Two and a half weeks after Operation Hiraishin
"Almost got the door open, the damn thing is stuck..." grunted the worker.
After another minute of work, the mechanism in the wall gave way and the door slid open suddenly, causing the worker to fall backward, the lever he was using to pry the door open falling to the metal flooring with a loud clang.
"Finally!" He said.
"All right, let's see what we got" muttered a tech, walking past him and into the room. Another tech and the worker followed after.
There was a snap, and several motes of light suddenly flew out from one of the techs, illuminating the space to reveal a sparse office, with not much in it apart from a computer and several desks. One desk had been destroyed by falling rubble, which had caused papers to spill out across the floor.
The worker sighed and started clearing out rubble from the room, while one of the techs started gathering up papers, and the other started working on the computer.
They'd managed to restore power to the base from the generator in the basement of the base. That had been their primary objective when they started working through the rubble from the fortress's partial collapse. What they hadn't expected though, was for the security system to have a backup power supply, and still being operational even almost three weeks later.
Minutes ticked by with the only sound being that of the worker's grunts and the clacking of keyboards; eventually, the worker left, leaving the techs alone with the computer. The tech handling the papers gathered them all up along with any other papers in the remaining desks and started organizing them according to content and putting them into folders.
Most consisted of various basic medical notes and medical information of personnel, nothing interesting. However, some documents were more esoteric, talking about projects and subjects that the tech had no information about. The two of them were part of a small group of people authorized to review such information due to the likely sensitive nature of some of the research they were likely to find. They hadn't found much however, the lower levels of the base had been pretty well swept and they had found scant information on Zeus's experiments. Until recently the upper levels had been well buried, especially the giant shaft that had been used to transport large quantities of supplies. It had taken a full team equipped with appropriate tools and quirks to clear out enough rubble to make it traversable. Now, however, they were starting to make headway.
"Find anything interesting?" asked the tech at the computer.
"Some of it is interesting, but it's pretty basic overall from what I can glean with a cursory look. You?" the other tech said, stuffing a pile of papers into a sealable folder.
"Same here, looks like this was a personal computer for one of the techs working on a project codenamed ZERO BLOOD. Nothing on specifics though, just stuff about..." The tech started saying before trailing off.
"What is it?" the other tech asked, standing up and looking at the screen as well.
They were both silent for a time, just staring at the screen and its contents their frowns deepening.
"Is this real? There's no way they could have managed this..." the tech standing behind the other said incredulously.
"It's gotta be... but this is crazy, even if Zeus did manage to take the Nomu research into a new direction and create his hounds from it, there is no conceivable way he could have managed this," the sitting tech said.
"We'll need to go over this later, way too much to cover with a cursory look." Said the computer tech, and started downloading the information.
Instead, he brought security footage logs, and to his surprise, he saw that there were multiple recordings labeled as new within the past two weeks.
"Woah... says there is new footage." said the computer tech, clicking play on one of the recordings.
The other tech walked back over to watch as the footage played, then automatically repeated itself.
"oh my god... is... is this what the document was talking about? But..." said the second tech, unable to wrap his head around it.
Suddenly the tech in the chair bolted upright, causing the chair to topple backward.
"If this is real then that means the crew excavating the tunnel..." he said trailing off and staring at his co-worker.
The two stared at each other for a few moments longer before they ran out of the room.
On the screen, the security recording played, showing a large red tank exploding outward, flooding the room with the liquid as a bloody skeleton, with strips of muscle and sinew, walked off the platform and out of the room. The recording was dated one day after the base's collapse.
The roads didn't have many people on them, for which Todoroki was thankful. The drive had been peaceful and relatively relaxing. The full moon shone overhead casting the landscape around the road into a strange half-light. Momo was reading in the passenger seat, and the only noise in the car was that of pages turning. They'd been on the road for almost four hours and their destination of Shimauchi was another half hour away.
Momo closed her book with a sigh and yawned. She put her book away and then rolled up a sleeve and started making whatever it was she had been reading about. She often did this in her downtime to expand her quirks and abilities she was always working on producing something new.
He glanced over from time to time, trying to work out what she was making. Whatever it was though was beyond his knowledge. He was about to ask what she was working on when his phone started ringing.
Surprised he answered the call and switched it to speaker mode.
"Shoto Todoroki." He answered.
"Where are you right now?" Came the voice of Nezu.
The lack of pleasantries from Nezu always meant something serious.
