I'm very happy, the last chapter with the Brazen-focus was so well-received. It gives me more confidence, writing more about these sidekicks. This chapter will again focus on the sidekicks. Originally I had planned for this and last chapter to be one chapter, but then the whole conversation got a bit too long.
I hope you enjoy it, and for all of you in the many countries affected by the Coronavirus, who now have to stay at home, stay home, stay safe and I hope this chapter can at least curb some of the boredom. This is not a promise, because it very much depends on how much I can get myself motivated in the coming days, but maybe I can manage to give you a few extra uploads during the coming week.
The Sidekicks of the Endeavor Hero Agency
Brazen seemed to consider his bribery for a moment. Endeavor already feared he would deny it. That his curiosity wouldn't outweigh his anger and disappointment. He could even understand it. Part of him wondered why Brazen was still here. But the young man seemed uncertain.
Then, finally, he nodded his agreement. "Fine."
"Good," Endeavor nodded. "Inari?" he called out a bit louder. "I know you must have been listening in." If only to make sure Endeavor didn't accidentally destroy the whole building in his anger.
After a few seconds, the door opened. "You called?" Inari glanced around the room wearily. He frowned at the burned remains of the desk and computer. "I see we need a new desk."
"Call Silent Tracker to join us," Endeavor demanded, with a side glance at Brazen.
"Right away." Inari closed the door again.
Brazen looked a bit surprised at the turn of events. "Silent? She knows about this, too?"
"No, but you will both find out now. Just you two. It's inconvenient, but we have to keep this secret."
Now, the young sidekick looked intrigued. Still, despite his clear curiosity, he remained quiet sitting on the couch. Now that he had aired his anger, yelled a little at Endeavor and shortly feared for his life witnessing the Flame Hero's fury, before admitting to all his hidden hurt… he seemed calmer again. He slouched a little, put his arms over the backrest, staring at the ceiling. He even started whistling, when Silent Tracker took her time to come to the office. That annoyed Endeavor to no end.
He knew why he never spent much time with Brazen by himself. The young man was a decent hero. He was a rising star. Endeavor gave him four more years, at best, before he would start his own agency. He could pack quite a punch. In terms of sheer attack power, Brazen was the strongest of his sidekicks, even if his quirk was the most volatile and inconsistent. After a long shift he hit weaker than even Inari, but after a good night's rest and a decent meal, he could kick even Endeavor through a building. Endeavor had thought it was maybe due to the man's laziness that he didn't have an agency of his own already. Now, he thought it might maybe be due to his admiration of Endeavor.
The whistling was mind-numbing…
He was truly relieved when Silent Tracker finally appeared. She was already out of costume; Inari must have caught her just before she could leave the agency. Shrinking Girl would have the night shift today.
After Endeavor invited her to sit next to Brazen, he finally started explaining.
"Inari and I have been going through our list of employees looking for a traitor," he explained, mainly to Silent Tracker who didn't even know that much. "The reason was that we both harbor strong suspicion that someone leaked my meeting with Hawks to the League of Villains."
"In Fukuoka?" Silent Tracker asked, a little overwhelmed with the sudden information. This must come out of nowhere for her. Brazen, who already had a bit of time to think about Endeavor's reasons to search for a traitor, seemed to understand almost immediately; his eyes widened a little.
"Yes," Endeavor answered.
"It seemed suspicious," Inari explained, who had joined them standing at the closed door, "that the Noumu would appear right when Endeavor first arrived in Fukuoka."
Silent Tracker frowned in thought. "Surely no coincidence, mhm…" she thought out loud, "but with those teleportation quirks they have at their disposal, not impossible that it was a spontaneous decision."
"Not impossible," Endeavor agreed, "but at that time, Kurogiri was already in the custody of the police. Leaving only the other teleportation quirk we first witnessed in Kamino Ward. From what I heard from Mirko and Hawks, Dabi…," his voice halted as he said the name. He had just stumbled over it and now all words died off his tongue. Dabi… Touya had been there and he hadn't clearly seen him, hadn't recognized him.
