Before the chapter: JajaLala made some great fanart of Denki's horrific realization about Momo being infected with Hatsume Syndrome! The expressions are just perfect. As usual, you can see it on my tumblr (same name as here)!

Also, check the end for an important announcement!

Chapter 106

.::Karasu::.

Kuroe sighed as he entered his bedroom and sat at his desk in front of his laptop, pressing his hands against his face and just... thinking, for a moment. He'd just wrapped up a visit from Asui, who had come to report the runaways' plans to move. Turns out they'd been planning this since Thursday, and already taken major steps towards it. He now had a destination, but not a reason.

Those kids were up to something, and Kuroe had no idea what. Asui had evaded answering several of his questions, simply saying they'd tell him once the time was right. That rare evasiveness told him it was trouble and would give him another headache on top of the one from everything else related to the move. They had no idea how much trouble he'd gone through to make sure Odawara would be safe for them.

He sighed, dragging his hands down his face before giving a small nod to himself. Enough mental griping. His freelance coding work was done for the day, and he had entertained Ashido's flight of fancy and seen her off to who knows where. Going by previous trends she and Kirishima wouldn't be back anytime soon, and he had nothing else on his immediate agenda.

He opened his laptop and brought up his other work email. Several bolded subject lines popped out at him, various clients reaching out with queries and requests. Meisanki Kuroe might have finished his day job's responsibilities, but Karasu never finished.

He cracked his fingers and clicked the button to compose a new message, fingers flying away at the keyboard.

Time for work.

Chisaki Kai heard a familiar ding from his phone, prompting him to quickly glance at it. An email had arrived from Karasu, and he opened it to quickly skim over it. As usual, a majority of the contents were encrypted, but he quietly scoffed at the opening line. Even with it scrambled and coded, he'd seen that specific string of characters enough to recognize it instantly.

'About the Nobunaga book'

Kai clicked his tongue in faint annoyance. That was the code phrase for the job in Odawara, so it wasn't about their missing man from Nagano. Important, but hardly urgent. "Chrono," he called, and his second in command stepped over silently. "Karasu sent a message about the ongoing protection detail. Use the computer to decrypt it and let me know what it says."

"On it," Hari replied with a brisk nod, heading off to do just that. Kai slipped his phone back into his pocket as turned to face his other subordinate.

"Now then, where were? You said there are three?"

"Yes sir," Nemoto confirmed with a nod. "They've already been inspected and are waiting for us in the visiting room. We have their belongings ready for further inspection." Kai hummed and nodded, following the other man down the hall to the visiting room. Hojo stood guard in front of the door with arms crossed, nodding as he stepped aside so they could enter.

The visiting room was a simple space. Bare concrete walls and floors, chairs bolted to the ground and a table bolted to the wall off to the side. Three men sat bound to those chairs by metal bands and had black hoods thrown over their heads, fresh bruises and cuts already marring the visible skin. Kai ignored them for the moment, heading over to the table to inspect the briefcase currently sitting open.

His nose wrinkled in disgust as he saw the unmarked vials sitting in the plush lining, recognizing them instantly. Trigger. "Vile," he murmured under his breath. "Simply atrocious." He turned to eye the three bound men, watching them tense and stiffen as they kept their heads bowed. "So you intended to sell this in our territory?"

One of the fools had the gall to speak up. "Who says this territory belongs to you?" he challenged, head lifting to blindly face Kai's direction. "The Shie Hassaikai is nothing but small fry compared to the Kirin Syndicate!"

The other two tensed at the angry rambling. Unlike their compatriot, they seemed to understand their current position. "Ah, so you're from the Kirin Syndicate," Kai mused. "One of the offshoots of that one group—what was it called? The Villain Factory?"

"Yes, that's it," Nemoto confirmed, like the proper pseudo-secretary he was. There was a reason Kai had recruited him—and no, it wasn't how well-groomed and neat he kept his appearance, despite what some claimed. That was just a perk on top of his other skills.

"You claim we are small fry, but the Shie Hassaikai has a much longer history than your little 'syndicate,'" Kai remarked, drizzling the last word with derision. He could see the man's posture grow more rigid with anger at the insult as he continued, "Your group is nothing more than measly flies, dredged from the leftover remains of another organization. One which also did not exist for more than a fraction of our history."

