Though the sky was pitch black, time didn't matter in the city, for it was awake and alive, even at night. The tall skyscrapers towered the inner city as the streets were bustling with many adults on their way to their night jobs or just simply enjoying the evening. That was how it usually went in Fukishima, as it probably would in all the other big cities in Japan. Unfortunately, where they were heading to wasn't as cheerful or lively.

Mae averted her eyes away from the tinted window to the blue folder sitting in her lap. She already went through it about five times, although there wasn't much to go on to call it a case. It wasn't until a couple hours ago that she received the call from Detective Tokamura for her to drive down here. Something had happened, and that was when the case had turned from a domestic dispute into a homocide investigation. When Tokamura called, he was already on his way to the scene and informed her that he would gather up the details and fill her in once she got there. Now, all that was left to do was wait until she arrived.

This was one of the many tasks she volunteered for when she became Prime Minister of PSI. She figured it would be a better use of her time to get out there in the real world instead of just sitting behind the desk giving orders. Mae's department would always assist the local Police in matters such as this, and in the many years of experience working together, it wasn't rare that she got a call. However, after listening to the case, it had come to her attention that this was the second homocide she had been summoned to help with this week, and in the same area too. Last week, there were three in the next city over, near Sendai, and five in Niigata city. Three of them were heroes. Japan was a big island, so she could just be assuming things, but for some reason, it felt unusual for such a rapid increase in murders to occur around the same areas in such a short time. It was almost as if the Villains and that fallen Hero-Killer Stain had finally gotten the results they wanted in their plight to terrorize the public. She couldn't be sure, but there was no doubt that this matter would have to be looked into later when she had some time to calculate.

The big city lights had faded away to only common street lamps, leading to the rural, less populated area. In all the years of service with the Police, Mae was well aware that these places, the slums, were the breeding grounds for dangerous people. Since she had come to so many investigative scenes before, there was no need to brace herself for the worst. Mr. Yamura, her driver, took the exit off the highway and followed his GPS to the shady backstreets of Fukishima. The car eventually slowed down as it crept up on the flashing lights ahead. The tires stopped, to which allowed Mae to secure her belongings, including the blue dossier, before Mr. Yamura stepped out of the car to open the door for her.

Her heels clicked against the ground as she looked all around them. There was a large, cement stone house that was weathered down to the point where one could presume it was condemned or abandoned, like the many other homes that surrounded it. There were four Police cars parked out front as a barrier to keep pedestrians at bay with their flashing lights. Mr. Yamura shut her door and locked it before escorting her through the crowd of people curiously hoarding in on the scene. Once she made it to the front, there was a young adult man in uniform guarding outside the yellow tape. She went to move around him, but he held out his hands to stop her from going any further.

"I'm sorry, Ma'am, but I can't let you past the tape."

He must've been new to the force, since he hadn't recognized her right away, but she was forgiving, seeing as how he was only doing his job. Without a word, she reached into her trenchcoat pocket and pulled out her PSI badge and her card of licensed approval by the Police. He glanced at it and he instantly bowed to her.

"My apologies, Ma'am."

She waived his response away. "It's alright. Will you let me through now?"

Right away, he held up the tape for her and Mr. Yamura to go under. Carefully, she motioned around the scene, passing a few waves to the friendly officers as she went until she was reunited with the tall, skinny man in a black suit, known as Detective Tokamura. He was kneeling down over a drawn out shape on the ground where a body once laid. Mae stepped up behind him, following his eyes as they darted all around the ground. There was a blood spatter near the head and several silver marbles scattered across the pavement. Since this was a gang related case, it seemed pretty unusual for these things to be lying around and not bullet shells, which could only mean a quirk was behind it, more likely a metal type or a shoot style one. Tokamura proceeded to slip on a pair of white rubber gloves and pick up one of the balls. He eyed it intently before calling one of his assistants to bring an evidence bag.

