Beta'd by Greed720 and HardwinPotter

Hawks loitered outside the hole tunneled into the Yakuza complex as MLA goons stood guard around them. His wings were reduced to scrawny tufts of down as every solid feather he had was drifting about the Yakuza base, mapping out its labyrinthine structure and tracking its key members.

"How's it feel?" one goon asked in a nasally voice.

Hawks stuck out his black-stained tongue. The sleeves of his black two-piece suit bulged as he moved, and he felt a stitch pop. As much as he liked his hero costume, he didn't want it ruined for the sake of this job. "Not a fan of the color, but man, is that one hell of a rush. I can even hear what's going on through my feathers!"

"Do a good job, and we'll see about getting you more."

Hawks touched the vial in his pocket and hoped they wouldn't notice that he still had the sample they gave him. He peered down the hole as he shifted the positions of a few feathers to a new hiding spot. "Hey, is that bucket of chicken here yet?" Hawks asked. "Their rotation's about to start."

"What do you need a bucket of chicken for, anyways?" One goon asked.

"You better hope you never find out."

Panting heavily, a burly man with rhinoceros features ran up to him with a large plastic bag. Hawks patted the man on the shoulder as he peeked inside the bag.

"Twenty-piece KFC bucket, just like I asked." He gently lifted out the red and white bucket and smelled the steam wafting from it. "Still hot, too. Want a job at my agency, Nobu-san? I swear, I can't find a single intern who can bring a decent bucket. Tokoyami-kun's Quirk - excuse me, meta-ability, keeps stealing pieces, and Tatsuma-kun gets distracted on the way back. It's enough to make a hero cry."

A goon with gun barrels protruding from his arms cleared his throat and pointed at the hole. "We don't have all night. Get moving."

"Sheesh, aren't you bossy, Hide-san? I'm on it."

"And remember, boss wants all the Trigger they got. Don't trash the place."

"Who do you take me for, Endeavor? It'll be like I was never here."

With a cheeky grin and a bite of a chicken leg, Hawks stepped back and fell down the hole. Two feathers eased him down onto the concrete floor fifty feet down.

Hawks had feathers latched onto every camera in the building, but he could hardly cover the lenses and hope whoever's watching decides to shrug it off. While he could feel every room in the place and every person in those rooms, telling the difference between a security station and a bathroom was surprisingly difficult when both areas involved people sitting still for long periods of time. You'd think nobody would sit on a toilet two hours straight, but after an incident involving some unfortunate schmuck playing mobile games on a toilet, a tear gas Quirk, and lots of imported guns, Hawks never took his chances.

Thus, he went with the chicken bucket method.

In plain view of a security camera, Hawks strolled down the hallway and tore into a thigh with his teeth. Looking straight at the camera, Hawks waved, half-eaten thigh in hand, and kept walking. Through every feather scattered throughout the facility, he listened for any signs of surprise. After a few seconds, he heard it.

"Why does he have a bucket of chicken?"

With a thought, Hawks sent two feathers through a man's chest half a mile away. Sure, he could have gone off the fact that no one else in the area had been sitting still for the past eight hours, and perhaps him hearing the unfortunate watchman report a few hours back that nothing was on the cameras was a bit of a giveaway, but knowing that the man's last words were 'a bucket of chicken' made the experience much more satisfying.

Now with free rein over the upper floors, Hawks made his way towards the lower quarters. The upper portion of the facility was a maze of dead ends and booby-trapped corridors, designed to confuse would-be attackers, and reinforced at points where Yakuza members could hold off opposition. Hawks' sonar map led him unerringly to a blank wall, where one of his feathers was wedged inside a hidden door.

In the lower levels, the Shie Hassaikai had their storehouses, living quarters, and office spaces, all in service of the drug trade, gambling houses, and brothels scattered about Japan. From humble pencil-pushers to thick-headed muscle, the Shie Hassaikai headquarters teemed with people. His target, Overhaul's quarters at the heart of the complex, lay behind every one of them.

Perhaps with the careful execution of a lone straggler with his shoe size, Hawks could have snuck his way down with a disguise. Leaving the bucket behind, though, was not an option. He could slaughter everyone in the building, except for two problems. One, the MLA wanted new recruits. Two, he might get blood on his chicken.

Plan C it was.

