The moon was hanging high on the January sky as Izuku looked down on the quiet streets of Musutafu. His patrol was due to end in just a few minutes, and he had taken to the rooftops to get a bigger view. He spotted a familiar silhouette down on the street below, and with a bright smile jumped down to greet them.

 

“Phantom! Didn’t expect you to be in town tonight.” A couple of drunk college girls shrieked in excitement when they saw the current number one hero show up in the flesh, and after getting him to sign the inside flap of a handbag and a t-shirt, Neito snickered and dragged him to the side before more people could come and cause a scene.

 

“I’m in town visiting Mina and Reiko, you know their kid’s turning one year old soon, right? Or are you too famous to remember your beloved classmate’s important dates?” If he’d said the same words while they were in high school the tone would have been meant to humiliate, but now it was simply teasing from a friend. Neito had come a far way from who he’d made himself out to be during their school days. He still slipped back at times, but Izuku now knew that it meant something was up rather than taking it personally. Mental health professionals were sadly rarely used by pro heroes, something Izuku was working hard to change, talking openly about having seen a therapist in the past when it was needed, but Neito, well… he’d seen one at some point, thanks to Bakugou, but it had ended poorly. Apparently getting him to talk had been downright impossible.

 

“I’ve already bought gifts.” He pulled Neito into a warm hug that had the other man lifted off the ground, but the blond only rolled his eyes and patted him on the arm with a small smirk on his lips. “It’s so nice seeing you again. It’s been months! I’m off patrol really soon, wanna get some drinks with me and Kacchan after?”

 

Neito straightened his clothes after he was put down again, looking up at the world-renowned hero who had grown ridiculously tall the last years at UA. “That pomeranian’s still spending time with you? I guess he’s back from France, heard he did one hell of a bust there recently.”

 

“Yep! We’re meeting at the bar in half an hour. I’ll let him know you’re joining us.” Izuku pulled out his phone and started tapping away on the screen.

 

“Hey, I haven’t even agreed yet!”

 

The green-haired pro just grinned at him with a smile that was big enough to orbit the sun and pressed send. “Please, I know you two have something going on, you can’t wait to see him.” 

 

Neito huffed and blew his bangs out of his face, pretending like his face wasn’t the shade of a tomato. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

 

️

After getting out of his hero costume, Izuku started to guide Neito toward the bar. As an underground hero, Neito wasn’t very recognisable, just another blond man in jeans and a warm jacket since he wasn’t in his own hero costume. Izuku on the other hand was easily recognisable. Luckily he wasn’t as easily spotted when he wasn’t wearing his hero costume, so they were only stopped a few times on the way.

 

They were just about to cross the street a few blocks from the bar when sounds caught Neito’s attention. It sounded like a child crying from the alley. He could see movement behind a dumpster. He grabbed Izuku’s arm when the man was about to start crossing the street. Thanks to Izuku’s quick reflexes he was saved from falling on his ass, since Izuku was much stronger than him and would have undoubtedly been strong enough to pull him with him had he not stopped.

 

Neito nodded his head toward the alley, and Izuku quickly caught on. There was someone hiding, crying just loud enough for them to hear.

 

They moved toward the alley, making it seem to anyone watching like they were just changing directions with nothing in particular in mind, but their guards were raised, ready in case something happened. Izuku went first, Neito keeping an eye out behind them to make sure the public wasn’t alarmed or that it was a trap.

 

He heard Izuku let out a sigh of relief. “It’s just a child. Hey kid, do you need help? Is there an adult that you trust that we can help you find?” 

 

“Are you Deku-san…?” Izuku nodded, smile wide on his face.

 

“I am. Don’t worry, you’re safe now. Hey, Phantom, it’s a little girl.”

 

Neito looked away from the main road, stepping closer to the dumpster. “Is she hurt?”

 

“Not that I can see. Kid, what’s your name?” Neito reached them just as Izuku asked, and he came face to face with ice green eyes.

 

Then everything went dark.

 

️

Katsuki grumbled under his breath as he looked at the watch around his wrist for what felt like the hundredth time. Izuku and Neito should have been at the bar over an hour ago, and the only reason he hadn’t left already was because Izuku never missed their hang-outs and he was really looking forward to seeing the blond weirdo, even though he’d never admit it. “Fucking Deku, fucking Copy-Paste…”

 

He unlocked his phone to give Izuku a call, only to end up in voice mail. That part wasn’t that uncommon, a hero with such a high ranking tended to have a lot of things to do, but he would always call or text back as soon as possible. This wasn’t normal. His foot tapped against the floor, his fingers drumming against the countertop as he stared at his contact list. He regretted not having Neito’s number now. They’d made out and flirted almost every time they met for years now, even hooked up a few times, yet they’d both been in enough denial to be stubborn and not ask for the other’s number. Now, he needed it.

