The door to the conference room opened and Hawks, accompanied by Naomasa entered the room. The murmurs that had been present immediately died down and everyone watched as Hawks and Naomasa took up positions at the head of the table, a laptop open and the projector on.
As the two settled in their seats, they had a quick conversation that no one could hear before Hawks turned to face the assembled group and cleared his throat. The projector turned on and a picture of a ruined building was displayed, clearly located in the ruined sector.
"As you are all aware, we made a breakthrough in the Ochako Abduction case. We were alerted to a widespread power outage in the ruined sector, followed by gunfire and explosions. Dynamite was nearby and promptly investigated, discovering the commotion to have come from a bar long known to be a hotbed for criminal activity. After subduing criminal elements, he collected statements that indicated that The Hunter had stormed the building and captured two of the people inside. We later received a message from The Hunter himself, leading us to where he had deposited the two." Hawks said, the projector's image changing to that of an abandoned office building.
"We brought the two men in for questioning and discovered that they were members of a hit squad specializing in abductions, with one of them being their leader. They revealed to us that they were responsible for the disappearance of Aria Lin from the forest we had tracked her down to. They likely beat our retrieval team there by a day or two. While this alone is cause for concern and further investigation, they also told us where they had delivered her too. While they didn't know where Ochako was being held, there is a better than average chance that she's being held in the same location." Hawks continued, the image now changing to a satellite image of a large industrial warehouse.
Hawks then sat down, with Naomasa taking the lead. The image changed again, to what was an image of the building before its ruination.
"The building was a chemical storage facility before its ruination. Nothing too dangerous, and reports show everything was moved after the devastation. The building is quite large and has a basement, this is where Ochako Uraraka would be held if anywhere. It is however host to various rooms and chambers, some designed to be locked down in the event of a catastrophic chemical breach, making locating her a potentially time-consuming task." Naomasa said, going through a plethora of images taken of the site during a state inspection to ensure all the chemicals had been moved.
Suddenly Rikugun-Shōshō Genryusai stood, drawing everyone's attention to him.
"I was given an abbreviated briefing earlier, and I would like to propose a course of action." He said, hands pressing against the table as he looked at everyone at the large table.
"We have some of the best heroes in this very room, not to mention myself and Gunsō Ahmya. I will personally lead a strike team to secure Ochako Uraraka tomorrow morning. Between the heroes present and my and Gunsō Ahmya's squad, I am confident we can accomplish our objective." he boldly declared.
This pronouncement immediately caused a great deal of discussion, but Bakugo and the rest of 1A were mostly left out of it. There wasn't any need to involve them after all, everyone present knew they would go even if they weren't asked.
He sat against the wall, his heart going a mile a minute. He gazed at the comatose form of the scarlet-haired woman; no... not woman, monster. He could only compare her near-unstoppable power to that of the Angels, Shigiraki, Stars and Stripes, and All Might. All monsters in human form, and she was just another one of their kind. He spat on the ground, phlegm and blood visible in it and he winced.
He rubbed the spot on his chest where she had only grazed him, leaving what he was sure was a huge bruise, if not more damage. Either way, he was alive, so he stood up and made his way over to the monster.
"Wake up," he commanded.
When she didn't wake, he kicked her hard in the head, though he doubted she even felt it.
"I SAID WAKE UP!" He shouted.
Then she stirred and her eyes slowly opened, now back to the empty voids. She slowly sat up and her head lolled to one side slightly, still drunk from when he had feasted on the hero. He had no idea why the hero's blood would be different than everyone else's he had fed her, but it had had enough of a kick to break his mental dominance of her mind.
He looked around at the torn-up room, shaking his head at the mess. She'd nearly killed him in her drunken rage, and if it hadn't been for the fact that she was drunk, he would likely be dead. Even still, it took five minutes to reassert his control, another reminder that her head was extremely pliable. He'd have to be careful to ensure he didn't lose control of her again.
He checked his phone, ensuring nothing else had gone wrong in the time he had been inconvenienced, and then beckoned her to him.
