What a great episode! What a great chapter! Did you see it, read it, watch it?

My Endeavor-Heart is happy!


Meeting the Heroes of Japan

"Suga-san, I heard your son is a big fan of mine!"

Endeavor could already hear that obnoxious voice when he entered his agency just after noon, finishing his parole early.

"I leave you to it, Avalanche," he told his senior sidekick. "Unless something really big happens, I'll probably be occupied for the next three hours at least." He glanced at his clock.

"Sure. I'll take Shrinking Girl with me, as we agreed," the blond hero had his fur jacket that was part of his costume tied loosely around his hips. It was a surprisingly warm December morning. "Good luck with the meeting." Enji grunted a little, looking over the reception hall of the agency that was already brimming with heroes, sidekicks, and several of Enji's own employees trying to bring a little order into the chaos. "I don't really envy you," he pulled his phone out, looking at the screen, "anyways, I'm out."

"Take care," Endeavor called after him, but he was already putting his attention on the other heroes in the room.

Avalanche and Shrinking Girl would take over the patrol during the duration of the meeting.

"I could give you an autograph, what do you think, huh Suga?"

Endeavor glanced towards the reception where the Number Two hero stood, leaning over the front desk speaking with the thin man sitting there. Poor Suga was so flustered with Hawks' half-assed advances, he completely failed to concentrate on his computer desktop and whatever task he was performing there. Finally, he apparently lost his patience looking up at the hero.

"Gladly," he answered, "just leave it at the desk for me."

Hawks leaned back a little, stretching his back, spreading his wings, as if he felt stiff from the journey. He laughed brightly. "You were right, Kosuke," he exclaimed, "he's a serious one." Kosuke – Brazen stood in civilian clothes next to him, a brightly colored wool sweater, tight-fitting grey pants and a pair of flashily green sneakers. Red socks came out of his shoes, reaching all the way to his knees tucked over his pants. Hawks turned towards him. "You wanted to show me my room."

Brazen didn't speak quite as loudly as Hawks. Endeavor couldn't hear his reply, but the next moment they left for the elevators together. So, Brazen had already set out on his task to befriend the Number Two, and so far it seemed to work out. Of course, Hawks had probably just arrived and who knew how their relationship would be in another hour or so, but at least they started off well.

"No, as far as they know, the theory is that it's an accident," he heard a female voice to his left. "Yes, accidental quirk activation." He saw Mt. Lady leaning against the wall next to the door. She had her phone in her hand. "I told you, Shinji," she sounded exasperated, "we don't know yet, and it will probably take another few days until we can be sure." Shinji, he knew, was Kamui Woods' civilian name. She was probably talking to her teammate.

Endeavor turned away from her, not wanting to listen in on her phone call; although he suspected he had already heard most of it anyway.

Mandalay of the Wild Wild Pussycats sat languishing over one of the sofas in the waiting room. The Number Eight hero, Wash, stood in the middle of a group of five or six heroes, all of them talking wildly. Ms. Joke, who had come from Kumamoto to represent Ketsubutsu Academy High School, apparently enjoyed getting on Eraserhead's nerves, who sat tiredly tucked into one of the most comfortable chairs in the whole room. From where Endeavor stood, he could hear the Number Six hero, Crust, and his loud voice coming from the staircase, although he couldn't see him.

He strutted towards Suga at the front desk, who seemed a lot more productive than he had been just a minute ago when Hawks was still around. "Are we ready?" he asked.

"We're still waiting for Rocklock," he said with a quick glance on the list. "His flight is delayed a bit. But he should make it in time."

"Great," Endeavor said, although he didn't quite feel it. He soon had to step in front of all of them and tell them his plans. He really could imagine a dozen things he'd rather do. "Send them up to the meeting room in 30 minutes."

"Ya, ya," Suga answered half-heartedly. "I know." He tapped the clock next to the desk as if to show Endeavor that he hadn't forgotten about his duties.

"And if you see Ebony Fall, tell him to meet me immediately," Endeavor added with a small frown.

Suga looked up at him, then he nodded without giving Endeavor any more attitude.

Endeavor was halfway to the elevator when Mt. Lady caught up to him. "How's the investigation going?" he asked as soon as he realized who was walking beside him.

