Izuku wasn't exactly sure how he'd gotten home. Everything was a blur and he was hyperventilating and shaking so badly that he was having trouble even opening the front door, but somehow he'd managed to get here, sticking to the shadows so he wouldn't freak people out. Why was the doorknob so slippery?!

Oh. There was still blood on his hands.

He took a shaky breath and wiped his hands on his hoodie before he realized that it was covered in blood too. For once in his life, he almost wished it was his, because that would mean he hadn't just...

Aizawa: Problem child just let us help you...

All for One had been planning to kill them, Izuku was certain of it. He'd even said it, and he'd been planning on taking Eraserhead's quirk. Izuku couldn't let that happen, but the only way he'd been able to think to take down such a powerful opponent was... but maybe if he'd had a powerful quirk he could have found some way to restrain him, but the fact was that he was weak and outclassed, so he didn't have the option of taking All for One down peacefully like he should have. He'd had to do it permanently.

Bakugo: Deku it's not because you're quirkless...

Iida: If someone else was in your situation they would've had to do the same thing...

It took him a minute to find a section of fabric that was clean enough to wipe his hands on and he made sure to wipe down the doorknob as well. He'd have to sanitize it before he went to bed, he didn't want Mom to have to see something like this. Thankfully the apartment was dark when he finally got inside, so she must still be asleep. Izuku practically ran into the bathroom. He didn't look in the mirror as he shut the door and locked it behind him, leaning against the doorframe as the last of the adrenaline finally ran out.

What had he just done? A choked sob tore out of his throat before he could stop it and he slammed his hands over his mouth to muffle the noise. He'd just... and he'd made Eraserhead watch and then just left him there! Maybe it was a good thing he didn't have a quirk, because he didn't deserve to be a hero.

Inko: Izuku no...

He couldn't stop crying as he finally turned to the sink and started washing his hands, gasping for air as he tried to ignore the red running down the sink. He... he just needed to clean up. He just needed to get a shower and... and he'd decide what to do with the clothes later. If Eraserhead came to arrest him for murder, they'd probably need them as evidence, and he didn't want to make Eraser's life harder than necessary by washing them or throwing them away. Or... was he supposed to get rid of the evidence? Either way, washing them was out of the question because Izuku knew he'd pass out before the laundry was done and he didn't want Mom finding his vigilante outfit in the washer, especially if the stains didn't come out on the first wash.

Spinner(pretending he's not bothered): Hide the evidence...

As he waited for the shower to warm up, Izuku dug a plastic bag out from under the sink and shoved everything he was wearing inside. He'd just toss them in the back of his closet for now and deal with it tomorrow. There were tears running down his face, but he was starting to calm down at least a little.

One shower later, after he'd shoved the bag all the way into the back corner of his closet and wiped all traces of blood off everything he'd touched, Izuku collapsed into bed, wishing that he could still dream of being a hero.

Hagakure: I want to comfort him so badly...

Jana: Don't we all.

Shouta rubbed at his wrists as he waited for Tsukauchi to come interrogate him. The marks were going to take a while to go away, but the memory of his problem child running away, panicking and drenched in blood would take even longer... if it ever went away at all. He'd torn up his hands trying to tear through the ropes, but he'd barely managed to get one hand free before All Might had burst into the room, taken one look at All for One's body on the floor, and shrunken into his smaller form in a puff of steam but by that point the kid was long gone.

All Might(awkwardly chuckling): That must've been a shock...

There was a knock on the door and Tsukauchi plked his head in, "Hey Eraser, how are you holding up?"

Shouta ignored the question, "Did Viridian tell you where to find me?"

Mei: Wait if Viridian immediately went home then how...?

"Actually, it was your students." Tsukauchi sat down across from him. "Shinso raised the alarm when you didn't show up for his internship and called Kacchan, who tried to contact Viridian, but was unable to. We immediately suspected All for One because of what Kurogiri said during the sports festival incident, so we reached out to Gran Torino. As the next holder of One for All, Kaminari explained he has access to the vestiges, including the original holder, who was All for One's brother and obviously knows his thought processes better than we do. We showed Kaminari all the evidence we had gathered, along with what we knew of past villain factory locations and where you and Viridian were last seen, and he volunteered to short out his brain so he could communicate with the vestiges and get us a list of possible locations. Oboro warped All Might around to check out every single one until we found you."

(everyone blinked)

"Problem children, all of them." Shouta shook his head fondly. "By my count, we were missing for less than six hours."

Shinso(snarkily): You're welcome. (it helped break the tension, at least a little bit)

Tsukauchi nodded, "So what happened on your end? All we know is that you disappeared and then, of course, what All Might saw when he arrived. To be honest, we were expecting to find you and Viridian together."

Shouta almost flinched at the reminder, "...He ran. Again."

Tsukauchi frowned sympathetically, "Was he the one who...?"

Midoriya(flinching): Yes...

