A/N: Ladies and gents, I bid you welcome to the early beginnings of the War against the Paranormal Liberation Front. If you are a reader unfamiliar with the timeline of Your Hero Academia, there will be a list of required reading down below, as this story will not make much sense without proper context.

That said, I do hope that all who come upon this story come to enjoy reading as much as I have enjoyed writing it! If you also happen to like the cover art for this story, then please do give me a follow on Instagram at: the_red_swordsman

Prior Stories

Your Hero Academia: Evolution

Your Hero Academia: Survival

Your Hero Academia: Unveiling

Your Hero Academia: Ispeity

Your Hero Academia: Renewal

Your Hero Academia: Unleashed

If you have caught up on all the pieces of the Guardian Hero's story, then I bid you welcome to what just might end up being the darkest arc of the series...
Enjoy!

Peerless

"I need a favor."

"I had a feeling that this was coming."

Kurai raised an eyebrow at Iida as he held his hand out for the wrench he had requested, which the taller boy surrendered without taking his eyes off of the textbook in his other hand. Seeing that his friend was disinclined to giving his full attention, he sighed before aligning the wrench on the appropriate bolt and saying, "Look, I know I'm probably gonna have to argue a pretty solid case here, but I'd appreciate it if we could both just get to the part where we make an agreement and shake on it."

The two of them were in a garage where the teachers kept their vehicles, for those who had them. All Might had generously allowed Kurai to keep his motorcycle in what would have been his spot, as he did not own a car, himself. The white-haired boy had asked his old friend along to help him perform maintenance on his bike, as it had not been serviced since before the events on Nabu Island. It had been no small surprise for Kurai to find out that the bike had survived the cataclysmic storm created by Nine, which had damaged so many other things beyond hope of repair. All things considered, the damage that had been sustained was pretty light, and easily fixable for someone with his level of experience.

Given the level of sentiments attached to the vehicle, Kurai felt it nothing short of a miracle that not only had the bike survived the storm, but that it had been brought back with the other students during his stint in the afterlife. Apparently the original plan had been to gift it to Shukin, seeing as it had been his father's before Kurai came to own it, but following the hero's resurrection, his cousin had immediately abandoned any claim to it. He had said that it was a welcome-back gift for his relative, but everyone in the family knew that it was probably more to do with the fact that Shukin was terrified of riding motorcycles.

Normally, Kurai would do these repairs with Akarui, but seeing as the other boy had work to do today, he had asked the class representative to accompany him, as he was at least familiar with the tools that he would be utilizing for his project, even if he didn't know exactly how they worked. He had been as helpful as he could be thus far, which Kurai took to mean that the other boy was possibly in a good enough mood for him to at least consider granting him a favor.

Iida now turned a page before he answered the other boy's inquiry with the words, "The outcome may depend on your initial presentation."

Kurai scowled before levering a stubborn nut while he muttered, "Do you know what I'm going to ask for?"

"Perhaps, but I won't know for certain until you've actually asked."

"Okay, fine? You want me to spell it out?" the former cyborg grumbled as he set aside the freed screw, torn hose, and wrench. Looking up directly at Iida from where he was crouched, he said, "Mina needs a new work study because Musha didn't appreciate being left out of the loop when it came to her going to Klayd with me and the others. She hasn't had any luck getting in with another agency since seasonal hiring has already gone through, and Gran Torino won't take her on. He says it's because he can barely afford Eri and I, but he's not even really paying us. Pretty sure he's just being crabby about the whole thing."

"And what do you think I can do about it?" Iida replied as he finally looked up from his chosen study material.

"I think that if I ask Tensei to take her on for a work study, he's gonna ask his brother, the class representative, what he thinks of his surprise applicant," Kurai deadpanned. "Will you put in a good word for her?"

Iida stared at his friend for a few moments in silence before he straightened his glasses and said, "I told you that dating a classmate could lead to consequences for both of you."

"Considering she helped me to save the world, I was hoping that you might consider her involvement in the preservation of my sanity as a pro, not a con," his friend replied while maintaining his flat look, even as he picked up a new hosepipe that he had previously set aside on the ground. "Look, you don't have to tell me that our relationship has definitely had its drawbacks, but even you can't argue that it's done me a lot more good than harm. If there's a point you really want to make, please just make it so I can move on and figure out what else I can do to help my girlfriend after she risked her career to help me regain my sanity."

"I know what she risked for you," Iida replied calmly. "More importantly, I know what she risked during the battle against Humarise."

At this, Kurai's deadpan expression turned into one of confusion. "Wait, what's that mean?" he inquired. "I'm assuming that you mean something beyond the obvious risking of life and limb."

"I know that she let you go so that you, Midoriya, and Eri could fight Flect Turn," his friend explained. "She acted as a hero when she was needed, even though she could have easily chosen to act selfishly and stay by you. She showed a level of commitment to her duty not often seen among those in heroics who are romantically involved with a peer."

"Wait…" Kurai said as his eyes narrowed slightly at Iida. "It sounds like you actually approve of her actions?"

"While I can't condone her disregard for her mentor's orders to remain on standby, it should be noted that she didn't explicitly break any rules when she did," the class representative shrugged. "It seems like something Tensei would have done, were he in her shoes."

"So does that mean-?"

"I spoke to my brother yesterday regarding Ashido's situation," Iida said to cut him off as he set aside his textbook. "Many hero agencies have undergone reassignment and staff overhauls following the events of the Ideotrigger Bomb threats, so it's not as though she's the only misplaced student hero out there. She and I are both scheduled for an interview with him the day after tomorrow."

"Both of you?" Kurai asked, his expression now one of great surprise. "But-? Weren't you doing well with Manual's agency?"

"As I said, a number of agencies have undergone staff changes due to the reassignment of heroes to different regions in the last month," his friend answered quickly. "Manual cannot afford to keep me on for a work study after he was relocated to a different district- moving expenses and the like put a dent on his agency's finances."

"That sucks," the white-haired boy said with another frown. "He sounds like a good hero, to hear you tell of it."

"He is," Iida nodded quickly. "Unfortunately, this problem has hit a fair number of smaller agencies, though the majority of our classmates' mentors have remained unaffected, being higher up in the billboard charts, and therefore being able to afford such changes more expediently. The Iida Family Agency- in spite of my brother's absence- has been able to hold out well with its finances so that Tensei was able to return to a well-functioning workplace."

"One that can afford two new work studies out of nowhere?" Kurai asked with a slight grin as it began to sink in for him that Mina hadn't just tanked her early hero career for him.

"Three, if you were so inclined," Iida informed him with a raised eyebrow of his own. "Tensei told me to inform you that there is a room at the agency for the both of us, if you want it."

"Like we always talked about, huh?" Kurai mused as he remembered the days of their childhood gone by. In spite of the sudden rush of nostalgia, he already knew his answer. "That's a very tempting offer, but I think it'd be better for Eri and I to stick with Gran Torino for the time being."

Iida nodded quickly, as if he had expected the answer, before he told him, "I understand. The two of you need the best training you can get to master One For All before the war begins- your known agency affiliations can wait until after we make sure that Eri's future does not come to pass."

"Bingo," his friend grinned as he moved to fit the new hose into its proper placing. "If I can't get in with Gang Orca again when sophomore year kicks in, I'll definitely take Tensei up on his offer."

"I'm sure he'll be flattered to hear you say so," Iida said with a slight roll of his eyes.

"Oh please, it's not like he doesn't know my top pick." The two of them shared in a quiet chuckle before Kurai leaned back to look at his friend and add, "Thanks for looking out for Mina like that. It means a lot to me."

"I know what she means to you," the other boy said with a continued smile. "Whatever is important to you is also important to me. Also, as her class representative, it's my duty to do what I can in order to help her succeed as a hero."

