Miqila: ... Kind of grim take, ngl.
Shahryar: Yup xd
(***)
"If the message I got from Nedzu is to be believed…" Principal Sasaki fixes his glasses. "The Council of Twelve lost one of their three remaining Councilors and around two hundred soldiers in the Deika Valley."
Midoriya whistles loudly.
"That's either an extremely good trap, or the MLA is more numerous than we thought." Aizawa says. It's rather clear that he hopes for the former, especially as the MLA had a lot of time to prepare.
They are, once again, in Sasaki's office. Aizawa and Midoriya are doing their best to ignore the picture of Defiant on his personal wall of fame. Principal Sasaki is… an interesting person, to say the least.
It's best to ignore it.
Although Izuku still thinks that it would be kind of him to have it covered while Izuku himself was visiting.
"Probably a combination of both these factors." Sasaki replies, completely ignoring their internal worries. "Regretfully, someone from the Council managed to warp All for One out literally seconds before Destro could kill him. Mind control is still on."
Aizawa groans loudly. So close but still so far again. All for One was almost incredibly slippery.
Then again, survivor of a worldwide conspiracy. One of the last ones, too, everyone else dying to the World War or the Moderates. Only the most cunning and dangerous of the Council members lasted for that long.
"So, I assume that the MLA is planning to do the joint deployment against All for One's citadel, wherever it is, that Nedzu suggested on Gunga Mountain." Izuku asks. He doesn't enjoy having his free time cut any shorter, but this is important.
"That's true." Sasaki nods. "Nedzu gave us coordinates, it's some hidden compound in Niigata Mountains. Two of them, actually, a few kilometers away from each other. One is supposedly the TEU barracks, the other is where All for One and the remaining Council's officials for Japan live."
Sweet.
"To avoid friendly fire, or any side trying to take advantage of the other, Destro and Nedzu suggest having the Meta-Liberation Army attack the TEU barracks, while leaving the administrative center to the Metahuman Network." Sasaki then says.
Network, right. The whole organization no longer existed, it was just the Hero Association now. But this one operation wasn't going to be done under the Association banner. And it was very illegal.
They could as well make it the final thing they'll ever do under the name Metahuman Network. Taking down the demon lord felt like a sufficient goodbye to the brand that Izuku invested so much of his hard work into.
"Are they actually going to expose themselves so much?" Aizawa asks a moment before Izuku can. "Destro struck me as someone extremely cautious. What stops us from trying to arrest MLA members once the brainwashing is off, if only to claim in front of the government that it was a battle with the MLA?"
If the brainwashing being switched off was noticeable to the victims, someone would have noticed what was happening long ago. Mirai Sasaki could list the dates of the deaths of most now missing Councilors simply by seeing when regional policies began to start changing suddenly.
They weren't sure if telling the government afterwards was a good idea. The whole 'metahuman brainwashing' bit sounded like a perfect way of losing a lot of newly gained positive feelings.
"Unfortunately, Destro's too smart for this." Sasaki replies. "Nedzu told me that the MLA is negotiating with the League of Villains in order to have Cloud warp their forces in and out. In exchange for a significant monetary donation."
Oh, God, it was only getting worse. Kuroiro was going to invest that money in expanding his business, and he was already shaping himself into a bigger long-term threat than Overhaul, if only because of being significantly less actively malevolent.
"What are the chances…" Izuku decides to ask the big question. "... of that particular work relationship becoming something slightly more common, giving MLA access to a warper even if only in the moments of crisis?"
"Midoriya." Aizawa says before sighing painfully. "Stop ruining my sleep with terrifyingly likely negative predictions about the future."
Right. Their only hope was that Kuroiro would demand a lot of money to reimburse for Destro putting Cloud (and through her, the League) in the spotlight. Political villainy has its downsides, including being much higher in the list of priorities.
"I assume there is no point in asking whether we do it or not." Sasaki decides to stick to the subject. "Seeing as, well, we need to take All for One down as fast as possible to be able to operate normally and without the risk of the… instigated governmental hostility, let's put it that way."
Izuku and Aizawa nod. Neither of them really enjoy it, then again, they aren't supposed to enjoy fighting. They'd both much prefer to be able to sit down and do nothing.
They were born at the wrong time to be able to do that.
