Chapter 6
The small group was scattered around the abandoned bar on the river, 4:30am on a Sunday, not even the church dwellers were awake yet. Eyes watched from the shadows of the bar the dark corners allowed Fais to slip inside quietly and unnoticed. Four of the Lieutenants were already there, one was late. Fais scanned the room. Slade, Liqui, Tarnish and Dabi were already lounging around the room, waiting for the final person to show, Fais waited listening astutely from their covered place. "They are late," Dabi said, his low voice cutting through the silence from the place he was lounging, on his back on a table his feet kicked up onto a divide that ran between booths, his head hanging off the back of the table.
A woman with long mint green hair and shaved sides looked up, "Fais isn't gonna like that." Slade commented from her perch on the abandoned bar top, her eyes flitting to the corner Fais was currently residing in, a smirk curling on her lips. Nothing escaped the knife wielding ninja for long.
"Fais isn't even here yet, how would they know." A woman said from their place on the floor stretching adjusting slowly as she contorted on the floor, Liqui, the newest of the Lieutenants group, this was only her second time at a Lieutenant meeting.
"How new are you to how Fais works" a voice cut through from the balcony above the metal banded mask and black bandana covered and semi tamed an unruly mat of rusty blonde waves, Tarnish.
Dabi yawned "Well I hope Kerra shows soon, I'm not exactly fond of early mornings and I'd like to get some sleep after this, before I need to be a functioning human for the day."
"Well I like this league" Liqui stated from her place on the dirty floor.
"We aren't a league," Slade hissed, pulling out a polishing rag and a thin dagger from her sleeve.
"No?" Liqui asked her mouth curling as her head tilted to the side, her eyes wide. "Then why do we work together to take down the unworthy?"
"We do,"
"And we work together"
"Again true,"
"Then how are we not an underground league, or army or ohh a club!" The girls bounced up excitedly.
"Ugh, what is it with the crazy ones, always wanting to be in a secret club." Tarnish sighed from his post in the balcony. "We act as individuals, at least that's how the four of us started, then Fais found us and introduced us to each other, we just all happen to share a common goal. Fais just happened to be the glue for us all, leading us toward what we all envisioned, putting it within a tangible reach."
Dabi rolled his eyes at Liqui before nodding to Tarnish showing his agreement, even Slade cracked a smile, indulging him with an affirming nod. He laid back again looking at Liqui, amusing himself by snapping his fingers, blue flames licking to life in his fingertips then off again with each snap. "Just for future reference Liqui we don't use the word league. It's too close to All for One's bullshit world domination vision." He snapped "We don't use gang or group, it rings to close the Overhaul's idiotic idea of making the world quirkless." He snapped again. "We don't use the word army, we aren't heroes and our goal isn't to fight against them directly" Snap. "We don't use the word club, we aren't children." Snap. "We don't use cult, we aren't blindly following or brainwashed." Snap. "We all decided this was the right path, Fais just gave it a face." Snap. "We are the Lieutenants of an underground movement." Snap. "It's about changing the world and the way that they think. It's not about forcing it upon them."
A new voice cut in with a gooey lilt and a breathy air "They will willingly embark on this journey with us, it's always been a fight to change how heroes are seen, how they are treated. Our world treats them like they are royalty, it just feeds the selfish acts, they all have demons, they all get away with it, its power, money and fame."
"Always the delightful one aren't you Kerra. It's 4:35 in the morning, give the romanticism a rest" Slade rolled her eyes. The pink haired man beamed, his gold and white coat sparkled even in the dark bar.
"Always my dear!" He flourished stepping into the room, and over to Slade taking her hand that didn't have the dagger and kissing it.
"I'm not above stabbing you right now" Slade bit out her eyes narrowing at the overly enthusiastic man who'd kissed her hand. Her dagger pointed at his nose as he backed away his hands up as he backed away.
