Miss Militia
"What do we actually know?"
Armsmaster nodded and went to the first slide of his PowerPoint presentation. "Yesterday, Lung fought a suspected Parahuman, Maxwell Li, for reasons unknown. Everything began when Maxwell challenged Lung right in front of his headquarters. The underlings of the ABB fought him for a time, which was the wrong move for Maxwell to take, as it gave Lung time to ramp up significantly. By the time he joined the fight, he was already strong enough to plow through the front of the building from his sheer size and weight alone."
"And Max fought that by himself?" Missy questioned with wide eyes. "How is he still alive? I thought he just made tea?"
"You'd know if you stopped interrupting the briefing," Director Piggot chided with her fingers pinching her nose.
Armsmaster continued. "Maxwell displayed powers that we had not observed from him before." The slide played a video that was cut together to show his various Rokushiki techniques and usage of Haki. "I can extrapolate that his martial arts, superhuman as they may be, are connected to the same source as his tea making skills. It is possibly some sort of Thinker effect that allows him to perform 'movements' that are extraordinarily well trained and beyond human comprehension. But this is where it gets murky."
"The Master effect?" Miss Militia questioned.
"That's right." Colin nodded in reply. "Or possibly Shaker as well. It's hard to determine. Velocity, who was sent ahead of us to observe the fight and interfere if any bystanders were in danger, was knocked out in the final few minutes of it."
Robin nodded solemnly. "It felt both physical and mental at the same time. There was a great gust of wind…or a shockwave that went over me. But at the same time, I felt my mind succumbing to something foreign. I genuinely don't know if the force of the attack or some sort of Master effect knocked me out."
"I guess you got… Velocitead!" Assault cackled.
"Shut it." Battery elbowed him in the gut.
He pretended to be hurt but stayed silent.
"That's not all." The next slide was shown, showcasing Max with his arms turned black. "We cannot determine if this is a Striker, Changer or Breaker effect, but this form of his allowed him to shrug off blows from a 22 feet tall Lung and defeat him by striking at his torso. We were unable to determine the exact effects as Lung's body was claimed by the ABB, but no external damage was seen on the body despite his death. It is possible that there was some form of internal damage from his power."
Even Assault looked grim at that revelation. Could the blackened arms surpass his kinetic energy manipulation?
The final slide was shown, with many members of the ABB and Oni Lee himself bowing at the feet of a tired but still standing Max. "The ABB has seemingly been taken over by Maxwell after the defeat of Lung."
"Fuck that was his plan along!" Shadow Stalker grimaced. "It was fucking staring at us in the face! He named his store DRAGON'S Tea Shop. He was just biding his time."
Miss Militia sighed. "That may well be the case. Oni Lee called him Ryuu, which is just another way of saying dragon like Lung. Did he have a cape name this entire time?"
"I…find this hard to believe." Dean spoke up. "When Vicky dragged me to his store, he was mostly mild mannered. There were times when he snarked at us or trolled me, but I felt like it was all in good fun."
"Yeah." Missy hugged her arms. "He was nicer to me than most people are. Even when I was accusing him of working for the ABB, he still comforted me when I was nauseous. Is this really the same guy who defeated Lung?"
"Regardless of your opinions, it is a fact that he fought Lung and killed him," Armsmaster said sternly.
"But why? I know he cares about his sister and his tea shop a lot. This seems out of character for him!" Missy exclaimed.
Dean grimaced and held her by the shoulder to calm her down. "We don't know. No one is accusing him of anything yet."
Velocity chose to interject. "If it helps, Max looked kind of angry when he was fighting Lung. I feel like the fight wasn't something he planned."
"Enough. We can speculate all we want but we need evidence, "Director Piggot tapped her hand against the desk lightly. "What do we actually know about the ABB's plans moving forward? Any insider information?"
Armsmaster raised a finger. "Actually, we received some information from the Mayor's office. They'd received a business registration form for a Ryujin Industries from one Maxwell Li."
"Wait what?"
Thomas Calvert
He writhed in pain as yet another finger was broken. The only reason he hadn't dropped the timeline yet was to see if he could obtain more information from the angry Parahuman who was torturing him. How could he have known that it would go bad so quickly? He'd instructed his mercenaries to kidnap the sister of Maxwell Li in an attempt to gain leverage over someone who could defeat Lung. At first, he'd been joyful about it. An unmasked Parahuman who was that powerful but possessed such a weakness and liability? Easy pickings. He still used a disposable timeline of course. No sense in risking things.
