Jpx099 - Let's just say that after the events of this chapter Stain & Co will be a surprise tools that will help us later.
Fencer29 - I think that even the hair quirk has its limits xD
(***)
"Yes." Izuku replies, his musings about potential governmental conspiracies left for later. "She's working for me, in fact. But unless she agrees to it, I'm not telling you anything more than that."
By all intents and purposes, Edge appeared to be gravitating towards a career in Underground Heroism. Unlike Deadshot (who was giving that 'calm sniper' vibes with just a hint of internal desire for cuteness) or the eternally scatterbrained and friendly Immortal, she was…
…well, Izuku certainly disliked the idea of putting her anywhere near the cameras. Even after the Big Reveal moment. Seeing her being this aggressive would ruin the metahuman press easily. Rabbit seemed to understand it as well, and was subtly pushing her towards making that decision herself.
Besides, she clearly felt alright in the seedy alleyways.
With the Sekoto Branch still not officially open, she was certainly working for Izuku. Even if he preferred to ask Rabbit to ask her to do something. She was absolutely incapable of saying no to Rabbit.
He quickly sent a message to Mei, telling her to inform Rabbit about the… development. Perhaps to find a way to communicate the situation to Edge. As she, if Izuku remembered correctly, had some serious beef with her parents.
Wait, parents? Is her dad here, too? Knuckleduster or Stain? Does he even want to know?
"Ehhhh?" Luna's head tilts sideways. "She works for a wimp like you? What can you even do, huh?"
Izuku doesn't exactly enjoy being referred to as a wimp. Yes, his body is weak, but a lot of things changed for the better during the last months. It's quite ironic, but he both hates being looked down upon… while looking down upon himself more often than not.
He wishes that Tsukauchi or Hawks would intervene. But instead, well, let's twist the truth a bit. Besides, he has a reputation to build.
"Well, I did manage to kill Goto Imasuji." He says, putting a strong accent on 'did manage'. One small needle to wipe off the irritating look on her face. Not exactly true - QSU sniper was involved as well (plus Kirishima, the Ultimate Punching Bag), but…
Neither Hawks nor Tsukauchi comment on that. It's getting almost suspicious, really. The reaction on the other side of the table is much less subdued.
"The Beast is dead?!" Stain lets out. Luna actually froze for a moment, in a visible shock. Knuckleduster seems to be thoughtful, but doesn't vocalize his opinion.
"He was dead. Not anymore." Tsukauchi finally decides to speak. When the eyes focus on him, he decides to add. "There is a supervillain in the prefecture that's capable of resurrecting freshly deceased. The others grew extremely creative in ensuring that their bodies are recovered by their compatriots. At this point all of them died at least once."
Well, if you excluded Overhaul. And added the casualties sustained during the Shizuoka Massacre. Dabi was still number one in the leaderboard. Especially if he did succumb to his injuries during the Marukane Ward fire.
"And he is here because…" Knuckleduster doesn't specify whom does he means. But he clearly doesn't have to. Luna, in the meantime, seems busy reevaluating the wimp in front of her.
"Because he is by all intents and purposes Japan's Number One Superhero." Tuskauchi replies. "Head of the Metahuman Network, the countrywide organization that gathers metahumans and offers their services to the police and rescue services. With a three digit number of members." Which was a rather sneaky way of putting it. It was close to 200, but it could as well mean nine hundred.
That doesn't answer the question if you really think about it, though. But it probably wasn't supposed to. Slight dodge and slight improvement of Defiant's street rep.
"... and is also unfairly overpowered." Hawks decides to add. "By which I mean that he is capable of instantly killing or incapacitating anyone within this bar. I'm here as a comic relief, not as a bodyguard."
How did the situation escalate from Izuku's instinctual counter to being called a wimp to dick measuring contest between the police and vigilantes (or, to exact, metahuman measuring contest) is anyone's guess. But it certainly calms the visitors down a bit.
"That sounded almost like a threat." Knuckleduster says, his eyes narrowing.
"More like a warning." Tsukauchi replies. "Stain and Luna are both classified by us as B-Rank villains for multiple cases of first-degree murder. The only reason…" He says before either of the called-out people managed to protest. "... why we're having this talk, is that we know that the victims were all particularly nasty criminals. And considering the chaos in Japan, we aren't in a position to turn away possible allies. Unless…" He pauses his speech for a second, just enough to make them refocus on him. "... they go too far. Or fail to persuade us that letting them go is going to save more lives than it'll end."
