Illyasviel von Einzbern and the Red Lion Gang

All children in corresponding age should attend mandatory Quirk Counseling session. Parents can send their children earlier as soon as Quirk manifested in their child. (List of local clinic in Appendix 3).

This is crucial because the nature of Quirk can influence the psychology of the child. The Quirk-user must be taught from young age not to abuse their power or to harm others. Failure to comply can result in the child unwillingness to follow the law and ethics of society.

The quirkless children are exempt from this counseling.

~~ Guidance for Primary School Teachers, excerpt.

=start=

Even if its cute, it's an old man.

"Assassin Install"

The moment I said that, I willed myself to change. A magical circle appeared on my feet, and traveled upward to sweep my body. I felt my existence overlaid with a greater existence, hiding my original nature inside a cocoon. I became aware of the Heroic Spirit memories, even though it was blurry, and the skills and Noble Phantasm he possessed.

Cursed Arm Hassan, one of the 19 legendary leaders of assassin cult.

I approached a glass window and saw my reflection. My appearance changed a lot. I still had the same face, but all my clothes had been changed. A white skull mask perched at the top-side of my head. My right arm was bounded with cloth, and I can't use it unless I wanted to unleash my Noble Phantasm. I wore a very big black robe, hiding the outline of my body. My height didn't change though.

I raised my left hand and three black long knives came into existence. Despite only able to use my left hand, I didn't feel awkward. Instead, I had this brimming confidence that I can kill anyone I want.

I dismissed the knives and used my left hand to reposition my skull mask, covering my face. Mysteriously, the mask stayed on despite having no string or anything to hold it in place. So convenient.

The first place I went into was the school rooftop.

In one hard to see location, an individual was hiding. He didn't move at all from that place. Separated from his comrades, it was a mystery on how he managed to sneak here.

Jumping to the rooftop from the ground with common sense defying movement, I landed softly on the rooftop, still undetected because of presence concealment. Surprisingly I didn't feel any awkwardness when I moved, considering the state of my right arm and all.

Even the skull mask felt comfortable.

Okay that was disturbing.

Approaching slowly, I got a good visual of the villain. He was...umm.. he was a giant hamster.

I would never get used to the sight of human with strange quirk that transformed their bodies. Animal based quirk changed the body permanently, making the user looked like something other than human.

Or maybe this was a hamster that gained intelligence? Whatever. I must subdue him first.

On top of his head was something no hamster had. A mini-sized antenna grew from his crown. So this must be the radioman... umm. Radiohamster that jammed the communication?

The villain was sitting, with his back on the wall. He closed his eyes, seemingly deep in concentration. I threw knives to his four limbs, aiming to immobilize him.

He opened his eyes when the knives pierced his flesh, but before he could scream, I crossed the distance and blocked his mouth with my left hand. Meanwhile, I position my right arm stump on his stomach, touching his body lightly.

"Sssh." I whispered. "Say the wrong thing and you are dead."

He couldn't see what really touching him on the stomach. It could be a knife, it could be a gun. Let him assume the worst.

The hamster widened his eyes in terror, and then his eyes flashed to his left ear, before going back to stare at me.

Aha. I swiftly took out a small communicator attached to his left ear with my left hand. But that left him free to scream, so I punched him with my right arm stump before he can let out a voice.

Attaching the communicator to my left ears, I was rewarded with conversations between the villains. I stepped on his mouth to silence him, and then I tried to fiddle with the device.

Finally, I found the off button to the microphone. Now I can talk with him without alerting his friends. As a good measure I raised a makeshift bounded field around us to cut sound and display illusion.

"If you want to live, tell me everything you know." I said to the hamster below my feet. "Your plan, your gang members. Oh, and your hideout."

The hamster had a defiant look in his eyes. He refused to say anything. I sighed and kicked him in the face.

Dizzy from the kick, he had no way to resist my hypnosis. "Spill everything." I gave the order.

=break='

I blow away your ship

After I got everything from him, I stabbed his heart. The hamster villain radioman died on a rooftop of a primary school.

The moment he died, the communication jamming ended. His quirk prevented even landline call to get through, so the name radioman was kind of misnomer. Ehh, what was his villain name again? I think it's not radioman…. Whatever. It's not important.

