Winds of Destiny: Rising
Chapter Thirteen: Dinner Date
"You're kidding! Again?" The voice of one of the workers whom Hawks had been helping load boxes of supplies into the villa with suddenly called out.
The main reason he'd been helping out with the supply chain was to gather intel. He wasn't given many opportunities to visit the other locations, but he'd been able to get a good idea of where they were and who was running them based on the supply schedule. Unlike the main villa staff, the regular workers didn't suspect him and were eager to talk when he approached them. He'd been careful to keep his inquiries light, leading them into spilling info on their own without outright asking for it; a trick that had been instilled in him during his specialized training with the Safety Commission.
"Something wrong?" Hawks asked, setting down the box he was carrying and turning toward the worker.
The man looked up from his phone with a worried expression as he explained, "Heroes raided another one of our black-market facilities! This time in Gunma. If we keep losing resources like this, it's gonna put a big strain on our production timeline."
"No kidding," he said, raising his eyebrows and leaning back on his heels.
Heroes raiding black-market production facilities? He hadn't heard anything about it. It wasn't something the Safety Commission had sanctioned, which meant it was probably coming from the Police Force. If the Safety Commission didn't know that the facilities the police were raiding were related to the Liberation Front, they wouldn't have had any reason to blacklight the operation.
"How did the heroes even know about that facility? We just established it last week!" One of the other workers exclaimed.
A third worker crossed his arms and nodded with a severe expression on his face. "This is the third time now. There's gotta be a leak somewhere, right? I mean, what else could it be?"
Whoever the idiot was who was tipping off the police was going to end up blowing the last five months of undercover work Hawks had been doing to take down the League. A few of them already suspected his intentions of being ingenuine. Even though he had nothing to do with it, they would probably think he did and start cutting him out of important business. No way in hell was he going to let that happen, regardless of this guy's good intentions.
Hawks raised his hands up in front of him and grinned at them. "Come on now, there's no need to panic. I'll talk to the guys upstairs and see if I can figure something out, okay?"
They all turned to him with relieved expressions and one of them called out, "Thanks, Hawks!"
Hawks waited in the restroom down the hall from the meeting room where several of the Liberation leaders had been going over plans to tighten up security on their warehouses. The Meta-Liberation members were busy arguing with the League members who had expressed concerns about one of their followers being a snitch. Thankfully, no one had mentioned yet that they though he might be involved. He called his feather back from down the hall when he heard the chairs scrape against the floor, signaling him that they were preparing to leave. He made a show of washing his hands before walking out of the restroom, just as Re-Destro and Skeptic were walking past.
"Oh! Hey guys!" He called out with a wave.
"Hawks. Fancy meeting you here," Re-Destro greeted him with a leery tone.
He shrugged nonchalantly. "I was just helping out some of the guys on the loading docks."
The Liberation leader slid his gaze over to Skeptic, who nodded as if to confirm Hawks's whereabouts.
"I see. That's much appreciated." Re-Destro inclined his head with a gracious smile before turning to walk back down the hall.
"Speaking of, I hear you've been having some trouble with raids on your underground warehouses," Hawks said, leaning to one side and dropping his hands into his pockets.
The Liberation Front's second-in-command turned to him slowly and replied, "You're quite well informed."
He shrugged with an easy grin. "Just something I heard while helping out around the place."
Re-Destro stared at him for a moment as if considering something before asking, "You wouldn't happen to know anything about that, would you?"
Hawks reached up to scratch his cheek with his finger and said, "I haven't heard any chatter about it on the hero side. Sounds to me like you've got a mole."
Skeptic huffed and glared at him from behind his flat bangs. "Impossible. All of our members are carefully vetted for their complete loyalty to the Liberation movement. If we are being betrayed, it is not by someone from our side."
Hawks held his hands up in front of him and exclaimed, "Hey! I'm under twenty-four-hour surveillance, right?"
Re-Destro held up a hand to Skeptic. He regarded Hawks thoughtfully for a moment before offering, "Perhaps If you were able to sniff out this mole, you could earn yourself a bit of credit, Hawks."
