Well, this chapter is nearly twice the length of your average for this story, but I just couldn't find a good place to stop and wanted to squeeze this whole mission into one sitting. We meet a lot of new characters, some of which might become important later down the line if I have anything to say about it, which I kind of do? I mean, I do when the characters don't take over and it's like I don't actually control what they do and my short-term plans suddenly go out the window faster than an Assassin's retreat. Anyway, on to Reviews from the last chapter:

ace777: Well hello there. I promised you a new chapter by Sunday. Here you go.

Gamelover41592: Oh yes, the Templars have pretty 0-0 methods.

LEGOBRICK13: I was, in fact, cackling during the Eri interaction and the Simon reveal. I've had the ribbit/kero/guo verbal ticks planned for a while, since we first saw Satsuki use "kero" the first time we met her in chapter... 35? I think it was 35. Also BAD! *smacks you with a rolled-up newspaper* No killing my characters! Only I get to do that!

maxperseua130: You hit the nail on the head on every single count there. Like, so accurately it's almost scary.

Monkey D. Conan: Like I've said, we aren't rushing things too quickly. Because of the nature of the MHA timeline, I can't just jump time, but will reach that point eventually.

Monster King: Thank you.

Ranger McAleer: I just have to squeeze in the classic pose when I can. Just not too often. But Aizawa can be a bit of a drama queen, can't he?

Chapter 40:

Gather the Gang

Izuku found Master Akaguro and Assassin Toga in the mess hall Wednesday morning, the former sipping on a cup of black coffee while the latter licked what looked like a red popsicle, her shoulder wrapped in bandages so tightly it could not move. At the table with them were Tsuyu, Saiko Intelli, Nascha Garcia, and another girl Izuku only vaguely recognized, her white robes trimmed pink doing little to hide her impressive figure. Her hair was a shiny gold, shimmering in the light and seeming to be one single shape rather than a collection of follicles. She turned as he sat beside Tsuyu, her eyes two solid orbs of dark blue.

"Hey!" she grinned as Izuku finished angling his swords to be comfortable while he sat. "You're the other UA student with Tsu, right?"

"Uh, yeah," Izuku replied, surprised to be recognized. Sure, he'd done a rough month of training with the other nine newer Hero students in the Brotherhood on-and-off in their preparations, but they tended to keep their hoods up for the most part, not wanting to get too close while they competed for the UA spots. He offered his hand over the table, the girl shaking it enthusiastically. He noted that there were holes in the back of her hand. "Izuku Midoriya."

"Mure Subako. It's nice to meet you properly!" She nodded to herself, her hair rippling. Her voice had a certain cadence to it, a strange hum coming with each accented word. "I saw ya durin' the Sports Festival. You were so good! I could barely beelieve you're actually Quirkless! Ya sure prove nothing 'bout our preconceived notions is true!"

"Uh, thank you?" Izuku blinked. She had yet to let go of his hand, the sudden realization leading to his notice that there were no holes in her palm. Curiosity surging, the verdet lifted the hand to study it. "Subako, can you tell me about your Quirk?"

"Ya sure you wanna know?" the girl asked, glancing around, though her solid-colored eyes didn't seem to move. The only way he noticed was how the light glittered off them as they rolled. "I mean, most people really don' like it."

"We need to know each other's skills if we're going to work together," the boy responded, already pulling his Assassin notebook from within his robes. "Besides, I love analyzing Quirks of all kinds. Based on the holes in your hands, I'm guessing your Quirk is an Emitter-class or a Mutation-style?"

"It's a Mutation," Mure said, holding her hand palm-down. She glanced around again, inclining her head toward Tsuyu slightly —noting that she was in conversation with Saiko and Nascha— before turning back. Silently, a honeybee climbed out of one of the holes, sitting on the back of her hand. "My Quirk's called Hive. My mutation makes me a livin' hive fer honeybees. As their host, they follow my commands and protect me. Plus, I've got all the honey I could ever ask for!"

"Amazing," Izuku muttered, leaning in to study her hand more closely. The bee there tilted its head in askance. Ah, that hum in her voice was an underlying buzz. Interesting! "Does this affect your musculature and organs? Does this make your body stronger or weaker than the average human? Are you able to communicate with your bees at all? Are you limited to honeybees only?"

"It's not just honeybees, I beelieve, but they're the only ones I can get right now," Mure chuckled. "I've got the native Apis Cerana Japonica and the imported Apis millifera, but those're the only bees that live 'round here. I'd know, my family's cared for 'em fer generations." A second bee, this one around 20% smaller climbed out of the same hole and stood beside the first. Other than the Japanese Honeybee being smaller, they looked pretty similar. "I can't control wasps or yellow jackets, though. That's fine with me; my beebies don' like 'em anyway."

"Beebies?"

"That's what I call 'em. Anyway, you wanted to know how they live inside me?"

"Yeah, I find that sort of thing really interesting!"

Mure relaxed slightly. "Well, my bones are practically hollow, apparently, but my beebies fill the insides with their wax structures, so they're about the same strength as normal. Other'n that, my body has naturally created pathways fer my beebies through my muscles and around my organs. On top o' that, they can cover any injuries I get with their wax to help me heal. It's pretty… sweet."

"Really?" Saiko sighed, turning from her conversation with Tsu and Nascha to the one between Izuku and Mure. The bees on Mure's hand ducked back inside her as Tsu turned her eyes toward them. "More honey puns?"

"Oh, you'll put up with them, Saiko." Mure replied, bumping the blunette's shoulder with her own. "Honey?"

"Sure." Saiko extended her steaming teacup toward the hive-girl, Mure placing her hand over the cup. Honey oozed from her fingertip, dripping down into the tea for only a moment before the honey-haired girl stopped, licking up what remained. "Thank you."

"Any time."

"If you children are done?" Akaguro prompted, cutting into the discussion. The five low-ranked Assassins turned their attentions to him, Saiko idly stirring her tea. "Good. As you may know, a select group of Assassins wiped out a group calling themselves yakuza: the Shie Hassaikai. Their leader and one member of this group —the former a confirmed Templar— managed to escape, but the disappearance of the Shie Hassaikai as a group has left a power vacuum behind in the criminal underworld. Part of the Shie Hassaikai's funding came from the upgrading and sale of the drug Trigger. With them gone, a number of smaller groups have started vying for power in the market."

Saiko raised her hand. "Can I suspect, then, that our mission is to do something about this?" she asked. "If that is the case, what is our ultimate goal for the endeavor, conquest or eradication?"

"Surely it's—" Izuku began.

"Conquest," Tsuyu interrupted, her fellow verdet staring at her in shock. "No matter how much we try to eliminate the use or sale of Trigger, ribbit, new groups will keep popping up. Only by controlling the market itself can we hope to limit its danger to the public. At the same time, while mitigating the damage the drug causes its users, we can profit from the control, ribbit."

