Katsuki slouched his shoulders as he pushed the door of the bar open. He knew he should leave Ogawa's case to the police. They knew what they were doing and Katsuki didn't really, but with everything going on with Endeavor, he knew that finding a minor villain wasn't going to be on the top of their list of priorities. Katsuki, however, also knew that someone had to know something. It was one of the things his friends had basically pounded into his brain when they started showing him around the underground: nothing stays secret for long and there are eyes everywhere. If he needed to know something, all he really needed to know was who to ask.

Aizawa: Bakugo really?

"Get outta here, kid." Katsuki didn't recognize the bartender who was standing behind the counter. "This is no place for minors."

Dabi(snorting): Well that guy's new to this.

Toga: Eh he'll learn.

Katsuki scowled, "Where's Dabi?"

"Asshole called in sick this morning." The bartender slammed the glass he was polishing down on the counter. "So if you see him, give him a piece of my mind."

Shigaraki: He's looking for Endeavor isn't he?

Twice: Ya think? No he's definitely not.

"Sure, whatever, I'll punch his lights out or something." Katsuki rolled his eyes. "Now, where can I find him?"

The bartender shrugged, "He lived over on sixth last time he mentioned it, now get outta here before I get someone to drag your ass out."

Bakugo: Oh they can sure try!

"Alright, alright, I'm gone." Katsuki turned to leave. "If you see him before I do, tell him Kacchan wants to talk to him."

He slammed the door behind him before the guy could say anything else.

(everyone snorted)

"We assure you that we are doing everything in our power to find the culprits behind Endeavor's disappearance and have both detectives and heroes working around the clock to investigate leads in the case. Thank you."

Tsukauchi bowed and retreated, finally, off the stage and through the door into the back offices, thankfully far from the cameras. Eraserhead was waiting for him with a coffee as soon as the door shut behind him, "How did it go?"

"Terrible, as expected." Tsukauki responded, taking the coffee gratefully. "You're just lucky you're underground and have an excuse not to deal with them."

Aizawa: Why do you think I chose it?

"Why do you think I chose it?" Eraser huffed. "I finished shaking down the known trigger dealers, but it was a bust, as expected. None of them are high enough in the operation to know anything." He took a sip of his own coffee. "The vultures end up asking about the abuse?"

Tsukauchi: What do you think?

Tsukauchi glared at him, "What do you think?"

"Hmmm." Eraser grimaced. "I'm sure that went over well."

Hawks: Oh definitely.

Tsukauchi sighed, "Yeah, about as well as it'll go over if we can't find him. I talked to All Might about the All for One lead. He said he's fairly certain he's gone, but he'll look into it."

"Well, at least that's something." Eraser sighed. "And Viridian's aware of the situation and knows to stay away."

Midoriya: Erm...

Tsukauchi raised an eyebrow, "You really think he will?"

"Not a chance." Eraser swallowed the rest of his coffee. "But a man can hope."

Inko: Izuku...

Katsuki had no idea where on sixth street Dabi lived, but he'd be lying if he said he wasn't planning on just knocking on every door until he found him. Thankfully he didn't have to. He had just arrived on the street when he saw a sketchy looking figure leaving one of the buildings, hood pulled up and jacket zipped all the way past his chin.

Katsuki walked purposefully toward him and knocked him with his shoulder as he passed, "If you're gonna hide your scars, you should be less obvious about it."

Dabi: Oh you try hiding them!

"Shut up, Kacchan." Dabi growled back. "I'm not in the mood to babysit today."

"Yeah, you're sick, right?" Katsuki scoffed as Dabi froze. "I don't care, I just want some info."

Kirishima: Wait Bakugo's trying to get information from a villain...

Mina: He's technically not a villain yet. The schoolyear hasn't even started.

"Get it from someone else." Dabi started walking away. "I'm busy."

"Ogawa's missing."

Dabi froze and whipped around, "What?"

Compress: You're interested? Interesting...

"I said Ogawa's missing." Katsuki repeated him. "And everyone's too busy with Endeavor to care about some minor criminal disappearing into thin air."

Katsuki's eyes widened as Dabi grabbed his wrist with an almost uncomfortably hot hand that probably would have burned anyone without a fire quirk and dragged him into the house he'd just left. As soon as they were inside, Dabi slammed the door shut and turned on him.

