Four
Walking down the dark streets of Mustafu alone would have been daunting and a bit scary considering how many people normally travelled the streets after dark. However, Shina had been walking in shadows for a long time and despite her Quirk, she was good at it.
She'd spent an hour combing through the UA files that Kana had gotten when they'd got home earlier. Everything she'd found concerning the teachers and the students had been thoroughly reviewed and organized before Shina had the necessary info copied into a USB drive. She had also made another copy with all the info just in case this current drive was damaged by Shigaraki. Not that she expected him to destroy it, but it was always good to keep copies of everything. Especially when one happened to be working with shady villains with loose morals.
Shina glanced around before she turned down the bars alleyway entrance. Briefly she wondered how this place was available as she'd never seen anyone else besides Shigaraki and Kurogiri down here. She mentally smacked herself for thinking that way. She doubted money was an issue if they were willing to hire her.
She had stopped at the door to mentally smack herself and get back into her calm mindset before she reached forward and opened the door. She entered the warm lighting of the bar to see the now familiar sight of Kurogiri standing behind the bar, wiping an empty glass while Shigaraki sat on the barstool opposite him with a no doubt glass of ginger ale.
"Shina" Shigaraki greeted her when she entered the establishment. She closed the door behind her firmly. "We weren't expecting you so soon." He seemed to notice Yuto wasn't with her as he then asked, "No shadow today?"
"No sadly." Shina stated as she sat on the stool opposite Shigaraki. "My clansmen are preparing for tomorrow's school day." Kurogiri placed a glass of water in front of her that she ignored.
"Do they like UA High, the most prestigious school in Japan?" Shigaraki mocked. "Have the heroes and their insipid 'do-gooder' propaganda inspired them to be heroes?"
"It's a school not a cult calm down there. And besides I doubt anyone really likes it if they have to deal with homework, uniforms and people telling them to do things they say are 'good for them'." Shina answered. Shigaraki shrugged.
"I wouldn't know. I was homeschooled."
"Good for you. I have one year of high school under my belt and that's it." Shina stated before continuing. "I came to drop by some information we obtained from UA High earlier." Shigaraki perked up.
"I wasn't expecting any information for quite a while. You and your team sure move fast." Shigaraki's red eyes always unnerved Shina as they rarely left her form whenever she came by. She figured he didn't trust her enough to completely relax. She understood, but playing at pretend was something she was good at. Shina placed the USB on the table for him to grab whenever he wanted. "You say this is UA High's information? You haven't gotten any information regarding the Hero commission?"
"My data is incomplete. I'm compiling the building's maps and security info before I move in to gather the hero information." Shina spoke. "I'm going to do recon tonight after I leave here."
"Cautious aren't you?" Shigaraki mused. Shina caught the change in his tone as he continued to talk. "One would think you'd be moving faster considering your clansmen have already gathered their information." Shina tilted her head, not allowing any emotion to show on her face.
"I don't move in on high profile targets unless I have multiple exit strategies in place Shigaraki. It's what's helped me evade capture from Interpol and other various security teams throughout the world. I'm not going to move on the Commission until I'm sure I have the info I need to bring you what you want. I apologize if you don't like it but you're more than welcome to gather this on your own." Shina straightened up as Shigaraki seemed to assess her.
"I can see why master was insistent on hiring you. If this," He reached over and grabbed the USB drive, "is the info I need, and everything checks out on it. I'll be glad for that. However, I don't trust you as much as he does especially since you haven't proved you're trustworthy to me." Shina shrugged.
"I don't see why you should since the feeling's mutual. I am nothing if not professional when it comes to my clients though. I'll get you the info you want when I am comfortable I won't get caught. You're just going to need to be patient until then." Shina stood up. "I'll try and drop off the info in a few days." Shina turned to leave. When she was above ground and halfway up the stairs to the street Shina pulled up her facemask and her dark hood to cover her head. She stuck to the shadows until she reached the place where she'd hidden her motorcycle.
It was time to begin her second errand of the night. She needed to head downtown to the Commissions main building and while her Quirk could have gotten her there faster, it was a bit too flashy for the stealth mission she had in mind.