"Well said, Initiate Asui," Himi nodded. "Like she said, a power vacuum has to be filled, so better to fill it ourselves than to leave it for the Templars."

"Have we thought about this?" Izuku questioned. "Who's going to lead whatever group fills the vacuum? And where will these lesser members come from?"

"That's a much more long-term question than what we're doing today," Himi answered. "That said, because Master Akaguro and I are already pretty mired in the underworld already, we'll handle most of that in the coming months. I imagine most of you, as Hero students, can't afford to have too many fingers in this pie past today."

"I can," Nascha offered, her Japanese having come a long way since Izuku last talked to her. "I am not a Hero student and technically am not in Japan. Plus, I have got a surprising amount of free time."

"Are you sure you can handle the gang life, Yank?" the blonde questioned.

"I grew up Quirkless in Cali, Vamp," the American shot back. "I think I can handle the streets."

"You could also use what contacts we gather to search for your brother," Akaguro noted.

"I was not going to say that, but yes."

"That's long-term," Saiko reminded them, pausing to take a sip of her tea. Flashes of pictures and images of soundwaves started dancing around her head, each so transparent has to almost not exist as more than a trick of the light. "If I remember the news correctly, the Shie Hassaikai —which was being investigated by the Nighteye Agency— went up in flames officially. Their base was destroyed beyond all recognizable means. What is our short-term goal for the day in light of this information?"

Himi smirked. "We're gonna take over a gang."

"I'm sorry," Izuku blinked. "Did you say we're taking over a gang?"

"More specifically, you're taking over a gang's headquarters. You all will come up with a rough plan for how to do that here and now without mine or Master Akaguro's involvement. Then, once you have a plan, we'll take you to the site and see whether your plan changes or not. Ready? Go."

"Honestly, it's a pretty solid base to begin with," Saiko noted, already turning away from the full Assassins. "It's easier and less risky to us to conquer an existing group than to create one from the ground up. This group, whomever they turn out to be, do not need to know about the Assassins as an organization yet will still benefit from our protection while we use them for our own ends."

"It'll take a while for this group to completely fill the void it sounds like the Shie Hassaikai is leaving beehind," Mure commented. "Dependin' on who this group is, we could turn 'em back to what Yakuza used to bee, with the sense of honor and everythin'. We might hafta kill the guys in charge right now, or maybee just beeat the shit outa them in front o' the drones. By actin' like we're takin' orders from Master Akaguro, Toga, and Nascha, that'll make 'em the Queen bees o' the hive."

"There are more question to answer, though," Tsuyu jumped in. "Should we use our Quirks to do that, ribbit? Izuku and Nascha don't need to worry about such questions, but for mutants like me and Subako, we're more easily recognized. I mean, Izuku and I appeared on TV with the Sports Festival. I don't know if these guys would recognize us now, but if Subako and I use our Quirks here, they'll remember us, ribbit, and recognize us later."

"We will have them under our thumbs by that point," Nascha promised. "Besides, they will probably feel better about having pro Heroes as their boss' contacts. Too many benefits to try to blackmail you, especially if our show of force today is powerful enough."

"We should still keep our hoods up and do this as Quirkless as possible," Izuku put in. "If we act like a silent enforcement group, that should be enough intimidation to keep them in line until a proper chain of command is established. Beating them down without resorting to obvious Quirks would further demoralize them against us. And, like Subako said, killing the guys in charge now depends on what we can learn about them when we get there, though I'd rather not if we don't have to."

"That works fer me," Mure agreed. "I'll only use my Quirk if we need large-scale battle control or scoutin' info."

"Hopefully, we don't need it," the lone male of group replied. "I can identify the heads with my Eagle Vision when we get there."

"In that case, let's round them up together and make them work for us in a single meeting," Nascha said. "If they disagree—"

"Are you suggesting we execute them, ribbit?"

"I mean, that would be the most effective method," Saiko commented, answering Tsuyu's question. "It's not like we're torturing them. This is a hostile takeover. The end results aren't that different than if we killed them quietly."

"Then it sounds like we've got a plan," Mure grinned. "We'll use Midoriya's eyes to find the current queens and round 'em up. We'll petition 'em and kill 'em if they don't wanna accept it. Classic case of the honey and the stinger."

"The phrase is the carrot and the stick, ribbit."

"Potato potaato," the hive-girl waved off, pronouncing the word two different ways.

"We will have to have some follow through," Nascha added. "If we want Trigger to be less lethal while it is under our purview, then we will have to put an Assassin in charge of their development. Or at least overview."

"Those are issues to be handled later," Himi jumped in. "Your plan?"

"You heard what it is," Saiko replied. "We will not kill the bigwigs unless they refuse to bend their knee to us. Asui, Midoriya, Sabuko, and I will act as a silent defense force for you, Master Akaguro, and Ms. Garica during a forced meeting. The details of the plan will center around gathering the leaders in a central location, said details of which we are unable to clarify until we see the location for ourselves."

"Good, you didn't jump directly into violence," Akaguro grunted. "Point for you. Your plan is also vague enough to provide plenty of wiggle room for the unknown. You did not, however, ask if we had more information on your targets."

"I thought we weren't allowed to," Izuku defended. "Himi said to plan here and now without your input and told us to start instantly."

"Thought you weren't allowed to?" Akaguro parroted. "That's bullshit thinking, Initiate. Why would you not be allowed? What is the second half of our philosophy?"

"Every…" The boy trailed off, realizing his mistake.

"Everything is permitted," Nascha filled in. "Still, would you have given us that information if we asked?"

"Only if you did," Himi supplied. "And we wouldn't have commented on it. Thus, no input." She pulled a stack of papers from her robe with her good arm, setting them on the table. "The gang we're targeting call themselves Gin Kyosha, the Silver Lance. I think that's a stupid name that's too long, so I'll be renaming them to the Hisha."

"Aren't the Gin, the Kyosha, and the Hisha all shogi pieces?" Saiko questioned.

"Doesn't matter," Akaguro grunted, only continuing after giving Himi a tired look. She knew exactly what she was doing. She always did want her own gang, after all. "They're a newer group, but their top brass are decently-strong from what we've been able to gather. And they have yet to do anything that would warrant a Villain ranking, which is why we'd rather have them as underlings than targets. Appropriately for you, they have five main heads for you five to deal with." He gestured to the pile, each Initiate (or Recruit in Nascha's case) taking a page from the stack.

Izuku's page showed a bald man, his face and head completely devoid of hair from what he could tell. Every inch of the man's skin was covered in tattoos of animals, one of a viper circling his right cheek and a raptor of some sort on the other. He also had a nose ring like a bull's, a hanafuda card (the Chinese phoenix) hanging from his right ear as an earring, and the top-left of his head was covered by a scar, cutting through some unidentifiable tattoo. The name at the top of the sheet was Sai Tatou. Quirk: Living Ink.

