"You do realize…" Tsuyu gives him a worried look. "... that it's probably a very bad idea, ribbit?"
He is a supervillain that has the entire country trembling in fear of his dreadful might, like some skinnier and less potato-faced All for One with working legs. It's adorable how much she worries about him, even as his fiancee.
"I don't remember the last time when I had a genuinely good idea, Tsu." Izuku replies. If there is a single thing he is left with at the end of the day, it's self-deprecating humor.
"We'd argue that enlisting Judgment's help…" Tokoyami announces, his body (reduced to a formless blackness with way too many eyes) seeping under Midoriya's suit. "... counts as a good idea."
He's almost… nah, he' entirely in. It still feels weird to use Fumikage as a living bulletproof suit with offensive capabilities, but…
"As if I'd ever consider involving a sibling of mine in a total war to be a good idea." Izuku groans while correcting the collar, and looking at his own reflection in a mirror to make sure that everything's perfect. "Looks like we're ready to head out."
It's one of the few stops at his plan for the end of Japan as a country where something CAN go wrong.
He made preparations, but…
Cloud opens a warpgate a moment later.
(***)
Uraraka, naturally, walks through it first. Wearing her full villain uniform, including the hands on her arms and face.
She has much less emotional attachment to them than Tenko Shimura had. They are just a part of the aesthetic, something that she uses to evoke painful nostalgia trip to everyone in the country.
Entropy left a mark.
Uraraka can't die unless someone uses something to seal her regeneration. Powerful and concentrated fire would kill her temporarily - Izuku can heal it with Overhaul's quirk, even if he doesn't have a lot of temporary quirk bestowal drugs left.
The only thing that Izuku genuinely worries about is radiation quirks, but those are rare.
As a result, Ochaco is the best person to exit the warpgate first. Especially as the imagery alone is enough to give a lot of people a pause, especially after the Revival Celebration recording.
Slightly behind her and to both sides are Songbird and Biohazard. Midoriya expects no truly secret words to be exchanged during this meeting, and so he is ready to stomach the presence of Yaoyorozu's girltoys.
Mostly because they are experienced bodyguards.
Both of them are carrying full body armor, including helmets with opaque glass surfaces for a face plate. They are stuffed full of electronics, including communication equipment, HUD with remaining ammunition count and whatever else Hatsume figured out for them.
Both armors were intimidatingly black, with some dark violet trimming for Songbird and dark green for Biohazard.
They had shortened assault rifles for weapons of choice, plus some sidearms and knives here and there. Jirou had thicker boots, hiding some sound amplifiers for AoE attacks.
Tagawa, instead, had a thicker throat segment, hiding sound amplifiers for her own vocal attacks. If the designs that Hatsume showed him weren't falsified for some nefarious Yaoyorozu reasons, her gloves had retractable fingers (her nails contained lethal neurotoxin).
Her quirk also made her breath into a potent sleeping gas. A small tube allowed her to spray a highly concentrated form of it from her wrist launchers.
In short, they both looked intimidating. They were also giving him a hard 'are we the baddies?' meme vibe (he blames All for One for infecting him with ancient culture), but… he knows they are the baddies. So they fit right in.
Tsuyu Asui was there, too. She was going to exit the warpgate right behind Izuku, slightly to his right. Wearing her standard pragmatic combat outfit. Izuku wasn't going to even try to persuade her otherwise.
The last member of the party he took for the trip was Jetstream. Partially because he promised Trumpet (it still hurts) to show him the ropes, and partially because he just feels like having him around.
He won't, he can't become Eri's replacement, but…
Izuku is in the middle, wearing his standard outfit, Tokoyami glued to its inner side. It's making things slightly awkward, then again, Fumikage is utterly asexual and the benefits outweigh awkwardness.
He steps through the warpgate, to find himself in a completely foreign place.