"I'm glad you're here." he began as he dropped it into the bag and sealed it to be taken away. He took off the gloves before turning to her. "We got a call two days ago about a domestic dispute coming from the house from a pedestrian passing by. From the records on the property, the owner currently lives in Hokkaido and hasn't leased it to anyone. This area has been known for many crimes committed by a group of thugs known as the Tora gang. We have proof that they've made dealings with The League of Villains for quite some time, but we've failed to gather more information on that to send them away. What we're dealing with here could be just the kind of proof we need."

He held her by the shoulder to maneuver her around the outline to an older man also dressed in a formal suit and tie, but this one was brown. He looked to be in his mid sixties and it wouldn't surprise anyone that he had been working on homocide cases for a long time, but oddly, Mae did not recognize his face.

"Hattori, this is Detective Handa, a transfer from the Hokkaido district Police who specializes homocide investigations. He's one of the men leading this operation." said Tokamura.

The old man firmly extended a hand for her to take with a smile. "It's good to meet you, Ms. Hattori."

"Likewise." she returned the gesture and shook it. "So what's going on? I wasn't given much information on this." She gestured her blue folder to them.

"The victim's name is Suichiro Ogata, age 37. Married man, father of two illegitimate children, used to work at a convenience store five miles from here, but was fired for inorderly conduct and violent temperament two weeks ago. He comes from a well-known family, but had been disowned at a young age. His family hasn't been very close to him for the last fifteen years, but they did hear news that he had just been evicted from his apartment and had asked around for money and a place to stay, but was refused. His wife still lives in the city, but says the've been separated for almost a year and was in the process of filing a divorce. When we interviewed her, she claimed to haven't had any contact with him since she kicked him out. We have witnesses that saw him squatting here with a young woman about five days ago. The girl's name is Mirai Akizumi."

"Where's she?" she asked.

"She's missing. We obtained evidence that he made several drug trades among the Taro gang. We believe they came by the house to make another exchange, but Ogata wasn't able to pay them, and took Akizumi. There are several signs of a struggle. Ogata was hit point blank in the face with several metal ball bearings, which killed him."

"Do we know anything about Ogata's quirk?" Tokamura asked.

"His quirk is only a mild form of heat sense. He wasn't responsible for the balls. These more likely are from one of the attacker's quirk. We're checking our database for criminals in the area affiliated with the gang and possess metal quirks. We still don't have a lead to the whereabouts of Akizumi."

"What's her background?" Mae asked.

"A young, seventeen year old girl who ran away from her home in Sendai. She left her phone, her ID, everything. She met Ogata outside the convenience store he was employed at and had been following him ever since. When we called her parents, they were very concerned. They had filed a report of her missing over a week ago and had no idea where she went. Upon investigation, we got a tip from one of her classmates that she was heading to Honshu shore, so she had to cut through here. Eyewitnesses claims matched her description."

"I see..." Mae's eyes drooped down, thinking about her daughter. If she was in their shoes, she would be just as worried too. "We shouldn't completely narrow it down to only metal quirk users. It's possible that these ball bearings were made to benefit a precision quirk or one that shoots projectiles."

"That's true." added Tokamura.

"I'll be sure to let them expand the possibilities. We've called you here because I've been told that your quirk allows you to see things from certain objects." said Detective Handa.

"Yes, Sir. I can see everything around the object, all the places it had been and was used, anyone who touched it, all the way back to when it was first made. I've helped gather many leads for the local Police for almost twenty years now." Mae explained.

"That's quite impressive. I must commend you for your services." Handa praised, but Mae only shook her head.

"Thank you, but there's still the matter of a missing child on our hands. If the Tora gang kidnapped her, then our time is too precious to waste. I'll need everyone here to step back from the scene and bring me all the evidence you have." she explained as she bent over to pick up one of the metal balls. Might as well get started.

"Hey, hey! Don't touch that!" yelled one of the officers standing by.

