Thursday, April 8th 2128

Izuku Midoriya stared down at his notebook as it floated in the water, charred black in places, and was getting nibbled on by koi fish. HERO ANALYSIS FOR THE FUTURE NO 13 was written across the front in black marker. "Alright, that's enough." He muttered as he picked his notebook up out of the water, the fish scattering and swimming away. "…Damn it." He swore as he flipped through the soaked and charred pages. Thankfully most of the information inside was intact so he wouldn't need to spend much time rewriting it all.

Keeping his head down he started his walk home, the sun shining in the bright blue sky and the wind brushing gently through the trees. It was a beautiful day, marred in the reminder that Izuku's dream was unobtainable due to a matter of birth.

He had no Quirk, no special power or ability that 80% of people nowadays had.

He had nothing to make him stand out except the absence of anything special. He thought that he was ordinary at best, compared to people whose Quirks were honestly no big deal, and undesirable at worst.

But Izuku was wrong.

It was far more terrible that The Man following behind him found him desirable in his Quirklessness.

The Man made sure to keep far behind Izuku, walking slowly and looking down at his phone to appear uninterested in his surroundings. But every so often his eyes would flick up and stare at the back of Izuku's head, burrowing past his green hair into his skull.

'So much hardship, all due to a cruel twist of fate.' The Man thought tearing he eyes away, the color fading from a twisting and sickly green into a natural deep brown. 'But that will be over soon.' He sped up his walking and put his phone away. He then began to mutter words that stilled the air as soon as they left his mouth and from the same pocket he put his phone pulled out a syringe, filled with a clear liquid.

Izuku walked on, unaware of all of this until he noticed that his legs began to drag as if weighed down by something. 'Wh- what?' He thought as he tried to take another step forward only for his foot to get an inch off the ground and then freeze there. 'What's happening?!' He panicked as he tried to turn his head only to find it also locked in place. A quick attempt to move any part of his body revealed that he was completely frozen in place. Even his eyes were locked in place, staring at his feet and shadow.

"-gah kenip wwwurk yug vergah kenip wwwurk yug vergah kenip wwwurk yug-" A man's voice came up from behind him and Izuku saw a shadow come up from behind his right side. It walked around to his front and stopped there. "-vergah kenip wwwurk yug. …Hello, Izuku-kun." The Man said as he finished droning the words that felt wrong to Izuku somehow, making his paralyzed skin crawl. The shadow's hands moved and a long thin piece of plastic fell at his feet.

"Now don't worry none." The Man said as he moved forward and sharp pain erupted in Izuku's neck. "I'm going to introduce you to someone who loves Quirkless people like us." Izuku's vision began to swim and the shadows on the ground twisted into mocking shapes as he lost consciousness standing up.

The Hunter stared up at The Hound turning slowly in the air, the noose tight around his neck. He tore his eyes away from the dead man and looked down at the folded paper below his hanging feet, next to the kicked over stool. Bending to pick it up he unfolded it and read the two sentences.

I'M SORRY

THE TRUTH IS TOO MUCH

'Too much for you, you mean.' The Hunter thinks as he tore the note to tiny shreds as he stood back up and glared at the corpse. 'Five months in and you already retire.'

He didn't spend long searching The Hound's apartment, not wanting to be around when the kicked in door drew attention. But he quickly found the dead man's pistol, stash of ammunition, and journal. The pistol and ammo he pockets and wastes no time ripping out some pages, stuffing them into a waste basket, and then using his lighter to burn all of it. Now with a fire burning on top of the kicked in door he fled the apartment, not looking back as he walked down the stairs and out onto the streets.

Not stopping he walked down the deserted city street, the sun slowly setting and turning the sky orange against the steel skyscrapers. Once he was far enough away he pulled out his cellphone and called one of the few numbers in his contacts.

"The Hound retired." He said when his call was answered. "Any changes?"

"Word just came in about a missing boy, been gone since yesterday afternoon." The Entertainer answered, her tone apparently unsurprised or uncaring about The Hound. "Same as the others, he's between the ages of 13 to 16 and Quirkless."

