Thanks in large part to Bakugo, who was a very cooperative crutch, Naoko was able to make it to Recovery Girl's office for treatment not long after the teachers arrived on the scene.
"Looks like you have some fractures and cracks in your ribs," the little old lady observed, examining the heavy bruising around her stomach. She planted a kiss on her forehead and handed her a wrapped candy before shuffling back over to the crowded desk. "Make sure to get plenty of rest; you should be just fine by tomorrow."
"Thank you, Recovery Girl," Naoko smiled gratefully, re-tying her hospital gown. She turned to face the other side of the bed, "You can come out now."
Bakugo emerged from behind the white curtain with a small frown. He moved to sit in the chair next to where she lay, elbows resting on his knees. She noticed he wouldn't meet her gaze.
"Are you ok?" She tilted her head worriedly.
"...I feel like shit," he grunted, hands tightening around each other. "I couldn't do anything."
"It's not your fault, Bakugo. They were strong- there's nothing we could have done."
"I should have done something! I'm supposed to be a hero! What kind of hero can't even beat a damn villain?!" he spat angrily, brows creasing in frustration.
She smiled softly as she carefully pushed herself into a sitting position. "Every hero has to start somewhere," she reasoned gently, shifting towards him, "skill doesn't come out of nowhere, right? They had time and experience over us- it doesn't mean you can't be a good hero, Bakugo. You're just starting out, so think of it as a learning experience!" she smiled encouragingly.
He frowned and turned away, eyes still downcast. "You sure are cheerful for someone who just got her ass kicked."
"I'm just starting out too!"
"You're dumb."
"I know you don't mean that!"
"Actually, I do," he scoffed, though the curl of his lips told her otherwise.
"That's so cute!" The curtain next to them snapped open to reveal Uraraka beaming widely, an excited grin on her face.
"Oh, you're still here?" Bakugo glanced over at her with a scowl.
"How are you feeling, Uraraka?" Naoko smiled, lightly smacking his knee in disapproval.
"I'm fine! Recovery Girl said it was just a fracture. I think I got off pretty light thanks to the teachers!"
"Yea, we're lucky they came when they did, huh?"
"Excuse us!" a voice from behind them called. The three turned to see Iida standing stiffly in the doorway, the rest of the class crowded behind him. "We're here to check up on you two!" he declared, swinging his arm with each word.
"H-hi..." Naoko smiled awkwardly as the 18 students somehow managed to squeeze into the room. "We're just fine- thanks, Iida."
"Oh, Sero, Koda, Todoroki! You're all here?" Uraraka exclaimed, spotting the three who had been missing since the beginning of the day, "Are you ok? What happened?"
"Yea! I was talking to Mic about that test we're having next week when the villains came, so I got captured with him by accident!" Sero laughed sheepishly, scratching the back of his head.
"I was running late. By the time I arrived, the entrance had already been locked," Todoroki explained, Koda nodding along behind him.
"Oh, right! What happened to the teachers anyway? Did the villains attack them first?" Midoriya asked, looking to his classmates behind him.
"It turns out they used the security system to lock the office doors and filled the rooms with quicksand. Most of the teachers were separated: we found Mr. Aizawa and some others in the staff room on the 18th floor," Yaoyorozu explained.
"How did you know where we were?" Naoko tilted her head curiously.
"Mineta found us right after we helped free the teachers! He followed you all to where the villains were and came back looking for help; that's when we ran into him," Ashido grinned, pointing at the boy in front of her.
"I-I felt guilty about hiding while everyone else fought... so I thought I could find help instead..." Mineta explained, shifting his weight awkwardly as his eyes fixated on the ground.
"That was so smart of you!" Uraraka cheered.
His eyes widened and he glanced up in surprise, only able to stare at her in disbelief until he finally found his voice.
"R-really?"
"Of course!"
"I think so too, Mineta!" Naoko smiled, offering two thumbs up.
The boy stood frozen, jaw slack as he gaped at the two in awe. His eyes began to water as he suddenly fell to his knees, trembling, raising his shaky hands in front of him.
