So, a late WELCOME to 2020. I hope you had a good start into the new year!
Before we dive into the next chapter, I just wanted to inform you - for those who haven't seen it yet - that I updated 'I'm Watching!' last week.
Also on a different note, my betareader is back and worked tirelessly to catch up to the current chapters.
A New Enemy Appears
He was back on the streets long before noon. Brazen and Silent Tracker were at his side as he patrolled the streets of Musutafu again. Although he would rather avoid people, villains did not leave out the more populated areas just to spare him, so he was right back on the busy streets of the big Japanese city. Last night the streets had been empty, but now they were bustling with people going along their day.
They were hissing at him, he could clearly hear it over the buzz of the city, whispering insults into the palms of their hands, snapping pictures with their smartphones. He didn't really care. He had talked to Natsuo and felt oddly accomplished. Internally, he had been dreading that conversation, but it had gone better than expected. He pushed all thought of Natsuo to the back of his mind to concentrate on his hero work, and all it left as this fuzzy feeling of accomplishment. It felt weird. When he brought down a villain, he always felt at least a bit of triumph, even now after thirty years in the business. This now was different… but good.
It helped ignoring the venomous glares and comments toward his back.
Being back on the street now, back on patrol for the second day on patrol with the exhaustion of last night still lingering a bit in his muscles, he felt almost at peace again. He shouldn't have stayed away from his job for so long, he thought. Despite the glares and insults, this was what he was good at, what he was made for. Patrolling the streets felt right.
Silent Tracker at his heels seemed to see it the same way. "It's good to have you back, boss," she said smiling. Her short brown locks that only reached to her ears and over her forehead were mostly covered by the hood that was a part of her hero costume. Her costume was a long grey coat that she wore open, revealing the blue and black protective gear she wore underneath.
He was about to reply back to Silent Tracker, but then he could hear a sudden crack from around the corner. It wasn't loud enough for the civilians around him to hear, but he knew immediately that something was up. In a burst of flames from his feet he sprinted around the corner. There was an electronics shop, he realized out of the corner of his eyes, most of his attention focused on the two girls who had their faces hidden under dark scarves.
He just needed one glance to assess the situation. The dangling security camera at the entrance was smashed in. That had probably been where the crack had come from. The two girls were around Fuyumi's age as they were just about to kick in the door of the shop. The shop was open, there was light inside and through the big store window he could see at least four customers and a girl at the cashier. Still, one of the girls, instead of simply entering the room tried to kick the door made of security glass open and had apparently either misjudged the weight of the door or hit it badly, because the door only trembled in its hinges but didn't swing open.
The girl cursed and kicked again, just as Endeavor came to a skittering halt, turning off the flames on his soles immediately so he wouldn't damage the street. There were two pedestrians on the other side of the street, pointing at the girls and Endeavor, but not moving from their position to get to safety. He was used to that. Spectators never left the scene, hoping they could get a good glance at a battle. And then if a battle escalated after all, sudden panic erupted in the mob of onlookers. It was always the same and one of the biggest problems he came across in his hero works. His sidekicks would have to deal with that though, as soon as they arrived. He had to deal with the villains and the people inside the store.
The taller girl who wasn't kicking in the door, had a weapon, he took her out first, grabbing the gun and melting the barrel of the gun, before she even knew what was happening. As she pulled the trigger, there was a small explosion in the barrel as the bullet couldn't get through. She hissed in pain, as she let go of the weapon. She'd be in a lot more pain soon. In one fluid attack, he grabbed her at the collar, tripped her and then smashed the girl with the back against the pavement that she lost her breath and laid there wheezing and stunned.
The other girl at the door had turned around and raised her hands. There were already rocks flying in the air. She had some sort of levitation quirk.
"I've got her!" he could hear Brazen call out and see the man with his black and red spiky hair rush towards them from behind the girl. But before the sidekick arrived, Endeavor had swiped the feet away from under her, bringing her down to the ground. She lost control over her quirk immediately, the rocks clattering harmlessly to the ground. He flickered his flames threateningly.
"Hmpf," Brazen came to a stumbling halt. "I almost had her," he muttered, putting his hands in his pants pockets. "I'll just call the police," he finally said pulling his phone out. Endeavor nodded, checking on the girls if they were hurt after he had smashed them to the ground. The first girl he had taken out had hit her head, there was a bit of blood on her hair as she turned a bit to curse rudely at him.
He was distracted by a silent clicking sound and as he turned his head, he saw one of the customers from the store standing in the door with a small camera. Several people had their phones out to shoot pictures and more people had come from the surrounding streets to watch what had been only a very short fight.