She revved the engine before tearing out of the unlit hiding spot. Shina drove thirty minutes until she reached a good place to leave her bike before she climbed a relatively empty building that looked across the street at the Hero Commission's main building. It would have been easier to just break into a police headquarters, but they wouldn't have the info she needed. Most police HQ only held limited info anyway as they stuck to their own districts. This place was a veritable good mine.
She hadn't been entirely honest with Shigaraki when she'd told him she was still gathering data. She'd already made necessary plans for getting into the building and knew where things were based on the building's blueprints, her main concern was the building's security. She had viewed the buildings layout thanks to public archives and knew that the best place to enter would have to be from the front entrance. Unfortunately Shina didn't know any employees that she could have impersonated to pull that off. She also wasn't confident in her lack of knowledge on the security in the building, so sneaking in like a regular thief was going to be her best bet. Shina took stock of the building's front entrance and sides before she figured the back way was going to be easier for her first time.
Shina was extra cautious of the possibility of cameras in every corner of the building. While it would hinder her ability to open doors she prayed no one was watching too closely. Thankfully her Quirk was pretty much built for this as she was able to use light refraction to render her body invisible. It would have been easier to have Yuto with her, but Shina wasn't sure if this building would have any shadows. Nothing more suspicious than a pool of shadow going down a lit hallway.
Shina knocked on the back emergency door and moved to the side. No sense in opening the door like a ghost if someone came out themselves. Of course with her luck, no one came to open it. Oh well, better safe than sorry. She knelt and started to pick the lock thanking every deity above that the door wasn't the more advanced security doors. She was able to open it after three minutes of picking it. Shina knew an alarm would probably go off once she entered so her time was limited. She quickly entered the building, looking around the back hallways. There were bright lights throughout, so this wasn't an issue for her since her camouflage relied on light refraction. She just needed to keep quiet as she snuck down the halls.
The first floor didn't have anything that she was looking for and neither did the second. It wasn't until Shina got to the third floor that anything started to show up. By this, Shina finally found an office that held four or five desks and all had a computer that she could hack into. Shina got started on the first desk and turned on the computer.
Of course, this was also when Shina heard footsteps in the hall and they were coming closer. Shina turned off the computer monitor before she ducked behind a filing cabinet and held still. The security guard who came in looked around the room with his flashlight before he turned on the room lights. He moved in further and even looked right at her but he didn't see her.
'Anything Botan?' The security guard's walkie-talkie chirped. The security guard grabbed the walkie-talkie as his eyes continued to scan the room.
"Nothing here. Anything on the other floors?" He spoke.
'No. I have the other guards looking on the higher floors, but nothing's been seen yet.' Botan grunted as he left the room.
"Maybe it was a ghost?"
'Yeah, you want to tell the bosses we saw a ghost open the first-floor back door?'
"No." Botan sighed. "Keep looking around. It could be a Quirk-user with camouflage." The door closed behind him. Shina waited a few more seconds, silently waiting for the footsteps to fade before she went back to the computer and turned on the monitor. She typed as quickly as she could to get into the computer's mainframe, but she had to bring out the more sophisticated tech she had on her to help break into the computer's hard drive. She saw the computer try to block her hacking and started to mentally count down from 2 minutes while she quickly inserted a USB drive to the computer's tower.
It wasn't much considering this wasn't a more secure computer, but she was able to find more info regarding the building's set up and security as well as a list of employees that she could use. She heard footsteps coming back around and glanced around the office. There were a few pictures on the desk with people on it. She figured the common person in the pictures was the one who worked at the desk she sat at. She quickly used her Quirk to create an illusion of them over her body just as the door opened and the security guard from before entered with his taser drawn.
"Who's there?" The guard met her eyes and stuttered. "Oh uh, Yui? You're here pretty late. I didn't see you come in." He lowered the taser while also looking around the office as Shina faked a smile.
"I'm sorry Botan, I accidentally left some files on the computer that I was going to work on at home. I figured I'd just grab them and get going since I was having dinner in the area with some friends." Shina lied smoothly as she heard the computer chime it's completion. "Oh that's everything." She quickly gathered the USB drive and her 'things'.
"That's fine, uh, you didn't see anyone else come in did you?" Botan asked glancing around. Shina was glad he was distracted as she wasn't sure how well the two knew each other.
"Uh no?" She faked confusion. "Should I have?" Botan shook his head.
"Sorry we're just on high alert right now. Hinata said he saw someone open the back doors downstairs, but we haven't found anyone. He thinks it was a ghost."
