A/N: Happy New Year and welcome to 2021 everyone!

I've enjoyed a lovely break from writing and now it's time to get back to Incident Zero. This is effectively an interlude after the official end of Act 1 last chapter, since we have a few villains who need to be dealt with. I hope you enjoy- longer note at the end!

(***)

The girl shivered as she slept fitfully under the blanket, and Chronostasis didn't like the fact he didn't feel even a trace of disgust anymore.

She was still so young, so fragile, so defenceless. Two years had passed since the Boss had risen to power and put his plans in motion, but she was still only six years old as the harvest continued. There was no other word for it, Chronostasis had decided; it was repetitive and systematic, the way the Boss brutalised her and drained her of the valuable resource he needed to implement his plan to level the playing field and return the Shie Hassaikai to their former glory. When he had first seen Overhaul start his work, she had been four, and it had been a struggle to keep the bile down as he watched one of the most devastating Quirks in the world at work on a small child. After two years of getting exactly what he wanted, Hari Kurono was numb to the cries for help, the awful sounds, the sight of dripping red.

He just wished the girl was as numb to it as he was now. After two years, she still whimpered, cried out in her restless sleep, yelled and pleaded before every dreadful touch to begin the cycle again. He hated that he didn't react to that anymore.

Stood beside her bed, Kai Chisaki brushed a strand of unkempt grey hair, dirty and unwashed, off of her face to frame her ear. If it wasn't for the surgical gloves, and the look in the Boss' eyes, one might mistake the scene for a show of affection, but Chronostasis could see that look and knew it all too well. It wasn't tenderness that seemed to shimmer for a second in the bright yellow eyes; instead it was something far more malign, a sense of smugness that she was still proving so valuable to him as an asset. "A shame that we have to cut this short, Eri. Other people can't behave as well as you."

Chronostasis recognised the tone in his Boss' voice, the anger, the disappointment. The new arrival upstairs had caused a stir when he turned up for a number of reasons, but he couldn't say that he blamed Overhaul for feeling that way. Someone hadn't been careful, and now they had an audience with an unknown quantity because standards had slipped- he was angry too that everything could have been jeopardised. "Sir, he's waiting upstairs."

With a tut, Overhaul pulled the blanket up over Eri's shoulders and strode out of the room, not even stopping to pull the door shut behind him; Chronostasis found himself giving a frantic gesture to the grunt on guard duty to shut her room up as he struggled to keep up with his Boss' strides. "So the Hero was the loose end?"

"It seems that way, sir," Chronostasis confirmed, matching his pace now. Pinning the blame was relatively easy in this scenario, and if it kept the rest of the Hassaikai out of the head's bad books, he was all for it. "He was shadowed to one of our warehouses during a supply run, and was seen defending our men when another Hero tried to stop our transport convoy."

"And then he was tailed here," Overhaul continued, adjusting the mask on his face as he walked. '"So we now find ourselves with an unwanted guest, in the heart of our operation, seeking an audience with me about an opportunity."

"I apologise, Overhaul. I-"

"Suggested that we should recruit a Pro Hero to our cause?" The Boss shrugged. "It was a good suggestion. We have two others who do the job well. You aren't to blame for one failure, Chrono."

He tried not to show it, but inwardly Chronostasis breathed a sigh of relief. Being Overhaul's number two and assistant appeared to give him some level of protection from the young Boss' wrath, after all. "... Thank you. Are you going to allow our uninvited guest to make his proposal?"

"I shall. He shouldn't know of what we do, but if he's here he has some interest in the product. I can at least make the most of a bad mess."

"Of course. And I assume we will deal with the Pro Hero after our guest has been spoken to?" Chronostasis had learned survival at the cost of anything else was a priority; if he could guarantee that Overhaul wouldn't think ill of him by stabbing the Hero in the back, then he would happily pick up that knife.

Now there was a flash of anger in Kai Chisaki's eyes. "As soon as our guest leaves. It's like the old saying... if you want something done properly, do it yourself."