Tsuyu's page showed two pictures, the first of a man in a nice suit. He had blue hair quaffed to the side as well as blue lines running from his sunken red eyes and down over his cheeks. The other must have been the same man with his Quirk active, a skull covering the entirely of his head and carpal and metacarpal bones running over the back of his hand and fingers. The name at the top of that sheet read Hone Zukaigo. Quirk: Exoskeleton.

Nascha claimed the third sheet, this one depicting a middle-aged man with black hair, black eyes, and a plain face. His clothing was covered in pockets and a pair of pistols hung at his hips. Name: Yonjo Kodai. Quirk: Shrink'n'Grow.

Saiko took the fourth sheet, this one depicting a woman with incredibly-pale skin and wavy hair with every shade of grey. Her eyes were a shining ice blue, her hand in the picture showing her fingers each had a blue tint that got darker as it reached the tips. She was dressed in a snow-patterned kimono that showed quite a bit of her impressive chest. Name: Samui Fureru. Quirk: Freeze Tag.

Mure took the last page, eyeing the woman in the photo. She was blonde with red eyes. A pair of fangs peaked out from either side of her lips and a pair of pointed, grey ears poked out of her hair. Name: Victoria Card. Quirk: Bat.

"Do we know anything about their agreeability?" Saiko asked, turning her page over to see if there was anything on the back side. There was not. "Increased aggression? Unofficial roles within the gang? Anything?"

"Nope!" Himi chirped, her voice clear that there was and she just wasn't going to share. "This is all you get."

Izuku frowned, activating his Eagle Vision. To his disappointment, there was only a smiley face sticking its tongue out at him from each page. He sighed, turning a quirked eyebrow at the Assassin. She mimicked the smiley faces perfectly.

"Looks like we'll need to make our own calls after meeting them," Izuku sighed. "Are you all fine going after whichever one you drew?"

"Fine by us, ribbit," Tsuyu nodded. "When do we move out?"

"What a good question," Akaguro grinned. "Right after you each take one of these panic buttons."

The Gin Kyosha's hideout was an old, but well-maintained, five-story apartment complex, much to Izuku's surprise. Everything about it seemed above board, the building itself sporting a new coat of tan paint not so recent as to prevent the vine climbing its way up the side. Some of the rooms' blinds were pulled closed while others were left open, the rooms the Assassins could see normal by all accounts. The main entrance of the building was decorated with an extended awning of forest green, shading a red carpet below from the noonday sun. Two picnic tables and a single boulder in the middle of a small sand garden decorated the lawn, most of which was shaded by a tall, aged Sakura tree. The front of the awning named the place [General's Rest] in silver-colored English cursive.

A man Izuku recognized as Sai Tatou sat atop of said rock, meditating. He was shirtless, tattoos covering his entire, muscular upper body.

"What's the buzz, Midoriya?" Mure asked, the group studying the building from the opposite roof.

"This is the place," Izuku muttered in answer, casting his eyes over the surroundings. "That's my guy down there."

"How lucky for you," Nascha said. "Any chance you could find the rest? I'd rather not go in blind if we can avoid it."

Izuku nodded, activating his Eagle Vision. Instantly, Sai Tatou shown gold to him, but more important was the plethora of red outlines that populated building. His special vision didn't show him the structure of the building itself, but the placement of the people inside did give him a rough estimate.

"There's a basement under the building," the verdet said, still studying the location. He pointed to each location as he spoke. "One target, a woman in a kimono, is down there. There's another woman on the ground floor, apparently standing guard in what I'd guess is a mess hall. The other two men are on other floors, one on the top floor and the other two below that." He blinked his sight away, trying to remember the outlines of the two men. "Can I see your papers?"

The others nodded, holding out their targets' sheets, though two of them had already been located.

"I must confront the one in the basement," Saiko commented.

"I've got the woman on the ground floor," Mure nodded. "She won't beelieve what hit her."

"The man on the fifth floor is thinner," Izuku noted.

"Then that's my target, ribbit," Tsuyu said.

"That leaves me with the guy in the middle," Nascha breathed. "This is a round-up mission, but where are we taking them?"

"There has to be an office," Izuku said. "I live in an apartment similar to this and most of them have an office on the ground floor behind the entrance. We're going after the bosses, but I think our takeover would be smoother if we, you know, don't kill any of the grunts?"

"Why don't we just offer them a business proposition?" Saiko suggested. "It would be for the best if they come to the meeting point willingly. I do not think we should count on them agreeing outright, but we can hope. Violence, after all, is not always the correct answer."

"She's right," Himi grinned. "Violence is the question. 'Yes' is just the most fun answer."

"Goddammit, Himi," Akaguro sighed, running a hand down his face. "Initiates and Recruit, do you feel confident you can survive if this mission goes south?"

As one, the younger members looked to Saiko who drew out one of her thermoses, the periwinkle-haired girl taking a long drink. Transparent numbers appeared, floating around her head. She studied them.

"The odds of any of us dying on this mission lie around 2.74% in the worst cases," she said. "Half of that are the unlikely odds that Assassin Toga finds herself defending an unconscious member against a gang member with some form of Quirk Awakening. It is more likely we need to kill one or more of the Gin Kyosha's leaders. By all such metrics, we are safe in all likelihood. Still, please move with caution and that should negate most of the other odds."

"Didn't we say we wanted to be silent protectors, ribbit?" Tsuyu asked. "How would we convince them to listen to us when we can't talk?""

"Like this," Izuku said, pulling out his journal and tearing out several pages he passed around. "I'm ready if you all are. Best to take time to preempt some questions before infiltration."

"Alright, Initiates, Recruit," Akaguro nodded. "You focus on the targets. Himi and I will secure the office. Meet us there quickly. Begin the operation."

The Assassins scattered, leaving Izuku alone on the roof. He took a moment, jotting down difference sentences on his own pieces of paper in the hopes he would not need to fight Sai Tatou outright. He certainly didn't want to do so out on the street. He activated his Eagle Vision and tracked his allies' moves. Tsuyu and Nascha had opted to go left, hopping roofs before crossing the street on a double-wide powerline. Saiko and Mure had decided to do the same on the right, their goal a side or back door to the building.

Izuku plotted his own course, going two buildings to the right and following Saiko and Mure's steps over the phone wires. He stopped halfway, however, before hopping off to hang from his hands. After making some minor adjustments, the verdet dropped into the pink-covered branches of the tree, the boy bending his knees to absorb the impact and keep the branch from rustling beyond what could be explained with wind.

Slowly, carefully, Izuku lowered himself from branch to branch until he was directly over the gang leader, his green-trimmed white robes blending into the pink cherry blossoms surprisingly well. He paused, thinking to himself how easy it would be to assassinate the meditating man from right here over him.