"H-hey! Are you ok?" Midoriya asked frantically.
"T-t-the..." Mineta sobbed, his hands slowly curling into unsteady fists, "THE GIRLS LOVE ME!"
"No they don't!"
_______________________________________________
A middle-aged policeman opened the heavy steel door and stepped into the quiet, gray-toned interrogation room. He pulled out a chair in front of the plain metal table before taking a seat. He took a small square device out of his pocket and placed it in front of him, pressing the record button. A red light in the corner flashed to life.
"Kawaguchi Ryota; alias: Brazil; quirk: Quicksand. You're here today on multiple counts of kidnapping of minors, negligent endangerment, unlicensed quirk use, and trespassing and destruction of private property. If you cooperate with our investigation, the severity of your sentence may be reduced. What can you tell me about the reason behind your actions today?"
"Get lost, fed. I ain't rattin' on my teammates."
"Reports say you targeted a specific group of first-year students: why is that?"
"Cuz' I felt like it- why else?"
"Did you have a specific target in mind?"
"You'd like ta' know, wouldn't ya'?"
"Sir, if any of your partners tell us what we want to know before you do, you won't receive any leniency from us; do you understand?"
"'Course' I understand! We been a team for years- none of us 'bouta spill! But ya' wouldn't understand that, would ya', fed?"
"I'll ask you again, what was your goal in attacking UA today?"
"Ya' don't listen, huh? I said get lost!"
_______________________________________________
The policeman opened the heavy steel door and stepped into an identical interrogation room. He pulled out a chair in front of the plain metal table before taking a seat. Again, he placed a small square device in front of him and pressed the record button, and the same red light in the corner flashed on as he did.
"Shiba Hisashi; alias: Connector; quirk: Motherboard. You're here today for multiple counts of kidnapping of minors, negligent endangerment, unlicensed quirk use, and trespassing and destruction of private property. If you cooperate with our investigation, the severity of your sentence may be reduced. Do you know why you're here today?"
The bald man nodded faintly.
"Why did you attack UA?"
"The boss said to."
"Did your boss have a reason?"
"Yea, but..."
"But what?"
"It was never going to work."
The officer looked up from his notebook questioningly. "Can you elaborate?"
"He... wanted to find it. He and Tracer were convinced it was real- that it was at that school. I mean, I've supported him for years, but... I couldn't believe in something so ridiculous."
"What was he trying to find?"
"...Unknown. The heart of Sacrosanct."
"Sacrosanct?" the policeman echoed incredulously, raising an eyebrow, "You mean the urban legend?"
"That's not what he thought. He said they were real."
"Is there any reason he would believe that?"
"I don't know, but he was convinced. Then when Tracer said he'd found one of its members, the boss took it as a once-in-a-lifetime chance to take them down. There was no reasoning with him."
"What did UA have to do with this plan?"
"Tracer said Unknown attended there; it made no sense, to me at least, but the boss had his sights locked on taking them down."
"You believe a member of a criminal ring that may or may not actually exist is attending a hero school?"
"I know how it sounds. It's not like I was convinced either; I just had to play along with whatever the boss wanted, same as always."
"Was everyone in your group aware of his intentions?"
"Not Brazil."
"Why is that?"
"I don't know, you'll have to ask the boss."
"I see. Is there anything else you'd like to say on the record?"
"They never told me much: it was always Tracer and the boss who came up with the details for these kinds of things. I only know about the whole 'Unknown' business because they let it slip once. Hey, I'll get off easier since I told you all this, right? That's what you said."
"We'll review your case before providing a conclusive result, but for now, thank you for your cooperation."
_______________________________________________
The officer stepped into the third interrogation room: an exact copy of the other two. He pulled out a chair in front of the metal table and flicked on the recording device once again.
"Furuya Hisoka; alias: Tracer; quirk: Infrared Eye. You-"
"I didn't want to do it... I didn't, I didn't, I didn't..." The man rocked back and forth in his seat, arms bound by the same restraints as the others.
"What didn't you want to do?"
