Green Tea Rescue Chapter 43: Inko Midoriya: Origin Part 3, a my hero academia/僕のヒーローアカデミア fanfic

Content Warning: This chapter contains graphic depictions of death, violence, drug use, and overdoses. These are serious matters and may be difficult and triggering for some readers. I do not want to make light of these issues and tried to show some things in a more realistic light, even given the setting and the world the story is based on. If you or someone you know does suffer from drug abuse, please reach out to friends or family for help. SAMHSA (Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration) has a national American helpline 1-800-487-4889 and their website is samhsa dot gov.

Well it's officially winter. It's freaking cold. Why couldn't Bespin have been a fishing island in the south? Why north? Thank god Bob found those little wood stoves or else our shacks would be ice boxes. Musen says the weather reports are saying we might hit some record cold temps. It might even snow.

Yay?

It's been a few years since it's snowed here. Last time was maybe a year or so after the miners really started putting the screws to us. Throwing up so much dust and crap made the snow black. So that's how long then? Three years since the sea wall came down plus…

It's been a long time since it last snowed.

And now it feels like I live next door to Santa Claus.

Overall things have been good. Bob and Musen are thinking of opening up a repair shop. Lots of stuff around here needs to be fixed. Lots of the fishers let their shit just lay around while they weren't fishing. Now they want to start up again and half of their shit doesn't work and the other half got stolen for drug money. I swear half of the shitty people here you either see with a needle in their arm, smoking something or twitching on the ground after doing one or the other.

Or both.

Fucking dumbasses.

Not that it's that different than it was before, the people here were always shits. Just now because of all the drugs that get made, they're high shits.

But at least Bespin is looking nice again.

…Well nicer.

A lot of the pollution is gone but things seem tricky. Nothing is growing like it should. In fact it's almost like things are still dying. The trees, the ones that are still alive, never get green. And the rest look like skeletons sticking out of the ground. The bark is bleached white. The water is clear-ish but no fish.

Then there's the area around Alderaan Bay, I still fucking hate that name. It got bigger again this week. Another large chunk of the coast cracked off and scared the shit out of Bark Head when it fell into the water. Fucking loud, and I think the whole island shook too. And while seeing him almost piss his pants is hilarious, I don't think constantly losing land mass is good for the island.

There have also been a lot of earthquakes too. Not like it's one a week or anything like that but, it's about maybe two every other month now. I mean I know it's Japan but this seems excessive. Musen also said that reports from the mainland aren't registering anything when they happen. It's not tectonic…

Not really sure what that means though.

I'm sure things will work themselves out. Things just need to settle down.

Speaking of settling down. Bark Head is going to ask me to marry him. I saw the ring when he thought I wasn't looking. That goofy dork, I wonder who he stole it from? Of course now I have to wait for him to finally pop the question. Which is driving me insane. I'm half tempted to kick him out of bed right now and demand he get on his knees and ask me already. But I guess he's trying to figure out a way to do this romantically.

At least he better be tryin to figure out a way to ask me that's romantic.

I swear I need some proper romance.

Sakura is getting that good shit from the mayor's kid. How she swung that I have no idea. Rich boy gots the hots for the flower orphan. Well good for her, that boy buys her all sorts of nic—

"MIDORIYA!"

Musen almost broke down the door to Inko's shack as she rushed inside. Inko's head whipped up as her hand jolted, leaving an ink scratch across the paper she was writing in.

Wrapped up in a mismatch of coats and sweats that weren't even put on properly, Musen looked like a mess. She was breathing heavily and rapidly, her eyes were darting all over the place. She was scared, no, terrified. When she rushed over to Inko, she tripped over her own pant leg.

Inko was able to catch her before she hit the floor. Grabbing her arms, Inko was startled to feel she was shaking. "Hey, whoa whoa whoa. Calm down."

Holy crap she's having a panic attack.

"Som— Something bad—" Musen gasped as she tried to get her words out.

Inko let go of Musen's arms and cupped her face in her hands. "Hey, calm down. Look at me. Hey Musen," she made Musen look her in the eye, "I'm here, okay? Breathe, okay, just breathe."

As Musen struggled to calm herself down, Inko turned to her bed. "Hey Bark Head! Wake up!"

Hisashi sat up at the yell, head twisting as he was pulled out of his sleep. "What? Inko what's— Musen? The hell is going on?" Throwing the covers off and hissing at the cold, Hisashi took in some deep breaths as he warmed himself up, smoke puffing out of his nose as he did. "Inko?"

"I don't know," Inko turned back to Musen. "Okay, Musen. You with us, girl?"

"Something bad's happened," Musen rasped out dryly. "Something bad's happened."

Hisashi frowned as he looked Musen over, noting just like Inko had that she was barely wearing all those extra warm layers. "A bad dream?"

Not an uncommon thing for their group of friends. Even a few years after that night, the five still were dealing with some trauma. Sometimes it was a bad dream or a sudden panic attack at night when something made a noise. Inko herself had become an extremely light sleeper. Hisashi moving in after finally connecting their houses a year or so after that night helped a little, but Inko would still wake up at even the slightest noise outside.

Inko was slow to agree though. Musen had had bad dreams before, but she had never come running out of her home like this. Inko kept her hands on Musen's cheeks, holding her as she looked at her. "Musen always knows."

Musen's Quirk was Radio, which let her send and receive radio transmissions with the antenna that stuck out of her head. But a running joke with the group of friends was that the girl also had some kind of ESP, because she always seemed to know when something was happening. She knew things she shouldn't, and sometimes guessed when something was going to happen before it did.

"Bark Head, go wake up Bob. I'll take Musen and get Sakura. We'll figure this out then, alright?"

Throwing on his boots, Hiashi nodded and was out of the door. Getting her own boots, Inko grabbed Musen's hand and pulled her along to Sakura's. At the front door, Inko raised her hand up to bang on it, but paused.

Vinegar?

Something smelled sour. Acidic. It was a smell that burned her nose and made her stomach twist. It was also a smell that should not be coming from her friend's house. Because it was a smell Inko recognized. Walking the streets at the market, she could smell it if she got too far from the fish stalls. She smelled it when she passed by to drug addicts that were passed out on the ground. "Oh fuck."

Not bothering to knock, Inko slammed the door open and hissed. The smell was horrible and the room was humid and hot, the wood stove burning away with fresh logs. Stepping inside, she scanned the shack, and almost tripped over herself. Sitting on the ground, at the foot of Sakura's bed with covers bunched up was not Sakura. It was a young, half dressed man.

"The fucking mayor's kid?"

Inko knelt down and looked him over. His eyes were unfocused and bloodshot. He also stank of smoke and vinegar. Inko scootched over as she snapped her fingers to see if he responded and her foot knocked something that made a sharp clink as it rolled. Looking down, Inko frowned at a small glass pipe. Fuck, the mayor's kid is a druggy… Wait, where is Sakura then?

"Sakura?!"

Musen's cry jolted Inko up. She saw Musen on the other side of Sakura's bed, looking horrified. Rushing over, Inko felt her body go cold. Sakura was lying on her side, in a pool of vomit.

"Shit shit shit!" Inko rushed over and grabbed her friend, turning her over and trying to sit her up. The movement didn't make Sakura react in any way. She was dead to the world. She was also half dressed like the other man, her skin flushed, like her whole body was blushing.

"Oh god, her arm."

Inko blinked over her shoulder at Musen before looking down and hissed through her teeth. A syringe was still stuck into her friend's arm. In the puddle of vomit, was a cord of twine. "Fuck!"

Inko carefully pulled the needle out and ripping off a piece of her shirt, pressed the cloth over the injection point. "Fuck fuck fuck." Inko pressed her fingers against Sakura's neck, feeling for a pulse while she pressed her cheek to Sakura's face, praying she could feel her breath.

Both were faint, almost not even there.

"She's overdosing." The words tumbled out of her mouth. Musen covered her mouth, holding back a sob.

"Inko! I got Biruda and… what the fuck?!" Hisashi skidded to a stop while Biruda looked inside the shack wide-eyed.

Inko stood up. "Biruda, get my bike now! Musen, find some rope!" Both darted out of the room. "Hisashi, help me get her out of here. Grab a coat for her."

Hisashi nodded and immediately dug through the shack to find some warm clothes to throw on Sakura. Wrapped up, the two carried her outside just as Biruda rushed back, pushing a bike. "Get her on the seat." Handing Sakura off to the two, Inko got onto the seat while Sakura was put on the back side saddle over the fender. When Musen came running over with some rope, Inko added, "Tie her to me and the bike."

The three worked quickly, getting Saura tied down. When she was secure, Inko put her foot on the bike pedal, but paused before she pushed off. "Get that guy on the other bike and meet me at the clinic."

Slamming her foot down on the pedal, Inko took off, pumping her legs as she got up to speed and taking off into the dark, the light on the bike offering just enough visibility for Inko to rush down the road. She had to hurry. She had to get her friend to a doctor at the clinic as fast as she could.

She would make it.

She had to make it.

The breaks on the tires screeched in protest as Inko pulled up to the clinic. Huffing for breath and sweating through her coat, Inko pulled at the ropes around her and got herself free before untying Sakura and lifting her off the bike. Grabbing her under her arms, Inko pulled her into the clinic.

"Help! I need help!" Inko screamed as she got into the building and laid Sakura down on the floor. She screamed for help again but her voice was drowned out by the chaos of so many other voices inside. There were people lining the walls and floor, all in various states of consciousness while a few nurses and clinic volunteers rushed all over the place. People were convulsing on the ground, foaming at the mouth, or vomiting all over the walls. It was chaos. It was pandemonium. It was a horror show.

A nurse rushed by, and Inko reached out and snatched her arm. The nurse tried to yank her arm back, but Inko snarled and threw the nurse against a wall and pressed her forearm against the woman's chest, making damned sure she had the other woman's full attention.

"What the hell are you—"

"SHUT THE FUCK UP!" Inko snarled, making the other woman squeak out a startled 'eep.' In a less enraged voice, Inko pointed to Sakura on the ground. "My friend needs help. Please. She had a needle in her arm when I found her. She was laying in her own vomit. She barely has a pulse or a breath."

The nurse blinked, and then looked down where Inko was pointing. The nurse's eyes, over the shock of getting thrown against a wall, seemed to dull as she recognized the situation. It was an unnerving change that sent a shiver up Inko's spine.

"Let me see her," was all the nurse said. Inko let go and let the nurse go to work. The nurse knelt down and put her fingers to Sakura's throat, feeling for a pulse. She frowned and pulled out a small flashlight from her pocket and opened one of Sakura's eyes. She flashed the light into the eye and watched for a reaction. Clicking the light off, the nurse sighed and shook her head. "I'm sorry there's nothing we can do. Now I need to get—"

Inko grabbed the woman by the front of her scrubs and slammed her back against the wall. "The fuck do you mean nothing you can do?! You looked at her for less than ten seconds! Take her to a room and save her life or so help me I'll fucking—!"

"Midoriya! Let her go now!"

Inko felt herself get pulled away. She lashed out, trying to strike whoever had pulled her away from the nurse. Sea Beard caught her hand and held her back while the nurse coughed and tried to stand up after Inko's attack.

"Sea Beard, let me go right now!"

"Calm down! What's going on?" Sea Beard struggled to hold Inko. She was fighting like a woman possessed. "Why are you attacking this nurse? What is—"

"Sakura's dying and this bitch won't do anything to save her!" Inko screamed.

Sea Beard blinked and then finally saw Sakura on the ground lying against the wall. "Oh no…"

Inko tried to use her other hand to grab the nurse but she was too far away, pulled back by Sea Beard as he fought to control her. So instead, she reached out with her Quirk, grabbing the woman's scrubs and pulling her. Or at least trying to. A full grown person was beyond Inko's power to move. Too big. Too much weight.

At least normally.

But in her hysterical state, she was able to pull the nurse's top with enough force to make her sneakers skid on the polished floor with a few squeaks. The alarmed nurse cried out in alarm as she was dragged closer to Inko. Sea Beard saw the woman getting pulled and immediately grabbed Inko's other arm, alarmed that she was using her Quirk on another person. "Midoriya stop!"

"I'm not letting her just let Sakura die! She's going to—"

"There's nothing we can do!" the nurse screamed, startling Inko into silence. "We don't have enough beds to treat the people we can save. We don't have enough equipment and medicines to even try on the ones we might save and we don't have the time to waste on people that we can't save."

"But! But you have medicine that fixes overdoses! I've seen it used! It's a nose spray! I've seen it!"

The nurse shook her head. "It's called naloxone, and we don't have any more. And even if we did… I'm sorry, but your friend is already gone. It wouldn't do anything. Her pulse is almost gone and her pupils didn't react to the light. She's already suffered brain death. The rest of her body just hasn't… caught up."

Inko's legs gave out and Sea Beard let her fall to the ground as gently as he could.

"But… I got her here as fast as I could. She was… I…"

"She was already gone by the time you found her."

The nurse looked up at Sea Beard before she left, hurrying back into the hell the clinic was facing. Inko slipped out of Sea Beards hold and crawled over to Sakura. Pulling her into her lap and holding her tightly.

"It's okay, Sakura. I'm here."

Rocking her friend gently, Inko kept whispering to her. Letting her know she was there for her. Letting her know she wasn't alone. Making sure that in her friend's final moments, she knew she was loved.

For Inko, the next few moments—minutes, hours, she wasn't sure how much time had passed— were just a blur. She was only vaguely aware that she, while still clutching Sakura to herself, had been led into a cold room. A morgue. She didn't hear a man tell the volunteers inside to find a spot for Sakura's body. She did see her friend lying on the cold metal table before she broke down and continued to cry, folded over her body.

When she finally came back to her senses, she found that she was not alone anymore. Hisashi, Musen and Biruda were all with her, holding each other and crying openly. They stayed like that for a long while. A worker came with a sheet to cover Sakura. Once that was done and the four were left alone, Inko remembered what she had told her friends to do when she had taken off.