He spun his coat flaring out around him as he turned to the girl on the floor "Liqui my lovely little fledgling. It's like a fashion line." he mused, causing Tarnish and Dabi to groan, not another baseless metaphor. Kerra twirled, dancing around the booths gliding smoothly as he tangoed by himself. "We provide the base!" His feet moving fluidly in a basic rhythm sidestepping the stick Dabi swang at his legs at the perfect moment. "We provide the flare!" His movements became dramatic as his arms lifted as if holding an imaginary follow. "We provide a solid framework." He paused briefly before continuing to strut. "We lead the way through action. Action is always louder than any words." He got closer and closer to the corner Fais was hidden in "Until their movements become ours and ours become theirs." He held out his hand to Fais. "I'm sorry for being late, the ghosts woke up on the wrong side of my head." He bowed, as Fais smacked his hand away sharply stepping forward the dark hooded bodysuit and voice modulator in place.
"What are the reports?"
"Aww Fais, I'm hurt. You normally play," He took a step back, his hands clasped over his heart dramatically.
"You're normally not late."
"You wound me, my soul-
"Is already as black as your heart, don't try to convince me of anything different," Fais waved him off with a dismissive flick of their hand. "Now where are your reports?" Fais turned looking at the pink haired man and the rest of the lieutenants in the room.
"I love it when you're demanding" Kerra sighed, as he flounced forward to grasp Fais' hand again, who pulled away.
"Dabi. Get him back on track would you." Fais said, walking away from the exuberant man circling behind the bar grabbing a glass and placing it on the bar grabbing a bottle of scotch off the wall, allowing a neat three finger pour to douse the glass. "I don't want to be here all day either."
Dabi sat up a wicked grin sliding onto his face, snapping his fingers, flames licking up his hand and arm. "I'm thinking the shoes." He looked down to survey Kerra's feet where an expensive pair of white leather dress shoes adorned his feet.
Kerra stopped his face twisting in displeasure, "Low blow." he huffed, grumbling to himself under his breath, pouting as he crossed his arms. But nonetheless he reached into his coat, "Here's what I have." He pulled out a stack of packets. Tossing them onto the table. "The internal records from the Support items facility."
Slade tossed a thick stack onto the table as well. "I have the bank records, if they paid someone off to keep them quiet, or have a nasty habit they are trying to hide it's in those."
Dabi set his packet down too, "I have the records from the hotline, council and police station. If they miss using their power and are hurting their family or are misreporting it'll be there." He hissed his eyes narrowing, for as aloof as he tried to act, they all knew he had a very deep seeded hate for pros misusing their fame to get away with breaking the law. Fais always appreciated his dedication and tenacity when it came to exposing the heroes who took advantage of their positions of power.
Fais glanced up at Tarnish who looked back, tossing his packet, from the balcony. Fais was ready, with a wave of their hand, the air thickening, slowing the fall til it stopped in the air and then moved across the room to drop onto the growing stack.
Fais floated a stack of their own out onto the table as well. "Villains and our current records" Fais reached through a wall pulling a hidden lever that only Fais could access, a wall of filing cabinets slid out into the room. Fais then reached up grabbing a handle from behind the bar, pulling down two long lists, a list of Heroes and their true names and alias', adding new names to the list with the new heros who had just passed their full licensing exam. Some had been scratched out, those names were on the second list, targets. Other names had question marks next to them a few had multiple, as they had been looked into multiple times.
"Which agency did you break into?" Liqui asked, her eyes widening, "Only heroes have access to the villain database."
"Identifying information isn't exchanged here Liqui." Fais mused cooly, dismissing the girl's question. "We don't ask, we just contribute what we can, we all have our sources." Liqui blushed her cheeks turning crimson as Fais called her out. "Have you realized how this goes yet?" Fais looked over at Liqui, who nodded her understanding. "Then let's get to sorting and picking our targets. Go put up your question marks." Liqui, stood up and walked to the pile. The other three rose stepping behind the bar, Fais handing a marker to them stepping out from behind the now crowded bar. As they each made a mark on the poster next to a hero they wanted to investigate further into. Fais turned to the balcony, "Who are we crossing over Tarnish?" The large man smiled leaping down from the balcony, landing below. He took the pen held out to him as he stepped behind the bar scratching out two names with question marks from the previous meeting, rewriting them onto the list containing the current and the now past hero target names. Tarnish dropped two files onto the bar top with the names of the heros, Pop-off and Best-Jeanist before moving over to the table where Fais had busied themself sorting and organizing papers into stacks by person. The others joined Fais who was at the table sorting through the papers placing them into stacks. They shuffled around the tables, and with the distant chime of 6am church bells six villain targets had been placed on the bar with the two heros in one stack. The Targets. In another sat five packets all Heros, The Suspects. And the other files had been filed in the wall of cabinets under the respective hero or villain they pertain too.
