Chapter 10: Cry Havoc
In the dream, Todoroki Shoto was still in Yokohama, on patrol with Gang Orca, moments before they received the orders to back up Ryukyu's team. It came nearly every night, like clockwork, often with slight variations- the intensity of the light outside, the time of day, the buildings on the street, even his own appearance. This time, when he glanced at his reflection in a dark storefront window, the face staring back at him was more youthful- a first-year, not a third-year. His hair was still in his former style, not the bun he wore now, his costume was back to its old, plain design, and his cheeks and chin were bare, devoid of any hint of stubble. But of course, it didn't occur to him that this was anything out of the ordinary as he turned back to face Sakatmata's hulking figure. Just like every time, Gang Orca was checking his phone, and just like every time, he'd just received the text from Nejire alerting them that something had gone wrong with their recon operation. Kugo said something in a distorted, muffled voice, but somehow he understood, and moments later they were running down the street at full speed, shadowy masses of pedestrians parting before them.
They turned onto a side street after a few minutes, and suddenly it was dark out- the sun had simply vanished while he wasn't looking. How long have we been running? Deep in his gut, Todoroki had a vague feeling that it was supposed to be daytime, but he shook it off as they neared their objective. As the park grew closer, he realized with a start that all the buildings around them were burnt to a crisp, reduced to blackened husks and illuminated only by patches of glowing embers, still leaking acrid smoke into the pitch black midnight sky. He was leaning down to investigate the skeletal remains of an apartment complex when he first saw the bodies. There were dozens of them, their corpses little more than charred impressions where people had been, a scene out of Pompeii or Herculaneum, of wrath nothing less than Vesuvian. Dabi, his mind cried in rage, and he felt his fists clench. When he started running again there were angry tears streaming from his eyes, but when the park finally loomed before him, orange flames, not blue, towered above him. Maybe he has a new technique, Shoto mused as the entrance drew nearer and nearer. It doesn't matter, I have to stop him.
Todoroki charged through the gate with determination on his face, but it swiftly turned to shock and horror. The park's perimeter was completely ablaze, with a ring of fire blocking off all the other exits, and Gang Orca was already dead on the ground in front of him, his cetacean body still smoking; standing with one flaming foot atop his mentor's body was none other than his father. Thunderstruck, Shoto fell to his knees, his eyes wide. No. It can't be. Gradually, an inch at a time, he forced himself to lift his head again, only for his heart to drop even further in his chest. Visible behind Endeavor were the corpses of all the others- Ryukyu, Nejire, Uraraka, Asui, each one immolated. Enji's face was a mask of rage, but when he saw his son, it turned into a wide smile.
"Shoto, my boy!" He held his arms out wide, and took a step forward. "You've finally come back to me!"
Before Todoroki could respond, he heard something else in the distance, behind his father, past the bodies- the sound of a child crying. Bathed in the light of the inferno raging around them was a boy with spiky red hair, sitting on the ground with his hands covering his face. In each dream, the sight compelled him to stand up and start walking again, a desperate, primal urge to save the child that overrode any other emotion.
"Did he hurt you?!" Todoroki called, looking past his father as he advanced. "Do you need help?!"
"Who are you talking to, Shoto?" Enji placed his hands on his hips and frowned disapprovingly. "Don't ignore me, we're the only ones here, I made sure of that."
Refusing to give Endeavor the satisfaction of a response, Coldflame brushed straight past him and continued toward the boy. No matter how much he quickened his pace each night, though, the child remained in the distance, just as his father remained right behind him, his flaming costume visible out of the corner of his eye.
"Can you walk?!" Todoroki cried. "Come to me, I can help you!"
"Listen to me when I'm talking to you!" Endeavor pleaded behind him. "Please, Shoto, I've done all this for you!"
"You think I wanted this?!" He gestured to the corpses, which seemed to be dissolving into smoke and ash with each passing moment, their features rapidly reduced to unrecognizable piles of cinders. "They'll arrest you for this, you'll never see the outside of a cell again for the rest of your miserable life!"
"Who's going to arrest me?" Enji asked, his voice tinged with genuine curiosity. "It's like I said, there's no one left but us."
Pausing briefly, Shoto glanced up at the skyline, only to realize that there no longer was one. All the buildings- the entire city- everything as ablaze. The wall of flames around them was growing higher by the second. When he glanced back down, the child was directly in front of him, still sniffling and wiping tears from his eyes.
"Hey there," Todoroki said, crouching down and doing his best to put on his friendly voice. "You okay, buddy? What's your name?"
The boy fell silent, and slowly lifted his head; he met Coldflame's gaze with two wide turquoise eyes.
"Touya."
Todoroki felt the breath leave his body all at once, his heart pounding in his chest. That's impossible, he knew, but the face, the eyes, the hair- it was all so familiar. Half-formed memories flitted back and forth in his mind, just beyond his ability to recall them. This child couldn't be Touya, the Touya who left when he was still a toddler, the Touya no one in his family had seen or spoken to in ten years, but somehow, Shoto couldn't shake the feeling that he was. He lifted his hand to reach out to the boy, but just before he could touch his face, Enji grabbed his other arm from behind, and began to pull him away. The child began to rapidly recede back into the distance, no matter how much he struggled.
"Let me go!"
"Shoto, if you'd just look at me…"
Ten years of fury welling up inside him, Coldflame dug his heels into the ground, pivoted, and drove a twenty foot spike of ice directly through his father's chest. The size and nature of his attack varied slightly each night, but the result was always the same- Endeavor's flames flickered out, and blood began to pour from his mouth.
"Shoto…" He coughed, tears welling up in his eyes. "Why?"
Todoroki never came up with a proper response for that- at least, not one that could be put into words. So each time, he remained silent as his father wrapped his burly arms around him and died embracing his son. It took him some time to realize he was crying too- why, he didn't know. But the moment he began to move again, to turn back towards Touya, Endeavor's body began to transform, melting and shifting until suddenly he was eye to eye with Toga Himiko. She wore a sadistic grin on her face, and wrapped her arms tight around him, her cheeks flushed with color as her laughter rose in volume until it was the only sound he could hear. Panic rising in his chest, he tried to activate his quirk, to throw her off, but suddenly he'd grown hopelessly weak, his body paralyzed and limp.
"Our people will fix you right up," she whispered into his ear, "so I can hurt you as much as I want before we take you!" Then she drove her knife into his back, and Dabi's fist slammed into the side of his head, and everything went dark.
Dull, throbbing pain was the first thing that Shoto became aware of when he suddenly jolted awake in a cold sweat, right where her blade had been. It was a sensation that he'd become intimately familiar with over the past week, the five aching ghosts of the wounds left by Toga that morning in Yokohama- almost as familiar as his recurring dream, some details of which never failed to slip away each morning despite his best efforts to preserve the memories. He'd been unconscious for nearly two days after his initial capture, apparently so close to the complete failure of his damaged kidneys that they'd considered putting him on ice until they found a better healing quirk, if his guards' idle chatter was anything to be believed.