"Her boyfriend?"

Musen sniffed, wiping her nose with her sleeve. "We… we got him here in time. I was able to call his parents while we got him to the clinic," she wiped her nose again, trying to get it to stop running, "they met us at the door. The mayor had them take his son to a room. I saw a nurse giving him some kind of nose spray."

Inko wasn't sure if she was still breathing. "Naloxone?"

Biruda nodded. "I think that's what they said it was. I heard them say that it would counter the overdose symptoms or something."

Inko sucked in a breath through clenched teeth.

"Inko?" Hisashi frowned as he watched her change.

"The nurse said they didn't have any left." Inko was seething. "What room did they take them to?"

CRACK!

As soon as Inko stormed into the tiny room, she crossed the distance and slugged the mayor right in the jaw. "You hoarding bastard!"

A nurse in the room screamed and rushed out while Inko dragged the mayor back to his feet, only to punch him in the face, knocking him down. Chaos erupted in the room. The mayor's wife dove at Inko, screaming and clawing at her while Inko's friends worked to hold her back and keep the wife away. Hisashi pressed a foot into the mayor's stomach, keeping him pinned. Musen had her arms around the wife, her feet skidding on the floor as she pulled her back while Biruda struggled to hold Inko at bay.

Everyone was screaming. Yelling. Anger and rage was mixing with sorrow and horror and it was all bubbling over. Then the door to the room slammed open and Sea Beard rushed inside. "What in the hell is going on here?! Nenshouki, get off the mayor this—"

"Hisashi, if Sea Beard tries anything, burn that hoarding bastard alive," Inko growled.

The tone of the room changed immediately. Everyone went quiet. Sea Beard looked at Inko in alarm while the mayor looked up at Hisashi, and saw puffs of smoke wafting up from his mouth. Terror filled his eyes while his wife began to wail in fear.

"Midoriya, stop. Just stop this now." Sea Beard had his hands raised, trying and begging for calm.

"When I got here with Sakura, the nurse said there were no beds and no equipment for anyone here." Inko, now free from Biruda, pointed angrily at the mayor's son, lying on a bed and hooked up to medical equipment and an IV drip. "And yet here we are. Do you want to know what else I was told? Well, you should remember since you were there. The clinic was out of naloxone. The one drug that could save a person from an overdose and they didn't have it!" Inko glared down at the mayor. "But after my friends dragged your son here. After they gave him to you, they saw a nurse giving him a naloxone nose spray."

Sea Beard blinked, then closed his eyes, turning his head away.

Inko wasn't done. "So tell me, mayor. Where do you have the clinic hiding your stash? Is it just a few of the doctors who know? Or is everyone here in on it and they're just letting people die out—"

"We bought it!" the wife screamed. Inko looked over at her. "The clinic is always low. They always say they're low on everything. Every time at the town hall. So we… our son is a good boy. He's… he's a good boy, but with so many people dying and getting sick from everything, I just wanted… I wanted to be ready… I never thought we'd have to use them, but when we got the call…"

"You were buying it from the clinic? Who was selling it?" Inko demanded angrily, but the wife shook her head.

"We didn't buy it from the clinic. It's… it's just an over the counter drug. It's so cheap in the mainland. So… I called a friend and wired them the money to send us some. We didn't take anything from the clinic."

Inko stood motionless. She had expected the worst. Theft and hoarding. The powerful keeping the cures for themselves while others suffered and died. Was this still hoarding? People, when they could, bought from the mainland all the time. Some would scrape together enough cash and order a window AC. Were they hoarding a cooler home from everyone else that had to sit in a hot house? Should they be expected to buy for everyone else or otherwise not have it?

She hated how she knew the right answer. Hated these people, because they had what she didn't. A way to save someone they loved. She hated them, but she couldn't blame them. "Let him up."

Hisashi walked back, his eyes angry, but clearly he had come to the same conclusion as Inko. They all had. The situation was calming down, and Sea Beard just wanted to get everyone out. Tempers were beyond frayed. It wouldn't take much for something to set off another bout of rage.

"We're the ones that should be angry. Not you lot."

Sea Beard wanted so badly to smack the mayor upside his head. "Mayor, don't—"

"The hell did you just say?" Inko growled back.

The mayor was back on his feet, dusting himself off and looking at the group with righteous fury. "My son wouldn't be in this mess if not for that girl. Sharing those drugs with my son, it's her fault!"

Inko screeched. "We don't have any fucking money to buy that shit! We can barely scrape by enough for food! How in the fuck do you think Sakura could afford heroin?!"

There was a smugness mixed in with the anger that set off alarm bells in Sea Beards head. Don't say it! Don't say it whatever you're thinking!

"A pretty enough whore could earn that money."

Sea Beard knew what was coming. He saw the change in the four. The hardening in their eyes. They way their bodies tensed. They were going to kill him for that. Hisashi's mouth began to glow as tongues of fire hissed past his lips. People were going to die.

This was going to be a bloodbath.

Inko charged, while Sea Beard grabbed her. But there was only one of him, and three more people that now wanted the mayor's head.

"I bought everything. It was my idea."

A new sound cut through the hate. It was weak. Not a whisper, but not a true voice either. The son, his eyes open, was looking at everyone. Jolted from their rage, they looked at the son. "She… always had a hard time sleeping, so… I figured I could help… They helped her sleep."

Inko froze, her punch stopped before it could smash the mayor's face in. Sea Beard's grip on her loosened when she stopped and turned to look at the now awake son, momentarily off balance, but she quickly corrected herself, her eyes hardening as she looked at him. She took a step towards him, but Sea Beard kept his grip on her.

Musen, after making sure Hisashi wasn't going to do anything else, calmly walked over and knelt by the son's bed. "What did you say?" Musen asked.

The son looked over at his father, then back at the group of friends. "She needed the stuff to help her sleep."

Biruda frowned. "Why would she need help sleeping?"

"Because she was terrified that Sytsevich was going to come back and take her again."

Inko tensed. "But Sytsevich is dead. He's dead and rotting at the bottom of the bay. Sakura knew that."

Musen frowned. "It took her a while to start acting normal again though. She was distant for such a long time. It wasn't until… she started seeing you when she opened up again."

The son nodded sadly. "At first I was just getting her some sleeping pills that we shared. Then we started… I was able to get some marajuna plants for her to grow. Those helped a lot too."

The mayor tried to cut in. "Enough. My son is delirious. I'm not letting him get interrogated like this. Sea Beard, get these rats out of—"

Flames puffed out of Hisashi's nose. A warning for the mayor to shut up.

Inko felt a pit forming in her chest. "Are you telling me that for the past two years, Sakura has been… what? Popping sleep pills, smoking weed and drinking just to get over that one fucking night?"

Inko didn't want to believe this. Didn't want to hear it. There was no way she had missed this. Sakura was her friend. She'd known her since they were little. There was just no way she hadn't seen how much her friend was hurting. No way she had missed the signs she was trying to fix with herself too.

"Sakura…" the son sucked in a shuddering breath, "was hurting so much. But she made me promise that you four would never find out about it. She said that you all were so strong… she didn't want you to know she was so weak."

"Damn it." Biruda looked away while Musen was starting to cry. Hisashi had a lot of smoke starting to whiff out of his mouth and nose as he kept himself in check. Inko was a statue, cold and silent.

"But… these last few days… she started getting worse. Before, it was all enough to help her sleep. Help her go throughout the day and just be… be normal. But she said she thought she saw him. Thought she saw Sytsevich walking around. She could hear him, she said. She said she needed something stronger to make him go away. She begged me to help her so… I asked around and found out where I could buy… something stronger." The son covered his face with his hands, tears streaming down his cheeks. "I thought it would be enough to help her for a bit. Get her by before… before…"

Inko had slipped through Sea Beard's hands and was now standing next to the son's bed. "Before what?"

The son looked up at her, crying openly. "I got accepted into a university in Tokyo. I was… I was going to take her with me. I thought getting away from here would… would help her finally get past everything. She just needed something to help her for just a couple of months. People take this stuff all the time. It wasn't… this wasn't supposed to…"

Inko looked down at the son. Really looked at him. He was a spoiled rich kid that didn't have any idea how the real world worked. He had been giving her friend drugs because he thought this was supposed to help her. He went out and bought stuff that got her killed. All because he was stupid enough to think this was some common cure. He had been feeding an addiction that had killed Sakura.

But she was also to blame. She hadn't been able to tell something had been wrong. She had been blind to the problem. Images of the filled up clinic halls flashed in her mind as she thought of Sakura. The people lying on the floor with no one to help them. To people in the market, slumped against trash cans or against the walls.

She had been blind to a lot of things.

"Who and where?"

Inko's voice was cold and had an edge to it that cut through the son's tears and whimpers. He looked at her, and immediately answered, "Down near the old miner houses on the south of the island. It's a big trailer house that one of the managers used to live in. That's where they make some of the heroin they sell. Lots of 'keep out' signs on it. I… don't know the guy's name and he was wearing a lot of coats and had a hood… but he had a red skull tattoo on his wrist." The son pointed to his right wrist.

Inko knew the place. While a lot of the miners' homes had been washed away, the ones owned by the upper management had been above sea level and had been spared the flooding. "You loved her, didn't you?"

The son nodded.

"She loved you too. She told me a few times she hoped you'd take her away. Said you were her prince." The son started crying again. "She loved you, and that's the only reason I'm not going to kill you for what you did."

The mayor snarled, "Don't you dare threaten m—"

Inko was already walking for the door when she twisted and slugged the mayor in the gut.

The clinic had no room to hold people that were dead for very long. Too many people were dying tonight. The bodies were already getting bagged and sent to the island's morgue to be cremated. Inko and company made sure they got to Sakura before she was shipped off in an ice truck.

With a little convincing and some threats, the attending at the clinic let Inko and Musen use the tools in the room so that they could clean their friend off and find some decent clothes from the lost and found. They weren't going to take her home looking anything but her best. While they made sure Sakura was looked after, Hisashi and Biruda were able to secure a cart for one of the bikes.

The ride to the clinic had seemed like it had dragged on forever. Inko had been racing against time, trying to save a friend from dying. She failed. Now, riding back, the journey was done in an instant.

Home felt cold and unnervingly quiet. Biruda went to get some shovels while Hisashi let Musen cry on his shoulder. Inko said nothing. She was just existing right now.

"Where are we going to…" Biruda looked around, lost and with shovels in his hands, "bury her?"

No one said anything. No one could. Inko looked down at Sakura lying in the cart. They had washed her hair, and cleaned her off. She almost looked like she was sleeping. But she was too still. The stillness ruined the illusion.

"She's been working on that apple tree for a while…" Hisashi had to take a breath to steady himself, while he looked out at the large sprawling garden around Sakura's house. A tree now stood above the rest of the flowers, vegetables, fruits and berries. The winter weather had everything hibernating, but the tree had born fruit. Sakura had made it grow big and strong in a matter of months after planting those apple seeds. It wasn't anything like a mighty oak yet, but in the summer months, it had been large enough for the five to sit under it and eat some of the apples.

Inko walked over and grabbed one of the shovels from Biruda. "Musen… Sakura had some makeup she stored away. Go see if you can find it. Let's… let's make sure she looks her best…" Then she looked at Biruda. "Can you… can you build her a coffin?"

Biruda nodded and handed the other shovel to Hisashi. Musen walked off after stroking Sakura's hair, leaving only Inko and Hisashi left to start digging.

The pale light of dawn broke through the morning mist as Inko threw the last pile of dirt onto the grave of her friend. After hours of digging, then more hours of burying, it was done.

Biruda had built a coffin, lining it with sheets and comforters from Sakura's bed. He had worked tirelessly to make sure it didn't just look like a wooden box. He was covered in sawdust, scraps of sandpaper, and wood stain, but in the end, he had made something that at least looked like a good comfortable place for Sakura to lay to rest.

Musen had made sure Sakura looked her best. She did her makeup, dressed her up in some of the best clothes she had, and had spent time fixing her up so that the flowers in her hair were as vibrant as they could be. She even spent the time filing and painting her nails. She wanted Sakura to look her best.

Before closing the casket, they slipped flowers into her hands and Musen put down Sakura's old walkie talkie that she had gotten for them all.

Standing over the grave, they said words to honor her. Talked about the kind person she was. Talked about all the different adventures they had as kids growing up in the old orphanage. How they had worked together to survive and thrive on their little hill. How Sakura was what her name said she was. She was a beautiful flower.

Then no one said anything. They stood in complete silence because they didn't know what to do. A part of their world had been ripped from them. What do you do after that?

Cry?

They had been crying for hours now. It felt like they had no more tears left to cry. Even though their hearts were shattered there was just nothing left.

Clean?

At some point, the four had drifted into Sakura's house and had removed the remains of the horror they had walked into. The floor was scrubbed and the drugs had been put into a box, thrown into a hole away from their homes and, after getting doused with oil and gas, torched with enough fire to turn the winter air into a summer blaze.

Inko looked at the blaze as it burned. As it burned, the sadness and grief in her heart, in her soul, began to burn. Rage and anger filled the void she now had inside herself. A hate that roared the more she let it. Sakura was gone, and the people responsible were still here. Killing more without a care.

She had turned a blind eye to it for so long. She didn't like the people here, so if they wanted to poison themselves, so fucking what? Let all the dealers, and cooks, and whoever else had moved in when Alderaan moved out have their fun. They weren't destroying her home. They weren't making her life miserable.

That wasn't the case anymore.

So what do you do when part of your world has been taken from you? When you're hurt in such a way you cry to the point you have no more tears?

The answer is simple. She'd done it once already, but she had been young and naïve then.

What do you do?

You go to war.

