Shahryar - Fair. He is like in that Dead on Arrival.
MosesArk Reborn2000 - Aye.
(***)
Midoriya finished looking through all the data about the attack on Eri's convoy that his spy managed to obtain for him. It's… a surprising lot of data to sift through, the government acted fast.
Probably because of the whole 'Chronostasis said that the girl is crucial for the cure to quirks' thing. The only positive thing that Izuku could say about the Prime Minister was that she, at least, treated the inevitable Quirk Apocalypse seriously.
He isn't alone. Tsuyu was next to him the whole time, aside from some short breaks when she vanished to prepare him tea and some snacks to go with it. He is… grateful. He was a bit too focused on the task at hand to think about himself.
Uraraka was there with words of encouragement. Hypothermia was there to help him not drown under the pile of intel - he did train her a bit to be the closest thing he ever had to a secretary.
… he just realized that their past brief affair was basically a villainous equivalent of a boss x secretary romance. He isn't sure what to feel about this, so he promptly ignores it. It's a thing of the past.
Cloud and Quicksilver weren't there as well simply because they were told that there is enough space in the room, and that more people being there wouldn't help at all. If not for that fact, they would be there as well.
Uraraka and Hypothermia weren't the only girls that Eri referred to as her 'aunties', after all. And they wanted her back as well.
Except, that's when things got weird. Very, very weird.
"It doesn't seem to make a lot of sense." Midoriya eventually states, putting the last of the printed out documents (he prefers it that way) on the table.
"What do you mean, ribbit?" Tsuyu is there, of course. Her very presence is comforting. Izuku is reminded that Eri was right and that he needed someone like her in his life over and over again.
Hypothermia says nothing, instead she takes the document and puts it in the right place on the pile on her side of the table. She prefers things to be tidy, and he is acutely aware that she memorized the position of all the documents and can direct him to any he needed right now in a heartbeat.
She was a very good secretary.
"There is a very limited list of groups that could stage that attack." Midoriya replies. Uraraka is giving him a worried look. Yeah, he is… much less stable on the inside. "I don't believe in coincidences, this attack clearly targeted Eri. It had to be done either because someone knew that she's my daughter or because due to her being crucial to obtaining the cure to quirks."
Nothing else is an option. You don't attack police convoys because you're bored. Or, to be exact, he can list a few people that would totally do that (Muscular chief among them), but they wouldn't take the children with them.
"You also had to know that the Paragon Program was placed there." Midoriya continues. "Because while there is a minimal chance of someone attacking the convoy not because Eri was there but because it was a convoy leaving the Paragon facility, you still had to know that it's there to know what road to prepare the ambush on."
What he doesn't remind them of - because they know it - is that the Paragon Program was VERY serious about its secrecy. This massively limited the list of potential attackers.
"Basically speaking there are only two groups aside from us that could pull it off." Midoriya continues his lecture. "The New Vigilante Alliance and Entropy's bunch of murderhobo fucknuggets."
He can feel Tsuyu get tense next to him when the word Entropy is mentioned. Yeah, the implications of that… Uraraka looks downright murderous for a moment, and even the temperature in the room seems to have dropped slightly.
Hypothermia clearly doesn't like her either.
"The thing is, none of them fit." Izuku decides to calm them down a little. "To begin with, if the New Vigilante Alliance cared all that much about the Paragon Program, they would have already attacked it. I see little reason in them maintaining overwatch over the facilities that they clearly didn't care about."
"Why, ribbit?" Tsuyu decides to cut in. She seems relieved that it wasn't Entropy (well, most likely it), enough to ask questions. "I thought they would do something about them."
"In a better world, maybe." Izuku sighs. "NVA is just a bunch of reactionary terrorists at this point, thinking that they can restore the All Might's era of Japanese Hero Society and Japan as a whole. Turning back the clock in earnest, like some discount Overhaul with his dreams of restoring the pre-quirk world. They do not do what's right, they do what benefits their cause the most."
"Wouldn't saving those kids benefit it, Izu?" Uraraka asks. "I really just can't wrap my mind around it. Even for pragmatic purposes, it feels like a way of dealing a nasty blow to the government, right?"