As things were, they had one Eight Precepts henchman with a weak cell regeneration quirk come in twice a day to try and repair his back, often with Monoma's help when Neito was around. The revelation of his captors' identities had been the worst shock of the third day, the discovery that he wasn't merely a prisoner of the League of Villains, as Bakugo had been two years before. Shinso, Hatsume, Monoma, and Midoriya had all visited his cell at some point or another over the past eight days- sometimes to check on the progression of his treatment, other times to talk. The conversations were mostly one-sided; many were little more than sermons espousing the group's insane perversion of meritocracy, seemingly in the hopes of 'converting' him. Even once he was over the initial shock that U.A. students could stoop to such a low, he didn't offer them much in the way of replies, mostly just asking simple questions about their beliefs and pretending to take them seriously. Let them believe they're slowly winning me over. The more time to gather intel, the better. At one point, he asked Neito whether they were the ones who'd taken Yaoyorozu and Tokoyami- Monoma had simply laughed in response as he left the room, and Shoto hadn't asked again since.
After the sixth day, he could finally stand and walk around his cell, though the pain still remained, and a saline drip remained embedded in his arm. On the seventh and eighth days, he tried to read, went through the selection on the bookshelf one by one, but Todoroki found that he couldn't make it past fifty pages in any of them before the emotions inside him, the rage at his captors, at himself for being so careless, the horror of thinking how his mother and siblings and friends must feel, became too distracting to focus on anything else. Finally, he fell back on meditation, a practice which had always served him well, but even the mere act of clearing his mind was a difficult task in these circumstances. On the morning of the ninth day- at least, what seemed to him to be morning, for there was no clock and no concept of the passage of time in this prison, which stayed brightly lit twenty four hours a day- he decided that we was well enough to make an escape attempt- clearly, if this much time had passed with no rescue, the odds were decent that their location was too well concealed for the investigators to find. I'm far from fully recovered, he knew, and I don't have my quirk, but braver heroes than him had faced worse odds.
Clever and attentive to detail in every part of the room, the villains had left him nothing that could be used as a weapon, aside from softcover books and a pillow. After a quick once-over to make sure that he hadn't missed anything, Todoroki settled on the only thing even remotely deadly available to him aside from his own fists: the butterfly needle in his arm. Though he couldn't see them, Shoto knew there were doubtless cameras watching, so he climbed into bed, turned to face the wall, and after around ten minutes to convincingly fake falling asleep, he remained absolutely motionless as he gently removed the needle millimeter by millimeter, careful not to prick the vein any further and lose more blood than he already had. Once it was finally out after what felt like an eternity, he clamped his clammy fingers shut around his two-inch, stainless steel prize, intending to attack his guard and make a break for it the moment the moment they set the tray for his next meal down at his bedside.
And so, for what seemed by his best estimate to be over an hour, he waited silent and still, his body feigning sleep but his mind racing through possible exit strategies. Assuming that I can silently eliminate the guard and that their nearest backup is one or two rooms away, I'll most likely have somewhere between fifteen and thirty seconds to try and flee before backup can arrive, depending on how quick their response time is and how attentive they are to their camera feeds. From the brief glimpses of sunlight he occasionally saw when the door opened and the muffled sounds of rain he'd once heard on his ceiling, he knew that the compound was aboveground and had windows. That's the best way out, he knew, but in this state, only if we're at ground level. If I had my quirk, I could make a path of ice down from any height, but like this… Shoto glanced down to the magnetic, quirk-dampening shackles around his wrists and ankles in frustration. Ideally, they might deactivate or disconnect from their power source once I leave the cell, but that's unlikely. I have to prepare for the contingency that…
A sharp hiss of air interrupted his thoughts and announced that the door was preparing to open, and he felt his breath quicken involuntarily at the sound of footsteps on the wooden floor. Still facing away from the entrance with his weapon clutched tight against his chest, he slid the needle out from between two fingers so that he could wield it like a spike when he formed a fist. All the while, the footsteps were drawing closer and closer; when he was certain they were looming directly over him, he tensed his arm and core and readied himself to attack. Just as he was steeling himself to roll over and strike, though, the blood drained from his face at the sound of the guard's voice.
"I hope you slept well, Todoroki. How are you feeling?"
The needle still in hand, he opened his eyes and slowly turned his head, even as his stomach slowly filled with an all too familiar sense of dread.
"Yaoyorozu," he choked, his tongue suddenly dry, his voice hoarse. "What are… no…" He closed his eyes and shook his head. "I'm still dreaming. You're not really here."
"Oh, Todoroki. You always did love to flatter me." She giggled as she spoke, and like a spell, the sound compelled him to open his eyes again- she was still there. "I'm not a dream," she continued, a soft smile on her lips, "I promise."
Pushing his ever growing doubt and fear aside for the moment, he sat up straight in his bed and began to carefully study her features, her expressions and mannerisms. This could be Toga's quirk again, or a clone, or one of a dozen other tactics designed to rattle me. As far as he could tell, her picture-perfect face had hardly changed since he last saw her at the training camp two years ago, aside from the expected signs of maturity. Her hair was cut short and side parted, though she wore the shoulder-length style with the same grace as ever. Noticeably altered, her costume was now grey and silver instead of red and yellow, with a much more sleek and streamlined design. There were still large open patches over her stomach, back, and forearms to allow for her quirk's activation, but the rest looked halfway between a bodysuit and body armor, close-fitting and lightweight but textured like steel or carbon-fiber. Perhaps most different, though, were her eyes. The eyes Todoroki remembered when he thought of Yaoyorozu Momo were many things- warm, happy, earnest, kind. They were the eyes of a girl who cared as deeply about her classmates' success as she did about her own, who would go to any length to help a friend in need, who had never once looked down on her peers despite the privileges of her own upbringing.
The ones staring back at him now were none of those. There was a coldness in them that he'd never seen before, a gleam of unmistakable superiority and overflowing confidence in the way she was watching him. It's not her, Shoto told himself, a prayer more than a certain fact. It's not her. After a few moments of meeting his inquisitive gaze, she seemed to understand his train of thought; he couldn't help but flinch when she cupped his face with one gloved hand, and began to gently stroke his cheek with her thumb.
"You still don't believe it's me, do you, Shoto?"
He couldn't control the chill that shot up his spine at the sound of his first name on her lips, and suddenly his face flushed with color.
"You're… different." He managed after struggling for several long moments to even begin to find the right words. "How can I be sure you're not…"
"Her?" Momo finished, giving him a sympathetic grin. "Well, could she do this?" She held her other hand flat in front of Todoroki, and produced a red nesting doll from the bare patch of skin in her glove over her palm; despite himself, he let slip a hint of a grin at the sight.
"We did well on that final exam, didn't we?"
"You did wonderfully," Yaoyorozu insisted, shaking her head as a glimmer of her old modesty shone through. "My performance left much to be desired."
Before he replied, Shoto shifted again in bed to better position himself, and the motion tweaked one of his wounds just right; a lance of pain shot through his body, and he winced visibly. Concern, seemingly genuine, spread across Momo's face, and she gently moved her hand from his cheek to the patchwork of bandages on his back.
"Toga hurt you badly, didn't she? I'll make sure she never does that again." Suddenly her arm was wrapped around his waist, and their faces were inches apart. "You're too important to me."
"Momo…" Slowly and reluctantly, he placed a hand on her stomach and pushed her away. "Why are you here? Are you a prisoner too? Or… I… I just need to know." Shoto had put the question off for as long as he could, because he was terrified that he already knew the answer. Please, please, prove me wrong.
"So inquisitive, like always." Only frowning slightly at his reaction to her advance, she withdrew her hand from his side and held it out expectantly. "Give me the needle, and I'll tell you everything."
So, not a prisoner, then.
