Chapter 6: The art of plotting

"You must be the change you wish to see in this world."

Gandhi

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So. The narrator will now ask a very important question: what is the plural for the word 'Nomu'? It's a valid question, honest.

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Keigo hadn't even been at Verity for three full days yet, but never had he felt so free.

Yes, he was definitely fidgeting in his seat about the entire 'disappearing from the public' act, but he knew that if he hadn't left then, he probably wouldn't ever have gotten another chance.

Here at Verity, he wasn't Japan's golden boy, or the Commission's Perfect Hero. Here, he was Takami Keigo. Sure, a lot of the children here called him 'Hawks' or 'Hawks nii-san', but that was because 'Hero names are cooler than normal names.'

The only thing he was giving up was the position to save people, but that was only temporary. Once the entire thing was over, he could go hack to 'hero-ing' as Touya called it.

The day Keigo had first stepped foot on Verity's grounds, mere hours after the High-End incident, it was sometime around midnight.

So Touya had just led him to a room and told him that the real tour would begin tomorrow. It was too late to do much of anything else, really. Best leave it for the day after.

Day two of Keigo's stay at Verity began with him opening his eyes to Touya's scarred face, smirking. The fire user then said something among the lines of "get your ass out of bed, we have things to do."

Keigo had groaned, then.

("It's too early."

"Get up, you lazy chicken.")

The first thing Touya did was give him a tour.

Verity was huge. It was almost as big as UA's main buildings.

There was a hospital wing, training rooms, classrooms for the children, a cafeteria, the main meeting room and an entire floor dedicated to the making of support items, ranging from temperature regulators to jet packs to socks.

Of course, there was also the housing for all the members and children.

The very next thing Touya did was make him hand over his hero costume.

"Why?" He had asked.

"So Amber and Kyrie, our resident mechanic nerd and our resident computer nerd can make some modifications to your costume."

"But… why?"

Touya had sighed. "Birdie, you literally wear the Commission's insignia on your chest. The gloves and boots are doing nothing to help your quirk. If anything, hiding your talons is only hindering it. Get Amber and Kyrie to modify your costume, and see if they can incorporate a radio in your headphones."

He had narrowed his eyes. "...fine," he said and handed over his costume without further complaint.

The two had then exited the room and started making their way to the second floor from bottom-up, where the support workshop was. And by extension, where Amber and Kyrie most probably were.

Two steps into their walk, Touya spoke. "If it makes you feel any better, I have to get my costume modified as well."

That got Keigo's attention. "Oh? Does the big bad villain need a change in ascetic?"

A snort. "So excited to see me in a Hero's costume, Birdbrain?"

"It would certainly be ironic, so yes."

He rolled his eyes. "Too bad. I asked them to keep the general design the same, I like the long coat. But they did say something about liquid nitrogen or dry ice or whatever, so I'm just letting them go nuts on that part."

"That's smart," Keigo replayed without missing a beat, despite not knowing what kind of lingo Touya was speaking now. "But you know, you should really stop wearing that white shirt. At this point, it's more stained than actual cloth."

Touya hummed but gave no answer. It wasn't until they were on the floor above Keigo's and standing in front of what he assumed to be Touya's room did he speak. "You know," he said, hand halfway to the doorknob. "When I first designed my villain costume, it was meant to showcase my scars."

Keigo was silent. Touya continued.

"A villain is meant to strike fear in people's hearts. My scars and I did a pretty good job of doing that, I'll admit. But… this morning, before I came to wake you, Serena; you know how she's our main medic?"

A nod from Keigo.

"Well, she came to me this morning and told me that if I wanted, I could get my scars removed."

"I-seriously?" Keigo exclaimed.

"Yeah. Something about a frail body and infections being dangerous. Like I wasn't aware of it in the first place."

"But how? Unless Verity conveniently has some spare skin."

"No, chicken. With Serena quirk, it'd be an easy task."

Keigo blinked. Right. Her quirk. What was her quirk? "So are you going through with it then?"

"...I didn't give her an answer yet."

"Ah." Keigo looked at Touya, imagining what the change would look like.

Something from the past, definitely. Past the cheap hair dye and the scars, Touya's face hadn't really changed much from when they were teenagers.

After a few minutes, Touya shook his shoulder and gave a deadpan stare.

"Knock it off, we still have lots to see."

The matter was dropped after that.