Hawks had identified the floor's circuit breakers hours ago. There were three, hidden in different corners of the floor, all to keep someone from cutting power across the entire floor. Hardly a problem for someone as good at multitasking as Hawks was. A backup generator in a sealed room was set to supply backup power, until a feather slipped in through a ventilation shaft and went to work on every power cable in the room.

At the circuit breakers, three bundles of feathers threw three switches. The entire Shie Hassaikai complex went dark. "Blackout protocol!" a Yakuza thug shouted. "Everyone on the floor!"

Hundreds of people crouched under desks and knelt where they had been walking, giving the few people with night-vision a clear view. Hawks hid behind a pillar while his feathers mowed down the Yakuza trying to find him.

Light filled the room. A woman held a glowing sphere aloft, casting an orange glow around her. Their eyes met as Hawks sent feathers to slit her throat.

With the light sources gone and night vision neutralized, Hawks strolled uncontested through the facility, navigating his way with his feather sonar. He chewed noisily on a chicken leg as he passed kneeling Yakuza thugs. A little intimidation went a long way when getting new recruits for an evil organization, and nothing inspired terror like carelessly eating chicken legs while stepping through a pool of blood. Feathers drifted around him, ready to intercept any attacks, but no one was foolish enough to take him on.

A metal door barred his way. Its electronic interfaces were dark, powered down by the cut circuit breaker. He could try the switches one by one until he turned the door back on, but hacking had never suited him. Feathers, which had shimmied themselves around the bolts earlier, carefully snapped the housings around each bolt. Free to slide, the bolts retracted as the feathers pushed them into the door, which swung open at a firm push.

The lowest levels of the complex more closely resembled the mansion on the surface, carpeted, furnished, and well-lit. Getting feathers this deep into Shie Hassaikai headquarters had been the work of days, slipping feathers in one at a time as Chisaki or his Bullets crossed the sealed entryway.

Hawks could sense the Bullets stirring as word of the blackout reached them. He locked the door behind himself, as there was no sense letting them know he had slipped inside, and took a path around the group of Yakuza thugs making for the door. Two blips on his sonar remained, both in the same room. Feathers bristled along the walls and underneath the furniture, poised for the moment he made his entry.

Inside, he heard Chisaki talking to his personal aide. A dart gun clattered as it was set on a counter, and Hawks heard the clinking of metal as a dart was loaded in.

"Only using a temporary one?" Chisaki asked. "I can always make more."

"The permanent darts should be saved for a special occasion. All Might would make an excellent first target, wouldn't you agree?"

Hawks paused outside the final door. It wasn't often he got to slip his leash, and for something as big as taking down a Yakuza group, he wanted to make it count. He could kick down the door, or slip inside while they weren't looking and wave from somewhere unexpected. Spooking them by moving around the furniture was another fun option. That was to say nothing of all the one-liners he could use. He could do the classic delivery boy routine, complete with a half-eaten bucket of chicken, or he could try something more sinister, maybe "Re-Destro sends his regards." Knock knock jokes were always fun, but those worked best on idiots. Or ooh, what about-

Hawks was cut off mid-thought as one figure he was tracking went towards the door. With a sigh of resignation, Hawks took out another thigh and bit into it as the door opened.

"Could you go back inside for a bit?" Hawks asked while he was chewing. "I'm still working on my one-liner. Actually, wait, never mind, that was pretty good! I'll go with that."

Two arrows shaped like clock hands shot towards Hawks. Feathers sliced them and stabbed through the man's wrist as he raised the dart gun.

"Ah, Kurono-san," Hawks said. "Sorry about this, but you're on the kill list."

Feathers impaled Chronostasis from behind. Overhaul ran forward, reaching for him, but Hawks pulled the body back and raised his feathers menacingly in the Yakuza boss' path.

"Not so fast, I know about that Quirk of yours. Why don't we have a bit of a chat?"

"Who are you?" Chisaki snapped. "And how did you get in here?"

"What, you don't recognize me?" Hawks asked, pointing at his face with a chicken wing. He looked behind his shoulder. "Is it the wings? I bet it's the wings. Here, let me give you a hint."

Feathers floated behind his back and pantomimed a set of wings. Chisaki's eyes narrowed. "Hawks."

"There, see? You do know me!"

"You don't have a warrant for this, so get the hell out before I kill you."