Chronostasis was left in no doubts as they approached the door what would happen to the Hero. There were enough private Heroes out there who had far looser codes of ethics after Incident Zero, and enough private agencies seeking wealthy backers to continue operating independently of the Hero Commission, that finding some willing to take money from the Yakuza had not been difficult. Having people willing to turn a blind eye and allow supply routes in and out of their turf had helped the Trigger operation grow beyond their expectations, but Kai Chisaki was a particular man, with particular standards, and one simple ask- secrecy. The Yakuza could afford to be bolder than they were, to make ventures out of the shadows and take on bigger jobs, but their operations and Overhaul's pet project with Eri were worth so much to him, so for someone to be so careless to get themselves trailed, to reveal the main site's location to a third party? That was a death knell by anyone's standards.

The question was what would happen to the man currently sat in their waiting area, behind the door that they were approaching and that Shin Nemoto guarded. What he was after was unknown at this time- whether Overhaul's patience would extend to letting him leave after making his proposal was something Chronostasis refused to bet anything on.

Nemoto saluted zealously as Overhaul and Chronostasis reached the door, and Chronostasis found himself sneering under his mask at the younger lieutenant. Nemoto was below him in the Eight Bullets and yet due to his devotion to the Boss, Hari knew that Nemoto would stab him in an instant if it gave Nemoto the chance to replace him at the Boss' side. "Overhaul, sir. They're both inside with Mimic."

"How is he?"

"He's... calm, sir. Although Mimic seems to be on edge around him. Even more than Rappa when you haven't fought him in a while."

"On edge?" Chronostasis asked, curious.

"It's to do with his Quirk. Confession gave me a lot of information." Hari tried not to roll his eyes at the smugness of Nemoto at the pride in his own Quirk. "His Quirk... he called it Anthropomorph. It allows him to create copies of another person out of an ordinary object, and control the copy."

"So Irinaka feels inferior," Overhaul mused, cutting over Nemoto before his lieutenant could say any more. "Because our guest's Quirk can do everything his can, but from a distance, with more objects. He would need Trigger to even begin to be on that level... thank you, Nemoto."

Chronostasis noted something in his Boss' rasping voice, a note of disdain at his conclusions, but didn't push it any more. "Please, Nemoto, go and check on the girl. We had to cut things short to come here."

"I'll stay here, thank you Kurono-"

"Nemoto." Overhaul's interruption was blunt. "The girl. If this guest brings trouble, I want to know she's safe. I trust you to look after her for me."

"Y-Yes Sir! Right away!"

Chronostasis found himself marvelling at how easily his Boss was able to get under the skin of his inner circle, to work out what made them tick and manipulate that so he could get them to do exactly his bidding. Nemoto's pride and self-importance made him stand up to Hari, but when Overhaul himself told him that what he was being asked was an important job to Overhaul, he would toss everything aside to go and do it. "I assure you, the other measures are in place sir."

Overhaul merely hummed to himself, as he replaced the gloves he was wearing with fresh copies. "Good. Then let's see what we're being met with."

The scene that greeted Chronostasis as he followed the Boss into the room was bizarre even by the standards he was used to in an underworld filled with weird Quirks. Mimic had chosen to possess the ghastly little suit he was so fond of, with the white bone-like plague mask that seemed to make him look like a grim reaper in miniature; he was sat on one side of the table at the centre of the room tapping his tiny leg in agitation, with two guests facing opposite him. Chronostasis recognised the Pro Hero, a tall man with a jet black fur suit that covered everything except his hands, but the newcomer was something else entirely; gaunt and lanky, a pronounced chin and nose jutting out from beneath long blank hair which covered his eyes with a fringe. The fact that he seemed completely at ease, even smiling as he lounged in their central base, was unnerving if only for a second.

The Pro Hero Kesagiriman bowed deferentially as Overhaul entered, his mask and visor hiding any emotion. "Overhaul, I am so sorry about-"

"Enough." The young Boss held up a gloved hand and silenced the Pro with one word, as he slid into his seat. "I'll deal with you later, Hero. Mimic?"

The rag doll form the general manager was currently occupying started. "Boss?"

"Quirk envy is unbecoming in our organisation. You would do well not to forget that. Or to let it cloud your mind when a business opportunity lies in front of us."

