"The house is on fire and it's not my fault." was the first thing Jesse heard from her husband. How he could say it with such a dry tone she could only guess.

"Is Eri okay?" the she-wolf asked. Almost everything in the house was replaceable as long as that was undamaged.

"She's fine, we weren't home by the time the fire department was called." Anima responded with indifference. "Say, isn't Sugarman and Tentacole in the area? Lifting debris would be easier with them."

"I'll call their mentors." the psychiatrist sighed. Thankfully she had their numbers due to her position.

"Thanks. I'll call after we sort through the ashes. I love you." hearing those three words from him made her heart stutter just a little.

"I love you too, bye." she hung up. Looking at the intercom, the she-wolf informed Nezu of what was going on. The animal curiously asked if they would need help paying for a new residence, but both knew it was only lip service; Anima and she had investments that dated back centuries, so what's a few million yen out of pocket? All they needed was time and a hotel until it was rebuilt.

Sugarman was mildly surprised to see his classmate meeting up with him and going to the same place. The address his mentor was given seemed familiar to the spiky-haired teen. Turning a street, he finally put it together.

"Anima-sensei!" he called, and the martial artist turned to see the two interns. Seeing a small child with him was unusual, but given their career choice not worrying.

"Good to see you two in good health. Firemen have put sand around the building, so we're just waiting for the fire to burn out." the werewolf greeted.

"Shouldn't we put it out and salvage what's left?" Tentacole asked, clearly unnerved by the calm air surrounding the teacher; Anima was excitable and passionate, so this cold -the closest word but not quite- indifference was new and unpleasant.

"Anything of value will survive the fire while everything else is replaceable." was the answer they got. After another few dozen minutes, the fire did burn out, and the mansion was nothing but ash. The trio of heroes then started exploring the lot and gathered everything still in one piece.

Several knives of all varieties were found but slightly damaged and needing care from a smith. The steel and cast iron pots and pans were still in good condition and even the steel jewelry box had all of its contents unharmed. The armory locker was still standing and it contents mostly unharmed, save for some rope weapons that frayed from the heat. The swords in the living room were magic, therefore unaffected by the inferno.

"Hey Sugarman, give me a hand with this will ya?" Anima asked, holding the handle to a massive metal box that wasn't even discolored from oxidation; obviously it was made of something insane. The yellow-clad hero gripped the other handle, which was suprisingly cool to the touch, and the two grunted as the chest was pulled from the ashes and carried past the line in the sand.

"What's in the chest sensei?" the brown-haired hero asked. The werewolf simply opened the box and showed him and Tentacole.

"I was part of an old hero group called the Outliers, only joined a year after it was made, to be honest. Over the years, I realized how many pictures, training videoes, sparing tapes, audio logs, and so forth we made together." he explained, holding up a large scrap-book. "This holds their names, aliases, birth and death days, from the founder Science Pirate to the twins Cathode and Diode. The house can be rebuilt, the gardens replanted, and the furniture replaced. As long as the memory chest is still intact, the fire can take the rest." the relieved smile on the teacher's face was a nice change from the unnerving look he had before.

"I'm glad you have what is important." the multi-armed hero said with a smile. "I was worried because of how little of the house remained. The fire truly did eat everything; there isn't even a wall standing."

"Well, the house was built to burn easily. Other than the safe room underground, everything was supposed to be destroyed." Anima admitted, making the younger heroes look at him in confusion.

"Why would you make a house like that?" Tentacole asked in bafflement.

"After my third house was burnt down, I learned that sifting through multiple floors of uneven and fragile flooring is bound to get someone hurt, so it's safer if the house just turned to ash and salvage on the foundation." the martial artist shrugged.

"Third? How many houses have you lost?" Sugarman honestly didn't want to hear the answer, but curiosity was a dangerous thing.

"Nineteen. Seven burned down, four blown up with explosives, four caught in the crossfire of a hero-fight, three in a failed attempt on my life, and one from an earthquake." Anima could hear his students silent 'wtf' from behind him and smiled. "When you live as long as me, you make some rather stubborn enemies sooner or later. But now I have to prepare for the meeting tomorrow, I'll see Tentacole there."

As Anima calmly talked to the firefighter about sending the recovered items to a storage facility and wandered off with the little girl, the two heroes-in-training were processing what he told them.

"Hey, Sato?"

"Yeah Mezo?"

"Being a hero doesn't seem all that safe of a career."

"Yeah, but at least now that we're aware of the dangers, we can prepare for 'em."

"True."