"I'm going to…" Luna tries to say something. Stain is intimidatingly silent. Knuckleduster hijacks the conversation.
"We're here because we're interested in eliminating supervillains. Permanently. For a variety of reasons." He says, his eyes on Tsukauchi. "Goto managed to escape us which, indirectly, makes us partially responsible for his further crimes. We're seeking to amend that."
"And you decided to go to the police?" Tsukauchi sounds like he is actually amazed at the gall that this required. "You expect us to fund your further murders?"
"I prefer the term 'permanent discouragement from murdering civilians'." Knuckleduster shoots back. "And just so we're clear, the idea came before you managed to show us the degree of your preparations to deal with the issue." He probably referred to Defiant. "Tokyo was doing less well on that field."
Another thing that was recently changing. Repulse was doing quite well, especially with the police there to help curtail the organizational chaos a bit. And with the Musutafu prefecture offering a sort of a template to go by.
"So you do realize that we aren't exactly in need of a secret assassination unit." Tsukauchi decides to be a tiny bit sassy about it. "And we're doing quite fine when countering metahuman crimes is involved."
"Dunno about that." Knuckleduster shots back. "How's it going with Goto? I heard he is still kicking despite all that you did. You might want to consult professionals before trying to kill him the second time, you know?"
Well, he isn't wrong about that. Judging from the faint flinch on Tsukauchi's face, the police officer realized that as well. The offer to consult professionals was preposterous, but Tsukauchi overcharged when he said that the police is doing fine.
He expected Mei to message him back in response to the Rini case. Instead, Rabbit contacted him directly. To Izuku's surprise, she was alright with meeting them. So he quickly zoned out from the talk for a moment and messaged Asa back.
The speech-to-text and ability to isolate sounds coming from under his helmet were a blessing.
Defiant: Is she sure that she wants to meet them? I thought she didn't want them anywhere close to her?
Rabbit: she says that she can't kick their asses without getting close to them
Uh-oh. Because of course that someone showed Rini the anime classics. He might actually want to make that meeting, just to knock them down a notch. For now, he decides to come back to the talk.
"...really thinking that we're going to let you do as you please, you're delusional." Tsukauchi's still at that. Izuku almost wants to say something, but he decides against it. He is working for the police, not the other way around. The police would struggle without Network, but Network wouldn't exist without the police.
His part in the talk was practically over.
Hawks, oddly enough, comes to the rescue.
"Just yeet them into Hosu and be done with it." He says. Tsukauchi turns his head to look at him, clearly shocked. "This city can't get any worse, either way. And it's not like there is any police presence there to speak off. No laws, no crimes."
"What?" Tsukauchi fails to compute. Izuku does so as well.
"Look, as far as I know, the Network has no presence in Hosu, yes?" Hawks says. Midoriya finds himself nodding.
"We've evacuated our branch from the city a few months ago." Izuku says. At this point, pretending to be a bigger deal than he truly was came naturally to him. It wasn't actually a branch, after all. "A bit too hot for our taste."
He still has Carmilla and Hijack to send in if needed. They'd do well enough in the city. But no one else in the Network, in Midoriya's opinion, is streetwise enough to survive in Hosu. At least outside of the part of the city nominally controlled by the police and the GSDF.
"But Overhaul has his stronghold there." Hawks replies. "The way I see it, just tell them to do whatever the hell they want in that city for as long as they share the intel they get on his operations with us. And if he ends up killing them, at least we won't lose anything we'll seriously miss."
"Awww, how charming." Stain deadpans. Izuku can only see Hawks' eyes, but he is rather certain that Hawks' pissed off big time. Midoriya can only wonder what happened between these two.
"I preferred to end this day without getting to see your face, Akaguro." Hawks shoots back. "Now it's ruined. And it gets even more ruined the more I get to listen to you. So leave talking to Knuckleduster if you can."
Midoriya says nothing. Once again, it's not his decision to make. The situation is too serious for that.
"I'm going to need to consult the Commissioner." Tsukauchi is clearly aware that they are doing another deal with the devil right after the last one slightly blew up in their faces. He doesn't like that.
