January 28 – Day 47

6:48pm. It's now dark out, even more so as it's still in the middle of the winter season, and yet the lights within Chitose's room remained off, nor she's planning to turn them on, not just yet. The wind on the other hand, is blowing considerably, sending the curtains to her left billowing about, the cold winter chill just freely entering at its own pleasure. But despite that too, the blue-skinned young woman residing within just completely ignored it as well, for her attention is focused on someplace else.

The laptop, the one given to her by Nezu just some nights ago, specifically at what's being displayed on its screen – a long list of information that she's managed to compile about all her observations on the trips she's been taken into so far in the past week, among other things.

Overall it's quite a lot, and indeed it took her very much the entire day to put them in, edit things around, and then arrange them in such a manner that makes it easier for her to discern possible connections between them. At this point she's already managed to come up with around 4 connections, although they're mostly just confusing and flimsy at best, but they'll do. For her, at least she's now making progress on whatever Nezu and Kazaguruma wants her to figure out, and hopefully figuring a few things out would minimize Nagant's insults (which she very well knew were about to come), especially once the heroine starts the supposed hint-dropping at around 7:30 later in the evening, or so what she said just this morning.

'Come to think of it… are my activities being tracked in this laptop?' a sudden thought randomly appeared inside Chitose's mind, making her abruptly stop and freeze in place just as she's about to add in another tidbit of information on her list. 'Could it?' She turned her attention towards the entirety of the laptop itself, before thinking about it more. Well considering her strange 'VIP treatment' from both Nezu and Kazaguruma so far (and how they strangely enforce everyone to treat her nicely as well, not that it works perfectly), it's quite possible that it's the case.

She's technically a 'captive' after all.

'Captive…' Chitose's mind instantly drifted off towards the things she's done with the laptop, and began recalling everything. So far she had only used it for research purposes: Aerodynamics, wingless aircraft, turbulence, and basically random things that pop into her mind that she's suddenly curious of like Entophagy, Nuclear warfare, waste disposal methods, solar power, underwater ecology, and many other things…

She also used it to watch animal videos, especially those of baby seals – lots and lots of baby seal videos.

Chitose went nervous for a bit. What could they think of what she's looking at? Would they make fun of her? Would they just ignore it and move on? She can't help but think of it over and over. But just after five minutes, she just sighed and brushed everything off. At least she didn't 'research' something really embarrassing in it.

'Wait a minute… why am I only thinking of these things now?' she asked herself in her thoughts, only now realizing how utterly ignorant she's been-

'Oh… it's probably because I'm either too depressed or too confused in the past week to think normally…'

Chitose took a deep breath and slowly let it out, shaking her head afterwards and following it further with an exasperated facepalm. Her attention eventually landed back to the screen of her laptop, which is still displaying the list she made. 'On the bright side… if they're tracking everything, they might see that I'm now busy figuring out the things they've presented to me thus far…' she thought to herself as she stared on, before strangely experiencing an odd feeling of accomplishment for a brief moment. She didn't know what's that even all about, nor why it even happened in the first place, but she's glad it happened.

It's nice to feel happy for once after everything that's occurred to her thus far.

Attempting to further keep up the streak of joy, she then thought about how making the entire list took her the whole day, meaning that she's too busy for even a single depressive thought nor negativity to appear. It's definitely a big plus. For once, things are looking great!

'Well at least until Nagant's explanation…' Chitose rolled her eyes as she stood up, only now deciding to close the window to her left to stop the cold from further seeping in, as well as turn on the lights. 'I'll probably cry myself to sleep again after this…' She let out a low groan afterwards, now finding herself being utterly annoyed by her now-insane levels of sensitivity. It's getting frustrating already. And even though she's been trying all week to curb it down, she just can't do it. Being abandoned by everyone she cared about, as well as turning into her young self (which is already loaded with tons of abandonment issues), really made everything worse.

'Dammit…'

Chitose, now standing up by the side of her bed, facepalmed once more. 'Just stop being a loser… just focus on the task…' she reminded herself before forcing her eyes to just lock onto the laptop screen. 'Try to think of more possible connections…' she added as she scanned through all the paragraphs of connections she's already made. 'There's gotta be more of these…'

'Wait…'

Chitose suddenly blanked out, suddenly remembering a quote Nezu told her when he's pointing out the robotic police force: ["It's not about the outside, it's about the inside that counts…"]. She thought about it for a bit, wondering if that's a clue that only applies to the robot police or is it something more. 'He also said something about the inner workings of the clockwork that binds it ALL together… that could be a clue too…'

'Hmmm…'

She then began slowly walking around, her right hand now up to her chin. 'I remember Nezu also saying something about how Tartarus and prisons are now irrelevant these days. Coincidentally, he's been presenting to me quite a number of fake crimes – where all parties involved: heroes, criminals, and even the store owner, are all apparently just collaborating with each other, all unknown to the public eye…' Chitose kept on walking around, just occasionally glancing back at her laptop on the bed every once and a while. 'Is that why prisons are irrelevant these days? Because every crime is just fake?'