There were two more important things. First, I confirmed that I can use magecraft even in install mode, but I felt slight resistance and inefficiency compared to the usual. Not a big problem. Second, there was one priority target I need to deal with before anyone else.

I checked the situation again. Interrogating the hamster took too much time. The villains had defeated all the guards and spread themselves to secure the hostages. They had broken through the metal shutter and entered the primary division building.

Several villains guarded the perimeter between primary division and middle and high division. They deterred the older students from middle and high school, not allowing them to pass.

Several villains scattered about, blocking the escape route or securing key locations.

My target was not among them.

I jumped and perched myself on top of the watertank, the highest place around. Searching through my eyes and my familiars, I finally found my target.

"Found you." He was hiding in an unused classroom in the high school division. Using a binocular, he monitored the situation through the window overlooking the primary division.

Activating my presence concealment again, I jumped and sprinted to his location. Entering the high school division building from one of the open entrance, I sprinted to the classroom.

Why was the entrance to the high school division open, you asked? Well that was because students were pouring out from it. The evacuation siren was blaring, and teachers told the students to flee. I guessed the majority wanted to escape, but some groups were heading to the primary division, with determination in their posture.

Good luck seniors! Please don't die! Just distract them for a time, and I would solve everything.

Well with communication restored I bet the heroes would come flying in no time.

I arrived at the destination classroom and found my target. Entering silently, I dashed and stabbed him from the back. That should pierce the heart.

But you can never be certain. Quirks were strange. I stabbed his lungs and stomach for insurance. Still feeling insecure, I beheaded him, throwing his head to the corner of the classroom.

When I felt relieved that he had really died, I saw his appearance. He was just a young man in nondescript clothing, his face was common, without any eye-catching feature. At least that's what I saw from the distance. I did say that the head was in the corner of classroom right?

Why did I prioritize this person above all else? Because he was the teleporter. The frontal assault was just a deliberate acting, to give illusion that they had no way of bypassing the gates. In reality, they had sent radiohamster to the school rooftop to jam the communication before they attacked.

After they got enough ransom money, this man, named Far Explorer, would transport every villains and the ransom money away. He had limitation, but by repeating several trips, he can eventually evacuate all the villains.

By killing him, I blocked the villains escape route.

He was far away from the other villains to ensure his safety. After all, no need to be on scene, he just needed to be ready when the time came.

That meant, a lot of time to exterminate those pests before they realize the teleporter had died.

Now... who would be next?

=break=

1. Radio Devil – dead

2. Far Explorer - dead

=break=

The Future Miss Yuuei

Hadou Nejire avoided a white beam shot at her, and retaliated by shooting her quirk back. Her attack was evaded and the villain woman took cover again behind the dome.

The half spherical force-field was made by a villain, a man dressed in blue costume. Inside the dome force-field was another villain, a woman with singing-related quirk.

With only three persons, the villains had blocked the forty-something students from middle school and high school division. Granted, it was because the student's lack of experience in combat, but it was still kinda amazing.

Hadou Nejire was still only at first year in Suiran Middle School. Even though her family was well off, she aspired to become a professional hero. She planned to enter U.A Highschool and left Suiran. So when the teachers told them to evacuate, she decided instead to go to the neighboring primary division.

After all, what kind of hero hopeful would abandon kids being attacked by villains?

She had no concrete plan. She had no idea what she would do with her quirk. She can shoot shockwaves, but the speed was slow and easy to be avoided. There was also a limit on how many times she can shoot it in her young body.

Fortunately, she was not alone. Many other students had the same thought. Nejire expected the crowd of hot blooded students would overpower the villains with the strength of numbers.

On the way, their march was blocked by three villains.

One villain in blue costume raised a dome force-field, defending him and a woman. The woman inside the dome started singing, and students who listened halted their movement. It seemed like some kind of weak mind control, because it needed some time to activate and it didn't work in a long distance.

The last villain was a woman located outside the dome, but she was taking cover behind it. She would left the protection to shoot some beams and retreated back, particularly targeting mind-blanked students.

Fortunately her beam attack was weak and only resulted in minor injury. The injured students were covered by other students and rescued to the back. Fresh students stepped forward to replace them and attacked the villains.

But the combination of defensive barrier plus mind control plus beam attack managed to stop the advance of students. The students can't approach carelessly because of the mind control, but the mind controlling woman was safe inside the barrier. The beam woman need to be outside because her beam can't bypass the force-field, but she positioned herself behind the dome so the students had no way to attack her.