"Cool it, Sonada!" Ordered Tokamura. The young man stopped short, a look of bewilderment plastered across his face.

"If you're worried about fingerprints, don't worry, I've never had any." said Mae as she gazed at her warped reflection on the curve of the ball.

"Go make yourself useful and get everyone back to the cars, so she can work!" ordered Tokamura. The young officer bowed once more and apologized before he left to do as told.

After a few minutes of waiting, the crowd dispersed and the officers stood off to the side to give her some space. They brought over a plastic black bin that was filled with several evidence bags for her to use. As usual, she could never take any of it, only work. When it was finally quiet enough, she placed all ten fingertips on the ball and shut her eyes. The smooth texture of the object awakened her third eye of wisdom, playing its life backwards, almost like a movie, starting from this current moment to back where it first came. She continued to concentrate her quirk as she spoke what she saw.

"There were four of them, Ogata and Akizumi... and two Taro gangsters, both male, around mid-twenties, both masked, wearing dark hoodies and pants. One looks to be around 180 centimeters tall with a distinct tribal tattoo above the left eye, the other appears to be 160 centimeters tall, wearing a white baseball cap under his hood..."

Tokamura quickly pulled out a notebook and the pen from his shirt pocket to jot it all down.

"The man with the cap is the one who made these ball bearers. He created them out of the iron in his blood and shoots them through several slits in his fingertips... He attacked Ogata, but Akizumi's quirk forced the ball bullets away. He then tried to attack her, but she tried to force it away again, and accidentally hit and killed Ogata..."

The vision of the event then faded to black, signaling her that it was all the information she was going to get, nothing more. Mae then placed it back in the same spot and left it where it lie before she turned her attention to the evidence bags. She proceeded to pull out a bag that looked nearly empty, but had a small piece of what she assumed to be cloth. Carefully, she took it out of the bag and tapped all ten fingertips on it.

"This is a piece of the other suspects clothing, the sleeve of his right arm... This man's quirk allows him to purtrude weapons from his skin. This cloth was ripped from a sword... This sleeve was part of his hoodie that he had taken from a mountain of laundry he left piled in a chair in what looks to be a poorly maintained motel... The Misty Aisle... His friends call him Ghost, but his real name is Reo Tanigawa..."

The hoodie was given to him by an old friend in high school who tragically passed away. There were many visions of him wandering around, suffering abuse from other teens at school, and being neglected at home from his overworked father. Since the rest of the visions had nothing to do with the investigation, she decided to cut it there and put the item back. There were several bags containing several blood covered ball bearings, which she didn't feel the need to look at, since they already knew who got hurt. They would've told her otherwise if they had found different traces of blood anywhere else. There were two bags left, one held a smashed burnt cigarette butt, and the other contained an empty drug bottle and a syringe. She quickly opened the one with the cigarette and touched it.

"This belonged to Ogata, it doesn't hold any valuable information..."

Hopefully, these last two items were the key to finding Akizumi. If Ogata made drug dealings with them before, there's a good chance that the bottle could be traced back to the source and what kind of product it contained. Mae hastily opened the bag and yanked out the bottle. It was a dark glass bottle sealed with a metal cap, which indicated it was made somewhere with professional medical equipment. It was labeled with nothing, but a white plus sign. How odd.

Once she closed her eyes again, she saw it all. Ogata dropped this amidst the fight from his pant pocket. He had bought this with the syringe to shoot up the drug in his arms, but... it wasn't to get high from his sad, sad life. No, this was much worse.

"This bottle contained a drug that amplifies quirks. Ogata bought it to get revenge for getting fired from his job, but the drug only lasts for a short period of time. He didn't have enough of a dose to finish the job and needed to buy more from the Taro gang... Reo was the one who gave him this. The whole supply lies concealed in ice coolers, disguised as fishing shipments that are all stocked in a fish market warehouse... The last shipment came at the beginning of the month off a boat in Sendai. The boat travels back to Kushiro... I see the bottles being made in an abandoned factory near Hokkaido. The drugs contained within it were created by an old scientist... Ujiko..."