And in front of a machine gun. Thankfully, it's not manned, it's crew standing a little to the side, ready to lunge for it when necessary but genuinely trying to be as non-threatening as possible.
This probably explains why Uraraka was so calm about this.
Cloud brought them to the provided coordinates. Part of Izuku, honestly, suspected it to be a one big trap, even if they managed to confirm the coordinates to be where they were supposed to be invited to.
In front of them lies a barricade. It makes the street a bit more narrow, but that's a respectable amount of neatly placed sandbags, covered with some metal sheets for additional defenses.
The machine gun is there, and if his eyes still work, he can see a handful of shoulder-based anti-tank missile launchers waiting to be used. Not to mention grenades and some undeployed claymores.
There is no tactical point in putting them in such a place. This is an announcement that the locals mean business.
The real question isn't how many armed people are in front of him (nine), but how many were hiding in the buildings on both sides of the barricade, both of which were placed around the intersection that gave their inhabitants a good oversight over the surrounding area.
Probably a lot.
Those were also a lot better places to hide heavy weapons in.
The people in front of them all wore tactical vests and helmets over civilian clothes, plus strapped assault rifles. One of them - the leader - had a proper bulletproof vest instead, but no helmet. The lizard helmet probably made it harder to fit.
"Revenant." Rapt Tokage, one of Crawler's most trusted lieutenants, speaks. It's clear that he doesn't enjoy the situation at all, and would probably prefer to be able to shoot the guests dead on the spot. "Welcome to the Naruhata Free Zone."
(***)
There is a car waiting for them. A small bus, in fact, with windows transparent from the inside but opaque from the outside.
Makes you wonder how often Crawler receives guests. Probably not a lot of them, that man has practically conquered a part of Tokyo and held it for years, that earns you a lot of enemies.
Tokage is driving. Midoriya would accept no one else as a driver, the risk of Crawler remotely detonating the car would be too great.
Haimawari could have them warped right next to his hideout, but he probably wanted to make them realize what they were dealing with. So he had them 'land' around the second or third barricade from the edge of Naruhata, and had Tokage give them a ride.
Naruhata was… not exactly how Midoriya expected it.
The place where they arrived at was purposefully emptied to avoid anyone noticing that , but once they got deeper into the district, it was… lively. More than that, in fact.
It was like taking a ride through one of those lively middle-eastern bazaars. Colorful, full of people and street stalls. Loads of people doing their stuff, cars taking forever to make it through the crowds that seemed to think that streets belonged to them.
Lots of mutants, including the complex ones. Lots of people with zero visible mutations, most of which were probably quirkless.
Naruhata was a free place, under Crawler's protection. And Crawler had very short patience when racism was involved. No wonder many of the discriminated groups fled to it when the country began to decline.
The fact that somehow the district remained functional and comparably prosperous to the rest of the country spoke volumes about the efficiency and competence of Crawler and whatever puppet leaders he placed as the heads of the annexed districts.
"It looks… nice, ribbit." Tsuyu whispers to him. She is on the seat behind him (it's a small bus), her head resting on his backrest, her eyes glued to the views outside. "Strict security, though."
"Yeah." Izuku sighs, leaning back on the seat, intaking the views. "I stopped counting at the twelfth sniper. Crawler is clearly putting Lady Nagant's teaching skills to a good use."
No wonder the government wasn't in a hurry to dismantle Naruhata. It would have to be a small war. For as long as Crawler was keeping his men and women inside the district, Naruhata was treated by the government akin to a self-contained prison colony.
People that would otherwise riot over discrimination in that region of Tokyo tended to gravitate towards Naruhata.
Crawler made sure to kill government lackeys either quietly and in a way that didn't implicate the Naruhata Vigilantes, or openly, but rarely enough to keep him under the radar. And while officially being a part of the NVA, so that the government would focus even more on the organization as a whole.
Of course, Izuku was acutely aware that if Mindscape or the Prime Minister realized just how much equipment did Crawler amass, they would shit bricks and call the JSDF to carpet bomb the Naruhata Ward with thermobaric bombs.
