Chapter Twenty-Seven: Second Chance
Misaki walked through the open door into the President's office and laid a folder on the edge of her desk as she announced, "I have the schedule for the provisional license training for you, ma'am."
The President stopped typing and looked up at her. "You've been busy, Misaki."
She smiled, reaching up to tuck a loose strand of hair behind her ear as she replied, "I volunteered to help with the planning for the training courses, since they were so understaffed."
The idea behind enacting the provisional license training courses for the hero academy students who had failed the initial exam was rooted in the Commission's push to bolster the hero presence in the nation following All Might's retirement, and the escape of the League of Villains at Kamino. The overall hero approval ratings had been taking a hit with every new incident that the League was involved in, with many people calling out more publicly for reformation of the hero industry. Ever since Stain's ideology had been published, the rumbling undercurrent of discontent in society had steadily begun to rise in both volume and insistency. Getting a handle on the situation had become their office's top priority.
The older woman folded her hands on her desk and regarded her critically. "Have you put any effort into correcting your analytical efforts since your assignment with Stain?"
She considered the question carefully for a moment before quietly admitting, "I've been collecting bits of information here and there about the League and their movements since their disappearance."
The President stared back at her appraisingly and asked, "And has this candid research of yours yielded any results?"
Misaki raised her hopeful gaze at the woman's favorable tone before nodding. "I'll have a report for you by this afternoon, Madam President."
The woman nodded to her before turning back to her computer and Misaki swiftly turned on her heel, hurrying back to her desk to get to work. After her near brush with losing her job over her disastrous failure with the last assignment the President had given her, Misaki had begun developing a web-based software program that would flag down and archive specific mentions to certain key words or phrases that she designated. The program could sift through any published hero agency reports, police reports, news articles, and social media posts in a fraction of the time it would have taken her to read through them herself.
The programming had been a massive undertaking, requiring several weeks of long, sleepless nights and many cups of coffee to get her through it. She'd even fallen back on some of her less than ethical programing skills to hack into the major news station servers and the most widely used social media platforms. She'd set up dummy admin profiles that would grant her access to private posts and unpublished articles that she wouldn't have been able to view otherwise. It had helped to tell herself that she was only using the information for research purposes, and only if there were specific mentions to known League members or possible activities, but there was no getting around the fact that she was basically spying on people.
She wasn't sure yet whether it would turn into anything useful, but she'd started to uncover a pattern in the movements of a few League members she'd been tracking through several different sources. At the very least, the information could be passed on to the League Task Force so that they could look into it further. There was no way she was going to make the mistake of trying to track down any leads on her own again, she'd definitely learned her lesson from that bad decision. Pulling up her tracking software, she clicked on the folder containing her most recent research query and began working on writing up a report to present to the President about her findings.
A few hours later, Misaki knocked on the President's door, holding her tablet against her chest. The woman lifted a hand to motion for her to enter. She hurried inside, noticing her report open on the President's desk, before sitting in the chair opposite her.
The President leaned back in her chair, folding her hands in front of her and regarding her secretary carefully, "I've gone over your report. How confident are you in your analysis?"
Misaki sits straight up, replying immediately, "Pretty confident."
The President stared at her for a moment before glancing back down at the report on the desk. "According to this, you believe the League of Villains next move will be teaming up with the yakuza?"
Misaki nodded. "One group in particular."
"Why do you believe the League is involved with the Shie Hassaikai?" The President asked, regarding her critically.
Misaki tapped the screen on her tablet and pulled up a photo. She reached out to lay the tablet on the President's desk as she explained, "There've been sightings of the villain Twice, a known League member, speaking with the leader of the gang, Chisaki Kai, also known by the villain name Overhaul. And this isn't the only sighting."
She reached out and swiped her finger across the screen, flipping through more photos, "Several other known League members have been sighted making contact with small time villains all over the country. They're staying low key, in order to avoid drawing the eye of investigators I suspect."
The President examined each photo carefully before asking, "Where did you collect this information from?"
She took a deep breath and shrugged. "Hero agency reports, police reports, news reports, the hero network, social media even. Any information source I could get my hands on. Any links I could find between known associates of League members, and their associates, and so on. I've been tracking all of it."
The President narrowed her eyes as she carefully asked, "How?"
