Mirio Togata: I was authorized by Sir Nighteye to inform you that the first meeting of Nedzu's second War Council is scheduled for 3pm tomorrow. Nedzu will give you a summary of what happened after it, but asks for everything you have on Overhaul and Doctor Ujiko. Make a presentation or smth.
Akatani Mikumo: My powerpoint skills suck.
Akatani Mikumo: Can I come in person?
Mirio Togata: …
Mirio Togata: what?
Akatani Mikumo: Can I come to the War Council meeting in person? I will be able to answer questions.
Mirio Togata: We're inviting most UA-aligned Top 15 heroes, plus representatives from the potential allied groups. You'll be in the room full of heroes, or at least you would be if not for the fact that I'd arrest you before entering it.
Akatani Mikumo: Think of all the autographs I might be able to get!
Mirio Togata: …
Akatani Mikumo: OK
Akatani Mikumo: jokes aside
Akatani Mikumo: I'll come as Akatani Mikumo, Legion's representative. AND I've recently met some lovely person with a wonderful quirk that'll make me basically impossible to arrest for the duration of the meeting. So you'll have an explanation for NOT arresting me.
Mirio Togata: …
Mirio Togata: I can relay your words to Nedzu and Sir Nighteye, but we'll need to know the quirk in question if you want to have even the tiniest chance of them accepting this madness.
Akatani Mikumo: Sure!
Akatani Mikumo: The quirk in question can clone an individual, imbuing the clone with a perfect copy of memories, personality and skills of the original. Copies are rather squishy and can't use their quirks, but when destroyed their additional memories are copied back to the original (regardless of the distance).
Okay, so he did lie about not being able to use the quirks, but he was a villain! He had to keep some things hidden just in case. He also had to agree that Mr. Compress was right - Twice had an AWESOME quirk and sounded like a genuinely decent fellow. One more victim of circumstances. Too bad that Levellers got to him first. Izuku would have recruited him immediately.
Akatani Mikumo: I'll have my clone attend the meeting. You can have Miruko kick it through the window once it ends, if it makes her feel better.
Akatani Mikumo: Just not in the face, I once came upon THOSE drawings on the internet and it'd be awkwardly disgusting. Please. I have no such kink and I don't want any weird mind images.
Akatani Mikumo: And not somewhere where it really hurts (wink wink) because I'll remember the pain.
Mirio Togata: I'll tell you what they think about it.
He waited for thirty minutes before the answer came.
Mirio Togata: I think they are more surprised with it than me, but they decided that it might be a good idea. But you're supposed to behave, will have to answer Tsukauchi questions considering your reasons to join the meeting (so some 'did you come to kill everyone' and so on) beforehand AND you'll have to stick to the subject.
Mirio Togata: Also don't talk about anything that Nedzu doesn't know (I mean One for All's special nature, you having All for One, us having these talks and so on).
Akatani Mikumo: So I'll get to visit the UA main building? AWESOME!
Mirio Togata: You're unbelievable.
(***)
The heroes began to gather up in the UA two hours before the meeting started. Somehow (truly a miracle) vultures didn't notice the fact. Eraserhead and All Might ended up acting as the welcome committee. Although, to be honest, All Might was the one doing the greetings. Eraserhead was just standing there, menacingly.
He is good at standing there, menacingly.
Edgeshot comes first. in his civilian ninja uniform. Eraserhead has no idea why he is like that. Ninja during work, ninja off-work. He is an extremely competent hero, and one of the noblest, but he is also a major ninja fan. Way too major.
Then comes Crust, straight from the Northern Battle Group. As painfully enthusiastic as All Might. Eraserhead is surprised he didn't straight up ask the Number One Hero for an autograph. Despite having like twenty of those already. Ugh.
Best Jeanist somehow decided to not come fashionably late. And instead comes ahead of time. Wearing his standard clothes. One day Eraserhead will see what that man's chin looks like, but it's clearly not this day.
Miruko and Gang Orca arrive together. Which certainly isn't a coincidence. Gang Orca can't exactly make himself vanish within the crowd, but at least Miruko donned some form of casual clothes. Cut to hide her rabbit features. Eraserhead understands.
Ms. Joke comes alone. Wearing her typical bandana and an irritatingly wide smile.
"All Might! How lovely to see you!" She announces. All Might smiles back. "Aizawa, marry me."
