Archive of Our Own

Aizawa strode into his apartment building after a particularly rough patrol. He was roughed up a bit, but nothing he couldn't handle on his own. His latest case hit a dead end, and his only lead led straight into an ambush—an ambush he was prepared for but an ambush nonetheless. He glanced over at the little glass room filled with numbered boxes. Maybe…  

For months now, pro heroes had been receiving mysterious packages in their mail filled with quirk analysis, information about cases they were working on, and sometimes blueprints for support gear or costume update suggestions. The ladder was showcased by Nemuri's new costume, which somehow managed to provide actual protection and appear more family-friendly while maintaining her… aesthetic. Aizawa himself got a new design for his goggles, which, unlike everyone else, he got the actual item instead of a blueprint. They looked almost identical, but their paint was matte and a mustard color instead of bright yellow. That's about where the similarities ended. Unlike his old goggles, the new ones had lenses that dimmed bright lights while still providing full visibility in the dark. They sealed to his face and had vents to prevent fogging, and they were really comfortable. They had saved his ass on numerous occasions. The improvements negated the effects of flashbangs, dust, pepper spray, and the pocket sand that one particularly annoying villain carried.

Now, he was hoping the mysterious package vigilante, Hermes was what they had come to start calling them, had left him some information on this case. As much as the pro hated to admit, the vigilante had all but solved some of the most difficult cold cases on the books and numerous current cases in only a few months. If they were given credit for all the cases they had just handed to the pros and police, they would have ultimately put away more criminals and villains than the entire Musutafu police department and all the underground heroes that work with it combined. Those results were skewed by the three drug cartels and their couple hundred collective members, but it was still impressive.

With a pile of envelopes in his arms, Aizawa finally got to his apartment. He kicked off his boots at the door and set the envelopes on the kitchen table. Hizashi was sitting in the living room grading English essays. It was about 2 am. Thankfully, it was the weekend, and neither of them had to worry about getting up to teach in the morning because they were probably pulling an all-nighter. Aizawa sorted through the envelopes, throwing out junk mail and setting aside bills. As he got to the bottom of the stack, he picked up a thin black, lightly padded package marked "Eraserhead" with one end folded over and secured with double-sided tape. It didn't have any postage markings of any kind, so it couldn't have come in the mail normally. Seriously, how did Hermes keep sneaking these into his mailbox?

-x-x-x-x-x-

Izuku loved his new job. Sure, he wasn't going to be a hero, but he was still doing an important job. His first alternatives to heroics were police work, fire fighting, or becoming a doctor, but the police academy turned him down. He was too young to become a firefighter (they also only accepted volunteers with helpful quirks), and there was no way he'd be able to get into a medical school with how abysmal his academic record looked. Or any specialized school, for that matter. 

He wouldn't get any special accolades from attending a simple public school, so he decided to skip the whole thing, drop out of middle school, and get a GED. With his education finished and nothing else to do, he had no more dreams or aspirations. Izuku took up IT. Computers were fascinating, and the more he learned about how they worked and how to program, the more interesting it got. Of course, he couldn't get a job in IT because he didn't have a formal education in it. Then, one day, his saving grace was handed to him in the form of a pamphlet his mom would have normally thrown out as junk mail. He was the one collecting the mail that day, though, and that's how he found out about the Mustafu Post Office hiring summer interns. 

Izuku's curiosity peaked, so he read through the pamphlet. It was a paid internship that, when completed, could lead to a full-time position. He would learn how to be a mail carrier and, after a couple of weeks of training, get his own delivery route. Best of all, they didn't have any kind of quirk requirements, and they had a high school degree/GED requirement instead of an age requirement. While not often thought about, the mail service was an integral part of society, and if he got this internship, he would be able to help, even in his own little way. 

-x-x-x-x-x-

Did you know that even battleships at sea had mailing addresses? Well, they do, and Izuku found that out on the third day of his internship when the mail carrier he was shadowing, Miss Yubin, drove up to an airstrip where a bunch of military aircraft landed. They were American planes meant to carry supplies, mail, and spare parts back to the aircraft carrier they were stationed on. In Izuku's opinion, that was the second craziest stop they had that day. 