"Who's in the suspect pile?" Dabi asked the same question every time they met, he wasn't willing to look behind him at the list, his jaw set firmly as he pressed his wide spread hands heavily into the table.
Fais thumbed through the folders reading the names. "Edgeshot, Uravity, Creati, Endeavor and the duo Anatom and Regime." Dabi scowled at the names.
"Those are some high-up suspects we've picked." Slade commented nodding in approval of the targets with a smirk growing on her lips.
"Oh the romance of it! They are all so high and they have so much further to fall! The stars of our world are crumbling at our feet! The fires that take them down, a spark, a Phoenix from the ashes of their demise! A tragic tale of false heros-"
"Kerra, no one wants to listen to your demented speeches about death being romantic, its not romantic. You really need to sort your shit man." Dabi snapped, cutting off Kerra from another contrived metaphor about the end they were working towards.
"Well excuse me for wanting to commemorate our potential conquest of some of the current and ex top 10 heros in our society."
"Not everyone wants to celebrate a possibility. Do it after we take them down." Dabi stepped in front of the pink haired vigilante, challenging him with a cool gaze daring him to engage.
"I'm trying to be motivational!" Kerra exclaimed ever the dramatic, but he shifted his weight setting his feet.
"Will either of you ever shut up. Some of us have places we need to be." Tarnish growled yanking the two apart. "Babysitting you two was never something I signed up for."
Fais waited til they'd stopped bickering and had been adequately separated. "So if there is something to find it will either be easy to find or it's going to be hidden very carefully." Fais mused, Slade agreed, flipping open the packets Fais toss onto the table for them to see.
"These may take more than one week to research properly."
"I agree, let's say two weeks." Fais said, receiving a nod from the lieutenants. The setting of a new meeting time signified the end of the current meeting. The lieutenants each slipped out of the building and into what was now dawn lit streets except one who sat down at the bar. Fais sorted through the target and suspect folders organizing them. Fais reached out sliding the drink that was still sitting on the bar top untouched down the bar. "What is it?"
"He's guilty,"
"I know."
"Then why hasn't he been dealt with already?" Dabi snarled his eyes glinting his voice rough as he glared at the hooded figure behind the bar, fire licking up his arms and across his shoulders.
Water sprayed him in the face shocking the tall man who jumped up planting his hand on the counter "Chill out with the Hell Flames, you have a flammable in your hand." Fais chided, Dabi glared back seeing that Fais hadn't looked up but still had the bar gun pointed at him. He sat back down and stifled his flames but steam still rose off his shoulders as he used his heat to dry his face, hair and clothes; Fais put the bar gun away. Fais finished filing the packets away before walking over and leaning back against the bar across from Dabi. "He's high profile; taking down a hero with a long standing history of being in the top two is difficult, and time consuming, it's taken time to gather the evidence needed, and it'll take a lot more to actually make the world see and believe it. We need more than just you to turn on him, Touya." Dabi snarled, leaping the bar in a flash, his hand lighting up as the drink was thrown forwards at Fais' face. Fais was unphased by the reaction though, meeting the drink with a wave of a black gloved hand which swirled the liquid out of mid air and deposited the drink back into the glass "Don't waste good Scotch."
"You said no identifying information." Dabi's eyes were wide, rage and panic flashing in them as he glared at the hooded figure.
"Please, I know exactly who all of you are. You're living on naive hopes if you didn't already realize that."
"I've buried that name, how did you know."
