"Oh, Salinsa, Kirishima, you guys got called in today too?" Izuku asks as the two of them are walking down the stairs of their dorm building. He smiles earnestly, still in his school uniform like the two in front of him. "If so, maybe we can walk to the train station together."
"That sounds good, man! Let's go for it!"
"Are you three going to your work studies?" Ochaco calls as she and Asui step out of the door, also wearing their school uniforms. "Mind if we tag along to the train station?"
"Go for it," Leinei replies with a smile. "The more the merrier!"
Same train station.
Same crosswalk.
Same corner-?
Why are we all going to the same place? I thought their work studies were in different-
"Hey, it's Amajiki!" Eijirou says excitedly as they come up to the building they were supposed to meet Fatgum at. Nejire and Mirio were standing alongside him, all three of them in their school uniforms.
"It's the entire Big Three," Izuku whispers, his eyes wide in surprise. "What's going on that they're all needed here?"
"Beats me," Leinei says, offering a smile at their upperclassmen. "My sister just told me it had something to do with what happened to Kiri and I in Esuha the other day."
"Wow you sure get the inside scoops huh!" Mirio laughs, bringing a flush to her cheeks. "Who's your sister?"
"Oh no, let me guess!" Nejire says eagerly, bouncing on her toes. "Is it Bubble Girl? You two totally look like you guys could be related!"
"Just because they possibly look alike doesn't mean they're related, Hado," Tamaki sighs softly, shrinking in on himself. Leinei lets out a soft strained laugh, rubbing the back of her head as Nejire keeps throwing out guesses, each further and further away as they walk inside the building.
"Holy cow, there's so many pros here," Eijirou whispers, awestruck by the dozen heroes milling about, Ryukyu and Fatgum conversing off to the side. "Oh hey, it's Mr. Aizawa!"
Their teacher glances up from the door he was so intently studying, confused to see his students here. Ochaco and Asui head towards him as Nejire throws her arms around Ryukyu's neck, asking more questions. Eijirou and Tamaki head towards Fatgum, Leinei going to follow until a pair of arms wraps around her and she's tugged back into a tight hug.
"I love seeing you out of school, but why are you missing class?" Reina asks before letting her sister go. "I didn't think they'd actually include the students in this meeting."
"Fatgum said they needed me and Kiri's first hand testimonies. Well, his is more first hand than mine, as well as Amajiki's because he was actually shot with one of the bullets."
"Holy crap, is he okay?"
"Yeah, he's fine. His quirk is back and there's minimal lasting damage, nothing Recovery Girl couldn't fix," Leinei assures, nodding as her sister lets out a soft breath. "I was shot at, but it hit one of the people I was protecting. Speaking of which-"
"Nao is doing just fine," Reina says with a smile, tousling her sister's hair. "His kids are cute too. I found some decent income based housing for them, and gave him an advance on his next two checks. You did good. I'm proud of you."
She..she actually means it…there's nothing but pride and love there…
Tears prick at her eyes and Leinei clears her throat, quickly wiping them away as Reina laughs and hugs her again. Reina repeats her words and pats her sister's back as more people file in and Sir Nighteye clears his throat, gesturing to the door leading to the meeting room itself.
"We better get in there before the biggest All Might fanboy alive skins us," she whispers, letting go of her sister. "Go sit with your mentor and classmates. We can chit chat after the meeting. I'll even walk you back to the train station."
"Sounds good," Leinei tells her with a smile, waving slightly before walking over to join Fatgum, Tamaki and Eijirou walking into the room. Everyone settles down in their own little clusters, Reina standing over by the door with her blue haired sidekick as Nighteye stands at the front of the room, clearing his throat to get their attention.
"Apologies for calling you all here so early. I believed the quicker the better, and I wanted to make sure we had all of our pieces lined up prior to this meeting," he announces, fixing his glasses. "The reason for this joint meeting today is to discuss the activities of the yakuza group Shie Hassaikai, which has been responsible for a multitude of crime spikes, and what they may be planning for the future. Bubble Girl?"
"Yes sir!" the blue skinned woman says, stepping forward with a small tablet. "For the past few weeks now, those of us at the Nighteye Agency have been looking into the Shie Hassaikai, a group of organized criminals, after an incident with a petty villain group known as the Reservoir Dogs."
Bubble Girl and Centipeder trade off on giving information about the group, Leinei gripping her hands together under the table as she listens. She glances at each of her classmates in turn, seeing their faces focused on the sidekicks at the top of the room. For some reason her heart is racing, and her stomach feels like there's a thousand snakes writhing around. Something about this is so familiar, and I don't like it.
She finds her sister, who is also listening diligently, her arms crossed over her chest. The redheaded hero's eyes find hers and a small smile follows, Reina tilting her head towards the front of the room before going back to listening.
Right, this is like every lesson we had at the commission.