The craziest stop was what looked like a normal apartment building. Miss Yubin handed him a bag of mail and pointed to one side of the apartment's mail room. "You get the ones over there, and I'll get these ones here," she said.

Izuku was doing just that when PRESENT MIC himself jogged over. He was only partially in costume. His hair was down, and his support gear must have been in the metal case he was holding. "Hey there, Little Listener!" the pro said jovially. "You got any mail for me?" he asked, pointing to the box Izuku was about to shove some envelopes into. 

Having trouble processing that the Present Mic was talking to him, Izuku's mind went on autopilot. And like the idiot he was, his mind deferred to the twelve hours of training videos he watched at the beginning of his internship. "Sorry, but as I cannot confirm at the moment that this mail is, in fact, yours, I cannot just hand it to you. I will put it in its box, and if it is yours, you can simply retrieve it afterward," the greenette replied almost robotically as he pushed the mail into the box. After a second, he blinked, realizing he just told Present Mic that he couldn't have his mail, practically accusing him of mail fraud. 

Present Mic was wide-eyed in shock, and Miss Yubin began howling with laughter. Mic composed himself. "Gesse, I knew I look different with my hair down, but I didn't think it made me unrecognizable," he joked.

Izuku's face flushed bright red in embarrassment, and he stammered, "N-n-no, I-I'm sorry, Mr. Present Mic Sir! I recognized you. I'm sorry about not giving you your mail!"

Mic chuckled and tapped Izuku on the shoulder to get the kid out of the bow he suddenly folded into. "Hey, kid, it's okay. You were just following the rules. That's pretty admirable, and I'll let you in on a little secret." Mic had the kid's attention, so he leaned down and whispered conspiratorially, "I knew that having my hair down makes me hard to recognize. I do it on purpose." With that last remark, the pro nodded and walked over to the box Izuku had just put the envelopes in, opened it, and retrieved his mail. "I'll see you around, Little Listener!" he called as he walked over to the stairwell. 

Izuku stood there in dumbfounded shock and awe, and that caused Miss Yubin to start a new bout of laughter. It was their last stop of the day, so thankfully, nobody's mail would be late.

-x-x-x-x-x-

That incident gave Izuku an idea. Maybe he could do more than just deliver mail. He had good information in his analysis notebooks, and he could get more with the hacking skills he developed with his obsession with computers. He also had a way of delivering the sensitive information right to their secured mailboxes, where it had no way of getting lost or in the wrong hands.

When the three weeks of initial training were up, Izuku got his own mail route. It was made up of the last stops a few different mail carriers had. He couldn't get a driver's license yet, so he had a shorter route that he would take on a bicycle. The bicycle had a saddle bag for packages, and he had a messenger bag for all the envelopes. On days when there was too much mail for him to carry alone, he would have to take two trips, or the extra packages would be delivered by another driver at the end of their route. Izuku would get a mail truck and a longer route when he got his driver's license. 

Izuku may or may not have hacked into the route scheduler to ensure he had as many pro heroes as possible in his mail route. It turned out that there were a lot of UA teachers who all lived in the same apartment building; the rest didn't live too far away, and Mt. Lady and Kamui Woods were next-door neighbors who lived in the same neighborhood as Endeavor. There were a few other pros, too, and he had a total of about 20 heroes in his short route. He also found out that Present Mic and Eraserhead shared an apartment, which was interesting. He would have to mark their names on any special packages he delivered to them so they wouldn't mix them up. 

He gave it about twelve days on his new route before he started leaving the information packages, and he would only leave one a day in a random order to make it harder for them to figure out it was him. He was technically committing mail fraud by putting unprocessed packages in with the normal mail, but that was a risk he was willing to take. At worst, he would lose his job. Which would suck, but he found out that he could do freelance analysis if push came to shove. 

Izuku had no reason to worry. After all, who would ever think that the sweet kid who delivered their mail every morning and was so strict with the rules would ever be a vigilante?

