Chapter 6: Evaluate and Adjust
Kagero walked down a dimly lit corridor, lightly stretching, his back popping a few times. He was dressed in a loose fitting, wide-necked grey t-shirt and slim fitting black pants with the legs pinrolled, dark green athletic shoes quietly smacking with every step. Turning down another corridor he came to face stairs leading down with a door at the bottom.
Beyond the door was a decently sized bar, the counter in an L-shape with a wall of bottles backlit in amber light. There were red topped stools with a low back lined up at the bar, with booths situated behind them. At the end of the counter sat a small TV screen, displaying the light snow of static.
Kurogiri stood behind the bar and poured Kagero a glass as he sat down on one of the stools, silently sliding it in front of him. Kagero nodded, swirling the glass around, smelling the liquor within, "Bourbon?"
"Scotch," Kurogiri corrected, "Single malt."
Kagero let out an annoyed 'tsk' and took a sip anyway. The TV screen blinked, no longer showing static but a black screen, indicating the presence on the other side to be present.
A voice crackled to life, sounding over the speakers, "I hope you have a more detailed report regarding your attack, Kagero, seeing as you chose to postpone it."
Kagero placed his glass down, spinning in his chair so he was facing the TV fully, "I wanted to postpone the meeting to see if I could recover the Nomu before the police or heroes got their hands on it, but by the time I found it, the police already had it in a Maiden. I don't know where exactly it is, but I can take a guess as to where it was transported to and spring it."
"An unfortunate loss, but it's nothing we can't recover from. If we need it again you can do so, but don't bother with it for now. I'm assuming you have data from its fight?"
"Of course," Kagero reached into his pocket and grabbed a thumb drive, showing it off to the unseen camera, "That was another reason why I wanted to wait longer. I know how the Doctor is picky about 'being accurate' " he said with air quotes, "and it was difficult to do so, but that should be good enough."
He tossed the drive to Kurogiri, who motionlessly created a portal, sending it off.
"What of your personal account?"
Kagero took another sip of the scotch, letting out a sigh before continuing, "As you know, we launched an attack against UA. The purpose of the attack was to unsettle and shake the heroes. The schedule that we-"
"Why didn't you kill any of the heroes that were there?" the voice interrupted, "Kurogiri tells me you had ample opportunity to kill a few students as well as Eraserhead."
Kagero glared at Kurogiri, who ignored it as he picked up his glass and started cleaning it. Kagero didn't respond immediately, choosing his words carefully, "I don't believe killing heroes, or killing in general, will help us in the long run. That's still not to say I won't do it should the need ever arise."
Taking the quietness as a sign to continue, he gulped, trying to hide his obvious unease, "Master, I am to be your successor, yes?" He received nothing in reply again, moving forward, "If I am to be the next Symbol of Evil, I can't do things that close-minded."
He closed his eyes and took deep breaths, knowing full well the things he said are borderline treasonous. They were too close too doubt, too close to insulting, and too close to being an outright denial.
"Kurogiri."
A portal opened in front of Kagero, who looked at it worriedly. He knew exactly where the portal went and what it meant. He sighed heavily before walking through. When he reemerged he found himself in the warehouse. The portal didn't drop him off directly in front of master, but in the middle of rows of tanks.
Thick wires and tubes were running along the floor, each feeding into their respective places. The tanks themselves show suspended figures in various forms of development, some being as small as a fetus, others fully grown into hulking or lanky figures. Each one displaying a different Nomu. No one the same as the last.
Kagero weaved around the wires with practiced ease, making his way to the back corner of the warehouse where he knew was expected. When he got to his destination he paused before the door before him, the only thing that was separating him between him and his Master beyond. Taking one more deep breath, he stepped forward and turned the knob.
He was immediately engulfed in a wave of pain. His body collapsing at the intensity of it, his limbs uncooperative as he tried to fight through it, willing himself to not make a noise to show any further weakness.
"Master!" he rasped out, "Please, I meant no disrespect when I said that!"
He was on his knees at this point, weakly reaching a hand out towards the source. The back of the chair was still facing him, but the pain didn't stop.
"Master! I can explain! Please, allow me this!"
After what felt like another hour of this, the pain suddenly stopped. He collapsed onto all fours as he tried to catch his breath, heaving heavily. As the pain subsided, he slowly stood back up, wiping the drool from his mouth and the sweat off his face.
"Master-" he started, a raised hand stopping him.
