We're here! At the long awaited ending of the story! You remember the intermission about Nedzu & All for One meeting? I just published first chapter of that fic (Answering the Call), you should go and follow it ;)
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AdrianVnz - :V And yeah, he had one final blow in. He WAS the Demon Lord, however pathetic his motivations were all along.
Naruto30 - Hana Shimura. A canon character, though she was dusted in a flashback. Here, Re-Destro's assistant.
Suzaku Mikutani - Weird flex but ok xD
Detrametal - Yup. Almost worked, although almost made a LARGE difference here.
TheGreatBubbaJ - Much better than the grooming he indulged in in canon. Tomura is a joke xD
Guest - Not much more to look forward to tbh xD
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"Sho!" Ms. Joke shouts when Eraserhead finally gets back to the surface and ends up reuniting with his friends (and wife). Or, to be exact, it's just Ms. Joke, Ingenium (battered but alright) and Midnight (missing her mask and having a nasty but already patched up cut on her forehead).
Present Mic and Oboro aren't there. Mic decided to be adamant about sending Aizawa as a vanguard, while staying with Shirakumo while the quick medical check-up of his daughter was happening.
She… looked a lot like Kurogiri. The black cloud was there, alright. But behind it… was just a scared and confused girl that Oboro was doing his utmost to calm down.
Not only did he get his old friend back, but said friend also had a child now. Eraserhead, honestly, had no idea how to emotionally process it. Especially as it was the friend whose death haunted him for years.
Hound Dog was probably going to have a field day over this.
Before he has the time to wake up from his thoughts, Ms. Joke is hugging him. In public. Dammit.
"I'm STILL not marrying you." Eraserhead states loudly. He has an image to uphold, after all. "Also, Mic is alright. He'll be here in a moment." He says towards Midnight and Ingenium while Ms. Joke finally takes a step back.
In a very short moment. Oboro's daughter (Sunako, that's the name he gave her when she wasn't sure how to call herself) was going to stay with the doctors at the field hospital for a moment before being moved to a 'proper' hospital for a more detailed check-up.
He and Mic were going to show up in a moment. Eraserhead was just sent ahead. Because of course he was .
"Oh, that's great." Nem sighs with relief. "We were super worried about you the whole time and… what about Kurogiri?"
They knew about the Plan. They knew what Midoriya told Eraserhead to do. Just not about the results.
"It worked." Aizawa replies. "It… actually was who Midoriya suspected him to be. Except… well, I don't know how to exactly say that."
He truly doesn't. But, thankfully, those two traitors were right behind him, just waiting for him to be in the spotlight for a moment. Probably purely for comedy sake.
"I-I think that I don't know e-either." Oboro announces. He is still rather out of it. Present Mic, in the meantime, is grinning next to him as widely as only he can. "It's b-been a while."
"Merry Christmas, Nem." Eraserhead decides to add dryly.
He is almost run over by Midnight on her way to half-tackle half-hug Oboro, tears streaming off her face. Present Mic promptly joins the growing hug pile. Eraserhead, despite everything, has no intention of joining it - but he missed an unspoken agreement behind his back that resulted in Tensei and Emi dragging him into it.
Goddamnit.
This time he's really going to expel Midoriya.
"So, uhm, Tsukauchi?" Tsukauchi Naomasa flinches a bit when he hears THAT tone through the phone. "It's about the explosive ammunition that I was supposed to only use on the noumus. There has been a…"
"No." Tsukauchi replies dryly. "Finish the sentence, and I'm leaving the Police Force forever. Go ask Nedzu to bail you out."
A few long seconds of silence.
"Alright." Yagi replies. "I'll call him right away. Have a nice day."
Wow, this went better than expected. Tsukauchi should start saying no to Yagi Toshinori more often.
"You know…" Akaguro says to Miruko, his eyes still locked onto the girl screaming at a nurse on the other side of the window. "I think it's actually quite… good that it happened?"
The girl certainly inherited their temper. Taking a blood sample was one thing, she could certainly bear it. But if they heard things correctly, being 'assured' that 'it won't hurt at all' made her suddenly very, very angry about them looking down on her.
Wow.
If not for her having his quirk, Bloodblade would suspect that Bakugou Katsuki was the father. She and pre-Gran Torino Bakugou are giving him the same vibes.
"The fuck?" Miruko turns her head towards him. "The hell do you mean by that?"
