December 28 - Day 16

"Hawks?" Tomoyasu raised an eyebrow. "The Hawks? The idiot with red wings? The guy who doesn't know the one-english-letter-difference between the singular and plural form of a certain predatory bird?" he added to his question, scratching one side of his head while keeping his Valkyrie close. "That Hawks? Seriously?"

Turtleneck slowly nodded in her usual emotionless manner. "Reports came pouring in around 20 minutes after you left for Irkalla. According to the few messages I received, the hero is claiming that he wants to be part of the Liberation movement, among other things. So far, he's been completely harmless. Perhaps your Command Laptop inbox contains the whole story?"

"Hmmm… we'll see about that…" Tomoyasu's voice trailed off as he heard the progressively louder sounds of padded metal clacking against the paved ground. A few seconds later a small group of humanoid droids arrived, looking all prepared and ready to escort their parked aircraft to the designated take-off zone. Turning back to Turtleneck, Tomoyasu ordered, "prepare the jet, I'll just go check my laptop later." He then turned to his purple D1 droid afterwards, and then towards both Garaki and Zero (who are both still carrying their bags of keychain souvenirs). "Alright people, let's move-"

There's a sudden loud bump, startling Tomoyasu and causing him to instantly look at the direction it came from. It was Turtleneck, who apparently eyed Zero too much that it made her accidentally bump into the luxury jet beside her as she's about to bring down the entrance stairs. "Apologies," the tall woman immediately spoke out, accompanied with a light embarrassed bow, before finally opening the entrance successfully.

Tomoyasu merely rolled his eyes in response before re-gesturing for his companions to follow him into the aircraft. The ensuing process is rather swift, contrary to what he's expecting considering the bags of souvenirs, and soon all six of them (including the Valkyrie and the Purple Droid) are already inside, with Turtleneck in position as the pilot once more.

"Mr. Zero. I'm kind of surprised that you have no opinions on this fancy jet of theirs?" Garaki spoke out in slow English as he relaxed on the sofa - the same one he sat on earlier during the arrival trip. "It's almost as fancy as the levitating limousine, is it not?" He then casually took off his goggles and shoes as if to relax even further, neverminding how unprofessional he looked.

Zero, on the other hand, simply responded with quiet nod. He didn't say a single word.

"Alright, gentlemen... I want this return trip to be as free from problems as possible, okay?" Tomoyasu suddenly said out loud (also in English) from the sofa he's sitting on, interrupting the two's conversation, as the plane began to be pulled away from the parking lot – once more by use of pulleys and cables. He then turned to face Zero, "Mr. Zero, you're not planning on 'Weather-Controlling' and messing up the trip, are you? May I remind you that we have not one but two Irkalla cargo planes following us after we leave…" he said, heavily emphasizing the word 'Irkalla'.

"I'm not planning to."

"Good." Tomoyasu nodded. "Just make sure you stay that way…" He narrowed his eyes on him for a good while to make sure he gets the point, before finally taking out his laptop from the duffle bag on his lap, all while fully ignoring his Valkyrie just sitting on a nearby chair beside him (still staring at him with its blank expression). Now while he definitely knew he should keep contact with it, especially at this early into its development, he decided he won't do it for now. There's still plenty of time for it to 'bond' to him before the actual Liberation starts. There is simply no need to rush…

Unless…

'So Hawks is apparently at the Gunga Mountain Villa huh?' He asked himself in his thoughts as he fired up his laptop. In the meantime he took the duffle bag from his lap and placed it down beside his feet. At this point Garaki is now chatting loudly with Zero, using his English loaded with an extremely thick Japanese accent, but whatever topics they're talking about, that's none of his concern anymore. He has other things to deal with first and foremost.

Turning his attention back to his laptop, he saw that it's already finished booting up and is now at the home screen. Almost immediately, he noticed a small blinking red dot beside a brown envelope icon situated at the top right of the screen. 'Hmmm…' Tomoyasu narrowed his eyes at it. A normal steady red dot signifies only a few unread notifications, but a blinking one? That could only mean that there are now over 50 messages sent to him at this point.

