'Shota!' Midnight called, quickly running down the stairs.

When she entered the common living room, Principal Nezu, Present Mic, Snipe and All Might were already there. All of them were staring at Eraser, who had a phone pressed against his right ear. He was sitting at the edge of the couch and the second he heard Midnight, he shot her a tense glance.

'We will be there as soon as possible,' he replied and hung up. 'Okaido is missing,' he announced with a straight face. He seemed calm, but the tone of his voice was full of anger.

All Might's expression dropped and Hizashi tightened his fists, glancing over at Snipe and Nezu.

'Let's get my car,' Midnight said and waved at Shota and Present Mic, who stood up.

Three of them quickly ran towards the door, but Eraser turned his head towards the rest of the teachers sitting on the couch or in the armchairs.

'We will take care of Eri, don't worry, Aizawa. Now go!' Nezu informed him, before the man spoke up.

Eraser nodded and left the room. The three of the friends sprinted to the small parking lot next to the teachers' dorm and got in a modern, slightly sci-fi looking, Mitsubishi car with a gorgeous gloss red paint on it.

'We were on the phone,' Midnight said as she started the engine, fastening the seatbelt with her other hand. 'And she told me, 'If I am not back in ten minutes, something happened'.'

'What did she do?' Hizashi asked, clearly stressed out.

'I have no idea,' Midnight replied.

Aizawa opened his mouth to speak, but his phone rang again. He instantly reached for it and picked up the call.

'Yes?' he asked, putting the phone on the speaker.

'We got a confirmation, it's related to the serial kidnapping. And as much as stressful and tragic this situation is, Mariko helped us narrow down the search. She made a note about someone's appearance and hid it behind her phone case. The phone is completely destroyed, but the note is currently being used to create a sketch of the kidnapper.'

Midnight nodded with approval as she got on the road in front of the UA. Hizashi lowered his forehead laying it on his folded hands, taking a breath in.

'We also got a report about two missing kids from a mother. According to her, she had last seen them near where Mariko's phone was. Well, not that close, but two blocks across the street, so there is no way it is not related.'

Aizawa gritted his teeth.

'Gun it, Midnight,' Shota fumed.

'I am going as fast as I can to not get us and everyone else on the road killed. Focus on breathing, Sho. Stay calm.'

He hissed, forcing himself to close his eyes.

'Eraser,' he heard from the phone. 'I am so sorry. She was my responsibility. I know you are mad...'

'I'm not mad. We are on our way,' he responded and hung up the call.

Midnight put her hand on Eraser's forearm, grasping it firmly in a sign of support. All three of them knew that situation like these were an occupational hazard, but none of them wanted the tragedy from years ago to happen again.

Mariko woke up in a somewhat dark place, with her head lowered, eyes looking down at her legs. She was sitting on a simple, metal chair in a vast, unkempt room. The woman blinked a few times and then tried to inspect her surroundings without lifting her head up. She saw raw concrete, dusty floor and a few columns supporting the ceiling. She wasn't quite sure where she was.

Mariko slowly lifted her head and looked around. She was tied to the metal chair, her hands behind her back. She looked up, examining a very high ceiling full of various metal pipes and vertical balks made of reinforced concrete. There was nothing to her right side except for a small window and to the far left, she saw a table on which her vest and the grapple glove were placed.

She tried to look behind her, but the second she twisted her head, someone placed a hand on her scalp, making her look in front of her.

'Where am I?' she asked immediately, shivering at the touch of the stranger.

The person slowly walked around the chair, appearing in Mariko's vision. It was the same, silver-haired man from before.

'Oi, don't you think that I should be the one asking questions?' He let go of her head.

At the same time, Mariko's vision blurred and the world felt like it is slowly spinning and tilting to the sides. She tensed and thought that she will fall while sitting in the chair, but nothing like this had happened.

'Who did you call?' he asked her.

Mariko closed her eyes, trying to get rid of the dizziness caused by her distorted vision.

'Like I would tell you,' she spat out and he hit her in the stomach.