How could he have been so blind? It was a question that had weighed heavily on him ever since he had found out about Dabi's true name.
Black hair, turquoise eyes, those horrific scars… and the gun to his head…
He had the same dream almost every night. It left him sweating, panting, panicking… Recently, when he came home from work, he was too exhausted to dream. He was better, ever since he had returned to work. Still, every night he was afraid to see his son again.
Pathe… Shit!
His hip was aching where the bullet had hit the bone.
"We have consulted with the police," Inari continued when Endeavor's voice stopped dead. "This other teleportation quirk. The task force currently responsible for dealing with the League of Villains under Detective Tsukauchi has deduced that this second teleportation quirk is much more restrictive in its use. They are not sure about the details, but it seems like specific people are teleported to other specific people."
"So, it seems unlikely they could just bring a Noumu to Fukuoka, unless one of their members was already waiting there," Silent Tracker quickly deduced.
"Yes," Endeavor joined the conversation again with a quick and grateful glance at Inari. "It's still not entirely impossible, but it seems more likely that they were waiting for us and not just planning their attack in response to my sudden appearance there."
"You think somebody sold out yours and Hawks' location to the League of Villains?" Brazen finally broke his silence, still wide-eyed. Still shocked. "You think somebody would conspire with the League to… Half the city was destroyed. There could have been thousands of deaths and you thought…" He didn't finish his thought. Instead, he looked away in anger.
Of course, he was again thinking about the fact that Endeavor had not only considered him a possible traitor but even gone so far as to interrogate him.
"This was too important to just ignore," Inari said, although he looked a bit guilty. "Sorry, Kosuke."
Silent Tracker didn't quite understand what was going on between the three men in the office, but eventually, she sighed and broke the silence that was spreading between them.
"So, what did you find out? I assume you did a thorough investigation of all of us?" She sounded rather nonchalant about this, but there was something on her face. A silent fury. It seemed different to Brazen's fury though. This was no anger directed at him but at whoever might be the traitor.
"We did," Endeavor agreed. "And it seems the leak is not from our side. There is a possibility that the traitor had worked here once, but now quit. But that seems unlikely. If the League had eyes and ears in my agency, why would they suddenly withdraw them?"
"So, you assume the leak is at Hawks' end?" She frowned. "Someone in Fukuoka would have a hand in the city's own destruction?"
"No way… Hawks' agency is much smaller than ours. Most of its employees live in Fukuoka. Apart from the sidekicks who come from all over Japan, most of them even have family there. Why would they risk that? Never mind it was Hawks who suggested the meeting being at Fukuoka. If the leak came from his agency and if they indeed have friends and family there, wouldn't they at least try to lure you somewhere else?"
"Maybe they feared we would get suspicious," Silent Tracker reasoned, "or whoever is the traitor did, in fact, try to convince Hawks of a different location and failed."
"Possibly," Endeavor muttered, thinking about Hawks. Maybe it had been important to Hawks, to show him the town. They had spent an unnecessarily long time just walking through the town. It had almost been a bit of a sightseeing tour, only Hawks hadn't been interested in actually visiting any famous sights. They had just strolled through some busy streets. Back then, Endeavor had thought Hawks wanted to be seen by his fans and the people in his city. Show some presence. But maybe he had also wanted to show off to Endeavor a little.
"So, do we have any suspects at this point?" Silent Tracker asked.
"No," Inari answered before Endeavor could.
"With Hawks being in Fukuoka it's difficult to investigate his agency. It's just too far away and I don't want to ask any other agency for support until I have any concrete evidence." Endeavor sighed. "Especially with the current situation." He looked at Silent Tracker. "So, that's where you come in. Infiltration, tracking, and espionage are your specialty, so I want you to go to Fukuoka as soon as this meeting regarding Best Jeanist's disappearance is over."
She looked mildly annoyed at the suggestion. "You do know I have my wife here to take care of. She won't like it if I just up and leave for who knows how long," she complained.