In the meantime, though, everyone was too busy to challenge the status quo.
"Plus three checkpoints by now, ribbit." Tsu whispers back. "That's just one route, there are probably hundreds if not thousands of vigilantes in this district."
Someone was preparing himself an army, while using the NVA as a diversion. Or, perhaps, as an outside support?
"So, you didn't notice it, huh." Izuku sighs. When she ribbits at him questioningly, Midoriya leans to the side and asks Kouta who was sitting on the other side of passage. "We're playing the 'spot the heavy weaponry' game. Hardmode, since the vigilantes are clearly good about camouflage in urban areas. How much on your side?"
Tsuyu pulls her head off the backrest and looks at him and Kouta. Even Uraraka turned her head to listen in.
"Thus far I'm on two Type-17 self propelled surface-to-air missile launchers." Kouta replies. Trumpet was clearly a good teacher. "If the rest of Naruhata has such a dense AA defense, any attempt of aerial attack on the district is going to be a massacre, especially if someone will be stupid enough to send helicopters filled with soldiers here."
"Type-17 can intercept ballistic missiles, for as long as you have a good enough radar to detect them." Midoriya comments, ignoring a loud whistle from Uraraka. "So they probably have a modern radar station somewhere in the district, too. That's one hell of a way of keeping the Sword of Damocles off your head, I must say. Crawler has what most of the modern villains lack. Style. And brass balls so heavy that he probably needs to use his quirk to carry them around. Still, it's five out of ten, Kouta."
"What did I miss?" Kouta asks worriedly.
"The mall that we've passed by on your side." Midoriya replies. "The one that was clearly emptied from most of the shops. It seemed to have a bigger than usual number of armed vigilantes around it… and, a big underground parking lot, more than one level of it even."
Now, Jetstream understands.
"Perfect place to store military vehicles away from the reconnaissance satellites." He replies. "Might be easily buried under an airstrike, but… you need to know where to strike, and the mall appears outwardly to be mostly abandoned. And with such an AA defense… I mean, if they had a good radar, I wouldn't be surprised if they had some people with quirks that can stop the building ready by the time the first missiles or bombs would reach this area."
Yeah. It was a well thought tactic for the whole 'keeping your military build-up secret' thing. Especially as he was acutely aware that Naruhata was an informational black hole. Government lost enough infiltration heroes to stop trying.
Emoji and Blindside were the only good enough to go in and return to tell the tale, the former taking one of Crawler's eyes in the struggle. And even they barely managed to get out in the end.
The AA batteries weren't there when it happened, or they would have noticed. Someone was stepping up their game.
Crawler deployed them onto the streets after the Revival Celebration, didn't he? While the Sword of Damocles was still there, but he was already certain that the government's attention was elsewhere.
The Warlord of Naruhata earned his title.
"Type-17 were mostly cycled out of service in favor of Type-42s when the current government began to bulk up militarily." Izuku replies. "It was a larger rearmament program, which begets the question of just how much military hardware did disappear at that time only to find itself in Naruhata. APCs? Armored cars? Self propelled guns? Hell, maybe tanks even." Midoriya chuckles. "Oh, that cheeky bastard. Crawler is building himself an army, not that far away from the government district, and no one there knows shit about it."
It looks, he adds in his mind, that they missed one more mastermind on the side of the NVA. What Crawler achieved here? Hats off. Re-Destro himself would be impressed, because while Re-Destro achieved much, much more, he had the advantage of staying unknown and being very wealthy.
He also didn't achieve all of that literally in the middle of goddamn Tokyo.
Spite and desire for bloody revenge for the death of your mentor is one hell of a motivator. He and Crawler had that in common.
(***)
Midoriya Izuku, despite all his smarts, found himself surprised with Crawler's choice of a command post.
