Chapter 13

Disclaimer: I do not own My Hero Academia or any of its characters

Crime exploded across Japan; villains were out and fighting against hero and police alike in full force the likes of which no one had seen since those first few days of All Might's retirement. The only difference between then and now was that now the criminal element of the country seemed to be afraid of something and using heroes and police to hide from the boogeyman chasing them.

Naomasa put the phone down with a heavy sigh and got up from his desk, another hero reporting in on a League of Villains sighting. Spinner was caught on video abducting a pair of bank robbers who were in the midst of a heist. The audio of the cameras was disabled but the video clearly showed the robbers trying to escape after the swordsman made his appearance through on of Kurogiri's warp gates. They fought for a few minutes before Spinner got the drop on them and threw the pair through the still-open portal to an unknown location.

"So, the fanboy got another two huh," Gran Torino's voice came from behind Tsukauchi as he put two more lines next to Spinner's name in red marker. Naomasa sighed knowing that would soon be changed to a black marker once the bodies were found. "That brings their count up to what, five this week?"

Tsukauchi nodded grimly and looked at all the tally marks next to each member of the League's name. "Only the ones we know of, and their motives behind the attacks are still unclear."

"Really," Gran spoke raising an eyebrow and looking at the wall. "I do."

"Enlighten me then of wise one," Tsukauchi scowled sleep deprivation starting to catch up with him. "What exactly am I missing?"

"Look at the numbers," Gran replied paying no mind to detectives' frustration putting his cane tip just under the League's body count.

Naomasa looked at the board again, each member of the League of Villains has their picture up next to their name with, save for Magne who they were told was killed by Overhaul before the raid of Shie Hassaikai headquarters. Every single one of those names now had well over a dozen black ticks marks under their names with Shigaraki and Dabi -

Blinking Naomasa took a step closer towards the blurry picture they had of the cremation users looking at her numbers again.

Gran leaned a little more on his cane. "Suddenly hit me last night -"

"Dabi's number hasn't changed," Tsukauchi finished seeing that of all the League members Dabi who previously held the highest body count now ranked the lowest. Given that all of Dabi's kills in the past had her signature flames on their corpses and that she wasn't shy about hiding them either hers logically should be the highest. "The League isn't taking out the competition, they're looking for one of their own."

"Detective Tsukauchi! Gran Torino!" a panicked voice cried out causing both men to turn and see Sansa running towards them with something in his hand.

Once he was close enough the cat-headed officer looked ready to collapse as he held out a plain white envelope to the pair. "Sirs … a woman just dropped this off claiming it was from the League."

Colour draining from their faces Gran Torino ordered everyone to clear the room well Naomasa quickly put on a pair of crime scene gloves and a small case from his desk as he put the envelope carefully in the center.

Normally Naomasa only used the contents like this when it came to repairing the antique watch his grandfather had given him. However early on in his career, he also found that the tools had other uses and kept a sperate one here at work in case he needed to get creative.

Turning the envelope over Naomasa noted the blob of blue wax sealing it with a cursive 'C' before sliding the blade carefully along the edges of the envelope making long slow cuts so he didn't damage the contents inside. Once the last side was free, he held his breath and grabbed the tweezers slowly pulling back the envelope to find a simple card beneath feeling the blood in his body freeze when he saw the words printed.

"Well," Gran Torino yelled from two desks away well the rest of the officers watched through the small window of the door with concern written on their faces. "What does it say?"

"It's a .. its an invitation," Tsukauchi whispered looking down at the plain typed lettering that sat on the card.

The League of Villains herby invites Detective Naomasa Tsukauchi and Pro Hero Gran Torino to mediation gathering at Diamond Blossom on XX, 2XXX at XXpm.

Each man may bring one guest of their choosing to the meeting. Any attempt to use this meeting to arrest the League of Villains or their hosts will result in swift retribution.

"What!?" Gran yelled unable to hear the detective quickly activating his quirk and snatching the invitation away. Turning it over the formerly retired hero was expecting a lot of things to greet him, pictures of dead bodies or a letter filled with Shigaraki's insane manifesto but instead like Tsukauchi his brain was unable to process the words. "What is this?!"

Tsukauchi took a deep breath to collect himself placing both the letter and its envelope into separate evidence bags so that forensics could look it over later. "I don't think it's a threat, if they wanted to kill us then all they would have to do is have Kurogiri use his quirk."

Gran Torino grunted crossing his arms over his chest, ever since his escape, the warp gate user had become a sore spot for the man.

"So, what," The formerly retired hero scowled waiting for the punchline. "They just want to treat us to a meal out of the goodness of their hearts."

"If your theory is true then they just might be fishing for information." Tsukauchi offered curious why Toga Himiko hadn't been sent out instead of the invitation.

"That brat of his almost makes me miss All for One," Gran grumbled looking over to the sketch they had of Nana's grandson well Tsukauchi gave him a horrified look. "Him we could figure out even when we couldn't find him, Tomura Shigaraki ..."

"Seems to thrive on the chaos he causes," Tsukauchi supplied having also felt that same frustration with the young leader of the League of Villains from time to time himself.

Gran grunted and put the letter down. "At least they both share one common thing though."

At the very bottom of the invitation written in thick black marker was three words that seemed to have been added in later.

NO ALL MIGHT!

*Notes*

Happy New Year! Here's Hoping Everyone Has An Amazing 2020!

Firstly, I just want to express to everyone my profound thanks for not abandoning this story during its small holiday hiatus, now that the season is over and work will get back to its normal schedule, I'm hoping that I can get back to a semi-normal update schedule.

The next round of chapters is gonna switch gears from what you've been reading so far before the story slows down and settles at a normal pace instead of all these time skips like in the previous chapters had so I hope everyone enjoys it.