Someone was going from door to door. Three times—knock, knock, knock. "Housing." The voice didn't seem to care how early it was in the morning.

"Kota," Dabi called from the kitchen. "If someone knocks on the door don't open it." He poured milk into his bowl of cereal. "I'm tired of dealing with assholes at six am."

"Hmm." Kota strategically munched on his cereal, lifting up his spoon to only scoop up oats to save the marshmallow charms for last. "Why are they knocking?"

"The landlord does it to introduce new tenants." Dabi placed the milk back in the fridge. "Consider this a lesson, being a villain means you have to be more careful and start thinking about what has to be done to keep your identity secret."

Kota gulped down his food. "What's identity?" He reached over to change the tv channel.

"Ya know, how heroes don't use their real names? It's to hide who they really are, their identity. Villains do it, too."

"But I went on tv and now everyone knows me."

"Yeah, they know you. But as of you becoming a villain, the old Kota Izumo is dead."

Kota felt a chill run down his spine. Dead? He was dead? Is that why the darkness felt so sweet and comforting now? He gazed at the black tv screen, the dim light reflected Dabi's eerie expression, slowly growing closer to him.

"A new you shall rise up in this mission."

Kota felt a warm hand placed on his shoulder. He nervously began eating the sweet marshmallows. His hand was barely able to maintain a firm grip on the spoon.

"You get a brand new style. A look preferably more creepy."

"WHAT!?" Kota spoke with a mouthful of marshmallows, "I can't do that! It sounds like being phoney."

"When I was a kid, I didn't get to tell my dad what I can't do." Dabi squeezed Kota's shoulder. He watched the milk drip down Kota's chin and the droplets splattering over the coffee table. "I had to do something, until I mastered it." He chuckled. "Honestly, I'm cutting you slack here. All I ask is you try. You can do that can't you?"

Kota jerked away and his shoulder hit a bag. "Is that what these were for?"

"The clothes? You can make your own persona with them." Dabi clicked his tongue. "Ya know, what I'm asking isn't hard." He walked back into the kitchen. "I just want you to try your best. You don't have to be the best. You doing you is enough."

"That's cool I guess." Kota picked up the smaller shirt with the text: The Remix written on it. "But what's with them, like... gifts?"

"It's whatever the hell I want to call it, little one. Damn, do you want to keep switching between the same three pairs of clothes forever?" Dabi took a seat with his bowl of cereal.

"No." Kota put the shirt back into the bag. His mind wandered to Eri and Kai...She had said she didn't want the gift. She didn't want to get her ear pierced; her dad made her. "You don't have to accept a gift you don't want, right?"

"It's common practice to accept anything given as a gift. A gift is supposed to be given from the heart or some crap." Dabi lifted his spoon and pointed. "If you're thinking of Toga's gift. Spinner totally saved your ass."

"Her gift was really freaky!"

A loud knocking came on the door.

Dabi pressed his fingers to his lips as if to symbol the need to be quiet.

Kota nodded. He lifted a spoonful of cereal to his mouth and listened.

"This apartment here is Dabi's, he'll be your upstairs neighbor. He usually comes in late so try not to get too upset with the noise." The landlord said.

"Guess that's why he's not answering. If he's this quiet during the morning, I might be able to sleep in on weekends." A new voice responded.

"I'm sure you'll get along nicely. He looks around your age. Oh, he has a son who recently moved in with him."

"Son?"

"A real nice kid, a bit shy though."

The sound of footsteps seemed to move away, then there was a thump.

"Shame no one came to the door, now I have to leave a friendly welcome." The door rattled a bit, then a little note slipped under the crack.

Dabi grit his teeth. Couldn't this guy take a hint, nobody wanted to be bothered? He turned to notice a red feather attached to a slip of white paper.

I know who you are.

~ Room 319

Dabi felt his eye twitch, the staples under his eyelid contracted and clicked. What kind of friendly welcome was this? No...Hello neighbor or Hi nice to meet you? He stood up to snatch the paper off the floor.

This was a threat.

A plain and simple threat. It didn't matter that it was coming from some—

"Hawks!" Kota picked up the red feather.

Dabi re-read the note. The Pro-hero...Hawks? He moved in here! He felt his hand combust into flames, the blue fire quickly turning the note to ashes. No. No. This wasn't right. He'd spent so long making himself blend in. There was no way.

He swung open the front door, his eyes darted from one end of the hall to the other. The elevator dinged, the two grey doors slowly closing. His eyes locked on golden ones with an almost amused gleam. Hawks had one hand in his pocket, the other giving a little wave as if signaling their departure from the floor.

"Dirty...scummy hero bastard!" Dabi yelled.

Kota peeked outside. "Who?" The hallway was empty and quiet, aside from the elevator dinging as it went down. He felt Dabi drag him back inside.