And indeed the blinking dot isn't lying. There are now 167 messages and other various things sent to him by his crew members currently stationed at the Gunga Mountain Villa, with most of them being from Frost and Scolopendra.

And scanning them for a bit, he confirmed that (as told to him by Turtleneck earlier), Hawks is indeed present there.

'So Hawks really is there…? How could this be?' Tomoyasu couldn't help but raise an eyebrow at the confirmation that the Top 3 Hero of the country is very much present at the secret MLA HQ. Narrowing his eyes even further on the laptop screen, he then began scanning through each of the plentiful messages. From there he could find all kinds of discreet video and audio recordings of Hawks just randomly talking to some people and generally just mingling about. And indeed, most of what he's talking about, are just about joining and being a part of the Liberation movement, among other similar harmless things.

Tomoyasu scratched one side of his head in confusion. 'But how did he even get there…?' His confused scratching went further. How did Hawks really even get there in the first place? He very well made sure to cut ALL recruitment at exactly 9am back in December 12, alongside with having Curious killed off and all MLA books pulled back and burned down! Virtually EVERYTHING went to a halt in that sector! The MLA literally completely STOPPED taking in new members! So how did Hawks got where he is now? How did he know where they are? And why did he only appear now? Did someone leak some information? But who even managed to do that, when Tomoyasu himself and his people are the ones controlling everything that gets in and gets out (and he's very sure his people are trustworthy).

'Something's definitely not right here-'

Tomoyasu didn't even finish thinking about Hawks getting into the Gunga Mountain Villa when his mind suddenly shifted towards another obvious thing about the Number 3: Hawks could be a spy for the heroes.

But even then that statement ONLY just resulted in even more questions and confusion. If Hawks is indeed a spy for the heroes, then how come he didn't even make the slightest bit of effort to conceal himself? He literally just appeared in the Gunga Mountain Villa, in full hero attire, doing autographs and demonstrating his Quirk, and just generally confirming to everyone that he's no other than THE REAL Hawks himself. If anything he's doing the exact opposite of what a spy should be doing. He's blatantly announcing who and what he is. So what's really going on here?

'Dammit…' Tomoyasu continued scratching the side of his head, utterly confused. He felt completely stumped. He has absolutely no idea what's going on. While yes the Liberation movement does have, in fact, heroes among their ranks (even in his own regiment), but a literal Top 3 suddenly arriving at a weird time and suddenly wanting to join? It's just simply too suspicious…

In the meantime he kept receiving more and more messages from his crew. It's just more and more of the same thing. They're all confused on Hawks's sudden presence at the villa. And since they have no direct orders on what to do if ever such a case happens, they're just sending messages over and over.

'Hmmm…'

Tomoyasu thought for a moment on what could be done in this strange scenario. Is Hawks just blatantly not concealing himself so the real spies can do the job? But wouldn't that mean that he's just making himself an easy target? If he is a spy, that is…

'I need some peace and quiet…' He then looked up, eyeing both Garaki and Zero having a casual chat just some distance from him. Raising his right hand and snapping his fingers, he successfully got the attention of the two. "Gentlemen, I have encountered an issue that requires total silence," he said out loud in English before turning his raised hand into a pointing gesture directed towards the door that leads to the dining area. "You two go join Sir PurpleBot and the Keychain gang at the eating area, while I use my vastly superior intellect to deal with this new issue at hand."

Garaki simply shrugged before shoving his feet back into his shoes. He then stood up, gestured for Zero to follow him, and together they went towards the dining area. No fuss, no delays, exactly the way Tomoyasu likes it. It always gives him a nice feeling of superiority when people just obey his orders without objecting in any way.

"Okay where was I? Oh right-" Tomoyasu was cut off as he noticed that the plane is speeding up, as visible from the windows. But despite that, everything inside the plane is just steady, like the jet is just completely still on the ground. That's because Irkalla's take-off points have built-in Stratonite Quirk-systems that stabilize the interior of leaving aircraft, making 'sitting still and using seat belts' completely unnecessary.