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If anyone was asking, the moment the rest of Verity found out he was the Number Two Hero was the moment when Keigo's peace was entirely taken away, swamped by over-excited toddlers and children.

Sure, Pro-Hero Hawks was a crowd-pleaser and highly popular with the public, but Takami Keigo had exactly zero ideas on how to wrangle young children

Touya was snickering behind him the entire time.

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Verity, as Keigo quickly found out, was… a chaotic sort of organized.

Hard not to be, when the entire organization was a cross between an orphanage and underground information central.

But things could get really weird at times.

Like the incident a few hours ago.

"HAWKS!" A voice had called.

"WHAT?" He yelled back, equally as loudly. Here, he could be as loud as he wanted, and no one would really care. Very unlike the Commission, and for all the best reasons.

"I NEED YOUR HELP WITH REN!" Ah, that was Naoka's voice.

"WHY?"

"REN MADE A BOMB AGAIN—"

Good deities, it was too early for this.

"Would it kill the two of you if you talked normally?!" Touya grumbled (loudly) from his position behind the frying pan. From the delicious smell, it was probably bacon he was frying.

At the words 'Ren' and 'bomb', Keigo was out of his seat and in the air in a heartbeat, because whenever the two words came together, (usually) nothing good happened.

One would probably wonder who in their right minds would give a child supplies to make a bomb, but that really wasn't the case. No one gave him the supplies. No one would want to.

No, the child had gotten his hands on the supplies himself.

Ren was a prodigy, no doubt about it.

In Ren's case, it was pure luck at work. His quirk, Teleport, let him teleport to wherever within his range. And his range was currently half of the city.

He was six years old, one of the youngest at Verity. He was also a Commission child, but he only spent a grand total of two weeks in their care before stubbornly deciding that no, these people were 'meanies'. So one training session, when his Handlers undid his quirk suppressors, he just upped and teleported away.

That was roughly a month ago.

And luckily enough, he managed to run face first into none other than Todoroki Natsu. Natsu, recognizing the uniform, had then contacted Touya, who contacted Hinode, who then got in touch with Naoka, who managed to arrive at little Ren's position and remove the tracker before the Commission managed to track him down.

Or at least, that was what Touya told him.

Good lords, what was it with child prodigies?

Because yes, even without his luck, Ren's abilities were nothing short of genius. A week ago, he watched one of Verity's members assemble a bomb once (which they later regretted letting him watch), and somehow, somehow, he was able to recreate the entire exploding device from scratch.

A genius overpowered six-year-old teleporter who only ever obeyed two people in the entire building, managing to build a bomb from kitchen supplies made Verity's security precautions actually pale in comparison.

Good lord, what a world he lived in.

Not a day had passed since he had arrived at Verity, and Naoka had personally sought him out as the new 'Ren catcher #2', as she called it. (She herself was Ren catcher #1)

"You specialize in speed," she had said. "But you also have a large range from the telekinesis control you have over your feathers. You're a perfect candidate."

"Ren, the toddler."

"Yes."

"...Natsu said there were two people he listened to. Why don't you just find the other person?"

"...Natsu didn't tell you?" A sigh. "Figures, that's like him."

"Tell me what?"

"I'm one of the two people. Natsu's the second."

"... seriously?"

"Yep. And since Natsu-nii is a college student, he's only here at Verity part-time. So I need another Ren Catcher. You in, Hawks?"

"..."

"Well?"

"I mean, I don't have anything better to do..."

So that's how Keigo found himself trying to defuse a bomb at 8:37 in the morning.

In the end, they managed it, but just barely. Naoka had also given Ren a firm scolding regarding bombs and explosions.

If someone had told Keigo a week ago, that this was what he'd be doing with his life, (read, giving toddlers lectures about not making bombs) he honestly would have been more confused than anything.

Luckily, the day went by without another incident.

The real highlight of the day though, was when Hinode got back.

She had gone on some information gathering outing a day before Keigo arrived, as he was told by Touya. She and Sumire-san had contacts everywhere and had to maintain good terms with them all. Not to mention, she had wanted to watch the fallout of Touya and his' vanishing act.

But still, the last time Keigo had seen or even been in contact with Hinode was months ago, around the time when he had first started 'infiltrating' the League of Villains.

So yeah, formalities aside, Keigo missed the woman who was practically his sister.