"It's always gotta come back to you just doing your job, doesn't it?" the resurrected boy snickered, prompting another small laugh from his friend. "Whatever your motivations are, you have my thanks."

"You are welcome, Kurai."

"Your design is asinine."

"It's beautiful in its intricacy!"

"No, it's an overly complicated disaster waiting to happen!" Akarui jabbed a stiff finger at the schematics that Hatsume had just unrolled on her desk in the support lab while going on to say, "If you think that's going to hold up to a charge of even one million volts- forget a potential teravolt- you're just asking to set your work bench on fire!"

"I've reinforced the circuits with sydrate dampeners!" she argued back as she smacked his hand away. "That'll keep the excess electricity from affecting the rest of the system!"

"No, it's gonna give you a suit that functions at less than half of its potential!" With a series of brisk, angry movements, Akarui yanked out one of the textbooks from a pile at the girl's desk and immediately started searching the back half of the book until he found what he was looking for. "Here!" Giving the book a shove that knocked it into Hatsume's hip, he muttered, "If you're going the intracranial route, your conduits should be made with gallium, not… whatever mess this thing is!" So saying, he made a disgusted gesture at the proposed schematics, which led Hatsume to scowl back at him.

"Hey guys, sorry to interrupt whatever you've got going on, but when can I expect my costume's repairs to be-?"

"Butt out!" Hatsume and Akarui shouted at a startled Kaminari, who recoiled from the force of their volume.

"Alright, sheesh!" he grumbled as he made a point of distancing himself from the squabbling pair. "Man, I thought flirting was only supposed to be high-risk for the two people going at it, not the sideliners…" Clank! "Ow, hey!"

"I don't know which of Mina's idiotic movies put that idea in that puerile head of yours', but kill it before I do it for you!" Akarui demanded as he reached for another one of Hatsume's lightweight failed projects. "You couldn't get me to go on a date with this girl even if it got me a chance to intern with Doctor Banner!"

"Yeah, I wouldn't go on a date with this kid to cure cancer!" Hatsume added, which got both boys to look at her incredulously.

"Damn man, I think Todoroki's gonna have to treat you for that burn," Kaminari said with something like sympathy.

"You wouldn't-? Not even to cure cancer?!" Akarui demanded, Kaminari already forgotten. "You do know what that is, right?"

"Yeah, a disease caused by an uncontrolled division of abnormal cells in a part or parts of the body," Hatsume shot back, looking at the younger boy like he'd lost his mind. "Weren't you supposed to be a doctor or something? Shouldn't you know that?"

"I'm not a-! Wait, you're a techie, why did you know that so fast?!"

"Because I read up on how early hero costumes had a tendency to generate iridium, which led to an almost-mass breakout of cancer in the first generation of Middle-East heroes," she responded while maintaining her own look of incredulity. "Duh."

"Did you just-?!"

"Hey, pipsqueak." A familiar drawling voice cut off Akarui before he could really tear Hatsume a new one, leading the boy to look over to the exit and see Crow leaning against the doorframe, looking as though he'd been used as a pit bull's chew toy. "Nezu and I gotta talk to you, now."

"Uh, you need to go see Recovery Girl," Akarui said once he managed to shake himself free of his surprise at seeing the man so disheveled. "What the hell happened to you?"

"That's part of what we need to talk about," the man grunted as he heaved himself away from the wall, leaving a couple of bloodstains on the frame as he did, which Kaminari cringed at. "Come on, I'll fill you in once we get to the mouse's office."

"You-! I'm not-! Agh!" Akarui swung a glare toward Hatsume and grumbled, "Have someone from the faculty clean this guy's mess up, yeah? I'm gonna go make sure that he doesn't die of blood loss on the way to the principal's office."

"Fine, but I'm gonna start drawing up the specs for those skin graft circuits we were discussing during lunch while you're out."

"No, you will not! If I let you do that, it'll be-!"

"Hey kid, stop making out with your girlfriend already!" Crow called from up the hall. "You two sound like my sister and brother-in-law!"

"She's not my-! Ah, forget it!" Akarui snarled as he grabbed a first-aid kit from the appropriate station and ran after the older man. "Seriously, just because my brother's into the pink hair, doesn't mean it's the same with that grease monkey back there!"

"No one cares what you think, short stack."

"I hope one of those cuts gets infected with gangrene!"

As the arguing voices receded up the hall, Kaminari took the moment to turn toward Hatsume and ask, "So about my targeting system repair…?"

"Why settle for a quick fix when we can do so much more?!" She grinned excitedly as a dangerous gleam entered her eyes. "I've got so many babies that we can try for you!"

"Ah, crap, I was afraid of this!"

"Will you just sit still and let me bandage this?!" Akarui demanded as he tried to pull Crow back down to the chair that he had briefly occupied in Nezu's office. Also in said room was the animal himself, Taiyang, All Might, and Detective Tsukauchi.

"Don't worry about it, it doesn't even hurt anymore," the hero said breezily.

"That's because you're drunk, Crow," Taiyang grumbled before he snatched his brother-in-law's flask away from his hip. "Let the kid do his job so you can tell us why you look like junior year internships all over again."

"You swore you'd never bring that up again."

"And you swore you'd stop drinking on the job, but here we are."

"Gentlemen, please," Nezu interjected before any real arguing could begin. "Crow, I notice that you have elected not to visit Recovery Girl so that she can heal you, which is your choice, of course. All the same, I don't much like bloodstains on my carpet, so I would take it as a personal favor if you were to get back in the chair and let Hikari exercise his medical license while you give us a summary of what happened throughout the course of your investigation."

"Fine, if it makes his majesty happy," Crow grumbled before he sank back into the chair and propped his leg up on the coffee table, which the others would have called rude if Akarui didn't immediately move to inspect a pair of slash marks that ran down the inside of his calf.

"Did you get into a fight with a tiger?" the boy asked as he shook his head with something like disapproval.

"Not this time," Crow grinned in a way that told Akarui he probably didn't want to know the rest of that particular story. "This week's trip got me enough fighting to last me the next ten years- something your students are gonna be saying, come spring."

The adults and Akarui shared a worried look before All Might was the one to ask, "What did you find in Deika City?"

"A wasteland," Crow replied with a shake of his head. "There's nothing there that's worth rebuilding after the League and the Meta Liberation Army went at it."

"Were you able to ascertain whether or not the two parties have joined forces, as they did in Miss Eri's future?" Nezu inquired. Following the narrative given to them by their ally from times yet to come, he had asked Crow to investigate the area where she claimed that the League and Meta Liberation Army had first joined forces. This was mostly in aid of trying to determine how much Eri's actions had affected the present, but the little animal also knew that it wouldn't hurt for them to have some first-hand intelligence for themselves.

"Looks that way," the gruff hero nodded, his tone becoming more somber as he did. "According to the crowd I managed to work my way into, Shigaraki's goons put up a pretty good fight, but the man himself was responsible for the entire city turning into dust. Even if he wasn't about to get his hands on All For One, he's more dangerous than we ever would have expected without an advance warning."

"What is the organization doing now?" Tsukauchi asked as he folded his hands in front of him. "Were you able to gain enough information to help us organize a preemptive strike?"

"You're gonna wanna listen to the whole story before I answer that, Detective," Crow drawled. "Turns out that this 'Paranormal Liberation Front' isn't the only thing that you UA guys are gonna have a bone to pick with." Pausing briefly while Akarui started treating his wounds with disinfectants, he then grunted out, "The Front won't be making any hostile moves until Shigaraki's up and about, that I know. They know that Kai could tear most of them apart with his bare hands after they all saw what he did in Kanto, and most of 'em aren't exactly the kind who're determined to die for their cause. They want to reshape society, but they'd like to be alive to see that happen. They know that their best bet for countering Kai and anyone else like him is to have Shigaraki ready to fight."

