OKAY SO MAYBE THIS CHAPTER IS THE ONE WITH MOST CHATROOM I'M SORRY I FORGOT ABOUT THAT.
MEA CULPA
(***)
UA-Spy: Am I the only one who has bad feelings about it?
SmallMight: bad feelings about what?
Blueberry: ?
UA-Spy: everything
SmallMight: UA-Spy Protection Squad is a go
UA-Spy: lol
VampirePrincess: *virtual hug*
Blueberry: *virtual hug*
HandyMan: I don't do hugs
HandyMan: but tell me whom to kill to make you feel better
SmallMight: Awww
UA-Spy: Awww
VampirePrincess: Awww
Blueberry: Ara ara.
UA-Spy: no, honestly, it might be the lack of activity and Overhaul being invisible
UA-Spy: but, I feel like something's deeply wrong
UA-Spy: I don't hear even nearly as much things from Nedzu
UA-Spy: and I feel like even the underworld itself went kinda silent?
UA-Spy: I don't like it
UA-Spy: I feel like a horror protag staring down a dark corridor at night and wondering if something didn't just move down there
SmallMIght: I have to confess - I have similar thoughts
SmallMight: Overhaul vanished
SmallMight: No one heard about him for like two weeks now?
SmallMight: I get it that he is holed up somewhere and working on his Science of Evil™
SmallMight: but HOW did he vanish so well and why nobody saw his soldiers since then
SmallMight: I'm 99% certain he either copied Eclipse' quirk when nobody was looking or has another warper
SmallMight: this is messed up
Blueberry: Wouldn't he come forward with said quirk to claim himself as Eclipse's successor?
SmallMight: I don't know, Overhaul is messed up in the head but really damn smart, there is a plan in all of that
SmallMight: But I can't decipher it and this is terrifying since he has like 50x more resources than when he was the head of the Shie Hasseikai
UA-Spy: that's super reassuring
SmallMight: did you prefer me to lie to you?
UA-Spy: fair
UA-Spy: Nedzu might be onto me, now that I think about it
SmallMight: What?
UA-Spy: I don't like how everyone suddenly stopped having Serious Talks™ in his office
UA-Spy: they might know about my surveillance
UA-Spy: If so, they are probably doing background checks on everyone in the vicinity
SmallMight: crap, when did that start?
UA-Spy: soon after Overhaul talk
SmallMight: Did I slip too much
SmallMight: shit
UA-Spy: yeah
SmallMight: you want a lift out rn?
UA-Spy: I'll tell you when I see a hero tailing me or smth, for now I can still be wrong
VampirePrincess: I'm looking forward to seeing you with us!
HandyMan: same
UA-Spy: heh
UA-Spy: if they are truly onto me, they might go for an arrest during the training camp
UA-Spy: in two weeks, isolated in the countryside, surrounded by heroes
SmallMight: makes sense, I'll locate the place and get ready for an assault if we lose contact with you
UA-Spy: thx
UA-Spy: friends willing to assault a fortress in the middle of the woods filled with heroes and hero trainees for you are the best friends
SmallMight: Hell yeah!
SmallMight: what do you know about the training camp btw.?
UA-Spy: that it'll be big, bigger than in prior years
UA-Spy: Cementoss and Power Loader are there, helping in construction of something. Together with literally every single support class from every single year.
UA-Spy: Plus Nedzu decided to include more people. Might be most of the hero classes, plus a lot of heroes for security.
SmallMight: oh joy, security amped up
UA-Spy: yeah I wonder who inspired that
SmallMight: that's certainly not me, you reverse sunshine
Akatani Mikumo: Anything on Overhaul?
Sawa Takeo: He is out of the Vigilante Alliance' weight class, if we found anything about him, we'd tell Eraserhead or some other pro hero about it
Akatani Mikumo: this is fair
Akatani Mikumo: what can you tell me about Inhuman Supremacy Party's operations in Shizuoka prefecture
Sawa Takeo: … what brought that in?
Akatani Mikumo: I am a bit of an information broker, not sure if you noticed
Akatani Mikumo: I might or might not have certain Legion in my extensive list of underworld contracts and he is looking forward to finding something to wreck, so I think that making him go after villains is a relatively good idea
Sawa Takeo: … I'm starting to understand why you looked for Stain.
