Rule #3c: Pick at the scab until it bleeds…and do not stop until you get what you want
"Gather 'round children!" Lopez sang as her face blipped onto the screen behind Nighteye and easily cut through the tension in the room that was created by Fatgum's revelation. Toru pouted, a little envious that the tech was allowed to stay nestled in her den & only phone in via video-chat for the meeting. Next to her, a small screen-cap window containing Ritsu garbed in a lolita-style dress (that was reminiscent of their 3-E uniform) popped up too.
"Lopez" Snipe nodded to the bubbly woman on the screen.
"Who's this?" Nighteye snarked, looking rather irritated at the latest interruption.
"Lopez Milo, HBI tech analyst at your service!" Lopez introduced herself with a flourish and a grin as her braids waved about like snakes in the air. "And this is Ritsu. She's an AIFA" Ritsu waved a peace sign at the gathered heroes, uncaring about the growing tensions in the conference room.
"What ya got, kits?" Alpha piped up as Nighteye looked to be having an aneurism "Was there any DNA left on the evidence?"
"Right! Yes! Well, ladies and gents, listen close!" Lopez clapped. "Coz today's report is brought to you by the letter 'I' for icky. The lab recovered over a hundred different trace samples from the both the bullet and the syringe shard, as multiple test subjects created a cess pool of DNA"
"Cross-referencing this with the list you managed to wiggle out of Kaido" Ritsu continued as the list in question appeared next to her on the screen. "We were able to put some names & faces to the Quirks used"
"Sweet mother mercy!"
"Gross!"
"Oh my God!"
"It's like Tinder for sociopaths!" Several shocked gasps rang throughout the room at this, some turning green as the list rolled through pages and pages of morose children pictured next to a description that listed them like cattle. Some were lit in green to show they were still available whilst others were in red, showing they had been sold. Toru's shone bright red. She had to look away, fingers clenched tight into the pleats of her skirt as if that would ground her.
"Both the bullet casing and the shard were engraved with a partial of a logo that we were able to pull from them" Lopez continued. Here grainy images of the bullet used on Amajiki, a rough sketch and the broken shard Toru had been gripping tight to on the operating table, appeared on the screen. Toru silently thanked her for not adding that the invisible girl had helped by drawing out the full logo (pictured) when she recognised it.
"They belong to a Doctor Yan—Yangi—"
"—Yangisawa Kotaro—" Toru & Ritsu chorused, the name feeling sour on her tongue as she did so.
"—Yangisawa Kotaro" Lopez nodded her thanks. "A scientist with a flair for the dramatic and a penchant for human experimentation"
"You know him, Hagakure?" Midoriya's brows furrowed as his mind work a mile-a-minute. Nighteye wore a similar expression, if a little more suspicious.
"I'm…familiar with his work, yes" Toru replied haltingly. Her mouth was suddenly parched, tongue heavy and voice rough. "As—as far as I know, he only ever had three successful test subjects; his son, Itona, Koro-sensei and a classmate, K—Yukimura Akari"
There were hissed breaths and sharp gasps all around. "The moon destroyer was one of his?!" Rock Lock cursed.
"Y-yessir" Toru nodded jerkily, refusing to make eye contact with anyone in the room. Although she refused to look up, she had to admit that it did feel kinda nice getting all the nitty gritty bits off of her chest. It wasn't that she was hiding her past per se—not anymore, at least—but the last year still held a pretty heavy weight for her and sometimes it was hard to let go.
"Fuck!"
"And what became of them?" Nighteye pushed, eyes narrowed.
"Er, both Itona and Yukimura underwent surgery to have it removed and Koro-Sensei uh, well, he died"
With her piece finally done, Toru sat back and bathed in the silence following her words as the heroes mulled over what had been said. It wasn't a comfortable silence, no it was one filled with high-strung tension and calculating gazes. She shrunk beneath them, folding in on herself with shoulders up by her ears and fists clenched into her skirt. You could've heard a pin clap like thunder in the deafening silence; at least until it was broken by a voice in the back of the room. "Mm, I'm not connecting the dots here. How is this all related to Hassaikai?"