Chitose paused a bit. 'Well that's dumb… I don't even know the full extent of these fake crimes. For all I know they could all be just localized in one area… But on the other hand…'

She then remembered another quote from Nezu, once again from yesterday at the Hosu Police Department: ["There are many more things you'll soon know on how we operate. For example: how can the heroes afford to stay in such dangerous crime-fighting jobs and stay meticulously spotless? Although I'm pretty sure you can already figure that on your own; We already spent a week looking at the answer, after all."]

'That… makes sense. Since the crimes are just staged, that means there are NO real threats, and that further means that heroes can dress up whatever they want… which brings me to the fact that basically ALMOST every single hero in the country prioritizes style over actual protection...'

'If that's the case…' Chitose slowly began wandering about in her room again. 'Then does that mean the fake crimes are happening all over the country? Seriously? Everything is just staged? Is that why unprotected skin-tight suits are possible? Is that why even if the UA hero course students graduated relatively unskilled, they're just going be fine?'

She kept on walking around, thinking about it some more. 'But that's just stupid! Nationwide fake crimes going on? Simply unbelievable! This is not it… although I can feel I'm almost onto something here-'

Chitose's eyes widened, remembering yet another thing, this time Kazaguruma's words back in the Tartarus Parade 'Control Room' – specifically about the part where he answered Hawks's question on why a UA fortress is even relevant to his plans, to which he said: ["This fortress is the prime component of the massive re-ordering and centralization programs we will be conducting soon. We absolutely need this fortress. This will be the symbol that the heroes will always be there. Ever present, and ever the savior…"]

'The heroes will always be there… Ever present… and ever the savior…'

Chitose furrowed her brows, her curiosity further intensifying. 'Hmmm… the civilians do love cheering after the heroes in their little staged stunts… and since the heroes are ALWAYS there to beat the villain, they're technically showing that they are, indeed, ever the savior…' her thoughts then went towards the fact that Kazaguruma's words seem to refer to the heroes as a WHOLE – as in they will ALL be saviors. 'Could these staged fights really be happening ALL OVER the country? Just how prevalent this all is? All just to show how heroic the heroes are? Are there any real criminals left? But what about the League and the MLA/PLF?'

Chitose scratched her head. She's utterly confused, although she's also finding herself highly interested, curious, and not at all bored. If anything, she's actually having enjoyment out of it, despite what she's thinking of it all as just too ridiculous to be true.

But still, a theory is still a theory. 'Alright that's good enough… better type in all that convoluted mess as well…' Chitose then took one quick glance towards the digital clock nearby – 7:12pm, before going back to sit on her bed, her fingers immediately reaching out onto the keyboard and typing in the whole complicated theory she just cooked up.

But just as she's done typing, yet another thing entered her mind.

'I wonder if the internet has something to offer here…'

Chitose blanked out a bit. In all honesty, she never tried looking into the internet before. After all, all that's being shown to her are supposedly secret to the public anyways. But still, maybe it could help out in some way? 'The public doesn't know the big picture… but I do wonder if they're noticing some things too…' In her now-burning curiosity, she quickly readied up a search engine, in which she immediately typed in: Japan fake crimes. 'Okay let's see what we can find here…'

She pressed the 'Enter' key.

'Ooh…'

Of course results are to be expected. Although, what's interesting about said results is that very much all of them are just keywords detected in works of fiction (and even fanfiction). Apparently there's no such thing as 'Japan Fake Crimes', except for one.

Chitose leaned in closer to the screen, instantly finding herself curious on the URL listed below the one particular search result, specifically a very familiar word amidst the code.

High-5.

The image of the loud-mouthed nosy reporter from NHA appeared in her mind, the same one who made those seemingly idiotic blogs about her findings about the League of Villains.

'I remember High-5 saying something about heroes supposedly letting the League go so they can profit off of them making crimes for the good guys to stop. That sounds surprisingly similar to the fake crimes I've watched – a staged scenario that results in a 'crime' for heroes to stop…'

Chitose paused a bit, now remembering some of High-5's words from one of her audio logs: ["Go on, scram! Go up the mountain so the heroes can further turn your sorry asses into excuses! Shoo!"]

'Excuses…'

Chitose's eyes widened, this time now remembering what Giran said back during the Tartarus parade: ["Mr. President… You asked for my services one time… Told me to use my great underground knowledge to assemble the most incompetent imbeciles the country has to offer… And then neatly place them in one clean package to be used as a general scapegoat for almost anything…"]

'Scapegoat… excuses…' Chitose further narrowed her eyes onto the laptop screen in deep thought, this time now remembering how the League (for a short time at least) technically became the receiving end of blame for almost anything bad that's happening in the country. 'High-5 might be onto something here. Could that be the reason why her videos are being deleted? Is the government really deleting her videos; in the same way the search results seem to be? Well to be fair what she's doing is sort of exposing a government secret, so maybe?' Chitose nodded to herself, her thoughts now going over towards another one. 'Both High-5 and Giran seem to imply that the League are nothing but a bunch of idiots. Strange… are they not a part of the fake crime system? If so, then why is that? Also, is it true that they're just deliberately being let off? And most importantly, why didn't Nezu nor Kazaguruma say anything League-related to all my trips beyond their supposed merging with the MLA?'