"Seriously?" He says as he finds himself walking downstairs towards what appeared to be a no longer functional metro station. "I mean, I get the reasoning, it's a good air raid shelter, but…"
Naturally, Uraraka entered through the glass door first. There was a line of armed vigilantes on both sides, standing by the wall, and staring at them quietly.
Those were significantly better equipped than those on the outside. Grenades (including smoke grenades and flashbangs), more modern helmets, combat boots and bulletproof vests. You could put them right next to the JSDF' special forces and you wouldn't notice the difference, at least equipment-wise.
If they were truly quietly trained by the foreign instructors, they probably weren't said special forces equals (not enough time and limited ability for proper training exercises), but still pretty damn good at their job.
Crawler was really flexing hard on them, wasn't he?
The fact that his elites could probably walk through most of the forces that the PLF had at their disposal actually hurt a little. Of course, the PLF beat the Naruhata Vigilantes at strong quirk holders.
"It makes it very easy to box potential assasins in…" Tokage retorts, not even looking back at Izuku. "... and turn them into mincemeat."
Rude.
(***)
The metro in Naruhata wasn't exactly working anymore, the government cutting it off for 'security' reasons. The fact that it was converted into some underground road for rapid redeployment of vigilantes was probably unsurprising.
It was giving him some serious Metro 2033 vibes. His brief affair with surviving pre-quirks videogames was paying off, somehow.
The tracks part of the station was walled off with a combination of sandbags, wooden planks and some concrete bits, probably to cover the trolleys waiting to be used to quietly transport objects and people between the five metro stations that Naruhata included.
Crawler was, at this point, a fucking terrifying entity, even to Midoriya. The audacity to even think that it was all possible, the skills needed to turn the impossibility into possibility… just terrifying.
That was clearly alright with Midoriya knowing all that. So, it seemed that he wasn't planning on keeping all of that hidden from the world for long. Interesting.
Crawler was waiting for them, sitting on a pile of crates by the wall at the end of the platform. Surrounded by even more of his elites.
Moyuru Tochi was there. Obese no longer. Now he was just intimidatingly large and muscular, a fact visible even through his equipment.
Haimawari was wearing the same outfit as always. All Might hoodie for a villain (well, vigilante) uniform was a height of audacity that even Izuku didn't aspire to. Probably because a part of him feared that it would make All Might resurrect just to United States of Smash him in the face for that.
Crawler's left eye was under an eyepatch, narrow and almost perfectly vertical scar visible above and under it. That was some mean cut.
He even had a short beard. What a shock. No longer as baby faced as in the past, it seemed.
"Revenant." Crawler says, his healthy eye narrowing down on Midoriya. "I must say that your message on the Villain Net was… surprising, to say the least. Just as my decision to not have you immediately executed on arrival."
"I decided that you'll at least hear us out before deciding to do something irreversible." Midoriya smiles politely. "So, interested in working for me?"
After a solid five seconds of silence, Crawler starts laughing. It's infectious, as moments later most vigilantes are laughing with him.
Midoriya lets them finish.
"Good one, good one." Haimawari replies. "You didn't really expect me to willingly work with an heir of All for One?"
Oh, God, not that.
"I assure you that the public perception of my work relationship with the old demon lord is entirely incorrect." Midoriya replies dryly. "And that if me dying here would somehow make the history change and the outcome of Kamino do a 180, I'd immediately consent to be used as target practice on your shooting range. Besides, Re-Destro looked better in a business suit."
Crawler is staring at him quietly. Looking for signs of dishonesty? Good luck with that.
"Also, are you sure that I'm the bad guy?" Midoriya adds. "I'm not one to point fingers at people, but whose organizations exactly caused the biggest spree of hate crimes in the contemporary history of Japan? Certainly not the PLF, and seeing as CRC is a member of it, that's an achievement."
Crawler groans lightly.