For a brief moment, he tried to muster up the resolve to lash out with the makeshift weapon, with his fists, with anything, but the door had already closed behind her the moment she entered. I could hold her hostage, force them to negotiate. But aside from not being very herolike, Todoroki knew full well that taking a hostage required the willingness to harm them, and the longer he looked at Yaoyorozu, the more he realized that he wasn't capable of that, no matter how far she might have fallen. Without even a hint of an effort to conceal the anguish on his face, he hesitantly dropped the needle into her palm and continued to study her features as she began to speak.
"You've spoken with Midoriya and Monoma, so you know the basics of what our group believes, the goals we strive towards- a complete restructuring of the society that we live in, the restoration of strength and merit as the driving factors determining social standing."
"Yeah, I sat through them spewing their insane propaganda." His voice rising in frustration, he took her hands in his own. "Might is right, restoring the monarchy, abandoning the defenseless? I don't believe for a second that someone as brilliant as you could even think about buying into that bullshit. So please, Momo, tell me what's really going on."
"What's going on," she countered, "is that I realized that they're right, Shoto. I know it's hard to hear- it took me weeks to even consider the possibility- but it's the truth." Breaking free from his grip, she stood, created a stack of detailed charts and graphs from her forearm, and tossed the booklet of papers down on his bed.
"When a month had passed from the time they captured me without any progress in their recruitment effort, they agreed to let me research their claims about the current system's inevitable collapse, about the singularity, about… entropy. I would request crime statistics, economic reports, demographic charts, and they would provide them for me. Even classified government records that no one without a security clearance can access- thanks to Shinso and Hatsume, nothing I needed was beyond my reach. And so, for the next eight weeks, I studied over two thousand pages worth of data, calculated projections for the next fifty years from scratch, triple and quadruple and quintuple checked every single line of math. Do you want to know what I found?"
"That they were editing the data they sent you?" He muttered, shaking his head. "How the hell could you trust anything that they provided!? You're smarter than that!"
"I had the same concern, obviously." Yaoyorozu crossed her arms and began to pace path and forth across the cell while Todoroki leafed through the notes she'd given him. "Despite how authentic and legitimate everything appeared to be, I couldn't shake that doubt. So once I earned their trust- once they released me, and I had free reign to do as I pleased, free access to the internet- I rechecked every last figure, each sentence of each report down to the punctuation. I even watched Hitoshi brainwash government clerks and officials to get the same classified documents a second time, direct from the source- it was all real. So if my projections are correct- and they are- if crime rates and quirk potency both continue to skyrocket at their current rates, and the national debt… oh, don't even get me started on the national debt." Chuckling, she strode back over to his bed, pulled out one sheet in particular, an annual costs report from the Ministry of Finance, and dangled it in front of his face.
"Do you know how expensive heroes are for this country? And I'm not just talking about their salaries, but the funding for supporting their rescue operations, the damages from their fights, the cost of repairing swaths of buildings and infrastructure devastated on a nearly annual basis, if not even more often than that in the case of cities like Tokyo and Yokohama."
"Pretty cheap, right?" Shoto deadpanned, leaning back on his pillow with one eyebrow raised.
"More expensive than anyone outside the cabinet knows," she countered, unfazed. "Your father included. Even before the Age of Heroes, this country's public debt was massive, over to 200% of our GDP by the 2010s. Now that hero salaries and continuous infrastructural repairs have been draining government funds for the past century, we're finally at the brink."
"You're reading old textbooks, that crisis was averted decades ago." Reaching back to his second year, Shoto dredged up his memories of Ectoplasm's economics class. "The deficit fell to practically zero before our parents were born."
"That's what I thought too, until Shinso, Midoriya and I started to compare public expenditure reports with classified revenue data Hitoshi extracted from a deputy minister's assistant. Guess what we found out?"
"That you should've taken up a career in investigative journalism?"
"I see that your sense of humor has developed quite well since I last saw you, hm? Very funny, Shoto, but wrong. The deficit growth may have halted, but the public debt to GDP ratio is still nearly 300%, with no sign of decreasing any time soon, and at the same time, an asset bubble is slowly growing around the hero industry, around investment in the agencies themselves- it looks good on paper, but it's unsustainable growth, not reflective of real value. This country is due for its biggest economic bust since the 1990s, and only a few dozen people realize it."
"So things aren't looking good- nothing new there. What's this doomsday prediction of yours that I'm supposed to be so terrified of?"
"Twenty years." She said matter-of-factly, as if reading the number off a spreadsheet. "Less than one generation until the hero bubble economy bursts and the stock market tanks, timed perfectly to coincide with increased quirk potency making crime practically impossible to contain: the dreaded singularity. Complete economic and social collapse will follow. Chaos, poverty, war, mass emigration- an exodus. The end of this country as we know it. For the past two years, everything I've done has been to prevent that from happening. The current system can't be saved, it's too late; the changes needed are too immense in scope. The only way forward is to replace it while there's still time, and if violence is necessary to achieve that, then so be it. So yes, I've lied, stolen, murdered, betrayed my ideals and my friends, abandoned my home and family, but in the end, it's all for the greater good, and that's why I can still sleep easy at night. I was faced with an impossible choice, but I made the logical decision, and if I had the chance to do it all over again, I'd gladly do the same."
"Then I truly don't know you anymore," Todoroki responded quietly, setting aside her papers and closing his eyes to try and meditate. "Please, leave. I want to be alone."
"If only you had as much time as I did to come to terms with the facts," Yaoyorozu perched one hand on her chin and gazed briefly off into space, a wistful look in her eye, before snapping back into focus. "We'll see after today, I suppose. As much as I hate to interrupt your brooding time, Shoto, you have a very important appointment to keep this morning- I hope you're feeling as photogenic as usual, because you're about to be on camera for quite a large audience."
By the time he opened his eyes, she was already aiming the air pistol at his chest- a slight pinch was all that announced that the tranquilizer dart had pierced his skin, and the pain barely even registered before his limbs began to grow weak and his vision murky, his cell's bright ceiling lights swiftly overtaken by darkness.
15 km outside Matsuya, Ehime Prefecture, Shikoku
One Hour after La Brava's Activation of Shieldbreaker
"My goodness, Midoriya! I know you told me the location would be scenic, but I never imagined that it would be quite like this!"
His hands propped on his hips as his cape billowed behind him in the cool morning wind, Gentle smiled broadly as he took in the mountaintop view of the sun rising over the forests of northern Shikoku, the secondary location they'd warped to via Kurogiri after making preparations in Tokyo. A few dozen meters behind him, the others were still making preparations inside a towering Buddhist temple of wood and stone, one of eighty-eight making up an ancient pilgrimage route that circumnavigated the entire island. The priests had been persuaded by Shinso to take the day off, and Yaoyorozu had created large barriers and signs a kilometer down the trail in either direction directing pilgrims to turn back due to scheduled maintenance. Now, all that was left was to watch and wait until the time was right, an activity Danjuro had joined Izuku and Toga in at a steep cliffside opposite the temple.
"You never take me to any romantic spots like this!" La Brava cried in dismay, walking up behind them with a pout on her face and her laptop in hand. "When's the last time the two of us went on a vacation?"
Just minutes ago, Aiba had finished setting up half a dozen hidden cameras in the hills around them, all connected to her computer, able to be remotely activated and adjusted by a keystroke, all for the sake of capturing the most views and angles of the action possible. Quick to comfort her as always, he leaned down and hoisted the shorter woman onto his shoulders, ignoring her whoop of shock and subsequent peals of laughter.