Nighteye was pouring over the information that the other agencies were capable of gathering on such short notice. Fatgum and his interns had come across someone with quirk-suppressing bullets, but thankfully Suneater's quirk came back. Adding this with Lock Rock coming across a Precept's Trigger deal and Ryukyu's firearm bust, the list of evidence was piling up.

The oracle was stressing himself out, but he needed to get everything prepared for when the heroes would rescue Izuku. The green-haired teen was under his supervision when he rescued Eri and stared down Overhaul, and yet his sight didn't tell him what would happen. The Fates truly had a cruel sense of humor.

"Sir Nighteye?" Bubble Girl called from the door.

"Yes Kaoruko-san?" he intoned without looking up from his desk. Suddenly a tray of food was placed over the paperwork.

"You need to eat Sir. Thinking takes calories, and you tend to hyperfocus."

Nighteye looked at what his employee brought him and smiled. On the tray were smiley pancakes, bacon and cracker bowties, rabbit apples, octopi hotdogs, and a line of powdered brown something. Taking the paper that held the brown powder, he looked closer and smelled what it was; coffee grounds.

"Pfft! Hahaha! I see Deku's joke spread around!" the oracle laughed, making the blue-skinned girl do the same. After a while, Nighteye got his composure back and poured the instant coffee in the hot water. Taking a drink and eating what he was given, the tension had bled away from his shoulders and eyes.

"Thank you Bubble Girl, I needed this." he didn't specify what 'this' was, but that didn't matter.

"We'll follow your lead Sir, just make sure that you're well enough to take charge." the young hero explained, and Nighteye couldn't help but nod.

Even if he had to burn all his assets, he'll bring back Deku; he was under his charge after all.

"Is everything ready?" Chisaki asked. Joi gave a thumbs up from behind the camera while Chrono did the same next to a monitor.

"Well then, I guess the show's about to start. Gijutsu, your mark." the Oyabun stated, and the hacker just pointed to his boss. The screen lit up, and Overhaul saw the meeting room the heroes were gathered in.

"Well we can't just sit on our thumbs when Deku is still held by them." a hero with padlock earrings said to a bug-looking man in a suit.

"We have no choice at the moment. With their forces gathered and focused, the-"

"Gentlemen, we seem to have a guest." the hero in a military suit intoned, pointing to the screen. Overhaul wanted to kill them all right then; next to the caped hero was a woman holding his Eri. The room turned at the screen, and he could see multiple emotions on their faces.

"Please, don't stop on my account…?" the Oyabun prodded.

"Fiara." the hero responded curtly.

"How did you-?" a teenager with red hair asked, but clamped shut. The other heroes held their tounges as they waited for him to act.

"You pests have managed to steal something of mine, and I gained something from you." at this point, Mimic turned the camera a nudge, bringing in focus someone with a sack over their head. Overhaul removed the bag to reveal Deku, bruised and bloodied with a gag in his teeth, for everyone to see.

"Bastard-" a blonde teen and the bald hero beside him intoned but were shut up.

"Quiet, losing your temper will lose his life." Fiara and a desk worker commanded at the same time. The crime boss was silently impressed at how the two could control their group through such a charged situation with nothing but words.

"Good to see you have your heads on right." the bird-masked yakuza applauded. "Here's how this will go down; meet me at the south side of the bridge in Nal Hutta park. I'll receive my possession, and you get your dear hero." Eri flinched at what he called her, but that was irrelevant. He and his men had done this multiple times before; police, politician, businessmen, if you had something they valued, they sang to your tune.

"Hey, Eri-chan. I'm glad to see you're doing well." Overhaul turned his head to see Deku had bitten through his gag and was momentarily stunned. "Don't worry, I'll play with you after this is settled." The confident posture and calm smile on the teen's face were baffling, given the circumstances, but the Oyabun needed to regain control.

"No one gave you permission to talk!" Overhaul growled as he punched the greenette's head. The crack of the crime boss's hand sounded through the room and picked up by the mics, but he kept his face impassive through the pain.

"Ha! I imagine that was what, the third metacarpal? Yeah, that's broken." Fiara laughed, and Chisaki had to agree; the brat's skull felt like a fucking brick!

"Sensei?" Deku Questioned.

"Aye?" the caped hero responded. So was this the brat's teacher?

"Se muoio, assicurati che mia madre non pianga." while Overhaul didn't know the language, he could tell they said something important. The grin on his teacher's face said things weren't about to go his way.

"Nighteye, si mens non mittet in circuitu ejus in consilio petram?" again with the fucking language, but the oyabun did recognise a name; Nighteye, the sidekick of All Might.