It was after lunch, and Keigo alongside the older members had just managed to wrangle the youngers to the classrooms for their afternoon lessons.

Kyrie, a fifteen-year-old kid, who Keigo had later learned was the genius hacker Touya had told him about, had poked his head around the hallway and informed them that Hinode was on her way, and to expect her in a few.

("Wait, how did the kid know?"

"The security system, remember?"

"Ah.")

"She'll want to hold a meeting after this," Touya stated as the pair made their way to Verity's main entrance.

"Right. To finally do something about the … situation."

A nod. "We've been holding it off, but now with you out of the spotlight and all that business with the Nomu, we have to act now."

"The Nomu are getting stronger."

"Yes. After we deal with the Commission, we may have time to deal with the Nomu's creator."

"You did say you left when the League was battling the giant gargantuan-thing, right?"

"Gigantomachia. And yeah, it'll keep them busy for a handful of weeks at most. In that time, we need to take down the Commission."

"It won't be easy," Keigo said, coming to a stop. They, alongside many others of Verity's older members, were gathered in a loose semi-circle surrounding the entrance. Looking around, Keigo could see that Naoka was absent, presumably having already gone on ahead to open the doorknob-less door, and therefore letting Hinode in.

"You think?"

"No shit, Sherlock. The commission's been covering these things up for years."

"It's because when people speak up about it, they get shut down or declined."

Keigo smiled. "And that was why Verity was formed," he finished. "Because obviously the Government hid the situation from the heroes too well. And if they weren't going to do something about it, then it only leaves us."

Touya returned his smirk. "So you were listening. Good to know."

Before Keigo could reply with some sarcastic remark reserved especially for Touya, the door opening caught his attention.

It was anticlimactic, really. Even though Hinode was the second in command, she was also an older sister to half of Verity and a doting aunt to the rest. But even so, people stopped in their conversations and turned their attention to the door.

It opened all the way, and Keigo couldn't help the smile growing on his face. Because then, with Naoka a step behind her, Hinode stepped onto Verity's ground.

She looked, well, very Hinode.

Slightly ruffled dark brown hair pulled back into a low ballerina bun. Fingerless black gloves that somehow had not ripped yet. Form-fitting tank top and leggings ending just past her knee, and bandages wrapped from wrist to shoulder. ("If I ever get to wear something other than these Commission uniforms, I would incorporate bandages wrapped around my arms. Because I think I would like something form-fitting for the rest of my costume, and form-fitting clothing isn't exactly ideal to rip into bandages. So I'll just keep the actual thing with me") Pouches containing everything and anything strapped all over her body.

The moment she stepped into view, the floor erupted into voices of "Nee-san!" and "Evanescence, you're back!".

Hinode smiled, fidgeting with her fingers. "Hey guys," she said, smiling. "Sorry I was gone so long, the media is in an absolute frenzy."

After a few moments of chatter and questions, Naoka spoke up. "Evanescence, do we need to hold a meeting? Mystery Keigo and Nova arrived two days ago."

From his position, Keigo could see his friend mouthing the words 'mystery Keigo' before her head snapped up to scan the room.

When her eyes finally landed on him, he gave her a cheeky wave. In acknowledgement, she smirked a smirk that said 'of course'. From beside him, Keigo could hear Touya huff in amusement.

"Yes," Hinode replayed, not taking her eyes off Keigo's position. "15 minutes, main meeting room. Kyrie, tech. Serena, Amber, Forest. Now, if I haven't stated your name, everyone under the age of 18 is not sitting in this meeting. 15 minutes, don't be late."

With that, the semicircle of people dispersed, everyone obeying without vocal complaint. (Keigo was sure a sulking teenager had passed him.)

And then before Keigo knew it, it was just him, Touya and Hinode in the room.

(Just like the old times, before when everything had gone to shit.)

For a long moment, no one spoke.

(Touya was still smirking.)

But then as if a tie had been cut, both Hinode and Keigo rushed forwards, meeting each other midway in a catching embrace.

Gods, it had been so long.

"Keigo," she said, a smile in her voice. And in a lower, teasing tone, she said, "bird boy."

"Hinode," he replayed. "It's been a long time."

She snorted, pulling away. "Understatement of the century. And Touya, don't just stand there being all emo, it's been some time since I've seen you as well."

"Only a week, Hinode. The last time we saw each other we were discussing how to distract the public."

"Speaking of that, I'm never letting you carry out plans without my consent again."

