This is it! The count down chapter!

Featuring: A Winged Uber and Final Placements

Thursday afternoon is hot, humid, miserable and a perfect reflection of Shouta's current mood. Having to drive was just icing on the melting cake.

Sweat is trickling down his back and under his arms and he feels stifled in his dress clothes - the ones he would be wearing at the press conference scheduled in less than three hours. But he'd needed to be in them most of the day, since he'd left his apartment early to check back in on his students.

Most of them would be released later in the evening, which was a small miracle, given their terrifying encounter with so many classed villains. For Shouta's part, he's pretty sure he'll have nightmares of his students' distant screams for years to come. His hands tighten on the steering wheel as horror rocks through him again.

The mood at the hospital had been subdued - shocked. Most of the students, Shouta was sure, thought that the heroes would have Bakugou back within a day, no sweat. But here they were, two days later and nothing to show for it. Even the surprising presence of the cheery Hawks wasn't enough to stave off the depression at the lack of progress.

Won't be that way for too much longer, he thinks. Four, maybe five hours, and we'll have an idea of what happened to him.

Shouta is too rational to believe they'll find him unharmed. Or even alive, if he really thinks about it. Not that he'd tell the students so. And he'd been very careful not to give them false hope. Real hope, either, just to be safe.

He shoots a grim glance at the passenger seat beside him, where Yaoyoruzu's locator is resting. That is another thing he's content not to reveal - not with the possibility of a leak. Though it physically pains him to suspect his own students.

Shouta narrows his eyes at the road ahead of him, thinking back on all that had come from the suspicion running rampart through the teachers. Thinking about All Might's revelation regarding All For One, One For All, and Midoriya.

At least one teacher ruled out, he thinks in irritation. Two, if you include the fact that Yagi trusted me with this.

It'd been. A lot. To digest. He'd tried to focus on the pieces most pertinent to the current situation. The legendary fight between good and evil could just. Wait.

A super villain was likely pulling the strings on the League. It made sense now, why Tsukauchi was putting together a task force of some of the most impressive heroes to ever exist. They were going into this… practically blind. They'd need all the manpower they could get in the face of the unknown.

For instance: Was the League really only eleven members? Yagi mentioned that All For One was once a leader of… practically an army, at some point. He also said the villain was likely behind the creation of the Nomu. Were there more of those than the two they'd already seen? Would All For One himself be at the villain's hideout?

So many questions that had no answers. They didn't even know if Bakugou was still alive.

Though Yagi also said no news was practically the same as good news where All For One was concerned. The villain liked to parade his triumphs out for people to see. If Bakugou hadn't shown up dead or converted, then he was likely still alive.

Converted, he seethes briefly, remembering the police meeting where Bakugou's possible defection had been discussed at length. The fucking shamelessness. Like they know that kid at all.

With as little sleep as he'd been running on and the sheer amount of caffeine supplementing his bloodstream, Shouta had come very close to emulating his missing student. If the officer who kept harping on Bakugou's attitude had been any closer…

It gives me a good idea of the reaction we'll be getting, though, Shouta thinks, taking a hand from the wheel to rub his eyes again. Can't fucking wait.

Which is true enough. He's very ready to have this entire horror show over with. In all his years underground, with as many truly evil crimes he'd seen, he's never been so stressed or heartsick, knowing his student is in the hands of villains.

And on top of that is the mystery of Bakugou's kidnapper - the one who'd been leading the "Vanguard Action Squad". Dabi.

Maybe not so much of a mystery, Shouta thinks, trying not to be overwhelmed with the implications of his and Tsukauchi's little powwow after All Might dropped his figurative bomb.

"Toshinori," Tsukauchi had said. "Can you grab the other heroes? We'll be starting the meeting in ten minutes."

"Of course, Naomasa." The hero agreed, giving his colleague a concerned look. Shouta ignored it in favor of staring at his hands in something like stunned silence. Processing.

He heard the door close and raised his eyes when Tsukauchi took a seat across from him, placing the manila "Kasai" folder in between them.

Shouta had forgotten about it. In the face of, you know. That.

"I know it's probably not a good time, but I wanted to talk with you for a minute about this," Tsukauchi said, voice calm and reasonable as always. Shouta had to assume he already knew about All Might's secrets to not be having even a minor existential crisis.

"You were a witness on the last incident listed in here - is that why you went to this file?" Tsukauchi continued, opening the folder to the last entry. The construction site fire.