"Those poor girls," he could hear a woman mutter under her breath.
"Yeah, couldn't he have been more careful?" somebody agreed. "Did you see how he smashed the first on the ground, she could have easily broken her skull like that!" There was outrage in the voice. Endeavor realized it came from one of the customers coming out from the store.
There was some muttering among the onlookers now, that he mostly tuned out. At least the two villains hadn't said anything yet. They still laid dazed on the floor grunting in discomfort and cursing silently. But there was no hysteria there and he was somewhat thankful for that.
"Police are on the way," Brazen informed him. It was then that he heard screeching tires and was almost grateful to use that as a distraction.
"You can handle the rest," he told Brazen, as he jumped up and away from the girls. He gesticulated to Silent Tracker to follow him, before he used his quirk in another powerful burst of fire to take to the sky, so he didn't have to bully his way through the mob of onlookers.
Half a second later he landed heavily on the front of a car. The metal caved in under his weight and the flames from his quirk immediately ruined the engine and tires below him. People screamed around him in shock, as he jumped down and brought the car to a screeching halt.
"Damn," Endeavor muttered as the car veered a bit off course. Not much, he had everything under control, he told himself, but still too much. It scratched the silver van in the next line and ripped its side mirror off. Leaving the car dented but the people inside still save from harm. Still, Endeavor gritted his teeth. That was poorly done.
The man on the steering wheel of the car he had stopped stared at him for a moment. His hands were grabbed tightly around the leather of the wheel, knuckles white. Then he suddenly screamed in anger at Endeavor, burst out of his car and came with swinging fists at him.
"You Fucker! What did you do to my car?" he screeched, fist rushing towards Endeavors chin, but Endeavor caught it before he could hit him. He took a step back, to get the room to grab for the man's wrist, as he was suddenly hit from the side. The man in the silver van had opened his door, right as Endeavor was next to it. Endeavor stumbled forward, dragging the speeder with him.
"You asshole ruined my van!" The van driver cursed as he stepped out of his car and scrutinized the damage to the side of his vehicle, not caring that Endeavor was still struggling to make the other driver calm down. "I just paid the last payment for it. I'm going to sue! Oi! Endeavor, asshole, what the fuck are you doing!"
Silent Tracker landed next to the van in precisely that moment, grabbing him at his sleeve and pulling him away. She tried to calm him down, but the man fought against her, still cursing and screaming at Endeavor.
Endeavor, however, had no time to deal with him. The other man was still screaming and cursing and spitting at him, struggling to get his hands free even after Endeavor had him secure in his hold.
"Calm down!" Endeavor demanded. "Calm down or I will knock you out."
"Calm down?" the man screeched over his threat. "You fucking ruined my car, screw you!" His speech was slurring a bit, he was drunk. Maybe he hadn't even been aware of his speed and the panicked faces of the pedestrians around him. Endeavor shifted his grip, until he held the furious men in a tight choke to subdue him.
"Okay, now sit tight," he hissed, "or this will get a…" He was interrupted by angry honking.
"Clear the street!" a woman demanded out of her car.
"Out of the way! Gods, get your asses off the street!" a man demanded screaming, with a fist waving out of his driver's seat window. "Get lost! We don't need you here, Endeavor!" He screamed.
It went like that for the whole day. He had started the day feeling oddly good about himself after his talk with Natsuo. Three attempted robberies, two DUI's, an attempted purse stealing, and one attempted kidnapping of a six-year-old later, he was thoroughly frustrated and exhausted.
The comments were one thing, and he could live with the lack of gratitude. People took his work for granted since forever. But getting hit with an empty soda can from one of the onlookers, after he gave the purse back to the old lady was a new low. The worst was the mother of the kid, who had just thrown one suspicious glare at him, as if he had been the one trying to kidnap her child, before grabbing the kid around the wrist and dragging it away in a hurry.
He could see that it frustrated his sidekicks, too. Brazen had looked positively crestfallen, as a kid had asked for an autograph, only for their parents to drag them away, saying: "You shouldn't take those guys for an idol. There are better heroes out there." Silent Tracker had taken to deal with the whole public work during the day. She hated dealing with the people, he knew. Silent Tracker was a private person. She was a very thorough and pragmatic woman, and he valued her for her good judgement and useful quirk that allowed her to turn into the animals that had let her ruffle their fur or feathers during the day. Very useful for infiltration and espionage. But she liked dealing with people almost less so then he himself. Yet, today she almost ordered Endeavor away as soon as he could dare to leave the scene, so she could deal with the public.