 

He dialled one of the contacts on his speed-dial, and as usual, he got a quick reply.

 

“Bakubitch! What’s up, Katsuki my man, calling at this hour?” He rolled his eyes at Mina’s voice. Even as a mum she was ridiculous. “Gimme Copy-Paste’s number.”

 

”Ooooh, baby, you finally gonna ask him out? About time! My bros are gonna get it togeeetheeer.”

 

“No, shut up, you don’t know what you’re talking about. Him and Deku were supposed to meet me an hour ago and Deku doesn’t pick up.” The laughter in Mina’s voice faded and she went into full concern mode. They’d hidden it well, but at the beginning of their time at UA, Mina and Neito had been in the same foster home after Neito had to move to get closer to school. Before that he’d lived on the other side of the country. It had come out during their second year when Neito had gotten less hostile to class 1A and Neito realised avoiding them during spring break would be impossible. It had shocked pretty much everyone except for Kirishima, who had known Mina longer than the rest of them and had suspected something was up.

 

“That’s strange. I’ll send you his number right away, gimme a sec.” He listened to the sound of her tapping on her phone (why did she insist on having the keyboard sound on even to this day?), and after a few moments of silence, his phone vibrated with a text message from Mina. ”Got it?”

 

“Yeah. I gotta go-”

 

”Where are you? I’ll let Rei-chan know and meet you.”

 

“The heroes-only bar at xxx street. If you’re not here in ten I’m leaving without you.”

 

”I’ll be right there.” With that, she hung up and Katsuki was left to dial the number she texted him. As he had feared, there was no reply there either.

 

️

Izuku woke to the feeling of something bumping into him. He opened his eyes to the dim light, breathing in the stale, damp air of his surroundings. He was in what looked to be some sort of basement, covered in dust, mould and cobweb. The size of a spider crawling past made a shiver run down his spine. He wasn’t really scared of bugs, but the atmosphere just made it unsettling.

 

He felt the touch to his leg again and looked over to see a disgruntled Neito. He had his arms chained above his head at a height that couldn’t be comfortable with how he was standing on the tips of his toes. He knew that if Neito relaxed, he was at risk of suffocation.

 

“God, how long were you planning on taking til you woke up? This was getting boring as hell.” He could just barely see through the bravado thanks to their time working together. Neito was unsettled, looking like he wanted to crawl out of his skin.

 

Izuku tried to move, but felt the restraints on his own body. There were numerous chains tying him down, and when he tried to use his quirk, nothing happened. “You’re wearing a quirk cancelling choker. I recognise it from a case, it’s an illegal model. Fucks you up a while even after you take it off cus it’s got these little barbs on the inside that inject this drug when you try to take it off.”

 

Izuku groaned. Great, he was quirkless again, and even with the natural strength he’d worked hard to achieve he could barely move due to all the chains weighing him down. His head leaned against the pillar he was tied to, watching Neito shift from one foot to the other. “They didn’t put one on you though.”

 

“Yeah… they must know I can’t copy your quirk, or count on me not being able to touch anyone. I thought I had stayed underground enough for people not to figure the details of my quirk out, but apparently not.” This was the main reason why Neito had decided to go underground rather than aiming for the top. His quirk was much more effective if people didn’t know what to expect of him. He’d worked a lot with infiltration, spying and missions that required a lot of adaptability and stealth after graduation and had stayed low in the ranks to avoid the public eye. Of course, people still knew of him, though his fans were few and far inbetween. Neito had never expected to want it that way, but it worked well for him. He’d worked a lot alongside Shinsou Hitoshi, and among pro heroes their combo was well known and admired. He didn’t have an agency of his own, freelancing alongside a lot of other agencies that needed his help.

 

But it seemed like someone had still figured out what his limit was, and by the look on Neito’s face, it was making him both uncomfortable and annoyed.

 

“How long have you been awake?”

 

“By the change in what light we’ve got, it’s been a couple hours. I woke up on the floor, but when I started moving the chain was raised til I was like this.” He nodded his head upward toward his wrists. “I can’t see one going upwards from you, so I don’t think they’ve got the same plan for you. But it’s obvious it was a trap. Who’d you piss off this time? Too much rambling?”