The next thing she saw made her nearly drop the bottle.

"They're working with The League of Villains. The abandoned factory is one of their hidden bases. Whatever they're planning with these drugs, it's something big. It's getting blurry..." She tried to push herself to look further into it, but the next thing that came was the firey blaze from which the glass bottle was made. There was nothing left, so she placed the item back in the bag. Once the last bag was back in the bin, she handed it off to Detective Handa. "That's all I can see. I'm sorry I don't have more."

Tokamura shook his head. "No, as always, you've done a lot more than we ever could. Akizumi is bound to be in the warehouse or at that motel. If not, then we at least have a lead to where they might be heading. Thank you, Hattori."

He gave a respectful bow and left with Handa to go back to their team to run through all the information she had given. With the new technology their department developed in the last year, she was confident that they would find her soon. It was just upsetting that she wasn't with them right now. The visions didn't say where they were going or how they managed to capture her, but seeing this strange new drug, she could only assume they had overpowered her. If only Mae's quirk worked on human bodies, then maybe she could have seen what Ogata did in those final moments, to hear something they might've said and see what they did. This was the hardest part of coming to a crime scene that involved a kidnapping, it always made her unnecessarily anxious. Hopefully, they'll get to the girl before anything bad happens, so that she can finally be reunited with her parents.

After a while, she followed up with their other questions and was eventually dismissed. Even though she wished she could've done more, she was fairly content with the results of her efforts. Mr. Yamura then opened the car door for her to get in, and closed it. When he returned to his post behind the wheel, he turned the rearview mirror to look at her.

"Shall I take you home, Mae?"

Nothing sounded more comforting than crawling into her bedsheets and laying her head down on her memory foam pillow. Sadly, there were still matters that needed attending to.

"No, take me back to the office. I need to gather a few things before heading home."

As instructed, Mr. Yamura shifted into drive and they rolled back on the road, through the shady backstreets until they were back on the highway again. He turned on the radio and a soft tune of piano resonated throughout the car, completely washing over her strenuous thoughts. This was something he did every time he had to take her to a gruesome crime scene; it was his way of helping her try to relax. Although this kind of thing was part of her job, he understood that seeing scenes such as this stuck with her afterwards. It was only natural that she would get that way, she's only human after all, and to be perfectly honest, some of it stuck with him too. He wasn't sure if this 'overthinking' was her way of making sure no stone was left unturned or if it was just simple curiosity to how the police would handle things without her. Regardless, it would stay on her mind to the point where it would only stress her out more. It was always worse when the case dealt with a kid.

The soft piano emitted a warm sensation from the tips of her earlobes all throughout her body. She tried to melt within the rhythm by relaxing her muscles and focussed her sights away from the blue folder in her lap towards the tinted window. Unfortunately, nothing really caught her eye as they passed on, and it only made her restless. That poor girl... She's not much older than her...

"Thinking about Miss Akane again?"

Mae shifted her gaze to his dark brown eyes in the rearview mirror and exhaled a sigh through her nose in defeat. Was it too obvious? Of course, it was.

"Maybe you know me a little too well."

"It's easier to notice when you repeat your actions." he smirked. She let out a faint chuckle.

"I'm just so worried about her. I don't want anything to happen to her, like what happened with that young girl."

"You have the mindset of a strong-willed woman, Mae, and I've seen that you've passed those traits on to Miss Akane. She is alot like you in many ways, including putting others before herself. You shouldn't worry, in fact, you should be very proud of her. Most children like her don't turn out like this." he explained.

"I know... It's just - you know how I get when a child is involved..."

"I know."