"If he's a virgin then that's three for three." The Hunter continues as he reaches the car he uses for these things, parked in the street. "When's the ritual time again?" He asks as he opens it and sits behind the driver's wheel. He opens the glove compartment, throwing The Hound's pistol inside, and slams it shut.

"Sunrise after a night with a waxing gibbous moon." The Entertainer answered. "Last night was a first quarter moon so you got until morning. You got a lead?"

"I got several." He answers as he leans back to look into the back seat of his car where a duffel bag sits. He pulls it towards him with his free hand and unzips it to look at the shotgun, the many shells he took with him, and large hunting knife inside.

"Can you handle it by yourself?" The Entertainer asked, an actual touch of concern in her tone. "The Robber can be there in-"

"No." He snapped, zipping the duffel bag shut. "I'm good. I'll call you when the job is done or it's too late." He hung up before she could answer and tossed his phone into the front passenger's seat. Taking a moment to sigh he pulls out a pack of cigarettes and lights one, rolling down the window to blow the smoke outside.

'Alright,' he thinks pulling out a notepad out of his breast pocket, 'first one.' He flips open the notepad and looks at the five addresses listed on it, all of them scattered across the city. Finding the nearest one The Hunter flips it closed, buckles his seat belt, starts the car, and pulls into the street to start his side job.

Friday, April 9th 2128

Izuku woke up once again looking at the ground, although this time he was not standing but kneeling with his head down.

'Whe- where am I?' He thought as he came too, his vision swimming back into place. It took a moment for his eyes to adjust to the darkness but when they did he found his blood going cold. There were chains hooked to cuffs on his hands, ankles, and neck keeping him in place on the concrete floor. A quick jerk of his legs proved that he couldn't even begin to rise up and he fell back on his knees. "Oh, oh god!" He whispered in a panic as he swung his head around at his surroundings.

He was alone thankfully but that was all he could be thankful for. Izuku was in what looked like a small basement, lit only by a single hanging light bulb. It was empty except for stairs leading up to presumably the rest of the house, a ring of unlit candles around Izuku, and a large hole in the wall in front of him, big enough for him to easily crawl into, that led to pitch blackness.

'Okay! Okay! Remain calm!' He thought quickly, shaking his chains to try and get the cuffs off of him. 'Gotta be calm! Can't freak out! Can't freak out!' He tried to take some deep calming breaths. "Okay, I'm… physically fine." He began to mutter as he moved his body to see if anything hurt and aside from some aches from being in this position for long nothing did. "I'm still dressed in my uniform, even my shoes are still on."

"Was I… kidnapped by a Villain?" Izuku muttered as he tried to figure why this had all happened. "I remember… freezing in place… was it a paralysis or petrification Quirk? But…" His memory strained as he tried to remember what his shadowy kidnapper had said. "He said… that he was going to introduce me to someone who… loves Quirkless people like us. I've never heard of a Quirkless Villain before." Just like there were no Quirkless Heroes, his mind felt the need to remind him of.

"How did he hold me in place to… drug me if he had no Quirk?" Izuku remembered the sharp pain in his neck that preceded his unconsciousness. "How did he know my name? Has he been stalking me?" The empty basement offered no answers and so he continued to kneel there, trying to figure out had happened.

"…If he did have a Quirk… how would it have worked?" He muttered, having a new problem to take his mind off of his inability to escape his shackles. "The easiest answer is that it works just by looking at someone with continued focus maintaining the effect. But I didn't freeze instantly, I slowed down a bit before it took effect. Maybe it needs a few seconds before working?" He continued to mutter as he shifted uncomfortably. "And… what were those words he was saying?"

The memory of the words caused goosebumps, the way that they felt wrong to his ears and the air got stiller as The Man saying them got closer and closer. "Ver- vergah keni- kenip…" He tried to repronounce the words he had heard, a shiver running up his back when he got the first one right and the air coming from his mouth starting to still when he made the second.