Commissioner Aizawa probably doesn't like it either. He didn't send any messages to Izuku, but Mei is streaming the recording of the talk from his uniform to him. Tsukauchi is doing the consultation to find out his opinion on the matter without informing the other party that they are being recorded.
Then again, Izuku suspects that they are aware of it. Knuckleduster and his little organization/group (the amount of The Boys vibes they were giving him was astounding) felt competent enough to realize that.
Hawks and Stain almost started a fight over the small issue of consulting Aizawa. Stain wanted to accompany Tsukauchi during the phone call. Hawks was against. Eventually Izuku had enough (not like Tsukauchi's opinion on that was any different) and pointed out that they'll both be within the range of his quirk, so if something happens, he'll be able to stop it.
Hawks gave up.
Commissioner Aizawa, to Midoriya's slight surprise, actually agreed. Once Defiant thought about it for a moment, he decided that Hosu was probably so much of a black hole in the police intelligence network that Aizawa would have seriously considered selling his soul to the devil in order to fill it.
Ever since Overhaul relocated from Takoba to Hosu, they couldn't even start thinking of a direct assault on his headquarters - simply because they had no idea where it was. Overhaul was increasingly paranoid ever since the war started (then again, was it really paranoia if it was justified?).
Defiant deflects the further inquiries about Rini. For as much as he lowkey wants to witness the showdown, it's really not the time for it. He isn't inviting any vigilante into his headquarters, and improvising a meeting anywhere else is probably a bad idea. They'll have their meeting at some other time.
(***)
Rini starts spending thrice as much as time in the combat training after that, doing her absolute utmost to brutally murder any sandbag that has the misfortune of being in the same room as the rabbit girl.
According to Rabbit (the closest thing they have to an expert on Edge) she is both pissed off at her parents daring to show up again and really internally confused on technically being in something akin to a relationship with Rabbit.
When she doesn't know how to unpack something emotionally, she tends to unwind with extreme violence. She reminds Izuku of Bakugou, except she clearly found healthier outlets for the violence.
Izuku has no idea how their relationship is working in practice. No one saw them getting cuddly or kissing, that's for sure. But Rabbit looks actually happy about his life for once, and that alone makes it worth it.
It also turned out that her parents were Luna and Stain. Hawks looked like he wanted to vomit when it was brought up and refused to elaborate on why he hates Stain so much. He also knew nothing about Stain's quirk.
He probably had one if he managed to fight Goto though. They just didn't know what it was.
(***)
"It appears that…" Overhaul says loudly. "... the preparations for the Gunga Compound assault have been successfully concluded."
There are only three people in the room with him. Hari Kurono, his faithful right hand man. Purity, who not only had a lot of skills when organizing things and planning operations were involved but also knew the most about their target. And Tadashi Nishimoto, the head of Overhaul's praetorian unit.
In a way, those three were his closest circle of advisors currently. Kurono was the most important, naturally. Purity was acutely aware that her long-term participation in this small council depended entirely on her usefulness and good behavior. So she behaved.
"So when are we starting?" Kurono asks. Nishimoto doesn't comment on it. If Purity managed to read him well enough, he thinks that Overhaul got a bit too ambitious with the plan. Then again, it's logical. And if it truly works… the local police department will be finished. And the Shie Hasseikai will turn into a criminal superpower.
They need it. Especially after the recent string of.. issues. Frenzy was going to be a powerful new recruit, except she was out of the picture now. Overhaul's little research project (the implications of it were borderline terrifying - and intriguing - to Purity) was progressing nicely, but with the police taking out that supply line, it was temporarily stopped.
The heroes had a numerical superiority now. That was a problem to be amended as soon as possible. They would have already begun to plan the assault on Shie Hasseikai headquarters if they knew where to find it.
"In a week." Overhaul replies. "We have something else to do first. I want to taunt Aizawa. Make him angry. Angry people make mistakes. And I think I know how to do it. I have just the right plan for that."
Purity is slightly irritated by the plan not being consulted with them earlier. So she decides to ask. Respectfully.
Oh. Well, that's an interesting plan. Whether it works or not is irrelevant, in the end. Purity would have sent Dabi instead, but it seems that the point isn't to intimidate but to taunt. And that's something completely different.