"That's because you're old news!" the man retorted. "The age of the yakuza is over, just accept it already!"

Ah, so he was stupid AND suicidal. Kai had been wondering which since the man's first outburst, but it turned out to be both. That was the only explanation for such a childish taunt. Judging from the way his companions tried to lean away from him, they at least had some sense. A shame they couldn't have used that sense before ending up here.

On any other day, Kai would have ignored the jabs. Perhaps he still would have if they hadn't been caught peddling Trigger of all things in their territory. Those two factors combined removed what little patience Kai had for such thugs. He had intended to simply let Nemoto use his Quirk to draw out answers, but with his current mood, he felt like getting a bit more... hands on with the questioning.

Kai turned to pluck a pair of long rubber gloves from the table. "Nemoto, I may not need your assistance after all," he remarked idly, pulling the gloves on and rolling them up to his elbows. "If he is this prideful about his petty little gang, I'm sure he won't need more encouragement to tell me more."

"Petty little gang?" the man repeated in outrage.

"But please stay in the room, just in case," Kai continued, ignoring the outburst as he selected a scalpel from the table. "After all, the most vocal ones tend to know the least."

"Of course, sir," Nemoto replied, and Kai turned to find him standing behind the yelling man. Kai strolled over and Nemoto yanked the hood off the man's head, revealing a face flushed red with anger and serpentine eyes shooting daggers at him.

"Let's begin the lesson on why you should not disrespect the old ways," Kai said.

With the email encrypted and sent, Kuroe turned his attention to the other emails already sitting in his inbox. He opened the oldest one first, in part because Haimawari Koichi—better known as The Crawler—never bothered encrypting his messages. His queries tended to be less serious than other clients, lessening the need for tedious security measures like that, and this one proved no different.

'Karasu, I'm in Hosu City right now. Do you have any intel on Gentle Criminal? Also open to intel on the 1-A Vigilantes if you've got any. They're local vigilantes and new on the scene, even got social media accounts. They kinda remind me of me and Pop back in the day. Ingenium's worried about them, says they're kids, so any info would be useful.'

He lightly snorted and rolled his eyes. The "1-A Vigilantes" was a new name, but the other one was much more familiar. Who hadn't heard of the famous phantom thief at this point? Really, he was more surprised Haimawari took this long to get involved.

He delayed in replying to Haimawari to open the next email, choosing to go in reverse-chronological order as always. It was the system he'd always used: he'd read all the emails first, and then respond to them in order of urgency. The next one was unremarkable, a typical info request from one of his less-common clients, and also asking for a recommendation for a certain job. The third on the list had his lip curling with distaste, marking it to pass on later.

The fourth oldest email came from a familiar name and was the first encrypted one of the bunch. Kuroe quickly used his private key to unscramble the jumbled characters into something legible.

'Found some rumors of another trafficking group in Mitakihara. Did some digging, put everything I found in an attached file. Looks like the rumors are just made up to me though, might be people exaggerating or a diversion for something else. Pass on to B.S. or whoever. Give me any leads you have on 3 in exchange. Also any details on 2-H's schedule and 00-LN.

Also, any word on missing heroes? No reason to ask, curious now. Don't answer if I need to pay.'

A file was attached, also encrypted. He knew without checking it would contain a list of facts and information about the supposed trafficking group. People of interest, details on rumors, missing people cases in the area... These sorts of files were worth their weight in gold, even if they were just debunking rumors like the email's initial commentary suggested. At least then they could focus on other leads.

He'd examine it more closely later, moving onto the next email—one from an even more familiar email address. This one had multiple attached files, each one encrypted just like the message. As before, he put off downloading and decrypting those until after reading the rest of the emails.

'K,

Here's the files you wanted, use Key 4 to open them. Thanks for the tip-off about the Crane and East. We already chose which one we're targeting first and done preliminary scouting, everything's all set up and ready to go. We're planning to make the move soon, but something's come up that's weird.

Can you look into the two kids in this file for me? I think they're vigilantes. I hacked the local school and found their files, included copies in a zip file with the photo. Any chance they're two of yours, or are they new?