"Perhaps we shall, my darling, if all goes well today! What do you say, my dear Midoriya? Surely it wouldn't be unthinkable for the two of us to take a weekend off sometime later this month, if we continue to put in good work for you in the meantime."
"If all goes well today, then you'll have much more than a weekend's worth of vacation time in reward." Izuku turned to face them with a smirk on his lips. "We all will. But depending on the circumstances, it might be a bit more stressful than your average trip."
"Why don't you ever carry me like that, baby?" Tugging impatiently at her lover's coat, Toga looked pointedly in Tobita's direction before turning her puppy-dog eyes back to Midoriya.
"Because I don't trust you when I can't see what you're doing with your hands, my dear," he replied jokingly, before scooping Himiko up and carrying her back towards the others bridal style. A grove of cherry trees stood between them and the temple proper, neatly divided in two by a paved stone path running through the middle and a tall red torii gate at the entrance. On a small wooden table he'd erected toward the far end of the stand of trees, Gentle had set a pot of water to boil in an electric kettle; a glance at his watch confirmed that it should be nearly ready by now.
"Come, La Brava!" He cried dramatically, steadying her position on his shoulders with one hand before striding confidently down the path behind Izuku. "Our morning tea awaits, and we mustn't keep it waiting!"
A gust of wind set a storm of cherry blossom petals swirling around them as he walked, and Aiba oohed and aahed in childlike wonder at the sight- it was late March, after all, the peak season for the famous pink flowers. By the time they reached the table, Yaoyorozu and Mr. Compress were already seated and waiting for them; the four villains had quickly bonded over their love for tea, and Danjuro and Manami were delighted for the newfound company in their pre-mission ritual.
"I hope you all had a good night's rest," Tobita said amicably as he set La Brava back on the ground and began to pour the water into their cups. "That's the next most important thing for good performance, beside tea, of course!"
"This old man slept like a baby," quipped Compress with a grin, laying his mask down on the table and glancing through the box of different teas that Gentle had set out. "How about you, Yaoyorozu?"
"Oh, well enough. My mind is usually too preoccupied running through possible outcomes for me to get anything resembling a proper rest before this type of operation, but I manage just fine- it's the sleep the night afterward that's truly restful." She plucked out a bag of green tea for herself, then held a hand to her mouth in surprise at Aiba and Tobita's choice. "My goodness, no Imperial Golden Tips for you two today? I'm aghast, Gentle!"
"I thought we might mix things up a bit, for luck." Danjuro held out the bag he'd chosen for her inspection before dropping it in to let it steep; Manami waited on him to do the same, as she always did. "I give you the Cleopatra blend! A decadent combination of rose petal, almond, milk, and honey!"
"That sounds delightful! Any chance that you could save me some for next time?"
"Of course, my dear, you absolutely must try it! I first encountered this particular blend at a wonderful little night café in Poland when I was on holiday there, and let me tell you, Yaoyorozu, it's truly something special. It has hints of…" Midsentence, he caught sight of La Brava's jealous eyes glaring a hole straight through Momo's skull, and remembered only too late how envious his partner was like to become when he when he discussed tea so enthusiastically with the younger female villain, as had occurred on a regular basis since the successful negotiation of their partnership with Midoriya's organization.
"…hints of cardamom and clove too, I think. La Brava, what do you think of it, compared to our usual?" Gentle wrapped a reassuring arm around Aiba's shoulders, but before he could gauge her reaction either way, Monoma strode over with Shinso and Hatsume trailing close behind, and captured the table's attention.
"At last, one of the little tea parties I keep hearing about, how delightful!" Neito clapped his hands together in glee and wafted some of the aromas with an audible sigh of delight. "A simply marvelous selection too! I'm quite impressed. Would you mind terribly if I joined?"
"The more, the merrier." Yaoyorozu wasted no time producing a fifth foldable chair from her back, and soon enough Monoma was sipping at a Darjeeling blend and reminiscing with Mr. Compress about the good old days of a year before.
"Are you sure you don't want to join in?" Momo held out a beckoning hand to the other two founders, but Shinso was quick to decline as he sipped from a thermos.
"The offer is appreciated, but I prefer coffee whenever possible."
"Coke and energy drinks." Mei shrugged, rubbing at her nose.
Suddenly Hitoshi's phone buzzed, and he glared down at the notification with tired eyes; if anything, his purple bags seemed even more intense than usual. Someone didn't sleep very well, Tobita chided mentally, shaking his head as he finished his first cup. Though I wonder if he ever has. Hopefully it won't hurt the boy's performance. Hatsume, by contrast, was wide-eyed, jumpy, and alert, her eyepiece flickering with data and her face streaked with grease from last-minute adjustments to her babies.
"Alright you guys need to start wrapping it up here," Hitoshi called, his gaze still fixed on the screen. Overhaul's strike team is in position, they're just waiting for the rest of us to start. T-minus five minutes 'til we go live, you got that, La Brava?"
"Yessir!" Aiba gulped down the rest of her tea and one go, grabbed, her laptop, and bounded back off toward the temple, followed closely by Yaoyorozu and Mei.
"The young have so much energy these days," Gentle sighed, taking up a more leisurely pace through the cherry blossoms alongside Mr. Compress.
"Oh, you can't fool me," Atsuhiro chuckled, fastening his mask back on and straightening his elegant top hat. "You're still young too, don't pretend otherwise." After another moment of walking together in peaceful silence, Compress laid a gloved hand on Tobita's shoulder and gestured off to the side of the path. "Gentle Criminal, would you allow me to speak with you in private for a moment?"
"Why, of course!"
When the two reached a more secluded spot and came to a halt, Sako drew in a deep breath and tapped the ground expectantly with his walking stick, as if summoning up the proper words was a strenuous act.
"I've been watching you with great interest ever since you joined us, Gentle. Partly because I've been asked to keep an eye on you, admittedly, but also partly because you remind me of myself when I was young. We're both showmen at heart, we thrive on the stage, on an audience. So while some parts of villainy come naturally to people like us- the theatrics, the scheming and deception, the grand drama of it all, I know that others… are more difficult."
"Whatever do you mean?" Gentle was hardly shocked to hear that he was still being monitored- the alternative would've been more concerning. "Ah, are you referring to the need to share the spotlight with others? I've been preparing myself for that adjustment, and I think that-"
"No, not that." Compress waved a hand to cut him off. "Even that comes easily enough. I know you've talked to Midoriya and Shinso about your role here today, that they've told you that you don't need to participate in the fighting if you don't want to. I'm here to tell you that if you truly want to work with us, to graduate from a B-rate internet celebrity- no offense, I enjoy your videos- to someone who can actually come within reach of achieving a broader set of goals, then there is no choice but to fight, and hold nothing back."
He paused again, and removed his mask and balaclava. Atsuhiro's face was kind, warm, even fatherly- Danjuro would never have guessed that it might belong to an infamous criminal of his stature.
"You've… never killed anyone before, have you, Gentle?"
"…No." Tobita managed after a moment, his eyes flitting down to the ground. "I haven't. Neither has the girl. I've… I've tried to shield her from that."
"I thought so. It's the hardest step for people like you and me to take, but you have to take it sooner or later, you and La Brava both, and the sooner the better. Now I know what you're thinking, that you're above things like that, that you can always get out of a scrap without stooping to that level. But a time will come when you can't. Maybe today, maybe tomorrow, maybe a year from now." Compress concealed his face again and started back off toward the temple. "I just want you to be ready, whenever it does."
