Hagakure: Please let Ogawa be okay...

Katsuki stared at the blankets, gripping the itchy fabric to anchor himself as he tried to ignore both his emotions and his old man sitting in the corner. His parents had arrived while the doctors were rushing him through the halls, trying to figure out what poison those stupid bees had shot him up with. Katsuki himself had been completely blacked out at that point, but when he'd finally woken up, his old man told him that the old hag had been so stressed that she decided to leave so she wouldn't get kicked out, which somehow wasn't surprising at all. Other than that, he hadn't been told anything, so he was just going through the fight over and over again trying to make some sort of sense out of everything.

There was a knock at the door and his old man looked at him hesitantly before responding, "Come in!"

"Good morning, Bakugo." The doctor smiled as he opened the door. "How are you feeling?"

Bakugo: How do you think?

"Like @$#&." Katsuki huffed, "But I'm not in pain anymore, so there's that."

The doctor nodded and noted something in his chart, "That's good to hear. Honestly, you're lucky to be alive right now. But I'm sure you're wondering what's going on, so I'll try and answer all your questions as best I can."

What Katsuki really wanted to ask about was Ogawa, but he didn't know if the doctor would actually tell him anything. By the time they had managed to get out of the water, the paramedics were already waiting for them. One of the teams had immediately taken Ogawa from his arms and one guy started chest compressions while the other was busy grabbing a gas mask. Katsuki wanted, needed, to stay and make sure his friend was okay, but either the stings had gotten worse with time or he'd just run out of adrenaline, because his entire body had felt like it was on fire. When another team of paramedics had started dragging him away, he couldn't even tell which way was up and down, much less fight them off, and he vaguely remembered Aizawa being in pretty much the same state. He remembered being loaded onto an ambulance as someone tried to ask him ridiculous questions like what year it was, but then everything just went black with pain and he'd woken up hours later to his dad doing crosswords in the corner.

Inko: At least he's alive but... is Ogawa...?

Jirou: And sensei...

"I, uh, think we mostly like to know what happened." Dad eventually answered. "I know the nurse said something about having to administer an antidote, so does that mean Katsuki was poisoned?"

The doctor nodded, "The villain that attacked you was using mechanical bees as an injection method for an experimental poison that has been outlawed pretty much the world over at this point. It latches onto a person's quirk factor and uses that as an anchor point to destroy the person from the inside out. Thankfully, the danger level depends on the dose, so since young Bakugo here was only stung a few times, we had more than enough time to administer the antidote. You're going to experience some muscle weakness for the next week or so and we'll need to keep you here for a few days for observation, but other than that, you won't have any negative effects. You're very lucky."

Tsu(realizing): Oh so that's why Viridian felt fine, ribbit. He doesn't have a quirk.

Katsuki nodded absently and gripped the sheets a little tighter. If the poison depended on the dose, then what did that mean for Ogawa? He'd been covered in bee stings by the time Katsuki handed him off the paramedics and he hadn't been breathing. Katsuki had assumed that it was from the water, but what if it was because the poison had already done its work? What about Eraserhead? Was he going to have to get a new homeroom teacher before the school year even started?

Nejire: I hope they're all okay...

"Katsuki." His old man grabbed his hand gently. "Katsuki, do you have any questions for the doctor?"

"Probably won't answer 'em anyway." Katsuki grumbled.

Kirishima: Just ask.

"You'll never know if you don't ask." the doctor pointed out kindly. "But I have been authorized to share some updates with you and I promise that I'll try to answer your questions the best I can."

Katsuki glared at him skeptically, but the doctor kept smiling patiently until he gave in, "What about everyone else? I know for sure I wasn't the only one on that beach and everyone else got it worse than I did."

The doctor nodded, "I figured you might ask about them. Thankfully, the entire area was mostly evacuated before the bees arrived, so only a few civilians and police officers were caught up in the attack. They all received a low enough dose of the poison that they're going to be released later today. As for the heroes present, they're all going to be fine after they've had some time to recover. Rock Lock and Amplifier both managed to find cover and minimize their exposure as soon as the bees attacked, so both are awake and doing fine just like you. I was told you were rescued alongside Eraserhead as well, so you'll be pleased to hear that, while he did receive a higher dose, we expect him to wake up within the next few hours."

(everyone breathed a sigh of relief.)

Katsuki nodded along, and waited for a moment after the doctor stopped talking for him to keep going and finish his explanation, but he never did, "And Ogawa? What about him?"

The doctor's face scrunched a bit in confusion, "Who?"

Bakugo: Ugh, guess he didn't bother to find out his name.

His old man looked back and forth between them a few times, "Katsuki's friend. He went missing a little bit ago. Katsuki, you never told me they found him!"

"They didn't." Katsuki grumbled. "He found us. Before the bees showed up, there was a villain going around and wrecking stuff. Tentacles for hair, dumb jokes, ugly face, you can't miss him. How is he doing?"

The doctor's face fell and he hurried to disguise his expression a split second too late, "I wasn't aware that you had a connection to him."