Tomoyasu instinctively nodded in acknowledgement. Quirks, and all related materials, are indeed very wonderful things, and allowing their usage outside of heroics would very well indeed result in a higher quality of life for everyone involved.

"Okay where was I?" Tomoyasu was about to continue dealing with the Hawks issue when he remembered something he needed to ask. Placing his laptop on a nearby table for a bit, he then stood up and walked towards the cockpit. "Hey Turtleneck," he spoke out to the pilot, "have you received words from Paragon and Zorcon on my purchases?"

"Yes, they arrived just a few minutes ago" came a quick reply. "I was about to relay them-"

"Good." Tomoyasu cut her off before quickly walking back to the main room and sitting back down on his sofa, once more ignoring his Valkyrie (who's still there, once again staring at his face with an emotionless expression). He then took the laptop back and opened up a program to and prepared to contact his people. This is a serious issue and he has to get to the bottom of this as soon as possible.

After taking out a small mic from his duffle bag and plugging it into his laptop, Tomoyasu then spoke out, "Frost, I am here."

"Boss. Skeptic. I presume you already read the messages? What are your orders?" came an almost-instantaneous response from the other side, from a very familiar voice.

"How's everyone's reaction to Hawks? And by that I mean what's everyone's not part of my regiment's reactions?" Tomoyasu kept his eyes glued on the screen, even though the only thing it's displaying (in front of the background wallpaper and other icons) is just a small rectangular tab with undulating audio wavelengths beside a small portrait of Frost. "How are things over there? How's Re-Destro?" he added.

"Aside from a few people being suspicious on Hawks's sudden presence, general reception is fine." Frost paused a bit and audibly cleared his throat. "As for Re-Destro, he instantly took a superb liking to our new unexpected guest, not even doubting him once at all."

"Hmmph… that coward will ALWAYS be a people-pleaser…" Tomoyasu shook his head. For the longest time he very well knew how Re-Destro would instantly turn a complete-180 to try not to offend anyone he deems stronger than him. Absolutely pathetic. "And Trumpet? The League? Geten?"

"We have not seen Trumpet for a while. As for the League, they also took Hawks normally." Frost's voice got distorted for a bit before re-continuing normally. "Actually Geten's right beside me- what's that? Uhm… Skeptic, Geten wants to talk to you."

"Bring the kid on the line."

"Oh hey uh… Skeptic…" came Geten's voice from the other side. "Hawks is really here…"

A menacing toothy grin soon appeared on Tomoyasu's face upon hearing Geten's gloomy tone of voice. "Tell me, Geten, how's your adoptive father's reaction to 'our' newest hero on the ranks?" he asked, despite already knowing how Re-Destro acted. He just wanted to see how the adopted son would respond…

"He immediately went in and welcomed him into the PLF. No doubts, no questions, no suspicions, nothing…"

"Hmmph… For all the talk that man says about POWER and FREEDOM, he's sure as hell the first one to switch into a massive ass-kisser of epic proportions and become a personal slave upon encountering the slightest mishap. What an absolute pathetic joke. I've been trying to tell you this so many times, and yet you kept on refusing to face the truth." Tomoyasu instinctively leaned into the laptop screen. "But now look at how all my words turn into reality right before your very eyes. Re-Destro is nothing. He never had the skill to lead. He never had the will to lead… But still, always remember that there will always be a place for you in my clan. Do think about my offer. Your talents won't be wasted with us: The True Liberation." His lips then pulled up in a smirk. "The way you skillfully carried out Curious's assassination? Perfection."

There was a significant pause before Geten spoke again. "Dabi wants to speak with your personally."

"Well that's certainly a sudden shift in topic…" Tomoyasu slowly moved away from the screen. He was about to re-shift the topic back to Re-Destro and push further when he decided to just proceed with the new one Geten talked about. With Re-Destro's patheticness in full display, getting Geten to his side is more or less guaranteed at this point, there's no more sense with being ominous. "So what is it with Dabi?"

