January 30 – Day 49
'For a lot of people, a hero is merely a public servant; a person in charge of upholding justice, enforcing the law, keeping the peace, and protecting the population. Basically glorified police officers, but nothing beyond that. And that's fine, there's nothing wrong with that, some people just want to make a living after all, and being a hero is a relatively easy job, even more so in the modern age and with the System keeping everything in check.'
Hawks adjusted his yellow jacket and raised his left arm up, his best smile plastered on his face. And within a moment, a nearby door opened, and in came a person pushing a comically large wheelbarrow filled with toys, accompanied with equally comical music. Needless to say, the whole bunch of children in front of him cheered in glee upon the sight. It's been years ever since they had experienced anything like it.
'A true hero, however, is more than that. They're more than just justice-upholders and law enforcers – only acting in response to threats, no… They strive to maintain the peace, they strive to be symbols of good deeds, they strive to inspire the next generation. They strive to be living idols. A far-fetched idea, yes, and also almost absurd, but it is what it is. What else is being a true hero anyway? Perfection is where it's at.'
Hawks gestured some more towards the nearby door, and almost immediately a couple of suited individuals came in, but not of the threatening kind. They have with them comically large mustaches and top hats, pushing in food trolleys with metal food covers on them. All the more better to keep the surprise inside them secret.
The cheering of the children intensified further, and while it's almost too much for someone like Hawks and his extremely sound-sensitive ears, he didn't mind it at all.
'Altruism. The strong shall help the weak, acknowledge the unfortunate, reach out to the needy, all without needing anything in return… That's what true heroism is about… Damn, I sound like Stain right now…'
Hawks sighed, although keeping an amused smile on his face. While he knew that Stain's ramblings were extremely stupid and nonsensical (Stain himself now openly acknowledges that), but some parts of it were 'technically' correct. A true hero 'technically' should serve even without anything in return. It's like stuff out of comics, but it does ring a bell for him. Unfortunately, however, it's not really that feasible in the real world.
The young hero raised another arm, this time his right. The gesture caused all the suited men to do a silly nod before grabbing onto the top of the food covers and pulling them up, revealing their contents – various food styled and designed like animals and cartoon characters.
Of course the children loved it.
'Guess I better get going.' Hawks started slowly stepping backwards, carefully blending into the background until, in just a few moments, he's out of the door without even being noticed. What follows next is a relatively short walk through a narrow corridor, and he's out of the building entirely. He then immediately proceeded towards the nearest (barely-lit) alleyway. Upon arriving, it's only then he finally recalled back all of his red feathers comprising his wings – which have just been hovering up top the building this whole time; quite easily-missable especially at this hour of around roughly 8 in the evening.
'Ah, it's nice to be good…' Hawks couldn't help but smile once more as he could still hear the faint cheers of the children within. Helping out the unlucky people; orphans in this particular moment, has always been a favorite past time of his, far more than anything else combined. In fact he's already missed out on quite a lot of hero-related events throughout the country, much to his father's annoyance obviously, just because of it.
Whistling a little tune to himself, Hawks then reached out to his pocket and pulled out his phone. It's a VECTRE, very much like his father's, although he'd just rather keep it at phone mode, as he finds the hover mode (the entire point of VECTREs) too clunky for his tastes.
There are a bunch of messages: random notifications, advertising deals, game sales, notes from infatuated girls who somehow knew his number, overall nothing really of importance, but still. 'Better get going, they're probably on their way now…' he thought as he slowly stepped out of the shadows of the alleyway and into the relatively quiet street (which is even more so because of the season and the ongoing event nearby), minding the multiple parked trucks in front of him that were used to deliver the goods to the orphanage party he just organized.
"Thank you for arranging the event. It's been years ever since they last experienced it."
Hawks turned to his right. It's a bespectacled elderly man, balding and with a cane on his right hand. He's the one in charge of the orphanage. "Nah don't mention it, old timer, I'm just doing my part," Hawks responded in a lighthearted tone, placing his phone back to his pocket and doing a small wave.
"Say, are you a hero? You look familiar…"
Hawks slowly shook his head. "No, sir. Just a rich businessman with a ton of money to spare." He then gestured to his wings. "As for these wings? They're just gadgets, any resemblance to any hero is just purely coincidental," he added, as to which the old man merely responded with a slow nod, as if acknowledging it.
"Hmm… I wish more heroes would have that attitude of yours. These days it seems that the only times they ever visit places like these is when they want to boost their popularity, and even then they don't really arrange such events."
"True." Hawks nodded. There's no denying what the old man said. "But on the other hand, a visiting hero could potentially put more attention on such places, and therefore bring in the donations at a faster rate…" Hawks's voice trailed off, only then realizing that heroes who often visit such places are, more often than not, low-ranking ones (who cannot afford to execute a fake villain scenario), and therefore don't really bring in as much attention. If anything it's actually exploitative-
"Maybe I'm just expecting too much. See you around I guess?" The old man suddenly spoke, accompanying it with another small nod.
Hawks was about to say something else regarding what he's thinking earlier, but eventually just brushed it off and smiled. "Take good care of them, grandpa." He did a joking finger-guns gesture before taking off. In the end he's done what he needs to do anyways.