"The MLA is planning to launch an attack the day after tomorrow, at dawn." Sasaki adds. "They think that it might be wise to end Shigaraki before the Council has the time to regroup after Deika Valley."
Logical. The MLA wasn't in a mood to waste time. They were probably planning to finalize the deal with Kuroiro tomorrow, all while deciding which people to send to Niigata Mountains. Besides…
… now that Izuku thinks about it, AFO's plan after the fiasco of his attempt to mind-control him could be summed up to the word 'Destro'. And now that this plan of his failed too…
Shigaraki was a dangerous man, with a lot of remaining assets… and not a lot of options left. That was dangerous, especially if AFO could decide to throw a fit and take everything with him.
Crap.
"We'll be there." Izuku decides. He isn't even asking Aizawa, but the man nods. "What are the numbers we're expecting?"
"Frankly speaking, it's going to be a clean-up operation." Sasaki replies. "The remaining TEU soldiers are few in numbers, demoralized and, in many cases, injured. They also lost most of their heavy equipment in Deika. And, best of all, the MLA's stunt with the Gunga Mountain research lab made Shigaraki lag behind in recruiting natural born metahumans. As a result, aside from All for One, we only have to worry about two S-Ranks, namely Apocrypha and Titan. Yes, Nedzu sent me everything that he knows about them both."
That was going to be useful. Titan is a completely new name, and Apocrypha… well, they knew next to nothing about her, aside from the fact (although Izuku was guessing from hair color mostly) that she was most likely Rabbit's biological half-sister.
"I don't exactly like that." Izuku admits. "I know that we have to remove All for One from the picture, but this is an operation that would have to rely almost entirely on the heroes, since I don't think that we can deploy anyone else beside the Quirk Suppression Unit. It feels like Gunga Mountain but without police and army."
"Gunga Mountain was a different situation, but your worries are understandable." Aizawa admits. "Do you think that we could involve Kugo Sakamata and his SST without warning All for One that something's coming?" He then asks Sasaki.
The Principal considers it for a moment.
"I don't think that someone so low in the ranks is mind controlled." He eventually replies. "Speaking of, Tsunagu Hakamada and his Tokyo SAT is probably free from it as well. But we can't discount the possibility of some willing supporters being in or around their units."
"I think…" Aizawa decides to cut in. "... that if we ask them nicely then, especially seeing our common past, they might be ready to be deployed somewhere without prior warning. The worst case scenario, we'd have a reserve force on standby in case the heroes and the QSU start having problems."
"And what do you plan to tell them as to why they are deployed?" Sasaki asks. Yeah, that was the big question, at least for Izuku.
"Under the table operation against the Meta-Liberation Army." Aizawa replies calmly. "That the Government is trying to launch in a hurry, and without involving too many assets of questionable loyalty, following the failed coup."
Sasaki thinks it over for a moment.
"It should work." He decides. "We just need to say all of that while looking into their eyes. In short, be reasonably good at lying."
It's then that Izuku finds an even bigger question.
"How are we going to explain potential casualties?" He asks, drawing attention to himself. "Losing any major hero without any explanation whatsoever will make people ask questions. Same with the SST or the metropolitan SAT suffering major casualties."
Paperwork he was supposed to go through (Momo tried to update him for as much as she could do through Hero Network) in order to do rather simple things legally was terrifying in scope. This? This was much worse.
"If we win without a catastrophic degree of casualties, we could just tell Governor Yagi the truth." Aizawa says, with the tone of his voice suggesting that the man was thinking aloud. "He would manage to find an explanation for all of that, in the worst case scenario, after explaining everything to the Prime Minister."
"Yes, that's certainly an option." Sasaki agrees with the Senior Commissioner. "But to that end we have to succeed first to be able to tell him the truth. And, apologies in advance for saying it like that, losing police officers is going to cost us much less than losing the pro-heroes, especially the ones from the Top Ten."
Aizawa groans painfully, before nodding. He hates it, but he clearly acknowledges the logic behind the Principal's words.
"Wait, Top Ten?" Izuku wakes up, the two men he was sharing the room with giving him an odd look. "What?"
"It seems that you missed the result of the first Hero Popularity Poll." Principal eventually says. "Then again, it's understandable, it died out in the media after the Coup occupied everyone's attention. And you were a bit too busy with your holidays to notice it."