"My, my." The visitor smirked, a ghastly sight underneath that long fringe. "I heard good things about you, Overhaul, but I'm glad to see you have some business sense. I can't say that many of the other Yakuza would have the same reaction. Although..."

"Although?"

"Quirk is a dirty word, ain't it? You and I can both agree on that, Overhaul."

"Sir?" Chronostasis asked, uncertain about what their guest meant. "Who is this man-"

"Tomoyasu Chikazoku," Overhaul interrupted, pronouncing each syllable as if it left a strange taste in his mouth. "As far as I was aware, you were a board member at Feel Good Inc, selling computers and broadband to the whole of Japan. Respected as a businessman."

"Full names aren't necessary here, are they?" The man clenched his jaw. "You wouldn't want me calling you Kai Chisaki, so while I'm here you can call me Skeptic, and I'll stick to Overhaul like a polite visitor who wandered his way into the heart of your business. Sound good to you?"

"I can accept that." If Overhaul was fazed by how rude their guest was being, Chrono couldn't see it. "So you found your way here because of our Hero, I assume. Found out what we make our money from by following him."

"Fair assumptions. You should really get more observant staff- it wasn't hard to gather intel by following him around." Skeptic sniggered as the jibes made the furry Hero beside him stiffen nervously. "I must say, I admire what you're doing. Your product is higher quality than anything out there on the market. Tracking your shipments made me realise your Trigger is what caused the incident at Tatooin Station, among other high-profile attacks on Heroes."

Skeptic nudged the edge of the table with his shoe. "And you have survived an awfully long time under the radar without incident. The Yakuza have always been a relic of the old times, so when you all started to crawl out of the holes you'd been hiding in after All Might died, I wondered how you'd adapt to the new world order. Imagine my pleasant surprise when I found you. While other groups like the Abegawa Tenchu Kai suffered the wrath of the Hero Killer, or couldn't keep up with the rise in demand, you met it all and still stayed hidden in the shadows. Well... until I found you, anyway."

"And yet none of that would be of interest to your company. Feel Good Inc wasn't in the business of drug trafficking, from everything I was aware of. Which means if you're here to try to make a business proposition, and you're able to find us while we work in the shadows..." Overhaul's eyes narrowed. "You're part of our world too. And you're here on behalf of someone else."

"The goons I met around here said you were astute for a kid, taking over from his old boss. They weren't lying." Skeptic sat back and reached into a pocket of the long coat he was wearing, fishing for something. "I work with people who see opportunities if we fund your Trigger production, opportunities for our organisation to grow stronger and face our enemies. We can double your income from Trigger production in a month, and we get the opportunity to mobilise our forces more than we can at the moment."

Chronostasis had been quiet until that point, but something that Overhaul had said before spurred him to speak up. "If you're here on behalf of someone else, then there's no deal to be made now. We need to know who you're speaking for."

"Heh. You're like me, aren't you? Another monkey speaking for his organ grinder. I can see why he's picked you as a number two."

"Chrono," Mimic started up, from the sofa next to him, "don't you think the Boss should be the one who-"

"He's right, Mimic," Overhaul said, cutting off the general manager, and Chronostasis resisted the urge to smirk underneath his mask. "And I think Skeptic realises this. If you want to make introductions with your boss, give us a time and a place. We'll hear how much you have to offer."

"Very generous of you, Overhaul." Skeptic withdrew his hand from his jacket and dropped a file onto the table, containing a number of papers. "My contact is in that file, as are our proposals for what we want to do with your product and how we want you to provide it. You'll find a group like ours can be quite willing to meet even your highest financial demands, but of course, we can negotiate over supply routes, leasing premises for storage, and so on. I won't draw you into making a decision today."

"It appears we have a lot to consider," Overhaul replied, eyes darting to the file on his table but not moving to pick up the foreign object. "Mimic, please escort Skeptic from the grounds. We will contact you and your group when we are ready to talk further regarding your proposal, but for now, you will appreciate we need some time."

"Naturally."

"And I know I don't have to say this to someone as experienced as you, but the location of this base stays secret, and does not go beyond you or your superiors. If we find that Heroes target this location, that wouldn't be a good sign of a positive business relationship." Overhaul clenched and unclenched a fist, the sound of scrunching surgical plastic cutting through the pregnant pause. "It would be unwise to declare war on a Yakuza clan like ours with offices as... public as yours."