Both of them still didn't fully process what happened. It's… going to take a while. Especially as, objectively speaking, they are both not exactly super good at dealing with emotions. They, kind of, default to rage when confused.
Or, at least, an abrasive behavior.
"Look…" Akaguro decides to walk her through it. "Pregnancy, kind of, makes training harder for a time, right? So if you ever decided to have a child, it'd either have to happen after you retired or you'd have to put an extraordinary amount of effort into making up for the lost time. Instead…" He gestures towards the girl, currently STILL busy shouting at someone. "... you've got one without all of that. And you missed out on changing diapers as well."
"... I've always considered that particular part of parenting to be the tutorial before the kit becomes a teenager." Miruko replies after a few seconds of silence. Then she sighs. "Okay, I MIGHT see your point in that, even if the fact that you're the father is STILL pissing me off."
Right, it certainly does, Rumi.
"Great." Akaguro replies. "You can meet her on Fridays. Under my supervision, of course."
That wakes Miruko up.
"What the fuck?!" She stares at him rather… murderously. "That's my daughter, you asshole! I'm going to spend as much time with her as I fucking want!"
Uh-oh, someone's maternal instinct was kicking in for real. Worst of all, it was Miruko's maternal instinct. The horror.
"I'm a highly respected teacher at the most prestigious school in the country." Akaguro Chizome replies, not entirely without a smug smile on his face. "You're the woman that left your intern with an S-Rank villain. Who do you think is getting custody of our daughter, Rumi?"
"Nedzu." Hound Dog does his best to not growl, but he is fairly close to doing just that. Shame that doing it through the phone just doesn't confer his anger properly. "I need… grrr… answers."
"About?" Nedzu replies, sounding suspiciously cheerfully. He is probably still commanding some clean-up operation, but it's clear that he freed his hands enough for some additional multitasking.
"Why the hell, grrrr, did you set a youtube 'boss music playlist' to play on, grrr, loop from the speakers in my office?" Hound Dog asks.
"... you'll find out in a day or two." Nedzu replies. Not at all ominously.
"What a shame that Snipe didn't get to see all of that." Present Mic announces while they are all driving a bus back to the UA. Of course, it wasn't a 'regular' bus, just something that Nedzu prepared alongside his operation plan to ease the logistics of returning heroes to their rightful place.
"Oh, right." Midnight facepalms. "I almost forgot how he disappeared mysteriously around the time when Eraserhead announced that he was going to kill him for letting 1-A and Hatsume Mei handle explosives. You know, the whole Great Tank Battle of UA."
"I regret nothing." Eraserhead announces dryly.
Shirakumo Oboro blinks at them both, before looking at the man sitting on the opposite side of the passage.
"Guys, I'm here, you can stop ignoring me." Snipe replies.
"I still hear his voice from time to time." Eraserhead announces. "His refusal to pass to the other side in peace is rather saddening."
Snipe groans. Shirakumo laughs. Oh, so that's what it was about.
"Midoriya Izuku." Eraserhead announces once he sees the Midoriya family in full attention. The UA teachers just returned to the UA (Eto, unfortunately, needed elsewhere to warp those needed medical help to hospitals, those took priority). Bulletstorm looked emotionally conflicted and just stated his desire to have a face-to-face talk with his wife (Aizawa doesn't care). "You're expelled."
Izuku freezes in an instant, before looking at his teacher with an expression of total shock on his face.
"W-what?!" He finally says. "W-why?!"
"For sending me into an active warzone without describing the situation properly." Eraserhead replies. "If seeing Oboro made me freeze in shock a bit more, I might have been killed by one of the villains, simply because you 'didn't want to give me false hopes'. That was highly irresponsible, Midoriya. Also…" He checks out his suddenly beeping phone. Oh, of course it's Nedzu. "... you've been re-enrolled already. Gods, I hate this school sometimes."
Midoriya Izuku is still staring at him in shock when he turns his back and goes to do something significantly more interesting. Like, probably, drink himself under the table with Mic and Nem as a part of celebrating Oboro's unexpected resurrection.
Shirakumo, unfortunately, needed to get some medical check-ups and to solve the rather complicated legal situation of his entire existence before joining them officially, despite arriving with them (and his still very confused daughter) to the UA. Shame.
"Inko, I have to tell you something." Yagi says once they are alone for a moment. "Something… came up. Something about Hisashi. And I really, really think that you need to sit down for this."