"That's what I'm here to tell you about. Since you were also at the fire, it concerns you too… Never mind you might be interested." She answered with a bright smile that seemed almost a little aggressive. "Not that it concerns you, but…knowing your situation I thought you should know."

He hesitated in his step. His situation? He looked at her with a questioning scowl on his face. She didn't continue immediately. "Well, what is it?" he demanded to know when she didn't say it immediately.

"Ah, calm down, old man," her hands raised defensively, but the disrespectful way in which she addressed him put him in an even worse mood.

The young new heroes these days… they acted as if nobody had taught them how to treat their elders. They were cocky and arrogant and had the worst manners and no respect. Kamui Woods at least was a humble person, but Mt. Lady was the worst. How they could even work together he wondered. It was the same with Mirko, he decided, and Hawks. Arrogant, self-absorbed and careless brats, all of them. He really hated that kind of attitude, and the only reason he was willing to tolerate is, was because they were at least half-way decent heroes.

You're one to talk! A cruel voice in his head whispered.

"What is it?" he demanded again, his flames flickering impatiently. They had reached the elevators and he was already pressing the button to call one of those tin cans down, and she still hadn't told him. Instead, they waited for the elevator together and when the doors opened with a quiet 'ping' she even stepped inside after him. Did she want to keep her information secret?

"It seems to have been an accidental quirk activation by a young teenager. The police are still investigating the evidence and it's not ultimately confirmed, but that is their most workable theory at the moment," she finally explained.

"So, no arson?" he asked to make sure. "Do they know the kid who likely did it?"

"They think it's one of the victims. Dying of your own quirk…" She made a face. "That must be horrible."

As she said it, a shiver ran down Endeavor's spine thinking about Touya. How horrifying that must have been. But stop! Touya had not died of his own quirk! It was not the same, it wasn't even connected.

"Why do you think I need to know?"

"It's apparently a fire-related quirk. Similar to yours, just with less firepower and more explosive expansion." She shrugged. "It has nothing to do with you, but I thought I'd warn you before the media twists it in some way to lay it at your feet."

He grunted. Fine, he could appreciate that sentiment. "Thanks for the heads up." He said it just at the moment the elevator came to a silent halt on the 21st floor.

As he stepped out, he was a bit annoyed to see the younger hero follow him still and then stay right behind him all the way to the grand meeting room where he wanted to make some final preparations for the meeting.

"The meeting only starts in half an hour," he informed her with an impatiently raised eyebrow.

"Sure," Mt. Lady hummed as she sat down on one of the chairs in the middle of the room, putting her feet on the table in front of her. Endeavor frowned at that insolence. "Don't mind me," she put her arms behind her head and leaned back into her chair, making herself comfortable.

Endeavor very much minded, but then he just shook his head going back to his front desk to sift through his notes. Every now and then he got distracted by her humming, but whenever he looked up to her, she was just staring at the ceiling as if she was counting the lightbulbs over her head.

Ebony Fall came in only a few minutes before the meeting would start. Endeavor looked at him with narrowed eyes. "You're ready?"

"I know what to say," Best Jeanist's sidekick said in a deep gravelly voice. "Not sure, why you need me to…" He cut himself short as his eyes drifted to Mt. Lady. A scowl crawled over his dark skin, then his facial features relaxed again, looking back at Endeavor just giving a silent nod.

"Good," Endeavor turned back to his papers, "sit, we'll start in a few minutes."

During the entire encounter, Mt. Lady hadn't stopped humming and staring at the wall. Now finally, she took the feet off the table, righting herself on her seat throwing a quick smile at Ebony Fall.

Slowly, one after the other, the other heroes came in. They all were in costume. Endeavor, too, wore his costume, fiery beard, mask and all. This was a hero gathering. They would all show themselves from their best side. Heroes among each other was not much different than villains among each other:

Don't show your weakness, show your skill. Your costume represents yourself and your support technicians, and disgracing yourself in front of your fellow heroes would disgrace your agency and fans. They were all rivals here, challengers for the number one position - especially now that it was so easy for the taking, compared to the tight hold All Might had on it.

It was a ridiculous parade of bright colors, flashy designs, broad smiles, and openly activated quirks. No crowd could be quite as colorful as a group of heroes as big as he had assembled in this room today.

