Aizawa: Oh no.

Midnight: I hope she's okay...

Shouta stared out over the city and scanned for any nefarious activity. It had been a toss up after the New Year's Disaster whether villains would be discouraged by the berserker's decisive downfall or encouraged by Endeavor's publicity and, unfortunately for Shouta, it was the latter. Criminal activity had been steadily increasing since, especially once word got around that Viridian was actually out of commission. Shouta and the other heroes knew that Viridian was good at sniffing out crime, but apparently they had underestimated just how effective he was at deterring the local thugs. Just in the last two hours, Shouta had had to stop three different villains who had seemed surprised that a hero had found them without their 'Green Guide watchdog' and it was starting to get ridiculous. It's not like the kid's quirk was finding villains or something!

(everyone snorted)

Hawks: Seriously?

Endeavor: Criminals can be idiots.

LOV: Hey!

Bakugo: But seriously Deku practically has a danger attraction quirk it's ridiculous the amount of scrapes he gets himself in.

Midoriya: Kacchan!

Iida: He's not wrong, Midoriya.

Shouta paused. Maybe it was? Honestly, it wasn't a ridiculous theory now that he thought about it and Viridian had never actually mentioned having an analysis quirk. He would have to have Tsukauchi check the quirk registry and see if a quirk like that even existed, but if he was right about this then it might explain some of the kid's self confidence issues. With a quirk that was only good for finding trouble, Viridian probably wouldn't have had the best relationship with his teachers and peers, and that's if they didn't simply write him off as having a villain's quirk like they'd done to Shouta when he was a kid. Discrimination was so illogical, why did people...

Recovery Girl: Aizawa are you seriously considering it?

Aizawa(groaning): Apparently. Of all the illogical...

Hound Dog: You have to admit though, all of the versions of Midoriya we have seen so far keep getting into ridiculously dangerous situations on a regular basis that it's more surprising that he doesn't have a danger attraction quirk.

He heard the faint whistle of something flying through the air and by this point it was second nature to snatch the marble out of midair. He smiled as he opened his hand, then frowned and looked toward the problem child himself, who was shifting nervously at the roof's edge. The hoodie was obviously different, but it was definitely his kid, which brought up the question...

Inko: Wait what's wrong?

Uraraka: I don't think there's anything wrong per se I think something's just weird.

Midnight: Guys look Shou referred to Viridian as his kid!

Aizawa: Oh no...

"Red? Seriously?" Shouta held up the marble. "Since when is your gear anything but green?"

Aoyama: He's using a red marble? But that clashes horribly!

Monoma: Unless he's trying to be Christmas themed which he's obviously not.

"They were out of the green ones!" Viridian whined. "I went to three different stores and then finally just ordered some online, but they're on backorder, apparently, because everyone's been buying these stupid marbles as collectables which makes absolutely zero sense because I'm not a hero and even if I was, then they're buying all the green marbles and there's none left for the real Viridian , which kind of defeats the point! And then I couldn't find any green hoodies either, because people are apparently cosplaying me, which is even worse! Don't laugh, Eraser, it's embarrassing!"

(everyone laughed)

"Oh yeah, I'm sure fame is absolutely terrible." Shouta said dryly, looking at the kid to make sure he was actually alright. The kid was physically alright, but when he reached the hoodie, Shouta did a double take and sighed, "Really, kid? Where did you even get that?"

Mt. Lady: Okay now what's wrong with the hoodie?

"Amplifier gave it to me!" Viridian blurted out, tugging at the hem of a black hoodie with a grey hood, the words 'if lost, return to Eraserhead' embroidered across the front. "I was just gonna make do with one of Mom's cardigans and return them before she noticed, since she has a couple green ones, but you know how fights usually go for me and I didn't want to ruin my mom's clothes, so when I ran into Amplifier on the way here and she pushed this into my hands, I thought it might be better if maybe... ugh, I'm so sorry Eraserhead! I can take it off!"

Aizawa: Amplifier!

Mic: Hey at least you can't lose Viridian now?

While he rambled, Viridian had gradually grown quieter and curled in on himself and hidden his head in his hands. Amplifier had apparently gotten a few sizes too big to be safe, but all that meant was that the kid was almost completely swamped in fabric as he tried to shrink down into a smaller target and Shouta was brutally reminded of just how young this kid was. What had even pushed him to be a vigilante anyway?

Spinner: He wanted to save people and...

Kurogiri: He wanted to die.

"Um, Eraser?" Viridian tentatively interrupted his thoughts. "W-would you like me to take it off?"

Shouta tried to convey a week's worth of exhaustion in a single sigh, "No, it's still cold and it would be illogical to ask you to take it off. I will be talking to Amplifier about getting you a more appropriate outfit."

"That's really not necessary." Viridian tried insisting. "I have one that I orderd online and I can just wear another color until it gets here! Or, um, I could buy another color and try dying it green..."

Power Loader: I think he meant armor.

Shouta huffed in amusement, "I was talking about armor kid, not color. You do know that they make kevlar clothing, right?"