Inko looks at his face for a few seconds before deciding that this is probably not the time to be a tough girl, and she sits as he told her.
She realizes that she was correct in that decision a few minutes later, where all her remaining positive feelings towards her old husband fly out of the window.
"We should wait for the DNA test before making it official." Yagi says, while she is busy trembling in pure, concentrated fury next to him. "He could as well make it up just to hurt me, but… I don't think he did. What about the kids? Should they…"
"We'll tell them." Inko replies. "And Tenko too. But once we have confirmation."
All for One should be happy that he was dead. Because she now has an intense desire to see how many vertebrae she could pull out of him with her quirk before his demise.
Somewhere far away from the battlefield and a few hours later, Nedzu puts down his headset. He is, as he often does, in his personal inner sanctum. His office at the UA. Power Loader is also there, working off a laptop connected to the UA main computer.
"It is over, Power Loader." Nedzu announces. "The Paranormal Liberation Front is no more." The last pockets of resistance were swept through two hours ago, since then he was basically assisting the logistical side of the post-battle clean-up. And now, even that was over.
According to the preliminary reports, the casualties rate approached 10:1. 10 killed or apprehended villains for a single dead or badly injured hero. The civilian casualties were below twenty, almost all of them from the hospital (it was going to hurt, but… a low price to pay in the greater state of affairs).
There were a lot more injured civilians, however.
In the end, a highly successful operation. Nedzu still didn't lose his edge.
"You sure about it?" Power Loader asks back, his eyes still on his laptop. "We still didn't find Re-Destro."
"I assure you that it'll be my absolute focus from now on." Nedzu replies. "But other than him, there are no remaining PLF-aligned supervillains. Mechanist darted overseas, and he was the last one."
A focus especially after the Endeavor assault party reported that all they found in Garaki's office was his headless corpse… and a lot of melted down computers. Re-Destro got there first and cleaned up the loose ends.
Once again, an act that made no sense for Nedzu. But for a man of this degree of planning skills, Re-Destro certainly needed to have a goal in all that he did. The fact that the UA Principal remained entirely unable to figure out said goal was incredibly infuriating AND intriguing at the same time.
"It seems that most of the villains in the base expected Re-Destro and his Meta-Liberation Army to come and bail them out." Power Loader decides to comment. "But he was more interested in eliminating Doctor Garaki and the AFO clones, and then left the rest to rot in Tartarus."
Shame that Nedzu doesn't know who he was. He would send him a big bar of chocolates, a good wine… and, well, a brigade of pro-heroes to arrest him. Alas, despite being clearly pissed off at the MLA, none of the captured villains had anything substantial to say about them.
The ones that did have something to say were dead. That spoke volumes about Re-Destro's abilities.
"Yes, it's actually quite surprising to me." Nedzu admits. "They seem to genuinely believe in the MLA's existence, and… this all makes it sound like so did Doctor Garaki. Unless he was much more easy to fool about things than we think, he wouldn't believe in it without any proof from the Re-Destro, meaning that there should be at least some organization backing him up. Which is… strange."
"If it truly existed, it would have to be rather scary." Power Loader adds. When Nedzu looks at him questioningly, he continues speaking. "I mean, a mastermind to equal you as their head. A massive amount of money and equipment, enough to equip the entirety of Garaki's lab with modified stuff behind his back for a sudden purge of data AND Garaki himself. Probably that dangerously powerful ice user that took out the warp scrambler during the mess-up that the Overhaul's downfall was. It's a lot."
The ice user in question was still at large. They didn't hear of him ever before, and he didn't show up afterwards. Judging from the strength of his quirk he was provisionally marked as an S-Rank, but nobody knew his name, villain name and allegiance.
A mystery. Nedzu felt like he had all the bits needed to assemble an answer, but thus far it eluded him.
In the meantime, he helped himself to some tea.
"Yes, it's… worrying." Nedzu admits over the cup of tea. "At this point we have to assume that the Meta-Liberation Army exists, however we don't know anything about it. It's certainly a large threat, but just how big is it, exactly?"
"A moment, Nedzu." Power Loader quickly checks something on his laptop. "... crap. Someone just attacked Nine's prison convoy. The survivors report…" Their eyes meet. "... ice. Two ice users, a man and a woman. He's the one that we know beforehand, once again leaving no one alive. She's a completely new one, and she was only incapacitating the guards, but…" He takes a deep breath. "... according to witnesses, she might be even stronger than he is."