"Don't they already have pro heroes in their ranks?" Akarui asked as he started to bind the leg wounds that he had dressed. "They have to know that there are laws that prevent heroes from engaging in a mass slaughter like the one they seem to be expecting. Them being afraid of my brother- on that scale- when they have 100,000 fighters on their side doesn't make any sense. Kurai is stupid powerful, yeah, but he'd hold back against even that number until he was backed into a corner."

"I'm not so sure," Crow muttered, holding up his hands in a surrendering gesture when Akarui glared at him. "Hey, simmer down. I'm not saying that to imply that your brother's trigger-happy. Like I said, there's more going on than just with the Front." Turning to the teachers in the room, he then added, "You guys better brace yourselves, because you're really gonna hate the last piece of Intel that I managed to get ahold of before I had to scram."

"Will you stop beating around the bush and just tell us what's happening?" Taiyang growled impatiently.

"Easy, Tai," Crow replied in a warning tone that actually managed to take the other man aback for a moment. "You're not gonna like this, either."

"What's worse than Tomura Shigaraki becoming powerful enough to level a city before getting ahold of his master's quirk?" All Might wondered aloud, his face pensive.

"The Front has a few political players among their numbers, so I decided to try and pursue some leads on that end," Crow answered. "I figured the more of the key figures we could take down before they make their move, the better for our side, right?"

"Destabilizing their chain of command is an expedient move, given our limited resources and the fact that if we told anyone in the government about this, they'd think we were crazy people," Akarui commented as he moved to inspect what appeared to be a stab wound in Crow's left arm, which had been roughly bound something like two days beforehand.

"I wouldn't be worried about their opinion of you, anymore," Crow grunted as the boy started to undress the old bandage.

"Come again?"

"Did it occur to any of you how weird it was that your country deployed so many heroes around the world in response to the Humarise attack in Kanto?" Crow asked in response. When no one answered him immediately, he went on to say, "You guys have a lot of good heroes, sure, but a lot of the countries that you were deployed to also have a solid hero population. I can understand sending aid to places like Otheon or Taiwan, but you had Hawks out in America, and Ryukyu somewhere in Europe? Where was the sense in that, especially considering when your agencies were supposed to be doubling down on finding the local Humarise cells after the bombing?"

"I pointed that out to one of the Alliance agents who was coordinating between me and a few other scientists, but I pretty much got told to shut up and keep working on an anti-Trigger compound," Akarui muttered. "Seemed to me like the heroes were leaving our country light on defenses and manpower. I mean, look at what happened in Tokyo- the place was still a madhouse, even almost a full day after the bombs had been confirmed as deactivated."

"Evidently, there's a reason for that," Crow said before he pulled what looked like a flash drive out of his pocket. "This is why I got jumped- not by the Front or any two-bit criminals, either."

"Wait, what?" Taiyang asked, looking even more worried now. "Crow, what'd you get into?"

"Some shady-looking heroes who hang around one of the Hero's Public Safety Commission leaders caught me retrieving the data on this drive," the other American answered with a shrug as Akarui took the device from him with a curious look in his eye. "I planted a bug in the offices of three of those guys after I realized that the Meta Liberation Army had supporters pretty high up the chain. Good thing, too."

"You spied on the Safety Commission?!" Tsukauchi sputtered. "You didn't have a warrant for that, nor were you given permission by a government official of any sort! I should be arresting you right now!"

"Good luck with that," Crow snickered, causing Taiyang to introduce his palm to his face.

"That's not funny, Crow."

"It's kinda funny."

"What about this is humorous?!" All Might demanded with a bit of anger.

"They're referring to Mister Branwen's quirk, if I'm not mistaken," Akarui interrupted before the adults could start a shouting match. For once, this got even Crow to shut up and look at the boy with surprised eyes, which led to Akarui raising an eyebrow and setting aside the flash drive as he said, "Correct me if I'm wrong, but your quirk negatively affects the quantum entanglements of those in the close-to-mid-range vicinity, right?"

"Huh." When Crow refused to give a real answer, Tsukauchi and All Might looked to Nezu for answers, who sighed with no small amount of exasperation.

"He's essentially saying that Mister Branwen's quirk brings bad luck to people who are around him," he explained. "I had suspected as much myself, but his reaction seems to confirm it."

"How the hell'd you figure that out, kid?" Taiyang asked as Akarui went back to cleaning Crow's wounds, who was now wearing a stony mask of silence. "No one outside of our old hero team and Professor Ozpin know what his quirk does."

"Because I'm smarter than pretty much everybody in this country, except for maybe him," Akarui answered as he jerked a thumb over his shoulder to indicate the principal. "Your 'inside' jokes about luck were a big clue, but I mostly drew the conclusion from your explanations concerning his high-profile targets in the past, as well as his tendency to not spend much time around his family, despite the fact that he clearly cares for you guys."

"What do his previous targets have to do with you figuring out his quirk?" Taiyang asked, still looking baffled.

"Simply that none of the apparent slip-ups that led to their arrests and public ridicule made any kind of sense," the boy replied with another shrug. "I researched all of them, trying to figure out how Crow was taking them down each time, but the only link between him and they seemed to be a series of incidents involving plain bad luck."

"…When do you even have time to read up on-?"

"In any case, 'how' he found is not nearly as important as 'what' he found," Akarui said to interrupt Taiyang. "I doubt Mister Branwen's the type to abandon a mission midway, even if his cover was blown. Give me a minute to finish making sure that he won't die of blood loss, and then we'll see what's on that drive. In the meantime, I think we'd all appreciate a sneak preview of what we're going to find on said drive." So saying, he gave Crow a meaningful look, who stirred uncomfortably in his seat.

"The Safety Commission is under the control of a new player," he muttered, seemingly dejected. "They're not with the government, and as far as I can tell, they're not a member of either the League or the Meta Liberation movement, though they seem to have similar anarchistic ideals."

"You mean there's another faction out there who's about to start gunning for us?!" Taiyang yelped.

"Not a faction," his comrade corrected him quickly. "I'm pretty sure that this is one person, either acting alone or with very minimal help that probably doesn't even realize who they're working for."

"One person has the Safety Commission under their thumb?" Akarui asked dubiously. "Setting aside the absurdity of that idea for a moment… There's no way this person's working alone. One person couldn't maneuver a group of people that influential on their own."

"You sure about that, short stack?" Crow asked with a raised eyebrow of his own.

In response, Akarui gave him another flat look before he yanked on one of the bindings he had been setting up, causing his patient to let out a short bark of pain. "If it was one person, they'd have to be at least half as smart as me," the boy said as he finished tying the bandage in place. "No one in Japan other than Nezu and I is old enough and has a quirk that makes them smart enough to pull off what Mister Branwen is talking about, trust me on that."

"What makes you so confident about that?" All Might asked him with a frown.

"I like to keep an eye out for potential competition through talent shows and local news' articles," Akarui replied with a slight grin. "There are a few kids out there who show potential, but no one with the resources- or maturity- to browbeat higher-ups like the HPSC."

"Says the only kid in the room," Tsukauchi muttered.

"Yes, says the only kid in the country- probably the world- who is smart enough to design a neck brace that interfaces with a person's neural system and then use programmable matter to rewrite said pathways so that the use of their quirk doesn't overwork their frontal cortex to the point of death by cerebral hemorrhaging," Akarui countered.

"So we've heard," All Might sighed. "Several times."