"Any of it! I didn't want to go, but brother made me- he made me... he said we had to!"
"Ok, slow down; let's start from the beginning. The others say you were the one who first found evidence of Unknown, can you tell me about that?"
"I-I saw it- years ago I saw it. I couldn't forget. I remember."
"What do you mean you saw it? You have been blind since birth, correct?"
"It's different- I saw it and I always remembered. Then I saw it again! I told my brother and he said we would go catch it- b-but I can't!"
"You wanted to catch Unknown? What made you believe Unknown would be at UA today?"
"I saw it... I told you, I saw it..."
"What did you see?"
"No, no, no, no- I'm sorry- I didn't see it..."
"Sir, are you ok?"
"I was wrong! I didn't see it- I didn't. I didn't! Brother was wrong!"
"Guards, restrain him! And get me a medic, now!"
_______________________________________________
The officer sighed, rubbing his forehead and taking a deep breath before he stepped into the fourth and final interrogation room. He took a seat across from the white-haired man: the apparent boss of the group. The light on the voice recorder flashed red.
"Furuya Tobio; alias: R-"
"No need for that. Let's get on with it."
The officer glanced up at him as he rolled his shoulders against the metal restraints.
"Very well then. What can you tell me about the attack on UA today?"
He sighed and leaned back, head tilted to the ceiling. "I'm sure my brother and Connector have already told you everything you need to know. Those two always were tough to handle."
"We would like your side of the story as well. Why did you attack UA?"
"Why? We were after Sacrosanct. One of their members was at that school, so that's where we went."
"Why do you believe Sacrosanct is real?"
"When we were young..." he began with a sigh, "my brother and I saw them."
Two boys cowered in the corner of a middle school classroom, hands covering their heads as they hid under a mound of broken desks.
"What's happening, Tobi?" the smaller one asked just before a hand flew over his mouth.
"B-be quiet!" Tobi whispered harshly. His eyes were wide and filled with tears, his hands shaking uncontrollably. The sound of footsteps echoed from somewhere outside: too loud in the otherwise silent room. The broken tile beneath their feet shifted silently as a million thoughts ran through his head. Mustering what courage he had, he swallowed hard and glanced out from under the broken desk. Instantly, red filled his vision and a choked cry escaped his lips before he could stop himself. He quickly shrunk back, squeezing his eyes shut.
"Everyone looks strange, Tobi... the colors are leaking."
"Shhh! They'll hear us if you keep-!"
"Someone's coming, Tobi."
The white-haired boy choked on his words, instantly falling silent and clapping a hand over both their mouths.
Click, click, click...
His legs trembled uncontrollably, hot tears streaming down his face as he fought the scream lodged in his throat.
A long shadow crept into his vision.
His eyes grew wide- he couldn't look away.
He remained frozen for what felt like hours before, finally, the shadow receded.
In the ruins of their once lively classroom, the boys were left with only silence and the thick, metallic stench of blood.
"Their bodies were splattered into bits, right in front of my eyes. Tracer saw it too, in a way, but he didn't understand. He's always been slow like that. Some news outlets said it was a terrorist act or some one-off mass murder or whatever else they could come up with. The details were never made public, so only a few claimed it was another attack by Sacrosanct. I had only heard rumors of them before; afterwards, I began looking into them, and it was almost too perfect. There was no evidence, no leads, no witnesses, and no apparent reason for any of it: just like all their other suspected crimes. I knew it was them. Tracker had seen the person that day, or rather, he saw their infrared image. You know, that's how he sees. I told him to memorize it, that if he did, one day we would find the ones responsible and destroy them. That was over five years ago. Last month, he told me he found the person; he saw them walking into UA. I knew they must have been in the middle of some sort of operation or mission or something, so we watched for weeks until we found the right time to attack."
"I see. Why was today the right time?"
"We needed information on them. We figured out the person he saw was most likely the one called Unknown, though I was surprised to hear from Tracker that it was a girl. From what we could gather, she seemed to be hiding her quirk: we hardly ever saw her use it, and when we did, it was weak. We figured she was playing into some role for whatever Sacrosanct was up to. We knew she wouldn't be a threat as long as she had to maintain her cover, so we needed to catch her while the other kids were around."