"Yeah, sure! I'm happy to help!" He jovially replied, making an effort to sound enthusiastic without coming off overly eager.
"Perhaps someone in the upper ranks at the Safety Commission knows something, hm?" Re-Destro asked, raising an eyebrow in an expression of interest.
"I'll check with my contacts." Hawks nodded.
Re-Destro lowered his head a bit in a gesture of gratitude and turned to walk off down the hall with Skeptic. "I look forward to good results, Hawks," he called out over his shoulder as he walked away.
'Damn it.'
He'd been hoping to take care of the problem himself, but if they were going to be looking for him to make contact with someone at the Safety Commission to try and squeeze some intel out of, that was a different story. There was only one person in the upper ranks, other than the President and the Commissioner of Investigation, who knew about his assignment and would be able to play along without giving anything important away. He considered the wisdom behind involving her again as he walked down the hall toward the front doors of the villa, sighing dejectedly when he found himself unable to come up with a better alternative.
'Sorry, Misa-chan... Looks like we're gonna have to keep up the act for a little while longer.'
The sound of knuckles knocking against the wooden door drew Misaki's attention up from the report she was reading to the open doorway of her office. Shock flashed through her at the sight of the current Number Two Hero leaning against the doorjamb with his arms crossed, and his usual easy grin spread across his face.
Well, this was unexpected.
After the last time he'd unceremoniously dropped in on her over a week ago, she hadn't seen hide nor hair of him since. There hadn't even been any coded messages coming across her desk, though she knew he'd been busy teaming up with other heroes and spreading the word about the Liberation Front to everyone he encountered. The last thing she'd expected was for him to suddenly drop by out of the blue again.
"Hi," she said, somewhat hesitantly.
"Hey. You busy?" He asked, cocking his head to the side.
She shook her head. "Not really. Come in."
He pushed off from the door frame and stepped into her office, dropping his hands into his pants pockets as he walked up to her desk. "I was in the area. Thought I'd stop by to see about that raincheck on dinner?"
"Um…" She trailed off as her eyes dropped to the time displayed at the bottom of her computer screen. It was just after seven thirty pm. She hadn't expected to be working so late, but time often got away from her when she was really focused. Usually by this time her stomach would have reminded her that she needed to eat something, but she had taken a bit of a late lunch.
She glanced back up at him, considering for a moment whether she was up for whatever secondary reason he had for inviting her out for the evening before replying, "Sure."
It was highly unlikely he was asking her to dinner just for the company. Considering the underlying tones of their last conversation, his reasoning behind the sudden invitation was almost certainly a play at another coded relay. She'd been studying up on the Safety Commission's established methods of coding messages, figuring it would come in handy for decoding any correspondence from Hawks going forward. She hadn't expected that she might be doing so in person, especially so soon.
Turning off her workstation, she stood and grabbed her coat and bag from the hook on the wall next to her desk. Stepping around to meet him, she added as an afterthought, "But not pancakes."
He let out a jovial laugh, walking with her out of the office and down the hall to the lobby of the top floor. "I was thinking something more savory than sweet. You like hotpot? I know a good place not too far from here."
"Sounds good," she replied with a smile as they stepped into the elevator, and he pressed the button for the bottom floor.
She'd noticed that he'd been using the elevator lately instead of his usual roof entry. The President had informed her about the likelihood that the Liberation Front was keeping close tabs on him somehow. He was probably trying not to grant them access to the building, or anything inside it, by giving them the codes to the roof access door. He'd seemed to be making an effort to avoid even coming by the building anymore unless it was absolutely necessary. Whatever had made him decide to take the chance to engage her in conversation again must have been pretty important.
They filled up the elevator ride with small talk, mostly about how they'd been staying busy with work lately and what kinds of foods she liked and didn't like. As they stepped off the elevator on the main floor, they both waved to Tanaka behind the security desk while making their way across the lobby toward the main entryway. Hawks held the door open for her and she smiled to him in gratitude, not missing the wink he tossed at the head of security as she walked past him out the door.
Even though she wasn't sure exactly how the Liberation Front was monitoring his movements and conversations, the fact that he'd used such roundabout references during their last encounter made it apparent that nowhere was outside their view. Being that the case, she thought it would probably be best to keep up the façade of them having no prior acquaintance at all times. Unless he expressly told her differently, it was much better to be safe than sorry.