She stood, walking up to him, subservient as she should have been.
"Follow me, I have more work for you." He said and started walking towards the room's exit, with her following close behind.
He almost got to the exit when he stopped. He cursed at himself before spinning around and walking back the way he had come. He had forgotten to check on the hero, which had been half the reason he'd come here. He was confident he had finally broken her with the burn torture, shattering her mind enough for his quirk to take hold and dominate her mind. However, if his recent near-death encounter taught him anything, it was to be doubly sure about his control.
Izuku grunted as he finally managed to pry open the skylight. The rusted and damaged hinges proved to be quite difficult to work, after ten minutes of careful labor he managed to open the skylight with minimal noise. He reached over to his pack and removed the cable and winch he had hauled halfway across the city. He took another few minutes to set it up, securing it on the lip of the skylight housing, before attaching the stirrup to the hook. He manually released some line, then put one foot in the stirrup and slowly climbed through the skylight until he hung over the empty air. His foot was secure in the stirrup, and with one hand clamped on the cable he pressed the remote control in his other hand and the winch slowly lowered him down into the large, empty, storage room.
When he got to the bottom he pressed the button again, halting its movement, and simply stepped off the stirrup onto the floor. His contacts glowing red in the dark and he could see a door just ahead of him. He went up to it, saw it was locked, and simply unlocked it from the inside.
He slowly opened the door a fraction and using a small compact monocular periscope looked into the hallway beyond. After giving it a couple of minutes, he put the periscope away and slowly eased the door open. He slipped into the hallway like a shadow, closing the door but not latching it in case he needed to make a hasty escape. He slinked down the hallway, following the map he had memorized the day before. He was currently in a hallway mostly consisting of offices, connecting to the storage warehouse via an enclosed external walkway. The door to which was at the end of the hallway he was in.
He reached the door without issue, and after taking a minute to examine it, determined it wasn't trapped or had any silent alarms tied to it, so he simply opened it and entered into the walkway. He saw, through the glass lining the sides of the hallway the rest of the compound, consisting of other warehouses, but the blueprints showed the warehouse he was currently walking towards to be the primary storage facility, with a basement and office building linked to it. It was his best lead, and even if Ochako wasn't here, he at least hoped to learn something that might aid in his search.
Through his inquiries, he learned about a new criminal group in the city that had been throwing around some serious money. It had been a long shot, but Ochako's abduction was the most high-profile criminal event that happened since the war ended. He'd been desperate, but he had gotten lucky. The leader of the group that he had taken from the bar worked for the man who had abducted Ochako, as he had been asked by him to abduct her before using Aria Lin. He had been surprisingly easy to interrogate, a combination of scare tactics and psychological manipulation had worked wonders. He wasn't the brightest man he had met, but he wasn't one to complain.
He got to the end of the hallway and after another check, opened the door to the storage facility proper and stepped inside.
It was vast, and it was empty. One wall was lined with large shelves, designed to hold vast quantities of chemicals and other related materials, with palettes strewn about the floor haphazardly. It was as dead and empty as he expected, with dust, cobwebs, and droppings from various critters that had passed through over the years. He went over the mental map in his head and made his way over to the far end of the room, where a door was located, leading to the staircase and ramp that led to the basement. It consisted of a half dozen rooms, a hallway, and a larger room to hold pallets of chemicals meant to be stored for only a brief period. The ramp provided the moving of chemicals with either a forklift or dolly.
The door at the end, unlike the others, was rigged with an alarm. Well-disguised underneath some detritus next to the door, was a laser trip wire going to a receiving sensor. His mind briefly flashed to some movies he had seen, where a mirror was used to fool the laser. He let out a snort of laughter at the idea and instead shut the laser off since it was a simple battery-powered device. He didn't believe that was the real security though, it was far too simple, even if it was disguised well enough. Likely intended to catch random passersby.
