Shahryar - Oh, they are. They are at it A LOT.
MosesArk Reborn2000 - Well, as for what's going to happen between Nejire and Mindscape, let's just say that it's more of a composite thing. After all, the whole political switch the former had alone was... suspicious. Also not saying anything about Monoma quite yet, let's just say that this arc... really changes the image of him.
(***)
Thankfully for herself and her continuous career in heroics, Mindscape made it to the meeting in time.
The Prime Minister was clearly furious. Saiko just didn't know about what exactly.
Also, thank gods it was cold outside. She managed to clear her head significantly ever since her tragically interrupted office sex scene with Mirio. That should significantly improve her chances of surviving that meeting.
"I am here, as ordered." Saiko asks cautiously. "Is it about the Lockdown plan?"
"No, it is not." The Prime Minister replies. "Lockdown's accepted."
Saiko actually blinks at her over this. One of her assistants comes in, leaves a freshly-brewed cup of coffee on her desk, and then quickly vanishes from the room. Saiko paid him no mind.
"Seriously?" She eventually manages to speak. Only to immediately go 'oh god oh fuck' in her head. Because the stare she gets in exchange for making her surprise vocal is rather…
Dangerous.
"Yes, seriously." The Prime Minister manages to control herself to keep herself… steady. "I prefer closing the hero courses temporarily and having them focus on more… indirect methods of teaching rather than have an ever growing pile of dead kids on my hands. I thought that was obvious?"
"Well, yes." Intelli decides to savor the moment of sanity in the woman in front of her. "I just have a rather low opinion of your… advisors, and I feared that they would try to convince you that closing the schools will have too much public impact."
"Some of those idiots tried that." The Prime Minister replied dryly. "I gently reminded them that losing at least a hundred hero trainees a week is already having one hell of a public impact, and if we want to even try maintaining the public support boost we got from Shikoku, we need to respond with a sufficiently powerful move on our own to make the public feel like we're actually doing something to lower the casualties."
Well, praise whatever deity's up there for the fact that common human decency and pragmatic calculations came together on this one thing.
"I didn't call you here to talk about the Lockdown plan." The Prime Minister decides that it was enough of a delay and clearly attempts to return to the main subject "I want to talk about the Marukane Ward."
Oh god, oh fuck, oh god, oh fuck.
Saiko was trying to keep that one tidbit of information to herself and to the smallest possible circle of people around her, but somehow, just fucking somehow, the Prime Minister found out.
This was going to get ugly.
Very ugly.
"What about it?" Intelli replies. Daggers in the Prime Minister's eyes change into blades.
"You managed to locate the headquarters of the New Vigilante Alliance." The Prime Minister says. "And you didn't think that it might be a good idea to tell me, Mindscape?"
What Saiko will have to do is going to include more bone-breaking gymnastics than what she is going to be doing with Mirio that evening. Because, yes, she is going to need a fuckload of that dick to unwind after this.
If she doesn't get fired or worse.
"I didn't locate anything." Intelli replies. "All I have is suspicions. Acting on suspicions without a shred of evidence might cost us more than we're ready to pay."
The Prime Minister's fist slams into the desk.
"It's not your decision to make." She says while glaring almost murderously at Intelli. "You're supposed to tell me about your suspicions when they are about something this important."
"I'll take that into an account." Intelli replies as calmly as she can. She is probably sweating at least slightly, and that sucks. She shouldn't show how nervous she was to that woman, especially in a moment like this. "However, seeing the recent movements of the PLF I've begun to suspect that we might be being led into a trap."
"So, you think that the PLF is goading us into attacking the NVA, just so that they can roll in and annihilate both sides." The Prime Minister summarizes her trail of thought almost instantly.
Yeah, if you exclude her horrible taste in advisors (and even that is mostly just said advisors realizing that she likes hearing things she's agreeing with), the Prime Minister was the government's second true mastermind.
She was just mostly busy governing the entire country, with little time to focus on fighting villainy. And seeing her tendency for micromanagement, the fact that the country was actually NOT collapsing (until the PLF, that is) was a true testament to her skills.
"It's heavily likely." Saiko admits. "He has been attacking the Naruhata cordon, probably in hopes of provoking Crawler into expanding. Just to wait until we commit a sufficient response force to ambush it with the Front's superior mobility. He might have discovered the Marukane Ward on his own, who knows if he didn't infiltrate NVA already, and is trying to do the same there."
