I didn't tell anyone about the missing poster. I wasn't completely convinced of it myself. It caught me off guard, but I should've been expecting it. Now that I think about it, it's surprising that I'm only seeing it now.

I'd thought Mom would call the police the second she woke up to find me gone. I guess she'd believed I'd find my way back home eventually. At least she knows that's not the case anymore.

Still, I can't help but imagine how she's dealing with it; Mom was never one to hide her emotions. Not successfully, that is. No matter how hard she tried to hide how she felt, her true feelings always managed to give way. And it was always in the form of late-night crying sessions.

Those sobs were a big part of my childhood.

I wonder if she's crying right now... praying for my protection and a safe return while I'm in a secret bar, eating breakfast, totally fine.

I chewed slowly on a chunk of white rice with my chopsticks. She's probably losing her hair over me.

The thought made me smile a bit. Mom's always been like that: always worrying, always caring. For her, I'll do what needs to be done.

"Midoriya?" someone interrupted.

"Hm?" I looked up at Kurogiri, startled.

"You were murmuring to yourself," said Toga as she played with my hair. She even brought some rainbow butterfly clips to style it. I'd thought it was a bit weird at first, but it never really bothered me so I didn't say anything.

Twice found that he also enjoyed the little pastime, so he helped Toga out by bringing multicolored hair ties and bobby pins. They even went as far as to separate my hair in half, having a contest to see who can create the better style with me as the judge.

Toga slightly pulled my hair, tying it into a bunch of pigtails with masterful hands. Twice must've sneaked a look at her side of my head because she hissed at him competitively. "No peeking!! Keep to your side, there are only two minutes left."

"I wasn't cheating! -- I totally was!" he defended innocently.

"Can you keep your mouths shut? I'm trying to rest here for god's sake," complained Dabi. He tried to get comfortable on the couch as he closed his eyes sleepily.

It was a bit rare for him to even be here; he only really comes by to give reports on missions or any other intel he's heard. But there are days, like when I first arrived and today, when he'll just hang out with the rest of us, kind of like a family. Though I doubt he'd ever call it that.

Everyone else was here too; Magne, Spinner, and Mr. Compress were playing a game of cards on the little coffee table by the couch.

"I'm really sorry, Kurogiri -- what were you saying?"

"It's nothing to worry about," he said, placing some water in front of me. "I simply think it's finally time you execute your first mission."

I jumped up, surprised, but Toga pressed down on my head to prevent that much movement. "Stay still..." she murmured, fluffing out the lumps of hair.

"My first mission?? Already?"

Shigaraki spoke up from the corner of the bar. "Think you can't handle it?"

I turned to face him, even more pressured. "What? -- No, I--"

"Because if not, then what was that thing you said when you first joined...? Something about wanting to defeat All Might with the rest of us..." He sipped his coffee slyly. "You didn't mean that?"

"No, I swear I did! Whatever the mission is, I'll do it!" I assured him. He wouldn't kick me out over something like this, right??

"Yeah, that's what I thought." He set his mug on the counter, turning to meet my eyes. His were filled with nothing but contempt. "Otherwise I might've been led to think that you truly are worth nothing to us."

I couldn't say anything. Shigaraki held our dreadful eye-contact for a second more before he got up and disappeared into his room.

"Don't mind him," dismissed Kurogiri. "He's approved of your mission prior to today. You'll be accompanied as well."

"I will? Who...?"

"Magne volunteered to take you on a solo mission of hers. It's to assess your skills when under pressure if nothing else."

I turned around in my seat to ask Magne if it was true. She looked up from her cards and nodded, smiling the tiniest bit.

"We'll only be taking out a minor criminal declaring themselves as a hero. Someone called Electric Arrow. Should be easy without any help, but I wanted to give you a chance at something."

The Lightning Hero: Electric Arrow; the name certainly rang a bell. He was a hero in his late-forties with a quirk that enables him to create and wield electric arrows, as his alias name suggests. I'd gotten a chance to see him in action once, defeating a jewelry burglar.

His technique was very impressive and textbook, but his special moves didn't differ much from his regular attacks except for the extra electricity it held. Though Electric Arrow wasn't a hero to go down easily, his moves are extremely predictable and outdated.

That was mostly because he'd been a very popular hero in the older generation, but he kinda fell out of popularity along with past trends. He'd ranked pretty high back then; some would even go as far as to say he was in the top five. Sure sucked that he was the stereotypical rich, famous hero who cares for nothing but his public image.

Everyone had known that Electric Arrow wasn't the 'it' hero anymore, but only he was the one who couldn't accept that. He refuses to participate in any menial hero work or tasks, only saving his abilities for situations he thought worthy of his presence.

I clenched my fist. Just thinking about it made my blood boil. And he calls himself a hero? A hero's someone who'd go to any lengths, who'd go to the ends of the earth, if it meant that they could save just one person. And yet, there exist self-proclaimed knights in shining armor who can't even be bothered to concern themselves with a missing child case?

The only things heroes want are fame, popularity, money, and their own merch, and they strive to get that by appealing to the public's soft side-- "Don't fear! Why? Because I'm here!" filtered through my mind-- and it always works! Citizens don't know they're being tricked by the whole innocent and proud act; that's something that needs to change.

I won't let someone's dreams be shattered like mine was.

But then, I felt my heart drop in the slightest at Magne's phrasing. "Take... out?"

She drew three cards from the pile, grunting. "You know. To kill."

"K-kill?"

"I understand how frightening it might seem, Midoriya," Kurogiri interrupted politely, "but you must become desensitized to such things."

"You gotta do what you gotta do," Spinner commented. "Plus, you get used to it after a while."

"Got any threes?" Mr. Compress asked Magne hopefully.

She turned to him, incredulous. "You asked me that not even five minutes ago. Go fish, dumbass."

He muttered something unintelligible under his breath as he picked up a few cards from the center pile.

Twice abruptly faced my head forward so he and Toga could keep working on my hair. An alarm they'd set rang loudly, indicating the end of the competition. Toga lifted her hands up excitedly from her finished product and, upon seeing that Twice was trying to sneak in an extra pigtail, swatted his hands away.

"Alright, fine, I was done anyway-- No I wasn't!"

Toga reached for the handheld mirror at my side and held it in front of my face. She blushed wildly, giggling in excitement. "So?? Whose is better??"

Toga had decided to drown her side of my hair in nothing but rainbow hair ties and clips, clumps of dark green hair swaying every which way. Twice, on the other hand, had been a little more diverse and added some masterful use of the butterfly clips and bobby pins, almost creating an impression of a pampered girl's hairstyle.

Though both sides were equally ugly, I smiled warmly. It didn't quite reach my eyes.

"They both look great."

✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:* 

A/N: Sorry, the chapter was a bit quick!

I have a few ideas of where I want to go with this story, but I wanna hear what you guys are looking for~~

Thanks for reading! And don't forget to vote and comment! ;)