He froze. Something wasn't right. This was too easy. He shifted, casting his eyes to the surroundings. There were no other humans around, either at the edges of the sand garden or at the picnic tables. There were no cameras along the road, the old cars all but blocking what pavement there was for wanderers to travel. He and Sai Tatou were, by every account, alone.

And then he saw it. Hanging from a branch to his right was a snake. It was completely black in color with no deviation whatsoever, but its triangular head watched him. It flicked a tongue —also a solid black— at the young Initiate. And there above it, on another branch, landed a hawk of equal shade, only a tiny line of white denoting the separation of beak or eye from the rest of its body. Its head shifted, similarly studying him.

"I know you are there," Tatou said below, his position not moving even as he spoke. His eyes were still closed, his hanafuda earring shifting in the summer breeze. "You didn't instantly attack. Why?"

Izuku studied both the man and the dark animals. His Quirk was named Living Ink, so this must be some aspect of it. Taking a chance, he reached into his robes, stopping when both the snake and the hawk tensed. More slowly, he pulled out his written prompts and picked one, showing it to the animals.

'We have a business proposition for the Gin Kyosha.'

"So, you know who we are," Tatou commented, showing that he could, in fact, see through the eyes of what must be some of his creations. "Who are you? What sort of business proposition requires you to hide in the tree above me and interrupt my meditation?"

Izuku flipped through his notes before selecting one, holding it up as well.

'My coworkers are gathering the other leaders in your building's office now. Please come quietly.'

"Ha!" Tatou laughed. "Haha! Your coworkers are gathering our leaders? You think I'll believe that? You don't look like any pro Hero I've seen before, much less a team of the self-righteous bastards. More like a wannabe ninja cosplayer. Ha!"

The Initiate frowned, picking another note, this one far riskier in tone.

'Please do not make me kill or subdue you.'

"You think you can kill me? I've been following you since you entered that tree."

Seeing that he was getting nowhere with his current stance of communication, Izuku leapt from the tree, rolling away his momentum to pop up before Sai Tatou, just outside the sand garden. The bald man opened his eyes as Izuku landed, the hawk fluttering from the tree to land on his shoulder. The tattoos that had adorned his cheeks in the summary photo were absent.

As Tatou watched, Izuku stretched his left arm to the side and placed the other over his heart, offering a small bow. If he could avoid a fight, he would.

"What?" Tatou questioned, eyeing the swords at Izuku's hips. "Not showing your face? Not going to say anything?"

Izuku shook his head, returning to his neutral stance.

"So, you plan to convince me with yes-and-no answers?"

Izuku nodded.

"You're the most brazen interloper we've had yet, I'll give you that." He blinked. "Seriously, go home. You're just a kid."

Izuku shook his head. He reached down, drawing his wakizashi from the sheath just enough to show it was real. He clicked it back into place, his point made.

"You have guts and my interest, but you do not yet have my attention. Let's see if those weapons of yours are not just for show. Don't blame me if you die."

The hawk shot from Tatou's shoulder, its inky talons bared toward the Assassin. Izuku moved, drawing his wakizashi in one fluid motion and slicing clean through the Quirk-borne bird. It made no noise as the blade cut it in half, the ink it was made of deforming into something like a river. It turned in the air, flowing back toward the gang member and settling into his cheek, its color changing from black to a stark red.

Izuku spun out of the movement, his sword held in a reverse grip, his stance low. Sai Tatou's hairless eyebrows rose.

"So the kid knows how to swing a sword. You said your friends are collecting mine? I doubt it, but I'll see if you can actually hold your own." The snake slithered up his arm, circling into his cheek where it had been before, also turning red. "You should have taken the chance to run."

A Chinese-style dragon of blue-black ink slowly rose from Tatou's back, thin white lines giving the dragon detailed features. Its teeth and cloud-like eyebrows gleamed white, its dark pupils locking onto the Initiate. It bared its teeth, seeming to growl but with no sound.

"You have five minutes, kid. Impress me."

The dragon dove forward.

"Why am I not surprised the back door is locked?" Saiko sighed, standing up. Both she and her companion completely ignored the unconscious guards that had been —until a minute ago— guarding said door while pretending to be casually-smoking residents. "Just a moment, I've got my picks—"

"No need," Mure insisted, kneeling before the door. She held her hand up, her finger practically poking the bottom of the keyhole. "I've got somethin' I wanna try."

Saiko raised an eyebrow but did not protest, gesturing for her fellow Initiate to continue. Mure nodded, several bees crawling out of the back of her hand.

"Alright, beebies. Show me what you got."

The honeybees crawled over her finger and into the lock. Mure sent the other girl a grin as, several seconds later, the lock clicked open. The bees, wobbly in their steps, wandered back to their living hive.

"Good job, beebies," she whispered. "In we go. After you."

"Very well then." Saiko stepped into the back door, her eyes searching for any sign of danger. "I don't suppose your bees can do reconnaissance?"

"My beebies can do anythin'," Mure replied, a veritable swarm of black and yellow rising from her hands and the collar of her robes. "Go, my sweet little pollinators. Find our targets."

The cloud of insects dispersed, thinning itself over the ceiling and walls so thoroughly as to become practically invisible. Mure stayed where she was, arms still raised and eyes closed, as she felt her connection to her bees as if each was another, tiny limb. One by one, the honeybees returned, disappearing back into their home under her skin.

"There's a stairway, an elevator, and a dumbwaiter to the basement," Mure announced, relaying the information her bees had been able to find.

"The elevator would be too open and I cannot fit within a dumbwaiter," Saiko reasoned, having mixed feelings about the latter point. Having smaller hips would have made squeezing into small places for infiltration a lot easier. "The stairs?"

"Second door to the right, 'round the turn. It's unlocked."

"My thanks, Subako," Saiko nodded. "Please, be careful with your target."

"Not to worry, Intelli. I've got a plan that's sure to cause a… buzz."

Saiko sighed. She peaked around the corner, waiting until the coast was clear before hurrying to the door she'd been directed to. Quickly, she slipped inside.

Mure, now left to her own devices, placed her hand on the wall and allowed her beebies still waiting for action to climb onto the wall. She did not have Eagle Vision or any Isu lineage, but she had her honeybees and their collective input was almost as good. It was certainly enough to know that her target was overlooking the mess hall that had plenty of the Gin Kyosha's rank-and-file grunts within at the moment. There were two grunts between her and Victoria Card, a blue man with bull horns and another with the ears and tail of a monkey.

She frowned. Taking out two targets lethally was a whole lot easier than nonlethally. At least, when alone.

Luckily, Mure Subako was never alone.

"Ow!" The man with the horns jumped, his hand automatically launching up to smack the back of his neck. A buzz reached him, a spot of yellow moving in his peripherals. ["Damn bee stung me! You think that's funny?"]