Yet as he searched the door from top to bottom, he found there was nothing else. If there was more security, it was on the other side of the door. He stood there for a few minutes, deciding what to do, he didn't have the tools to deal with something like that. He sighed, shrugged, and just opened the door. It opened smoothly and he stepped through the entryway into the hallway beyond.
Knowing that he had likely tripped some alarm, he threw stealth aside and started down the ramp at a quick pace. It didn't take him long to reach the bottom, but as he approached the rolling doors that led to the main storage room, he saw that the rolling doors were open and the lights on. He had nothing to hide behind so he walked into the room, his blade drawn in his right hand and his left free to grab any gadgets he might need.
He walked into the well-lit room, into a scene of devastation. The entire room was torn up as if some clawed tornado had rampaged through it. Not to mention the large blood stains that were scattered about. The room was empty though, and with nothing to hide behind, there could be no trap awaiting him. Along the left-hand wall was the entrance into the lit hallway, where the smaller rooms were located.
He made his way to the entrance and peered down it. He saw no one, just a deserted hallway and a series of four doors leading to the last door at the far end. Knowing time was not on his side he made his way down the hallway, intuition telling him to try the door at the far end first.
He only made it halfway when the door opened and two people walked out. One was Aria Lin, the one who had taken Ochako, and the other was dressed in black non-descript clothing, save for the demon mask he wore.
The three stopped, all surprised at the sudden appearance of the other.
"You... are The Hunter... I must admit when I came to this city I thought you to be akin to a ghost story. But this is very convenient, so before either of us makes a decision we might regret, I'd like to extend to you a formal invitation to join me. The protege of Stain would be a great boon to my cause." Demon Mask said quite amicably.
The politeness of his tone threw Izuku off, but he was quick to respond.
"Is Uravity here?" He asked.
"The hero? Well yes, she is, but let me assure you that she is committed to my cause." Demon Mask said placatingly.
Izuku's guts twisted, he had a bad feeling about where this was going.
"What have you done to her..." He asked, his voice low, his left hand drifting casually to one of his gadgets.
"I... have convinced her of the righteousness of my cause, that it would be better to work with me, than against me." He said.
"And what cause would that be?" Izuku asked.
"The revival of Japan, of course. A return to dominance, to become the unparalleled warrior nation we were destined to be." He said, and Izuku could practically hear the smile in his words.
Izuku snorted with derision. "If you think that's possible then you are even crazier than I thought," Izuku said.
"And that is what everyone said... before I eventually changed their minds. You will too. Even if I have to hold you down and drill it into your head." Demon Mask said shaking his head, then he turned to look at Aria.
"Subdue him, no killing." He said, his voice suddenly stern.
Aria lurched toward him immediately, but he immediately noticed that she looked sluggish, her movements not as coordinated as they should have been. He dodged her swipe with her suddenly materialized claws easily, then stepped forward and brought his blade down across her torso in one smooth motion.
His blade cut through her flesh easily, but then, it cut through most things far easier than it should have. Izuku had deduced, that whatever contract Sasakura had placed upon the blade before his death had made it into one of the deadliest blades in the world, cutting through the toughest material with ease and never growing dull. That being said, he was fairly certain it wasn't indestructible but had no mind to test it either way.
Blood poured out of Aria like a river, spewing everywhere, but she didn't make a noise. Instead, the spewing blood turned in the air and was sucked back towards her. Flowing over her body and taking on new shapes until she stood before him. She had become truly monstrous, she stood upon the ground like a great ape, but instead of hands, she had large, multi-digit, clawed fingers. Her legs became scaled and digitigrade, while the rest of her was some bizarre cross of mammal and lizard. A hulking monstrosity with six slits for eyes and two forked tongues.
She came at him in a rush, head down like a charging rhino, and slammed into him before he could so much as twitch. She charged straight down the hallway into the main storage hall but he managed to roll off her front onto her back where he plunged his blade through her entire body before she slammed head-first into the far wall leaving a huge crater.