"It's vergah kenip wwwurk yug, with a pause between kenip and wwwurk." A familiar voice behind Izuku spoke and the boy's whipped around as much as the chain allowed to look at his kidnapper. He was a man probably in his mid-20s with short brown hair and brown eyes wearing jeans, a t-shirt, and socks. He smiled down at the teenage boy chained to his floor. "Good almost morning Izuku-kun."

"P-please," Izuku began to blubber as The Man walked around the unlit candles, his hands in his pockets, "I won't tell anybody about this. Just please let me go!"

"Oh we both know that won't happen." The Man said as he pulled a book of matches from his pocket and pulled one out. "Just like it didn't with the other three." He smiled as he struck a match and kneeled down to light the first candle. "I was a lot like you Izuku-kun." He said as he moved to the next candle. "Wanting so desperately to be a Hero, to just have a Quirk really so I can fit with everyone else. Although," he chuckled as he moved onto the third candle, "the bullying was not as bad as yours."

"Have you been stalking me?" Izuku whispered as he shrank away from The Man continued to circle him and light the candles.

"No, I saw you for the first time today when you walked home from school. But," he smiled and looked Izuku in the eyes, "I got a gift." His eyes shifted from brown to a sickly green and then back again just as fast.

"Y- you said that you didn't have a Quirk!" Izuku shouted, The Man now half way done lighting the candles.

"And I don't, it's a gift." The Man answered calmly. "From my Master, who," he lit the last candle and then backed away from the circle, "will be here shortly." He then walked back up the stairs to the light switch and flicked it off, plunging the room into the soft orange glow of the candles around Izuku. The Man then walked back down the stairs and stood behind Izuku outside of the circle. "You can look forward or keep your eyes closed, it makes no difference to him."

Before Izuku could ask what The Man was talking about he began to do something between a chant and a drone. He made a horrible noise that made Izuku's teeth itch and his skin crawl like never before. He would have cried out and begged The Man to stop if the candle lights hadn't changed color.

The flames flickered from yellow to green for a few moments before all shifting over to green permanently and the smoke rising up from them increased and swayed in the air around the circle. Izuku was speechless as he watched this, the smoke trails beginning to join and flow together to make a spinning ring above the circle of candles.

And deep within the hole in the wall, in the pitch black tunnel far beyond the candle light, over the droning chant of The Man came a rumble. It was a growl that was low, dark, and sounded very hungry.

The Hunter pulled his car in front of the shitty one story house in one of the worst neighborhoods in the city. He flipped open his notebook, crossed out the fourth address on the list, and then flipped it closed again. He leaned back in his seat and sighed, the early morning light starting to come up in the East. 'Last chance.' The Hunter thought. 'If this isn't it we'll have to wait until he takes another kid. At least we'll have his address by that point.'

Opening his eyes he unbuckled his seat belt and reached into the backseat for the duffel bag. Unzipping it he pulled out the shotgun for the fourth time that night, The Hound's pistol in one of his pockets, and the hunting knife strapped to his leg. Quickly eyeing the street to make sure that the coast was clear he opened the car door and rushed to the house's front door, shotgun clutched firmly in both hands.

Crossing the lawn quickly he paused at the front door and pointed the shotgun at the lock, firing twice before backing off to kick the door open. He brought the shotgun against his shoulder and proceed inside the small house, carefully checking the living room on his right and the kitchen attached to it before proceeding down the hall. Both rooms were empty but The Hunter felt a familiar tingle on his skin.

Magic was in the air.

This was the place.

He had to hurry.

The hallway only had two doors and the one on the end was an empty bedroom with bathroom attached. The closed one in the middle however was a laundry room with another door. The feeling of magic got stronger as he approached and he knew he had the room.

Breathing deeply he flung the door open and charged down the steps, shotgun at the ready. The room was dark but he saw a teenage boy chained to the floor in a circle of green flamed candles and circling smoke before a large hole in the wall. The boy was wearing a middle schoolers uniform and looked like he had green hair and eyes and looked like he was about ready to shit himself as he twisted himself to look at The Hunter.