"The man who shot Tamaki used an illegal drug to boost his Quirk during his fight with Kirishima" Fatgum replied tersely. "The distribution channels for stuff like that are complex, although things have shrunk since the old days. Drugs still pass through various people and organisations before they finally reach the end user"
"Which means that there's no concrete evidence that Hassaikai handled the drug" Alpha supported, whiskers twitching as he spoke. "But we know for a fact that they interacted with one of the middlemen responsible for moving it"
"So what? Kidnapping, possible child experimentation, a few pieces of shrapnel and a weak testimony are all that it takes for you?"
"The other day Ryuko's team broke up a fight between two villain groups" Nighteye replied, clearly done with the whole interruption-thing. "One of those groups was controlled by the intermediary organisation that Fatgum and Alpha just mentioned"
"One of the two giants had been given an inferior drug that didn't last long" Ryukyu explained.
"There had have been a rush of gang-related crimes, recently" Centipeder said. "And most could be connected to the Hassaikai if you try hard enough"
"Which is what it seems like you're doing—trying to make them guilty" The accusation floated forth. "Don't you have anything that implicates them more clearly?"
"Their young head, Chisaki, Quirk: Overhaul" A profile of the bird-masked villain appeared on screen. "With this power, he can disassemble things and then reassemble them. A Quirk that allows him to completely break down matter and a bullet that can break down Quirks. Chisaki has a daughter named, Eri. There are no records or details about her birth, but when Mirio and Midoriya encountered her, they noticed there were bandages wrapped around her limbs"
"Could he really do something so horrific?" Ryukyu despaired.
"Unfortunately, yes" Gran Torino sighed. "In a world of superhumans, if you can dream it, you can do it"
"Hold on" Kirishima interjected, looking both lost and searching for hope. "What are the talking about?"
"Once again, why do we have children in this meeting?" Rock Lock whinged. Toru wanted to hit him. "I'll say this one time: we're wondering if this Chisaki bastard is turning his daughter's body into bullets and selling them on the black market"
"No…"
"To be clear, we aren't certain that he's actually selling the bullets" Nighteye interjected smoothly. "At this point, their accuracy appears to be questionable. It's possible that they're still in the testing phase and he's giving them out as samples to bring in more people to his cause. We have no hard evidence, but we do know he's gathering allies and funds from across the nation. If the completed drug allows him to annihilate someone's Quirk entirely? Imagine the devastation he could cause!"
"Just talking about it is enough to make my blood boil!" Fatgum snarled. "Let's go get this monster!"
"Tch!" Rock Lock scoffed as he cast a leery side-eye at Midoriya & Mirio who were clearly distressed at what they had heard within this conference. "Would've saved us a lot of trouble if these two amateurs had just gotten the girl away from him"
"I take full responsibility" Nighteye calmly replied. Toru swore she could hear Midoriya's teeth creaking from where she sat, they were clenched so tight. "The blame should not fall on them. Even without knowing the whole story, they acted to save the child each in their own way. Midoriya was willing to bear the risk of taking her then, whilst Mirio chose to wait for another opportunity when success would be more likely. I assure you nobody in this room is more frustrated than they are"
"WE'LL GET ERI AWAY FROM HIM NO MATTER WHAT!" Midoriya jumped determinedly to his feet. Next to him, Mirio did the same with faces full of conviction.
"AND PROTECT HER!" Mirio decreed. Toru couldn't help but feel second-hand cringe at the declaration. She knew they meant well, but did they have to be so cheesy?
"Indeed, that's precisely what we've come here to discuss" Nighteye assured them.
"Tch! You kids wanna talk big, that's fine" Rock Lock scoffed again, "But if what they're saying is for real, then that little girl is at the center of Hassaikai's entire underground drug operation. She may have managed to get away from Overhaul for a few minutes but she got herself seen by a couple of heroes. You think he's still gonna keep her at home after that? Hell! I know I sure wouldn't! And if we go busting into their headquarters and she ain't there, they're gonna know that we're onto them. We've gotta be sure of where she's hiding 'er"
Shit! Toru silently cursed as she nibbled at her lower lip in thought. I hate that he's right!
