The Knights are having the upper hand in this talk, and it's rather clear. At this point even Aizawa seems to be giving up on trying to change that. Paladin seems to be mildly satisfied with that fact.

"Not long before the village was burned to the ground we've become aware that there was something fishy going on with it." Paladin announces while pushing back in his seat a bit. "We're keeping an eye on what's going on around those mountains, and it's not far from one of our facilities, I'm sure you understand."

"We do, yes." Aizawa says while staring Paladin down. He isn't successful. It probably further ruins his humor. "What did you discover?"

"That this village was by all intents and purposes ruled by a supervillain with a powerful mind-control blessing." Paladin replies and Defiant almost chokes under his helmet. "Powerful enough to change every single villager into his remotely operated puppet."

"And you didn't do anything about that?" Aizawa decides to be accusative. Paladin clearly doesn't like it, but remains as diplomatic as possible.

"I'd like to point out that this doing anything about that wasn't, technically, our responsibility. But yours." He has a point. It was the police that's responsible for law enforcement in the prefecture, not a secret militia hiding in the mountains. "Regardless of that, we did plan to eliminate the supervillain in question. However, considering the strength of the blessing in question, we decided against storming the village without understanding its inner workings first. Especially as we couldn't be sure if killing the villain would free the villagers."

Perfectly logical, in Midoriya's opinion. Judging from the look on Aizawa's face, the Commissioner's opinion on the issue is identical. He just doesn't like the concept of admitting that to Paladin.

"And one of your investigators ended up witnessing Overhaul's visit." Defiant comments. Paladin, surprisingly enough, shakes his head.

"Wrong. We did spread quite a number of cameras and microphones throughout the place, though." Well, that's probably just as good. "We ended up witnessing… quite a lot of horrible things. However, the villain in question was rather cautious. So we only ended up figuring out his blessing's inner workings after seeing him catch Overhaul under it."

What?

"What?" Aizawa repeats Izuku's thoughts while staring at Paladin with his jaw dropped. "You mean…"

"It didn't last for long." Paladin quickly adds. And yes, that makes much more sense. They didn't notice any major changes in Overhaul's behaviour after the event, after all. "No microphones close enough to pick up the second confrontation, but we did have a camera quite close. We suspect that Overhaul went out to confront the villain as a form of a test of character. That he failed when he brainwashed Chisaki."

"I suspect that failing the test cost him severely." Aizawa replies. "Overhaul doesn't struck me as the forgiving type."

"Considering the monologue that one of the microphones caught, Dictator's looking forward to being thoroughly tortured by Overhaul until he finally breaks and become an unquestioning follower of Chisaki." Paladin replies. "And judging from the possibilities that his blessing opens on the field of torture, it's probably a lot."

"Yeah, that sounds like Overhaul." Aizawa sighs. "Do you feel like elaborating on the 'horrible things'?"

"Let's just say…" Paladin replies, with a look of anger and disgust on his face. "... that most of the young women in that village weren't sleeping in their houses."

Jesus Christ. This is precisely the sort of behavior that's going to earn the metahumans some torches & pitchforks treatments in the future.

"Wow." Aizawa announces a few seconds later. "I can say a lot of nasty things about Overhaul, but he at least doesn't pull shit like that." Midoriya dislikes the concept of praising Kai Chisaki - even in such a roundabout way - but… Aizawa has a point. "Do you know the Dictator's real name? I need something to write on the arrest warrant for when Chisaki breaks him."

"Yuu Shinsou." Paladin replies.

Aizawa doesn't know. Tsukauchi doesn't know. But Tsuyu does know, so she lets out a worried ribbit. Worst of all, she glanced at Shinsou (who had enough self-control to remain outwardly unmoved).

And, if that wasn't enough, Defiant himself moved his head a bit in that direction, before reminding himself to stop.

"Did something ha…" Paladin tries to speak, but Chancellor cuts in.

"Is this a joke?" His voice suddenly became aggressive, his eyes on Aizawa. "You brought the Dictator's son to this meeting? A mind-controller to a diplomatic meeting?"

How does he even… it has to be his meta-ability, but what was it about? Was that even the right time to think about it? The atmosphere jumps from relatively nice to tense in a hearbeat.