'Alright, now on to the next…'
Soaring through the skies at this time, and especially in this winter season, is unsurprisingly, very cold; even more so when travelling at speed. But despite all that, Hawks didn't mind the chill at all, if anything he's just finding himself pumped up and more determined on the things he's about to do next: In an hour or so he's going to get rid of that disgusting blue terrorist his father's so insistent on keeping, and then pretend that she went missing, which will then hopefully become a significant factor into dragging out Operation: Yamato.
The key word here is delay. Hopefully, if Yamato is delayed enough, his father would then have no more choice than to just abandon it. In the end, it won't do the country much good anyways. The negatives just severely outweigh the positives. It's just too much, going overboard even. And even though his father keeps on explaining why it's such a good thing, he just can't see what it is. Yamato, at all costs, must be stopped from proceeding.
Orchestrating a fake downfall of Japan will never be a good thing.
'It cannot continue…' Hawks clenched his fists in annoyance. While his father's actions has always been for the greater benefit of everyone for the longest time ever since he reached his current position, this time it's just not it. It's crossing the line and heading straight towards extremely unfavorable territory.
But strangely enough, despite all the negatives, a whole lot of heroes actually agree to Yamato. It puzzled Hawks to no end, and is only making the situation worse. He can't make his plans public, or else someone might report something and stop said plans before they could even gain a solid foothold. For that reason he also can't just recruit random heroes either; he has to be really picky about his future allies.
'It'll just be the three of us for now… I'll just expand the team as I go…' Hawks scoffed in further annoyance before eventually setting his eyes on a structure just a few kilometers up ahead, a particular one that's standing even taller than the 15-floor skyscrapers around it. It's a massive disk with windows all across its sides, held up and supported by multiple concrete beams which are slightly bent outwards in an artistic manner, and extending all the way down to ground level. A true marvel in architecture.
Tokyo Sky Egg.
Hawks pulled out his phone and immediately set it to connect with a specific device within the vicinity. "Is everyone ready guys? By the way is Endeavor there by any chance?" he spoke into it upon successfully connecting, in which there quickly came a simple response from the other side: Endeavor is unfortunately not available at this time, although we're all ready.
'Hmm… bummer…' His idol may not be able to go, but still, all is well enough.
Hawks then immediately turned to his right, instantly setting his sights towards a huge warehouse just behind a particular shopping mall, before gliding down towards it, aiming to land on a spot in front of its back entrance. This is going to be his 'staging ground', and indeed he already got permission from the owner to use it as well as the key. It didn't take much of an effort considering his top hero status, but still.
Upon landing, it's basically empty there, except for two familiar people standing in front of a truck parked by the back entrance: Mr. Compress and Ragdoll, who are both wearing elaborate disguises concealing their true selves.
"Alright here you go," instantly came a quote from Compress even before Hawks could speak, his tone sounding a bit irritated, before shoving his gloved right hand to his pocket and pulling out a small rectangular metallic case; the size of a matchbox, and quickly tossing it out for Hawks to catch, in which the winged hero easily did. "Say, I didn't just randomly make a few shady deals with shady people for no reason, right? So what's that Illusion-Drug I got you for anyway?"
"Nothing much, just a nice little item that would be of great use this evening!" Hawks replied in a casual tone as he inspected the small case, eventually opening it and immediately seeing a small row of 5 tiny syringes containing viscous cyan fluid. 'Alright, this'll do,' he thought to himself before reaching to his back and detaching two of his feathers. He then arranged it so that they're holding onto the small 'matchbox' like a tong, and then flew it out to a particular direction.
"Just so you two know, I planned this fake scenario all from scratch. I hope you'll love it!" Hawks pulled out his wallet with a free hand and handed Compress 20,000 Yen. It's much more than what was needed to buy the 'matchbox' in the first place, but he didn't mind. "Keep the change." Hawks then paused a bit, looking around as one hand slowly went up to the back of his head. "So uh… anyways… do you two really agree on this whole uh… Yamato thing?"
"Hawks, you're gonna bring that up again?" Ragdol spoke up, her tone clearly annoyed. "You've been talking about that all day! For the last time, just let your Pops do what he wants! It's not like it'll be the end of the world," she finished her sentence with a resounding loud slap on her forehead. "I swear I'm gonna flip out at this point. You already ruined three whole games of Stairs and Serpents with that endless Yamato yapping…"
"I'm gonna go with Ragdoll here, Hawks. Surely Yamato wouldn't be too bad." Compress did a small wave of a gloved hand that's carrying a sum of money, making it magically disappear. "You have it grossly overblown. It's just a small re-structuring, what's so bad about that? It's not like anyone would even die from it."
"Well yeah but don't you two ever think about the aftermath of it? What comes next?" Hawks began scratching his head. But as he's about to say more, he just decided to finally stop. Ragdoll and Compress clearly don't have any problems with Yamato, very much like the rest of the heroes who know of it, and he probably won't get anywhere with continuing this conversation. "Nah whatever… so would you two like to watch the Tokyo Sky Egg fake scenario go down, I guess?"
"Hawks, let me be honest. It's been a long day of haggling, searching, and secret-coding dealers and whatnots for that Illusion-Drug you tasked me to buy. I'd rather just be home."