The Prime Minister spends a few seconds thinking it over.
"This is…" Intelli waits for a hammer to drop. "... an extraordinary opportunity."
Wait, what?
"Excuse me?" Intelli blinks at her in shock.
"You're lacking vision, that was always one of your main weaknesses." The prime minister stands up from her chair, before approaching the wall. On it, is a large map of Japan. "What do you see here, Mindscape?"
What is she supposed to say? 'I think that the military term for that is 'an environment rich in targets?' Because for as long as Cloud remains out there - the woman with the world's strongest warp quirk ever - that's what all the governmental facilities nationwide are.
Targets.
With next to zero capability to defend themselves.
"Japan." Intelli replies diplomatically.
"No." The prime minister, naturally, disagrees with her assessment. "This is a massive amount of assets that the Front and the Alliance changed into undefendable targets."
Holy shit, her snarky suicidal option was actually the correct one. Saiko didn't see that coming.
"We can't win if we play things normally and by the fucking book, Mindscape." The Prime Minister replies. "We need to tilt the board like everyone else did. You say that the Front is going to surprise us by attacking the strike force from behind? Why, let them do that. Because this means…" Their eyes meet. "... that we know where the Front forces will be at that time."
Saiko opens her mouth, just to realize that she isn't sure what to say.
It doesn't last.
"Without the Fast Response Unit, we cannot deploy a large enough strike force to counter Midoriya's attack." Intelli replies. "If we attempt to deploy it conventionally, then seeing just how knowledgeable Midoriya is about our internal affairs, he'll know and respond by sending another strike force to counter our strike force supposed to counter his strike force supposed to defeat our initial strike force."
It was less a "Saiko Intelli forgot that thesaurus exists' moment and more a reminder that most good plans aren't complicated. What Midoriya pulled off during the Revival Celebration was an outlier only possible due to his excess knowledge, a total surprise and a lot of competent people with nothing to lose he managed to recruit quietly.
"It could have worked if we predicted his attack while still having access to the Sword of Damocles." Saiko continues. "Without that, unless we decide to nuke Marukane Ward, a fact that is probably not worth the fallout, pardon the pun. Neither political nor literal, as that's on Tokyo's outskirts."
The Prime Minister continues looking at her smugly… and that's when Intelli realizes it.
"Invincible." She says. The smile on the Prime Minister's face grows.
"We do not need to move a conventional strike force anywhere." Intelli then adds, finally understanding the beauty and almost deceptive simplicity of the plan. "We just need a single man in the right position. And a single man can move there anonymously, just by using a civilian car or other practically untraceable means of transport."
"And a single man…" The Prime Minister grins wider. "... we can send there without anyone but the three of us knowing he'll be there. And if he slays or incapacitates Cloud, the PLF is going to stay trapped in the Marukane Ward. A whole abandoned district full of dead villains, Mindscape."
That… might actually work.
(***)
Saiko Intelli's morning is extremely pleasant.
Because, believe it or not, Mirio Togata was gentlemanly enough to mysteriously vanish from under the quilt while she was still asleep (his quirk was probably involved), only to return with a rather sizable breakfast. He put it on (tray included) the end table.
"Am I free to assume that it's not poisoned?" Intelli asks, while trying not to drool. At both the food in front of her and at the sight of Mirio Togata wearing an apron.
JUST the apron. The fact that it's All Might themed is just a cherry on top. Her heart isn't ready for this combination of cute, funny and hot as hell.
"If I wanted to kill you, I had plenty of occasions yesterday." He replies while giving her an 'are we still on it' look. Saiko gives up and grabs a toast.
Holy shit what is he making those toasts from? They are goddamn delicious.
"I considered making some eggs, but I didn't know what sort of eggs you would like." Mirio announces. Saiko gives him a questioning look over the toast. Something's fishy.
"What were the options?" She decides to ask. She is curious what's fishy, because knowing Mirio (even if she knows him for real for maybe a week or two), it's going to be something funny. Something seriously funny.
"With my tools and skills, scrambled, boiled or fertilized." Mirio announces with a straight face. Thankfully he timed it right so that Saiko doesn't choke on the toast, but it was close.
He actually gives her a shit-eating grin (one looking VERY much like his public persona except, in her eyes, much more genuine), which finally pushes her over the edge and she starts laughing loudly.
