As soon as she'd heard about the seven other people who'd suddenly appeared in Re-Destro's breakfast room, Curious had known that she just had to interview them. Everyone in Deika would want to know the inspiring story of the man who'd managed to find his true self after so long bereft of the Meta ability that would have helped him to truly find his place in the world as it was.

"You must have been so happy when Takahashi managed to activate your Meta power," she said, already thinking about how she would describe the man.

Toshinori Shimura was a tall, broad-shouldered, well-built man with vibrant blond hair; just the kind of person that would have been venerated in Deika, if not for his unfortunate disability. And now, now that he'd been allowed to become the person he was meant to be, it was to be both Curious' duty as well as her pleasure to inform everyone in Deika of just how Shimura-san had been granted the use of the Meta ability that had been sleeping inside him ever since the day that he'd been born. Of course, that wasn't even mentioning all of the other people that Shimura-san had teleported to his side.

Oh, she couldn't wait to start collecting all of their stories, too.

"That's… not exactly what happened," Shimura-san said, turning to look back over his shoulder at the man most of the people he'd teleported to his side seemed to be looking to, as well.

That man was shorter than most of them, but the long, tied-back white hair, to say nothing of the way he seemed to be holding court over the other five who Shimura-san had brought to Deika truly did remind her a great deal of Harvest. Finding out all of their stories was going to be so interesting.

"Oh?" she asked, smiling more widely at all of the men – and one woman, who seemed to have a Meta ability that altered her physicality, at least enough to be noticeable: her hair looked like it was made up entirely of thin, white strips of paper – who had come to her office alongside Shimura-san.

It was becoming clear that, in direct contrast to what Curious had first thought, when she found such an eclectic group teleported into the dining room that had been reserved for ReDestro, his closest and most dedicated followers, and those guests that ReDestro had personally invited to partake in Deika's full hospitality, those other six all seemed to know each other on a more personal level. So, it seemed that there was more to Shimura-san's newly-awakened Meta ability than she'd suspected at first.

"Mr. Shimura, I hope you don't take this the wrong way, but I intend to strip you bare with this interview," she said, smiling widely at the man who had just been helped to truly find himself by one of those who served under Skeptic; she was sure he'd be pleased, once everyone in Deika had been alerted to the awakening of his dormant Meta abilities.

"If it's all the same to you, ma'am, I'd prefer to keep my clothes on," Shimura-san said, folding his thick arms across his broad chest.

Curious laughed softly; it was only natural that someone who had been raised among Harvest and his family would have a sense of humor.

~MHA~

Yuuichiro Shigaraki… Reaching out to touch the view screen in front of him, ReDestro contemplated the man he'd seen. Destro's own memoirs were spread out before him, opened to the pages that detailed the early years of his life, specifically to the page that detailed the appearance of the man who had offered shelter to him and his mother. The description of the man – his long, tied-back white hair, bright green eyes, and the paper flower perched just above his right ear – was nearly an exact match to the man that ReDestro had watched making his way into Curious' office alongside all of those others. Truly, the only thing that distinguished this man from the Yuuichiro Shigaraki described in the pages of his ancestor's memoirs, was the subtle, pale aura that seemed to surround him.

That same aura, though with seemingly different qualities and subtly different colors, was slightly visible around each of the others that Shimura had seemingly summoned to his side; even Shimura himself, though the glow that had enveloped him was clearly a bright, golden yellow.

However, the fact remained that Yuuichiro Shigaraki had been a contemporary of Destro – his long-dead ancestor – and he hadn't been able to find a Meta ability that had allowed him to survive to these modern times as Harvest had. It was nearly an impossible thing to contemplate, even in a society that had been built around Meta abilities as theirs had been, but it did seem as though Yuuichiro Shigaraki – the kind young man who had given Destro and his mother shelter from those who had rose against the first possessors of Meta abilities – was indeed standing in Curious' office.

He would need to make a deeper inquiry on the subject, clearly, but the thought of actually having the chance to speak with Yuuichiro Shigaraki – the young man he'd found within the pages of Destro's memoirs; the kindly young man who had offered the small remnants of the Yotsubashi family shelter under the guardianship of his older brother and those children who the man who would come to be called Harvest had taken under his wing – while it had hardly been something he'd been given any kind of reason to expect, was truly something auspicious.