"Dictator's… son?" If Commissioner Aizawa tried to pretend to be unsurprised, he failed at it. What do you mean?" The surprise seems genuine enough to stop the Knights' representatives from rushing out of the building, although at this point only Paladin doesn't feel hostile.

"Midoriya, I…" Shinsou says to him on the closed network. He's clearly freaking out, and for a good reason.

"Don't do anything stupid." Defiant replies to him likewise. "Leave it to me and Aizawa."

"The hero in the longcoat…" Chancellor replies, staring at Aizawa. "... is, without a doubt, Hitoshi Shinsou. Dictator's son. It's a logical assumption that he inherited his blessing or some variant on it. You seriously thought that bringing a mind-controller to a diplomatic meeting? Or maybe it's a variant of the blessing? Did you bring a mind-reader instead?"

Yeah, that added a completely new level to the concept of faux-pas. It was at this point that Midoriya decided to step in, because it's clear that Aizawa is just… too surprised by it to react to the accusation properly.

He WASN'T a diplomat, unfortunately.

"If what you said about the Dictator's quirk is true…" Izuku says. Internally, he shrinks a little, because of course the eyes all converged on him. "... then Hijack inherited a massively downscaled version of it. He can only issue a single order that'll be followed, and not for long. We've brought him because he's good at… deescalating situations without injuring anyone. He's also…" … a jerkass, but it's HIS jerkass. "... an outstanding hero that has saved a lot of lives thus far."

A second of silence. Midoriya decides to drive the nail further home.

"Also he thought that his father was a controlling jerk that he escaped from even before finding out that he was also a supervillain." He adds. "And if you're so eager to blame son for their parents' crimes, then how about we start talking about a certain Yoshihiro Riko?"

"You dare…" Chancellor is about to shout (and raise from her behind the table, but Paladin moves faster. And karate chops him in the head.

"Peace, brother, peace." Paladin replies, while Chancellor is giving him an angry stare. He then promptly turns his head towards his guests. "I apologize for him, he is… very smart, but also has a tendency to jump to conclusions and changing his mind about those isn't easy. You have a point, and I recognize that. However, considering the fact that the Dictator's blessing appears to be triggered by someone answering his question, meaning a vocal input, we'd like to ask, Hijack, was it?, to stay silent for the duration of this meeting. For the peace of mind of everyone involved."

"That's understandable." Aizawa replies. He seems to be faintly relieved that it didn't escalate into a brawl. "I must say that I'd like to know how exactly you find that out, if that's not a problem."

"It's a bit of a problem." Chancellor grumbles from his seat.

"Now, now." Paladin decides to once again prove that he invested points into charisma. "We learned of all of their quirks by now. We know Hijack's, Kappa's pretty evident and Defiant's basically famous on the streets at this point. I believe that giving them at least a single one in return is both a good idea AND something to further establish the fact that the alliance with us is a good idea. Isn't it, Chancellor?"

"Tell them your own, if you're being so nice." Chancellor replies. Paladin stares at him for a few seconds, before the smaller of Purity's children groans. "My blessing makes me smarter. When I switch it on, my brain's practically a supercomputer. I can even dodge bullets for as long as I see the gun being fired so I can calculate trajectory and start moving before the trigger is pulled. Also I investigated Shinsou's relatives, so I had the baseline to compare Hijack's size and body-built too, especially once the reactions of Kappa and Defiant betrayed the fact that something was amiss. Happy now?" He adds, while crossing his arms in front of him and slumping in his chair.

Holy shit, quirks could affect intelligence to such a degree?! Mei was going to have a field day over this. They don't know the quirks of the others (aside from Thorn, whose quirk is probably something related to her hair and/or plants), but they already scored a superhero-material.

Superhero or supervillain.

Midoriya is certain that Aizawa realized this himself. They do not want the Chancellor to be on the opposite side. No one's going to enjoy that situation.

There is also the fact that they agreed to the meeting despite having Chancellor on their side AND knowing at least the stories about Defiant's quirk. That suggests they have at least some countermeasure against him, if the meeting went south.

What exactly was Paladin's quirk?

"I'm sorry to ask about that, especially after such a tense moment…" Aizawa replies, maybe a tiny bit venomously. "... but what are the chances of Chancellor reading whether we're speaking the truth from our faces alone?"

… oh. Midoriya didn't think about that. Aizawa is clearly getting more and more competent when the meta-abilities are involved.