(everyone froze)

Toga: Wait he didn't...

Kaminari: Did he?

"Yeah, well, I do." Katsuki huffed. "He's dead, isn't he? I failed."

"Katsuki!" Dad scolded. "You can't just ask that!"

"Shut up, old man!" Katsuki snapped. "If he's dead, I wanna know. No point in drawing it out any longer than we already have!"

Thirteen: Hey uh they didn't say he was dead yet, we just know it's bad...

The doctor cleared his throat and both Katsuki and his old man turned to him with rapt attention, "You have to understand that the young man in question received a much higher dose than anyone else present during the attack. We did all he could for him, but..."

"But he's gone." Katsuki finished numbly. "He's dead."

"No, we did manage to stabilize him." The doctor assured quickly. "But the poison had already done a lot of damage and... well, I probably shouldn't say this but his biology isn't exactly normal. I've never seen another patient like him in all my years of practicing medicine, so while we are trying everything we know, there's a lot that we still have no idea how to help with. Like I said, we managed to stabilize him for now, but..."

Midoriya: He's alive at least...

Uraraka: But in what state?

"But?" Katsuki prompted.

"But your friend is in a coma." The doctor said. "I'm sorry, but we don't know exactly when he'll wake up."

Mt. Lady: Oh...

"Of course, Mitsuki, anything." Mom assured her. "And Izuku and I will bake you some cookies. You just focus on taking care of Katsuki, alright? You too. Bye."

Izuku picked at his food as she hung up the phone and slumped down in the chair next to him, "Is Kacchan going to be okay?"

Inko: He should be...

Mom sighed and grabbed his hand, "Yeah, he'll be fine. Apparently he got caught up in a villain attack last night and had to be rushed to the hospital. Everything's alright now and he's going to be fine, but they're still going to keep him there a few days, just to make sure."

"Oh." Izuku tried to remember if there were any other villain attacks that had happened last night, but he'd basically fallen into bed the minute he'd gotten home and hadn't woken up until after sunrise, so there was always the possibility that something had happened that he didn't know about. "Um... are we going to go visit him?"

Dabi: Oh I don't know, maybe he was in the same villain attack you were? The one that you already know involved someone named Kacchan?

Mom looked at him softly, "I'm probably going to go, just to be there for Mitsuki, but I'm not going to make you come along. I know your history with Katsuki is... complicated."

Snipe: That is an understatement.

Izuku winced. He may not have ever said that Kacchan was one of his bullies, but he supposed it was kinda obvious after everthing. That didn't mean that he didn't still care about him! But he didn't really want to visit him in the hospital either, and he was beyond positive that Kacchan would only explode him if he tried to show up, so he was grateful that Mom wasn't going to force the issue.

Sero: He's changed now though...

Tsukauchi: But they don't know that.

"I'll still help you make cookies." Izuku offered. "I hope he's alright..."

Mom ruffled his hair and smiled, "The heroes saved him, so I'm sure he'll be fine. Now, did you and Kaminari eat the last of the chocolate chips?"

Izuku gave a guilty smile that had Mom rolling her eyes.

Kaminari: Uh, sorry Mrs Midoriya?

"Of course you did." she sighed. "Alright, I'm going to go buy more and you finish whatever school work you want to get done today before I come back, okay?"

"Sounds good!" Izuku grinned and gave her a thumbs up as she headed out the door.

He didn't have any assignments due soon, but he booted up his computer anyway. Last night's berserker attack was nagging at him and he just couldn't put a finger on why. Maybe because it wasn't just one thing that felt off. First of all, that octopus monster hadn't felt like a normal berserker. It hadn't just been filled with rage and it hadn't tried to hurt people, with perhaps the exception of the informant that Eraser had mentioned. If it wasn't for the quirk acting like it had been pumped up on steroids, Izuku would have probably never even thought it was a berserker at all.

Kurogiri: He's not...

And then there was Queen Bee's involvement in the whole thing that just didn't make sense. Both Izuku and Eraser had assumed that the bees were there to help out the berserker, probably by injecting it with trigger, but if that had been the case, then by the time Izuku destroyed the bees, the berserker would have been, well... going berserk. Instead, after the explosion, the beach had been deadly still and it was obvious that the fight was over. He was exhausted and not in the mood to outrun Eraserhead, so he'd just left the laptop for the police to reclaim and gone home before anyone could try to catch him, but if Queen Bee hadn't been there to help the berserker, then why had she been there?

Gran Torino: To tie off loose ends...

The obvious conclusion, even though it made Izuku so horrified that he wanted to throw up, was that this was another case of tying off loose ends. It was possible that the berserker didn't act like the others because it wasn't finished yet or for a multitude of other reasons, and it had somehow escaped before the villain factory had been planning on releasing it into the wild. Even for that though, did she really need to send a whole swarm? The only reason that Izuku could think of for sending that many bees was that failure was not an option, which meant that there was something about last night's berserker in particular that the villain factory didn't want them to know.