-x-x-x-x-x-

Endeavor angrily grabbed the mail from his mailbox. Every day for an entire week, Endeavor had received pranks in the mail. Somehow, they were only triggered when he grabbed the mail. He distinctly remembered that Tuesday when he sent Fuyumi to grab the mail for him, and she returned unscathed. She sorted the mail without a worry and delicately placed it in his office. When he thought the coast was clear, Endeavor went into his office to inspect the packages on his desk. When he picked one of them up, he heard a soft click before the small box exploded with fire extinguisher foam, filling every inch of his office. In order, he had received a glitter bomb, a box full of cat litter, a confetti popper, a device that somehow launched adhesive then feathers in a mockery of tar and feathering, the fire foam, another glitter bomb, a can of body spray labeled "You stink! Here's a shower!", and now whatever awaited him in the suspicious black packet.

The Flame Hero half wanted to just torch the package now and be done with it, but the nuisance that kept sending these things probably had a contingency for that. It thankfully had yet to explode, but that meant whatever it was was probably worse. With a level of caution he had never shown before, Endeavor carefully opened the envelope. Inside was a thick packet of printer paper, scrawled with page after page of documentation on every misdeed he had ever done, especially against children. Ranging from offenses as small as dismissing some kid named Inasa to what he did to Touya, all written in horrible graphic detail. At the bottom of the envelope was a small card. "I sent all of this to Nezu with the instructions that if nothing happens in the next week, this will all be sent to the press. Hope you rot in Tartarus, Asshole!" There was also a smiley face drawn crudely in the corner.

-x-x-x-x-x-

Tensei was sitting in his hospital bed. He was on a nice road to recovery and adjusting to his new life in a wheelchair when he noticed a black envelope on the table next to his bed. The letter read, "Hello Ingenium, I ran into your brother in Hosu last night. You might want to call him and tell him what he was doing was stupid. PS, I can get you in contact with a support tech that can help you get back on hero duty. What do you think about an all-terrain wheelchair with grappling hooks or something?" It was signed, Hermes.

The hero sighed and grabbed his phone. It took only one ring for it to be answered. "Tenya," Tensei said in an exasperated tone. "What did you do?"

"I- umm…" Tenya sputtered. "I don't know what you're talking about."

"Tenya, you're a terrible liar." Tensei pinched his brow. "I know you were in Hosu. What happened?"

"Wait, how did you–"

"Tenya!"

"Okay, so I was on my internship," Tenya started.

"Ya, I knew that. Manual's agency. Why him? I know he is a good hero, but I know you got better offers than him."

"I- he was based in Hosu."

"I knew that too… Oh no. Tenya, you better not have done what I think you did." Tensei's tone turned dark.

"I was there to look for Stain," Tenya admitted dejectedly.

"Oh, Tenya, I thought you were smarter than that."

"I know, revenge isn't–"

"No, I don't care that you were looking to avenge me. Honestly, I would think it was sweet that you cared enough about me to try and get justice against him.. if it wasn't so stupid! Tenya, you're only a first-year! Stain has crippled and killed over a dozen pros! What were you thinking? If he was able to get me, he's able to get you. God, why am I only hearing about this from a letter from a vigilante? I seriously hope you didn't run into the Hero Killer."

There was no response from Tenya.

After a moment of tense silence, Tensei started pulling on his hair. "Tenya… Tenya, God, no. Tenya! Tenya, did you get hurt? Holy crap, are you okay? Do Mom and Dad know any of this? Shit, Tenya. Why!?"

It took three seconds for Tenya to respond. "Uh… No, I'm not hurt. Please don't tell Mom and Dad… I… I think I'll be okay. Really. I'm not hurt. A uh- A vigilante saved me."

Tensei looked at the wall as if it had all the answers to the questions swimming in his head. "What happened?"

"I was on patrol with Manual when Nomus attacked the city. There was a lot of chaos, and I was told to evacuate civilians. I was doing that for a bit when I realized it was the perfect opportunity to slip away and look for Stain."

Tensei sighed as Tenya paused his recount of the incident.