"How do you know Hawks?" Dabi slammed the door shut.

"The Wild Pussy Cats took me to some hero conference. I saw him there, while I was waiting for my aunt to finish." Kota sat and began to play with the feather. "Everyone who knows Hawks thinks he's cool." He smashed the feather around as if making it fight with the spoon. "But to me, he's still a lame hero."

"That's all I needed to hear... Hatred." Dabi breathed a sigh of relief. He glanced down at the ashes on the carpet. How did that bastard find him? He was so careful hiding. Was it at the store? He didn't mess up and go on camera. Damn it! "Stop playing with the feather like that, finish your breakfast."

"Can I keep it?"

"I don't care. If I had it my way, I'd set it on fire."

"That be a waste." Kota tucked the feather in his back pocket. He scooped up some more cereal. "Are you gonna finish too?"

"No." Dabi took a seat on the sofa. He ran his fingers through his hair as his left leg bounced up and down. "I'm not hungry anymore."

"You scared or something?" Kota inched closer to him. "You see a monster out there?"

"I think there might be one below us." Dabi took an uneasy breath. "So we have to be really careful from now on." Weighing his options meant this sudden surprise could be from Kai, but it was highly unlikely for Yazuku when they hated heroes too. But then again Mr. Compress was acting strange.

"Oh...okay." Kota tapped his spoon against the bowl. "If I made that new identity thingy you talked about...would it help?"

"Of course." Dabi couldn't stop a little smile from coming on his face. "We have bigger things to worry about, anyway." He gestured to the bag. "You do have a date with destiny." And he had a chance to figure out who ratted out his location to Hawks.

Kota fumbled with the backpack on his shoulders, squinting up at the clear sky as the sun slightly blinded his vision. He was on his own this time. A solo mission.

No one to bail him out, but Dabi has assured him the League was watching his back and someone would step in if things got rough. He really hoped that they had the same definition of 'rough' because back at the store, no one had any impulse to help Eri.

"Seven, eight, nine, ten. One, two, three, four." He fixed the snap-back hat on his head. Eri. She believed in his goal. It wouldn't be right for him to let her down. "Five, six, seven, eight…"

"Kid, what are you doing?" The sound of a trash can slamming shut snapped Kota out of a trance. He looked to see a man—Kai, dusting off his gloves. "You've been standing outside counting to ten over and over again. You lost or something?"

"I'm counting how long it's taking for the bus to come." Kota said.

"Why are you only counting to ten?"

"I don't know what comes after it. So far, I've counted three times for the bus."

"The school bus?" Kai gave him a testy look. "I think you have the wrong location. A school bus doesn't stop here and if it did, you missed it." He rolled up his long sleeve green jacket to reveal a watch. "By a good hour."

"Really?" Kota hoped his acting wasn't too terrible. It didn't look like Kai was buying his performance. "Isn't it—?"

"You missed the bus. Go home." Kai said.

Damn. Kota didn't have a good response to that. He felt sweat bead down his face as his armpits began to heat up. Shigaraki was right...you fuck up step one and whole mission was a failure. He was a failure!

"Umm..." The gate squeaked open and Eri was standing there. Her hands clung tightly to her dress as she faced the ground. "Can I get a granola bar, now?"

"I told you to wait inside the courtyard." Kai narrowed his eyes at her.

"I'm hungry and I thought maybe you were going out for a long time, so I—" Eri bit her bottom lip. She must have decided to shut herself up before she got in trouble.

"Eri!" Kota felt a smile tug on his lips. Eri had opened up a way for the mission to continue. He waved at her. "What school do you go to now?"

"Huh?" Eri looked up at him. She must have through his poorly put together new persona—the snapback hat, black boots, and metal wrist cuffs. "You're…"

"Your snack time buddy from Pre-K." Kota ran over to her. Up close, he noticed how Eri was a good few inches taller than him. He also noticed how red her ears still were from the new piercings.

"Eri goes to online school now." Kai sounded like he was ready to break all this up. But he also didn't sound like he knew what was going on.

Kota allowed himself to smile. Dabi had been correct. Kai wasn't Eri's dad or else he would have seen through the lie about Pre-K. Which meant, Kai had no idea what was going on right now.

"Online school sounds lame! You don't get to play with anyone." Kota stuck his tongue out.

"But online school teaches you how to count past ten." Kai paused. "Wait, you went to Pre-K and didn't learn past ten?" He spoke the question slowly.

"We learned colors and numbers. I'm sure we did count but…" Kota fumbled with his backpack straps. "Numbers are hard."

"What grade are you in now?"

"Not more numbers!"

"Okay, then how old are you?"

Kota glanced at Eri. She was taller than him. Older? Her hair was almost to her hips, and her single horn seemed pretty sharp. What was a good age?

"What's your name, kid?"

