Wind of Destiny: Converging

Red Thread – Epilogue

The President of the Hero Public Safety Commission sat alone at a table inside a glass covered rooftop patio, sipping a cup of milk tea from one hand while reading from a folded newspaper held in the other. She didn't raise her eyes when the chair across from her was pulled out and someone took a seat. She finished skimming over the article she'd been reading while her companion ordered herself a cup of café au lait. She set the newspaper down on the table next to her saucer and finally lifted her gaze to the pale woman sitting across from her.

"Councilwoman," she addressed the woman, nodding her head in greeting.

"Madam President," Hebisawa Shira replied, tilting her head as well in response. "We were so sorry to have missed you at the auction. Your donation was well received."

"I see," the President replied as she set her cup back down in the saucer and folded her hands in her lap. "As always, we look forward to your continued support."

In addition to being the organizer of the annual Most Eligible Heroes Auction, as well as one of the founding members of the Survivor's Fund, Hebisawa Shira was also a minister of the Cabinet and a prominent member of the House of Councilors. Had the President not ordered Hawks to participate in the auction, the woman had all but threatened to pull her support for any Safety Commission legislation going forward.

The woman smiled at her with a calculating gleam in her red eyes. "Yes, of course."

The waiter brought over the café au lait the Councilwoman had ordered, setting it on the table in front of her before bowing and walking away. She lifted the cup to her pale lips and took a slow sip, staring at the President over the rim before setting the cup back down and addressing her again, "I had the pleasure of meeting your secretary last night. She made quite a stir with her appearance."

"Is that so?" The President asked as she glanced down at the newspaper laying on top of the table.

The article she'd been reading when the Councilwoman had joined her was about the charity auction. There had been only a brief mention about the bids that were placed for each hero, but no mentions of any of the winner's names. It appeared as though Misaki had managed to keep herself out of any of the tabloids or major news publications. Not so much as a single photograph had been published of her. She was certain Madame LeBlanc was practically seething about that fact at the moment, considering all of the work she'd put into her appearance for the night.

It was no secret that Misaki was a very attractive woman. But she had shown a tendency to depreciate her own appearance. Her style of dress at work was what would probably be considered conservative, her skirts never hitting above the knee, nor her collar ever dipping low enough to show any cleavage. As far as the President could tell, she never wore much makeup, and only modest jewelry when it was appropriate for her outfit. Not that she needed any embellishment. Even with her modest dress, she had quickly become known throughout the building as the cool beauty of the top floor.

She'd been curious to see what the renowned designer would do with such an ideal canvas. The President had taken a peek at the dress when the courier had dropped it by the office, along with an expensive looking jewelry case and a box of Jimmy Choo's. Considering the sultry, formfitting elegance of the velvet masterpiece she'd created, she'd almost been surprised to learn that Misaki had actually worn the dress to the event. It was definitely a big step out of her typical comfort zone. But it had been necessary. If she was going to go to a charity auction and spend ten million yen, she needed to look and feel like ten million yen. People wouldn't have taken her seriously otherwise.

"Her dress. It was a Madame Leblanc original if I'm not mistaken?" The Councilwoman asked as she raised her cup of café au lait back up to her lips to take another sip.

The President lowered her gaze as she commended the woman, "You have a discerning eye, as usual."

"Yes, quite stunning. Almost as attention grabbing as the bid she made," the Councilwoman commented as she set her cup back down.

"Oh?" The President inquired, raising an eyebrow as she lifted her cup of tea to her lips.

"Did you not hear? She placed the entirety of your donation as a bid on Hawks," the Councilwoman informed her with a knowing glare.

"Well, that was quite bold of her," the President replied as she dropped her eyes to the table and set her cup back in its saucer.

"Yes, quite. I wonder, did you send her in your stead, knowing that she would place that bid?" The Councilwoman asked, keenly watching the President's reactions with narrowed eyes.

The President calmly replied, "I merely instructed her to hand in the donation on the behalf of my office. How she chose to present that donation was entirely up to her."

The Councilwoman smirked. "I see. Perhaps the one with the discerning eye here is you, and not I."

The President tilted her head a bit and said, "I'm afraid I don't follow."