She had to stop and consider for a moment how to simplify the process she'd developed. "I set up an html query that flags posts from across all known media platforms with key words I've designated and feeds them into a database for review. A lot of what it catches is meaningless, but sometimes, I get lucky."
The President inclined her head, her expression one of appreciation. "I see you learned from your experience with Stain."
Misaki pursed her lips and nodded slowly. "If you mean leaving the field work to the professionals? Yeah, I learned my lesson."
The President tapped her fingers on the desk, looking down at Misaki's report while she asked in an interested tone of voice, "Does anyone else know that you've been conducting this investigation?"
She blinked and shook her head.
The woman's sharp blue eyes shot up to hers suddenly and she ordered, "Keep it that way. For now."
Misaki nodded and immediately replied, "Yes, ma'am."
The President sat forward in her chair and returned to typing at her computer, signifying that the conversation was over. Misaki stood and turned toward the door when the President's voice suddenly stopped her. "Good work, Misaki."
She turned back in shock as she said appreciatively, "Thank you, Madam President."
The woman nodded once without looking away from the screen and Misaki smiled, bowing her head before turning and walking back out of the office with a bit of a spring in her step. Collapsing into her seat when she got back to her desk, she let out a huge sigh of relief as she closed her eyes and leaned her head back against the top of her chair. Finally, she felt like she'd been able to cast off the stigma that she'd been dragging around since her Hero Killer failure. Suddenly it felt like all of her exhaustion had finally caught up with her and her arms dropped like lead weights at her sides.
Groaning dejectedly, she forced her eyes to open and slowly dragged herself out of her chair. Bracing her hand against the wall to her right, she trudged down the hallway leading to the vending area on the top floor. She shuffled up to the drink machine and scanned her employee badge before pushing the button for the sweetened coffee. All of the vending machines in the building, as well as the employee cafeteria on the tenth floor, operated on both cash and employee credit. Employees could choose to load their accounts with cash or deduct their purchases from any unused PTO hours. Most Safety Commission employees rarely used any paid leave time anyway, so it was a popular method of payment throughout the building, and the one Misaki was currently using to buy her coffee.
Leaning her forehead against the glass as the machine processed her order, she rested there for a moment before bending down to retrieve her purchase. Sighing heavily, she pushed herself away from the machine and turned to make her way back to her desk. She'd pretty much been living off of calorie packs and coffee for the past several weeks and getting no more than three or four hours of sleep at night, between working on her programming and her secretarial duties. The stress she was putting her body under was going to end up making her sick if she didn't start turning things around soon. She couldn't afford to collapse now, not when she'd finally been given another chance to put all of the hard work she'd been doing to good use.
The programming for the app was pretty much done, all she was really doing at this point was fine tuning. The tweaks and aesthetic nuances could be done during regular working hours, so she shouldn't need to do any more work on it at home from now on. She just needed to have faith in the program and stop fussing over it; let the query do its job like she'd designed it to. Once she was able to produce some solid results for her current assignment, maybe she would finally be able to get some decent rest. Until then, getting back on a regular diet and workout routine was priority number one.
She glanced down at the can of coffee she'd just purchased and groaned in dejection. Pushing it off the edge of her desk into the trash, she got up from her seat and trudged over to the elevator to make her way down to the cafeteria instead. No more coffee or skipped lunch breaks from now on. To start with, she would have a healthy, well-balanced lunch and some much-needed time away from work for the next half hour.
Misaki rushed into the President's office a few days later with her tablet in hand, and addressed the woman in shock, "Madam President, this report from the Nighteye Agency—!"
The President looked up from her computer screen, sitting back in her chair and turning her attention to her flustered secretary. "It turns out your analysis was correct. Sir Nighteye and his office have confirmed that the League of Villains have made contact with the Shie Hassaikai. However, it is unclear as of yet what the results of their negotiations were."
Misaki plopped down into the chair angled catty-corner to the front of the desk and began flipping through the crime scene photos from the warehouse on her tablet. "It seems pretty clear that there was some sort of confrontation here; and very likely, someone's death."
The President considered for a moment whether or not to fill the young woman in on the phone call she'd just received from Detective Tsukauchi, who'd just wrapped up his own investigation of the crime scene. It would be intriguing to hear if any part of Misaki's analysis matched his findings.
"Initial DNA results from the trace amounts of blood collected at the scene indicate two distinct sources," the President said, keeping a keen eye on the secretary sitting across from her.