The conversation silenced from there as they both turned back to what they were doing and succumbed to the soothing melody of the radio. What Yamura said did provide some comfort to her transgressions, but that didn't stop her from thinking about Akane. She wondered what she was doing right now at U.A. After having the talk with her teachers about including a counselor, it seems like they were paying closer attention to her than she originally thought. The entire phone call left her contemplating that maybe she was being too protective of her, but something about what they said was strange. Mae understood Akane's set of boundaries, including being touched or when she got angry, but that hasn't been an issue for years now; Akane was past that as far as she knew. She always let her give her hugs and pats on the head and back, and she hasn't had a meltdown since Junior High. Whatever was going on that led the teachers to even suggest a counselor was a bit concerning, but Mae trusted the Pro-heroes to do what was best for her daughter in her absence.

A couple hours later, they arrived back at her agency's parking garage. Mr. Yamura parked in her reserved spot before he turned off the car and got out to open her door. She clicked her heels against the pavement and turned to back to him.

"I won't be long. I'm just going to sort a few files and get my things. I'll be thirty minutes tops."

Mr. Yamura creased his brow with a sly smirk. "So you really mean an hour?"

Mae curled a smile and laughed. "I guess I'm not so great with time, am I?"

"Either way, you pay me to drive you. I'll be here when you're ready, Mae." He assured, giving her a small grin. She really should pay him more for putting up with her bad habits for so long.

Mae turned on her heels towards the double glass doors of the building. There was a security lock placed right next to the entrance with a red scanner, which only allowed passage for those with the proper identification cards. She opened her purse to pull out her ID and scanned the barcode right under her picture beneath the scanner. The blinking red light turned green and with a click, she opened the door and went inside. She passed several night staff employees through the lobby, some giving her a friendly wave, until she made it to the elevator and pushed the button. When the door opened, she went in and pushed the button to the top floor. Once it was up, the door chimed open and she proceeded down the hallway to the massive wooden door at the end with her name engraved on the plaque.

Inside, there were folders and papers scattered across her desk, empty takeout boxes with plastic utensils, and many used coffee cups. The mess didn't bother her, since it was usually like this on a regular basis, but she knew she would have to make the effort to clean it up anyways to make room for more stuff later on. She dropped the blue folder on the stack with the rest of her case files and went to grab her trash can to throw things away. Mae tossed her boxes and cups before going through the papers, and that was when she came across a certain document; it had been buried under all her letters and memos. It was the mysterious note Akane had given her a few days ago, the horrific message re-igniting the flames of her protective mamma bear instincts.

We'll be back... As if they would dare. No one hurts her child!

The paper crinkled at her furious grip from looking at it. She had already seen this probably about a hundred times since she got it, and she used every bit of her quirk to try and identify who it was that gave it to her. She wasn't able to get a visual description as the suspect was completely covered and masked when he gave it to her, but she was able to get a name. He went by "Sui Man", which upon further investigation, only one criminal was found that went by that alias. His name was Hiro Asano, a young adult male, who was charged with human trafficking and drug distribution at age 18 and released from prison at 26. His sentence was reduced for good behavior as a model inmate and has been off the record since. Sadly, Mae knew damn well that even those who seem well-behaved on the outside could still hold bad intentions, this note was proof of that. Unfortunately, he wasn't the one who wrote the note, he was just the delivery boy, and a very discrete one at that if he was able to trail after her daughter in a public place without causing a scene. She was lucky that a friend had been watching her, or else things could've been much worse. What was most infuriating was that the police still have yet to apprehend Hiro for questioning.

When she tried to find the person who actually wrote the message, all she saw was a cloud of dark fog with two glowing yellow eyes, almost like a shadowy apparition with no human appendages what so ever. The mere visual of the suspect showed that it was definitely the physical manifestation of his own quirk, but because it was black fog, he didn't actually touch it, so there was no way to know who it really was. There was no name, and he spoke nothing except for the order for Hiro to give this to Akane. After that, the paper resumed its spot back on a table, buried under a mountain of scattered debris. That was it. She had nothing else to go on and it was incredibly infuriating. There wasn't very many criminals in the database that had his description, at least, not in her or her neighboring districts.