"Really? Why not?"

"Yeah, why not?" Keigo parroted. It was comforting to know how easy it was to fall into the casual banter.

Hinode gave the two boys a deadpan look. "When I said to do something flashy the public could eat up, I didn't mean sic the Mad Scientist's newest guinea pig in a crowded city right after the Hero Rankings."

"But what else were you implying? I personally think it went very well."

The girl sighed. "Now you just painted a target over your head."

"Got to end with a bang, no?" Keigo interrupted a grin still on his face.

She rolled her eyes. "Idiots," she said. "You two haven't changed at all, have you?"

"Nope!" Keigo exclaimed, at the same time Touya deadpanned, "did you expect anything else?"

She rubbed her temples. "Two peas in a pod, you two are. Now come on, meeting. I still need to change out of my costume, so I'll see you there, yeah?"

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Hinode was the last to arrive, exactly 48 seconds before the 15 minutes were up.

Unlike the rest of Verity, the meeting room itself was set up quite formally. The room was fairly spacious, with a U-shaped table, whiteboard, and those swivel chairs that everyone wanted to sit in when they were a kid.

Keigo was seated next to Touya, who was slouched in his chair and looking utterly disinterested, his pen appearing once more between his fingers.

These types of meetings were ... different than the ones Keigo had sat through before, he mused. Though the general room set up and the topic to be discussed was more or less similar, the atmosphere was different.

He supposed half the reason was that almost all the room's occupants were either not yet of legal age or just above.

There were him and Touya, who were both 22. Hinode was 21, her birthday late in the year.

There was Serena, who was 16. But she was one of Verity's main medics, so it made sense for her to be sitting through this meeting.

Kyrie, 15. And that Amber kid, who looked to be the same age, if not older. Those two worked with Support more than anything, as Keigo had gathered. Letting kids help from behind the scenes was different than letting the kids in on the danger.

And that was it to the faces that Keigo recognized. (Natsu wasn't here because of college.)

It was quite comical if Keigo could look back at this moment. The Number 2 Hero, a bunch of underage and barley legal individuals, and a wanted member of the League of Villains, all dressed in civilian clothing holding a meeting about taking down the government.

Wonderful.

"Alright guys," Hinode spoke, clapping her hands together. "Let's get started. First, everyone deserves an update on what's happening out there, so that is what I am going to start with. Try to keep questioning to a minimum. So. If anyone wasn't aware, Nova here," cue Hinode gesturing towards Touya's position, multiple heads turning towards him, and Touya countering with a lazy wave. "Set a High-End Nomu—"

"Uh, what's that?" Some guy with yellow hair asked.

Keigo squinted at him. He looked familiar, but he couldn't quite place it.

"It's basically a normal Nomu on steroids," Touya cut in.

"Ah. Got it, thanks."

Hinode continued. "Set a High-End Nomu on our personal Number Two, Hawks, and the newly promoted Number One. Right after that, both Hawks and Nova managed to fall off the grid, and in doing so, set the media wild. Any questions so far?"

Other than Amber muttering "or you can say, 'The Media Goes FeralTM," no one spoke.

"No? Okay good, that's out of the way. Now. I know many of you are new, so we're going to take this from the beginning." Hinode paused, taking a breath.

"As everyone knows, Verity was first founded as a haven of sorts. The founding was actually unintentional, but that's besides the point.

It was first meant to be a haven for the recruits that failed the Breeding Program, but over time, we started taking in all of the abandoned.

After recruits 'fail' the program, they have their memories, knowledge, and in some cases skills suppressed via quirk. After that, it's different for everyone. Some are sent into the underworld as sleeper agents, while others are straight up left in a dumpster. In other words, there wasn't any way an outside party could know about the situation."

"And if you did suspect the Commission and made moves against them," Touya spoke up. "Then you were shut down, bribed or threatened into silence, and had your life and career ruined."

"Nova-sensei's right," Kyrie said. "It wasn't that the handful of people who know did nothing, it was that if you did something, then you've just painted a red arrow over your head that screams 'here I am!'"

"And shutting down the individuals who knew, was like squashing ants. No one bats an eye." This was said by the yellow-haired guy from earlier.

"Exactly," Hinode cut in, bringing the focus back to her. "So Verity was first formed as a haven. But while Verity has been doing a pretty good job of treating the symptoms, the situation isn't going to resolve itself. It's time we step up our game and do something about the source."