"You've given me more than enough information to figure it out. Your quirk, the turquoise eyes, your stature, the hair, you forgot to up the dye job about 7 months ago, the red roots were showing, your fury towards Enji, your reluctance to go after Shoto and the worry you tried to hide when he was placed on the investigation list, your relief when nothing showed up from it. Calling them both by their full names, not their alias'."
"Well aren't you observant." Dabi huffed his glare still icy as he watched the hooded figure.
"How do you think I ended up here, and with this movement being so successful." Fais shot back. "People have tried this in the past, but until now it's never gained traction." Dabi thought for a second before giving Fais a reluctant nod affirming the words spoken were correct, moving to sit back in his seat.
"So do you finally have enough to ruin that abusive asshole?"
"Completely, out of all of them, this is one we have to do right, we have to take him down publicly and show just how much our society's hero worship has done. Letting the people they call heros masquerade behind a title and be criminally horrible to those they claim to love, hiding their actions instead of owning them." Fais moved to sit on the bar top next to Dabi, putting a gloved hand on Dabi's shoulder. "If done right, this will tip the scales in our balance and turn the talks to reforming the laws to keep heros accountable and true too what a hero in our world should be across the board."
Dabi nodded "I still want to take him down, he should have never been a father, not with how he treated Shoto, Natsuo, Fuyumi, myself, or our mother." he took a drink, as Fais' hood moved with a nod, agreeing with the black haired man they were silent for the rest for the time, when Dabi finished his drink he left exiting out a side door disappearing into the dawn lit morning.
Dabi walked along the river, his hands shoved deep in his pockets as he walked, his hood yanked up. There was no way he was going to be able to sleep after that, he shook his head as he walked trying to clear his mind. He liked the quiet of the morning, the city still waking up, as he enjoyed the mild buzz from the scotch, the brisk air of the morning cooling his alcohol warmed face. He finally stopped moving long enough to look around, the buzz gone, but the warmth of the alcohol had been replaced by the warm morning sun. He was in a quaint neighborhood, modest houses lining the streets behind the shops that were on the street he was walking down, a cafe was just down the street. The street had early morning risers milling around the streets, he could go for a coffee, especially now that he wasn't going to go back to sleep and to soothe out the sedation the scotch had left in his mind. The cafe on the corner looked to be the perfect place for just that, he strolled in ordering a cup of coffee and a toasted bagel taking a seat at the bar top that looked in on the back room where the cafe's pastries were being made. He pulled out his phone reading through the news headlines.
He sighed, his head dropping into his hand, as he scrolled not even reading the headlines. He listened to the customers in the cafe as they walked in and out with their orders of coffee and breakfast. Each time the bell on the door rang and the young woman at the cash register would perk up, she seemed to know everyone who entered. "Ahh Todoro-"
Dabi's head jolted up, his entire body tensing up, he knew that name, panic flooded his veins, his head spinning as he glanced to the mirror at the end of the bar, as the voice in his head silently pleaded 'Not my father, not my father, please don't be Enji'. His eyes locked onto the new customer, a woman had walked in, she was smaller than him but was athletically built. Her face was kind, hazel green eyes were offset by dark auburn hair, he recognized her from the photo in Shoto's file back at the bar he'd exited a few hours ago, Aydin Henkan, his little brother's wife.
"Haruhi-san." A warning tone exited the auburn woman's mouth, "Don't you dare finish that name." He shook his head slowly releasing the tension in his muscles, "How many times must I tell you." Her voice was light and gentle now. "It's just Aydin, but if you insist on calling me by my last name, it's Henkan, just like all my students call me."
"If you insist, Henkan-san." the woman smiled. "What can I get for you?"
"A small hot chocolate, a large black coffee and a green tea. Do you have any of those rainbow sprinkle donuts, Sho got Takea one last week and it's all she's wanted for breakfast all week." The pretty girl behind the counter laughed.
"Of course!"
"That man spoils her rotten, I swear she has him wrapped around her finger."
"Sounds like a great father." Dabi found his voice coming out of his mouth before he could stop it.