"He won't say what it is. He just repeatedly told us that he wants to personally speak to you. He also said a total of 6 burn-threats while he's at it."

"Typical Dabi…" Tomoyasu shook his head. "Can you give the phone back to Frost, please?"

There were light shuffling sounds. "Skeptic?" came Frost's voice once again from the laptop speakers.

"Inform the rest of the Gunga crew to maintain distance from Hawks and his strange antics for the time-being. I'm going to need a few minutes to think." Tomoyasu cleared his throat for a bit. "Irkalla trip is finished, I'll be arriving back to the mainland shortly. I have acquired what I need."

"Good one, Skeptic."

"I'm logging off for now. But do inform the crew to be ready once I re-log in. I want my voice to be heard across all my people there, you got that?"

"Understood."

Tomoyasu instinctively nodded before exiting the program. Almost immediately, wasting not a single second, he went into thinking about the Hawks situation, and about what could be done in response to the hero's sudden presence…

Now while the end goal for the first part of his grand plan definitely requires the entire Gunga Mountain Villa being 'conveniently discovered' by the heroes, but as of now it's still a bit too early for that. It's not yet the time for such heroic discoveries…

'What to do?' he mentally asked himself, continuing in his thoughts. One 'good thing' is that he very well knew such unexpected things could happen, and he actually already has plans against such unwanted hero intrusions. But the bad part is that the hero who arrived is no ordinary hero. It was Hawks, the literal Number 3 in the country. He cannot be just secretly assassinated and tossed away that easily due to a multitude of obvious reasons. 'Hmmm…' he continued thinking as he once again scanned through the messages sent to him by his crew back when he's 'shopping' at Irkalla-

"What…?" Tomoyasu's eyes widened at the strange message he found at the very bottommost part of the list. The title of the message is just labeled as '10001293'. Now at first glance it just looks like a jumbled mess of numbers, but looking closer he recognized what it is. It's a code.

And there's only one thing he knew that would send such a code to him.

The program he used to contact Humarise.

…

Apparently, Humarise did eventually respond to him just around thirty minutes after he left for Irkalla…

…

Tomoyasu scanned his surroundings, nervousness and extreme irritation rapidly building up in him. At the same time, a whole mass of thoughts came sprawling out into his mind, feeling like an entire hurricane that mentally manifested inside his skull. 'WHAT THE HELL?! NOW WHAT?!' he mentally scolded himself. He already has this Hawks issue to solve and now he has another (far bigger) one?! The worst part here is that he actually had a chance to solve it earlier, yet he didn't. He chose to go to Irkalla first instead of just solving the damn thing first!

Gritting his teeth in absolute rage, Tomoyasu began reassuring himself that what he did is NOT failure. It is NOT a mistake. The only time things will count as failure is IF it ever blew up on his face, which it didn't YET-

'I suggest you not keep your eyes too much on the prize. It's a big world out there. A big dog-eat-dog world. There could be bear traps at any corner. And it appears if it weren't for me reminding you something, you've already gotten both of your legs cut off…'

The memory of Garaki's words repeated itself amidst the chaos inside his head.

'I HAD THE CHANCE AND I STILL BLEW IT-!' Tomoyasu abruptly stopped in his total irritation upon feeling a soft hand place itself on the back of his neck.

It was his Valkyrie, whose facial expression is still as emotionless as ever.

"What the hell?! Get off me!" Tomoyasu, keeping his voice down to make sure the two people on the other side of the room wouldn't hear him, smacked the hand off the back of his neck in annoyance. "Stay put, you moron-!"

Tomoyasu abruptly stopped as he was about to lecture his Valkyrie to stop whatever she's about to do next.

Something clicked inside his mind

Apparently, just stopping for a moment and indirectly taking his mind off the far bigger issues somehow gave him clarity. He then slowly turned his attention back to the Humarise message, staring at it for a while as his irritated expression slowly faded out into blankness.

'Well technically I haven't even opened he message yet and I'm already going nuts...'

