UA — Faculty Change Room
Nemuri moved quickly through the hallways empty of students before reaching the changing room for faculty, also empty.
She pulled off her hero costume and held it for a moment, the glossy material cool in her hands. She had chosen this, the revealing outfit, the persona, the R rated hero Midnight…
She thought about a small apartment in Gotham twenty years ago and how she had chosen this over her son.
She threw the costume on the floor then in her locker.
She changed into regular clothes, dark trousers, a simple long-sleeved shirt, a jacket she'd brought, and a pair of her glasses.
She caught her reflection in the mirror.
Only Nemuri stared back now.
She closed the locker and left.
In the hallway she nearly walked straight into Aizawa and All Might coming from the opposite direction.
"Kayama," Aizawa said, eyes flicking over her civilian clothes. "Are you alright?"
"Fine. Yes." She kept moving. "I need to get back."
"Wait—" All Might started, but she was already past them.
Aizawa watched her go, brow slightly furrowed.
All Might looked at the empty corridor, then at his colleague. "What was that about?"
Aizawa was quiet for a second. "Earlier, someone grabbed her shoulder and she went off to speak with him alone."
All Might blinked. "A man? You don't think they're you know…?"
Aizawa gave him a flat look. "No, I could tell it was not that..."
"Right. Of course not." All Might rubbed the back of his neck.
"What bothers me," Aizawa said, eyes still on the corridor where she'd disappeared, "is the resemblance to who I remember seeing in the tunnels, tall, black hair, an english speaker"
All Might was quiet.
"That's not much to suspect someone on," he said finally.
"No," Aizawa agreed. "It isn't."
Then he finally remembered the name Kurono said right before he died.
"Crane."
He stared down the hallway a moment longer, then turned back toward the festival noise.
"I'll have to ask her some questions later," he said.
UA High School — Festival Grounds — Afternoon
Crane had been waiting on the bench for about ten minutes when he stood up. He decided to walk around a bit more before coming back in a few.
The crowd had thinned a little since Class 1-A's performance ended. People were drifting between events, checking schedules, arguing about where to go next.
Something small and fast collided with his midsection.
He looked down and saw a very short student with purple spheres arranged across his head had walked straight into him, eyes glued to the schedule in his hands. The impact was entirely the kid's fault, but his expression immediately suggested otherwise.
"Watch it!" the boy snapped, already getting back up. "I need to get to the beauty pageant to see those beauties, you're in my—"
The boy fell again as Crane tripped and pushed him.
He went down face-first into the dirt path, making a muffled, annoyed sound before looking for the man again.
Crane had already faded back into the crowd and didn't look back.
Nemuri found him a few minutes later.
She told him about the school as they walked through the grounds. She talked about the heroics curriculum, when he asked how they trained she pointed to where the training grounds and classrooms were. She then told him what her students were like and their quirks and how she's proud of them progressing.
"The beauty pageant is the last big event," she said as they passed a schedule board.
He glanced at it. "I'll pass on that."
"It would be a little strange," she agreed, and was surprised to find herself almost smiling.
They found a quieter section of campus but the noise of students cheering at the pageant still reached them as they continued to talk. When the light started turning orange, she noticed him looking at the sky and realized how late it had gotten.
"You have to go, don't you…" she said.
"Yes."
"The sleepy-looking guy who almost didn't let me talk to you," he said. "Will he be a problem?"
She considered it honestly. "I can manage that."
He was quiet for a moment, watching the sunset paint the buildings.
"I think you would like to know that, there's someone," he paused. "I found, they were young, very alone, and hurt, and didn't choose any of it." He didn't look at her. "It reminded me of my past, and I think I can help her, and show her how to rise above that like I did"
She looked at him.
She felt something tight in her chest loosen just a little.
"That's good," she said quietly. "That's really good, Suguru."
He glanced at her, then away.
"It was good to see you," he said.
This time she didn't hesitate, she stepped forward and wrapped her arms around him in a goodbye hug.