Kota lowered his gaze to his black boots. Name? A new name? Not his real one.

"Please, stop scaring him." Eri tugged on Kai's jacket. "Sou, has always been kind of shy. In class he barely said anything. But he's really loud on the playground."

Kota tried not to make it evident his heart just skipped a few beats. Okay. Focus. His new name is Sou. He went to Pre-K with Eri. He's supposed to be shy, except for when playing around. He forced a smile on his lips. "Nice to meet you, Mr. Eri's dad." He held a hand out.

"Call me, Overhaul." Kai pulled hand sanitizer out his pocket and squirted some into Kota's palm. "I'm not a fan of hand shaking, too many germs."

"Okay, Mr. Overhaul." Kota rubbed his hands together, allowing the disinfectant to do it's thing.

"Just Overhaul." Kai straightened his tie and his shoulders rolled, as his head tilted upwards. The sun's rays beamed over the metal part of his face mask. "Eri, doesn't have any friends. We don't take kindly to visitors. It's not good for her health."

"Her health?" Kota had noticed before how frail Eri appeared to be. He had assumed it had been from fear.

"Isn't that right, doll face?" Kai hummed throatily, almost like a cat's purr. "You shouldn't even be out here without your mask." He tapped on his bird-like beak, as if it was a medical mask filtering and fending off germs.

"Well…" Eri dropped her hands back to her side.

Kai leaned into her ear, "Remember what I said, before, about things I can't understand?"

"Sou is not dirty." Eri squeaked. She seemed to be uttering a little prayer under her breath that Kai understood. "He is not infected."

"What was that?"

"Sou doesn't like heroes." Eri shuddered as if Kai being so close made her nauseous. "He's not...Not dirty."

"Sou." Kai repeated the name as if he didn't truly believe in its owner's existence. He pulled away from Eri and turned to Kota. "It's not safe for a hero hater to walk to school all by himself. Anything could happen." He opened the gate to the courtyard wider. "Gangs hang around these parts."

Eri stepped to the side and allowed Kota to enter the courtyard. The landscaping was beautiful, fresh cut grass, bird houses in trees, nicely trimmed bushes. Everything about this place was overly cleaned.

"I'll be back. Let me get my car keys, I'll drive you to school." Kai walked towards what looked like an office-like building. He left behind the scent of antibacterial soap and chemicals. It was heavy, almost lung constricting, as if no matter where he went, he was always watching. He was there, so don't dare step out of line.

"Your dad is really weird." Kota said, watching how Kai wiped down the door handle before stepping inside.

"He doesn't like dirty things. He hates germs." Eri tilted her head as if trying to read Kota's expression. "And I'm starting to think, you hate your life."

"Tch…" Kota got a whiff of Eri's smell. She too smelled like cleaning products, but softer. She smelled like lavender wipes, Pine-Sol, and coconut clorox. "I'm here because—"

"That doesn't matter. What were you thinking?"

"Eh? You went along with it!"

"I did it to save you. What about don't get involved don't you understand?"

"The involved part? I don't know what it means."

Eri blinked. She had a look on her face that seemed to scream, "Great. Stupid and careless, just my luck." Her lips didn't produce such harsh words. "You're not really in school are you?"

"Nope." Kota said.

"When my dad gets back, he's going to ask you what school you go to so he can drive you there."

"Okay and?"

"Alright," Eri dropped her volume as if she feared Kai might be listening in. "The elementary school for this zone is near Shiketsu High School. Tell him it's a few blocks down from there."

"Thanks." Kota felt the tension ease off his chest. He could do this. "But...why are you helping me?"

"People like us should stick together." Eri remained emotionless, her voice steady as her expression. "You're not a bad person, Kota. I would like more people like you in my life."

"I'm a villain. I lie and steal." Kota pointed at himself. "I'm as bad as it gets."

"Is that so?" Eri stepped away from him and clasped her hands behind her back. She circled around, like a cat does to a mouse, her eyes sizing him up. "Scary villain, who can't think of a name for himself."

"Yeah." Kota said. "Where did Sou come from?"

"Sou is the name of one of my favorite dolls. He's my big fluffy teddy bear." Eri held her arms out wide as if trying to provide a visual of the size. "I put him by my door at night to keep away the monsters."

"Monsters?" Kota squeaked. Nobody told him there would be monsters on this mission.

"Ya know, creepy night crawlers, invisible boy, bunnyman." Eri wiggled her fingers in front of his face.

"Bunny—who?" Kota trembled. He didn't know why, bunnyman didn't sound all that scary. Well actually, when he thought of bunnyman, he thought of Izuku.

"His quirk is half bunny, half man."

"That doesn't sound too bad."

"He eats people who hate heroes!"

"THAT'S TERRIBLE!" Kota shook his head. His heart raced as his head spun. "That can't be real! Wouldn't that make him a villain? Wouldn't that mean he would have to hate heroes?"