The villains chose this place because it was a chokepoint. The students can't circle to the back and attack the beam-shooting woman, obstructed by terrain. It was clear that the villains were using delaying tactic and only wanted to stall them.

Nejire gritted her teeth in frustration. They can't pass through. Almost five minutes since they fought and there's no change in situation.

"Keep attacking! Wear down their stamina!" She said to her fellow students. There's no way the force-field can be active indefinitely.

She shot a shockwave to the beam woman, making her cancel her attack and ducked away. Nejire's stamina was low, and she estimated that three more shot was her limit. She needed to switch with other student and rest at the backline soon.

Because she was concentrating at maximum awareness, and her position at the frontline, Nejire got a full view of what happened, and even then she almost missed it.

A black shadowy figure with white skull mask suddenly landed behind the villains and threw something at the beam woman.

Only after they hit Nejire can see what they were. Black long daggers, stabbing the beam woman in the legs, left side chest, upper left arm, center of the back, and right breast.

So many daggers hit in short time, and they flew from impossible trajectories. How can a dagger thrown from behind ended up stabbed in the chest?

"Aaaah." The beam woman yelled in pain. The other two villains looked behind them, seeing their comrade spurting blood from many wounds on her body.

Before they can react, the black shadow had moved. He sprinted to the confused woman and cut her throat from behind.

Nejire held her breath, seeing the beam woman dropped lifelessly to the ground.

"Purifier!" "Damn you!" The villains were shocked by the death of their comrade.

Only at this point Nejire can see the appearance of the black shadow. He was short, as short as primary school student. He was wearing white skull mask and the rest of his head was covered in hood. The oversized black robe hid his body, and Nejire can't tell his gender.

It was as if an angel of death had descended upon them.

The students had stopped what they're doing, stunned by the unexpected development. Some of them felt nauseous seeing so much blood.

Meanwhile, the black shadow didn't stop. He crouched and touched his palm to the ground, murmuring something.

Abruptly the ground beneath the force-field dome turned into quicksand. It whirled, creating a suction force downward.

The sudden liquefaction of the ground took the villains by surprise, and the force-field quavered. The two villains almost lost their balance, but they managed to keep standing. In short time, the bog had sucked their legs, swallowing everything below their knees.

And at this point the black shadow with creepy skull mask murmured again and stood up. The ground stopped spinning and turned back into hard concrete, trapping the villains in place.

"You brats shouldn't go further." The small black-robed shadow said. His voice was muffled, it was impossible to determine his gender or other characteristics. "The other villains are more dangerous. You could die. Just stay here and keep these small fries from escaping."

Without waiting for a reply, he sprinted with amazing speed to the primary division.

=break=

3. Purifier – dead

4. Riser Blue – immobile

5. Siren - immobile

=break=

Trash need to be processed

I left the two villains for the students to deal with. Without any offensive method, the villains can't really hurt the students. The situation was still at stalemate, but now it was in favor of the students.

There was a danger of Siren brainwashing some students and making them attack another students, but I believe the students were cautious enough. As long as they maintained their distance, the singing had no effect.

Hahaha. You know what I found funny? After hearing Siren's singing I knew why her brainwashing power was so weak. She was tone-deaf! She was singing off-key! Her voice was horrible, so terrible it was painful hearing it.

Must be a great tragedy. One day you found out that your quirk was activated by singing. But then you found out that you had no talent in singing. She must have one interesting backstory, one that was as funny as hell!

Pity I had no time to hear it.

Leaving the two villains alive served two purpose. First, taking out the force-field dome would reveal too much in front of too many witness. Second, the students shouldn't go further, so they would be occupied by the two villains.

I sprinted to the primary building and connected my senses with my familiars.

I wasted too much time. The villains had began fighting with the teachers on the first floor, near the entrance. Our school teachers were no heroes, but they had received combat training. They were expected to be the last line of defense.

If things went on like this though, they would die.

I commanded my familiars to drop down and attack the villains guarding outside the building. A mana bullet to the back of the head would easily kill them.

I confirmed four kills. But two villains had been shot but they were not injured. Tch.

"Boss, boss, we got trouble. Purifier is dead." I heard a voice from the communicator.