So, of course, Izuku had to find out what.

Aizawa: Problem child really?

Midoriya: Um sorry? Hey it's just online stuff! It's perfectly safe!

He pulled up a file he'd hacked from the police servers earlier of past instant villains that had been reported missing. If he could figure out who the berserker had been, then he might be able to find out what changes had been made and it might lead him to what the villains were trying to cover up. He felt more and more nauseous as he scrolled through the list, which was much longer than it should have been. If All for One had access to that many strong quirks, what was stopping him from using them to take over the world? Was it just All Might and the other holders of One for All at that point? Could they even fight him if he were to start attacking with full power?

All Might: I don't know...

Recovery Girl: Hey Aizawa managed to deal with him in Mastermind.

All Might: Yes but...

Eventually, Izuku found... well, he found something and even after scrolling through the list two more times, nothing else fit. Unless there was someone similar who wasn't ever reported missing, then this must be last night's berserker. Or, Izuku supposed, who last night's berserker used to be.

Jirou: He's still in there... he's still sane.

Aito Ogawa

Quirk: Tentacle Hair

Izuku skimmed over the file. He'd been missing for a few months, but what Izuku was mostly interested in was the quirk section. There was no corrosive element to Ogawa's quirk and he was in his twenties, so it wasn't likely that a secondary element like that would develop naturally. In addition, according to Ogawa's file, he could really only stretch his tentacles a few inches, but from what Izuku had observed last night they were almost elastic...

Monoma: Well yeah they changed it.

He gasped softly, eyes widening as he read through the document again, this time knowing exactly what he was looking for. He was half-hoping that he didn't find it, so when he did, he instantly wished he hadn't.

Goku Gomu

Quirk: Elasti-Arms

Izuku had fought him. It was months ago, but he still remembered the adrenaline-fueled rush he'd felt when he realized that the stretch of Gomu's arms couldn't be infinite and had climbed a building to figure out how to beat him. He didn't keep up with any of the villains or thugs he arrested, so Izuku hadn't even realized the guy was missing, and now... well, now he wasn't. Or, at least his quirk wasn't.

(everyone suddenly remembered that villain)

Dabi: So that's where he got that quirk...

If he had been asked on a quirk theory exam how the berserker's quirk was related to Ogawa's, Izuku's first answer, and the one his professors would wholeheardedly believe was correct, would be that the berserker was part of the next generation. The parent's quirk would have combined with someone else's to create a new, unique, quirk in the child. The only problem here was that Ogawa was in his twenties. There was no possible way for him to have a grown child that could have manifested that quirk.

Momo: Not to mention both of them are male.

But, from what he'd learned about the history of One for All from All Might, quirks could combine when transferred. It probably wasn't common and in the case of One for All, it had been accidental, but if Izuku was right, then the villain factory had figured out a way to make it happen intentionally. In that case, the berserker wasn't actually a berserker at all. Berserkers had their own quirks ramped up to 11, but last night's victim had multiple quirks that had artificially weaved themselves into one coherent whole.

Tsukauchi: He's figuring it out.

Last night's villain hadn't been a berserker, but instead was an amalgamation of several different quirks forced into one holder. Ogawa's quirk provided the tentacles, obviously, and then Gomu's quirk had weaved into that and combined to form something new: tentacles that could stretch almost without limit. Originally, Gomu's quirk had affected the user's arms, but it was possible that it was simply the most useful limb present. Some quirks were like that, rarely, and if the user was lucky, they never knew about it, but if a quirk affected a user's hands and they were amputated, the quirk would sometimes change and start manifesting in their feet. If Elasti-Arms was meant to manifest in the most useful limb, then it could have easily transferred to affect the tentacles when it combined with Ogawa's quirk.

Which meant that Izuku probably wasn't looking for an ink quirk to complete the amalgamation. With an octopus-type quirk as a base, any liquid-based emitter quirk would likely manifest as an ink instead of how it had presented for the original holder, simply because of the way the quirks were set to combine. That meant that any emitter quirk that produced a corrosive liquid could have potentially been used as an ingredient for the new quirk.

Shinso(sarcastically): Well that certainly narrows the search down.

Finding that one took a bit longer, since he started looking with the most recent cases first, assuming that the third person must have been abducted around the same time. Both Ogawa and Gomu had disappeared within months of each other, but the villain factory had apparently been collecting quirk for as long as they'd been running experiments, because the match he found was a woman who had been missing for almost five years now.

Daita Ashido

Quirk: Adjustable Acid

Mina(gasping): They... they got Auntie Dai?

Hagakure: Oh no Mina I'm so sorry...

Izuku closed the tabs quickly when he heard his mom open the front door and noted the names to pass onto Eraserhead next time he saw him. He could deal with this later, for now it was time to make cookies for Kacchan.

Mina: They... they took her... she's probably dead in that world isn't she?

Aizawa: Probably. I'm sorry, Ashido.

Mina: Yeah uh... at least my aunt is still here...?

Bakugo: I guess...