Not just one S-Rank villain. At least two, both previously unheard of. And now they have Nine and his crew. With Nine himself being considered for an SS-Rank status on his personal strength alone.
Meta-Liberation Army, it seems, was a much larger threat that they suspected.
And that sentence was the final key to unlock the mystery. Nedzu's High Spec goes into an overdrive, the Principal pursuing what's little more than a random feeling. But one that leads him somewhere.
Somewhere where he didn't want to go.
Personal connections. Joint initiatives. Money transfers. All the minor things that on their own meant nothing. That on their own weren't crimes. That on their own weren't villainy. That on their own were simply beneath everyone's notice.
That would be missed by anyone lacking a High Spec quirk to see the bigger picture. The much bigger picture. The impossibly bigger picture. The picture straight from the ramblings of conspiracy theorists.
Hearts and Minds Party, at this point all but scheduled to either win next elections or become the largest opposition party. Feel Good Inc, the largest telecommunication company nationwide. Detnerat Company, the life support/hero support megacorporation, the largest and most successful of its kind, its CEO the wealthiest man in the country and a famed philanthropist. Shoowaysha Publishing, owning no less than thirty different newspapers and several TV stations nationwide.
The first Meta-Liberation Army, attempting a coup two centuries ago, having recruited numerous followers among various branches of government to achieve that goal. Only resorting to a civil war when that attempt failed. The civil war, in turn, failed because once its supporters in the government were purged, the structures outside of it turned out to be frail and incapable of measuring up to the power of the state during a long-term warfare.
The ancient reports of the pro-heroes and police officers suspecting an existence of some loyalty-enforcing quirk holder among MLA members, one that remained unaccounted for when the Meta LiberationWar ended. One that could have children. One whose children could have children. Numerous, in fact.
How many? How many members did MLA have now? How many 'private properties' of its members were changed into training camps for the warriors of the new MLA? Places where Re-Destro forged people like those two ice quirk users, all while remaining hidden from the world and waiting for the perfect moment to strike.
No evidence. The conspiracy in question too big for people to believe in the warnings without conclusive proof. The whole thing most likely separated into cells that can be ditched when the heroes find the evidence for one of them, making the public go 'alright, that issue has been dealt with' without realizing what a small part of the whole it was.
If they attempt to dismantle any of the group in question, the rest will eat them alive. If they amass conclusive proof for one of them being dirty, the MLA will survive - however weakened - without, for example, the Shoowaysha Publishing.
And if they attempt to take the whole thing down at once, it'll be a civil war. As they can't hope to amass the evidence for the whole thing without Re-Destro (that they don't even know the true identity of) realizing what was happening and launching a preemptive strike.
One that, Nedzu realizes in the heartbeat, might succeed.
Power Loader raises his face from the laptop after hearing the sound of something falling to the ground. He realizes that something very, very bad happened the second he realized that it was the tea cup, its contents spilling on the floor.
"N-Nedzu?" He asks. The rat didn't get a heart attack or something, right? It would be…
"Oh. Dear." Nedzu lets out, every sound dragged into eternity, his hands still up in the air, as if he was yet to realize what happened to the tea. Then, his head turns slowly towards the Power Loader. "We… might have a problem."
Re-Destro personally dislikes the concept. But he is acutely aware that sometimes, just sometimes, your own prison is a useful thing.
That particular one is located under the Detnerat headquarters in Deika. It typically remains empty. The last time it was filled to capacity was after the failed coup against him. Today, it has only a single guest.
Raven, his faithful Personal Assistant, pushes the guest's wheelchair (to which he is bound properly) inside the meeting room. Letting it stay between her and her Grand Commander.
"Thunderbolt." Re-Destro says. "It's been a while. How are the accomodations?"
"Rikiya Y-Yotsubashi?!" The former Number Three Hero stares at him in shock. "What the hell's going on, why…"
"I go by Re-Destro in private, Thunderbolt." He cuts in. "A rightful heir of Destro, and the Grand Commander of the new Meta-Liberation Army, the secret conspiracy dedicated to the cause of quirk liberation composed of one hundred twenty two thousand members nationwide, a lot of them in influential positions. Also the true brain and main supplier behind the Paranormal Liberation Front, a de facto SSS-Rank villain even if I'm yet to be graded because the heroes are yet to realize that I exist and… by all intents and purposes the greatest threat to the Hero System of Japan in history. And yes…" He smiles faintly. "... I count All for One into that."