She tried leaning forward, but her tied hands and ankles kept her in place. The woman opened her eyes and looked at the man standing before her.

'Let's try this again. Who did you call?'

Mariko tilted her head to the sides, cracking her tense cervical vertebrae. The man smirked and raised his chin, looking down at the woman. After a few seconds he swung his right fist, hitting her on the face. She spat out the bloody saliva.

'At this state, I cannot use the Drain. I could drain him, but even if I manage to weaken him enough to immobilize him, one of my limbs could break, like it did when I drained Shinso and All Might. I got stronger, but I don't know what is my exact limit. Besides, the second he sees the Quirk, he will neutralize me without hesitation. The kids are a priority, I need to play on time.'

'Who was that?' he asked again and grasped her hair, pulling her head backwards.

She did not respond, so he hit her again. Mariko grinned at the man; her teeth painted with blood. He gritted his jaw in anger and was about to strike again, but then a door somewhere behind him opened, letting some more light into the dimmed room.

'Sensei!' they heard a voice of a young man. Mariko frowned and glanced towards the door, trying to see the stranger's face.

The silver-haired man lowered his fist and then laid his hand on Mariko's face. When he let go of her, she no longer saw any of his features, but just a foggy silhouette.

'At first I thought that they drugged me, but it's a Quirk,' she thought immediately.

'Yes?'

'It's almost time. We are ready to leave.'

'Who is this?' Mariko's frown deepened. She knew she heard this voice before. When and where was it?

'We still have a few minutes to spare,' the tall man said as a smaller, foggy figure approached him.

'Why do you kidnap the kids?' Mariko asked.

'What makes you think that I will tell you?'

'I am not dead yet,' Mariko noticed. 'Which means either you kidnapped me for the exact same reason you keep kidnapping the younger ones for, or you need something else from me. Why is the question you keep asking me so important?'

Even though Okaido could only see the shadowy figures, she could swear that the second she spoke up, the shorter man looked uneasy.

'Did he recognize me as well?'

'I think you are thinking too high of yourself.'

'I need to know if they took my phone. If they did. I am dead,' she realized.

'Police is already investigating you,' Mariko said, blinking a few times, trying to get rid of the foggy vision. 'And they can find me by tracking down my SIM card.'

'Pity your phone is laying shattered on the street,' the man responded with a smile. He made a pause, observing her devastated expression and continued. 'The only reason as to why you are here is because you saw me and connected the dots... Because of that, you have only two options. Join us or die.'

'That's not really a fair choice, is it?' Mariko asked and the man punched her on the side of her face. Her body tilted to the right.

She slowly straightened herself and looked at the foggy face of the man.

'Just what are you, anyway? What kind of a sick organization is this?'

The man took a step to the side, slowly starting to walk around Mariko.

'What is the vision of your ideal future?'

Okaido frowned.

'One where there is no cruelty in the world.'

He snorted.

'Yet you want to be a hero?'

Mariko glanced behind her, staring at the blurred silhouette. He noticed her confusion, so he continued:

'Heroes use just as much violence as, so called, villains do.'

'Sometimes it's necessary.'

'Is it?' he asked her, stopping in front of the chair she was sitting on. 'Don't you think that the society could be a lot more balanced if the Quirk defined how much power one has?'

'It would be completely chaotic, full of death and suffering.'

'Only at the beginning. In the future, everything would stabilize, as the hierarchy would establish itself. Everyone would be equal, there would be no categories like villains and heroes.'

'You are lunatics. Society like this will never be equal if you promote an active use of violence to establish power,' Mariko said and shook her head a few times. 'Is this why you kidnap small kids? To brainwash them into following your dogshit ideology?'

The man delivered another punch, then straightened herself and brushed off his light-grey coat.

'You speak of brainwashing, not realizing how rotten your own brain is.' He grabbed her hair again, pulling her head backwards. 'I change my mind. Your chance of joining us is now gone.'

'I wasn't planning on using it anyway.' Mariko grinned and spat the blood from her mouth straight at the man's coat.

He slapped her and dropped her head. She folded forward, the tied limbs keeping her from falling to the floor.