Yet another thought appeared in Chitose's mind, specifically the one Toshinori Yagi explained to Midoriya on why All Might always fails against the League: ["I have been wondering the same thing for quite some time now, kid. But do believe this, the League is immensely powerful. Japan is lucky they hadn't mobilized yet. Now I'm not the one to say this normally but, in my humble opinion, they could wipe out the country within seconds if they decide to…"]

'He's lying… the heroes clearly don't even care about the League in the first place…' Chitose narrowed her eyes back to the screen of her laptop, only now realizing that she hasn't even clicked on High-5's blog yet. But before she could even do so, another thought appeared, 'High-5 talked about a giant once…'

'Giant…'

Chitose raised one eyebrow, now remembering what Nezu said yesterday regarding her supposedly being more powerful than something called Gigantomachia. 'Giganto… Giant… hmm…' Setting her attention back to the keyboard, she then immediately deleted the Japan fake crimes she typed in on the search bar and hurriedly replaced it with Gigantomachia.

Nothing interesting appeared. Although the autocorrect suggesting fixing the type error to Gigantomastia is kind of amusing at least.

'I'm getting a lot here… I think I'm really getting close to something…' Chitose exited the search engine and went back to her notes, typing in some more. She took a while, but when she's finally done, only then she noticed that her heart now seems to be beating a lot harder than normal - its externally audible beats now faintly emenating out of her chest and somewhat filling the eerily quiet room. But in the end she just brushed it off, it just kind of happens after all whenever she's really curious on something and figuring it out. It's a bit embarrassing at times, but she's gotten used to it, not that anyone really gets close to her for extended periods of time to hear it in the first place anyways.

'Now I wonder what happens if I search-*'

Chitose is startled by the sudden sound of knocking on her door. Almost immediately she checked the time on her laptop; it's around 7:24 already. 'I thought the explanation's supposed to start at 7:30?' she asked herself, now feeling slightly nervous. But since she's been a rather very good mood in the past few minutes, she didn't jump straight into panic mode. Good.

"Er, Miss Kizuki? I uh… I think Nagant forgot to bring dinner here, so I brought some."

It's Stain's voice, or so at least the person who looks like Stain; which is somehow Nagant's 'assistant', or so he says. Chitose never believed what he said about him being the real deal, it's just so unreal to have a Hero-Killing serial killer be part of the hero faction. If anything he's probably just a look-alike (complete with a similar Quirk) they're using for fake crimes.

'At least I managed to figure out an extra few… this'll do for now…' Chitose took one last glance towards her work, before getting off of her bed and walking towards her door to open it. And indeed on the other side is 'Stain', in his usual hunched posture, wearing casual clothes. His left hand is holding onto a rather big plate with various sushi rolls on it, while the right simply has a whiteboard.

"Uh… Nagant's gonna be a bit late. She still has some things to do, although she's tasked me to set up shop already. Do you mind?" Stain asked, raising the whiteboard a little, as well as his own posture as to not be awkwardly in level with the tall young woman's chest in front of him.

Chitose, on the other hand, merely took a few steps back and allowed him in. There's going to be a presentation of some sort in a few minutes anyways so there's no reason why not, although she just stayed silent all the while. Stain on the other hand, upon moving in, quickly gave her the plate he's holding, in which she quickly took before walking back to her bed to hurriedly grab one to eat.

Surprisingly enough, as with the grilled squid she ate one time – which is also apparently made by this Stain-looking person, the sushi rolls are also very good as well, despite the clearly minimal ingredients in them. She wondered if they're marinated with something beforehand. 'Hmmm… seems like it-*' Chitose instantly stopped, almost choking on what she ate, upon noticing that Stain is now sitting on the edge of her bed, specifically on the wooden frame. Apparently he only placed the whiteboard on a chair and is actually been sitting there for a while now.

"Can you believe it?" Stain chuckled to himself, his gaze just on the whiteboard marker he's holding onto. "This Quirk of mine, not only is it good at what it's meant to do, but also it apparently gave me a ton of extra highly-sensitive taste buds – all bolted on an abnormally long tongue, which means even more taste buds!" He paused a bit, now facing Chitose. "It's one of those little neat things Quirks can potentially give as an extra. It's not always beneficial, per se, but it's quite nice indeed."

Chitose just stayed put, slowly resuming on eating. She has mixed feelings on Stain just sitting nearby.

"On the other hand. Having a villainous Quirk could really mess someone up; more often than not ending all their future before they could even happen. Alienation, isolation, and humans are not meant to be alone. So yeah Quirks aren't all rainbows and flowers, it's a tricky double-edged sword."

'What is he talking about?' Chitose thought to herself, although she just minded her own business, as well as hoping that Stain would just leave her alone.

"Anyways, enough about rambling, so how's- Oh!"