The figure in the chair turned around to face him. He was dressed in a black suit and white dress shirt, top buttons undone, but his outfit was the only thing almost normal about the man. His head was bald, his face lacking the prominent features of a nose and eyes, his ears just little mounds where they should be, in their place was terribly scarred skin. Tubes were stuck into his throat, facilitating his breathing, giving the voice of the man an almost mechanical tone to it.
"I don't allow such insolence to be spoken in my presence, Kagero," he spoke, "Are you suggesting that I am close-minded? That I'm as simple as the common thief? That I am but a shadow of my former self?"
"No Master, never!" Kagero responded, "I am saying that killing heroes wouldn't change things how we want."
Again, he was met with silence, and again he slowed himself down, carefully forming his explanation, "I mentioned this to Kurogiri, and considering you know I didn't kill any heroes, you probably already know this, but I don't want to kill the heroes.
"Killing heroes is easy enough. I could ambush them and slit their throat before they could react, or hire a semi-competent hitman to get the job done, but there's nothing more to it. You came to power through overwhelming force and controlling the underground with an iron fist and fear, and I want to do the same. Killing heroes spreads fear, but it's superficial at best. It just makes them more cautious, and the only attention it garners from the underground is a sense of respect and villains whose only goal is to kill or destroy."
"What is the problem with having strong comrades? In my time I had only fifty people behind me, and it was enough to take down the government and destabilize the country for a period."
"Master, with all due respect, raw power isn't everything. Surely you could agree to that. You have all of the power in the world, no one can stand up to you, but you don't flaunt it about. You prefer to hide in the shadows and bide your time. You like to play the long game because you know that there is fun in pulling the strings."
"Be mindful of your next words, Kagero," he rumbled out.
Kagero gulped, he knew that he was at the edge of his Master's patience, but he needed to get his point through if he wanted to succeed, "Master, if killing heroes was your goal you would've showed up at the Hero Commission's headquarters and destroyed it, then you would've went to every hero school from the big ones like UA to any small school that had the slightest mention of a heroics program in the works and done the same. You would've razed Japan to nothing, but you didn't. Because with everything destroyed, there would be nothing left to rule."
The longer he spoke the more he felt his tongue loosen, he felt power in confidence in standing his ground against his Master, "I want the heroes to fear me like how children fear for monsters under the bed. I want them to know that the only reason they're alive is because I'm the one who allows it. If I kill every hero I come across, my message won't get spread, my influence won't grow. No, I needed those hero students, and Eraserhead, and Thirteen, and All Might alive so that they could spread the word that I am coming. I will do anything I have to to accomplish my dream."
At the end of his spiel, Kagero stayed quiet, maintaining his gaze on where his Master's eyes would be. His hands flexing in preparation for a possible attack, his mouth lightly smoking. The next few moments would be critical, and if played out wrong, he would be in for more pain than before. His Master looked at him impassively, the only sign of movement was a slight tapping of his finger on the arm rest and the slow breaths.
Without warning and faster than he could react, his Master shot his hand out, placing it over his head. Kagero tensed, expecting pain or maybe a tug as he fought for his quirk, but instead he felt his hair being ruffled. Confused, he looked up and saw a smile on his Master's face.
"That's what I was looking for," his voice laced with pride, "Kagero, I understand why you didn't kill anyone during your attack. Kurogiri explained to me your reasoning for doing so but I wanted to hear it from you. I needed to hear the conviction and determination in your voice before approving of your plan."
Kagero felt his mouth open in confusion, "You're not angry with me? Why? I know what I said, I all but directly insulted you."
His Master removed his hand from his head, still giving him a smile, "Because you understood the danger and stood your ground. Heroes, villains, and government officials alike have insulted me but all cowered in fear the moment I gave them a fraction of my attention. They were all bark and no bite, for lack of better terms. But you didn't back down. I could sense it in your voice, the minute changes in your posture, the heat rising from you. You were ready and willing to attack me if I acted in a way that went against your goals.
"You found your hill, and you were ready to die on it. Why would I be upset with you when you're finally understanding the lessons I've been teaching you since I brought you under my wing? My hill is what I've built. I wanted to rule Japan, and I do. No, from this point on, I will support you with all that I have. You have my word, on the name of All For One."
"I apologize for keeping you all here after school has been let out, but this is a problem that's better dealt with as soon as possible," Nezu addressed the room.
The teachers were sat in a conference room, with the desks situated in a U-shape with Nezu sitting at the middle of the bend. To his right was Eraserhead, on his left, All Might in his deflated form. The other heroes that made it to the USJ filling up the remaining seats. Stood before the tables was Detective Tsukauchi, giving his report and acting as facilitator for the meeting.