Thunderbolt lets out a choking sound. Yeah, that was a bit of a shocking revelation. Re-Destro finds a slight pleasure in seeing him squirm, to be honest.
"It was a bit of a random decision on my side…" Re-Destro continues. "... but when one of my agents reported to me how you're treating your daughter, I realized what prospects that opened. Recruiting her through the internet was easy enough. Making her let our assault unit inside your home at night without triggering the alarms was equally easy enough. She's now an official member of the MLA, going by the name of Quicksilver. She even befriended someone, what was his name?" He says to his personal assistant.
"Juggernaut." She replies.
"Right. All of that while having a rather clear crush on my personal assistant which might or might not be going both ways" Re-Destro winks at the person in question. Hana rolls her eyes around. "She looks unbelievably happy nowadays, you know that? I just had to remove you from her life for everything to work out."
Thunderbolt gives him a murderous stare. Nice.
"Side subjects aside, I've decided to have a bit of a talk with you." Re-Destro continues. "Mostly about our newest achievements. While you were being locked down here, a lot of things changed outside."
"To say the least." Raven comments.
"Like what?" Thunderbolt asks, still staring at Re-Destro with a lot of hostility.
"The Paranormal Liberation Front no longer exists… just as I planned." Re-Destro replies. "It was a throw-away name. A gathering of old AFO-worshiping fossils that I wanted to dismantle in the way that benefited the MLA the most. And damn if they didn't go down guns blazing." He smiles. "Best Jeanist, Edgeshot, Crust, Slidin' Go, Sir Nighteye and almost forty different high ranked heroes taken out during a single engagement, can you believe it?"
Thunderbolt's eyes grow wider.
"And that's not all." Re-Destro continues. "Because All Might is out of the picture, having retired due to injuries… and then Hawks decided to grow a spine. So he walked into the TV Station and shared all the dirty laundry of the HPSC with the world. HPSC president and its entire leadership are now in Tartarus, Thunderbolt. And the entire Japan knows that you've abused your daughter and about what happened on that beach. You're being tried in absentia, and it's practically guaranteed that you'll be slapped with at least twenty years in Tartarus."
"Y-you're lying!" Thunderbolt refuses to back down. "This isn't possible, if you think that I'll buy it…"
"You don't have to." Re-Destro cuts in. He really isn't interested in hearing Thunderbolt speak. "It was a total surprise to anyone involved, I have to admit that. Honestly…" He sighs. "My original plan was to wipe out the Top Heroes in Kamino, then wait for the HPSC to replace them with Paragons, then sell the PLF to them and THEN announce the truth about HPSC crimes to the world, allowing the MLA to take advantage of that. Things didn't play out, forcing us to improvise. But we're almost there, you know?"
"What?" Thunderbolt blinks at him.
"The Hearts and Minds Party, our political branch, is scoring almost 30% in some polls." Re-Destro replies. "Both because of the mass deaths of Top Heroes weakening the public belief in them… and because of what happened to the HPSC. That means while things were pretty hectic for a while, we're still on the right track to our Golden Ending. To our Plan A. Because, you see, I've instigated what was pretty much a brief civil war in Japan… in order to improve HMP's standing in the polls and break the sanitary cordon around it in the National Diet."
"You… what?!" Thunderbolt has problems understanding it. In all honesty, Re-Destro understands that. He'd be rather surprised himself.
"Destro left his heirs a small booklet." Re-Destro replies. "A set of guidelines concerning the preparation for the second Meta-Liberation War. A list of things that went wrong, the things that killed the first Meta-Liberation Army. And tips on how to deal with that. The most important tip to winning the second Meta-Liberation War… was to avoid starting the second Meta-Liberation War."
Thunderbolt blinks at him a few times.
"Yes, you heard me correctly." Re-Destro replies. "Destro, regretfully, rushed the job too much. And when he lost… this removed the meta-liberation cause from the political mainstream for almost two centuries. I could, if I wanted, start a civil war tomorrow with a notable chance of success. I'm NOT going to do that, however. Because as Destro said in his booklet, losing the rematch will be a killing blow to the cause, most likely a final one. So I won't start the war, unless all other options are exhausted." He smiles at Thunderbolt. Who, this time, understands it.
