"Hey, Fossa," a familiar voice called. Izuku, who had strayed near the gates of UA on his
afternoon (not evening--never again evening) jog, squinted through the bars.
"Flag?" he asked, bewildered. She looked much as she had the first time they had met in Hosu, a woman with scars and long hair. Unkempt hair. She was not... filthy but had clearly not had the chance to thoroughly attend to personal hygiene in some time. Her clothes were generic, the kind you might be given upon being released from a hospital if all of your originals had been destroyed. None of that boded well.
"Could you go find someone with the authority to let me in?" the undercover hero sighed. "And, as proof that I'm who I say I am, we once had a fight where I refrained from slamming your head in a door. And I once turned into you and strutted around in knee high boots." He shuddered. She just had to bring that up.
"Uh, yeah... I'll go get Aizawa I guess." This was almost certainly False Flag and not an impostor. Aizawa would certainly confirm that for himself before letting her in. The greenette took off towards the dorms.
Aizawa set down his coffee as the greenette burst into the room. "Um, Aizawa, there's a hero at the gates who needs some help."
Aizawa gave his coffee a longing glance then stood and followed Izuku.
Flag waved lazily. "What happened to you?" Aizawa asked after confirming her identity for himself and authorizing her entry.
"Long story," Flag sighed. "I didn't know..." she sighed, "where else to go at this point."
"You've been listed MIA," Aizawa said. Wait. What? "Your handler approached me... it must have been weeks ago now asking whether I'd seen any sign of you. I hadn't. Neither had Kesagiri Man, or anyone else for that matter." Izuku hadn't known about this. Of course he hadn't known.
Why would they tell him confidential information? It wasn't as if there were anything Izuku could do with this knowledge. Well, he could worry needlessly for his mentor but that wasn't particularly useful.
"I would've called but, you know, secret HPSC detention centers don't actually give out phone calls."
"Secret...?" Aizawa trailed off.
"Yup."
"You escaped?" Aizawa asked warily. "Just now?"
"I didn't escape , I was broken out. Shriker dropped me off in Tokyo yesterday with enough money for the train."
"Wait, Isomorph broke you out? You were in the facility they burned down a few days ago?" Izuku couldn't... well, actually he could believe that.
"There are still secret HPSC detention facilities in operation ?" Aizawa demanded sharply.
"Well, there was at least that one hell hole. Corruption's like a big, creepy field full of weeds. You
pull out the plant," she mimed slaying a thistle, "but the roots are still there."
Somehow none of this was particularly surprising. "But why were you... what were you arrested for?" Izuku asked. Arrested probably wasn't the right word. "Detained" or "kidnapped" or "disappeared" would probably get the meaning across better.
Flag snorted, considered whether she should answer, then shrugged and spat out. "One of the HPSC agents who manages undercover heroes approached me. She had a bunch of stolen files. Suggestions of corruption, but not proof outright. She wanted my help to get real , hardcore proof that they couldn't possibly bury. I agreed to help her. It went... well, it went okay at first. Not so much later. I haven't had a chance to get on the internet or anything, but the fact that Isomorph showed up to break the place down suggests the files are out there making waves, huh?"
War Dog's leaked files... False Flag helped to acquire them after being approached by a third party in the HPSC? Or was there no third party? Was the HPSC agent who approached False Flag actually War Dog? Or had Izuku read too much into the original file release? Maybe War Dog hadn't been involved at all and the reference to "children of the trees sticking together" was something False Flag had added before being disappeared. War Dog breaking into UA could have been a coincidence. In the case that Izuku's initial inference was correct, did False Flag know she was working with War Dog?
"Yes. The files were released," Aizawa confirmed, "detailing everything from kidnapping children to use as battle slaves to covering up murders."
"Sometimes," False Flag sighed, "I wonder why I wanted to come to this crummy place."
"Hey," Izuku protested. "Japan is..." what was he trying to say? "Better than many other places." Aizawa and Flag exchanged glances. "Fair," False Flag agreed.
"So why are you actually here, Flag?" Aizawa asked. "At UA, not in Japan."
The hero shrugged. "I figured I'd talk to Nedzu. He's about the highest ranking authority that I can
trust as far as I can throw. The HPSC hasn't been cleaned nearly as thoroughly as they'd like you to believe, clearly. They just shuffled things into new, filthy corners. Anyway, I'm sure Nedzu can find something useful for me to do." She paused for a moment before admitting, "I considered leaving with Isomorph, but I haven't quite given up on this place yet."
