Rin: Wait, we don't have to worry about cliffhangers anymore.

Tsunotori: Not going to lie, this feels little weird after so long...

"Are you sure you're okay to be out here tonight?" Tensei had always been too caring for his own good, but a lot of the time, Shouta just wished he'd just let things go. "You did just survive a major villain attack, what? Three days ago? And I know that Mic took a couple personal days because of everything, so don't you dare try to tell me it's illogical to take some time off!"

Midnight: Unfortunately he never takes a break.

"I'm fine." He grumbled. "My injuries were mostly superficial and Recovery Girl already gave me the all clear."

Tensei gave him a look, "That's not what I meant and you know it. Not all scars are physical, Shouta, you know that."

Instinctively, Shouta reached up and ran his thumb along the new scar on his face. Considering the way Shigaraki's hand had touched him, it was honestly only sheer luck that the disintegration hadn't reached the eye itself. With a five point contact quirk, Shouta had expected the fingerprints to be much more distinct, but the cracks in the skin had branched outward and connected them into an almost semi-circle shape where the skin and part of the muscle had flaked away before he'd managed to activate his quirk and stop the damage. It was definitely ugly and impossible to hide, but Shouta had never cared much about aesthetics anyway. Plus, his scar was nothing in comparison to the changes that Kurogiri had gone through.

(everyone winced at the picture)

Midoriya: Oh no sensei...

Mic: Shou, yikes...

Aizawa: I'm fine, problem children.

"I'm fine." Shouta repeated. Maybe if he said it enough, he'd be able to convince himself too. "It's illogical to worry about that until we have confirmation that it actually was him at the attack."

Kurogiri(uneasily): Well, it is.

Tensei rolled his eyes, "I don't know if you just haven't been paying attention, Shou, but humans aren't exactly logical. And you heard the description your witness gave of what Kurogiri looked like before the experiments. It's him. You know it is."

"It's a strong possibility." Shouta admitted. "But why would the villain factory keep him captive for so long? It's been ten years, Tensei. It just doesn't make any sense!"

Shigaraki: Apparently sensei just wanted to hurt as many people as he could because he was bored.

"Maybe his quirk was just too good to pass up?" Tensei shrugged. "But he's alive! That's better than we ever expected, right? We probably even have a chance to get our friend back..."

Mei(looking at Shinso): Yeah!

"Don't hold your breath." Shouta interrupted. "You weren't at the USJ. You didn't see him attacking the students. Even if he is Shirakumo on some level, he's firmly on the side of the villains."

Shinso: For now, anyway...

"I guess you're right." Tensei groaned. "I just really wanted our friend back, you know? It'd be so cool! But I guess life's more complicated than that."

"Isn't it always?" Shouta was tired. He really wanted a nap, but he knew he'd never be able to sleep with everything that was going through his brain. What he needed right now was to get his mind off of everything, and if he was able to check up on a troublesome vigilante while he was at it, all the better.

"Have you seen Viridian since the attack?" Tensei asked for a moment. "Does he even know the details of the attack yet or are we just letting him get whatever's on the news for now?"

Bakugo: Oh, he got even better than that.

"Officially, no one's talked to him." Shouta scowled. "Unofficially, he probably knows just as much as we do at this point, if not more. I found out yesterday that Kacchan has been meeting him behind my back."

Tensei looked like he was trying not to laugh, "Well, you gotta give the kid points for taking initiative."

(everyone snorted while Iida had no idea what to say)

Shouta shot him an exhausted glare, "He knows what Viridian's quirk is."

"Wait, really?!" Tensei's eyes widened. "Why haven't you brought the kid in yet? Is his quirk not on the registry or something?"

Endeavor: Technically not.

Tsukauchi: Because he doesn't have one.

"I said that Kacchan knew Viridian's quirk, not that he had told me." Shouta shook his head in frustration. "He absolutely refuses to give me anything except that it's apparently weak. That's all I've got."

"I mean, you could always threaten to expel him?" Tensei suggested. "That might get him to talk."

Mitsuki(snorting): Yeah, no, that's not working.

Shouta raised an eyebrow, "Do you really think Kacchan is the type to respond well to fear tactics?"

That made Tensei laugh, "Yeah, the kid would probably just double down, would't he?"

