Chapter Fifty: Infiltration

The League met with their prospective allies later that night at the temporary base. The Doctor had been quick to inform them that the other group was willing to meet and had deigned to see what they had in mind.

The air amongst the members of the League was tense, especially after their recent, disastrous meeting with the Eight Precepts, but Tomura and his group were calm. Even if things went south, at least this time Kurogiri was present to try and mitigate the damage.

Every single member of the League, as well as Hisashi, were gathered in the dark kitchen, waiting for their guests to arrive. Tomura was the only one sitting at the small table, staring at the door and the empty chair across from him as he absently shuffled a deck of cards in his hands. The rest of the League were either sitting on the counter or leaning against it or the wall. Kurogiri remained standing just behind Tomura to his side.

Half an hour after they got word that the other villains were going to meet with them, the League heard the door to the house open up. The sound of several pairs of boots on wood made it clear that their guests had arrived.

The door to the kitchen opened and both groups met one another warily.

Tomura eyed up the tall leader of the new villains, taking in the muscular frame, military-style clothing and persona before turning his attention to the dark patch of skin that covered his mouth, nose, and extended in a thin line across his right eye all the way to his hairline. There was a thin scar on his left cheek, just visible below the leering, dark yellow eyes.

This was Wolfram—a villain whom All for One had taken a brief liking to some time ago.

Behind Wolfram came a small team of villains, all three of whom matched his military-style dress and personality. The only exception between them and their leader were the face masks they wore, pitch-black with silver X's across the front.

Tomura knew that Wolfram's team was, in fact, a fair bit larger, but he'd clearly deigned to just bring his lieutenants in for the meeting. They were thieves who specialized in military heists and extractions, keeping themselves under the radar and hoarding large sums of money.

Wolfram eyed the empty chair across from Tomura and after briefly glancing around the room at the other villains, took the offered seat. He leaned back, planting his boots on the table, and raised a thin eyebrow at the young leader of the League of Villains.

"Talk."

Tomura threaded his fingers together. "I'd like to play a game of information exchange with you and your crew."

"Oh?" Wolfram tapped at the table with disinterest. "And what kind of information could you have that would be worth exchanging?"

"Are you familiar with a Yakuza group called the Eight Precepts of Death?" Tomura extracted a card from the deck he held and flicked it across the table, showing a picture of Kai Chisaki. "This is their leader."

"I'm fascinated," Wolfram said dryly, observing the picture with boredom. "What about him?"

Tomura slid another card across the table, this one with a picture of Mimic. "Do you know who this is?"

"No."

"He's called Mimic. He was the manager of the Eight Precepts—until he was arrested the other day," Tomura continued. Wolfram's head tilted away to look out the window, but the young leader was undeterred. "Which means that all of the bank accounts the Yakuza manage to sort their funds from Trigger deals are vulnerable."

"And why should I care about some small-time drug dealers?"

"Not small time—they're the source of all the Trigger being distributed throughout the underworld. This is the reservoir that the streams flow from."

Wolfram's finger tapped the table once more and went very still. Tomura hid a smirk behind the hand covering his face. Gotcha.

"The heroes will be on top of the Eight Precepts shortly," Kurogiri picked up where Tomura left off. "There's only a short window of opportunity to seize this chance. We could collaborate with you to break into the compound and steal the funds from their databanks."

"It's possible," Wolfram was still looking out the window, but his eyes were narrowed in thought. "And I suppose you want a cut of the profits."

"No."

Wolfram's eyebrows rose as he cocked his head to look at Tomura. "No?"

"No," Tomura reaffirmed. "Like I said before, I want to play a game of information exchange with you. I'm willing to give you this score completely if you call us in the next time you have a job lined up. Call it a gesture of good faith."

The villain's gaze narrowed again in suspicion. "And what's to stop me from just taking this information and robbing the Yakuza on my own? My team and I are perfectly capable of dealing with them."

"You could," Tomura inclined his head. "We wouldn't stop you, that's for sure. You see, we've got something of a vendetta against these bastards. We want to hit them where it hurts, and it just so happens I have a meeting with their leader lined up. He's looking for allies. It would be easier for you to steal from them if my group and I are busy distracting the Yakuza."

Wolfram snorted. "So this is personal, eh? Personal isn't good for business."