Akatani Mikumo: not my proudest job, and I really thought that they would murder each other
Akatani Mikumo: turned out that Legion is Stain's adopted (and temporarily estranged) nephew
Akatani Mikumo: who was looking to reconnect with his uncle
Akatani Mikumo: would you expect THAT development? be honest with me
Sawa Takeo: ok wow
Sawa Takeo: you have a point
Sawa Takeo: this had to come out of the blue
Sawa Takeo: Alliance has a lead on what appears to be an ISP' base in Shizuoka, but nothing substantial
Akatani Mikumo: good enough, I have other sources, I'm just trying to narrow down the location
Akatani Mikumo: I have three potential places, and I need to cross out two
Sawa Takeo: money or info?
Akatani Mikumo: nothing interesting in my information list, at least nothing that Eraserhead doesn't know and that might have interested the Alliance
Sawa Takeo: so money it is
Akatani Mikumo: Standard payment?
Sawa Takeo: yep
(***)
Izuku read through the file sent to him by the Alliance. He was halfway in when he started laughing.
"Busted, assholes." He is running under a bit of a sleep deficit due to being very involved in his current investigation. As a result, he gets 'maniacal cackling' instead of 'satisfied laughter'. He decides to go to sleep - he has to plan another mass murder, and this is something to do while relatively sane.
Himiko is still missing out on their nightly cuddling sessions. Since she was the person to force him to go to sleep on reasonable hours, his current state is probably at least partially her fault. Certainly not his. He is sure about that.
(***)
ISP was using a large tea plantation as a cover. The building had a surprisingly expansive underground section serving as barracks, and it was right next to a large forested area used by the local ISP cell as a training area. Mostly at night - there was no one around the plantation to notice an awkward number of complex mutant quirk users emerging from it right after the sunset.
The police were yet to find an explanation for some missing campers and hunters in the area. Sure, only four during the last two years. But the forest was still slowly developing a reputation. And not a good one.
He had Spinner observe the camp for three days. He found about seventy members of the ISP in the area, including five B or C-Ranks (rest was D or E).
Izuku chuckled menacingly when he found out. It was time to practise operations in forested areas. And he had just a perfect idea in mind for it.
(***)
TruthDetector: Five hours ago the League attacked the Inhuman Supremacy Party base in this prefecture.
Mr. Principal: Oh dear.
DeadpanStalker: Let me guess - ISP was massacred?
TruthDetector: To put it mildly, yes.
Tintin: …
Tintin: At least Legion is consistent.
SuperPunch: One way to describe it.
Mr. Principal: What happened, Tsukauchi?
TruthDetector: We thus far counted seventy-two corpses, but we suspect that there might be more scattered through the woods. We caught three survivors that the League missed, but no one important (just thugs, frankly traumatized and terrified by what happened, and thus highly cooperative). We also have some camera footage from the plantation that ISP used as a cover.
TruthDetector: Decay isn't the only one member of the League with way more dangerous quirks than we previously anticipated. Majority of the ISP casualties came from Mustard covering about ten square miles of forest with his poison gas, while party-ists were in the middle of training in it.
Mr. Principal: Oh dear.
TruthDetector: One of the survivors said that it was like a mini-cyclone made of poison mist. With Mustard in the middle (she is flight-capable mutant, she managed to fly above the poison cloud and tried to engage him, but was shot by Mindscrew and only barely managed to get out of the poison range before falling to the ground).
TruthDetector: It is possible that said cyclone was capable of moving, for as long as Mustard was.
DeadpanStalker: So, an A-Rank. And that's putting it lightly. S-Rank material with some development, no doubt.
TruthDetector: Certainly. Good news is that the poison density seems to have decreased with range, resulting in said three survivors that were on the verge of the cyclone. I'm also willing to risk a bet that even in the middle of it, it wasn't as concentrated as when he is attacking people directly. So it takes time to incapacitate and even more to kill.