"Oh my god that was the cheesiest thing I've ever heard." Saiko says once the first outbreak of laughter is over. "Can't say that it wasn't hilarious, though."
"Great." Mirio replies. "I've decided that you deserve a good laugh. You looked surprisingly tense last evening."
"And you looked unsurprisingly stiff." Saiko shoots back with a smile.
"Guilty as charged, madam." Mirio replies. "You were flexible for us both."
That was an understatement.
She is never going to not blush lightly after hearing Mirio's signature POWEEER! Great. Just great.
Also, that was - by far - the best sex of her life.
Besides, she really needed that if only for stress relief purposes. Because, gods, she needed every bit of stress relief she could get nowadays. She felt like she was about to go insane most of the time.
"Yes, and I know I kind of don't feel like going back to work." Saiko replies, before sighing. "It's a bit of a sore spot to me, you know. And that's all…" She points at him accusatively. "... your fault!"
"Well, excuse me for grossly misreading your repeated 'fuck me harder, master' statements." Mirio's grin grows wider. "Me man, men monkey, me can't understand." He manages to act like a monkey surprisingly well, including some sound effects and overexaggerated arm movements.
Okay, Mirio Togata is absolutely hilarious once you get through the 'I hate you and everything you stand for' exterior. Good to know.
"In the meantime, I'm going to exit the room." Mirio announces. "I'm getting some morning reports from my agency, and I need them at least skimmed through posthaste."
"Oh, by all means." Saiko announces, waiting for dessert. Mirio decides to deny all expectations and starts walking out of the room backwards. Intelli throws a pillow at him. "Hey, I wanted to see your bottom!"
"There is a mirror in the bathroom." Mirio deadpans. He then gracefully dodges another pillow and vanishes out of the bedroom.
Urgh.
(***)
Intelli knew that things were going to get potentially kinky, so the next morning of hers was free from work. She was going to go to her agency in the afternoon. Lemillion clearly expected the same
The result was a VERY lazy morning.
Saiko didn't even bother setting up her hair, giving her a surprisingly peasant non-luxurious look. She isn't sure if a lot of people would recognize her with messy hair.
"Very cool." Mirio states dryly. They are sitting on the opposite ends of a surprisingly long couch, their legs entangled a little. She is drinking a tea (he clearly stocked up after deciding that he's probably going to get into her pants), he seems to have something fizzy in a cup.
TV is on, showing some mostly inconsequential news about the situation in the country. Rapidly rising crime stats, riots in poorer districts over sanctions, riots in middle-strata districts over the governmental incompetence, nothing really important.
If something really hit the fan, they'd both know before the media.
"Really gives you that 'nice girl that just discovered that she's an insatiable nympho out for males' look." Mirio continues, before grasping his hair and slightly pulling it upward and to the side. "Need to make it a bit more messy, like this."
"Oh, fuck you, Mirio." She (rather lightheartedly) complains, He smiles at her.
"I think it goes the other way, really." He replies. Oh, yeah, there is totally going to be a second round before she goes to work, just a much shorter one. Much less sexual tension between them to burn out. "Also, before we get anywhere… again, what exactly are we to each other?"
Oh, yeah. Mirio, honestly, feels like someone who wants that to be certain from day one.
"Well, you're surprisingly funny when you aren't staring at me like I was a bug for you to squash…" She replies. "... I absolutely adore you in an apron and the room service you're providing me with. Also, the sex was the best one I ever had. So if it's a 'are we in a relationship', then the answer is 'I have no fucking clue'."
Right.
"Let me guess." He asks dryly. "Politics."
She sighs loudly. Yeah, this sucks a lot.
"We both know that if the truth about the whole thing comes out, it's going to be disastrous." She says. "Mostly for me. I'm going to lose access to classified information as soon as the Prime Minister finds a way to do it without openly admitting that she considers you a potential traitor. And then she'll probably find a way to accuse me of something so that she can demote me to S-Rank if I'm lucky. Lower, if I'm not."
"She's still onto this?" Mirio groans. "Have I ever given you a single indication of being a traitor? Is the fact that I have shown my utmost contempt towards the Prime Minister in almost any conceivable way aside from announcing a press conference just to put her picture on the floor in front of them to shit on it that important?"
Wow, she would have fucking paid to see this.
"Mirio, we're living in a dictatorship and she's the dictator." Saiko deadpans. "Yes, it is that important. We both know that you and Hadou before her political switch only got that high because trying to slander Lemillion, the Victorious Hero, the guy who fought and defeated Entropy, was too politically problematic. And Hadou was riding your coattail the whole time."