 

“Hey, I don’t piss off that many people. Though I guess there’s a lot of villains that hate me…”

 

They didn’t get the chance to think on it for too long, when they heard the sound of a door opening, followed by footsteps on creaking wood. A girl came into view, her eyes a shade of green ice. It was the same girl as the one they’d met in the alley. Both heroes tensed, Izuku feeling the barbs in the collar dig into his skin. Their eyes were glued to the girl as her eyes swept over them both.

 

“I see you’ve both woken up. About time, too.” Their surroundings rippled, and the appearance of the girl changed. The only thing that remained the same were those piercing eyes, glowing as everything else about her changed. She was now a woman who looked close to thirty, her dark blue hair reaching to her chin in an elegant bob. She was wearing a simple dress that ended by her knees, and her heels were low but sharp. She stared at Izuku, a frown on her face. “I hadn’t counted on you tagging along, but no matter. I’ll make do. What’s important is,” the sound of her heels echoed across the dust covered room, and with a sudden move she kicked Neito right in the gut, making him lose his balance, and while he struggled to regain it she laughed. “You’re gonna pay for what that little bitch did to my brother. It’s only fair, isn’t it?”

 

️

When Mina showed up she was still in her pajamas, only a coat thrown over it. Her one remaining horn sprouted from her head, her curly hair tied at the nape of her neck. She looked stressed, but that was no surprise, given the situation.

 

They immediately started the walk toward Izuku’s agency. It was only logical for them to have gone there after patrol ended, and logic was a friend of theirs, that much Aizawa-sensei had knocked into their heads. They kept their eyes open, scanning everything they passed. Any fan interactions were kept quick but professional, making sure that the public didn’t realise something was wrong. Neither of them wanted to raise an alarm in case it made Izuku and Neito’s situation worse.

 

Halfway to the number one’s agency they heard a “No way!” and someone stopped in front of them with wide eyes. It was a woman a few years younger than them, cheeks flushed, eyes sparkling with excitement. Another fan. Katsuki met Mina’s eyes as she shifted from foot to foot. They really didn’t have time for this. “I can’t believe it! I just met the number one and now I’m meeting number three and eight just like, two hours later? This is like, the coolest night ever!”

 

Katsuki heard the sharp intake of breath from his friend, and she grabbed a hold of Katsuki’s jacket. His eyes were now laser focused on the stranger in front of them. “You met Deku?” Mina put her friendly face on, smiling brightly. “No way, where’d you see him? I can’t believe that dork didn’t tell me he was hanging out tonight!” 

 

Thank god for Mina. Katsuki wouldn’t have been able to put it in a way that didn’t raise suspicion. The public didn’t know him and Izuku to have the cuddliest relationship, so it would have been weirder for him to ask where he’d last been seen, unlike when Mina did it. She was known to be eccentric and loving to keep up with all her fellow heroes.

 

“Oh, it was like, three blocks that way. He was so handsome in person, and- oh my god, Ground Zero-san, Alien Queen-san, please let me get your autographs! I love you, you’re like, so cool!” The girl unzipped her jacket to reveal a t-shirt with Izuku’s signature on it.

 

“Of course! Then we gotta zoom off and find Deku. Don’t want our bean to walk a lonely road, right?” The girl giggled, recognising the lyric from a band Tokoyami had ignited the love of for many people who hadn’t been around when the band in question was active. Mina pulled out a pen to sign the shirt while the girl spoke, handing it off to Katsuki when she was done to let him do it too.

 

“He wasn’t alone, there was this, like, cute blond guy with him, they seemed like great friends.”

 

There, they had confirmation that Neito was with him, as well as a point where they had been confirmed to have reached.

 

“Awesome!” She accepted the pen back after Katsuki was done. “We’re gonna go catch up to them and give them some smooches. Have a great night!”

 

They waved goodbye to the girl and were on their way back from where they’d come to inspect everything closer.

 

️

As someone who was well aware of his status as a side character, and someone who had pretty much gotten comfortable with it since it’s what worked best for his quirk anyway, there was no way Neito had expected this whole thing was about him . It took him a moment to remember who she was, realising they had met before.

 

“You’re Saitou-san’s younger sister…”

 

He remembered her well from when the media had tried to get as many juicy details as possible out of the case. Though no names had been leaked, he’d met the woman when his parents paid their way out of the lawsuit. He remembered a girl with wavy blue hair, the angriest girl he’d ever seen before. The hatred she’d held in her eyes as she looked at his family with their one member missing. The member she no doubt hated the most.