"It's all just so illogical." Shouta huffed. "Kacchan won't say anything because he feeels like he owes Viridian his life, but at the same time, you know that the problem child is probably blaming himself for not being there to stop the USJ attack and might even be suicidal again, which I could get him help for if I knew who he was, which I don't because Kacchan won't say anything!"

Hound Dog: Because he feels he should let Midoriya open up on his own after everything Bakugo did to him but Midoriya isn't going to because he knows the Hero Commission won't let him become a hero and honestly I wouldn't put it past them to not give him therapy or something.

"Oof." Tensei hissed. "That's infuriating."

Shouta scoffed, "That's an understatement."

Dabi: Tell me about it.

Their comms crackled to life and Rock Lock's voice came over the line, "Hey, Eraser. You there?"

"Yeah." Shouta rubbed his eyes, grateful for the distraction. "What do you want?"

"I just saw your kid running north." Rock Lock said. "I think he's looking for you."

Toga: Oh, Izu-kun!

Shouta stretched, "Thanks for the heads up. I'll go check it out and see how he's doing."

"Good luck." Rock Lock said.

The line went dead and Tensei laughed, "Seriously, you're gonna need all the luck you can get, though. Kid's getting pretty good."

Uraraka: Yeah, he really has.

"Exactly why he should be a hero, not a vigilante." Shouta sighed. "Hopefully I'll be able to talk some sense into him this time."

"Yeah, we both know that's probably not going to happen." Tensei chuckled. "But good luck dadding your son into submission!"

(everyone giggled and Aizawa and Inko groaned)

Inko: Oh for goodness' sake!

Shouta turned to glare at him, but he was already gone, so he just sighed and ran to find Viridian. At least the kid was alive, which meant that he was doing well enough to not do anything drastic, but still, therapy would be a massive improvement.

Hound Dog: Definitely...

Viridian found him first, "Eraserhead! Wait up!"

Shouta stopped as the kid ran up to him, "Problem Child."

"I'm really sorry I wasn't there to help your students, Eraser!" The kid's eyes were screwed up with tears and both of his hands were fisted into balls at his sides. "I should have figured out that the villains were attacking and helped stop them! I'm really really sorry!"

Tamaki: Midoriya, none of this is your fault.

Mt. Lady: We even had advanced knowledge of the attack.

"It's not your fault, kid." Shouta gave a frustrated sigh. "Even with forewarning of the attack, we still weren't able to prevent it. Don't beat yourself up for villains being villians."

"But..." Viridian hunched in on himself for a moment before getting a determined look in his eyes and straightening up. "I'll make up for it! I promise!"

"Kid..." Shouta groaned. "You don't have to... is that another packet? You spent the past few days digging into things you weren't supposed to, didn't you?"

Mirio: Apparently.

Nejire: Honestly, what did we expect?

"Um, maybe?" Viridian flashed him a guilty smile. "But it'll help, won't it?"

Shouta glared at him, "That remains to be seen. I'd really rather you did things like this with proper supervision. You know? Like the kind you'd get in the vigilante rehabilitation program?"

As expected, Viridian shook his head, "I'm not the kind of person you want in that program, Eraserhead. Save the spots for the people who deserve them."

Everyone: Viridian!

"Look in the mirror, problem child." Shouta deadpanned.

Setsuna: And yet he is actually not a vigilante because loopholes.

Viridian smiled sadly, "I'm not who you think I am, Eraserhead. I'm not some powerful vigilante who can swoop in and save the day. I just do what I can, and even that's not enough most of the time. If I wasn't such a failure, the villains wouldn't even have been able to get into the school."

"UA's security is not your responsibility, problem child." Shouta groaned. "We just weren't prepared for a warp quirk..."

"Which wouldn't even have existed if I was actually a good vigilante." Viridian shoved the packet into his hands. "Most of those quirks... most of those people, were ones I fought. Maybe if I'd caught them sooner before they could show off their quirks... or if I'd known they were targets...?"

Mina: Wait wasn't Ogawa's new stretchy tentacles from one of the villains Viridian fought?

Tsukauchi: Well Midoriya mostly fought trigger villains. And they were given trigger in the first place to test their quirks to see if they're worth taking.

Shouta gave him a skeptical look and started flipping through the research he'd compiled, "Walk me through this, kid. Tell me what I'm looking at."