SuperPunch: Good news, but not great news. Mustard's potential for large-scale battles is clearly immense. He can saturate the entire battlefield in poison without having to expose himself to danger. And everyone willing to confront him will have to navigate towards the densest part of the poison fog, getting more and more weakened the closer they get.
SuperPunch: He is extremely dangerous when paired with Mindscrew, who can simply order his opponents to take off their masks or stand there for a few seconds and inhale deeply (and since the visibility is awful, he can borrow the voices of their teammates to force them to respond if there is more than one attacker).
Mr. Principal: I agree with this assessment entirely.
TruthDetector: The events on the plantation were equally awful and warrant another villain rank change.
CatsCoffeeNap: what now?
TruthDetector: The attack on the plantation began with Dabi setting the buildings on fire from a distance. When the members of the ISP emerged from them to confront the attackers… well, I think I'll just upload the video.
Mr. Principal: There is a streaming feature in our communicators, use it.
TruthDetector: Sure.
The video starts. They can see some burning buildings, with smoke concealing a lot. The people with complex, mostly animalistic, mutant quirks emerge from the buildings.
They recognize the two figures standing on the open field before the plantation, despite them being far away from the camera.
CatsCoffeeNap: Dabi
Mr. Principal: + Zealot.
"Who are you!" Someone from the mutant crowds shouts. "Do you have the tiniest idea who you just att…"
Dabi is far away from the camera, but it has good audio AND he is using a megaphone. They can hear the words quite clearly.
"I'm Dabi, the vice-commander of the Vanguard Action Squad of the League of Villains." The villain announces, with a notable glee in his voice. "And yes. I know who you are. Bunch of assholes we've come to kill."
The detective pauses the recording.
TruthDetector: Opinions on that?
Tintin: Well, he isn't wrong with that last sentence.
DeadpanStalker: Mirio?
Tintin: I mean, they were assholes, and they did come to kill them all, so as I said, no lies there.
DeadpanStalker: Don't scare me like that.
CatsCoffeeNap: So, Legion learned to delegate. Great.
TruthDetector: Delegate?
Mr. Principal: Vanguard Action Squad is a new development. I believe that Aizawa suggests that Legion himself acted like a strategist and main planner of this operation, while letting someone else execute the attack itself. Probably whoever the leader of the VAS is.
SuperPunch: Most likely Mindscrew is the leader. He is relatively levelheaded, and has a mental quirk (we all know that mental quirks are often paired with increased situational awareness and intelligence level).
DeadpanStalker: My thoughts exactly.
Mr. Principal: I'm more worried about the word 'Vanguard'. It implies preceding some main force. We don't see it here, but…
TruthDetector: Not the real worrying thing. Continue watching.
What follows is a massacre.
Dabi doesn't even participate. Just laughs in the background.
Zealot bursts forward, his body expanding in size, his robe proving to be a support item with an incredible elasticity as it doesn't just break under the strain.
The camera can barely catch Zealot's movement speed. He crosses fifty meters distance in a second, his fist meeting the face of one of the bigger mutants. He practically rams said head into the wall of the building behind the man, shattering the majority of the building and splattering the head over what's left of it.
Two more mutants die almost instantly, one to an elbow hit that practically decapitates the ISP warrior, and the other one to a follow up punch.
The rest has just enough time to start screaming. The last one dies when Zealot breaks his back on his knee - with enough strength to practically sever the man in half, showering everything with gore.
The massacre concluded, Zealot shrinks back to his normal size and walks back towards Dabi. Who stops laughing maniacally into his megaphone.
Mr. Principal: Oh dear.
Tintin: … All Might, you didn't have any secret children somewhen in the past?
SuperPunch: I most certainly did not.
TruthDetector: This is far beneath All Might's level of strength enhancement. But in theory it is a similar quirk - massive enhancement of strength, speed and resilience, just with greater transformation components.
TruthDetector: Zealot was punched once in the film, by that gorilla mutant - we have data on him and trust me, his strength counted as superhuman. Zealot didn't even notice it and then tore off the head in retaliation with a single hand.
CatsCoffeeNap: I just imagined having to deal with All Might if he was a villain.
CatsCoffeeNap: My day is ruined.
CatsCoffeeNap: Thank you.