Chitose briefly glanced at Stain, instantly noticing him looking at something beside her. 'The laptop!' In response, she quickly reached over and closed it. She'd rather just let Nezu or Kazaguruma see whatever she came up with. If anyone else saw it she'll probably just get more mockery and insults her way. 'I should've closed it earlier!' she scolded herself-*

"Hey, calm down Miss Kizuki!" Stain spoke in a light-hearted tone. "Now I don't know why you just did that, I mean I'm not a psychologist nor a psychiatrist after all but… I see you're taking your observation missions very serious indeed! I got to see a couple o' sentences you typed in there and I have to say that you successfully managed to get correct a lot of the 'whats', 'whys' and 'hows' of modern Japan. Honestly impressive."

'Huh…? Is that… praise?' Chitose wondered, just keeping her attention on the laptop she just closed. It's not the reaction she's expecting, although she remained vigilant and alert.

"Aah this brings back memories…" Stain slowly turned his back on her. "I remember back in the day... I used to go around spouting delusional nonsense about fake heroes and fake society and all that pizzazz… and then I stumbled my way here and realized that literally everything is just fake and staged. And well? After that, ol' Stain was never the same again. Reality hit me hard. Backforce got nothing on it. BAM!" He did a joking slap on his forehead. "And now here I am, preserving the fakeness! As well as being a fake villain for the fake heroes, all for the fake society to keep running."

'He's talking like he's trying to give a hint…' Chitose kept eating, noticing the familiar tone Stain is using – it's like that of Mr. Kazaguruma during the Tartarus parade. 'I better tune in…'

"Just so you know… all that weirdness they showed to you? It's happening all over the country. Yeah, it's absurd."

Chitose blanked out. While one part of her didn't really believe what the Stain look-alike said, yet the other half did – and with doing so, instantly connected a LOT of dots in her theory, which therefore quickly became the dominant thought. Almost immediately she went into figuring out the probable big picture of it all. 'So let me get this straight… Staged crime happens, and then heroes in bright colors quickly come in to stop the commotion. Would-be criminals see how effective the heroes are and how quick they respond. They get discouraged, and crime rate goes down. People cheer and be happy and safe, while heroes are completely unharmed at it all, and the businesses hit by the fake crimes get more attention…'

'And everyone wins… The heroes are always the savior…'

Chitose stayed blank, now remembering one particular thing Mr. Kazaguruma said one time: [It's the only thing that's truly reduced crime rate to less than 6%. It's never from All Might's efforts…"]

'Did I just figure out the system? Is that it? Is it the fake society Stain just talked about? The Unseen Basics of Hero Society as what Nezu said? But what about the League and the PLF-'

She heard a snapping sound to her left. It's Stain snapping his fingers. "Hey, you kinda blanked out there… and your plate's empty, unfortunately…"

Chitose immediately looked down onto the plate, only now realizing she's actually been going at it and eating the sushi one by one as she's thinking, and now her hand is just grabbing onto nothing. It's extremely embarrassing, but luckily she didn't made fun of for it. Good.

"Pretty nice cooking skills I've got, eh?" Stain said in yet another lighthearted joking tone, seeing the young woman in front of him very much enjoyed the meal he made. "I'm actually part-time learning to be a better cook, by the way. It's very un-Stain of me, but hey at least I can now be finally certified good at something instead of just always being remembered as a delusional nutjob." He then raised a hand, at the same time looking at the direction of the doorway (that he deliberately left open earlier). "By the way it seems that they're done. Nagant's gonna come in any moment now…"

Chitose, now feeling a bit thirsty after eating all of the sushi on the plate, instantly turned her attention towards the door as well. She felt a little nervous, but since she's still feeling pretty good about herself it didn't affect her that much, or so she thinks. 'I hope this goes well…'

Soon enough, after a few seconds, Nagant entered the room. She's wearing her usual dressing robe (this time there's a small Winnie the Pooh logo at the back), not even bothering to make things a bit more formal. "Alright, let's get started with this, shall we?" she spoke in a bored tone, adding a couple of Russian quotes afterwards as she walked to the nearby placed whiteboard on a wooden chair. She then raised her right hand and snapped a finger, her focus switching to Stain.

"Oh, I forgot. Here you go!" Stain spoke out loud before tossing over the whiteboard marker he's been holding onto towards Nagant, who then successfully caught it.

"Anywho… I'm just gonna make this quick. They told me to just explain the big picture anyways…" Nagant said as she began drawing something onto the board. "I want to-" she abruptly looked to her left, noticing something now standing by the doorway.

Chitose looked in too. She hoped it's either Nezu or Kazaguruma-

It's Hawks.

… And he looks pissed as all hell.

'…' Almost immediately Chitose felt a chill run up her spine, freezing her in place. A brief memory of the two painful baseball bat hits also reappeared again, as if to intensify it further. 'Surely he's just mad at Nagant that's why he's like that…' she instantly thought, attempting to just swat the nonsensical fear away, although her hands are now grasping on her knees. 'Yeah… he's probably just mad at Nagant…'

"Huh? I thought you already left?" Nagant straightened out her posture and faced the newly-arrived hero. At the same time Stain also asked how come he's somehow back here. "Where's Compress and Ragdoll?" the Rifle heroine asked further, taking one step back as Hawks took a step and entered the room; his seemingly-frustrated expression almost unchanging.