"It was the only place I could think to start," Shouta answered after a beat. "It was a crime with blue flame. Not many criminals with that quirk. I didn't even know a Todoroki was listed as a suspect until today." He frowned, thinking about it. "Why was he listed as a suspect? The attached file said he was dead by that point."

Shouta remembered Todoroki-the-younger's doubt about his brother's death. But that didn't explain the police keeping a dead person's profile on the suspect list.

"That was my doing, actually," Tsukauchi said wearily. "This was my case, back then. I worked in the Vigilante Investigation division. And I didn't think he was dead."

"…Why?"

"Because a kid claiming to be Todoroki Touya came into the precinct maybe… six or seven years ago. I was the one to sit with him while he waited for his appointment. Mind you, this was three months after he'd been reported to the police as 'dead'… by Endeavor."

"So, why wasn't his status changed to 'alive'?"

"I got the kid to the lead detective at the time - the one who dealt with hero matters," Tsukauchi answered. "When nothing came from it, I asked around. The detective said it was a kid trying to pull a prank and dismissed it."

"Hero matters," Shouta repeated, zeroing in on the unusual designation.

"The kid was bringing abuse allegations against Endeavor," Tsukauchi said flatly. "It's not as unusual as you might think - false claims against heroes is something of a racket."

"But?" Shouta's stomach dropped at the word 'abuse.' Could Todoroki's facial scar be…?

"The kid had a whole folder with him," he admitted. "I didn't see anything but the tabs, but there was medical, family history - even video tapes. It wasn't the usual, for fake claims."

"And you didn't follow up?"

Tsukauchi hung his head. "I did. We fingerprinted him when he came in, and it didn't match the files we had for Todoroki Touya. Then I got busy and I ended up writing it off."

Shouta kept the disapproval off his face. "But you felt strongly enough that it might be Touya, still alive, that you added his file to your Kasai investigation?"

Tsukauchi rubbed the back of his neck, chagrined. "Not until a couple years later, when we got a description of the vigilante by one of the victims he saved. The burn scars he had were distinctive enough from when I saw him at the police station to get the gears turning."

"Burn scars?"

"Nothing on what Dabi apparently has," Tsukauchi said quickly. "Just… around his neck - I could see some of it. And around his wrists. There might have been more, but he was trying to cover up. But when I went back to look into Touya's history, just on the off chance it was him running around as a vigilante, I ran into so much red tape I almost lost my job just for touching it."

"Shit," Shouta said, rubbing his forehead.

"Yeah, not suspicious at all, right?" Tsukauchi leaned back in his chair, looking several years older than he had before. "My sister was researching vigilantes religiously at the time, so I took my investigation off the grid - paper only, nothing digital. We never got a positive ID on him, but we tagged at least eighteen different incidents we believed he was involved in. Four of those had the same fingerprints as the redheaded kid who showed up at the precinct."

Shouta felt his blood pressure rising. "So why didn't you ever go public?"

"He disappeared," Tsukauchi admitted. "Between one and two years ago. And there wasn't enough evidence to prove it was actually Touya. Just a bunch of circumstantial incidents and the fact that he'd claimed to be the Todoroki kid. Couldn't even get a quirk match, until the fire. After that, I gave up trying to prove the Vigilante Kasai was actually the not-so-dead Todoroki Touya."

"…You thought he died at the construction site fire," Shouta said, putting the pieces together. After all, it would make sense with the timing and the fact that the fire was blue. The same as Todoroki Touya's.

"I did, yeah," Tsukauchi said quietly. "Looks like I might have been wrong."

"So…" Shouta said slowly, "What we're dealing with is a possible villain Todoroki, extremely powerful quirk and all. On top of the other villains we already know about."

"If it all the assumptions check out, then… yeah." Tsukauchi gave him a humorless smile across the table. "Doesn't change much, at the end of the day. But it could complicate things. And since you were already on the same page, I wanted you to know the full story."

"Understood," Shouta said. Tsukauchi was right - in light of the kidnapping and the super villain's involvement, the inclusion of a ranked hero's son going villain wasn't as ground breaking. But he was also thinking about the Todoroki who sat in his class every day, and how this would affect him.

Whoever said teaching was an easier job than being a hero was full of -

"Shit," he hisses, breaking from his musings as he notes the traffic up ahead of him. He only has two hours to get to Yokohama, get the tracker to the police, and then drive up for the UA press conference in Tokyo.

Rarely has he felt so frustrated over something as common as traffic, but Shouta feels his temper fraying, badly. Too much going on, too many staggering reveals, not near enough sleep to deal with it all.