"Glad to hear it," Aizawa said sarcastically. "If the rats started jumping ship it wouldn't bode well." What kind of history did these two have?
"First, I am not a rat. Second, you'd best not bad mouth rats around Nedzu."
"I'm glad you're back, False Flag," Izuku told her as they approached Nedzu's office. "Even though I didn't actually know you were gone." Flag snorted. She didn't seem to have been tortured, a small mercy, not that it was always easy to tell, especially with someone as tough as her.
"It's good to see you, too, Fossa," she gave him a tired smile and ruffled his hair. "Hey."
"It looks like the beginning of the MLA war," Kirishima mourned, staring in despair at the television as yet another city, Kyushu this time, descended into chaos. The PLF didn't seem to have any real goal other than to steal, destroy, and spread anarchy. They took hostages. They made demands--usually incoherent, but technically demands none the less. The PLF leadership, however, were not present. That was not to say that cannon fodder accosted the city, but no villain involved was SS-rank or above. The S and A-ranks were few, taking leadership roles even if they were totally unsuited for them. Morons.
Asskicking should not equal authority. Destro had the strongest meta ability of all the MLA generals in terms of sheer destructive prowess, but that had nothing to do with why he led the army. Destro was in charge because he was a master orator, a naturally gifted strategist, and a good delegator. Fractal--who, although a very skilled quirkless combatant, held nowhere near Destro's sheer power--was most likely to coordinate an operation on the ground because he was better at it than anyone else except maybe Arch... and Arch was a spymaster with other responsibilities. "I'm meaner than you so you should do what I say," was the worst possible way to set up a command structure.
The terrible tactical decisions of the underqualified idiots leading the PLF certainly helped the heroes get Kyushu under control. "No, this doesn't look like the start of the MLA war," Izuku eventually replied to his red headed friend. Kirishima raised an eyebrow. "The government hasn't rounded up thousands of potential sympathizers." Though, to be fair, if the government and the HPSC in particular were more stable they probably would be doing that. "The first major conflict of the MLA war in Japan was Destro, Switcher, and Tripswitch breaking into a prison camp full of meta humans detained under special "emergency national security" laws for, allegedly, using their powers in public. The Japanese war escalated from there. Fighting had long since started in other countries."
"Huh," Ashido muttered, focus still on the television. "They don't teach that in school." Well, to be fair lots of non-essential units were being cut short at UA in an effort to shove survival instincts into the students as quickly as possible.
"Makes me wonder what they'll teach about this," Shouji gestured. "The PLF war I guess it will
be? Is this a war?"
"Yeah, looks like it," Katsuki said bitterly.
"Not yet." Izuku shook his head. It probably would be a war. Soon. Soon but not yet. This was just skirmishing.
An apartment building burned like a gloomy torch. All those poor people homeless... where would they go? Nobody was going to be building new structures. When blood ran in the streets, it was a good time to buy real estate but not a good time to invest in major construction projects. Someone crashed a bus into a fire hydrant. A news helicopter dipped dangerously in a gale before retreating to a safe distance. Safer distance. Less suicidal distance.
If you started enough rocks rolling down a mountain, no amount of force could prevent the cascade from growing, not until it had dragged a whole side of the cliff from the heavens to the pit. It wasn't a war yet but it would be. That was inevitable now.
That evening, everyone in class received notice from the "reforming" HPSC. "All individuals holding provisional or professional hero licenses are now on call due to the escalating emergency situation and should prepare to respond to an attack at any time. Please update your contact information promptly so as to receive timely warnings and keep up to date with events in your districts."
"What does this actually mean?" Uraraka asked, skimming through the notice. Everyone had collected in the common room, dim lighting lending weight to the worry lines they were too young to possess in such abundance. The only person who didn't know why they had collected in the common room was Kaminari who had gone to bed early due to quirk exhaustion from class. Sero had dragged Kaminari down the stairs with, apparently, no explanation. The poor, electric student was glassy eyed and sagging with exhaustion. Presumably Kaminari would pick up on the context quickly enough, though.
Aizawa, sitting in a central arm chair with his hands clasped before him in a rather Nedzu-like pose, sighed. "The country is in a state of emergency. We are being mobilized in anticipation of escalation of the situation." There were a lot of slippery words in that sentence, their teacher trying not to say outright that they had all been drafted.