"No, those would count as illegal support items." Viridian dismissed quickly.

Shouta cocked an eyebrow, "And that's somehow worse than what you're already doing? Problem child, you are literally an illegal vigilante."

Mirko: No he's not!

Tsukauchi: They don't know that though.

To his surprise, Viridian gave him a $&*#@-eating grin, "Ah, but I'm technically not..." suddenly, his mouth slammed closed and whatever confidence he'd momentarily felt was gone along with whatever he'd been about to say, "Oh, um, I had something I needed to show you!"

Oh no, Shouta had had enough students try to distract him that he wasn't about to let that slide, "Viridian..."

Instead of responding, Viridian reached into his hoodie pocket and shoved a salt shaker into his hands. The glass was blackened with soot and when he jostled it, there was a rattle of broken metal inside. He glanced curiously at Viridian, who was looking at him guilty, "Kid? What is this?"

Toga: Right the drone he hacked.

Viridian groaned, "Well it was one of Queen Bee's drones. I was trying to hack it."

"I thought you already did that." Shouta pointed out. "It's illogical to try hacking a broken bee when you know that the connection to the hive is severed the moment it's destroyed."

Mirio: But that one wasn't destroyed.

"But it wasn't!" Viridian's voice cracked. "It wasn't broken! I captured the bee alive and tried to hack it, but when I tried to follow the code and figure out where the queen was, I must have triggered some sort of anti-tampering mechanism and the bee self destructed before I could get any useful information from it!"

"Let me get this straight." Shouta said, as calmly as he could. "You captured a bee, alive, after we told you to stay out of this case, and instead of, I don't know, telling any capable adult so we could help you, you decided to try hacking it yourself."

All Might: He really should've told someone...

"I didn't have any of my vigilante gear." Viridian defended weakly.

"Then go to a police station and give an anonymous tip as a civilian!" Shouta countered.

"Like they would have even believed someone like me." Viridian replied bitterly.

Inko(sadly): Izuku...

Tsukauchi: Not all of us are like that. Promise.

Tamaki: But there are people like that...

"What's that supposed to mean?" Shouta asked.

Kendo: Quirkless...

"Whatever." The kid scoffed in frustration. "Do you want the bee or not?"

Shouta sighed again and pocketed the salt shaker, "Do I even want to know how you managed to get your hands on a live bee?"

Aizawa: Yes you want to know!

Midnight: Hurry before it's too late!

Mic: Guys you're freaking me out!

Viridian shrugged, "It was pretty easy once I figured out where the hive was."

That made Shouta freeze, "What did you just say?"

Endeavor: He thinks he found out where the hive is.

Sero: Didn't he?

Tsukauchi: Again the hive isn't where you think it is...

Viridian looked at him, still pouting slightly, "I said that it was pretty easy once I figured out where the hive was. I just put out some digital honey and the bee just..."

Shouta interrupted him before he could get any further, "Queen Bee's swarm doesn't have a hive."

That made the kid's face scrunch up in confusion, another thing Shouta was extremely used to as a teacher, though he preferred seeing that expression in the safety of the classroom, "But the bees base their behavior off of their insect counterparts. Real bees have hives where they gather when they aren't out doing tasks for the queen, so I figured there had to be a place..."

Nezu: And there is.

Midnight: But you really don't want to know where Queen Bee puts her drones...

"There's not." Shouta said firmly. "These bees might act real in some situations, but they aren't. They're a quirk."

"But..." Izuku looked between Eraserhead and the useless remnants of the bee. None of this was making sense. He'd found the hive. He'd been to it! There were bees! His digital honey had worked! "But then where do the bees gather if there's not a hive?!"

Eraser groaned and rubbed his face tiredly, "Look, kid, this was never mentioned in the media to avoid hysteria, and we didn't tell you because you're not supposed to be on this case, but... Queen Bee isn't a normal villain. She's like a parasitic wasp more than a honeybee. She possesses a victim, usually a teenage girl from what we've seen, implanting herself inside the victim's brain via the eye socket.

(a lot of people shuddered and some touched their eyes as if to remind themselves that nothing's trying to get in them)

The queen will sometimes keep living the host's life or they might run away and form another life as a kind of cover for their villain activity, but their personality becomes a mix of the host and the queen. The bees live inside the host's body, or sometimes around it if there's too many, but there isn't a hive like there is for real bee swarms. So believe me, you might have gotten lucky and found a bee, but there's no way you found the hive, because the hive is... "

(everyone gulped)

Tamaki: Inside the host...

Mineta(gulping): Okay I see why you said we wouldn't want to know now!

Aizawa: But if Viridian knew then maybe this could've been avoided!

Midnight: Shou calm down we're not sure if anything bad happened yet...

"Inside the queen." Izuku's stomach dropped as a million realizations clicked into place at once. The waitress at the diner, Kohaku, had an eyepatch from an accident that really didn't make sense, considering that she said it was from her own quirk. Her personality had reportedly changed after this accident, almost like she had combined with someone else. She acted angry or upset whenever the bees were brought up.