"How long has he been gone?"

Mitsuki: A week.

Katsuki shrugged, "At least a week, from what I can tell. I think I was the last person to see him."

"@#$*&." Dabi ran his hand through his hair. "Ogawa was an instant villain a couple months ago, right?"

"Yeah?" Katsuki eyed him suspiciously. "It's how he got caught. You think this has something to do with why he disappeared?"

Midnight: Definitely...

Dabi stared at him for a long moment, "If I'm gonna give you that info, I'm gonna need you to do something for me."

Katsuki stared back, calculating the risk, "What would you need?"

"Just ask a couple people the right questions." Dabi shrugged. "Nothing illegal."

Bakugo: If it's not illegal you can do it yourself.

Katsuki raised his eyebrows, "And you can't do it yourself because?"

"Because reasons, brat." Dabi growled. "So will ya do it or not?"

Mirio: ...It's going to involve talking to the Todorokis isn't it?

Tamaki: Oh...

Katsuki thought for a minute. On the one hand, there must be a reason Dabi wasn't willing to do it himself, but on the other he obviously knew something, and Katsuki owed it to Ogawa to do everything in his power to find him, "Fine, I'll do it. So what do you know?"

Dabi's shoulders slumped, "Have you ever heard of something called the villain factory?"

Aizawa: Great now there's two teenagers getting involved with the villain factory.

All Might: And All for One...

"Enlighten me." Katsuki grumbled.

"From what I've dug up, they're either partnered with the biggest trigger operation in the city, or they're behind it." Dabi said. "But what you're gonna be interested in is the disappearances."

Monoma: Just get to the point already!

Katsuki almost growled in frustration, "Get to the point."

"It's a pattern." Dabi said seriously. "A guy gets dosed with trigger, turns into an instant villain, then anywhere from a few weeks to a few months later, they're gone."

Tsukauchi: Happened ever single time, except for those with quirks that were deemed uninteresting enough.

"You think this villain factory took Ogawa." Katsuki confirmed.

"It fits the pattern." Dabi nodded. "But what I want to know is why they took Endeavor too."

Endeavor: As a distraction...

Shoto Todoroki felt numb.

His entire life had been lived around his father. All the training, the beatings, even his own birth had been directed and overseen by that man, and now he was nowhere to be found. The police assured him that they would find him, of course, but people broke promises all the time. Shoto had learned that the hard way after too many times of Endeavor promising he'd stop hitting him or training him so hard. It never happened. Even if they did find Endeavor, though, things would never be the same. The police knew now. And the public knew. Everyone knew how much of an asshole Endeavor really was and Shoto wasn't sure how he was supposed to feel about that.

Todoroki: Yeah...

There was a rustling behind him and Shoto unleashed a torrent of ice on instinct. Police were supposed to be stationed in front of the house just in case the people who took Endeavor came after them as well, so how did someone get into the backyard?

He looked at the miniature glacier he'd created, stepping back slightly as a muffled boom sounded from inside. The ice shook slightly before a thin section of it exploded outward and a boy around his age wearing a middle school uniform stalked out of it, brushing a piece of ice from his shoulder with a scowl, "Well hello to you too, Icyhot."

Todoroki: And you have already come up with a nickname for me.

Bakugo: It fits.

"That's not my name." Shoto said slowly. "How did you get in here?"

"Through the ivy hole." The kid said, like it should be obvious and not like it turned Shoto's entire world on its head. "It's how you and your siblings sneak out, right? So why shouldn't I use it to sneak in?"

Endeavor: Excuse me you what?

It was logical, except for the fact that no one but their family knew about the place where Touya and Natsuo had picked the mortar out of the bricks and trained the ivy on the wall to grow over it. It had to be discreet enough to fool Endeavor, but if they needed to sneak away for whatever reason, it was the only way out that their father would never find. Only Shoto and his siblings had ever known about it.

Endeavor: I'm-

Hawks: Not getting rid of that.

So how did this stranger find out?

Gran Torino: From a sibling.

"Listen, that's not important." The kid huffed and sat down on the bench beside him like he hadn't just snuck into the number two hero's backyard. Well, former number two hero, if things kept going the way they were going right now. "People call me Kacchan. I'm trying to find the people who took your dad."