After all, not only did Harvest deserve to stand at the crown of the world for the power of his Meta ability, but Rikiya Yotsubashi owed a debt to the Shigaraki family for the protection that they had offered to Chikara Yotsubashi and his mother.

~MHA~

Narrowing his eyes as he spoke to Nana-chan, Hisashi found himself more than a bit curious as to just what had happened.

"You hit your head on a cupboard door, Nana-chan? That's not like you," he said, leaning back in the plush chair that he'd been provided; one more of the many, many ways that Rikiya-chan was seeking to impress him and curry his favor.

"Turn on the video feature, you'll get the idea, Hisashi," Nana-chan said, sounding both amused and more than a little flustered, and when he turned on the video connection between them, Hisashi realized just why that was.

Blinking in surprise, as he found himself looking into the young face of Seven Strong – the seventh in the chain of wielders that had taken up the Quirk that he and Shiro had created together – a face that he hadn't seen since Toshi-kun and Kotaro-chan were both children, Hisashi chuckled. "Well, it seems as though something truly interesting has happened."

He was clearly going to have to speak with Nana-chan about what had happened – as well as Toshi-kun, of course, since it seemed as though whatever was happening had at least something to do with One For All – and so Hisashi stood back up, concentrating for a moment on the sense of Toshi-kun that he'd had since the day he'd first marked Nana-chan's adopted son with Beacon, then began to make his way toward the sense of Toshi-kun that he'd managed to detect. He seemed to be in some kind of meeting with one of Rikiya-chan's underlings. Chitose-chan, if the location he was tracing Toshi-kun to was any indication. As he continued speaking with Nana-chan, finding out just what had happened, Hisashi raised an eyebrow.

He'd had to bite his tongue to keep from laughing when Nana-chan had detailed the circumstances of just how she had ended up hitting her head on that cabinet door; it seemed that she and Nao-chan had been preparing lunch for the rest of their family, the ones who had been left behind while he, Toshi-kun, Izuku-chan, and Tenko-chan had moved onto the U.A. campus to stay. Abruptly finding herself returned to her physical prime when she'd been standing under the cabinet that Nao-chan had had opened had led to quite a bit more trouble than either of them had been prepared for. It had still been more than a little amusing, of course.

However, it also brought up thoughts of just what else was happening, in the room he'd located the sense of Toshi-kun he'd been tracking up through the length of the building he and the rest of his sweet family had been invited to during the course of Rikiya-chan's continuing efforts to convince him of the merits of the worldview he'd been espousing for such a long time; before he'd even reached the age of reason, it seemed.

~MHA~

He hadn't known quite what to make of Chitose Kizuki when he'd first met her, but once she'd been given a story… Taking a long sip of water, if only to give himself some time to actually think about what he was going to say for the first time since all of this had begun. Still, without him actually saying anything, Kizuki-san turned her attention to Yuuichiro and the others. Banjo-san in particular seemed to be more than willing to deflect her attention from the rest of them. Shikigami-san – one of the only two women who had inherited One For All and the position at Hisashi's side that the combination of Quirks conferred on all of the successors – and the second holder – a man with bright, red hair tied back in a much higher, and shorter, ponytail than Yuuichiro's own – didn't seem to be in any kind of mood to talk.

Of course, the both of them had seemed to have taken up that stance after Kizuki-san had made her feelings for the Quirkless – the way he'd been born, and what'd caused him so much trouble in Japan at large and Deika city in particular – clear to all of them, so Toshinori had a feeling he knew just why the pair of them had so much of a problem with Kizuki-san; having lived through the dawn of Quirks, and then seeing just how little society had actually changed would naturally aggravate someone. Hell, it'd been aggravating him, and he hadn't even lived through the dawn of Quirks himself.

"So, you and Harvest actually managed to create a Meta ability that could be passed down from one person to another?"

"Yes, Hisashi and I managed to create a Quirk that could be passed down to a worthy successor," Yuuichiro said, biting off the edges of his words in a way that made it more than clear to anyone who was actually listening – so, everyone but Kizuki-san, obviously – that he was steadily having his last nerve ground down by the subject of their conversation.

Or, in this case, the way that Kizuki-san only seemed to be listening to two out of every ten words he said.

"And so, you and your line of successors have stood beside Harvest for each of your respective lives?" Kizuki-san asked, her smile looking just a bit too wide to appear sincere for any real length of time; it seemed like Yuuichiro was getting that, too, since he narrowed his bright green eyes – he really did look a lot like Izuku; you could tell that he, Hisashi, and Izuku were all related in at least some way – and folded his arms tightly across his chest.

