Jpx099 - Maybe I'm just waiting with All for One reveal for the right time :P

Trixuny - Fair, but Overhaul has him leashed for now.

Guest - Wars, in the end, are organized chaos. And chaos tends to shake off the organization at the first occasion.

Leo 23 - Yeah, it's Burnin. I-Island doesn't exit (too early).

WellLifeJustAintFair - Aye.

(***)

"First things first." Principal Sasaki announces. The emergency meeting includes himself, Chiyo Shuzenji, Aizawa, Torino, Backdraft and Defiant. The subject of it is the recent, completely unexpected battle. "Chiyo?"

The small doctor sighs.

"Gargoyle inhaled a lot of poison gas." She replies. "He is still unconscious. What's more, considering the fact that the analysis of the smoke was rather inconclusive and I can't tell you anything about its long-term effects on his body, I highly suggest involving Rewind just to be sure that it's all out of his system."

"And Firestorm?" Sasaki asks when she pauses for a second.

"She has maybe a few hours left." Shuzenji replies. "Critical condition. She's practically brain dead, and it's a miracle that she survived until her arrival in the hospital. We're keeping her on life support for now, but Rewind is the only way of saving her. That is…" She adds after a second. "... if we're planning to save her."

Ah, yes. The hardest question. She attacked a hero - and would have killed him if the kid that escaped from the trap didn't find Pinky on time. She was en route to investigate the fire (while probably not planning to intervene unless someone was trapped in it, she was supposed to stay hidden), but it was that survivor that made her rush to the scene and use her quirk.

Someone already talked with the kid. They had to tell him something, after all. Tsukauchi admitted that superheroes and supervillains are a thing, and that everything will become a public affair within a few months. But he also mentioned not telling anyone what happened beforehand, because if other villains will find out about it, they might try to hurt them in order to hurt the hero that saved him.

Gargoyle and Pinky got themselves their first fan.

The real problem, though, was the fact Tsukauchi provisionally graded Firestorm as an A-Rank. But Aizawa himself wasn't sure how they were supposed to keep the Izu Islands exile hidden if they sent someone who could incinerate the whole island in green flames. Someone would eventually notice.

"Fuck Firestorm." Torino speaks Aizawa's thoughts, just a bit more aggressively. "We have no clue how to properly imprison her either way, and we're certainly not letting her go. Let's just not save her and call it a day."

Shuzenji doesn't seem happy about it. Her profession is about saving lives, not letting them end. Especially not at the insistence of the third party. She is looking at Sasaki for support, but the Principal is unreadable.

"I vote to save her." Defiant speaks. He is uncharacteristically quiet today. Not anymore, it seems.

"Kid." Torino looks at him. "This is real life. I get it that you want to keep as many people alive as possible, but sometimes killing someone is what saves people."

"Pinky was kidnapped and forced to dissolve corpses for some crime syndicate." Defiant replies. "Including those of her own family. She was making steady progress in her therapy. Now, during her first battle against a villain, despite using all precautions, she saw her quirk practically melt a human being. A living human being. That alone is bad enough for her, and now you want to make her become a killer as well?"

Torino grits his teeth. He is about to unleash some nasty rebuke, when Principal Sasaki decides to intervene.

"I can find some additional arguments for saving Firestorm." He says. "First, we do not know if her death won't make Dabi go genocidal. Having living Firestorm in our custody will allow us to threaten him with a potential execution of his girlfriend if he tries that. What's more, if Overhaul will take some police officers prisoner and demand us to hand back all of the captive villains, we'll be able to counteract it that way as well. Overhaul will probably not risk having Dabi go renegade on him considering his ability to incinerate him almost instantly."

What a great time to live in. The one when police threatening a criminal with execution of his loved one is actually the most logical way of acting that can save a lot of lives. Aizawa is so done with the current year, and they are barely halfway through it.

"Two, we can imprison her." Sasaki continues. "I believe that shaving off her hair and keeping her in a fireproof cell with good ventilation will work. We should keep her unconscious until its construction is complete, and then move her there. I suggest constructing it on UA grounds, in order to allow Counselor Inui unrestricted access to the villain."

"What?" Aizawa is actually surprised enough to finally speak. "Why?"

"Due to the theory that the strong first generation quirks influence the minds of their users." Sasaki replies. "Having a living example in our custody should allow Ryo to confirm or rebuke this theory. And if it's true, it'll allow him to assess if it's something that can be countered with proper therapy."

He doesn't say it, but confirming beyond any doubt is among the UA's priority targets. The reason for that is simple. This will provide the public with explanation for the mass murders committed by people like Carnage or Dabi, together with a clause 'it's only a phase, and the remaining metahumans are immune to that'.