"Wow, that was fast." Izuku decides. He sees the whole popularity bit as a bit of a necessary evil for the business, but… "Who won?"
The stares he receives in answer tell him everything that he had to know. Right, stupid Izuku. Who else could win the popularity contest if not Defiant, the man that slammed Overhaul into the pavement in front of millions.
In his opinion, doing the poll so early was stupid, but…
"Stupid question, right." Izuku sighs. "Who was second?"
"Paladin." Sasaki replies. "Ending Goto Imasuji was a feat that made many people decide that he is quite, how to put it, cool." Yoshihiro was probably slightly angry over getting his popularity from something that he didn't feel like he actually did, Izuku decides.
"Third one was Amplitude." Aizawa adds. "Slightly surprising considering the fact that his first public act as a hero was nuking his older brother together with half of the district, but… I guess people recognized that it was a necessity and that all other options were exhausted before resorting to it."
It probably cost him the Number Two position, still. Izuku makes a mental note to ask Shoto how his father took the reveal. Because Izuku didn't do that yet, to his own slight surprise. He must have been really mentally exhausted after Esuha Bridge.
"Fourth is Eclipse, Fifth is Blackwing." Aizawa continues. "Tokoyami probably didn't expect that, but I think that the cat's out of the bag so he'll probably become a regular hero, not an underground one, just while hiding his identity more than usual."
"Wait, where's Repulse?" Izuku decides to ask. "It's just Musutafu thus far."
"It was a poll made before Haimawari saved the Prime Minister from being assassinated by Chameleon." Sasaki replies. "I believe that if the poll was made today, he would be the Number Two Hero. Instead, he is the Number Seven Hero. Not a lot of public presence yet, but people clearly assumed that he didn't become your second-in-command because he looks handsome."
Oh, right. Izuku remembers it now. The Government was allowed to publicize some past recordings of hero vs villain engagements for popularity sake, to 'build up the renown' and so on. It included a fight between Repulse and Overhaul on the Gunga Mountain.
All of that was carefully edited to not betray too much, but it was clearly enough to boost them somewhat.
"Number Six Hero is Singularity." Sasaki continues the list. "The government released some recordings of her assisting the firefighters in rescue operations, and she appears to have become somewhat of a default choice for the people who are less, say, violently inclined."
"And she's still just Number Six." Izuku sighs. "We'll have to find a way to prop the Rescue Hero some more. We don't want the heroes to be all about fighting, and…"
"I think it's something to be left for the times when people won't be thinking about their safety as their most important concern." Sasaki cuts in. "For now, crime fighting and stopping coups from overthrowing democracy is much more important to most people than normal rescue operations."
"Good point, I guess." Izuku admits. He has a feeling that they are leaving too many issues to be solved by the future generations. Then again, they are permanently running thin on resources as they are. It's not that they are negligent, they just have to prioritize what needs fixing urgently and what can wait. "Number Eight?"
"We've decided to establish something of a framework for potential permanent hero team-ups." Sasaki says. "And by 'we' I mean Governor Yagi and the Government. As a result, the Number Eight position has been taken by Ashido Mina and Kirishima Eijirou."
Oh. Something in the Hero System happened without Izuku direct involvement. That was actually a pretty good idea, all things considered.
"Nine is Quicksand, another rescue hero." Sasaki continues. "Tenth is Arsenal, probably due to her first public statement as a part of the Hero Association concerning the coup. Eleven is Thorn, Twelve is Witch, thirteen is Earworm."
He actually expected Witch to be troubled by animal rights activists, but it seems that it wasn'
"That's almost uniformly Musutafu Branch." Izuku replies. Sasaki gives him his patented 'so what' look. "Right, we had the most recordings to show, plus Esuha Bridge thing. Why did someone even bother to make the popularity poll so early? Most of the Network members barely had the time to show the public, like, anything. I can name at least nine solid superhero candidates from outside of Musutafu, like Fireline and Crucible from the Hokkaido branch, that were omitted from the list."
Not to mention, the ranks were going to be changing rapidly for some time, before everything was going to get more stabilized. Eventually getting more (or less) merch and advertising gigs was going to influence and stabilize rankings by making successful heroes permanently more public and so on.
The fact that a single event made Repulse crawl all the way to (probably) second position in the ranking made it particularly noticeable.