Settling back into his own seat, Toshinori sighed as he set his glass back down on the table Kizuki-san had set out for him; well, for all of them, but as soon as she'd realized that all of One For All's previous vestiges – for all that they'd somehow regained at least some physicality – were incapable of eating or drinking, she'd been quick to offer it all to him. It was such a distinct contrast to the way he'd been treated by most of these people before that it only managed to come off as patronizing. For a long moment, Toshinori found himself wishing that Hisashi could have been with him.

If nothing else, the ensuing snark-fest would have been more than worth the price of admission; Yuuichiro's steadfast refusal to allow Kizuki-san's misnaming of him, Hisashi, and their respective Quirks to go unchallenged was a nice change of pace from what seemed to be the status quo around Deika, considering the way Kizuki-san seemed to be reacting to Yuuichiro's defiance, but Hisashi wouldn't have stood for that kind of thing either, and he would have been a hell of a lot snarkier, besides.

Turning at the sound of someone else making their way into Kizuki-san's office, Toshinori found himself nearly laughing out loud when Hisashi walked in through the door. Given the way he was tucking his phone back into his right pants pocket, Toshinori had the distinct feeling that Hisashi knew what was going on here; at least as well as anyone could be said to understand something like this. Nana-sensei had been the one to pass One For All onto him in the first place, after all.

~MHA~

Pausing for a moment at the threshold of Chitose-chan's office – he'd been prepared to see Toshi-kun in at least some manner of empowered state, considering what Nana-chan had been saying to him while he'd been tracking the sense he had of Toshi-kun's presence – but what he hadn't been expecting was to see Shiro, lounging in the seat he had been provided with an apparent air of unconcern. Still, even after having only seen his beloved, adorable little brother in the Quirk-space that had seemingly been created in imitation of the space that he'd found within his own All For One, Hisashi could tell that his dear departed little brother was at the end of even his considerable patience.

Though that kind of thing was hardly a surprise, considering the faction they were all presently dealing with.

~MHA~

"Genesis, I've been asked to be your companion for the duration of your stay with us. My name is Geten," an older boy in a bright, pale blue winter coat said, having come to the door of the hotel room he and Mom had been settling into while Dad and Uncle Toshi were out probably talking to Yotsubashi-san; well, Uncle Toshi was probably talking, Dad was probably making fun of him.

"It's nice to meet you," he said, trying to keep smiling, even in the face of yet another person who didn't seem to understand that he didn't like being called by something that wasn't and had never been his name; really, even being called by his Hero name wouldn't have been as bad as constantly being called Genesis.

/He has a name, you know,/ Bambaa-chan said, ears folded back in clear annoyance;

"I'm glad to see that another of the Survivors is doing so well," Geten said, the smile on his face not actually moving, which was as good an indication as any that he wasn't really listening to either of them. "There are more of your people living here," he continued, giving some of his attention to Bambaa-chan, as the three of them stood at the door of the room they'd all been given while they stayed in Deika city. "Would you like to go and meet them? One of them has been talking about something called the Neighborhood Watch, and it seems that your father was involved with it?"

/Dad was the one who formed it in the first place,/ Bambaa-chan said, ears unfolding slightly. /Since it wasn't like the Heroes could be everywhere at once, and there are some kinds of problems that can be handled in-house, so to speak./

"That's just what the people of Deika believe, as well," Geten said, seemingly pleased with the idea.

Izuku found himself wondering just what kind of parents he had, or if he was using the same kind of alias that everyone in Deika city seemed to be trying to force on him. He didn't really know just why everyone in the city seemed to have taken some kind of alias or other, even though none of them seemed to really approve of the Pro Hero system at all. It didn't make sense, but then not many things in Deika really seemed to make sense, when you thought about it. The problem was, no one in Deika seemed inclined to do that.

No one who lived in Deika, at least.

Geten had suggested that Bambaa-chan go meet up with the people who had been invited to stay in Deika – the few people who had managed to escape the destruction of the Ward itself – since some of them seemed to have known her father. Following along with Bambaa-chan and Geten, knowing that his sister would be perfectly able to handle herself with whatever else Geten was planning, Izuku turned his attention to searching for anyone else with the family name Sezu. He still remembered his brief encounter with Kagami Sezu, the last time that he'd come to Deika, back before he'd realized just how crazy all of them were about Quirks in general and the one that he and Dad possessed in particular.