…

Shrugging (and hoping no one heard his extremely idiotic outburst), Tomoyasu then took one deep breath and sighed. But still, he felt nervousness once again beginning to well up within him again. Yet despite that, he decided to just plant a finger on the laptop touchpad and just open the Humarise message. At the end of the day, he won't really proceed with anything from just beating around the bush. There's just no sense in delaying the inevitable.

…

And there's the message…

…

?!

…

For all his raging and tantrums, apparently all Humarise said back is a simple 'Hello?'.

…

"What…?" Tomoyasu, in complete shock and disbelief, slowly pulled his face back from the laptop and then gradually swiveled his head to face the scantily-clad Valkyrie beside him. "Are you seriously seeing this?" he asked in an annoyed tone, to which he only got a blank stare back as a response. "What the hell?! This is the entire message?"

He turned his attention back to his laptop, one hand automatically going up and scratching the side of his head. But as much as he felt a massive wave of relief wash over him, he just couldn't help but be confused about the mysteriously simple answer. If anything he's fully expecting an ominous reply, or maybe even a threat, but a simple Hello? That is NOT what he's expecting.

Almost immediately he checked the installed program he used to contact Humarise in the first place. And indeed, he found nothing wrong with it. If anything he even got confirmation that the message is, in fact, successfully sent to its intended destination. But why the simple reply? Is it because they felt no need to entertain him or anything? Or is it because of other reasons?

Inspecting the program further, he then found one interesting tidbit. It seems that Humarise also tried to decode on who the original sender might be (as expected). In fact they even went through the effort of breaching through up to 7 countermeasures before giving up. Now while they didn't even make it to half of the total installed anti-detection countermeasures (both Quirk-related and conventional ones), but still Tomoyasu found their efforts commendable. Most would give up after being stumped on the second one.

"Hmmm… but was it really Humarise…?" Tomoyasu continued in his thoughts as he leaned closer to the screen of his laptop. After a brief pause, he then began re-inspecting the entirety of his original message and all its components, from the date it's sent, how it's sent, how it landed on its destination, and how it was tried to be decoded. By all means everything is still pointing out that he did manage to land on the target perfectly. Humarise DID receive the message. But how come all he got from them is just a simple one-word response?

But then again. There's not much sense to ponder on that. After a quick press of a button to make his systems completely ditch his original message into oblivion (making in completely untrackable in any form including his own systems), and it's done. The Humarise issue is completely over.

All is well.

"Well that went… very well I suppose?" Tomoyasu wiped off some sweat that formed on his forehead as he turned to look at his Valkyrie, who's still staring at him in the same emotionless expression. "Well at least the Humarise issue is finally done!"

The Valkyrie slowly raised a hand, but before she could place it on Tomouasu's arm, he quickly smacked it off.

"Okay… since you're a very touchy person… I'm gonna go set up some rules…" Tomoyasu stretched his arms a bit before placing his laptop on a nearby table beside him, making sure to take into account the still-plugged in mic. He then stood up. One part of him is still feeling relieved that the Humarise issue is over, but now another part is slowly getting nervous on the Hawks issue. "We are a touch-free Liberation movement, okay? Absolutely no touching. We don't hug each other, we don't tuck each other to bed, and sure as hell we don't kiss each others' foreheads goodnight- Put. The. Hand. Down." Tomoyasu immediately countered his Valkyrie as she was lifting up her arm again as if wanting to hold his hand.

"Where's the instructions manual anyway…?" Tomoyasu immediately crouched down and started rummaging around the contents of his duffle bag. From there he could see the instruction manuals for the Biofuel, Cloning Tanks, the purple droid, and the mini-Dreadnought… It took him a while until he eventually got the Valkyrie instructions manual, and like with all Zorcon products, it's themed in a gold-and-white color pattern.

"Okay… what do we have here…" Tomoyasu read around. While he already received the basic rundown of the mechanics of High-Tier Valkyries back at Irkalla, the annoying saleslady did not tell him anything about what to do in case of odd mannerisms. "Hmmm… It says here on the manual that I don't really have to hold my language on a 'developing' Valkyrie. As long as I'm not yelling at them and calling them mean names, they would still eventually attach themselves to the first person who pulled them out of their tank." Tomoyasu paused a bit, nodding along. "Looks like Zero's lying after all. I don't need to sleep with-"

?!