He pulls in slowly behind the red tail lights and smacks his hand against the steering wheel. Then he does it again, because it didn't release nearly enough stress.

Fuck, Bakugou, you better be fucking alive so I can give you detention for the rest of your days at UA.

Then he pulls off the road and sends a voice request to the hero app for an extraction. When it asks if he wants vehicular or speed quirk, he growls, "I don't give a damn."

As his car idles on the shoulder, he watches the cars crawling past him going north and tries to organize each new piece of information he'd gotten into neat little files. Coded from most to least important, like he usually does. But frankly, he's never felt so adrift. It's all… too big. The kinds of problems All Might usually dealt with. Not someone like Shouta.

All Might's only human, too, he reminds himself. He can too easily remember his colleague, the Number One Hero, admitting that his time was coming to an end. The expression on Yagi's face had been… pained determination. But the fact that he was sharing a secret that only a handful of people knew, with Shouta of all people…

He doesn't expect to survive this, he acknowledges. And that, perhaps more than anything else, gives Shouta an idea of what they're dealing with. It's why he'd barely slept, despite his exhaustion.

And he's trusting me to step up, if something happens.

Shouta closes his eyes and leans back against his headrest. It's an enormous show of respect on All Might's part, as little as Shouta feels he deserves it. Just - fuck - yesterday, he'd been calling All Might like an absolute greenhorn, looking for reassurance in talking to Bakugou's parents. Only for Yagi to turn around and drop this on him.

Not nearly the burden that's on Midoriya's shoulder though. Fuck. And I'm supposed to help him with One For All if something happens to All Might.

Exhaling loudly, Shouta pushes aside his uncertainty and fear. It's not like worrying about potential outcomes will help them at all.

Weariness holds his eyelids down like a physical weight, but he's not so far gone that he doesn't notice something blocking the sun. His eyes snap open just before the knuckles rap on his window.

"Ahh, Eraserhead!" Comes the bright voice of Hawks on the other side of the glass. The Winged Hero grins down at him. "Heard you needed a lift?"

Shouta snorts, and grabs the tracker from the passenger seat.

"Let me out," he says, and pops open the door when Hawks backs up.

"We in a hurry?" Hawks asks conversationally as Shouta circles to the trunk of his old Toyota to grab the gym bag with his hero costume in it. Could never be too careful, with so many heroes going into a fight.

"Uh huh," Shouta says shortly. Hawks' grin turns raptorial.

"Alright, then you get the abbreviated version of the Air Hawks safety tutorial," the Winged Hero quips. "Don't let go, and don't throw up on me. You want bridal, bear hug, parachute hold or over the shoulder?"

"Whichever will let me sleep," Shouta deadpans. Hawks doesn't take offense, just chuckles as he runs through a quick series of stretches.

"Won't be much sleep, with the G's we'll be pulling. Speaking of which, might want to put on your goggles," Hawks notes, jumping up and down a few times. Shouta raises an eyebrow. Even among heroes, very few people knew what his hero outfit looked like. And in his experience, the chart topping heroes rarely took note of their underground counterparts. Still, he pulls his goggles from his bag and slips them over his eyes.

Hawks cracks his neck audibly and unfurls his impressive wings. Stepping forward, he hefts Shouta up bridal style, and Shouta barely keeps from stiffening at the close contact.

"No worries, man, we'll be there before you know it," Hawks says next to his head. "Now hold on tight."

That's all the warning Shouta gets to secure his grip on his gym bag before the massive wings are sweeping down.

They're thirty feet in the air before Shouta can regret his decision to not give a damn, then they're catching an air current that takes them even higher.

"Hey Eraserhead!" Hawks calls over the wind. Shouta grunts.

"What?"

"Do you like rollercoasters?" He can hear the laughter in the Winged Hero's voice.

Shouta definitely fucking regrets this. And he doesn't even get a chance to answer, before they're shooting forward like a rocket.

It's a petty and stupid thing to think with everything that's been going on, but Shouta goes ahead and promises himself anyway.

I'm never working with ranked heroes again.

—

On the bullet train going north, Shouto takes a deep, steadying breath.

He'd told them. Holy shit.

Around him, Kirishima, Yaoyozuru, Midoriya, Tokoyami and Iida are all talking in low voices. Speculating on what they might find when they arrive to save Bakugou. Shouto has his doubts that it'll go as smoothly as Kirishima, at least, is saying. But he suspects it might go better than Iida is positing, at least.

Because he's pretty sure Bakugou's alive. And he's decently sure Dabi will keep him that way.