Shaking off those thoughts, since they weren't particularly important at the moment, Izuku turned his attention back to searching through the registry of people who lived in Deika city; searching for someone with the family name of Sezu. He found two of them – a married couple by the name of Kagami and Kagemitsu – and narrowed his eyes slightly as he tried to look for anything else. There seemed to be something he couldn't see, some extra information he couldn't quite manage to get his hands on, and so Izuku turned slightly so that he could look over at Bambaa-chan. She and Geten seemed to be talking about something, which was a good thing, since what he was aiming to do would be much easier if he could avoid the attention of anyone who might try to stop him.

Catching Bambaa-chan's eye, Izuku signaled for her to try to keep Geten talking, then turned his attention to his phone. Pulling up the hacking Quirk that Dad had given him, once the both of them had discovered just what the Meta Liberation Front was about, Izuku started searching for more information about the couple he'd discovered. As it had turned out, Kagami Sezu was married to a man by the name of Kagemitsu, and as Izuku pushed deeper into the database where he'd found the pair of them listed. The family names he was seeing was just the same as the one Niseko-chan had told him – Sezu – so there was every chance that he'd just managed to find the rest of Niseko-chan's family.

Maybe not his immediate family, but at least someone related to him.

~MHA~

Narrowing his eyes as he caught the electronic signature of someone poking around in his database, Skeptic quickly immersed himself in the video feeds for the area where the signals he had traced were coming from.

"Genesis?" he muttered, surprised and rather troubled to see that Harvest's son was looking for those particular people. "Shadow Walker, I need you and Spyglass to report to my office at once," he ordered, forcing himself to calm down and think of just how it was that he would mitigate the difficulties that he and his would be likely to face if he failed to shape the discourse himself.

There was clearly going to be discourse, since it was too late for that kind of thing to be avoided entirely considering the fact that Genesis had already made his foray into the database he maintained, but Skeptic could at least make the attempt to remain on-message. Contacting curious, who seemed to have found something or other that she was particularly excited about, given the giddiness that he could hear in her voice when she responded to him, Skeptic instructed her to meet with him, Shadow Walker, and Spyglass.

"Reporting as ordered, sir," Shadow Walker said, as he and Spyglass paused for a moment to offer the Liberation salute before making their way into his office.

"Good," he said, rising from his chair so that he could lead the pair of them back out to his public office rather than the control-center that allowed him to look over the citizens of Deika city – those who had dedicated themselves most ardently to the Liberation cause – Skeptic waved Shadow Walker and Spyglass to a pair of chairs, then made his way over to the desk he used to interact with those who had not yet been told of the Liberation cause and what it was that they intended.

Looking up, Skeptic found himself at least reasonably pleased to see that Curious had finally made her way to his public office.

"I was right in the middle of an interview," the woman snapped, arms folded across her chest and her entire stance radiating annoyance.

"Genesis has been searching through my database," he said, narrowing his eyes at her through the curtain of hair that he used to shroud his expression from those he didn't wish to know his true feelings. "Specifically, he seems to be looking for information on these two," he said, gesturing at Shadow Walker and Spyglass.

"Oh," Curious said, the look on her face telling him plainly that she understood just what it was that he was getting at. "Well, it seems like you do need my help."

"Yes, I feel that you would be best suited to persuading Genesis to see things properly," he said, turning to make contact with Genesis.

He would need to ensure that Genesis came to understand just what it was that those who served the cause of Liberation were attempting to do; the kind of society they were aiming to build.

~MHA~

When he'd found himself blocked from the database he'd been searching for Niseko-chan's family in, Izuku had barely had time to think about how he might be able to get back in, before he found himself being invited up to speak with Chikazoku-san himself. Geten – Izuku wondered just what his real name was, and if he'd ever have the chance to get to know it – had been weirdly enthusiastic once he'd found out that Chikazoku-san had contacted him, and now that the three of them were making their way up to his office, Geten had fallen into a sort of reverent silence.

It was really creepy, honestly.

"Genesis," Chikazoku-san said, turning to him with what almost seemed to be a mix of curiosity and disapproval.

Then again, Chikazoku-san didn't really seem to approve of anything, at least not that Izuku knew of.

