BOSTON
Vlad King, soaking wet, covered in grime from the bottom of Boston's harbor, and wincing every time the salmon stuck in his hair slapped him in the face, hefted an oaken chest, inexplicably clean and dry despite where it had sat for the past four-hundred years, onto Nezu's desk.
"According to the manifest, that's the last chest," Sekijiro said.
"Excellent! I can finally rectify the greatest crime against tea ever committed." Nezu gave the chest a fond pat. "It's too bad that it all spoiled centuries ago."
Trembling with the effort not to scream in rage, Vlad King asked, "Am I done?"
"Have you learned your lesson?"
With a sigh, Vlad King said, "I will rely on my own merits instead of U.A.'s funds in my quest to prove my class better than Aizawa's."
"Close enough. You may leave now."
Nezu waited until Vlad King left. Scurrying across the room, Nezu slid ten deadbolts into place over the door, pulled metal shutters over his windows, and hit a button to turn his office into a lead-lined bunker. Secure with his prize, Nezu reverently lifted the lid, scooped out the dried leaves, and gave them a delicate sniff.
"At long last, I have found the greatest tea in the world. I've been saving a pot just for you."
Passing five separate locks, three voice commands, and a retinal scan, Nezu retrieved a jade teapot from the Xia dynasty. Minutes later, he had the tea steeping and ready to drink. Pouring into a jade cup, a matching set with the pot, Nezu gave the tea a minute to cool as he basked in its fragrance.
As Nezu raised the cup to his lips, a feather quill shot through the air and embedded itself in his desk. Out of the shadows, a robed and masked figure stepped out.
"That tea was not meant for mortal lips."
"The Freemasons," Nezu drawled. "I should have guessed. I suppose that the Tea Party was your doing?"
Another pair of Freemasons joined the first. "The British had thought to use it to cement their hold on the new continent. We could not allow that to happen."
"You have my gratitude for saving all the tea for me. I'll remember your sacrifice as I savor it."
Four more Freemasons loomed behind Nezu. "You have nowhere to run. Surrender the tea, and you shall not be harmed."
Nezu chuckled. "I'm afraid you're mistaken. I'm not stuck in here with you." Claws extending, Nezu said, "You're stuck in here with me."
One Epic Fight Scene Later…
"You… you cannot…" the last Freemason gurgled as blood ran down his chin. Nezu pulled the teaspoon out of his throat and wiped it on the dead Mason's robes.
"Now that that's done, time for some tea!"
The tea held a perfect temperature and sat undisturbed in the center of Nezu's trashed and bloodstained room. Nezu smiled, raised it to his lips, and drank.
His smile vanished.
"It really had spoiled. Pity."
498