Mitsuki: Oh my goodness he's actually introducing himself as Kacchan. (Bakugo groaned. It looked like he was stuck as that now.)

Shoto blinked a few times. That name really didn't match the kid in front of him, but he said he was trying to find the people who took Endeavor, which implied that he wasn't looking for Endeavor. Interesting.

He eyed the kid suspiciously, "Why?"

"They took a friend of mine." Kacchan shrugged. "Took a lot of people, apparently."

Tsukauchi: Yeah...

"And you think I can help?" Shoto said skeptically. "I already told the police everything I know."

"And I'm not the police." Kacchan rolled his eyes. "I just have a few questions and then I'll be out of your ridiculous hair."

Todoroki: My hair is ridiculous?

Shoto should call for the police. If the house weren't so large, they'd probably have already heard the commotion and come running, but... well, if Kacchan knew about the ivy hole and knew Shoto's quirk, based on the nickname he'd chosen for him, what else did he know about them? Plus... well, it was almost definitely stupid, but Shoto had been cooped up in the house ever since the police has officially cleared him and his siblings of murder. He couldn't even watch tv without being berated with stories about Endeavor and exposes about the abuse, so this was the most entertainment he'd had in days.

Kaminari: Ah yes the perils of being bored for too long.

Tetsutetsu: Makes you do really stupid stuff.

Knowing he'd probably regret it, Shoto sat down beside the kid, "What do you want to know?"

Kacchan smiled at his victory, "Did your dad take any drugs?"

Endeavor: Of course not!

Shoto blinked in shock a few times, "Are you seriously asking me if the number two hero was a drug addict?"

"Well, he was apparently a wife beater, so I don't think anything would surprise me at this point." Kacchan said casually. "Did he ever take something called Trigger? It would have made his quirk a lot stronger."

Shoto shook his head, "He hated Trigger. He rated all the time about how using it was basically cheating. He wanted to beat All Might by proving his own strength, not by using steroids."

Dabi: Yeah that fits...

"Dabi said that was probably the case..." Kacchan muttered. "And you never knew of his getting dosed by someone else, right?"

Shoto glared at him, "I'm pretty sure the number two hero was skilled enough to keep himself from getting roofied."

Mic: Yeah well I feel like it's hard to avoid being stung by a robot bee full of trigger.

"A simple yes or no would have worked." Kacchan laughed. "Alright, last question. How are you and the other two brats doing?"

(Todoroki shot a double take at Dabi)

Toga: Hey Dabi you care.

Dabi(muttering): Yeah apparently...

Shoto stared at him for a long moment until he realized the question was serious, "... You're joking, right?"

"Sadly, no." Kacchan sighed. "The asshole who sent me wanted to make sure you were all okay for some reason. Beats me, but hey, a deal is a deal and as long as I get the info I'm after, I don't care."

Dabi: ...Don't you dare give that conspiracy theorist for a brother any more clues...

"Who would...?" Shoto's mind raced as he took in the new information. Who would both know about the ivy hole and would have an interest in making sure Shoto and his siblings were okay? Who would know what Shoto's quirk was and would want to help a random kid who was trying to track down the people who kidnapped Endeavor? He could only think of one possibility, but that was impossible. "Touya."

(Dabi groaned, holding his head in his hands)

Shigaraki: Well that secret's gone.

"No idea who that is." Kacchan dismissed. "And like I said, I don't really care, so are ya gonna answer my question or not?"

(everyone snorted)

"We're fine, I guess." Shoto said finally. "The only person who ever hurt us was the old man, so now that he's gone... Well, we'll see. Fuyumi is taking care of us for now."

"Good enough for me." Kacchan stood up and started walking back in the direction of the ivy hole, almost invisible in the growing darkness, then stopped suddenly. "Before Endeavor went missing, do you know if there were any bees hanging around the house?"

Thirteen: Um how does he know about the bees?

Aizawa(groaning): Problem children.

"Bees?" Shoto felt like Kacchan's questions were getting more and more ridiculous and he was starting to wonder if this whole thing was just a big prank. "Didn't you say the other one was the last question?"

"Whatever." Kacchan huffed and started stalking away again. "See you never."

Iida: At least until school, if Todoroki still wishes to be a hero in that world.