"Well, I looked through a lot of missing persons, specifically ones that had been instant villains or had run-ins with the villain factory or trigger in the past." Viridian started, his voice becoming more confident as he slipped into his comfort zone. "I found two main ones that could reasonably combine to create something like what you guys saw from Kurogiri at the USJ. Do you remember when I was working virtually?"

"You mean that time you broke your arm and kept doing vigilante work anyway?" Shouta asked sternly. "Yeah, it rings a bell."

(a few people snorted)

Viridian winced, "Uh, yeah, that time. Well, uh, there was this teleporting villain, right? His quirk, Blink, was vision based, just like yours!"

Twice: Oh yeah I remember that. Doesn't ring any bells.

"Yeah, he could teleport to anywhere he could see." Shouta nodded. "But the villian factory didn't have eyes inside UA."

"But if they combined it with the right quirk, they wouldn't need to." Izuku said. "There was this bartender that went missing from Amplifier's patrol area whose quirk let him see anywhere, just so long as he knew the exact location! If it was combined with Blink, then Remote Vision would theoretically allow the user to teleport anywhere if they knew the exact location."

Toga(realizing): That makes sense. Oh, I even said that Remote Vision reminded me of Warp Gate...

Shouta looked at the sources the kid had compiled about the two quirks he'd mentioned. It checked out, even if it didn't explain why Shirakumo was needed. If he was needed. The kid had even included a lot of complicated quir theory that Shouta couldn't really make heads or tails out of, but knew that Nezu would have a field day over, "This is impressive, kid. But you do realize that would only allow him to warp himself, right?"

Mirko: Well Shirakumo's quirk mixing into that must've done something.

"That's where it starts getting a little more complicated." Viridian grimaced. "I read a lot about teleportation quirks, and I think I know what happened, but, uh, I'm missing a quirk..."

"Alright, that's fine." Shouta couldn't help slipping into his teacher mindset as he nodded patiently. "Tell me what you have so far."

Viridian frowned, "I'm like 98% sure that they used a quirk called Darkfiguration. When I fought the original holder, he could completely blend into the darkness. I thought it was some sort of darkness-based invisibility, but when I read his file, it said he was actually becoming the darkness if that makes sense."

Kuroiro: Oh, so kind of like mine.

"About as much sense as quirks normally do." Shouta said. "But the warp gates themselves looked fairly dark. What else?"

"Well, that's where I'm kinda stuck." Viridian huffed in frustration. "I mean, Kacchan said..."

He stopped suddenly with a squeak and stared at Shouta with wide eyes, looking almost terrified and Shouta rolled his eyes, "I already know you talked to Kacchan problem child."

Awase: But Midoriya knows that Aizawa knows that he talked to Bakugo.

Tsuburaba: He was eavesdropping from the bathroom.

"Is he gonna get in trouble for telling me?" Viridian asked softly. "He worked really hard to keep everyone safe, so it would be really unfair to punish him for..."

Shouta rubbed the bridge of his nose, "He's an informant, problem child. I'm not going to punish him for doing his job. And shouldn't you be worried more about yourself, vigilante? If anyone is going to get in trouble, it's going to be you."

"Oh, I'm used to that." Viridian said quickly. "But I needed to make sure because Kacchan said you're not like other teachers, so you might actually... uh, anyway, um, he said that the warp gates were kinda like mists?"

Kodai: Why does he keep on accidentally trauma dumping?

"Uh..." Shouta had trouble following that last sentence, especially when Viridian seemed to be trying to censor himself half-way through. "Yeah, they were kinda like mists. But what was that you said about me being a teacher?"

Viridian's eyes widened again, "Uh, what? Um, well, it's just that, you know, it's really not important..."

A lot of people: Yes it is.

"Oh really." Shouta gave a wild grin. "Then why are you trying to hide it?"

Viridian froze like a deer in the headlights and Shouta wanted to cheer. He wasn't quite sure what he'd stumbled across, but it had to be a pretty big clue if the kid was this freaked out. A part of him felt guilty for making the kid so scared, but the other part was screaming for karma from all the heart attacks Viridian had given him. And if this could lead him to the kid's identity...

Nejire: You know what, I was going to get mad at sensei for scaring him like that, but an eye for an eye and all that.

Viridian laughed nervously, "You work in education, Eraserhead! Uh, you know how hard it is to find good teachers that actually care about the kids and stuff. It's just that I didn't want you to think that I hated all teachers or something like that! That's it!"

