Author's Note: This was a difficult chapter to write, a whole lot of characters come in and new plot lines introduced. Hope you all enjoy, thank you for reading!

Song Inspiration: Born For This by The Score

TWENTY-TWO | BORN FOR THIS

Ochaco had been in large scale meetings before, it wasn't new to her, but seeing so many high ranked heroes in the conference room of the Kamui Woods Agency boggled her mind. She stood at the threshold of the door, scanning the many faces in the space.

Near the wall of windows, overlooking the street below and the Kyoto skyline stood the Winged Hero: Hawks, the Flame Hero: Endeavor, and former number one hero All Might. To her left, standing beside the wall of succulents Eraserhead, Kirishima, Todoroki, and someone she wasn't sure of since his back was to her. It seemed that Bakugo still hadn't arrived at the meeting, nor Kamui Woods.

"Hey, O," Momo's voice came from behind.

Ochaco turned around and smiled. "Momo, you're here too?"

Momo nodded, pulling Ochaco out of the doorway and closer to the large wood table in the middle of the room. "How are you doing?"

Ochaco took in a deep breath and slowly let it out, locking eyes with Momo. "I'm sad, but I'm okay. We're going to get these guys."

"We will." Momo placed a hand on Ochaco's shoulder and gave it a reassuring squeeze.

The doors to the room slid open. Ochaco and Momo turned to the person entering, their eyes widened as Ingenium walked in. He took off his helmet and smiled at the girls, bowing his head in greeting before approaching them. It was hard to tell how much he'd changed overall given his costume covered him head to toe. He wore his hair shorter, slicked it back as well, and a slight stubble grew along his jaw.

"It's been so long, Iida," Ochaco said. She hadn't seen him in over a year, his family agency had shifted gears shortly after his graduation. They used to handle petty crime, but when Iida stepped in he decided to make his agency more about taking in orphaned and runaway youths off the streets to keep them out of a life of crime. Many praised his agency's work and because of it Iida had risen high into the ranks of heroes.

"It certainly has, I'm sorry we aren't coming together under better circumstances." Iida gave her a soft smile and then turned to Momo. "I hear congratulations are in order."

Momo laughed. "Thank you, Iida."

"Iida! I didn't know you were going to be part of this too." Kirishima strolled over, grin on his face. "It's good to see you, man!"

Two two shook hands, and Iida placed his helmet on the table. "Likewise, and I'm not directly a part of this, more of a support if you will."

"Anymore of you class A people going to show up?"

The group turned toward the speaker. Ochaco eyes widened—purple eyes, purple hair, tall—Shinso. She smiled and opened her mouth to greet him when the conference room doors slid open as Kamui Woods, Bakugo, and Mera Yokumiru entered. Aside from Mera, everyone was in their hero attire, but Bakugo's looked completely different from what she remembered. Her head tilted as he walked toward their group.

His grenadiers were gone and had been replaced by a sleek black and orange metal exo-skelaton armor. The new gauntlets stretched all the way up his arms, wrapped around his shoulders and chest, acting as a chest plate of sorts. Beneath his chest plate a compressing black fabric hugged tightly to his body, defining his muscles. He still had his knee pads and combat boots, but the exo-skeleton armor made him stand out among the other heroes in the room.

Ochaco gestured to the new gear. "This is new, looks nice."

Bakugo nodded, holding out his arm, palm up then bent it in, closing his hand into a fist. "A gift from Kamui Woods, says he would prefer if I didn't get my hands ripped apart again."

Ochaco chuckled. "Given that you needed a nerve transplant, probably not a bad idea."

"So it was that serious," Iida chimed in with a shake of his head. "I had heard, guess you're incredibly lucky."

Bakugo snorted. "What are you even doing here, Specs?"

"I have information pertaining to the case of the Daizen 7, I was asked to be here by the HPSC and Kamui Woods."

"Let's get this meeting started," Mera called out from the head of the table. His hair was long and poofy, dark circles framed his eyes, and the slouch in his posture indicated the exhaustion he had. Ochaco figured he would have retired by now given that he always looked like a zombie.

