I sigh as I watch Shouta leave. It's best not to keep the man waiting. I start cleaning everything up, which doesn't take that long. Meanwhile, I contemplate what the hell I have done wrong.

Here's the news: I got nothing. Whatever. Shouta always complains about something.

After I clean, I leave the room to see Shouta leaning against the wall. He pushes himself off the wall and walks away. I consider sneaking off, but a glare and a scarf around his neck stop me from doing, so I follow.

If Sho's going to be suspicious as fuck, I am going to start this damn conversation then, "Did you have something to ask me about, Eraserhead?" Yes, I'm keeping my professional persona up. Whether it is to actually be proper or to be petty, I will leave that for you to decide.

Shouta doesn't respond. We continue walking until we arrive at a janitor's closet. He opens it and points for me to go in.

"Are you fucking kidding me?" I can't help but ask. Shouta is really weird right now.

He sighs, "I need a moment with you alone."

"And this is the best you could come up with?" Without warning, Shouta shoves me in the closet, comes in, and closes the door behind me, "The fuck?!"

For the first time in a while, Shouta snaps," Shut up, Izuku. I need to talk to you, not Virus." Shit, he is tense. Ignoring my surroundings, I focus on him.

"What is wrong?"

"This whole situation."

"I mean, you shoved me in here, so you currently look like a child predator."

"I AM TALKING ABOUT THE CASE!" Shouta yells. I bite my tongue to hold back a snarky remark.

For a couple of minutes, there is silence. Yes, I can remain silent for that long. Shouta doesn't even look at me as I think. It takes my sociopathic mind that long to understand the problem.

I sigh, "It's because the kids are involved, huh?" Shouta looks me in the eyes before nodding.

"I was going to remove them from their work-studies with the rise of the league. Now, they are in this. I want to remove them, but that is not a choice now. I will offer to do so if they don't want to be involved. However, I deny they will. You kids are facing way more than we ever have during our time."

"They are going to have to do this eventually. It's pushing them one step ahead. Look, with the fall of All Might, our generation is going to have to push harder than ever before. We both knew this was going to happen."

"I know, but damn it. I am aware that you believe in the natural selection ideal with humans. Still, I believe we should be protecting them. We shouldn't be throwing them into this," I simply hum because I don't believe in his idea, but oh well. He continues, "This is also about you." That catches my attention.

"Oh?"

"The last couple of fights that you have been involved in, you have been injured in some way. You are becoming reckless. You're becoming ridiculously self-sacrificing. You haven't been able to work on your body as you usually do with all this going on. Right now, your odds are against you. Izuku, I considered removing you from this case."

"What?! Shouta, you know how much time I have invested in this, and you want to take it away?!" For anyone curious, he can do that. It's written in the contract. Basically, if the case is believed to be too dangerous for me, Shouta and/or Nezu are allowed to remove me with no objections. I personally think this rule sucks, but my opinion doesn't matter in this case! I agree with everything before that, though.

"That's the problem. Izuku, when was the last time you slept? Did something stupid? Worked out?" Bullseye. I don't know.

"Friday, I swear you consider everything I do stupid, and last night. I have been trying to keep that up, but I get distracted. " Shouta immediately straightens up from my answer.

"Izuku, it's Wednesday."

"I am aware." I keep up with the dates thankfully. Shouta sighs.

"I'm off tonight. Do you want me to stay with you?"

"Holy shit, you're asking for permission for once! I'll be fine. Go with your man."

"You better be. I will know."

"By what? Stalking me?"

"Gut feeling."

"So a form of stalking! Got it!"

"Whatever helps you sleep at night, kid. After this, you want to train?"

"Actually, I already have a training session planned!"

"With?"

"Someone you know!" Shouta pinches the bridge of his nose.

"A name?"

"I will get in trouble if I say the name, and you will stop me."

"Fine. Can I go with you to make sure you aren't going to an underground battle rink?"

"I haven't gone to one of those in a while, but sure!"