"Endeavor was going to call an exterminator." Shoto offered. "Fuyumi only found a couple in the kitchen, but he had zero patience for that type of thing. Should we have told the police about that?"

Kendo: Yes.

"No clue." The kid shrugged. "Have a nice life."

Shoto watched him disappear into the ivy and was left with more questions than he'd answered for him. He didn't bother melting the remaining ice before going inside and finding Fuyumi and Natsuo, who were playing a card game at the kitchen table. He walked up to them with zero preamble.

"I think Touya might be alive."

(everyone snorted)

Nejire: Well his siblings are going to find this hard to believe.

Katsuki didn't know why exactly he'd asked about the bees, but it was infuriatingly weird that Icyhot had said 'yes'. Obviously, when Dabi had said that the not illegal favor he needed involved tresspassing in the number two hero's house, he'd basically said #@$! that and told Scarface no way. He'd find whatever info he needed about the villain factory on his own, thanks. He'd figured a good place to start would be to retrace Ogawa's steps from their last hangout, but that had been a total bust.

The only weird thing he'd found for his trouble was a small handful of smashed bees in the alley outside of Ogawa's house that were probably just some crazy inventor's drones or something. He wouldn't have thought twice about it if he hadn't remembered the annoying bees that had kept hovering around their ice cream the last time they hung out. Even then, he had basically written it off as a coincidence until he'd impulsively asked Icyhot about them.

Vlad: Oh that explains it.

The lack of clues had frustrated him enough that he'd ended up going to the Todoroki house anyway, not that it had really given him a lot of info, but Dabi would be happy to know the family was okay. Maybe. Actually, who knew what was going on in that guy's brain? Katsuki wouldn't put it beyond him to completely hate those kids and want to make sure they were miserable or something, but he already had the info he needed and he wasn't being paid to care.

(everyone snorted)

Sero: Bakugo's a weird detective.

Bakugo: I'm not a detective!

Tsukauchi(insulted): It's not a bad thing.

Katsuki pulled out his phone and texted Dabi what he'd learned before heading home. He needed to get some rest if he wanted to figure out what those bees meant and find his friend... and he should probably tell the police what he'd learned too, but they most likely wouldn't even have the resources to act on the info until Endeavor was found. Katsuki knew he should have asked Amplifier before talking to Dabi about the case, but with literally every hero busy looking for the number two, he figured that he'd just have to ask forgiveness instead of permission. He was gonna be a hero anyway, so it was his responsibility to help out where he could and find his friend.

"It's that vigilante's fault." The doctor said calmly, noting with satisfaction that Endeavor's eyes burned with rage at his words. "It's Viridian's fault that you lost the number two spot. It's his fault that you'll never beat All Might. It's his fault that you're going to have your family and your masterpiece taken away from you."

(everyone froze)

Endeavor: ...They're conditioning the other me.

Inko(whispering): To kill Izuku...

The chains anchoring Endeavor to the wall strained as he thrashed against them, but the doctor kept speaking through the earpiece, calmly planting the seeds that the hero's quickly deteriorating brain would latch onto, "You'll need to cause a significant amount of chaos to find him, though. Destroy everything in your path, otherwise Viridian will get away."

All Might: Oh no...

It was almost sad to waste such a perfect subject, but All for One had insisted that Endeavor's purpose was short-lived. Most of their other experiments underwent extensive modifications to prepare their minds and bodies to hold multiple quirks, but Endeavor himself had been a rush job, getting only the most minor of reinforcements before All for One had forced multiple copies of his own quirk into his body. That meant, of course, that the quirks would destroy him sooner rather than later, but Endeavor was the star of tonight's performance and he was meant to burn fast and bright.

Nezu: And make us assume that they're not getting far with giving an individual multiple quirks and staying sane.

Their newest Berserker growled, pulling at the chains again until the doctor pressed a button to release him. He didn't waste anytime tearing the door to his holding cell off its hinges and releasing himself into the city, intent on fulfilling the purpose that Sensei had created for him. He would distract the heroes from the final phase of their experiments and get rid of that annoying vigilante all in one fell swoop! It was the perfect definition of two birds with one stone.

Or perhaps more accurately, two marbles with one berserker.

Toga(worriedly): I would say he should come