Hawks tsked and waggled a half-eaten wing back and forth. "They're not the ones holding my leash today. Try again."

"Ah, you're one of those kinds of heroes," Chisaki said with a sneer. "Whatever you're being paid, I can double it. Kill whoever thought it would be wise to mess with the Shie Hassaikai, and I'll more than make it worth your while."

"Sorry, I don't take deals from dead men. They have a bad habit of ghosting me when I ask them to pay up."

"You talk too much." Overhaul touched the floor and shot spikes towards Hawks. "I'm going to rid the world of your filth, and when I'm finished with you, I'll crush whoever hired you."

"You're not going to ask who I work for first?" Hawks sidestepped around the spikes as he lured Overhaul into the hallway. One set of feathers ferried Chronstasis' body into a bathroom stall and brought back his dart gun, while the rest flocked to the largest room on the floor, a meeting room with a hidden balcony. Feathers stabbed from all directions, but Overhaul cloaked himself in a writhing mass of concrete pulled from the walls. More spikes shot at him from every angle. One nearly impaled Hawks from behind, but feathers pressed against the surfaces around him alerted him to any sudden shifts.

The meeting room still showed signs of a struggle, a blood stain that hadn't quite been buffed out, a table with one corner decayed, and a stray bullet casing tucked against the edge of a rug. "Ah, I remember Twice-san telling me about this. Didn't you splatter Compress' arm here?"

Chisaki scowled. "So, the League's backstabbing me?"

"It's a group project," Hawks said. "They were kind enough to inform my current employer that you've been tampering with their Trigger."

"The MLA." Chisaki's voice was dripping with disdain. "Quirk-loving pieces of filth."

"Yeah, turns out they're not happy that A, you lied to them about not being able to improve on Trigger's formula." Hawks stuck his tongue out. "Gotta say, I'm loving the changes, though are you sure you couldn't do something about the tongue? Kind of a giveaway."

"Like I'd give any of it to-"

"Oh, and B, they noticed you've been sabotaging their share." Feathers swarmed down from the ceiling and onto Hawks' back, giving him enough feathers to get airborne. "A handful of their muscle had their Quirk-factors crippled. They found the same stuff you put in those Quirk-erasing bullets in their supply. The MLA kinda doesn't like those either, but they'll be more than happy to turn them on heroes."

"Quirks are a disease, and those maniacs want to contaminate the whole world. When I'm done, there won't be a single Quirk left."

"Even your own?" Hawks asked as he flew around more spikes.

"Mine will be the last to go. It's necessary to make the cure."

"Ah, of course. How noble of you."

Chisaki scoffed. "Think whatever you want. Mankind has stagnated thanks to Quirks. The strong strangle any form of progress and freedom in the name of Heroism and the law. They control how everyone thinks by drowning them in propaganda and use heroes to stomp on the few people smart enough to see through their bullshit."

"Whatever helps you sleep at night, Overhaul. Now, as much fun as this has been, I have a schedule to keep."

Feathers swarmed down from every angle. The air around Overhaul crackled as the ambient carbon dioxide was ripped apart to make a carbon fiber shield. The real attack, however, came from underneath. While Overhaul was distracted by his impromptu shield, ten feathers shot up from the floor. Each one impaled Chisaki's fingers, slicing through the fingerbones without severing the finger entirely. With the feathers firmly wedged inside, Hawks pulled and forced both hands behind Overhaul's back.

Overhaul howled with anger and pain as he struggled to wriggle free, but each time he moved his fingers, the feathers bit into the thin strip of flesh holding his fingers together.

"Careful, Chisaki-san," Hawks said around a mouthful of chicken. "Can't use your Quirk if you slice your fingers off."

"Weren't you going to kill me, Hero-san?" Overhaul rasped.

Hawks chuckled. "You misunderstood me. I'm not going to kill you. No, someone's very interested in that Quirk of yours. I imagine they'll dispose of you once they have what they want."

Chisaki blanched and whispered, "All for One." He redoubled his efforts to break free.

As Hawks held him in place, two feathers brought Chronostasis' dart gun. "Be good, and you'll get a lollipop."

"Screw you-"

The dart stuck itself in Overhaul's neck. Overhaul yanked and pulled, pouring a stream of his own blood onto the floor, but Hawks held the feathers firm while he counted down a minute. Once the drug had time to take effect, Hawks removed his feathers. Overhaul grabbed onto himself, ignoring the stabbing pain from each of his fingers, but his Quirk failed to answer him.