"He's got a point" Ryukyu agreed. "Do you have a plan for that, Nighteye?"
"That's our conundrum" Nighteye acquiesced. "Since we don't currently know how far they've taken their plans, the success of our initial strike is crucial"
Lopez and Ritsu were quickly replaced with a nationwide map of Japan, with several different Yakuza hideouts pinpointed there. Toru was surprised to find the compound in Yoshiwara up there as it was more of a hunting/training ground than anything else. There loads of those all over the place, which made her wonder why that one was so special. Perhaps because it was so close to UA? "To that end, we've made a through list of groups with connections as well as properties owned by the organisationThis is our starting point." Nighteye intoned. "I would like all to investigate each co-ordinate on this map. It is the most logical way to narrow down our targets"
"So that's why you wanted the minor heroes and detectives to join you!" Kage snapped her fingers in her a-ha moment.
"What do you mean?" Someone queried.
"Go on, look" She gestured up to the screen. "The heroes in this room all operate in one of those locales, which means we know the areas better than most"
"Didn't expect someone who worked with All Might for so long to be such a careful planner" Fatgum slyly noted. "LET'S JUST GO BRING 'EM DOWN! WHILE WE'RE TAKING OUR SWEET TIME, THAT ABUSED GIRL'S CRYING OUT THERE SOMEWHERE!"
"We can't do this like All Might would" Nighteye replied coldly. "That's why we must be meticulous about our strategies and predictions from the outset, so that we have the highest chance of saving her"
"He's right, we shouldn't rush" Gran Torino drawled from down the line; his grandfatherly voice sounding a nice contrast to the harried and intense tones of his colleagues. "If we show our hand and don't end up rescuing her, then we'd just be throwing gas on a fire. Like how Stain's death was a beacon for criminals to seek out and join the League—"
Toru winced at the reminder of said villain and the heavy gaze of the greenette whom had also been there at the site of the incident when she had pulled his heart from his chest. God! That seems so long ago now! Toru hummed. It barely seems to hold candle to everything else, now that I think about. But Gran Torino's right, his death led to all this…maybe we would've been better off if I hadn't killed him? Would we still be sitting here today, if I had spared him?
"—In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if they handed out Quirk-destroying weapons to those hoodlums in order to increase their recruitments" The elderly hero ended.
"YOU'RE THINKING TOO DAMN MUCH! IF WE KEEP SITTING HERE YAPPING ABOUT IT, WE'RE NEVER GONNA GET ANYTHING DONE—!" Fatgum retorted hotly, but Toru had to agree with Gran Torino once more. She'd seen a strange array of weapons hidden amongst the people of Yoshiwara over the passed year—herself included—and it would be no small jump to assume that these Quirk-destroying bullets would soon find themselves out amongst the population.
"Er, excuse me? I've got a question" Aizawa drawled, his tired tone easily cutting into Fatgum's rant. Toru had to hide a smile at how her teacher raised his hand as if he were a student in class. "I dunno the specifics of your Quirk, Nighteye feel free to correct, but from what I've heard of it your Quirk Foresight allows you to see into the future. So why not use it on us? That's logical, right?"
"I'm sorry, but I cannot" Nighteye bowed his head. "My Foresight has some limitations: I need a full 24 hours between activations, that means I get one person and then I'm spent for the rest of the day"
Ugh! That sucks! Toru scrunched her nose up in disgust. See the future, but only one person per hour per day? What did he do as All Might's sidekick then? Push papers? Y'know he seems like that kinda guy—I bet him and Midoriya'd get on well.
"Additionally, the future is played in my mind like a flashback. Think of it like viewing a film strip; for one hour I have the power to watch a person's life as a movie. The issue is, everything I see if from a tight perspective on the person in question. This severely limits my capacity to interpret context"
I stand corrected!