No one said anything when they watched Inko march into her home. No one said anything when they saw her reach under her bed and pull out a footlocker she had found buried in an old man-made cave. When she flipped it open and pulled out the rifle, they knew what Inko was planning.

Inko ran her fingers over the metal barrel before placing it on her bed. She pulled out the green uniform that had been folded away with it, along with the belts, pouches and some boxes of ammo. Added to the footlocker was her old wrist mounted support gear, which she hadn't used since the great flood had washed the miners out.

With everything laid out in front of her, Inko started to get changed. Off came the coats and sweats, and on went the uniform. When she had tried it on before, a few years ago, everything had felt too big. Like it didn't belong to her. Now, now everything felt like it fit perfectly.

Pulling out bullets, Inko began to load up the clips with five rounds. Once a clip was loaded, she slipped it away into a pouch.

Click

Inko kept going until the pouches on her belt were heavy and filled. Once that was done, Inko took her support gear and strapped it to her wrist. Back when she was younger, she used golf balls as ammo for it. This time she pulled out multiple old fishing knives and attached them to her belt. The last thing she pulled from the footlocker was the rifle's bayonet. She tossed the sheath, and with a snap, attached the blade to the barrel.

When Inko exited her house she found her friends waiting for her. While they didn't have the same military uniform and gear, they had each dressed in something for their march, something sturdy and strong.

Biruda wore his construction overalls, hammers hung from his belt. Musen had found some of the old miner uniforms, useful when digging around scrapped fishing ships. She had a rusty old machete slung into her belt, something they had used long long ago when clearing a space to build their homes. Hisashi had thrown on some neon yellow fireman's jackets and pants. The large pockets were heavy with some old glass soda bottles, filled and with their ends stuffed with cloth. Molotov cocktails that just needed a match.

Inko didn't bother to ask if they knew what she was going to do. She didn't ask if they knew what they were going to do. It was obvious they were of one mind. So Inko took one last look at the fresh grave under the apple tree, then turned on her heel and marched.

With her friends following right behind her.

It was finally morning when the group reached their target. The rundown miners village was one of the few left. Some were up closer to the coast, but this one was far inside the main land, away from where all the noise and smoke once had been. This was where the managers and supervisors had lived.

Walking down the street, Inko eyed each house. The morning light was misty and dull, like walking through a dream. The early hour made the street empty and dead, but Inko felt an almost oppressive force on her. It was obvious she wasn't supposed to be here. And even if the streets were empty, the homes were full. Not with families or workers, or anyone from the fishing village. These were the homes of the cooks and dealers. The ones that were poisoning the people of her home. The ones that had killed her friend.

The people of Bespin knew these were not places to go. When Alderaan was kicked out, there was a power vacuum left behind. The shady creeps the miners and security had been working with moved in quickly to fill up the gap. Instead of paying the crews to do the work, offloading and loading their supplies, they used their own men now. They lost their middle man when Alderaan drowned, but if anything, it only made these new poisoners more bold.

No one dared try to stop them. These men didn't have to pretend to be nice like the security goons did. But that was going to change.

Even among the elite, there was always a boss. The home, just like the mayor's son had described, sat at the top of a small hill. This was where he bought those drugs.

So this is where Inko would start.

Inko held out her hand towards Hisashi as they walked. Hisashi nodded and passed her one of the Molotov cocktails. Inko's grip on the glass bottle tightened as she approached the house.

Like everything else left by the mining corp, it was dilapidated and an eye sore. A cut and paste mobile home they got for cheap. One of a hundred left that was now owned by the dealers and cooks that operated in her home.

Even outside, Inko could smell that vinegar stench. It burned her nose and twisted her stomach. The broken window on the side of the trash house let out such a stench it was almost visible.

Inko heard footsteps behind her, so she held up her hand holding the bottle of moonshine with a rag stuck into the top. "Light it."

Hisashi leaned over and blew out a small puff of fire, igniting the Molotov cocktail. As Inko pulled back to throw, no one said anything. No one tried to stop her.

The Molotov streaked through the air, perfectly going through the broken window and shattering. Immediately, fire spread out inside the house, followed by startled, horrified screams. Inko could hear people scurrying. She didn't pay it any attention. She just unslung her rifle from her shoulder and stepped up to the door of the house.

The only exit.

She took aim at the door and put her finger on the trigger. Then she waited.

"AHHHHH—!"

BANG!

The first man, screaming as his clothes burned, rushed out the door and hit the ground after Inko shot him in the chest. Inko pulled back the bolt, and the shell was expelled with a sharp ping before she slammed the bolt back into place.

"FIRE! THERE'S A FIR—!"

BANG!

Inko pulled the bolt back, ping.

"IT'LL EXPLODE! THE LAB WI—!"

BANG!

Ping.

"STOP I'M UNAR—!"

BANG!

Ping.

For several seconds, no one else came through the door. The house was in flames now, but Inko kept watch on the door, finger on the trigger. She could hear some people screaming inside, but they also must have heard the gunfire. Either they stay inside and burn, or they could rush out. Inko waited for all the ones that still were eventually going to choose the door. A person, so burned that at first glance no one could tell if they were a man or woman, crawled out of the door on their hands and knees.

BANG!

Ping.

The last of the five rounds was shot, and the tiny clip popped out of the rifle. A minute or so later, there was a hiss, and the backside of the house exploded. Her friends jumped back while Inko stayed perfectly still even as burning debris flew past her. She never took her eyes off the door until at last, the house collapsed and Inko didn't hear the screams of the last person inside.

Without much of a glance, Inko pulled the spent clip off the ground and pocketed it. "Check the bodies. See if they have that tattoo."

Musen and Hisashi walked up and began to search while Biruda kept an eye on the other homes. Inko had just made a lot of noise. Blowing up a cook house and killing the cooks was going to get some attention. Sure enough, people were beginning to creep out of the homes. Most were just peeking through opened doors and windows, but some were venturing out into the streets.

Hisashi turned one of the people over, and clicked his tongue. "No skull tattoo."

"Nothing here either." Musen frowned and knelt down by the burnt up corpse that had crawled out of the inferno.

They were looking for a man, but when the body had come out no one could tell their sex. Their skin was black and charred, so there was no way to see if they had a tattoo either.

So, ripping off part of one of the other dead cooks' shirts into a rag, Musen used it as a barrier as she peeled away the burnt person's pants. The skin cracked and fell off the body in flakes while the rest stuck to the remains of the pants. It was like peeling the fried skin off a chicken. Greasy and dripping with burned oils.

"This one's a woman," Musen confirmed for everyone to hear.

Hisashi looked at the burning remains of the house. "There was one last person that didn't get out of the house."

"The screams were from a woman too. Not our man."

Hisashi nodded. "He wasn't here, Inko."

Inko just popped a new clip into her rifle and slammed the bolt shut. "Then let's start working our way down until we find him."

Hisashi pulled another Molotov from his pocket and, after lighting it, walked up to the next house down. Looking inside the window, he saw scales and what looked like stacks of cash. And a few shocked people, either too drowsy to figure out what was about to happen, or way too high. But they were definitely not a family, so he chucked the fire bomb into the home.

It must have finally clicked for the people in the houses that they were under attack. People scrambled. Some clutched wads of cash to their chests as they booked it from the houses.

BANG!

Some stuffed bags full of products—meth, heroin, and capsules full of pills—as they tried to run.

BANG!

And then others, they armed themselves with pipes, bats, knives and crowbars. They charged the group, screaming in rage. Hisashi screamed right back and set the first wave ablaze, careful to leave their arms as unsinged as possible.

Some were able to avoid the fire, only to get a face full of either Biruda's hammer or, if they were really unlucky, he'd get his hand on their neck or chest and fire a few rounds of nails.

Though either way was a bad way to go.

Inko never moved from her spot, more a turret than a woman as she pivoted at the hip to keep all the remaining dealers and cooks in her line of sight.

A man with a hatchet ducked under a hammer swing from Biruda and scrambled to get to Inko. He didn't see Musen rush him from the side. That rusty machete slammed right into his neck, the old metal blade still sharp enough to sink in and get stuck. Yanking it out pulled chunks of collarbone and flesh. The man clutched at the gaping gash as he fell to the ground, suffocating on his own blood.

The counter-attack only lasted a minute at most. Panic and fear, like the fires, began to spread from house to house, many of them exploding as their drug kitchens caught fire.

The fire, the explosions, and the constant bang of Inko's rifle. All of these quickly made the rest of the people in town value their own lives over anything else. They ran. No one was brave enough to try and fight whatever was attacking them. It was obvious they didn't have any sort of contingency plan for this. The ones that had been closest to the attack trampled over the people that had been furthest from it as they all ran until the miners town was abandoned.

Hisashi kicked a body in annoyance. "Damn. No skull tattoo."

Around the four of them, the homes were either up in flames or already burned to cinders. They hadn't even had to use any more Molotovs or Hisashi's Fire Breath. The homes were so shoddy and cheap, they caught fire easily with just a spark or ember.

Biruda tapped his fingers on his overalls. "We checked everyone, right?"

Hisashi nodded in the affirmative. "Yeah."

"So either he wasn't here, or he was part of the group that escaped."

Musen looked down the road that the people had used to run. "They ran to the coast. The docks the miners set up and used to bring in and ship out," Musen raised her hand to make air quotes, "'supplies.'"

"And where all the shit they make here gets sent now…" Inko propped her gun up while she collected her spent clips. "What wasn't destroyed when the sea wall broke. This place, the dock…"

"The original miners town. The one where they used all the shipping containers as homes before they brought the trailers down into the quarry. But it's right at the edge of the bay. Parts of it keep getting swallowed up. I don't think it's used for anything now," Biruda added.

Hisashi rubbed his chin. "Used to see little shacks hidden in the woods a lot when we were sneaking around. They didn't look important back then, but I'd bet those were storehouses or cook sites these bastards were using before they moved in here."

Inko glanced down the road, towards where she knew the docks were. "The docks are damn near a fortress, it's why we never tried to steal or mess with them back when Alderaan ran it."

"If that's where everything is stored, odds are, they'll be armed…" Biruda frowned. "Damn."

"But we don't know that. I mean, this place didn't have any security at all," Musen added.

Inko shook her head. "Would you trust a drug cook with a gun? They're either too high, too studpid or maybe too greedy to trust them with anything other than cooking and selling. Besides, it's not like anyone was a threat before—"

Out of the corner of Inko's eye, she spotted some movement. Something rushing in from behind one of the burning trailers. Her rifle was still propped up to her side, so she whipped out her hand, the support gear's wheels whirling with a high pitched whine, and fired a knife straight into the advancing figure.

"The hell?!"

"Holy!"

"Son of a—"

A man fell to his knees, the dagger he was holding clattering to the concrete road. The knife Inko had fired was sticking out of his chest. It had sunk all the way to the hilt. Coughing up blood, and struggling to breath, he looked up at the four. "You— cough cough! You brats, you have—" His body shook as he tried to breathe. "You have no idea what you've done. Who you're messing with— cough!"

Inko held out a hand, making sure her friends stayed back while she grabbed her rifle and walked up to the man. "Messing with? Is that supposed to scare us?"

"You're all fucking dead… Walking corpses."

Crack!

Inko smashed the butt of her rifle into the man's face, knocking him on his back. "The only corpses I see are you and yours. A bunch of thugs that like to cook and sell poison."

"You stupid brat. These people cook and sell… for us. They're ours, they make our product. This island is nice and remote, a perfect place to make money and you just stuck your noses into it."

"This is my home. And you aren't welcome here any more."

The man laughed. "This island belongs to the Abegawa Tenchu Kai. You should have just behaved like the rest of the fish trash here. Been happy with the scraps we let you buy. Now, now you'll learn. You and everyone you love will suffe—!"

"You already took someone from us." With that, Inko had heard enough. Reaching down, she yanked the knife out of the man's chest. Blood and foam spilled out, and she could hear the man gurgling and gasping as he stopped being able to breath. She watched as he struggled, before aiming her rifle and blasting one shot into his head.

The last shot rang out over the abandoned town. Inko hissed through her teeth as she calmed herself down and used the man's shirt to wipe off the knife and put it back. While she did, she checked his wrist, and didn't see the red skull tattoo.

"So, I guess that confirms it, then. It's the yakuza." Musen groaned. "Great."

"So what's the plan now Inko?" Hisashi asked.

Inko took a moment to think. "First, let's get out of here. I bet all this smoke is going to attract some attention, either from the Abegawa Tenchu Kai, or maybe even Sea Beard. After that… We start hitting their other kitchens and their other dealers. They're scattered all over the island."

Hisashi frowned. "Shouldn't we hit the dock?"

"…No. I wasn't joking when I called it a fortress. Right now, we can't hit them there, but I'm hoping we won't have to. We'll starve them out. Keep them from getting supplies to ship out. If they send people out, we'll get them then. If they don't, then we just keep hitting the places they have scattered over Bespin, and they'll never have anything to sell."

"This is insane, you know that, right?"

A man twitched nervously, trying to keep to the shadows as he looked at the remains of the village. Everything was burned to the ground. Not a single trailer was left standing.

Another, older, man shook his head. "How bad is this?"

"How bad? How bad? Someone just walked into one of our production sites and torched it. We lost cash, product, manufacturing supplies, people… and evidence."

"…That's not good."

The man threw up his hands. "'Not good.' 'Not good' he says. No, this is not good."

"Any idea who did this?"

"You think we're getting reliable testimony from anyone here? I heard one person screaming it was a fucking dragon."

The two men stood silently before the elder asked, "Can you still do your job?"

"We got lots of smaller sites all over the island. And we got a lot of product stored up."

"…There are a lot of factors at play now."

"Fuck if I don't already know that."

"We can't afford to lose this. If we do, everything we've worked for could go up in smoke."

The man looked back at the burning remains. "That's one way to put it."

It's been a month since Sakura died. It's gotten even colder.