He went rigid the way he had before, that full-body stillness. She held on anyway and after a few seconds, one of his hands came up and pressed against her back.
She smiled against his shoulder, it was more than last time, she'd take it.
She let go and he stepped back.
"Goodbye Suguru, I love you…" she said.
He turned and walked toward the exit gate.
She watched him go, moving through the thinning crowd, getting smaller as he reached the gate and faded from her eyesight.
UA High School — Main Gate — Dusk
Sen Kaibara had snuck away from the play.
He wasn't lazy, he just finished cleaning his area before anyone else and was now at the Gate watching the last stragglers of the day filter out while the rest of Class B finished tearing down their display.
The crowd had thinned to almost nothing. Just a few tired families with sleepy kids, and the occasional couple walking slowly, Sen leaned against the gatepost, hands in his pockets, thinking about how Monoma was probably already rehearsing his victory speech about their play.
That was when he saw it.
A far street over, where the road curved away from the school, a man was being shoved hard into a narrow side passage between two buildings. The guy stumbled, clearly not going that way by choice. Behind him, a tall figure with massive moth wings folded tight against his back was laughing, like he was enjoying a twisted game.
Sen watched the man fall to the ground.
Even from here he could see the guy's face was bruised, red eyes wide with fear and tears, one hand raised weakly as if still hoping someone would help.
Sen glanced back toward the main gate. The security officers were busy with a departing group at the far end, no one else had noticed. He thought about Class-B and how everyone dismissed them compared to Class 1-A, but catching a villain on his own would definitely help his class get recognized.
He left the gate and followed the crime in progress.
Sen crossed the road at a jog, following the sounds, the moth-winged man's laughter retreating deeper into the alleys, and the salaryman's voice, shaky and repetitive:
"Help… help…"
He turned into the narrow passage.
The man was crumpled against the wall at the alley's entrance, one hand still raised. The moth-winged figure was nowhere in sight.
Sen crouched down quickly. "Hey, can you hear me? Are you okay—"
Sharp pain flared in his thigh.
He looked down, the salaryman had a large syringe in his hand and its needle was deep in Sen's leg. The mans red eyes were suddenly clear and the crying, the bruises, all of it was gone. The man's expression had shifted into something calm almost like he was mocking him.
"Why—"
The face began to change, the skin rippling, features rearranging but before he could fully see the new form the edges of his vision started to blur then–.
A bag was thrown over his head from behind.
He heard tires and a van door slide open and he was shoved in it he thought he heard men speaking english until he quickly fell unconscious
It had only taken a couple minutes for his life to collapse.
UA High School — Outside the Main Building — Dusk
Nemuri had been standing outside for a few minutes, staring at the gate and the empty street beyond it, when Aizawa appeared beside her.
"Who was he?"
She didn't answer right away.
She kept looking at the gate.
"It's private."
"He grabbed a Pro Hero on school grounds during a public event," Aizawa said. "That makes it somewhat less private."
"He didn't mean anything by it."
"Kayama."
She looked away.
"If you don't tell me," he said, "I'm going to involve people who will find out—"
"He isn't a–" Her voice came out sharper than she intended.
"Then tell me who he is."
She turned to face him, then checked that no one else was nearby.
"You have to promise to keep this to yourself," she said.
Aizawa didn't respond immediately, she stared at him until he gave a short, reluctant nod.
She exhaled.
"That young man," she said quietly, "is my son."
Aizawa went very still, this was anything but what he expected it had genuinely caught him off guard.
"You have a—"
"Quiet." She glanced around again. "I abandoned him when he was a baby, I was young and selfish." Her voice cracked slightly. "I finally was able to get in contact with him. I've been… careful and letting him reach out. I can't afford to damage what little trust he has in me or even how much he wants to even see me."
Aizawa listened without interrupting.
"He's been alone for a very long time," she continued. "And he's only just starting to… open up." A small, private smile touched her lips. "He told me today he thinks he can help someone. Someone young who was alone in danger and hurt, he said he wanted to not have go through what he did."