Many will still accuse all metahumans of being like to a degree. But it should at least dampen their attacks significantly.

"I support imprisonment." Backdraft says. Judging from the looks on the faces of Torino and Aizawa, they didn't expect that. "Fire department is supposed to save lives, not help end them. Besides, I, of all people, am really not looking forward to Dabi's revenge rampage."

"Fine." Torino retreats. But it's clear that he is pissed off at that. Aizawa follows suit.

"I'll ask Rewind for help after this meeting." Defiant says. "Though if she refuses to heal Firestorm, I'm not going to force her."

This is reasonable. No one in the room feels like forcing a six-year-old girl to practically relive the trauma that Overhaul gave her. Even if she seemed to have mostly gotten over it. Then again, the difference between voluntarily using her power and being forced to use the power is similar to voluntary and involuntary sex.

That changes a lot. Especially when traumas are involved.

"Also, I have a question to Backdraft." Defiant adds immediately. "Why the hell didn't the fire sprinklers work? If they did, none of this would have happened." The fact that Firestorm decided to confront Gargoyle in a place with a working fire-suppression system was probably the best description of how crazy she was.

"The shopping mall was cutting down on maintenance." Backdraft sniggers derisively. "Goddamn idiots. I'm going to murder it with fines for this fuck-up. If Firestorm went after regular shoppers rather than Gargoyle we would have dozens of corpses to bury."

Well, that explains it. The only remaining question is why the hell Firestorm was there. Did she just randomly run into one of the very few heroes that the Shie Hasseikai knew about and decided to fuck him up to make her boyfriend love her more?

"We must…" Dabi is about to shout at him, but Overhaul refuses to take that face down. Not in front of his praetorians.

"We must do exactly nothing at all, Dabi." Chisaki replies. "Your girlfriend decided to go shopping, using Kurogiri to warp to the mall in Takoba. Instead of using one in Hosu, because apparently they don't have the stuff she was looking for. Then she ran into Kirishima and decided to engage him, without at least warning Kurogiri that she might need an emergency evac. Not to mention calling in reinforcements."

Internally, Overhaul was seething. It was a complete fluke that she ran into Kirishima. If she called in the support, they would easily kill him and probably Ashido as well. Two heroes out of the picture in one evening. But rather than doing the smart thing, she went berserk and tried to fight them alone.

What a wasted opportunity.

"Moe Kamiji brought this onto herself." Overhaul says. "And I'm not wasting time and money to go on some hare-brained rescue mission. You should have controlled your…" He almost says whore, but stops himself. Dabi is already furious, let's not make it any worse. "... woman better. We'll free her once we find Tartarus' location. Not a day earlier."

Not like they are making an awful lot of progress on that field. None of the police officers that Inquisitor got to ask the question (typically through some megaphone, before running away together with his escort) knew a thing.

Only Defiant and Assistant Commissioner Aizawa certainly knew the truth. But the latter doesn't leave his precinct, where he is constantly guarded by at least a single squad of the Special Operations Unit (not to mention most likely having the heroes nearby to intervene).

And the former is somehow resistant to Inquisitor's quirk. Because of course he is. Overhaul suspects that he simply slammed his mouth shut with his telekinesis, at least judging from the fact that his grasp on Duststorm failed when he did so. Simple, but does the job.

Overhaul would say that there is a lesson in this, but he has already learned it. No need to go all out with your quirk when you can simply gun someone down or do something similarly… mundane. He deploys his villains only when nothing else would work. And with sufficient preparations to not lose them.

Trying to get to Aizawa through his family was a failure, too. They vanished from the prefecture a few weeks ago. The Assistant Commissioner knew how to keep them hidden from the world.

He even vanished Kirishima's mothers as well. What a goddamn pain in the ass. Overhaul was intelligent and crafty, unfortunately he has met his match. And that was making things more complicated than he thought.

"I'll get you something very nice to burn soon, Dabi." Overhaul says. He already has some plans. Musutafu is becoming a problem, due to local heroes and the police becoming organized enough? Well, how about gaining new sources of income outside of the prefecture?

Shizuoka should be ripe for the taking. He just needs some preparation. Some reconnaissance. And then… he'll send his underlings to take over its underworld.

Kirishima walks out of his hospital room, just in time to see Counselor Inui speak to clearly crestfallen Mina. She is sitting on the bench/couch by the wall, clearly looking down. He is still wondering what's going on when Inui tells Mina that Kirishima is here.

And then, when his girlfriend leaps at him, he vanishes in the background. Counselor can be surprisingly sneaky when he wants.