We found our eleventh kitchen yesterday. Like the last four, this one was guarded. But they didn't just have people at the site. They had some guys patrolling the border too. It almost took us all night to take the guards out and then get inside.

The people inside were pretty much the same cooked up fucks as they were at every other site, but the guards this time weren't. Pretty sure these were actual Abegawa Tenchu Kai. They were dressed up and clean. Disciplined too. They didn't panic when we got them.

Musen was able to keep them from calling the kitchen but even with their radios jammed they were cool under pressure. Fucking hard to kill. One guy almost took Bark Head's head clean off with a damned sword. They had lots of tattoos too but we still haven't found Red Skull.

Sea Beard came by the other day. 'To check on us,' he said. He had flowers for Sakura's grave. I almost told him to screw off but Musen said the flowers were pretty and Sakura would like them.

He's always looked like week old crap but there was something else going on. Something has him stressed out. It's connected to the Yakuza in some way. It can't be a coincidence that the moment we start taking those bastards out he looks like that.

…

I've killed a lot of people. I killed Sytsevich, but this feels different. I was defending myself then. I was justified. Now? I don't care. I feel empty.

I know what I need to do, and I'm going to do it.

Bark Head, Bob, Musen. We know what needs to be done. We're in this to the end.

I miss Sakura.

~ Midoriya Inko ~

~ December 14th ~

~ Age 19 ~

"A shipment coming to the bay?" Inko asked as she sat up in her bed. Wrapping a cover around herself, she motioned for Musen to sit and dry herself from the rain outside.

Hisashi huffed as he sleepily sat up as well, tugging at the blanket for Inko to share. "You sure you weren't just hearing things? The mayor fuck has been radioing about the town hall meeting in a couple of days. Maybe it's something about that."

Musen shook her head. "I just heard it over the radio. Something is coming in tonight."

"Any idea what?" Biruda asked as he got some cups of coffee ready for everyone.

Musen shook her head. "No. And I get the feeling the guys delivering it don't know either."

Hisashi rubbed the sleep from his eyes. "Wait? How does that make any sense?"

Musen handed Inko a pad of paper. "Here, as soon as I realized what was going on, I wrote down what they were saying."

Inko skimmed over the paper, "'We have the package. Should be at island in a few hours.'

"'Good. We'll meet at the heart of the bay.'

"'Bosses don't suspect right?'

"'No chance. We sank the boat, so no one knows we have this.'

"'Nice, free payday.'

"'Assuming it's actually valuable.'

"'With how jumped up the bosses were, this thing must be worth a fortune to somebody.'

"'Worth a fortune to the guy we were moving this for. I heard he was willing to pay a lot to get this.'

"'How much?'

"'Never heard the number. Just that this was a special kind of pay, or something.'

"'Special pay? What, like jewels?'

"'Who cares. Bosses and the client are none the wiser. We'll store it on the island for a few weeks, and then sell it.'

"'You guys get a look inside?'

"'Nah, no chance yet. Better to do that once we have it hidden.'"

Inko finished looking it over. "The rest are time and coordinates."

"So some Yakuza runners decided to take something for themselves, huh?" Hisashi hummed as he sipped on his coffee. "Doesn't sound like it's drugs, though. If it were, they'd just take what they're making from here."

"Whatever it is, this client must have really wanted it if he was paying the Yakuza to transport it."

"Weapons?"

"Doesn't matter," Inko said simply. "We have a time and place. Whatever this delivery is, we're taking it.

Inko breathed slowly. The night was cold and the constant drizzle of rain made the dark green surplus uniform stick to her skin. How an island out in the Pacific could get so cold was a mystery, but one Inko ignored. She had more important things to focus on. Up the cliff face, and buried under heavy brush and dying trees, Inko lay prone, scanning the pitch-black bay below.

Crunch

Even over the soft pitter-patter of rain hitting the trees and the waves of the ocean breaking on the shore, Inko made out the sound of boots on the stony beach.

Multiple boots.

At the same time, a new noise drifted over the air. A soft rumble.

Putt

A small boat motor, throttled down so only to give the barest amount of push. So not to make too much noise.

They're here. Right on time.

Inko carefully pushed the butt of her Arisaka Type 99 rifle into her shoulder and looked down the sights. The old wood was rough against her fingers and heavy in her hand. She flipped up the sights and adjusted it for the distance.

While Inko was up on the cliff, her friends were down at the beach. Lying in wait.

One… two… three… four. Three on the beach and one on the boat.

Inko lined up with the boat driver. Waiting until he had landed his little inflatable sea boat and threw a rope to his accomplices. She could see them tie off the rope. The man then walked up and pulled a tarp off the front of his boat. Inko couldn't see exactly what it was, too dark for details, but it was a large rectangular box, easily as long and wide as a person. When the men moved to pick it up, she could hear their grunts.

It's heavy, whatever it is.

The box was unloaded, and the four men put it down on the beach. She could hear them arguing now. A few words drifted up and Inko almost laughed.

The guy from the boat didn't tell them the thing was so heavy. Should have brought a truck.

Then Inko stopped and thought about that.

We don't have a truck either.

Which meant they were in for a lousy trip back home if they were carrying this thing.

Well… fuck.

Inko hoped that whatever was inside would be easier to carry than that huge box. Fortunately, they had Biruda to work his magic and get it open.

Bang!

"What do you mean you can't open it?" Hisashi groaned as he finished throwing the dead men into the boat and letting it drift away. "Aren't you our fix-it guy?"

Biruda rolled his eyes and threw up his hands. "Dude, I'm a great repairman, but I'm analog. This, this right here is digital."

Musen frowned. "And that means?"

"Look, this box thing, this is high-tech. I can't even find a seal that would let me know where to even try to pry it open. All I see is a touch screen asking for a password, and when I tried 1-2-3-4-5, the damn thing warned me that any further failures would mean the destruction of the sample."

Inko put her ear against the box. It was polished metal and like Biruda had said, very high-tech. Main land tech. But with her ear against the casing, Inko could hear a familiar hum. "Sounds like a refrigerator…"

Musen rubbed her chin. "The automated warning said sample… Maybe this is medical? I'm pretty sure those have to be kept cold."

"Okay," Inko said as she stood up and drummed her fingers on the large futuristic mainland tech box that stood out like a sore thumb at the backwards fishing island. "So who wants to take a guess at why the yakuza were transporting a possible medical sample…"

Hisashi raised a hand and made a 'big' gesture with his hand.

"…transporting a possible big medical sample. Winner gets to pick the fruit we put in the moonshine this time."

The four looked at each other and almost as one, they all shrugged.

"Because everyone has a price and I'm very good at guessing what that is."

Inko snatched her rifle off the side of the box and whirled around while everyone else lept in shock at the new voice. "Who's there?!"

There, standing on the beach not a few feet away, was a man that had not been there before. Someone that none of them had even heard approach. He was a tall, well built man, dressed in a clean black suit. A black fedora kept most of his face hidden in shadow, but Inko could just make out a few strands of white hair and his eyes with red irises that looked like they glowed.

Inko watched the man carefully, noting that even with most of his face hidden, he clearly didn't seem concerned at all that her friends were armed and that she was pointing a rifle at him. In fact, he looked amused. Which was a little off-putting. In fact, the man's whole demeanor was upsetting. There was something about him that just seemed wrong.

Evil.

As a demon offering a trade, a reward you must take for your aid.

The old prophecy, something Inko hadn't thought about in a long time, echoed inside her ears.

"She asked you a—" Hisashi started to take a step closer towards the man, but Inko stepped over and put herself between Hisashi and the man.

"Stop."

Inko's voice was firm, and made it very clear that she was not kidding around. The group looked at her, startled at how serious she suddenly was. Inko was glad that at least they were listening. She just had a feeling that this needed to be played differently. Don't provoke, but also don't show any weakness. She was in the presence of a predator.

Inko lowered her rifle from her shoulder but kept the barrel pointed at the man. "Don't think I've seen you on the island before." Inko kept looking at the man, and around him. It took her a second, but she noticed something odd. There were no footprints around him. So, that was a little creepy.

The man looked at them, his red eyes taking in the details. The weapons they all had. Then they lingered on Musen. If Inko had to guess, it looked like he was taking particular note of her antenna before he turned his attention back towards Inko. "You don't know who I am, do you?"

"Well, you certainly make it sound like you're someone important," Inko said carefully but as casually as she could.

The man laughed. "Something like that… It has been a long time since I've had to introduce myself to anyone. Perhaps I've forgotten my manners." He spread his hands out, in a disarming motion. "Why don't we start over, then?"

Inko almost missed the holes in the man's palms, but with her instincts and Pemphredo's words still ringing in her head, she played along. "We're the Meta Liberation Army. I'm Midoriya." Inko motioned to her friends. "Musen, Biruda and Nenshouki."

"Oh?" There was a shift in the man's tone that Inko caught. He was still amused, but now there was a bit of curiosity mixed in. "So Destro found himself some disciples all the way out in the middle of nowhere. Fascinating."

Before Inko could ask how he knew about Destro, the man continued. Putting an arm across his chest, he gave an introductory shallow bow. "Call me All for One."

That, Inko thought, is a strange fucking name. Is it a code name? A hero name…? Hell no, if this guy's a hero, then I'm the next empress of Japan.

Deciding that it still would be better not to dig into the strange name, Inko moved on. "Okay then. All for One, why are you here? If you have business with the mayor, you're on the wrong side of Bespin."

"I'm here because a very important package was stolen from me." He pointed towards them. "That package, in fact."

The four turned to look at the box. Hisashi whispered to the group, "So he's the guy who was paying the yakuza to transport this?"

"I guess?" Musen whispered back. "But isn't it weird he's here? How'd he know it was here? Those guys only just stole this."

"It has a tracking signal. I didn't inform the Abegawa Tenchu Kai of this fact, though. Once it deviated from its planned course, I decided to personally investigate, and," All for One's fingers blackened, with red lines cracking through, "deal with the issue. But it sounds like you know more of what happened than I. And if you have my package, that must mean the ones that stole it are…?"

Inko jerked her thumb out to the ocean, towards the boat that was floating away. "The four that had the bright idea to steal it are dead. They apparently heard that whatever you were going to pay was a lot and decided to swipe it so they could get rich instead."

"And you know this, how?"

"They were stupid enough to radio their plans where we could hear them."

All for One turned to look out to sea, eyeing the floating boat. "Ah, I see. Then not only did you secure my package, you dealt with the greedy fools too. You've saved me quite a lot of trouble." The black covering All for One's fingers faded.

"Assuming this is your package."

Inko had never wanted to smack Hisashi upside his head more than right then, but it seemed that the remark didn't phase All for One in the slightest. In fact, he nodded his head. "A fair point. But before I prove I own my property, I have a question for you."

"Which is?" Inko asked.

"Why do you have it?"

"Because we're at war with the Abegawa Tenchu Kai, and if this was valuable to them, then we're going to take it."

All for One regarded Inko silently, rubbing his chin before he laughed. "Ah, now I understand the situation. This 'war' you're in, it wouldn't have anything to do with the Abegawa Tenchu Kai's recent drug production and supply issues, would it?"

Inko blinked, looking at her friends with some shock, but also pride. "We've been hitting their drug sites here. They've been using our home to cook their shit and it's killed too many people here. They're a disease and we're burning it out… And it sounds like it's working. Though, how do you know about their problems?"

All for One smiled. "The boss I spoke with to make sure my package was delivered liked to complain. But that's not something I think you care about. I believe I was asked to prove that the package belongs to me?" He pointed at the box. "You all already found the keypad to unlock it. I'll give you the password. It's Alexandre Dumas."

Biruda glanced at Inko, before she nodded at him to proceed. Mumbling to himself, he typed in the name. Immediately, the screen flashed green, before the giant box hissed. Cool mist began to seep out as the top of the box lifted up. The screen flashed that it was ready to be opened, but warned that the sample would begin to deteriorate upon the last seal being broken.

As a demon offering a trade, a reward you must take for your aid.

Again the words echoed, loudly now, in Inko's ears. She got the feeling that she needed to stay. Whatever was going to happen tonight wasn't over. Whatever this thing she was about to hand over to All for One, she was going to be the one to do it. Her. Not her friends.

"So what exactly is insi—"

Inko could hear the curious tone in Hisashi's voice. She could follow the breadcrumbs by the way he sounded and was acting. The question that was just starting to form in the back of his mind and, she was sure, her other friends' minds as well.

All for One was making deals with the Abegawa Tenchu Kai. Why in the hell should they let him have this? The people that deal with the Abegawa Tenchu Kai are just as guilty as the Abegawa Tenchu Kai themselves.

"Hisashi, Musen, Biruda." Inko kept her voice stern and made sure she looked at each one of them when she said their names; no nicknames, this wasn't the time for that. "Get your things and go home."

"Wait, what?"

"Midoriya, are you crazy?"

"Inko, what are you—"

"Shut it!" Inko hissed. "I'm ending this mission now. Get your things, and go. Don't argue. This isn't a discussion, this is an order."

It took some more back and forth—some worried and angry back and forth—but after a few minutes, Inko was finally able to drive home the point that her friends were going to get the fuck out of there and that she would join up with them later.

She knew she was going to have to apologize to them later. Hisashi especially; he had looked hurt and scared. But she would make it up to him. He might see himself as a man that demanded and expected respect, an image she had made sure to help him build, but he was still her dorky Bark Head. And she knew all kinds of ways to get him to forgive her.

She just might have to use a lot of them after the stunt she had just pulled. But it was better than the alternative. This was the safest option. They didn't have Pemphredo's warning in their ears. They didn't know that right now, there was a dangerous game going on. They didn't know the rules. Though to be fair, she didn't really know the rules either. At least not completely.