"Look, I'm smart, and I'm not ashamed of that fact," the boy grumbled as he stepped away from Crow, having treated most of his wounds by now. "I will also not apologize for being as confident in my abilities as my brother has become with his. If anything, my confidence should be more warranted, seeing as I was born with and have used it effectively throughout my entire life."

"Your brother wields the power of ten heroes, and has their collective experience guiding him in his path," Nezu pointed out. "Your quirk is very impressive, no one can doubt that. However, I would caution you from assuming that it grants you a victory simply because you have the ambition to use it, and have not conceded a loss to anyone else in the same field as you."

"Wait, you think that I just assume that I'm going to win any fight that I pick?" Akarui demanded, looking insulted. "Come on, I'm not that arrogant. Eri's telling of the future was enough to tell me that. My plan didn't succeed during that last battle, remember? Of course I know I'm not enough to win the fight. I do, however, know that there is no one smarter than me, not only because of my own findings, but because Shigaraki admitted to my future self that it was because he had multiple enhancement quirks working in his mind that he was even able to stand on equal footing with me when it comes to intelligence."

The others in the room all exchanged what could almost be called uncomfortable looks at this statement. Strictly speaking, Shigaraki had not been comparing their respective IQ's when he had confronted Akarui in the future, but he had certainly alluded to that much, not to mention that Eri had told them about his habit of taking quirks that only served to make him smarter in his bid for world domination. Nothing that Akarui had said was incorrect, which was making it more frustrating for them as they tried to come up with counterpoints that might help curb what was growing to be a potential ego problem.

Ignoring these looks, Akarui then grabbed up the flash drive that Crow had brought back and strode toward his laptop, which was sitting opposite to his patient. "Alright, we've wasted enough time on arguing, let's see what our little birdie has to say," he said as he booted up the device and slid the drive into the appropriate slot.

"Hey, I still haven't decided whether or not I'm cuffing Branwen," Tsukauchi tried to protest, but he was instantly waved off by Akarui.

"If you were gonna arrest him, you'd have already tried to do it by now," the boy said as he went to open the files on the now-active drive. "The only real issue will be is if this guy tries to press charges, in which case, you might want to hop on the next plane out of Japan."

He directed the last words to Crow, who was already shaking his head in the negative. "I doubt that's gonna be a problem," he said, which drew everyone's attention back to him. "Kinda hard to press charges against somebody when you're dead."

"Wait, dea-?! Did you kill the guy?!" All Might demanded.

"No!" Crow snapped, looking irritated. "Though the guys who chased me off this morning probably think that I did. Just have a listen to the files on that drive, and then you'll see why else I had to hightail it back here as soon as I could."

"Is there one in particular you want me to play first?" Akarui asked, having noticed that the files were all labeled by timestamp. "I'm gonna assume that it'll also explain the dead guy that'll undoubtedly be making tonight's news?"

"The last one is really the only one you'll all need to hear, but the rest should be good for evidence, should we decide to use it," the grizzled hero answered. "I almost didn't get these because I was so busy listening to the file while it downloaded that I didn't notice I had been discovered by this guy's security. Also, I doubt that this guy's death is going to be made public anytime soon."

"Your quirk can backfire on you, huh?" Akarui asked curiously, causing Crow's face to fall flat again. "Bummer- I know how that goes."

"I thought you already knew everything, pipsqueak."

"I don't know everything," the boy snorted as he scrolled through the list of data. "But I can accurately surmise most of the things that I don't know. Here's the file."

He hit a button, and the room fell silent as voices began to play from the computer. "Everything is in place," said a man's voice.

"That's Yuto Hisaki," Tsukauchi said with a frown, having recognized the voice. Akarui paused the audio long enough for him to add, "Never would've suspected him of being a sellout."

"Why's that?" Taiyang asked curiously.

"He's always been one of the people on the Commission who encouraged a firmer hand from the heroes at large," the detective explained. "Him siding with an anarchist is from very far out of left field."

"I wouldn't exactly use the words 'siding with' here," Crow deadpanned. "Keep playing the audio, kid."

Another push of the button led to Hisaki's voice saying, "The proposition went through, just as you said it would. I take it you had an active hand in the majority vote that occurred?"

"That would be telling, and I only tell you what you need to know, lawman." The second voice that came through had clearly been put through a synthesizer that made it barely understandable. The pitch of the voice and intonations of each word also changed rapidly, making it impossible to tell anything about the speaker on the other end. "All you need to know for now is that your deep, dark wish is about to come to light."

"I never dreamed of turning children into human weapons," Hisaki snapped, which made everyone in Nezu's office but Crow stiffen with alarm. "The adults should know better than to think that war will be anything less than a hideous business, but the next generation should not have to atone for our ineptitude! Now that the order has been met with a majority vote in favor of its passing, the word will be out within the week, and then we're going to have the New Geneva Convention breathing down our necks!"

"As you said, war is an ugly business," the other speaker seemed to chuckle. "The coming battle is a result of the society you and your other Safety Commission members have helped to construct. Now, because of your lies and manipulations, not only will you watch that thin veneer of supposed safety crumble to pieces, you will also watch as children are forced to fight your battle for you. But it's only fair- when war is declared, all soldiers are expected to follow orders, no?"

"What the hell are these two talking about?" Taiyang asked Crow, even as Akarui paused the audio again.

"To save us some time, I'll just say that in some of the earlier files, you'll find discussions between this person and other members of the board concerning a directive that would label the Meta Liberation Army as a hostile terrorist group," the man answered heavily. "In that same directive, it was proposed that all heroes would be given authority to deal with any member of their organization as they would an invader from another country. That's the vote that they were discussing just now- the one that passed into effect."

"An invader?" Akarui repeated, his face going pale. "You don't mean-?"

"In the event of an invasion from another nation, heroes are expected to serve as elite soldiers, all with the same mission as the armed forces they fight alongside," All Might said shakily.

"Driving out the invaders with any means that they have at their personal disposal," Nezu whispered. "In other words, they would be authorized- almost expected to- use their quirks to wipe out the hostile force threatening Japan. In this case…"

"The Meta Army," Crow nodded grimly. "The HPSC has officially decided to give every hero in your country the authority to decide whether or not their enemies live or die when they come to fight."

"Whoa, whoa," Taiyang said as he held his hands up with a nervous grin. "I understand you all getting nervous about this, but how does that translate into 'child soldiers'?"

"In the event of an emergency, heroes with provisional licenses are expected to respond to the presented situation, even if there are no official pros to give them orders," Akarui said hoarsely, his face nearly as white as his brother's hair. "In this scenario, if students have their provisional licenses…"

"They will be expected to fight alongside the pros in the battle with the Liberation Front," All Might finished for him, even as his face tightened with anger. "They expect our students to play the part of soldiers who must kill or be killed on their behalf?!" In a flash of rage, his body swelled up to its formerly heroic shape. "I'll have words for these false-faced pretenders!" In a burst of smoke, he deflated again, but the look of unadulterated rage remained.

"Oh, no way, forget that!" Taiyang said angrily as he turned on Nezu. "Sir, with all due respect, if this is true, then I'm gonna have to take my daughters and their friends home with us immediately. I'm sorry that this is happening, but I will not have them participating in a mass butchering!"

"Butchering?" Crow repeated calmly. "I think you're underestimating our enemy's capabilities. It's not like they don't have pro heroes in their ranks who'll put up a fight, forget the League of Villains' core members. I'm still more worried about our side being able to survive an army of over one hundred thousand strong."

"Most of those guys are idealists who don't know what it means to be in a battle!" Taiyang shouted angrily as he rounded on the other man. "They'll come at the heroes with their heads held high, because they think that they'll win because of their 'righteousness' or whatever crap they're spouting. What they're going to get is a bloodbath, because all of the people on our side are also going to believe that they are doing the right thing- except that they'll be much better trained and equipped for battle! Our kids will end up with blood on their hands, and I don't want that for them!"