"I hope you do not believe that your reluctance to have Hawks participate in the auction this year was lost on me, Madam President," the Councilwoman replied coolly, sitting back in her chair, and crossing her legs before setting her hands atop her knee and holding the President's even stare.

"I had no feelings one way or the other about the matter. How Hawks conducts himself in the public eye has always been his own choice. If there was any reluctance that you may have picked up on my behalf, it was only perhaps in regard to the manner in which his invitation was presented this year," the President replied, her nonchalant tone taking on a calculating edge toward the end of her explanation.

The Councilwoman smirked and shook her head lightly. "You always have had a quicksilver tongue."

"I do not wish to be lectured about such things by one such as you," the President coolly replied as she lifted her teacup up to take a sip, glaring wryly over the edge at the other woman.

She ducked her pale head in deference and admitted, "I acknowledge that my methods were somewhat underhanded, but you know how politics is. Shit flows downstream, I'm afraid."

"As per usual," the President huffed.

It wasn't the first time she'd had to play these political games with the Councilwoman, and it probably wouldn't be the last.

"I only wished to convey my appreciation for the way you handled the situation. My only regret was that you were not able to be there to see the look on Speaker Arakawa's wife's face when she lost her bid to your secretary," the Councilwoman informed her with a somewhat morbidly gleeful smile.

"There was no ill will transferred to you for that, I hope?" The President asked.

The Councilwoman shook her head, her smile never leaving her face as she replied, "None at all. In fact, the Speaker was quite appreciative that his wife had been put in her place for once. Everything worked out for the best for all parties involved, I believe." Her gaze took on a shrewd appearance as she commented, "Including your reluctant Wing Hero."

"Hm?" The President hummed in a somewhat bored tone as she sipped her tea.

"He appeared to be quite enamored with your young secretary. Were you aware?" The Councilwoman asked in a slightly gossipmongering tone.

The President didn't rise to the provocation. "He isn't the only one. She has quite a few admirers around the office."

"For good reason, no doubt," the Councilwoman commented with a shrewd smirk.

It wasn't a lie. However, Misaki had always been quite earnest in turning down any brave admirers who'd gathered up the courage to attempt to ask her out, not really giving any of them a solid reason as to why, just that she wasn't interested in pursuing a relationship with anyone at the moment. As far as she knew, that included Hawks. He was not above tossing the occasional suggestive comment or glance her way, as the President had noticed during the handful of encounters she'd witnessed between the two of them in the office. Misaki had never risen to the provocation though, usually brushing off his playful advances with some form of witty jibe.

It almost appeared as though he was teasing her, but less in the way a boy would tease a girl he liked, and more like the light banter between close friends. Considering that Hawks had been the one to bring Misaki by the office with him the day she'd hired her, it was possible that was in fact the case. The thought was somewhat encouraging to the President, considering the circumstances behind the young hero's atypical upbringing. That he was able to form that kind of relationship with anyone, after everything he had been through, eased her conscience a bit.

She knew that the carefree, cock-sure attitude he portrayed to the world was little more than a carefully crafted persona he'd adopted to associate with the hero known as Hawks. When she'd first encountered him as a child sixteen years ago, he'd been much more reserved, hardly ever speaking more than a few words, and never without having been addressed first. He tended to keep people firmly at arm's length, partially due to the nature of his job, but mostly because he just didn't know how to let people in. He was quite capable of compassion and empathy, it wouldn't have been possible for him to become a hero otherwise, but he'd always struggled with forming emotional bonds.

The committee in charge of his training had deemed that trait to be inconsequential to his overall development, and they hadn't put forth any effort into helping correct that deficiency. They had actually considered it to be a possible detriment to their objective of making him into the perfect hero. They'd argued that forming emotional attachments to people created an opportunity for villains to use those people against him. It represented a potential for weakness.

She'd never been completely convinced of that. In her experience, loneliness was a burden that often led to resentment. Companionship, familiarity, those types of bonds formed a foundation of trust. If a hero was unable to forge those kinds of connections in his personal life, how could they expect him to be able to connect with the public? Endeavor was a prime example of that. The training and development committee had taken her advisement on the matter in a different direction though, focusing on drilling interpersonal skills into him instead, and effectively creating the current manifestation of his "Hawks" persona.