It's going to be a fun week, either way.
(***)
There was one thing that Yokumiru Mera enjoyed more than anything else in the world (even more than a good night's sleep). It was the delightful combination of peace and quiet. Without mass murders, without explosions, without anything else that forced the police to operate different than usual.
Yokumiru Mera didn't enjoy sudden changes. He did enjoy changing his precinct into a well-oiled machine that kept peace within Aldera and the surrounding countryside without major problems. When he could take a nap in his office, knowing full well that nothing out of the ordinary was going to happen and ruin his peace.
He enjoyed repeating the same day over and over again, without interruptions, without changes, without metaphorical (or not) earthquakes.
It was bad enough to have to deal with the aftermath of the war. Aldera managed to avoid the worst fallout of it, and Yokumiru Mera somehow kept it that way to this day. Fun fact about well-oiled and properly cared for machinery is that it doesn't break the next day after you run out of maintenance funds and oil - it'll continue working for a bit longer before everything comes to halt.
Then metahumans happened. Mera's more or less organized life did a 180. He realized he had to adapt and did his genuine best to somehow… organize this mess. Converting the chaos into order, to the best of his ability. He was still struggling, to be frank.
His sleeping schedule suffered as a result. And he ended up doing self-imposed overtime way more often than he wanted to. Today was one of those days.
It was almost night when he finally emerged from his office, looking forward to resting in his bed. He truly did deserve it.
The work on the precinct never truly died. Yes, the night was calmer as they didn't need detectives on the night shift - what was left present on the precinct were mostly the lower ranked police officers. The ones that were to respond to trouble. So it was less populous, but certainly not abandoned.
Mera was having a quick last-minute talk with two police officers (something minor that he forgot to mention earlier but which might have been important) when someone arrived. Four police officers that he didn't recognize.
Now, that alone wasn't a cause for an alarm. They were most likely sent in with some errand from another precinct. They walked towards Mera and the officers, looking absolutely not suspicious at all. Besides, they were let in, so their papers had to be correct.
Yokumiru Mera wasn't a paranoid man. But he was observant and methodical. He also personally disliked certain things. Such as looking messy while at work. He was generally considered to be a pain in the ass when uniforms and the likes were involved. Everyone knew that.
And yet, one of the newcomers clearly didn't care a lot about his uniform. It would be absolutely acceptable in any other precinct in Musutafu, but sending someone like that to THIS precinct? Even if you knew that Mera wasn't going to be there (he was supposed to go home three hours ago), it was still a bit… odd. Strike one.
The visitors came closer. Mera noticed the messy man's extremely dry man really didn't look like Mera would expect a police officer to do. Strike two.
Then he saw (for a split second, the odd man was behind the others) that he was wearing gloves. Artist ones. And that was strike three. This time not because of aesthetics, but because his mind made the connection.
Duststorm.
There goes his nice and simple evening.
"Oh dear me." He says loudly waving towards the newcomers. "What brings you here?"
The two police officers accompanying him freeze for maybe a split second when they hear the magic words, before returning to act naturally. The new arrivals clearly failed to notice that.
Mera doesn't consider himself to be a paranoid man. But his greatest strength lies in figuring out rules, guidelines and protocols. Reading about Carmilla's quirk made him realize that there are quirks out there that let you impersonate people. So, naturally, he made some guidelines and rules to counter that.
Such as the phrase 'Oh dear me'. The police officers from his precinct (all currently aware of the metahumans existence) knew that what it truly meant was 'suspected villain infiltrator on the premises'. Yes, Duststorm's quirk wasn't about infiltration, but… it certain was a villain infiltration.
Perhaps Mera was paranoid after all? But in times such as the ones they were living in, it saved lives.
"Commissioner Aizawa told us to pick some papers for him." One of the not-Duststorm's replies. "We came to…"
Mera doesn't wait. If he is right, he is facing an A-Rank villain and three of Overhaul's praetorians. They have only one advantage - the fact that their enemies don't know that they were recognized. He and the police officers right beside him have a two or three seconds of headstart when the firefight starts.
(***)
Mera runs back into his office in time. It's the dead end, but it's not like he can keep going. Being shot in the shoulder lets you continue running for as long as the plot demands only in the movies.