A pause.

"If we do nothing, more and more children with stories like ours will keep popping up," Naoka stated.

"Right. I can bet anything that there are children in the Breeding Program right now, still in the clutches of the Commission. For years now, Verity has been reaching out to those affected by the Commission, whether they be the children deemed failures or adults who have had their careers and lives destroyed."

"And with all these years of preparation behind us," Touya concluded, "we can now strike."

"So that's why you pulled me out when you did," Keigo realized out loud. "You wanted me to be part of the strike."

Touya smiled. "Knowing you, we figured you wouldn't want to miss out on it."

"Point."

"But there was a second reason why I was so insistent on the timing of your 'disappearance', Kei."

"Really? It wasn't because you like being overdramatic?"

Touya huffed. "Overdramatic my ass. Who's the one who had 'trouble holding back' during the Hero Rankings?"

"Look here Hotstuff-"

"Don't 'look here' me, Birdie-"

"Alright, how long have they been married?" Yellow-haired cut in, effectively ending their bickering and sending the room into a burst of laughter.

Almost immediately, what little of Touya's healthy skin flushed bright red, and he ducked away, muttering profanities under his breath.

Keigo would like to think that he handled the little comment better than Tou, but he knew that in truth, he wasn't really far off. The feathers on his wings ruffled; a response to his emotions he was never able to rid, and he was very suddenly hyper-aware of how close exactly he and Touya were.

"They're not married," Hinode said, raising her voice to be heard over the laughter.

"See?" Keigo blurted out. "Thank you, Hinode."

"At least, not yet."

"I take it back. Screw you, Hinode."

Eventually, (it still took much too long, in Keigo's humble opinion) the laughter died down and the meeting continued.

"A case has opened trying to track you down, Keigo," Hinode said. "Honesty, I think we can use that to our advantage."

For a moment, Keigo was silent, wondering how on earth the police trying to track him down was a good thing.

Then, it hit him. "They would start looking deeper into the case," he said, eyes wide. "And when they do, they'll find almost no information on me or my childhood."

"Exactly. Then they'll get suspicious. The only problem with this is that the case has almost no information to go off in the isn't place, so it might just get closed early as a cold case."

Keigo narrowed his eyes. "No. We need them to start digging deeper. What if…"

"What if what?"

"What if we drop off some evidence to keep the case going…?"

He trailed off.

"...that… that actually might just work."

"We need it so that the Commission can't deny our story," Touya said. "One of the earliest and fastest ways to do that is through the public. Get enough eye-witnesses and the Government trying to deny things that people indelibly saw happen? That would raise too much suspicion. We need to back them in a corner."

"We can't face the Commission head-on," Hinode said. "Their word holds more power than almost anyone's, maybe only second to All Might himself."

"People have tried playing it fair in the past. It's never worked."

"If we were to pull this off, we would be fighting an uphill battle with faulty equipment in a rigged universe. Playing fair is long off the table. Underhand tactics, playing dirty, blackmail. At this point, almost anything goes."

"Except for murder, and anything to do with underage kids."

"Except for murder and anything to do with underage kids." Hinode reiterated.

("Then why are we allowed to sit through this meeting?" The kid with green skin asked.

"Idiot, at best, we're going to be behind the scenes," Naoka answered. "Never in a million years, would they let us out on the field."

"...that actually makes a lot of sense. They are the prime definition of 'overprotective'.")

"During High-End, we needed a commotion that the media would eat up, a reason for them to start looking deeper. As petty as it is, we need attention."

"That's our first step. We need a platform. But even before that, we need to first get physical proof of our existence."

"So our personal information?" Kyrie asked. "Hate to break it to you, but half of us don't legally exist anymore, and the other half never legally existed in the first place."

"No," Hinode said, shaking her head. "Not our personal info. I'm talking about the files the Commission has on us. They should have recorded anything and everything about us, from our training schedule, to what we ate for lunch on a certain day."

"Seriously?" Naoka asked. "That…" she trailed off.

"Was a pretty tight leash they had us on," Touya finished.

Kyrie, who had opened a computer sometime near the beginning of the conversation, was now frantically typing away on one of his multiple tabs he had open. "Hinode?" He asked.

"Yeah?"