"Well since you're tasked to explain some things over to that terrorist back there this evening…" the hero gestured to Chitose for a quick moment, "I've decided to stick around for a while. Gotta make sure you don't alter some information for your own agendas again… also I didn't like your attitude earlier either."

"Hawks..." Nagant slowly ran a palm down her face, sighing along the way. "Look, I apologize on the outburst earlier… but can't you see it? Yamato will ruin the country. I know it. You know it. Your father is planning to pull no punches this time around. Why do you think he wants the PLF to attack huh? Why do you think they're preparing the fortresses? Hell, he's literally talking about changing the entire country just this morning! He and his predecessor's changed enough already!"

"I know that! But damn you out there shelling out words earlier like they're ballistic missiles or something! If anything you should consider yourself lucky you're still alive at this point! After killing the first one you shouldn't even had lived, but you did!"

Chitose just stayed put. She'd rather just be invisible, even though her shaking has already intensified further since Hawks eerily emphasized his 'terrorist' quote directly towards her. Stain, on the other hand, just stayed quiet as well.

"Alright alright, take it easy! I just… I just..." Nagant sighed again. "But Yamato… you know it's just not going to end well, do you?"

Hawks backed off one step, scratching his head as if in irritation, his wings tingling strangely. He then let out a low groan before locking his angry eyes on Chitose, his fists now clenched tight. "Hey Nagant, let me ask you again, are any of us primed to explode?"

"How many times do I have to say it? None of us are. I walked through those streets. Everyone who ever made contact with that blue thing was there. NOT a single one was primed." Nagant shook her head, speaking some muffled Russian afterwards. "She's part of the MLA, what do you expect? Do you really think these morons would actually use their Quirks properly? If they did then they should've won and took over Japan a long time ago! What a bunch of dumbasses…"

"It would be good if they stayed only as a bunch of dumbasses, but THEY DIDN'T!" Hawks immediately backed off a step before sending his clenched fist crashing onto the wooden door behind him, the strike leaving a noticeable dent. Needless to say, Chitose let out a loud yelp of surprise after that. "THEY TOOK IT A STEP FURTHER!" Hawks crashed his other fist onto the door as well, before pausing, trembling with rage; his wing feathers seemingly automatically aligning their filaments into sharpened blades. "They're just so… below everything else… so incompetent… so pathetic… useless… to the point that THEY'RE ACTUALLY USEFUL!" A few wing feathers broke off from his main wings and impaled themselves on the door.

"Hey Hawks, buddy… calm down, man…" Stain raised both of his hands. "You already talked to the guy, yeah? Didn't he say he'll tone it down? I'm sure Yamato won't be too bad… sorta…"

"Stain…" Nagant spoke out in response. "It's a country-wide program. Even if it did 'good' the end result isn't going to be 'good'… Get it through your head…" she then reached up and pinched the bridge of her nose, seemingly in annoyance. "Why the hell are you so dense?"

"Dense? Me? Well no one here actually even has any idea what the guy is actually planning! For all we know it could just be a massive propaganda campaign!" Stain slowly stood up from the edge of the bed. "Why are you two so worried about this whole thing? By 'The PLF must attack' he probably just only means it as made-up stories for the masses!"

Hawks shook his head. "Stain, don't tell me you're falling for that. You know how it's going to go down, stop pretending! There's already the hero academy fortresses being sneakily constructed, and the Troys, among many others. It's clear it's going to be something else entirely!"

Chitose, meanwhile, just stayed quiet through it all, trembling and sweating, her face just glued to the floor. 'Is this the presentation?' Her mind struggled to make a coherent thought. 'Am I supposed to be listening to them-*?!'

She didn't even finish her thoughts when she noticed a shadow now looming in front of her. It's Hawks, as easily noticeable by his wings.

"Yamato requires something big enough to be used as an excuse in order for it to proceed… For the longest time it just stayed in the backburner. But now?" Hawks, visibly fuming in anger, his left hand clenched and shaking, slowly pulled up an MLW book from his pocket and raised it to Nagant. His other hand then aggressively pointed at Chitose. "Because of this blue bitch, there came a way for it to eventually come INTO FRUITION!"

Hawks's grip on the MLW book tightened aggressively, his fingers almost tearing at it through his gloves, before hurtling it towards Chitose with maximum force, crashing it directly on her face in a resounding smack which echoed throughout the small room. "YOU HAPPY NOW?! YOU TERRORIST?!" Hawks yelled at her at the top of his lungs, before reaching down and grabbing the collar of her shirt. Chitose's nose is now profusely-bleeding from the first strike, yet it did nothing for him as he went on for another rage-powered hit of the book. "DO YOU LIKE WHAT YOU'VE DONE?!"