"You know, part of me wants to say something alongside 'and not just my coattail', but it feels kind of like a dick move to talk that way about my ex-wife." Mirio states dryly.
Saiko practically cackles this time. Mirio winks at her while making a thumbs-up gesture.
Completely not the type of a joke she would laugh from in public, but here there is no one aside from Mirio. And she finds that immensely funny.
"So, 'political rivals with benefits'?" Mirio asks once Saiko manages to control herself.
"That sounds about right, yeah." Intelli nods. And is also slightly hilarious. "I'm completely open to making it into a regular relationship if we ever stop having to worry about a certain woman." A shit-eating grin starts blooming on his face, but she reacts faster. "Wait, how many villain origin stories do you want to amass? "
"My villain origin story is sitting on the opposite side of my couch, looking absolutely gloriously in…" He whistles loudly. "Madam, what would your fans think if they saw you sitting here, decked in rather interesting underwear that, if my eyes don't fool me, is some leftover Midnight merch?"
"Probably some variant of 'holy shit, I have to google her on some lewd hero boards to see if there is more research material there'." Saiko replies dryly. "Also, that's a gift from my classmates to their class president for the graduation ceremony. They thought it was funny AND Midnight merch was more common back then, as it was right after the Jaku disaster. It's nice to know that it was finally of some use."
"Sounds about right, yeah." Mirio nods. "Those boards are the worst, shame that Midoriya can't just nuke their members for us, I'd consider that his benevolent gift to Mankind. Or, well, at least Japan."
Yes. She is vaguely aware of what's to be found there about her. For some reason being the highest ranked female hero (and having all that high-class vibes) is making her surprisingly popular for various 'captured by villains and broken through sex' drawings/comics.
The Internet is a goddamn sewage.
"Speaking of Midoriya, who do you think he is with?" Mirio asks. Saiko looks at him questioningly. "... tell me that Crusader and the others told you about it."
"About what?" Saiko, clearly, didn't get the memo.
"There is a betting pool among the Top Heroes over whether Midoriya is shagging someone or if he gets all the sexual satisfaction he needs from seeing the country burn." Togata looks vaguely ashamed of it. "Most of the SS-Rankers are in on it, I guess it's some sort of 'use humor as an outlet' moment."
… right, high-class vibes. She was probably excluded by default.
"Do I even want to know whom the others picked?" Intelli asks. "Actually, screw that. Tell me."
"Invincible didn't want to play, but Crusader practically dragged him into it." Mirio replies. "I have no idea why, but Mr. Symbol of Hope is only ever hanging out with Kanai. He gave us all that signature 'what the hell are you doing people' stare, then threw ten thousand yens for Chameleon."
"The frog girl, huh." Intelli is interested. "Did he say why?"
"Apparently dug into all the materials we have about Midoriya, you know what an overachiever he is." Lemillion replies. He did that as well, but he had serious personal reasons to do that. "He was super serious even for his own standards. He said that Asui was from a discriminated group, just like Midoriya was, and this might have connected them somewhat during their school time. Then they ended up having a reunion, and, well, things happened."
"Logical." Intelli admits. "Honestly, people keep seeing Invincible as a brute, but that guy is probably the second smartest among the Top Heroes after me, he's just staying quiet most of the time. Unless Crusader pulls him over to crack open a cold one after work. Your pick?"
"Singularity." He replies. "I only saw them once and from a distance. Years ago, before the Training Camp Massacre. They just… gave me the vibe that they were going to be together unless something extreme happened. Nejire even cooed that they looked cute together. "
Judging from Uraraka being clearly a type of a noumu, something extreme happened.
"Crusader went for Hypothermia, but I think it's just him liking stoic women and projecting onto Midoriya." Mirio continues. "Molecular looked freaked out over the question and shoot Lady Murder."
"I absolutely can't even try to imagine that." Intelli announces after a moment. "Like, at all. Molecular must be into rabbit girls, good to know."
Mirio chuckles loudly.
"Yeah, that would totally explain a lot." Mirio replies. "Redirect told us to fuck off, but that's, like, in character."
"If we're defaulting to 'whom the better thinks is hot', then you should write Redirect down as 'his own hands'." Saiko comments. Mirio breaks into laughter. "He's a total jerk, and you can't persuade me otherwise."