"Yeah, Sako's right." Ragdoll nodded her head, a bit too enthusiastically, before her face quickly contorted into that of slight annoyance. "Plus I'm supposed to be 'dead' remember?"
"Dea-?" Hawks blanked out for a moment before finally realizing it. Apparently, yes, he did forget yet again that Ragdoll is supposed to be 'dead' these days. She's supposed to be 'killed' at the Kamino Incident. And while yes a lot of heroes do know that she's very much alive and well, but the public doesn't, and should not. Public knowledge of tracking Quirks like Search being available could easily compromise the System and cause potential mass chaos, and of course that shouldn't happen. At all costs, no civilian should be questioning why the heroes can't seem to find and apprehend certain 'dangerous' villain groups, like the League of Villains.
Anyways, all the more reason to stop Yamato – to stop the entire thing from turning even worse.
"Oh right! This birdbrain of mine just tends to forget some things! Gimme a break! I mean , come on, it's been only months since we're all paired up as a team… and I don't really have former team experience!" Hawks just laughed at himself before gesturing towards the general direction of the Tokyo Sky Egg. "Anywho… so I guess I'll just be seeing you guys tomorrow? You sure you two don't want to watch the project I cooked up?"
"I'll pass. It's just a fake scenario after all. Everyone does that these days." Ragdoll answered with a shrug. "But on the bright side, your Dad's watching, right?"
"Pops is really busy. It's all Operation: Yamato to him these days." Hawks shrugged as well, quite disappointed. Although on the other hand, his father being too busy to watch a full-scale project he made actually makes some things a whole lot easier, as well as removes a lot of complications, so there's that. "See you around."
Compress merely did a bow before turning around and walking towards a small metal gate that leads to the road outside. Ragdoll followed him along.
"Wait… you two came in from that?" Hawks narrowed his eyes on where Compress is heading. There is one huge motorbike, and nothing else.
"Yeah, I hopped on a free ride!" Ragdoll turned around, both hands gesturing to herself like she's proud of what she just did. "We took a long cut - it's the opposite of short cut by the way, and we had a blast! Winter motorbiking is really something, you know?"
"That's great, I guess?" Hawks merely shrugged out as a response. "Stay safe!"
"You bet! It's my number one priority after all. I only told Sako to do a wheelie two times!"
"Actually it's three…" came a light comment from Compress, sounding like he's stifling a laugh as he readied his bike.
"I see you two are getting along well. Good to know." Hawks nodded at them, not being worried one bit on a potential serious accident. They're good enough as is. "Happy travels!" he said out loud as the two, with Ragdoll at the back, sped off down the road, specifically towards the right. Within a few moments after that, there's silence.
That is until a faint light became visible upon the road, steadily going brighter as if a car is approaching from the left side of the road. And indeed that's the case.
It's a gray four-door sedan, completely plain and with nothing else standing out from it. It drove in slowly and stopped underneath a nearby lamp post. After a second after parking, the glass pane on the passenger's seat lowered, revealing Lady Nagant, wearing an ushanka and a dark gray trenchcoat. "So it's really gonna be Tokyo Sky Egg huh? I thought you're just pranking. So how's your Dad? Where's Compress and Ragdoll?" she immediately asked.
"Pops won't be watching tonight. It's my first full-scale project and he's not gonna see it. I know this whole anti-Yamato plan should go first and all, but damn… By the way the other two just left, they don't want to watch anymore. Well at least we wouldn't have to explain the odd state of our 'lovely' guest." Hawks then walked towards the car and knocked on the glass pane on the back door. It's soon lowered, and immediately he could see within, sitting motionless on the left side, with a seatbelt on, her head down as if asleep – Chitose Kizuki. The unconscious blue-skinned young woman is completely spotless, with not a single hint of the vicious beatdown he gave her two days earlier. She's relatively 'normal' to some extent, except for the fact that…
"Why is she wrapped-up like a mummy?" He asked, instantly noticing how Kizuki looks like she's tied to the seat with strips of fabric on some areas, making her look like, well, a mummy. At the same time he quickly focused a few feathers on her and listened very carefully. He could once again hear very light breathing and light bloodflow without any actual heartbeat – just the same things as yesterday. All is well for now. "So she's really entered a state of torpor like the real thing, eh? Well that's interesting, I suppose? I bet it made maintenance far easier."
"Ah so she's still alive, good to know…" came Nagant's bored words. "She really just slept all day by the way. Quite convenient, honestly."
"So why is she dressed up as a mummy then?"
"Well actually…" It's Stain, sitting on the driver's seat and wearing his full Hero Killer attire, minus the spiked shoes. "She wouldn't really need those wraps if it weren't for some deranged birdman who broke every bone in her god-damn body!" He said out loud, clearly annoyed. "Just imagine… I literally had to drive all the way here, occasionally drinking pints of blue blood here and there, all just to freeze her and keep her in one piece so her limbs won't splay out on the wrong directions! And her blood tastes like dog crap!" he complained further, raising a small vial filled with strange blue blood.