"Low to zero, unless I know how you look when you lie to be able to compare your faces to." Chancellor replies. "If you hoped for some 'what a hypocrite, complaining about mind-reader while having a truth-teller' moment, you're going to be disappointed."

Silence. Not a long one, because Izuku decided to cut it short.

"I think that it's the time to make a decision." He says. "Commissioner Aizawa?"

"We both know…" Aizawa replies. "... that Network is independent from me. Recruiting people into it is your prerogative." He doesn't look particularly happy about it.

That was… unexpected. Nice, but unexpected.

"And you're not going to complain if I recruit the wrong type of people?" Midoriya finds himself surprised enough to ask that question in front of the Knights' delegation. Big mistake, Aizawa's look tells him that much.

"Kid, realize it already." Aizawa replies. "If you tell the other heroes to stop supporting some local police unit, said police unit is dead in the water. And we both know that there is a large chance of said heroes listening to you. I can't forbid you to recruit people into the local Network branch."

… why.

WHY IS HE LETTING HIM MAKE THE CHOICE?! If it's the wrong choice, if the Knights turn out to be unworthy of their trust, the effects might be disastrous. It shouldn't be Midoriya's choice, they need an…

Shit. He's an adult. He's a superhero. A - to quote Tsukauchi from their meeting with Knuckleduster's merry bunch of misfits - pretty much the Japan's Number One Hero. He's going to have to make such decisions regularly. From now… probably until his death.

Or until someone else rises to his position. Repulse would probably do it, but in the end it was Midoriya who built most of what they had by now. He was a face. Even if through the mask, a lot of local branches equated Izuku Midoriya with the Network as a whole.

Even if he wanted to retire, it wasn't the right moment for that. Even he realizes that. If he does that, if the whole thing goes tumbling down… it'd be a disaster. A disaster that he would feel directly responsible for.

No way out. He has to do it. And Aizawa knows that, so he pushes him into making the decisions for himself, because he needs to learn how to do that. And it's better to do it now… than on the battlefield.

Shit.

"I… think that it's a good idea." Midoriya replies. He isn't sure if he likes the victorious grin on Chancellor's face. "But before making that decision official, I'd like Counselor Inui to inspect the accommodations for the children under your care. Because while I do realize that we need allies…" He adds. "... we do not need allies that run a brainwashing center for kids."

"Perfectly understandable." Paladin replies. They probably expected the inspection, from the police or not. "And can be arranged immediately. Hermit, Thorn, give him a tour… Mr. Inui, is there anyone you wish to take with you?"

"Earworm." He replies immediately, while standing from his seat. Hermit and Thorn do the same a moment later, but both clearly waiting for Paladin to Chancellor to give them a green light to do it.

Makes sense, Midoriya realizes. She can detect heartbeats in the vicinity, enough to tell if someone is worried, scared and so on. A perfect fit for that particular operation.

"Go." Paladin says. As the three people leave the room to fetch Earworm from the outside. "Now, I know this is going to be a bit of a problematic situation, especially with how on guard you are… understandably, of course… but are the rest of you willing to follow us somewhere?"

Oh?

"Elaborate, please." Aizawa replies. He doesn't feel particularly happy about it. Then again, he rarely looks happy.

"We have a … captive from the Gunga Mountain Facility." Paladin replies. "In a manner of speaking, it's… a recent development and a complicated situation to summarize with words. I think that it might be a good idea for you to take a look at it yourself."

"It?" Aizawa's brow raises at the term.

"You'll understand what I meant soon enough." Paladin replies.

"You aren't going to wait until the alliance is official with that?" Aizawa decides to continue drilling him for answers.

"Let me be honest with you, Commissioner Aizawa." Paladin replies. "Even if you told to us fuck off, I'd still try to show it to you. Because it freaks us all out. And makes us truly and honestly believe that something has to be done with that compound, even if it won't involve the Knights."

That sounds ominous.

"Where is 'it'?" Aizawa asks.

"In a separated part of our compound in the mountains." Paladin replies. "Ten minutes drive with a jeep. Unfortunately, I don't think that your cars can go there, so…" He looks genuinely ashamed at that proposal.

"Hawks is going to get a brain aneurysm." Aizawa announces. Tsukauchi gives him a worried look. Midoriya does so as well, but the mask hides that from the world. "I'll ask him if he and his squad can follow us in their APC. My answer depends on his."