In the back, where he could still see everybody without his great body hindering the views of others, there was Fat Gum from Mie Prefecture in his jumpsuit in different shades of yellow. Another yellow spot was Gran Torino's cape, sitting in one of the front seats representing Yamanashi Prefecture. Gang Orca came from Kanagawa Prefecture, standing against the wall a bit removed from the others, a water bottle in hand. Arms crossed, Crust, who had come from Kyoto stood not too far away from him. Wash had come with one of his sidekicks and sat next to a hero with a bright blue cape, a punk hairstyle and scaled skin. Rocklock had taken a seat in the first row, halfway between Gran Torino and Ryukyu.

Detective Tsukauchi came to represent the police. There were four officials from some of the biggest hospitals in Japan. Backdraft had come not just as a hero but also as a firefighter; and Eraser Head, Ms. Joke, and four other heroes had come from the six biggest hero schools of the country.

All in all, fifty heroes had arrived from 47 prefectures of Japan, another five or so just from Musutafu. Including officials from the emergency services, representatives of the schools and some of Endeavor's own employees handing out drinks and snacks, there were almost 80 people in the grand meeting hall, and the space was just barely enough to fit them all in. This room was designed to hold up to 100 people, but several of the heroes had odd shapes and sizes due to their quirks and needed space for two or carried around so many support items they needed a second seat to place them on.

"Thanks for showing the way," he heard Hawks' cheerful voice, before the Winged Hero entered with a broad smile, waving to somebody behind himself – probably Brazen – as his wings weakly knocked against the doorframe. He didn't look up at Endeavor, just threw a quick glance at the people in the front, without so much as acknowledging the top hero. Instead, he grinned widely into the room, greeting the whole assembled group of heroes with a bored wave of his hand.

"What an impressive sight," he warbled happily, "so many heroes in a single room. There's no place ever as safe as this room."

"Just take your damn seat, brat!" Gang Orca grumbled as the Number Two passed him.

It only served to broaden the Number Two's smile. With defensively raised hands, he took a seat somewhere in the back rows of the room, next to a female hero with long black hair reaching all the way to her ankles that she had wrapped it around herself and her seat. When he briefly spread his wings making himself comfortable, he brushed against her hair, which quickly recoiled from being touched.

Endeavor waited a few more minutes, before he sent most of his employees out of the room, the last of them closing the door behind themselves. It was time to start the meeting.

"Welcome to Musutafu, and thank you for coming together at such short notice," he started, making the greeting as short as possible. He had neither the time nor muse for a lengthy welcome.

There was some muttering in response, but most of his fellow heroes stayed quiet. He could only make out Rocklock's actual words: "Not like we had much of a choice," he muttered. The black hero sat in the first row and was thus easily audible to Endeavor. He glared at the Number One with clear dislike. Endeavor didn't remember ever really working together with the man, so his dislike had to stem from recent events.

Well, that had to be expected, that the current scandal around Endeavor's name would not pass his colleagues by. He was sure several of them had strong opinions of him, so he was just thankful they at least let him speak.

"After Fukuoka, I wanted to call you all together sooner," he continued, searching to find Hawks' eyes, but the young hero was too short, and his face was hidden behind the man sitting in front of him. Endeavor could only see Hawks' wings. "But things came in between and—"

"I bet," he heard Rocklock mutter, and somebody else laughed nervously in his vicinity.

"…it never really came to be. Now, the situation has again changed, and I believe it is tantamount, that we finally meet and structure our joint effort fighting the League of Villains and the overall surge of villainy in Japan."

"Well spoken," Crust cheered, but then his mood shifted, "but is it not hypocritical, this coming from you of all people?"

Some heroes agreed audibly, approval being muttered left and right.

"Yeah, you're the main reason for this surge, Endeavor! And we all have to deal with it!" Rocklock exclaimed looking around himself, to indicate his fellow heroes. "Maybe just giving up your license would-"

"Shut up," Gang Orca interrupted with a loud voice. He glared at the crowd. "You have a point, but this is not the right setting to address this."

"If not here, where else?" somebody asked angrily. "It's not like we have much opportunity to speak to Mister Top Hero over there. He's a disgrace to our—"

"Then tell him after this meeting or write a letter for all I care," Orca demanded. He crossed his arms glaring at the hero who had spoken up, then turning his angry glare at Endeavor that the Flame Hero was sure that Gang Orca had his fair share to say himself. "But we're here to discuss a problem that has plagued this country since before this recent information about Endeavor hit the news."