Now that it was here in her hands again, she paused to relax the tension in her hands. For a while, she just stared at the paper. She couldn't bring herself to get rid of it, since it was the only bit of information she had. It was all too unusual for her to see so little of that one vision. No, there had to be more! She had to use her quirk again, just once. There had to be something she overlooked. It didn't matter if she had to look at it a million times over, she had a duty to protect Akane.

With all ten fingertips touching it, she closed her eyes and let the vision replay. It went back from sitting here on her desk to it being in Akane's possession back at U.A. He slipped it in her bag and it was caught in her book. The slip of paper was given to him with the message already on it and was ordered to give it to her, but from who? There was no question that they were both part of The League of Villains, but what did they want with her daughter?! There was a sharp pain building in her brain as she pushed herself to look deeper. The desk, the pen, the papers, anything that note touched she could see, but it just wasn't enough.

No longer able to withstand the pain, she released her quirk and dropped in her chair with a huffed breath. The note slipped out of her grasp and turned over on the table in a wrinkled mess. Mae ran her fingers through her hair to put a bit of pressure on the sides of her temples, causing the pain to slowly fade away. This would always happen when she overdid it. It sucked, but that didn't matter in the slightest. There was still a bunch of villains out there after her daughter. The only lead she could possibly have was finding Hiro Asano, and that matter she had to leave to the police. Who knows how long that would take? Weeks? Months? If he was siding with the Villains, he might've found a way to go completely off the grid.

She looked down to the paper, wanting so much to rip it apart for making her worry like this, and after coming from that crime scene. After exhaling a much needed breath, she went to smooth out the wrinkles. It wouldn't be of much use to her if she kept damaging it.

"?!"

Just when she went to smooth out the top right corner, something caught her eye. On the back of the paper, there was a auburn colored blotch, a small one that had not been big enough to completely seep through the paper. Mae studied it carefully before taking a few glances back to the top of her desk. It couldn't be a coffee stain because of the unusual red-ish tint, nor could it be a ramen stain or sriracha sauce, since it was buried under so many papers since she had it. What was it? There was only one way to know. It had been a long time since she used only a couple of fingers in her visual readings because normally, it wouldn't come out as clear unless she had placed all ten fingers on the surface. She didn't have any other choice.

Mae gently placed two fingers over the blotch and closed her eyes. That's when she saw it, a blood splatter. The stain had come from blood that belonged to a fish, a Bluefin Tuna fish, to be more specific... one that had been cut by a band saw in a warehouse... a warehouse that looked shockingly familiar.

"!"

Mae's eyes flicked wide open as she immediately scrambled across her desk to her purse for her phone. Once it was in her hand, she went to her recent phone calls and pushed the button. She threw her purse over her shoulder and bolted out the door as it rang.

"This is Tokamura."

"Hey, it's me. Have your men located the fish market warehouse?"

"Yea, we're in pursuit now. We've already called in on Kamui Woods and Death Arms for backup. Why?"

"Send me the coordinates and I'll explain when I get there."

"Yes, Ma'am." he said, and he hung up.

The car halted behind the glow of flashing lights. Yamura opened the door for Mae and together they paced towards the messy scene. All branches of authority were present, the Police, SWAT, several PSI agents from one of her sister agencies, and the Pro-Heroes altogether had completely surrounded the building. With this many involved, they were well prepared for things to get ugly, and with The League of Villains involvement, that was bound to come arise. Mae held her arm around Yamura as they motioned through the crowd of officers in their firing position over to Tokamura's team. Mr. Handa stood beside him, assisting the squad in setting up their equipment while Tokamura was giving orders. When she approached him, he ceased chatting with his team to give her his full attention.

