Eri.
Six years old.
Still missing.
Still untouched by fate.
Still being watched.
Izuku stood outside a closed veterinary clinic in Naruhata.
He wasn't there for pets.
He was there for the basement.
For the man who operated below the law.Sold custom support gear. Quirk enhancers.No questions asked.
His name was Rappa.Low-level associate of the Shie Hassaikai.Not dangerous yet.
But connected.
Izuku walked in like he belonged there.
Hood up. Eyes low.
"Looking for a one-shot enhancer," he muttered.
Rappa didn't even glance up.
"Kid like you shouldn't even know what that is."
"I'm paying in intel."
Silence.
Rappa looked at him now.
Dead-eyed stare. Thick neck. Veins twitching with leftover combat tension.
"…Talk."
Izuku placed a photo on the counter.
Black and white.Grainy.A little girl. White hair. Red horn.
"She's about to disappear," he said. "You have one week before she vanishes into a lab forever."
Rappa froze.
The name burned in the air.
"Eri," Izuku said.
Elsewhere, Chisaki slammed a file onto the table.
"This isn't public," he hissed.
The file showed hospital records. Transit logs. Even an ultrasound.
A child born under the Hassaikai bloodline.Unregistered.Hidden.
And now… compromised.
Back in the clinic, Rappa's jaw clenched.
"You're bluffing."
"No," Izuku said. "But you're not the type to let a child be used like that."
"You don't know me."
"I know you die because you tried to stop her suffering too late."
That made Rappa flinch.
Just a fraction.
But Izuku saw it.
"And I'm giving you a second chance."
He slid a flash drive across the counter.
"Warehouse coordinates. Schedules. Quirk suppressants."
"You get this how?"
"I'm observant."
Rappa growled.
"I should kill you."
Izuku smiled.
"You won't."
Three nights later.
A building in Naruhata burned.
No deaths. No arrests.
But files went missing.
A small room—soundproof, sterile, and horrifying—was reduced to ash.
And one child—
White hair. Red horn. Bandaged legs—
Didn't arrive for her scheduled "treatment."
Chisaki screamed.
Shattered a monitor with his bare hands.
"Find her!"
"She never made it to the site," the assistant said.
"The truck burned before pickup. No bodies."
No trace.
Just... vanished.
Chisaki seethed.
Someone was rewriting the board before he ever sat at the table.
Eri sat in a hidden clinic beneath a ramen shop.
Blank-eyed. Silent. Trembling.
But alive.
Izuku stood across from her.Hands clenched.
She didn't recognize him.
Didn't trust him.
Not yet.
But he dropped a stuffed bunny on the table.
One just like the one she clutched the day he found her years later.
Her fingers brushed against it.
Barely.
A flicker.
Hope. Confusion. Terror.
Izuku didn't speak.
Didn't approach.
He just left the room.
And outside, Aizawa waited.
His voice was quiet. Flat.
"You moved without permission."
"I saved her."
"From what?"
Izuku looked up.
Voice calm. Cold.
"From the monster she hadn't met yet."
Aizawa didn't reply.
Not at first.
Then he asked, "How much do you really know?"
Izuku's answer was barely a whisper.
"Enough to know this world is already dying."
End of Chapter 7