LB'

His eyebrows raised at the request, but he put off downloading the attachments to read the final two emails in his inbox. The next was a plain middle-man request, asking for contact with Stendhal with no details on why. Kuroe broke his usual protocol to send a reply right away:

No.

Stendhal did not like being contracted out for hits or any other job, not unless they happened to intersect with his own interests. If the sender wouldn't even include the reason for the request, Kuroe wouldn't even bother asking.

The final and newest email was also from Haimawari, sent shortly before Kuroe checked his email.

'Update on the 1-A Vigilantes thing: I found some graffiti around town linking to this weird Tweeter account, 1-A_No_Dream. Here's a link. Think there's a connection?'

Kuroe opened the link to find a Tweeter account populated purely by photos of graffiti messages, all ending with the account's handle. An interesting mystery, but hardly urgent. With all the emails read, he'd identified which to prioritize and got to work responding.

He went back to the previous email of interest to download and decrypt the attachments one by one. The sender was one of the best hackers he'd ever met, and also one of the most paranoid. She was one of the few people he knew to use multiple public-private key pairs and insist on him doing the same, which made sense given who he'd asked to her to hack.

He decrypted the first three files to his computer and skimmed them over, copying sections from each one to a new document to save separately. He encrypted that with a different key, before opening the other encrypted email he'd gotten. First on the agenda: Onryo.

Kuroe hit the reply button and attached the new file and one more before typing a response.

Far away from Odawara, a woman with dark green hair was drying off after a shower when she heard a chime from her phone in the other room. She quickly finished and pulled on a shirt as she strode out of the bathroom, entering a rather dingy and bare-bones apartment. A single room, a folded futon in the corner and a ratty couch in front of a coffee table holding a noticeably state of the art laptop.

She ignored her phone and went straight for the laptop, the couch creaking under her weight as she plopped onto it and opened the laptop's lid. After all, not many people knew her email. It didn't take long to open it, finding an encrypted message waiting with two attachments. She quickly downloaded them before reading the email itself.

'Thanks for the intel, will read in a bit. Here's all the stuff you requested. Don't know if the stuff on 3 is helpful, haven't looked at it beyond what I needed to copy and paste it. Plausible deniability and all that. Consider it extra payment for wasting your time last Saturday. Looks like 2-H is still in the same place as last time, no plans to move in the immediate future. Still no news on 00-LN.

As for missing heroes: haven't heard anything yet. B.S. asked me too, so I'm keeping an ear out. If you're really curious, I can let you know if I hear anything. Consider it a gift for your continued patronage and support.

Final note: I was also asked to send you this. Don't know what's in it, I just encrypted it with your key. Thank you for your continued business.'

Her eyes narrowed warily as she brought up the second attachment and typed in her private key to unlock it. Once she did she paused, staring in disbelief before huffing a small sigh.

"You have got to be kidding," she grumbled, rubbing the back of her neck as she stared at the title: 'Updated Weapons Cache.' "How are they still finding more of that guy's stuff?" All For One had been dead for years at this point, this was getting ridiculous. She didn't even know why he'd need half the weapons on these lists with all the Quirks he had. She certainly didn't need any—

Well, maybe for some extra deniability, she relented as she skimmed the list of recently discovered weapons, before shaking her head. She opened the first file and quickly decrypted it, focusing on the first part in particular: a profile on a certain man.

Yokota Kyou. Civil Administrative Officer at Hero Public Safety Commission. Formerly Second Executive Officer of Recruitment Division, transferred and demoted following formal reprimand.

"Found you," she murmured to herself with a smirk as she eyed the address. Looked like she'd be able to check off another one from her list.

Meanwhile, Aiba Manami sat in front of a desktop computer sipping a glass of juice as she read a reply to her own email.

'Sorry, neither of them stand out to me. They're not mine, but there is another vigilante in town who is. Can't say who for client confidentiality. Only mentioning it as extra thanks for taking the risk to get those files for me since it's so risky.

I'm guessing you think they're the 1-A Vigilantes, but today's the first time I heard the name. If you're really curious though, the 1-A Vigilantes might be connected to a Tweeter account called '1-A_No_Dream'. Haven't dug into it yet, but 1-A is pretty specific.

Good luck with the marks, and thanks for the files as always.'