She fluffed her thick, wool scarf up around her face against the bitter, late January wind, before turning to him when he joined her to ask, "Is this place within walking distance or should we get a cab?"
He grimaced slightly as he looked over at her and answered her question with one of his own. "You're not afraid of heights, are you?"
Oh, no. That question could only mean one thing.
She tried not to outwardly cringe as she replied, "No?"
He reached out and took one of her gloved hands in his before swiftly pulling her into his arms. She let out a shocked gasp when he immediately took flight, wrapping her arms around his neck a little tighter than she really needed to. He had absolutely done that on purpose. He knew very well that she'd have to play dumb, and he'd taken full advantage of the situation to con her into letting him fly them to their destination in the frigid winter air. Not that she didn't like flying with him, it was the opposite actually: when it wasn't ten degrees below freezing. She couldn't even use her gear because it would look too suspicious for her to be so prepared to fly with him.
"Could you loosen up a little? I'd like to keep breathing," his strained voice suddenly asked her.
"Sorry!" She exclaimed, though she really wasn't, and loosened her hold a bit. "Could you give me a little warning next time?"
"Next time, huh?" He quipped, glancing down at her out of the corner of his eye from behind his visor with a sly grin.
She glared back up at him, half playfully and half exasperatedly, hoping that he'd pick up on her irritation toward his actions as she said, "We'll see."
He grimaced slightly before assuring her, "Don't worry. We're almost there."
Good, he'd noticed.
He landed less than a minute later next to a short, lit sign that simply read "Hotpot" in a secluded alleyway on the north end of town, and carefully let her down from his arms.
"This is a restaurant?" Misaki asked, raising her eyebrow suspiciously at the stairwell leading down to a heavy looking metal door.
"It's one of those local hidden treasures, you know?" He said with a shrug as he made his way toward the concrete steps.
"How do you know about it then?" She asked as she followed after him.
He reached out and gripped the handle, pulling the heavy door back and holding it open for her to enter ahead of him as he said, "I've got a kind of sixth sense when it comes to good food. This place is right up there in my top three hotpot restaurants in the country."
"If you say so," she commented skeptically as she walked past him into the dimly lit entryway.
As soon as the door closed behind him, a man with a head that looked like a spring onion called out to them. "Hawks! Welcome back!"
Hawks grinned at him broadly and waved. "Long time no see, Nira-san. You have any rooms available?"
"For you? Of course! Right this way!" The man told him, gesturing with his hand for them to follow him down a narrow hallway.
He placed a hand on the middle of her back and gently urged her ahead of him, probably because he was going to have to fold his wings back to fit down the hall. She followed Nira-san to a set of doors at the far end. He slid open the fusuma and stepped back, bowing shallowly, and holding out his hand for them to enter. She stepped into the warmly lit room which housed a large kotatsu and two zaisu on either side. In the middle of the table sat a large clay pot atop a burner that was recessed into a square pit. They took their seats and Nira-san set a menu on the table between them before bowing and leaving the room.
Hawks nodded to her to take the menu, which was a bit of a change from what she was used to. Usually, he would order for both of them when they went out to eat. However, since they weren't supposed to know very much about each other at this point, that might have seemed a bit forward of him in this situation. She reached out and picked up the book, flipping it open to find a pencil and a checklist contained inside. It appeared that the shop would let you choose all of your own ingredients to add as you wanted.
"There are so many options..." She commented aloud, reading through the list of all the different types of meats, vegetables, and broths they had available.
"Go ahead and pick whatever you want. I'm good with anything," he said with a shrug, leaning an elbow on the table and dropping his chin into his palm. "Hope you don't mind chicken broth though? The stuff is to die for!"
"It's fine," she said, ducking her head as a small smile pulled at the corners of her lips.
It almost felt like the last four months had been a lucid dream, and they'd fallen right back into the familiar sense of comfortability that had always seemed to exist between them. She wasn't really sure how to feel about that. It wasn't like she could just forget everything she'd gone through after he'd broken up with her; both the good and the bad. Nor did she want to. But sitting there with him like that, engaging in their usual lighthearted banter, it was hard not to hope that they could someday get back a bit of that normalcy.
