Izuku POV, one day later

I knock on the door.

"Come in."

I take a deep breath to steady myself. I push open the ornate door and walk into the infirmary. Eva is resting in one of the medical beds, a tray with food and water sitting on her lap. She looks a lot better after having some time to recover. Her scars have already mostly faded, her skin now resembling its typical pale complexion. Touch Regeneration is truly a great quirk.

I walk over to her and stand by the side of the bed. I chew my lip for a moment as I choose my words.

"How are you feeling?"

Her expression shifts to one of perfect neutrality. Even after suffering a near-death event she still somehow manages to look just as stoic as always.

"I am presently not combat-ready but I will be functional by-"

I cut her off with a roll of my eyes.

"No, how do you feel?"

I watch her muscles flex as she shifts around awkwardly, clearly uncomfortable with my line of questioning. She purses her lips. Her muscles flex for a moment before losing their tension. She lets out a soft exhale.

"I feel… sore, admittedly."

"Would you like me to apply Touch Regeneration again?"

"Yes please."

I place my hand on her forehead and activate the quirk. She lets out an audible sigh of relief as it does its magic. Once I feel the limited energy of the quirk deplete, I remove my hand. Her lips curl up as she gives me a pleased look.

"Thank you."

I stand in place rather awkwardly for a moment, unsure of what to do. Working up my courage I clear my throat.

"I… I was really scared. When I saw you there."

She grips the sheet in her hands and rolls the soft linen between her thumb and forefinger. It's a smooth motion, a habit refined across many years. She always fiddles with her fingers whenever she is distressed. She lowers her eyes to the bed as she takes a long moment to think.

"Oh."

She looks uncomfortable with the conversation. I choose to power on anyway.

"I was worried that I was going to lose you. I saw the lightning and I just… argh. I wouldn't know what I would do without you. You're really important to me, you know that?"

There's a long silence between us. I know intellectually that she would never be mad at me, but somehow I fear that she will be displeased by my emotions. Even if it's irrational, the fear of her disapproval makes me feel sick to my stomach. After some time, she speaks in a low whisper.

"Do you… mean that?"

I don't even have to think about my response.

"Of course! It's… it's not just our operations. Your work is amazing and I know that, but you're important to me for more than just that. Remember the times we've been at the villa, or that time you took me to the zoo? You're my best friend, Eva. Without you, I wouldn't have any reason to care about this world. You've always been my anchor, and you have always been there for me. I wish I could put into words how much I appreciate what you have done for me, not as a colleague, but as a friend."

Her lip quivers.

"Thank you, Izuku. That… means a lot to me. You are my only friend. I am sure that seeing me in such a state was scary for you, I know I would be upset if I ever saw you get hurt."

The fear of her condemnation suddenly boils away. My heart flutters for a moment as relief floods my veins. I don't know what to say. I place a hand on her shoulder and squeeze it reassuringly.

"Thank you, Eva. For everything."

There's a comfortable silence between us that goes on for several minutes. Eva breaks it suddenly with an uncharacteristically loud voice.

"We need to get stronger. None of us were ready for Nine. We need more combat experience against high-level villains, we need to train ourselves and our quirks."

She leans forward and pokes me in the chest before continuing.

"And you need to start collecting more quirks! You only ever collect quirks when Hitoshi or I force you because you're always 'too busy' to make time for it. I am hereby ordering you to start collecting at least one quirk per week from this point onward. Am I clear?"

One per week? I simply don't have the time for that! Running Monolith and our various trading entities is very much a full-time job, I need to figure out how to tell her I can't fulfill her wishes. I wince as I open my mouth and try to plan out my words.

"Y-yes, Eva."

Damnit.

Izuku POV, one day later

I've assembled everyone together in my office so we can discuss the future of The Elite. Following the lessons of Father, I pop the collar of my suit for dramatic effect before I begin speaking.

"You may be wondering why I have gathered you here today. I have decided that we need to have a talk as a team, to discuss the future of The Elite as an organisation."

I take a look at the four assembled before me. Eva seems to have almost entirely recovered from her injuries in the last two days, although she still has a bit of a limp at times. The combination of Touch Regeneration and her own quirk, Resilience, seems to have allowed her to heal at a rate far beyond average.

Aki has determination burning in her eyes. I have no doubt that her resolve has remained strong, if not grown stronger. Our loss for Nine has clearly done nothing to damper her strong spirit.

Kurogiri, of course, was as stoic as always. If he was in any way perturbed by the situation, he did not show it. Then again, the quiet man rarely showed emotion to begin with. He was perfectly content to simply sit and listen.