"Hawks, if they found out that moron's beaten up, I'm gonna have to tell them it's you." Nagant spoke out with a bored expression and a yawn, not minding Chitose's blood sputtering out with every additional hit from Hawks's book.

"TELL THEM ALL! I DON'T CARE!" Hawks went for another full-powered strike, before violently tossing the book away, hitting a nearby table and toppling it over. "IF YOU WANT YOU CAN EVEN SHOW THEM A RECORDING OF ME! GO AHEAD!" He quickly turned his attention back to his initial target. "YOU HEAR THAT, YOU PIECE OF SHIT?! WE'RE BEING RECORDED! NOW GO BE A GOOD JOURNALIST AND SMILE!" Hawks sent a right hook towards Chitose's cheek, resulting in a bunch of teeth getting launched everywhere and sending the scared and confused young woman falling off her bed and slamming onto the floor, her clothes now overly drenched in her own blood.

"Hey Hawks! Tone it down! What the hell?!" Stain could only take a few steps back upon seeing how Hawks wasted no time in stomping a boot on Chitose's left hand, easily crushing her fingers and making her loudly cry out in pain. "Uh-Er-Y-your Dad's not gonna like that!"

"I DON'T CARE! GODDAMMIT!" Hawks pulled out a long red feather from his back, its filaments quickly aligning themselves into a jagged blade, before impaling it onto Chitose's bloodied hand. "YAMATO'S PROCEEDING AND IT'S ALL HER FAULT!" Hawks grabbed Chitose up by her hair and slammed her down. Tears are streaming down the bloodied young woman's face, yet it's getting her no sympathy at all, as the hero slammed it again with greater force.

"Ouch, no Backforce hits…" came Nagant's still-bored comment, now holding onto a phone and just casually recording everything, easily noticing how Hawks seems to be deliberately weakening his hits as to not trigger the innate defensive capabilities of Backforce – therefore bringing in more physical damage.

"IF IT WEREN'T FOR YOU ARRANGING IN AN ENTIRE CULT OF MORONS, THIS SHOULDN'T EVEN HAPPEN IN THE FIRST PLACE! AND NOW JAPAN WILL FALL BECAUSE OF YOU! YOU'RE THE REASON, NOBODY ELSE!" Hawks continued his assault, attacking his downed target on the floor with heightened rage, before launching a powerful kick straight to her midsection, sending Chitose rolling a few meters – who then immediately vomited whatever she just ate earlier, earning a disgusted remark from Nagant; who quickly aligned her phone back to record the events.

"Hawks!" Stain abruptly jumped in between Hawks and Chitose, almost slipping because of all the pouring blood. "Come on! Look at what you did! You made her puke out my masterpiece!"

"You can just make another one, NOW GET OUT OF MY WAY!"

Chitose, on the other hand, bruised and bloodied and with a stabbed hand and crushed fingers and extreme pain, could only whimper out and cry as she began attempting to crawl away with one remaining good hand. But then, what actual choice does she even have at this point anyways? Is there even any escape? She has nothing to call for help, No Nezu nor Kazaguruma, and she's completely surrounded by pro-heroes (and Stain) and stuck in a small island-*

There is a sudden jolt of excruciating pain. Hawks literally just slammed a boot on the side of her right knee, easily dislocating it from its socket with a sharp crack.

Chitose gritted her teeth, a whole slew of thoughts going around in her painful terrified head, yet nothing is congregating into an actual solid one. There is only panic, fear, agony, and pain, all going in a seeming repeat. She can barely see at this point, her vision is bloodied, tearful, and dwindling. Hawks is relentless, he's blaming her for whatever-the-hell Yamato is supposed to be, again and again and again. Who knows what could happen once she's blacked out-*

"GODDAMMIT!" Hawks delivered another powerful kick on her midsection. "WHY DO YOU TERRORISTS JUST HAVE TO GET YOUR WAY?!"

Chitose, seemingly in an act of desperation, instantly reached out her right hand towards Hawks just as he's about to send another boot on the back of her left knee. She knew it's futile, and using Landmine would just result in an even intense beatdown, but anything goes at this point. Whatever happens, she's dead anyway, or rather a very high chance of being so in the next few minutes. The time for action is now.

She swung…

And she missed; rather unsurprising considering Hawks's insane speed and reflexes. And as expected, the hero's foot then came crashing down on her left knee, dislocating it as well with another loud crack.

Panic surging in extreme levels, and adrenaline acting as remaining fuel, Chitose instead just slammed her right hand onto the floor beside her. She doesn't care. She'll prime it, and explode, and then nothing after that. She's out of options, this will do. Her final stand-*

'WHAT?! HOW?!' Chitose kept her hand planted and kept trying, but no – Landmine won't work; it just won't activate at all. There should be a telltale strange feeling on her palm every successful plant, but instead she could feel nothing, and her headache is just intensifying further in every subsequent attempt. She tried to go into her Mine Vision, but also, it wouldn't activate as well. Her Quirks are just not working at all. She's sure Eraserhead isn't here, what gives?! What's going on?!