Hawks raised an eyebrow, slightly curious on the blue fluid. He can clearly remember Kizuki spurting out red blood, so why is it now blue? But whatever the answer to that, it's not important anymore. She's going to be butchered in a few hours anyways so why bother? "Hey, she'll be gone in a few hours, don't worry. So are you done contacting the Butcher?"
"I managed to get him 'on call' yesterday for some reason. Anyways he's ready." Stain slowly got out of the car, but immediately walked away from the lamp-post illuminated area into the direction of the warehouse, specifically to a relatively dark spot just outside the back entrance.
Hawks simply nodded at him, before turning his attention back to an unmoving Kizuki on the back seat. "So how's the Illusion-Drugs Compress got me? It's working well, I think?" He inspected the unconscious young woman some more, finding the sight oddly interesting. All of Kizuki's injuries have seemingly completely disappeared, leaving not a single odd marking, although that's only on the outside; beneath the illusion is an entirely different story. "I thought about to whether just get her some actual healing drugs, but in the end I figured that'll just be too expensive." He turned to Nagant. "Pretty cool Illusion-drugs, huh?"
"You out here staging a whole fake scenario on Tokyo Sky Egg, but getting an actual healing drug is too expensive for you?" Nagant let out a slightly annoyed chuckle as she shifted her seating position on the front seat, so that she has now a good look on Kizuki as well. She then held up the small 'matchbox' Hawks sent them earlier (still with the two red feather-prongs attached to them). "Plus you really just have to get Compress to fetch you these, huh? I thought you'll be buying them on your own."
"I figured it'll be a nice talking point for Compress to sort of join us. But no. He and Ragdoll both refused. Don't worry, I didn't let them know what we're really planning here." Hawks made the two prongs on the small 'matchbox' levitate to him, leaving the item on Nagant's hand. "Going back on topic, I think we should give our terrorist friend here a different facial expression. Her being asleep just looks really suspicious, and I don't think Yoroi Musha would like to have her not watching the event… You know what that reminds me, let me go call him…" Hawks immediately pulled out his VECTRE phone and started pressing his fingers upon the screen.
Nagant's eyes widened a bit, her brows furrowing, the small item she's holding almost falling off. "Yoroi Musha? What does he have to do with all this?"
"I just figured out that, in order to make the upcoming 'Search for Kizuki' more time-consuming, then I'm going to have to 'artificially bump up' the Butcher of Naruhata's capabilities. Technically, if Yoroi Musha's the one standing guard as Kizuki watches the event, and still Kizuki gets kidnapped by the Butcher, then that would send a message how 'dangerous' the Butcher is, and therefore the search parties for him would be forced to take things slowly and seriously." Hawks hastily placed his phone back to his pocket and reached out to take the small item off of Nagant's hand. "Think of it like a 'Reverse Fake Scenario'. Instead of staging things to make heroes look more superior, it's the other way around."
"Hmm… not bad at all…" Nagant nodded in response before exiting the vehicle as well, speaking some random Russian along the way. "So what are you planning now with that?" she gestured towards the small item Hawks is holding, noticing the hero trying to take one particular syringe out of it.
"I'm going to change her facial expression to something more villain-like… Ah this is it!" Hawks pulled out a syringe and flicked it to the unconscious Kizuki's shoulder, which landed perfectly to impale itself onto her. Almost immediately, the young woman's face turned into a blur, before eventually setting itself back to normal a few moments later, only this time her face now looks like it's sporting a smug grin. The syringe on the other hand, just automatically fell off. "Okay this'll do." Hawks turned to Stain and gestured towards him. "Hey, how sneaky is this Butcher guy anyway? Once the heroes are onto him, how good can he get away from them?"
"How many times do I have to tell you? He's been in this butchering business far longer than I am in this. He's good at hiding and has his own way against tracking Quirks, but he's not proficient in open combat. The guy's morbidly obese and only has his trusty cleaver and meat hook, how dangerous do you think he is against government agents?"
"As long as he's not a total pushover, it'll be okay." Hawks raised an arm, getting Nagant's attention to him. "Okay, as for us, once we get an order to hunt him down as well, let's just pretend we can't find him too, okay?"
"Yeah you're already telling us that since yesterday," came the Rifle Heroine's quick response.
"I'm just trying to make sure you get the memo, knowing how scared you get around my father."
"Hey that wasn't fear! That was… intimidation… yes… the guy's just very intimidating."
"Hmmph…" Hawks's face quickly turned to irritated annoyance as he opened the car door leading to Kizuki. "For someone who already tried to kill him once, you do know your back-pedalling is only making you look stupid, right? I swear if you even tried to do that again, I'll personally rip out your spine." That was a real threat. Even after almost 10 months now, the memory of his father's right eye socket bleeding out profusely after receiving a bullet still haunts him occasionally up to this day, and all that was because Nagant thinks taking out the 'source' of the problem means taking out its entirety.
What a moronic way of thinking. In a way it reminds him of how terrorists like the MLA works – they think taking down hero society will solve all their issues.
Dumb fools. Completely ignoring the aftermath of the situation…
"I'm not shooting anyone, come on!" Nagant backed off a step, shaking her head. "Right now I'm literally helping out on an alternative!"