All the heroes in the room took a seat at the table. Ochaco sat near the middle with Bakugo to her left and Momo on her right. All Might sat across from her, and gave a weak smile before turning his attention to the head of the table where Kamui Woods and Mera stood. She wondered why he was present, given he was retired and had most of his focus on teaching at UA. He'd taken over Eraserhead's position, as Eraserhead had decided to return to his pro hero work full time a couple of years back.

Thirteen people in the room, eleven of which were heroes and two being civilians. On the one hand, it seemed like such a small team, but everyone in the room had useful quirks. She glanced at Shinso at the end of the table, he spoke a few words to Hawks, who sat across from him. From her understanding, Shinso worked closely with the HPSC and police departments across the country to gather intel on criminals and villains. He'd made quite a name for himself over the last few years.

The lights in the room dimmed and Kamui lowered the blinds on the window wall. A large screen lowered from the ceiling and the projector above the table beeped, then whirred to life. Mera pulled out a tablet and rested it in the crook of his arm before lazily looking up at everyone. He scanned the room, eyes drifting from the verteran pros to the novices. Sighing, Mera stepped aside, allowing a clear view of the screen.

"It's no secret that our knowledge on the Daizen 7 is limited, and we can't trust the old information we had," Mera explained as four pictures appeared on the screen. Ochaco recognized them all from the board in Bakugo's office. Three men and one woman. Each image had their names typed below: Yume Akashiro, Daichi Shinoda, Ryota Kurosawa, and Masahi Ito.

Ochaco stared at the image of Daichi Shinoda. He was standing outside of a warehouse, wearing an expensive looking suit. Why did he tell her his name was Heisuke Okita when they met a few months back? She sat back in her seat and touched the weight bands on her arms, the gifts she'd been given by Ryukyu. That's when it came to her, the bar she went to was five blocks away from Ryukyu's agency. Had he been watching her? Had they been planning to take the pros out that far back?

Ochaco bit the inside of her cheek and leaned forward on the table. "Does the name Heisuke Okita mean anything?"

"Why?" Endeavor asked.

Ochaco looked at him, his flames flickering around him. "Because the man named Daichi Shinoda, when I met him he told me his name was Heisuke Okita."

"You met him?" Endeavor brow creased. "When and where?"

"Three months ago at a bar, he seemed to be a regular there. He knew the bartender's name and had a tab there as well," Ochaco explained, her eyes drifting to the various people in the room before landing back on Endeavor. "It was five blocks away from Ryukyu's agency. A hole in the wall type of place called The Coterie."

"I know that place," Hawks said, resting his chin on his knuckles. "It's in the basement of an old bookstore."

"That's right," Ochaco said with a nod.

"Do you know anything else?" Endeavor asked.

Ochaco shook her head. "No, but maybe they'd been planning their attack for longer than we expected."

"I wouldn't doubt that," Hawks said, his gold eyes flicking up to the screen. "Three pro heroes all taken out on the same night, no apparent casualties on the enemies side? Their murderers were premeditated."

"The real question is why?" Eraserhead jumped in, leaning forward on the table. He looked to All Might and Endeavor, who sat beside one another. "You two were on the original case."

All Might raised a finger to stop Ereaserhead from speaking. "I never completed the case, I tangled with them on two occasions prior to my retirement. I faced off against Ryota and Masahi to stop an arms deal, which was the first time heroes had ever gotten involved with them and that was over ten years ago. I was the one who got them noticed by the pros."

"Then you're a prime target in terms of revenge," Bakugo said, meeting All Might's gaze. "But here's what I don't understand, it's no secret that you're retired, nor is it a secret that you aren't anywhere near the hero you once were. Why haven't they come after you? Of all the targets they could have, you'd be the easiest to pick off."

"The HPSC agrees," Mera interjected and tapped his tablet. The image zoomed in on Masahi; tall and lanky looking, nothing the slightest bit threatening about him. "All Might, you fought against both Ryota and Masahi, but Masahi was the more difficult of the two, correct?"

"Yeah." All Might nodded. "Masahi was the one who attacked you three on the train." He gestured to Ochaco, Bakugo, and Kirishima. "The shapeshifter."

"He's dead now, isn't he?" Kirishima asked, turning to the screen. "Bakugo blasted his brains out."