"In this case, I think you'll find an exception. We help you rob the Yakuza, you bleed them dry, and I get the sick satisfaction knowing they'll soon be bankrupt and in jail. Or dead and in a hole in the ground. Either one works for me."

"And you want nothing of monetary value from this job?"

"As far as I'm concerned, a successful collaboration with your group and payback against the Yakuza is enough of a cut for us," Tomura replied. "Consider it an investment for the future."

Wolfram studied the younger man with sharp eyes. "I heard rumors that you were just some brat throwing a temper tantrum across Japan's underworld. Then again, it doesn't make sense that All for One would pick someone like that for his successor."

Tomura cocked his head to one side humorlessly. Wolfram seemed to chew on the information before grunting. "Fine. We'll play your game. Whether or not our groups interact positively after this will be dependent on how big of a score we make."

"That suits me just fine," Tomura nodded.

"I'll send my team to scout the compound," Wolfram said, standing up. "We'll meet again to discuss details of the job once we're finished with that. Twelve-hundred hours here tomorrow."

"Very well."

With that, the thieves took their leave. Tomura reached across the table to retrieve the cards of Chisaki and Mimic, studying them with narrowed eyes.

"Game: Start."

The League got some rest while they waited for Wolfram's team to finish scouting out the Eight Precept's hideout. Assuming all went well, they'd be meeting again shortly to discuss the raid on the Yakuza with their new allies.

In the meantime, Tomura had a few ideas to implement into their initial plan.

"We'll use the meeting as a chance to distract them," he was saying. "But in case things go south, I want all of us to have a good shot at getting away unscathed. I'll be meeting them alone, but we'll use one of Twice's clones in my place."

Twice extracted his tape measure and posed dramatically. "No problem, boss! I'll measure you perfectly!"

Tomura grunted in response, then paused for a second. "Hey, Twice, about how much damage can your clones take before they fall apart?"

The older man cocked his head to one side curiously. "Hmm…usually if they take a hit heavy enough to break bones, they'll collapse. They're indestructible, man!"

Tomura's eyes narrowed in thought as he tapped one finger against his leg. "…I have an idea. We'll wait on Wolfram to see what he thinks. He's probably got the equipment to pull it off."

Dabi was sitting at the table where Tomura had been during the initial meeting, his feet up on the table as he lounged around. "How are we gonna steal the money? You know he's probably got it on a bunch of dummy accounts and stuff. There's no way he's been hoarding all of it in the compound."

"Wolfram's team are expert thieves. They'll know what to do," Tomura answered. "The biggest risk we'll have to take is probably gonna be getting someone into the compound to hack the system."

"Tall order," Compress hummed. "You'd have to send either myself or Himiko for this, and my artificial arm still hasn't come in. She'll have to be the one that goes in."

Himiko raised an eyebrow from her place on the counter, where she was working on a bowl of ice cream. "Like it's hard?"

"You're the one going in. You tell me," Compress shrugged.

"I can get in easily enough," she scoffed, taking a moment to devour a huge bite of mint chocolate chip. She squeezed her eyes shut and shivered for a few moments before swallowing it down, then frowned briefly. "I might need to pick up some old equipment I used to have, though. My costume right now isn't all that well-suited for a stealth mission."

Kurogiri inclined his head. "We should probably retrieve it, then. Do you know where to get it?"

"…I'll have to call it in," she sighed. She finished off her ice cream and then glared around the room, pointing her spoon at all the other villains. "Nobody touches my snacks."

"Mint ain't my flavor," Dabi scoffed.

"I hate cold stuff," Spinner pointed out.

Himiko's spoon pointed at Tomura, who leered back. "I don't want your fuckin' ice cream."

"Good!" She smirked, tossing her spoon into the sink and pulling her phone out of her pocket as she strode for the door. "I'll be out for a bit. Kurogiri, I'm gonna need a gate in a second."

"Very well."

Himiko led the warp user out of the kitchen to a smaller room on the other side of the house. She typed in the number and hesitated over the call button.

She…hadn't actually called this number in over a year. Not since her release…whenever that was. Thinking back on those days made her brain a little fuzzy. But she still remembered the important details for whenever she had a job to do. The contacts, the drop sites…

With a quick breath, she hit the call button.