She softly cleared her throat and gave her head a small shake. That wasn't the reason they were here. This was work, and she needed to stay focused so she didn't miss any possible hints at code words in their conversation. She freed the pencil from the clip and checked off all of the ingredients for a traditional nabe style hotpot. Nira-san returned just as she'd placed the menu back on the table to bring them a pot of green tea, along with two cups. He took the menu and bowed his head before leaving the room once more.
"So. Commissioner of Analytics, huh?" Hawks asked as the door slid closed, leaning back in his seat and pulling off his visor.
"Ah, yeah," Misaki sighed as she sat back and folded her hands into her lap. "It sounds fancier than it really is. I mostly just mine for and extrapolate data all day. Pretty boring."
He cocked an eyebrow at her. "That must be some pretty important data for them to have created a new executive position just for you."
"I wouldn't say it was just for me. There was a need and I happened to be in the right place at the right time to fulfill it. If I hadn't, I'm sure they would have found someone else to do it," she replied, shaking her head dismissively.
She caught his knowing smirk and averted her eyes. It wasn't like she was trying to be self-deprecating or downplay her accomplishments. She just didn't see it that way. She had earned her position; she had no misconceptions about that. But she would have been doing the same work with or without the promotion. As far as she was concerned, that title was just something other people used to put a label of importance on the job she was doing. It had little to nothing to do with her.
"So, what kind of stuff goes into social analytics?" Hawks asked, cocking his head to the side as he crossed his arms and shot her an inquisitive look.
She shrugged. "Anything to do with people, really. What they read or watch. What they say and write. Who they listen to. Things they buy, or sell, or make."
Hawks suddenly let out a short laugh and ducked his head.
Misaki blinked at him and asked, "What?"
He raised an incredulous eyebrow at her as he lifted his head. "So, you're saying that it's pretty much your job to stalk the entire population of Japan?"
She lifted her hand to cover her mouth, widening her eyes as she replied in a shocked tone, "I never thought about it like that, but you're right."
He let out another, less candid laugh at her reaction, just as the door slid open and Nira-san brought in a tray with their hotpot ingredients arranged across it. He set the tray on the side of the table and reached out with a clear pitcher to pour the broth into the clay pot in the middle of the table before setting the controls on the inside of the pit to turn on the burner. They thanked him and he bowed before backing out of the room and shutting the door behind him.
"Don't you think that's a little intrusive?" Hawks asked as he reached over to begin placing some of the ingredients into the pot.
"It's not like we're using it to spy on people. It all just turns into ones and zeros in a dataset table. We're not really looking at any one person, but groups of people that make up a social profile within a geographic area," Misaki explained as she placed a few of the ingredients on her side of the tray into the pot as well.
"Social profile?" He asked, glancing up at her.
She cocked her head to the side, keeping her attention on placing the ingredients as she explained, "Those who support heroes, those who don't, and those who are indifferent."
Hawks set his chopsticks down on the holder on the table in front of him and leaned back. "And what have these social profiles been able to tell you about our society?"
Misaki sighed, sitting back in her own seat, and laying her chopsticks down as well. "That we have a lot of work to do to change the people's perception of heroes and why we need them. The amount of social data we're able to analyze now is far greater than it was thirty years ago, but even with what little there is from that time, it paints a pretty clear picture."
She crossed her arms and stared down into the now softly bubbling pot. "Before All Might's debut, most of the people in the rural areas, where crime was less prevalent, were pretty much indifferent to heroes. Total nationwide support skyrocketed in the following years, up until Stain." She grimaced. "There were blips here and there of drop offs in the overall approval ratings, but nothing like the sharp decline we saw post Hosu."
"Kamino gave us a boost for a while, and then the rankings presentation and the resolution of the Nomu attack in Kyushu..." She looked up at him briefly in acknowledgement of his involvement in that incident before dropping her eyes again, her expression darkening. "But then Deika happened. Not only the approval ratings, but the overall social support now makes it seem like many outlying communities are pushing more for autonomy than a stronger hero presence." She sighed and shrugged, dropping her arms and clasping her hands in her lap as she grudgingly remarked, "I mean, unless that hero was someone like All Might, maybe."