"No." He states flatly. They are underground heroes. They keep their lives secret. 'No' is a much more secretive way of saying 'I can't marry you the second time, stop saying that, it's not even funny'.
She laughs and enters the room. Eraserhead doesn't question his previous life choices, but gets pretty close to doing that.
Knuckleduster heard enough about how ironclad Nedzu's guarantees of safety are and decided to come in person. He is old, and as quirkless as ever. Doesn't make his fists any less deadly. He gives the two of them scarce nods and heads inside.
They are about to head inside themselves when they see Lemillion walking towards them with some unfamiliar kid. Wearing a brown hoodie, and with multicoloured hair. He is carrying a notebook and has an All Might-themed backpack. Age is… 16-17 years old, if Eraserhead judges it correctly.
"One last invitee." Lemilion announces. On his face, a complicated mix of emotions. "Nedzu and Sir Nighteye agreed to it, but judging from the looks on your face they forgot to mention it."
"Oh?" All Might speaks first. "And who might that be?" The kid smiles wryly and Eraserhead knows, just KNOWS that he won't like the answer.
"Midoriya Izuku, from the League of Villains." Lemillion deadpans and Eraserhead curses in his mind. All Might just stares in shock. "Or, to be exact, a quirk-clone of him." Legion salutes them and his smile grows wider. "Here as Akatani Mikumo."
Nedzu isn't paying Eraserhead enough for any of this.
(***)
"I'm extremely sorry about gathering you all on such short notice." Nedzu announces to the gathered people. "But the matter we'll speak about is grim. The Paranormal Liberation Front is a threat to Japan of a previously unheard level. The attack on UA's training camp shouldn't have happened, and the fact that the heroes and police failed to notice a movement of an organization of this size is something that has to be addressed. The recent years saw a sharp decrease in team-ups and information sharing between hero agencies, not to mention the underground hero network practically growing into a separate existence from the surface heroics." Ms. Joke nods slightly from her seat. "It is the opinion of me and the faculty that this fact led to the fact that despite various agencies noticing small bits of PLF's preparations, they all failed to understand the bigger picture. Leading to the disaster. We seek to amend that."
If there is one positive side of building your organization on the basis of a school, it's the abundance of halls that you can easily (and quickly) empty. The gathered group is sitting behind tables formed into a semi-circle. Nedzu is standing in front of them, with Sir Nighteye, All Might, Eraserhead, Detective Tsukauchi and Lemillion sitting behind a straight table behind him.
"So… an information exchange concerning the investigation?" Edgeshot asks, taking advantage of Nedzu interrupting his introductory speech for a few seconds too much. "A bit overly dramatic for such a thing." He is probably all into that. Kamui Woods was a hero from his team. He looks forward to blood being spilled.
"Not quite." Nedzu replies. "It might have been enough if we had done it a few weeks ago. Now this is no longer just an investigation. This is a war. And you are all cordially invited to join the UA's War Council."
"War?" It's Miruko, oddly enough. "Lots of kids died, I get your anger. But war? Strong word."
"I'm afraid that the full extent of the threat posed by the Paranormal Liberation Front remains hidden from the public. And even from the majority of the heroes." Nedzu replies calmly. "HPSC is officially doing it to stop people from panicking, but I respectfully disagree with that policy." Everyone can see that there is nothing respectful in his disagreement. "The Commission and, to a lesser degree, UA, has kept way too many things hidden. Resulting in disasters born from the fact that people who should have known things, didn't. I plan to amend it today. You are all free to leave the room right now. If you don't, I'll consider this as you agreeing to join the War Council and will immediately proceed to violate numerous NDAs that the HPSC' president forced on me. So, does someone want to leave?"
In the end, they are heroes. The only one who isn't is Legion, but Eraserhead knows that he is here for a reason. Knuckleduster might be a vigilante, but he is a former pro hero, O'Clock. They know the situation has to be grim for Nedzu to go that far. And when the situation is this grim, it's their job as heroes to fix it. So they stay.
"Very well." Nedzu nods. "We'll start chronologically. This is the second iteration of such a War Council. The first one was established twenty one years ago around me and All Might. It was created to face the worst villain in the history of Japan. The man whose crimes and power were so great that me and the Hero Commission agreed to do our best to erase him from history after his death six years ago. This man was the world's sole SSSS-Rank villain, known as either All for One, the Symbol of Evil… or the Quirk Thief."