"Thank you," he nodded at Nezu, "To start, the leader of this attack is called Kagero Shigaraki. According to the statements we've received, we aren't able to pin what his quirk is, but they all agree that it has something to do with fire. There are mixed accounts saying that the fire can be shot from his hands or mouth, but even with this, attempting to find him through the registry will take much longer than we'd like since fire quirks are extremely common. We were also unable to find any matches regarding the warp gate user called Kurogiri.
"At this time, we're assuming that neither quirks are registered, and the names are most likely aliases, so we're unfortunately at a dead end there. According to the stories as well, it appears that Shigaraki didn't receive any injuries throughout the attack, so we unfortunately don't have any possible timetable on when the next attack could be since they're presumably in perfect health."
A hero in a gas mask, wearing a red cloak and a hat that made him look like a cowboy spoke up, "So we're basically shootin' blind, and I reckon we should be preparin' for another attack soon. Damn, if this ain't just a headache I don't know what is."
"If it's alright with the rest of you," Tsukauchi cut in, "I'd like to hear All Might's and Eraserhead's accounts regarding the attack seeing as they were the first responders. Unfortunately, Thirteen is still unavailable to get their statement, but this should give everyone here a better clue as to what and who we're dealing with."
Eraserhead grunted, indicating he'll speak first, "The short version of my account is that Shigaraki is exceptionally skilled and far more dangerous than what we're normally used to dealing with." At the shortness of his statement, everyone else looked at him expectantly, wanting more information. He just sighed before continuing, "I was there from the very beginning of the attack and unfortunately had minimal contact with him. The majority of my time was spent on taking out the mob of villains they brought out, but I did eventually get to him. Or more accurately, he came to me.
"He ran at me while I was dealing with a group of villains. I sent out my capture weapon to intercept, but he used it against me, pulling on it so I'd be forced to fight him; it's also worth mentioning that he yanked hard enough to pull me off my feet. He blocked my attack and my shirt sleeve caught fire, presumably from his quirk."
"He was able to use his quirk on you, Aizawa?" the long, purple-haired heroine interrupted, "But you're normally so good at keeping them off."
Aizawa sighed again, irritated at being interrupted, "Yes, he was able to use his quirk on me, Midnight. In the initial strike, he called me Eraserhead and pointed out that I'm not good for prolonged battle, indicating he knew who I was. It's not a well-known facet of my quirk and I don't like sharing it, but the longer I use it, any successive use immediately afterwards drops exponentially. Shigaraki attacked me during my cooldown. The very fact that he either knew about the weakness or was able to figure it out during battle speaks wonders to his observational skills."
In the corner of his eye, he could see Nezu perk up a little. Rolling his eyes, he continued, "Afterwards, he had me pinned and I was promptly knocked out. When I came to the first time, I noticed that villains with mutant quirks were around me, which shows that he knows that my quirk won't work on them and he was attacking Shimura, Asui, and Mineta. I was able to stop the attack but was then knocked out again.
"When I came to for the second and final time, I was at the top of the stairs, surrounded by a group of students. My contact with Shigaraki was limited, but from the brief encounter I can definitively say that he is smart, tactical, and strong. A horrible combination for a villain to be."
The others murmured in agreement, slowly ingesting the new information. Tsukauchi was writing notes down, "Thank you for that. All Might?"
All Might coughed into his hand before speaking, "Similar to Aizawa-kun, my contact with Shigaraki was short. I would also like to preface this by saying that this attack felt very focused yet not. I'll expand on this later, let me just go over my experience first."
Everyone nodded, silently shelving their questions, "The majority of my time was spent fighting the Nomu, and then afterwards it was ensuring the students still spread out in the disaster zones were safe. The only time we interacted was before my fight with the Nomu started properly.
"When I first arrived, I took out the remaining villains in the plaza, recovered Aizawa-kun and the students, as well as got a good look at the villain." Tsukauchi took this as his cue and passed out sketches of Kagero for the teachers to see. "When he spoke to me, I didn't get the same feeling of him being this cold and dangerous villain that we've been hearing about. He seemed happy, ecstatic even, when seeing me in the flesh whereas the other villains all cowered."
A man with white spiky hair, wearing a yellow visor and red and black suit scoffed, "So he's a little crazy, that's still within the ballpark of a villain."
"Well, yes," All Might awkwardly replied, "But he didn't seem crazed. His happiness seemed genuine, but then it was like a switch flipped and then he became what we know him as, but I'm getting a little off the point. That's part of what I want to talk about later. When I went to attack Shigaraki directly, he used the Nomu as a shield. I already knew beforehand that it had super regeneration from Young Shimura, and when I hit it, it went flying and it ended up a crumpled mess. I went to attack Shigaraki again, but it's what he said that didn't sit well with me.