They were back in the Agency, as Silent Tracker finally patted him on the shoulder. She had to stretch up a bit to reach his shoulder, as he was almost a whole foot taller than her. "Good work today," she complimented, shrugging off the hood revealing her mess of dark curls. There was sweat sticking the strands of hair together. He pushed her hand aside, not feeling accomplished the way he had this morning. Not enough, at least, to acknowledge her compliment. Her nose scrunched up a little as she narrowed her eyes. "No reason to be that moody," she told him, "you did a good job there, certainly got more done than the rest of us managed while you were gone. That way we get the streets back under control in no time."
He doubted her words. "Unless the citizen revolt and we make enemies of the whole city", he muttered stepping up to the elevator.
"It will pass," Silent Tracker said as she stepped into the small tin can with him, pressing the button to her room. All the sidekicks had rooms in the agency where they could rest. Some even slept here, especially when they were scheduled for the night shifts.
Her optimism was grating, and he didn't share it.
"Believe me, I have experience with that," she said, "when they dragged me through the mud, it lasted four months until they found some bigger scandal."
Endeavor huffed in acknowledgement. He had doused the flames on his costume completely, even the fiery mask flickered out, leaving only his beard. "Tell me when you find a bigger scandal," he muttered pulling off his gloves, shoving them into his belt, and crossing his arms.
She rolled her eyes, huffing a silent chuckle. "Well, it might take a while, but it will pass." She frowned as a new light lit up on the control-pad of the elevator, then the lift came to a sudden halt.
A colleague from PR stood in front of the doors, as they slid open. He halted in surprise, then he bowed slightly and stepped in. "You're exactly the one I wanted to meet, Silent." He glanced at Endeavor, then put all his attention on the heroine. "You dealt with the public today, huh?"
"Are they already writing about that?" she asked with an annoyed shrug, pressing the button of her corridor again, impatiently.
The PR-man pulled an iPhone out of his jacket showing her something that looked like a Twitter-feed from where Endeavor stood. She only glanced at it shortly then pushed it over to Endeavor so he could read it:
Saw Endeavor out on the street today. He's so #NotMyHero ! Made EHS_SilentTracker deal with all our questions! That Coward can't even face our questions! #WeNeedMoreAnswers
Below people had shared the message adding the hashtag ' #TakeHisLicense' and '#No1Villain'
He gave the phone back to the PR-guy, who turned back to Silent Tracker. "If you want to take over the public work for now, we need to brief you. Do you have 30 minutes?"
At that moment, the elevator stopped again. "Ah, fine, come to my room," Silent Tracker muttered obviously annoyed as she exited the elevator, "see ya, Boss. Keep your head up!"
The PR-guy quickly bowed toward Endeavor again, before he hurried after her.
At last, Endeavor was alone as he rode the elevator up to his own office. He wouldn't remain alone for long.
As his feet stomped over the dark blue carpet laid out in the corridor of this floor, muffling the sound of his steps, he could already see Inari waiting for him at his office. Without a word, Endeavor crossed the corridor into the office of his secretary. He opened the door with the fingerprint scan at the side, waving Inari to follow him.
Only when both he and Inari sat at Endeavor's desk opposite each other, and Endeavor pressed the standby button on his computer to start it, did Inari start to speak.
"First things first," he started. He held a thick folder in his hand, putting it up on the desk between them. "Your first patrols since last month already made the news. You're all around social media and Channel Three even brought an exclusive about your comeback." His face twisted into a grimace for a moment. "They derailed a little into your past mistakes half-way through, but I guess that is unavoidable now. I can't exactly say that your comeback was well received."
"I already saw," Endeavor said quietly, watching Inari's hand fiddle with the edges of the folder.
"But it's not just negative. While in the rest of Japan the views are mostly negative, it seems at least the people of Musutafu are a bit more divided on the issue." Endeavor frowned in doubt. He hadn't gotten that feeling as he had patrolled the streets of Musutafu. "Some seem to feel safer, now that you are back on the streets protecting them. And some are loudly defending you, saying your work as a hero had nothing to do with your family."
Inari flipped the folder open and glanced down at some pages. Then he put one of the documents in front of Endeavor. At the top Endeavor could immediately see the crest of the Musutafu City Police.
"This came through from the Police almost an hour ago," Inari said.
Endeavor's eyes quickly scanned over the text. "Ah, shit…," he cursed. "This means trouble. Just an hour ago? But there's nothing we can do."
It was a message by the Police, that the Villain 'Raining Man' that he had apprehended yesterday had been rescued by other villains during his transfer to Tartarus, where he was supposed to be held until his trial.
"We don't know who did it?" Endeavor asked.