"Gotta say, that's impressive stuff, Chisaki-san. How does it feel having it used against you?"

"Go to hell," Overhaul spat.

"Save me a seat. Now, why don't we take a look at what you were cooking in there? I heard something about a new product you were testing out."

Overhaul dragged his feet, but a few feathers stabbed into his robes hoisted him into the air and carried him behind Hawks. The hero set his chicken on the counter and examined the lab. Aside from the blood splatter where Hawks had killed Chronostasis, the lab was immaculate and well-organized, looking more like a proper research clinic than a back-alley drug house.

Vials of Trigger, marked with Chisaki's plague mask, lined one wall where Overhaul had been contributing to the Shie Hassaikai's personal stockpile. On the other end, bags of blood sat in refrigerated cases, next to cases of the Quirk-nullifying darts.

A locked, stainless steel case stood out from the rest. Hawks sliced through the lock with a feather and opened the case. Six glittering, golden darts sat point-down in foam padding. Hawks loaded one of them into his empty dart gun.

"Who do you think I should try this on?" Hawks asked Chisaki in a jovial tone. "Mimic? He's the last one on the kill list, so it wouldn't matter."

Chisaki kept his eyes on the door. "I don't care anymore, just get it over with."

Hawks scratched his head at Chisaki's sudden change in demeanor. He looked nervous, though Hawks couldn't pin down a specific reason why. Dismissing it as blood loss getting it to Overhaul, Hawks shrugged and scooped up his bucket of chicken.

As Hawks followed Chisaki's floating body out the door, a thin voice asked, "Are you a hero?"'

Overhaul flinched. Hawks whirled, his feathers poised to strike. On a hospital bed, obscured by a giant refrigerator, sat a frail little girl, her arms lined with scars. Listless red eyes peered at him from a veil of shiny white hair. A small horn poked out the top of her head.

As Hawks put on his best Hero smile, he mentally facepalmed. He had spent days tracking hundreds of Yakuza members, and yet he somehow missed the presence of a little kid. His Quirk needed noise or touch to detect its surroundings, which meant this kid had been silent ever since he snuck in here.

"Yes I am! I'm Hawks, the Wing Hero. What's your name?"

The kid shrank back and stammered, "Eri."

"Er-chan? What a lovely name. Why don't you come with me so we can find your mommy and daddy?"

"Daddy's gone, and mommy didn't want me," the girl said without a hint of emotion. "Are you taking the bird-man away?"

Hawks stole a glance back at Overhaul. The former Yakuza boss looked away, but not before he caught a glimpse of anger. Hawks smirked, now realizing that he had stumbled upon something Chisaki had been hoping to hide.

"He did a lot of bad things," Hawks said, "So he's going away for a very long time."

The girl's eyes widened. "You're not one of his heroes?"

"Nope! So, why don't you come with me? I'll see if I can find you a new mommy and daddy."

Eri backed away from his outstretched hand. Hawks glanced around the room, trying to find a way to coax the girl out of the room, when he heard his last pieces of chicken rustle at the bottom of his bucket. He held one out and asked, "Want some fried chicken? It's gotten cold, I'm afraid, but it's still pretty tasty."

Eri stared wide-eyed at the proffered piece of chicken. She crept forward, watching him with the wariness of a feral cat, and gingerly took the chicken from his hands.

"You eat around the bone, like this," Hawks said, demonstrating with the other chicken leg. "Go on, try it."

Eri took a tentative bite, prying off a tiny morsel of chicken. Her eyes widened as she chewed. More vigorously, she tore into the chicken and stuffed her mouth until her cheeks bulged.

Hawks chuckled and said, "We could get some more, if you're still hungry. It's even better when it's fresh from the fryer."

Eri nodded and slid off the bed. Hawks offered his hand, but Eri stared uneasily at it and said, "My Quirk does bad things to people when I touch them," Eri said. "It's a curse."

Hawks cringed at how ominous that sounded. The MLA would drool over her if they got a whiff that she was packing something powerful. "That's fine. Just stay close, alright?"