Knuckleduster's face turns into a mask. He remembers waking up in a hospital with his quirk mysteriously missing. Leading to him no longer being a pro-hero. He probably investigated the urban legend enough to suspect that it was true all along.
"You mean… that urban legend was true?" Ms. Joke is too shocked to joke about what she just heard.
"The answer, I'm afraid, is yes." Nedzu replies. "All for One de facto ruled over the underworld of Japan but also the majority of East Asia for at least two centuries, thanks to a stolen immortality quirk. He gathered hundreds of quirks within his body, even if he could use 'only' about fifteen of them at any given time. This made him a power capable of going toe to toe with most of the Japanese heroes at once and emerge victorious. He had people like Re-Destro, Eclipse, Purity and Beast as lieutenants. He had only a single weakness. At the dawn of his empire he had a brother, quirkless and with a weak body, but of heroic spirit. All for One forced a physical power stockpiling quirk onto him, hoping to make him indebted to him and thus bring him under his control. Unawarely to them both, this brother had a useless quirk, one that allowed him to transfer his own quirk to another person. This quirk fused with the power stockpiling quirk, creating One for All, a quirk passed down a line of heroes and vigilantes seeking to challenge All for One, growing stronger with each holder. This line continued until All Might, One for All's 27th Holder, managed to defeat the Quirk Thief. Which happened six years ago."
If anyone else said all that, the heroes would have probably laughed at the tale. Or, at least, some of them. But they were facing Nedzu AND All Might who had an expression of seriousness on his face.
"What we did not expect was the chaos that followed." Nedzu continues. "All for One enjoyed controlling society from the shadows. He was actually restraining groups such as the Meta Liberation Army or the Quirkless Liberation Front from burning the country down, as if that happened, he would have nothing left to control. What's more, me and the Hero Commission turned against each other, thinking that the villain threat is now over. The result is the growing villain activity of the past few years. This finally culminated in the Quirkless Liberation Front destroying entire cities and merging with remnants of the All for One's empire into the Paranormal Liberation Front. And almost annihilating the UA during the recent battle. With heroes too divided to offer significant resistance, we have allowed the situation to possibly grow worse than it was during the All for One's reign. Something that we seek to start working on with you now."
"What you say is extremely worrying." Best Jeanist speaks first, maybe a second before Edgeshot could. Crust seems both hyped out and worried in equal measures. "I believe I'm speaking for everyone in the room when I say that we didn't expect things of this caliber to be hidden not only from the public, but even from the highest ranked pro heroes. I also believe that we can all understand how easily this policy would allow the situation to worsen, especially with the sharp drop in hero team-ups during the past years. Changing that is certainly a good idea."
Edgeshot nodded. Those two didn't exactly like each other, mostly for personal reasons. Best Jeanist, in the end, didn't say anything groundbreaking. But he did voiced support, and this was something that certainly set the mood.
"Fair." Ms. Joke comments. "Quick question before we proceed, because curiosity is killing me. Who are the two kids in the room? Not to discount them on the basis of young age, I'm mostly just curious."
Two kids, so Lemillion and Legion. Eraserhead wondered who was going to bring that up first.
"The 'kid' sitting next to Sir Nighteye is Mirio Togata." Nedzu replies. "He is a third year student of UA under the hero name of Lemillion. You might recognize him from the Hosu recording." Knuckleduster looked like he did. Crust too. Edgeshot and Best Jeanist were harder to read. "He is a part of this council due to being the 28th Holder of the One for All."
Understandable degree of surprise throughout the room.
"Oh? Looking forward to working with you, then!" Ms. Joke is unfailingly optimistic.
"Explains the punch." Knuckleduster is way more scarce.
"That's SUPER COOL!" Crust finally fails to restrain himself. Eraserhead images him and Legion meeting each other on some internet All Might fanboy forum and shudders internally.
"The other kid is Akatani Mikumo." Nedzu continues. Legion nods scarcely, a wide smile on his face. "His presence might be a bit harder to understand. He has been one of our main sources of information about the operations of the constituent groups of the Paranormal Liberation Front. I wish to inform you that he was thoroughly interviewed about his presence here by Detective Tsukauchi of Musutafu police, who possesses a lie detecting quirk. With those words behind us, I wish to officially announce that Akatani Mikumo is representing the League of Villains in this meeting."