It rang for several seconds, and for a moment she wondered if the contact was still even operating, but then the other line answered.

She waited for three seconds before speaking. "Blood moon."

Ten seconds of silence.

"What is the moon's current phase?"

The voice was eerily familiar, even if she'd never actually met the individual behind the calls before. Her memory was blurry and her head was starting to hurt, but she shook it off and gave the proper response.

"AB Positive."

Ten more seconds of silence.

"The usual drop site?"

"Yes."

"Very well. Twenty minutes."

"Twenty minutes."

The other end of the line hung up and she glanced at Kurogiri. "I'm ready."

He nodded. "Where to?"

When Wolfram got back with the rest of his team, the League was rested and waiting. The thieves made their way back into the kitchen and spread a rough map of the compound someone had clearly made from the top of a building across the table. Dabi was less-than-pleased about being forced to move, but his interest was quickly regained as everyone gathered around.

Tomura looked at Wolfram as the man took a swig of some drink from a canteen. "Well?"

The older man swallowed his drink greedily and nodded. "It's doable. The security on the inside is a bit tighter than I'm happy about, but it's nowhere near military grade. If we get someone on the inside and hack into the main computer, it shouldn't be too hard for me to take over controls on their cameras. The main issue is actually getting someone in there."

"I have that already sorted out," Tomura dismissed the concern, causing Wolfram to pause. He jerked his thumb at Himiko, who had taken up a spot on Tomura's left side. "She can get in."

"Can she make her way to the computer without being detected?" Wolfram demanded.

"This isn't my first infiltration job," Himiko told him. "I can get in. If you give me something to hack the computer, I can make it there without too much trouble."

Wolfram pointed at one of his lieutenants. "Nobu, prep one of our drives and give it to her. If she can plug it into one of the ports of the main computer, we can hack it from our command vehicle. You'll have to sit tight and guard the device until we finish funneling all of their funds to my own accounts."

Himiko nodded. "I can do that. I might need a little extra firepower in case things go south, though. I'd prefer knives, but they can be too messy for jobs like this."

"So we get Himiko in, she gets your drive into the computer's port, and then you hack it," Tomura broke the basics of the plan down. "What about getting out?"

"I can escape easily enough, and we can always use Kurogiri's warp if things are bad enough," she pointed out. "But it wouldn't hurt to have an added distraction to keep the Eight Precepts busy."

"What would you suggest?" Wolfram asked.

Tomura's lips curved up into a nasty grin.

Nightfall came and they were ready.

The plan was in place. Tomura had already called Chisaki and requested the meeting. To nobody's surprise, the young boss of the Eight Precepts insisted it be on his turf this time around. So when the time came, they sent in the clone Twice had made of Tomura and waited until he made contact with two members of the Eight Expendables.

As soon as the clone was away, Twice, who had driven the fake Tomura to the meeting place, got back into his car and made the call to his leader. "They're moving."

"Good. We'll send her in," he hung up and glanced at Wolfram, who was leaning against the wall of the massive van that served as their command vehicle. "We're ready."

Wolfram nodded and looked back to his team, who were all at their stations in the tight space that was mostly filled with computers and various drives. Two of their grunts were in the front of the van, keeping an eye on their surroundings while their boss went about getting the operation moving. "Are we prepared to receive the signal when we get plugged in?"

His second in-command, Swordkil, didn't look up from the monitor. "Ready and waiting. The tracker is pinging strong."

Satisfied, Wolfram tapped the earpiece on the left side of his head and spoke into it. "Final test. Everyone in position?"

"Affirmative." That was Hisashi, who was with the rest of the League and a few of Wolfram's grunts in another van on the opposite side of the compound, although both vehicles retained a safe distance to avoid detection from the Yakuza. Hisashi's team was essentially there to extract Himiko and serve as an attack force in case they had to break her out.

"I'm good," Tomura replied.

Himiko was the last one wearing an earpiece. "Ready."

"Good," Wolfram turned to Himiko, who donned a black, skin-tight leather bodysuit with a utility belt and two pouches on her left hip to carry the drives and any blood vials she might need. On her right side was a holster containing a handgun, and behind that was a silencer attachment. She had a pair of knives as well, just in case she needed to rely on a melee weapon.