Tenya resumed with shame clear in his voice. "I abandoned my duty to look for the Hero Killer and found him attacking another pro hero in the alley. I should have called for help or ran or done anything else, but I charged in head first. I was too blinded by rage to think clearly." Tenya sighed in disappointment of himself before continuing his story. "Stain had me pinned almost instantly. I was paralyzed… he was going to stab me in the neck.."

Tensei let in a sharp breath.

"Te-Tensei, I thought I was going to die," Tenya broke down. "I was so scared. I'm so sorry! I.. I.. I–"

"Hey, Tenya, I'm here. Breathe for me."

Tenya's breathing slowly evened out. "It was… not pleasant, but I was saved by a masked person wearing black and green. The vigilante kicked the blade out of Stain's hand and threw a smoke bomb in his face. I was dragged out of the alley, and apparently, the vigilante had already moved the pro hero while Stain was distracted with me. The guy then ran back into the alley and loudly scrambled up the dumpster and fire escape. I heard Stain angrily follow him, and then I think the vigilante threw something heavy at his head… I'm not sure how, but the vigilante knocked out Stain and tied him up with a bunch of zip ties. That's how the group of local heroes found him. He… um, he made me help him apply first aid to the hero Stain was after, gave me a bandaid for the small cut on my cheek, and told me to scram. He said I didn't need to deal with the politics, but I would still need to learn a lesson… I guess the lesson was to know my limits."

"I'm guessing that vigilante was Hermes," Tensei said contemplatively. "I'm surprised he went out to save you himself; he usually just sends heroes information in the mail. This is the first I've heard of him going out in person."

"Oh, um… he said that if anyone asked why he was out and about, I should tell them he couldn't get the information to a trusted hero fast enough. He said he was going to make sure Eraserhead knew what happened… I got a call from Aizawa-Sensei two hours after the incident. I have detention for the next three weeks… I guess he told you, too."

Tensei sighed again. "He only told me I needed to give you a call because you did something stupid in Hosu. He probably wanted as few people to know as possible. It's the safest for your future. I'll have to find a way to thank him. I owe him a lot."

The two brothers sat in silence over the phone for a minute before hanging up and going about their days.

-x-x-x-x-x-

Yamada sighed as he got back to his apartment building in the early hours of the morning. It was the middle of summer break, and boy was the first term eventful. First, Shota gets a bunch of information warning about an uptick of villain activity and their organizing, eventually leading to an attack on UA. Thankfully, his partner had been able to prepare for the ambush, and there wasn't a single major injury among the staff or students. Then, just after the sports festival, the number two hero was arrested, and Shoto Todoroki's custody was awarded to UA until he graduated. The boy ended up staying with Nemuri as his temporary guardian. Now, his husband was at UA, set to leave for the secret training camp that nobody knew the location of except the homeroom teachers, Nedzu, and the bus drivers. Yamada hoped so badly that he would be okay.

He shuffled slowly toward the mail room, trying to delay his inevitable return to the cold apartment. He absently opened the glass door and made his way to his mailbox. Suddenly, a small, calloused hand grabbed his wrist. It was surprisingly strong for how small it was. Startled, Yamada's eyes met desperate, deep green orbs.

"This was in your mailbox," the mail carrier said seriously. "You need to read it now. Time is running out." The young man pulled Yamada closer to his face, making his stern expression painfully clear. "Please." And just as suddenly as he had grabbed him, the mail carrier disappeared.

Yamada gripped the packet tightly in his hands, and he rushed to his apartment. He slammed through the door and ripped open the envelope, not even bothering to kick off his boots. Inside were detailed plans written in a panicked scrawl that was unlike Hermes's usual meticulous handwriting. The Voice Hero read the first few pages, and his heart sank. He needed to get this to Nedzu.

He grabbed his phone… and it was still broken from his patrol. He rushed down the stairs, where he was once again grabbed by the mail carrier. "This was my last stop," the kid said resolutely. "I can take you there."

Yamada never realized that nothing about this situation made sense. Mail wasn't delivered on Sundays, and the carrier shouldn't have known about Shota taking the car or even knew the importance of those packages. But the poor blonde was too preoccupied with the situation, and this whole course of events would only be a blur in his memory. Somehow, a pro hero ended up riding on the back of a bicycle while a teenage mail carrier hauled ass at speeds nobody should be able to achieve on a leg-powered vehicle. It must have been a sight to see, a full-grown man shakily standing on the rear axle of a bicycle while a teenager leaned forward, pedaling like his life depended on it. 