He narrowed his eyes on a particular sentence on the bottom part of the page he's reading. Apparently, Zero is STILL correct. The fastest way to make Valkyrie bond to its owner is by sleeping and cuddling with them, literally. "Whoever made Valkyries has got to be the most sexually depraved person in the entire planet…" he said to himself, despite fully knowing a Valkyrie's default attractive physical appearance is originally meant to help it escape consequences if ever they're caught (by way of exploiting the intrinsic bias humans have for beautiful women), and not for sexual purposes. But still, "I'm sticking to my 'depraved person' theory because that makes so much more sense…" Tomoyasu rolled his eyes afterwards before quickly moving his head to face his own Valkyrie, catching it in the act of once more extending a hand. "Put. The. Hand. Down… Don't touch me."

The Valkyrie slowly did what she's told, her face still lacking any discernible emotions.

"What the hell is wrong with you…?" Tomoyasu shook his head as he began walking around, his mind partly still in the middle of thinking about what to do with his Hawks issue.

As he kept walking, he eventually found himself on a nearby window. He then looked to see what's outside. Apparently the aircraft is now in full flight and he didn't even notice the entire take-off sequence. He instinctively nodded in acknowledgement, remembering the Quirk-systems set in place to make aircraft exit as smooth and turbulence free as possible.

"Hmmm… what do I do with Hawks…?" His thoughts eventually went back to his original issue once more as he continued looking out the window, seeing a vast expanse of ocean underneath a cloudless sky. But the thing that stood out most is a strange distortion of light just located just beside the plane itself, just a little to the back.

It's the invisible cargo jet carrying their extra supplies. Acknowledging its presence, he then walked to the other side of the plane he's in and looked out once more. There's another strange distortion of light in very much the same relative position as the one he saw earlier. He presumed that one is a Zorcon cargo jet carrying the Cloning Tanks and Biofuel, while the other is Paragon's carrying his Dreadnought.

Tomoyasu soon moved off the window but continued thinking, neverminding the creepy stare his Valkyrie is giving him.

…

"Wait…" Tomoyasu suddenly stopped walking, an idea suddenly manifesting into his mind. "Hmmm… I guess I could just stash my entire Gunga crew at the beachside mansion for the time being…" He nodded to himself as he walked back to sit on the sofa beside his purchased bioweapon. "Now I want you to- What the hell?!" He stopped and immediately smacked the Valkyrie's hand as it was about to touch his arm again. "Stop glitching out for a minute, will ya? Couldn't you see I'm staging a massive terrorist attack here?" Tomoyasu then sighed and simply shook his head afterwards, before immediately checking the instructions manual to see if there's anything that could make the Valkyrie stop her irritating antics.

Unfortunately, there's nothing he can do about it. High-Tier Valkyries are sometimes just that by default. Since their mental systems are not simply static and capable of learning much more, they just tend to develop 'initial personalities' before being bonded and adapted to their masters, and that includes mannerisms such as random touching whenever they sense their masters being tensed up and stressed.

Tomoyasu could only roll his eyes and facepalm at what he saw. But at least his Valkyrie actually listens when he tells her to stop, so it sort of evens out. "Okay, no more touching, alright? I have figured out a solid plan… well technically it's not fully solid and more like a slapped-on band-aid solution. But since I'm a goddamn genius who never fails I'm sure I can just manifest a better one along the line." Tomoyasu cleared his throat. "Okay let's do this."

Cracking his knuckles, he then returned the Valkyrie instructions manual back to his duffle bag. Afterwards, he took his laptop back from the nearby table, minding the still-plugged-in mic, and immediately fired up a program that would allow him to connect with Frost.

It took a short while, but the person in question eventually connected. "Frost, relay to Scolopendra to activate AllChat," Tomoyasu quickly said into the mic.