"Hold on, if the student you were watching didn't have the same quirk as the person you saw back then, why did you think it was the same person?"
"My brother was sure, so I was too. You don't just forget the person who murdered a classroom full of middle schoolers."
"Tracer saw the infrared image of the person back then, correct? If a first-year student really was responsible, they would have been extremely young five years ago; wouldn't their heat signature have changed drastically since?"
"My brother was sure," he shook his head adamantly, "we had the right person."
"If that's the case, why didn't you take the one you wanted and go? Why torture those two students?"
The white-haired man sighed deeply as he leaned forward in his seat. "In the last moment, Tracer couldn't tell which one it was anymore. He gets these... fits sometimes. It happens when he's afraid and he can't think or speak properly. I was just going to wait until he calmed down, but that can take a while, so in the meantime, I thought I could find out myself."
"You attacked those two girls: what reaction were you looking for?"
"I don't know," he sighed impatiently, "Something off about them, I suppose."
"Did you find anything like that?"
"No. You all interrupted me before I could."
"Do you still believe Unknown is one of those two students?"
"I have no doubt about it."
"I see. If I may ask, why are you telling us all this so easily?"
"Because I want to live," he scoffed as if it were obvious. "Sacrosanct is still out there. If those crazy bastards hear I'm onto them, they'll kill me for sure: that's why you all need to catch them before that happens."
"I see," the officer nodded, making note of something in his pocketbook. "Thank you for your cooperation. That'll be all for now."
_______________________________________________
Following the attack, UA closed for the remainder of the day, and the students were sent home early. After a few hours in the nurse's office with the rest of their class, Naoko and Bakugo were on their way back as well.
"Sorry," she winced as she stumbled into him again. Quickly straightening herself, she clutched her side as a dull pain rang through her ribs.
"You sure you're ok?" Bakugo asked, glancing down at her.
She turned to him with a smile. "Are you worried about me?"
"As if!" he scoffed, quickly looking the other way. "I just know you're weak- you'll probably keel over and die any minute now."
"You know, you don't have to be so mean all the time," she laughed, nudging him teasingly, "More people would like you if you were a bit nicer."
"I don't need people to like me!" he hollered, drawing a few strange looks from passersby.
"Well, I like you anyway!"
"I DON'T NEED YOU EITHER!"
She laughed airily, brushing off his usual remarks as they turned into the walkway of a familiar house.
"We're back!" she called, moving aside to let Bakugo close the door behind them.
"Welcome home!" Mitsuki yelled from somewhere inside the house.
Naoko smiled, leaning against the wall to take off her shoes, when-
"Wait!" Mitsuki shouted, sticking her head out from behind the living room wall and peering at them suspiciously, "What are you doing home so early?"
"Didn't you hear? The damn school was attacked again!"
"They sent out an announcement earlier."
"Attacked?!" Something clattered to the ground. Mitsuki rushed over, her eyes wide with worry as she frantically checked them up and down for injuries. "What happened?! Are you ok? Was anyone hurt?"
Bakugo sneered, rolling his eyes. "Yea, this idio- HEY!" he hollered, clutching his side as Naoko elbowed him hard.
"We're fine!" she smiled reassuringly, "The teachers and police took care of it before anything happened!"
Mitsuki let out a breath of relief. "Oh, well that's good. Still, it must have been tough... you should both take it easy for a while, ok?"
"Ok! Don't worry about us! We still have some homework though: I should get started on it," she smiled, quickly excusing herself before pattering up the stairs and into her room, softly closing the door behind her.
Mitsuki turned her attention to her son who was glaring at the top of the staircase, expression as sour as always. "You're ok too, right, Katsuki?" she asked worriedly, jerking his face around as she checked for injuries.
"OI, LET ME GO!" He flailed, batting her hands away. He turned on his heels, aggressively stomping up the stairs before slamming his door behind him.