The duo came over a hill and started barreling to the UA barrier. That's when Yamada realized the kid wasn't slowing down… he was going faster. "Lean forward!" the kid yelled over the wind.

"Hey wa—" Yamada was cut off by the kid.

"LEAN FORWARD!"

The blonde complied, but he still protested. "What are yOU DOOOOOOIIIIIIIIIINNNGG??!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" The man could hardly contain his quirk as the two went airborne. 

-x-x-x-x-x-

Aizawa was just about to board the bus with his students when he heard his husband's unmistakable shouting… which made no sense because Hizashi should have just gotten home from running his radio show. Then, as if to spite his understanding of the world's natural order, a bicycle crested over the UA barrier—with his husband and the mail carrier kid in tow. The kid pivoted the bike midair to minimize the impact on landing. The landing kicked up the dry dirt in a cloudy puff, the bike skidding to a stop.

Aizawa waited in patient silence. Whatever it was that made the two pull a stunt like that must have been important. He was rewarded when his husband desperately rushed over and grabbed his shoulders. Hizashi looked like a wreck with windblown hair and askew glasses. He huffed like he was exhausted, even though, from the looks of it, the kid did all the peddling. 

"Sho, you can't go on the trip. Don't let the buses leave," Hizashi said with a desperate look in his eyes. The packet clutched in one of his hands was severely wrinkled in his grip. 

Nodding, Aizawa glanced at the black envelope. "Hermes?" he asked.

"Yeah. It's bad. Sho, It's really bad. The camp is already compromised," Hizashi said in a low tone. "We need to talk to Nedzu. The trip is being canceled." There was no compromise in the blonde's tone.

The two heroes were too busy to notice the mail carrier tossing his bike over the wall of the UA barrier and climbing over it. One may think it strange why none of the intruder alarms went off, but Hizashi had his ID on him, letting them onto UA grounds, and the barrier wasn't made to keep people in. Also, why would Nedzu ever want to do anything against someone as delightfully chaotic as Hermes?

-x-x-x-x-x-

All Might had an entire week he could dedicate entirely to saving people. Then Nedzu called all of his staff in for an emergency meeting. He called in several other powerful heroes as well. Inside UA's large conference room, Nedzu sat at the end of the large wooden table with a projector screen showing a map of Japan with three large red X-s, twelve orange X-s, and sixty-two yellow X-s marking various locations. Yagi couldn't make out everything on the paper Nedzu had sitting in front of him, but he could see the words League of Villains Bar as the title on the page.

The Number One Hero was one of the last people to arrive and take his seat. When he settled into the uncomfortable plastic chair, Nedzu slammed the binder he held onto the table with a heavy THUD . "I bet you're wondering why I called so many of you here today," the Rat said cheerfully. "As my staff members know, two days ago, the vigilante known as Hermes entrusted a packet detailing the League of Villains' latest plans to attack our annual training camp to one of our teachers. This morning, he left this binder on the desk of my home office."

The room was silent. Most of the pros present were UA alumni, and the majority of them didn't even know Nedzu had a house, but they all knew wherever he lived probably had as good of security as the UA campus. To think some vigilante broke into a place like that without getting instantly caught was absurd.

"Ah yes, he didn't even show up on any of my security cameras or trip any of my motion sensors. It was quite impressive," Nedzu nodded. "I can understand why he would want to make sure this information was delivered directly to a place nobody other than I would access. It is quite sensitive." The principal turned the room's attention to the projector screen. "On the screen behind me are the marked locations of every single League of Villains stronghold and place of operations, as well as any other location of interest linked to the League and All For One."

Yagi paled when he heard that name. He had suspicions about his nemesis's continued survival, but this was his first actual confirmation he was still alive.