"C'mon, c'mon, hurry it up, people, we haven't got all damn day here." Shinso sipped aggressively at what little coffee remained in his thermos as he checked his phone for what felt like the twentieth time in as many seconds, watching for any new messages from Overhaul or notifications from the hacked CCTV cameras monitoring Hawks' current location. "Two minutes until we're live. La Brava, check the camera feed. Twice, go ahead and clone Kurogiri while we have time. Spinner, get off your phone and check on the fucking prisoners before I have to use my quirk on you."
As one of the three team leaders, he bore responsibility for the first and arguably most important component of Operation Brennus, bringing down Hawks; it was by far the most complex and high-stakes mission Midoriya had ever entrusted him with, and he had no intentions of letting him down. He and Hatsume had hardly slept in the past two days, practically barricading themselves in one of her design studios to plan tactics and perfect support items, respectively, with occasional visits from Monoma, Yaoyorozu and Midoriya to ensure that they were both still alive. Together the five of them had come up with what, as far as he was concerned, was as flawlessly simple of a strategy for this component of the mission as could be conceived. The two hostage students, Uravity and Coldflame, would serve as a lure for Hawks, and when he arrived, the full complement of villains at Shinso's command- Monoma, Twice, Spinner, Kurogiri, Mr. Compress, Yaoyorozu, and Nemoto Shin of the Eight Precepts- would ambush him at once from their hiding places in and around the temple, carefully chosen to best position them for optimal use of their quirks. Gentle and La Brava would film the action, while Hatsume would remain concealed on a hillside three kilometers away to snipe any other heroes or emergency responders who attempted to interfere. We'll overwhelm the number one hero with sheer numbers, and by the time he or anyone else realizes what the others are after, it'll be far too late.
In the courtyard before the tall wooden temple doors, Uraraka and Todoroki had were bound and gagged in metal pillories, tungsten-forged and practically indestructible, their hands restrained parallel to their heads as they kneeled on the ground with their ankles chained to the frame of the building. Their sedatives had gradually worn off over the course of the morning, and by now Ochako's chains were taut as she struggled desperately against them, her breath heavy and her muscles straining. Shoto, by comparison, was facing the situation much more calmly, fully immersed in some sort of meditation. Twice and Spinner had made a few increasingly irritating attempts to snap him out of it, but he seemed to be fairly committed to remaining silent and motionless. It doesn't make a difference in the end, Hitoshi reflected as he strode past the two. We don't need him to talk on camera, just showing that he's alive and unharmed is enough. Shinso paused when he reached Uraraka, though, and watched her thrash and struggle for a moment with a bemused expression.
"I'd brainwash you into being quiet, like a good little hero," he remarked, grinning, "but I just can't seem to make out a word you're saying. It has to be more or less intelligible for my quirk to work, after all."
"I don't know why she insists on this pointless little display." Monoma sighed, polishing one of his pocket watches as he passed by the two of them. "What do you think you're going to achieve, darling? Are you hoping to frighten us?" He held one hand to his mouth in mock fright before succumbing to a fit of laughter. "What do you think, Hitoshi? Were U.A. students always this pathetic, or did they simply drop in quality after we left?"
"The latter, as far as I can tell." Shinso glanced one more time at the time on his phone, then lowered his goggles, grabbed Ochako's face, and stared into her rage-filled eyes. Two holographic reticules on his heads up display locked onto her pupils, and a timer counted down the seconds until her face went blank and her struggling stopped all at once.
"Sit down and don't speak. Make no attempt to escape or leave this area unless I command you otherwise."
Once Uravity had complied wordlessly, he glanced back to Coldflame. It would be ideal if he just stayed like this, but on second thought, best not to take any chances.
"Hey, golden boy." Hitoshi crouched down and waved a hand in front of Shoto's face while Neito watched with his arms crossed, tapping one shoe impatiently. "Would you mind opening your eyes for me before I have Momo make pins to pry them open? The less we have to damage you the better, in my opinion."
Apparently, the mention of Yaoyorozu pushed him over the edge that Iguchi and Jin had failed to reach, and a few seconds later, Shinso had issued the same command to their second captive as well.
"Are you gentlemen finished over there?" Midoriya called, waving them over to the center of the yard, where all the villains present had assembled in a neat row, as if posing for a group photo; La Brava was setting up the camera a few yards away with Gentle's assistance.
"Okay, places everyone!" Aiba cried excitedly; Shinso picked up the pace and fell in line between Monoma and Hatsume, who continued to fidget uncontrollably in anticipation until he took her hand. The four founders naturally occupied center stage, with Yaoyorozu next in line, and the already well-known ex-League members on either flank, with the sole exception of Toga, who stood next to Midoriya with her arms wrapped around him. Once everyone was ready, Danjuro leapt out in front of the camera and straightened his bowtie while Manami held up her fingers for the countdown.
"And three, two, one, we're live!"
A red light above the lens flicked on, and as Tobita launched into the introduction, a thought crossed Shinso's mind that he'd done his best to suppress over the past two years: what his parents might think when they found out. The smile on his face slowly faded, and suddenly his heart felt like it was made of lead. I'm sorry, mom. I'm sorry, dad. I hope the cops and press aren't too hard on you. I'll make sure they aren't. Squeezing her hand between his fingers, Hitoshi leaned down and kissed Hatsume full on the lips in an effort to distract himself, smirking when her eyes widened in shock- Mei was almost always the one who initiated intimate moments between them, even if he was more than happy to reciprocate.
"Going public already, huh, babe?" She gasped when they broke apart.
"Ah, don't worry, the camera's still on Gentle."
"For luck, then?" Hatsume grabbed a handful of his hair and pulled him in again, something that was finally possible again on missions now that they'd all abandoned their respective dyes, gels, and false lenses.
"For luck." He mumbled past her tongue, unwilling to end the kiss even for a moment.
A sharp kick to the ankle from Neito finally brought Hitoshi back to reality; Danjuro's opening monologue was almost over, and they were up next.
Time to show the world who we are.
Hiroshima, Chugoku Region
Downtown, Hondori Shopping District
"What do you want on yours, kid? The octopus here is pretty solid from what I remember."
"Yeah, sure, octopus sounds good! And some udon noodles on top." Sero Hanta glanced up from his menu to make sure the waiter had heard his order, then shot Hawks a thumbs up to thank him for the recommendation.
After a graveyard shift working reconnaissance in pursuit of a gang of human traffickers in the port city, Cellophane and Gale Force had been dragged by their mentor to a 24-hour okonomiyaki restaurant he knew in the area, serving Hiroshima's famous local variation on the savory layered pancakes; after nearly ten straight hours of work with hardly any breaks to speak of, Sero was more than ready to devour the first thing someone set in front of him.
"Hmm, let's see, for the layers on mine…" Hawks set down the menu and began to count off ingredients on his fingers, his face locked in deep contemplation. "Squid, double cheese, mayo, yakisoba, and four fried eggs, please."
"I'll have whatever he's having!" Yoarashi practically bellowed at the poor man the moment he turned in his direction, slamming his palms down on the table in excitement.
"Like we talked about, buddy, inside voice." Hawks chided, using one of his manipulable red feathers to catch the waiter's pen when he dropped it in surprise at the outburst.