Hitoshi has an unreadable expression. He was taking the loss rather badly for the first two days after, although he seems to have calmed a lot as of this morning. I can only imagine he has some sort of scheme that is occupying his thoughts.

Hitoshi taps his fingers on the arm of his chair before speaking.

"We lost, and pretty badly at that."

I give him a nod.

"Yes, we did. But, that does not mean this is over. Did any one of us really think we were never going to lose a fight? That we were never going to have a few stumbles?"

Passion flows through me. I watch as the eyes of my audience widen, suddenly captivated by my charisma.

"Nine is powerful, yes, but so are we. Two years ago we were just a few twelve-year-olds running around and playing villain. But now? We are running the economy of the underworld from behind the scenes. We have the power, and the talent, to reach the top of anything we set our minds to. We just need to pivot our attention away from Monolith and start focusing on who we are at our core, The Elite."

Eva nods before adding her own thoughts.

"Monolith is nearing completion. We can likely make operational efforts mostly hands-off already, apart from occasionally having to cut down attempts at rebellion. Within the next year, we should be able to have ninety percent of Monolith's work entirely hands-off. At that point, Izuku and I will be able to manage it with just a few hours of work a day."

It's the ideal outcome. If we ensure that our proxies fear us, they won't dare to rebel. Once we set a precedent by cutting down all who defy us, everyone else will instinctively stay in line. After that, we can simply let it run in the background and siphon income as we need.

As long as Monolith is mostly self-sufficient we can focus all of our effort on combat operations. We would finally be able to step up onto the stage and make ourselves a known entity. We have always been limited on time, but if we make our operations hands-off, then we will have plenty. We will be able to strike anywhere we want, whenever we want, and for whatever reason we want. With Kurogiri, anything was possible.

I clear my throat.

"Our vision is clear. Our next step is to work on improving our combat capabilities as both individuals and as a team. From now on, we will begin waging mass-scale guerilla warfare against every gang in Japan. I intend for us to find and eliminate high-level threats, building up our skills and confidence, until we are ready to face Nine. Once we are ready, we will get our revenge."

That gets a round of approval from everyone. Even Kurogiri is clapping softly. Hitoshi takes this moment to produce a folded sheet of paper from his front pocket. He places it on the desk before addressing us.

"I've been working on a list of high-level villains for a while now. Many of the stronger ones are too well hidden for us to know of, but there's plenty here to keep us occupied. We can start performing raids on their operations and begin bleeding their resources dry from tomorrow onward."

We spend the next hour discussing our plans. Eva will begin working on a training program for Aki and Hitoshi, while Hitoshi will help me form a list of quirks to steal. Kurogiri is already a trained fighter, so he will focus on simply helping the rest of us with our efforts.

Things are coming together.

Izuku POV, one week later

"Ready when you are."

I place five fingers against the wall and activate Decay. A circular hole is cut into the wall, leaving nothing more than a pile of dust in its wake. I activate my quirk once again to erase the grey ashes, leaving behind nothing but air.

We walk into the warehouse. After casually strolling through the complex for a bit, we come across what looks to be a half dozen villains. They're drinking together on a stage that overlooks a currently empty meth lab. As per Hitoshi's intel, the workers would have left for home an hour ago, leaving just their head villains behind. I walk right up to the group and gently tap the nearest one on the shoulder.

"Hello."

The man waves a hand in my direction but doesn't bother to turn around.

"Fuhk ofsh."

Ah, they appear to be too drunk to realise that we are not allies. I sigh loudly.

"Why must you be so low class? Truly, I am offended just being in your presence. How dare you even so much as breathe the same air as me?"

I disintegrate his body with a wave of my hand. The other villains are frozen for a moment before they realise what just happened.

"OH SHIT!"

One of them begins breathing fire in my direction, while a rather muscular woman doubles in size suddenly. The rest all begin flailing around in a manner that could be possibly construed as an attempt at combat if you squinted enough.

I watch the flames from the fire-breathing man span toward me with disinterest. I gesture my hand before me and Decay the air, creating a boundary layer of vacuum that stops the thermal energy from propagating. The fire is immediately halted in its travel and spreads outward, leaving me completely unharmed.

Eva takes this opportunity to appear behind the villains with a flash of lightning and immediately karate chops the woman with the size quirk, dislocating the villain's shoulder instantly. Eva then dashes toward the others and delivers a few light kicks (audibly snapping bones) until the last few villains throw their hands up and beg for mercy. Once I am certain they have been successfully pacified, I clap my hands together.