Oh no.

Tsu: Kohaku's the host...

"We need to go." Izuku took a running start and jumped onto the next rooftop, running as fast as he could for the diner. Hopefully she was still at work, but if she wasn't then the manager must have her contact information and they'd be able to figure out where she lived. "We can save the host, right?"

Eraser landed beside him and fell into step, "It's been done, but the queen will only abandon a host when the body dies, from what we've seen, to avoid dying herself. The hosts that we've saved in the past have had to be resuscitated."

Momo: That's not good!

Okay, Izuku had not been prepared for that when he woke up this morning. Actually, scratch that, he hadn't been prepared for any of this! He hadn't even been planning on finding a bee to hack and even after that he'd just been hoping to find the queen before she realized that he'd hacked... Izuku almost tripped as a new realization filled him with dread.

Everyone(realizing): Oh no...

"Eraser..." Izuku tried to keep his voice from trembling. "What would happen to the host if the queen felt threatened? Like if someone hacked one of her bees and possibly knows who she is?"

Shouta resisted the urge to curse as he kept pace with Viridian. He'd been hoping that the kid wouldn't make that connection, but him stressing out would only make the kid freak out worse. The only logical option was honesty, for now, if only to avoid any unpleasant surprises when they arrived at wherever Viridian was leading him, especially if Shouta was right in suspecting that the kid had somehow discovered the queen when looking for the hive. If only the kid was actually a hero instead of an ill-supported vigilante, then he could have actually read all the files and been at the meetings rather than scrounging up whatever he could find on the internet, which was very obviously incomplete. Even for experienced heroes, working without proper information could lead to deadly mistakes, but that wasn't something he'd wanted the kid to learn this young.

Gran Torino: No it shouldn't be...

Recovery Girl: But the mistake's already been done... all we can do now is hope for the best.

"It will depend on the host." Shouta said simply. "If there's a reason why that host in particular was chosen and the queen feels she's at risk of discovery, then she will probably remain in the host and simply go to ground. If the host was only chosen because of availability, however, then the queen will most likely... abandon them and move onto the next host."

Shoji(whispering): He means kill her...

Viridian's expression tightened, but he didn't make any other response and Shouta didn't know whether to be glad or not that the kid appeared to have picked up on what he'd said between the lines. On the one hand, it meant that Viridian didn't mess up out of malice or obliviousness, which meant he had potential, but the emotions this kid must be going through... Ugh, why had Shouta let Nemuri convince him to go into teaching?

Midnight: Because no matter what you say you secretly do like kids but I don't think this is the right time to talk like this...

Shouta called Amplifier and Rock Lock for back-up as they ran, telling them to stay on standby in case they needed it. They had been running for about ten minutes when Viridian finally stopped and dropped to a crouch. Shouta knelt beside him and followed his eyeline to see an american style diner, lights still on and only half cleaned. The employees were nowhere to be seen.

"It's the waitress." Viridian said softly. "Her name is Kohaku and she has copper hair, like the metal, um, that's probably not actually important, but she checks all the boxes. Eye patch, personality change, surrounded by bees, everything. I don't know if she's still here, but..."

All Might(quietly): I hope she is...

Shouta quickly gave their location to the other heroes, then glanced at Viridian. His first instinct was to tell the kid to stay put while he checked out the diner, but goodness knew that the kid wouldn't ever actually do that, "Stay behind me kid, Doesn't matter who she's possessing, the queen is dangerous, so be ready for anything."

(everyone swallowed, feeling nervous. There was something extra scary about a parasitic mind controlling insect than normal villains and even the LOV were rattled)

They silently made their way across the street, Viridian shadowing his footsteps perfectly even though Shouta could feel the anxiety coming off the kid in waves. When the reached the door, Shouta activated his quirk and he could see Viridian loading a marble into his slingshot out of the corner of his his eye. They nodded to each other and burst through the door ready for a fight, only to be met with eerie silence. Shouta kept his quirk activated and gestured for the kid to keep quiet as they weaved around the tables, waiting tensely for any suspicious movement or sign of attack, but there wasn't even a fly buzzing around as far as Shouta could tell.

Hound Dog: That... should be comforting but...

Finally, they reached the front counter and rounded the corner to go behind it, only for Shouta to freeze as he realized he'd been right and judging by the way Viridian sucked in a breath behind him, he'd been too slow to keep the kid from seeing. When the queen felt threatened, she had decided to abandon the host and had gotten rid of any loose ends, including the host herself, which meant that the only sign Queen Bee had ever been in this diner was the still-warm body of the waitress on the floor.

Thirteen: Oh no!

Mei: Kohaku...

Shiozaki: She... she died...

Midoriya(whispering): This is all my fault.

Uraraka: Deku-

Midoriya: If I'd just left it to the real heroes-

Iida: You are a real hero, Midoriya. And yes you should have left it to them but... don't blame yourself please.

Inko: Izuku...

Midoriya: O-okay. I won't. I won't.