a/n: warning: mentions of physical abuse!

A few days passed, and my unease of who I saw near the alley was still plaguing me. The white-raincoat wearing person refused to leave the depths of my mind. Their emotionless mask was all I could think about lately. It also didn't help that there was an alarmingly huge increase in Overhaul's subordinates patrolling the streets around my house, all of them wearing forms of masks that would cover the lower half of their face at the bare minimum.

Who was under that mask anyway? Were they a man or a woman?

Did they work for Overhaul?

That was the main question, but I could tell that my secret was already out, since the person had run toward the direction of the palace. I could already imagine Overhaul's underlings rushing into my house, their masked faces leering at me as they took me away from my family. Or maybe even worse: they took away my parents and punished them for allowing their child to keep their quirk. My parents still had no clue that I had used my powers several times outside of the comforts of our home.

I shook my head, trying to clear my mind of those bad ideas. If I kept thinking this way, I'd drive myself insane waiting apprehensively for it to happen. I decided to call up Tomura and Touya.
Perhaps hanging out with them would clear my mind of negative thoughts.

I hadn't talked to them since the incident in the alley, so I wasn't sure if there were any new developments with them - especially with Touya. It seemed that something new would happen in his family every other day. After all, he did have quite a large family, with three siblings. As a whole, there were six people in the Todoroki family. I could imagine how crazy dinner could be every night.

Could be.

I had a feeling that Touya's father probably didn't allow for his children to be noisy. With what I had heard from Touya, Enji Todoroki was a strict father that didn't care much for his children. He rarely treated them with kindness and often resulted in violence if they didn't behave the way he wanted them to, though it was more with Touya than with the other children. Tomura and I had never gone to Touya's house, so we thankfully had never seen the abuse happen in front of our faces.

I dialed up Tomura first and was pleased to hear two familiar voices.

"Hey Y/N! It's been a long time, huh?"

Touya said loudly into the phone, and I heard some shuffling on the other end. Then, I heard the raspy voice of Tomura.

"Y/N. Hey."

"Sup, guys! I was just wondering if the two of you could come over! It's been a while, and I just wanted to see how things are doing!"

"Yeah, sure! We'll be over there soon! Talk to you later!"

Touya replied, and then the phone call ended. I snickered to myself as I pondered over the reasons why Touya was over at Tomura's house. Maybe they were... having some alone time...?

I then decided to just wait around, idly flipping through the newspaper that had laid on the bed forgotten after we had received the phone call from Touya. I skimmed through the papers, catching strands of words that consisted of 'quirks' and 'Overhaul.' I then flipped to the last page of the newspaper, eyes widening as I gazed down at the photo before me.

I had never bothered to look here, but it seemed that I should've.

It was an image of the person I had seen. From the heading and caption of the article, I quickly found out that this person - this man - was Chrono, Overhaul's right-hand man. His face was rarely seen in public, but from eye-witness accounts, they claimed that he had dark eyes and white hair.

That's it, I'm done for. If Overhaul's right-hand man saw me using my quirk, Overhaul has to know by now...!

I got up and started to pace around the room, my body shivering slightly. I felt my wings trembling, and I tried to control them, or I'd probably end up accidentally setting something on fire. It seemed that I couldn't control my quirk whenever I was anxious or nervous.

Why was I so stupid to use my quirk there? My family and friends might end up suffering because of my mistake!

Suddenly, the doorbell rang, and I froze. I then quickly ran out of my room and downstairs.

Please, let it be Tomura and Touya, please...!!

I opened the door hesitantly, folding my wings up behind me so that outsiders couldn't see them. I spotted Touya smiling down at me, Tomura glued to his side.

"Heya Y/N!"

He chirped, walking in, and Tomura nodded to me. I quickly shut the door after them, and let out a breath of relief.

"There's a lot more of Overhaul's cronies hanging around on this street, huh?"

Touya mentioned, his eyes narrowing slightly as he kicked off his shoes, and Tomura nodded, doing the same.

"Ah, r-really?"

I said, trying to mask the panic that was rising in me. Tomura frowned at me, removing himself from Touya's side despite the red-haired male's quiet whine of displeasure.

"What, you didn't realize?"

"No, I - I did. Let's just go upstairs."

I said, turning to walk upstairs, and my friends followed after me. When we made it into my room, I immediately shut the door behind me.

"So, what's been up with you?"

Touya spoke up, body languidly resting on the chair I had at my desk. Tomura was sitting on my bed once again. I walked over to them and sat down next to Tomura.

"Not much... You two?"

Touya smiled softly, leaning far back in the swivel chair. The chair creaked and groaned in
response, but the male ignored it.

"Shoto's made some new friends at summer camp. A boy named Izuku Midoriya, and a girl he calls 'Yaomomo' I think? It's great since I know my little bro has some troubles making friends sometimes, with his personality."

I nodded and then turned to Tomura.

"What about you?"

Before Tomura could speak up, a tapping noise near the window alerted me. My gaze turned to the curtains I had installed on my windows and noticed a dark silhouette blocking the light from hitting the cloth.

"What the..."

Touya muttered under his breath as he reached over to the curtain, and pulled them to the side since he was the closest to the window.

What we saw shocked all of us.