He hides behind the desk. The firefight was loud enough. The police officers should come running any second now, together with the heroes that had a guard shift on the precinct. That should be…
"Hey, mister police officer!" Duststorm taunts him from the other side of the door. He is the only one of the attackers that remained operational at this point. The happiness in his voice is… eerie, considering the circumstances. "Do you know why I called myself Duststorm?"
"No, and I don't really care." Mera shouts back, the gun in his hand. He can't exactly move from here, but Duststorm will have to either go through the door or make a hole in the wall. Both options will expose him for a second or two, enough for Mera to shoot him and…
"Well, you're about to see it either way." Duststorm laughs. A second later the wall of Mera's office begins to decay.
Mera realizes that this day won't end nicely for him when the resulting dust is scattered throughout his office… and everything that the gray matter touches begins to decay as well.
(***)
This time the meeting was made in a completely different and much grimmer atmosphere. It was also almost the full cast. From principal Sasaki to detective Tsukauchi. Everyone involved from the UA, everyone involved from the police. Plus Defiant.
"What are the official numbers?" Principal decides to end the awkward (and maybe a bit furious) silence.
"Duststorm's quirk destroyed half of the precinct." Aizawa replies. Outwardly he appears calm, but his eyes speak murder. "We have nine dead police officers, including Assistant Commissioner Mera. The numbers would be at least twice as big if not for Split's quick thinking. When she realized that the effect was spreading too fast, she used her quirk to grab as many people as possible and fly them out of the building."
"Is she…" Sasaki tries to ask back, but Aizawa moves faster.
"Turns out that being able to detach your body parts at will makes you at least partially resistant to Duststorm's decay." Commissioner says. "She still lost something close to 70% of her body mass."
Worst of all, a fact that Defiant and Principal already heard about, her regeneration was somehow interfering with Eri's Rewind. Izuku was looking forward to testing Immortal's Hyper-Regeneration as well to see if repelling such external influences was a common element of regeneration quirks. .
For now, Split lost so much of flesh that her quirk was wasting 95% of its strength on keeping her alive. She was regenerating (VERY slowly) but it was going to take her at least two to three weeks to get anywhere back to livable conditions.
Witch was there as well, but she didn't have any impact. She actually managed to grow a mushroom in Duststorm's throat, which was a very cool if scary attack. But he quickly ate a mouthful of his dust, applying the decay into the foreign matter in his throat.
Crafty fucker.
Worst of all, Kinoko probably felt guilty. They arrived almost fast enough to stop Duststorm from murdering Mera. Almost. She got the mushroom in his throat right after he unleashed his attack. Literally seconds too late.
Then she was forced to run, together with Split. While gathering whoever they could.
Shit.
"We're yet to analyze the recordings from what's left from the security cameras…" Aizawa continues. "... but according to the testimonies of Split and Witch, Duststorm's capable of self-propagating attacks. He decayed a wall into grayish dust. Whatever the dust touched, decayed into more dust. We aren't sure if the attack ceased because it run out of power or because Kurogiri warped him out together with the rest of the assassination team."
Split could fly pretty fast. They were actually not far from Mera when the attack started. They ended up arriving first. Mera would probably be irritated about his precinct officers' response time if he…
Izuku decides not to think about this. The heroes did all they could. The rest was the result of the villains having the initiative. You can't be vigilant everywhere at all times. If anything, the only reason why Overhaul didn't have Dabi incinerate Aizawa together with his entire precinct was because he wasn't ready for an all-out war and military intervention.
If this changes… Well, the heroes will only be able to respond to the aftermath.
"I believe that Duststorm has to be 'promoted' to the S-Rank." Aizawa looks at Defiant and Tsukauchi for confirmation. They both nod. If Duststorm did this on a crowded street during a strong wind… worst of all, he would probably enjoy doing that.
They spend the rest of the meeting trying to figure out why did Overhaul order the assassination. And then on trying to figure out what Aizawa is supposed to tell governor Yagi (who expects to meet him later that day).
Izuku spent the rest of the meeting trying not to think about how someone he knew and worked with just died. It won't happen again anytime soon, right? They were so careful thus far and…
(***)
... you didn't expect the war to be entirely bloodless on the side of the heroes, hmm?