"Understood, Skeptic." Came a quick response from Frost from the other side, accompanied with a few low mumblings in which Tomoyasu recognized as Geten's.

He then started mentally counting down from 10. The moment he reached 5, a small beep emanated from the laptop speakers. Nodding in acknowledgment, he then leaned into his laptop screen - that's now displaying a whole load of crew profiles. "Crew, is everyone there-?"

He didn't even finish speaking when he's instantly flooded with worried complaints from his crew. From what he could discern amidst the audio chaos, Hawks is apparently still there. Now while the hero is still just being harmless in general, but his crew are just very concerned that a literal top hero is within the vicinity, and most of them were talking about the main plan potentially failing.

"Crew. Silence!" Tomoyasu spoke out loud into the mic, and indeed it instantly silenced the crew to nothing but low mumbles. "Okay…" he cleared his throat. "Hawks's strange antics and mannerisms are definitely something to be concerned about, as well as requiring more understanding on my part… But for a peace of mind in the time being, I'll have you Gunga Mountain Villa crew be temporarily relocated at Re-Destro Beachhouse 12A-CC. Now of course I can't just warp you all in one big portal, for that would be too obvious. For us to stay hidden, I'm going to have you all just slowly trickle out and be replaced with neutral Liberation troops stationed from somewhere else." Tomoyasu then paused for a bit to see if anyone would like him to repeat his words in case of misunderstanding. Hearing not a single request, he then proceeded, "I'm taking the non-combat crewmembers first. Now for those included in that group, I want you to discreetly position and distribute yourselves at Gunga C-9, Gunga C-12, Gunga C-15, and Gunga C-19. Once I get back to the mainland, I'll have Garaki arrange the teleports. Also do take note to not come in one big batch, okay? Just go for a trickle. I'll get you all out of there eventually."

"Er, Skeptic?" in came Geten's sudden words. "Do remember that Dabi said he wants to talk to you personally."

"I very well remember that little fact." Tomoyasu paused a bit. "Inform the delusional pyromaniac of my little relocation plan and include him in the first batch. I would want to hear what he say to say."

"Okay." Geten replied, followed closely with a few muffled sounds. "So uh… I'm giving this to Frost now."

"Go ahead." Tomoyasu spoke back, before immediately making a quick glance on his Valkyrie to check if it's trying to touch his arm again. Thankfully she's just staying put.

"Boss Skeptic." Frost spoke from the other side of the line. "The crew has now received your orders. We will now commence discreet distribution."

"Proceed. Hopefully this whole Hawks issue is just nothing too serious like Humarise."

"Humarise what?"

"Uhm nevermind. Scratch that, just a little memory of mine…" Tomoyasu shook his head, feeling a little irritated by himself in his little slip-up. His crew doesn't have the slightest idea on what he initially planned with Humarise. And since that one little plan almost backfired, it's best that they just stay not knowing about it. And thankfully, as good crewmembers go, Frost did not push further. Good. "Anyways. I'll be logging off now. Stay safe out there. Steer clear of Hawks, but keep a close eye on him." Tomoyasu paused a bit, as if remembering something else. "Also, Frost? I'll have you manage who gets to be included in the first batch."

"Understood, Skeptic."

"Good." Tomoyasu logged out. Almost immediately he placed the laptop and the attached mic back on the nearby table before resting his back on the sofa. "Hmmm… Could Hawks be a spy? Could he be bait? Or something else? Either way his sudden appearance is most certainly not normal…" he spoke to himself, slowly turning his head to face his Valkyrie, who's just sitting there staring at him with her usual blank expression. "He's saying things like he wants to join the Liberation, which is certainly very odd and could potentially mess up my plans, let's hope nothing too bad happens." he spoke out with a bored expression. He knew he's just talking to a Valkyrie, but still-

The Valkyrie slightly nodded, slightly surprising him.