Damn you. Why couldn't you tell me something useful besides the whole vague as fuck shit. 'As a demon offering a trade, a reward you must take for your aid.' That isn't super fucking helpful you know! And how the hell do I even know this guy is the fucking demon?! He hasn't done anything demonic yet… Except appearing out of nowhere…

"I'm curious," All for One started as he ran his fingers over the black metal of the now unlocked container. "Why did you send your friends away?"

Inko just shrugged. "Because there wasn't any reason for them to be here. Their business was done."

"Hmm, and yet you're still here?"

"Because our business isn't done."

All for One laughed at that. "You are a very interesting young woman. A refreshing change of pace." All for One looked down at the container and smiled. "Care to know what's inside?"

Inko shrugged, playing off the question as best she could. "Must be something special if you got a yakuza gang to transport it for you. Special and illegal. I suppose my curiosity is piqued."

"It's a Quirk."

On the list of things Inko would have guessed were inside the super-techy box, a Quirk was not on it. "A— huh?" Despite the serious situation Inko knew she was in, her jaw still dropped at the random answer she just got. "As in… like an actual Meta Ability?"

"Ha ha, you really are a follower of Destro. Meta Ability, that's not a term I've heard in a long, long time."

Wait, not a term he's heard in—

"But yes, this is a Quirk I had specially collected from a fallen hero from abroad. Some friends contacted me, letting me know that it was 'on the market' you see, and I just had to have it." Grasping the edge of the lid, All for One flipped it open, letting out clouds of mist that flowed over the container's top and pooled on the cold, sandy beach.

Beep

Inko tried to fan away the mist, so that she could get a look inside. "How do you transport a Meta Ability? That doesn't seem… oh… fuck."

Inko wasn't sure what she expected to see when the mist cleared and she finally got a look inside, but this was not it. Inside, was the remains of a person.

A torso with a multitude of pipes and hoses running into its chest where its heart should be—some wires connected to a display of the body's heartbeat—and into the cavity where its stomach and lower body had once been. Its left arm ended at the elbow, and the other was missing at the shoulder.

Then there was the head and neck. Or what was left of them. More tubes and hoses were pushed into the body's neck, which was less than half still there. So much skin and flesh was missing that Inko could see the vertebrae of the neck.

The body's head was a mess. Instead of a face, an opaque plate was anchored in its place, a large tube inserted into the place its mouth should be. A chunk of the head on the right side was either missing or caved in with another opaque plate inserted so that the body's brains didn't spill out. Wires were plugged in, their purpose, Inko couldn't guess.

"Incredible what modern science can achieve. He was killed in a building collapse, I was told. His body was crushed, as you can see. Died, but my friend had connections with some doctors at the place his body was taken. Even though his brain was dead, they were able to keep his body alive."

Inko had seen her share of death recently. Hell, she had even caused it. She was covered in blood, regardless of the justification. So, the body didn't freak her out too much. Nor the way All for One talked about it; his tone was like he was talking about a product.

Still, despite all that, Inko was left speechless because of one simple question. "How is this a Meta Ability?"

All for One looked up from the remains and at Inko. "Not even a flinch? You are a curious woman."

Inko arched an eyebrow. "You think I haven't seen a corpse before? The tech here is more shocking."

"Ha ha ha ha. Midoriya, you have made this night an utter joy. Well… more so than it already was going to be." All for One reached into the container and put his hand on top of the body's head. "But to answer your question, I can't take the Quirk from a dead body, after all."

Wait, what?

Red tendrils of energy, like whiffs of smoke, began to seep out from the corpse's body and climb up and into All for One's own. Inko wasn't sure what she was seeing, but it felt incredible and terrifying at the same time.

Soon the red whiffs of energy faded, fully absorbed into All for One. When it was done, All for One took his hand off the body's head. Without a word, he reached over and entered a command into the container's keypad. The pad made a few blips, then shut down, along with the rest of the devices connected to the body.

Beep

…

Beep

…

Beep

…

The beeping from the heart monitor slowed until it finally stopped. Whoever this person had been, his body was now dead along with the rest of him.

"The Quirk is called Hypertrophy," All for One said simply as he raised up his hand, and before a startled Inko, his right hand and arm suddenly enlarged to triple their normal size, tearing up the sleeve of the suit. "The hero was able to enlarge their arms. It made him a dangerous threat in close combat, or so I was told." He smirked at the wide eyed Inko. "A magnificent thing. When I heard this was available, I couldn't stop thinking of all the different combinations I could create with it."

Wait, hold on?! Inko was still coming to terms with what she had just watched. This All for One had just taken that person's Quirk. He took it. That shouldn't be possible. Right?

Clearly, Inko thought, it is. I just fucking watched it happen.

Then that last thing All for One had said hit her. "Different combinations?"

All for One chuckled, then clenched his gigantic fist and pointed out to the sea towards the boat the bodies of the thieves were on. Suddenly, the tattered fabric around his arm was obliterated as a gigantic blast of air exploded from his hand and ripped through the surface of the water until it hit the boat and obliterated it.

While Inko's jaw hit the ground, All for One laughed joyfully. "Excellent! Absolutely excellent! I was right. With Hypertrophy making my arms so much larger, the power of Air Cannon has increased as well." Clenching and unclenching his hand, All for One looked at his hand and arm as they returned to their normal size. "Well worth the price."

"Your suit's ruined." Inko wasn't sure why that was the first thing that popped out of her mouth.

This man was undoubtedly the demon she had been warned about. Because, as Inko realized, he had said combinations, and that meant he must have more Quirks. Two Quirks weren't combinations. Only a demon could do that.

Inko was terrified. She was also in awe. It must have been these two feelings screwing with her that had caused the remark.

This man, he wasn't human. He was something else. Someone to fear. Someone to worship. Someone that you loved and waited for the moment they praised you. He was in many ways the perfect being, a god to someone that saw Quirks the way Inko did. Not something to be repressed, but openly used and shown off to the world.

All for One was a demon.

A king.

A god.

Living perfection was standing right before her, and she felt an almost uncontrollable urge to fall to her knees.

Fortunately for Inko, she had an even stronger urge. To get this man the fuck off her island. Because she knew, she just knew that if he stayed any longer, her home would be in ruins. Because a Demon Lord such as this would not bat an eye if a place like Bespin was crushed just by his very being.

She also didn't think Hisashi would like the way she was looking at this being. The love of her life would easily be hot-headed enough to try to square up, and get utterly destroyed. She'd rather not see the man that was going to fucking marry her, even if she had to make him put the ring on her herself, get killed.

So yeah, All for One had to get the fuck up outta here.

"That blast…" Inko swallowed. "Might attract some attention."

"Ah, I suppose it would. Though I doubt there is anyone here I should need to be worried about." Inko had to agree, he had a point. "But I think if you were found so close to the commotion, it would be troublesome for you." He smiled. "I doubt you want too much attention from the authorities while you wage your little war. So I think it would be wise for me to take my leave and allow you the chance to escape back to your friends."

Inko was relieved that it seemed like All for One was ready to just leave. That made things super simple for ever—

"But first, you and I should conclude our business."

"Inko what happened?!"

"We heard a huge explosion!"

"The hell were you thinking?!"

The moment Inko was back home, her friends let loose a barrage of questions. All of which she promptly ignored as she marched towards her main goal.

Having a fucking drink.

She pulled out one of the mason jars filled with fruit and moonshine. Finding a shot glass, Inko poured herself a shot and downed it. She then quickly followed that up with a couple more before she grabbed some glasses, found a chair, and sat down.

Her friends crowded around her. If they weren't going to get a verbal confirmation she was fine, then they'd just look her over. They all examined her, looking for any signs of injuries or anything out of the ordinary.

"Will you guys just sit the fuck down. I'm fine," Inko growled in half-hearted annoyance. When no one immediately moved, Inko rubbed her brow. "Please sit down. We have stuff we have to talk about."

Hisashi, now mostly sure Inko was okay, crossed his arms and frowned. "You got that right."

"Bark Head," Inko looked at Hisashi, "you have a right to be upset. I get that, but you really need to listen right now. And I'm not going to talk to you while you're glaring down at me." She glanced at her other unhappy friends. "That goes for you all too."

Some more unhappy looks and grumbles were shared, but the other finally pulled up some seats and sat down. Inko poured them all a drink and handed out the glasses. When no one immediately took a drink, Inko sighed and decided to just get on with it. "So remember that old prophecy I told you Pemphredo told me?"

"Yeah?"

"And how it called the whole sea wall breaking and shit," Inko continued.

Not exactly a fun moment to recall, but the group all nodded. "Yeah, we spent a few days really freaking out that the old lady called it."

Inko took another drink. "Well, I just met death a second time tonight." She let that sink in as her friends looked at her with alarm. "All for One was the demon."

"What?!"

"How is that even possible?"

"And you sent us away!" Hisashi was back on his feet. Shock, worry and anger all mixed up on his face.

Inko looked at him hard. "I sent you away because you were this close to making a bonehead decision."

"I—"

"Tell me you weren't thinking of taking the container even after he proved it was his. Tell me you weren't ready to kill him because he was with the yakuza."

Hisashi huffed but looked away. The same with Biruda and Musen.

"I saw what this man could do. That explosion you heard, that was him. He'd have killed you before you knew what was coming. Demon is a great word to describe what he is… and you guys were getting ready to try and jump him."

While Hisashi chewed on the bitter idea that Inko was certain he'd have died, Musen leaned forward. "And you couldn't have told us? A warning or something was too much?"

"How would it have looked if I suddenly started bringing that up? Right then and there, I only cared about two things. Making sure you guys got out okay, and making sure I survived."

Hisashi, after a few prods from the group, sat down. "And how did you do that?"

"By making sure he was still amused."

"Eh?"

"This All for One, he's someone important and powerful. The idea that the four of us were giving him attitude, and that we didn't know who he was, he found it hilarious. It put him in a good mood. I kept him in it. Let him show off and get what he wanted."

"Which was what? What was in that box?"

"…A body."

Inko explained that All for One wanted the remains for its Quirk. How he was able to take it and use it. And not only that, she told them that this man had multiple Quirks. The idea was crazy to her friends, but Inko reminded them of the explosion. She let that sink in.

"So what happened next? Did he just leave?"

"…No."

"Something else you might want before I go," All for One said as Inko turned to walk away. "Think of this as a gift, for making this a rather fun evening for myself. I happened to hear that some of the bosses of the Abegawa Tenchu Kai were going to personally oversee what was the cause of a sudden drop in their drug production."

"Wait? They're coming here?"

"They should be here in three days. I would imagine, they will be arriving wherever is the most secure."

"The docks," Biruda said in shock, "they'll be landing at the docks."

"Holy shit."

"Yeah," Inko agreed, "this is big, guys. We have an opportunity to hurt these assholes. Not just their bottom line, but the men themselves."

"But the docks are a fortress. There's a reason we haven't even tried to hit there," Musen cautioned.

Hisashi tapped his glass, smoke puffing out of his nose as he thought about this. "We've never sat down and tried to plan something out, though. We just chose to try and starve them out by hitting all the other, less guarded spots on the island."

"Then let's look at how we're going to get in. We have three days to get ready. We can't let this opportunity slip by."

Two days later, Inko was ready to tear out her hair. She was standing over a drawn out map prepared by Musen. On it we're scribbles and notes; markings of where they could try and enter, markings for escapes. Which of the buildings were still being used, and which were abandoned.

There was so much information jumbled and scattered about. Post-it notes weren't just stuck to the map, but the table. It was all over the place, and Inko, tapping her foot and opening and closing her hand, was making sure she understood everything.

Which wasn't as hard as it might seem, because it all boiled down to a simple truth. The four of them did not have the manpower, or firepower, to storm the docks.

"Fuck."

"You know it's not going to suddenly change if you keep looking at it, right?" Hisashi said from the bed. With evening fast approaching, he was ready to call it a night. Almost forty-eight hours of planning and plotting, only to come up with nothing, had left him exhausted. "Inko, come to bed. You're wearing yourself thin."

Inko's foot tapped quicker. "We can't let this opportunity slip away. There's a solution here. I know it."

"Inko, there's wanting to make the most of a chance, and then there's throwing yourself into an unwinnable situation."

Inko groaned, covered her face with her hands, and after a long sigh, dragged them down. She hated this. Hated that this perfect chance to deliver some actual revenge against the people that had caused her and her friends so much pain was going to slip away. Slumping down, Inko let herself stumble back to the bed and sat down.

"We'll figure something out, Inko. This just isn't our time."

"If this isn't it, then when? We have a time, that's never going to happen again. Musen has been trying to listen in on them, but they've been radio silent about this visit. Either they don't know, or they're paranoid about someone finding out. So if we hadn't been told about this trip, we'd never have known. Who's to say we'd figure out another trip was coming, if it even happened."

Hisashi put an arm around her. "We're four people now. And we didn't all have your good luck to stumble upon guns. We work well at guerilla warfare. This would be a siege. We'd need a lot more people and a lot more firepower."

"If we could get into the police station's armory, they still have all the shit they confiscated from Alderaan's security forces there."

Hisashi shook his head. "Getting into that building, in the middle of the village, isn't happening. And even if we somehow managed to get those guns, it's people we need. And where are we going to get that? It's not like we can just walk into the middle of town and have open recruiting for the Meta Liberation Army."

Hisashi tried to pull Inko down into the bed. They both needed some sleep. Inko however went as stiff as a statue. Her head shot up and her eyes went wide. Then she reached up and grabbed his shirt collar with both hands. "That's it!"

"Wait, huh? What's it?"

Inko dove forward and shocked Hisashi with a quick but hot kiss. "That's it! You just figured out the solution!"

Inko bolted off the bed, hurrying to get her boots on. "Go grab Bob, I'll get Musen. If we go now, we should still make it!"

Hisashi shook his head, trying to keep up with the sudden change. "Wait? What did I figure out? What's going on? Make what? Where are we going?"

Her boots on, Inko rushed for the door, only to skid to a stop to look back at him. "The town hall, of course. We have a meeting to attend."