"... so you financed PLF in order to cause a crisis, while also taking advantage of HPSC downfall… to help the Hearts and Minds Party win the elections." Thunderbolt is, suddenly, surprisingly pale. "Allowing you to introduce your reforms… with pro-heroes being legally obligated to help you in that."
"Precisely!" Re-Destro claps his hands a few times. "That's the plan. The Golden Ending for Destro's Long War. Why fight against the legal government… when you can become the legal government? Why fight the Self-Defense Force when you can make it fight for you? Why fight the pro-heroes, when you can make them follow your orders? The flawless victory, the one with least amount of bloodshed, least amount of chaos in the country… because we both know that if MLA will take over the country in ruins, the people will remember that the ruins were their fault. Besides…" He shakes his head. "... the country out there is healing right now. What a perfect way to change the meta-liberation ideology's public image - make everyone out there make a mental connection between its return to the world… and what might just be a soon-to-be golden era of Japan."
Destro, after all, was rather explicit on how taking over the government AND making a change to the society were two entirely different things. The cause of the meta-liberation only truly succeeding if both things were achieved.
"And I have so many ideas on how to help with that." Re-Destro smiles. "Detnerat Company has already voiced its readiness to establish new workplaces in the lost districts. To give a chance at a better life to all those previously forgotten by the system… mostly thanks to All for One." The venom in his voice when that name is mentioned is… substantial. "And thanks to Overhaul's research, we'll have a quirk bestowal drug ready in a few years. In twenty years from now, the issue of quirkless discrimination will stop plaguing the country… because the quirkless will be no more. Truly beautiful, isn't it?"
And even if the MLA is later ousted and eliminated, the future generations of the followers of Destro will have…counterarguments.
'Yes, those scary Destroists were scary, but see at all that they did in the meantime - no quirklessness, all those workplaces, investments in hospitals, they might have been political radicals but hey, they clearly weren't that bad'.
Something to ensure that Destro's dream of a truly free world was going to survive… to, perhaps, one day succeed.
The quirk suppression and almost finished quirk erasure drugs were additional benefits if Destro was correct in his fears of the eventual Quirk Singularity. For as long as Overhaul's research lived on, that particular threat was eliminated.
"And if this route fails us…" Re-Destro continues, not giving Thunderbolt the time to voice his disbelief in Overhaul's research. "... we still have more than a hundred thousand members spread nationwide. Enough to start a regular civil war. Enough to, even if Nedzu or the government realize that we exist, deter them from attempting to dismantle us by force. Perhaps even…" He narrows his eyes. "... make them consider striking a deal with us. After all, we aren't All for One. All I want is slight adjustments to the system, not its total destruction and a thousand years long era of darkness to follow."
"W-why are you telling me that?" Ah. He realized. Well, it's about the time to end it.
"Because sometimes, even a man of my stature and virtues feels the need to gloat in front of their enemies." Re-Destro replies calmly. "And because you won't tell anyone."
Before Thunderbolt has the time to ask 'why', Raven's hand is on the top of his head. All five fingers.
Thunderbolt dies of old age within three seconds. The rapid aging continues, his body decomposing (the smelt lasted only for a second) before only a skeleton is left in the wheelchair.
His personal assistant takes her hand off the skull. The neck bends to the side, the skull promptly falling off and shattering on the floor, its age making it brittle.
"So, how was it?" Re-Destro asks. There is something of a conflict on her face. Unsurprising for her first kill.
He needs to make sure that she won't end up enjoying that. It's too easy to make kills into your goal instead of a mean. And only one out of many… hopefully picked as rarely as possible.
"I think… " She replies eventually. "...that I need a moment to process that. And the meeting is in fifteen minutes."
Right.
"So, did we… win, by the way?" She asks him when they enter the elevator. She looks notably better now.
"Unless we exit the elevator to see Nedzu standing in the corridor with a small fedora on his head, the answer is 'yes and no'." He replies while winking at her. She chuckles. Yeah, she was also his daughter's close friend at this point and that one cartoon was somewhat infectious, clearly enough. "We did win, but against the Paranormal Liberation Front. Against heroes… Well, there was no fight to win or lose, to be frank. Merely our advance preparations for the fight against them."
"I don't follow?" She glances at him while pushing the button.