"What's going on?" she asked.

"We were able to find the warehouse after doing some digging at that motel you mentioned, The Misty Aisle, and upon further investigating, we found a witness who claimed to have seen the two Taro thugs back at the motel shortly after the incident with Ogata. There was a young female in the car with them that met the description of Akizumi... We tried questioning a few more people staying at the motel, but most of them don't want to talk. They're probably scared of getting cut, or getting cut off from their little business." he explained.

"So she's here? Now?" Mae pointed to the building.

He nodded. "Kamui Woods is sneaking in through the top to tell us the situation from the inside. If anything happens, Death Arms will break the perimeter and we'll scatter and arrest them."

"Chief!" interrupted one of his officers running to his side. He shoved a black walkie-talkie in his hands. "Sir, it's Kamui Woods."

Tokamura clicked the button, letting out a static screech until it cleared for him to speak. "What's the situation?"

"I've entered through the heating ducts and have made my way near the back-left side of the building. I have a clear visual on the suspects, and there's several thugs guarding the entrances and windows. All of them are armed." said the hero in a hushed tone to keep his stealth.

"Any news of the girl, Akizumi? Do you see her?" he asked.

There was a long unsettling pause.

"... Yes, she's here, along with two other victims. One of them looks to be another female around the same age as Akizumi, but the other appears to be a middle-aged man. There are several villains around them... I'll need a distraction to get their attention away from the hostages, that'll give me an opening to apprehend them and escape."

"And then we'll make our move. We'll send Death Arms in to make the distraction. When you're ready, you just-"

"Wait! Something's happening!" Kamui Woods interjected. There was another unsettling pause waiting for what he was about to tell them.

Please don't say they're about to harm them!

"They're forceably taking them to a separate room. Give me a minute. I'll have to follow them."

They waited in the stressing silence that seemed to drag on forever until the static screech sound was heard once again.

"It can't be..."

"What?"

"It's a huge laboratory, full of huge tanks and all kinds of equipment."

"It's probably for the fish cover up." said Tokamura.

"No. No, it's just as PSI speculated, they're making Nomus... They've chained up the hostages, but they're strapping down Akizumi to a chair... They're hooking her up to the equipment. I have to move now! Go!" Kamui ordered, and with that Tokamura sprung into action.

"Death Arms, you're on!" he yelled.

On cue, the tall, built hero charged head on through the entrance of the building. The cement foundation crumbled to pieces behind his back, leaving behind only a wide gaping hole on the outside. The SWAT team followed him in, then the PSI agents and the Police. With no other way out, they trapped the villains inside and took them down one by one. Mae stood aside with the other detectives watching the operation through the hole in the wall. Several guards were escorted out in handcuffs into the large police truck, but there was still no sign of the hostages.

BAM! Suddenly, the top of the warehouse burst as several tree trunks branched out to the sky. Kamui Woods yanked himself out the top and retracted the branches back into his forearms. Looking down, he motioned his wood quirk and with one swift pull from below, all three hostages were up on the roof. The other two victims stood off the side as Kamui Woods carried the third victim limply in his arms. There was no doubt that he was holding Akizumi.

"Get them down to EMS." ordered Tokamura, to which the last few officers of his team bowed and left.

They approached the side with no exit, seeing as it was the safest way to keep them from getting mixed up in a fight and not be taken hostage again. They signaled Kamui Woods and he extended his wooden arms down to place Akizumi in the trusted arms of one of the officers. One by one he sent them down before jumping down himself and re-joining the others for needed assistance. The EMS team loaded all three of them up in the ambulance to be taken to the nearest hospital for treatment, and the moment they rolled off, Mae sighed a breath in relief. Thank God, they finally found her. Hopefully, she would be alright.

"Detective Handa." He turned to Tokamura. "If you could, follow them back to the hospital and get a formal statement. If permitted, I'd like to ask them some questions later."