"Skeptic tells me that you've been looking for Shadow Walker and Spyglass," Kizuki-san said, smiling at him in that same, vaguely creepy way that he'd seen more than a few times from Geten; more than anything, Izuku was looking forward to leaving this place.

Still, it looked like he'd managed to find Niseko-chan's parents, so that was at least something.

"Yeah," he said, wondering all over again just why all of the people he'd met – people who seemed to disapprove of the entire Pro Hero system and everything that stood behind it – had chosen some kind of nickname or other; it was almost like they were trying to get as close as they could to being Pro Heroes, while all of them still seemed to look down their noses at it. "I was trying to see if I could find them; or at least someone with the same family name," he continued, gathering himself to speak. "You see, I met Niseko Sezu, and he seemed to really miss his family."

"So you thought you'd try to reunite them?" Kizuki-san asked, her smile growing all the wider; Izuku still thought it was creepy.

"Has the boy been given a Meta ability?" Chikazoku-san demanded, and given the way Kizuki-san turned to glare at him, Izuku had the feeling that she'd been about to say more before being interrupted.

"No," he said, feeling a distinct unease about the topic they were currently discussing; he'd known for a long time that everyone in Deika city had a Quirk, and just how obsessed all of them were about Quirks, but this was the first time he'd needed to confront any of them about their particular obsessions. "And I don't know what that has to do with-"

"You'll find it has quite a great deal to do with the child and his place in Deika, Genesis," Chikazoku-san said, cutting him off in the same way he'd done to Dad, more than a few times; Izuku was really starting to understand why Dad didn't like anyone in Deika, and why Uncle Toshi had been so reluctant to come here in the first place.

"It's good to see how kind you are, Genesis," Kizuki-san said, that same, condescending tone that he'd heard every other time he'd been forced to speak to the woman; it was one of the reasons he tried to avoid her. "But, Skeptic is right: someone without a Meta ability wouldn't be able to get along with anyone in Deika."

"Sezu-san," he called, looking up at the man with dark brown hair and bright, silver eyes; the man who looked like nothing more than an older version of Niseko-chan. "I met Niseko-chan-"

"That will be all, Genesis," Chikazoku-san snapped, standing up.

Before anyone else could say anything, however, Dad and Uncle Toshi came into the room; Uncle Toshi seemed more than a bit unsettled, but Dad… Dad seemed intrigued, somehow, though he didn't seem particularly happy.

"Izuku, Bombalurina, we're leaving," Dad said, with a brief glance at all of the other people in the room.

Izuku chewed his lower lip, even as he made his way over to where Dad and Uncle Toshi were standing, promising himself that he would talk to the both of them about what he'd been trying to do, before the both of them had come to pick him and Bambaa-chan up so that they could leave. Yotsubashi-san, who seemed to have been hurrying to catch up to Dad as he walked away, tried to talk him out of leaving, but of course once Dad had set his mind to something there were very few people who could talk him out of it.

As they all made their way back to the mini-van they'd all travelled here to in the first place, Izuku climbed in beside Bambaa-chan and next to Tenko-nii, still chewing over what he was going to say to Dad. Well, not so much what he was going to say as how he was going to say it, Izuku leaned on Tenko-nii's right shoulder, and smiled softly as he felt Bambaa-chan leaning softly on his own right shoulder.

It was kind of nice, really.

~MHA~

Looking down on the people of Deika, ReDestro found that his thoughts remained with Harvest and his family. Knowing that they had chosen to leave so soon after they'd been invited weighed on him, and even the thought of everyone else who had chosen to make their homes in Deika couldn't give him the solace it usually did.

"I've prepared our people to move on your orders, ReDestro," Skeptic reported, and ReDestro turned to watch as his old friend made his way into the office he'd operated out of for as long as Detnerat had come to dominate the market for the support items that both those who had chosen to take up the roles of the vanguard of the status-quo, as well as those who had not been granted Meta abilities that would aid them in living their full lives.

"That's good to hear, Skeptic," he said, folding his arms behind his back as he stood and watched over his people. "Proceed."

"Yes, sir," Skeptic said, and the sound of retreating footsteps brought a small, reflective smile to his face.

Soon enough, it would be time for the Meta Liberation Army to make their move; and yes, he would have preferred to have Harvest and Genesis standing beside him during this moment, and all the moments that would come after it, but there was nothing for it now. The world remained as it was, their circumstances remained what they were, and ReDestro remained determined to make Harvest understand him. No matter how long it took.

No matter what he had to do to succeed.