"That's right!" It was Mandalay who stood up, her voice hardly rising over the humming and muttering of the crowd surrounding her, but she used her quirk to make herself heard by every single person in the room. "The League of Villains has done their evil work even before All Might retired. I should know." The words seemed to hit a nerve. Mandalay's team had been attacked while working with UA to train the first years. One of her teammates had been kidnapped and lost her quirk. Most of the people in the room knew at least some of what had happened to Ragdoll. It was a cruel fate for any hero to lose their quirk. How could you even be a hero after something like that? After losing your power – what made you powerful.

I'd rather die fighting.

"If this meeting can help us coordinate a joint effort against the League," the Wild Wild Pussycat continued, "it's worth it, to at least listen to what he has to say."

What she said, seemed to calm the crowd down at least enough for Endeavor to continue.

"Thank you," Endeavor said, looking at her, quite grateful that he hadn't had to scream for his colleagues' attention. "So far, that was something we never really tried."

"What about Kamino Ward?" somebody asked.

"It was simply a reaction to a prior attack by the League of Villains. The cooperation between agencies on this scale back then was unprecedented and was terminated after the event," Endeavor said, looking at Gran Torino and Tsukauchi in turn, who both had been a major factor in setting up that team. Back then, the whole idea had grated Endeavor the wrong way. He hadn't liked having to team up with so many top heroes, never mind All Might.

"True, it was simply a reaction," Gran Torino thought out loud. "You want to be more proactive?"

Endeavor didn't answer immediately. "It's similar to what happened not too long ago, during the battle against the Shie Hassaikai, when the late Sir Nighteye called together a group of heroes." He glanced at Rocklock and Fat Gum shortly. "But that too, just like my own though coincidental cooperation with Hawks in Fukuoka was swiftly terminated after the event. During the latter two incidents, the heroes working together were even from many different prefectures, normally working in completely different areas of Japan. While the experiences gained there can be quite important in the future, they are not exactly useful in dealing with a sudden Noumu attack. After all, the members of these team-ups operate far away from each other and may never team up again. Or at least not for a long time."

The humming of the crowd had increased in a sudden rage when he suggested that these team-ups might have been useless, but it quieted down again almost immediately, as they understood what he was saying.

"What I mean is that in the event that… say a Noumu attacks Musutafu, it will not help me much against that Noumu, that I have experience fighting with Hawks at my side. What would be far more useful, is if I knew how to work with the other heroes in my immediate vicinity."

"Then maybe you should be more open to cooperating with your neighbor's," Ms. Joke laughed. "Everybody knows how uptight you are, wanting to do everything yourself."

Mt. Lady laughed approvingly.

He couldn't even be mad. Ms. Joke right. He was notorious for doing everything by himself, he was a loner that way. But…

"Of course," he agreed, "but the problem is not only mine alone. There are no joint training sessions or team-efforts in hardly any prefecture of Japan. As I worked to compile this list of whom to invite, I realized that 21 out of the 48 prefectures don't even have the manpower to deal with a Noumu as powerful as the one who arrived in Fukuoka."

There was enraged muttering.

"Ey, Endeavor!" Crust roared, "how can you be so disrespectful to your fellow heroes!?" He pointed at Endeavor with an enraged frown on his face. "That's so cruel! We're all doing our best."

"Not everybody can be a monster like yourself," Ryukyu agreed neutrally.

"Kanagawa will be fine!" Mt. Lady proclaimed proudly. "We have the strongest heroes." She grinned in Gang Orca's direction who was from the same prefecture she now worked at with Team Lurkers.