"Well now. Are we done fighting?"

In a span of just a few seconds, we had successfully captured their entire operation. Then again, these were third-rate villains with fourth-rate quirks, and evidently fifth-rate intelligence. A reasonably motivated child could likely have replicated our success with minimal effort.

I gesture to Hitoshi and he begins his interrogation.

"Who is your leader?"

The man with the fire-breathing quirk raises his hand as if he were a child.

"Uhh yeah that's me-"

"Where are you getting your trigger?"

"Uhhh, the Yakuza."

"Which Yakuza?"

"Dunno."

"Do you… not know which Yakuza group is giving you the trigger?"

"Nah, we didn't really think to ask. We just give them the money and they give us the stuff, it's pretty sweet."

Hitoshi looks more tired than usual. The moron with the fire quirk is truly something special. The rest of the villains seem utterly bewildered by the way their leader is talking, probably lacking the brain cells to realise that he is under the influence of a mind control quirk. Hitoshi takes a moment to recollect himself before he continues.

"Okay. Describe what the Yakuza members look like when you meet them."

"Uhhhh, a few of them have bird masks. Don't really remember much else. They just give us the trigger and we give them the money. Everyone is happy and I get to drink my beer."

Bird masks? Definitely one of the more eccentric Yakuza groups in that case. Most of the surviving Yakuza groups were either painfully formal or terribly unprofessional. I couldn't think of any that would associate themselves with any sort of theme-based outfits. Perhaps there is more than one Yakuza group producing the trigger? Clearly, the rabbit hole that is trigger production goes far deeper than I initially anticipated.

Hitoshi continues attempting to extract anything of use from the man.

"Did any of the Yakuza give you their names as individuals or the name of their organisation?"

"Uhhhh nah. They didn't really speak at all really, they just give us the stuff in briefcases. We give them money and they give us trigger, it's pretty cool."

Why must this fool repeat himself every second sentence? Was he dropped on his head as a child, or is this truly the best that villain society has to offer? Hitoshi goes to continue talking but I clap my hands to signal that I want this interrogation cut short.

"Well then, I think we have what we need now!"

I give Hitoshi a prompt to deactivate his quirk. I give the fire-breathing dimwit a moment to recover before I address the remaining villains.

"From now on, you lot will become upstanding members of society. You will quit your occupation as villains and will pursue a standard career. You will not lie, cheat, or steal. If you do any of these things, I shall come for you and personally wring the blood from your broken bodies. Am I clear?"

After making certain they understand my words (one of them didn't know what "wring" meant), I place my hand on the floor and focus Decay in the direction of the meth lab. A quick chain reaction of disintegration occurs, leaving nothing behind but a crater in the ground. The villains at my feet watch on with awe.

After that, I quickly text Kurogiri our coordinates, and we make our way home.

Izuku POV, two weeks later

Hitoshi has been working on keeping a catalog of interesting and powerful quirks within Japan. The data itself was actually primarily gathered from a stolen mirror of the HPSC's private database. The paranoid fools at the Commission liked to track the existence of anyone with a powerful quirk, occasionally going so far as to "step in" when they required recruits for their programs.

None of this was new. However, what was new is the fact that a string of kidnappings throughout Japan is occurring, and none of it is due to the Commission. Hitoshi's hacking of internal communications within the Commission confirmed that they were just as confused as we were, and were very desperate to stop whoever was performing the abductions.

The reason why they were so panicked became rather obvious when you compared the reported missing persons with the individuals listed in the HPSC database. There was an eighty-seven percent match between the two, which was no coincidence, especially not over a sample size of several hundred individuals. It is abundantly clear that someone has gained access to the database and is using it for nefarious purposes.

Hitoshi spent several weeks attempting to figure out who would be motivated to do this. After crossing off pretty much every known group, his analysis came to a rather simple conclusion.

The Shie Hassaiki were up to something, and whatever it was, it wasn't good.

The Shie Hassaiki had reportedly changed for the worse after their new leader took over. They seem to be preparing for something big and were more than willing to throw their money around. Unfortunately, their new leader's extreme paranoia very much played in his favour, as we were unable to get any info on the man's location or what he was doing.

Everyone who we paid off or interrogated either knew nothing or had only ever dealt with Shie Hassaiki proxy groups that did deals in their name. There wasn't anything we could do about it for now, but keeping an eye on the situation was important. In the meantime, one of our own proxies has been caught embezzling currency in Mexico-

I hear a knock on my door.