"Are we clear?" Wolfram called to his grunt in the driver's seat. When they got a noise of confirmation, he jerked his chin towards Himiko. "You're up."

She nodded. "See you in an hour."

Wolfram's final lieutenant, Daigo, opened the van door just long enough for Himiko to slip out, and then the door was closed again. With a glance around, she took a breath and focused. The darkness wrapped around her, and when she knew she was hidden save for the slightest shimmers that gave away her body in motion, she got moving.

She made her way towards the compound, going in a beeline for the high walls. Although they looked like smooth concrete, upon closer inspection, they had groves in the sides that made for convenient, if shallow climbing holds.

She would've snorted if she wasn't all-business. She could scale buildings with less purchase than this.

With cat-like ease, she climbed up the wall and paused as soon as she got to the top to scan her surroundings.

The interior of the compound was dimly-lit, with a few members of the Yakuza keeping guard just outside the main building. She could spot a few cameras already, but unless someone was looking for the unique shimmer her Nightshade Quirk created, they'd be hard-pressed to spot her. It'd be harder to hide from them when she got somewhere with more light, but it wasn't the first time she'd beaten the odds.

Himiko carefully climbed down the wall to the interior of the compound and dropped to the ground. She skirted the wall as she closed in on the main building, seeking out a door to get inside. She spotted a couple of gangsters talking by one of the doors with two other members. It looked like some kind of shift change, given that the pair who had been outside were just stepping into the building and chatting with the newcomers.

She saw her opening and took it. While the Yakuza were talking, she slipped by them and just walked right in, listening closely as she snuck inside.

"Overhaul already go to the meeting?"

"He's about to go," another Yakuza said. "Chrono wants us to keep a sharp eye out. Don't think anyone trusts these League of Villains characters after the last couple of times…"

Himiko glanced over her shoulder at the Yakuza, but none of them were acting odd. They hadn't detected her infiltration—yet, at least.

The interior of the building was dimly lit, clearly in preparation for everyone to go to sleep. With the lighting as low as it was, she felt confident that she could rely on Nightshade for a fair while longer.

She slipped through the halls and around several other members of the Yakuza until she heard a voice that had her hackles rising instinctively.

"…keep an eye on us from the outside," Chisaki was saying. His voice was getting closer and Himiko stopped moving to lean flat against a wall, ceasing all movement. She watched as a door opened and Chisaki walked out with Chronostasis right behind him, followed by three members of the Eight Expendables. "I don't trust Shigaraki, even if it is just him. If you see anything from the cameras or pick up something suspicious on his person, sound the alarm."

"Understood," Chronostasis dipped his head. Himiko remained perfectly still as she watched the man kneel next to a vase not six feet from her and moved it just enough to press down on the wooden panels beneath it in a simple, but specific order. She blinked when the wall behind the vase opened up into a secret passage leading underground.

Chisaki made his way inside, followed by the three Expendables. Once they were underground, Chrono hit the panels once more, causing the doors to close again. He moved the vase back into its proper place and then began to walk off, presumably to keep an eye on the security cameras like Chisaki had ordered.

Himiko was more than willing to bet that that was an access point to the Yakuza's main network, so she tailed him, remaining a safe distance behind Chisaki's second in-command.

Chrono made his way directly to the Yakuza's main office, where he closed the door behind him. Undeterred, Himiko glanced up and down the hall for several moments before leaning against the wall close to the door and removing the handgun and silencer from her belt. Alert and as silent as possible, she carefully attached the suppression tool to the weapon and flipped the safety off.

She was ready.

She waited for a couple of minutes, retaining her Nightshade until she was sure Chronostasis was working on the computers, then reached over to the door and knocked sharply three times.

There was a pregnant pause. She heard a chair move across wood as Chrono got up, then the sound of boots making their way to the door.

It opened.

Chronostasis poked his head out of the door and glanced around in confusion. "The hell…?"

In one fluid motion, Himiko pressed the muzzle to his head and pulled the trigger.

Chrono's body jerked violently backwards and the door was thrown open, but Himiko snatched it before it could hit the wall and lunged forward to catch the body. He was heavier than she could hold, but she managed to lower him to the ground slowly enough to keep from making a racket. She was back on her feet in an instant and closed the door behind her.