"Heh. There's a reason they call it mutually assured destruction." Skeptic held a hand to his forehead to form an L-shape in a strange gesture, and smirked. "I hear you want to change the world, Overhaul. Maybe with the backing we can provide you, you might make some of those dreams a reality."

Chronostasis watched the retreating back of the lanky man, Mimic waddling behind him in the black miniature costume and sliding shut the door with a knowing nod. "Boss, I have concerns."

Overhaul's eyes flashed to him. "Tell me. I want to see if you see the same thing as me."

"He said Quirk is a dirty word. He talked about mobilising forces, he freely uses a codename, and he knows your name, which means he's been gathering intelligence on us for some time. But the giveaway was that gesture at the end, the one he was so proud of before he left. I thought the rumours of the people making that gesture weren't true, but if they are... then Tomoyasu Chikazoku is a lieutenant for the Meta Liberation Army. And he wants us to meet his Grand Commander."

"So it would seem." Overhaul took a deep breath, and wiped his brow with a cloth he had kept in his suit pocket. "Another filthy group infected with the idea that Quirks are what make us all, and they come crawling to us to help them achieve their pipe dream."

"The only possible common ground between you and their Commander is that you both want the Heroes to be gone. Beyond that, their mission is everything we stand against, and when we both want to rule society after the Heroes are gone, conflict between us is... inevitable." Chronostasis paused, sensing the look on his Boss's face. "And yet you want us to go along with it for now."

"... I do. If we don't comply, then they can expose us to the Heroes and destroy the project, and if we go to war, we risk being outnumbered and overcome. My life's work with Eri will be for nothing. I... cannot afford that, Chrono. The mission must succeed, you understand that. The girl must bring an end to this wretched world of Quirks and Heroes."

"Overhaul... I'm sorry."

The voice of the other occupants of the room roused Overhaul, who almost snarled as he turned to look at Kesagiriman. "As for you... don't think I didn't forget."

"I swear, I didn't know-"

"I don't care." The Pro flinched at the anger in the tone of the Boss, who stood up from his seat. "You brought the Meta Liberation Army to our door. You nearly exposed my work. All you had to do was be careful, and you couldn't even manage that. You're not worth our time or our money anymore, Hero."

"No!" Showing some basic levels of self-preservation instinct at the look on Overhaul's face, Kesagiriman scrambled away from the table and towards the door, before he staggered and lost his balance, falling to the floor. "H-Hey, what the hell!"

The sliding door slid open, and the skinny man in the fur vest on the other side raised a skinny arm above his head, waving with the bottle of sake and cackling under his plague mask. "-hic! Heyyyyy Chrono! Got yerrrr message..."

"I don't think you've ever met Deidoro Sakaki, Hero," Chronostasis said, watching Kesagiriman struggle on the floor and fail to pull himself upright. "The first meeting usually throws anyone off their balance. Not that you'll get more than one meeting with him."

"You failed me," Overhaul growled, standing and moving towards the Hero. "I have no use for you anymore."

"Overhaul, please!" The Pro pleaded, stricken and unable to rise as Sloshed rolled over him in waves. "I'm sorry-"

Overhaul growled again, taking slow steps forward as he pulled the glove from his right hand. Years of passive exposure to Deidoro's Quirk had improved his tolerance no end, so even if he staggered very briefly, he was able to take deliberate steps towards Kesagiriman with a look of vengeance in his eyes. "Forgiveness is a luxury."

The hand fell, and Chronostasis didn't blink at its results. He never did, anymore.

(***)

"So just to wrap up this interview, a chance to give us a glimpse into your hopes and dreams for the future." The blue-skinned woman pushed a bang of lilac hair out of her face and fixed the man opposite her on the other side of the desk with a dazzling smile. "Where do you see the future of Detnerat in five years?"

