Hitoshi knew something was wrong as soon as he stepped into the room. The room itself was fine, even if it was filled with expensive items. Hitoshi was fairly certain he wouldn't be able to afford even a single chair from this room if he saved up his entire life, but that was expected. The bodyguard towering over his charge's shoulder was disconcerting, but also expected. Even the strange man Hitoshi was sent to speak with wasn't at fault, even if he did have an almost ageless quality. Everything about how he dressed and acted spoke of someone older (maybe closer to thirty, as opposed to the twenty on his birth certificate), but his face was too young for his legal age. (If Nedzu hadn't grumbled about that, Hitoshi probably wouldn't have noticed.)

"Ah, Operator. I wasn't sure what type of tea you would like, so I got some gyokuro." (And yes, the china was also very expensive and very breakable.)

No, none of that was the problem, even if they did make him mildly uncomfortable. (No more uncomfortable than having to talk with some of the more difficult villains.) The problem, the real problem that made Hitoshi want to run for the hills, was the fact that his quirk was gone.

Sure, that on its own wasn't much of a problem, but Hitoshi had never met someone other than Aizawa that could do that, if he didn't count All for One's habitual stealing. And Aizawa definitely wasn't here.

On the other hand. There was a decent chance the young man in front of him was lying about being quirkless. His family had developed quirks early on (Nedzu had said they developed in the second generation), and there hadn't been a skipped generation since. A quirkless kid after so long was unlikely.

"Thank you, Mr. Fowl," Hitoshi said, shaking off his misgivings as he forced himself to step forward and take his seat across from his conversation partner.

Fowl smiled, the gestured cold and never spreading past his eyes. It made him look predatory. "It was no trouble at all, Operator," he said, pouring tea for both of them. "I was told you wished to speak with me?"

Hitoshi nodded, taking the cup, but not drinking. Fowl might not be known for kidnapping or killing, but that didn't mean he wouldn't take advantage of the situation. "There is a new villain in Japan. When attempting to research them, we came across a file directing us to you."

"Is that so? What villain would you be referring to?"

"We've been calling them Blue," Hitoshi answered. "As a result of the blue light their quirk emits. It causes no damage to the surrounding area, but kills everyone within a given range."

Fowl almost seemed to still for a moment, before he took a sip of his tea and nodded slightly. "Yes," he said, "I know what you're talking about."

Hitoshi felt his eyebrows rise. They hadn't found any similar events in Ireland, or anywhere else they could confirm Fowl had been. When Fowl didn't volunteer more information, he pressed on. "What can you tell me about them?"

"You're villain?" Fowl put down his cup. "Not much, I'm afraid. I am, however, familiar with the method. Blue rinse. It is quite the weapon."

Hitoshi waited again, but, again, Fowl offered nothing more. "So," he spoke again, "how does it work? What do we need to be aware of when handling this villain? Help us stop them."

Fowl pursed his lips. "It won't be that simple. Once it starts, there is no stopping it. It only takes a second. A blue rinse can go through any material, only stopping where your villain wants it to stop. Anything caught within it will die instantaneously. As for catching your villain, good old-fashioned detective work should do the trick. Find the pattern; get one step ahead. The only way to stop the attack, is to get there first."

"Mr. Fowl," Hitoshi said. "You know this quirk. We have no records of it happening anywhere else, so you can't have just somehow pulled that together from reports. You only could have known any of this from personal experience. You've met them. Tell us about them. Give us something to work with!"

Fowl shook his head, a faint smirk tugging at his lips. "It's not that simple, Operator." He leaned forward, steepling his hands together. "Information is not free, and in some cases, it should never be shared."

Hitoshi bit back a groan. He hated it when villains got like this. It made him wish his quirk worked for interrogations as well. Not that that would help him with his quirk missing and the massive bodyguard that would probably pummel him into next week if he tried. At least he knew it wasn't Butler's quirk that was doing it. A lot of people thought the Butler family had some kind of strength, speed, or other physical quirk well suited to protecting someone else. Nedzu had been kind enough to inform Hitoshi that Butler's physical attributes (extensive as they were) were only a result of hard training. What the family actually had was a variety of sensory quirks that made them better able to detect and react to threats to their charge.

"What do you want?" Hitoshi asked. He didn't manage to keep the slight disappointed sigh, leaning towards a whine, out of his voice.

Fowl wasn't hiding his smirk anymore. "Your candor."

His what? Hitoshi blinked at him.

"There is nothing you can give me that I do not already have," Fowl said, waving a dismissive hand. "So, all I want is honesty."

"What about?"

Once again, Fowl smiled. Hitoshi was coming to the conclusion that he didn't like it when he smiled. It was like Aizawa's smile, but this man truly didn't care about him, and was much colder. "There are a number of questions, but I think you'll find them to be fairly simple."

Hitoshi narrowed his eyes. He really didn't like where this was going. At least Butler didn't seem to think Hitoshi was a threat to Fowl. That would end badly.

"I reserve the right to not answer," Hitoshi said slowly.