 

Now, he looked into those same eyes, filled with just as much hatred and rage as they had been back then, and he felt sick.

 

Izuku looked utterly confused when Neito glanced over at him at the sound of metal chafing against metal as the green haired hero tried to move. “What… Did Mina do something…?”

 

The woman scoffed, looking at the number one hero with disdain. “I’m not talking about that creepy looking bitch. I’m talking about his first sister. The biological one. I know you’ve met her, all tv channels reported on when the League of Villains disappeared and Endeavor and Hawks were exposed.”

 

Neito felt his insides churn with growing panic. No, this couldn’t be happening. He’d worked so hard to make sure no one knew. He’d seen how it had gone for Todoroki the time after Dabi revealed who he was, and this… Izuku finding out, especially this way… it was a nightmare. He wanted to wake up already.

 

He didn’t know her name, no one had told him back then, just months before he was going to start attending middle school, when his sister had attacked her upperclassman. The media had merely labelled her “the sister of the victim”. He’d never thought they’d meet again, but she looked between him and his friend, a malicious grin cracking her face open in a grimace. “You don’t know, do you? Oh, poor little number one. See, this freak’s older sister is someone you’re iiiintimately familiar with, isn’t she? I work in the news now, so I’ve dug up everything on her. But then, you changed your name since it happened, didn’t you, ‘Monoma’?” Her fingers gripped his face tightly, sharp nails digging into the soft flesh of his cheek. With unwashed fingers she put her finger into his eye and with a swift motion she removed a thin sheet of plastic from each of his eyes, making him squeeze them shut. With an annoyed snarl she slapped the blond in the face. “Open your eyes, freak! Show him how you’ve lied to him!”

 

Fear building in his chest, fear similar to when other secrets of his had been forcibly revealed, Neito cracked his eyes open and locked eyes with Izuku’s. The other hero’s eyes widened further in recognition. They were still blue, but an entirely different shade, so vibrant and bright, but what struck him were the slit pupils, like those of a cat. All dots connected. “You’re…”

 

Neito tore his eyes away, only to have his head turned back so the woman could pry his mouth open, finger running along the edges of his teeth. “He used to have fangs too, when we met… when his sister stabbed my brother and drank his blood with a FUCKING straw! ” Nails dug into his gums and tongue, making him choke. She finally withdrew her fingers from Neito’s mouth and walked over to Izuku, crouching down to cup his cheek. “Poor Deku-san, finding out his friend and colleague is related to a monster like her. My brother was never the same after knowing her too. He lost so much blood he barely survived. And now, he’s scared of everything. All because of that disgusting girl with her disgusting quirk. And you’ve been working alongside a monster similar to her this whole time. Freaky, isn’t it? I’ve seen it, he has the same unhinged manner as she did. Working with him must have been rough-”

 

“Shut up.” Saito stared at izuku in surprise.

 

“ Excuse me? ”

 

The anger in Izuku’s voice was something Neito had only heard directed at himself once, when he’d insulted Bakugo back in their first year. And even then, the look in his eyes hadn’t been as harsh as it was now. “I said shut up . You don’t know anything about him. He might be annoying sometimes, but he’s my friend, and him being related to Toga doesn’t change that. He’s Neito, and nothing will ever change that. You can’t blame him for what she did!”

 

Despite the relief at being defended, at not being hated for who he was related to, the words also made him torn up inside. He knew what she had done that day. He knew what she had become, how she’d joined the League of Villains. But he still missed her so much, to this day, no matter how much he thought of Kendo, Mina and Noi as his sisters, Himiko would always be the one he loved the most.

 

“When we met he said he still loved her. After all the things she did, he still loved her. He brought this on himself.”

 

“He’s allowed to love his sister.” Saito looked at Izuku with disgust. “I thought you were better than this, but I see I’m mistaken. I guess I’ll have to kill you too now.”

 

She shifted positions, pulling out a knife. Neito yelled in protest when she slashed the pro hero’s arms and wrists, watching the blood flow out with a completely blank expression on her face. “I don’t like blood, I’m not a freak like her . But right now it has its uses. Bleed out while knowing there’s nothing you can do while your friend dies in front of you, number one.”

 

️

When Mina and Katsuki reached the point where the girl hand told them she’d seen I(zuku and Neito, the streets had mostly cleared. Everything had closed by now, even clubs and bars that were open really late. It was a week day after all, so the clubs that might have stayed open even longer had luckily closed now, which made their search less seen. They searched every alley, until finally, they found something.