However, intimacy was another matter. If there was one emotional bond that could be considered a weakness, it was love. That complex emotion was known to make people abandon all reason in favor of sentiment; something they just couldn't afford to risk, given the types of tasks they were developing him for. The fact that he'd had no such attachment to his family had made him the perfect candidate for their hero development program. At the moment, it appeared that she had no reason to worry about such a possibility between Misaki and Hawks. She only hoped that it stayed that way, for both of their sakes.

"Unfortunately, it appears as though it's time I must depart," the Councilwoman announced before rising from her seat. She reached into her clutch and pulled out a few notes, placing them under her cup and saucer on the table before nodding her head to the President. "Madam President."

"A pleasure as always, Councilwoman," the President replied, returning the gesture as the woman turned and walked toward the patio doors leading back into the main restaurant.

The President's cool blue gaze shrewdly followed her retreat. That snake of a woman had actually thought she could try to strong arm her into cooperating with her socialite games. If she wasn't a deciding member of the Cabinet concerning hero activities, she wouldn't have given her shameless demands a second thought. The donation that was made on the behalf of the Hero Public Safety Commission should have been more than enough to secure her continued support. However, she had apparently decided that the draw of having two of the top five heroes, particularly the one who had been eluding her for the last three years, was worth issuing a veiled threat to pull her support if the President hadn't cooperated to ensure their participation.

That was just how people in power operated. They used whatever means they had at their disposal to manipulate people into getting what they wanted. Similar to the way the President had manipulated Misaki. She had selfishly insisted that her secretary attend the event in her stead, entrusted her with a check for ten million yen, and provided her with a custom designer dress for the evening, all with the intention of using her participation in the auction as a way of putting Hebisawa Shira's game in check.

She had expected that Misaki would use the donation money to make a bid. Considering the amount of the donation, such a bid was likely to draw a fair amount of attention, particularly from the event's organizer. She hesitated to call it a gamble. Knowing Hawks, he wasn't exactly one to conceal his distaste for things that he considered to be a waste of time; much the way she was certain he felt about being auctioned off to the highest bidder for the evening, even if it was for charity. Taking into consideration their prior acquaintance, and if her assessment of Misaki's character held up, his open discomfort should have been enough to make her act on his behalf.

She'd looked with great detail into Misaki's background after she'd hired her last December. It had surprised her to learn about her parents' disappearances, and after a bit more in depth digging, that the girl had somehow managed to survive all on her own afterward. There wasn't much detail about her living situation, or how she'd managed her expenses throughout middle school and high school, but her academic records had told quite a story.

Her aptitude scores in the prospective hero categories had been off the charts when she'd taken the assessment during middle school to determine her future career path, which was quite remarkable considering that she was quirkless. The girl could have had her pick at any hero academy in the nation, perhaps even qualified for a scholarship, considering her home situation. However, she hadn't applied to a single one of them, choosing instead to attend a local high school in the Minami Ward of Fukuoka. If Hawks hadn't been so persistent when he'd discovered her at the bank after the attempted robbery, she would probably still be leading that insignificant and wasteful life.

In the seven weeks that she'd been working for her, the President had come to observe several interesting traits about her new secretary. She was incredibly sharp, easily absorbing and responding to any and all information or direction she was given. Her dedicated work ethic and situational adaptability made her the ideal assistant; and while she may not have possessed a vast knowledge base in concerns to hero law enforcement, she was quickly making up that lost ground. On the other hand, she'd displayed a tendency sometimes to get bogged down by details and was prone to over analysis. She appeared to be methodical and collected, though sometimes stubborn and overly critical; mostly toward herself.

It was her lack of self-confidence that needed work. She already possessed several key attributes they looked for when considering employees for promotion: intelligence, character, and a wealth of untapped potential. What she lacked was drive, a sense of purpose. Something that, unfortunately, she would have to discover on her own.

The President sighed and finished off the last of her tea, setting the cup down and placing a few of her own notes underneath it before standing and making her way toward the door. There was only one way she was going to find out if Misaki had what it took to live up to the potential she'd seen in her. If she was able to successfully complete an investigative assignment, that would be a good first step toward assessing a potential future for her in the upper ranks of the Hero Public Safety Commission.

All that was left to decide was which one to give her.

Thank you for reading :)

LOLSAT