"Eh?!"

"Everyone, please, let's keep this meeting orderly." Sea Beard tried to calm everyone down. The town hall was standing room only, filled with angry and frightened residents. It was a powder keg.

The mayor banged his gavel down, trying to force the people to get under control. "There will be order, or you will be removed from this meeting."

That did nothing to calm anyone down. If anything, it just pissed people off even more. One man, a large fisherman, jabbed a finger towards the sitting counsel. "You let our home turn into this, and now you're coming down on us? You've lost your minds!"

"A curfew?! You don't have the right!" someone else screamed.

"And what's this about 'all ships must remain docked'?! We still haven't recovered financially, and now you're telling us we can't fish?!"

"Please." Sea Beard tried to make the people understand. "This is for your safety."

"Safety?!"

"Not a chance!"

"Good luck trying to enforce this!"

The mayor slammed the gavel down hard. "Any ship not docked will be labeled a drug transport and sunk! Any person caught breaking curfew will be designated a criminal, arrested and deported!"

Sea Beard winced. That kind of attitude was not going to help anything. And he was right, as the crowd went mad, screaming and cursing. Sea Beard had known that this idea for a curfew was not going to go over well. It didn't help that the idea was being sprung on the people and enforced so quickly.

This needed to be done, for everyone's safety, at least for the short term. But the idea needed to be brought to the people's attention gently. Gone were the days the mayor could just tell these people what to do. Long, long gone.

"Please, people. We are in the middle of a crisis. The recent attacks have turned the dealers hostile. Paranoid. I don't want you to be attacked while we—"

"While you what?!"

"You're supposed to be a hero and you've let these drug dealers run rampant for years!"

"You've done nothing and now you're trying to imprison us!"

"Whoever's been attacking those dealers, they're the real heroes!"

"Yay!"

The mayor screamed, "Whoever has been attacking has stirred up a hornets nest! They've made the situation worse! I will not condone vigilantism! They are murderers, arsonists, villains! Their actions put all of us at risk. Their selfishness will get you killed! And when we find those responsible for the hardships we now must endure, I promise you they will suffer the full extent of the law and pay for all of their crime—"

Bang!

Three loud shots ripped through the ceiling above the crowd, sending bits of wood and ceiling dust raining down. People were either left in stunned silence or picking themselves off the ground after diving for cover, the mayor being one such person that had dove under his desk. Sea Beard stepped in front of the cowering mayor while looking for the shooter.

"Who's ther—"

"Sea Beard, shut the fuck up."

The crowd turned and watched as Inko, dressed in her army greens, now sporting a red sash around her arm with a distinctive black mask. Her rifle was now lowered, but she kept the butt of it against her shoulder. Her friends followed behind her, all dressed in the clothes they started their war in, but also with the same red sashes. "If you have something you want to say to us, mayor, why don't you say it to our faces?"

Sea Beard opened and closed his mouth, his shock slowly melting into realization. The attacks he had investigated all had the same MO. Bullet wounds, fire, blunt force trauma, and lacerations. The four standing in the town hall's entry matched perfectly. He reran the first attack in his head. The brutality of it. It was the same night that Sakura had died.

"Midoriya, what have you done?"

Inko regarded the old hero coldly. "What you either couldn't or wouldn't do."

"ARREST THEM! ARREST THEM NOW!" The mayor screeched at the top of his lungs.

The sheriff took a step forward, but Inko leveled her rifle at him. "Don't. You just do what you're good at and just stand there." Inko glared at Sea Beard. "Same goes for you. Didn't come here to shoot anyone, but if you push me, I'll show you just how good I am with this thing." Inko drummed a finger on the trigger guard. "I've gotten a lot of practice… And mayor, you say another thing and I'll have Biruda nail that gavel to your hand. Got it?"

The mayor chirped out a whimper.

No one moved. No one said anything. Inko now had everyone's undivided attention. Which was just what she wanted. "Sorry for the scare, but with everyone screaming it was the fastest way to get your attention. And you need to give me your full attention. Because we don't have time to bicker and argue about this."

Inko handed off her rifle to Hisashi, though she unhooked the bayonet and kept that. Walking into the crowd, which split before her, she made her way towards the raised platform at the front of the room.

"You know who I am, just like I know all of you. But let me introduce myself anyway. My name is Midoriya Inko, and I'm the leader of the Meta Liberation Army. And yes, we are the ones that have been hunting down the dealers and cooks on our island and slaughtering them. We're also the group that had been attacking the Alderaan Mining and Refining Corporation years back."

Murmurs started, whispers between the people in the crowd.

"A month ago, a dear friend of mine, someone I had known since we were both little girls in the orphanage, died from a drug overdose. I found her lying on the ground, and when I got her to the clinic, she died in my arms. The clinic didn't have the space or resources to save her life. That same night, we dug her grave and buried her.

"And you know the truly horrific and tragic thing? Everything I just said, what my friends and I went through, isn't special. We had to bury someone we loved, and now, that's such a common thing, it doesn't even carry weight anymore. I'm willing to bet everyone here knows someone or is someone that's had to do the exact same thing as us."

As Inko looked around, she saw sadness. Tears and shame.

"The night Sakura died, we learned where the drugs came from. So we went there and burned it down. After that, we started searching all over the island, finding where these monsters were making the drugs that are killing our friends and loved ones."

Sea Bears shook his head sadly. "Pain and loss doesn't give you the right to take their lives. We don't live in a world of an eye for an eye."

Inko looked at Sea Beard. "We're supposed to live in a world where the people we elect, the authorities they hire, and the heroes we look up to, are supposed to protect us. When all three of those fail, who else do we have to turn to but ourselves?

"'They say to trust them to look out for us, but what do we do when they are no longer there?'" Inko ended with a quote from the Meta Liberation War. If anything it was the perfect line for the situation.

"You haven't been here for us in a long long time. While we've waited, we've watched our home become a ruined shell of its former self and now we're watching our people die. Well, we decided not to wait any more."

Inko hopped up onto the stage. "We started fighting back. And we started winning."

"You have no idea what you're doing. You're going to get someone killed, Midoriya," Sea Beard countered. "This isn't a game. You have no idea what your actions are going to do, or whose attention you're going to attract."

"The dealers and cooks work for the Abegawa Tenchu Kai. They're yakuza. So yes, we know exactly who we're dealing with." While Sea Beard looked stunned Inko continued, "And as for what our actions are going to do, we know that too."

"What?"

"What's going to happen?"

Some in the crowd looked scared. Others, maybe envious. All were curious.

"Tomorrow night, several heads of the Yakuza are going to be on the island." Now Sea Beard looked absolutely flabbergasted. "They'll be here to figure out why their shipments of drugs have suddenly dropped and what they are going to do to fix it. Let me repeat that, the bosses are going to be here. At the old Alderaan docks. Tomorrow night."

Now that got the crowd talking. Some shouted at the mayor, asking if this is why the curfew was being put up. Did they know this was happening? How much did they know? Why weren't they mobilizing to arrest these people?

The mayor peaked out from under the desk. "I'm under no obligation to answer anything about an ongoing investigation."

That sure as hell didn't make the crowd happy.

Inko raised her hands, bringing the crowd's attention back to her. "The docks are a fortress to them. Surrounded by gates and barbed wire. It's an acre of buildings, shipping crates, machinery and laid out like a maze. A single hero can't breach that. A sheriff and a hero can't breach that." Inko pointed to her friends. "The four of us can't breach it. Believe me, it was one of the first places we wanted to go, but it just isn't possible. If you want these men brought to justice, what you need is an army. An army of people, armed and ready to take the fight to these monsters and to take back their home."

The crowd was really going now.

"The sheriff confiscated all the arms and vehicles that belonged to the Alderaan security forces. It's all still there, in his armory." Inko glanced over at the alarmed sheriff. "Me and my friends, we're going there next. We're going to arm ourselves and get ready for tomorrow night. Because tomorrow, we are going to war."

Inko looked over the crowd, saw so many different emotions, she saw so much fire. Fueled by fear and hate. By loss and horror. They had been forced to live in a nightmare for so long, and Inko was showing them a way out of it.

Inko raised her hand, clenching the bayonet tight. "This is our home. These monsters have dug themselves in like parasites. And they need to be burned out like parasites. You are the people of Bespin. You are not weak, powerless cowards. You have power. Each of us has a power. We're taught not to use it, because the ones that are supposed to protect us will use theirs in our place.

"No more. Rise up! Stand up! Take hold of your own future and trust in yourselves. No more waiting to be saved, we will save ourselves. Join me. I created this," Inko pulled at her red sash over her arm, "because I refused to let my home get destroyed. The Meta Liberation Army was created for people to stand and defend themselves. It's been only us, and we drove Alderaan out. It was only us, and we burned fear into the Abegawa Tenchu Kai. Just think, think what will happen if all of us take the next step."

Inko stretched out her arms. "Join me, and let's free ourselves from this nightmare. Join me in our liberation!"

Stepping out of the cabin, the group of men stretched out in relief. "Why in the hell did we have to take this rickety old tugboat?"

"Oh, quit your whining. You know why. Damned Hero Public Safety Commission is starting to look at us too hard. If we aren't careful they'll slap a villainous organization label on us. Then we'll be in the shit."

"It's a pain that we have to come out here. This couldn't be done over the phone?"

"This production site has gotten sloppy. Someone apparently thinks they've got big enough balls to tangle with us. We need to put the boys in line and get them sorted out now."

"How in the hell does a site like this suddenly have a problem? It's the fucking boonies."

"Like I said. Sloppy work. Boys are probably taking hits on the product or are selling too much of it on the side."

"Idiots. Thinking they can short us."

"Ha ha ha, right. Like you weren't pocketing some shit back in the day."

"I wasn't dumb enough to get caught. Or screw up an operation."

"Yeah, yeah. I'm more concerned with the idea that we got an informant blabbing away that—"

"Excuse me, sir." A tall broad shouldered man was the last to exit the cabin, square jawed and smartly dressed in a white suit with a brown coat thrown over his shoulders. "But it might be wise not to discuss that topic out in the open."

One of the older men laughed. "Lighten up, Manhole. No one here knows jack about it."

Another man patted 'Manhole' on the shoulder. "Yonenaga has a point, even if he is too uptight. No reason to bring up something that could cause us grief. Let's just take care of our business and go home."

The elder scoffed. "An enforcer talking back to an executive like that. No respect."

"An enforcer that's getting groomed for your seat, old man."

While the group complained and bickered, Rojiya Yonenaga paid them little mind. He was here to ensure the meeting went smoothly, so that was what he was going to do. Reaching down inside the cabin, Rojiya picked up a manhole cover he had 'found' on the dock before getting onboard the boat. With it under his arm, he walked with the group down the ramp to finally step foot on Bespin Island. There was a chill in the air tonight, and the roads and buildings had a few inches of snow. The island was having its first snowfall that night, and the large cotton ball flakes were sticking everywhere where they fell.

A man hurried up to meet the group. Skidding to a stop, he bowed quickly. "S-sirs. You honor us with your visit." The man wore a black hoodie and was fidgeting a lot. He was obviously nervous. Rojiya shook his head, the man should at least try to hold his fear in check.

"I-if you will follow me. We have a building prepared for you all."

While the group followed, Rojiya eyed the men that were moving about the docks. Some were going about their business, moving boxes and containers. Others were the men on duty watching them, making sure everyone did what they were supposed to do. It was these men Rojiya paid close attention to. These were his fellow Yakuza. And, he noted, they were tense. This dock was supposed to be a stronghold, but the recent attacks elsewhere on the island clearly had them nervous.

A group of unknowns had attacked what was supposed to be a simple and easy job. They had stuck to the easy targets so far, but how long until they tried something drastic?

CRASH!

At the far end of the dock, a loud commotion rocked everyone. "The hell was that?!"

Some men were moving quickly, running towards the sound, which Rojiya noted had been followed by billowing smoke. Others seemed frozen on the spot.

Rojiya gripped the manhole cover tightly.

The black hooded man had a phone out and was frantically trying to get an update. "What? What do you mean? A truck?"

"What what what? Talk or I'll slit you open!"

The man gulped and jumped at the threat. "A truck just crashed through the front gate! And…" the man paled as he listened. "Oh…"

"Oh? What does 'oh' mean?"

"…They're armed…" the hooded man was now whiter than the snow.

One of the executives smirked. "So the fools think a few morons with a gun are a threat to us? Let them come and get slaughtered."

Rojiya didn't like just how scared the man was. "How many men?"

"All."

The bosses all frowned. "All? All what? What does that even—"

BOOM!

Where the smoke had been, a huge fireball ripped towards the dark sky. As the roar faded, a new sound echoed into the docks. It was the roar of angry people. Rojiya now understood what was coming even before the terrified man said it. "It's the villagers. They're all here. There's over a hundred people breaking through."

If there was one thing Inko had taken from Destro's final manifesto, the Meta Liberation War— and she had taken a lot from it—it was to lead by example. You don't convince people to follow you by hanging towards the back. You have to lead, and let your actions reflect your words. Inspire, become the glowing beacon.

So when people were trying to decide who was going ram one of the security trucks through the gate, breaching a hole for the rest to push through but also putting themselves directly in front of any retaliation, it was an obvious choice for Inko.

She jumped into the front seat and after screaming how tonight their home would be free, she turned the key and revved the engine. As she focused on what she was about to do, she was only just aware of the passenger side door opening, and Hisashi getting into the seat.

He grabbed her face and kissed her deeply. "Gun it."

Inko slammed her foot down and rocketed the truck forward. The truck slammed through the fence and gate. Metal crunched. Wood snapped. There was a crash and a screech as the front tires of the truck were ripped off from the razor-barbed wires. Sparks flew as the front end of the truck slid along the road, deep into the front entrance of the docks.