"Right," Endeavor agreed, picking up Mt. Lady's train of thought. "At the moment, Kanagawa is in my own opinion the only prefecture, that I am sure can, in fact, deal with a sudden Noumu attack. Edgeshot's team, the Lurkers, is powerful enough that they should be able to do the job. But even Kanagawa lacks the infrastructure to ensure that the evacuation, emergency vehicles and the actual fighting work in tandem together. The cooperation of the heroes of Kanagawa only reaches as far as the members and sidekicks of Team Lurkers. During grand-scale attacks like the ones in Hosu, Kamino Ward, or Fukuoka recently, it still happens way too often that heroes work by themselves or go their own ways, that the evacuation and the rescuers get in the way of the fighting and the other way around, that emergency services are not used to their fullest extent. Just remember the Hosu incident. Although we all surely did our job correctly and called in the important details, still, nobody knew where the hero killer was despite having first been engaged in a fight all the way at the start of the catastrophe. Nobody seemed to be aware of myself or Gran Torino being in town, despite myself calling in as soon as I had arrived. Several student interns went missing throughout the event and one of the Noumu could get away from the other two and the heroes fighting them without any hero able to follow." He looked around the crowd seeing understanding faces. "While we could thankfully get the situation under control eventually, it was, for lack of a better word – a mess. And that is a problem we constantly face during large scale attacks."

"It's not easy to handle," Gran Torino said quietly. "Better communication, of course, that is important, but we're trying to get a hang on that since back when I was still a student."

"That is because we are using police networks as soon as we get involved in a case," Endeavor replied. "Just like with the fire recently: I got a call from my agency, that my help was requested, I went to the scene, there I had to ask for the radio signal the emergency services at the scene were using. Why was I not called directly? Why did I have to ask for the radio signal? All of this takes time, but it is standard procedure almost everywhere." He turned a projector on that showed three series of numbers on the Whiteboard behind his head. "Currently, as there is no joint hero effort, we just use the police's communication system or private systems of individual agencies, but I think it's time to start our own nationwide communication network." He pointed at the three numbers projected onto the whiteboard. "This will be an emergency line that will be open 24/7. A secure line only used by heroes for the single purpose of coordinating joint large-scale events in Musutafu city. This second line will do the same for the prefecture of Musutafu and immediate surrounding areas, and this last number will do the same for all of Japan. I will have employees monitoring these lines at all times and I will demand that every hero in Musutafu and in all of Japan will have at least one ear on this broadcast at all times. Do it yourself or ask a sidekick or intern to do it. I would suggest you set up similar numbers in your own prefectures."

"Wouldn't those numbers be flooded with calls immediately making them ultimately useless?" a hero with a costume designed like a traffic sign asked, frowning.

"That's why we'll have to use them restrictively and within the next few weeks we will have to perfect the process." Endeavor frowned, looking from one hero to the next. "So far, there was no effort made by anybody to coordinate the many heroes of Japan. We are way too fractured. It is thanks to the police that sometimes, we build teams for uniquely difficult cases, but in general all of us, we're working alone."

He looked down at his hands. It was his own failure, he realized that brought them to this place. He couldn't quite suppress the heavy sigh passing his throat.

"In recent years, All Might who was our symbol of peace almost single-handedly upheld the order in this country. We've all been too complacent within this system, waiting for All Might to do his work and simply cleaning up after him." It hurt to speak these words. He had tried so hard… Even back when All Might was still an active hero, he had worked relentlessly to catch up to him, to not just live in his shadow, but even he had ultimately not managed to dig himself out of it. "Now, All Might is gone, many villains join forces, building powerful groups like the League of Villains, and we have not yet found a way to counter that."

"You're the Number One Hero!" somebody blurted into the silence that Endeavor had created through his words. "Shouldn't that be your job. We're trying our best!"

"No, you're not!" Endeavor retorted angrily. He shouldn't have said that he realized it immediately, but it was something that had bugged him for years.

Why was he the only one who worked relentlessly to match All Might? Surpass him even? Why had so many people – heroes, fans, officials – even ridiculed him for his single-minded obsession?

He knew now, the way he'd gone about it was wrong, but…

Why was I the only one who had even tried?

Immediately the room erupted into chaos. Insults and indignations were thrown at him, a few heroes took his side and threw insults back. Arguments came from everywhere.

"You're one to talk!" somebody screamed, "when did you actually put any effort into trying to be a good hero, huh?"

"Never mind a good person!" Rocklock cried out.

"Shut up, he's right!"

"You're a disgrace! We'd do far better without you!"

"Either we try harder or we all go down!"

"Washer wash wa-"

It was a cacophony of voices, yells, and odd sounds.

"QUIET!" Endeavor bellowed, this time not willing to wait for Mandalay to calm the group down. His flames surged in anger shining brighter than the light bulbs at the ceiling.