Rikiya Yotsubashi gave his most optimistic, beaming smile directly down the camera, as he had practiced so many times. "Why, Kizuki, the sky is indeed the limit! These are trying times for all of us, but I have every confidence in the board and in our dedicated, diligent employees to pull through and deliver for everyone in our society! I have every confidence in saying to you right now that we will stand with giants in five years' time, that we will be known amongst the Heroes as the number one support item company, and that Detnerat will go from being the household name for ailment cures and resistant hardware in Japan to a global icon. We have a grand vision for all, and I want everyone to know that Detnerat won't rest until we make that vision a reality!"

"Bold statements, and an outlook for a bright future! I should ask you for sound bites more often," Chitose Kizuki quipped, prompting a hearty laugh from the man sat opposite her. "That was Rikiya Yotsubashi, CEO of Detnerat, and I'm Chitose Kizuki of Shoowaysha TV, signing out!"

She waited a second, for the gestures from Hideyoshi the cameraman and Fukukado the sound guy confirming that the recorded interview was done, and when they made their little hand signals she breathed outwards, flashing her two support crew a brilliant smile. "Lovely work all! I'm sure that interview will be a big hit, Mister Yotsubashi."

"One can hope," the CEO replied, his smile taking on a more glasslike quality.

"Boys, you can pack away now. I think we're done here." Chitose turned away from the two crew as they began to move to their bags, Hideyoshi lumbering his massive camera off of its tripod, and turned to smile wanly at Rikiya. "Unless there was anything you wanted to discuss further?"

"Pas devant?"

Chitose tried not to roll her eyes at the question in a foreign tongue. Rikiya was well educated and knew English, Spanish, Mandarin and French to name but a few languages- he claimed they were all good for PR- so the phrase was one she had heard before in their secret double lives. It was French, lifted from the question "pas devant les gendarmes?" which translated approximately to "not in front of the guards?"; Rikiya used the question around strangers to ascertain whether they could move onto more sensitive topics to see if they could be trusted with the truth of their existence.

She instead laughed, and clapped her hands together, ignoring the slight raising of the temperature in the room. "You can say whatever in front of these boys. Hideyoshi and Fukukado are my eyes and mouth for any interview- they know what I do when I'm not on camera by now, sir."

Re-Destro let loose the growl he had been storing up, and the black markings which blossomed up from the back of his neck and under his shirt sleeves. "Oh good. I wouldn't want to hold in any longer."

"Commander..." Curious stood up and took a step back, but she wasn't quick enough to get out of range of the lunge, the beefy black fist which closed around her throat and lifted her bodily off the ground. "Guh!"

"What did you think you were playing at, you little upstart?" Re-Destro threw her across the room, clattering into the tripod of her cameraman as she fell. "Did you think yourself above reproach? Did you care so little to expose yourself to everyone, to put us into the spotlight by failing to mask your words? Do you crave attention so damn much that you would risk us all in front of the Number One Hero?!"

Curious coughed, as her soundman Fukukado pulled her upright. "But sir! We gained so many more recruits because of that boy's words! I told you he would be an asset to our cause-"

"The boy Bakugo still could be, but Endeavor?" Re-Destro snarled, his arms bulging and mottled with black stains as he slammed himself back into the armchair at his desk. "You advertised your affiliation in front of him, flaunted it in order to taunt his apprentice, and for what? A few more foot soldiers with a chip on their shoulders about their Abilities? He will be coming after you!"

"Sir, I'm sorry, I really am," Curious said, bowing her head and trying not to dwell on how easily her Grand Commander had flipped the switch to let his Stress take over. Landmine was a Quirk she prided herself on but against someone with the raw power of Re-Destro, she could only thank whatever god was out there that he hadn't just snapped her like a twig. "But I swear, he won't be able to do a thing about me. A professional network like mine, the number of interviews I do? He'll be on a wild goose chase for years before he gets anywhere near the inner circle-"

"You had better pray you are correct," Re-Destro interrupted, clenching a glass with such force that it shattered in his palm while he sat there utterly uncaring about his punctured hand, or the blood dripping onto his desk. "I funded that maniac's Agency with a hope that we could bring him on side with our vision, but instead he tried to start his own investigation into us. Finally, finally, I thought that we had backed him into a corner, that he would find too many brick walls and dead ends to make any progress. And now because you were so bold as bait his Apprentice in public into giving us a manifesto speech, he will revive his search with all guns blazing, and there's no hope of getting him to see things our way now!"