"Who hates heroes?"

The sound of Kai's voice almost made Kota jump out of his skin. He felt goosebumps crawl up his arms as the man extended his hand outwards, two bird masks dangled from his fingers.

"Bunnyman." Eri's personality changed, she seemed to get more shy and reserved. "Sou, doesn't know of him. But I saw him. I saw bunnyman with my own two eyes. He was with invisible boy."

"You can't see someone that's invisible." Kota said.

"He's called invisible boy because he can go through objects." Kai put a mask over Eri's mouth and adjusted the strap behind her head. "You get one too." He handed the second mask to Kota. "Help keep out the germs. I don't want bad air in my car."

Kota put on the mask. At least with the mask, Kai couldn't see his pissy expression. What was with this guy and cleanness?

"You never told me our destination." Kai opened the gates to the sidewalk. "Where's your school?"

"It's the elementary school near Shiketsu High. A few blocks down." Kota said.

Eri took Kai's hand as if she did not need the command to do so. She walked by his side as they exited through the gates. Kota found her sudden silence strange.

No one said a word as they entered the car. They clicked on seat belts and Kai ensured all the doors were locked. The drive was nothing more than the rumble of the engine.

Kota gazed out the window, houses, buildings, and people passed by. He also noticed Eri's reflection. She was constantly fumbling with her long tan dress and thumbing over the bandages over her arm.

"Does it itch?" Kota asked.

"No." Eri said, a little too quickly. She stole a nervous glance at Kai through the rearview mirror. "No pain. I'm fine."

Kota was about to say more when the car came to a stop. He could see the elementary school out his window.

"This is your stop, right?" Kai put the car in park.

"Yes." Kota clicked his seat belt and grabbed his backpack from the floor. "Thanks for driving me, Overhaul." He turned to open the door.

Locked.

"Umm, can you—?"

"Sou, do you need an adult to check in with your teacher?" Kai drummed his fingers over the button withholding Kota's freedom. "You should give me your homeroom teacher's name."

"I really don't." Kota kept his hand on the door handle, pulling on it. "No need really. I usually come late so…"

"I could write you an excuse." Kai opened up the glove department. He must have been searching for a pen and notepad, but packs of disinfectant wipes tumbled out. "You wouldn't get in trouble that way." He once again glanced at Eri. "Would hate for you to lose recess when it's the only time for you to be loud and enjoy yourself."

"I usually don't really miss any…" Kota paused as a knock came on his window.

"Hey! Hey! You forgot your lunch." A high school girl knocked on his window again. She had medium length brown hair, with

Kai rolled the driver side window down, "You are, Miss?"

"Cammie." She smiled. "I'm his aunt! I go to the high school a few blocks up."

Kota knew that smile—Toga. The league had come to help!

"I was worried when the teacher said you weren't in class." Toga pulled on the passenger side door. "Hey, Mr... open up will ya? I got to stab some sense into my nephew."

"Be safe, Sou." Kai unlocked the door.

Kota rigidly stepped out of the car. "See, ya Eri." He closed the door, as she waved him goodbye.

"School started over two hours ago! Don't tell me you're just now getting here!" Toga shouted.

"I...I missed the bus." Kota pulled his mask down.

"You always say the same excuse."

"It's true. And it's not like, my dad can take me. He has work."

"Hmm, Sir?" Toga tapped on Kai's door. "Since you were kind enough to drop my nephew off, can you promise to do it each time he misses the bus? I would hate for him to get in trouble for being tardy all the time."

"It wouldn't be a problem." Kai slowly rolled up his window. "I guess we'll be seeing a lot more of each other. Isn't that delightful, Eri?"

"I'm so happy." Eri said. Her face didn't look happy, she looked worried as if she knew the facade they put up wouldn't last long.

Toga grabbed Kota's hand, dragging him towards the school building. "I've been waiting for this moment. A chance to have you all alone and to myself." She turned back as if to ensure the car they heard pulling away was Kai's. "Now I can finally…" A large grin spread on her face as she pulled out a knife.

"Toga." Kurogiri stepped out of a portal on the side of the school building. "Shigaraki said no funny business."

"No fair." Toga lowered her knife. "Dabi and Shigaraki never let me have any fun with Teddy Bear." She wrapped an arm around Kota. "I wanna enjoy him too!"

"If all went well you're gonna have to be the one picking up Kota from this spot." Kurogiri must have noticed the mask on Kota's face. "And from the looks of it, Kota was successful."

"Yeah." Kota tried to wiggle away from being squished. "I think Eri and I can be friends." He felt a smile tug on his lips at the thought. "She helped me, kinda…" Some strange part of him couldn't wait to see her again.

"Dabi will be pleased." Kurogiri nodded.