The crowd immediately shut up. Some eyed him warily, thinking he was about to attack, others frowned displeased, and some just looked relieved that at least somebody had managed to quiet the chaos.

"You haven't done enough! I haven't done enough! Because we're all still trying to do it alone! Some of us want to be the hero to bring down Shigaraki Tomura personally, don't lie!" Mirko wasn't here, but she had proudly proclaimed that only weaklings would team up with other heroes, and he was sure she was not the only one to think that way. He himself thought that way. "Some of us are too afraid to face them and simply hope that whenever they attack, there will be some stronger hero to take care of business." And why wouldn't they be afraid? The Noumu were terrifying, even for him. "Some realized they had to team up with others, and they handpicked more sidekicks and fellow heroes in their neighborhood, but they still don't put the effort in to coordinate with the rest of the heroes in their prefecture." He glanced around still seeing adversity in their faces although an increasing number of them seemed to reluctantly agree.

Mt. Lady on her seat in the middle of the room looked petulantly enraged.

"Mt. Lady?" Endeavor spoke to her directly. "You're a member of Team Lurkers now. Should Yokohama be attacked by a Noumu, who will fight the Noumu?"

"My team, of course," she proclaimed proudly, hitting the surface of her desk with a clenched fist. "Team Lurkers. We can handle a Noumu." Endeavor didn't doubt it, although even that team would have trouble with an opponent of the same abilities as the one, he had faced in Fukuoka.

"You are currently not in Yokohama," he reminded her. "You haven't been for the better part of a week, if I'm informed correctly."

She sputtered in surprise. Then she said somewhat meekly: "Kamui and Edgeshot can take care of it still."

Endeavor sighed. "Good, let's say a week from now. You're back in Yokohama, you are fighting with them. Who leads the evacuation effort?"

Mt. Lady looked somewhat surprised by the question. She looked around questioningly. "We have many other powerful heroes in Kanagawa," she said, "Gang Orca could deal with the evacuation."

Endeavor nodded looking at the Number Eleven hero. "Are you aware you were delegated to evacuation duties in your own prefecture in case of a large-scale attack?"

"I was not," the hero answered simply.

Mt. Lady looked somewhat embarrassed. "Well, it's obvious isn't it? Edgeshot, Kamui and I, we've trained a lot. We work smoothly together."

Endeavor looked through the crowd with a raised eyebrow. Understanding seemed to finally dawn on them.

"I am the Number One Hero," Endeavor said quietly, but since nobody else was saying anything, his voice easily carried through the room. "As such, it should have been my job to take up All Might's mantle. But the last few weeks proved to me that I cannot do that. If you want me to just keep trying and be a second All Might, I may try, but I will fail. After I fail, will you demand the same of Hawks, who is only 22 years old? Of Best Jeanist, who has just recovered from a severe injury never mind that we don't even know where he is?" He glanced at Hawks in the crowd. The man sitting before him had lowered his head a little, so that Endeavor could now see the Number Two's wide-eyed stare. Endeavor was a bit put off by the shock on Hawks' face, then Hawks seemed to realize that Endeavor was not the only one looking at him. He made a show of languishing in his seat, spreading his wings, looking unconcerned, trying to seem as if the prospect of having that burden placed upon him did not bother him the slightest.

"AH!" Crust's booming voice suddenly distracted everybody, shifting their eyes from the Number Two hero to the Number Six. "What a heartfelt confession! What is it you want us to do, Endeavor?"

"We can hardly train with every single hero in our prefecture," Gang Orca grunted.

"No, we cannot. But at any given time, we should at least be aware of which hero is in the vicinity close to us. So far, we've been lucky with the timing of the attacks. During each Noumu attack, there was at least one top three hero close-by. We cannot rely on that luck in the future." He glanced around the crowd. "Therefore I want each and every hero to know at any given time, which other hero is close-by, on whose support they can count on, who in their vicinity – if alone or in a group – would be able to deal with a Noumu, and whose job it will be to focus on evacuation and rescue. For those prefectures who do not have the manpower to deal with a large-scale attack, I want there to be an emergency plan of how to detain the villain and the damage of the fight to a minimum until backup from a neighboring prefecture can arrive. Ideally, I want that should a large-scale attack happen anywhere in Japan, every hero in the vicinity knows immediately what their job is in handling the situation."