A laugh rang out next to him. "Yea he is." He could hear the smile in her voice, his little brother's wife. The door chimed again "Haruhi, can I get a bagel and a cheese danish as well?"
"No Soba this time?" The woman laughed her mouth twitching to the side.
"No, I just made him some last night, he should be good for another two days." Aydin said.
"Just give me a few minutes on that danish, they are finishing up in the blast chiller so the icing doesn't melt off of them." Haruhi smiled.
"Not a problem, Haruhi-san, can I get the coffee in a mug then? I'll be here when they are ready. It's Sho's day off and he wanted to wake up Takea so no rush, when I left they had just started a movie in our bed. Besides as much as I love them we all enjoy a bit of time to ourselves, especially with an 18 month old running around." Haruhi laughed but nodded. Dabi watched her out of the corner of his eye as she sat down at the counter top a seat down from him, her other goodies in a bag and the drinks in a travel carrier. She relaxed taking a sip of her coffee. Haruhi smiled as she bustled around behind the counter refilling orders.
"So are you a Pro hero too?" Dabi suddenly found his mouth moving, before he could think to stop himself. Aydin's eyebrow rose as she tilted her head towards him. "Sorry, I didn't mean to overstep, I just overheard." What was he saying? Was he really fishing for information because he knew she was his brother's wife? The little voice in his head answered quickly, yes, yes he was. He still cared about his family, they were still his flesh and blood at the end of the day.
Aydin waved off his apology "No, it's fine, I should be used to it at this point, I'm not huge on the attention that goes with the title or legacy names, that's why I try to go by my maiden name whenever possible. My husband's hero name is the same as his first though so that tends to clue people in, and his family is fairly well known. But to answer your question yes I have my pro card, but I'm not with an agency. I teach over at UA, I only get called in for special circumstance cases."
"Special circumstances?" Dabi questioned, he never would have thought that would have been allowed by his father, his father was notoriously fame and power hungry.
"My quirk allows me a certain skill set that I prefer to use when I choose to, instead of out of necessity for survival." Aydin shrugged.
"Way to avoid the question."
"Never said I'd answer it. Besides I gave you enough to get close." They sat for a few minutes more when a man walked in, he was trembling as he stared into the case with all the breakfast items. Aydin's eyes narrowed. He had on a hoodie and one hand was tucked in the front pocket, she moved forward silently and nimbly she touched the man's hand that was on the glass case, "They aren't out yet, but this place has the best cheese danishes." Aydin said, the man jumped, spinning on her, she just nodded "So I was right." She nodded to his pocket which had moved, Dabi was the only one seeing the gun pointed directly at Aydin's stomach as the man shook even more.
Dabi's eyes widened, how had she picked up on that, how was she so calm, who was this person. "You don't know anything." The man hissed.
"I know enough, you're scared, this wasn't your first choice, you haven't planned this through, so it's an act of desperation. And I know from those few things, you aren't going to pull that trigger. So how about you flip that safety back on and we talk, do you want a coffee?" Dabi watched as he heard the low click of the safety being engaged. The man's face went blank, nodding numbly confirming what she'd said, he let her lead him to the chair she had just been occupying. "Haruhi-san can I get another cup of coffee, a refill for mine and a second cheese danish?"
"Of course! Oh my gosh I am so sorry I forgot to get you your first one!"
"It's fine Haruhi-san. I meant it when I said no rush." Aydin smiled. Dabi stared at her, this was not a normal pro hero. He reacted to the weird feeling in the pit of his stomach telling him to record this upcoming conversation. He swiped through his phone rapidly, hitting record before closing out of the app and pulling up a messaging app typing to a group chat quickly. "Ok, we have food and warm drinks on the way, so that is settled. Now then let's talk, what got you to this point? And just as a point of reference, I teach hormonal high schoolers who think a school dance is the end of the world so trust me when I tell you that there is nothing you could say that I haven't heard before or can't deal with." The man nodded her words calming him.
He took a sip of his coffee spilling half of it down his sweatshirt as his hand still shook, "Nothing you haven't heard?"