So incompetent. They waited until now to report? Were they so shocked about their comrade's death?

"This is Gigant Steel. Needle Hair has just drop dead on me. I don't know the cause, she got a wound on the back of her head. I also got attacked, but it failed to penetrate my defense." I heard another report.

"This is Dragonaut. I also got hit on the back of my head."

"No, no. Purifier is stabbed by daggers! There is this midget with skull mask slicing her throat with knife."

"Calm down Riser Blue. Repeat again. Is she stabbed or sliced in the throat?"

While they were chatting, I entered the building and sneaked to another villain position. Black Shadow was invisible and skulking near the camera control room. He must be here to disable the camera.

Before the villain can enter through, I threw dozens of knives at him. Well, he was invisible, so I can't exactly aim for vital parts.

He died instantly, releasing his quirk. His corpse became visible, and I sliced his neck and stabbed his forehead for insurance.

I checked the situation again. Bladewolf was fighting the teachers and he was winning. I must take care of him next or Midori-sensei would die.

Dragonaut and Gigant Steel had clashed with several pro heroes at the school entrance. They can wait, heroes were more durable.

Meanwhile, the villains were chatting. "The midget had some earth manipulating quirk! Be careful!"

No, it was magecraft, I just modify the concept of hardness in the ground.

I sprinted through the corridors and arrived at the scene. Bladewolf had defeated Midori-sensei and grabbed her throat. She would be killed in seconds.

Bladewolf was saying something, taunting the teachers, but I care not about the last word of a dead man.

I threw knives from his behind, aiming for his arm that was holding Midori-sensei.

The knives flew in impossible trajectory, converging from many different directions to his arm. He had no time to react and the knives all successfully pierced his flesh.

"Aaaaargh!" Bladewolf painfully scream, releasing Midori-sensei from his grasp. He immediately turned his body, guarding against another attack from behind. His wolf fur turned into metallic blades, defending against the knives.

I had prepared myself though. I released my robe and my right arm binding, unleashing long red arm.

Without waiting for his move, I released the Noble Phantasm

No armor or metal fur can save him from the one winged angel of death

Zabaniya : Delusional Heartbeat

=break=

6. Needle Hair – dead

7. Mantis Edge – dead

8. Wind Razor – dead

9. Butterfly Dream – dead

10. Black Shadow – dead

11. Blade Wolf – dead

=break=

Righteousness cannot save the world. ~ Emiya Kiritsugu

Kasugano Midori blankly stared at the scene in front of her.

The strong and scary villain that almost killed her had fallen to his knees, clutching at his right chest. The wolf-shaped villain tried to say something, but he choked on his own blood.

Meanwhile, a short figure with skull mask stood in front of the villain, keeping his distance. In his hand was the remain of a bloody heart.

Midori's rational thinking unconsciously made a connection between the villain's posture and the broken heart in the skull-masked figure. 'A spatial displacement type quirk? By touching his chest, he can take out the target's heart?'

Other than the skull mask and the ragged black cloth, her savior's other notable feature was the long arm, abnormally red in color.

She looked at her surroundings. Her fellow teachers were in various state of injuries, sprawled on the floor. Some of them were conscious, and just like her, warily observing the mysterious skull-masked figure.

"Are you a hero?" Midori asked, even if he already knew the expected answer. There was no hero who would lightly kill, not like this.

"Hm? Me? Hero?" The short figure chuckled. "No, I am just a cleaner."

He approached the wolf villain and sliced the villain's throat. "The world has accumulated too many villains. They are trash that need to be cleansed."

Midori shivered at the callous display of violence.

Midori was a gentle person at heart. That's why she enjoy being a school teacher. Even as necessity, she didn't really like the mandatory combat lesson.

The only reason she can become the last teacher standing against the wolf villain was because her quirk. Equal Momentum let her throw something, and the object would not stop regardless of any external force. The object would move in constant velocity and can't be stopped unless the quirk user was killed or the object was broken.

There were weaknesses to this quirk. First, it needed an object to be thrown. When Midori ran out of ammunition, she was checkmated. Second, the experienced villain easily avoided the projectiles once he learned about her quirk.

"You should not do that!" Midori can't help but say to the skull-masked. "Let pro heroes handle it. You shouldn't kill."

The skull-masked lazily looted the wolf villain body, searching for something. "But if I didn't help you, you would be dead by now. Heroes can't always arrive on time."