"I'm not a member of the NVA, more of an associate or an ally." He adds. "And just so we're clear, I made it clear that the whole idea is an idiocy. Unfortunately, I don't have many potential allies left, and you're certainly not among them." Rude, but understandable. "What are you really here for?"
Time to return to a safer subject.
"Hey, I saw all your preparations, you can't blame a man for trying." Revenant replies. "Working hard on making the sky over all of Japan clear, in more than one way, eh? Color me impressed."
Crawler clearly realized what he was referring to. But he made no vocal indication of that, instead simply staring at Izuku in silence.
"As for the main subject…" Izuku sighs. "I need to set up a meeting. A very serious one. Between the leaders of the Paranormal Liberation Front and the New Vigilante Alliance. As soon as possible."
Another short period of moderately hostile silence. Crawler is staring at him, his chin resting on one of his hands, one of the fingers tapping his cheek.
"Are you insane?" He finally asks.
"The only therapists available to me are from the CRC." Midoriya replies dryly. "I'd have to kill them after the first session due to knowing too much, and I hate losing people, even those people. So, I lack a professional diagnosis. Also, I'm being serious here."
Good luck trying to employ the implication that Midoriya isn't friendly with the CRC (well, he isn't, but) for some external psyop bullshit. Mastermind is loyal, because he knows that if he steps out of the line, Midoriya is going to annihilate him and his organization.
But it should certainly help make Revenant appear slightly more reasonable, especially to someone who was as anti-racist as humanly possible by policy.
"A bunch of people are going to die." Crawler replies calmly. "And the Prime Minister will get to uncork her finest champagne bottle to celebrate when she finds out."
"For as much as inducing such a celebration right after having someone poison said champagne bottle would be an interesting plan…" Midoriya replies. "... I think I'd prefer involving Twice to make sure no one from the PLF is there in person."
Twice's quirk had an interesting gimmick that made the memories of the clones upload to the originals when destroyed. It was a relatively recent development, but…
"So, you have a spy in the NVA." Crawler sighs. Uh-oh. "Because the way Twice's quirk operates exactly is supposed to be a secret. So, who's that?"
"Gentle Criminal." Midoriya replies flatly. "I left him a positive review while his channel was starting, this connects people. Also I pay him in rare tea brands."
Crawler stares at him in silence for a few seconds, before sighing loudly.
"Alright then, keep your secrets." He replies. Oh, dear, it looks like Izuku isn't the only person knowledgeable of ancient culture present in this room. "Let's say that I'm game. But we both know that Nakahara and the others aren't. I assume you have something to persuade them, as I don't see you bothering to come here otherwise."
"Well, I'd argue that the former heroes we've saved from Tartarus are becoming a drain on my resources so I want to sell them back to Nakahara." Midoriya replies. "But there is more to this."
"Of course there is." Crawler sighs. "What is it? Stop forcing me to squeeze the truth out of you, I'm a busy man."
"My lovely little spy told me a few fun things." Midoriya replies. "Such as the fact that Intelli had managed to locate the NVA headquarters. The ones in the ruins of the Marukane Ward." Tsuyu has self-control to not react to that. But Izuku is probably sleeping on the couch today. That's what he gets for trying to evade that subject for way too long. "And that the government is preparing a suppression operation. And I know the date, the plan…." He smiles. "...and the list of people involved. I'm almost certain that even Invincible will show up as a surprise guest."
Silence. Crawler is staring at him with some rather terrifying intensity, especially for just a single eye.
"... if the NVA headquarters are actually there, they'll evacuate them the second I tell them that you know about it." Crawler eventually says. "Especially about Invincible being there. What's your actual goal for this meeting?"
"A one-time team-up between the Paranormal Liberation Front and the New Vigilante Alliance." Midoriya replies calmly. "One resulting in the Second Battle of the Marukane Ward, which will end with the deaths of Invincible, Saiko Intelli and most of the present SS-Rank heroes."
Days until the Second Battle of the Marukane Ward:
13