The sharp click of the shot hadn't caused a commotion. She remained still and wary, her ear pressed to the door as she listened for any hint that something was off. Seconds passed and she got nothing, leaving her satisfied that the assassination had been successful.

Chronostasis lay on his back, mask still on and a pool of blood spreading from beneath his head. Himiko stalked over to him and knelt, shoving her fingers against the underside of his jaw for a pulse. It was there, but slowing dramatically. Within twenty seconds, she felt it stop altogether.

She didn't allow herself to focus on her latest kill and moved straight to the computer, shaking the mouse a few times to keep the screen on. Reaching into her pouch, she extracted the drive Nobu had given her and quickly plugged it into the nearest USB port, then executed the program that it prompted to run as soon as the computer registered its presence.

Himiko reached up to her earpiece and hit the button, speaking into it quietly. "I'm in. The drive is being installed now."

"Good work," Wolfram answered. "Any difficulties getting in?"

"Chronostasis is dead," she reported. "But I have the body secured. No one is aware of his death."

"Any chance of someone figuring it out?"

"Not soon enough for it to matter. He's supposed to be watching the cameras for Chisaki during the meeting."

"Professionally done," Wolfram admitted. "It'll take us some time to get into all of their accounts. Hold your position and keep an eye on the cameras. We'll keep watch here, as well."

"Copy," she replied. Himiko let out a short breath as she released her Nightshade Quirk. She could hold it a while longer, but doing so for too long would exhaust her. She might need her strength for when it was time to escape, assuming they couldn't go through with Kurogiri's warping for the extraction.

Sliding into the chair, she let her eyes flit to the monitor to keep an eye on the security cameras—specifically, the meeting ongoing underground.

Wolfram snapped his fingers at Nobu and Swordkil. "Get on it. We've only got so long of a window before our timeframe expires."

"We're already in," Swordkil reported to his boss. "Their security is good, but it's lackluster compared to military targets. It'll take us a while to go through all of these accounts, though."

"Get it done as fast as you can," Wolfram ordered. "Daigo, strap in and loop the feed. I don't want even a trace of this getting out so long as we're in business. The rest of us will keep an eye on the cameras for the time being."

While Daigo moved to follow his leader's commands, Tomura fixed his gaze on the camera showing the meeting between "himself" and Chisaki. So far, things looked quiet enough. The appeared to be discussing things on opposite sides of a table in the underground bunker.

One of the Eight Expendables moved out of the line of sight for a moment back up the stairwell from the meeting room and Tomura's eyes narrowed. "Where's he going?"

Himiko froze as she heard the sound of static from Chrono's body. She was up in an instant and striding over to the corpse, where she spotted an earpiece one the left side of his head.

Swearing under her breath, she placed it in her ear and quickly reached down to cover a finger in Chrono's blood. She quickly jammed it into her mouth and swallowed the crimson substance, even as she heard a sharp sound from the other side of the communication channel.

"Hey, Chrono! Did you hear me or what?!" Yu snapped. "What's the holdup? Boss wants a report on how things look on the feed!"

Himiko's lips curled into a sneer, but she focused and let her Quirk do its thing.

When she spoke, it was with the voice of a dead man.

"Don't rush me. I'm just doing a double-check on the cameras outside," she snapped back with Chrono's voice. Himiko made her way back to the computer and scanned the monitors. "All's clear right now. I'm not seeing any suspicious behavior from Shigaraki. Tell the bastard to get his disgusting feet off of the table."

Yu grunted in agreement. "Good. I'll let boss know. Keep an eye on things."

"Of course," she answered, then extracted the earpiece and replaced it with her own.

Tomura must have been watching her on the cameras, because he spoke as soon as she had the device back in her ear. "Are we good?"

"We're fine," she replied, still talking with Chrono's voice. "I have them fooled. They wanted a quick security report. They bought it."

"Your Quirk is freakishly good for jobs like this," Wolfram commented. "We might be talking about another operation with you people sooner than I thought."

"We can talk when I'm safely out of this place," Himiko reminded him. "How much longer until the hack is finished?"

"Fifteen minutes, give or take."

She scanned the cameras methodically, lingering on the meeting underground and the shot of the hallway just outside the door. "Tell your men that their asses are mine if they keep me waiting too long."