"They already have blood on their hands." The quiet words from Akarui stopped Taiyang in place. Not wanting to give the man a chance to recover his verbal footing, the boy went on to remind them, "Team RWBY killed the Chimera villain on Nabu Island, remember? My brother also killed their leader when he had to."

"Are you trying to justify this?!"

"No!" the boy snarled as he shot to his feet, surprising the adults with the fire in his voice. "I'm not saying that this is okay! None of it is! Need I remind you that I already lost Kurai once to this kind of violence?! You think I want to risk that happening again?! But you don't see me standing there and acting like my brother's class is something fragile to be protected! They aren't little kids who can't stand for themselves!"

"You think you're the only one who's lost something to heroism and villains?!" Taiyang shot back. "Lemme give you some advice, kiddo. When you've had years to understand what that loss does to the people who are left behind, then maybe you'll understand why there is no way in hell that I am going to let my girls take part in a war where people are guaranteed to die!"

"Enough, Tai!" Crow shouted as he also got to his feet. "Everyone in this room is obviously going to do what they can to fight this. Try not to forget that Ruby and Yang aren't the only kids at stake in all of this. It's not even everyone in UA that we need to worry about. There's a whole country full of kids who're gonna be affected by this, if we don't all keep our heads on straight."

"I understand your concerns," Nezu said in his ever-calm tone as he regarded the two men from behind his desk. "If you believe that it is for the best that your country's students have no part in what is to come, I will not stop you from taking them home."

"Thank you," Taiyang said as he turned away from the others with a huff. "I'll tell them that-"

"Before you go, however," the little animal interrupted, "I would ask that perhaps you consider the feelings of your daughters and their classmates."

"What the hell does that mean?"

"As Mister Branwen said, we here will do everything in our power to have this fate turned away from our students," Nezu explained. "There is every chance that we will fail, and I know this. The issue you may find is in telling your charges that you are taking them home to safety, while the friends that they have come to know and love here are being left to their own devices. How do you think they will react to that?"

"I don't care," Taiyang said stubbornly. "I'm sorry, I really am, sir. But the safety of your students are not my priority. I came here to keep Second Amendment's students safe, and that's what I'm gonna do."

"Good luck convincing Ruby and Yang with that argument," Crow snorted, causing his partner to glare at him again.

"I don't have to argue," he snapped. "I'm their father, and the acting guardian for the other members of their teams. If I say we need to go, we need to go."

"They can't escape this aspect of our jobs forever, Tai. Sooner or later, they're gonna end up in a kill-or-be-killed situation again, and then what will they do? Run away so that someone else can die for them?"

"After what they watched my brother do for them, there's no way that they step aside so that someone else can take the hit in their place," Akarui said with a negative shake of his head.

"Gentlemen, if I may, I would suggest that we finish listening to the recording, as so we may continue our arguments more fully informed of what is going on," Nezu interrupted again. It was difficult to discern his expressions sometimes, due to his animalistic features, but Akarui thought that he looked a little desperate. "Clearly none of us are open to changing our minds at the present moment, so I suggest we alter the variables of this discussion."

"Nothing in that file is going to change my mind on this, but fine," Taiyang spat as he stepped away from Crow, who sank back into his chair. "I'm not interested in arguing, anyway."

When it became clear that everyone was going to wait without further quarrel for the moment, Akarui nodded and pressed 'play' on his keyboard again.

"Is this all some kind of game to you?!" Hisaki was now saying.

"No, if this was a game, I would be having fun," said the other voice. "I'm simply going to be providing a public service with this act of yours', as it were."

"And what would that be?!"

"Illumination." There was a brief pause before the garbled voice added, "For years, you and yours' have watched proudly from your ivory towers as your fragile peace flourished at the expense of those who held their doubts. You have this whole society thinking that they're safe in this light that you've constructed out of shadows. But with this, they will finally know who the real monsters are- the kinds of things that you've done without even blinking. Of course, now that someone has come along to improve upon your ideas-"

"We never pushed for mass murder by endangering the innocent, you sycophant!" Hisaki raged.

"I think Lady Nagant might have something to say to that," the other speaker retorted, which silenced the man immediately. "How many villains did you have her slaughter when you decided that it was simply easier for them to disappear? How many heroes who took things just a shade too far for the public to approve of it did you have her silence, in spite of her reservations? How many lives have to be extinguished in the name of a single goal before it's considered 'mass murder'?"

"Lady Nagant… was a mistake," Hisaki admitted. "By the time some of us realized what we were having her do was as despicable as the acts we condemned others for, we were all in too deep. But the people out there… the children aspiring to become heroes to all? They don't deserve to share in her hell."

"Pause." Akarui clicked the appropriate button and looked up at Taiyang, who then asked, "Who's this Lady Nagant person?"

"She was a pro hero who was imprisoned after being convicted of murdering another hero during an argument," Tsukauchi answered, looking shaken. "She was pretty popular, well-liked and admired by many, especially the younger crowd. Her arrest and condemnation were pretty shocking when they happened- no one had seen it coming."

"Sounds like there was more to it than a hero with a sniper rifle for an arm having a bad day," All Might muttered. "Seems like the HPSC had a hitman who couldn't stop questioning the validity of their targets. Now she's in Tartarus."

"That's correct," the detective nodded.

"Perfect place to muzzle somebody you don't wanna execute outright," Akarui pointed out, to which Nezu and All Might had to agree on. "No one's ever escaped, and the people in there hardly get visitation privileges. If you're even suspected of having committed a crime, you're not getting within ten miles of the place. No security leaks there, for sure. Even if she tried to protest her innocence and get out on an appeal by agreeing to turn testimony against her superiors, there's no one who's going to listen to her in there."

"Jeez, how many people are these guys planning to screw over to keep up their public image?!" Taiyang demanded of no one in particular.

"Maybe we'll find out if we keep listening," Akarui said before he hit the 'play' button again.

"Sticks and stones, lawman," the mysterious voice was now saying. "It's easy to apologize when someone else points out your wrongdoings, isn't it? I sincerely doubt you would have come to this conclusion on your own."

"What else do you want from me?" Hisaki growled, apparently attempting to change the subject. "You've got everything set in place for this war, after which, of course, no one is ever going to trust us again. Even if the heroes do win against the Meta Liberation Army that's massing, society will plunge into chaos during the aftermath."

"I have what I want, lawman," the other speaker answered. "I wanted the people of this country to know the truth about their so-called champions, and now they will. What they do with that knowledge is up to them. Our business is hereby concluded."

"Then this is the part where you kill me, I suppose," Hisaki scoffed. "This whole time, you've promised the safety of my wife and daughter, but you never said anything about me surviving. I'm not as stupid as you seem to think I am- my family is somewhere you'll never find them by now, so forget about trying to get any last-minute leverage over on me. I don't care enough about my own life to do your dirty work anymore, so you have nothing left that you can use against me."

There was an ugly silence that lasted long enough for those who were not looking at the computer screen to wonder if the file had just stopped there, but then the other speaker said, "You think very highly of yourself as a family man, don't you? You would do anything to keep them safe, wouldn't you? Even, say… smuggling them out of the country on the boat you built with your late son during his teenage years? The one that you never registered?"

"How did you-? Wait. No. No, don't do this!" Hisaki started to beg as he seemed to react to something that they could not see. "They haven't done anything to you!"

All Might and Tsukauchi covered their faces while Akarui shut his eyes. Nezu's ears flattened back against his head as Taiyang turned to Crow with a look of mute horror, though the other man refused to even look at him.