SuperPunch: … mine is ruined a bit, too. That really was like seeing myself murdering people.
SuperPunch: I hate the very idea.
DeadpanStalker: So, another A-Ranker in the League (because let's be honest, seeing that WILL make the Commission up him).
Mr. Principal: No doubts about it.
CatsCoffeeNap: Any ideas how his quirk works?
TruthDetector: No. But I'm certain that this still isn't his full strength.
CatsCoffeeNap: oh great, another nightmare
Mr. Principal: Explain?
TruthDetector: I'm 99% certain that he was the one to kill Purge. But the punch that he used to do it has practically pulverized that man, the wall behind him, the office behind the wall and then the outside wall of the building. Almost collapsing it in the process.
TruthDetector: It was a significant fraction of All Might's full strength. 40-50%?
TruthDetector: but he didn't use it here, that's 15-25% just without holding back against human targets
DeadpanStalker: there is a villain out there who isn't All for One or Re-Destro and can reach this degree of physical strength?!
TruthDetector: I can only suggest not engaging him without appropriate quirk combination and/or Symbol of Peace. But to have an appropriate quirk combination, we need to figure out his quirk.
Mr. Principal: I… might have a theory.
Tintin: I'm scared and in need of a hug.
CatsCoffeeNap: Same.
Mr. Principal: He lost an arm (before getting it back, somehow) in the battle against Eclipse. I run genetic tests on it, and the results indicate a very close familiar connection with… Purity. Judging from the age, he is most likely her son.
TruthDetector: Purity as in the Creature Rejection Clan leader?
Mr. Principal: One and only.
TruthDetector: Didn't he kill Purge, Purity second-in-command?
Tintin: Oh great, another League member with acute parental issues.
TruthDetector: Yeah, sounds like it.
Mr. Principal: I happen to have a … contact with someone within the CRC. No one high, but he does share some gossip from within the organization. Several years ago I heard unproven mention that Purity had a son, who apparently vanished. But no actual details (she kept her family hidden from the organization at large).
Mr. Principal: I suspect that Purge was as surprised with seeing him as we are with his parentage.
CatsCoffeeNap: What does that tell us about his quirk?
Mr. Principal: Purity's quirk is strength (and quirk power) enhancement to people in the vicinity who she 'identifies with', so in her case it's typically the non-mutant quirkeds, especially those from the CRC. Her quirk is further boosted when they are wearing concealing robes, because without seeing their faces she can 'imagine' that they resemble her more.
Mr. Principal: My theory is that Zealot has a variation on that quirk - self-boost on the basis of some form of abstract perception of himself and/or his opponents.
Mr. Principal: He appears to have escaped from the CRC, and has managed to generate a much larger power level when engaging Purge, when compared to the one he displayed when engaging ISP.
Mr. Principal: It might be hatred, or it might be something slightly more constructive (for example righteousness? so he felt that Purge is more evil and more worthy of killing than ISP members, due to him being a more 'personal' brand of evil, and thus reaching a higher power level?)
SuperPunch: If he had a quirk empowering him when he feels that he is good and the enemy is evil, how didn't he end up as a hero? This is like a dream quirk for a hero. Especially when it gives him this degree of a power-boost. This is literally a Top Five Hero material with proper training (if not a guaranteed Number Two Hero position if he puts his back into it)
Mr. Principal: He is a son of a supervillain, probably with no documents (villains don't need those) and on the run from Purity (if our theories on their relationships are correct). I would take him in, no questions asked, if only to spite his mother, but he might have not seen this as possible and never tried to join UA.
Mr. Principal: He joined the League through Stain, and most of his former party appear to be formed from more… extremist vigilantes who developed issues with a lot of heroes on top of those towards villains.
Tintin: Another person that fell through the cracks into villainy. Tsk.
DeadpanStalker: Mirio, he is a villain.
Tintin: A villain that could be a hero if society gave them a chance. I sometimes feel like the League has this as a running theme for its members.
DeadpanStalker: Mirio, we all know that. But he is still killing people. And has to be stopped, regardless of how much we relate to his motives.