"Copy that."

Chisaki paused as Yu came up on his left side and leaned over to murmur quietly to his boss.

"Chrono says we're all clear."

"What took him?"

"He was doing a double sweep on the cameras outside," Yu reported.

Chisaki grunted, dismissing his minion. Trust Chrono to be exceedingly cautious about the security checks. Then again, they hadn't survived this long by being careless.

Across the table, on the couch opposite himself, Tomura raised an eyebrow and spoke sarcastically. "Should I be fearing for my life?"

"It's nothing of concern," Chisaki dismissed. "Back to business. You tell me Hisashi isn't one of your people, but how am I supposed to react when he gets in the way of my group extracting a high-value target?"

"I told you before, he's our ally," Tomura rolled his eyes in exasperation. "But he does act independently from us, even if we collaborate a lot. If you'd told me you were going after his son, I could've warned you in advance."

"You would've gone behind his back?"

"Of course not. But that's not to say there weren't alternative routes you could've pursued," he scoffed. "Especially after you tried to shoot him during our first meeting. Pulling that stunt with his family immediately afterwards was stupid. You didn't just play with fire; you soaked the matches in gasoline."

Chisaki's eyes narrowed. "Do tell me what these 'alternative routes' you've envisioned consist of. Eri is absolutely necessary to my plans. If I don't have her, your organization won't thrive, either."

"Let's talk about it, then," Tomura threaded his fingers together.

Tense minutes ticked by far too slowly, but at long last Swordkil looked at his boss from over his shoulder. "I'm done on my end."

"Same," Nobu added as he finished typing something on his computer. "Daigo?"

"The loop is done," he confirmed. "I'm gonna cut out the old feed and delete it just to be safe. Shouldn't take but another minute."

Wolfram grunted in satisfaction and reached for his earpiece. "Sixty seconds, girl. Your tracker is still pinging. Are you ready for extraction?"

She had shed Chrono's voice and responded with her own. "I'm ready. I'll get rid of the body and then I'll send you guys the signal."

Tomura cut into the channel. "Make sure you destroy their computer on your way out."

He shot Wolfram a look and the older man merely nodded. That would be satisfactory.

Himiko reached into her pouch and pulled out a small vial of blood—blood that Tomura had lent her for this job. It was just enough to get one, maybe two uses out of it once she ingested the stuff, but it would suffice.

She paused a moment before she went through with it and eyed the computer, an idea forming in the back of her head. Ducking down below the monitor, she got her hands on the main unit and checked it out until she found the hard drive. She felt around until she found a button that pushed it out, then extracted the drive and shoved it into one of her pouches.

Izuku might appreciate a little extra help for the legal investigation, especially if the drive had something regarding Eri.

Satisfied that she'd taken everything they wanted from the Yakuza, she sucked the contents of Tomura's blood vial down and watched her hands carefully until she felt the distinct, insistent urge to scratch at her neck.

Satisfied that Tomura's Quirk was in her system, she walked over to Chrono's body and pressed both hands against it, making sure that all of her fingers were touching the cooling corpse. As she watched, the body quickly began to decay and break up until it was little more than a pile of dust on a slippery pool of blood.

Himiko went straight back to the main system and touched everything she could get her hands on until Tomura's Quirk expired. When she was done, there was nothing left of the computer system.

Wolfram spoke to her again. "Cleanup is done. Give the signal and get the hell out of there."

"On it," she replied. Himiko pulled out one final device from her pouch and eyed it with narrowed eyes. She tapped her earpiece again. "Tell Kurogiri I'm ready."

"He'll be there momentarily," Hisashi told her.

"Send them off with a bang," Tomura chuckled, and she could hear the vicious grin in his voice.

Himiko watched as Kurogiri's misty portal opened up in the middle of the room and made her way over to it. Just before she walked through, she pressed the button on the detonator.

It wasn't a particularly large explosion, but it didn't have to be. The main target was smack-dab in the middle of the room, right across from Tomura's clone, after all.

As their new ally had put it, there was enough kick to "fuck that one thing in particular" they were looking to destroy. It was hardly guaranteed to be fatal, but it served as an excellent middle finger to their enemy.

No way to declare war quite like blowing something up.