While she recovered, he pulled his blade free and jumped backward, retrieving the gadget he had managed to cobble together to potentially deal with her. clutched in his hand, he had what looked to be an enlarged staple gun. He aimed it at Aria and as she turned around pressed the trigger. Two pins attached to the gun via two large wires shot out and dug deep into her body, anchoring themselves to her. Then he pressed another button and electricity arced down the wires.
The light was blinding as Aria was shocked by a truly obscene amount of electricity. Her flesh smoked and let loose a scream as inhuman as her appearance. She collapsed to the ground a twitching mass as more electricity arced into her. Then the battery died and he dropped the now useless device. He rushed forward, intent on dealing a decisive blow, enough to cripple her to allow him to get on top of Demon Mask.
He was halfway there when the ground beneath him exploded and a silver spear shot up toward him. He tried to twist to avoid it, but it was too fast and it pierced him through the shoulder, packing enough force to lift him off the ground. He let out a grunting gasp of pain as he was tossed about in the air before it eventually slammed him into the wall next to the doors leading out of the room, where the silvery spear-tipped tail embedded itself.
He tried to free himself, tried to slice through the silvery tail, but even his blade couldn't cut through it, but that could just as easily be because it was his right shoulder, and moving his right arm was now extremely difficult. He tried everything he could but eventually had to concede that he was well and truly stuck.
He stood there as Aria recovered and he saw that she had sent her tail through the floor, and with a mighty flex, split the earth as she unearthed her tail and walked towards him. Her form slowly changed back to that of her human form and as she came up to him, she put a handout and blood gushed from it to cover his right and left arms, quickly solidifying into fleshy bindings. Then she retracted her tail back into herself.
He cried out in pain as the tail was removed but was fortunate that the wound, while bad, had missed his major blood vessels and would be unlikely to kill him anytime soon.
Demon Mask walked up to Izuku shaking his head, clearly expecting a result like this.
"Now that you are out of options, I'll ask again. Join me." He said.
"I'd rather die." he bit out, glaring at him.
Demon Mask cocked his head to one side and looked him over. Then as if deciding something he nodded several times.
"I think... that can be arranged. Hold on a moment." He said before disappearing around the corner.
While he was gone, Aria wandered off to the center of the room and just flopped down onto the floor staring at the ceiling. He was forced to stand there, trapped, for a few minutes until he came back round the corner, but this time, he wasn't alone.
His eyes widened in shock and horror as Ochako followed behind him, and she was almost unrecognizable. She was almost entirely naked, with only ruined strips of her pants left. Her skin was blotchy and bruised with scabs all over, resulting in a horrible mix of pink, tan, purple, and red. Her arms were much the same, but with less obvious trauma, which made her blood vessels stand out, a mix of red and black. But her torso was the most horrifying. She had been tortured, with marks and scabs that he could only guess were caused by a Cat o' nine tails. Those were old though, beginning to heal, the more recent torture stood out like a beacon.
Where burn scars covered the majority of the right side of her body, stretching from her hip to her shoulder, new ones appeared to have been made on top of them. She had been precisely burned all along her scars, making it appear as if it had only happened recently. Her scarred breast had not been spared either, welts dotted it, as did circular scabs.
He remembered, quite vividly when he had first seen her scars. It had put her on the verge of panicking, convinced he would abandon her after seeing her body. It had been an accident of course, and while he had already guessed she had been burned at some point, based on the fact that he caught glimpses of the burns along her shoulder. He never would have guessed how bad the injury had been, or how much of her body it encompassed until then. While the burns had admittedly freaked him out at first, he was no stranger to injury or horrific imagery, and he'd adapted to it relatively easily. It was instead the horrific scarring of her breast that had shaken him. He had never before seen an injury like that, never even imagined it, and so the sight was burned into his memory. An ever-present reminder of just how devastating the war had been, that some had suffered far more than others, and that the scars ran far deeper than surface level.
Finally, it was clear her face had been beaten numerous times. Dried blood caked her face, with the bruises and welts to match. Her hair was matted with blood and hung in limp strands around her face. Her head hung low, staring at the ground, but he could see that her eyes were the same as Aria's.
Empty voids, where nothing remained.