["It's just a bee!"] the other man called, but the bull-man was already chasing the insect, the pollinator seeming to taunt him by staying just out of reach.

["Get back here!"]

He rounded the corner only to be met with the smaller form of a girl in a robe. Before the heteromorph could so much as make a noise, the girl grabbed him by the arm and flipped him over, her arms crushing his windpipe. He flailed but couldn't get his wits about him, the darkness of unconsciousness creeping into his vision until he went limp.

["Dan?"] the monkey-man called. ["Come on, man. This isn't funny."]

Mure whistled.

["The 'ell? Dan, when did you learn 'ow to do that?"]

He turned the corner only to meet the same fate as his friend. Mure chuckled to herself, looting the still-breathing bodies to find little but a mixtape and a set of seven dice of different shapes. She shook her head and put them back. It would have just been rude to take such useless items, anyway. She did, however, take several thousand yen and a few British pounds.

With the hallway now clear, Mure slunk toward the mess hall, mentally reviewing what she knew. Her target's name was Victoria Card, her Quirk some sort of Bat Mutation. She could infer this woman probably wasn't native from her name, a better indicator than blonde hair in this age of genetic variation, but that was it. Still, with so many people nearby, she needed to be careful about this.

A dozen Japanese honeybees took to the air, flying down the hall and into the cafeteria. Mure waited, staying still for several minutes before she heard the first signs of her plan coming to fruition.

"Hey! Don't hit me!"

"I didn't mean to, asshole! I was after that fly!"

"That's a Japanese honeybee, you idiot! Leave it alone!"

"Bees‽ I hate bees! Kill it!"

"Don't kill it!"

Shouting soon devolved into blows, more and more in the room getting caught up in the fight, whether that was involving themselves in the violence or forming a ring of bodies to cheer on the fighters. Victoria Card, watching from the doorway, dropped her head into a hand and muttered something in the King's English. She was taller than Mure, but that only meant she'd have less leverage. Still, with the woman near so many eyes, Mure didn't have the time or seclusion for a 'business proposition.'

When the sounds of fighting took on a fever pitch, the hive-girl moved, charging the Silver Lance leader from the side. She jumped at the last moment, hooking her arms around the blonde's neck. Mure kept on the pressure, dragging the woman away even as the Assassin Initiate had to work around the absolutely massive hand cannon on the gangster's back.

["Motherfucker, what the 'ell?"] the woman demanded, her hands reaching for Mure's arm. ["'O the fuck do you think you are?"]

Mure bit back a response, only tightening her grip against the older woman. The Initiate heaved, pulling the struggling blonde along despite her hissed protests.

["I'll 'ave your 'ead for this, bitch! Or maybe just your arm!"] The bat-woman yanked, pulling Mure's arm away just enough to get her mouth open. Without preamble, she bit down into her captor's flesh.

Mure screwed her eyes shut, biting her tongue to keep from crying out. Card, for her part, felt her eyes widen as the taste of sugary-sweet honey met her tongue rather than coppery blood. A number of western honeybees crawled out, staring their silent challenge at the woman that had dared to bite their living hive.

Her struggles stopped for a moment, the woman pulling her teeth out. Bees instantly swarmed the punctures, coating the wounds with wax.

'So much for not noticeably using my Quirk,' Mure thought. 'Well, whatever. It's just my beebies showing their care for me. I can't blame them.'

"What do you want?" Card questioned in accented Japanese.

The young Assassin shook her head, indicating that she would receive no verbal answer. With the continued sounds of brawling in the distance and the forced compliance of her target, Mure dragged Victoria Card toward the office.

"All those windows and not a single one is open," Nascha commented, she and Tsuyu studying the lefthand side of the General's Rest. "Well, it's never been our luck to do anything the easy way."

"That's right," Tsuyu nodded, swallowing a ribbit before it could get out. "I'll see you in the office?"

"Of course, Tsu. Good luck."

"Don't need it."

The frog-girl jumped, her powerful legs carrying her all the way to the roof of the General's Rest. She didn't stay there for long in case guards of some sort roamed the rooftop, the young Initiate hopping over the side to hang over the wall. In her peripherals, she watched Nascha use a portable zipline to reach her chosen entrance, the young woman jamming her hidden blade into the window's latch to force it open.

Tsuyu refocused on her own task, dropping one story before testing the window before her. It was closed but unlocked, the verdette sliding it open without a sound and rolling in. She found herself crouched in a hallway, doors to apartments or similar rooms stretching out on both sides. The General's Rest was structured more like a hotel than a motel or apartment building in this aspect, but it made sense. No self-respecting criminal organization would use a building with all the entrances to their rooms on the outside where just any passerby could see them. If anything, this place probably used to be a retirement home before the Gin Kyosha took over.

Studying the floor's layout, Tsuyu predicted where her target was based on Izuku's indication, the girl padding toward the center of the hallway. As she drew closer, soft violin music began drifting through the air, coming from the room for which she aimed. The door was, as she suspected it would be, locked.

The Hero student pulled lockpicks from her robes without a missed second, the Assassin legacy already showing off skills others would normally call criminal. The lock clicked, Tsuyu gently pushing the door open.

The violin music grew louder without the door muffling it, the Initiate using the music to cover any sound of her entrance, however limited said sound was after all her stealth training.

Hone Zukaigo had his back to the door, his body swaying in time with his music. He was dressed in a blue leisure suit that matched his hair. When she was certain he had no indication she was there, Tsuyu slammed the door.

Zukaigo spun, his violin bow aimed at the door despite Tsuyu now standing at his side. He had a flicker of white in the side of his vision, the dignified gangster spinning toward it only to find nothing there.

Behind him, Tsuyu allowed herself a tiny grin. Master Aizawa might call this inefficient and a waste of time. Master Nemuri would call it phycological warfare. Tsuyu called it fun, something she sorely needed after the week-and-a-half she'd had.

She jumped, sticking to the ceiling as Zukaigo spun, trying to find the source of the noise. Slowly, bone plating grew from his spine to cover his head, a recreation of his own skeletal structure forming on the outside of his body but under his clothing.

"Who's there?" he demanded. "Show yourself!"

'They never think to look up,' Tsuyu grinned to herself. She shifted, lowering to the floor behind the man without a sound. Quietly, she pulled out the paper Izuku had handed out before using her tongue to tap the man on the shoulder.

Zukaigo spun, already trying to backhand whomever was there with the metacarpals on the back of his hand, but his bone Quirk hit nothing but air. Tsuyu stood there, her hooded face tilting slightly, as she gestured with the paper.

"Who are you?" Zukaigo demanded, his sunken eyes almost glowing in the shadows of his external skull. "How did you get in here?"

Tsuyu gestured with the paper again.

"A business proposition? Really? Do you think I'm stupid enough to believe that?"

Tsuyu didn't move except to flex her wrists, her hidden blades flashing.