Shouta nodded, "We need to find him. It wasn't fair to make him do that, but killing All for One before he could kill us was the only way we were going to get out of there alive. He was panicking when he left. Obviously. I mean, you've got the pictures of what he did right there in front of you."

Tsukauchi looked slightly pale, "We'll make finding him our first priority. Are you any closer to figuring out his identity?"

Tsukauchi: Yes...

"...I saw his face." Shouta said quietly. "They took our goggles and most of our weapons, but Viridian had a backup that nobody knew about, which is the only reason why we survived. If I can find even a single picture of the kid, I can identify him."

"Really?" Tsukacuhi gasped. "That's amazing! If we put everything we know about him into the system... well, there's still going to be thousands of results to comb through, but..."

Midoriya: No there won't.

"Not there won't." Shouta interrupted.

Tsukaukii blinked, "What?"

"I..." Shouta hesitated. "I learned something about the kid. If I'm running the numbers right in my head, there should only be a handful of search results, if that."

Mineta: I mean how many green haired quirkless teenagers are there in Japan?

Tsukauchi grabbed his pen, "Alright, I'll admit that I'm skeptical, but tell me what you know and I'll run it through the database and get a list for you to search through as soon as possible..."

"No."

"No?" Tsukauchi repeated. "Eraser, don't you want to know the kid's identity?"

Midoriya: Sensei? What are you doing?

"Oh, you have no idea." Shouta agreed bluntly. "But I'm not going to tell you how to find him until the commission makes a public announcement that he'll be joining the vigilante rehabilitation program and attending UA."

Midoriya(staring at the screen): What? But sensei- I killed someone!

Aizawa: Unfortunately you're not the only one. I'm not going to quit helping you, problem child.

Kamui: Hang on wasn't there a whole thing about how the Hero Commission won't let a quirkless kid be a hero?

Nezu: Yes, but if they publicly announce that they'll let Viridian join the vigilante rehabilitation program before they find out that he's quirkless...

Hawks(realizing): They can't pull him out without telling the public why and then they'll be labelled as quirkist and receive backlash.

Nezu: Exactly!

Midoriya(faintly): Viridian can still be a hero?

Aizawa: Yes he can, problem child.

Inko got up when her alarm rang, but she'd been awake ever since Katsuki had called and she'd found Izuku's bed neatly made and his shoes missing from beside the door. Sure, she'd known that Izuku was up to something most nights, but she'd assumed it was like homework or insomnia not disappearing! And yes, Katsuki had immediately said that Izuku had been planning on meeting Kaminari, but he was on his internship in another city! Besides, if that really were true then why didn't Izuku mention it and why did Katsuki only bring it up after she'd told him that Izuku wasn't home, as if it was an afterthought? She'd tried calling Izuku, but of course he didn't answer and when she'd called Kaminari, he'd nervously insisted that Izuku had just run to the bathroom real quick and that he'd text her.

He never did.

Whatever her son was really up to, though, at least he had friends who were willing to lie for him and she couldn't find it in her to be angry about that. He had friends. Katsuki seemed to be genuinely kind to him and Kaminari was everything Inko could have asked for, and if they knew what was going on then they'd help take care of him, not that Izuku couldn't take care of himself. She wasn't sure when exactly he'd learned to fight, but if he could win spars against Kaminari, an actual hero student and runner-up at the UA sports festival, then he could protect himself and she didn't have to worry about him. At least not too much. She was still worried though.

(everyone swallowed)

Mt. Lady: Yeah uh... who's telling her...?

He finally came home an hour or so before sunrise, but in the time it took her to leap out of bed, and reach for the door of her room, he'd already locked himself inside the bathroom. She'd been about to go talk to him anyway, just knock on the door and maybe brew some tea so they could have a midnight chat or something like that. It would be a perfect bonding time and maybe, just maybe, Izuku might finally open up to her about what he'd been doing most nights.

Then she heard him sobbing.

She had frozen with her hand on the doorknob, hesitating. Everything inside her screamed to run comfort her son, to go and knock down the bathroom door and give him a hug, but... but her son had built those walls for a reason. If she ran to him and forced herself inside before he was ready to invite her in, she'd lose him just when those walls were getting to be the weakest. If she went out there right now, he'd run away and retreat back into himself like he had when he'd stopped telling her about the bullying. Inko couldn't risk that. She wouldn't push him away again like she had when he was four. She refused to lose her son.

Midoriya: Mom...

And so, as much as it hurt, she stayed in her room and listened to her son cry. Eventually, the shower turned on and soon enough, Izuku was in bed again. Inko had, at some point, sat down on the floor and that was where she stayed until her alarm went off. Inko stared at her phone for a long minute before cancelling the alarm and searching through her contacts. It didn't take long to find the Asuis' phone number.

"Um, Beru?" Inko said. "I know this is super last minute, but I was wondering if you could cover my shift today? Something happened with Izuku and I think he needs me here."

Midoriya(sniffing and wiping his tears): Yeah... thanks, mom...

Inko(hugging him): Of course, baby. I'm here.