"Oh that's unsettling." Botan blinked at her.
"Huh, never seen you freaked out about the possibility of ghosts being in the building." Shina mentally smacked herself. Trust her luck to have her impersonate someone with a ghost interest.
"Uh, sorry I just heard a scary story earlier today that freaked me out more than usual. I'm still a bit shaken, especially since it's just the two of us here right now you know?" She adopted an uneasy look as she straightened, glancing around in suspicion. "It is just us two right? I mean no other security guards are going to pop out?"
"No everyone else is walking the halls. You know there's only one guard to a floor. You sure you're okay?" Botan asked. Shina saw the suspicion on his face. Normally she'd have no problem knocking him out but if she did then they would no doubt up the security measures and she couldn't have that. Shina figured she'd go with the old failsafe and pretend she was a little drunk.
"I'm sorry." She gave a sheepish smile. "I may have had a bit too much to drink earlier. My friends wanted to go to a karaoke bar after dinner but right in the middle of the singing, I remembered the files I left earlier and well," Shina gave a shy smile, "I think I'm going to have some issues in the morning." Botan smiled warmly.
"Ah, that's explains it. You're very work conscious even while having fun aren't you?" Botan indicated she go with him. "Let's get you home and we can talk more tomorrow okay?"
"Sure thing but, I may not remember in the morning." She giggled. She followed Botan out of the office after grabbing the USB drive and some random files on the desk. She listened as Botan talked about nothing important on the way to the elevator.
"You sure you're okay to walk?" Botan asked when they were parting at the front doors. "I can call a cab."
"I'll be fine." Shina giggled. "My friends are only down the block at that new karaoke bar. Have you been?"
"Not yet." Botan smiled. Shina figured that Botan had a slight crush on Yui from the looks he'd been giving her. "You be careful Yui."
"I will. See you tomorrow." Shina walked off at a steady pace. Once she'd gotten a block and a half away from the building she ducked into an alleyway and dropped the illusion of Yui. She glanced at the papers in her hand and frowned. She didn't need them as they were just for show but there weren't any trash cans around her. Shina shrugged and put them into the small pack on her back. She jogged down the alleyway and back to where she'd left her bike.
Despite the close calls nothing interesting had happened this time and she was thankful for that. The last thing she wanted was to run into any Heroes right now. She would have to come back tomorrow though when she had good cover made up. She needed more sensitive info that she guessed HR would have. One thing was clear though, she wasn't going to bed early tonight. Shina found her bike and drove through the glittering city light towards home to the more affluent part of the city where every other house was a mansion sitting on a large expanse of land. The Nara Mansion was what was affectionately known as the Ugly House.
"Coming back late aren't ya Cheré?" The head of her Security, Jean Von Billy Bob, greeted her when Shina stopped at the front gates. His familiar warm smile, bald head and odd colored eyes were comforting after being out on a job
"I'm back before midnight," Shina stated. "I'd say I'm home early." Jean Von chuckled as he opened the gates.
"Have a good night Cherié!" Jean Von called.
"You too, don't work too hard." Shina called. Jean Von chuckled as she drove past him and down the long driveway. Jean Von was an American man from New Orleans that Shina had met when she'd been in the area on a job a few years back. Yuto had gotten hurt, and crash landed in the man's backyard. Due to his Quirk, Far Sight, he'd found Yuto and had helped him while the rest of the clan had been searching for their shadow boy frantically. Yuto had bonded with Jean Von during the three days they had been looking for him and had asked if Jean Von could go with them. Shina had relented after meeting the man herself. They'd brought him with them whenever they were staying in their other international homes for any extended periods of time.
The long covered driveway opened up to the front lawns that were lit with golden Christmas lights in the shrubs and walkway that the gardeners had put in after this summer. Unlike Jean Von, the gardeners and the maids were from Mexico, mainly because Shina hadn't met anyone who did such a good job with gardening or cleaning than them and partly because the maids were all mature, older women who not only did their job in cleaning but also had no issue putting you in your place. It added the discipline that Shina couldn't do whenever the kids needed a firmer hand. Not that they got out of hand much, but the maids certainly helped when she got too overwhelmed and needed a female figure to step in. Shina hadn't had a reason to need them in that capacity since she'd turned nineteen, but considering they knew their families and had helped them just as much as they had helped the Nara clan, they were stuck with them now.