"Under the stairs!" The kid cried out. "He's unde-" Getting his warning and hearing the lunge from behind him as he reached the bottom of the stairs The Hunter swung around in time to smash the butt of the shotgun against The Man's face. The Man went sprawling against the stairs and was about to get up before The Hunter brought the muzzle of the shotgun against his forehead.

"Ver-" The Man tried to speak before The Hunter pulled the trigger and splattered half of The Man's head all over the stairs and basement floor. As the body did a final twitch and the kid vomited at the sight of all the brains and blood he took a deep breath and let the adrenaline that had briefly come up exit his system. Looking over at the kid, who was still puking his guts out onto his pants, he walked back up the stairs to hit the light switch and turn the single light back on.

'Should have hit that on the way down.' He thought to himself. 'Getting sloppy.' He made his way back down and walked up to the kid, who was done vomiting and was now just spitting up what was left in his mouth.

"Th- thank you, mister." The kid said as he looked up at The Hunter reloading his shotgun with the shells he brought in his pocket. "Are, are you with the police or…"

"Quiet kid." He said as he looked at the hole in the wall. The room was silent for a moment before a growl reverberated out of the hole. It was a familiar one to the Hunter. "Hmm." He hummed as he walked over the left side of the hole and leaned against it.

"Wait, what are you doing?! Can't you hear that?! We gotta get out of here!" The kid shouted as another growl came out of the hole, this one much louder and closer.

"I said shut up. Just sit there and be good bait." The Hunter said. Before the kid could say another word The Hunter softly spoke the words: "kewkak xexxex hujgt". There was a shift in the air and before the kid's very eyes The Hunter disappeared into thin air.

Izuku wanted to shout at the man that had saved his life about what he meant by bait but to his astonishment he had vanished before his very eyes. A man in his mid-40s with brown eyes and short black hair dressed in plain brown pants, white button down shirt, and boots with a shotgun had blinked out of existence in front of him. And he had done it after uttering three of those strange words that sounded so similar to the ones that The Man, currently cooling on his basement stairs, had used.

He knew they were the same because they made his skin crawl the exact same way.

Another growl came out of the hole and Izuku tensed up as he tore his eyes from where the man had been and focused them onto the pitch darkness before him. He gulped and felt his heart beat faster as soft new sound reached his ears, a thump and a thump followed by a dragging sound. This sound came closer and closer to the hole and Izuku began to struggle against his chains again before whatever was coming towards him appeared.

He failed and was treated with a sight that would haunt him for the rest of his life.

The thing that crawled out the darkness was barely able to move around in the tunnel, making do by clawing its way forward with the two thin pale purple arms that came out of its wide mouth. Every time it would slam an impossibly wide six fingered hand into the ground it would make a thump sound and then when both were securely in place it would pull itself forward, creating the dragging sound. This Izuku saw and understood in the few seconds that he saw the "head" of the creature, before it pulled itself out into the open basement.

Its skin was a pale white that secreted some sort of slime that made the dirt of the tunnel fall right off. It had no eyes or nose that he could see, but he assumed that the small holes behind its mouth served as ears. The mouth of the creature was round and always open, expanding and contracting but never fully closing as it breathed deeply. At its widest he could see rows and rows of sharp yellow teeth that traveled down the inside of its long body, which was now a good six feet out of the hole and not stopping, and looked like it could swallow him whole. The arms also seemingly traveled all the way down the creature's insides, no end in sight.

For a brief moment when the creature opened its mouth wider than the other times he saw deep into the creature. For only a split second he saw bones resting in this creature's seemingly endless throat, a skull staring back at him, and middle school uniform similar to his own damp with blood and saliva.

As the creature reared up somehow to tower above him at eight feet tall, and another six leading to the hole and still not out all the way, Izuku nearly pissed himself as he began to shake and tears formed in his eyes. Forgetting about the disappeared man there was just him and this creature now, something that he could have never imagined existing in this world. Even with all the Quirks and amazing things that had become normal.

The arms extended out of the mouth, every couple of feet a new elbow like joint would appear that allowed them to bend in multiple directions, and lowered to Izuku. The boy made no sound as the wide six fingered hands, which he just noticed looked too human, grabbed his sides and started to lower its wide open mouth down towards him. Together the hands completely surrounded his body.