"Between Miyada and Ina I believe," he replied.
"Good enough, the team working on excavating Zeus's base appears to have released a dormant Hound. They've been forced to seal the entrance, and the initial security teams they sent in were wiped out and they're worried the Hound may try to breach the entrance. According to what I've been able to glean it appears to be extremely strong and the two of you are the closest heroes strong enough for this sort of task. Make your way to the base and secure it until reinforcements arrive." He said quickly.
"Understood," Todoroki said and hung up.
He immediately swerved off the road and onto the grass and came to a stop. He hadn't even put the car into park when Momo practically ripped her seat belt off and grabbed her bag from the seat behind her containing her suit. She left her seat and walked around to the other side of the car, joining him as he left his seat.
Well used to the need for lightning-quick changes of attire, she had removed her civilian clothes and donned her black skin-tight suit in under a minute. Todoroki stripped off his shoes and outerwear, equipping his easy-to-don protective combat gear and boots, then finally attaching his gauntlets. Momo debated getting her traversal gear out of the trunk, but time was of the essence so instead opted to make a lighter less powerful version. She'd just have to recycle it at a later date.
They gave each other a once over, ensuring neither had forgotten anything. Satisfied, Momo grabbed onto his right side then he blasted straight up into the air. Momo made her traversal gear in the air as they rose, and then when she was good she let go. She fell for a brief moment, then her equipment roared to life and the two were rocketing toward the base they knew all too well.
It took them a few minutes, but they knew the layout of this side of the mountain quite well and were unlikely to ever forget the area. As they approached they both noticed that there was no movement on the ground.
When they touched down, Todoroki realized that his worst fears had been confirmed. Whatever Hound had been trapped had escaped from the mountain. In the few minutes it took them to get here, had ravaged the camp. More distressingly was the distinct lack of bodies, with the only sign of any struggle having occurred being the giant gashes in the ground and nearby buildings.
As they took a few steps forward Shoto heard his boots squelch. He looked down and saw that the ground was wet and shiny in the moonlight. As he bent to examine it more closely, the wind shifted and blew toward them and they staggered backward at the pungent scent of iron that hit them. It was so strong that he felt his hair stand on end as his instincts screamed at him that he was in danger.
"Oh shit..." Momo said, trying to keep herself from dry heaving.
"Todoroki, Momo, over here quick!" came a voice from their left.
They turned and saw a disembodied gun waving at them from inside a building. They cautiously approached the gun, Todoroki forming a layer of ice armor as he walked. They entered the small building and saw this was where the people must have eaten.
"Thank god you two are here, that thing is insane, I've never seen anything like it." said the voice again.
Todoroki frowned, that voice sounded familiar.
"Who are you?" he asked.
"It's me Toru, but that-" Toru started to say, but stopped talking when Momo brought her freshly made Gauss Rifle up and pointed at where Toru was.
There was a sigh and then to their shock, Toru materialized in front of them. She was horrible looking, disheveled, horribly dirty, starved, covered head to toe in blood, and nude.
"Yes, yes I know, traitor and all that. Look, I'll come willingly so long as you kill that thing." Toru said, gesturing wildly to where the entrance to Zeus's base was.
Questions burned in Todoroki's mind, but this wasn't the time. He could see the raw fear and panic on her face and felt that she wasn't trying to trick them.
"What are we facing?" he asked instead.
"I don't know! Some kind of super hound or nomu, or something! This thing can eat people, even charred corpses and I think assimilates part of their quirk into itself. I've seen it produce multiple mutation-type quirks so far though, so that might be its limit." she said, running a hand through her hair oblivious to her state.
It was just then that Todoroki noticed that the blood covering Toru wasn't her own, as he couldn't see any injuries on her.
"I've barely managed to survive. I've been eating MREs for days or weeks, at least until that thing ate them. I had to douse myself in blood to keep it from tracking me. It's probably taken the bodies into the base, to its lair." She said with a shudder. "Or if it heard you approach, it's likely on its way back out. Its senses are beyond anything I've seen" she said in a rush.
"But, I don't think it's complete yet. When I first saw it, it was literal muscle and bones, but after eating so many corpses it's grown and it's not as feral as it originally was. It has intelligence, however primitive, and patches of flesh and fur have started to grow." She continued.
"All right, we'll go take care of it, but until then..." Todoroki said, then made a sizeable thick cage of ice around Toru who jumped.