 

On the ground, halfway under a dumpster, lay Neito’s phone. It was cracked with pieces of glass scattered around it, face down, but thanks to the little phone charms of Alien Queen, Lizardy and Mudman that were released as top ten merch by a hero merch company, combined with the Miruko themed phone case, Mina could tell that it was his despite being unable to start it.

 

She didn’t touch it with her bare hands, pulling on her gloves before picking it up. “Something definitely happened. He usually keeps his phone in a pocket with a zipper so he won’t drop it if a villain shows up, so he must’ve been about to use it when they got attacked.”

 

Katsuki bent down, turning the flashlight on on his own phone to look more properly at the spot where Mina found the phone. “There’s dust everywhere here except for where the phone was. If it was regular dirt it shouldn't be clean under it…”

 

“I’ll call Hatsume-chan right away, see if I can get her to come as soon as possible.

 

️

With his heart beating loudly in his ears, Neito stared with wide eyes at Izuku, who looked straight back at him. Saito stood up and finally faced Neito again, her heels clicking against the hard cement of the floor. “Your turn. Don’t think your death will be as painless as his will be.” She glanced over at Izuku, who was struggling against the chains wrapped all around his body.

 

“Now, it’s only fair that I get to stab you, since your sister got to stab my brother, but where do I start?” She tapped the blade of the knife against her palm as she considered him, rage having grown into a cold and calm anger. “Thigh, maybe?” with a thoughtful hum she positioned the knife against his upper thigh as if to mark her spot before she drew her arm back and stabbed it straight down into his right thigh. Neito barely managed not to scream at the burning pain, but then she twisted the knife and he cried out. God, it was so painful.

 

Saito pulled the knife out again, watching him struggle to stay standing so he wouldn’t choke, simultaneously trying not to put any weight on his damaged leg. “Hmm, that wasn’t much of a reaction. I’ve heard all about how my brother suffered, his friends all heard him scream. I want you to show Deku-san your screams, don’t you?”

 

The knife cut through the fabric of his jeans on the left leg when she hurled it into his flesh again, twisting and digging with the serrated blade. Neito’s screams echoed in the room, accompanied only by Izuku screaming at her to stop, but she only smiled calmly in response. “This is payback. His sister disappeared, so I can’t do anything to her, but this bitch is right here. I have a right to do this.”

 

“No one have a right to do this! What Toga did wasn’t okay, but that doesn’t mean you get to do this either!”

 

Saito frowned at Izuku as she pulled the knife out of Neito’s thigh, hearing the chains clank against each other when his legs gave way for a moment before he could get back on the tips of his toes to avoid getting suffocated by his own weight. She looked back at the blond, inspecting the shaking of his entire body. Her lips curled up, seemingly more satisfied with his suffering now. “That’s more like it. But I don’t think we’re done quite yet.” Again, she went for his lower body, but this time she knelt down so she could run her knife directly into his foot. There was the crunch of bones Izuku hadn’t heard in others, not even himself, in a very long time, as the weapon broke through the thin bones of Neito’s foot. She tried to drag it down toward his toes, but luckily the thick leather of his winter boots made her work harder, and she gave up after almost a full minute of listening to Neito’s screams of pain.

 

She moved on to the other foot, and when she pierced the flesh this time, she twisted rather than pulled. Neito’s voice was getting hoarse, and he could no longer stand on his own. Noticing this, Saito huffed in frustration as she looked at how Neito could no longer hold himself up, slowly cutting off his own air supply. “You’re not going that easy, you little freak,” she growled and with a few swift steps the chain keeping him up in the air separated from the one keeping his wrists together, making him fall heavily to the ground with a thud.

 

She kicked him in the ribs until he rolled over, closer to Izuku. Their eyes locked, Izuku’s eyes filled with desperation. “Please stop hurting him.” he begged when his eyes flipped over to her, the number one not wanting to see his friend die like this, right in front of him. “He hasn’t done anything to you.”

 

Saito snorted. “He’s done enough.”

 

️

Hatsume Mei arrived within half an hour with a truck full of babies. Itsuka jumped out of the passenger seat before the truck could even come to a full stop, her fiancée starting to pull out some of her babies and giving them all some to take with them into the alley.