Unfortunately, the world wasn't so nice. But it was nice to see her show initiative and ask him questions. Nice, even if there was still a pang of pain somewhere deep inside of him.
"They lack firepower to do it smoothly enough." Midoriya replies. "You can expect a lot of dead kids and you can expect the government to milk their corpses for propaganda purposes ad nauseam. Their potential benefit would be in making the Paragon Program public for the sake of their own propaganda, but the cake's just not worth the candle."
He can see that they have no idea why. So he sighs and decides to elaborate.
"The government would suppress the knowledge about the true degree of the Paragon Program." Midoriya replies. "It would make the majority of the population believe that the NVA just struck against some hero course preparation schools and murdered a lot of its students. The NVA's propaganda would only reach those already convinced that the government is a bunch of bastards."
The government was steadily expanding their means of control over the public. The Villain Network - the modern equivalent of the darknet - was still free, but Izuku suspected that to a lesser degree than most people believed.
Of course, the campaign of terror of the Paranormal Liberation Front and the call to arms he made during the Revival Celebration were steadily eroding the support for the government nationwide.
Each day there were mentions of new riots, new protests, new attacks. Liberator and a lot of similarly charming people that escaped Tartarus were going on a rampage, and crime rates were skyrocketing thanks to the morale among the heroes beginning to skydive.
What was the point of being authoritarian to the point of inviting international sanctions when you couldn't even use your dictatorship power to maintain security? What was the point of sacrificing freedom for safety, when in the end you had no safety at all?
Hatsume Industries and the newly resurgent House of Glass were already moving in to begin producing (or smuggling) equipment and weapons, selling it to anyone who seemed interested in using them once the time was right. The country was slowly turning into a powderkeg, ready to explode with the strength of years worth pent-up frustration.
It was going to erupt after the Marukane Ward. Izuku knew that, because that was the plan.
"Worst of all, the potential fallout from the attack might have impaired popular support for the overthrowing of the Japanese government overseas." Midoriya continues. "NVA needs to at least appear to be the better option for the public in the United States, or the financial drip is going to shrink further. I'm not even sure how much of it nowadays is out of Star and Stripe's personal spite and her relentless lobbying."
Everyone was pretending that some of the instructors that were training NVA operatives in the Marukane Ward - and, probably, Crawler's praetorians in the Naruhata Ward - weren't retired CIA agents or Green Berets. Even the government preferred to not open that can of worms.
"Worst of all, those idiots are completely ignoring the fact that Quirk Singularity is almost certainly real." Izuku sighs. "They would probably target Chronostasis and his lab to stop him from working for the government, despite the potential end of Mankind as a result, just to spite the Prime Minister. So the second potential reason for targeting Eri is out of the questi…."
"Ribbit." Tsuyu lets out while poking his side with her finger.
Point taken. The last few sentences make him into a bit of a hypocrite, now don't they?
"Yes, you're right, Tsu." Izuku replies before sighing. Uraraka and Hypothermia [she disliked being referred to by her real name] give him an odd look over the table. "I also do not think that Nakahara has a good enough intel to know of my connection to Eri, so none of this fits."
"What if they planned to attack the facility to recruit the kids themselves?" Hypothermia decides to finally speak. Izuku opens his mouth to voice his immediate rebuttal, then stops and thinks it over for a moment.
"It would make more sense to strike against the facilities with more disobedient Paragon candidates." Midoriya eventually replies. "But there is a small possibility that they attacked the convoy to get a read on how potentially recruitable the 'obedient' candidates were. This is extremely unlikely, especially as Nakahara is cautious and calculating, and such a test would mean the Paragon facilities having an improved security."
… unless she hoped to make the Paragons relocate and then strike at them during the transfer. That was a possibility, although an extremely small one. Izuku honestly didn't believe it to be possible, Nakahara knew better than to try to make such convoluted plans into reality. Especially with Intelli around to figure it out and form a proper counter.
"I see." Hypothermia nods and goes quiet again.
"As for Entropy, such an attack is entirely in-character for her." Midoriya decides to change the subject. "Several things don't add up. To begin with, Nejire Hadou isn't in a position to know where the Paragon facilities are located. Saiko Intelli is good at information security, and the Prime Minister is no slouch in that department either."