"No. I already called the detective responsible for the case. It was a group of three villains. They couldn't get a good look at them. It seems like one of them had a quirk that was able to jam all electronics and communications with HQ. They were in and out, stopped the van, broke it open, took the Raining Man and fled within two minutes. The Police shot 14 shots, but none of them hit. They assume there was a teleportation or intangibility quirk involved, but no confirmation."
Endeavor rubbed his head, trying to get rid of the headache that was slowly forming there. He stood up and strolled to a water dispenser, drinking the whole cup at once before giving himself a refill.
"Could the League be involved," he asked frowning, but this didn't seem like them.
"They are not sure, but it seems unlikely. None of the usual chaos that we are used to from them so far, and we don't know that anybody in the League could jam electronics, do we?" Endeavor shook his head in agreement. From what he had gathered so far, it didn't look like the League, he agreed.
"So, a new group," he surmised.
"They left a message for you," Inari said, pulling out another page. It was a picture right from the scene showing a piece of paper with ink and color smeared across it. There was a picture of him, cut out from one of the articles about his ascend to the number one position two months back, when the new Hero Billboard Charts were revealed. It was glued in the middle, with his face crossed out in thick black ink. The words The Hero License is no license to abuse! Death to Villains! Death to Abusers! scratched around the picture in a messy script that was almost unreadable.
"Charming," Endeavor muttered, handing the picture back to Inari.
"I think we should take this seriously," Inari said, putting the picture and the message from the police back into his folder. "It's not the first time, we get these kinds of messages meant for you directly, but with this new villain group spreading them, this could turn dangerous very quickly. We should increase security."
Endeavor nodded in agreement.
"And we should maybe look over your patrol sche—"
"No," Endeavor interrupted, "tighten security in the tower, we won't change our patrol routine."
"But…," Inari tried to retort, "if you get attacked by a group of three or more villains, we should at least make sure we have enough sidekicks supporting you at all time."
"We can't," Endeavor stated simply, "we're already stretched thin. Half my sidekicks have quit. That would only leave two options: Either I cut short on my patrols or I give every sidekick double and triple shifts. The patrols are already more exhausting than normally with the increased crime-rates since All Might retired, never mind since the revelation regarding my person. I rather have two sidekicks at my side who can handle themselves, than four who can barely stand on their feet from exhaustion."
"Then…"
Endeavor held a hand up to stop Inari. "And I can't cut down on my patrols either. I haven't done anything in four weeks, and yesterday you said it yourself: It's my duty, to keep them safe, and I can't do that if I hide in my own office."
If he were to be attacked by this new group, he'd just have to handle it. He wasn't at the top of his game currently. He still had trouble with his quirk, but if they were all as strong as the Raining Man, that wouldn't be a problem. If they were stronger… Well, he'd just have to handle it and maybe hope he'd get backup from another Hero Agency. His wasn't the only Agency in Musutafu after all.
"Something else," Inari finally relented pulling up the last stack of paper from his folder. This was by far the thickest. "I've gone through all the names we couldn't yet eliminate as suspects." He looked up at Endeavor meaningfully. Yes, the traitor…
"Did you find anything?"
"Nothing…," Inari pushed the stack of paper in his direction. Then he rubbed the top of his head, ruffling his greying hair, which made him look odd and different compared to the straight and correct man Endeavor was used to seeing. "Since we don't really know what we are looking for, it's like…," he shrugged. "I scratched two more people from the list. The reason Klein behaved so suspiciously last month was because he had a bet going, he couldn't tell anybody. That secret is out now, so there's no reason to suspect him anymore. And he was involved early on in preparing for the rescue mission in Kamino, so if he knew anything, the League might have already been tipped off back then, but they weren't. And I also don't think Shuu down from Support would work with the League. I discovered that one of his good friends was killed by Toga before she joined the League. He hates her with a passion. No reason why he would help them."
Endeavor flicked through the pages he was handed, while Inari spoke. There were detailed reports on all the suspects still on the list, Eight people – including the two Inari had mentioned.
"We have used our house surveillance to keep tabs on all communications of all employees inside the building for the last three days, but you know we can't keep this up without a judicial order for longer than four days. If we find something or not, tomorrow at 7:00 am we have to stop the surveillance, whether we find something or not, or we go to the police."
"I'd rather not," Endeavor muttered flicking to the last paper. If the police knew, the Hero Association knew and soon everyone would know if they started an open investigation. It would not just shine bad light on the Agency, which he really couldn't need at the moment – it could also tip of the League of Villains. He didn't know what other Agencies or organizations they had infiltrated already. "Keep surveillance going, if we don't have anything by tomorrow, we'll bring them in for questioning."
