped out of it when she was right behind him. “How is your quirk triggered?” Manaka asked. Click. Click. Click. Her heels tapped out on the floor. “With the voice,” Hitoshi half answered. Sure, she was supposed to teach him about quirk usage, and part of the reason he’d chosen her agency was that Manaka had alluded to the fact that her own quirk was similar to his. He’d wanted a teacher who understood what it felt like, to have people think you couldn’t be a hero just because you had the potential to be a villain. “How much control do you have over someone?” “A fair amount,” Hitoshi admitted. “It’s not like hypnotism, which the subconscious mind can resist doing things it doesn’t want to do.” He rubbed his hands together, picking at the skin around one knuckle uneasily, “There’s no resistance, generally. Just a delay from order to action because the brain has to hear me say it and then send the signals to the body.” “Hmm,” Manaka replied. She kept walking around him, hands clasped together behind her back. Hitoshi kept looking at them, interested to see if they were scaled like a bird’s claw, or if they were just shiny skin. “How long does it last?” Manaka finally asked crossing in front of him and looking down at him with her dark, ominous gaze. Hitoshi thought about it for a minute. “Well, for a little while. I don’t use it for long periods of time, generally.” She nodded her head as if she expected that. “How often do you use your quirk?” Hitoshi grimaced. Manaka stopped walking. She was behind him now. She waited for a while before repeating her question. With a sigh, Hitoshi said, “Maybe once every couple of weeks? I don’t need to use it at home. I’m not really supposed to use it at school except when they give permission. I don’t use it in public.” He paused. After a thoughtful second, he said, “The sport festival was the first time in a while I used my quirk for more than a quick joke or something. I don’t get many opportunities like that.” Manaka muttered softly, “What a waste.” Hitoshi stiffened. He wasn’t sure he was entirely supposed to hear that, but he had heard it so he couldn’t just let it go. He started to turn, opening his mouth to dispute her comment when he felt her hand on his shoulder. “What are you-” he managed to get out before a sharp, almost biting sensation dug into his neck. His question turned into a hiss of pain. Just as quickly, the pain was gone and he could turn around to face her. Except, as soon as he did, his head was swimming. The lights that had dazzled him before, the same ones he’d slowly gotten used to, seemed to multiply. Everything was bright and dizzying and within seconds of twisting around in his chair, Hitoshi felt his guts twisting up inside of him. Nausea swept over him and he squeezed his eyes shut. He was not going to throw up. He was not going to throw up. Hitoshi heard footsteps again. Manaka was moving. He cracked open one eye and then the other, managing to watch as she climbed back up to her dais and to her podium. His tongue felt swollen in his mouth and his jaw ached deep in the bone. Still, he tried. He had to try. His quirk still turned on as he needed it, not failing him even when he felt the muscles in his arms and legs go rigid, “What… What do?” He asked, “Why?” Manaka looked up from what she was doing and smiled. She didn’t say a word. She knew better than that. She didn’t answer Hitoshi at all. Instead, she pressed a button on something on her podium- Hitoshi’s bleary eyes could barely see beyond the flashes of light and color- and waited a moment before speaking to whoever was on the other line. “Send in my jackets,” she said, “We’re ready to begin the final installment of the plan.” There was silence in response. Then Manaka’s annoyed voice as she repeated her order with an added, “I need them right now!” A voice came back over the line, a little fuzzy and unrecognizable to Hitoshi. “Nah.” it said, “How about fuck you, you fucking bitch.” Hitoshi saw Manaka lean back, the sparkling light that was her jacket flaring up with her movement. She slammed the button and shouted back, “Don’t you talk to me that way! I know that was you, Mogar, you get in here and-” “Oh shut upalready!” another voice. This one Hitoshi faintly recognized. Was that Blue eyes? Was he here? He tried to turn his head but couldn’t and really didn’t need to. The voice was coming from the podium along with the other disembodied one. “You insolent little shits,” Manaka seethed, “I’ve put up with your out of control nonsense for too long! That’s it, you’re not jackets anymore! You’re fired!” Laughter roared through the speaker, and not just from the two that had already spoken. The Mogar voice popped up as soon as the laughter died down and said simply, “Fuck. You.” “Manaka,” Blue eyes’ voice said smoothly over the intercom, “This is for Jack.” “What-” Manaka said. Or at least Hitoshi thinks that’s what she said. He’ll never be quite sure, though, because an instant later the room bucked wildly under his feet and filled with fire, smoke and Manaka’s beautiful, lilted voice rising into a scream.  The mirrors along the wall burst open from the inside as a plume of fire tore them open, revealing a hidden room on the other side. Under the influence of whatever drug Manaka put into his system, Hitoshi could only yelp as he was bucked out of the chair as the floor convulsed.  The last thing Hitoshi saw was the floor as it broke and rose up to meet him just as he headed towards it, face first. End Notes are you active on discord? do you want to visit with other readers of this ungodly long and complicated series? or are you more interested in witnessing the times i shout about writing at myself and others? then you might bet interested in joining the siaod reader discord server. click_here_to_check_it_out. Please drop_by_the_archive_and_comment to let the author know if you enjoyed their work!