AN: Wow, a flashback start, I suppose I should've just put this scene in front of the last chapter but I feel like people rarely go back to check the updates and it's not really out of place here either.

I feel like a real anime fic writer now :v

(Also wow, over 50k words now. Imagine that, a whole Nanowrimo but not in November :V)

FLASHBACK

"From what we figure, Persona users are usually created, I would say, in a time of need," Ren said. "Morgana knows the details better, but sometimes he says that it's just one of life's great mysteries."

"Morgana?" Izuku asked, blinking. "The cat? That Morgana?"

"He's not just a cat," Ren said, shrugging. "Anyway, that's besides the point."

Izuku sat there, watching as the three people who had gathered in front of him were having a silent conversation. After confronting Makoto with his theory that she, too, was a Persona user, the laughing Ren had quickly taken the lead to confirm it.

His theory was true, as was the theory that Ren was aware.

What he didn't expect was Ren's own revelation as a Persona user. And their confirmation that Ryuji, too, had that power. When the topic of training came up, there was no doubt in his mind that they were the best possible mentors he could have asked for.

And Morgana, he supposed, wherever the furball was hiding recently.

Which is why Ryuji was called over. There were… things to discuss. Eventually, Makoto was the one who took the lead, standing in front of the other two to tell him all she knew.

"We used to be a vigilante group," Makoto confessed. Izuku turned his head slightly, as if trying to make sure that he was hearing right by pointing his ear into their direction. "Our exploits had caused our name to spread all over the greater Tokyo area, but it was also during that time that All Might had come to Japan."

"He took your fame?" Izuku asked, raising an eyebrow. Makoto shook her head.

"He made our job easier, by causing such a commotion all of Japan we were able to continue our work without any issues. The people who ended up causing Masayoshi Shido to confess, we did that."

Izuku's jaw set at the name, and the confession of the vigilante work that had caused his father to lose all he had. He wasn't sure what to feel, besides the gratitude for their honesty. Ryuji, still unaware of his connection to Shido, looked more than proud of himself.

"As Ren said." Makoto crossed her arms over her chest, frowning. "Persona users are there for a reason, some kind of divine intervention or whatever you want to call it. Something strange is happening, villains who grow more powerful and seemingly vanish without a trace between incidents, from your explanation of what happened with Stain, we've concluded that the awakening of your Persona and whatever is causing the villains to grow restless and bold are related."

"You don't sound very surprised," Izuku said, his voice weak. More villains on the street like Stain? Or rather, hidden in that world that lets them move along without any concern?

"Because I've had my suspicions, you just confirmed them," Makoto said. She nodded at Ren. "He has a nose for Persona users, so from the day you walked in he was sure you'd awaken."

"Did you check on me because of that?" Izuku asked. Makoto shook her head quickly.

"Of course not, regardless of whether or not you would awaken, Ren takes his job as probation officer seriously. If he doesn't have time, I'm the only person he can rely on."

"Hey now," Ryuji said, sounding vaguely insulted. "You know damn well I'm just as willing to help out."

"Yes," Makoto said, grinning at him. "You're also the best person to leave a bad first impression when running around with a kid on probation. You're like a brother to me, Ryuji, but you need to work on your image."

"Tough shit," Ryuji muttered, pulling on a bit of his hair with his fingers. "You say that like there's no blond heroes running around saving the day."

"None with a scowl like yours. You should smile more, babe."

Makoto and Ryuji kept glaring at each other. Ren walked between them, putting a hand on each of their shoulders and pushed them slightly apart.

"You know our secret now," Ren said. "A few details we can't explain at the moment aside. If you want training, we're the best at what we do. I may be out of practice, but any questions you have you can ask me."

"So, you're all Persona users," Izuku said, summarizing it more for himself than for them. "Not just you, but your friends."

"The others from our group are not in the city, two are traveling the world, one is running her company-"

"And Persona are pretty strong, super versatile quirk-like manifestations of… yourself?" Izuku asked. Ren nodded. "If you're this strong, and you used to be vigilantes, why, err, I mean."