"I am so incredibly sorry!" Inasa whispered, slamming his forehead into the table as gently as possible in a bow of apology.
Ever since taking on Gale Force as an intern last year, the number one hero been making an active effort to regulate some of the more eccentric aspects of the Shiketsu student's personality in order to help his media image and public appeal, occasionally with Hanta's assistance- so far, they'd had met with some success.
"Wait, did you actually just order all that, though?" Sero asked incredulously, glancing across the table with a dumbfounded expression on his face. "For the same dish?"
"Gotta load up the calories while I can," Hawks replied with a shrug, picking his teeth with one of the already cleaned yakitori skewers he'd ordered as an appetizer. "You'll be doing the same thing when you go pro, trust me. I've got a full shift today after you two head back to school, I might not eat again 'til past midnight."
Due to his current status as the country's number one celebrity, arguably ahead of even All Might and Battle Fist, Hawks was able to exercise a good deal of leverage in securing his interns free passes out of classes when he needed them for assignments that conflicted them with school hours, though Nezu and Shiketsu's principal generally only allowed them to miss a total of one day total per week. It helped, of course, that Hiroshima, the location of their current operation, was a decent halfway point between the interns' two schools.
"Eh, I wish we didn't have to." Hanta frowned and sipped at his coffee. "Things have just been so depressing at U.A. lately. How's Shiketsu been handling all the shit that's been going on lately?"
"I haven't noticed too much of a change." Inasa replied, one massive gloved hand on his chin- his bulky hero costume looked hilariously out of place shoved into a tiny booth in the middle of a restaurant. "I suppose some of the teachers seem pretty rattled, though. And my old senpai Shishikura has been texting me about the Osaka Group, he seems pretty interested in them. Come to think of it, Camie was freaking out and yelling about something after classes yesterday, but I'm pretty sure that was just girl drama."
"I hope things are going ok with her and Bakugo," Cellophane replied, a puzzled look on his face. "He was acting pretty weird yesterday too, he didn't show up to his first three classes."
"I don't understand relationships at all," Yoarashi sighed. "I mean, I get passion, but the whole romance thing doesn't make sense to me. What do you think, Hawks-sensei?"
"How many times do I have to tell you?" The winged hero chuckled. "It's just Hawks, please- drop the sensei. And don't you dare apologize!" He quickly added when Inasa began to prepare his body for another violent bow. "Now, on the topic of romance…"
Pausing briefly, Hawks turned to the window, where even at 8:00 AM, a small gaggle of women was chatting excitedly and pointing at him; a few of them were taking pictures and videos, some more subtly than others. When he flashed them a grin and a friendly wave, there was a good deal of blushing and giddy squealing.
"… It may not seem like it," he continued, turning back to them, "but I'm not exactly an expert either."
"With all due respect, boss, that's such a load of bullshit." Sero countered. "You've clearly got mad game, you could date any girl you wanted to. Don't tell me you've never at least thought about making a pass at Miruko."
"I don't have a death wish, so nope on that one. You remember what happened to that paparazzo when he tried to ask her out, right?"
"I wish I didn't," Hanta replied, wincing. "Poor dude. But you totally dodged the rest of that."
"Well put yourself in my shoes," Hawks continued, his tone suddenly a bit more serious. "I went pro the same year I finished high school, just a few months after graduation. From then on, I've had to work nonstop to get where I am now. No one in the existing hero elite wanted to take some punk teenager seriously, even if I did have a flashy quirk, so I had to put in twice the effort as anyone else just to get off the ground, resolve twice the number of cases, kiss twice the babies and give twice the interviews- none of it came easy. As dynamic as it is, the hero world is still dominated by tradition and the status quo- just look at guys like Yoroimusha and All Might, before he retired- at the top of the game for decades at a time, with little to no challengers for the highest spots. That's the problem I saw. That's what I wanted to change. That whole mission has defined everything I've done for the past six years, and I guess I sort of lost track of the little things along the way, like the birds and the bees. So, have I seen people? Yeah, occasionally. It's not like I'm a shut-in. But have I pursued a romance? Nope, never had time for it."
"You're… so wise, Hawks!" Inasa shouted as quietly as possible, a wide grin plastered across his face. "I'll take that to heart! Heroism always comes first!"
"Well, that's mostly true, but there are some situations where'd I'd say… oh shit, here comes the food!"
Sero could feel his mouth watering as the waiter set down their steaming okonomiyaki on the table, but before they could all dig in, his phone buzzed, and he checked it out of instinct- it was a text from Kaminari.
KD: dude. Are you seeing this shit
SH: what are you talking about?
KD: turn on the news
KD: are you with hawks now?
SH: ok ok jesus man, gimme a sec, I was about to eat
SH: yeah I am, why?
Shaking his head and resigning himself to the fact that it was probably a scandal involving some attractive female celebrity claiming she was Hawks' secret lover (it wouldn't be the first time), Hanta opened his news app; the top story on the front page, marked with a 'BREAKING' banner, linked straight to a live video. He clicked on the play button out of instinct without even reading the caption, and was presented with a stern-faced news anchor, midsentence in an explanation of whatever was happening.
"… exactly what their motives may be. For those viewers just tuning in, we'll play the video that we and all of our affiliate stations received simultaneously twelve minutes ago, immediately after it was livestreamed on the web."
The camera cut to an image of a silver-haired man in a cape and elegant purple clothing, and Cellophane's eyes widened slightly in recognition. Gentle? What the hell did he do this time? Tobita Danjuro was a name most U.A. students were well-acquainted with, after he snuck into their cultural festival during Hanta's first year and put on a routine that ended in a chaotic fight with the faculty and staff; the area around the school was put on lockdown to hunt for him and La Brava for days afterward. He seemed harmless enough in his videos, but Sero had witnessed firsthand how dangerous he was when backed into a corner; he'd seen Tobita take down three teachers during his escape, including Eraserhead and Vlad King, who both ended up in the hospital with concussions and fractured limbs. Aizawa still swore up and down that he'd erased Gentle's quirk during their fight, but the ridiculous power Danjuro had wielded indicated otherwise.
"You gonna eat anytime soon, kid?" Hawks mumbled through a mouthful of food, one mayo and cheese-coated tentacle hanging out of his mouth.
"Yeah, just gimme a sec, my roommate said I need to watch this."
After a moment to buffer, the video started, and Tobita launched straight into one of his typical monologues.
"Welcome back, loyal viewers! This time, I have something a bit different from usual in store for you today. Lately, I've been thinking hard about what direction my journey with you all might take this year, and I'm excited to announce a new partnership between the Gentle Criminal and a group whose faces I think you'll all know very soon, if you don't already. In contrast to me, they've been keeping a low profile for the past two years, but that changes today, because today, ladies and gentlemen, my new friends and I are going to make history together. I'll let them speak for themselves, though."
The camera panned over to a group of villains standing in a row, and Hanta instantly recognized several- Twice, Toga, Spinner, Mr. Compress, most of the surviving members of the League. Hanta's stomach plummeted when he saw the five people standing in the middle, though.
"No fucking way…"
"The hell are you watching anyway?" Hawks swallowed the bite he'd been working on and leaned in to peek over his intern's shoulder. "Wait a second… is that…?"
"Momo?!" Jiro choked, tears streaming down her face. "No, no, it can't be her. Tell me it's not her, Mina!"