"Well that's… unexpected." Tomoyasu slowly stood up once more and stretched his arms. He then resumed thinking about Hawks's entire presence. "Hmmm… what should I do…? Would my temporary plan be enough for the situation?" Tomoyasu continued thinking he as began pacing back and forth. "Re-Destro's beachside mansion's underground compartment is definitely big enough for the Gunga crew… and the mansion itself has enough rooms…" Tomoyasu crossed his arms as he happened to glance towards the nearby window. "I think it's a good enough temporary solution while I plan on solving it entirely…" He then glanced over to his Valkyrie. "I'll just go get Doc to-"

!

Tomoyasu suddenly stopped, an absolutely brilliant idea suddenly appearing inside his head. "Wait a minute…" His eyes slowly widened as he began mentally connecting some points. "Hey… it all makes sense… Doc… Humarise… Hawks… the message… everything!" A menacing grin slowly crept up his lips. "The exploitable-ness of this situation is OFF THE CHARTS!"

Tomoyasu's pacing sped up as more and more ideas enter his head. Some of it he found so smart that he's almost cackling to himself every few seconds. "Sometimes my genius… the level I can formulate plans… it's almost quite frightening…" He spoke to himself as he continued pacing. "THIS IS GREAT-!"

"Hey uh, Skeptic? Who are you talking to?"

"W-what…?" Tomoyasu abruptly stopped, quickly turning his head towards the nearby closed metal door. Apparently, he's walked around and cackled to himself too much that Garaki eventually heard him from the nearby dining area.

"We can hear you from here. Are you talking to your Valkyrie, by any chance?"

"Uhm… I was actually just talking to myself, because I'm leagues superior to any Valkyrie. Why would I waste time spitting out words to such a lesser being?" Tomoyasu replied. Despite the almost-nonsensical drivel he just spouted out, he was actually being truthful. "But anyways, now that you have heard my genius through the door, I demand your presence here immediately."

Almost immediately he could hear a few beeps alongside the sounds of metal chairs being pushed out. It appears that the two were probably messing with the purple D1 droid in there with them.

Before long the metal door that leads to the dining area of the luxury jet opened, and in came Garaki. "I respectfully request you to tone down the cackling. It's not really good for our guest. He told me he's he's deathly afraid of witches."

Tomoyasu rolled his eyes, not sure if Garaki's odd tone is just him making an attempt of a joke or he's actually being serious. But still, "Doc, there's been a slight change of overall plans and I'm going to require your aid on this one. It has something to do with both Hawks and Humarise-"

"Hawks- Humar –what?" Garaki walked into the room and carefully closed the metal door behind him. "Hawks and Humarise? Did my old ears hear that correctly? What does those two and me have to do with anything?

Tomoyasu took a deep breath and stepped back. He doesn't want the impending discussion to take place too near the dining area door and be heard by Zero. He doesn't need any more needless risk today. "Okay…" he cleared his throat, "here's a complete rundown on the strange Hawks-related issue we're suddenly having at Gunga…" Tomoyasu then paused for a bit and cleared his throat again, before telling the entire story about Hawks to Garaki, all from his strange 'peaceful' mannerisms to him supposedly wanting to join the Liberation movement.

"That is… unexpected… and strange…"

"I know, right?! Recruitment's over and we suddenly have some high-ranking Top 3 hero barging in like he owned the place! That's why I'm planning to do some teleporting to slowly get my people out of there." Tomoyasu then started slowly walking around once more, but still making sure he stays away from the dining room door as much as possible. "Anyways, that's not important as of now. I have a better plan involving you and Humarise…" He cackled again afterwards, but this time a whole lot lower.

"Hu- what? Humarise again? Have you forgo-"

Tomoyasu raised a hand. "No. I have not forgotten their anti-Quirk ideology. This time I have calculated everything perfectly-," he then abruptly stopped and recomposed himself. "Also by the way, Humarise responded, but their response is just a simple one-word 'Hello?' and they didn't even get past more than 7 countermeasures."

"Well that's nice I guess?"

"It's VERY nice, Doc. Absolutely nice…" Tomoyasu then slowly started pacing around once more, his menacing grin ever growing. "Okay… here's the new plan…"