As they walked back towards the upper levels, Hawks felt the armored door open. Twenty-five men, some equipped with guns, rushed towards Overhaul's lab. As discreetly as he could, Hawks gathered feathers from across the compound, leaving stragglers on the approaching Yakuza. A comfortable weight settled behind him as his wings reformed themselves. Hawks turned to Eri and said, "Could you stay in that room for a bit? I'll let you know when you can come out."

Eri blanched as she heard the footsteps coming and hurried into the bedroom. Chisaki started talking, but Hawks cut him off with a sharp feather against his spine. "Behave, or you lose your walking privileges."

Chisaki snorted. "I can remake my spine."

Hawks held up the dart gun. "Would you be able to if I shot you with this little beauty?"

"You wouldn't dare."

"You're right, I wouldn't. Boss would be furious. Still, you still have a few hours before your Quirk comes back, and I'm pretty sure being paralyzed from the waist down would give you some problems with your bladder control."

If glares could kill, the fury with which Overhaul regarded Hawks would have vaporized him. "I'm going to peel the skin off your body when I get out of this."

"Meh, I've heard worse."

The Eight Bullets, with sixteen Yakuza thugs backing them up and Mimic holding the rear, came to a stop when they saw Overhaul dangling at Hawks' side. A slim man with blonde hair and black robes stepped forward. "You're outnumbered," he said. "Lower Overhaul-sama to the ground, and we will allow you to leave this place alive."

Hawks rolled his eyes and raised the dart gun. A yellow, translucent dome sprung up around the man.

"Hekiji-san, a pleasure to meet you. Looks like the rest of the Bullets are here as well. Fantastic! Your boss here pissed off a lot of people, so if it isn't me dragging him out of here, it'll be someone a lot more dangerous doing some interior decorating with your insides. Luckily for the lot of you, the group who sent me were very impressed by your credentials and want to offer you employment. The pay's competitive, lots of vacation days, and they have a fantastic dental plan." Hawks opened his mouth, flashing pearly white teeth and a tongue stained black. "So, you can either head up with me to meet your new employers, or we'll play a game of Russian roulette with this dart I've got that can destroy your Quirk permanently. What do you say?"

Hekiji smirked. "There's twenty-four of us here, and over a hundred more securing the upper floors. Do you really think you can escape?"

"Yes." Hawks pointed with the gun and said, "By the way, there's something on your shirt."

"Really? Like I'm going to fall for-" Hekiji was cut short by the feather that stabbed itself half an inch into his chest over his heart. The other Yakuza also had feathers lodged into them.

"You're Hawks," Hekiji grunted through gritted teeth.

Hawks flapped the wings behind him. "You'd think these were a tip-off. So, any takers on that offer?"

Hojo encased himself in crystal and ran forward. "I'm not afraid of a few feathers!"

"You should be." The wings collapsed and gathered around his right arm, forming an oversized fist. As Hojo lunged at him with a bladed arm, Hawks threw an uppercut. The solid mass of feathers rocketed forward like a hydraulic piston, crashing into Hojo's chest with enough force to shatter crystal. Hojo hit the ceiling, and as he fell, Hawks knocked him out with a kick to the jaw.

"What about you, Setsuno-san? Thinking about taking this dart gun in my hand?"

The lanky Yakuza member hurriedly shook his head. "No sir! D-dental insurance sounds great!"

Overhaul glared at the traitorous Yakuza member, but a gag of feathers kept him from yelling at them. With one bullet folding, Hikiji quickly followed suit, followed by the rest of the Bullets. The thugs threw down their guns. Mimic glared at them all and shrieked, "How dare you turn your backs on Overhaul-sama! I'll crush you all!"

Mimic pressed a vial of Trigger into his own neck and sank into the concrete. When he was neck-deep, Hawks stabbed him through the throat and watched as Mimic choked on his own blood, wriggling helplessly while still trapped in the concrete.

"Whoops!" Hawks said, holding up the dart gun. "I meant to take his Quirk away first. Ah well, that'll do just fine." He took a few steps, then remembered Eri. "Alright Eri-chan," Hawks called out, "It's safe to come out now!"

Eri came out and hid herself behind Hawks. Her eyes fastened on Mimic's head lying on the floor. Hawks motioned for one of them to cover the head, and a thug threw his coat over it.

"Sorry you had to see that," Hawks said. "Nothing bad's going to happen, promise."

"Are you taking them too?" Eri asked.