"Nope,"
"Quirkless?"
"Yep. One of my good friends is."
"Broke?"
"Yes."
The man paused "Abused?"
Aydin sighed. "Yes, someone very close to me dealt with that for years"
"How did you deal with that one?"
Aydin bit her lip and sighed her face sympathetic "With the abuse, I didn't handle it as well as I could have. It was someone I cared about a lot and their parent was the one who was hurting them. I was young and I acted more on instinct than rationally, and I may have put them all but through a wall… twice." Dabi's eyes flew open, this woman had put Enji through a wall on more than one occasion, he felt a genuine smile unfurl on his face, this was a hero he could get behind.
The man nodded, the worry still plastered across his face. "And if they are all together?"
"I haven't heard of that, not all three together," Aydin admitted, her voice slow as she contemplated the words. Her voice etched with sympathy giving both him and the man the resolute impression that she was taking this issue incredibly seriously. "But I've dealt with each one before or within a grouping of some kind. Can you give me more details? The more I know the better I can make a plan." Dabi felt an odd admiration for this woman, a pro who resembled what they had been fighting for.
His eyes suddenly shot open wide, he'd found a pro who so far embodied the world Fais and the 5 Lieutenants wanted for the world. He had found a pro with a claim to recognition too, getting people to follow his brother's wife would be easier than finding a low level unknown pro off the streets and molding them into recognition. She had a strong moral compass, was compassionate, kind and completely non judgmental and tactical. He swiftly told the other lieutenants, he'd found a potential candidate in the hero world to take their group public, they were keeping it quiet from Fais, wanting to do as much research as they could before bringing it to the boss' attention. He was glad he'd started recording this conversation.
The man nodded, settling down he took a long sip of coffee, feeling more confident and comfortable. He told her his story, his daughter was young, quirkless and had been preyed upon by a firm, one that offered financial help, paying off her debts. But in return she was forced into working in what essentially was a whore house to pay back the money. But the debt never went down or it did at an incredibly slow rate. If she didn't follow house rules they would hurt her and the others to keep them in line, she had barely gotten him a letter and as she had said in the letter she was surely going to pay the consequences for it when she got back to the house she'd snuck out of to send it.
By the end of the chat, Aydin had offered to help him, and figured out a game plan for the man and his next few days. She had made calls to people and set up a team of pros, talked to the police to create a task force for the takedown. She'd called a hospital and warned them that they were going to see an influx in patients and what was going to be needed to evaluate them both physically and mentally. She'd called a few agencies and set up the precedent that would get the victims interviews with them for the possibility of getting new jobs, when they were mentally ready.
The man had hugged her sobbing violently against her shoulder thanking her profusely for helping him so thoroughly. She was gentle and comforting to the man, but strength in her resolve and her ability to quickly make a plan and execute it with a full team in place within 20 minutes of the man sitting down was impressive. Dabi had been shocked, it seemed that she only needed to say her name over the phone and people had jumped on board with her.
He watched the news and sure enough a few days later the story had been covered. Dabi read about a take down of a whore house run by the awful couple who prayed on those less fortunate, paying off the debts of quirkless individuals, who then worked as indentured slaves, in the house as prostitutes to pay back the money. They were broke, abused and the debt never lowered. Aydin had put a stop to the whole thing even though her name was never mentioned, Dabi knew it was her from listening to that conversation in the cafe. The whole article rang true to exactly what she had said she would make happen and all the phone calls she had made.
Dabi had forwarded the recording he had made of the conversation to the other lieutenants as well as the link to the news article. In his mind, he'd found a person who the world might just listen to when it came to their ideas about change. This was someone he wanted to get their help on investigating before he brought it up to Fais. After listening to the recording and reading the article they had all agreed, Aydin Henkan, was a real candidate to bring home the movement and instigate real change.
A/N: Hope you all liked the chapter! Stay safe this weekend! I know we all say it but I promise the more reviews we get the faster we write. Also I'm going with the Dabi's a Todoroki Theory, in my mind it makes too much sense to discount it. Ok Hope you enjoyed it!