"I… don't know…" Ashido stuttered, her black-and-gold eyes wide and her hand shaking as she struggled to hold her phone up sideways in front of the gaggle of 3-A students that had gathered around her to watch the video. First period was about to start, but no one's mind was anywhere remotely close to school right now. For once, even Bakugo was stunned speechless, and Asui looked sickened at the sight of Yaoyorozu alongside Toga Himiko, clutching desperately at her reattached tongue.
"What's going on over there?" Midnight called, yawning as she walked into the room, at the last minute before the bell as always. "Sit down, everyone." Then Nemuri noticed Kyoka's tears and the horrified faces of everyone in the crowd, and confusion spread across her face. "Is something wrong? What happened?"
Still trembling, Mina turned the phone around so that their teacher could see, her other arm still wrapped around Kyoka's shoulders. As Midnight watched the former U.A. students recount the story of their turn to villainy with an expression that shifted from perplexed to shocked to somber, the rest of the class's reactions were varied. Jiro and Hagakure sobbed, the former plugging her ears and refusing to even look at the screen when Momo started speaking about how she'd researched the devastating cost of heroes to the economy. Tsuyu excused herself and ran to the restroom to vomit the moment the camera zoomed in on Toga and Midoriya, hunched in the throes of a panic attack over the toilet for minutes afterward as her mind forced her to relive the end of the fight in Yokohama. Kirishima punched a hole through the nearest wall when the shot panned to show Uraraka and Todoroki bound and gagged, Shoji laid his head down on his desk in silent distress when he saw no sign of Tokoyami, and Bakugo simply stood, wide-eyed and rooted to the spot where he'd first seen Izuku on the screen.
"He did it." He murmured to himself after a while, his voice tinged with disbelief. "Deku actually fucking did it. I never actually thought… he was always… Jesus fucking Christ." The right words refused to form in his mouth, which had suddenly gone dry.
This is your fault, the voice at the back of Katsuki's head shouted, snippets of their childhood together flashing through his mind. You did this to him, you worthless piece of shit, because you were afraid of him, afraid of how much better a person he was than you. As usual, he ignored it, curled one hand into a fist, and slammed it into the whiteboard.
"I'll kill that bastard myself."
When Kendo first saw Monoma on the screen of Present Mic's laptop, she quite literally refused to believe her eyes, even as her 3-B classmates reacted with shock and horror all around her. It must be a trick, she told herself, the sound of her heart pounding in her chest drowning out the tears and shouts of dismay, her face flushed crimson. Some sick practical joke. It's a lookalike, or a clone, or that freak Toga. It can't be him. But Himiko was plainly visible farther to the left, and when the neatly dressed, blond-haired boy that couldn't possibly be Monoma began to speak, all the air slipped out her lungs at once, as if she'd suddenly been rammed in the gut by the force of a dozen blows. No, please. Tears began to well in her eyes, no matter how much she tried to hold them back. Don't do this to me, Neito.
"…I was always struck during my time at U.A. by how profoundly weak my alleged 'peers' were," he was saying. "In terms combat prowess, some of them were certainly sufficient, but their ideals, methods, goals? None of them were even close to worthy of holding the title of hero they worshipped so readily. It was pathetic, really. I wondered to myself more than once- are they really the future of this country? Because you deserve the best- certainly better than what that school is producing."
"Turn it off." Itsuka snapped, rubbing furiously at her eyes. "I don't want to watch any more of this shit." The cadence, the choice of words, the haughty tone- everything about the villain's speech screamed that it was really Monoma, and she knew it. Is it my fault? Was I not a good enough friend to you?
To her surprise, Hizashi actually complied, closing his computer and shaking his head resignedly. 3-B's first period teacher been browsing the web before class when the video started to blow up online, and whe;n his students began to chatter about it as well, he'd turned the laptop around and played it for them, equally as curious as they were about its contents.
"I, uh… wow. You kids stay here." Mic stood up from his chair and started toward the door. He was doing his best to seem as casual and carefree as normal, but it clearly wasn't working; he couldn't hide the haunted look on his face. "Don't worry, okay guys? Everything's gonna be alright, the pros have this situation handled. I need to go have a quick talk with some of the other staff members about this."
"Take me with you," said Kendo, standing abruptly once she'd shrugged off Tetsutetsu's attempts to comfort her. "I need to talk to him too."
Yamada paused halfway to the door, and gave her a sympathetic glance. They both knew who she was talking about. No ordinary U.A. student could speak to a teacher that way, but she wasn't exactly an ordinary student, as much as she tried to be.
"Okay, come on. I better not get yelled at for this."
"This is bad." Aizawa grabbed the remote and pressed the pause button. He'd scarfed down a generous helping of toast and eggs before he walked in on All Might watching the video on the staff lounge TV, but by now, he felt like it was all going to come back up soon enough at this rate.
"I… failed that boy… We… failed that boy, Shota." Tears were streaming down all All Might's sunken cheeks when he lifted his head out of his hands. "We put him on this path, and Hatsume and Shinso with him. This… this is my fault."
"No, it's not." Eraserhead grabbed Toshinori's shoulders and forced the taller man to look him in the eye. "We are not responsible for his choices and actions, Yagi. We gave him the only answer we could. Maybe… maybe I was too harsh." He sighed heavily and shook his head. "But if he had this darkness inside him all along, is there anything we could have done for Midoriya?"
"We could have saved him!" All Might protested, his agonized voice breaking midsentence. "It was my responsibility to save him, and I failed to even realize how severe the real problem was! I'm pathetic!"
The door swung open before Aizawa could reply, and Present Mic burst through with Battle Fist at his side.
"What is she-" Shota started to ask, but suddenly All Might was on his feet and at the entrance, wiping his eyes clean as he greeted his apprentice.
"Young Kendo… about your classmate Monoma, I…"
"Let me go after them, please." Her words were heavy with despair, and her eyes were puffy from crying, but the next Symbol of Peace kept a straight face as she made her request. "I know you'll be going after them soon. You or any number of other pros. It doesn't matter who, they'll listen to you, but I have to be there. I… I need to save Neito."
"And what if he's already beyond saving?" Aizawa crossed his arms. "What if that's exactly what he wants you to do? If they're all trying to lure you and their other former friends to your deaths?"
"Then I'll defeat him, and I'll bring him back to face the consequences." Kendo clenched her fists and forced her trembling mouth into a hard line. Her eyes were watery, but she managed to hold in the tears this time. "He was my friend. Neito is my responsibility, no matter what."
Midway through the villains' speech, the restaurant staff had turned the wall-mounted TV to the news channel; by now, Sero, Hawks, and Yoarashi were at the front of a small crowd of people standing beneath it, watching transfixed as Midoriya and the others laid out the beliefs and tenets of their organization, some ridiculous, doomsday-mongering corruption of meritocracy that argued that the country would collapse if the strong didn't take power. Hanta was still dumbfounded that Momo could possibly associate with a cause like this, but her argument about heroism's detrimental effect on the debt-ridden economy had been more thought-provoking than he cared to admit.
"Now we know that simply pointing out the need for change doesn't suffice," Midoriya was saying, his tone calm and methodical. "As urgent as the problems facing our society are, those at the top of the hierarchy would never willingly hand the reigns over to people like us, relinquish their power and influence, even as they continue to knowingly drive this country into the ground and ignore the consequences on the horizon. Change is hard to accept, after all, and radical change harder still. Sometimes a step in the right direction requires a bit of a push, and the old guard must be made to move aside by force. So no matter what happens today, no matter how it affects you and your personal lives, remember that everything we do is for the greater good. My name is Midoriya Izuku, but you can call me Seraph, if you'd like. They've spoken to you already, but I think my companions still need to formally introduce themselves as well."
