Chapter 8: Beating the Hunter
A bell jingled as the bar door closed shut. Kurogiri didn't look towards the door, preferring to finish polishing a glass with a white towel. Kagero was sitting at the bar, silently writing down notes in his notebook. The only sounds in the bar is the light scratching of his pen on paper and the low hum of the air conditioner.
"What do you want?" he called out, not stopping his writing.
The man at the door smirked. He was wearing a purple suit jacket with matching slacks, a white dress shirt underneath with the top buttons undone, a thick gold chain could be seen resting on his neck, just peeking out from under his shirt. He combed the longer fringe of his grey hair, popping a cigarette in his mouth.
"Is that any way to greet your name twin?" he responded, opening his arms wide as if asking for a hug.
Without looking, Kagero shot his right hand out, two fingers pointing, a thin line of smoke trailing from the tips.
Kagero Okuta, better known as Giran to the underground, has a reputation of being sleazy, walking with a swagger in his step, and being worth every yen paid. He was an information broker of the highest regard, with customers and clients on both sides of the law, some as low as muggers, others as high as the Hero Public Safety Commission. As one could expect, he's met with extremely dangerous people, so when he finds a scorch mark smoking next to his head, level with his mouth, he didn't flinch in the slightest. He let out a disappointed sigh, the joke he attempted to open with fell on deaf ears.
He took a few more steps deeper into the bar, his left hand stuck in his pocket while he motioned to Kurogiri for a glass. He silently complied, pouring him a glass, placing it on a napkin and an ashtray at the seat next to Kagero.
"Since you're here alone, I assume you're out of luck," Kagero opened.
Giran took a puff of his cigarette, belatedly realizing that it was already lit, "As much as it pains me to say, that I am." He took a swig of the glass. "It's been a week already, and while there are people out there, no one is willing to side with you. Even knowing your backer." He raised his glass to the TV.
Kagero closed his notebook, sitting up straighter on the stool, "Anyone you feel worth putting on a waitlist?"
"There are a few," Giran shrugged, taking a sip of his glass, "but they're more hung up on another character, the Hero Killer Stain."
"Stain… He sounds familiar. He's based in Tokyo, right?"
"Not exactly. Sources and reports say he started in Tokyo, but he's been reported to be bouncing around the country. One month he's in Tokyo, the next he's up in Sapporo, then so on and so forth."
"Well where is he now?"
"Somewhere in Kanagawa. If you want specifics, that'll cost you."
Kagero snorted, "No, that's more than enough. So Stain is the reason why things are moving slowly…"
"If this Stain is a hindrance, then we should take care of him immediately," Kurogiri interjected.
"There's no need for that," Kagero waved him off, "Maybe we can start a dialogue with him, see if he's willing to join. If we can get him on our side, then all the holdouts will follow. Can you arrange a meeting with him?"
Giran took a long drag before replying, "The best I can do is put another line out. He's notorious for flying under the radar despite the high-profile kills, and even more selective when it comes to making contact. If he wants to talk, he'll find you."
The conversation lapsed into silence, Kagero thinking over his options while Giran just sat enjoying his drink.
"Guess I'll have to shake some trees and see what falls," Kagero stated, breaking the silence, a small puff of smoke escaping his mouth.
He stood up and walked to the door that led further into the building, leaving the two other occupants staring at each other, Giran raising an eyebrow in a question. The two stayed quiet until Kagero returned, dropping an envelope of money next to Giran's glass.
"That's for your work so far. Give me the shortlist, and I'll follow up with them on my own time."
Kagero ripped a page out of his notebook and slid it over to Giran, who took it and the offered pen, "So I'm assuming this is the end of the current deal?"
"It's a pause. Depending on how it goes with Stain, I'll be calling you again."
Giran downed the rest of his drink and put his cigarette out on the ashtray. He stood up, grabbing the envelope and putting it in his jacket pocket, "Then for now, I'll see you around."
Kagero and Kurogiri watched him as he ambled to the door, not waving goodbye or any other form of acknowledgement. As the door clicked and the bell jingled again, Kurogiri passed a glass to Kagero.
"What will you do now, Kagero? With Stain in the picture, you won't be getting the new members you'd like," Kurogiri pointed out.
Kagero lightly groaned, "It's to be expected. While we went dark following the attack, Stain has apparently been making his rounds and making a name for himself. We need to get a move on before any respect we might have had is gone."
"Are we not going to try and meet with this Stain?"
"No. Not yet," Kagero shook his head, "As we are now, there is only one thing to our name, and even though we know that our attack was a success, everyone else sees it as a failure and an embarrassment. No, first we need to show everyone that we aren't a joke."
"What will we do?"
"Killing heroes will make people think we're copycats. Robberies and kidnappings aren't front page stories anymore. Unless…" Kagero swirled his glass as he was lost in thought. "Master, is the Facility still up and running?"