"Do we... I mean I'm a rescue hero," Uraraka protested vaguely.
Aizawa shrugged. "Things like that aren't going to matter much anymore, unfortunately. Nedzu will do what he can to keep all UA students under his authority. That doesn't mean that you aren't going to be called upon to restore order in a riot zone, but it means that, hopefully, it will be Nedzu sending you out on the orders of some brand new HPSC official rather than some brand new HPSC official sending you out directly. Nedzu knows your strengths and weaknesses and how to organize a well-balanced team. He'll try to keep groups of students together with a teacher.
"Look... Students getting their provisional licenses during first year is practically unheard of. You're expected to be seventeen or eighteen, students about to graduate. It doesn't matter, though. You have your licenses, thus these rules apply to you... unless you want to surrender your certification, that is." Nobody dignified that with a response.
The first time UA students were called into action the (moderately serious) fighting was over by the time Izuku arrived. Only Mirio, being unbelievably fast, had participated briefly in the skirmish.
"Huh," Katsuki grinned wolfishly at his phone.
"Oh dear." Izuku knew that look. The last time Katsuki had worn that smile it was because a particularly obnoxious substitute teacher had just toppled backwards off her chair.
"What's going on, bro?" Kirishma leaned over the top of the common room couch to read over the blonde's shoulder. "Wait. All For One's dead?"
"Huh?" Ashido put down her half-washed frying pan and turned off the water in the kitchen. "Wait, who's dead?"
"All For One, apparently. Serves him right the bastard," Katsuki did not cackle, not quite.
"How?" Jirou joined Kisihima in hanging over the back of the couch. Izuku merely put his homework away and pulled out his own phone to browse the news.
"Pulmonary embolism," Kacchan crowed. "Apparently the guy was ancient and in terrible health after being restrained all that time. Started wheezing a few nights ago and they called doctors but he was dead before they could properly secure the cell. They cremated him yesterday, buried him at sea so people can't go worship his grave or some other bullshit. There's proof of death pictures, videos, and autopsy reports attached... This is actually for real. Oh my god he's finally dead." Hawks spontaneously dying of a pulmonary embolism would likely have pleased Katsuki even more, but the blonde had never been picky.
The story was everywhere, making international news. All For One had been quietly tried and sentenced to death a week before the incident but a date of execution had not been set. Izuku snorted.
"What's that about?" Kirishima asked the greenette.
"Really convenient, isn't it? Not that I fault them, of course. An official execution would have made the riots so much worse . But they couldn't keep him alive, not after the Tartarus break in, not when nothing's secure anymore, so they tried and executed him and then told everyone it was natural causes. A lot of the PLF won't buy it, of course," but it was still probably the right, all be it dubiously legal, move. Or was it? They'd done the same thing to Chikara, after all, and Izuku was still furious about that. What made quietly killing All For One and blaming it on health problems moral whereas quietly killing Destro and blaming it on suicide was immoral? Well, Destro had been tried by a Kangaroo Court at best and, from certain perspectives, qualified as an enemy combatant entitled to the protections granted prisoners of war. All For One was not an enemy combatant by even the most dubious of arguments and his trial, although quiet and closed to the public, seemed to have followed due process. Also All For One was an evil bastard and immoral things done to him became moral things in the same way that turning in the wrong direction three times in short succession would end with one pointed towards the proper destination.
"Are they allowed to do that? Kill the guy and lie about it being natural causes?" the red head asked, brows furrowed.
"Who's going to stop them?" Izuku asked. Kirshima balked. "I'm not even sure who they are." "I'm making cake!" Katsuki grinned. "I haven't made cake since we moved to the dorms. Who
wants some? Never mind. Everybody can have some!"
Shouji appeared at the base of the stairs, stretching as if just waking from a nap. "Why are we having cake?"
"All For One is dead! This is the best thing that's happened in years! Go get class B. They can have cake, too!"
Kacchan began throwing vaguely suitable pans and mixing bowls out on the counter with a clatter. Izuku might not be elated, not like Katsuki, but he could admit to an overwhelming smugness at the revelation of All For One's demise, a triumphant feeling of revenge. Izuku would have been perfectly willing to kill All For One himself if given the chance, likely with far less conflicting feelings and guilt than he held about Moonfish. What was likely a very cruel smile spread across the greenette's face.