"I'm aware." Sasaki nods. "The government needed something akin to a solid list of whom to invest in the short-term to promote the Hero Association during the crucial first few months of the initiative. Everyone up there expects the ratings to change in six months, for now it was something of an entry sortie. Done alongside the general 'do you approve of the Hero Association' survey."
"Uh-oh." Izuku says dryly. "How did that one end?"
He slept through a lot of important things, it seems. And while he is aware that he needed some time to rest (if not due to injuries then due to having to just… sit down and mentally process Esuha Bridge and the end of Overhaul, not to mention his own newly found popularity), he thinks that he might have went a bit too far with it.
"10% enthusiastically support the concept, 19% are very much against it, mostly over being generally distrustful about metahumans and what they can do." Sasaki replies. "Then you have about 22% percent that aren't enthusiastic about it but still think that the heroes are a good idea. Next you have 24% that are distrustful of the Association but not actively hostile, and the remaining 25% have no clear opinion yet."
"So, 32% of the public supports us, while 43% is against us, the rest is neutral about it." Izuku summarizes it, before sighing loudly. "It's less than I hoped for but more than I feared. Am I right to suspect that most of the remaining quarter of the population is simply waiting to develop an opinion?"
"Yes." Sasaki nods. "To be honest, I suspect that without the Moderates bringing up the concept of mind-control to the public's attention, we'd be closer to a balance between both sides. Instead, some people have suddenly become more conscious of metahumans and the threat they pose to them. Most of the forecasts I heard about indicate that the statistics should improve to at least some degree quickly, for as long as the heroes don't do something terminally stupid."
Oh, great. Another reason to be pissed off at the Moderates. Sure, they were much less malevolent than All for One. That was the reason why Izuku actually gave the followers of Yoichi Shigaraki the ultimatum about surrendering instead of straight up hunting them for sport (which was his policy about the idiots following Hisashi).
But, yeah, they fucked up. Big time. And were a clear case of being a bit too extremist for your own good. Or for the good of anyone around you.
"We'll try to avoid that." Izuku replies. "Speaking of, I'm going to have a talk with Todoroki. I completely forgot about his, uhm, family issues that he solved in front of the cameras. Where is he now?"
"In Tokyo." Sasaki replies. "He is officially injured following the blast that ended Dabi, the same logic as behind you and Eclipse taking a backseat for a moment. I believe that he decided to accompany Momo Yaoyorozu for a moment."
Huh.
"He didn't come back home to try to, errr, straighten things out?" Izuku asks. Were those two actually going to become a thing officially? They were clearly close, just not very interested in sex.
"He did already." Principal replies. "Enji Todoroki officially stepped from his position and retired. He… didn't take the Dabi reveal well. Natsuo Todoroki took over as the zaibatsu head, with his sister assisting him. Shoto is no longer considered a potential heir to the conglomerate, and can focus on being a hero."
Izuku breathes out a sigh of relief. Yeah, that was… honestly worrying him a lot. Losing Shoto would be bad.
"Now I actually feel kind of bad about not asking earlier." Izuku decides to say it. "I think I took the whole holiday thing a bit too seriously, and…"
Principal Sasaki clears his throat loudly, interrupting him.
"Not taking holidays seriously while in a job as stressful as yours is a great way of burning yourself out before hitting your thirties." Principal then says, before glancing at Aizawa. "I assume you agree with me?"
"Absolutely." The Senior Commissioner replies, before turning towards Izuku and leaning forward. "Midoriya, take it from someone who permanently looks like they haven't slept properly for at least a few years: treat your holidays seriously. The fact that you were ready to rush back right after the coup and right after the announcement about Deika Valley came is enough."
"Well, err, I guess?" Izuku blinks at him. Surprise counseling wasn't what he expected. "I have a feeling that Uraraka would have said the same thing if she was here."
"That's because when it's not about heroics, engineering or emotional counseling, she is the only one in your little family with common sense." Sasaki states dryly, drawing a moderately insulted chuckle from Izuku.
Rude. True, but still rude.
"I'll call Koichi right after this meeting is over." Izuku decides to steer the conversation to safer ports. "He's having a serious headache with Mr. Compress, especially as I'm almost certain that his troupe involves someone that can make temporary copies of other people and someone that can copy quirks temporarily, but he should be willing to help us, preferably with Hakamada."