"Kiri!" She shouts while hugging him with all her might. She was crying. Unsurprising. "You…you're alright, I was so worried and…"

"It's alright, Mina." He interrupts while reciprocating her hug. "You saved my life. And that was super manly."

He isn't lying. She instantly put out all the flames in the supermarket and… well, Kirishima didn't exactly enjoy being the damsel in distress for that one, but he is very happy that his prince was there for him.

She snorts through her tears.

"You know that I know that you are only using that word so often because it makes me laugh every time, right?" She asks. Still hugging him. Then again, that's what boyfriends/girlfriends are for, among other things.

"Absolutely." Kirishima replies with a cheerful smile. "And I'll keep doing that. No amount of tickling can change that."

She actually chuckles at that. Seems like she wasn't doing that bad. Then again, sometimes it's not visible at first glance.

Kirishima takes advantage of his slightly taller build and uses one arm to hug, while the other lands on her hair. Some headpats never hurt.

"...how are you doing?" He asks. They are both completely ignoring the world around them. Not like a lot is happening there, but…

"Shouldn't I be asking that question to you?" She dodges the question. "You were wounded and…"

"You know what I meant, Mina." He replies. "And it's a very manly thing to worry about your girlfriend in moments like this, you know. It means that I care."

"Yeah, I guess." She pulls back a bit, enough for some eye contact. "I'm… I'm alright. Firestorm is going to survive, and… Midoriya said that it wasn't my acid. They think that her quirk misfired and produced corrosive flames. It was… bad to see it, but…" She takes a deep breath. "... I'm not the same girl as I was when I showed up at your doorstep."

He knows that. And he thinks that it's great. It was a long journey, but every day made him see more of the old Mina in her. Willpower and determination needed to patch yourself up from something like that… that could be described as 'peak manly', let's be real.

Counselor Inui still came to check up on her. That man really left nothing up to chance. Then again, the last thing the UA wanted was a person capable of melting down buildings going renegade.

"I know, Mina." Kirishima smiles. "And I must say that you were super heroic in that supermarket, you know? Heroic and…" He pauses for a second. She looks at him in badly concealed horror.

"Please, n…" There is no escape.

"... manly." He says. She immediately tries to tickle him in retaliation. Unfortunately, hardening doesn't make him immune to that, for some reason.

Izuku is tired. It was a really hard night for him. He fell asleep, exhausted by two dates in one day and dealing with two girlfriends that really wanted to show him their gratitude (this is literally the last time he is having two dates in one day, enough is enough). Then, he heard that Kirishima and Ashido were attacked.

The next few hours were a blur. The emergency meeting, the unexpected visitation at Bakugous… at least they did agree to letting him borrow Eri for a moment. Officially, because some police officer needed to ask her a few questions concerning what she knew about Kai Chisaki.

Eri enjoyed the nightflight a lot. She was also amazed by Eclipse's quirk. Mieko, in the meantime, seemed to have decided that Eri's the cutest thing ever, a fact that Izuku absolutely agreed with (Tsuyu was the cutest thing ex acqueo with Eri though).

She rewinded Kirishima. She also rewinded Firestorm. The villain naturally woke up, only to be immediately tased into unconsciousness by Hawks (who wanted to be present at the scene for that very purpose). She was then shaved bald and transported into the medical section of Tartarus to stay sedated until a permanent prison cell will be constructed.

In all honesty, the most interesting part of that was seeing Chiyo Shuzenji almost shamelessly trying to bribe Eri with candies and gummies to make her consider a career in healthcare.

The worst part was that it seemed to be working. Especially once Doctor Shuzenji said that being a doctor AND a superhero is completely possible. More than that, knowing things about conventional healthcare might be greatly beneficial to a heroic career. After all, there might be more wounded people than Eri's quirk can handle in front of her, and then knowing how to keep them alive for future treatment is extremely useful.

Izuku returned home after that, crawled into his bed, hugged Tsuyu once again (she quietly ribbited in her sleep when that happened, and Izuku found that adorable) and fell asleep.

Then, in the morning, there was an official welcome back party for Kirishima. Hijack dropped by with the entire Aldera Branch. Which changed the party into the general welcome party for people who were going to soon join the Special Course.

Eclipse's usefulness as their personal taxi was immeasurable. She kept training the usage of her surface for combat, and Izuku at this point was fairly certain that she was capable of fighting Amplitude or Tornado like an equal.

Izuku himself didn't enjoy the idea of fighting her for real. The edges of her surface were monomolecular. She could only launch them on straight trajectories, but the speed was rather significant. This meant that Mieko Eto could easily slice Dabi or Mustard in half - vertically, even.