"I think I remember how to make the frosting," Izuku trotted into the kitchen. "It's buttercream, right?"
"No you don't, remember how to make it I mean. Here. Just take this and do exactly what I tell you to do."
"Sure, Kacchan." This was nostalgic. Just like when they were five... although those cakes hadn't turned out that well. Yeah. Izuku probably didn't really remember how to make the frosting.
The majority of both heroics classes turned up several hours later for an impromptu party. Todoroki, wearing a vaguely confused but hopeful smile, stood at the door handing out the cliche conical hats with shiny tassels on top and elastic chin straps. Where had he even got those? Most people stared at the hats in bewilderment. Many, perhaps because disappointing Todoroki seemed cruel, bit the bullet and put the hats on. Mineta couldn't quite figure out how to wear his in a conventional way and simply stuck it to one of the unshed purple balls on his head. Apparently that was possible. Aizawa--to everyone's shock--wore one, as did Vlad King.
Katsuki, grinning like a feral shark, brought out the largest and most elegantly decorated of the cakes to serve first. The heavenly fragrant, chocolate monstrosity had three layers and the frosting on top proudly proclaimed, "Happy Death Day All For One!" Izuku had tried to talk the blonde out of something so blatantly... the adjective escaped him. It was blatantly something. Katsuki had not been deterred, however.
The entire affair would have been unbearably awkward had it not been centered around excellent food. It was still pretty awkward. A handful, like Kaminari, Sero, and Tokoyami, were every bit as openly delighted with the turn of events as Katsuki, but the abandon with which the blonde celebrated the death of an enemy was off putting to most. Todoroki's pointy hats exacerbated the situation. Someone put on overly upbeat music which exacerbated the situation further.
"This is, without a doubt, the worst taste I've ever seen at a party ever and that's really saying something given how long I've been friends with Nemuri," Aizawa commented, taking a bite of cake. "But this cake is really delicious. And I can't say I'm sorry to see All For One go." Vlad King nodded. Neither teacher made any move to leave. "I'd better get a slice for Eri before it's all gone."
"I can't stay down here," Yaoyorozu shook her head as she passed by. "This is just awful. He was a terrible person but still." A handful of individuals, Tsu, Ojiro, Monoma, Kendou, and Shiozaki for starters, had not come. That was understandable. Those five or so students might be the only truly decent people in the entirety of the heroics class though, to be fair, most students probably hadn't understood that Katsuki was making them all cake explicitly for the purpose of celebrating a villain's death.
"Not happy?" Dark Shadow asked Izuku as the familiar's host wandered closer.
"Huh? Oh. No--it's not--I mean, I'm just thinking," and people watching.
"You have a very intense thinking face," Tokoyami commented.
"You seem nearly as happy as Kacchan." Beaked faces were hard to read but Tokoyami's body language was plenty clear.
"That bastard," Dark Shadow hissed. "It's all his fault!"
Izuku raised an eyebrow and Tokoyami explained for his partner, "there are plenty of obvious reasons to despise All For One. Beyond the obvious, if not for All For One's machinations, none of the misfortunes that befell Hawks would have occurred. Regardless of whether he is a triple agent or double agent..." and it was perfectly evident from his tone that Tokoyami was still convinced it was the former, "he would be safe at home, probably enjoying a hefty settlement from the HPSC for how they treated him."
"He deserves better," Dark Shadow growled, bristling.
"All For One's departure from the land of the living won't change what happened to Hawks, but it does mean that the monster can never ruin anyone else's life ever again and for that I am grateful." Tokoyami stuffed a large piece of cake in his beak in emphasis.
"I'm sure All For One will continue to screw things up from beyond the grave through his former students," Izuku huffed.
"That's a problem for tomorrow," Dark Shadow said pointedly.
There were going to be many, many riots in the coming days. Avoiding an official execution might curb some of the PLF and sympathizers' rage, but this little celebration was likely to be the heroes' last peaceful day for weeks. Maybe ever depending on how things went.
He wasn't going to think about that quite yet, though. He was going to take Dark Shadow's surprisingly wise advice. He was going to eat his cake and remember that Tripswitch's killer was finally ashes. Huh. All For One was dead and Tripswitch still lived on in Izuku.
"Oh how the tables have turned," the greenette hummed.