"That should still provide more than enough information to be useful, don'tcha think?" Aizawa pushed. "And it doesn't explain why you can't do it"
"What if I saw imminent death in your future—?"
I'd say, I probably did something stupid or my heart gave out or both.
"—Worse, what if it were a cruel merciless demise?"
Ow?
"My Quirk should be employed only after we've confirmed the highest likelihood of success, that can helped to assure our victory. It shouldn't be relied upon when there are still too many uncertainties"
"Whoa! Whoa! Hold up!" Rock Lock piped up. "Death is still information! If we know what's coming, then we can figure out how to survive!"
"You don't understand! What I see is unavoidable!"
"Bro, that's the only excuse you have? For real? Oh hell no! Just use it on me, now! I'll show you I can beat death!"
"I can't!"
"…Yeah, all right"
Silence reigned as Nighteye bowed to the room. It was an odd thing—a chilling thing—to see this renowned Pro hero bowing to his colleagues all because he couldn't—or wouldn't—perform of what was asked of him. Toru could understand wanting to try other avenues before exhausting the easiest one, as was grilled into all the 3-E students over the previous year. But limited foresight? Surely, even something as simple as that could have its advantages, right? Then again, was it right of them to demand such a tall order from the hero when it clearly took so much out of him? Toru had to wonder whether he couldn't currently use his Quirk because he had already done so in the past 24 hours. And if so, what had he seen that would make him so averse to taking the easy route? Are we really going to die so horribly if we go through with this? So many thoughts whirled behind calculating violet eyes.
"…We should get started" Ryukyu tiredly sighed, cutting through the tension that had thickened within the room. The invisible girl was reminded of her mother's own disciplinary actions whenever she and Kenta squabbled. "There's a child in trouble and that's what's important here"
"We must confirm the girl's location and take her into our protection as quickly as possible using the most accurate data!" Nighteye pushed himself to his feet, his own chair joining the others that had toppled to the ground. "I'm counting on your help. All of you"
Following the meeting, all of the students had been herded into a smaller room off to the side so that the Pros could work out the further details without being interrupted and so on. It also gave them time to think. Settled around the table laden with various vending food wrappers and barely touched lunchboxes, all eight students found themselves wrapped up in their owns minds as they wither fiddled with their fingers, stared off into space or down at the table.
"…If only I'd rescued her then, even if I had to use force! At least she'd be safe!" Midoriya sadly whined from her left.
"Aw man, so that's what happened that day?" Kirishima asked softly. "So frustrating!"
"Don't do that" Toru murmured with her head pillowed gently in her arms as she sat at the head of the table, opposite Tamaki. She absently fiddled with her peeling bandaid as she talked, aware that several pairs of eyes followed her movements towards the gauze on her forearm; the only indication that something had happened to her. She tried to push the kidnapping to the back of her mind as best she could.
"Huh?" Midoriya barely glanced up at the interjection.
"Don't do the 'what-ifs', you'll just drive yourself crazy"
"We know you tried, Deku" Ochako added just as softly.
"Is this a funeral or something?" Aizawa announced himself as he got off the elevator behind them. Twisting in her chair, Toru quietly watched and waited feeling very much like she was sitting outside the principal's office as he approached.
"Aizawa-Sensei, hello sir" Tsu greeted. "Tch. Call me Eraserhead outside of school…Y'know it's just my luck, before you got involved in this I was going to recommend that your work studies be suspended"
"What?!" The eight of them chorused in varying stages of shock and surprise. It was definitely enough to wake them all from their stupor.
"Why would you do that?!" Kirishima demanded as he jumped to his feet.
"You were listening when he said the League of Villains is involved, right? That changes things" Aizawa deadpanned. "But here's the deal: Midoriya, Hagakure you still haven't proven I can trust you again"
Ouch. Toru winced, shoulders hunching up to her ears as she turned away from their teacher. I mean, it's not like he's wrong, but still…She very likely had more blood on her hands than anyone else at this table and yet they were still letting her continue on this patch to become a hero. Anyone else would've kicked her to the curb as soon as the first body fell. It made her wonder what was so special about her that they would risk so much to keep her around? Maybe they just don't want be to be a villain? Would I be a villain if I killed other villains?