"me volente, lupus proelium." the desk worker- hero, this was a hero- responded with a grin to match.

"I don't like being ignored, and you seem to think that it's a good idea to piss me off." Overhaul said with a hand on Deku's shoulder.

"Well, that's unfortunate, but it seems we're going to offer a counter to your proposal." Nighteye said with a sigh. "Kai Chisaki, you are under investigation for fraud, assault, murder, trafficking, kidnaping, arson, possesion and distribution of drugs, biological warfare, terrorism, and child abuse."

"What!?" overhaul shouted.

"Tomorrow, we will be coming to retrieve Deku. the day after that, Eri will be leaving the country to hide from you. Until then, Salvarrn nature preserve is going to be our base of operations. If Deku is dead, Daisy Cutter; need I say more?" Fiara stated before someone called something from the door. The screen then cut out.

"S-sir?" the hacker announced with fear. "We got kicked from the system."

"What the hell man! You just said losing our temper would risk the kid's life; might as well have given the man a gun to point at Deku's head." Lock Rock shouted at Fiara.

"I have to agree with Rock here Fiara. This has just made the situation more volitile." Fatgum questioned. More and more heroes were lambasting the werewolf until Nighteye spoke up.

"That is enough! I gave Fiara permission to act as he saw fit, and it seems you all haven't noticed something; none of your interns are questioning him, despite being Deku's classmates." he pointed out. Nitro, Thermal Shock, Tentacole, Uravity, Froppy, Red Riot, Real Steel, and Earphone Jack were all sitting calmly, thinking about the options while their supervisors were shouting. After a minute, Nitro spoke up.

"Alright Wolf grin, why did you give them both the Deadline and location? Can't think the bastards would act without us being weak… never mind, I see the point." the explosive blonde said with a grin.

"Good on you Nitro; seems tactic training wasn't lost on you." the martial artist said. "What I did was put our opponent in a corner, forced to move a certain way to remotely win."

"You mean…" Crazy Eight started, and Fiara nodded.

"He knows when we'll come, and that it'll lose us some manpower. He'll try for Eri then, at the battlefield we chose, when our forces are split; one part defending Eri while the other going after Deku."

"Thus leaving his forced divided as well. Knowing how valued Eri is for his plans, he'll send the bigger numbers and better quality forces after her." Nighteye interjected, and then it clicked for everyone just what he did.

"You forced him to move when you wanted it, so we can prepare and have a better chance of securing both targets." Ryukyu said. "And threatening to bomb his base if Deku is dead prevents him from killing him and moving everyone to attack, because it'll cost him resources and his base."

"Precisely!" the werewolf grinned. The table shook as Lock Rock bolted up.

"This is dangerous. If he calls the bluff, then the kid will die, and he'll have the girl back in his hands." the dark-skined hero stated with heat in his voice. "If the kid is killed, it's on your hands." Fiara looked at him without flinching and spoke so calmly, everyone who knew him could tell of the rage it hid.

"Deku was no longer a kid the moment he put on the cape and mask. He and I both know the risks, but that is the essence of a hero; keeping the populace safe, even at the cost of your life. I told him this for years, and he's never shown hesitation to make that call, even just now on screen. And I made no bluff. If she will be safer out of the country, then I'll fly her myself if I have to." the monster stated.

"He's still a young-" the new father tried, but Fiara didn't let him.

"I've worked with younger, and they are every bit the hero I was. I started at age thirteen myself. Deku made his choice, and now it's our job to finish what he started and hopefully bring him back alive."

The room was silent as the two heroes stared each other down, but Lock eventually slumped down and waved for him to continue.

After everyone was positioned, Fiara started asking questions and sorting people to either the defensive team, or the rescue team. Some weren't happy, but they understood the reasons while others were happy to be where they could use their abilities to do the most in the situation. Tomorrow, there would be hell to pay, and all of the first-years at UA knew it.

Cry havoc, and let slip the dogs of war.

Well, this was fun to write, but unfortunately, I am getting tired of writing this story. Don't get me wrong, but for my first Fanfic, this went on longer than I thought it would. I'll finish this arc, and then do a wrap-up, but I will go on to other stories. Thank you all for reading, and please leave a review. If you want more, look at my other story: Forced Evolution. Till next time!

Latin translations:

si mens non mittet in circuitu ejus in consilio petram~ mind if I cast a rock into his plan

me volente, lupus proelium~be my guest, battle wolf

The Italian Deku spoke is translatable via Google translate.