"We'll be back for you," Momo said, glaring at her.
Toru just sat down and brought her knees to her chest.
Todoroki and Momo left the building and made their way to the base entrance, navigating the war-scarred terrain from when they breached the base and the fresh destruction wrought by the Hound or whatever it was. Giant gashes peppered the ground and new buildings, whatever had caused the damage must have been big, not to mention the massive pools of blood, some deep enough that they likely would have come up to their knees.
As they approached the entrance Momo stopped and raised her rifle. Todoroki immediately started coalescing fire in one palm and waited.
"Somethings coming out," Momo said, looking through her night vision goggles.
They got into combat stances and waited. A few seconds later, Todoroki heard it. The sounds of huge lumbering footsteps, and the squelch of something wet being heavily compressed. Todoroki narrowed his eyes, and ice started to form around him, as he coalesced fire in his palm. He saw out of the corner of his eye, that Momo dropped to one knee and aimed her sights at the entrance.
Then the thing emerged from the dark entryway and into the bright moonlight. It was massive just shy of five meters,It walked on two enormous digitigrade legs, ending in clawed feet with wickedly curved claws. Its chest was broad and corded with muscle, stretching out into two equally massive arms that hung past its waist and down to its knees. While it had fingers, it would be more apt to call them bladed claws. If that weren't distressing enough, however, its legs were the only part that was fully formed but with its skin stretched too tight over its legs. The rest of it was mostly with only a few bare patches of skin or fur. All the while it dripped a constant stream of blood, creating a huge trail wherever it went.
Todoroki had seen some fucked up shit in his admittedly short time as a hero, but he had never seen something more horrifying in his life. It was a nightmare made manifest.
The creature halted upon seeing them and cocked its head, staring at them. Todoroki heard it sniffing the air and an incredibly long forked tongue shot out of its mouth and tasted the air. As it sucked its tongue back into its mouth, it bared its teeth, and the muscles in its body tensed.
Todoroki wasn't even fully cognizant of releasing the wave of ice, long years of honed instinct kicking in before his brain had time to fully register that the creature had lunged at him.
The wave of ice slammed into the creature mid-leap and pushed it up against the frame of the entryway. Momo's gauss rifle flashed and the massive bolts punched into the creature. It screeched in pain and with one almighty flex of muscle shattered the ice pinning it to the wall. Todoroki had already shot his arm forward however, and a jet of condensed flame shot forth with enough force to pin the creature against the wall again, all the while Momo's gauss rifle sent round after round into its chest.
It shielded its face from the flames with its arms and jumped straight up screaming, escaping the fiery ray. It stopped its ascent howeverby pushing off the wall and shot towards Todoroki.
Todoroki created a barrier of ice between them and it slammed face-first into it, smacking into the barrier and nearly shattering it. It dug its claws into the ice, anchoring it to the barrier and Todoroki saw its back explode into a fountain of gore as twin rows of huge spines emerged from its back. They curved around its body and shot at Todoroki. They easily punched through the weakened barrier and Todoroki blasted himself to the side, avoiding the spines as they speared into the earth in a fountain of dirt. Momo dodged in the opposite direction and took advantage of the closeness of the creature to fire a burst of rounds into its face.
The creature reared backward, falling to the ground in a heap as it writhed in pain. Todoroki shot forward and slammed a frozen boot onto the creature, the explosion of ice forming a jagged mountain atop the creature, encasing it.
He took several steps back, preparing a follow-up, when the earth below him exploded and he felt something spear into his right arm. He blasted himself backward, the pain so intense he could barely see straight.
He heard a scream, not his own, and knew Momo to be injured. He grit his teeth as anger surged through him. He touched down onto the earth and sent a line of ice toward the creature, causing huge spears of ice to explode from the ground in a line toward where the creature was trapped.
He created another orb of condensed fire in his hand and sent himself into the air with a pillar of ice. He could see the creature impaled through its center on the massive stalagmite of ice, several meters above the ground. It flailed as it tried to free itself, causing huge cascades of blood to run down the ice like a river. As his boost took him above the creature they locked eyes. Then Todoroki sent the condensed blast of fire straight down onto the creature. It blew apart the huge mountain of ice in a pillar of fire and slammed the creature into the earth with enough force to create a sizable crater as waves of fire washed over the earth and a large cloud of smoke was created.