"He did," Mera agreed then, the image on the screen changed yet again to a video of Masahi in a hardware store. The time stamp was four days ago in the evening hours. "And yet, we found surveillance of him buying chains in a hardware store in Hamamatsu."

Bakugo crossed his arms, sinking back into his chair. His eyes narrowed at the video on the screen. Ochaco hadn't seen the two of them fight, but she remembered his report to Kamui Woods. When in his wolf form, Masahi had ripped Bakugo's hand apart, allowing Bakugo the opportunity to blow up his skull. Unless he was somehow immortal, he shouldn't have been alive.

"That seems sloppy," Shinso jumped in, all eyes going to him. "Why would he have been spotted so easily? Just a casual stroll through the hardware store? A high ranked member of their organization going in to buy chains? That doesn't seem right."

Ochaco had to agree. If he was a high ranking member, why wouldn't they have sent in someone less known?

"Was he spotted anywhere else?" Endeavor asked.

"No." Mera shook his head. "We ran checks on all major intersections near that particular hardware store and we found nothing. Based on a security camera in the hardware stores parking lot, we do know he walked in the direction of the warehouse district where the murders took place."

"Are we thinking he took all three pro heroes by himself?" Todoroki asked. "It's not like Gang Orca, Ryukyu, and Edgeshot were weak, they were all high ranking heroes with considerable skills. We need to be asking more specific questions."

"I agree," Shinso stated with a nod. "Marionette was our only clue, but now she's dead and we have nothing. We need to understand their quirks and what they are after. I don't believe they killed the pros for shock value or revenge. They're up to something and until we can lock down what that is, nothing else really matters."

Hawks chuckled and pointed to Shinso, who blinked and glanced at Eraserhead. "I like this guy, he's quick."

"Tell them what else you found out," Eraserhead said to Shinso.

Everyone looked at him. He sighed and reached down beside his chair, pulling up a black bag. He pulled out a sketchbook and laid it on the table, flipping through several pages before stopping on a detailed sketch of a man with a scar on his face and slicked back hair. Ochaco was impressed by the life-like detail of the image, it was like a portrait. Shinso showed it to everyone, then kept it propped up in front of him. "When I use my quirk on someone, sometimes I can see into their minds. It's fragmented and hard to make sense of, think of it like seeing glimpses of their memories."

"So who is this supposed to be?" Bakugo asked.

"I think it's Fujimori," Shinso said.

"As in the head honcho of the Daizen 7, the true mastermind behind them?" Endeavor asked, arms crossed against his chest, eyes gleaming with disbelief. "We hunted these villains for a decade, captured several, none knowing what he looked like and even had two informants who had been with them for years, who also didn't know and you're saying this child may have seen him?"

Shinso rubbed the back of his neck. "That's what I'm having trouble believing as well. Why would she have seen him? To our knowledge only the four main leaders know what he looks like, to everyone else he's a ghost."

Ochaco glanced at Bakugo. He looked disgruntled and annoyed, but had managed to keep calm and quiet. She reached for him, under the table, touching his knee. He looked at her, his scowl softening for a moment before looking back at Endeavor and Shinso, who were still talking...borderline arguing. Well, it was mostly Endeavor who was arguing, Shinso was just stating his own assumptions.

"Now, now, Endeavor, don't get so worked up." Hawks patted Endeavor on the shoulder, then turned back to Shinso. "What makes you think he's Fujimori?"

"Because in one of the memories I saw, Marionette was apologizing to him. She said his name."

"Seems like a reasonable assumption to me." Hawks leaned back in his seat, resting his arms on the armrests. "Regardless, we won't get to him easily, because we don't know where they are operating."

"Which is exactly why we're having this meeting," Kamui Woods spoke out.

Everyone turned to him. He stood at the front of the table, head held high as he met everyone's gaze. Ochaco wasn't completely certain, but he seemed to be a little nervous. Given the job he had, she didn't blame him. To take on the lead position of a case as big as this must have been daunting.

"This case isn't going to be some sort of sprint, this is going to be a marathon. We won't be able to easily bring these guys down. They're smart, they have planned this all out. And we don't even know what that plan is or what goal they are trying to achieve and that makes them more dangerous. We have to do this in phases," Kamui Woods explained, placing his hands behind his back. He walked with his shoulders taut, stepping to the side of the screen as Mera changed it to a map of Japan. A dozen red dots appeared on the map, no distinct pattern to be seen. "These dots represent where they have been spotted in the last five months."