"I sure am!" Hawks said. "They'll all be coming with me. Stay behind me, and I won't let any of them hurt you."

The power had come back on in the main Yakuza compound. Patrols of thugs scoured the floor, while the workers huddled in guarded rooms. Guns were quickly trained on Hawks, but Hijiki threw up a barrier around them.

"There's been a change of ownership," Hikiji told them. "Lower your weapons. There's nothing we can do against this guy."

Guns clattered to the floor. Hawks clapped his hand and nonchalantly strolled forward. "Great! I'll have the boys upstairs get you all pamphlets. Do you have a front door? I'd rather not head back the way I came."

The MLA grunts filtered into the quaint mansion over the Yakuza complex once they got the gate open. As the MLA members filed into the hideout to take inventory and get a census on all their new recruits, Re-Destro came in, flanked by four guards, sporting a domino mask from his Quirk's pigmentation.

Re-Destro walked up to Hawks and patted him on the shoulder. "When I heard the news, I had to come and see for myself. Excellent work."

"I aim to please." He lowered Overhaul to the ground and said, "He's got another two hours before his meta-ability starts working again."

"And by then, he'll be safe and sound." Overhaul flinched and desperately looked around him. Yotsubashi caught sight of Eri hiding behind Hawks and asked, "Who's this?"

"Found her in Overhaul's room. I'm guessing he kept her for his pleasure. I'll drop her off at the police station once we're done here."

Overhaul gave Hawks a look of pure disgust. Yotsubashi raised an eyebrow and said, "Not something I exactly approve of, but it's only right for someone as strong as Overhaul to exercise his power over whoever he wishes."

Hawks had to fight back a strong urge to gag. He became intimately aware of the fact he was holding a dart gun that could permanently end Re-Destro's leadership of the MLA. One pull of the trigger, and Yotsubashi would be a ruined man. Tempting, but not within the parameters of his mission, and it'd definitely get him killed.

"Alright, Eri-chan, right this way."

As they passed Re-Destro, he noticed the scars on Eri's arms. He grabbed her and asked, "What are these? They look like needle scars."

Eri writhed in a panic in his grasp. Hawks desperately hoped that whatever Quirk Eri had wouldn't cause a scene. "Drugs, I'd wager."

Yotsubashi nodded. "There was word of blood bags downstairs. Might have been hers, but I fail to see what about her would warrant such interest. A horn for a Quirk is hardly of interest."

As he let go, the horn on Eri's head started to glow. Eri fell backwards and crawled away, tears pouring from his eyes. Overhaul watched the glowing light like a man beholding salvation. While both Hawks and Re-Destro watched her warily, Overhaul lunged forward and grabbed her. Within the blink of an eye, he disappeared, leaving behind a heap of bloodied clothes. The light faded, and Eri slumped over, exhausted by her Quirk.

Hawks knew he had a split second decision to make. Re-Destro would at least want her for the MLA, trained to be a killer, or he might even realize she was the secret ingredient for Chisaki's Quirk-removing darts. If he got in the way of that, it would endanger his mission.

Visions of Eri excitedly eating cold chicken, cowering before the Yakuza thugs, looking at him with a glimmer of hope in her eyes, flashed in Hawks' head as he aimed the dart gun at her and fired. The golden tip bit into Eri's shoulder and delivered the Quirk-destroying payload.

"You could've done that sooner," Yotsubashi growled as he knelt in front of the girl. "This will irreparably set our plans back, but at least we have a consolation prize. She must've been what Overhaul was studying."

Hawks made a show of examining the dart in her shoulder and said, "Uh-oh. I think that's one of the permanent ones."

"Permanent?"

Hawks held up the case of darts and said, "Overhaul just perfected a permanent version of the Quirk-nullifying darts. I didn't realize this gun had one loaded."

The black pigment spread around Yotsubashi's eyes as he stood. He kicked Eri in the side, knocking her a few feet away. His hand clenched Hawks' throat, and he lifted the hero off the ground. "Overhaul's dead, and the girl that made him that way is useless now. You're lucky you did such an excellent job otherwise or I'd snap your wings off. Am I clear?"

Hawks wasn't about to point out that his wings weren't attached to him. There wasn't much of anything he could mention with his throat squeezed shut. Instead, he nodded as much as he could with Re-Destro's hand under his chin and gasped for air when he was let go.