"He WHAT?" Knuckleduster rises from his seat in anger.
"Tell me that this is a joke." Best Jeanist is much more restrained.
Ms. Joke has a thoughtful expression on her face. Crust appears shocked in an almost overly exaggerated way. Edgeshot is an enigma. Gang Orca's eyes narrow, while Miruko is simply observing Akatani carefully. Probably considering kicking his face in.
"Legion has a personal interest in seeing the Paranormal Liberation Front destroyed." Akatani announces, completely ignoring the hostile stares. "He has already saved UA from being destroyed twice, first by stopping Eclipse's attack on Musutafu and then by intervening in the Training Camp Battle. He has also saved the lives of Lemillion and All Might, the first one in Hosu and the second one during the PLF attack a few days ago. Now he has sent me to this meeting in order to share the intel the League has on the PLF." His head turns towards Knuckleduster, who is dangerously close to him, and with his fists clenched. "Feel free to kill me afterwards, I came here as a quirk clone. Killing me will only upload my memories back to the original body. Nothing to arrest, to begin with."
"I'd advise against killing him." Nedzu announces while the remaining heroes (and a vigilante) swallow up the news. "I'm afraid that we're going to need every bit of help we can muster to win this war, even when it comes from the villains. You'll know why once we'll explain what and who exactly the PLF has in its ranks. Feel free to make decisions concerning his presence here after that segment of this meeting."
They back down. Somewhat. The subject will return after said segment, Eraserhead has no doubts about it. Ms. Joke is eyeing him questioningly, probably wondering what else he kept from here.
"I believe it's time for you to start." Nedzu says towards Legion, and promptly leaves the center of the room. Izuku stands up from his seat and moves in front of the gathered heroes.
"Well then, let's start." Izuku says, ignoring the hostility. "We'll begin with the former forces of the Quirkless Liberation Front. While counting the recent casualties suffered by them, Legion estimates that PLF has no less than four thousand five hundred remaining combatants. They are all..."
"What?!" It's Miruko. Things rarely surprise her so much. "How many?!" The rabbit woman is clearly distraught. "Wasn't it just a thousand?"
"Officially, yes." Legion replies, unmoved by the sudden interruption. "QLF had about one thousand active members prior to the Hosu battle. What isn't known to the world is that after their rampage became known to the world, the QLF has received an influx of new recruits from outside of Japan. They had equipment for them, including tanks and other vehicles, but they were mostly untrained and spoke in a variety of languages. Legion suspects that they were kept in reserve while training up to QLF's standard. Considering the casualties that Miruko and Gang Orca caused to the original one thousand during their battle with the QLF AND the fact that PLF fielded about a thousand during the last battle…" he turns towards Nedzu, who is now sitting by the UA table, right beside Lemillion. "... is it safe to assume that some of them weren't of japanese descent?"
"That is correct." Nedzu replies. "We've investigated the corpses of the QLF soldiers left after the battle. We're far from giving them a full analysis, but at least one in three certainly wasn't Japanese."
"Great, we have that confirmed." Legion mumbles a bit then perks up. "Now, the QLF's command roster. We know of at least three notable members other than Overhaul slash Chronostasis. We don't know their names, nor faces. The first one is the technopath responsible for taking down Nedzu's communication network during the Training Camp attack. He or she managed to connect Overhaul to it, deliver his message to everyone in the camp, and then shut everything down until the battle ended. Might have been boosted with Trigger, though. Might also be limited to a single network at once, as they failed to take down the replacement network. The second one is a warp quirk user identical to Eclipse. The third one is much trickier and probably infinitely more dangerous."
He pauses for a few seconds, letting them catch up with his words and taking a deeper breath.
"Overhaul has an access to someone, probably a late-bloomer, with a dangerously powerful brainwashing quirk." Legion says, to some murmur in the room. "Sunset mentioned that in her manifest, and I can confirm it. Before Eclipse's fall, League's spy in the Front began to report people dissenting against her campaign of terror disappearing somewhere for an hour or two, and returning as absolutely fanatic supporters of quirked-genocide. Considering the speed at which this process continued, we can safely consider everyone above the regular soldiers to be completely and utterly loyal to Overhaul. Every regular soldier who attempted to voice their opposition to the plan was also brainwashed. You can expect no dissent or disobedience from the QLF forces."
