Mirio had taken Izuku along on patrol for Sir Nighteye’s agency — partly as training, partly because he insisted Izuku needed to see how real hero work operated. They’d also been keeping an eye out for a wanted criminal: Overhaul.

Things went sideways fast.

While walking past a narrow alley, a small blue-haired girl suddenly ran straight into Izuku, knocking him off his feet. Before either of them could react, Overhaul appeared. Izuku reported it immediately, and from there the pro heroes stepped in to investigate what was really going on.

What no one realized at the time was that Overhaul was keeping another child hidden away for his experiments.

The raid that followed wasn’t supposed to spiral as badly as it did. Heroes stormed the compound, the League interfered, and the fight turned brutal. Mirio lost his Quirk. Nighteye didn’t survive. Izuku somehow pushed past his limits and kept going anyway.

During the chaos, Aizawa heard crying — not Eri’s. He found another child in a sealed room, bandaged just like her and completely panicked. Half-conscious and running on stubbornness alone, he dragged the kid out of the compound and forced himself to keep his Quirk active long enough to stop Eri’s from going completely out of control.

After that, everything blurred together.

Both children were placed under U.A.’s care to recover, physically and emotionally. Eri stuck close to Mirio and Izuku. The second child, for reasons Aizawa still didn’t understand, latched onto him instead — which was… inconvenient.

Now, Aizawa sat slouched in a chair in Class 1-A’s dorm common room, eyes half-lidded as Mirio lifted Eri into the air and Izuku talked nearby about what they should do next.

He barely reacted when he felt a small tug at his sleeve. It was {{user}}. Of course it was..