"Well," he said, pausing his typing to meet her eyes from across the room. "Before anyone says anything, I can't copy, paste, or even edit this information. I need some key card code or whatever. Anyways, I just hacked into the Hero Public Safety Commission's files, but there are no records. Like, under recruit, there are only two folders. One labelled Hawks, and one labelled 00-2."

("Did he just say he hacked into the HPSC's database?" Keigo asked.

"Of course he did," Touya replayed. "I'm the one that taught him.")

"Really?" Keigo asked. "What's under my file?"

"Nothing concerning you at the ages seven to fifteen, that's for sure. According to the official papers, you've only been with them since you were 15."

"...Now that's just a load of bullshit," Touya drawled out. "Anything on the rest of us?"

Kyrie shook his head. "Nothing direct, no. The other folder, 00-2? That one is… strange."

"Strange?" Hinode asked, leaning forwards in her seat. "What do you mean?"

"What I mean is, it's just a bunch of words and dashes. Half of the sentences make no sense."

By now, every person in the room had their full attention turned on the 15-year old hacker. "Kyrie, could you read one out?" Keigo asked.

"Yeah, sure. Here, the first one 'R/A #0014536. Flour - Made by biological fathers. N/A. Key—?' Or the second. 'R/A #0072544. When the cryptic calls - shall she shell. 8th. Key—!' It goes on and on."

"...That has to be some kind of code," Touya muttered, barely loud enough for the others to hear.

"Figured that much," Kyrie said, leaning back into his chair and resting his arms behind his head.

Suddenly, Touya stood up from his seat. "Kyrie, can I have a look?"

The kid glanced up at Touya, shrugged, and said, "all yours, Sensei."

Kyrie then got up from his seat and Touya replaced him, who immediately went scrolling through all the files.

After a long moment of silence, before Touya spoke. "R/A' might stand for 'recruit' or 'agent'."

"Seriously!? How did you figure it out so fast?" It was that yellow-haired kid.

"Guesswork. Not completely sure. But Naoka, do you remember when Ren first joined us?"

The girl gasped. "When we first asked for his name—"

"He gave us a number," Touya finished.

"And here, this one. 'R/A #0077688. A - Famished less see. 2nd. Key—!' Why do the others all have a word after the 'R/A numbers', but this one only a letter?"

The room fell silent.

Yellow-haired then sighed. Loudly. "So our first step is to crack that code, as well as to reach out to established platforms and contacts. In other words, building our platform. Getting our hands on information, as well as making sure the ongoing case regarding Hawk's Disappearance doesn't go cold. Am I missing something?"

At his words, Hinode shook her head. "No, Levin's right. Building our platform, gathering our information and fueling the case are our next steps. The code might be useless, but I sincerely doubt the Commission would put something useless into code."

Sounds of agreement followed her words.

After that, the meeting ended quickly.

They knew what they needed to do, now.

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Three days later, Amber managed to whip up a tiny rectangle chip that looked impressively like the trackers the Commission used.

If not for the fact that Keigo had seen the teenager put together the chip with his own two eyes, he would have most likely mistaken it for the real thing.

When Touya had heard what they were planning to do, he said, "Cover the chip in your blood."

Keigo was confused. "Why?"

"The reason we're even bothering with giving the chip the police is to make sure the case doesn't go cold, right?"

"Yeah. My childhood is screwed up as is, they're going to realize I don't have any files sooner or later."

"Exactly. We need them to continue digging. We can't have them give up because the case went cold. You're writing the note as well, right?"

A nod.

Touya shrugged. "Throw them in more of a loop. The blood and the note would give them mixed signals, and create a bigger mess for them to sort through."

"So they won't stop looking," Keigo said, catching on.

"Bingo."

"...you know, now I'm starting to think Amber picked up some bad habits from you…"

"Where else would the kid have gotten them?"

("I'm not a kid!" Came an angered exclamation from somewhere behind the pair.)

A day after the chip was finished, Kyrie hacked into the Police's security system, and Hawks dropped off a briefcase at the entrance to the Police Station via his feathers. Feathers, because feathers didn't leave fingerprints or DNA.

Sure, the station was halfway across the country, but Hawks wasn't called 'too fast' for nothing. He made the trip in record time, easy. (And by that, it took him almost 10 hours to and from) (It was an excuse to go flying, so Keigo didn't mind the long trip.)

Keigo had let out a breath, when the job was done and finished.

Why he was holding his breath in the first place, he didn't know.