"An eye for an eye..." She trailed off while examining the crime scene photos closely.
The President tilted her head, intrigued by the comment; especially after having heard something similar from Detective Tsukauchi moments before. "What makes you say that?"
Misaki sat forward, setting the tablet on the desk, and exploding one of the photos that showed an ultraviolet rendering of the blood that had been wiped away from the ground. "The pattern of the blood spatter. They're on opposing sides." She zoomed in on an area in one of the renderings where the blood appeared to have pooled around something long and conical. "And this indentation looks like it could be from one of the masks used by Shie Hassaikai."
The President considered her analysis in comparison to the one she'd received from the Detective. She leaned back in her chair before replying carefully, "Detective Tsukauchi believes that this was an initial meeting, meant for each side to merely state their intentions and determine if there would be any merit in working together in the future. Since there were casualties on both sides, he believes the negotiations eventually broke down between the two groups, stemming from these two deaths. If that is the case, it's likely that there will be no further contact between them in the near future."
"For better or worse..." Misaki trailed off, sitting back with her tablet and staring down at the crime scene photos with deep focus.
The President narrowed her eyes, thoughtfully regarding the young woman's intense stare before carefully inquiring, "How would you proceed with this information, Misaki?"
The secretary looked up sharply, blinking, and pointed to herself with wide eyes. "You're asking me?"
The President nodded. "Hypothetically, yes. If you were leading this investigation, what would be your next move?"
She blew out a deep breath in response, appearing to be a bit taken aback by the sudden question. "Well, I'd want to find out as much as I could about Chisaki and his lieutenants. I'd track their movements in and out of their base and compare that to my tracking query to see if there was any overlap that would tell me if there'd been any contact between them and the League."
The President regarded her for a long moment before leaning forward and typing on her keyboard to send an email. "I'm giving you permission to tap into the live surveillance feed of the Shie Hassaikai compound. Let me know what you find."
Misaki's eyes widened and she immediately rose from her seat, bowing at the waist with a quick, "yes ma'am", before turning to hurry back to her desk. As the door closed behind her, Shadou stepped out of a shadow next to the President's desk.
"You've become quite attached to this secretary of yours," he drawled as he stared dryly at the wall behind Misaki's desk.
"Your point?" She replied without even looking up at him.
He walked over into her field of view, his hands shoved in his pants pockets, and turned his head to stare at her drolly as he asked, "Why not just put her on the investigative team already?"
She glared at him from the corner of her eye while continuing to type on her computer. "I'm not sure she's ready for that yet."
He turned his body toward her and narrowed his beady eyes. "You're testing her."
She sighed and sat back in her chair before replying, "She's got potential, quite a bit of it actually. But she's young, and inexperienced, and she's shown a tendency to go with her gut over having all of the facts. I want to see how she proceeds with this investigation, after having learned from her failures on the last one, before I decide what the best use of her abilities will be within this organization."
The man huffed, relaxing his posture, and staring down his nose at her derisively as he drawled, "Sounds to me like you're grooming her. Thinking about retirement already?"
The President smirked, turning her eyes back to her monitor and resuming her typing. "It'll be a few years yet until I'm ready to step down from this position. However, having a suitable replacement ready for when that time does come is also part of the job, is it not?"
He inclined his head before sliding his eyes to the door shrewdly. "Here's to hoping for many more years..."
A little over a week had passed since Misaki had been tasked with looking into the possibility of the League teaming up with the Shie Hassaikai. Her query had done its job, for better or worse, and she finally felt like she was ready to present her findings. Gathering up her tablet, she took a deep breath and reached out to knock on the President's office door. Not hearing a response, she hesitantly opened the door a crack and peaked inside, noticing that the President was on the phone.
She stood just outside the doorway and waited for her to finish her call before calling out to her, "Madam President?"
The woman lifted her hand, motioning to her to enter. Misaki hurried into the office and shut the door behind her before walking swiftly over to the chair in front of the desk.
"I have a report on my investigation, ma'am," she said as she sat, tucking her dress under her legs.
"Have you found any further connection between League and the Shie Hassaikai?" The President asked, her tone intrigued.
Misaki hung her head with a sigh. "No. There's been a lot of movement and chatter, but none of it has turned up any kind of connection between the League and the group so far."
The President nodded slowly before dropping her gaze and saying, "So, you hit a dead end."