"Mass brainwashing?" Miruko is livid. "Fucking cowards! To their own people?" She voiced the general opinion on the issue in question.
"It gets worse." Legion announces and nods towards Nedzu. A single move of his finger and Legion is accompanied by holograms of two people. One with a white hair forming an arrow in front of him (and a gasmask), and one with black hair and bird mask. They are slowly rotating, to let everyone see it.
"These two people are Overhaul, an SSS-Rank villain and the current co-leader of the Paranormal Liberation Front." Legion continues. "The black hair one is his original look, the other one is how he looks currently. I'll explain the difference in a minute. Overhaul is a former boss of a small-time yakuza group known as Shie Hasseikai. He has overthrew the former boss, who was his adoptive father, and put him into permanent coma until his death. He… infected this group with a rather particular ideology. According to him, quirks are a disease upon Mankind that he vowed to heal."
"Wow, what a load of bullshit." Miruko, as always, is frank. "But I can see how that got him to join the QLF."
"Load of bullshit, yes." Legion agrees with her. "Unfortunately Overhaul turned out to be one of the greatest geniuses in quirk sciences, one to not only equal but probably surpass those gathered on the I-Island. Quirk suppressing gas is based on a diluted and imperfect drug created by him as part of his research. His original goal was creation of a drug capable of rendering people permanently quirkless, a feat that he actually succeeded in."
Eraserhead expected shock. And he wasn't surprised. Then again, how else could one react to such an announcement?
"That's…" Edgeshot finally speaks. The parts of his face that Eraserhead can see are twisted in horror.
"You're kidding." Miruko is frozen.
"I'd like to, but I'm not." Legion states flatly. "The good news is that before he managed to mass produce his wonder-drug, Legion assaulted his lab together with Stain and Kurogiri. Legion managed to kill the original Overhaul during that battle, while Stain managed to steal, or to be more precise, liberate the necessary component in production of the quirk suppressing and quirk erasing bullets. Gas is a later development, and a proof that Overhaul regained the ability to produce the weakened version of his drug in amounts previously unheard of. Legion doesn't know how that happened. Thus far we've seen no proof of him also possessing the full quirk erasing drug, but unless he is killed quickly, he's almost guaranteed to eventually achieve it. And then he'll turn that into a chemical weapon."
"I'm going to add…" Nedzu says from his seat. "That the Hero Commission is fully aware of this situation. It is the reason why Overhaul was immediately deemed an SSS-Rank villain after we become aware that he is still active. David Shield received a hard drive from Overhaul computer in his laboratory, thanks to Legion's generosity, and is currently working on an antidote to the quirk erasing drug. However even the most optimistic estimate is that we're years behind Overhaul. HPSC decided to hide the prospect of quirk erasure gas from the public to avoid panic." He sneers mockingly. "Mr. Mikumo, do you wish to narrate the details of Overhaul's research, or should we leave it to Sir Nighteye?"
Legion is alright with sharing the stage. Sir Nighteye quickly narrates Overhaul's discovery about the way to affect quirks with pharmaceuticals, the prospects that this research offer for the next several decades… and the part of how Overhaul created a back-up of himself in the form of quirk transplant (together with his memories and personality) to the body of his closest lieutenant, Chronostasis.
"Shit." Knuckleduster comments when he finishes. "It's like something from a horror movie."
"I'm sorry to ask, but what is this 'necessary component' you mentioned earlier?" Ms. Joke asks Midoriya. Eraserhead is faintly happy - it's a good question that he thinks that he actually asked during his first meeting with Legion.
"Blood of a four years old girl that Overhaul kept locked in his basement and repeatedly drained to death before resurrecting her with his quirk." Legion doesn't want to play nice this time. This illicites a lot of shocked gasps in the room. "She was freed from his lab by Stain and later adopted by Legion's mother. He kept her hidden from the world until the Training Camp battle, when he was forced to ask her to use her healing quirk to save All Might's life. Overhaul certainly knows she is out there and wants her back, but her protection is something that the League will do on its own."
"Now I really want to cave his face in." Miruko announces. Even Best Jeanist doesn't complain about it.