Wolfram had helped to lodge several explosives into the dismembered hands of Tomura's clone, the damage of which was small enough to keep them from being destroyed and hidden given that the insertion points were all pressed against his body. All were wired to receive a signal from the same detonator, and the moment they did, there was no warning whatsoever.

One moment Chisaki had been patiently explaining the finer details of his plan and why he required Eri to pull it off, and the next his potential partner literally exploded into a vicious fireball.

The force blasted the table apart and sent Chisaki flying back as the couch was bowled over. He might have yelled, but it was concealed beneath the brief, but tremendous roar of the bomb going off. Shrapnel from the table punched into his flesh and he let out an agonized shriek.

His ears were ringing as he remained on his back in utter shock for several moments that might have lasted an eternity.

Yu suddenly appeared in his line of sight. "..oss…ear me—Boss!"

Chisaki came to as quickly as he'd gone and let out a gasp followed by a pained screech. Something was lodged in his leg, which he realized quickly was a piece of the table leg. Snarling, Chisaki reached for the growing patch of red spreading over his pants and used his Quirk to disassemble and reassemble the damage that was done.

"Are you okay!?" Yu demanded, keeping his hands away from Chisaki so as not to trigger his fury.

"I'll be fine," the young leader snarled dangerously. The veins were surging along his face as he glared at the paste that was Tomura's clone on the other side of the room. There wasn't much left, but it smelled horrible.

He froze. A remotely detonated bomb.

"Someone's in here!" He howled angrily, jumping to his feet and snapping his fingers at his followers. "Find them! Get the compound on alert! I want every inch of it checked! FIND THEM!"

His expendables scrambled to obey and rushed back up the stairs, though Yu remained at his side. Chisaki followed them with his lone guard and scowled. So, the League had decided to answer his offer with insult and injury?

Fine. He'd dig them up and hunt them down.

He glanced at Yu. "Get me Chrono. I want the cameras looped again and again until we find out who the fuck got into the compound."

"Yes, sir!"

If Chisaki only knew what he'd end up finding.

Himiko emerged from Kurogiri's portal into the van and glanced at Hisashi, nodding at him. The Chimera raised a hand to his earpiece and spoke into it. "We have her. No complications."

"Then we're done here," Wolfram responded. "We'll see you back at base."

"Copy," Hisashi replied, then slid the metal hatch on the wall of the van to the side so he could see Wolfram's grunts in the front. "Drive."

They were away and Himiko let out a breath, leaning against the wall and sliding down to the floor.

"You good?" Dabi asked.

"I'm fine," she murmured. She pulled the handgun off her hip and detached the silencer, then unloaded the weapon and gave it to one of Wolfram's henchmen. "I want my ice cream."

Dabi just snorted.

She closed her eyes and let her head fall back against the wall. I'm safe. I kept my promise. I'm safe. I'm safe.

Once they were all back at the temporary base, the villains waited in silence as Nobu and Swordkil went through all the money that had been wired from the Eight Precepts to their own accounts. Now that they weren't crunching time, the process took a fair bit longer.

Wolfram had his arms crossed as he walked to his crew, having finished cleaning up the vans from their latest job. "Well?"

Nobu looked back at his boss. "It's gonna take some time to process all of this, but so far…well, it's a hell of a score."

Wolfram leaned over to inspect the numbers for himself in silence, one of his eyebrows rising a fraction. Eventually, he looked back at Tomura. "And you want none of this?"

"I told you, it's a gesture of good faith. We got what we wanted," the young leader shrugged. "I'm satisfied if you are."

"Well then," Wolfram straightened and walked over to Tomura. "In that case, we can consider this joint venture a success. From here on, we're allies. I'll keep my end of the deal—as soon as I have a job lined up, you'll be the first to know. I'll ensure you'll get a good cut when the time comes."

"Glad to hear it," Tomura nodded. "I'd shake your hand, but you'd lose yours."

Wolfram smirked. "Fair enough. Boys, we're leaving. Pack it up. I want us back at out base before sunrise."

Nobu and Swordkil moved to get all of their gear packed up under Wolfram's oversight. While they waited, Tomura looked at the older man. "Wolfram."

"Hm?"