"Good. Since this is your mess, you get to clean it up. There's only one other Quirk I'm aware of in Japan that can get the job done. Bring that Yaoyorozu girl to me, and all will be forgiven. Understood?"

As Hawks scooped up Eri, grateful to find she didn't have any broken bones, Hawks said, "You got it boss."

Hawks swung by his apartment, cradling Eri in his arms as he flew over the buildings. He peeled off the suit he wore and wriggled out of the inflatable muscles clinging to his arms and chest. With a bottle of vodka, he rinsed out his mouth and spat up the stained liquid into the sink. Three rinses later, all the dye on his tongue had washed off.

Eri was still out cold when he handed her off to the police station. One officer rushed her to the hospital, while another had him enter a sound-proofed room to file a report on the incident. While the officer penned in a story about Hawks finding her out alone on the street, Hawks gave a report for the Commission on what happened to the Shie Hassaikai and passed over the vial of Trigger the MLA had given him.

"You should've let them have the kid," the officer said. "Now you're back to square one. Again."

"So, about that. Am I really going to kidnap Yaoyorozu?"

"You will do whatever necessary to infiltrate the MLA. We'll provide a good excuse to get her off campus, whether it's an internship or something else. I trust you can handle the rest."

Hawks stood and rubbed at his throat. "You got it, boss."

A/N: this chapter was never supposed to happen. I was sitting in front of the computer, wondering how I could keep things exciting while Izuku goes through a bunch of therapy and personal discovery, when I thought to myself, I hadn't really given the villains a win so far. From there, I somehow had the idea of the MLA using Hawks to take over the Yakuza, and the rest is history. Because of that, this chapter was a ton of fun to write.

This chapter changed A LOT. First, remember when Izuku and Mirio first meet Eri, running away from Overhaul? Izuku was supposed to conveniently use his Quirk and grapples to scoop her away before Chisaki was any the wiser and frame the League of Villains for kidnapping her. Well… that's not happening anymore. Second, Yaoyorozu getting kidnapped had never crossed my mind. After I wrote this chapter, I retroactively added it into… I think it was Ch43? 44? One of those. Since this was written two weeks ago, I didn't need to repost the chapter, but it was a bit of a rush job. Essentially, the Shie Hassaikai arc was supposed to go much as it did in canon. Now, though, I get to spice things up. Hooray for spontaneity!

Anyways, I don't have much else to say, so I'll dive right into the reviews.

ClowndeMierda: "I feel like if for most of your life, you have no emotional reaction to anything, you wouldn't all of a sudden be so easily prone to panic attacks and be extremely timid."

Bardothren: It's precisely because his Quirk's been handling all his emotions and showing him how everything will unfold that without it, Izuku's a sudden emotional train wreck. He's gone from knowing just about everything that's going to happen to him to knowing absolutely nothing. Not easy to cope with, I'd imagine. Hope that clears things up for some people who are confused.

AnimeFan13579: "You know I would think that the reason Izuku couldn't provide more details on Momo likely has to do with him not physically being able to be involved until the rescue."

Bardothren: that, or there's a reason Izuku never learns how Yaoyorozu was kidnapped in the first place.

Warpy: "Iida is upset because he thinks that Midoriya could've and should've prevented his brother from being paralyzed."

Bardothren: another astute analysis!

Shoujo-hime1412: "But not just Izuku, but the depth and the character development in other characters have been really amazing as well!"

Bardothren: thanks for the high praise! I put a lot of work into making characters feel as realistic as possible.

Kuman: "I'm a bit confused about the timeline."

Bardothren: yet another victim of my less than stellar attempts at remedying the MHA timeline. Long story short, I spread things out a whole lot more because I never liked how EVERYTHING seems to happen over the course of a single year.

Abciluvpie: "Summer Retreat, like, a month after 2nd year starts after Summer Internships ended? That one is definitely editing mistake"

Bardothren: Spring internships, actually. Again, my sloppy attempt at sorting out the timeline has bitten me in the ass. The sports festival was moved to the end of the year, when the students would have more time to practice with their Quirks – imagine having college basketball and football tournaments in the fall, too soon, right? Then the internships were held in the spring, again, so students had time to actually learn hero stuff before going out into the field. The spring retreat was pushed to the second year summer. And that's the timeline changes that have happened so far.

Gotta run, see you next week!