 

Soon Mei hand set up eight small bots to box in the dust covered area, and she told all of them to back out of it, flipping a switch on a ninth device that linked to the rest of them. A glowing orange box encased the space. “There, now nothing in the box can be tampered with or disturbed. This baby is an expert at keeping crime scenes in tip top condition! The pink haired woman plucked the machine Katsuki was holding out of his hands with little care about how she almost knocked him on the chin with her elbow in her maneuvering of the big machine. You could see how she had such big biceps, considering how many big ‘babies’ she carried around all day.

 

“This sweet baby connects to the Space Protector 3.4, named by my lovely wife, the DooDaa!” Itsuka muttered how it hadn’t been a serious name suggestion, but moved over to the screen of the DooDaa to look at any possible finds as Mei turned it on. “The DooDaa will find any suspicious objects or irregularities inside the Space Protector 3.4 within minutes!”

 

They watched as the insides scanned, Katsuki’s foot tapping impatiently against the pavement the only sound, not even the machines making any noises, their process done in complete silence. With a flash, the light slowly rising up the orange box disappeared and the DooDaa beeped. “Bingo. We’ve got a lead. Number Three, number Eight, get me a quirk directory.”

 

️

Izuku was bleeding out. Neito could tell the other man was soon going to lose consciousness if the blood flow wasn’t stopped, and with how Saito made sure to cut a little deeper once Neito too was on the ground, she was making sure it wouldn’t stop before it was too late.

 

Neito stared at her with eyes burning with anger. This situation was a nightmare. She’d revealed his secrets to Izuku just like that, and then she was just going to kill them both? Neito might have struggled with a lot of self loathing in his life, but even he knew that neither of them deserved to die here.

 

With teeth gritted to keep from crying out in pain when he moved, he swiped with his damaged leg to get her off her feet. She hadn’t expected it, and fell on her back, the knife clattering to the floor. Izuku was helpless at the moment, and he wouldn’t let his friend die here. He wouldn’t let himself die here.

 

With a heavy heart he revealed his final secret as he pushed his face to the puddles of blood on the floor pooling under Izuku, sucking it up as quickly as he could. He could see the shock in both hero and enemy’s eyes when the chains creaked and finally snapped. There was a crack as Neito struck the woman in the stomach when she stood up after gathering her knife again, and Saito flew backwards, crashing straight into the wall. She didn’t move.

 

Izuku stared at Neito, who was crackling with an energy only the two of them could see. “I, Neito, you-”

 

“Fuck… no wonder you kept breaking your bones in high school, this quirk is wild …” With horror, Izuku stared at Neito’s arm. It looked worse than any time he’d broken his own limbs. Bone jutted out of his skin, the sight sickening. He remembered All Might’s words when he’d first gotten it. So this is what happened when your body wasn’t prepared to take on a quirk like that.

 

“Neito, don’t use it again, please, you’ll lose your arm.”

 

Neito scoffed. “I kinda figured that out already.” He wobbled where he was standing, finally falling onto the floor with a pained groan. “I don’t think I can move like this… Fuck…”

 

“She’s got to have a key to my chains. If you  can use blackwhip, you can get her over here and we can get to it without you having to use your feet.”

 

“Mmm… give me a minute…” They were both about to lose consciousness, they could feel it, but they had no choice but to push through. The black tendrils expanded and reached for the passed out woman, slowly dragging her closer. Izuku could see the sweat beading on Neito’s forehead, his pupils expanded like those of a terrified cat until they almost covered the entirety of his blue irises.

 

Finally she was within reaching distance, and Neito reached into the pocket of her skirt. He groaned when it came up empty and he had to summon blackwhip again to turn her over. In the other pocket he found a key, and both heroes desperately wished that it was the key to Izuku’s chains. Neito propped himself up with the help of blackwhip, wrapping his intact arm up with the quirk to get it to shake less as he inserted the key into the lock. He felt like he was about to cry from relief when he heard the lock click open, and he removed the padlock from the links.

 

Now, all that remained was to unwrap some of them so Izuku could do the rest.

 

That’s when they heard an enraged yell behind Neito’s back, and turning around, Saito was swinging at them both with her knife. Instinctively, Neito reached for the available quirks, and before he could consider the consequences, he struck her in the gut again with his left arm. The sound of his already damaged arm getting torn apart was sickening, and the blond couldn’t stop himself from throwing up from the pain as he fell back to the ground. The scream that made its way from Izuku’s throat was deafening, only Present Mic’s quirk able to drown it out. But the radio host wasn’t here, so the scream echoed through the room as he watched Neito fall with nothing to stop it.