"Do you think I'm scared of you?" the gangster questioned, tossing his violin on the nice bed before falling into a boxing stance. "I might be Gin Kyosha's public liaison and culinary master, but I can still hold my own in the underworld. I'm not afraid of some shrimp."

Tsuyu still did not move, the man narrowing his eyes at the silent figure. With a growl, he launched forward with a straight left. The frog-girl flowed to the inside as easily as water does, her fists pounding twice into his polar plexus before swinging an uppercut. By aiming for the gut, she bypassed his external ribs hidden under his shirt, something he vaguely notice as his head snapped back from the force of her third punch.

Tsuyu didn't let up, grabbing Zukaigo by one hand before he could stumble only to flip him onto his back. He gasped as his external spine —not nearly as fragile or useful as the internal one— dug into the floor. One hand pressing against his face, Tsuyu trailed a hidden blade over his exposed throat, not hard enough to cut but with enough pressure that he knew it was there. The message was clear.

I have you at my mercy. Easily.

"Ok, ok," he insisted, letting his Quirk faze back into his skin. "Fine, a business proposition. What sort of work do you have for us?"

The Hero student, not insomuch showing such morals at the moment, yanked the man to his feet and directed him to the door, her blade at his back right over his kidneys. Saying nothing, she directed him into the hallway and toward the elevator.

The first thing Saiko Intelli noticed about the basement was the cold, her breath condensing with each exhalation. The lighting was darker, the walls a grey stone. Only the stairs were wood, rough and old, cracks and chipped paint clearly visible in the dim lighting. The periwinkle-haired Initiate pulled her robes around her tighter as she descended, what warmth remained lessening with each step.

Luckily, the basement was in no way complex. It was an open area with only a number of boilers and support beams here and there. Stacked in the corner were several wooden crates of what Saiko suspected was Trigger, the product simply waiting for a buyer before it would be moved out of cold storage. A four-paneled room divider (with the image of a snowy mountain in the distance) hid something from the view of the stairs, Saiko moving slowly as frost quietly crunched under her feet.

"You find yourself in a location you do not understand," a woman said as Saiko came around to see her. Grey hair of all shades fell down the woman's back, nearly hiding the entirety of her kimono. She stood before a table, beakers, vials, and all manner of other alchemical equipment set around it. "Leave now and your life will be spared."

Saiko did not reply, content to wait until the woman was willing to offer her full attention. Not hearing retreating footsteps nor the voice of one of the few with permission to enter her underground workshop, the illegal chemist stopped her work.

"State your name and purpose," she demanded.

When no response came, Samui Fureru pulled her gun from her cleavage and spun, aiming the weapon at the interloper. Saiko didn't so much as flinch. She'd predicted such an individual like her target likely had a long-range weapon of some sort. However, she also suspected this woman was the type to ask questions first.

"Why are you here?"

Another predicted question. Saiko raised her hands in the universal sign of surrender before pulling out the paper Izuku had passed around. Folding it so the woman could watch her clearly, Saiko threw it to her. She tried to keep her eyes on the hooded figure, but curiosity soon got the better of Fureru, the woman opening the note slowly with one hand while the other held the gun steadily.

"A business proposition in which to say no is to die?" Fureru questioned, reading the words. "Who do you think you are, the HPSC?"

Saiko shook her head.

"Then who are you? Police? JSDF? Some new gang we've never heard of? Villains?"

The young Initiate shook her head to each, the pale chemist's eyes narrowing with each denial.

"Well," Fureru sighed, trying not to lose her cool at the lack of answers. "I suppose not having the knowledge will bug me for a while, but I can live with that."

She pulled the trigger, the bullet totally missing Saiko as she dove forward. Another shot missed, the bullet sinking into the ground, as Saiko reached her target. A quick thrust of her hidden blade redirected the gun and a twist forced Fureru to release it. The weapon clattered to the ground, the Assassin kicking it away.

"You should have taken the easy option," the scientist snarled, her face becoming more pale and monstrous as fog started to condense around her blue fingers, the appendages looking frostbitten despite their full maneuverability. Her teeth were sharpened now. "One touch is all it takes for me to freeze a person in ice. It's a terrible way to go, or so I've been told."

Fureru swung an open palm at the student, Saiko ducking under the wild strike. Yes, Samui Fureru's Quirk seemed scary, but the young Initiate could tell with a single glance that she had little-to-no fighting experience. Every swing from the grey-haired woman was obvious, overdone, and practically choreographed from the eyes of an intelligent Hero student and Assassin. Saiko dodged each with as little movement as needed, Fureru growing more and more frustrated with each near miss. When Saiko felt she had made her point, she threw herself backward into a handspring, kicking the chemist's wrist on the way.

"Shit!" the woman cursed, holding her new bruise as Saiko landed back on her feet, the girl easily scooping up the pistol from before. Fureru hissed, but that did nothing to intimidate the Assassin. She gestured, the scientist slowly complying as she was led up the stairs.

Like Tsuyu two floors above, Nascha Garcia found herself in a rather bland hallway, doors lining the walls on either side. From Izuku's pointing before, she knew her target was somewhere on the lefthand side of the building, most likely hidden by one of the four closest doors, which made searching a whole lot easier. Activating her hidden blade, the American called on the lessons Keeper had drilled into her, quickly picking the lock of the first door.

The inside of the room was a mess, no one inside to be seen. She wrinkled her nose in disgust at the state of the place, closing the door.

The next two rooms were in similar states of disarray, though there was a wide margin of relative cleanliness. Of course, as it is when one is searching for anything, she found her target in the last room she decided to check.

Yonjo Kodai was a heavyset man, his body splayed out over the room's bed as he snored. His shirt and pants were covered in pockets, his shirt with a fresh stain Nascha presumed came from the beer bottle resting sideways on the nightstand. Two pistols rested at his hips, but closer inspection revealed them to actually be water guns painted black. His hair was a mess, in need of a little shampoo and a cut. By all accounts, this man did not look any sort of dignified or professional she would have expected from the upper echelons of an organization, even that of a drug-dealing gang. His looks were a little plain, but he wouldn't be too bad if he took better care of himself.

"Ugh," Nascha grunted, her nose wrinkling as the smell of alcohol assaulted her when she stepped closer. That explained the water guns. Who would trust a drunk with a real gun? Much less in a country with such strict gun laws like Japan. ["Great. Of course, I draw the drunk. He reminds me of Mr. Harris. Heh, I wonder how that old coot's doing right about now."]

Kodai snorted, shifting. Nascha froze, her body only relaxing when he settled back into his sleep on his side. She let out a breath. Something fell from one of the man's shirt pockets, tumbling to the mattress.

"ZZZZZ," the man snored, drool starting to drip from his lips. Nascha crept closer, ready to activate her hidden blade to awaken the man and lead him to the meeting spot.