Midoriya proceeds to detail the exact workings of Overhaul's quirk. Including parts as lovely as its ability to assimilate bodies of others, changing Overhaul into a hulking abomination capable of using multiple quirks. He also mentions the possibility that the QLF's brainwasher is actually Overhaul, who is doing that through some detailed brain surgery, although he cites this as unlikely. He also mentions David Shield's theory about Overhaul's failing body.
"Now we move onto the second major component of the PLF's forces." Legion announces, before nodding towards Nedzu. The holograph changes to a small, bald man with a massive moustache. "This is doctor Kyudai Garaki, known to the world as doctor Daruma Ujiko. Although the latter is an alias that he uses while dealing with the PLF. He is one of the closest co-workers of All for One and, I'm afraid, a brain to match Overhaul's."
"Another crazy scientist?" Miruko decides to comment on that. "They should vet candidates better." Eraserhead chuckles. Without making it visible to the world. But he is sure that Ms. Joke noticed. She always does.
"He actually worked with the League for a while as an… independent subcontractor." Legion admits, surprising Eraserhead. And a lot of other people. "Legion attempted to locate him in order to either eliminate him or rat him out to the heroes, but he is extremely cowardly. He will never show in person to any meeting, instead hiding behind a very well secured internet connection. He is a carrier of an immortality quirk and is no less than one hundred twenty years old. More than that, he is the original proponent of the Quirk Singularity Theory. During the All for One's reign he shifted from one hospital to another as a highly competent specialist in quirk healthcare, informing his master about interesting quirks to add to his… collection. He latched onto the League for a while, but deemed it too bloodless and civil for his taste, and threw his lots with Overhaul. I can assure you that Legion was completely surprised by this development."
Miruko wants to comment on that, but Detective Tsukauchi is first.
"He spoke what he genuinely believes to be true." Detective says, and Miruko backs down. Rare feat.
"His greatest creation are the noumus." Another switch of the hologram, this time to two vastly different but still hulking beasts with exposed brains. "Those are the first generation noumus. Each of them was formerly a human, but went through an extensive process of genetic modification and biological adaptations, not to mention various surgeries. They are divided into three main categories. Standard noumus are merely biologically enhanced while carrying their original quirk in a massively empowered form. Those noumu candidates that manage to go through it without turning into brain-dead puppets are classified as Near High Ends, and receive further augmentations and at least a single additional quirk and are typically capable of contending with Top 100 heroes. Extremely rarely someone manages to retain a certain degree of will and mind even after that. Those that do become one of Doctor Garaki's favourites. Resulting High Ends receive a highly specialized and compatible set of quirks, allowing them to go toe-to-toe with Top Ten heroes or supervillains. "
"I'll allow myself to inform you…" Nedzu interrupts the silence in the room. "That PLF mobilized no less than two hundred fifty noumus for the assault on the Training Camp, including ten High Ends and at least forty Near High Ends. Three High Ends, fifteen Near High Ends and eighty standard noumus are unaccounted for and are believed to have retreated with the PLF's forces. Majority of noumu casualties can be attributed to either All Might or Zealot's last stand, during which he briefly reached the All Might's level of physical strength. Students and other heroes were way less successful in their battles against noumus. Stain almost died taking down a single High End."
The silence after that announcement becomes deafening rather quickly.
"And I'll add that Legion never condoned the first generation noumus." Legion decides to interrupt it. "This was the main reason why he attempted to locate and eliminate Doctor Garaki. In the meantime he tried to persuade him to move to slightly less maniacally evil Second Gen noumus. Hellhound from the USJ attack and the noumus deployed by the League in Hosu are constructed on the foundation of quirked animals which, unlike Principal Nedzu, didn't develop sentience." Nedzu freezes slightly, this is the first time he hears about it. "Such animals lack higher brain functions, meaning that they have nothing to lose in that department during the augmentation process. Unfortunately, they require a lot of time to 'train' for combat properly after they are noumufied, in a way practically identical to training of normal attack animals. All but the High End Hellhound are currently in the PLF's hands, but weren't deployed during the Training Camp battle. This suggests that the PLF didn't deploy all of its noumus, and still has some manpower to spare."
Silence.
"So…" Legion's head tilts slightly. "... do you still think that you don't need the League of Villains' help in this?"