He sighed, straightening his back.

"Why-," Izuku hesitated for a moment more, trying to find the right way to put his thoughts into words. After a moment of thought, he decided to be blunt. "Why didn't you become heroes too?"

Ren took a moment to answer. Long enough for Izuku to wonder if he had hit a sore topic. As he moved to apologize, Ren raised his hand and shook his head, speaking up.

"We all have our reasons," Ren said. "I wanted to take things easy, our friends pursued other careers. Of course we try out to help where we can, but it's not the same as the years of training that Makoto had gone through since then."

"I considered it," Ryuji said, shrugging. "But my mom got… kinda sick, and I ended up dropping out of school to help around the house. I didn't have it in me to go into a field where she'd end up worrying too much."

Izuku swallowed. It was a consideration he had as well, but before the incident his mother had been nothing but supportive. He supposed that there were more similarities than differences between himself and the… Phantom Thieves, but-

"I understand," Izuku said, bowing his head slightly. "Sorry for prying too much. Everyone has their own circumstances, right? I'll be at the gym tomorrow after school."

In the end this is a matter of trust, and as much trust was being built between them, certain things were not so easily revealed. Ren looked off, saying the things he was saying. And he was aware of it, no doubt.

Izuku walked to the stairs and up to his room, bidding goodnight to his mentors.

"Well, the kid's full of surprises," Ryuji said, scratching the back of his head. "I guess I'll see him for the workout tomorrow. Need anything from me?"

"No, that'd be all," Makoto said, slumping into one of the chairs. "Thank you, Ryuji. See you tomorrow."

"Sure thing," Ryuji said, shrugging as he walked to the door. "Good night."

Makoto and Ren were left alone. Ren was rubbing the bridge of his nose, pushing the glasses up slightly.

"You lied to him," Makoto said. Ren said nothing. "I don't understand why, he's not the kind of person who'd judge you for your choices."

"It's because he's not that kind of person I feel ashamed. What I did was selfish, I have no right to play hero."

She had no words to comfort him with. Nothing she could say that would make him think differently. "Maybe the one who needs a change of heart is you, Ren."

"Sometimes," Ren said, pursing his lips. "It's not about what you use your powers for rather than what you avoid using them for. I've achieved my goal, I was content with who I was, the world didn't need Joker anymore."

"And now?" Makoto asked. Ren leaned over the counter, his knuckles white as he clenched a first over the hardwood.

"Now I think the world might have someone better suited," Ren said, looking over to the stairs where Izuku had just left through.

FLASHBACK END

Izuku stared with wide eyes, watching as Ochako's Persona took shape. The horsewoman stood as tall as Astraeus, and taller still due to the trusty steed right under her. She said nothing, but the stern glass face made Izuku consider hiding.

Ochako looked to be as awed as him.

It took him a moment to realize just what kind of situation they were in. Rather than taking their run, Ochako had all but run up into his room at their usual time, dragging him along when she saw him getting ready. Having a girl in his room for the first time was strange, but Ochako looked too out of it for him to address it.

"I… think it's like your quirk," Ochako said, revealing once more that under the bubbly facade of a friendly neighborhood girl lay a more inquisitive mind than she let on. "She calls herself a Persona and, I don't know, that's what you called your quirk, right?"

"Yes," Izuku said. Ren was almost certainly aware of this already. "I wanted to talk to you about something, before we go into detail about this."

She turned to him, the Persona vanishing into thin air. Beads of sweat were on her forehead, showing the exhaustion of her almost sleepless night and the early summoning of her Persona that had all but knocked him out as well.

"I don't know if I can explain it well," he said, scratching the back of his neck. "Ren-san and Makoto-san, they both know about what Persona are. It's apparently not a quirk-"

"It's a manifestation of thought," Morgana said, crawling in from the now open window. Ochako jumped at the voice, the mask appearing on her face almost instinctively. "The shape of your heart manifesting to become your-"

"Where were you?" Izuku asked. Ochako looked at him, clearly confused at his ease of talking to the now speaking cat.