"I should have known you have been to one. Come on, let's go talk to the students." Finally, Shouta opens the door, and I burst out because I am tired of being in there! The closet is disgusting! I see him shaking his head as we eventually arrive in the lobby room where we see the Big Three, Tsu, Uraraka, and Kirishima sitting with glum looks. He clears his throat to grab their attention.

"Oh, Aizawa-sensei!" Uraraka exclaims.

Shouta sighs, "Please, I'm not your teacher right now. Call me Eraserhead. I am going to be honest with you three: I was considering removing you from your work studies."

"Wait, why?" Kirishima asks.

"You three should have heard. The League of Villains is rising, and Virus and the team have already concluded that they have interconnected somehow. That idea was for safety reasons; however, with this new development, you are now stuck. If you want to be removed, I am willing to do that as you're still inexperienced. If you want to stay, there is nothing I can do about it." The three don't even take a minute to consider it.

Kirishima takes the ship first, "There is a little girl out there! I can't give up on her." I mean, you can, but alright!

Tsu follows with a blunt "Me too," and Uraraka exclaims, "Me three!"

Shouta sighs, "I should not have bothered asking when I knew the answer. You all be careful, alright? Don't do anything stupid. Come on, Virus." He walks off, but before I can move, Uraraka strops me.

"Iz-Virus, what about you? Are you still involved?" Woah, that catches me off-guard! It takes a moment to come up with a reasonable answer

I give her a smile, " Of course! I can't drop now! I don't want this fucking up, after all! That's why I am involved in the planning as well. Now, if you will excuse me, I have to go get the shit beat out of me!" I don't even bother to wait for a response when I wander out of the room with Shouta.

---

"Izuku, why are we in front of a prison? A very high-security prison."

"For training, remember? Age catching up with you early?"

"I'm just going to hope you aren't about to do something stupid."

"What do you think I am going to do? Start a prison break? Hell naw! This place has the highest security for a reason!"

"You would do exactly that."

"No, I wouldn't!" I pull out my card, press it against the scanner, and the door before us unlocks, "If you get asked, say you're with me. I'm allowed in here." I start leading the way through the screaming prisoners that should be dead because of natural selection.

"Why?" Shouta looks so done with me.

"Do you really want me to explain it around them?" I point at the prisoners beside me. Yeah, that pisses them off. However, I don't give an F-U-C-K!

FORGET BARBIE, FUCK NICKI, SHE'S FAKE!

I am sorry, but that was set up perfectly. I couldn't miss it!

We really need to get back on the subject.

"You better have a good explanation for this."

"I promise that this is for training!"

"Mhm." I don't think Shouta believes me.

Eventually, we arrive at our destination. We enter a familiar prison room. However, this time, there are hero bodies all over the place! Don't worry; they are alive! They just got their ass beat! I walk over the worn-out bodies with no regards to approach my target.

"Akaguro! Long time, no see! How's the training going?" I exclaim as I approach the previously known as Stain. I haven't seen him since the week I worked with him to prove he would be an asset. He still looks like trash, but at least he has muscle again! He looks at, realizes who it is, and immediately fucking attacks me!

The nerve of this man! I have to throw myself out of the way to avoid a punch to the face!

Nobody thought this all the way through because, by the time I recover, I see Akaguro tied up in Shouta's scarves. Akaguro doesn't seem bothered as he laughs.

"You weren't kidding when you said you two were close, Izuku. This is the first time someone has got me besides Izuku, so good job, Eraserhead. However, you're too slow, kid. You haven't been working out as much," Akaguro informs us.

Welp, any self-restraint that exists is gone now, "OH, CALL ME THE FUCK OUT, WON'T CHU!?"

Shouta fucking growls, "Explain to me what is going on now, Midoriya." Somebody is salty. You know it's bad when he is using your family name.