As he landed on the ground his knees buckled and he hit the ground. Only now did he notice how weak and shaky he was, he looked at his right arm. His eyes widened in shock as he saw his upper arm was missing a sizeable piece of its musculature. Blood flowed freely down it and was quickly pooling on the ground. With a thought he encased his arm in ice, halting the flow, but he had already lost a substantial amount of blood.
He heard footsteps and saw Momo running to him, a huge gash running up her body, from the lower left point of her hip to her left shoulder. Given she could still move, it must not be as serious as it looked. He felt some of the tension leave him and she kneeled next to him.
"You okay!?" She asked, looking him over.
"For now, what about the creature?" he asked, scanning the area.
"It ran off up the mountain, and I don't think it will come back any time soon. It was in really bad shape."
"Damn... now we have a hound on the loose..." Todoroki said.
"Nothing more we can do, this thing was stronger than any other hound we've seen." She said, grabbing him and helping him to stand.
"We need to contact Nezu, and to find that thing ASAP." He said, pushing her away.
"You can worry about me later." He continued, giving her a hard look.
He could tell she was torn, but as he knew she would, she put her personal feelings aside and created a phone, dialing the number for Nezu.
One year later
"So I take it this means your investigation is complete?" asked Nezu.
"As complete as I could make it, which considering AFO tried his best to bury this, I'm surprised we managed to dig up as much as we did." replied the investigator.
Nezu looked down at the small folder on his desk, an abridged account of The Public Security Intelligence Agencies' investigation into Toru Hagakure's history as a spy for AFO. This was however but a small part of the Agency's ongoing investigation into all of AFO's methods of conducting his dealings over the last century. It would likely take years of work, but the benefits could well prepare them for any future villains looking to emulate AFO.
"I've also included some of my speculations at the end, nothing concrete supports them, but given how AFO usually conducted his operations it's a possibility." The investigator continued.
"Thank you for going out of your way to compile this for me," Nezu said, thanking the investigator.
"You're welcome, if you ever need anything else, let me know." The investigator said, before hanging up.
Nezu let out a small breath, opened the folder, and began reading.
The door opened and three people filed into the room. Two of them were dressed in the uniform of the guards of New Tartarus and the other wearing the standard garb of a low-threat prisoner. The guard sat the prisoner down in the chair in the center of the room where restraints automatically fastened her to the chair which was affixed to the floor. After ensuring the bonds were fastened correctly, took up positions on either side of the prisoner.
On the other side of the room, Nezu, Naomasa, and an investigator from the Intelligence Agency sat in chairs. Toru merely looked at them, stone-faced, yet Nezu was sure she knew why she had been brought here.
"We're going to be asking you a few questions. We've been doing a deep dive into your past with AFO, and we'd like to confirm a few things." The investigator said, notepad and pencil in hand.
Toru didn't say anything.
"You WILL answer their questions." Said one of the guards, three of his five eyes narrowing at her, while subtly resting his elbow on the weapon at his side.
Toru looked at the guard and after glaring for a few seconds she turned back to face her interrogators.
"Fine," she bit out.
"All right then, let's start with where it all began shall we?" The investigator said.
"Approximately eighteen years ago, you were living with your parents in Tokyo, correct?" the investigator asked.
"Yes."
"At around that time, your parents got caught up in a villain attack, and both were killed by said villain?" the investigator asked
"No," Toru said immediately, eyes burning with hate.
"Ah yes, if I recall, the hero who apprehended the villain was taken to court over the event. There were questions regarding his conduct in the event but I believe the courts found that he acted appropriately in the situation." The investigator said, looking down at his notepad.
"That bastard murdered my parents and got away with it!" Toru suddenly exclaimed, straining against her restraints as she leaned forward
The investigator looked at her, his keen eyes taking careful note of her every reaction and continuing to take notes.
"Whether he did or not, we will never know, as he seemed to have died roughly ten years ago. A year before you went to U.A. as a matter of fact." The investigator said lightly, glancing up at Toru.
Toru smiled. "I know." was all she said.
The investigator nodded and looked back down at the notepad.
"Records indicate you were taken in by distant relatives, yet strangely, when we delved deeper into it, we found no tangible trace of you having ever been with them." The investigator said, before looking up at her.
"AFO found you, took you in, and fabricated your history after the death of your parents." He stated, never breaking her gaze.
"That "hero" murdered my parents just to protect his criminal dealings, then he pinned it on his accomplice by killing him too. That bastard walked free, and no one did anything because he was a "hero"." Toru snarled, her hate dripping from her words like venom.