"Yeah, I have no idea how he managed to fit so much spite and pettiness into such a small body." Mirio admits. Saiko grins at him. "Old Flame decided to do a big one and picked, wait for it, the second Arch-Arsonist."
"Oh my fucking god, Iseri is a horrible judge of characters." Saiko says before degenerating into cackles. Mirio agrees, like what the hell, Izuku Midoriya x Shoto Todoroki? It's obvious at a glance Todoroki is into Yaoyorozu. "Wild Star?"
"Always so prim, pure and proper, that no one really felt like asking." Togata replies. Yeah, that adds up. "Behemoth is another big one."
"Literally and metaphorically." Intelli replies dryly. "Alright, I can see that it's a very big one, so shoot it before you literally die of impatience."
"Apocrypha." Mirio says.
"Blegh." Saiko makes her disgust known. "Look, I get it that we're expecting the worst from the villains, but please. Whether or not she is his blood relative or not, she's pretty much his adoptive sister and a goddamn child. Behemoth should really start using his brain a little."
"Why use your brain when you have muscles!" Mirio announces, before kissing his left biceps. "Meet mister Lefty." He then kisses his other biceps. "And that's mister Righty! Those two are my best friends!" Then he flexes them on her.
"Keep acting that way and Lefty and Righty are going to be your only companions for the rest of the day." Saiko says dryly. Lemillion does a very convincing 'I've been shot to the heart' pantomime, and this ends up drawing some laughter out of her. "Nejire-chan?"
"Uraraka, Asui and Hypothermia." Lemillion replies, seemingly unconcerned with the answer being Nejire Hadou's. Saiko wheezes loudly.
"Well, if that option was true, we can only be happy that his quirk isn't a version of my own, just working on the basis of his sex drive." She replies. "We would be, pun intended, screwed." Mirio smiles wryly. "Flamebreath?"
"We're yet to ask." Lemillion replies. "Emoji went his own way and bet on Ragdoll."
"Furries, furries everywhere." Saiko sighs. "I have no idea what happened to Ragdoll, but she had a pair of animal ears and a goddamn tail during Apocrypha's assault on Longbow's agency. Natural looking, no less. Martyr?"
"Refused to participate." Mirio replies. Yeah, that guy was rather… hard to get to, really. "Blindside decided to embrace conspiracy theories and went for Ayako Nakahara."
Saiko Intelli shivers. She doesn't even want to imagine that.
"What about you?" Mirio asks. Saiko considers her options for a moment, before sighing loudly.
"Twenty thousand yen for Asui." She announces. "Midoriya is good at hiding things, but I think he really enjoyed seeing her kill Mr. Blast during the USJ. As in enjoyed enjoyed."
"Now that's just fucking creepy and on so many levels." Mirio sighs. Yeah, she agrees with him there.
(***)
Mindscape pulls out her secure phone a few hours later, while taking public transportation to her agency. She is very well disguised AND it's the government's district. The only threat here is the government itself.
Mindscape: I have a job for you. And I need to call that favor.
Blindside: Sure thing, this ninja always has your back.
Blindside: With and without debt to be paid.
Blindside: What is it?
Mindscape: I want you to tail Nejire-chan.
Blindside: ( o _ o)'
Blindside: excuse me but nani the fuck
Mindscape: you're the only person good enough to do that without her realizing
Mindscape: do it for me
Blindside: what am I supposed to look for?
Mindscape: Everything suspicious.
Blindside: … are you suspecting her for being the mole?
Mindscape: let's just say that I don't trust her
Blindside: … fine, I'll call you when if I find something
Mindscape puts her phone back in her pocket. She can only hope that no one does anything stupid, because she finally starts feeling as if she was on the right track and she doesn't want someone to fucking ruin it.
(***)
Chronostasis's new laboratory is a comfortable one. But it's a gilded cage. He has all that he demands for his research, but he is kept locked from the world, the news reaching him being extremely, extremely censored.
He doesn't even know that the Second Paranormal Liberation War started. His new 'owners' didn't want to risk potential… loyalty risks.
Frankly, it sucks. And while his research is progressing, it does so slowly. He is no genius like Overhaul, he's just someone who saw the genius at work.
Then he looks through the list of newly recovered Paragon candidates that he is privy to in order to find quirks potentially useful for his programs and…
… Eri?
Days until the Second Battle of the Marukane Ward:
19