"Aww," Morgana said, forgetting whatever bragging speech he was going to hold in order to coo at Izuku in a mocking voice. "Were you worried about lil' old me?"

"I was mostly wondering which family you were mooching off while I was sitting here alone," Izuku said. He did miss the cat, but he wasn't going to admit that so freely. Morgana had become something of a constant in his life that he wasn't a fan of losing this soon. Sighing, he turned to Ochako, whose mouth was opening and closing repeatedly. "Ochako, this is Morgana, the talking cat that apparently is audible to Persona users."

"Okay?" Ochako said, uncertain of what else to say. The girl turned to Morgana again, bowing slightly. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Morgana-san?"

"Ahaha, pretty girls don't need to use any honorifics for me," Morgana said. Izuku shook his head, walking forward and sitting down on the bed. Morgana moved out of the way.

"I'm not good at explaining this, but I think Ren needs to know," Izuku said. "I think he already does know, I just don't, I'm not sure."

"I get it," Ochako said, shrugging. "It's not supposed to be public, but… I have a new quirk. I can't hide that, can I?"

"You're not going to hide it," Morgana said, "and I can give you pointers, there's no need for you to hold back. You've received this power for a reason, Uraraka Ochako."

"This isn't a magical girl pitch, is it?" Ochako asked in a low voice. Izuku couldn't help himself, his shoulders shaking as laughter bubbled out of his mouth. The humor was enough to break the spell of the serious air around them. Ochako giggled.

Roland laughed merrily as well. Happy, somehow, in a way that felt much more human than Astraeus.

For what felt like the fiftieth time, Izuku was sitting in the principal's office.

"As you know, I am now aware of your… parentage," the principal said. Izuku nodded. As it stood, though he wished he could avoid it, the principal was someone with a great deal of influence and this secret would be too dangerous to keep to themselves forever.

Principal Nezu was, besides Ren and Makoto, perhaps the only person that Izuku felt he could trust, not just due to the deal of having his record stricken, but also due to the fact that the small mammal-ish quirk user had proven himself to put the good of his students above all else.

"Y-yeah," Izuku said, looking away. "I knew he would tell you, just not this soon. Is… is everything alright?"

"It depends on the definition of alright, I suppose," Nezu said. Though it was hard to read the expression on his face, Izuku would have pegged it as a 'sad smile' if he were forced to put it into words. "If it were just Stain, it would have been no issue, but there's something… finicky when it comes to politics, politicians and those who have the ear of politicians."

"I see," Izuku said, his shoulders slumping. "Do I have to leave the school?"

"No no, of course not, as I told you before, your past doesn't matter to us," Nezu said. Izuku breathed a sigh of relief out of his nose. "This is about your participation in the sports festival."

Izuku stood up, his eyes wide.

"I-I don't understand, you told me it should be fine," Izuku said, his fingers digging into his jacket as his hand rose towards his chest. "I wanted to prove myself there-".

"Which was before you found out about your father," Nezu said. The usual cheerful voice was on, but the last word came out like a spiteful curse. "The Sports Festival is an international broadcast, recordings of it will exist for many years to come. The people aware of your parenthood will see it as us grooming you for the hero course, avoiding the punishment that they've managed to push at you."

"You think they might try something if they see me participate?"

"I know they will," Nezu said, smiling. "Humans are predictable to a fault. People who think that they're owed something, especially revenge, they're the worst of them. This isn't just to protect you, it's to protect other students in U.A."

"What am I supposed to do then?" Izuku asked, sinking back into the chair. "I understand, but it still feels unfair."

"The Sports Festival is not just a competition between students," Nezu said, nodding. "It's also a scouting opportunity for agencies to see which heroes have the potential to be trained by them during a work experience period. The work experiences and internships, they're… not something that we could have had you participate in anyway."