"Well, worth a shot," Manami muttered to herself, closing out of the email. She went to Tweeter instead to search the account Karasu mentioned at the end, before putting the computer to sleep. She'd check into it later. For now she pushed her chair back and got up, heading over to the door to the computer room to poke her head out.

Tobita Danjurou, better known to the world as Gentle Criminal, sat at a table sipping a cup of tea as he often did. Today he wore a simple button-down shirt with a stylish dark green vest and neatly pressed slacks, a more subdued ensemble than his famous costume but no less distinguished looking. The light pink house slippers only added a domestic charm in Manami's opinion.

He graced her with a smile, making her heart skip a beat. "Hello, Manami-chan," he greeted warmly, because right now she wasn't La Brava but Aiba Manami. Even now Manami had to restrain the urge to squeal at him using her given name. Years of close proximity did little to numb her to the effects of his presence.

She smiled as she bounced over and climbed onto the chair across from him. Even as an adult she hadn't grown that tall, her legs still dangling off the edges of the chair and letting her swing them freely. "Where are the kids?" she asked. She'd thought the rest of the apartment was oddly quiet.

"Out doing a final stakeout," he said. "They're quite excited for our next performance, especially with those two vigilantes in the picture. Speaking of which..."

He trailed off meaningfully, and she shook her head. "I got a reply from Karasu," she reported. "They don't work with him. The most he had was a link to another Tweeter account they might be using." She had hoped he'd be able to give them some intel on the pair. Their school records didn't provide much detail beyond grades.

"Ah, a shame, but perhaps for the best," Danjurou mused, undeterred. "They seem to be fitting rivals given the nature of their own reputation. It has been some time since we've had a proper rival! And these two seem quite interesting!"

"You really think they'll go back to vigilante work this week?" Manami wondered. "Their school has exams today. That can really drain people."

"Which is all the more reason to don their costumes and return to the streets once they finish!" Danjurou replied with a boisterous laugh. "After all, what better way is there to vent the stresses and frustrations of sitting for hours working hard on exams? They're vigilantes, Manami! Those who find the most excitement in the world from roaming the streets and saving others, even if they have to break the law to do so! Their passion is not to be underestimated!"

When he gave such an ardent speech like that, Manami couldn't really argue, finding herself nodding in agreement. "So then we'll be making the move soon, right?" she asked.

"The sooner, the better! I don't think our lovely assistants will be able to stand waiting much longer anyway." He took a final sip of his tea and set the cup down, rising to his feet. "Come, La Brava, we can't let them be the only ones preparing! Let's do a final round of reconnaissance to familiarize ourselves with our adversaries as best as possible!"

"Yes sir, Gentle!" Manami cheered, hopping off the chair to follow him back to the computer room.

At some point between replying to Onryo and Aiba, Aiko showed up. Kuroe had no idea when she entered, he hit send on the email to Aiba and turned to find Aiko sitting on his bed playing on her phone. Apparently she hadn't meant to startle him, she just forgot she could walk totally silently. A thing most people had to consciously do. At least she'd had Kurogiri warp her into the hallway instead of the bedroom itself.

"He's still off," she muttered, lying sprawled on her back with arms splayed wide as she stared at the ceiling. "He actually got worse after what happened to Eraserhead yesterday. He suddenly showed up at my place today without telling me in advance, and just zoned out for like, two hours."

Kuroe had no idea what happened to Eraserhead, but she wasn't frothing at the mouth so he assumed he was alive. So since Eraserhead was alive, he decided not to ask what the hell happened. Or comment on the irony of her sudden, unannounced visit from Kurogiri. "So they definitely knew each other," he said instead, and she hummed.

"Probably. I kinda figured they did. His Quirk factor looks so weird," she added in a mutter, face scrunching up. "It's like the not-Kurogiri part is trying to push out the other part and become dominant..."

"Are people's Quirks really tied to their personalities and minds that much?" Kuroe mused, leaning back in his chair with his arms crossed. "I mean, you are looking at their Quirk factors and not their souls, right?"

"Yeah, that's how it's supposed to be. But even then, some parts of people get tied to their factor. Like, traces of their personalities will cling to it, even when it's removed." That had Kuroe pausing.

"So, what's the inside of your head look like?" he asked.