Hawks crossed his own arms and broodingly replied a moment later, "People with his kind of presence don't come along very often. To be able to inspire hope in your allies, and fear in your enemies, by name alone is a trait that very few throughout history can boast. All Might was one of them. All For One was another."
She leaned forward and rested her elbow on the table, setting her chin in her hand as she mused, "People had all but forgotten about All For One over the last eighty years or so. But ever since the appearance of the League of Villains, his ideology has continued to proliferate throughout society like a cancer, bringing forth all kinds of new threats..."
"Like the attack on Deika?" He asked in a lighter tone as he lifted his chopsticks and reached out to the pot to pick out a large piece of cooked chicken liver.
Misaki shook her head and reached out to turn down the dial on the burner controls. She picked up the ladle and began filling one of the bowls. "That's exactly the kind of thing we're hoping to prevent using our social analysis models. It's too dangerous to allow unlicensed civilians to be taking matters into their own hands."
"What's that saying? No good deed goes unpunished, huh?" He said playfully as he took the bowl she offered to him.
"Of course, with the overwhelming social support the citizens of Deika have garnered following the attack, the police can't come right out and arrest them all for breaking the law," Misaki said as she filled another bowl for herself. "We'd lose any kind of trust the people still have in us. So, we're focusing on prevention at this point."
She set the bowl down on the table in front of her and replaced the ladle in its holder. "Deika was a relatively low crime area. If there are any other villain groups who decide to follow that example, we need to make sure we have a hero presence available or on standby to counter them. It's imperative that we restore the people's faith in heroes."
"You really believe in the hero ideal, huh?" Hawks asked, regarding her thoughtfully over the edge of his bowl.
"Don't you?" She questioned with mock curiosity as she lifted the shitake mushroom in her bowl to her mouth with her chopsticks and blew across it.
Of course, she already knew that he did; probably more than most professional heroes. The way he'd been guiding the conversation though, gave her the impression that he was trying to lead her into talking about the Commission's plans for following up on the attack on Deika. It was a delicate situation. They had to appear that they were preparing for future attacks by other militant groups while making actual preparations to combat the Liberation Front and the Nomu in secret. The timing of her promotion couldn't have been any better; it was almost a perfect cover. One which Hawks was aware of, considering the way he had been drilling her for information about her new job.
He lowered his empty bowl and sat back with an exaggerated shrug as he replied, "Yeah, of course! I wouldn't be a hero if I didn't, right?"
"Right," she huffed. "Wow. I just spent the entire time talking about my job. I'm so sorry."
He shrugged before reaching out to refill his bowl. "It's alright, I asked. It's easy to get wrapped up in talking about something you're passionate about."
"I'm not the only one who got a promotion recently. What about you?" She asked, lifting her bowl to take a sip of the broth. He was right, it was pretty tasty.
"I don't know if I'd really call it a promotion. I've been the acting Number Two for a while. The ranking presentation event was just a formality," he replied nonchalantly.
"Hopefully you've been doing more than helping old ladies cross the street and saving cats from trees since I saw you last," Misaki inquired playfully.
The corners of his lips tipped up for a moment before he glanced up at her and said with an inquisitive tone, "I actually heard about a case that seemed pretty interesting on my way up here. Something about a ring of black-market support item production facilities that had been raided over the last week or so. Thought I might look into it."
She knew about the case. When she'd read the report from the Police Force, she had considered that it might have something to do with the Liberation Front, and if Hawks was bringing it up to her now, it must have. If that was the case, it was probably putting him in a really tight position with the Liberation leaders at the moment.
She took a deep breath and said in a concerned tone, "Yeah, it's kinda crazy. The guy who calls in uses a voice changer, and he always calls from a pay phone, so we can't trace the call back to him. He's really good at evading cameras too."
"You sure know a lot about this case for someone who just crunches numbers all day?" Hawks asked, his voice lightly curious as he stared at her over the edge of his bowl.