And then his drool fell, splashing on the fallen item.

In the time it took to blink, a dresser expanded from practically nothing, squishing the man between it and the wall before crashing to the floor.

["Fuck!"] Nascha swore as a string of the man's own Japanese curses exited his lips. She back peddled out the door, hiding around the corner as the man sorted himself out. ["When I said I wanted action, this is not the action I meant."]

"Dammit, Yui! How many times—?" He pushed the dresser off the bed, blinking as a hand pressed against his temple. "What? Ow. Oh, right. I'm still in this dump."

The sudden wake up and the lingering alcohol in his system started to counter each other, the man needing a moment to remember he was no longer in his brother's house with his prank-prone niece. Rather, he'd been kicked out of that house nearly half a year ago, which was why he'd fallen in with the Gin Kyosha. A man needed a roof over his head and food on the table, somehow some way.

He reached forward, pressing his hand into the dresser that had so rudely awoken him, the piece of furniture shrinking back down to the size it had been previously. He picked it up between his fingers and tucked it back into the pocket from which it had fallen.

And then there was a blade at his throat. He froze, his hands slowly coming up in the universal sign of surrender.

"Listen, I don't know who you are, but I don't think I'm the guy you're looking for."

Nascha reached into her robes with her free hand, fishing out the paper that had the man's photo.

"Ok, maybe I am the guy you're looking for, but I don't know why. I don't have a Villain ranking or anything like that."

Nascha replaced the paper before poking the man in the back with her second hidden blade. Kodai coughed, following her silent instruction to exit the room and head down the hall. They stopped before the elevator, Nascha quickly pressing the down button before returning her blade to its place before the reluctant gangster could do anything.

The elevator dinged, the surprised face of Hone Zukaigo and the hooded form of Tsuyu behind him blinking at Yonjo Kodai and Nascha. Tsuyu nodded, prompting the American to force her target into the elevator as well.

"Well," Zukaigo remarked. "Perhaps this business proposition might actually be worth listening to."

Izuku was barely panting, his swords little more that flashes of metal as he fell, slicing his way up the ink dragon until reaching the head. He spun, his wakizashi cutting all the way through the simulacrum's neck, decapitating it instantly. As the Quirked ink that constructed the creature began to flow back to its dormant place on Sai Tatou's back, Izuku flicked what remained of it from his swords, slowly sliding them back into their sheathes.

Clap. Clap. Clap. Clap. "Well done, kid," the gangster grinned. "That was certainly entertaining. Unfortunately for you, that's not enough for me to want to listen to whatever spiel you and your friends have for us. Now then, die quickly for me so I can go hunt down whoever you brought."

As one, the rest of the man's tattoos came to life, a veritable nature museum of dangerous creatures rising from the man's skin. Izuku raised an eyebrow, disappointed by this turn of events. The hoard of ink creatures —minus the hawk, the snake, and the dragon— charged. Izuku tracked them with his eyes, the fastest tattoos apparently being a pair of tigers, one black with white stripes and the other inverted.

The Initiate gave a full-body sigh, trying to do his best to show how annoyed he was without showing his concern at the turn of events. His swords returned, the verdet rolling forward under the first pouncing tiger before rising to decapitate a diving crane. He couldn't stay still, a massive odachi wielded by an ogre cleaving the ground where he'd been.

His tanto left his hand, spinning twice before impaling the bipedal myth in the forehead. It sunk into ink after a moment, Izuku jumping onto the back of the white tiger as it tried to charge him. His wakizashi cleaved said tiger in two as he ran down its back, leaping off at the last moment to snatch his tanto out of the air just in time to block the claws of an inky phoenix. Its head lowered, intent on stabbing the boy with its beak.

Izuku, understandably not wanting to be stabbed, angled his right bracer and flexed just right. A trio of senbon launched from within his sleeve, stabbing into the phoenix's eye. Its claws released the Assassin's blades, the tanto of the pair impaling the fake bird's chest right after.

With the sky clear for now, Izuku spun back down only to find a tengu waiting for him. The scowling visage of the long-nosed demon didn't move as the creature swung a kanabo in an upward arc, forcing Izuku to, again, block. The force of the strike sent him backward, the boy flipping to barely land on his feet.

'I'll need to thank all my teachers for literally throwing me around,' Izuku thought to himself, studying what creatures were left. The black tiger from before was there alongside the tengu, a pair of airborne koi fish, three wolves, a bull, a bakeneko, and a yuki-onna. 'What is that old saying? Cut off the head of the snake?'

Izuku pointed his left bracer, seeming to aim at the tengu only to jerk it at the last moment, firing three needles at the human whose Quirk had summoned all these creatures. Sai Tatou jerked, but he wasn't fast enough to avoid the surprise attack, all three senbon burying themselves in his chest. He wobbled, his eyes widening, before his arms went slack and he fell backward off the boulder, crashing into the sand garden below. As one, the ink constructs burst, flowing back to their owner's body.

'A lesson learned from Master Aizawa,' Izuku thought, smirking to himself. 'Never fight a fair fight if you can avoid it.'

The Initiate allowed himself to relax before sheathing his blades. He walked around the boulder, Sai Tatou on his back in the sand under the full affects of the powerful anesthetic his lefthand needles had been dipped it. He walked over, pulling the senbon from the man's body and placing them into a pouch to be cleaned later, and hooked one of the man's arms over his shoulder. With some difficulty, Izuku dragged the muscular gangster to the front door.

Izuku was the last one to arrive, the lone male bodily dragging his unconscious target into the General's Rest's office. Tsuyu, Saiko, and Mure stood behind Hone Zukaigo, Yonjo Kodai, Samui Fureru, and Victoria Card, Tsuyu having her hidden blades at the throats of the first two while Saiko held a pistol to the back of Fureru's head. Said scientist had her hands bound before her. Of them, Kodai in particular looked the least calm, ready to hyperventilate. Nascha stood beside Master Akaguro —Himi on his other side as usual— the man sitting in a swivel chair like he owned the building.

Dragging Sai Tatou into the line, much to the shock and horror of the other leaders, Izuku propped him up beside Card and waved his powerful smelling salts under the man's nose. Tatou came to slowly, the first thing he noticed being the blade at his throat. Every tattoo on the man's body shown red rather than black or white.

"Five targets, five prisoners," Akaguro grinned, playing with one of his chipped blades. "Good work, everyone."

"Hot damn, kid," Tatou growled. "You actually had competent friends."

"Are you the one in charge of these… these ruffians?" Zukaigo demanded. "I was told something about a business deal?"

"Yes," Fureru agreed. "I recall something of that nature."

"Now, now," Akaguro grinned. "Deal isn't the right word here. A deal implies there is some sort of agreement between two parties. This is an uncontested change of leadership."