'Kill her,' the silver-haired man said to the small figure and in the next few seconds, he left the room.

'The phone is on the street. Ms. Joke will see the note. She will see it,' she kept thinking. 'The kids' lives are of the highest priority. If I am to die, I need to make sure I will buy as much time for the police arrival as I can... They will come. They are on the way,' she kept convincing herself.

She lifted her gaze, looking at the young man before her. Mariko's breath was shallow and raspy - the inhaled air flowing through a dry throat.

'Okaido?' he asked perplexed.

The second she heard her name, she immediately recognized the person. For a second, she thought that the blurry vision cleared out and she saw a sharp face with the bright-green eyes. It was him. The boy who gave her so many scars from the cuts of his Blade quirk.

'Tsukisaku?' her jaw dropped. 'What are you doing here? Did they threaten you as well?'

'No,' he responded and Mariko frowned.

Her brain was clouded with thoughts, making her unable to form a sentence. Tsukisaku Ejji? Here?

'Do they hurt you?' Mariko asked.

'No.'

'Can you control your body?'

'Yes.'

'Can you-'

'I'm with them, Okaido.'

Senchi opened her mouth, but didn't find the words to say out loud. She straightened her back and blinked a few times, deeply shocked.

'You are... what?'

'I joined them. Or rather, I want to join them.'

'Why? What are they exactly?' Mariko asked, keeping her voice down.

'It's the Meta Liberation Army. They gave me a shelter and a chance to become someone,' he informed. 'I just need to prove myself.'

'By killing me?' Okaido asked and the young man did not respond.

Ejji stood in silence in front of her, staring at her damaged face. He inspected her hero costume and then looked down at his tightened fists, inhaling sharply.

'Let me go, we will rescue the kids and escape,' Mariko whispered.

'They will kill me.'

'I will protect you,' she said in a serious tone.

'Why would you possibly want to do that? After all I have done to you? Why would you want to save a villain?' he asked her after a pause.

She closed her eyes and smiled slightly.

'I never thought of you as a villain,' she admitted.

He grasped her chin and pushed her backwards, raising his fist above his shoulder, ready to strike.

'Stop saying that!' he warned, trying to keep his voice low.

'But it's true. My life has changed drastically in the recent months. I am a different person from what I was when we were together in the orphanage,' Mariko explained with a neutral expression on her face. 'We were all bad, Ejji. All bad in many different ways. But you know what? If there is anything I have learnt, it's that everyone deserves a second chance. And I was blessed to meet people who gave it to me. I have a mentor now and I cannot find the words to describe how much I respect him and how much he inspires me,' she said quietly. 'You are not bad, Ejji. You are just misguided.'

He swung his fist at her face and stopped it right before the impact. He froze in place for a long moment. When he spoke up, his breath was shaky.

'We will die. Both of us.'

'Maybe,' she admitted, feeling his fist in front of her face. 'But we will die protecting the ones who are not yet rotted by this world - the kids.'

Ejji gritted his teeth, feeling the tears flowing from his eyes. Out of everyone in this world, he had to meet her. The girl who he always wanted to bully. And out of everyone else, she is the one to say this?

'And if we manage to escape, then what? Where will I go? What will I eat? How will I survive?'

'You will push through, Ejji. Your Quirk gives you so many opportunities,' she said. 'You always said how I will become a villain. And look at me right now. Take a look, Ejji. I got kidnapped from a hero internship.'

He lowered his hand and brought it to his face, wiping his burning tears.

'I will make sure you will not get arrested.'

'Why, though? Why would you do that?' he asked her, letting go of her face.

'Because it is time for your second chance.'

The boy took a step backwards, his throat trapped in an invisible, tight grip. As more tears escaped his eyes, he activated his Quirk; two blades appeared on both of his forearms.

'Okaido,' he whispered through his tears, his voice shaky.

She sat quietly, waiting for him to finish. The crying tone of the boy before her made her throat burn.

'If we die, I want you to know,' he sniffed. 'I want you to know, that you already managed to save me,' he finished, and he cut the ropes around her ankles and wrists.