 

️

They had found five quirks that matched up with traces of grey phosphor powder that was all over the boxed off area. Only the top heroes had access to the complete lists of the quirk directories, and in the end, Katsuki had been the only one allowed to look through them. He copied the information of the five people and together they looked through the information. One of the people was a child with a newly awakened quirk that could make all colours of phosphor powder, but that was it. They could confidently strike that option, and Mei quickly shredded the paper and burned it in her portable incinerator. Because of course she had one of those in her truck.

 

The second and third were a couple of twins in their fifties, but they lived in Okinawa and had no connection to either Izuku, Neito or any criminals they had helped catch. The fourth was a man in Kyushu who worked as a photographer, and had been seen on social media all throughout the night where he had been working on a photoshoot.

 

The only person left was a woman the same age as them. She was a reporter for a big gossip magazine in Musutafu. Her record was clean, aside from a restraining order against a celebrity she had written countless articles about. That in itself was over the top for a reporter, Itsuka thought when she looked at it, but then she saw the mention of a brother who had been brutally attacked on the day of his middle school graduation. She looked up the date in the crime database, along with the last name, and there she found it. “What city did Neito say he originally came from, Mina-san?” she asked, looking at the pink hero with wide eyes.

 

“X City… What did you find?” 

 

Itsuka turned the tablet around to show the others. “This is the fifth suspect’s brother. He was attacked on his middle school graduation day by someone in the same city Neito comes from. It’s not much, but it’s the only thing we’ve got.”

 

Katsuki grabbed the information sheet he’d printed of the Saito sister’s out of the pile of the other papers. “Got her address right here. Let’s move.”

 

️

The light flickered over their heads as Izuku struggled to stay awake. Neito hadn’t moved since he’d collapsed what felt like ages ago, and neither had Saito.

 

His body was growing cold and he felt clammy. He knew he was on the verge of bleeding out, but he had to stay awake. He struggled to remove the chains, shaking his body to the sides, back and fro, just to make it move just a tiny bit.

 

He heard a groan, and for a second he feared that the woman had woken up again, but to his relief it was Neito, who had opened one of his eyes just a crack, enough to see the blue of his iris. “Oh my god, Neito, are you okay? You’ve been passed out for ages.”

 

Neito laughed weakly, before slowly shifting with a lot of pained groans and gasps, until he reached the closest puddle of Izuku’s blood. “I bet… I bet you were… out longer back when we- w-we first got… here…” His cheek fell into the puddle and he turned his head so his dry lips could get to just the tiniest bit of the liquid. It was half coagulated and disgusting, but it was enough. He licked his lips, and with his eyes open just enough to see what he was doing, he activated blackwhip so he could lift the chains off of Izuku, just enough until the green haired pro could remove the rest himself.

 

“I leave the… the rest to you, num-number one…”

 

Once again Neito lost consciousness.

 

️

The way Mei was driving was only legal because she had a special permit as a support specialist who had to get to places fast. Thanks to the mostly empty streets their ride was smooth and little stood in their way, because if it had taken any longer than it did, Mei’s passengers would have crawled out of their skin.

 

They came to a stop a few houses down from their destination, and the three heroes quickly got out. Only Itsuka had any gear with her, as she had been warned by Mei what was happening, but the woman with pink locs supplied them with communication devices so they could speak to each other and to her if needed. That was all she had the time to give them before they rushed toward the building.

 

The building in question was a small house with two floors, and silently Mina melted the lock on the front door so they could sneak inside. More slowly than either of them really wanted to, they cleared the house until nothing but the basement remained.

 

They couldn’t hear anything when they opened the door that led down there, but they could see that lights were on. Slowly, They made their way down the stairs, Katsuki in the front, Itsuka in the middle and Mina taking up the rear, ready to spray anyone attacking from behind with her acid.

 

At the bottom of the stairs Katsuki slowly turned the corner with a hand raised ready to shoot off an explosion, but froze at the sight. There was blood everywhere, and at the center of it was Monoma Neito, face first on the floor. Izuku was crawling toward a woman lying unconscious against a wall, chains dragging after him, a collar around his neck that Katsuki recognised from his recent trip to Europe.

 

He recognised the woman from the photo of their suspect, and hurriedly he called out to his childhood friend. “Deku! Is there anyone else here?”