If I'm right, he thinks, shaking himself at the thoughts that'd been dogging him all day.

Fuyumi and Natsuo had been shocked, when he sat them down and told them the full story. But… not as shocked as he'd thought they would be. He'd only had to say the words "blue fire" for them to look at each other sharply.

So he hadn't been the only one to doubt Touya's death.

Which made it both worse and better when he told them about the burns on Touya's neck. They'd been… horrified. Furious. And guilty.

It was perhaps the longest, most honest conversation they'd had in years, and Shouto found it relieving to a degree.

Also gut wrenching, because he and Kirishima had already made the decision to go after Bakugou. Which made him feel like he was sort of betraying his siblings. Especially after all the comforting hugs and promises of cold soba and pacts to renew their sibling bonding sessions.

But whether it's Touya or not… we can't leave our classmate in danger.

Shouto looks out the window, noting city lights becoming brighter in the distance and knowing that they'd be in Kamino Ward, Yokohama in only a few minutes.

And maybe, if I'm right, and we're insanely lucky… he muses, drumming his fingers on his thigh, …maybe we can rescue more than one person tonight.

—

Toshinori hasn't felt quite so jittery since his first few years on the hero scene. Even infinitely more prepared, with a team of some of the most accomplished heroes in decades, his heart rate just won't slow down.

The press conference is in half an hour, and the heroes around him are doing last minute gear checks and warmups. Because the moment the conference ends, they're hitting the villains headquarters, codename: target alpha, and the Nomu facility, codename: target beta. While Toshinori is heading the target alpha team, Best Jeanist is leading the team against target beta, alongside Mount Lady and Tiger.

Jeanist hadn't been thrilled, exactly, not being on the team that was most likely to intercept Bakugou. But even as the kid's one-time boss, he conceded the point of spreading out the heroes' strengths. After all, Toshinori already had Endeavor, Edgeshot, Gran Torino, and Kamui Woods with him. That was more than enough for what they knew of the League's capabilities.

Not that any of their info was perfectly clear - but as far as hostage situations went, they were going in with as much information as they could manage. And Toshinori was beyond ready, anyway. Would have been ready to go in on nothing more than a rumor, if he was being honest with himself.

He had to refrain from tapping an impatient foot against the concrete. It wouldn't do to show his unease as the Pillar of Peace. Though, sequestered as they were in a nearby warehouse, each of the heroes were dealing with their pre-battle anxiety in different ways.

Endeavor was pacing, scowl ferocious as ever. The concrete melted in his wake, letting Toshinori know just how keyed up he was. Off to the side, Edgeshot looked like he was meditating, the backs of his hands resting lightly on his knees as he sat in seiza.

Kamui Woods was speaking quietly with Naomasa in the corner. Since they both were stationed in Musutafu, Toshinori knew they had a pretty good working relationship. And given that Kamui was the youngest one present, it wasn't surprising that he'd feel most comfortable with the person he knew best.

On Toshinori's right, Gran Torino is clasping his cane in front of him, two hands resting on the head as he stares at the door they'd be passing through in only a few short minutes. Focused and intent and showing no signs of distress. Toshinori clenches his crossed arms, wishing he had that kind of composure, but knowing he won't be around long enough to learn it. One way or another.

"What do you think, Toshinori?" Torino mutters quietly, looking up at him. "Are you ready to face All For One if he's there?"

Toshinori nods, keeping his voice low as well, "Yes, if it comes to that. I only hope our last fight hurt him as much as it did me."

Torino snorts indelicately. "True. Still, if he shows up, give him a solid one from me - you hear?"

Toshinori smiles a hard smile. "Of course. For Nana and young Bakugou, too."

Torino grins back, "Yeah, kid. That'll do."

Silence falls between them again, and time ticks closer to the attack.

Only fifteen minutes, now.

Hang in there, young Bakugou, Toshinori pleads. We're coming for you.

WE ARE HERE

Next chapter hits the ground running. Kind of literally, in some cases. And that's not going to be changing for... several chapters. Hold on to your butts?

However! Had to get in those last little placements - with Aizawa having his intel, Hawks and the kids getting up to where the action is, and Toshinori and Co. doing their pre-fight routines. We're now ready.

A couple things - did y'all notice an addition to one of the parties originally in Kamino Ward? (other than Hawks, I mean) Because he becomes very plot important in just a few chapters. And, secondly, Naomasa relates something here that comes back to bite Torrent in the ass. I'd be interested to see who caught that as well :D