Mr. Compress' troupe was an incredibly fascinating case of a group of villains with a clear aesthetic (and, through it, villain uniforms) that were doing bloodless heists. Frankly, Izuku enjoyed reading about them and their heists, even if he refused to admit that aloud.
They were just… a nice change of pace after all the horrible, Japan-ending criminal syndicates, ancient conspiracies and potential insurrectionists that he had to deal with on a daily basis.
He could only wonder how Mr. Compress found so many people with quirks oddly in theme with what Izuku would expect from stage magicians. Izuku was also almost certain that one of his sidekicks could make things smaller or bigger (and also lighter/heavier as a result) on touch. And another could make invisible platforms in the air.
Another one could clearly render himself completely imperceptible.
They also had some damn good hacker on their side. Izuku was also torn over the question of whether there was one Mr. Compress, or if two people of similar body-built and similar but not identical quirks wearing identical outfits for confusion.
Fascinating. And their entire group was taken straight from some superhero comic, as some sort of recurring and dangerous but not evil group.
"I'll ask Nedzu if he thinks that Hakamada and Sakamata can be involved." Sasaki decides, looking as if he bit a sour lemon. "I hate asking the rat about anything, but right now we simply don't have much of a leeway."
Once again, Izuku decides, because the Moderates decided to be complete dumbasses and didn't share intel with the Heroes willingly. Sure, they probably suspected that it was riddled with Radicals at this point, so it was less an active stupidity and more a mistake brought out of an incorrect assumption.
(***)
They end up having a quick strategic meeting. Eventually, it's over, Aizawa saying his goodbyes and leaving. Izuku almost follows him, but that's when Sasaki suddenly asks him to stay for a moment.
"I know that you won't be happy about it…" Principal says. "... but if we succeed in taking down All for One's mind control network, you'll have to retire from hero work for about three months."
"W-what?" Midoriya blinks at him. "That's way too long, I can't…"
"Yes, you can." Principal cuts in. "And you will. For the past few months I've been investing quite a significant amount of money into a certain biomedical research facility in the United States. It's time for you to reap the benefits from my investment."
"Eh?" Izuku stares at him, not understanding a word.
"They have a prototype for the gene therapy for Hayes-Wilczak Syndrome, and they need someone to test it on." Principal says calmly, Izuku's eyes opening wide. "You're going to go there and undergo it, while officially still recovering from the Esuha Bridge injuries."
Izuku stares at him. Despite everything, despite all the jokes about Sasaki grooming him into the best hero he could be, that was…
A cure? A cure to the genetic disorder he inherited from Yoichi and that was supposed to put him in a wheelchair by his 30th birthday? And that if he was lucky? The fate that - even with Force assisting his mobility - he more or less accepted?
"You seriously did that?" Izuku pushes the words out. "For me?"
"I've already made it known to you many times, but I'll say it again." Sasaki replies calmly. "You're worth helping. I don't have enough money to help everyone in the country. I don't have enough to help everyone in Musutafu. So I invest what I have in the people that, according to me, can have the biggest positive impact on the future. You're such a person. Helping you, even if it costs me a very significant amount of money, is natural."
Izuku has no idea what to answer. He just… someone doing something like this, was… and for him? He managed to realize by now that he was kind of a big deal, and he managed to achieve something great, but…
"I believe it's the best moment for you to be treated." Sasaki continues. "Before you have more children. And yes, once they'll have the treatment tested properly, treating Mei's child should be much cheaper, if they'll be even carrying the gene in question, and I will pay for it too."
"Three months is a long time." Izuku replies, doing his best to avoid Sasaki's eyes. "Especially right now, if…"
"Midoriya, you've built something great." Principal cuts in. "You have people to keep it floating in your absence, trust them. You can't save everyone on your own, you need to learn how to delegate. With both branches of the Council out of the picture, the Government will survive a few months without you. Even with the Meta-Liberation Army. I promise you that much."
In the end, Izuku agrees. Because, once again, he has a feeling that Uraraka would talk his ear off if he didn't.
(***)
They have a very good assault plan ready by the next morning. It suddenly gets much more complicated when one of the newly appointed Top Heroes decides to come forward with something very important.
(***)
Almost there, folks :D