"Neither have you, but all of you have outlived your usefulness," the other voice now said. "Consider this your punishment for trying to outsmart me." There was a sound of an explosion coming through a TV screen, followed by a scream of agony, and then a much more visceral explosion that definitely did not originate from outside the man's office.

After another few seconds of silence, Akarui managed to whisper, "That's the end of the file."

"Crap on stick, Crow!" Taiyang shouted as he rounded on his partner again. "You couldn't have warned us that was coming?! There's a kid in the room!"

"I told you guys to brace yourselves at the start of this meeting."

"For the record, I've heard much more gruesome stories from police officers, but yeah, a more specific heads-up next time would be appreciated," Akarui said as he closed the file, his hands shaking slightly as he did. "Is there anything else in particular that we should be looking out for from this data, or-"

"Hello, UA and friends."

"Mother of Shenron!" Akarui yelped while practically leaping away from his spot on the couch as a familiar voice came from his computer. Both the voice and his reaction caused the adults in the room to tense up and look at the device with no small amount of fear.

"Is that the guy from the-?"

"Yep," Crow interrupted Tsukauchi as they began to encircle the computer while Akarui looked at it with wide eyes.

"This isn't a recording?!"

"Nope.

"I was hoping to have a chance to speak with some of you," the voice told them. "You in particular, Hikari."

At the sound of his name, the boy flinched anew, which led to Nezu approaching the computer while asking, "Who are you? And for how long have you been listening in on us?"

"Not long, don't you worry," the voice laughed. "Only since one of you plugged in your agent's recorded data, which contained a bug of my own that has allowed me to access this computer's audio system. As for who I am, we may get to that in due time."

"You blackmailed and then killed Yuto Hisaki," Tsukauchi said angrily. "Why? What do you stand to gain from all of this?"

"That would be telling, detective," the voice replied in what seemed to be a patronizing tone- the filter still made it difficult to discern what emotion they were conveying from moment to moment. "Now, if you don't mind, I'd like to speak with the people who can hold a conversation with me on somewhat equal footing."

"And what is it that you consider to be 'equal footing'?" All Might demanded.

"If you have to ask that question, you can consider yourself beneath me," the voice answered. "This is a different arena than the one you're used to, O exalted Symbol of Peace. Perhaps your dear old friend, Nighteye could have helped you, though we can all see that he failed to maintain good sense when it came down to the more crucial moments. Really, taking on Kai Chisaki with a clairvoyance quirk that can only activate in proximity to an opponent? For someone who bragged about how important it is to prepare for all possible contingencies, he didn't seem to have a very good understanding of the simple concept of irony."

"Ah, shit," Akarui muttered as he slowly started to sink back into the couch while All Might reddened with fury. "I think I know what he means by 'equal footing'."

"This is a very serious problem," Nezu nodded as if in agreement, while everyone else looked at one another with confusion, even Crow.

"Someone wanna clue in the rest of us?" the slightly tipsy man demanded.

"Think about it," Akarui replied as he sat down squarely in front of the computer and began to work on something that the others could not see. "What do Nezu and I have in common that the rest of you don't?"

It took less than a second for Tsukauchi to answer, "You both have… intelligence quirks… Oh, damn."

"What?" Taiyang asked.

"Whoever this guy is, he has an intelligence quirk," Tsukauchi explained. "Like Hikari and Nezu."

"How's that possible?" Crow now demanded as he scowled at Akarui. "Didn't we just sit through a lecture about how he's the smartest person to ever live, and there's no one out there like him, except for the mouse?"

"I am not a mouse," Nezu said without looking up while he watched the boy work at a furious pace. "But he does raise a good point. Whoever this person is, they've fallen outside of Hikari's search parameters."

"Fallen outside?" the voice replied, possibly in an incredulous- or perhaps still amused- manner. "I fell nowhere. I am precisely where I want to be."

"He's saying that he erased himself from everything," Akarui answered before anyone could ask what the intruder meant. "We won't find any record of his existence on the internet or government listings. He'll have been as thorough as possible."

"Why is that?" All Might inquired.

"Because if I were to overthrow the current government- like this guy seems to be doing- the first thing I would do would be to erase my tracks, starting from the beginning," Akarui muttered. "But even if I can't find out anything about who he was, I can still work something out about who he is."

"Not a bad guess, but you're wrong about my goals," the intruder replied. "I'm not an anarchist. I know well that society without structure is nothing but chaos where no one can achieve their full potential; they can only endure. For people to truly have the opportunity to thrive, there can be no room for a government that eats its own champions while maintaining the lie that all they do, they do for the greater good. No one is protected from harm through falsehoods- the damage is there whether the afflicted realize it or not. By the way, if you're trying to piggyback my signal to trace my location, you'll be looking down that rabbit trail for the next decade before you even have a clue as to where I am."

"Yeah, still worth a shot," Akarui grumbled before Nezu stepped in with an inquisitive look on his face. Seeing this, the boy scooted aside and said, "Please, have at it."

"Thank you."

"You won't catch me," the intruder told them.

"Do you have any idea how many villains have said that to me over the years, right before I caught them?" All Might shot back.

"You're not exactly capable of moving at the speed of sound anymore, All Might," their antagonist retorted.

"You've also never revealed yourself before, either," Akarui shot back over Nezu's shoulder. "You're obviously not new at this- you couldn't have set up a method to take down the Hero's Public Safety Commission overnight. If you've been smart enough to avoid being caught this whole time, you'd know that the best tool in your line of work is to never even let people know that you exist. Why reveal yourself now?"

"Ennui," the voice replied slowly, dragging out the word like it was being introduced to a secondary language learner.

"You're bored?" Akarui asked in disbelief.

"I'm sure you and Nezu can sympathize," they answered. "You too know what it's like to grow up in a world that just can't keep up with you."

"And what, you think that we can?"

"I think that I've got a bone to pick with your brother, Hikari," the voice answered, static riddling it just enough to distort the anger that was now bleeding into their tone. "And I think that I'm going to take it out on you."

This made Nezu pause for a split-second before he resumed working and asking, "What makes you think that we'll allow you to harm him or his brother?"

"Because you can't stop me," the voice replied ominously. "I'm curious to see how hard you will struggle and rage against the inevitable, but I know that you won't be able to stop me. Normally when I operate, no one knows that it's me tugging at the strings, so I rarely get to see the moment of comprehension when it dawns on my enemies how they were doomed from the beginning to fail. Don't you worry, though- I'm not going to harm Akarui here directly. Not yet, anyway."

"Then what are you gonna do to me?" the boy snorted. "And you're wrong. Whoever you are, you're not as smart as you think you are. I'll find you, and when I do, Kurai's gonna be the one to bring you in."

"I'm not wrong, I am that smart, and I'm going to make you suffer by rendering your intellect useless," their new enemy replied in kind. "In the coming days, you will say nothing to anyone outside of Hikari's class about what you've heard regarding the upcoming changes to the hero's code, or the deaths of the Hero Safety Commission members and their families will be on your heads."

"And we're supposed to believe that you'll follow through with that promise after what we just heard in that recording?" Taiyang demanded. "Those people are dead, anyway!"

"I thought you might say something along those lines," their antagonist replied. "This is how certain I am that you will do everything in your power to not let those families be blown to pieces: if you do snitch to the authorities, or take any of the American students off the game board, the bombs I've planted will go off, and when they do, the molecular compositions of all the devices, when arranged in the correct order, will spell out my name." They allowed for a brief moment of horrified silence to descend upon the office before they added, "Now you have a choice to make, heroes. Tell people the truth about the changes that are coming, and obtain the mastermind behind all of this… but also live with the fact that you've killed over two-dozen people to do so. Remember to bear in mind that if your friends from the States run away, I'll also make good on my threat."