"And who the fuck are you to order us around?" Card demanded in her accented Japanese. "I hope you have a powerful name to go with the ugly mug under that hood!"

"Oh, I do," Akaguro replied, lowering his hood. The collected leaders of Silver Lance gasped.

"S-S-S-Stain," Kodai stuttered, shaking. "B-B-But we a-aren't pro Heroes!"

"Now see, that's the miscommunication," the Master Assassin chuckled. "I didn't kill those people because they were pro Heroes, but you don't need to know about that. The point is, you all want to corner the market for Trigger now that the Shie Hassaikai are gone, and we want to help you do that."

"I am… confused," Zukaigo said. "Who are these ruffians to you? Whom do you work for?"

"How did you know about the Shie Hassaikai?" Fureru questioned.

"Enforcers, not important, and I helped kill the lot of them," Akaguro answered, Kodai slumping over as he passed out. Tsuyu smacked him in the back of the head, waking him up before he could fall. "The important part is that you all now work for me and my aides here. This" —He gestured to Himi— "is Changeling and this" —He gestured to Nascha— "is Eagle. Myself, Changeling, or Eagle will be here at all times along with a few more of our associates. You will do as we say and you will not question who we are, lest you find yourself sucked down a rabbit hole of secrets that can easily get you killed, by us or by our enemies. Am I clear?"

"And what if we say no?" Card demanded. Mure shifted, pressing her hidden blade against the woman's neck just enough to draw a drop of red.

"Then they will never find your body," Himi said, showing off a fanged smirk. "Don't make us kill you, Victoria Card. Us pointy-toothed, blood-drinking blondes have to stick together in this dangerous world."

"Now then, do you accept?" the Master Assassin asked.

"I'll work for you!" Kodai answered instantly, easily deciding to throw his lot in with the biggest fish in the pond.

"I… agree," Card hissed, her words allowing Mure to remove the blade from her throat.

"If you are to take my life or my loyalty, I would rather continue to breathe," Zukaigo muttered. Tsuyu removed her blade from his throat. "May we at least have some form of name for your organization?"

"We'll discuss names when the last two agree or die," Himi said, turning her eye on Fureru and Tatou. "We won't be changing your entire operation or anything, but we will be changing your Trigger recipe. If that's too much for you, Samui Fureru, speak now so we can work of finding a new chemist and a cleaning crew."

"C-Cleaning crew?" Kodai gulped.

"It's a pain in the ass to get brain out of carpet," Akaguro said in response, the portly man nearly fainting again at the words.

"As long as I am paid, I could not care less who I answer to," Fureru decided. Saiko pulled the pistol back, easily emptying the magazine of its remaining ammo before handing the now-empty gun back to its illegal owner.

"And then there was one," Nascha commented, speaking for the first time in the meeting. All eyes turned on Tatou and the boy holding him at blade-point. "Well? You want to be part of the first real Yakuza group in a hundred years or not?"

"You intend to turn our gang into Yakuza?" Zukaigo questioned. "What nonsense."

"If that is your goal, then I will help you," Tatou said. Izuku pulled back, retracting his hidden blade.

"Ah, good," Akaguro grinned. "We don't need to clean up blood and grey matter. That's always a mess best not dealt with. Now, to answer some of your questions. If you need a name for my group here, you may call them the Hidden Ones. As for you all—"

"Gin Kyosha is too long and sounds stupid!" Himi interrupted. "From now on, you're the Hisha."

Card snorted, covering her mouth. "You want us named after the Japanese equivalent of a chess piece?"

"You basically already were. I just picked a better one. And since we're in charge now, you have no reason to complain."

"Thank you, Hidden Ones," Master Akaguro said. "You may go report the success of our takeover. Generals, say goodbye. If you should ever recognize any of these individuals beyond these walls, I fully expect you to look the other way. Or else. Am I clear?"

"Yes, Boss."

Dismissed, the Initiates took their leave, trusting that Akaguro, Himi, and Nascha could handle anything the newly-dubbed Generals could throw at them. As Hero students, there was no further need to get them involved. Stepping out the door, Izuku sighed, a satisfied —if conflicted— smile coming to his face. He stretched.

Mure threw her hands into the air. "That was awesome! Let's go get promoted!"

Conflicted feelings or not, Izuku had to agree. That was pretty awesome.

End of Chapter 40

What a mission, if I do say so myself! I'm actually rather proud of these characters and the long-term plan I have for the renamed Hisha. I intend for their role to increase in the background for the next few arcs before they come to their full fruition, but I think we'll be checking in with them from time to time.

New characters (OCs) this chapter:

-Mure Subako: Sex: Female. Age: 16. Occupation: Assassin-in-training/Hero student at Seijin. Quirk: Hive (This mutation turns the user's body into a living beehive. The bees that live within follow the user's commands to the best of their abilities and protect their home at all costs.)

-Sai Tatou: Sex: Male. Age: 38. Occupation: Hisha General. Quirk: Living Ink (Allows the user to bring any tattoo on their body to three-dimensional lifelike rendering. The amount of energy used is proportional to the cooldown time required afterward.)

-Victoria Card: Sex: Female. Age: 26. Nationality: British. Occupation: Hisha General. Quirk: (Vampire) Bat (In addition to having the ears and teeth of a bat, the user can also expend her energy to transform parts of her body into bat-like forms, to the extent of full transformation if not too tired. [Obviously, this is not a foolproof escape as bats are small creatures, and thus typically more squishy than Quirked humans at close range.])

-Hone Zukaigo: Sex: Male. Age: 31. Occupation: Hisha General/part-time chef. Quirk: Exoskeleton (allows the user to manifest a second skeleton on the outside of his skin. This skeleton is not perfect, however, as only the skull, jaw, ribs, and hips fully encircle their internal counterparts.)

-Samui Fureru: Sex: Female. Age: 34. Occupation: Hisha General/disgraced chemist. Quirk: Freeze Tag (by touching an individual with her fingers, the user is able to freeze that person in ice. The amount of ice and how long it lasts depends on several factors including ambient temperature and how long the user continues touching the individual.)

-Yonjo Kodai: Sex: Male. Age: 41. Occupation: Hisha General/hacker. Quirk: Shink'n'Grow (allows the user to shrink any inanimate object he touches. The object will remain shrunk until rendered doused via any substance with water, at which point the object quickly returns to its original size.)

Boy, that's a lot of cool new characters! I sure hope they all survive the story!

What do you think of Mure Subako, the Hero student Honey Queen of Seijin? Also yay! Saiko Intelli and Nascha return for a chapter! And Izuku gets to show off some of his skills with all his weaponry! What do you think of the Generals and their Quirks? What might become of this now-Assassin-controlled gang in the future? Do the young Assassins deserve to be promoted? What awaits Izuku, Tsuyu, and Shinso at the UA summer camp? Tell me what you think!

Read and Review!

-SwordOfTheGods