"Come in."

Hitoshi swings open the doors and walks over to my desk.

"Boss man, I've got something for you."

He throws a binder on my desk that seems to be filled with paper. I inspect the sheets before me with a careful eye. There's a list of names and locations, as well as chat logs, and even what appears to be aerial photos. I raise an eyebrow at Hitoshi. He responds by simply pointing his finger at the topmost photo.

"Here is our next target, a Yakuza sect known as "Empire". They're known for being a very brutal group, as well as having one hell of a heavy hitter in charge."

On the sheet is a picture of a slim man in a stylish one-piece blue suit. In the photo he is standing in front of a pile of shattered bodies and gore, the man clearly pleased with his work. The photo looks to have been taken from an overhead apartment building via a cellphone.

Hitoshi leans back and folds his arms before continuing.

"His name is King, and he's about as pompous as he sounds. He has what is apparently an extremely powerful 'kinetic energy storage' quirk. His quirk allows him to store and release energy from within his body, with a seemingly unlimited amount of storage. He can tank blows all day before releasing them back into you all at once."

That's an amazing quirk! There's always so much potential in any sort of stockpiling or storage quirk, not to mention potential synergies! If the quirk stores energy from within his body does that mean I could use a strength quirk to keep it constantly powering up? If so, depending on the storage limit of the quirk it could quickly become very, very powerful. If I used it with some sort of impact reflection quirk, would they cancel each other out? Hrrrm…

Ah, I think I can suddenly see Hitoshi's intentions here. I give him a grin.

"Well then, that sounds like a quirk I could make good use of."

Hitoshi rolls his eyes.

"There's a reason I chose to target King specifically. Speaking of, they seem to run their main operations from a casino in Kyoto, and their trafficking via a warehouse. It's a small crew, but they are powerful. Salamander is a woman with a fire quirk, while her husband Frost has an ice quirk. There's a few more but nothing of note, I put them down in my documentation there."

Hrrm, a casino in Kyoto? Our attack will need to be quick or else the Heroes would inevitably show up. The smart thing to do would be to figure out King's timing and ambush him in his penthouse. We could easily punch through the building top down until we reach the correct floor. We could probably also perform a simultaneous strike on both the casino and their warehouse together.

I go to open my mouth but Hitoshi beats me to the chase.

"You were probably gonna say something about attacking the penthouse, right? Way ahead of you, I have it all on page ten. We'll Decay a hole in the roof and go down two floors, then I'll take control of him using Brainwashing to pacify him. You take his quirk and Decay him, then we take out his guards just to rub it in."

He pulls out a sheet of paper from the stack that details an aerial photo of a warehouse.

"While they're distracted by that, we'll have Eva and Aki attack the warehouse. I wanted Aki to be with me in the casino for protection, but my quirk is needed to allow us to pacify King quickly. As long as you use Decay to shield me we should be fine though. Kurogiri can make a portal after that, and then we can meet up with the other two in the warehouse."

It's a good plan. He even addressed my concern about the team being split before I was able to say anything. While Eva and Aki were absolute tanks, Hitoshi was very much not. I was also meant to hide the fact that I'm using durability quirks so as to avoid people asking questions. Then again, Decay is usually able to destroy anything that reaches within about a metre of me. Having the quirk use the air as a conductive medium for chain reactions is completely overpowered. Hell, the only reason it couldn't go further is because the air disintegrated into a vacuum too fast. Decay had so many possible synergies, like what if I could-

"Izuku, you are mumbling again."

I jerk upright in my chair as I suddenly regain focus.

"I do not mumble. I am merely consolidating my thoughts."

"Yeah, and you also totally don't sneak drinks from Kurogiri's bar when he's not looking."

I flush.

"I have quirks to protect me from the negative effects. Anyway, I'm fourteen and an adult is eighteen, so I'm basically seventy-eight percent adult if you do the math."

I hate Hitoshi so much.

"Alright Izuku, just take a look at the plans I put together. I'm pretty sure I covered everything, I even gave you a cool one-liner to rehearse."

I love Hitoshi so much.

Izuku POV, one day later

"Everyone ready?"

The rest of The Elite give me their affirmatives. I pull my white mask across my face and fasten it into place. While I didn't actually have an alter ego to hide, the air of mystery behind my appearance would help with my image as an enigmatic and powerful villain.

Unfortunately, without my mask, my general appearance has been described by Aki as being "painfully cute" and "about as threatening as the most adorable kitten you have ever seen". It seems that for whatever reason I inherited exactly none of Father's height or size, but all of his dashing good looks. It's completely unfair.