Tintin: Excuse me for feeling bad about having to arrest or kill (if they resist too much) people my age who should have been helped by the very society that I'm supposed to uphold.
Tintin: But weren't because they were born with the wrong quirk (or no quirk at all).
Tintin: Had some slightly enlightening talk recently, and, well
Tintin: My quirk was originally extremely weak, and I heard many people discourage me from going to heroics. I managed to persevere, but what about those who didn't? Gentle Criminal tried to become a hero for several years, but no one wanted to give him a chance and now he is a villain.
Tintin: He defeated many heroes, so it's not like he was too weak. He might steal from the wealthy, but we all know that Levellers focus on those wealthy who have done nasty things. So it's not like he had no moral compass. So why he isn't a hero but a villain?
Tintin: And that's not all.
Tintin: It's something I heard about while a 'guest' in the League. I didn't think that it was important, but I think it's time to mention it.
Tintin: Vampire became a villain because due to her quirk requiring her to drink human blood, it was seen as 'villainous'. So not only was she abused at home (despite, let's be honest, Legion being 100% correct when he said that ability to shapeshift like that is a dream quirk for an underground hero) but ended up killing her father accidentally in self-defense when he was trying to forcefully tear off her fangs. That she apparently needs to not suffer from crippling anemia.
Tintin: And when she wanted to turn herself in, a 'hero' ended up almost beating her to death for fun, until some villain (!) intervened out of pity. She was 10 years old when that happened.
Tintin: How am I supposed to feel when I'll face her in a fight? Maybe if I was born quirkless or with a 'villainous' quirk, I'd persevere and become a hero. But maybe I wouldn't, and I would end up like her.
Tintin: It's a bit of a haunting perspective. And I'm not sure what to think about it. It's not covered in the school curriculum, that's for sure.
CatsCoffeeNap: Consider an internship with some underground heroes before graduating.
CatsCoffeeNap: We deal with issues like that on a semi-constant basis. I get to know many different villains in my line of work.
CatsCoffeeNap: Also tell me if you ever find out the name of the hero who did that to Vampire. Just for… reference.
DeadpanStalker: I agree with Eraserhead. Sure, you are going to become a surface hero, but a different perspective is never a bad idea. You'll often work on the basis of evidence gathered by an underground hero, and understanding how they work will be beneficial to you.
DeadpanStalker: And do not feel bad about not knowing what to think about it. Hero schools are supposed to foster idealism - because that's the core of heroics.
DeadpanStalker: Understanding the villain's motives and reasoning is something we typically leave for already moulded heroes. There is always a risk of understanding a villain's motives a bit too much.
DeadpanStalker: You asking such questions just means that you began to mature as a hero earlier than most.
Tintin: Well… thank you. It's not exactly the reaction I expected but it means a lot to me.
Tintin: I think I'll consider working with underground heroes for a while, as you said.
DeadpanStalker: I'm always there for you if you want to talk.
SuperPunch: Same.
Mr. Principal: I'd like to add that I agree with you, Mirio. There are many villains who are truly and unquestionably evil (think of people like All for One, or Muscular and Moonfish, the recent escapees). But many are victims of circumstances, or just victims. We still need to stop them from committing crimes, but… there are underlying issues to address.
Mr. Principal: The current crisis is because the HPSC focused on heroes, as a go-to means of dealing with issues, and completely forgo working on the issues that cause villains to be born in the first place.
Mr. Principal: Then again, I didn't do a lot either. Which is what I'm going to change.
Mr. Principal: This is a reason why I plan to organize the rehab hero class. Too many people end up as villains because they were born in the wrong family, because they were told that their quirk is villainous once or twice too many and so on. I also think that going to the hero course with people like that should give other students some perspective concerning what Mirio mentioned about how not all people called villains are pure evil. And not knowing how to react to that.
Mr. Principal: Unfortunately, UA is only a single school. And I have a long list of issues with many other schools. HPSC is only making things worse with their policies. Hopefully some schools will follow our example, we know that UA is a bit of the image of an 'ideal' hero school.
SuperPunch: Get one of 'your' TV stations to ask me on live television about villainous quirks. Telling Japan that the Symbol of Peace thinks that there is no such a thing as villainous quirks is probably a step in a good direction.