"But that didn't mean you should kill him!"

"These are cruel, evil villains that already killed children. I don't think he would repent and reform himself. And prison is too good for him, a prisoner wasted taxpayer money for food and security. Better just kill him." The skull-masked person found a golden key from wolf villain body and pocketed it.

"That's not for you to decide! There's law and court for that!" Midori said.

The skull masked person silently looked at her for a moment. "Midori-sensei, I respected you. But you are wrong in this case." He pointed at wolf villain body. "If you aim at the vital point from the beginning, he would be dead. But no, you allowed him to live, and he learned about your quirk and your movement pattern, and defeated you in the end. "

Midori was speechless. Because what this person said was true. If she was merciless from the start, they would not be defeated. But to deliberately aim to kill….

"I know, Midori-sensei is a good person." That person said. "That's why you are a nice teacher. But things in this world are not ideal. We must choose between more important and less important. Between hundreds of school children and one evil villain, who would you save?"

The skull masked figure didn't wait for her answer and left the place with high speed sprint.

Midori fell down and broke crying.

No, not because she was relieved by her rescue. Not because she agreed to what the skull-masked person said.

But because she realized that she never told her name to her savior. But from how he called her and how he knew about her, there was no doubt. The skull-masked person was her student. That's why he appeared here and why he looked so short.

She cried because she failed as a teacher.

=break=

Stomp them out! Stomp them out!

Talking with Midori-sensei had wasted too much time. I should not allow more distraction and finish this quickly.

This situation was similar to a game I had played, The Hero Quest. In one mission, there were many objectives player should complete, and completing them all was necessary for perfect play.

For example, there was a time limit. When player exceed certain time, the score was deducted. When player passed maximum time, the mission automatically failed.

And then there were the hostages. If too many hostages died, it was game over. But if all hostages survived, player gained bonus points.

And then there was another bonus point for non-lethal capture of the villains, but that was in a game. The game was not really realistic. Anyway, I had left two villains alive, so it was enough, right?

What I said to Midori-sensei was only half true. I didn't set out to cleanse the world. It was their bad luck encountering me in one of their villainous activity.

After playing games about heroes and also watching U.A sports festival, I had always wondered about my strength compared to this world quirk user. This villains attack gave me an opportunity to test my powers against them.

It's not like I was envious of the kids who openly showed their power or anything!

Before finishing the main mission, let's do the side objective.

I sprinted to another part of the building where one villain was hiding. He was hiding in Home Ec classroom?

Along the way, I eavesdrop the villain's conversation through the communicator.

"Boss? I finished sealing the bunker entrance. From the lack of sounds, I assume you have finished at your end?"

Bunker? Our school had one? I guessed they couldn't evacuate the students there because the villains moved too fast.

I arrived at the home ec classroom, looking the overall situation. A villain with orange costume and chubby body stood in the center. Below him, the floor was covered in sticky silk thread things, covering an area of 2x2 meters.

The villain must be Silky Thread, his ability was to spit silk thread from his mouth. He used the thread to capture enemy or children hostage.

He was also the finance manager of Red Lion Gang.

Now you can guess my side objective, right?

"Boss? Do you copy? Please respond. Boss?" The villain was distracted, unaware of me sneaking from behind.

Ah, but I don't want him dead. I still needed to question him later.

"Uninstall "

With that whisper, my transformation was cancelled and I reverted back to my original form. An elementary school girl wearing blue blazer uniform and skirt.

And then I took out a roll of steel wire, channeling prana to it. Preparation complete, I greeted him from behind. "Hey mister, what are you doing here?"

Silky Thread turned around in shock, ready to attack. But what he found was a little girl in school uniform. His posture relaxed, seeing no threat from a small kid.

"Ahaha, this uncle is not doing anything suspicious." He said, his expression changed from wariness to greed. He must have thought that I was just another potential hostage.

"Why don't you come with uncle to your friends... eh?" Silky Thread speech stopped when he saw wireless communicator on my ear. He must be surprised seeing an identical communicator that their villain gang used.

By the time he realized something was wrong, it's already too late.

Steel wire shot out and encircled him, binding his body and arms. For good measure, let's bind the legs too.

He tried to shoot silk thread from his mouth but it was intercepted by steel wire. Using the sticky silk thread attached, the steel wire also bound his mouth.