"Well you better be, because up to now I think that simple punishment of getting a few bones broken here and there and getting crippled for a few months is still not enough for what you did. You're a really lucky bastard, aren't you?"
"Hawks…" Nagant sighed, both hands coming up to stuff strands of indigo-pink hair into her ushanka hat (and the rest to her trenchcoat). "Let's just get on with this…"
Hawks glared at her one more time before setting his attention to Kizuki. "Whatever, let me just get this dumbass out of the car. Tell Stain to ready a chair or something." He then sent two feathers flying out from his wings and into his pocket, pulling out a key and tossing it to the woman beside him, before reattaching back. "That's the key to the warehouse. Enter it and get to the rooftop. Just follow my orders, stop messing around. All this'll be over before we know it."
After one nod, Nagant quickly left and began doing what is tasked of her.
'Hmmph… you're lucky you're still alive…' Hawks cursed under his breath, glaring at Nagant all the while. But still, knowing he still has things to do, he let that off for the time being and reached out into the car to pull Kizuki out (at the same time noticing that Stain's Bloodcurdle is no longer in effect). It took a while since she's tied down to the actual car seat, but after just a minute of cutting the 'restraints' with his feathers, he eventually got her out.
Kizuki looked absolutely ridiculous as he carried her to the warehouse. She has a smug grin on her face on (courtesy of the Illusion-Drugs), all while her broken limbs are flopping about like a loose mannequin. Apparently his enraged beatdown of her really didn't spare any working joints, except her neck. Either way, it turned out to be a good thing because now the Butcher of Naruhata won't reject her easily.
He just hoped Stain could make the deal.
After walking towards the back entrance, Hawks then looked up, and with one grand flap of his wings, sent him just high enough to reach the top. And there he could already see both Nagant and Stain, with the latter beside a wooden chair. And up in front of all them, is a splendid view of the Tokyo Sky Egg, just towering upon the horizon.
"Hey, what the hell?" Stain blurted out and he quickly ran off towards Hawks. "Kizuki's literally broken everywhere, tone down moving her around so much! We need her to survive for the next hour, remember?"
"Huh?" Hawks quickly checked Kizuki's life signs. But it's still very much the same sounds he can hear ever since two days ago. "Don't worry, she's still alive." He haphazardly handed over the unconscious terrorist towards Stain. "Okay now, you set her up to sit on that chair you brought here. Bloodcurdle her if you have to. Just make her look normal until Yoroi Musha arrives, I already called him."
"Yoroi-" Stain raised an eyebrow at him as he carried Kizuki. "You sound pissed-off. Did you have a chat with Nagant about that thing again?"
"That doesn't concern you, now move." Hawks moved ahead, shoving Stain along the way, until he's reached Nagant, who just has her back turned to him and her attention just locked upon the Tokyo Sky Egg. He's just about to talk when the heroine spoke up first:
"Hawks, what's the plan? How would this all go down?" she asked, her voice now sounding a bit shaky.
"My plan is that Stain is just going to be himself. That's why I told him to wear his villain outfit here." Hawks placed his hands on his hips, before turning towards Stain – who has just seated Kizuki on the chair and is now just starting on adjusting her seating position to make her look normal; a real tedious task especially with a subject filled with broken bones and dislocated limbs. "Stain, you're going to ramble on about fake heroes and such. After a while, once there's sufficient traction, some of the support beams of Tokyo Sky Egg will then 'conveniently' explode. The entire thing will then slowly topple over, sending the partying people at the top into a wild panic. But as it turns out, there are actually heroes with them – and then the heroes save the day and blah blah blah you get the idea. Just a typical 'Heroes Good' type of thing, just with more top heroes. And then I'll defeat you. And once that's done, you'll sneakily make your way back to Kizuki and drive her off to the Butcher. Mission accomplished."
"Hmm, I see it's going to be a bit of repeating history huh?" Nagant spoke, still not bothering to look back to Hawks. "I remember back then when you're still 12. There's a top hero from America who hosted a farewell party there at the Egg. Lots and lots of people invited."
"Ah, Captain Celebrity. Yeah I remember that guy…" Stain spoke up from somewhere behind them. He's still not finished tying down Kizuki on a chair. "That's when Sky Egg got attacked by a real criminal, right? I remember the news saying there are lots of explosive creatures involved."
"Indeed. The disk almost fell. I remember the heroes there; Edgeshot, Jeanist, Ryukyu, Uwabami, the Pussycats, Mirko, and some others. They all just straight up stalled and hoped Mr. Celebrity would eventually give out from trying to lift up the disk to stop it from falling so they can show off. It's not even a fake scenario, but a real one, yet they just gotta show off. But eh, no one died anyways. The disk never fell."
"Wait, also isn't there some other guy who's with the Captain that day?" Stain spoke again. "I heard he helped out a ton that's why the attacking creatures took a while in 'toppling' down the disk."
"My memory's a bit foggy from that time, but yeah." Nagant took a deep breath and sighed. "Hawks, you're going to repeat it again, eh?"
"Nah, who cares if the plan I came up with is not original anymore." Hawks shook his head, now feeling a bit disappointed. "But seriously, how come no one told me that when I was still setting things up?"