"You really don't want to know," she replied wryly, and sat up with a sigh. "Still, it's so weird to see. I have to wonder if all noumu are like that..."

"Isn't he the only one left?"

"He better be," she grumbled with a dark look. "Killing noumu is hard." Kuroe paused to digest that remark, and then shuddered. Coming from Aiko, that really said something. She shook her head as she continued, "Anyways, I used that one emotion-messing Quirk I have, so he should be kinda normal now? I have to stop by tonight anyway, so I'll check on him then."

"Whatever happened, don't visit Eraserhead," Kuroe deadpanned, and she shot him a scowl.

"I'm not! I have to do some stuff in my lab! Geez, do you really think I'm that—"

"Yes," Kuroe replied flatly, not letting her finish.

"Kuroe—"

"You literally texted me asking if a fruit basket would help after giving him a panic attack," he said bluntly. "You also asked me if a non-lethal poison would be a good birthday gift for Izuku."

"It was for self-defense!" Aiko protested in a whine, which he ignored.

"You suck at basic social interactions. Frankly, I don't even know why Kurogiri went to you for help."

"Well, he didn't exactly ask for advice or say anything at all," she grumbled with a pout. "But I'm not that bad, Kuroe! Eraserhead had a pretty obvious flashback the last time I saw him. Visiting him now would just make it worse! I'm just going to visit my lab to check on some stuff! And deliver a controller, apparently."

Kuroe started to respond, but then registered the last part. "A controller?" he repeated.

"Izuku broke a controller and asked his friend to get a new one," she said with a shrug. "She came by earlier too, by the way. I don't think she plans to go home anytime soon. Maybe we should connect her to the runaway network," she mused, and he immediately felt a rising headache at the reminder of the news he'd received.

"Speaking of the runaways, we might have a problem..."

"Disgusting."

Kai peeled off the now-bloody gloves and tossed them onto the table, a bitter scowl on his face as he turned away from the still bodies behind him. Of their three visitors only one still remained conscious and alive, head bowed and breathing shallow as Nemoto stood behind him.

"Do you think we'll need anything else from him?" he asked.

"No, we got everything need," Kai replied dismissively. "Finish him quickly." He ignored the gurgle as Nemoto slit the man's throat, stalking to the door. Three taps with his foot had it open to reveal Hojo. "Hojo, clean up the room."

"Right away, boss," the bald man grunted dutifully, holding the door open so Kai could leave. Three other subordinates already waited in the hall with cleaning supplies, giving deep bows as Kai passed before filing inside. Hari waited by the door to the neighboring bathroom, opening it without prompting so Kai could enter. He followed Kai as the young yakuza head practically ran to the sink to turn it on, rolling his sleeves up.

"Disgusting, truly disgusting," he hissed under his breath as he furiously scrubbed his arms. The gloves had shielded his skin from the worst of the blood spray, but he could still feel the warmth through the rubber. Just thinking about it had him shuddering, utterly revolted by the memory.

Working without his Quirk tended to be far too messy for his tastes, making his skin prickle at the mere thought. On most days, he wouldn't have bothered to go to such repulsive lengths.

Today had not been a day for mercy though.

"Do you want a change of clothes?" Hari offered.

"Please."

Soon enough Kai was wearing a completely fresh and clean outfit, his previous clothing placed into a plastic bag to be disposed. Not a lot of blood had splashed onto it, but he'd rather not deal with it anyway. "What did Karasu have to say?" he asked as they began the walk to his office.

"He wishes for us to expand our protection from Odawara to Minamiashigara." That had Kai coming to a halt for a moment, turning to look at Hari almost incredulously.

"Minamiashigara?" he repeated. "Where even is that?"

"It's a city in the mountains near Odawara. Or, was," Hari amended. "The population never reached fifty thousand people even at its peak. Currently it has under twenty thousand people living there."

"Twenty thousand," Kai murmured as he resumed walking. "It sounds like a ghost town." A few "cities" had never quite recovered from the initial chaos of the emergence of Quirks, losing a majority of their population and never regaining it. While the structures and buildings still stood in some places, a majority of the city remained an empty shell. Hardly the sort of place to need protection.

"It is," Hari confirmed. "Karasu wants us to do an immediate sweep for any troublesome elements as soon as possible. If we find no problems, he believes it should be safe and only require one posted guard for monitoring purposes."