Carnage was fast enough to dodge, unless it was fired point blank. But at least during their first encounter, he'd try to block it itself. And that meant instant death.

Izuku could actually grab them without dying thanks to his quirk, but honestly, Eclipse would be a rather brutal enemy to have. Which is why it was pretty great to see her being happy among the heroes and immediately hit it off with Split, although Izuku has a faint feeling like they were all going to regret those two meeting.

Izuku himself decided to retreat for some much needed space. Or, to be exact, have a quick talk with Shinsou, who retired to the edge of the room, away from the bustling activity. Eyeing the crowd.

"So…" Izuku starts. "How is the Aldera Branch doing?"

Shinsou looks vaguely pained by Izuku of all people entering his comfort zone. Then again, Himiko was busy with the festivities, and that left him vulnerable.

"Pretty nice." He replies. "Quicksand had an intervention today. Car crash. Instead of spending who knows how much time pulling the victims out of the totaled car, he just made the car go liquid while maintaining its shape. The local firefighters are absolutely ecstatic about working with him."

The victims were probably deeply surprised by the firefighters telling them to close their eyes and then them suddenly being outside of their cars. Or at least that's how Izuku imagines the intervention to look like.

It seemed like everything was going absolutely alright in Aldera. The real frontline in that was in Takoba, with Aldera being mostly on the side of law while Hosu was falling to Overhaul bit by bit for months now.

The two superheroes were there just in case Overhaul decided to open another front. Losing someone in Aldera simply because all superheroes were amassed in Takoba would be stupidity.

"So, do you think that Split can do it?" Izuku asks. The girl in question is busy whispering something at least slightly spicy into Eclipse' ear, both girls with glasses of beer in their hands. Jirou looks at them in a way that can only be described as 'stare of suspicion'.

Hijack thinks it over for a few seconds. Eventually he arrives at the conclusion.

"During peacetime, I'd say 'hell yes'." Hitoshi says. "She is quite motivated, rather intelligent and surprisingly creative. But… Well, seeing villains like Dabi or Carnage and being able to think and fight in a pinch is what differentiates wheat from chaff. Unless Aldera becomes a battleground like Takoba, I think she'll do alright. If that changes, well, then we'll find out how good she really is."

Shinsou is surprisingly insightful. In all honesty, he seems to be oddly good at reading people. The only real fuck-up was his attempt to mind-control Defiant in Hosu, but that seemed to be an exception confirming the rule.

"Well, she better do alright." Izuku replies. "Because I'm planning to recall you and Carmilla."

Izuku wasn't sure if having a sidekick in charge of a branch with regular superheroes was an oddity or not. Even if in his opinion she was going to graduate into superhero status sooner or later. Then again, it was a position that was equal parts administrative and social. They needed someone to keep the Aldera Branch heroes from going at each other's throats, and Setsuna Tokage was social and friendly enough (perhaps too much) to achieve that.

Shoto Todoroki wasn't social. Like, at all. Oh, he was friendly enough and his jokes about his father were nice and so on, but he was still socially awkward and leaning heavily towards the introvert end of the scale.

Inasa Yoarashi was his exact opposite. He was very extrovertic. Too much. And way too loud. And while he was smart enough to be rather creative and quick thinking in combat, doing the job of an administrator of a branch was a bit… not his type of thing.

Then again, at least in a way, Aldera Branch simply didn't have their own superhero. Instead, Amplitude and Tornado were more like an army garrison. There in case Overhaul did something funny in the city.

"Awww, missing me already?" Hitoshi decides to ask the most horrific of questions.

"Hell no." Izuku replies immediately, with a brief look of disgust on his face. "Look, I think about making the underground heroes into a de facto separate branch of the Metahuman Network. And about making you its head."

Shinsou actually blinks at Izuku a few times after this. It did come out of the blue.

"Huh." He eventually settles on a reaction. "That's unexpected. All of that just to make me move out permanently?" Of course, he turns that into a joke.

"Not quite." Izuku replies. "Eventually we're going to have… well, who knows how many underground heroes. Only three thus far, but it might change. I, as a branch head of Takoba, can keep an eye on you and Carmilla since you are living here, but what if we get an underground hero for the Aldera branch?"

The third underground hero was Tokoyami. In his case, not exactly due to any crimes he committed (it was Shadow, and no one was permanently wounded). More like, due to the potential stigma of having a semi-unstoppable (it was cooperating due to blackmail, let's be honest) 'shadow demon' living inside him.

Not to mention having a family AND a past of being in a psychiatric hospital. He wasn't potentially marketable, nor he really wanted to be. So he was content staying off the books even after the Reveal Day.