"Unfortunately, I'm positive that if I try to stop you now, you'll do something reckless and attempt to take things into your own hands"
Well, our track record does say that…Toru mused as her thoughts turned to the subsequent search and rescue from the League of Villains.
"So, if you're going to see this through you gotta do it the right way, use your head. Ya hear me, problem children?"
"Mmhm!" Midoriya nodded, his bottom lip wobbling as he fought back tears. Next to him, Toru nodded beneath the hand resting atop her head, feeling very much like one of his beloved cats.
"Now Hagakure" Aizawa turned to the invisible girl next. "Was there anything else that you didn't get to say that we'd need to know?"
"Um…" Toru fidgeted, feeling a little self-conscious as all eyes turned to her. "I guess—I guess knowing which, um, which syndicates there are might help, right?"
"Syndicates?" Kirishima puzzled. "Like those clans in ninja movies?"
"Er, kind of—I mean, um, well—" Toru nervously stumbled over her words as she tried to present what she knew, as if it were an odd sort of history project. "Last I heard, there's four big syndicates: the Aizukotetsu-Kai, the Sumiyoshi-ka, the Yamaguchi-gumi and the Inagawa-ka. Both the Aizukotetsu-Kai and the Sumiyoshi-ka are federations, with the former acting more like cops within their territories"
"Aizukotetsu-Kai—like that ring you had?" Nejire puzzled, brows furrowing in thought at the name.
"Ring?" Aizawa perked up. "What were you doing with a Yakuza ring, Hagakure?"
"Um, I, uh, nicked a ,er, ring off of one of the lower members that were running around the compound earlier in the year" Toru shrugged, sheepishly burying her face into her arms as if stealing a ring off a criminal's finger was a completely normal thing to do. "I've probably still got it somewhere, if you want it"
"What about the other two?" Kirishima asked warily as Aizawa mentally berated himself for not pushing further into the Yoshiwara matter from those few months previous."You mentioned there were others that were more dangerous?"
"Yeah, that's the uh, the Y-Yamaguchi-gumi syndicate—they're the largest of the four and they're usually the ones you see in movies & stuff—and the last one is Inagawa-ka syndicate which is s'posedly the first of the Yakuza to branch out overseas"
"How do you know so much about the Yakuza, Toru?" Tsu puzzled.
"It's not that hard. People tend to forget about the invisible girl" Toru replied with a bittersweet smile and a twinge of sourness in her gut as she trailed off. It wasn't exactly a lie, per se, but it wasn't the whole truth either and from the look of the third years she knew that they knew it too. "So it's easy enough to listen in"
There was a beat of silence as all the information was digested by the others, leaving Toru to fidget further beneath questioning and calculating stares. Thankfully Tamaki broke this moment by turning to a morose Mirio with a tentative smile. "Mirio" Tamaki murmured. "Please? Will you try to smile?"
"Hey, hey hey!" Nejire chirped, "I know what'll help you! Just remember regretting something and getting frowny doesn't change things. You know it?"
"Yeah!" Mirio sniffed.
"I'll only say this once in case it gives you peace of mind" Aizawa turned more towards Midoriya as his hands retreated from their crowns. "Just because you didn't hold onto her this time, doesn't mean you didn't give Eri hope. So keep looking forward"
"Right!" Midoriya jumped to his feet.
"Aizawa-Sensei!" Ochako cooed.
"I told you; I'm Eraserhead here" Aizawa scowled as small giggles bubbled up passed her lips.
"I'm your man for the rest of my life, Eraser!" Kirishima declared excitedly.
"Not interested…"
"Sorry!"
"Take it down a notch, Kirishima!" Ochako whisper-shouted at the bowing redhead, her cheeks blazing with secondhand embarrassment.
"Hey Midoriya?" Mirio turned to the greenette who still appeared to be trying to wade through all the information thrown at him. "Next time we'll definitely save her!"
"Right! No matter what!" Midoriya agreed determinedly.