"N- no! NO! NOOO!" He screamed, tears streaming down his face as he struggled against the death coming slowly descending upon him.

The man with shotgun reappeared in a blink, his shotgun pointed at the creature's "head". With a shot that nearly deafened Izuku he blew a fist sized hole into and out of it. The creature let go of Izuku and reared back, releasing a screech that finished what the shotgun blast started and left the boy's hearing dulled. Raising his shotgun the man fired again, punching another hole in the creature's "midsection". Purple blood poured out these wounds and fell onto the concrete floor and all over Izuku, who hardly noticed.

Before the man could get another shot off the creature smacked him aside with its wide hands. The man went flying into the basement wall and before he could get up the creature's hands held him down as it began to retreat back into the hole. As the creature retreated it allowed its arms to extend out of its mouth, replacing the space lost by the body with the thin pale purple arms.

"Kewkak xexxex hujgt." The man said as the hands began to crush him and he once again blinked out of existence. The hands of the creature continued to press down onto thin air for a few seconds before they suddenly fell to the concrete floor. The hands searched around for the man and the creature stopped retreating back into the hole. Seemingly confused the creature moved its head to look where the man had been.

Only for the man to reappear in a blink with his shotgun's muzzle nearly pressed against the creature's left "ear hole". He fired again and punched another hole through the creature that sent it thrashing around. This time the creature didn't have enough time to bring its now impractically long arms around to attack him so the man was able to get three more shots in before the creature stopped screeching and stilled. Its purple blood began to pool out from under its body and a few seconds later the candles returned to their normal yellow light.

"Wh- what," Izuku managed to stammer as he looked at the body of the monster in front of him, "was that?"

"…I don't know." The man with the shotgun answered as he pulled the knife that was strapped to his leg out and plunged it into the creature's body. It gave no reaction so it was assuredly dead. "Don't need to know the name of something to know how to kill it."

"Oh." Izuku whispered as the man pulled out his knife and wiped the purple blood on the dead body. "Thank you, again." He said as his body continued to shake in fear despite the danger having seemingly passed. "I don't… I would have died without you."

"Yeah." The man said as he loaded a new shell into his shotgun, the weapon having been emptied into the monster. "Don't be doing that." He said as he brought the shotgun to his shoulder again and pointed it at Izuku.

"…Why?" Izuku whispered as his body stilled, staring up the barrel of the weapon to the man aiming down it.

"Saw too much kid." The man said simply with a shrug. "Got a message for your folks? I'll try to pass it on." Before Izuku could speak a new shadow appeared in the room and the man's eyes flicked to the top of the stairs. He tried to raise his shotgun only for some metallic object to fly over Izuku's head and strike his hands.

The man cried out as the shadow from the top of the stairs leaped into the room and rushed him, delivering a fast and devastating series of kicks and punches. "Motherfucker!" The man shouted as his shotgun was knocked out of his hands and he was brought to the ground face first, his arm twisted behind his back.

"Don't worry young man!" The shadow said as it solidified into a person, a man in a dark blue skin tight suit with white trim. "You're safe now! Because I, Dar-" The hero started to give his introduction before he noticed the corpse of the creature coming out of the hole in the wall. "…What the fuck is that thing?"

Izuku's hands shook badly as he tried to bring the paper cup filled with water to his lips. It seemed that the closer his hands got to his mouth the more they wouldn't still as images of what he had seen played out in his mind. He sat at a table in an interrogation room in some police station, having been brought there after the paramedics made sure that there were no apparent injuries on him.

'Why has no one come to talk to me yet?' He wondered. The hero that a had rescued him, Dark Fighter a D-Lister who just got a pretty big fan, hadn't really listened to his babbling after he freed him and had focused on the man with the shotgun. That didn't get Dark Fighter anywhere. When the police arrived he was told that he'd be making his statement at the station with the proper authorities and then he was handed off to the paramedics and then pushed into a patrol car.