Over the next few seconds, the camera cut to a close-up each one of the former U.A. students in turn.
"I'm Monoma Neito, but these days I prefer Chaudron."
"Hatsume Mei here! I go by Longshot now!"
"Shinso Hitoshi, but call me Synapse."
"My name is Yaoyorozu Momo. I'd settled on Creati before, but I think Pandora suits me better."
"And I'm Toga Himiko!" The ex-League schoolgirl cried giddily, blushing as she waved at the camera. "I guess a lot of you already know me, huh? It's nice to be appreciated! I'm going by Carmilla now, though, so be sure to remember that!"
In one final cut, the camera shifted back to Izuku, smiling broadly and holding his arms wide open as if to embrace the audience.
"We are the Syndicate, and we're here to save you. The only ones who need be afraid are those who are still harming our nation. I'd like to make an example of one such person for you all this morning- our new number one hero, Hawks."
In an instant, every face in the room turned to Sero's mentor, who didn't so much as flinch, his eyes remaining fixed on the screen with a familiar glint to them, somewhere between boredom and anger.
"If his speeches and interviews are anything to judge his character from, then the country's new icon has quite a high degree of confidence in himself and his abilities- it's a trait we happen to share, actually. I'm sure you're watching by now, Winged Hero. So how about a friendly wager between the two of us? I'd like to put your vaunted abilities to the test. We in the Syndicate currently have in our possession two young heroes whom I believe the professionals have been searching quite diligently for. I'm sure you're acquainted with two of the star pupils of my former high school, Coldflame and Uravity."
On cue, the view switched to one of Todoroki and Uraraka in chains, their expressions blank and eyes glassed over as they knelt on the ground. Out of the corner of his eye, Sero could see Inasa's jaw clench and his gloved hands curl into hefty fists.
"Todoroki… I still can't believe they got you." Gale Force shook his head in frustration. "You better hang in there, or I'll never forgive you."
For his part, Hanta simply looked on in silent terror, his feet stuck to the floor and his mouth immobile; it didn't help ease his mind about the situation that he'd had a crush of sorts on Uraraka for most of the past year, ever since she wiped the floor with him in one of their midterm close-combat drills. It wasn't anything more than what Kaminari would refer to as 'mild infatuation' on his patented ten-point spectrum of attraction, but knowing she was suffering and alone somewhere had still been agonizing him over the past week- it was why he'd been so quick to join Bakugo when he decided to go after the two. Midoriya's voice jerked Sero back to the present, though.
"So, Hawks, here are the terms. If you can't reach me within the time limit I set, I'm going to execute both of them. Now before anyone else watching gets any bright ideas- if anyone other than Hawks shows up before time expires- police, other heroes, their families- both of them will die immediately, so be sure to play by the rules, everyone! Now I know that you're in Hiroshima right now, in Hondori, to be precise. The distance between you and me is approximately 115 kilometers. With your top recorded speed of 225 kilometers per hour, you should be able to reach us in around thirty-one minutes. I'm going to give you thirty from the moment I start my watch, so try your best to push your limits. What was that old phrase these two liked so much? Oh, yes." Seraph's lips curled into a satisfied grin. "Go beyond, Plus Ultra."
The camera panned up to a view of an ornate Buddhist temple and the surrounding mountains, before it zoomed back in on Izuku.
"As for where we are, I think that's the only hint you need. While you may not be watching this live, we're watching you, so your time will start the moment you reach this point in the video! See you soon!" After one last friendly wave from Midoriya, the video cut to a live countdown, which had just started from 30:00.
By the time Sero noticed that the restaurant's door was ajar, Hawks was already airborne, his wings a distant red streak against the blue morning sky.
"He just saw it!" La Brava called, watching the CCTV feeds displayed on her laptop with hawkish eyes. "Starting the countdown now… and he's already out the door. He may actually make it in time!"
"I'll be so very disappointed if he didn't," Seraph purred. "Give Strike Team Vandal the go-ahead to move on police headquarters. I'm curious to see how Overhaul handles the little challenge I've given him. It's tragic that I won't be able to see either operation for myself, though." He laid a black-gloved hand on Shinso's shoulder before changing his mind and pulling Synapse into a tight hug. "Do your best, Hitoshi. I have complete faith in you."
"Thank you, sir," Shinso replied, then pulled Hatsume's sleek black voice-disguiser over his mouth, muffling his speech immediately. "He won't stand a chance."
Once he'd wished luck to Chaudron and Pandora as well, and Midoriya took Toga's hand in his own and turned to Mr. Compress.
"Are you ready, then, sir?" Atsuhiro asked.
"Yes. Do it."
"Very well. Stand still, this won't hurt a bit."
With a flourish of his hands, Sako compressed Izuku into a translucent blue marble, which Himiko promptly inserted beneath her tongue.
"Careful now, Carmilla, you mustn't swallow him! I assure you, getting him back wouldn't be pleasant."
"You think I'd be so careless?!" Toga looked genuinely offended. "I could never hurt my baby like that!"
"Very well, just an old man being cautious. I'm sure you'll perform spectacularly today."
Himiko gulped down a vial of blood as she listened to him talk, and winced in discomfort as her body grew in height by over a foot, a beige suit replacing her sweater. When she responded, Nighteye's voice still sounded unfamiliar on her lips. Oh well, it'll just take a few minutes to get used to. I can see so far from up here!
"You better believe I will. Kurogiri, portal?"
"Of course, Carmilla."
The yellow-eyed villain summoned a pulsing black-and-purple warp gate with a wave of his hand, and Toga had to remind herself to wipe the excited grin off her face as she strode through. La Brava's clone was already waiting on the other side, crouched down in a stand of bushes that did hilariously little to conceal her bright red costume.
"Oh hey, was wondering when you'd show up!" Aiba smirked and pressed a few keys on her laptop. "The security system is basically my puppet at this point thanks to Shieldbreaker, I can make the cameras see whatever I want to. What a shame that they didn't upgrade it more thoroughly since the last time I was here. But wow that disguise is definitely legit enough to get you through, even without me!"
"I'd rather not take any chances." Himiko gazed up through the trees to the top of the hill they stood at the base of, where the school's walls towered over the landscape. "Let's proceed as planned, on my mark. I'll go through the west entrance." She managed to keep her face straight, but still couldn't stop the blush that crept onto her cheeks as she started up the rise. "I'm so excited to see U.A. for the first time."
After meaning to get to them for a while, I finally managed to address Todoroki's perspective and Momo's motivations, tell me what you thought of her analysis! Also, villain names for everyone! Some explanations for a few of them: Yves Chaudron was one of the most famous art forgers in history, notable for making essentially perfect copies of the Mona Lisa after he helped steal it. Carmilla is the most famous female vampire in literature, and is Dracula's bride in a few stories. Seraphs are the highest-ranking angels in Christian tradition- Midoriya will explain more about why he chose this name later. As always, let me know how you felt about everything in the reviews! Can Hawks win in these circumstances? What are Toga and Midoriya doing at U.A.? This chapter is part one of two, the next one should be out by the end of the month, and will be almost entirely action.
P.S. A spinoff of just villain tea parties would be very fun to write. Gentle and Compress are too pure.