 

Izuku hadn’t even noticed them, as he startled so violently he almost fell over. “Kacchan-- Mina, Kendo-san--! Not down here, we’re the only ones. We gotta tie her up before she wakes up or she’ll--”

 

“Got it,” Itsuka hurried over, enlarging her hand so she could capture the woman in her fist. Quickly, Mina rushed toward her brother and carefully turned him over. “Oh my god, his arm…!” Katsuki walked over to Izuku and helped him up on his feet as Mina lifted her brother into her arms. He desperately wanted to go to Neito’s side too, but he left that to the other blond’s sister for now. Izuku smiled weakly at him. “You better confess to him after this, you know.”

 

“Shut up and let’s just go to the hospital, dumbass.”

 

️

Neito woke up to the sound of steady beeping. It grated on his nerves, and he wanted to snap at whoever was making it to shut the hell up. But when he opened his mouth he found his throat too dry, so as soon as he took a breath through his mouth he doubled over from coughing. A forceful but gentle hand pushed him back so he was sitting properly, and a cold glass was pressed to his lips. Greedily he swallowed the liquid, managing to breathe properly after he’d finished almost the entirety of it. Prying his eyes open he came face to face with Mina, Noi and Katsuki. Katsuki was the one holding him up and giving him water while his sisters scooted their chairs closer. Mina reached out and took his hand in hers, Noi making annoyed gestures at him until he looked at her. Her hands moved quickly as she signed, the now teenage girl frowning at him with tears in her eyes. “I thought you were gonna die! Don’t die!”  

 

Neito removed his hand from Mina’s to invite his little sister into a hug, though he knew the only reason that didn’t cause him pain was all the drugs they had to have pumped into his system. He felt groggy, kind of loopy, and couldn’t really form any complicated thoughts. He settled for just hugging her, motioning with his head for Mina to join when he saw the look on her face.

 

“God Neito you scared us so much!” she bawled into his ear, hugging him tightly. Katsuki shifted awkwardly from one foot to the other as he watched the display of familial love.

 

After a few minutes a nurse popped in her head to check on them, as the crying could be heard out into the corridor. “Excuse me… I know this is an emotional time, but please refrain from touching him too roughly, he’s still in a ginger state.”

 

Noi growled at the nurse, who looked at her in hesitation for a moment before withdrawing from the room when she saw Mina was pulling back from the hug and detangling Noi’s long body from their brother’s. “Noi-chan, we gotta be gentle with him right now okay, he’s like an egg.”

 

The girl opened her mouth into an ‘o’ and she removed herself from her brother so she could pat him on the head before lying down on the edge of the bed next to him. “Egg. We have to be gentle with egg brother.”

 

Neito smiled at her and ruffled her hair. She had loved watching videos of dogs carrying eggs in their mouths when she was younger, and now they used eggs to remind her when to be careful with things. This time it was Neito’s turn to be an egg.

 

The girl curled up next to him and gripped his hospital gown tightly with a fist, and within seconds she was snoring. “She was awake all night so she could look out for you,” Mina informed as she kissed her brother on the forehead. “We were so worried about you.” Then she glanced over at Katsuki, who was still standing there, silent for once in his life and looking kind of out of place. She exchanged looks with her friend before she turned and headed for the door. “I’ll go get us all something to eat. You’ve been out for a really long time so I bet you’ll be starving any minute.”

 

The door shut gently behind her so Noi wouldn’t wake up, though with how tired she’d been, they didn’t have to worry about that.

 

Neito and Katsuki stared at each other, the only sounds in the room coming from the beeping machine hooked up to the underground hero and the snoring girl. After a few seconds, the number three hero sat down on the chair Mina had shoved up next to the bed. “You copied Deku’s quirk, huh?”

 

Neito sighed, looking over to his left side. The sight of nothing but air where his arm used to be made him burst into giggles, Katsuki looking annoyed, but kept quiet, only raising an eyebrow in question. “I always wanted to be more like Miruko,” Neito choked out between snorts. “Just didn’t think it’d happen this way.”

 

Katsuki groaned. “Fuck, you’re so high, you shithead.”

 

Neito pursed his lips as he squinted at his fellow blond, finally managing to calm his amusement. “Hey, don’t curse near Noi, asshole.”

 

That made Katsuki laugh, leaning forward in his seat and propping his elbows on his knees. “You know what?”

 

“What?”

 

“Once you’re out of here, and you’re not high as balls, I’m taking you out on a date.”

 

Neito gasped, covering his mouth with his remaining hand, dramatic even in this state. “A real date? Not just fu-”

 

“Yeah, a real date. On one condition though.”

 

“Like what?”

 

“If you forget about all of this when you’re not high, you’re the one paying.”

 

Neito burst out into laughter.

Back to top