"That will be close to impossible," Tsukauchi argued quietly. "Too many heroes travel all across Japan without, leaving their prefecture, taking cases outside of their agency's vicinity, getting injured…"

"We'll have to do the best we can," Mandalay stated simply.

They argued over the details of the plan for a while, before Endeavor changed the subject to the next big bullet point for the meeting.

"We've now talked a lot about how to react and coordinate during villain attacks," he continued, "but it seems clear that we cannot just leave it at that. We need to finally get a handle on the League of Villains, to curb this new surge of villainy." He looked at Tsukauchi and Ebony Fall. "For that purpose, I think it is necessary to bring you all into the fold as regards to the current investigation. Much of it is classified, and we cannot risk for the knowledge to leave this room, but I would ask Detective Tsukauchi to give at least a brief overview over the League of Villains and the current progress of the investigation. We also need to talk about the disappearance of Best Jeanist."

"What does Best Jeanist's disappearance…?" Crust started asking, but then he cut himself off. "Don't tell me, they hurt another one of our best?"

He always had a thing for dramatics, Endeavor knew. But he didn't focus too much on Crust.

This now… this would hurt. He had spoken to Tsukauchi before and it now seemed an obvious choice, that they had to finally share the information that Dabi was, in fact, his son. Not with the public quite yet, but his fellow heroes. He had asked Ebony Fall to start giving his information on Best Jeanist first before Tsukauchi could start with his explanations. He feared, after Dabi's true identity was revealed, nobody would be as willing to listen to Endeavor as quietly as they were now.


Hawks! I finally managed to let him appear. Next chapter will focus a bit more on him, but the problem still remains... he's difficult to place into the story, even now that he made his first appearance.

This chapter was super hard to write for me, because there suddenly were so many characters to handle that I tried to write as in-character as I possibly could. The chapter also got a bit longer because of that.

I tried to put a bit of thought into how different characters would react to Endeavor now. If you feel like I misrepresented a character or like he would react differently, tell me. :D I mostly just wrote these characters the way I remembered them being from scenes in the manga. With most of them I just guessed. Anyway, here is a quick rundown of some of these characters and how and why they react the way they do:

Mt. Lady: She is in my eyes a bit of a ... materialistic hero. That may be a harsh word, but I think she more than many other heroes represents the type of hero who just really enjoys the fame. I don't think that she's a bad person or anything, so that might sound a bit negative, I actually don't have anything against her. However while I think she might have been shocked at the initial information about what happened within the Todoroki family, but she's not making a big deal out of it. She's also active in the Musutafu area. While she changed her base of operation to Yokohama - where she's working with Edgeshot now - she still does a lot of work in Musutafu and has a lot of connection there. So she's locally right at the center of this whole scandal, and I think at this point she has enough of it. While many of the other heroes work far away, and see Endeavor for the first time, for her the scandal is already somewhat 'old news'.

Gang Orca: I made him into the voice of reason. He likes kids and he's absolutely appalled by what Endeavor did, but he's also able to deal with it professionally seeing that this is not the right time or place to just throw insults at each other, but to work effectively. He knows that this whole situation reflects bad on hero society and he's trying to work with the situation as well as he can.

Rocklock: Since one of the few things I know about him, is that he is a father, I made him one of the most enraged heroes at this meeting. So he's absolutely disgusted with Endeavor. I also remember him as somebody not trying to hold back with his opinion, so I used him to portray the heroes who loudly rage against Endeavor.

Crust: Crust was a bit...in the middle. He seems a very principled and 'chivalrous' (almost) type, who is directly stating what he thinks. So Crust does not like what he found out about Endeavor, and he doesn't hold back with his opinion on that side. However Crust also somewhat respects Endeavor for actually being a good hero and putting his life on the line. So he's a bit ambiguous but without putting a lot of reflection behind it.

In general, I think the heroes have as negative opinions about Endeavor as the media, but they are more professional about it. I also wanted to stop just portraying his 'critiques' as a 'hive mind'. In a similar way of how the members of his agency have differing opinions about him. the members of the public or his fellow heroes have too. It's just that as long as I don't get to focus on them, it seems very ... 'hive-mind...y'.