Misaki grimaced and shrugged. "If they are meeting, they're either not doing so at the compound, or they have a way to get in and out without being detected by the surveillance."
"So, that's it?" The President asked with a raised brow.
Misaki narrowed her eyes thoughtfully. "Not exactly. Since I wasn't able to find anything by looking for connections between the two, I decided to try looking at them separately, and when I did that, I noticed something interesting. Do you remember when I told you that there'd been increased sightings of League members recruiting from all over the country?"
The President nodded.
"For the past few days, two of them have been suspiciously silent," she continued in a low conspiratorial tone.
"Who?" The President asked, sitting forward in her seat with an interested look on her face.
"Toga Himiko and Bubaigawara Jin; the latter of which being the one who initially made contact with Chisaki and his group," she said, setting her tablet on the desk displaying pictures of Toga and Twice next to each other on the screen.
The President leaned back and slid her a sly glance as she asked, "Your theory?"
Misaki tilted her head from side to side before looking down and away. "Depends on how you wanna look at it. Assuming that they are still somehow in contact with the Shie Hassaikai, it could be for only one of two reasons. Either they've been recruited as members, or they've infiltrated the group."
"How would you view it?" The President asked, tilting her head thoughtfully and staring back at Misaki with open interest.
She considered the question for a moment, biting the edge of her lip before looking up at the President resolutely. "From what I know of Shigaraki Tomura, I can't believe he'd just hand over two of his top members after what he had to have seen as an act of outright disrespect from Chisaki. He's got the pride of a spoiled child. If he has decided to work with the Shie Hassaikai, he's doing so from a place of vengeance. Keeping a close eye out and biding his time to strike when Chisaki is vulnerable." She sat back in her chair dejectedly, looking down at her hands as she grumbled, "But all of this is really just my opinion. I don't have any concrete evidence to back it up."
The President was silent for a long moment before nodding. "I'll take it under advisement."
Misaki looked up, straightening her posture, and clutching her tablet to her chest as she moved to stand up. "I'll keep working on it."
"That won't be necessary," the President replied definitively.
She promptly sat back down, shock flashing across her face as she asked, "What?"
The woman held her gaze as she told her, "The Nighteye Agency is planning to raid the Shie Hassaikai."
Misaki blinked, more than a little bit stunned by the announcement of such a sudden development. "When?"
"Once they've confirmed where their target is on site," the woman replied, her gaze narrowing a bit at Misaki's rampant questioning.
Their target.
Misaki had seen the reports about the little girl whom two of Nighteye's interns had run into during their chance encounter with Chisaki Kai. They suspected that he was using the child's cells as the main ingredient in the quirk destroying bullets that had been hitting the underground market recently. The notion was completely barbaric, but considering that Chisaki had proclaimed her to be his daughter, it was assumed that she probably carried a variation of his quirk to dismantle and restore organic matter, which would account for the state of her bandaged arms and legs. Unfortunately, there was no hard evidence they could use to pursue a warrant for Chisaki's arrest, as the child had chosen to return to the villain instead of staying with the heroes whom she'd initially reached out to for help. More than just the physical scars, the girl was likely to be carrying deep emotional scars as well, if what they suspected turned out to be true.
Misaki shook her head, her brow drawing down in concern as she continued to press, "Why now?"
The President used her most authoritative tone when she answered, "The overall threat to the general population was deemed too great to ignore."
Having heard that tone a few times before, Misaki immediately ceased her line of questioning and straightened in her seat, dropping her eyes as she slowly stood and replied, "Oh. Well, I guess that's it then..."
"For this assignment, yes." She glanced up at the President's appraising tone. "You've made some significant improvements in how you approached this investigation from your last one. Perhaps on your next assignment, we'll be able to trust you with a more active role."
Unable to keep the grateful smile from her face, Misaki quickly bowed her head and breathily replied in appreciation, "Thank you, Madam President."
The President offered her a small smile and a short nodded as she said, "No need to thank me, Misaki. You've earned it."
- Author Note Section -
Sorry! No Hawks in this chapter :( But Misa-chan finally gets to take a crack at another case! Granted, her involvement is more in an evaluative capacity, but still; progress!
Find out what Hawks has in store to celebrate Misaki's birthday with her in the next chapter! (September 22nd, in case you were wondering ;p)
As always, thank you so much for reading!
LOLSAT