"Sensei took me in and showed me how rotten it all was. He gave me a better life than I could have expected otherwise. He taught me how my quirk had a purpose, and how, despite its uselessness, I could accomplish great things. He even gifted me a second quirk, one that allowed me to turn my invisibility off. For the first time in my waking memory, I could SEE my body. I could see the color of my skin, my hair, my eyes, I could wear the clothes I wanted and know if they matched my appearance. He saved me, gave me a new life, and all he asked for in return was my help in toppling this corrupt and rotten system in the guise of a golden utopia. I would have died for him if he asked." Toru said the awe and adoration clear in her expression and tone.
There was silence while the investigator made several notes, and then he looked back up at Toru.
"I think that will be everything concerning that topic. So, how did you come to be in Zeus's employ? The investigator asked pencil at the ready.
Toru shrugged or tried to, her restraints not allowing her to do so properly.
"I don't know how he discovered my existence, but he figured out I was AFO's spy in U.A. and that I was still alive. So he sent me an "invitation" to work with him. Not that I would have betrayed him anyway, his goals and my desires aligned. If I had known how to contact him, I would have gladly offered my services." Toru said.
"So using your invisibility and knowledge of the school from during the war, you infiltrated the grounds and acquired the information you needed to access secure areas. From there you relayed information to Zeus, up until you learned we were planning an assault on his base. You went back to Zeus and proposed to act as a trap. You faked being imprisoned and when you found an opportunity after being rescued you killed Hitoshi Shinso. You attempted to kill Mina Ashido afterward but were unable to. You were unable to escape the base during its collapse and found yourself trapped until we freed you. That sound about right?" The investigator summarized.
"Yes." Toru bit out, glaring at him.
"Good, good... My last question then is this. What do you know about Aria Lin?" The investigator asked.
"Who?" Toru asked, her glare turning into a slight frown.
"Never mind, what about the monster that was in the base with you?" The investigator asked instead.
"That monster that was roaming the halls, collecting and EATING the corpses left behind? All I ever learned was that it was inside some giant vat of blood before breaking out." Toru said with a shrug.
The investigator took a few final notes and then closed his notebook.
"I think that will be all. Thank you for your time." The investigator said, standing up and making his way out of the room, Naomasa following behind.
When the two were outside of the room, the investigator glanced toward Naomasa an eyebrow raised as they started down the corridor toward the front office.
"She was telling the truth, or at least the truth she knows of." He said with a sigh.
The investigator nodded and twirled his pencil around his hands idly as he thought.
"I think I am a bit more convinced of my theory now." He said.
"Nezu mentioned to me that you had one, but not the specifics," Naoamasa said.
"There's no evidence to support it, but from everything I've learned about AFO, I think it's a sound one regardless. I think it is likely that AFO had his eyes on her, or maybe her mother who had a quirk similar to her own, for some time. Kidnapping adults, and bending them to will so thoroughly that they will never question you, can be difficult and time-consuming. A child on the other hand... well, they are still growing, and still impressionable. So he uses his powers and connections to set up Toru's mother with someone very likely to create a quirk he wanted. At worst, the child or children are failures and he just takes the mother and does things the hard way." The investigator said.
"Of course, that isn't what happened. Toru is born with the quirk he wants so he waits several years then he plots to have them killed and take the child into his service, setting himself up as her savior, and brainwashing her better than he could any adult. We already know he did similar with records found about him establishing an "orphanage" where he brainwashed children. Some of the children were even listed as "backups" to Shigaraki should he turn out to be a failure." The Investigator said darkly.
"Do you think there's hope in reversing such thorough manipulation?" Naomasa asked.
"I don't know. It could take years, maybe decades, if not outright impossible." The investigator said sadly.
The two of them continued to the front desk to wait for Nezu, they had more people to question but you had to register a meeting with each person individually. A slow process, but record keeping in the supermax prison was pristine.
As the guards got Toru ready to move, removing her from the restraints. Nezu remained where he was, studying Toru. As the guars got her up and moved towards the door though, he spoke.
"Ms. Hagakure, did you truly hate being at U.A.?" He asked.
Toru paused, facing the door that would lead her back toward her cell, but the guards made no move to hurry her along.
She didn't turn to face him, her eyes downcast at the floor as she responded.
"... No... Not always," she said quietly, before exiting the room. Leaving Nezu alone with his thoughts.