"She had years to work with this, ribbit." Tsuyu comments. "She can have a lot of spies at this point."
"Yes, but also, no." Izuku replies while shaking his head. "She is a Top Hero but she is a Top Hero whose loyalty the government isn't certain. Before or after her political switch, Intelli and the Prime Minister were keeping an eye on her activities. They didn't have anyone tail her or something, but you could expect everyone who appears to be too chummy with her to be investigated head to toe. Besides, the list of people who were ready to pick Nejire Hadou over the HPSC and the Prime Minister was distinctly small."
Before her switch to a more loyal position, most people probably expected her to fall from grace sooner or later. Especially after her messy divorce with Lemillion, whose coattail she was riding ever since the end of the First Paranormal Liberation War. And after it…
… she had the zeal of a neophyte, but it wasn't enough time to persuade anyone to truly trust her.
"Second thing that doesn't add up is the meta-abilities used during the attack." Midoriya continues. "I know Entropy. She is highly intelligent when sober. Around the level of people like Monoma or Nakahara. But she has a tendency for brute force solutions, and, well, none of the quirks used in the attack belonged to any of her sidekicks that she showed to us in the Armageddon's Tomb."
"And that's important, how exactly?" Uraraka asks, clearly confused.
"Fire doesn't have fingerprints, Uraraka." Midoriya sighs. "Entropy would simply have Dabi incinerate most of the escort, maybe tell him to slightly limit the temperature but I don't think so. After all, who out there knows that Dabi is, in a way, still alive?"
"We do." Uraraka replies. Izuku looks at her, one brow raising. After a few seconds of awkward silence, she realizes it. "Wait. If that was Entropy, then us and, well, you especially, finding out would be the whole point."
"Yeah." Izuku sighs. Entropy learned how to break people through their closest ones from the same professor. "The attackers were also cautious about leaving no evidence, which included using some technopathic meta-ability to erase recordings from police officers' bodycams. Once again, Entropy would just have them all incinerated. Then there is the whole two abandoned cars thing."
"I can't figure it out, to be honest." Uraraka comments. "You attack the convoy, you steal a car, then you abandon it and… then you get into a car accident? That's strangely lousy for someone who managed to locate the Paragon facilities and slaughter several heroes and police officers without being injured."
"I think that the car crash was caused by Eri." Izuku sighs. "The initial assessment of the police is that something exploded inside, she must have snuck some improvised explosives with her and attempted to escape." Izuku doesn't say it, but he is incredibly proud of her. Then again, all the women in the room can easily glean it from his face. "The fact that the attacker used a car to escape is another proof against Entropy being responsible, why use a car to escape when you have Kurogiri?"
The car had to be very dense, with three children and at least a single one from the attackers acting as a driver and a guard. No wonder Eri attempted to use that moment to escape, the fact that the car wasn't escorted by the remaining attackers was honestly kind of weir…
Wait.
Wait.
Someone succeeded in locating the Paragon facilities. Someone managed to (most likely) improvise a convoy attack despite most likely not expecting a convoy to appear. The defenders were smoothly eliminated with multiple meta-abilities - the attackers clearly competent enough to leave no evidence behind. Then, they left - in a single car, that could at best fit two people aside from the kids.
Was there even a second person in that car, despite multiple quirks being used against the guards?
"That rotten pile of excrements in a cheap tuxedo." Midoriya says slowly, clenching his fists, angry flinches on his face. They all look at him, worried, especially Tsuyu. "It's Monoma. It's Neito fucking Monoma."
"Ribbit?" Tsuyu's surprised ribbit voices everyone's sentiment.
"He must have gotten a quirk awakening that lets him borrow quirks for longer." Midoriya replies, his teeth clenched. "I don't know how he figured out that Eri's my daughter, but he was probably stalking the facility's surroundings preparing a break-in in order to kidnap her. When he realized that the PLF was attacking, he ambushed the convoy that left it, just in case Eri was inside. Then he grabbed her, she tried to escape him seeing him as only a single hero to be outplayed, but he managed to recapture her again. Probably thanks to one of the who knows how many meta-ability copies he has on him."
They exchange some glances. Tsuyu has a finger on her lips, a clear sign of confusion.