Mr. Principal: Finally taking a step in?
SuperPunch: I read some articles, and checked some statistics recently. And I agree with Mirio. I don't like how certain things grew out of proportion in the chaos of the last few years. It requires some correcting.
SuperPunch: I made non-intervention in societal matters a policy, because the last thing I want is a One for All Holder (and a Number One Hero) going on a power trip, and All for One has proven to us how addictive 'changing the society' is. But now I know that I'm going to turn quirkless soon, so that threat is negated. And I refuse to stand idle for even a minute longer if there is no one else to do a thing, and the HPSC is only making things worse.
Mr. Principal: And what caused that? Not like I'm going to complain about it, since I think that's a very good thing to do. Just asking.
SuperPunch: Partially it's the League and hearing about people like Zealot. Partially it's some words I heard recently from an old teacher of mine. But it's private, so I'm not going to elaborate.
Mr. Principal: I see. Well, I'm looking forward to hearing from you!
Mr. Principal: Unfortunately, it will take years to get anywhere. We really got kinda lazy after we got rid of the All for One, didn't we?
TruthDetector: I hate to admit, but you are right.
TruthDetector: The Re-Destro's failed coup should have been a waking call, but…
SuperPunch: We and the Commission equally felt like it's just a bump on the road to recovery from All for One.
SuperPunch: And now we got Overhaul, Legion and I sometimes feel like we're getting two new villains per one we eliminate. And don't have me started on how Eclipse almost destroyed UA and I-Island, something that even All for One wouldn't try.
RoadRunner: "Won the war, lost the peace", I think it went like that.
(***)
Mirio Togata: I think your plan is working.
Akatani Mikumo: ?
Mirio Togata: Not telling you. That's classified info.
Akatani Mikumo: You can't do that to me
Akatani Mikumo: this is too cruel
Akatani Mikumo: I'm supposed to be the villain here
Mirio Togata: Look forward to Nedzu's announcements and/or All Might's interviews, that's all I'm going to say.
Akatani Mikumo: it's like telling fish to look forward to water
Akatani Mikumo: I haven't missed any Nedzu's public appearances or All Might's interviews in last ten years
Mirio Togata: …
Mirio Togata: I really don't know how to react to this.
Mirio Togata: you really like All Might, don't you?
Akatani Mikumo: If I wasn't keeping my sister's appearance a secret, I'd show you the picture my mom took of us while wearing matching All Might onesies
Akatani Mikumo: Also Vampire's reaction to seeing my room for the first time was, and I quote: "That's… a lot of All Might."
Akatani Mikumo: Let's not go deeper than that
Mirio Togata: … your dad didn't, like, try to stop that at some point?
Akatani Mikumo: He got punched out by All Might when I was ten years old, so not a lot of time
Akatani Mikumo: but he tried soon before the fight
Akatani Mikumo: I told him to give the merch back or I'll set his suit collection on fire
Akatani Mikumo: He said I'm too young to try to bluff like that.
Akatani Mikumo: I wasn't bluffing.
Mirio Togata: you set his suit collection on fire
Akatani Mikumo: yes
Akatani Mikumo: he looked like he wasn't sure if he was pissed off for me denying him and wanting All Might's merch collection back or proud of me ready to stand up to him AND pull stunt like that on a supervillain while being a ten years old kid
Mirio Togata: you set All for One's suit collection on fire to get your All Might merch back as a 10 years old kid
Akatani Mikumo: yes? I already confirmed
Mirio Togata: sorry, still trying to process that and I think that my mind went to where Nejire's normally resides in the process
Mirio Togata: you know I can't hear or see it but I'm like 99% sure that your uncle just fell off his chair in laughter, and he probably isn't the only dead hero to do it
Akatani Mikumo: try to imprison me instead of killing when we finally have our last epic battle, because then I'll be able to write memoirs while in prison (just make sure that Tartarus isn't that much of a shithole by then, k?) and then you and your dead heroes will have some quality thing to read
Mirio Togata: tempting
(***)
Yes, the heroes are SLOWLY waking up. Or at least the UA does. Their little awakening will be significantly accelerated soon.