So it was hopeless, wasn't it? Izuku's grip on his jacket tightened until the knuckles of his fist were chalk white. "I did want to keep my head down until the probation was over."

Those were his words to Ren, but now they felt so hollow. Keeping his head down, to him, was more a promise of not making a mess of things. In the end, who his father was would haunt him beyond all of this, even if the record ends up stricken.

"However," Principal Nezu's smile took a dangerous edge, and Izuku perked up, swallowing at the strange expression. "We have something else planned for you, which will hopefully keep your face out of the headlines. A certain heroine from Tokyo was requesting a student help her with some work during the next few weeks. Usually we have management students who help out in the agencies here in Musutafu, so we have no one to spare."

Izuku blinked. There was no way he wasn't talking about Makoto. The principal wasn't particularly subtle with this pitch, but it wasn't like

"She has said something about work related to a rather strange case, involving villains in Tokyo becoming more bold, which has increased her workload."

Izuku stood again, this time with his fist balled up in front of him, a resolute expression on his face.

"I'll do it," Izuku said. Actual hero work, live and on stage? There was no way he would be able to resist, not when Makoto had already made the notice that his awakening might be related to her case. "What about Ochako, if Makoto isn't there, err-"

"We have more than enough heroes to protect her, and if worst comes to worst, we can offer to shelter her inside the school until the thing has blown over."

"A-alright."

Nezu's smile widened as he pulled out a few papers from a drawer under his desk. He pushed them forward. The one on the front had the words 'liability disclaimer' printed boldly at the top of the document.

"Please have Amamiya-san sign this and bring it with you tomorrow," the principal said. Izuku smiled a smile that could rival the sun of Helios, so bright and blinding that the principal had to squint as the boy gathered all the documents and rushed out of the room.

Izuku sat at lunch, the papers from earlier in his bag. Ochako, Iida and Tsuyu were sitting together as he joined them. The cafeteria was full as usual, the buzz and topic of choice was about the upcoming sports festival, as was expected. The higher years looked rather happy about it, as wistful smiles and memories resurfacing as they sat in remembrance of stories that they had happened last year.

Ochako had ended up registering the new aspect of her quirk, as was Ren's suggestion for the quirk registration, with Recovery Girl. She would join him in Ryuji's gym for more training, but with the new revelations the companionship during the training would have to wait.

"Is everything alright?" Ochako asked, tilting her head at him. It was hard not to see that he was giddy. The idea of going to Tokyo for a few weeks with Makoto was welcome.

"Principal Nezu said I'm… not allowed to participate in the sports festival," he said. Her expression shifted from a hopeful smile into an angry scowl. Izuku quickly waved his hands in front of him. "It's because of a really good reason, I-I won't be in U.A. for a few weeks. I'm going to Tokyo for a bit."

"Tokyo?" Iida asked, his voice just a bit too loud. "This early in the school year? There's too much material you'd have to catch up on, are you sure that will be fine?"

"I'm top of the class," Izuku said. It wasn't to brag, but in a way there were people who needed the attention of the teachers more than him, and he was more than glad to leave their watchful gazes for just a bit. "I'm also going to be, err, interning in an agency helping around with paperwork and stuff. It's… practical experience."

"Of course," Iida said, seemingly happy with the reasoning. Tsuyu didn't look quite convinced.

"But aren't you working on becoming a hero student? The festival is supposed to be our opportunity to sell ourselves to possible future employers."

"It's complicated," Izuku said. Iida nodded once more. In a lower voice, Izuku continued, giving Iida his own reassuring nod. "Not… really related to my probation. I was a bit upset at first but after the principal explained everything to me, I agreed. I should be back after the festival concludes, I should be leaving in two days if my guardian signs off on it."

"Two days?" Iida asked, blinking. He pushed his glasses up, surprised at the short notice. Ochako's reaction however was much more extreme. Her breath hitching for a moment, she looked like she wanted to speak up. Iida took note. "Uraraka-san?"