It took less than a minute for the truck his mercenaries were using to be torn inside out by a raging Parahuman. They were slaughtered to the very last man in seconds. Before he could drop the timeline, his base was broken into and he was immediately cornered by the man. To his immediate horror, no words were said. Instead, Maxwell began breaking his fingers one by one, causing him to scream in pain. How had he found him so quickly? Was it a Thinker effect? Had Lisa known about his location all this time and told Maxwell? When his tenth finger was broken, he couldn't bear it any longer and passed out.
In his private house, Thomas slumped against his sofa, his forehead dotted with cold sweat. He swore off trying anything with Ryuu, the new ruler of the ABB. He'd have to try something different and adjust his plans accordingly. Maybe the Empire 88 could be of use…?
Brenda Li
She stared in concern as her brother threw Koshiro into a giant bucket of water and shouted at him. "I threw you in the water! What does that make you!?"
Koshiro whimpered. "An idiot tea."
"Why are you an idiot tea!" Her brother roared in anger.
"Because I forgot to heat the pot first." Koshiro cried.
"Oni Lee-chan, why is my brother torturing the four dumb dumbs who hang around his store?" She asked in confusion.
The demon grunted. "He's trying to force them to learn the intricate art of making tea as soon as possible."
"Yeah I got that. But like…why?"
"You know how your brother is now in charge of the ABB?" He questioned.
"Yeah. You gave him a stupid cape name. Really? Ryuu? He should have been called the Black Flame Dragon of the Abyss!" Brenda declared.
"What?! Ryuu is a strong name! It declares power with a single word. And it shows off that he was the one who defeated Lung!" Oni Lee retorted with faux anger.
"Let's compromise." Brenda mediated. "His full cape name can be the Black Flame Ryuu of the Abyss. But we call him Ryuu for short."
The small girl and demon stared at each other for a second before they both nodded and shook their hands.
"But what is Onii-chan really trying to do?"
"Your brother may not be a hero…but it doesn't really make him a villain either. Now that he's in charge of the gang, he doesn't want anything to do with our criminal activities. Things like drugs, prostitution and protection rackets…they just won't do it for him." Oni Lee admitted. "In fact, he went on a whole rant about it. Max said that a criminal enterprise is not a sound business practice as any form of commerce that invites government interference and regulation is not sustainable in the long run. I knew he was capitalistic, but this is the first time I'd heard an argument that we shouldn't be criminals because it doesn't pay well."
"Well… how does it lead to this mess?" Brenda gestured at the Questionable Quintuplets that were doing push-ups after her brother spat out their latest attempt at tea making.
"The ABB still needs some form of income. Your brother declared that he already has a monopoly on luxury tea making in the city and is forcing everyone to follow along. After the mess with Matsuda, no one really wants to test him. I'm actually starting to think that he might be right. Though nobody can really hit the same heights as him, they could produce excellent tea if he trains them." He took out a form and placed it on the table. "We've already incorporated as Ryujin Industries. The flagship store will still be named Dragon's Tea Store and be manned by your brother. But we'll be opening branches called 'Little Dragon' that will be operated by those your brother trains."
"And that'll make enough money to sustain the entire gang?!" Brenda asked with her eyes wide in surprise.
"It already does." Oni Lee said with mirth. "As it turns out, he was lying to me when he handed over the protection money. It was much less than what he was supposed to pay. I just never questioned it when he handed it over because the amount was so large."
"Sugoi ne! I'm a chaebol-desu!" She exclaimed. "But there's something I really want to know…"
"What?" The demon asked.
"Onii-chan!" She shouted.
"What do you need, Brenda?" Max turned away from his tor-training.
"Mouuuu. It's Kaori!" She stamped her feet. "But I want to ask. How come you keep calling them the Questionable Quintuplets. Is there a fifth member that I'm missing?"
"I'm curious about this as well." Oni Lee stated.
"Yeah! Boss! Is there a fifth secret member?" Yu Xuan asked.
"Or could it be…" Cho Gi stared at Max with stars in his eyes. "Did you consider yourself one of us?"
Max deadpanned. Then he sent a blunt wind blade at them which sent them flying. "I'm one of you, my ass! I'm not so incompetent that I fail at simple tea making!" He turned back to Brenda and scratched the back of his neck. "Well you see…it's actually a reference to an anime called the Quintessential Quintuplets."
"Shouldn't it be Quadruplets for them?" Oni Lee asked in confusion.
"It… didn't sound as good as Quintuplets?" Her brother shrugged.
Brenda ran out of the store, shocking the ABB…Ryujinmembers who were standing guard outside. They could scarcely believe it as their leader's sister shouted for the world to hear.
"Onii-chan is a WEEEEEEEEEEEB!"