"Marked in red are the highest priority targets, orange are the second priority targets, and yellow the lowest priority. In this binder are details of each location with raid plans for each, quirk analysis for the villains and strategies to combat every member, and suggested heroes for each portion of the operation." The principal began calling groups of heroes and passing them packets of paper from the large stack beside him. Hermes must have spent months compiling all this information for them.

Yagi was in a group with Aizawa, Gran Torino, and Best Jeanist. Their sole objective was to find, contain, and eliminate All For One. It may seem like overkill to pit three high-caliber heroes against a single opponent, but All For One's removal was one of the three most important objectives of the raids. The next main objective was the capture of Shigaraki Tomura. Without their figurehead, the League would likely split up and become a much less significant threat. The last objective was eliminating the mad doctor behind the Nomu and all of the Nomu he was currently working on, as they were much more dangerous than the ones they had already faced. Smaller objectives to be completed within the month included clearing out warehouses, disbanding two cults, shutting down about twenty shell businesses, weeding out moles in various police and government bodies, freezing exactly 152 bank accounts across four countries, and much more.

It took the task force, with the help of Hermes's plans and analysis, exactly twenty-nine days, twenty hours, and eight minutes from the start of the first raid to completely eradicate anything that could be considered part of the League of Villains. Many of the new members of the League had evaded capture and went into hiding. The ones still on the run were Toga, Twice, and Dabi, who fled the bar and haven't turned up since, Mr. Compress, who regularly stages petty crimes and thefts to "put on a show," and Spinner, who presumably moved back in with his mom, but as there wasn't any proof of crimes he committed, there were no charges to arrest him on.

Kurogiri was captured along with Shigaraki and the other members of the League in their bar, but Kurogiri was not taken to prison like the rest of the League. Hermes had discovered that Kurogiri was technically a nomu. However, he still retained his humanity, which spurred Hermes to suggest a deprogramming and rehabilitation period to hopefully restore the bartender's free will and allow him to live the rest of his life in peace. The man ended up placed under the eye of Present Mic and Eraserhead, as he knew them as Oboro, before being taken by All For One, and being around them helped him sort out his jumbled memories. 

All Might still couldn't believe how unbelievably easy the ordeal had been. If his master had trusted more people with her burden and gotten back up, would she have been able to defeat All For One? Could she have survived, at least?

-x-x-x-x-x-

Sir Nighteye thought he was out of range of the mysterious Hermes. He had yet to receive anything from the elusive informant until one day when he found eight separate black notebooks crammed into his home mailbox. One was labeled "General Information," another was labeled "Structures and Base Layout," two were labeled "Member Analysis," three were labeled "Raid Ideas and Hero Analysis," and the last one was simply labeled "Eri." Hermes dissected the entire organization and presented his findings to Nighteye on a silver platter. It was probably more information about the Yakuza than it had on itself, and it was more than enough to take down the organization in a devastating total victory. 

The green-haired man was infinitely grateful that Hermes was on their side. He wondered why the vigilante didn't go professional with their analysis. It was incredible.

-x-x-x-x-x-

Aizawa was settling into the new dorm apartment Nedzu made to accommodate the latest addition to his family. Eri was a wonderful young girl, but Aizawa had no idea how to take care of children. Hizashi was better at it but was struggling to get Eri to trust him. The pro was sitting on the couch with Eri while his husband sorted through the mail. Suddenly, Hizashi squawked in surprise.

"It's Hermes again!" Hisazhi shouted. And sure enough, there was one of his signature black packets.

"Mr. Hermes?" Eri asked in her small, almost inaudible voice. It could make even the coldest person's heart melt.

"Wait, you know Hermes?" Aizawa asked the girl.

"Yes! Yes! He would visit me sometimes, and-and tell me about heroes! And he would do my hair! And he read me storybooks! And…" Eri went on and on, talking about how incredible and nice the vigilante was.

The husbands locked eyes from across the room, and both realized that Hosu wasn't a one-time fluke. The vigilante had been going out more often and putting themselves in progressively more dangerous situations. That, and that their new ward saw him regularly for a period of time.

Aizawa knelt next to Eri and asked her calmly so as not to scare the girl, "Can you tell me more about what he looked like? Maybe how tall he was and what his hair looked like?"

