The round table in the large room in the building of U.A. was filled with many different characters of people.
Many of them had been able to keep what looked like a calm and composed face. While some had a more cold and calculating expression. And the last of them were ones to wear their hearts on their sleeves.
All sat in silence waiting for the meeting to commence.
At one end of the table sat the smaller mammal with a cup of tea by his side and looking through a folder. Every few minutes he would sip on his tea and continue scrutinizing the information in front of him.
Finally, through the main entrance of the room came three figures.
One of them was easily recognizable as the number three hero Hawks who gave a polite wave to the people in the room to greet them for the other two members.
The next one was a man in a simple black suit who most of the staff would recognize as the handler of their now missing U.A. student, his name being Akari Enshiro, who honestly looked worse for wear with slight bags under his eyes.
And the last one being someone who most people associated with the hero world knew. She was the president of the hero association, known as 'Madam President.'
She had her usual steely expression on her face, ash blonde hair that was more appropriate for her age and slicked back and turquoise eyes. She wore a black suit jacket and dress and a light blue shirt with a pear necklace on.
"Welcome Madam president." Nezu greeted. "I'm happy to see that you arrived safely."
Some people gave off an awkward reaction to the words that came out of his mouth.
"And I'm happy to be here to discuss our next course of actions hastily." she said with the usual steel in her tone.
She took her seat at the other end of where the principal sat and Hawks and Akari stood on both sides of her after denying a seat respectfully.
For the first moment they all sat in silence.
But none of them were happy with it. To both Nezu and the president, it felt like if either one of them were to speak first they would lose some internal war going on. Something meaningless in the long scheme of things.
And not everyone could hold it in.
"So when are we gonna start talking about the main issue here?" the loud voice of one of the teachers spoke, this one being present mic.
Nezu brought out a remote device and tapped a button on it, next a holographic figure had showed itself in the middle of the room allowing everyone to see and be on the same page of discussion.
The image was now of Kairo Yoshimura. Showing his background information also. Like minor details of his age, sex, height, and even stuff like body fat percentage. It would also switch to his quirk and give details on what it was and what it could do based on what he has shown.
"To our great misfortune, one of our students has been kidnapped by an unknown group of individuals." the principal started.
"Yeah I think nearly every hero in the country knows that by now." the hero Snipe retorted in a snappy fashion that nobody could blame him for.
The next images on the screen turned to video format, showing what had happened to the convenience store from an outside perspective since that was all they had. It showed a graphic beatdown of their student until he had passed out by the man with antlers on his head who had clearly been a mutant.
Some of the teachers ground their teeth seeing how brutally they had treated the young boy.
"We have very limited information on the individuals who have done this."
A lot of people in the room had their heads down not knowing how to react to the lack of information. One teacher in particular with his rough and disturbed past had expanded his resources to the underworld, with Yakuza that had been affiliated with him in the past.
And still there wasn't much news. Not yet anyway.
"After the last incident that had happened we plan on closing down the school for another week to prepare better services for the students as well as to get feedback from parents after we send out secondary emails later on today detailing the loss of a classmate." Nezu spoke.
"Jeez, you're making it sound like he's dead." Hawks rudely interrupted.
He received some glares from the occupants in the room which he shrugged off.
"What. From the time I knew him, he's always been sturdy and a fighter. So I have full faith that he's good. Maybe a little roughed up, but nothing he can't bounce back from."
"As do I!" All might's voice bellowed in recognition. "And we will find him before the school reopens."
That seemed to light a greater fire in the hearts of some of the people there. It was only the president who kept her neutral look on her face. Akari still stood worriedly.
A silent buzz that wasn't perceived by many had went off. The homeroom teacher of class 1-a Shota Aizawa had picked up his phone and his eyes went slightly wide and a smirk appeared on his face.
"Principal." he called getting everyone's attention. "I've hit up some old contacts and they've seemed to pull through with information."
Some faces beside him brightened up as he came forth with that.
"I'll forward it to you." and after he had done so the principal had shown the information on the hologram to show everyone in the room what was found.
"An unknown organization named 'Harmony's Embrace.'" the principal read out, and from the looks on everyone's face's he could tell that nobody in the room had heard of the group.
There was no information on the leader, but there was information on what they have been doing.
Human experimentation.
A nasty topic for many people. Something that had brought back the looks of disgust people had. There had to be a completely new law that outlawed human experimentation with the new age of quirks. Some things included would be a more sub class of quirk marriages, which was allowing people the use of sperm donors.
The use of sperm donors was still allowed. There was just no information on the quirk that the donor had as it caused certain people to force their partners to undergo such treatment to have a better shot at conceiving a child with a more desired power.
Of course it wasn't banned everywhere. But in the country of Japan it is illegal.
And what really caught the attention of the room was the information the principal read allowed which included knowledge on something new called "Quirk Redistribution,". As the principal read that aloud along with the words of "Quirk Duplication." some faces had gained a more shocked look with hints of intrigue.
The face of the number 1 hero displayed worry, as well as anger as he was thinking of a past opponent.
And for the first time, the face of the president had morphed into that of worry as well but greater amounts of intrigue, more on the aspect of quirk duplication.
"Duplicating quirks?" present mic said with a stutter. "What type of bull--"
"Mic!" a nudge along with the warning kick from his close friend had stopped the voice hero from finishing his sentence.