"So you plan to make me independent from branch heads…" Shinsou summarizes. "... and instead make me tangentially responsible for providing an additional overwatch to the underground heroes as a whole. So, I'd probably end up doing inspections, reviewing underground heroes candidates and so on. That's… a bit of an odd job for an underground hero, you know?"

Izuku sighs.

"Look, I told you back in Hosu that I realize why you committed crimes." He replies, while Shinsou is busy observing him closely. "And I don't hold a grudge with you over that. And for as much as you constantly pissing me off with your attitude, you're intelligent enough to know when someone is trying to trick you. You also have the street smarts that I don't. Not to mention your quirk allows you to root out potential rotten eggs."

Answering questions in the trance WITHOUT resisting it could as well be a basic requirement for being recruited into the Underground Hero program. All they needed was an answer to the question of whether they genuinely want to turn the leaf and return to the side of law.

"So you'd still be here." Izuku continues, trying not to sound personally saddened by it. "It's just that you would be working for me as the Metahuman Network leader, not me as the Takoba Branch leader. Tokoyami and Toga would also work for you, not for me, despite being housed in our headquarters."

"... you only added this because you thought that having Himiko be administratively subservient to me would make me more likely to accept it, didn't you?" Shinsou asks dryly. Izuku does his best to appear shocked by the suggestion. "Well, this sounds tempting and like a good idea. Yours or Mera's?"

"Mera's." Izuku replies. "Took me a while to figure out that it's a good idea. And he didn't suggest you as a leader, instead some 'official' hero whom I trust."

The words 'and I decided that you are someone I trust' were left unspoken. Hitoshi Shinsou was a pain in the ass to deal with, but after working for several weeks, Izuku decided that he is willing to trust Hijack with something like that.

"I think that I'm ready to agree to this." Hitoshi eventually says. "Though it's hard to say if there are any potential underground heroes. It's not like Glassmaker, Jetstream or Firestorm are candidates."

Firestorm was obsessed with Dabi to the point where it was most certainly unhealthy. Practically a yandere. Then again, it was a first generation quirk, and it was rather… toxic in a mechanism, so it was perhaps logical.

And Jetstream and Glassmaker were both too terrified of Overhaul to even consider switching sides. Not like Izuku would consider including either. They clearly enjoyed being criminals a bit too much.

"It might happen faster than we all think." Izuku replies. "I got a text message from Hawks a few hours ago. Apparently the Metropolitan SAT got some of the local police officers enlightened. They found some metahumans and would really enjoy our expertise in organizing them."

"So, we're opening a Tokyo branch?" Shinsou asked, clearly surprised by the news. "How much are they ready to listen to some country bumpkins?" He has a point. Tokyo is Tokyo, after all.

"Not so much." Izuku replies. "Thankfully they aren't going to be subjects to the Takoba branch of the Network, but directly to its leader. Who just happens to be residing elsewhere for now. Once we deal with Overhaul and the Reveal Day happens, I'll probably end up moving to the capital after naming someone else to be the prefectural head of the Network for the Musutafu. Considering what you just agreed to, you'll probably end up moving there with me."

"Oh, joy." Shinsou says dryly. "So I assume that you'll have me help them organize their first branch for Tokyo, and then whoever will be its head will be tasked with repeating the same thing for the rest of the capital. Making him the theoretical temporary 'prefectural head' for Tokyo."

Tokyo was divided into several prefectures. Then again, the NPA had a special rank (Superintendent General) for someone dealing with Tokyo as a whole. Ranked even above the regional heads (the Senior Commissioners). They could have something similar. Then again, the Network was still at its infancy.

"Well, we're a bit too focused on securing Musutafu to be able to do a lot of micromanaging in Tokyo." Izuku replies. "Thankfully, the guy that'll most likely be the first branch head, Koichi Haimawari, sounds smart and decent enough. And no, Hijack. You aren't going to go help them."

Hijack looks at him questioningly.

"We're going to go help them." Izuku replies. No way he is letting someone start a Network branch in a completely different prefecture (and in capital, no less) without him at all.

Hopefully, nothing crazy will happen in Musutafu during their brief trip to Tokyo.

(***)

Surprise. Nobody expected Koichi Haimawari. Crawler's getting the recognition, because let's be real, that guy's really op in canon (while also pretty cool guy), so making him into a de facto Number Two Hero makes perfect sense. Especially as we know he is in Tokyo. The Network expands throughout the country, as it rightly should :3 And yes Izuku, I'm certain that nothing's going to happen in Musutafu while you're gone.

The old Mina is finally back, her demons mostly conquered. Kirishima, you have achieved the Peak Manliness achievement for this, ngl.