"That's probably because they don't want to upset Daddy's boy and get in trouble." Stain chuckled to himself a bit. "Alright, Miss Kizuki secured. She's still alive, yeah? I hope the butcher likes alien women, hopefully."
"Yeah she's still hanging on." Hawks turned to Stain, before pulling out his phone once more. "Alright, Stain, take out your phone, I'm going to send you the location of where you need to go…" He then pressed a few buttons and sent out a photo. "You'll be standing on the roof. There's a megaphone in there and I had someone rig up the area with a spotlight so you can have an ominous shadow behind you while you're blabbering about 'fake heroes this and fake heroes that'. Also make sure to put your phone down in a place where you can easily see the screen, in case a part of the plan changes. And finally, don't mind Yoroi Musha on your way back to Kizuki, I'll deal with him."
"Damn… a spotlight… this is gonna be news for weeks." Stain straightened his posture as he checked his phone, seeing Hawks's message now sent to him. "Okay, I'll be leaving now. Just tell me if I need to Bloodcurdle Kizuki again." He then did one last nod before jogging towards the back end of the warehouse, but before he could jump down he first showed how he's holding onto a small vial of blue blood, and then he jumped down.
"Alright, now it's time to play the waiting game for a while…" Hawks turned his attention towards the woman in front of him, putting his phone back to his pocket. "Hey Nagant, any news on Skeptic?"
"The guy's basically kidnapped by a Nomu and sent to God-Knows-Where and then forced to become a mouthpiece for Shigaraki, just how am I even supposed to investigate the guy? I don't even know where Shigaraki is either." Nagant facepalmed, coupled with a few annoyed words in Russian. "Your father's freaking out too much over Skeptic. So what if he had trackers planted on the four books you gave out, if the PLF literally did nothing with it. If anything it's just proving how utterly idiotic they all are. You said it yourself, they're so pathetic they became a prime tool for Yamato to proceed."
"Yeah… Pops is too paranoid of possible mishaps because of how badly he wants Yamato to proceed. Now that I think of it, looks like delivering Kizuki to the Butcher might get us some solid results after all." Hawks nodded. He's calmed down for now, but still. "I hope this stalling trick works."
"How about you, any news on Skeptic?"
"I don't even know where the guy is, too."
"Oh well…" Nagant raised both arms, stretching a bit. "Say, how about her?" she gestured over to Kizuki tied on a nearby chair – it's almost eerie how normal she looks and even had a smug look on, when in reality she's unconscious and is only sitting upright because of Bloodcurdle. "Do you really think she's an anomaly?"
"At this point, I guess yeah. It's not too far-fetched, I'm the same thing after all." Hawks shrugged. "But too bad, she needs to be re-extincted once more." He was about to talk more when he felt his phone vibrate. Immediately taking it out, he saw a message from Yoroi Musha. Apparently he's already arrived and now parked nearby the car both Stain and Nagant used to get there.
"Old man's here, let me go get him." Hawks hurriedly flew up and went towards the back end of the warehouse. Peeking down, he could see a plain white SUV, a bit larger than normal. 'Alright, let's do this…' Hawks held up his phone and typed in a message, telling the top hero to go outside and meet up with them on top of the warehouse. "Would you like a little help to get up here?" he added.
"I'm fine, there's no need for that, but thanks for the offer," came a message just as a frail old bearded man dressed in casual clothes went out of the vehicle and walked towards the back entrance. He then stood still for a moment, before multiple metallic pieces went flying out from within the SUV's now-open trunk, fully enveloping him until he's in his full power-armor – his hero outfit – making him almost three times bigger than he already is, an also much more formidable.
With his built-in jetpack, the old hero easily traversed the height difference between him and Hawks.
"You're here! Great! Glad to have you here, sir!" Hawks patted the back of the much older hero, placing his phone back to his pocket along the way. "Now, for your role, I'd like you to stand guard there near Kizuki. Oh and by the way, don't mind how she's tied up, it's just how she wanted to observe the project I came up with. She's kinky that way."
"Hmmph… people these days…" Yoroi Musha shook his head before slowly trundling towards the destination he's given. He gave a light wave towards Lady Nagant upon reaching there, who waved back as well, but nothing else aside from that. He didn't even pay Kizuki any mind as well.
"Okay-" Hawks abruptly stopped when he noticed Nagant discreetly gesturing for him to come over to her, in which he quickly flew in. "What is it?"
"I just realized… how is the Butcher believably going to capture Kizuki when he's being guarded by Yoroi Musha-?"
"Relax, Pavlichenko, I got everything under control. Now where was I?" Hawks turned to the old hero, who's just seemingly watching the Sky Egg up some distance ahead, especially the spotlights on top of the disk. "Mr. Yoroi Musha, another extension of your role is that you'll lie in wait until Stain climbs up this warehouse after his presentation, and then you jump on him and look all heroic, how's that sound?"
The old hero merely nodded at him in response.