Yeah, that's… logical. Still potentially suicidal, but the Knights thus far gave them no indication of planning anything nasty. And, to be frank, they lacked motive. The delegation disappearing would make Yagi cut contact and probably call the JSDF on them.

(***)

Hawks doesn't get a brain aneurysm. But he is clearly rather close to shouting at Aizawa for suggesting him to follow the delegation into the forest inhabited by members of an armed militia. Even if it was trained by the US soldiers (Japan's technical allies). And especially because even if he had an APC, they probably had anti-tank missiles.

In the end, the need for answers prevails.

(***)

"Excuse me for asking what feels like a private question…" Paladin says suddenly. "But where did you find… Kappa, was it? The frog girl, I mean."

The fact that he's driving a jeep on a rather bumpy and steep mountain road (no asphalt was involved) doesn't stop him from talking, it seems.

Chancellor is sitting on the front seat right next to him, while Aizawa and Defiant were sitting behind them. Izuku engaged in some constructive paranoia by anchoring (and regularly replacing) telekinetic walls to the sides of him and Aizawa, just in case they were riding into a trap.

"Why do you want to know?" Izuku replies. He might have made himself sound a bit too aggressive, at least judging from Paladin's reaction.

He didn't drive them into a tree (it would be hard to achieve either way, seeing as they were driving at a speed of maybe 10 to 15 km/h), but it was clear that he overreacted a bit .

"Calm down, sheesh." He quickly replies. "No bad intentions, I promise. Why so defensive about it?"

"She's my girlfriend." Midoriya replies. He tries to not sound too smug or happy about that.

"Oh, well, that explains the defensiveness." Paladin turns out to be reasonably unfazed by that discovery. "No bad intentions, as stated. And I'm not planning to hit on her… Thorn would have absolutely murdered me if I did."

"Good." Chancellor mumbles to himself. "Suffer."

Those two clearly are close to each other. Such a nice brotherly bond. Midoriya wishes he had something similar with… well, anyone at all.

"So?" Paladin decides to ask again. "I promise that I have a point in my question, I just need to know where you found her."

"She was living in the river, in Takoba city." Midoriya replies. "Her parents apparently abandoned her when she was a few years old, because of how she looked."

Paladin stays silent for a short while, instead it's Chancellor that speaks.

"Proof that the authors of the Bible knew a lot about humans, number… well, we're probably in the high billions by now." He announces. "Mankind as a species is absolute garbage, and you need to work on yourself a LOT to get anywhere near decent. Also, I sincerely hope that Hell exists."

"Watch it, brother." Paladin cuts in. "You're part of Mankind as well. And not one that's particularly good at judging themselves, as already established." Chancellor groans, but doesn't answer. "As for the reason for my question, the Knights happened to pick up two frog mutants from this very prefecture, both significantly younger than her."

Midoriya realizes what it might mean instantly.

"You think they might be her siblings?" He asks. Aizawa gives him a strange look, but says nothing. "That would imply that one of her parents had the same mutation, but if so, then why would their parents throw them out." Then he remembers Luna and Edge. "Unless… we already know of one case of early complex mutation that didn't manifest fully, there's a possibility that their parent with this mutation didn't manifest it outwardly, which didn't stop all their children from having it as well. But that would imply that the complex mutations are coded by dominant genes, and…"

"... he does that often?" Chancellor asks, looking at Aizawa from his seat. Midoriya freezes.

"I heard that it happens from time to time, rarely nowadays, but he is treating his girlfriend very seriously." Aizawa replies dryly.

"My condolences." Chancellor replies.

"I'm sorry." Midoriya replies. He made quite a progress with getting himself under control. He didn't stammer his reply in panic. Instead, he replied calmly. Of course, the fact that he had to apologize for his occasional muttering habit remained. "Kappa has… serious abandonment issues. She was recently adopted, which is a step in the right direction, and getting some siblings would be even better, but…"

"Let me guess." Paladin cut in. "You worry that she'll be disappointed if we tell her about it and then it turns out that they aren't related to her?"

"Aye." Midoriya confirms it. "I know her well enough that she'll first freak out and then she'll be absolutely overjoyed while super anxious about making that meeting, just… I don't want to imagine her reaction to the discovery that it was a lie. Are there any chances of you providing us with blood samples to run a DNA comparison?"