"Sir, if I may... perhaps this could work to our advantage for how we handle both him and Bakugo going forward?"

Re-Destro growled at her response, his arms swelling again. "I know you're a journalist, Curious, and I know it's a default response of your peers, but self-justification is not a good look on you. This had better be good."

"I'm not trying to justify myself, sir. I know it's not to your vision, and I acted out. But now that we're here there is a chance to make the most of this... tension. To sow a divide between them. Maybe that could benefit us?"

The first indication that he was listening was the way in which the black markings of his Quirk seemed to fluctuate and die down from around his eyes and on his forehead, his arms shrinking down. "... Continue."

Curious took a breath to compose herself, aware that Hideyoshi and Fukukado were staring at her. "Every strategy we had made when Endeavor took on Katsuki Bakugo revolved around them working together. We wanted them to fight the Commission together, or for Endeavor to enable Bakugo's destructive nature to make them fall together, in the aftermath of a crisis of their making. But what if they aren't working together?"

"And why wouldn't they?"

"Because you heard what Bakugo had to say when I put him on the spot. When he poured his heart out about how unfair the system was, how people with strong Abilities shouldn't live in fear of using them. We have an Apprentice advocating for free use of Meta Abilities from the bottom of his heart, and a Pro Hero who took him on who wants to oppose those who call them Meta Abilities." Curious held out her own two hands in front of her, as if weighing the two up. "That's not a good working relationship."

"I..." For a long moment, Re-Destro huffed, before the black blotches on his face cleared up and a look of interest flashed in his eyes. "I suppose this has some merit, Curious."

She tried not to let her relief show, but smiled. "We can make it work. Endeavor is tied to the old system too much- as much as his Abilities are powerful, he hinders himself with the old code. Bakugo has already shown his frustrations with that system, and we can play on those to drive enough of a wedge between them."

"Bakugo can be played up as a poster boy for heroes under our new age," Re-Destro continued, staring at her, as her cameraman and sound technician scurried back to packing up now the fighting had paused. "Someone who will use his powers to their maximum, someone strong enough to beat anyone, someone willing to not hold back for them."

"And the fact he's so volatile... he would be so easy to tip towards our way of thinking. We can play on that emotional weakness of his, that desire to prove himself as the strongest, and show him that we can offer him so much more. Either the world reacts badly to him, and we offer him a refuge to use his Abilities without holding back, or we convince him that Endeavor is holding him back." Curious now allowed herself the smirk. "Endeavor thinks he can fight us, but can he fight those within as well?"

"Adversity is a great opportunity for change, as one of our sickly commercials once said." The CEO cracked his knuckles, and nodded to Curious, a brief nod all the acknowledgement she would get that she had redeemed herself to him. "Shoowaysha can run a campaign against Endeavor. Maximise the PR outlet against him, turn public opinion against the Number One, and we can see if he drops the scent to try to fix his image. As we turn the screw on him, Katsuki Bakugo is the one to watch. If he falls too, then we offer him refuge, but if he rises as a pillar while his supposed mentor fails as a Number One, then we drive that wedge even deeper, and tear that partnership apart."

"Either way, this can work to our advantage," Curious said, forming ideas in her head already. "And it leaves us to get on with our other projects-"

"For which I do owe you some thanks." Re-Destro gestured to his phone with a bloody hand, somehow intact despite the devastating tantrum he had thrown. "Skeptic used the intelligence you gained for him on the Yakuza to make contact. We should be mobilising on that front soon enough."

"This is going to be fun-"

"Calm yourself, Curious. Don't forget your place or your role at this time." Re-Destro brought an L-shape to his forehead, his face mottling black as he spoke with a hint of anger in his tone. "Do your job, drive that wedge, and don't draw needless attention. I won't tolerate it if you jeopardise our work again."

She returned the L-sign quickly, losing the bounce in her step. "Yessir! Come on Hideyoshi, Fukukado! We have a campaign to plan."