"Wha-?! Why them?!" Taiyang demanded furiously. "Why should we be made to play your sick game?!"

"Because as I said, I want Hikari to suffer," their opponent said softly. "When the war comes, his friends will have what they imagine to be needless bloodshed on their hands, and it will eat away at them. In turn, it will cause the Guardian Hero to agonize over the fact that even with all of his amazing powers, he will be unable to protect that which he loves. This will be doubly so because no matter what you tell him, he will be of the opinion that they never needed to get involved in this country's war."

"I thought you said we couldn't tell anybody about this?" Tsukauchi cut in. "Contradicting yourself a little, aren't you?"

"Please, I know full well that each of you is a sad sack who needs to have affirmation from someone you love that you've done the right thing, or whatever junk you want to call it. I told you, I want Hikari's suffering, and his classmates having to bear this oh-so-terrible burden within his line of sight will weigh all the heavier on his fragile conscience, don't you think?"

"Holding hostages?" Akarui interrupted before anyone else could get a word in. "Very blasé of you. Here I was thinking that you'd be more creative in achieving your goals now that your first method has been exposed."

"Napoleon Bonaparte may have believed in variety as an assured method of victory, but I think even the dullards in your company remember how well that turned out, in the end," the voice replied simply. "If a method of execution is an assured success, why should I alter it? Until a fault that could result in failure is found in my methods, I think I would do well to continue on as I am."

"Really?" Akarui snorted again, even as Nezu continued to work at the computer. "Because I can think of one, glaring flaw in your plan."

"Don't insult me by saying it's that I never should have revealed myself to you," the voice replied instantly. "You are the one who has overestimated your intellect, Hikari, not I."

"No, you made your mistake by threatening my brother," Akarui answered as a strange gleam appeared in his eye. "I'm sure you know that he's one of the only things I have left in this world that I consider precious. You've threatened his well-being, and that never ends well for his antagonists. Even if you manage to beat me at whatever game you're planning- which you won't- you will never escape him, especially with the crew he's got backing him. You've had to step out of the shadows with this little stunt of yours', and the two of us rise with the sun. You're entering our territory, and it's not a mistake that you will get to correct."

"You rise with the sun, hmm?" the voice mused. "And as you rise, the shadows are to be vanquished?"

"Your intellect is truly astonishing, whoever you are."

"Ah, but where are my manners?" the voice replied with a laugh that was clear enough to come through so that nobody could doubt that they were being mocked. "Well, as I said, you'll never find me, but I'm sure you'll want something to call me now that you know I exist, going forward. As a reminder that no land is ever without a shadow, no matter how brightly the sun shines, I suppose you should call me… 'Umbra'."

"Got it," Nezu said as he removed the flash drive that Crow had brought back, even as Akarui let out a sigh of relief.

"If you're trying to make me panic, this is a sad attempt," Umbra told them. "I know you don't know where I am."

"No, but we already found your first weakness," Akarui grinned before flipping the bird at the camera that he was sure was being used to watch them. "You talk too much."

"You're going to try and descramble my voice to figure out my true identity," their enemy summarized, which got Akarui to freeze in place with an uncertain look on his face. "It's not a bad idea, really- were I just another villain. Allow me to flex a little so that you get an idea of just what it is that you're up against."

The second after they finished speaking, Akarui's computer suddenly made a loud buzzing sound, following by the screen exploding, showering both Nezu and Akarui in sparks that caused them to yell in pain and claw at their faces as the sensitive flesh was singed. Taiyang swept the now-flaming computer off the desk while All Might grabbed the fire extinguisher and put it to work while Tsukauchi went to check on the victims of Umbra's apparent sabotage.

"Son of a bitch!" Akarui snarled when he shoved Tsukauchi's hands away and glared at the ruins of his machine. "That was my favorite laptop!"

"How did that guy do all that?" Crow demanded as he nudged the smoking remains with his boot. "If he really put a bug in my listening devices, that doesn't explain how he transferred it into the drive! He would have had to get the drive off of me, and I know that no one but me touched the thing while I was out there!"

"It wasn't through the drive," Akarui growled as All Might moved to run the sink in Nezu's office so that he could get a pair of cold, wet rags to soothe the burns. "Not the way you're thinking of, anyway."

"What does that mean?"

"Our new enemy likely has something embedded in the signals that he uses whenever he streams his voice to his target's devices," Nezu replied as he blinked rapidly, trying to restore his eyesight. "Something that he could ping whenever it happens to be activated, even on a new device. He locked onto the signal that the audio file generated from Hikari's computer when we played it and used that to get into its system."

"Can't we use that to find him?" Taiyang asked while All Might handed out the cold compresses that he had made. "If this guy is sending out search signals for his hijacked devices, or whatever it is, can't we just identify it based on that and trace it back to the source? Like reverse echolocation? Is that a thing?"

"Maybe it could be, if we were in a third-world country in the 21st century," Akarui snapped as he clamped the cool rag onto his agitated skin. "Do you have any idea how many signals are constantly being sent to and from satellites with a search program running like the one he just used? Forget trying to find a needle in a haystack, finding that would be like finding a diamond in the Sahara desert, blindfolded."

"Do we have any other ways of finding this guy?" Tsukauchi asked as he scratched at his hair with a pensive look on his face. "People's lives are on the line, here."

"We start with the audio file that was broadcasting directly from my computer," Akarui hissed as he dabbed a particularly sensitive spot on his eyelid. "I've got a computer that I've never hooked up to the internet with a program that I designed myself for editing videos. I'll use that so that the signal won't ping to Umbra, whoever the hell he is."

"How many computers do you have?" Taiyang asked the boy.

"Not important right now."

Tsukauchi then decided to say, "I'll get the reports from the bombs that went off, if I can. Might be that he was misleading us about the real name thing, but if we can get any kind of information about the bomb itself, it might get us a start."

"While you guys are doing that, I'm gonna get Ruby and the rest of them to pack," Taiyang said as he started for the door. "We're taking the first flight back to the States tonight."

Clunk.

"The hell you are, Tai!" Crow shouted as he lowered his arm from where he had thrown another flask, even as his victim turned around with an incredulous look on his face. "Did you forget that there's hostages involved in this?! We can't endanger their lives by pulling the girls out."

"None of those hostages are my daughters, and I'm not interested in seeing them become the pawns in some sick game that's meant to get at him and his brother!" the blond man shouted back. "I'm sorry, but those people are not my concern, and I am not gonna lose Yang and Ruby the way that we lost Summer!"

There was a brief, awkward silence that was broken by Crow's derisive snort. "Hate to tell you this, Tai… but the situation's out of your hands. You can try to be a good dad all you want, but those girls have dedicated themselves to becoming heroes like their mom. They earned the licenses that prove that they are capable and obligated to make these decisions when they come. If they decide to stick around because of what's at stake, then that's their decision as heroes." He walked past his old friend with a stony expression on his face, only pausing at the door long enough to say over his shoulder, "Summer would never run out on a situation like this, so what in the hell makes you think that her daughters will?"

Taiyang visibly deflated at those words, and his eyes sunk in as if he had aged five years in as many seconds. Seeing this, All Might approached while Crow left to say, "I'm so sorry that your daughters are caught up in this mess, sir. But several of those Commission people have families with children in grade school who don't deserve what this maniac is promising to do with them if we act out."

"There's also something that he's revealed- probably on purpose- but either way, it helps us catch him," Akarui said as he lowered the rag to reveal a series of angry-looking scorch marks across his face. One of them had caused his left eye to swell shut, but his right eye shone with something like malice as he plastered a Cheshire smile onto his face. "Whoever this is, they think that Kurai did them dirty, and now they're out for revenge. Our list of suspects has to do with people that my brother has helped to put away. I'm gonna find the bastard who thinks he's good enough to hoodwink me and torture my brother through the use of hostages."