Endeavor made a face. "If you don't go to Fukuoka, I need a different plan," he complained, equally annoyed.
"I didn't say I won't go," she muttered, "just that Umeko won't like it."
Endeavor didn't know how to react. What did she want from him? Thankfully Inari was there to help out.
"How about we give you two weeks of vacation over New Year? You could take her skiing," he offered.
Endeavor looked at him disgruntled because New Year was always a lot of work. But then he smiled somewhat forced and nodded. "Two weeks over New Year."
"Ah, yes, Umeko does love skiing. She always complains we never get to go anymore." Silent Tracker smiled at him broadly, as if she hadn't just made him agree to something he would not have agreed to under any other circumstances. Heroes couldn't just take vacation days whenever they liked. Sure, he gave his employees the legal requirement, some even more than that, but everybody wanted to take off during New Year. Avalanche had already a week approved right around New Year, leaving Endeavor short both of his most experienced sidekicks over some of the busiest days in the year.
Well, she won that round of negotiations.
"I'll fly out on Tuesday," she declared.
"We'll brief you again on what exactly to look out for. Don't do anything rash though," Inari warned.
"Anything rash?" she asked with a charming smile. "Like beating the asshole who betrayed us to a bloody pulp. They would deserve it! Endeavor almost died!"
"Don't engage!" Endeavor warned. "Whatever you find out, I want you to report back to me before you do anything. This is strictly a reconnaissance mission. I don't need you stirring up trouble with the League or Hawks or his sidekicks or even the police over on Kyushu, understood?" He waited for her to nod. "Actually, if I'm honest, I'd feel best if nobody even realized you were ever there, to begin with."
She looked unhappy with that order, protruding her lower jaw like a petulant child, "Right, boss."
"As for you Brazen," he turned to the younger sidekick.
"Sure," the man muttered, unimpressed. "If Silent goes to Fukuoka… that means double and triple shifts again."
"Not what I meant," Endeavor grunted although Brazen was right. Without Silent Tracker they were again short one capable sidekick. "Hawks will be here on Monday. I don't know if he will come alone or bring some of his employees, but I imagine…," he shrugged, "well to be blunt, I imagine you and he should get along splendidly. Don't be too obvious, but try and befriend him. Spend some time with him. Maybe he already has suspicions of his own."
"Sure," Brazen said again, shrugging. "I can befriend the Number Two. Might even ask him for some signatures to sell online. I mean, since Fukuoka, he's now officially the most beloved hero in Japan." Endeavor glared at him. "They even say, with your approval ratings plummeting, he'd already be the number one hero if the new rankings were announced now."
Endeavor's flames flickered a little around his jaw in annoyance.
"Something else," Inari said before either Brazen or Endeavor could say anything else. "I hope you are aware of what this means. With Jeanist's disappearance, Endeavor's plummeting public approval and a possible traitor in Hawks agency, that means that currently, all three top heroes of Japan are compromised or significantly weakened. And so soon after All Might's retirement. On top of that, we have information that UA suspects that there may be another traitor in their ranks, and it's only a few months ago that the League of Villains' Toga infiltrated Shiketsu."
Brazen's mocking smile vanished off his face. Silent Tracker growled angrily. Endeavor glowered at his secretary.
Now that he recounted all the recent events, their own suspicions and what that would mean…
What did that mean?
"We need to be careful," Inari ended. "In any case, this cannot reach the public. If any of this information so much as leaves this office…"
"I can imagine," Brazen muttered in annoyance, "pure panic… Aw, how troublesome."
When he finally came back home after having worked for almost two entire days and one night, the media was back outside his house, paparazzi camping in front of his yard, but he was so tired that he hardly cared. He just fell on his bed and slept without dreaming.
To be honest, the conversation with Brazen last chapter was not just something I enjoyed doing for Brazen's sake, but also a bit of practice for Hawks. That will be another Endeavor fan we will have to address now. I intend for Hawks to make his first appearance soon. Finally!