"Alright, everything is falling into place…" Hawks pulled up his phone again and sent a message to Stain, asking if he's ready, in which he is according to the quick reply he sent back. On the flipside, Stain asked if Kizuki is already acting a little droopy – which means Bloodcurdle is now slowly running out. In response, Hawks quickly checked Kizuki's state. Thankfully the blue terrorist is still very much fine – and by fine he meant she's still frozen and 'alive'. "Okay! And now with that settled… Nagant? The next step is that we need to go over there to the other side of the city, just some considerable distance behind the Sky Egg Tower." Hawks pointed towards a highly-distinctive hotel, easily visible from their location due to how architecturally-unique (and flashy) it is. "Specifically over there."
"Why?"
"It's for the next part. Now let's fly. I gotta warn, you, it's gonna be cold."
"I-" Nagant didn't even get to finish when a swarm of red feathers surrounded her and suddenly lifted her off into the night sky. She was swearing in Russian the entire ascent, which Hawks found a bit embarrassing considering Yoroi Musha is there to hear it all (even though he doesn't really understand Russian), but fortunately the heroine stopped after a few seconds.
"I'll be off now too! Keep watch of the terrorist, okay?" Hawks did a casual wave before he too, took off into the night sky to follow after Nagant. As he did so, he made sure to leave a bunch of feathers behind, around 30 or so, so he can keep tabs on Kizuki's 'survival sounds', and also of course, as part of a later plan.
"Guys, gimme a few short minutes. I'm gonna sort a few things out first, just keep partying!" Hawks sent a quick message from his phone to his contacts within the Sky Egg Tower. It took a short while, but they eventually responded. It's a single thumbs-up emoji.
Nodding in acknowledgment, Hawks continued the flight, all until he reached his destination. Nagant is already there, now a bit annoyed at him (and shivering from the cold) but otherwise fine. Hawks immediately recalled the feathers he used to lift the heroine back to his wings. "Okay here's the next part-"
"Do I have a role here?" Nagant asked, adjusting her ushanka hat. "Or am I just going to watch?"
"Miss Pavlichenko, I invited you here for two things. One: So you won't be blamed for Kizuki's disappearance. You may be currently tasked with looking after her, but since she'll disappear while under my project, and under Yoroi Musha's watch no less, that means I'LL be the one to blame for it. And since you're here too, invited by me, that means Pops also can't blame you for slacking off."
"I think that's a good enough… so what's the next one?"
"Uh… I-uh…" Hawks backed off a step, raising one arm to awkwardly scratch his head. "Well uh… Pops is too busy with his plans and couldn't make it and uh… this is technically my first full-scale project…" He took one deep breath and slowly let it out. "I want this to blow out of proportion so it'll be all over the news for the next few weeks, so then Pops will see it and he'll be impressed how competent I am for arranging all this." He paused a bit. "Yeah I know him being missing is good for the overall plan, but you know…"
"Ah so you just want to impress your father, I understand."
"Look, Yamato is the only issue here, okay? He's still my father." Hawks gestured over to the Sky Egg Tower. "Anyways, all you really have to do here is to reveal yourself. You're the country's most popular heroine after all, you can do it." He then pulled out his phone again and quickly contacted the Hero Killer. "Stain, I'm gonna have Nagant shoot a couple of deliberately-missed shots at you some time in the middle of your speech. I need her to make an appearance to the public. I'll just send you an additional message when it's time to go."
"Okay." Came a quick reply. "After that my show's done, right?"
"Pretty much. You can get Kizuki and take her to the Butcher." Hawks replied. Honestly he's expecting a bit more, maybe even a little bit of disagreement, but there's nothing and that's fine. "Okay, I think we're ready to go." He turned to Nagant, who's now pulling up the sleeve on her right arm. "Ready?" he asked. Upon being answered with a small nod, he hastily took off high into the sky, even higher than the total height of the Sky Egg, before sending multiple messages to the rest of the crew, asking them if they're ready.
They are. The stage is set. It's time.
"Go." Hawks spoke into the phone.
Within a few seconds, a spotlight on top a building – one that's just a few streets away from the warehouse, suddenly lit up, pointed towards the walls of the building next to it. A short while later, an ominous figure then walked up to it, casting an equally ominous shadow.
Stain, the notorious Hero Killer. Apparently even after he's supposedly caught at Hosu some months ago, he's back, and with a vengeance.
Lifting up the megaphone conveniently placed in front of him, the serial killer then started his speech amidst the fear-stricken masses of nearby civilians. Said speech is his usual anti-hero one; quite repetitive at this point, and in which Hawks could only shrug as he watched it all through his highly-enhanced vision. With it he could see Stain very clearly, even at this extreme distance.
Either way it's going well, nothing's wrong so far.
'3… 2… 1…' Just as Hawks is done counting down, there's a sudden loud explosion. As planned, it's on one of the 'legs' of the Tokyo Sky Egg, sending the disk on top of it slanting sideways. Needless to say, the people partying there are sent into an instant wild panic-*
'Huh?' Hawks saw sudden swirls of light and various other illuminative strangeness surrounding the tilted disk. It seems that the heroes he's in contact with inside are now deliberately making the 'villain attack' even bigger than initially intended. 'Hey, not bad!' Hawks is very impressed, not only at the 'realism' of it all, but also because it's not even part of the script, and yet only made things even better! But then again, heroes are just professional stage actors these days, so it's to be expected, but still…
"Alright! Everything's going well!" Hawks spoke to himself upon seeing the now-widespread (controlled) chaos. The news are going to be insane after this, he can already tell. And now to make it even more insane... "Miss Pavlichenko?" Hawks said into his phone after pulling it up. "It's showtime. Interrupt the serial killer." Almost immediately he set his eyes upon the Rifle heroine just down below, who then walked towards the edge of the roof nearest to the road, before quickly crouching down and deploying her gun (It's also slightly shivering from the cold). He can see her pulling a few strands of hair sticking out of her hat, loading it, and then…
A loud gunshot echoed throughout the night sky, followed by a bright streak of pink flying across the cityscape, heading towards Stain and impacting a meter to his left, denting the concrete and instantly stopping his speech.