As she strode into the elevator, Curious watched Re-Destro turn his back on her and stride to the window, a surefire sign that he was looking to calm his blood pressure back down by gazing over the slumbering city below. She rubbed self-consciously at the mark on her neck, the bruise starting to form on her pale blue skin, and thanked whoever was up there that he hadn't tried to choke her, or clench harder. His temper was legendary, stronger than even his father's before him, and she was lucky to be out of there with his blessing to go on and continue the work of the Army, continue the work to the society they all dreamed of. A world of free Meta Ability use...

If Curious hadn't been so focused on the back of her Commander, she might have paid attention to the look on the face of her crew. Hideyoshi was nothing of note, a small and cowardly man with glasses too big for his head, and he stared at the floor to avoid confrontation, but Fukukado was... different. He was normally tired and sullen, drifting around with the heavy bags and seemingly uncaring about everything, but if Curious had paid attention to her two crew in the lift, she would have noticed how intently her sound technician was staring at Rikiya Yotsubashi through his tired-looking eyes. How he moved his straggly black hair out of his sight to get a good look at the Commander as if committing his face to memory, how his stubbly jaw was set tensely as if something about Re-Destro's very existence was setting him on edge...

The lift door shut, and Shota Aizawa found himself cursing the day he ever agreed with Nezu to let himself be pushed in this deep with the Meta Liberation Army.

(***)

"I've found you."

Three very simple words from the lips of Kyudai Garaki, and yet their weight was not lost on him. After so many searches, finally, something that seemed so innocuous and so inconsequential had made everything so much clearer. It had given him hope at last, hope that he had found the answers he had been looking for since the idea of All For One passing his Quirk on had been planted in his head.

Gaining medical records for the youth of today had been embarrassingly easy. Their Quirk Assessments were held as a matter of public record, accessible by the police, the schools, and all medical professionals. Striding past the security of the police into one of their stations was a task beyond the Doctor even with the unique talents of Kurogiri, and while public confidence in the school system had been eroded by the Hero Commission and their dispute with UA, no fool in their right mind would try to break into a hero academy and risk facing off with angry staff and students- at least, not with the resources they currently had to hand.

But medical records? Hospital admissions? All too easy. It helped when they hadn't even deleted any of his keycards or credentials from the systems they used. Garaki, Tsubasa, Ujiko, Akagi, Nakamura and more all still had access, and now he had information which had given him the enlightenment he had been looking for.

It was all the more sweet when he remembered this child, one who stood out among so many.

"Kurogiri." At the sound of his name, the misty spectre warped to the Doctor's side, catching the file which the Doctor had been reverently absorbing and had thrown to the side knowing where he would teleport to. "Consider the Quirk on this child."

"Aerokinesis..." The shadow in a suit read aloud. "Quirk allows the user to produce blasts of air from their palms, in blast patterns which can be varied by the user, and to use air currents to pull objects towards them. It sounds... convoluted. Overlapping elements of a standard telekinetic Quirk with air pressure manipulation."

"I agree. It sounds almost as if the user has two separate Quirks, wouldn't you agree?" Garaki didn't wait for the answer, turning to look at Kurogiri and failing to surprise the giddy smile on his cracked old face. "Only this child's Quirk was recently re-evaluated to that description. When the child initially developed the Quirk, it had a different form. Turn the page and read that aloud to me as well."

"Air Force..." Kurogiri's yellow eyes sharpened as he read, the look of a lion who has sighted a particularly lonely and vulnerable gazelle. "Quirk allows the user to produce blasts of air from their palms and arms, in a shockwave-like explosion. The blast can be varied by the user into a single column-like blast, smaller ball blasts of air, or a sweeping arc... my, oh my."

"Indeed. And the date of that child's Quirk Assessment is after Incident Zero. Look back further in that file and you will see the medical report from the day of Incident Zero, which tells you that this boy was there on the scene when the Master killed All Might, when the Master perished. That boy was examined after the fight and was found by paramedics covered in blood that wasn't his own, blood from both All Might and All For One."

"It... fits." Kurogiri paused, and the eyes widened with an evil look. "And his Quirk has since been re-assessed. The characteristics of it changed."