"And blow up your computer?"

"Alright, so it's a little about the computer, bite me!" Akarui snarled as he snatched up the flash drive and stormed out of the room. "I'll send for Recovery Girl, so have the principal stay where he is!"

"What about you?!" All Might called out after him.

"Too angry to want a medic!"

"Aren't you a-?"

"I stand by what I said!"

"Let him go, All Might," Nezu said, drawing the man back into the room to look back at his boss. "His plan is sound, so I intend to let him pursue it for the time being."

"And what will we be doing in the meantime, sir?"

"We will prepare to inform our students of the stakes involved regarding this new enemy, and then we will do our jobs as heroes," the little animal relied from beneath the cloth he was practically wearing on his head. "We may not be able to move against Umbra in public, but our students are capable of great things. I have every faith that one of those great things will be finding this enemy and bringing him to justice."

Akarui stormed into the support lab with a dark look in his good eye as he made a beeline straight for his personal work station before coming to a stop over his tools, breathing hard while his hands shook on the table. He had already loaded the files he needed into his computer, and was now running his descrambler program on them, but it was set to take a while. Unable to keep a straight focus that might have sped the process along, he had taken himself out of his dorm and just started walking. He couldn't bear to tell his brother and their friends the bad news just yet, so he made sure to avoid them while he skulked around the campus before winding up in the lab.

The designs before him danced behind a veil of red while the measurements and materials all flew about in his skull at a nauseating speed. Just as he was about to raise his fists above his head to slam them down in a violent- but admittedly futile- gesture of rage, he felt a surprisingly strong grip fall on his shoulder, causing him to look over with a glare at whoever had interrupted his potential raging.

"Normally I can work through any kinda noise that comes through this place, but you don't look like someone who should be using power tools," said Mei Hatsume as she took a half-step away from him, her hands up in a surrendering gesture. "What happened? Did Mister Power Loader finally fire you?"

"No," he growled. "Worse."

"Did one of your projects blast you?"

"Worse."

"Did your brother die again, somehow?"

"No. Don't even joke about that."

"Did one of your designs for the school's security updates get shut down by the principal?"

"No."

"Are you gonna tell me what's going on, or are you just gonna freak out again and blow up half the lab?" Hatsume asked as she put her hands down with a frown. "Mister Power Loader will definitely fire you if you do that again, which I wouldn't really mind most of the time, but I made a breakthrough on the intracranial implant tech once you made me consider a gallium circuit, and I don't wanna lose all that work."

"You-? Wait, you solved the interface issue?" Akarui asked, his anger pausing for just a moment. "How?"

"We kept thinking that the best place to install the interface would be with a spinal tap, since practically all the nerves run through it from the brain to the body," she told him as she held up a new-looking schematic. "Still causes latency issues that could affect not only the tech's response time, but impede the host's organic reactions, too. Then it hit me- we need to be targeting the brain's reactive center itself, not the conduits."

"A direct, permanent implant on the cerebellum tissue to create the interface?" Akarui replied incredulously after skimming the new design with his good eye. "Do you have any idea how dangerous that procedure could be?! We're talking paralysis, possibly throughout the whole body, if this were to go wrong!"

"But if it succeeded, it would work with zero latency," Mei argued. "The response time would be even faster than the signals that travel from our brains to the rest of our body!"

"The risks are too high," Akarui said with a rapid shake of his head. "I will not be part of a project that renders one of my friends into a half-dead vegetable who can't even regulate when they have to go to the toilet! I've been there- it ain't fun!"

"Then help me to perfect this design so that it does exactly what it means to, and nothing worse!" Hatsume shot back. "My babies always require trial and error, but even I know that I can't have any room for even one mistake with this project! Failure is the mother of invention, but I don't want the father of this project to be the grim reaper!" When Akarui paused and gave her a somewhat befuddled- but still angry- look, she rolled her eyes and said, "Okay, the metaphor broke down, but you see what I'm saying! If we're gonna do this, we need to do it right! And since you're the smartest person ever, or whatever you're always telling me, then you know how important it is that we get this one right!"

"And what if I'm not the smartest person around?" Akarui asked her in a strangely subdued tone, given how angry he still looked. "What if I've been wrong about how smart I actually am, this whole time? What if I'm no better than David Shield, too smart to see the mistakes that were staring me in the face all along?"

"Uh, duh?" she answered while looking at him like he was stupid. "So what if you're not the smartest person ever? David Shield getting caught and locked up because he committed a crime doesn't mean that he didn't make a lot of amazing tech. Whatever's got you all worked up, you're not any dumber than you were this morning, and all of your inventions still work fine, right? And I'm sure that whatever's happened, you're still gonna find a way to prove that you're actually still the smartest person around."

Akarui stared down at the plans for a few moments as he let those words bounce around in his head before he spoke again. "I am not the smartest person around," he finally said in a tired voice. He then grabbed up a pencil and put it to the paper as he added, "That title belongs to the one who humiliated me and remotely blasted my tech to prove a point today. But with a little help, it's not going to stay that way for long. Grab those VR goggles and gloves we made last week. Time to put 'em to practical use."

"Music to my ears," Hatsume grinned maniacally. As she moved to get the requested tools, she then took the time to ask, "What happened to your tech?"

"Ask me that again in the next twenty-four hours, and I'll flunk you for this semester."

"Aaaaaand… he's back."

Kai: I hate you.

Mataras: You and a lot of other people. Although hopefully said people hate me less now that I've introduced a pretty hardy foil for this story's biggest plot device.

Akarui: Oh, so that's how you see me.

Mataras: Hey, I'm just going off of what some of our readers have said.

Akarui: At least we're finally getting a proper look at 'my' antagonist.

Kai: You call that a proper look?!

Akarui: It's a lot better than the hints we've been getting so far! At least now we know we've got an enemy that needs to be stopped. That's better than getting completely blindsided.

Kai: Not if he's planning on us planning for him-

Akarui: I think we'd better stop before we get to Tsugumi Ohba levels of ridiculous.

Kai: ...Fair enough.

Mataras: I would like it to be known by everyone how hard it was for me not to rip off some of Khan's monologues from 'Into Darkness'.

Kai: Wait, is Umbra this universe's version of Khan?

Mataras: No.

Kai: Benedict Cumberbatch?

Akarui: Doctor Strange?

Mataras: Moving on. Next time on Your Hero Academia- Family Business

Kai: Ah, gonna get into what Umbra has against my family, are we?

Mataras: Actually, we're going to be getting a look at the Iida Family Agency.

Kai/Akarui: #*(% you!

Next time on Your Hero Academia: Enmity...

"Hmm… You see that?"

"Danger Sense already clocked 'em."

The pair had almost instantly switched into business mode the second that Chronoa spotted a large van pulling into an alley adjacent to a charming little pawn shop. Due to the rise in crime since All Might's retirement, small businesses like that one made for easy targets, since they usually lacked the attention from local heroes. Kai's showing in Fukuoka had caused the spike in criminal activities to slow down considerably, but his death had more or less negated the effect. Even with his return to life being made public, crime syndicates and petty thieves had decided to take advantage of the chaos that had spread following Humarise's attempt at global annihilation.

"How many?" Chronoa asked as lightning began to crackle up and down her body.

"I'm sensing five people with malicious intent in there," Kai answered as black electricity stirred up his hero gear. "I doubt there's anyone tending the shop at this hour- probably why these guys picked now to rob it- but I'd like to avoid tearing up the place, if at all possible. I can't tell if they're armed or not."

"Does that matter against us?" his partner asked with a cocky grin, which he gave a slight frown to.