"Social analytics is my main focus but it's not my only duty. I get pulled in sometimes to evaluate crime scene data and develop villain profiles," she replied with a small shrug.
He carefully lowered his bowl back down to the table and asked, "What else do you know about the case?"
She shrugged. "Not much. The police get a call into the tip line about two hours before a shipment is scheduled to arrive. They're given an address and a time. We see who's in the area and coordinate as quickly as possible to intercept the delivery."
"You get anything off the seized goods?" He asked as he lifted his bowl back up to his mouth.
She shook her head. "They're all cobbled together with parts from several different support item production companies. The police are following up with all of them to see if they have any inventory that's been reported missing or stolen, but so far, nobody is owning up to anything."
"Not surprising. They don't want their company's name splashed all over the front page as the one responsible for providing villains with black-market items," he commented acrimoniously as he finished off his second bowl. "Would you mind giving me a heads up when the next call comes in?"
"Sure. But there's no telling where the next shipment will be coming into. Will two hours be enough time?" She asked as she lifted a carrot up to her mouth.
He shrugged. "Should be. I'm pretty speedy, ya know?"
She shook her head and smiled. "I'll let you know as soon as we hear something."
"Thanks!" He quipped with a broad smile.
Hawks stepped up into the alleyway outside the hotpot restaurant with his head tilted back and his hands covering his stomach as he declared, "Man, that was so tasty!"
He turned toward Misaki as she stepped up into the alley behind him. "Thanks for having dinner with me, Torimodo-san."
"Sure," she said, offering him a small smile. "And just Misaki is fine."
He shot his eyebrows upward and asked her curiously, "Already on first name basis, huh? I must have done something right!"
She shook her head and smirked at him. "For now."
He hadn't really known what to expect when he'd invited her out to dinner for the night. To begin with, he'd just hoped that she wouldn't turn him down again. He'd been prepared to have to do some careful coaxing, but she'd actually agreed to it pretty easily. Not only that, but she'd almost effortlessly slipped into the act, letting him seamlessly guide her through their conversation and following nearly all of his cues like a pro. He chalked it up to their personal familiarity. She was regularly a pretty terrible liar, but it was almost like she'd been looking for the cues and knew just what to say and what not to in response. He wouldn't put it past her to have done her research into the Commission's counterintelligence methods when she'd been assigned to decode his messages.
Still, the intel she'd provided him, along with the heads up on the next tip, was almost too convenient. It would be tough to make this a one-time thing if her tip paid off, like he was sure it would. The Liberation leaders wouldn't look past the veritable golden goose of potentially significant information she represented as an executive member of the Hero Public Safety Commission.
"You sure I can't take you home?" He asked, stuffing his hands into his pockets as they walked out toward the street. He'd heard her call for a cab while he'd been settling the bill.
She shook her head. "I'll be alright on my own. Thank you for the offer though."
He grinned, glancing down at her out of the corner of his eye. "Baby steps, huh?"
"Something like that," she said, ducking her head as the corners of her lips tilted up in a small smile.
The cab she'd called pulled up next to the curb and he reached out to open the door for her. She took a step forward but stopped, turning toward him a second later and opening her mouth as if to say something. He stepped toward her and leaned down to place a soft kiss on her left cheek as he slipped a small recorder into her coat pocket at the same time.
"Goodnight, Misaki," he said in a low tone next to her ear before stepping back.
She stared up at him for a moment before softly replying, "Goodnight, Hawks."
She turned and slid down into the backseat of the cab, and he shut the door behind her, waving as it drove off down the street to the main road. He sighed dejectedly and dropped both of his hands into his pants pockets. It was a good thing she hadn't let him escort her home; he might not have been able to convince himself to leave. Once again, he found himself cursing his terrible judgement. He never should have let himself get involved with her like that. And after tonight, he doubted he would be able to escape the inevitable consequences of that bad decision.
~ Author's Note ~
It's finally here! The MisakixHawks spy dating arc has arrived! And the Villain Academia arc has started in the anime! So much good news this weekend... I hope all of my wonderful readers have an amazing weekend as well! 😊
Thank you so much for reading! ❤️
LOLSAT