"We weakened the pro-heroes and established ourselves as a power to equal them, but… several things went against the plan." He replies. "We lost Slidin'Go, which severely impaired our recruitment ability among the pro-heroes. Nedzu also wasn't supposed to find out that I exist so early. There is a fair chance that he will figure out the exact scale of the MLA sooner or later. On the other hand, I didn't plan for Sir Nighteye's death either, and without him, Nedzu's ability to obtain tangible evidence against the MLA members will be significantly impaired."
"So, a tie." She summarizes.
"Not quite." Re-Destro replies. When she gives him a questioning look, he smiles. "Regardless of what side you're on, one thing remains certain. Japan won. Because people like Doctor Garaki, Purity, Eclipse, Overhaul, Beast and All for One are no longer here to shape its future. Whoever wins now, will leave the country in a better state than it was when we were born. The rest is... a matter of technical differences between our visions of the better world."
After a moment, she nods. Silence in the elevator lasts for maybe a second before she speaks again.
"And the second round?" A brilliant question.
"Hopefully it won't happen at all." Re-Destro replies. "If Nedzu figures us out but realizes that we're too big to arrest us all, we can expect a years-long shadow war. One that, to be honest, I worry about. As for all our preparations, we never waged one. He did, against All for One." He sighs. "I expected the country to spend a few years licking its wounds, what happens then is anyone's guess right now."
By the time the situation will get anywhere close to conclusion, Valiant and his friends will graduate from UA. Re-Destro, if he's to be honest, would prefer not to think about it. Midoriya is… dangerous.
"In the meantime, we have to decide what to do with Gigantomachia…" Re-Destro changes the subject. "... and officially welcome Howl, the new member of our inner council. Took us a while to recruit him, HPSC downfall was really a gamechanger on that field." He sighs. Even in that context, owing something to the HPSC president is… well, it kind of hurts. "He is really against the 'forceful' option, but he also stopped believing that what the government is doing will be enough, and… well, the Golden Ending and our help in eliminating the PLF and rounding up some of the worst mass-murderers in history of Japan, even if at the cost of some pro-heroes, ended up buying him in the end."
"Alright, I get it that it's a big surprise for me." Raven replies, staring at Re-Destro questioningly. "Who is that?"
Re-Destro smiles.
Then they arrive at their destination, and the Grand Commander exits the elevator. She is following him, and…
The man is waiting for them in the corridor in front of the conference room. His personal assistant recognizes him immediately (good, very good), he knows from the shocked gasp coming from behind.
She should work on self-control in moments like this, showing your weakness is generally a bad idea during such meetings.
"Wonderful to see you in good health, friend." Re-Destro smiles while extending his hand. "Ready to make the world a better place?"
"Naturally, woof." Commissioner General Kenji Tsuragamae of the Japanese Police Force replies, while shaking Re-Destro's hand.
(***)
At the beggining of this fic I planned to write an actual confrontation between the MLA and the heroes. But as I began to write the MLA bits, I realized that they grew up on me enough that making them lose would feel... not gratifying enough? So I figured out that I could as well make both them AND the heroes win. Which also covers third most shocking plottwist I could make while writing an Overpowered Genius Midoriya Izuku near-crackfic was to... let the villains win, or at least not lose in the end.
Even if it will make people screech at me for a TTB 2 to be written. The answer to which will be 'yesn't.' Just read my remaining fics until the end, and eventually, you'll found out :P
Also, you know what? Screw the world. Future Bakugou x Rini (certain very angry rabbit girl) is an official canon pairing for this fic. Looking forward to their children reaching Peak Anger (it would be like reaching the state of Zen, except you are a berserker, your meditation place is on fire and you're waving a chainsaw around threateningly). RIP Hound Dog. And RIP Aizawa.
I honestly think that I've managed to tie up all the remaining plotlines to a satisfying degree.
Also the fact that no one noticed the fact that Snipe vanished from the fic after being confronted by Aizawa about explosives (and Aizawa stating his desire to murder him) is just sad. *sad author noises*
Don't forget to check my remaining fics and, preferably, drop by the two discord servers where I have my own writing channels :D Invite codes are as follow:
ketng6pDcs
KJruKHtDVw
Also IN CASE SOMEONE DIDN'T NOTICE IT ABOVE, I STARTED PUBLISHING ANSWERING THE CALL HERE.