"What's his name?" he asked.
She looked at him, then away.
"Suguru,"
"Not Crane?"
She went stiff for half a second before masking it.
"No"
He studied her for a moment.
"I trust you, it must have been hard to tell me this," he said.
They started walking back toward the building side by side.
He felt bad he almost had her son who had suffered so much arrested over a coincidence, it was close but-
What kind of villain would show up here in the open and he didn't act overly suspicious so he would believe her and keep this a secret.
For now…
Private Hanger - Same Time
In the back of the van, the UA student was secured and unconscious, black bag still over his head. Crane glanced at the teenager then looked at Cameron.
"Good job,"
Roman let out a low chuckle as he drove. "I still can't believe that worked."
Basil laughed from the back. "This is Japan, man, these idiots can't help themselves. The kid saw a 'victim' getting dragged off and ran straight in like it was his big hero moment." He shook his head, still grinning. "Too easy."
They reached the hangar. the jet sat ready, the cargo hold open for this final 'item' while everything else was already loaded and everyone was onboard.
They exited the van and Basil took the keys to and left to return it. Cameron and Roman lifted the unconscious student carefully, carrying him into the main cargo hold. William was already there, waiting with a sedative drip prepared. He attached it to the boy's arm and gave a small nod of satisfaction.
Crane took the student's phone, used the boy's thumb to unlock it and saw something plugged into its charger port.
"Its one of the Calculator's devices, remember him" Cameron confirmed, " I plugged it in as soon as we got him so the GPS went dark almost instantly."
Crane nodded then once they were all out he sealed the cargo hold and saw Basil return getting out of a taxi.
He walked up the boarding ramp after the others, and the door closed behind him with a solid, final thud.
Everyone was now on board.
In the cabin, Silver was sitting at the rear with Eri still watching old shows and movies from the states. The girl had opened up a little, she was no longer pressed into the corner as before and she was talking to Silver, though limited. When Crane approached them, Eri's eyes moved to him immediately and that wary scared look came back.
Crane looked at Silver.
She stood, gave Eri a brief, reassuring glance, and followed him a few rows forward where the girl couldn't hear.
He held out the student's phone. "Text his class that he went home early, then text his parents he's coming home for the weekend but he's stuck at the train station and he might stay with a classmate. Keep the messages short and natural so they wont suspect anything for a few days and there's no ties to us."
Silver took the phone.
"Just do it fast," Crane added. "I need you up front with Basil."
She nodded then she turned and went back to Eri.
"I have to help the pilot for a bit," she said gently. "But you can come up and see me when we're in the air, if you want."
Eri looked at the floor.
"…Okay," she said quietly.
Silver walked forward, Crane stayed where he was for a moment, watching the girl. Then he moved and sat down in the aisle seat across from her intending to keep an eye on her but also see if he could learn more about her.
She watched him with careful eyes.
"I'm not going to hurt you," he said as he adjusted the seat.
She looked back out the window.
Runway — Takeoff
The engines started to rumble and the aircraft started moving onto the runway.
Eri looked at the seatbelt, then at her hands, then at the seatbelt again not sure what to do and panicking.
Crane watched for a moment, then moved to her aisle and leaned across and buckled it for her without comment. She held very still while he did it then he sat back down in the aisle seat, as there wasn't enough time to go back across the aisle.
She shifted to look out the window.
The plane surged forward pushing her back in her seat as the ground blurred and suddenly they were rising. Osaka spread out below them, an endless grid of lights, streets, buildings, the dark patches of water and open land.
Eri pressed closer to the glass.
She had never seen so much of the world at once.
The aircraft banked slightly. The angle shifted, revealing even more. Then they entered the clouds. For a moment everything outside was white and close, Eri's face went very still until they broke through.
Above the clouds, the sky was deep, clean and endless. The sun sat right at the horizon, painting everything in a shade of orange she had never seen before.
Her mouth parted into a smile looking out at the sky.