The dull grey scarf unhooked itself from the ceiling.

Two figures danced in the dim ceiling lights, blending in perfectly with the intersecting shadows casted on the matted ground. Below them, a bespectacled man walked among his enemies as though he was invisible. He stopped and turned around every few seconds, coincidentally moving behind cover just before the men’s gazes fell upon him each time.

Aizawa suppressed a small smirk at his colleague’s prowess with his foresight quirk, and leapt to another ceiling beam.

A flash of white caught his attention. He stretched out his hand, using the momentum to swing both the woman and him forward. She somersaulted along the narrow wooden beam like a seasoned gymnast and landed silently into the empty storeroom. Aizawa followed close behind.

The hero took off his goggles to use his eyedrops just as Nighteye walked in, closing the door behind him. A face popped in through the wall as well, and a caped blonde boy stepped into the room.

“Report, Lemillion,” Nighteye asked sharply.

“Our reconnaissance efforts have paid off, Sir. The floor plan has not changed at all,” the boy answered confidently. “It’s just as our intel said, the room ahead is the main research centre. Strangely though, there are only handheld cameras but no ceiling ones. If we want to save time, it might be best if we just put those scientists to sleep instead of sneaking around any longer.”

Aizawa kept his expression neutral, although pride blossomed within him. Lemillion, or Mirio Togata, was a third-year student in U.A. High. Despite still being a mere student, this boy’s physical strength and mastery of his permeation quirk could easily rank him among the top tier heroes. In fact, Aizawa wouldn’t be surprised if Mirio was the closest to being the Number One Hero, including the pros.

“Sounds like a plan. Well done, Lemillion,” Midnight said warmly, before turning to Nighteye. “You have an amazing intern.”

The man only smirked in response.

“Play it clean, Midnight. Ladies first.” He gestured to the door, before putting a gas mask on. The other heroes followed suit. Midnight opened the door slightly.

Gas began seeping out from every pore of her body. It did not take long before the entire room was flooded in the purple sleeping gas. Soft thuds echoed as the scientists fell unconscious, some of them even slipping off the chairs and plopping onto the ground.

Aizawa strolled into the room, taking care to avoid stepping on the sleeping bodies. His heart raced with anticipation. Although everything was going smoothly so far, time was ticking, and he was nowhere close to securing Midoriya.

Not that he had expected this to be easy though.

If this ‘All For One’ villain really was behind all of this, that man must have had some considerable reach to mess up their intel from the shadows and trick All Might into entering the wrong place back then. Coupled with the extremely powerful Pagonis by his side, extracting Midoriya from their grasp was going to be a Herculean task.

A faint recording played in the background as he turned his attention to another monitor.

The man shook his head and continued scrolling through the computer documents. No, he could not let these irrational thoughts overwhelm him. One step at a time. It would be foolish and amateurish of him to rush into things.

Pages of information about Pagonis’ world greeted him. The term ‘Arcani’ popped up a few times, and there were multiple sections talking about ‘magic’ and ‘reality manipulation’.

Aizawa plugged in a thumb drive and began downloading the data. There was no time to read them all now, but the sheer amount of information gathered about something so foreign was impressive, especially given the short amount of time these researchers had.

If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

“Hey, you guys might wanna take a look at this,” Mirio’s voice called out.

Aizawa examined the device his student was holding. It looked like some sort of oversized two pin plug, and a strange dark purple gas was swirling in the container nestled between the four plastic columns.

“Failsafe device… Should Pagonis go against our interests, this device will be used to send him back to his world permanently…” Midnight mumbled, reading the device’s description in the journal entry on a nearby monitor. “Caution: This failsafe is still unstable. More research must be done to stabilise its power source. Except under drastic conditions, do not activate it.”

“Nighteye, was this in the future you saw?” Aizawa turned to Nighteye. “Is this the thing we need?”

The lanky man shook his head. “I only predicted what would happen until we entered this room. I did not see anything further.”

“We don’t need to see the future to know this is what we’re looking for,” Mirio said. “It already says here that it can get rid of our strongest enemy. What more do we need?”

“Be that as it may, Pagonis’ heart is full of hatred and bitterness right now. What’s more, he wishes to turn against his own world. The only thing stopping him is that the villains still have use for his powers,” Midnight said. “We just heard his voice recordings with the League Of Villains, didn’t we? If we simply use this on him, we’ll be dooming another world just to save our own. It is an exceedingly selfish act for a hero.”

“And what is the alternative? To rehabilitate him? Or to keep him locked up here?” Nighteye folded his arms. “We have neither the resources nor capability to match his power. The best way to put out a raging fire is to extinguish it, not contain it.”

“It’s too early for us to make sense of all this data,” Aizawa added. “For now, let’s collect all of them and bring them back for proper analysis.”

“I agree, Mister Aizawa-”

“What did we teach you about codenames, Lemillion?”

“S-sorry, Eraserhead.” Mirio put his hand behind his head sheepishly. “There’s no time for us to be debating here. We need to leave before they find out that we’ve been here. But if we take the device with us, we would be showing our hand.”

“We’ve already revealed our intentions with our act of infiltration. That was part of the plan,” Nighteye said. “Let this be our warning to them that the heroes have not been idle. Speaking of which, I’m going to launch an official investigation into the Jaku Hospital Board. I’ll need you to help me once we’re back at our agency.”

The heroes nodded.

~ ~ ~

Leaving the laboratory was a lot quicker than infiltrating it. After all, there was no longer any need for reconnaissance, especially when Nighteye purposely tripped an alarm in the research lab right after they left. The sight of scuttling lab coats would have been hilarious, if not for the extremely serious situation they were in.

Aizawa remained silent on the drive back to Nighteye’s agency. Not that he was in some sort of brooding mood or something, but he was grateful for the peace and quiet to tend to his thoughts.

There was no doubt that Pagonis was a grave threat to their world, and had to be sent back one way or another. But to do so without remedying the root cause of his hatred would be the equivalent of sweeping the real problem under the rug. Powerful as this boy was, he was no Symbol Of Villainy. He was a symptom, just like the League Of Villains. A symptom of a world who condemned those who were different. A symptom of a dysfunctional society wrapped under a gilded blanket of false righteousness.

His memories flitted back to his childhood. It did not seem so long ago when he too, was shunned for trying to be a hero without a flashy quirk. The public wanted something simple to put their minds at ease, something that everyone could see and wow at. But what happens if there was nothing flashy to show? What happens when the only flashy thing someone has scared everyone else instead?

He had to save his student. What point was there to save the world if heroes couldn’t save those living in it? How could he still call himself a teacher if he just let his student go astray without even trying to reel him back? The man’s eyes softened. This cycle of condemnation must stop.

A phone call shook Aizawa out of his thoughts abruptly.

He watched Mirio pick up the call, before casting his view outside again. More grey buildings greeted him, but he recognised them anyway. Sir Nighteye’s agency should be coming up around the corner very soon.

“Sir, Bubble Girl just called me.” Mirio’s voice was filled with an alarming amount of urgency.

“What did she say?”

“Izuku Midoriya has been found. He’s at our agency right now.”