Tsukauchi stood in front of the rolling whiteboard that showed any and everything he had regarding the attack on the USJ. At the top of the board was the sketches they have for Shigaraki and Kurogiri, the clear leader or leaders of the attack. Off to the side, just slightly below the two was the mugshot they had for the Nomu.
Having interviewed all the villains that were arrested, it was clear to him that they were nothing but pawns, and thus weren't worth placing them on the board. Sticky notes and lists were sprawled all over, asking any and all questions.
Beneath the sketches, a checklist was written for each: Name, quirk, alias, allegiance – anything to help them complete the picture.
One clear leader, a getaway, and a strong asset. A mob of villains, no casualties, no demands, nothing. Where is the connection?
His office door opened, Aizawa coming through with two cups of coffee in his hands. He hands one to Tsukauchi who took it gratefully, pulling the cap off to smell the drink. He sighed contentedly as he took his first sip.
"Thanks for that, Aizawa," Tsukauchi sat up against his desk, "I hope you've got something new to add."
Aizawa grunted an affirmative, "I believe I've figured out Shigaraki's quirk, or at least understood enough of it to help narrow down searching through the registry."
Tsukauchi looked at him with wide eyes and a marker in his hand, "Well what is it?"
"Some form of pyrokinesis," Aizawa himself took a drink of his coffee and sat in the spare seat.
"We already know that much-"
"He's a fire breather that can't produce his own flames," Aizawa walked over to Tsukauchi's computer and plugged in a drive. He scrolled through the files until he found what he was looking for. "This is the first instance of where we see Shigaraki use his quirk, in the mountain zone when he encountered Bakugo and Kirishima."
He pressed play, stepping back so that Tsukauchi could have a full view. He let it play to completion before changing it. "And this is when we see him use it again right before he escapes."
He let Tsukauchi watch the clips on his own, returning his attention to his coffee. When he noticed Tsukauchi stand up straight again, he looked at him expectantly.
"I'm not sure I'm following how you made that jump," Tsukauchi shook his head, "The clips are in good quality, but I can't make out what you're saying."
"When he faced off Bakugo, we can see that Bakugo did release an explosion right before it suddenly disappeared. If you focus on Shigaraki, you can almost make him out to taking an extremely deep breath at the same time. When he releases it, the flames that come out are in the same magnitude, if not greater, than what the explosion was.
"Right before he escapes, we can see that he has two fireballs on his hands. Again, we can see him take a deep breath and the flames disappear. When he lets it out again, the fire looks to be twice as strong. I hate the word, but my theory is that whenever he inhales, he draws in whatever fire is in his vicinity, and breathes it out just as or twice as strong as the source."
"But you said that he can't create his own fire," Tsukauchi pointed out, "The reports from Asui, Shimura, and Mineta all say that when he moved to attack them directly, they saw the making of flames coming from his hands."
"This is why I hate the word 'theory' because it's nothing but guesswork," Aizawa groaned, "But I still maintain that Shigaraki can't create his own fire. It's easy enough to create a support item that could create fire. And considering the fact that Bakugo himself stated that it felt like his explosion got taken from him, I believe that's his actual quirk."
Tsukauchi rubbed at his forehead, "I don't know, Aizawa, it's still not too much to go off. Even if you were able to figure out his quirk, there's no guarantee it's even in the registry."
Aizawa stared blankly at Tsukauchi before slightly nodding, "I'm aware of that, but regardless of whether this is enough to find them, it's still best to get an understanding of what we're dealing with."
"Fine," Tsukauchi relented, "I'll look again, but you owe me more than one cup of coffee next time I see you."
Aizawa nodded and grunted, leaving Tsukauchi behind to his musings.
Kagero sat in his room on his computer, pouring over the files the Facility had in the last fifteen years.
The Facility was one of All For One's projects that he had running around the time he came upon Kagero. A chain of quirk counseling offices spread throughout Japan. All were situated in poorer regions, and almost exclusively took in anybody that society deemed to have a "villainous" quirk or anything "non-flashy or non-combative". It was the perfect setup for All For One to cherry pick the best quirks that came through.
Despite its ties, the Facility and its proponents were completely legal and had all the proper certificates and qualifications to run as a quirk counseling office. The counselors there were some of the best, and those that came in almost always ended up in a hero school, some of them even making it to UA or Shiketsu. Those that were lucky enough to make it in the Top 100 became the pride and joy of the Facility.
It wasn't an indoctrination center or anything along those lines, it did exactly what was expected. The only reason All For One bothered with it past its initial phase was because he saw the potential it had. By keeping documents and files about every quirk and user that entered its doors, he was able to keep track of any quirk he liked. This way, when he took the quirk, he wouldn't need to train it to increase its strength. That was already done.
Kagero opened one last folder, quickly reading over its documents. His eyes glinting in the low light, he read aloud the file name.
"Kanagawa Branch – Active Heroes, year 2XXX," Kagero let out a light chuckle, "Let's see who the better hunter is, Stain."