The sounds of our altercation must reached the other villains through his communicator. They started asking him the situation.

"Silky Thread. Respond. Situation report. Hello? Answer you damn caterpillar!"

By this point, only three villains remained. Gigant Steel, Dragonaut, and Magnet King. They were all gathered at the front gate, battling pro heroes.

As long as their comrades managed to gain control of the primary school building and effectively took school children hostages, they can retreat after stalling for time. When the villains had hostages, heroes couldn't aggressively attack.

Well, all their comrades were either dead or immobilized though.

"Mmmpph!" Silky Thread was struggling on the floor. Hey, he really looked like caterpillar!

I considered finishing off the remaining three villains but decided against it. Without hostages, they would be defeated eventually.

"CASTER INSTALL"

I felt my existence overlayed with that of Medea of Colchis. An Anti-hero, a witch from the age of gods. Her understanding of magecraft surpassed even me.

Silky Thread eyes widened in surprise seeing my transformation. It didn't matter if he knew. He would die soon.

This school was already covered by my bounded field. It was a weak bounded field, only for detection purpose, but Medea can alter it with ease.

Meanwhile, I commanded one of my familiar to change into sword form. I send it downward with deadly velocity, aiming for Magnet King's head.

His head burst like watermelon, splatrering red liquid everywhere. Heroes and villains alike stopped their movement.

I only said about not killing three of them. I only had the best of intention. See, for heroes, defeating two villains was faster than defeating three. I want to finish this incident more quickly and go home earlier.

Anyway, the reason I installed Caster was because of Silky Thread. He can't be captured by the police. So I need to teleport him somewhere safe with Caster ability.

I located an empty house near the school and teleported him there. After that I went back to school, landing on the rooftop overlooking the front gate.

The villains were still desperately struggling. And the hero was still overly cautious.

Hmm? Oh! They didn't know about the situation inside!

Silly me. I forgot to inform them.

Using magic to mask my voice, I addressed the heroes and villain fighting near the front gate. I also turned on the villain communicator.

"All the villains inside has been defeated. The attempt to take children hostage has failed. I repeat, all the villains inside has been defeated. The children are safe so you heroes should do your job and kill them already!"

Oops, I lost a bit of control at the end.

I made it so the voice seemed to come from everywhere. No need to show myself.

"Who is this? Why do you have our frequency?" A voice came from the communicator

"Obviously because I looted it from your friends' dead bodies." I answered.

All this time, I continued altering the bounded field.

When it finally completed, the bounded field would prevent any hostile action against children within the area. It was just another precaution, but one can't be too sure.

Well, the heroes' movement had become bolder after hearing my announcement. Let's give more help.

Ατλας (Atlas)

Medea can use High Speed Divine Words to accomplish Mystery, with casting speed and power incomparable to modern magus.

Suddenly the villains' bodies stopped moving. An unseen force locked them in their place, leaving them helpless against the heroes.

Without waiting too long, both villains were knocked out by heroes. Gigant Steel and Alligatorman were captured.

Alligatorman? Not Dragonaut?

Yeah, well. Truth was sometimes disappointing. His name was Dragonaut. But when I saw him, he didn't look like a dragon, at all!

He looked like an alligator. His quirk must be alligator related. Granted, he can breath fire, so maybe he got foolish idea about dragon from that. Maybe his father got alligator quirk and his mother got fire-breathing quirk. So I renamed him Alligatorman in my mind.

Anyway, I was done here. Let's teleport back to the classroom and pretend to be another scared child

=break=

12. Silky Thread - captured

13. Magnet King - dead

14. Gigant Steel - captured by heroes

15. Dragonaut - captured by heroes

16. Wraith - at large, hiding.

=end=

AN

1. do you realize the cctv was active all this time?

2. well yes, one villain escaped.

3. next chapter: the aftermath.

4. Thanks for the review and favfollow.

Honestly I had no idea about the future direction of this story. The nature of MHA forced any fanfic to make protagonist enter Yuuei highschool, if not they risk straying too far from canon and be forced to write from scratch. Or creating too many OCs and not using established character.

So, despite Illya not aspiring to be hero, I planned to make her enter Yuuei. In hero course, class 1A, along canon characters.

What do you think about that? Please leave your suggestion in review.