'I… I have to get home, Mom will be worried about me.' He thought dully as he looked at the clock and realized that it was passed nine. He had been sitting in this room for over four hours, trapped in his own thoughts and replaying the few minutes of terror over and over again. He was about to try rising up out of his seat when the door opened and two nearly identical men entered.

"Ahh, Mr. Midoriya, we apologize for the wait." Said the man in the black suit and tie on the Right.

"Yes, traffic was deplorable. Villains you see." Said the almost identical man in the black suit and tie on the Left.

Both of them had shaved heads and wore large sunglasses that completely covered their eyes. And they had matching smiles as they sat down in front of him and placed their briefcases on the table.

"We are Federal Agents from The Government, Mr. Midoriya." Said Right as he opened his briefcase.

"It is imperative that you tell us everything you saw this morning." Said Left as his briefcase remained closed.

"Shouldn't I start… from the beginning? When I got kidnapped yesterday?" Izuku asked confused, in all the shows and stories they always asked people to start at the beginning to get the events in order.

"Ahh, yes of course." Right said and his smile dipped a little.

"From the beginning, tell us of your capture." Left said, his smile not changing and breaking the identicalness with his partner.

"I was… walking home from school. I took the same route that I always do. But this time, before I reached the tunnel, I just… stopped." Izuku began to retell his experience from over half a day ago. "I just stayed in place, mid-step. And then a man came up from behind me, saying some words." He shuttered as he remembered.

"Don't worry about the details Mr. Midoriya." Right waved.

"Yes, just tell us what happened. A dead man's words are of little value." Left agreed.

"Umm, okay." Izuku said, unsure about what was happening. Why wouldn't they want to know what the man that had kidnapped him had said? "When he came up to me he… injected me with something and I blacked out. Then I woke up in… in his basement." He began to shake as he neared the memories of the creature. "He lit some candles and then did this chant… thing and then the man with the shotgun appeared."

"The Vigilante." Right sneered at the mention.

"Worse than a Villain." Left agreed with a matching sneer, making them identical again.

"How?" Izuku asked and he guessed that they blinked behind the sunglasses. "How is… being a Vigilante worse than being a Villain?"

"Both defy the authority of The Government." Right answered.

"But Vigilantes think they have a better way. That they are in the right." Left growled.

"There is no way other than The Government's way." Right continued, breaking the pattern of them only speaking once.

"But Villains only want to hurt people! Vigilantes try to…" He was about to say "help people" until the memory of the man that had saved him pointing his shotgun at his head came roaring up.

"Continue with your story, Mr. Midoriya." Left said.

"After the man with the shotgun showed up he… killed the man that had kidnapped me. Then he told me to be quiet and he… disappeared." He looked for any kind of surprise on their faces or questions but they merely stared at him from behind their sunglasses. "After he did that…" The shaking was back now. "Something came out of the hole in the basement wall, it was a… a worm like thing with no eyes or nose and a mouth that never closed and had arms coming out of it!" As soon as he began describing the creature it all came tumbling out of his mouth.

"Ahh, yes, a small Deep Tunneller." Right nodded with a smile.

"As expected." Left agreed, smiling as well.

"A what?" Izuku asked. "A Deep Tunneler? That's what it's called?" Did they also say that it was a small one? It never got its body all the way out of the hole!

"Yes." Right answered.

"But more importantly, did it tell you anything?" Left asked, leaning forward with Right.

"Did it… what?" Izuku asked confused.

"Did. It. Speak?" Right asked slowly, his smile gone. Left's smile was gone as well.

"…No." Izuku answered honestly, confused at how such a creature could even do something like that.

"Good. We're done then." Left said as he stood up and Right closed his briefcase to follow him.

"W- what?!" Izuku asked as he also stood up from his seat. "That's it?! But what about the fight after it appeared and the man threatening me and when Dark Fighter showed up?!"

"We don't care." Right answered as the stopped at the door out of the room to look at him.

"The Vigilante is being taken care of as we speak and the Hero has been reassigned." Left continued.

"Reassigned?" Izuku asked confused.