"Are you going with Makoto-san?" Ochako asked. Iida and Tsuyu looked confused, even more so when Izuku nodded. Giving him a shaky smile, she nodded. "That's good. What about the… neighborhood watch?"

"Someone else will take over," Izuku assured. He was still certain that Stain wouldn't attack them again, but Ochako's experience with the man had clearly left her in distress. "It's going to be alright."

"Yeah," Ochako said, unable to smile. Izuku could see it, the attempt to force the corners of her mouth to comply, the lack of earnest emotion in her eyes. "I know, it just feels kinda sudden, you know?"

He hesitated for a short moment before reaching out, putting a hand on her shaking fist which had been balled under the table. "It won't be long, I can ask Makoto if you can come with us-"

"No," Ochako said, shaking her head too vehemently to come off as casual. Her free hand came up to her head as if nursing a headache. She continued speaking, half-heartedly attempting to put a strand of hair behind her ear. "It's fine."

"You don't look fine," Tsuyu said bluntly. Her croaky voice made Ochako start at being addressed, as if the girl had suddenly forgotten where they were. "You should go to the nurse."

"No, it's all good," Ochako said. He could feel it. Something pulling on her, he could liken it to the feeling of Astraeus' hands on his heart to give him courage. "I-I have to-"

Ochako's voice was becoming fainter. Izuku's hand squeezed hers. She relaxed slightly. The strange stress that was building up in her spilled over.

She turned her hand, grabbing his in a grip so tightly he almost screamed out in pain. He flinched, but kept his hand in hers. A strange flash of yellow was glinting in her eyes for a moment. Something resonated in him.

I have to make my own fate.

Her heart spoke to him. The tight grip loosened after a solid minute and Ochako put a lid over her food, leaving it half-eaten for the first time since he had met her.

Toga Himiko was incredibly happy. She hummed as she walked down the street, the pigtails that she had done her hair in today swinging back and forth.

Every step she took caused the street lamps to flicker and die, every hum from her mouth caused scratches in the glass in the windows of the shops that were lining the broadwalk next to her. It was pitch black, a beautiful night, almost perfect, but something was missing.

The light above Izuku's room was off, despite the early hour. She could hear no voices in the café. The smell of her obsession was nowhere near, the trail, it was-

"Elizabeth." The name, whispered, like an ominous incantation. The woman appeared above her, a dress in the most beautiful crimson shade, a faceless head that revealed a fanged grin, a rapier in her hands.

The woman lashed out, the rapier cutting the air rather than stabbing it, revealing lights and scents. She knew them all by heart. The black one that smelled like something burned was Amamiya Ren, the yellow one that kind of sizzled in the back of her throat was Sakamoto Ryuji, the pink one that smelled like a grand mix of intoxicating fear and love was Uraraka Ochako.

The blue one with the dangerous edge was Nijima Makoto.

Leaving the place, together with the green and gold of one Midoriya Izuku.

She leaped onto the roof and watched as the smell thinned out. She turned, looking around, her leaps taking her further and higher until she managed to find the tallest building in the neighborhood.

From here, she could see their destination. The lights, burning bright in the distance-

"Tokyo," she muttered. A shiver ran down her spine, and she hugged herself as the cold evening air began to creep up and into her bones. "We will see each other soon, then. I want to see you fight more…"

Himiko jumped off the roof and landed on the ground with the soft graces of a cat. She turned to leave, hoping she had enough money in the wallet she had taken off someone this morning to make a trip to Tokyo this late.

"Hey," someone called out to her. She turned once more, finding herself face to face with a masked man. "Unlicensed quirk use is forbidden in public, miss."

Himiko smiled at the hero. Elizabeth gave a curt bow.

Persona: Elizabeth Bathory

Arcana: Lovers (¿)

Disposition: Physical, Curse Magic, Healing(?)