"He told it to, 'stop playing around and fight'. When my fist connected with it again, nothing happened. It didn't go flying, it felt like I was hitting air almost. And then, Shigaraki told me that it has more than one quirk."
At that, everyone stilled, not expecting to hear this. Most notably, Tsukauchi and Nezu looked the palest, a detail that wasn't missed by Aizawa.
"The Nomu had me pinned and Shigaraki had me dead to rights. Instead of going for a killing blow like others would have, he let me up and even let me have a free shot to attack the Nomu. Of course I didn't believe him, but at the time I didn't want to risk Shigaraki growing impatient and attacking me alongside the Nomu, so I did as was told. I told Tsukauchi this when I gave my statement, but I aimed a punch at the Nomu with enough strength that would've leveled an entire city block and it didn't budge. Not a bit. He told me that the second quirk the Nomu has was shock absorption. That was the last interaction I had with him."
The room settled in an uncomfortable silence as everyone was processing the new information. The silence persisted for a few beats longer before Nezu spoke up, breaking it, "So you're saying that Shigaraki is also an emotional manipulator."
Everyone gawked at the statement, with surprise shown most on the face of Present Mic, the hero clad in a leather outfit and long yellow hair. His gaze moved between All Might and Nezu, his eyes begging for either of them to explain.
Nezu brought his elbows onto the desktop, clasping his paws and rest his chin on them, "All Might described Shigaraki as having a 'switch' to his personality, which in and of itself isn't too concerning as everyone here has a switch of sorts – hero and civilian, but is still something to note. Perhaps what All Might said about him being happy is his actual personality, and the cold one is the villain persona.
"Additionally, Shigaraki was also able to get the better of All Might, not using brute strength or anything of the like, but by using words to knock him off balance. He somehow was able to hit chords within All Might that allowed him to gain the upper hand. He did the same to Aizawa-kun, but on a much smaller scale. He threw Aizawa-kun's weaknesses in his face, and actively exploited them.
"And then there was All Might's initial note, saying how the attack seemed focused and yet not at the same time. There has to be a reason for this, but I can't think of it right now. From what I've heard and the information I gathered from my own investigation, Shigaraki was able to kill at the minimum seven people directly but chose not to do so. If his attack was as focused as All Might claims, then we surely would've had to send out letters of condolences, and possibly been forced to shut down but we weren't."
Nezu didn't speak up more after that, appearing to lose himself in his own thoughts.
"Yes, I agree," All Might nodded, "If this attack was really as harebrained as to simply kill me or anyone else, then we'd already be dead. I believe there was more to this than we've been lead to believe. But then that leaves us with the biggest question: What do we do now?"
Before anyone else could answer, Aizawa spoke up, "There isn't much we can do. We know next to nothing about the instigators of the attack, we don't know if or when there will be another one, and we don't know the motive. Logically, what we should do is ensure the safety of the students as well as the mental health of 1-A."
"Surely there's more that we can do than just that, Aizawa. Come on," Present Mic replied, waving his hand up and down.
"Do you have any better ideas, Mic? We're essentially chasing ghosts, and if Shigaraki is as smart as we believe him to be, he's not going to make another big move to keep the heat off him. If we try chasing him the traditional way, it'll end up in a wild goose chase."
Tsukauchi cleared his throat, "Unfortunately, we at the station are of the same mind. As much as I hate to admit, this is a situation where we can't move proactively, but reactively. The best we can do at this point is to help the students in what ways we can, bolster security where it's needed, and hope we won't have to deal with them soon."
"I don't like this one bit," Nezu sighed, "But I agree with Aizawa-kun and Tsukauchi-kun. There are far too many unknown variables in this to be able to respond appropriately. Everyone, I'd like to ask you all to do your best to support the students moving forward, as well as keep your ears to the ground. Detective, I believe that this covers this meeting's purpose?"
"It does. If we have any follow up questions, I'll be sure to reach out."
Tsukauchi bowed and exited the room, leaving the heroes to discuss amongst themselves. No one was willing to speak up, still thinking over the dump of information given over the meeting. Everyone's faces were set in hard frowns, trying and failing to come up with countermeasures, blaming themselves for not doing more, praying that their integrity as heroes remains intact as the media no doubt is already writing their downfall.
How could none of them, not even Nezu, see the purpose of the attack when its unfolding all around them?