"Recently, we discovered they had ties to the League of Villains," Centipeder continues, Leinei stiffening at the title as she redirects her attention to the front of the room. Eijirou stiffens next to her, glancing at her and seeing the way her face pales ever so slightly. "Originally with Jin Bubaigawara, also known by his villain name Twice."
So Dabi wasn't involved this time…why do I feel relieved..?
"Following that is when they decided it was time to call Tsukauchi and me," Gran Torino pipes up, getting the attention to himself. "Since we're the ones specifically tasked with investigating the League."
"Where's the detective now?"
"Cop stuff. Reports and all that." Gran Torino looks at Izuku. "Sorry for this. I didn't think it would get so ugly."
"Bubble Girl, continue," Nighteye says as Mirio and Izuku whisper to each other.
"Well, after all of this happened, we posted a notice on the HN billboards-"
"We can skip that part, Bubble Girl," Centipeder says, watching as the girl quickly apologizes and Ochaco whispers something to Nejire, who smiles and whispers back.
"Does anyone wanna tell me why a buncha high school teenyboppers are here whispering like it's the first grade?" Rock Lock grumbles, glaring at each of the students wearing UA uniforms in turn. "I don't care what school they came from, if we have to keep explaining stuff they should already know we're never gonna get to the end of this conference."
"Hey!" Fatgum says indignantly, standing up and gesturing to his students as Rock Lock raises an eyebrow. The sudden movement startles the three interns, all of them looking up at their mentor before Tamaki sinks down in his chair and hangs his head. "These students have important information to pass along!"
"We do?" Eijirou whispers, confused.
"The bullets we recovered," Leinei replies in a soft whisper.
"I just wanna go home," Tamaki whispers as Fatgum starts to introduce himself.
"During Red Riot's debut fight, we managed to recover a bullet that couldn't pierce his skin due to his quirk, and Empathia managed to recover some more from a member that followed her and the family she was helping," Fatgum says. "However, Suneater was hit with one of them, and it disabled his quirk. Well, a better phrase would be that it destroyed it."
Destroyed?!
"Tamaki, are you okay?" Mirio asks, having stood up quickly from his seat to start to move around the table. Tamaki nods his head, letting out a soft sigh.
"Yeah..the drugs wore off while I slept…" he told them, lifting a partially transformed cow hoof as proof. "See…"
"So we have proof it's not permanent," Rock Lock says, sighing as he leans back in his seat, Izuku's wide eyes glued to the cow hoof attached to Tamaki's arm.
"The man who went after me said they were told to specifically target heroes," Leinei offers, shrinking down a bit as the attention turned to her. "I didn't think to ask what they meant at the time, I was just trying to keep the family safe. I'm sorry I couldn't get anything else."
"You did good regardless," Aizawa tells her. "However, it seems the drug inside the bullets works by damaging the quirk factors inside bodies, unlike my quirk which just blocks the expression of those factors."
"We took Tamaki to the hospital after he was shot and confirmed that was the case," Fatgum says, Eijirou and Leinei both looking at their upperclassman who continued to sink down in his seat. "Thankfully it seems those factors healed on their own."
"Were you able to analyze the said drug he was shot with? Does it target anything else in the body?" Nighteye asks, folding his hands on the table as he glances towards Fatgum.
"We were, but it seems it strictly targets quirks. From observing Tamaki-er, Suneater, we were able to see that for ourselves. Unfortunately the people we managed to arrest in coalition with the drug have clammed up and refuse to say a word. While the sample that was used on Tamaki was spent, like I said earlier, Kirishima and Salinsa were able to bring in fresh samples, one being a bullet Kirishima deflected in defense of Tamaki, and the other samples being procured directly from the gun they were using."
"You deflected a bullet?" Leinei hisses at her friend, her eyes wide as he sheepishly rubs the back of his head.
"Hehe…body moved on it's own…"
"However, under further investigation and studying of the drug inside the bullets, we found something that made myself and the entire team working on it sick to our stomachs," Fatgum continues, his voice having an edge to it as his happy demeanor melts away. "We found human blood and cells inside of it."
Leinei feels her stomach turn, stomach bile rising in the back of her throat. The other students' faces go pale, especially Mirio and Izuku, who seem ready to throw up. The heroes seem unphased, or they're just better at hiding their emotions. One quick tune in, and Leinei could feel the horror and disgust, and the underlying fear.
"So this effect came from a person, or a person's quirk," Ryukyu murmurs. "The irony is not lost on me."
"Also during Kirishima's fight with the man who shot Tamaki, he shot himself up with a drug that exponentially increased his quirk's strength," Fatgum continues. "And from the sounds of it, Ryukyu and her group encountered a similar version of the drug used, despite it not being as powerful or as long lasting. Unfortunately tracing drugs back to their original manufacturer and supplier is like trying to trace the edge of a snowflake, albeit not as bad as it used to be, however we do have evidence linking some of the distribution chains back to Shie Hassaikai."