"Hah, it's still a hassle," Kai grumbled to himself with a scowl. "Especially right now. Does he even know what today is?"

"He offered his condolences and apologized for the inconvenience," Hari replied, making Kai briefly pause. "He says he will offer additional payment as an apology for bothering us at this time, and included rumors on known Trigger dealers as a gesture of goodwill."

"Hmm. So he does know." Kai resumed his trek to his office, mind already racing with who would be the best ones to send there. "It should be simple enough. We'll make the arrangements quietly. There is no need to disturb the boss with this right now."

"Of course."

"Do you suppose the elimination of the so-called Kirin Syndicate would be a fair payment for the extra troubles?"

"I would believe so. You don't want to take care of them personally?"

"Not this time. They're not worth the personal attention."

'Hey Crawler. Sorry, they're not mine. This is the first I've heard of the 1-A Vigilantes. Another contact of mine thinks they're high school students too though, specifically at Munakata High School. They have exams today, so maybe don't expect to see them. Also, I have no intel on Gentle Criminal I can share beyond what's public. You're on your own, sorry.'

Koichi hummed to himself as he read the email, taking a long sip from his water bottle. "Huh," he said quietly once he finished.

"Get a response from that guy you know?" Tensei asked, screwing the lid back onto his own water bottle.

"Yeah, and I think Gentle Criminal might also be one of his clients," Koichi replied, and Tensei's head whipped towards him in surprise.

"I'm sorry, what?"

"The wording's weird. Said he doesn't have intel he can share, not just that he doesn't have intel. So I'm guessing he works with them too." Koichi shrugged, slipping his phone into his pocket. "Anyways, I guess that's a dead end. Let's get going, we still have a few blocks to go." Even as he spoke he began walking and steadily picking up his pace. They'd been in the middle of a jog when Koichi's phone chimed with the email alert, prompting a brief break so he could check it.

Tensei still seemed a bit taken aback, but sighed as he started jogging alongside the vigilante at a more sedate pace than their usual runs. "Did he at least have information on the 1-A Vigilantes?"

"Nothing solid, but he said another contact thinks they're students at Munakata High School?" Koichi shrugged, the name unfamiliar to him as a non-native of Hosu City, but Tensei's face screwed up a bit.

"That's where Tenya goes. They have exams today."

"Yeah, he mentioned that too. He didn't say why they think they're students there though, so take it with a grain of salt."

"Well, at least if we see them Wednesday, that could narrow down who it is," Tensei mused thoughtfully. "Online students only have to do the first two days of exams, but in-person students have to do exams the third day too. It'll be good if we can identify who they are soon, before they into another dangerous fight."

"Yeah, I guess so." Koichi nodded, and then smirked as he glanced at the empty stretch of road before them. "Anyways, last one to the end has to buy the other lunch." He dropped to all fours even as he spoke and went zooming off, making Tensei squawk in dismay before picking up his pace.

"Hey, no fair! I'm wearing long sleeves right now!"

"Too bad!" Koichi's laughter echoed as he zoomed down the empty sidewalk. Needless to say, he got a free lunch that day.

Minamiashigara is a real place, and pretty close to Odawara. Also, I have zero idea how the hell Japan decides what qualifies as a city or village. Because apparently cities need either a minimum of 30,000 or 50,000 people to qualify. But the largest village, Yomitan, has over 40,000 people.

But I have some bad news:

I'm doing another two-week hiatus.

The escape is REALLY close guys. In-universe, it's currently Monday, and I want the escape done before the end of the week. That also means I need to be VERY careful about what happens in the days leading up to the escape. There's a lot of plot threads that I need to weave together, and every decision and scene I make right now will directly impact future scenes and events. The draft WAS at Chapter 108, but this weekend I decided that it isn't the right time for stuff I had planned for that. And I'm still super-iffy on the ending of Chapter 107, even AFTER rewriting it once already to lead to a different outcome. This exact thing is exactly why I prefer writing with a buffer.

So, I need to do a hiatus so I can plot things more solidly, and make sure it will actually WORK. If possible, I want to try to get the draft to 110. I'm really sorry everyone!

Thank you so much for all your patience and support. I'll hopefully be back with 107 on October 18!