"Isn't…" Uraraka decides to take point. "... that a bit too far-fetched?"
"We'll find out in a day or two." Midoriya replies dryly. "Monoma is probably going to try to blackmail me into something. He needs to make sure that I know that he has Eri before voicing it. I hope that the message will be done in a way allowing me to reply back, because I have a lot of things to say to him."
(***)
Neito Monoma's personal dungeon was pretty much a small building in a seedier part of Tokyo's Kamino Ward.
It was originally housing a convenience store on the floor level, and some apartments above it. The whole thing never recovered from the Battle of Kamino Ward, especially the convenience store that simply bankrupted soon after.
The fact that on a few occasions Entropy bought her goddamn groceries from that very convenience store probably contributed. Somehow. Kurogiri's old bar was located just a few streets away from it.
When the mist villain wasn't available to warp other League members to buy their groceries elsewhere, Entropy donned her civilian clothes and went here to resupply. The fact that none of the cashiers ever recognized her, well. It's hard to continue being the store that Entropy of all people frequented.
Monoma eventually used some fake identities to buy out the apartments above the empty convenience store and have everyone move out.
The entire building was his. It was placed in the district when people tended to mind their own business. The convenience store had a side door leading to the backstreet alley next to the building - very useful for quietly bringing people inside without no one seeing.
It also had a basement.
Not everyone who visited the building ended up leaving it alive. Basement is useful for dissolving corpses in lye. Thankfully, that's a rare occurrence. One that Monoma personally dislikes.
The actual 'dungeon' is actually a level above the old convenience store. A refurbished apartment. Room without windows, connected to an equally windowless bathroom thanks to some walls being broken.
The rest was just a matter of putting someone there to act as a guard. And, of course, making sure that the inmates can't use their quirks. Monoma was extremely… predisposed towards the latter.
Eri and her two extras were put to sleep with a quirk, then carried inside by Monoma and Kuroiro (who really didn't want to be there) under a cover of an illusion quirk, in case one of the neighbors developed a conscience.
Then they were woken up.
"My father…" Eri announces the moment she was awoken from her slumber. "... is going to skin you alive and make an All Might themed tambourine out of your face."
"Charming." Neito refuses to be intimidated. Kuroiro tries to do the same, but it's rather clear that it's not exactly working. "The room behind you is going to be your home for the next few weeks or months. Act nicely, and you'll be allowed to watch the TV. Try to escape, things will get ugly. Anything you need aside from food and drinks?"
Neito Monoma might not be intimidated by Eri's threats. But this doesn't mean that he is willing to test Revenant's patience. He is absolutely ready to treat Eri like a little princess if she asks.
It's all temporary either way.
"Condoms, extra large." Eri replies dryly, her anger clearly restrained for the moment. When Neito gives her a questioning look, she decides to elaborate. "Katsu doesn't look like it, but he's packing."
Neito glances at the boy in question, who looks down, fidgeting nervously. Then he looks back at Eri, before sighing loudly.
"If you think I'm going to give so much rubber to a girl that somehow produced improvised explosives under the eyes of so many former pro-heroes, think again." Monoma refuses to fall for that trap - he has no idea what she can do, and he doesn't want to find out. Eri appears to be disliking that fact immensely. "Stay obedient, and I'm going to return your friends' quirks."
"No, you won't." Eri replies, giving Neito a pause.
"What?" He asks, his eyes narrowing down on her.
"Your All for One cosplay is good, but not good enough to fool me." She replies. "I recognized the projectile meta-ability you used to kill our driver. It belonged to one of the Haze's victims." Her eyes narrow down on Monoma. "You're Haze, aren't you?"
Silence in the room. Kuroiro glancing at Monoma - slightly nervously, that alone tells Eri that she was right on the money.
"H-Haze?" Mahoro decides to ask quietly. Or maybe she was just mumbling to herself? This way or another, her girlfriend has her back.
"A-Rank villain, responsible for multiple kidnappings of pro-heroes, civilians and villains." Eri replies. "Almost all of his victims returned after a few weeks, not remembering anything since their kidnapping, hence the name."
Monoma is still observing her quietly. Eri has a… maybe not plan, something more like a rough vibe or an outline of a plan.