"For doing such a good job saving you." Right soothed or at least attempted to.

"He's been given a recommendation to a better Hero agency." Left confirmed. "But before we go Mr. Midoriya." The two men lowered their sunglasses as one and Izuku's breath hitched as he saw what they had been hiding.

Where their eyeballs should have been were miniature balls of light, like tiny suns. They spun around inside of the fleshy eye sockets giving off faint yellow light. But every now and then they would turn sickly green for a brief moment.

"It would be a good idea to not speak about what occurred this morning, outside of the basic details of you being captured and rescued." Right said with a grin that showed of perfect square teeth.

"Yes, the details could be dangerous to your mental and physical health." Left continued with a matching grin.

'My physical health?' Izuku thought as he began to shake, turning over the implication in his mind. 'Are they going to have me killed?'

"Only if you talk a bit too much." Right answered and Izuku screamed and fell back, missing his seat and crashing to the floor.

"We apologize for starling you Mr. Midoriya." Left said as he raised his sunglasses over his eyes and Right did the same. "Our Quirks can be quite frightening we know." They both then turned and exited the interrogation room, leaving Izuku on floor shaking and his mind reeling.

"Oh god. Oh god." He breathed. "What is going on?"

"IZUKU!" His mother cried when he stepped into the lobby of the police station where she was waiting. She rushed and nearly crashed into him when she ran to hug him and confirm that he was safe. He wrapped his arms around her as she cried happily into his chest.

The police had let him go easily enough and soon they were on their way home, his mother trying her best to cheer him up with plans to cook his favorite food for lunch and dinner and he didn't have to go back to school until he was ready. Izuku did his best to try and reassure his mother that he was alright, never daring to go into detail about what happened and his mother didn't ask.

Not even about the purple stains on his clothes from the creature's blood.

On the trip back Izuku looked at every person that passed and gazed into every storm drain he saw, fearing that something may be gazing back. He periodically looked over his shoulder to see if they were being followed by a man in black suit and tie with sunglasses. Or maybe the man with the shotgun who had somehow escaped. Or most illogically, and terrifying, the creature would be right behind, alive and ready to swallow him whole on the street.

But nothing like that happened and they returned home to find everything in order, his room exactly as he left it. The police had not found any of his possessions in the man's house so they assumed that his backpack and the HERO ANALYSIS FOR THE FUTURE NO 13 journal were gone. His mother promised to buy him all new supplies.

So while his mother made lunch and went through a round of phone calls to confirm to everybody that he was home safe and sound Izuku stayed in his room. He laid on his bed in a new change of clothes and stared at the posters of All Might, his collection of action figures, and his HERO ANALYSIS FOR THE FUTURE journals.

It all seemed so… distant now. Like he had stumbled upon something more real than anything else in his life. Heroes couldn't compare to the sight of a… Deep Tunneler dragging its way out of the Earth to apparently feed and grant powers to the Quirkless like the man that had kidnapped him. Or the threats of two Feds who made it clear that if talked about what he had seen he'd be taken care of.

Nothing he could ever do would make him forget that.

He tried to start a new journal, beginning with an honorary entry on Dark Fighter and going off of the moves he had briefly seen before he gave up. As he played the fight between the Hero and Vigilante over in his mind a thought occurred to him.

'Why didn't the man with the shotgun disappear when he fought Dark Fighter? He vanished so easily when fighting the Deep Tunneler.' Izuku wondered as he replayed the two fights over in his mind. Against the monster the Vigilante had been dominating, killing it with sneak attacks and only getting hit and pinned once. But when Dark Fighter showed up he never had a chance and was immobilized in seconds. 'What were the words that he said each time that he disappeared? Could they be a way to activate his Quirk?'

"kewkak…" Izuku tried to say and the air began to still.

"xexxex…" His skin crawled for just a moment when he spat the word.

"hujgt…" Across the universe something heard him speak and turned its gaze to him.

As soon as he finished speaking the last word, Izuku Midoriya vanished in the blink of an eye. Leaving his room empty save for the imprint of his body on the bed.