Oh yes, it is time for our attack.

"Kurogiri, begin."

Two portals open before us. Hitoshi and I walk through the leftmost portal, leaving the two of us atop the fifty-story-tall casino. The roar of the wind fills my ears as I lean over to Hitoshi. I have to cup my hands together to be audible to the other boy.

"READY?"

"ON YOUR MARK!"

I crouch to the ground and place my hand on the roof. The roof should be about thirty centimetres thick, and the second floor down will be the penthouse. The top floor contained a comms room with server equipment. While I didn't exactly care about collateral damage, I might as well be professional and keep things clean.

"THREE, TWO, ONE-"

I carve a hole into the roof and jump down to the floor below. The roar of the wind abates into a whistling tone that echoes throughout the concrete server room. I take a moment to confirm no one is around, before repeating the process on the floor beneath my feet. The two of us are suddenly dropped dead centre of the penthouse. King is wearing a bathrobe and seems very, very confused.

"WHAT THE FUCK?"

Hitoshi gives the man a wave.

"You want to reply to me."

"Sure thing-"

"Stand still and do not resist."

I walk over to the man and place my hand on his forehead. After several seconds of pulling, I rip his quirk clean from his body. I clear my throat and prepare the cool one-liner that Hitoshi gave me.

"Say farewell to your world, for my touch erases all that once was."

I disintegrate him with Decay, before placing one of our gold calling cards within his pile of ashes. Hitoshi walks behind the man's desk and fiddles around until he finds something. He slams his fist on something under the desk and alarms start suddenly blaring. Ah, King had a panic button. How quaint.

Hitoshi gives me a shit-eating grin as he pulls his rifle up, the two of us facing toward the door.

"Ready boss?"

I flex my hands.

"As always."

A trio of villains charges into the room. They freeze once they spot us standing in front of their boss's desk. Hitoshi gives them a wave.

"You all want to reply to me."

"Wha-"

"Sure-"

"Who are-"

The three stand dumbly in place as Brainwashing takes over. Honestly, I knew that Hitoshi was powerful but wow that was just so broken. The combination of Suggestions and Brainwashing was so abusable it's just surreal. I truly hope no one ever figures out his quirk.

I take a leisurely stroll toward the three and cleanly disintegrate the lot with a flick of my wrist. I consider going down to the next floor to pursue more of the gang, but the effort wasn't worth the minutes of my day.

I turn around to see Hitoshi placing his phone away. A portal opens a moment later and we both pass through.

I'm immediately greeted with the sight of what looks to be an industrial slaughterhouse accident. Dozens of dead thugs have been butchered. Some have been cleanly bisected in two, while others have been divided into quarters. A few unlucky individuals appear to have gone through the mincemeat treatment, their bodies now nothing more than an unrecognisable puddle. Ouch.

I turn my attention away from the butchery and spot Aki issuing a group of women through one of Kurogiri's portals. Many of them are giving scowling looks at the chopped remains on the ground as they step over them. I can't say I exactly blame them.

I Aki a quick wave as I walk over.

"Keres, status report."

A thug interrupts her reply by suddenly dashing out from behind the cover of a nearby crate. Before I can so much as blink, an orange blade whips out and the man is split down the middle, his body falling to either side in perfect halves. It's a grotesque sight. The man's guts are oozing their contents onto the concrete, the various liquids of his insides combining together into a malformed puddle. Bleh.

Aki finishes waving the last woman through the portal. She taps a button on her cellphone and the portal closes a moment later. After confirming that she has evacuated everyone, she turns around and gives me thumbs up.

"Going well over here Azazel, Apollyon dealt with their heavy hitters so I'm just finishing up getting the victims out."

I hear a boom from deeper in the warehouse. Taking a glance in the direction of the sound, it looks like Eva just punched a man into the roof. Or at least, what was once a man. It would probably take them several days to clean that smear from the ceiling. Eva suddenly appears next to us in a flash of lightning.

I blanch for a moment as I get a close-up look at her. Her bloodied outfit looked like something out of a horror film. The once black bodysuit was now dyed red and I could definitely see little pieces of meat and bone splattered over it. There was definitely a piece of liver smeared on her shoes.

Eva, of course, doesn't seem even slightly inconvenienced by her new look. I choose to ignore the walking advertisement for life insurance and instead clap my hands together to address my comrades.

"Good work team! Now that we have that out of the way, what do we want for dinner?"

We decided to have pizza to celebrate our victory.