Shouta narrowed his eyes and stared at the kid as some things fell into place, "Wait, Viridian... have you been abused by teachers in the past?"

Inko(sadly): Yes...

"Abused?" Viridian waved his hands frantically in front of him. "No! Nothing like that! They weren't trying to make me feel bad or anything, I don't think, it's just that the other students had a lot more potential, so they were just doing what they thought was right. I don't blame them or anything, and it wasn't abuse. I'm a vigilante, Eraser, I can take care of myself!"

Todoroki: No, it was most certainly abuse.

Shouta felt sick, "Your teachers ignored your bullies, didn't they?"

"No?" Viridian looked almost sad. "They paid a lot of attention to them, actually. It's okay, Eraser, I'm fine."

Snipe: No you ain't.

"Somehow I don't think we're talking about the same thing..." Shouta said. "Teachers should pay attention to all their students, problem child. If your teachers are ignoring you, then..."

"They're not." Viridian said firmly. "I don't have those teachers anymore, anyway, so it's a non-issue."

Vlad: No it's not!

"No, it's not!" Shouta said incredulously. "If your teachers contributed to you being suicidal..."

"I'm not suicidal anymore, Eraser." Viridian cut him off. "Like I said, it isn't a big deal. And we're getting distracted. The warp villain basically expanded parts of his body to create the gates, right?"

Recovery Girl: Don't change the subject!

"You can't just change the subject, Viridian." Shouta challenged.

Viridian grinned, determination in his eyes as he met the challenge, "Watch me."

Bakugo(groaning): Okay, now you've done it.

Shouta tried to argue again, but Viridian just steamrolled over him and refused to let him get a word in. @#*(^ problem child.

"Anyway, so the warp villain." Viridan started. "So Darkfiguration would have just made his body into darkness, not helped him teleport groups, but from what Kacchan told me, Kumo had some kind of mist quirk too, so I did some research. There's still a lot we don't know about quirk transfer, obviously, and quirk combinations especially because, yeah, but I looked into it and there's a chance that Darkfiguration changed in reaction to Kumo's quirk."

Monoma: Isn't that the whole point?

Shouta groaned in defeat, "I thought that was the whole point? Quirks being transferred and changing in reaction to the new holder to become more powerful."

Viridian nodded eagerly, "Yeah! So, uh, anyway, Kumo's quirk was mists or clouds or something like that, right? So then, what if when Darkfiguration was added, it became Cloudfiguration? So instead of transforming into darkness, the holder would be able to transform into mist? And, then, since the teleporting quirks affect the holder's body..."

"Then the mist-like portions of the body would be able to teleport in the same way." Shouta said. He couldn't really deny it anymore, could he? He could completely imagine Shirakumo using his clouds as a part of his body and with the quirks the kid had found, all the puzzle pieces fit together, even if he didn't want to. "How did you even find all this, kid? It seems like you've got it all figured out."

Honenuki: Yeah...

Komori: He's really smart.

"Not quite." Viridian had a frustrated pout on his face. "I'm missing Kumo's original quirk. I searched the missing person's list three times and couldn't find it anywhere!"

"Because he's not registered as missing." Shouta sighed.

Tsukauchi(quietly): He's registed as dead.

Viridian blinked, "What?"

Shouta took a deep breath, "Kumo, as Ogawa knew him, was never registered as missing."

"Why not?" Viridian tilted his head in confusion. "Do you think he didn't have any family? Someone must have noticed he was gone!"

Mic(wincing): Yeah, we noticed...

"Oh, they noticed." Shouta muttered darkly. "Sorry, it's just... do you remember when I told you about a friend of mine dying in the line of duty?"

Viridian nodded in concern, "Yeah. You said that, just like me, you threw yourself into fighting to cope after he died."

"Yeah, well..." Shouta's mouth was dry, but he pushed through it, forcing himself to admit it out loud, "Apparently he wasn't as dead as we thought."

Kurogiri(sighing): No he apparently wasn't.

Viridian's eyes got comically wide and Shouta couldn't do anything except laugh, even though it was the last thing he felt like doing at the moment, "Yep! You couldn't find him on the missing person's list because Oboro Shirakumo was reported as dead on arrival over ten years ago. But, hey, immortal supervillains can just get away with anything, right? They've got power and connections, so it doesn't matter whose lives they ruin if they get to play their little