"AFTER ALL YOU DID, YOU STILL HAVE THE AUDACITY TO FIGHT BACK?!" Hawks, almost frothing at the mouth in pure rage, immediately descended upon her like a frenzied raptor. He held nothing back this time around, striking, punching, and kicking the hapless and miserable terrorist with everything he's got. Dislocated limbs, broken bones, ripped-out hair, blood spurting out, and still he continued. He didn't even let up when his target finally stopped moving and went limp, he just kept going and going, unleashing all his pent-up fury…

By the time he's done, Chitose is brutally beaten to a pulp, her face and entire form now almost unrecognizable from all her sustained injuries and torn clothes, as she laid there motionless and unconscious on the floor, drenched in a pool of her own blood.

"Piece of shit terrorist…" Hawks took a step back, panting and sweating. He could still feel his eyes darkening, his fists still hungering for more, but he finally stopped himself, lest his own hands become injured themselves from too much punching. "Alright… I'm done…" he continued panting, before slowly straightening his posture. "We need… we need to do something about Yamato…" he slouched forward, fanning himself with his wings along the way. "We can't let it proceed… we just can't…"

"Is she dead? Did you just seriously re-extinct them again?" Nagant asked, tilting her head off to one side. "Nana Shimura must be very proud of you right about now."

"I'm not sure… let me check…" Hawks, still panting, turned a few of his wing feathers towards the general direction of Chitose, and listened very carefully. "I could hear very light breathing and light bloodflow, but no actual heartbeat. But whatever it is, it isn't important anymore." He turned to Nagant. "Hey, if Pops focuses on you, just show him the video and call me. I'm going to take the blame for all this. Just don't kill him," he said the last part in a severe threatening tone. "Got it?"

"Hey chill out…" Nagant placed her phone on a nearby table. She faced Hawks again, but just as she's about to ask something, she noticed a strange object on the hero's left hand. "Hey, what the hell is that?"

"Huh?" Hawks raised both of his hands, immediately noticing that one is holding onto something. It's a severed blue ear. "Whatever…" he tossed it out of the nearby window. "Okay… any of you two got any brilliant ideas on what to do with Yamato-?"

"Did you really just blame Kizuki over there for ALL of Yamato? Seriously, Hawks? Isn't it your father's plan, yeah?" Stain abruptly asked, running a palm down his face, coupled with a groan. "Plus as far as I know, isn't she not technically important to Yamato in the first place? Unlike other things?"

"Without the MLA, Yamato wouldn't even happen. And who brought in the MLA together? Her. Don't be stupid, Stain… Plus she's a terrorist anyways, she deserved it. Giran is completely correct on that one." Hawks replied, a still-frustrated look on his face. "Anyways, Kizuki may not be important as of now, but she'll definitely be in the aftermath; I can guarantee it. She'll probably be used by other branches as a blackmail device: Plant a few Landmines on some unsuspecting heroes to keep them in line."

"Well yeah… maybe… but still, the school fortresses are now already under construction, and so are the Troys. At this point it seems that no matter what effort we put into possibly sabotaging Yamato, it'll only just delay it…" Stain shook his head. "But what about this? How about just sabotaging the PLF instead? It's a major piece of the Yamato puzzle, right?"

"Gunga Mountain is heavily-protected by the nearest hero agencies." Nagant answered for Hawks. "Kazaguruma won't let anything happen to them. If we're going for a sabotage route, we're going to have to target anything other than… wait…" The heroine took a step back, mumbling a few Russian words along the way. "What if, we pretend that Kizuki went missing? Maybe it could mess up Yamato's development? Just a suggestion, by the way."

"Going missing huh? Well Kizuki is a VIP, and Pops obviously badly wants her to be a part of the team..." Hawks paused a bit, deep in thought. "Of course… that could work… Kizuki going missing would probably make Pops divert a whole lot of effort into getting her back and, with a little more sabotage efforts on our side, quite possibly delay Yamato so much until he has no more other choice than to scrap it…" Hawks then slowly raised a still-bloody gloved hand up to scratch the side of his head, his expression looking unsure. "But there's just too much sunk costs-"

"Ah so you mean a stalling plan huh?" Stain raised a hand as he sat back on the edge of the bed, once more on the wooden frame. "Hmmm… according to intel, the PLF won't attack until around the end of April… Yeah, I say that's a good enough plan. Let's just stall the everloving crap out of Yamato."

"Well that's sort of a plan but… there's only three of us here." Nagant gestured towards herself, and then the two of them.

"There might be only three of us here. But do remember that you and me-" Hawks responded, immediately repeating Nagant's gesture to him. "You and me are VIPs as well at the same level of Kizuki over there, and Stain is very high on the HPSC hierarchy too. We technically have clearance to order other people around… although I'm really not sure if this stalling trick would really work."

"But we won't know until we try, right?" Stain suddenly spoke out loud, before pointing a finger towards the unconscious Chitose on the floor. "By the way, are you two planning on getting her back up or anything?"

Hawks shook his head. "Nah, let her die. Disgusting terrorists like her deserve it."