"The thing is, all of the Haze's victims that returned still carried their meta-abilities." Eri continues. "So your evolved Copy doesn't allow you to steal meta-abilities. It's more like 'borrowing' them. And if I'm right about it, if you hold the borrowed powers long enough, you develop their permanent copies while the originals return to their owners. That's why Haze is kidnapping people with powerful meta-abilities and erasing their memories of the ordeal. It's so that they do not remember not having their quirks for some time."
Still silence. Neito's eyes are… not threatening, but it's clear that he isn't exactly happy about what just happened.
"So my theory is that Maho and Katsu's meta-abilities will return in a few weeks, regardless of what you do." Eri continues, while tilting her head a little and giving him a smug smile. "And that you didn't try to take mine because of the horn. Because you saw it glow while I activated my Rewind in the car. So you know it's a part of my meta-ability and you're only stealing the powers that lack external mutations connected to the way they work, am I wrong?"
"Izuku Midoriya…" Neito replies slowly, drawing out words. "... seems to be extremely gifted in terms of teaching others. You're observant and can make good guesses. Yes, I'm Haze. And yes, my evolved form of Copy works exactly that way. This…" He spreads his arms around. "... is the place that I use to slowly build my own Ultimate Quirk Combination to match All for One's. Not to mention obtaining a number of minor quirks that are helpful in my investigative works. All of that in Kamino Ward of all places. The only thing I do not understand is why you thought that it was a good idea to tell all of that to me."
"Well, who knows." Eri replies, unfazed by their rather intense eye contact. "But guess what? I'm going to be the goodest girl you've ever seen. And even if I know too much, does it really matter if you're going to erase my memories at the end?"
Silence. Kuroiro and the Shimano siblings look very uncomfortable with it.
"So that's the game you're playing." Monoma replies eventually. "Establishing yourself as dangerous enough to potentially escape from this place, in order to goad me into selling you back to your father before it happens. Because that's the only way to make sure that my secret remains hidden, as I'll be there to erase your memories of what happened."
Eri doesn't make it known. But on the inside, she's all 'oh, crap, he figured it out'.
"You're good, I'll give you that." Monoma continues. "Once you'll be my age, you'll probably be close to Revenant's level. So way above my head. But for now? For now you're simply not quite there."
He looks at Kuroiro.
"Put them inside." He orders Vantablack, before returning his attention to Eri. "You'll have to wait for a moment for me to get you all a proper bedding. This place used to keep only a single inmate at the same time."
"That much won't be a problem." Eri retorts, looking at him coldly. Someone didn't like being reality checked about their skills. Good to know. "One bed is completely alright, just make it wide enough."
Now it's the girl that blushes notably. Eri is with them both? That's… entirely not what he expected from Midoriya's daughter. That guy used to be a supremely anxious cinnamon roll, and that's how his daughter is acting?
Heh.
People change, it seems.
(***)
"Are you sure…" Eri says towards Kuroiro right after Monoma leaves. "... that antagonizing my father is wise?"
This is why Shihai originally didn't want to get involved in this bullshit. Neito fucking Monoma just had to do this, didn't he?
"Look." He replies while scratching the side of his head. "I'll level with you, okay? I don't want to be here, either. Technically speaking, I'm being blackmailed to help him."
Kuroiro is acutely aware that it'll make her attempt to manipulate him to help her escape. Unfortunately, he believes that making sure that Revenant will know that Kuroiro wasn't in on this willingly might severely improve his long term survival chances if she actually somehow escapes.
"You must not be valuing your life very highly." Eri retorts, her sidekicks already having entered their 'prison cell' and eyeing her through the door. "If you know what my father will do and yet you're still helping Monoma."
"Unfortunately…" Kuroiro replies. "...I'm simply valuing someone else's life higher than my own, Miss Midoriya. I'm sure it's something that you can understand." She stares at him for a few seconds before sighing loudly and walking into the cell.
Kuroiro approaches its door. Before closing them, he looks at Eri Midoriya one more time.
"I'm going to do my utmost to make your stay as comfortable as possible." Kuroiro says. "Please don't make me regret that."
Days until the Second Battle of the Marukane Ward:
17