And then there's silence, all until a spotlight is suddenly shown where Nagant is. Said spotlight is not part of the plan and seems to be just a random civilian using a 'Spotlight' Quirk, or so he thinks it is judging from the fact that the light is not coming from any source at all, and just from thin air. And now while it might be illegal public Quirk use, but Hawks decided to just give it a pass. After all, it's getting his plans to proceed better, and now everyone's cheering on Nagant, who just stayed still on a sniping position as she fired yet another shot. It's almost absurd how popular she is and stealing all the attention when literally the Sky Egg is threatening to fall over just some distance away…
'Now that I think of it, they're literally exposing the location of the sniper… but oh well-'
Nagant, staying still amidst the cheering people below her, suddenly grabbed hold of her ushanka and (stylishly) pulled it off, swaying her head along the way like she's acting for a shampoo commercial. She looked utterly silly doing it, at least for Hawks that is. But for the people below, however, they're apparently overwhelmed by it, like a goddess has graced them by her mere presence.
And now they're cheering further and taking more pictures… all while the Sky Egg is still threatening to fall over.
'Japan these days…'
Hawks could only shrug once more. Nagant's popularity is just really that absurd. It's even more absurd when one realizes that she's doing it all while just being barely seen by the general public! It's truly insane. But then again, it's just how things are, and if anything he's very glad for it. Now this little event will soon surely be all over the news and his father's very much guaranteed to see it soon. 'He's gonna be so proud of me,' he thought, completely ignoring the fact that he just haphazardly arranged the entire fake scenario and didn't really even do a proper rehearsal for those involved. But still, his plans went well, and that's more than enough for him-
A brilliant thought suddenly popped into his head. Theoretically speaking, this 'performance' could potentially impress his father so much that he'll probably now listen to him better once he voices his Yamato -related concerns again on their next meeting… and maybe he'll finally stop Yamato once and for all…
…
Hawks just brushed the thought off. It's too far-fetched and highly unlikely… although he's hoping it's possible…
Either way, he still has some things to do.
Pulling up his phone once more, he spoke into it, "Stain? Show's over. Get to Kizuki. Yoroi Musha will be dealt with by the time you're there. I'll just defeat you later." After receiving a simple thumbs-up response, he saw Stain immediately hop off of the spotlight and hastily ran off – portraying his retreat as some sort of pathetic surrender as Nagant kept shooting deliberately-missing potshots at him. 'Okay… now on to the next…' Hawks then mentally connected towards the bunch of feathers he left on the warehouse rooftop earlier, discreetly arranging them to float and plaster themselves directly on the back part of Yoroi Musha's armor without him even noticing, before shoving the hero with maximum force and crashing his face onto the roof to instantly knock him out. Hawks made sure the shove is strong enough to trigger Backforce, and therefore just resulted in minor scratches.
And now with the objective complete, he then waited, only for a short while until he received a message from Stain. "I'm taking Miss Kizuki now."
"Alright. Good luck on the delivery, I hope the Butcher accepts our little offering." Hawks sent a message back. "Oh and by the way, do try to be back as quick as you can so we can finish the fake scenario." He added.
"I don't think I can come back that fast. Why not just defeat me now anyways?"
"I'd rather drag the 'battle' to milk in more publicity points for my assembled crew. But if you really can't come back quick enough then that's fine. I guess we can just have it like you escaped, only to be caught later." Hawks shrugged as he sent the message, in which it's quickly replied with a simple thumbs-up emoji. But either way, return or not, the point is that the main goal is done. Mission success. Pathetic blue terrorist 'Anomaly' is now out of the picture.
Now to continue the rest of the Tokyo Sky Egg incident…
Stain drove on, stepping on the gas further, his speedometer going higher and higher. He has to make this quick, and he's got no time to waste. Luckily, the road is relatively empty at this hour, making the drive smoother and with less random stops (whether by stoplight or other vehicles blocking the way) – very crucial especially with his fragile cargo tied in the backseat.
He eventually reached a crossroad. Turning left would lead to an expressway which, in turn, would eventually lead to Naruhata.
Stain instead turned right, before parking at a nearby empty lot. Quickly taking off his Hero Killer attire and putting on casual clothing, he then went outside and carefully checked the vehicle in case there are any red feathers placed about. Finding none, he quickly went back in, and after one glance at his (Bloodcurdled) unconscious passenger, resumed driving onwards.
He's not going to Naruhata, nor even intended to go there in the first place.
The Butcher? He never truly existed. It was all just a ploy.
He has other plans in mind.