"I intend to become the king of the underworld soon, to take All for One's place," Tomura told him simply. "I'd like for us to join forces more permanently at some point in the future."

Wolfram was silent for several moments as he regarded the other leader, considering his offer. "If you can amass the same kind of force and notoriety as All for One did, give me a call. Then we'll talk."

"Very well."

And with that, Wolfram's team left.

Chisaki stared at the ruins of the main computer system with an oddly hollow ringing in his ears. His gaze trailed from the piles of dust on the desk to the mess of blood and debris on the floor.

Nobody could find Chronostasis. Chisaki was fairly certain he was staring at him.

There wasn't enough left, and it had been too long. The blood, according to one of his followers, was already cold. He couldn't revive Chrono, even with Overhaul.

A scream of fury tore from his lungs and Kai Chisaki swore to murder every single member of the League—and anyone that stood between him and Eri.

Before he even got his rage under control, he shot Shin a vicious glare. "Get that woman on the phone. Don't take 'no' for an answer."

A/N: Happy 2020 guys! This marks our first villain-centric chapter! I hope you all enjoyed it! It's been a wild year, and now that the holiday season is just about over, I'll be able to focus (hopefully) on writing more and catch up to the new anime season again! Look forward to more chapters coming soon!

Now, onto the review responses for chapter 49!

KaijuSentai: The movie night with Eri was cute, especially the part with Totoroki.

And so Izuku and Himiko's relationship deepens again. It's toxic AF, but I think they'll make it work if it doesn't change into a "like brother and sister" thing.

Now the question is how long until Izuku thinks she's in danger and runs off to do something stupi- er, heroic.

-Eri deserves all the love! Poor girl needs lots and lots of affection to help her recover!

Izuku and Himiko's relationship has been simultaneously really fascinating for me to write and very hard at times because I have instances where I see myself in Izuku, doing his best for this girl even though the relationship they have is really, really bad for him, but refusing to give up on her because he knows that there's some good inside of her. I think it's part of the reason why I might have just gone really deep into it, but it won't be long before their relationship becomes healthier!

Auguste the Clown: Not bad I like how the league won't work with Chisaki that was a nice touch.

Also I've been wondering this for a while now, but what's the relation between Izuku and Tomura in your story. I now in the manga and anime they both hate each other, but how do they see one another in your story.

-Yeah, nope, the League has had it with the Eight Precepts and their shit.

Izuku and Tomura's relationship in Viridescent is a lot more complex, or at least, it will become more and more complex as time goes on. Right now it's pretty simply: Izuku thinks Tomura is a jackass, and Tomura thinks Izuku is a rebellious punk who belongs with his side. It'll take some time, but they're both going to be getting a deeper insight into each other over time and it'll make things between them complicated because they're going to understand one another on a level that they really don't want to, but becomes impossible to ignore.

Switch900v: Will there be any interaction between Ochako and Himiko? In this story, they seem to be personally unfamiliar. And in the upcoming arch, they could well meet. And will there be that dialogue between them about "the person whom she wants to become." Suddenly Himiko will realize that Ochako is in love with Izuku and will not react very well?

-We will be getting some interactions with Ochako and Himiko before too long, I think. Ochako will be good for Himiko, even if they'll be uncertain about it at first. Something I intend to really work on with these characters is them finding themselves and understanding why they feel the way they feel- they're teenagers, they haven't worked that out for themselves, yet. Nobody is actually in love with anyone yet, either. They might be getting there, and there are definitely crushes going around, but nobody is in love. That's a ways off.

LuminaDawn: So, I don't know if someone brought this up yet, but since Eri's quirk rewinds things and since it was talked about in the manga, can't she reverse All Might's body back to a point before he got horribly injured? I mean they talked about it in regards to Mirio as well.

-I think it's been mentioned in the past a few times, but I can't remember so I'm going to answer it anyways. Long story short, she technically CAN reverse All Might's body back to a point before he got horribly injured...but she doesn't have remotely enough control to do it safely, and reversing someone that far back causes them serious pain, so I imagine All Might would go into shock long before Eri managed to reverse him safely. So technically yes, but she can't do it now because she's inexperienced, and it would cause All Might to suffer rather badly.

That's all for today! As ever, please review and thanks for reading! Happy New Year, you wonderful people you!