"Alright, so a while ago, I worked out a deal with the government as I believed Akaguro here would be an asset. After tons of paperwork with Nezu's help, I trained here for a week during Nezu's classes. Since he has proven to be an excellent hand-to-hand combatant, the government has been letting pro-heroes train with him. They have shown excellent results! He wouldn't permanently injure me. He just did a test." I explain it as professionally as possible.

"Of course, Nezu would be involved. You will hear it from me when I get home," Shouta lets go of Akaguro, " Hurt him once, and I will not hesitate to kill you, got it?" I see the limp bodies stiffening around me as Akaguro grins. HOLY SHIT, SO SHOUTA CAN DO THE SCARY THING LIKE ME!

"Unheroic, but understandable. Everyone but Izuku and Eraserhead go to the back wall." Akaguro commands the sea of bodies. In an instant, they are up and scrambling to a wall, "To answer your previous question, I have been able to get rid of some false heroes without killing them; however, I have been able to train the ones wanting to be heroes. I believe this is working out fine. Why are you here, kid?"

"I need training. Obviously, I have been slacking as my brain is more valuable than my body. Oh, and Eraserhead came as a partner. He thought I was going to lead him to an underground ring."

"I don't blame him."

"WHAT THE HELL IS WITH THE LACK OF TRUST IN THIS ROOM?!"

"You. I don't have time for your nonsense, come on, kid. Eraserhead, take your scarf off. I have been working on getting people to fight together, so you two will be paired."

"Great," I mutter out of disappointment. I feel a whack on the back of the head, probably from Shouta with my luck.

"Shut up, brat," Shouta growls under his breathe as we go to one side of the place. Akaguro goes to the other side with a grin.

If there is one thing I know about it, it's that he has no countdown. Shouta doesn't know this. The moment Akaguro dashes at us, I (reluctantly) grab Shouta's arm and pull him out of the way to avoid a punch to the face with me. I let go of him to take the chance to chase Akaguro. I thank above that I can dodge a couple of hits before I have to jump back. By then, Shouta surprise attacks him and pins him to the ground.

He's going easy on us. Damn it.

"Izuku, you know I went easy on you. From that alone, you performed better than these idiots. Let's keep going, shall we?"

Shouta and I get to work kicking his ass.

---

Or not! We fucking struggled. Like, we didn't get beat up like I used to be, but it's not the best. However, Shouta and I invented this weird fight-styling without realizing it.

The ping-pong fighting style I shall be calling it.

The best way to describe it is it's using each other's bodies to keep ourselves up while also as a weapon. For example, if I am pulling Shouta out of the way, he would then use that momentum to swing me around. At the very least, it did keep Akaguro back for a moment. By then, we would separate and attack together.

It's weird, but it works. I don't think we will be using it as it's too predictable, though.

Now, we are back at UA late at night with Shouta glaring me down.

"Look, I'm glad you're helping the community, but I wish you didn't keep this from me."

"Would you have let me do this?"

"...no."

"Exactly." Shouta pinches his nose.

"I'm not going to waste my time with this. You have done so much that I shouldn't be questioning your decisions, such as this one. You're going to do this anyway. What I can ask is for you to let me by your side. Let's do that stupid partner thing we talked about now." I look up at him, shocked. I get it's logical, but I'm still surprised he made this decision. I give him a bright smile.

"Sure! Just know that you have a say in this whole thing, alright?" I see a rare smile from him.

"I'll regret this later. Now, you should go to bed."

"After food."

"Took you long enough to complain."

"Fooooooood!"

"Then go get some. Night, kid." With that, Shouta leaves, and I do that.

---

It's been a couple of days since then, and it's currently midnight. I was working on an invention that I finally found the time to do when I receive a call.

I answer, "Sir Nighteye, how may I help you?"

"I found what we need. I would like to plan the attack tonight and conduct it in the morning. Are you available to come in and help plan it?" If I was tired, I would have woken up.

"I can. I'll be there in ten minutes. See you, Sunflower!" I hang up without waiting for a response as I get dressed.

I guess I ain't getting sleep tonight!

I grab CAT, Patchy, and my copy of the files and move out.