The Ugly House was a large, extravagant three-story mansion that Shina had gotten on a whim about two years ago. They didn't really need it since they had about three other houses in Japan that were smaller and easier to access but for this mission, the Ugly House worked better. The only reason they called it the Ugly House was because, despite its grandeur and expensive detailing, they didn't really like the 'fine molding'. Plus it had a large lawn and backyard that was easy to convert into a training course for Shina and the kids.
The front double doors opened as Shina pulled up on the motorcycle. The tall handsome older gentleman who opened the door frowned at her.
"Hi there Claudy, any issues with the kids?" Shina asked as she dismounted. He gave her a long-suffering look.
"No milady. They're all in their beds asleep. Must you park your bike there? We have a garage." The Englishman frowned at her. Shina shrugged as she entered the large entry way, putting her shoes by the door for him to take care of.
"I know but it's all the way in the back. And honestly I just want to get this day over and done with." Claude was an English butler that the clan had unintentionally inherited when they'd been in England a year ago. He wasn't approving of what they did but considering he was 'theirs' he didn't argue about it much. (Shina hadn't really wanted him, but his previous family had died out and before her passing, his last mistress had asked her to take him in. To give him a home so he wasn't left out in the cold. Shina couldn't refuse her, so they'd taken him in.)
"I shall take it to the garage and have the gas refilled." He stated distastefully. Shina smiled but hid it before he could see. Despite being a cranky old man, she'd always gotten the impression that he did like them to some degree. Shina and he had a rocky relationship, but it worked for them. He was always more respectful to the kids which, honestly was all Shina cared about.
"Thank you Claudy. I'll be in my study for the time being." Shina informed him.
"Shall I have Chef Wolfe bring you anything?" He asked.
"No, I'll be fine. Thank you." He nodded and turned on his heel to put the bike away. Shina walked through the large front entry and down the right hallway to her private study. Books lined the walls that were a random assortment of fiction to non-fiction. In the center of the room was a large wooden desk with a laptop on it as well as a notebook and pens. Behind the desk was a large floor to ceiling window that showed off half of the grounds and partial pool.
Shina put the file with papers on the desk and opened her laptop. She pulled out the USB drive and plugged it in once the laptop was up and running. She doubted anything too sensitive was on the third floor computers but hopefully something could help her figure out a better plan other than 'blame ghosts for doors randomly opening and closing'.
GM NASAI: I did want to leave some info here:
Shina- Name of Quirk: Light Manipulation. Shina can absorb light particles through exposed skin to create weapons or shields of light, flash bombs, holographic manipulation, and bend light particles to go invisible or change her appearance. Depending on the amount of particles she absorbs she can potentially harness the energy to move fast as light but the drawback would cause her to fall into an 'abyss' where her Shadow personality would take over.
Personality: Shina prefers to be the voice of reason most of the time as she assumed a lot of responsibility at a young age by taking in her cousins. If she's faced with a hard decision she will most often go with whatever choice makes the most sense logically to her which often times looks like a unique and out of the box thinking when in reality it just seemed the most obvious choice to her. She doesn't underestimate anyone as she doesn't like being surprised when her initial assumptions are wrong. Despite first impressions about being professional and respectful, Shina doesn't mind indulging in her more mischievous side where she pulls pranks on her cousins or anyone who tickles her fancy as she firmly believes in enjoying life and taking a moment to relax at least once a day. Her personal motto is 'work smarter, not harder' and has drilled this into her cousins as much as she could.
Hobbies: Shina doesn't have a favorite hobby as she prefers to be a jack of all trades. She can draw decently enough to pass at it but she loses interest after a while, often times she'll return to it after a few months to 'flesh out' a drawing. She can't sing but she likes to hum along to any song she knows and finds pretty. She listens to a lot of music and is always adding to her personal playlist. Whenever she reads a book she gets hyper-focused to the point that if it's a series she'll buy the entire series but once she's done won't read it again unless it's made it's way into her heart or mind in some way. She likes to write short excerpts about things her mind will think up but she never does anything with them, just keeps them on a USB in a vault for her eyes only. She knows enough about medical first-aid, cars, art, history, and random trivia that it always surprises people who know her whenever she can understand something they think would be 'too smart' for her to know.