He went through the list again, two guys down from Administration, one from Support, one from Facility Management, one from Marketing, and his sidekick Brazen. Nobody from the interrogation department. "Interrogation can tickle them for a while and if they don't find anything, we just have to assume the traitor didn't come from our side."
"Even if they are innocent, they might quit, if they find out your trust in them is so low," Inari warned.
Endeavor just shrugged at the warning. "We have to risk it. It would be a shame; especially now, we need everybody, but finding out who the traitor is, is more important for now." He gritted his teeth at the mere idea of a traitor in his ranks. But if there was no traitor here, he'd have to next investigate Hawks and his agency. That would be even harder. Hawks worked in Fukuoka on Kyushu. He couldn't really go there himself to spy on Hawks, so he would have to send somebody he could trust. And if the spy was actually there and Endeavor's trusted investigator was caught, they'd be in grave danger, all alone in Fukuoka. Plus, he couldn't really bring anybody in to help him. Not just his public approval ratings had gone down, public trust in him was in the negative. Civilians, Police, the Hero Association, even fellow Heroes, if he told them he suspected Hawks or somebody in his Agency to be a traitor, he feared they would rather trust Hawks than listen to his accusations. They might even just assume that he did it on purpose to find a new scandal bigger than the abuse of his family.
As Inari left the office, Endeavor turned back to his computer. His eyes flickered down to the taskbar. Down in the bottom right corner, the desktop showed the time and date. It was 07:23 pm on the first of December. Fuyumi would turn 23 on the sixth. That was just five more days, and he still hadn't made a decision about what to do about it.
So we're back in the plot. Since we all know who the 'traitor' is, I guess asking you guys what you think would be useless. So instead, I decided to give you some new information.
Now that we're back at the Agency, I decided to give you a bit more information on the people working here, as they are all OC and I decided against throwing out my current plans in order to get the new characters from the Manga into the story.
I mentioned this before, but now, I'm finally going to do it and give you a little information on the people working for Endeavor! Part of the reason I'm doing this, is honestly because I realized there's almost never a moment where I feel comfortable just delving into a side characters quirk in the story itself. Horikoshi does it with these little introduction cards in the Manga, and in the Anime, it's the narrator explaining the quirks. Since I don't really have either at my disposal, I just use Author's Notes.
So let's start with the two members of the Endeavor Hero Agency we met first in this show!
Fujiwara Inari: By now, you should be well acquainted with him. He is Endeavor's secretary and has been that for many many years. It may be a bit unorthodox for Endeavor to call a colleague by his first name, especially in a society such as Japan, but they have been working together for many years and although they are not friends, Inari simply prefers his given name.
He's 53 years old, quite a bit older than Enji himself, married and has 3 daughters. As a kid, he wanted to be a hero himself, but always thought that his quirk was unsuited for that, so instead he chose to work for the best hero he could find, and help people that way. (All Might sadly didn't have such a big Agency, or he might have started to work there.) He has a business degree and some would say he runs the Agency more than Endeavor himself. What is his quirk, you may ask: It's called Reader, and it allows him to read documents very quickly, by just glancing at them. He can of course also remember the content of said documents. Recently, with age, his memory got a bit worse, but he still can remember more things in a single day, than most people would remember in a month.
Nakamura Toshiro: Nakamura is the 55-year-old Lawyer in Endeavor's Agency. He mostly specializes in everything related to Heroes, but his strong suit is really property damage charges. He's a beast in that field and able to get Endeavor out of just about any troubles related to his sometimes overly destructive quirk. Especially in his earlier years Endeavor caused quite a bit of damage during his fights - some of it unnecessary - but exactly for that case, he has Nakamura. Although he specializes in Hero Law, Endeavor asks him in regards to just about anything law-related and Nakamura never really admits when something isn't his strong suit. Still, for that case, he has his team, as he is not the only Lawyer in the Agency, but the head of the Legal Team. Nakamura didn't start his career at the Endeavor Hero Agency. He actually started in victim protection services, trying to get victims who lose property during a villain vs. hero fight settled with some sort of recompensation. But he started to work for Endeavor just over 12 years ago.
His quirk is called Compulsion. In a way it's similar to Shin Nemoto's quirk from the Shie Hassaikai, in that it forces an answer or reaction to a question. It's a bit different though. Nakamura can not force people to tell the truth or do what he commands, but when he asks a question he compels the other person to answer when he gives a command, he compels the other to react. If that answer is the truth or if they follow the command ultimately depends on the spontaneity of the other person. He only compels them to give some form of answer or reaction.
So, so much about these two. Next chapter, unless you're really not interested in this sort of information, I will give you some information on some of the Sidekicks.