"But is that circumstantial or actual evidence?" Reina says, finally piping up in the back. "You said it yourself, it's hard to trace it back. So are you just trying to make them guilty or are they actually guilty?"
"That brings us to our next point," Nighteye says, the screen behind him flickering to a picture of a man wearing a partial plague doctor's mask. "Their young head Chisaki. His quirk, Overhaul, allows him to destroy and recreate matter. So you see how this looks so far."
"Once again, circumstantial," Reina continues, waving her hand towards the screen. "Do we have any actual evidence of him passing these drugs out? Or how he'd even be connected to it?"
"Beyond the fact he willingly went with Twice, it's safe to assume he's involved somehow. As well as his daughter Eri," Nighteye continues, his eyes glossing over to Mirio and Izuku. "When Mirio and Izuku ran into them during patrol, they described the girl as having bandages on her arms and legs."
"You're not saying what I think you're saying," the redheaded hero says softly, the other pros slumping in their seats.
"I'm confused, what…what is he saying?" Eijirou whispers.
"Once again, students shouldn't be here," Rock Lock grumbles. "Listen up. They're saying they're using this little girl to make those bullets you and your friends retrieved."
"Oh my god…"
Another child being used as a weapon…
Leinei grips her hands together under the table, closing her eyes. She couldn't focus on the meeting after that, or on Izuku and Mirio's outburst, the planning, or the discussion of Nighteye's quirk. All of it sounded like she was underwater, muffled in her ears underneath the fast beating of her heart.
Someone else is weaponizing an innocent child…Why…why is the world full of people like this? Why are they always so fucking cruel to those who can't protect themselves?
"-ei, Leinei, hey."
She flinches back to the moment, the meeting over and everyone filing out of the room. Eijirou is shaking her shoulder, noticing how out of it she is. She brings her fingers up to her face, feeling a few stray tears on her cheeks.
"Are you okay?" he asks softly. "You..you were pretty out of it most of the meeting."
"M'fine," she says, using the side of her hand to wipe the tears away and standing up. "Are we heading back to the school?"
"We were going to discuss what was going to happen while our work study mentors talked," he tells her, gesturing to the door where Izuku and the others were waiting. "But if you want to go back to school, I can tell Fatgum you weren't feeling well after the meeting. He'd understand."
"No, I'm fine," she tells him, shaking her head. "I didn't hear the last bit of the meeting, so it would be wrong if I left."
"Did you pull a Kaminari and fall asleep with your eyes open?" he teases as they head towards the door.
"Something like that," she laughs, the two of them following their classmates and upperclassmen out. She hears another voice calling her name, stopping and seeing Reina striding over.
"Did you want me to wait?" Eijirou asks, giving Reina the side eye. "In case-?"
"No, you're good to go on ahead," she assures him. "I wanted to talk to her anyway."
"Alright. Just yell if you need me."
He pats her shoulder and walks off as Reina comes to a stop in front of her. Leinei sniffles and takes a breath, forcing a smile.
"Everything okay?"
"I want you to pull out of your work study. Before the raid happens," she tells her, watching as her sister recoils as if having just been slapped. "This stuff is too dangerous and after what you've been through, you-"
"What? Are you scared that I'll get kidnapped again?" she says half jokingly as she crosses her arms over her chest. "Sorry, they caught me off guard last time and drugged me. Won't happen again, and I'm going to make sure of it."
"I don't care. This stuff-you're a kid. You need to be focusing on your studies, not fighting off drug lords and yakuza. People die in these raids, Leinei. You have to understand that."
"I'm not pulling my work study. I've learned a lot under Fatgum. It's up to him if I participate too."
"He's going to let you! You know Keigo talked you up, and you just keep proving him right! I'm not going to let you throw your life away before it's even had a chance to begin!"
"Reina, this isn't the same situation as what happened during the summer. I've proved that I'm capable of doing something like this. I'm not the same scared little girl I was then."
"No but you're still my baby sister," she hisses. "And I can't-I can't go through not knowing if you're dead or alive again. I can't. Please, Leinei."
"You won't have to worry. Because I'll come back alive. I promise."
And I'm going to help save that little girl. Even if my part is minimal, I'm going to make sure no one hurts her.
Reina sighs, brushing the nonexistent stray hairs from her face before smiling faintly at her baby sister. She sees the way her blue eyes have hardened with resolve, the thin line her lips have set in as she glared up at her. You really have changed so much…You never had that look of determination before.
"Fine," she relents. "But I'm talking to Fatgum about you being on my team securing the perimeter. Catching the stragglers is just as important as fighting inside that damned building. Your quirk will be more handy for that."
"Wait, really?" Leinei says, surprised. "You're not going to keep talking me out of it?"
"Nah. You're a big girl now. It's time I treated you like it, Empathia."