"That sounds like something incredibly dangerous and if made public or used for real would change society completely." Midnight shuffled in her seat as she read the rest of the information on the hologram.
"Where would something like this even start?" Snipe muttered.
The principal was the one who was planning on answering but the president beat him to it.
"Throughout the last year there has been an increase on missing persons, which also includes minor heroes but mainly middle aged people. Most of whom are usually alone and have minimal contact with other people." the president ended.
Usually when people go missing, it is a wide known thought that they've went rogue or may have just died which had stopped being common after All Might's reign to the top.
"So they started with some random unfortunate people and now may have a way to have perfected it?" Midnight asked again.
"That's something we just don't know." the principal said solemnly. "But we must show our gratitude to Mr. Aizawa for getting this information for us."
A few nods of thanks and words of appreciation were given out to the teacher who showed indifference to it and responded in kind.
"It's just a part of the job."
"With this information we can narrow a few things down. Like where they are more likely to be located, and with the information on the criminal Yamiya we can look further into his past to see when he may have first ran into this group and maybe identify more of them." the principal told the room.
The look on everyone looked a lot more resolute in judgment. They had a clear goal and had a base on where to start.
They were going to get Kairo Yoshimura back.
--
Kiyomi Shirakawa's piercing gaze locked straight into my eyes. A subtle smirk made it's way onto her lips as her slow taps moved towards me.
"Kairo Yoshimura." her voice was soft and angelic like in nature and made me want to continue listening to her. "You have already heard from my associates of my plans and what I envision for this world, and I believe that you are the perfect candidate for our next prime member."
'?'
That confused me and it was evident on my face as she started to explain herself.
"Their are only four prime members of this organization, excluding me of course." she said. "You have already met two of them as they were the ones who brought you here."
"Against my will I might add." I responded with venom in my words.
"Well that's because we had right to believe that you wouldn't accept the invitation." she said trying to sound as if she was still in the right.
"Well from the way those two explained this organization, then shouldn't a person's free will be aligned with this world that you envision." I asked smugly.
"Of course. But free will is a more delicate concept," Kiyomi began, her voice carrying empathy. "The actions of my associates may have appeared coercive... but I assure you that our intentions are for the empowerment of all mankind."
"You see. A lot of the people working here have had very rough lives due to the mistreatment of those in power. Some have seen the mistreatment and have decided to take an active stance against it."
Her movements were exaggerated and slightly threw me off.
"Tell me what do you think about heroes?" she asked while standing still and turning to face me.
I thought for a moment. "A more noble job than whatever crap you're doing." her head tilted. "You think you're being so noble but you're just harming people and tryna create bigger problems for the world."
"No. My goal is noble." she spoke back sternly with a hard smile on her face. "Have you ever heard of the 'Quirk singularity theory'?" she asked. I shook my head not knowing what she was talking about.
"It, in simple terms explains how through each generation, quirks become stronger and stronger to the point that it is increasingly difficult to control these powers. And I think a way to solve this can be building a strong foundation of quirk users to continue guiding the next generation."
"'Every creation is only as strong as its foundation." she quoted. "There are also some other things that need to change. Like the whole hero rankings system."
'What?' to me that seemed like such a minor issue that just didn't matter.
"The numerical rankings system is just a glorified even for the media and fans to get excited about heroes more. A way for people to assert their dominance within the large crowd of people playing the same role."
She continued to explain. "The system most of the time shows the heroes skills and strength and in some cases experience, but it also fosters an environment where public appearance is one of the more important aspects of being a hero instead of just showing up. It gives people like you and me a false perception of heroism."
I grit my teeth. I didn't care if she was making any valid points. I just wanted to break out of these cuffs and get out of here.
She sighed and walked closer to me.
"Kairo Yoshimura." my head snapped up at her using my full name with such a tone. "Will you join Harmony's embrace."
"No!" it felt harder to contain myself so I just shouted out the answer.
Okay then I'll give an even better ultimatum." she smiled when she said that. "Join Harmony's Embrace or we will take your quirk."
'!'
--
Izuku Midoriya sat in his apartment with his mother. He was texting in the Class 1-a group chat, people like Ashido, Tsuyu and Hagakure were panicking about their parents not wanting them to attend U.A. anymore.
Even his own mum had brought up the idea of removing him from school. It was only after multiple begging sessions and promises that she had only stopped speaking about it.
The principal had promised to meet with all the parents or guardians who had concerns and try his best to rectify the situation. Whether that be trying to get them fitted into another school hero one or not or even just letting them go.
"Izuku." his mum called out in a worrisome tone that got him to look in her direction immediately to see her sat by the computer that they left in the living room.
"What is it mum?" he asked with a hint of concern.
"Well. I think you need to sit down honey." she started.
Midoriya calmed down and payed attention to his mum.
"The school have sent another email to explain another terrible matter that happened the night of the sports festival about one of your classmates."
Midoriya was shaking slightly now while wondering what had happened and to which classmate. 'Was it Iida?, Uraraka, Todoroki, or what about ... Bakugou.'
He was worried for all his classmates. And he thought the traumatizing events that had already happened were enough.
"A boy named Kairo Yoshimura has been kidnapped."
Thank "YOU" for reading. Hope you enjoy and have a great day.