"Shouldn't be a problem." Paladin replies. "We're about to become a part of one organization, either way."

Someone's optimistic about Counselor Inui's inspection, it seems. Midoriya can only hope that his optimism isn't baseless. Because they need that manpower boost if they want to gather enough firepower in Musutafu to keep Overhaul at bay, respond to non-villainy related accidents and events AND have some heroes to spare to assist other branches.

(***)

They eventually arrive before what looks like an abandoned house. No idea what it was originally. Forester's lodge, maybe? Someone's retreat from civilization? Whatever it was, it's still sturdy enough to provide cover, but not much more than that.

Windows are gone, for example. They gave in to the elements faster before the walls did.

There is a small garrison around it. Few people looking like regular Knights members, armed in a mix of Chinese assault rifles, pistols and what looked like a hunting rifle.

Two obvious complex mutants - one was a young man with a lizard head and all visible parts of his body covered in scales, one was a young woman that looked like the most stereotypical anime wolfgirl ever. Both equipped and armed in the same way as the remaining Knights members.

"Everyone's Japanese?" Midoriya decides to ask while Paladin is parking the jeep right next to the building. "Where are the American advisors that I heard so many tales about?"

"What American advisors?" Chancellor chuckles. "C'mon, you truly believe that the United States would support an armed militia in an allied state without its government knowing?" Midoriya says nothing. Chancellor must have read the look on his face even despite the mask being in the way. "We're keeping them in the dark about the blessings, they're all in the main camp."

Right.

(***)

"Nothing changed." The wolfgirl says to Paladin when they all get close. "It's still down there. Rather quiet today." Paladin nods, before turning to face the emissaries that followed him here.

"Alright, it's a bit crampy down there, so… I'm afraid that the escort is going to stay behind." He says. "The rest, please follow me downstairs. I'd say to avoid making loud noises, it makes it… agitated, but… everyone who sees it for the first time makes loud noises."

Well, if it ain't ominous.

"Do I have to come with you?" Chancellor cuts in. "That thing's giving me the creeps."

"I'm the one that provides the brawn…" Paladin replies. "... but I'm still smart enough to realize that leaving the guy that admitted to being able to dodge bullets with the people that only have bullets to protect them sounds suspicious as heck. You're coming with us."

Chancellor shivers.

(***)

Despite the building being rather old and battered, it's not without power. There is a small generator running on the surface level, the cables going downstairs. Naturally, they end up following those.

The building's basement is a large one. It's also rather dark. They can hear some quiet sounds coming from the darkness. Something's moving. It's… well, in Izuku's opinions things are getting even more ominous.

"It can't see you." Paladin replies, his hand by the light switch.. "But it reacts to loud noises. Mostly by making loud noises of its own. Try not to freak out too much, alright?"

"Yeah, yeah, just get on with i…" Hawks decides to make him hurry up. His words are cut short when Paladin flips the switch, and the basement is illuminated. Together with… it.

It's large, muscular and bound to the wall with some iron chains. Its arms and legs are broken, its skin black as charcoal. It's wearing tattered remnants of baggy pants, and nothing else.

Its face is dominated by a large beak, above it what looks like a vertical slash of something that robbed it of its eyesight. But Midoriya barely notices it, his eyes drawn to the exposed brain. Despite that obviously lethal injury (that doesn't look like injury), the thing is still moving, opening and closing its beak as if gasping for air.

"What the fuck?" Aizawa recovers his ability to speak the first one. Midoriya is secretly happy that he set his suit into sound suppression mode, because he actually screamed slightly.

"We found it wandering in the forest a week ago." Chancellor replies. "It attacked us, using what we think were multiple blessings, and almost killed several members of the Knights, despite being blinded by one of them, before Paladin… disarmed it." He looks at Aizawa. "We've run some DNA tests on it through some friendly hospital, and… it apparently carries the DNA of several people, two of which…" He takes a deep breath. "I think that we've found some of the missing metahumans, Commissioner Aizawa."

(***)

Who might the two mutant guards be, I wonder.

Also, yeah. That's exactly what you think it is, except clearly lacking Hyper Regen quirk. Makes you really wonder who the hell is doing nasty shit on Gunga Mountain, hmm?