"Sporadic at best," Eraserhead commented.

Kamui Woods nodded. "Exactly, which leads me to believe they don't have an official base of operation here yet. As far as we know, they left Japan four years ago, were spotted a handful of times during that time period and now they're back and seemingly lacking in numbers."

"How large were they before?" Todoroki asked.

"Easily a hundred strong," All Might answered. "But that was then, when their focus was organized crime."

"What would have made them change their goals though?" Ochaco asked. She understood they might have left to avoid the pros in the first place, but why bother to come back after four years. It was like they were missing a piece of information. "Leave four years come back completely different, something isn't adding up."

"My thoughts exactly," Kamui Woods said and the image on the screen changed again to a picture of Daichi and Yume. "These two are the left and right hand of Fujimori. Ten of the twelve dots were sightings of them."

"So we gotta catch those two first?" Kirishima folded his arms on the table. "How do we even begin to figure out their next move?"

"We let them come to us," Kamui Woods said. "We already know three potential targets: Ground Zero, All Might, and Endeavor."

"I still agree with Bakugo's theory," Todoroki chimed in, turning his eyes on All Might. "You are the easiest target if this was a revenge plot, I think they're after something else. That being said, Bakugo has already been attacked by them twice and Dad you're the number one hero, though why not take all of them out at the same time? Why only the others?"

"It might have been all they were prepared for," Shinso said, staring at the sketch of Fujimori. "Besides, nothing against the other three pros, but Endeavor and Ground Zero aren't exactly easy to miss in a fight. If they wanted to get them, they'd need a perfect and seamless plan to ensure no one would notice."

Kamui Woods nodded. "That's right. Based on the police reports, Ryukyu, Edgeshot, and Gang Orca were all attacked in their homes and taken out in less than ninety seconds."

Ochaco's eyes widened. "That quickly?"

"More importantly," Mera interjected, changing the image on the screen to a familiar setting. Ochaco sucked in a breath as she stared at the image of Ryukyu's living room and kitchen. "None of the homes indicated any type of struggle." The images changed to what she assumed were Gang Orca and Edgeshot's homes. Just as Mera had said, the homes looked undisturbed given three pros had been forcefully taken.

"No suspicious activity reported or surveillance footage?" Hawks asked.

"We had no footage of Ryukyu's home, but we do have some for both Gang Orca and Edgeshot, it goes fast." Mera changed the screen to a video and pressed play.

He wasn't kidding. The recording revealed to figures, one male and one female, appear in a parking lot. They walked forward and the male figure waved his hand at the camera and it shifted to static. The time stamp read 12:33 AM, then when it came back on it showed 12:34 AM with the man standing in front of the camera only to run into the shadows.

"That was Edgeshot's apartment," Mera explained, tapping on his tablet. "This is Gang Orca's."

The video played. And just as the last one had turned out, so did Gang Orca's. First they appeared out of thin air, the male waved his hand in front of the camera. Static. Time ticked by and then he reappeared only to run into the shadows. It was like they knew they would find this. They were laying out crumbs. Baiting them.

Ochaco shook her head. They were so bold and unafraid, but at the same time being cautious. Her eyes drifted over to All Might; Bakugo and Todoroki were right. Given how easily they got in and out of the pro heroes homes without being spotted, All Might was a sitting duck.

"Gang Orca had been taken an hour after Edgeshot," Mera commented and showed a map of Japan. "The impressive part is the fact that Edgeshot lived in Saitama, while Gang Ocra lived in Chiba. Roughly an hour between the two then factor in Ryukyu in Musutafu, that's a lot of ground to cover."

"Yume Akashiro's teleportation quirk might be more dangerous than we are estimating," Kamui Woods explained, placing his hands on the table and leaning forward. "We have to assume she can travel great distances without much trouble and can teleport others as well."

"And what about the man with her? That wasn't Daichi, his quirk is based on blood," Bakugo said.

"Ryota," All Might responded and rubbed the back of his neck. "His quirk, it's hard to explain, but more or else he can communicate with electronics."