"Sure." he replied, and with that he exited the scene, leaving Tokamura as the only man left in charge of the operation.

"So you gonna tell me why you're here?" he asked Mae, who had practically forgotten why she had come in the first place.

"Right, sorry. I haven't seen an event unfold like this in a while." She said as she straightened her back to face him directly. "I'm here because I was able to link the threatening message my daughter obtained back to this warehouse. I discovered a blood stain on the back that belonged to a fish that was butchered here."

"Are you sure, Mae?" His brow furrowed questionably.

"Trust me, I wouldn't be here if I hadn't seen it... It's the only lead I have. This is my daughter we're talking about."

"But if I remember correctly, that note was made by someone else in a different location?" he explained.

"No, the man who delivered it didn't write it, it was given to him by someone else who worked with the Taro gang. For all we know, he could be with The League of Villains too." she corrected.

"Well we've already cuffed all the suspects. If we were to line them up, you think you'd be able to identify the one in your vision?"

"Yes, definitely."

"Alright, I'll have my associates assign you and your daughter to the case. We'll follow them down to the station after we've inspected the area. Care to lend a hand?" he gestured back to the building.

Mae nodded. "I'll do what I can, but I won't be able to use my quirk for a while after that."

"Understood."

They proceeded to carefully step through the rubbled foundation into the warehouse. Several members of the forensic team scattered about, swabbing for fingerprints, collecting evidence, and taking notes and pictures of just about everything they saw. The front was a wide open space lined with pallets upon pallets of styrofoam coolers, which made sense to the "fish market" cover. Even for an old time business, this amount of stock seemed excessive.

Out of nowhere, one of the forensic team members broke away from the group over towards them, lugging one of the coolers in his arms.

"Chief! You'll need to see this!"

He opened the lid, which revealed a good-sized pink salmon lain on a bed of ice. From just looking at it, it seemed like a normal shipment of fish ready to be butchered and sold, but then, he dug his fingers into the ice and pulled a hidden tab to a false bottom. Underneath was a secluded compartment filled with several dark bottles of what could only be drugs. There was so many packed in just one cooler, that taking all the pallets into account made this find even more serious. This was now a change in jurisdiction.

"My PSI agents will handle this. We'll have them analyze the quirk enhancers and any other drug these bottles may contain. Just leave it to them." Mae assured him. Tokamura nodded for the forensic teammate to do as she said.

"Chief! In here!" called another from a hidden door in the wall disquised as a tool cabinet.

Together, they followed him into the secret room. What they saw next, they almost couldn't believe their eyes. It was exactly as Kamui Woods said, there were massive tanks set up to various scientific equipment, each tank hooked up to an unusually shaped lifeforms, better known as Nomus. Shelves upon shelves crowded the walls with various medical supplies and there was a counter that was covered in used tools and bottles. Whoever had been running this place clearly had been doing it for a long time now and had enough experience and credibility to get their hands on such advanced technology. Several cases had come in the past detailing villain bases such as this and creating these Nomu creatures to wreak havoc on the public, but Mae didn't anticipate that she would be witnessing this firsthand. Then again, knowing that she was involved at all in such a case meant that this was an even greater threat.

Her eyes followed the used tools to a large machine that was attached to the wall behind a strap-down chair. The gray leather on the chair was worn and covered in several rips and blood stains, no doubt from the struggles of many past victims unfortunate enough to sit in it. There were several needles attached to medical fluid bags and some attached wires to the unusual machine. Overall, the scene was very unpleasant, especially for Mae. What would've happened to Akane had those fuckers succeeded in taking her? What would they have done to her? This whole thing, she never would've known had she not discovered that blood stain on the back of the note. She was so grateful that she did, otherwise, it wouldn't have been Akizumi in that chair, but it could've been Akane.

Now that she found the place where the note originated, it was time to finish this once and for all. Her brow dropped as she turned to Tokamura.

"Let's get to work."