Inko groaned, her face 'nestled' in the 'comforting' airbag that had deployed around her when the truck first struck the gate. Thanks to the wonders of modern vehicle safety, Inko was not thrown through the window of the truck, nor was she crushed when the side of the truck slammed into a wall, coming to a sudden and violent stop. She was however dazed, and feeling like a bug that got shaken up in a jar by a really mean turd of a kid.

She was also really, really, really sore. But she had enough adrenaline kicking through her system that it only felt like her whole body was a living toothache. She'd deal with the rest of the pain tomorrow. Inko also felt full. Which was odd, but a truck crash does wonders to a body.

Also, the truck was on fire, which wasn't exactly great. Not a lot of fire, but like, even if you got only a little shit on your shoe, you'd still make a huge deal about it.

"The hell is going on?!"

"Is that a fucking truck?"

"The gates down!"

"Wait, are those people?!"

"Check out the truck!"

That last yell cut through a lot of Inko's haze. She heard someone yelling as they approached the truck, screaming cursed and demanding to know who was drunk enough or stupid enough to crash here. When the man reached through the truck's shattered window, he felt something press into his chest. He didn't get a chance to look down before Inko pulled the trigger.

BANG!

The loud thunder of a shotgun blast ripped through the snowy night air as the man's upper body was shredded and thrown from the side of the truck. Some of the men standing around gaped in shock. Inko used that chance to pump the shotgun and line up her next shot.

BANG!

When she and her army had raided the sheriff's armory, she had felt a strange sense of morbid satisfaction when she had found Sytsevich's old gun. It was pulling its weight almost immediately.

BANG!

The next shot sent the men scurrying for cover and gave Inko and Hisashi, who was more or less fine, a chance to kick open the truck door and get out before they were roasted. With her rifle now slung over her shoulder, Inko and Hisashi darted for cover while she fired off more shots from the shotgun. Diving for a building, the two pressed their backs against the wall.

The men began to creep towards them, weapons drawn, just in time to hear more trucks barrel through the opened gate, with villagers riding on the truck beds or running behind. All armed, and all looking for blood.

Inko smirked when she saw the yakuza members realize just what was coming for them. It wasn't the whole village. Some had stayed, either because they couldn't join in, or wouldn't. But there were still over a hundred pissed and armed people. It was an army.

Her army.

When the villagers broke in, the dock descended into chaos. A large group of slightly trained Yakuza and their warehouse workers, dealers and cooks, were trying to figure out how to fight back against a much larger group of armed people that had little to no training at all. Guns were fired. Flash bangs thrown. Vehicles were used as rams. And Quirks, if they were offensive in any capacity, were openly being used.

Inko didn't have time to worry about any of that though. While the army had the yakuza's undivided attention, she continued to act as the tip of the spear, pushing forward and burning and torching as she went with Hisashi's help. This helped cut off the yakuza from the boats, preventing them from escaping, but it also continued to cause chaos. People didn't know what they should be defending or saving. Some workers were running into burning buildings, trying to pull stuff out, while others were trying to form defenselines.

Inko tossed her shotgun to Hisashi, switching to her rifle as he reloaded it for her. She could see men running atop the roofs, armed and trying to get into a flanking position of the army.

Fuck that.

Inko had her rifle up and opened fire. She got two before the group realized they were getting shot at. They turned, and Inko swore. "Bark Head move!" Grabbing her boyfriend, she threw him behind a forklift just before the roof group opened fire.

Ratatatatata!

When there was a break in their fire, Inko poked her head out and fired back, ducking back down when her rifle went ping, and expelled the five round clip. Pocketing the clip, Inko winced when they started firing back.

Hisashi handed her the shotgun, "Keep them from firing for a few seconds!"

Taking the shotgun, Inko crawled up under the seat of the forklift. She couldn't get a great aim from there but at this distance, she wasn't going to hit anything anyway. The shot should at least make them go for cover again, and give Hisashi a chance to do his thing.

After two shots, the men on the roof stopped their firing and hunkered back down. And Hisashi used that chance to light a Molotov and chuck it. The flaming bottle arced up and splashed right on the group.

While the men screamed, Inko and Hisashi rushed to one of the buildings, and after Hisashi burned the doorknob and a good chunk of the door to get in, they dove in and put their back against the wall, breathing heavily.

When Inko had caught her breath, she took the chance to look around the room they were in. It was a storage building, one giant room. There were wooden crates stacked up. More of the yakuza's products. Inko didn't have to say anything; Hisashi was taking a deep breath and lighting the boxes on fire.

"Hey! Is there anyone listening?"

The gruff voice that crackled in suddenly startled the two. Looking around, Inko found a wall with hanging worker high visibility vests, hard hats, and radios, one of which was still on in the charger.

"What what what?! What the fuck?! What do you want?! We have a full damned insurrection here!"

"We need to get the hell out of here!"

"Where the hell did these islanders get these weapons?"

"It's all burning! We have to leave now!"

"SHUT UP! Everyone on this line shut the hell up. No one leaves. The bosses' boat has to get refueled. You hold the line and make damned sure they get away."

Inko's head snapped up, then coughing into her hand, she grabbed the radio, and as gravely as she could, asked. "Where are they? We need an idea how far we can't get pushed back."

"The fuck do you mean where? They're at the main dock. The shits attacked the moment they landed. Who the fuck is dumb enough not to know—"

Inko dropped the radio. "Let's go meet the bosses."

"Hurry hurry hurry!" an elder man screamed, stamping his foot as some dock workers rushed to the hoses attached to the fuel truck while others worked to get the other end into the boat. Some members had rushed back inside the boat, while others berated the crews for taking so long. Even as they got fuel flowing, it wasn't fast enough.

"This has to be the work of the Shie Hassaikai. The bastards must have armed the villagers."

"Those old fools are too cowardly to try something like this," another executive gripped, "maybe it's the HPSC."

"An armed rebellion? Not a chance."

"Sirs," Rojiya interjected, "you should get on the boat. If we need to make a quick exit…"

The oldest man waved Rojiya off. "I will not be chased off this island like a coward. This island belongs to us."

"Manhole has a point. If they break through, we'll be overrun," an executive argued, making sure to stay as close to Rojiya as he could.

"We are the Abegawa Tenchu Kai. Our reach is vast and our power even has the government knowing not to mess with us. We own this islan—"

BANG!

Rojiya was moving even before he heard the shots. With his coat flying off and putting himself between the danger and the executives, he swung out the manhole cover he had been carrying and used it as a shield. Bullets ripped into the solid metal.

Pang!

Four shots bounced off the hunk of cast iron, protecting the executives that had stayed close to Rojiya. The eldest one however, fell to the ground, blood pooling and staining the snow red.

While the shooter reloaded, someone from behind lit a Molotov and threw it towards the refueling truck. Muscles crackling with power, Rojiya launched the manhole cover like a disc. It shattered the flaming bottle as it flew through the air, still harmlessly far from the truck. The cover slammed off a building and rebounded back into Rojiya's hand.

"Everyone, get to the boat now."

"Who are—"

Rojiya glared at the two assailants through the holes in the manhole cover, one a young man and the other a young woman. Both dressed for war. The woman's eyes made it clear, she was here to kill.

"They are here to kill you. What else do you need to know?"

"Holy shit, did you see that?"

"Enhanced strength, great," Inko grunted as she slapped a new clip into her rifle and moved the strap so that it hung to her back. She unslung her shotgun from her belt. "So the Abegawa Tenchu Kai have themselves a guard dog. It doesn't matter. We just have to go through him then and get to the rest."

Rojiya frowned. "I will not allow that."

Inko responded by firing while Hisashi ran wide, trying to get around Rojiya and get a good shot at the group with his Fire Breath. Keeping the manhole cover up, Rojiya kept blocking Inko's shots. While he did that, he waited to see what Hisashi was going to do.

At the same time, the executives were scrambling for the boat ramp. Smoke and flames puffed out of Hisashi's mouth as he got ready to fire, while Inko cocked back the pump to expel a spent round from the shotgun. The break lined up with Hisashi's attack, so Rojiya twisted his body and got ready to throw the manhole cover right at him.

Inko, realizing the danger Hisashi was in, reached out and used her Quirk to grab the makeshift shield and pull it, trying to rip it out of Rojiya's hand. The man's eyes widened at the sudden sensation before he did something Inko was not expecting; he immediately dropped the manhole cover.

Stunned, Inko aimed to fire, but Rojiya was moving, twisting and dropping so that his body stayed lined up with the cover. Grabbing the dead old man, Rojiya threw the body straight into Hisashi, knocking him off his feet and sending him sliding across the snowy ground until he stopped yards away.

Inko didn't even have a chance to scream out to him before Rojiya caught the manhole cover as it bounced off the concrete and, with a flick of his arm, launched it towards her.

Inko threw herself to the side but wasn't able to completely get out of the way. The cover clipped the shotgun, shattering it into shredded metal and wood splinters. Knocked to the ground, her rifle flung off her shoulder and clattered off to the side, jarring loose the bayonet. The manhole cover bounced off the building and rocketed back into Rojiya's hand.

"A fire breathing Quirk is dangerous this close to a fuel truck. If your friend had tried to hit my bosses, there's a chance he would have also hit the truck. We'd all be dead from the explosion."

Inko hissed. Her side hurt. Her whole body hurt. The adrenaline from the start of the fight was starting to lose its power. The pain from the crash was starting to feel worse.

Fuck.

She didn't know if Hisashi was alive after that attack. The sound that corpse made when it hit him was sickening. It could have been the corpse's bones snapping, or Hisashi's. Inko was forced to admit, this wasn't something she had been prepared for. Fighting some super-soldier with a shield wasn't in the plan.

No battle plan survives contact with the enemy.

One of her old war books said that once.

The bosses were on the boat now, and Rojiya was looking at Inko. "Stay down. I don't want to have to kill a woman." Behind him, the boat was starting to rev to life, the bosses were getting away and screaming for Rojiya to jump to the ship.

Pain or no pain, Inko wasn't about to let that comment slide. "You don't get to pretend you have honor. You people used my home to cook your poison, infecting us at the same time!"

Rojiya frowned. "It's just business."

Inko got up to a knee, eyeing her rifle.

"Your army has this battle won. Stay down and see a victorious tomorrow."

"Go to hell." Inko was back on her feet.

Rojiya shook his head, but acknowledged her will. "A warrior's death, then."

His arms crackled with power as he twisted and threw the shield right at Inko. It sliced through the air, cutting through the air and snow as it covered the short distance between them.

Only a few yards. It would take only an instant to hit Inko. This wasn't like the other throw, with Rojiya out of form and throwing the cover while twisted and bent down. This was a perfect throw.

She wouldn't be able to dodge.

This would hit her dead center.

CLANG!

The cast iron rang like a hammered bell.

Solid contact.

Right into Inko's outstretched hand.

"But first, you and I should conclude our business."

Inko felt something cold form in the pit of her stomach.

As a demon offering a trade, a reward you must take for your aid.

"What do you mean? You have your Meta Ability right? And the people that stole it are dead."

All for One smirked. "True, but I am anything but an unfair man. I was going to pay a fair price in exchange for this."

Inko crossed her arms, "And what's the going rate for a Meta Ability these days?"

"A Quirk for a Quirk is a fair exchange, don't you think?"

Inko blinked. Opened her mouth to say something but couldn't think of any words. So she closed her mouth and tried again. It took her a third attempt before she could say, "Huh?"

All for One held out his hands to his sides, a gravitas gesture that called attention to himself. "I can do more than just take Quirks. Any Quirk I take, I can also give to someone else."

Well, that's just fucking insane. Right? … Though those guys did say something about a 'special payment'…

All for One could see the disbelief in Inko's face, and he found it very funny. "In exchange for helping me collect Hypertrophy, I promised the boss of the Abegawa Tenchu Kai that I would give his son another Quirk, to help him cement his position as the next leader. However, the Abegawa Tenchu Kai didn't hold up their end of the bargain. They did not deliver to me the package and worse yet, let greedy snakes close enough that they could steal it. But your Meta Liberation Army reclaimed it and had it ready for me."

Inko didn't think pointing out that All for One was already on his way and would have been able to take this back without issue was the best choice, so she just nodded along with what he was saying.

"The way I see it, the payment is yours."

"Mine?" Inko chirped.

"Why yes. You are the leader obviously. As a leader, should you not get the greater share of the rewards? Friends or not, you have put yourself above the rest, by your actions and ambitions." He smiled. "Who else but you can accept this?"

While alarm bells were blaring in Inko's head, so was the last bit of the prophecy; a reward you must take for your aid.

Things seem to be pretty cut and clean now. This was exactly like Pemphredo had said. Again. It was crazy, and really made Inko's head hurt.

But suddenly agreeing seemed like the wrong play. She needed to be skeptical. She needed to still be smart. For her own pride, and to make sure she didn't look weak in front of this man, because that seemed like it would be a bad idea.

"You're able to take Meta Abilities. You could become something more than human with a power like that. But you're saying you just hand them out?"

All for One nodded, smiling at her question. "Quality over quantity. And while I do love collecting Quirks, they are just fascinating, I know when it's time to part with one."

"…When it no longer gives you the power you need, because you found something else that does it better."

All for One's smile turned a little sinister, while still being amused. "You catch on quick. I have many Quirks, and I've used some that I no longer need as rewards to the people that work for me in the past. Power has a way of ensuring loyalty. I've also collected many strength, power, enhancing, and enforcing Quirks.

"The one I will give you was one of the first I found that was like it, but it carried a special condition for its use. And after so many years, the power it gives isn't worth the effort. Not after everything I have now. But for you? This will be a boon like you can not imagine."

"And it's mine, just like that?"

"Just like that. I no longer need it, and I think giving it to you will prove much more entertaining than giving it to some spoiled yakuza son. No strings, no booby traps. A clean simple exchange. A reward for your aid tonight."