"That explains why they targeted you." Kirishima looked at Bakugo. "He probably knew you were searching for them, figured you might have been a threat."

"I am a fucking threat to them," Bakugo snorted. "So what are these phases? What are we going to do first?" He turned his eyes to Kamui Woods, who let out a breath before straightening.

"Phase one, we wait until they strike."

Bakugo glared. "You want us to do nothing?"

"That's right," Kamui said sternly, glaring right back at Bakugo. "Especially you."

Bakugo scowled. "What kind of plan is that?"

"We know nothing," Kamui snapped, causing Bakugo to simmer down and sink into his chair. "Doing nothing until we know more is the best course of action. There's a reason I asked Ingenium to be here, he's part of phase one."

"Right," Iida said, straightening in his seat. "In Yokohama there was a group of five kids, three girls and two boys, that we'd been trying to befriend. They weren't the least bit trusting. For the past month, I talked with them everyday. Last week, we found one of the kids, the oldest in the group. He was dead, drained completely of his blood."

Ochaco placed a hand on her chest. She had about enough of death lingering around. "What about the other kids?"

"Haven't seen them." Iida looked down at the table. He clicked his tongue, shaking his head before looking back at Ochaco. "We dug around for information, but found out very little. There's rumors of a human trafficking ring in the area. Given that the one boy was found drained of blood and there's talk of a human trafficking, we believe it's related to the Daizen 7."

"Kill the leader to scare the others into submission." Todoroki laced his fingers together, resting his hands on the table. "Do you have any other leads?"

"Not yet, but that's where you all come in." Iida looked to all the heroes in the room. "We're not sure this is completely connected to the Daizen 7, but it has a high chance of being that way."

"We're dividing this up into teams." Kamui Woods gestured to the screen. The image changed to a three column list with the titles of Team 1, Team 2, and Team 3. "Shinso, Eraser, Red Riot, you'll be Team 1. You'll be going to Yokohama to figure what's going on with the human trafficking."

"Hawks and Endeavor you'll be Team 2, you have a special task given directly from the HPSC." Mera reached into the briefcase he'd brought with him, pulling out a manilla envelope. He walked over to them and placed in between them. "In short, you're heading to America for some recon."

"America?" Hawks blinked and grabbed the envelope. Sure enough inside were two plane tickets along with a file containing some photographs and reports. Hawks flipped through the report and raised an eyebrow looking back to Mera. "BioSyn? Isn't that a major quirk research facility?"

"Yes."

Hawks closed the file and passed it to Endeavor. "And you're sending us there because?"

"Right before the Daizen 7 returned to Japan, there was a break in at BioSyn. Over ten thousand files of data was stolen. We need to know more, you'll rendezvous with some allies," Mera explained as he walked back to his seat.

"Ground Zero, Uraravity, Creati, and Todoroki," Kamui Woods began, his eyes locking on Bakugo. "You'll be going to UA."

"What?" Bakugo snapped. "What the hell for?"

Ochaco had to agree with Bakugo. Involving students from UA seemed like a horrible idea, completely high risk to the students. She looked to Todoroki and Momo, who also seemed confused with the plan of action.

"It seems risky, I know," Kamui Woods explained, holding his hands up. "That being said, everything is planned out. It is an elite class of third years, twelve students in total. You'll be in a safe guarded area under surveillance of other pros."

"This sounds like trying to recreate what happened to me with the League of Villains," Bakugo snarled. "By doing this we needlessly put the students in danger, that sounds like a fucking crapshoot."

"Exactly," Kamui Woods said, unwavering in his words. "We need them to think we don't believe them to be a threat. They'll either make a move or they won't."

"This is a fucking terrible plan," Bakugo grumbled. "You said it yourself we don't know what they want."

"We do know something that they want," Kamui replied and pointed at him. "You."

"And UA is really okay with this?" Momo asked, turning her attention to All Might.

"It was approved yesterday by the HPSC and the UA staff," All Might replied and looked to Bakugo. "It's a risky move, but we're fully prepared to protect the students. You don't have to worry about them."

Bakugo shook his head. "Fucking stupid."

"Relax," Kamui said. "I doubt they'll attack."

"Famous last words," Bakugo muttered.