"Great… you just gotta kill her here so I'll be the one to clean it up and not you, eh?" Nagant crossed her arms and rolled her eyes, afterwards gesturing to the door Hawks ruined earlier. "Really good thinking there, buddy."

"Pavlichenko, would you rather deal with her pathetic ass again?"

Nagant paused a bit, Hawks did indeed make a good point. "No, not really."

"Hey I have an idea," Stain spoke out loud, instantly turning all attention to him. "So technically one of the stalling plan is to get rid of Miss Kizuki and pretend she went missing, right? How about I send her over to one of my 'buddies' back home? The Butcher of Naruhata?"

"Butcher who?" Nagant quickly asked before Hawks could get a word out.

"Think of a fat leatherface with a penchant for 'biology' and 'organ donations', stuff like that. Naruhata's a wild place after all. Anyways, I could bring Miss Kizuki there, and then give it to him, and now it's ol' Butcher's problem now. He's good at hiding, and heroes will obviously take a long time finding him, and if he gets caught, then he's a goner and we couldn't care less about him!" Stain nodded in a confident manner. "What do you say to that? It could sort of waste more precious Yamato time than just simply disposing Kizuki without a fall guy, right?"

"But how are we even supposed to make a plausible excuse as to how Kizuki got kidnapped? In my island no less? If anything it's going to get me in trouble!" Nagant facepalmed. "What kind of plan is that?"

"Nagant, I think you might be forgetting that we're HEROES… AKA we're professional stage actors; we can make things happen the way we want them to be." Hawks gestured towards Nagant. "Here's an idea: I'm going to set up a massive full-scale fake crime, far away from here as possible, hell maybe even right at the center of Tokyo! And then, I'll then tell Pops that Kizuki would be invited there to watch it all unfold, and then somehow midway through the act, she gets coincidentally kidnapped by the Butcher of Naruhata!"

"…I guess that makes sense... Alright, I'm in, let's do this. We'd never know if this little stalling trick would work until we try it anyways." Nagant paused a bit, deep in thought, before slowly nodding. "Okay, so when can we expect this project of yours to proceed?"

"I need a day or two to plan things out first, and maybe invite a few top heroes along the way. If everything went without a hitch, the earliest we can execute this is around, maybe, January 30? The day after tomorrow?"

"Sounds like a plan." Stain nodded, before turning his head towards a bloodied Chitose on the floor. "As for Miss Kizuki, I say we just leave her as is for now. War Machines can remain in suspended animation in times of unconsciousness, yes? The ol' Butcher would really prefer an alive person - even a barely-alive one, over a cold dead one in pieces… although the guy doesn't really have a problem with-"

"Real War Machines can sort of hibernate, I'm not sure with this pathetic terrorist Anomaly." Hawks interrupted, scoffing afterwards and shaking his head. "Although I do hope that's the case. This may not be my room, nor is this my house, but I'd rather not a corpse stink in here…" He then looked around, before eventually facing Nagant. "On the other hand, if Kizukis does not have a hibernation ability, then do try to keep her alive for a day."

"Me? A whole day? You're the one who left this idiot in a barely-alive bloody mess and now it's my problem?" Nagant complained, tilting her head once as if to reference Chitose on the floor, before spouting out a whole load of Russian sentences afterwards. "I get that the plan kind of requires her to stay alive-ish, but come on! This is your doing!"

"Nagant, just hold out for one day and she'll be the Butcher's property in the next!" Stain spoke out before Hawks could. "If we're supposed to delay Yamato, or something… then you should really just go with the flow and do it. What's so hard about that? The last thing we need right now is the Butcher rejecting the body. If that happens, then we have no more 'credible' fall guy!"

Nagant is about to retaliate when Hawks quickly raised a hand, a few of his feathers tingling a bit while being pointed at Chitose's direction. "Her breathing's remaining light, bloodflow is still present, still no actual heartbeat. Bleeding's stopped too – which may or may not be because of the lack of actual bloodflow… Anyways, how about we just go by this…" Hawks took a deep breath and slowly let it all out. "Okay, Nagant? Try to keep Kizuki alive at least, but if she dies, then that's it. Stain? If ever that's the case, just go try to convince this Butcher 'friend' of yours to accept it."

"Hmmm… best of both worlds…" Nagant nodded to the suggestion. "I could live with that."

Stain instantly raised an eyebrow on Nagant's words. "Hey pal, Hawks saying that it's just okay if she dies doesn't mean you're just going to leave her here! The Butcher prefers his people at least alive, come on! Just put at least an ounce of effort into it!"

"Guys, whatever works…" Hawks raised another hand, silencing the other two. "Okay… Nagant, just try to keep Kizuki alive. Stain, get the Butcher ready; the faster we can make the 'delivery' the faster this issue gets dealt with. As for me, I'll prepare the biggest stage act I can muster. And then after this we'll plan out our next courses of action, and maybe get a few trustworthy anti-Yamato allies along the way. Any questions?"

There is silence for a brief while.

"Alright, let's get to work."