Eri nodded enthusiastically, "He was thiiiiiiiis tall!" she said as she stretched as high as she could, which was about 150 cm. Hermes was probably taller than that, but the fact she tried to show them his height instead of pointing at one of them and saying he was about as tall as them or comparing his height to something else meant she was probably close, if off by 5-20 cm. "Oh, and he has really fluffy hair, and it's green! It looks like a bush. He taught me what a bush is. It's like a short tree!"

Aizawa nodded along with her rambling, actually listening because it was valuable information about Hermes that could help them track down the vigilante.

"Oh, Oh! And he had sparkly green eyes! And all these dots on his face he said were called freckles! And he said that my eyes were red! And that that was the same color as apples. He brought me an apple that day! He cut it up to make it so we could share it! And…" Eri kept telling stories about Hermes until she tired herself out and started falling asleep on the couch.

Aizawa and Hizashi watched over her from their kitchen so they wouldn't wake her up with their conversation. "I think we should get Nedzu in on the search. Based on everything Eri's told us about Hermes, he's obviously a kid—a kid who has now repeatedly put himself in danger. We need to get him off the streets. Maybe make him a spot in UA. I have never seen Nedzu so happy to read reams worth of paper in one sitting as when he got that binder from Hermes," Aizawa muttered.

"I still have no idea where he found a twenty-centimeter-thick binder," Hizashi mumbled.

-x-x-x-x-x-

Nedzu's office was unbelievably crowded. Somehow, half of his teachers thought he needed to know something urgently all at once, and none of them were willing to wait for anyone else to say what they needed to first. At the front of the pack was Present Mic and Eraserhead, so the principal addressed them first. "Aizawa, Yamada, what was it that you wanted to speak with me about?"

"We want you to help us look for Hermes. We have reason to believe he is still a kid and has been put into increasingly dangerous situations. We think that he would have a place here at UA, and I think you would like having him as a student here," Aizawa said bluntly.

A chorus of agreement rang out amongst the gathered staff. Apparently, that's what they had all come here for. They silently awaited Nedzu's response. Slowly, the principal lifted his phone and dialed a number. When the person on the other end picked up, Nedzu happily greeted her. "Hello, Miss Yubin!… Yes, I am doing well… Well, that is good to hear. Say, do you think you pass an invitation to your newest mail carrier?… Yes, I am talking about Midoriya. I wanted him to visit UA when he finishes his route today… Okay, thank you." Nedzu put down his phone and looked out at his overcrowded office. "Hermes will be here at 1 pm. Now get out of my office."

As it turns out, Nedzu had tracked down Hermes right after they had finished cleaning up all the League of Villains hideouts. The Rat had been personally tutoring the boy for all the hero-course-specific classes, as Midoriya had already tested out of all his general studies classes. So, every day after his mail route was completed, Midoriya would come to UA to learn from Nedzu and drop off his Analysis, which is how he kept leaving packages in their mail despite no longer having them in his mail route.

-x-x-x-x-x-

Shoto had been a pro hero for 2 years now; he was able to go pro almost immediately after graduating from UA, taking over and rebranding the Endeavor agency into the Elementals agency; he worked with Uraraka, Kaminari, and Sero as the pros of the agency along with a few of Endeavor's former sidekicks. Most of them were also classified as pro heroes now, with only a couple wanting or having to remain sidekicks.

He was getting ready to head to his agency building when he noticed his mail was being delivered by a mail carrier he didn't recognize. The man with green hair and freckles caught him staring, waved, and smiled at him before hopping on his motorbike and driving off. Shoto had never seen a mail carrier use a motorbike for transportation before.

Figuring it wouldn't hurt to grab his mail before leaving, he retrieved the letters from their box and quickly sorted out the junk before making his way to work. The only noteworthy item was a thin black, lightly padded package marked "Hero Shoto," with one end folded over and secured with double-sided tape. Inside were several sheets of paper and a note card. The card read, "Hello Hero Shoto, I know you have been looking to reopen the case on your older brother's disappearance since the training accident story was deemed false during Enji Todoroki's trials. I hope this helps!" It was signed "The Mail-Carrying Hero: Hermes."