Fowl nodded. "Completely understandable. First question: how many attacks have there been?"

"Four."

"How long between attacks?"

"It started with four weeks, but they're getting closer together. We expect the next attack to be in about two weeks."

"When was the last attack?"

"Last night."

Fowl had the decency to wince. "Where have the attacks taken place?"

"Two malls, a university, and a convention center."

"Soft targets," Fowl muttered before continuing. "One last question," he said.

Hitoshi nodded.

"What do you think of me and my family, Operator?" He laughed, a smirk pulling at his lips when he saw Hitoshi stiffen slightly. "Don't worry," he said, "I want your honesty. Speak your mind. I won't withhold information simply because I don't like your answer."

"You're the reason people with psychological quirks have a hard time. The reason we're labeled villains as soon as it manifests," Hitoshi said. He wasn't entirely sure why he was being so open. He shouldn't be holding a known conman to his word. He shouldn't be letting his emotions get the better of him. "Your family has always had psychological quirks, allowing them to manipulate others even better than you did before the advent of quirks, and every single one of you used your quirk for personal gain. You're villains, and everyone sees those with similar quirks as exactly the same."

Fowl looked thoughtful for a moment. "I suppose that does cause some problems, but do not blame me and mine for the idiocy of others. If they cannot differentiate between those that have used their abilities for personal gain and those that never would, they are fools of the worst kind and are not worth any real consideration. But that isn't what I was asking. I was asking about the currently extant Fowls. My father, my brothers, and myself. What is our reputation? What do you hear? What do you believe?"

Hitoshi frowned. "Are you using me to judge your approval ratings in Japan?"

Fowl shrugged. "In a manner of speaking, yes, though I am more concerned with the pro-hero perspective."

Hitoshi hesitated. "We know that your brothers, Miles and Beckett, have no real connection to your family's past, and that your mother has never really been involved either. Your father appears true to his word, as we haven't been able to detect any criminal activity from him since his return from Russia. You…" Hitoshi gave a shrug. "You tend to be subtler, but we are fairly certain you're still active from what we've heard about your exploits."

Fowl nodded. "Keep your eyes on population centers," he said. "And you're looking for a bomb, not someone that has been at all four locations. I don't know what your bombers want or who they are, nor do I truly know anything about the bomb maker, but I have leads on that. I will see what I can find."

Hitoshi felt his face twisting. "That's all-" he cut himself off and took a breath. "If you have leads, give them to me. Let us handle it."

"No," Fowl said plainly. "As I said before, there is some information that should never be shared. I have shared what I am willing to. You reserved the right not to answer, so do I."

Hitoshi glared. Why did villains always have to get so uppity about information? Sharing somethings and not others never made much sense to Hitoshi. "How are you nullifying my quirk?" he spat out. He grimaced afterwards. He needed to wrap this up before he did something he regretted, like trying to attack Fowl, thus getting in a fight with Butler.

Fowl gave another cold grin. "That's just a little invention of mine. Don't worry. It's temporary."

Hitoshi did not like that. Not one bit. Fowl had tech that could render heroes mostly helpless.

Nothing he could do about it though. The Irish government had only passed on the message for a meeting and allowed him in on such short notice because he (and the Japanese ambassador) had agreed not to rile up any of the Fowls. Things had been quiet lately with only Artemis Fowl the Second selling the occasional forgery and robbing banks for high value items in other countries. Even then, he spent most of his time now working in a private lab and writing books when he wasn't crossing oceans and continents faster than he should be able too. Another potential quirk. (That would be one hell of a warp quirk.)

"Thank you, for your assistance," Hitoshi ground out. He couldn't do anything else now.

Fowl nodded. "Thank you for bringing the problem to our attention. Butler will show you out."

Hitoshi nodded, and stood. He had something at least. It was some type of bomb. It was something. It had to be something.

(Two weeks later, there was an attack, but it was the last. Nothing came after but a few odd stories of someone that sounded like Fowl with someone that sounded like Butler and a few others running around areas of Japan despite none of them entering the country legally. The attacks stopped, and slowly everything went back to normal and people began moving on. Hitoshi never forgot.)

On a side note, the quirk blocking is actually fairy tech, not Artemis's. I personally think that the People wouldn't develop quirks along with humans, and they responded to the new "threat" by finding ways to turn off quirks for a little while. (This did probably lead to some stories of haunted buildings, towns, and wilderness where your quirk would stop working.)

As for Arty's quirk, he was registered as quirkless because it was so subtle and didn't exactly work with his personality and lifestyle, so no one noticed it when it came in. Specifically, it's a quirk that makes people more likely to do what he wants, but only slightly. It works better when they also want to do the thing or when they like him. (Given that Arty was pretty isolated in his childhood and not the best at making friends even when he was out and about... yeah, he was functionally quirkless until he made friends in the LEP.)

Also, my life is real hectic right now and Wednesday's aren't going to work, so updates are now going to be on Thursdays for the sake of my sanity.

Hope you guys liked it,

NoS