"Precisely. In fact, looking at the report, I would say that the new characteristics of this Quirk are strikingly similar to a Quirk that was whispered about in the underworld. The Quirk of Toya Setsuno which disappeared from his Quirk Factor, a Quirk which allowed its user to pull objects towards him from the grasp of others... all followed by a new description of this boy's Quirk which was entered no more than a week after the Larceny Quirk vanished. If I was a betting man-"

"I'd say that Air Cannon has been supplemented by the addition of the Larceny Quirk by this boy," Kurogiri finished, eagerly. "Can we be certain? Are we sure beyond doubt it isn't a fluke of nature that this child developed a Quirk late? That he developed it after Incident Zero and that its full potential wasn't known to him at the time?"

"I think we can be certain because of one very compelling reason." Garaki paused to lift his goggles, wiping them absent-mindedly with a cloth and ignoring the tear which threatened to drip from his eye. "I have lived a very long life, Kurogiri, and I never forget a face. I have lived under many names besides my own, Akagi, Ujiko, Tsubasa... and I never forget some of my patients."

"He was one of yours?"

"Look at the last document in the file. The document which examined the boy at the age of four to give him a Quirk Assessment. Tell me what it says." Garaki knew, of course, but the elation was something he was drinking up, and he wanted Kurogiri to revel in it like he had.

"He was Quirkless..." There was a noise, and only someone like the Doctor who was used to Kurogiri could tell that the spectre was smiling. "And he was assessed by Doctor Danjuro Tsubasa. He was one of yours?"

"I told you, Kurogiri, I never forget a face, even after all these years." The Doctor sat back in his chair and remembered the look on the young boy's face, the way the colour drained from his cheeks as the Doctor told him it wasn't going to happen. He remembered the way he enthused about All Might before the test, the way the All Might figurine he held in his hands dropped from his clutches in shock, the way the tears poured down his cheeks as every childish dream was destroyed by one diagnosis, and the look of resignation on his mother's face at the fate her son had that day.

Only fate had been more than kind to the boy. Fate had made him a champion, a successor. Fate had turned a snivelling Quirkless child into the most powerful being in the world, and the heir to a dynasty unlike any other.

"We've found him, Kurogiri," the Doctor said, gripping his cane and letting the tear fall down his cheek now. "We've found the Master's heir, and his name is Izuku Midoriya..."

(***)

Eri. Aged- 6.

Rikiya Yotsubashi, Re-Destro. Aged- 43.

Shota Aizawa, Eraserhead. Aged- 31.

Kyudai Garaki and Kurogiri. Aged- ?

(***)

A/N: And that's how we come back to start 2021. Hell yeah.

I maintain that stories live long with us where there are good villains, and I think My Hero Academia as a series will live long because it has such bloody incredible characters for its villains. We hadn't touched base with Overhaul for a while, and I wanted to bring them back in line in the Yakuza- I also wanted to deal with the fallout for Curious and Re-Destro from the Bakugo ambush in chapter 18, and the inevitable with the Doctor. I couldn't resist!

And hey, those of you asking, Shota Aizawa does exist and still curses Nezu! Surprised? More on him later, promise. Izuku has to come up next anyway, you know the drill.

As a PSA, I will most likely move now to updating every two weeks. This is because my work has been ridiculously busy since coming back from Christmas and I'm trying to get a promotion, which has to come first. I've done some good work on planning the road ahead and honestly, some of what is to come gives me so much excitement to think about. This fic is a huge source of joy for me and I hope some of you feel the same, but it has to stay that way, and I think staggering it to fortnightly updates preserves the joy of writing without it being overwhelming. Hope that makes sense.

Incidentally, a massive thank you for all your support last chapter and for liking the new Class 1A. We hit over 750 favourites over the New Year and holiday season, and nearly 950 followers- I could never have imagined hitting those numbers when I started this. To the 400 reviews we've had too, thank you so much- I love the PM chats that arise from this story and debating theories. And we got added to a second Community- thanks so much for the belief in this story to consider it worthy of a spot!

If you liked this, please leave a review and if you haven't yet done so, please consider adding this as a follow or favourite. The support genuinely means the world to me in one of the hardest years for everyone.

For now, ya boy, out.