Inko took a breath and then nodded her head. "Okay then. I humbly accept your gracious offer."

All for One was pleased and reached out his hand and placed it on Inko's head.

"This Meta Ability, what's it called? How does it work?"

Inko stiffened as she felt something strange. Her body buzzed and twitched. Red wisps of energy began to be expelled from All for One and seeped into Inko. It was a strange feeling. But not bad.

"Fa Jin." All for One answered. "And I'll explain everything."

Fa Jin. This Quirk allows the user to build up kinetic energy and store it for later use by repeating regular motions. When the user chooses to release the built up energy, they gain a burst of speed and power. The user can choose to only use some of the stored energy at a time, allowing them to achieve multiple bursts of speed and power, or release it all at once in one explosive burst.

That was how this new Quirk was explained to Inko. Just walking around, doing normal trivial things, would build up the power. It couldn't store infinite power, though. It was like a battery, it could only be charged so much. A finite amount of power that could be stored, and a finite boost to her speed and strength.

But while she might not be faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a locomotive, or able to leap tall buildings in a single bound, Fa Jin would make her very powerful compared to others in the moment she used it. The demon did warn her though, that she should be careful not to use it all at once right away. Her body needed to adjust to her new Quirk.

For three days, Inko was a constant fidget. If just normal movements were all it took to power up Fa Jin, then every little bit would help. So she kept tapping her foot. Opening and closing her hands. She was never standing still. The rush to plan the assault covered it up well as nervous jitters. But like All for One had said, the power built up.

Till at last, the sudden and jarring movements her body had gone through in the crash had filled Fa Jin up to the max. This new power, this new strength, was exactly what Inko needed right then and there.

With Fa Jin activated, Inko's body radiated energy. She had used it to power up herself so that she could be quick enough to get her hand up to the manhole cover and strong enough to catch it. Becoming a wall that the weapon wasn't able to hurt.

In theory at least. Inko could feel her body crying out in pain from the forces she was exerting on it. Like the crash, but much sharper now. It was All for One's warning coming true, but she ignored it.

This single move used a surprising amount of her stored energy. She only had a few good moves left before her reserves would be gone. Fa Jin was not for prolonged fights, at least not when each move was this powered up. This wasn't a marathon. This was a fucking sprint.

So make it count!

Rojiya stared in shock. He had thought she had a low energy telekinesis Quirk, and yet she had just displayed super strength. Before he could react, Inko moved.

With a snarl she threw the manhole cover, not at Rojiya but right at the large hose refueling the boat. The manhole cover slammed into it, ripping up the hose before it bounced off the concrete and sailed off into the dark, landing in the ocean.

Fuel was now spraying all over the ground, but Inko didn't care. She was already moving, Fa Jin filling her legs as she kicked off and rocketed towards Rojiya. As she closed the distance, she sailed over her rifle's bayonet and snatched it up. Swinging the blade upwards, Rojiya barely got his head back in time to avoid losing his head, though the edge of the short blade did cut him over his left eyebrow.

Inko twisted the blade in her hand into a reverse grip and drove it down. Rojiya used both his hands to catch Inko's arm, stopping the bayonet from stabbing him in the neck. Inko screamed and used her free hand to cup the back end of the handle and force it down.

Rojiya was driven back as he tried to keep himself from getting stabbed. Sliding and backpedaling as Inko forced herself forward, he kept being moved backwards until his back hit the fuel truck. The sudden jolt of impact was enough for Inko to overpower him and drive the bayonet down.

Rojiya slid his head to the side as the blade sunk into the metal of the fuel tank. Growling and with Fa Jin giving her the power, Inko dragged the bayonet through the fuel tank, leaving a gash along the tank as she tried to slice off Rojiya's head. Rojiya shuffled to the side in the same direction as the blade, keeping his head safe. As the bayonet cut through the metal fuel tank, sparks flew.

Sparks that even in a battle haze, both Inko and Rojiya noticed. Because sparks when you are standing in a puddle of fuel was really, really fucking bad.

Alarmed, both used their Quirks to get the hell out of there. Inko lept backwards, while Rojiya used all his Quirk's power to leap from the dock, over to the getaway boat, landing with a loud crash that almost threatened to flip the little ship. The bosses were thrown to the floor as the captain worked really hard not to accidentally turn the wheel as he tried to stay on his feet while gunning the throttle into full forward.

As the fuel went up in flames, Inko looked up, ready to keep fighting, her bayonet at the ready, but Rojiya was nowhere to be seen. Whipping her head around, Inko was enraged when she finally saw where he was. On the fucking boat.

"You mother fucker!" The distance between the dock and the boat was quickly getting larger. Inko wasn't sure she could make it now.

So instead, she rushed forward and grabbed a chunk of fuel hose that was burning brightly. Whipping it around, Inko chucked it towards the boat, but as she threw it, the power Fa Jin had stored up was finally fully spent. The hose flew through the air like a fiery serpent and splashed into the ocean a few feet behind the ship.

Screaming in rage, Inko stumbled for her rifle. She fumbled to get it up into her shoulder and to flip up the sights, her body shaking at the sudden loss of power. She couldn't focus on the ship, it was far away and the snow and darkness was doing a great job of hiding it. Still, she fired.

Bang!

Ping!

The clips were expended, and Inko knew that none of her shots had hit. Rage bubbled up and she screamed, "DON'T COME BACK! NONE OF YOU EVER COME BACK! THIS IS OUR ISLAND! THIS IS MY HOME! THE META LIBERATION ARMY WILL NEVER LET YOU LIVE NOW! RUN AND NEVER COME BACK! I'LL KILL ALL OF YOU IF YOU DO!"

Inko felt so weak as she stumbled over towards Hisashi. Her anger at losing the rest of the bosses and that damned super-soldier was leaving her, and in its place was a numb coldness. The events of the night were starting to catch up to her. She hurt all over. It felt like her body was one wrong move from shattering. Or ripping. Still, she had to get to Hisashi. Had to check on him.

Don't be dead. Don't be dead…

She repeated the mantra with each step. Begging the world not to be so cruel as to take Hisashi from her. Groaning in pain, Inko knelt down over him, eyes looking him over, top to bottom. He was out, but she could see mist forming at his mouth and nose. He was breathing, and pushing her fingers to his throat, she could feel a pulse. He was alive. Probably hurt, but he was alive. It was enough to bring Inko to tears. She hadn't lost him. She hadn't—

A clatter from behind ripped Inko's attention away from Hisashi and to her back. There, in a black hoodie crawled a terrified man who had clumsily ran into some trash cans as he tried to sneak away. The two looked at each other with wide eyes.

Inko forced herself back up to her feet and unslung her rifle. Numbly, she fumbled with a new clip and reloaded. She shuffled over, eyes dull. She was so tired.

"Wait! Please just wait!" The man pleaded as he started to crawl backwards on his butt. "Just wait please! Listen!"

The clip went into the rifle, and Inko loaded her shot.

"WAIT! Please, I'm on your side!"

Inko blinked. "Huh?" She was so tired. She should just shoot him and be done with it. She was just so so tired. Maybe too tired to pull the trigger.

"I work for the government! The Hero Public Safety Commission!"

Inko regarded the black hooded man with obvious doubt.

"It's true I swear! I'm an informant. I've been working to get the HPSC information so they could have the Abegawa Tenchu Kai designated as a villainous organization! Then the heroes can come down on them and put them out of business."

Inko frowned. "The heroes knew what was going on?"

The man nodded. "Yes, but they needed proof. I have all of it. I'm supposed to have it all recorded. I'm the key to getting them all!"

"…You all knew and weren't doing anything?"

The man shook his head. "Agh! It's not that simple, you sound like Sea Beard, always wanting to step in. We need the evidence! Without it, there's no case!"

This was insane. What the hell was going on? The heroes knew about the damned Abegawa Tenchu Kai, and the poison they had been cooking here? Did they also know about all the deaths?

It was too much for Inko to try to understand right now. She was too damned tired. If this guy was trying to hurt the Abegawa Tenchu Kai then she could wait until she was in better shape to listen to his story. "You'll come with me. Understand?"

The man nodded, slowly getting up so as not to get shot. "Yes, yes, I get it."

"Hands up," Inko ordered, which the man immediately did, putting his hands high in the air. "You'll stay like that until the rest of my… of my…" Inko blinked as she trailed off.

She blinked again. Making sure she saw what she saw. "A red skull tattoo…"

The man tilted his head to the side then looked at his wrist. "My tattoo? What about it?"

Inko wasn't tired anymore. She was very very awake now. "You… you sold drugs."

"I… I had to make sure my cover wasn't blown. One of my jobs was selling on the side."

Inko looked him in the eye. "You sold drugs to the mayor's son."

"I… yes, I think? Was shocked when he came to buy himself. Made sure I was the seller, so none of the other guys might get ideas and kidnap him or something. Didn't need that mess on top of everything else. Why, what does that have to do with anything?" The man with the red skull tattoo looked completely confused.

Inko's voice went cold. Colder than the snow that fell on them. "Those drugs killed my friend. He gave them to her."

The man blinked, shocked. "He wha—"

Bang!

It's been a few weeks since the raid at the docks. The docks are ash now. We burned everything. Buildings, equipment, and corpses. It's all gone. If there was any Abegawa Tenchu Kai left they jumped into the ocean and swam for their lives after that. Musen thinks they'll never come back. Their operation got totally wiped out and they know we're armed. No profit to come back and try and fight. They'll just move on.

It's not the total victory I wanted, but it's still a victory.

We lost people that night. They died because I led them to that fight.

It's still not as many that would be dead during this time if they were still taking drugs. So it was worth it. It was the right decision. Some on the island don't agree. Others do. The mayor tried to have us arrested. But that quickly went downhill. You can't arrest half an island.

Things are calm but everyone is still healing. There's another town hall coming up in a few days. People in town called it this time. Bob and Musen are gathering signatures to push for a special election. Get the mayor out and, and I can't believe I'm fucking writing this, make me the mayor of Bespin. How the fuck? Apparently they have the signatures. Fuck me.

Hisashi is still being a baby. His ribs are on the mend but he still complains like it happened yesterday. He's such a fucking baby, god I love him.

Sea Beard… Fuck shit fuck, Sea Beard is still on the island. I confronted him about the informant. Turns out he had no control over the operation. I was ready to kick him out that night before the attack. Now though, I don't know. It's weird. He was stopped from doing anything but he also made sure no one else did anything. He tried to play both sides.

I told the other about Red Skull. They all agreed killing him was good. But the idea that there was an operation going on, it weirded us out. The Hero Public Safety Commission. A bunch of assholes that are willing to let people die to get what they want. Fuck them.

When I said that to Sea Beard, he got scared.

He can stay if he wants or he can leave. I don't care anymore.

Saw the mayor's son off the island today. He was finally going to the mainland to get ready for university. He visited Sakura's grave to say goodbye. Let him say some words and sit there for a while before he was ready to go. Sakura loved this guy, so I did that for her memory. He asked what was going to happen to his pops now. I think he's worried that if I become mayor I'll kill him. Told him no and wished him well. Told him that if he wants to respect Sakura's memory, he'll live.

Can't say the idea hasn't crossed my mind to kill that mayor but, no. No killing like that. As long as he respects the vote and doesn't try anything he can live here if he wants, or take his money and leave. Same goes for everyone. I'm not going to be a fucking dictator and wall us off. This is my home and these are my people. The good, the bad and the fucking annoying ones. So I and my Meta Liberation Army will protect everyone.

~ Nenshouki Inko ~

~ January 16th ~

~ Age 19 ~

PS: I still haven't told anyone about Fa Jin yet. There just… hasn't been a good chance yet. I don't know, it just feels weird.

Especially with the weird dreams I have. Nothing insane, but sometimes when I'm about to fall asleep I swear I hear a voice.

Probably nothing, just still a little weirded out that I have a second Meta Ability.

That's two for Pemphredo. It took a few years but it's two out of four now. Or five? That once again line… it's weird.

'Death comes.'

'Midoriya blood calls to death, and the Reaper hears it from the depths.'

'Death will come for Midoriya then, four times then once again. Fear the rage that you have stirred, or you'll drown amongst the animal's herd. As a demon offering a trade, a reward you must take for your aid. When land is gone and blood flows free, a two faced killer you must flee. A hand of death is at your throat, blood will spill so the knife you must note. Then when Midoriya blood is thinned by half, the demon will come back to take the calf. Birthed from fire eight thrones hide, but fear the demon as he slips inside.'

When land is gone and blood flows free, a two faced killer you must flee.

What the hell does that even mean?

Well bring it on Two Face. I have more than enough power to take you on!

Authors Notes: So yeah. I'm pretty sure this chapter will be a little divisive with some of the changes I just revealed. Yes, Inko has two Quirks. Yes, she had had them since the start of GTR. And yes, it's Fa Jin. I'll let you try and decide the ramifications of that because telling you right now would be a bit of a spoiler. But a spoiler for some of the vestige stuff I've dropped in the fic already. Izuku has already used one of the Quirks ;)
What? You didn't miss it did you?
And this was a very heavy chapter to write. Not going to lie, the drug stuff, even back when I decided I was going to go this route made me really nervous. Drug use and everything about it is touchy. It has affected so many people I wanted to try and be respectful of the subject while still telling this revenge story. The whole start is supposed to be upsetting and jarring, but I also don't want people to get triggered by it. A big reason I decided to be really upfront about what's going down in this chapter and added the content warning. Even the action is different in this chapter. Quirk use is "cartoony" violence. Inko gunning people down with a rifle is something else. That's a much more serious thing and has a whole different feel to it.
Despite everything I do hope you enjoyed the chapter. Revenge and a coming of age moment. Inko is now fully what she claimed to be. A leader of an army. There's still one chapter left of this arc, so we'll get to see how it all pans out.
As always, reviews, comments, and critiques are more than welcome!
And a huge shoutout to my beta reader!