Izuku sat with Elmo in a 24-cafe as he waited for the campus to open so he could get his finals over with and start on his law degree, he would have waited on the campus, but it was snowing and Izuku didn't fancy giving himself a cold, even if he had Riya and Mido to take his place.
Besides this cafe was a nice place to slow down and it had free Wi-Fi for him to do his work, he was searching for gifts for his friends online, he had already gotten his mom's present but figuring out what to get each of his friends was proving a touch more difficult.
He was thinking of a new set of weighted cuffs for Ochaco-Chan to use to get used to working under more gravity, Mezo-Kun would appreciate a new set of masks but that would be expected, and Izuku was stuck between paying for an official weapons course or asking one of his students to help Awa-Kun learn to fight.
Then there was Ka- Katsuki, he wasn't too sure if he should get him a present, or what to get him if he was being honest.
Izuku and Katsuki had been writing to each other often, it was tough in the beginning having to censor himself very harshly to keep himself from tripping up and forgiving Katsuki, but it was nice talking to Katsuki again and he told Katsuki some of the things he had gotten up to.
Elmo was good company as well, helping Izuku improve his Spanish since he had fallen behind on picking up other languages with everything else going on, he had basic communication in it and a few others but he didn't have the time for fully learning other than Russian with Юрий-сан.
"How much longer?" Izuku couldn't help asking and Elmo glanced at his phone.
"An hour." he answered and Izuku let his head hit the table, Elmo merely patted him on the back "Hey, some of my cousins found this guy with a quirk that sounds pretty cool? Want to see a clip of it?" Elmo offered and needing the distraction Izuku nodded.
Elmo brought up the clip and Izuku watched as a man twisted an empty can into a glass bottle "Does he have a recycling quirk too?" Izuku asked.
"Don't know, there are a few more, guessing you want to see them too?" Elmo asked and Izuku nodded.
Izuku watched mildly fascinated as the man kept turning one thing into another by just twisting his hands around the thing, muttering his analysis under his breath since he had yet to kick that habit, at least he was able to do it all in Russian now.
Elmo had managed to keep him distracted with a few other quirk clips for the remaining hour before reminding Izuku the office was open now and he could go to the building.
Izuku grabbed his things and quickly rushed off to get himself registered, he had picked a time much earlier than his usual so he could have some time to debrief with Riya and Mido before his mom jumped him with another graduation party.
He knew he wouldn't be able to dissuade her from throwing him one even if he asked, so he would just have to plan around it and lied to her about when he was taking it. It made him feel slimy inside, but he wasn't completely lying about spending the morning helping his students.
He went through the regular dog and pony show of going in and signing with an administrator before heading off to the building he'd take the test in. He wouldn't need a guide since he'd been to the same building for his teacher's degree.
The professor overseeing the exam didn't quite like him, whether it was because of him being a two-toes or younger than sixteen it hadn't affected his final grade too much and he had his SED (structural engineering degree) in hand after his three-hour exam.
Izuku walked off to his car and drove to the South Side, parking in front of one of his lots and headed inside texting Kurogiri the coordinates for his meeting place, and when the portal showed up he didn't hesitate to step inside, and thus was taken to an old office building in a business district turned red-light district.
The room he was in specifically was the only office that was workable from Riya and Mido's handy work patching it up, it had running water and a mini-generator to power their mini-fridge, laptop, and Wi-Fi-booster, the door was the only way out and the bathroom was alright, the walls, their desk and shelves were covered head-to-toe in different notebooks and little post-it notes with code scribbled on them.
Riya and Mido were both here and in-grossed in their own tasks and hadn't seemed to notice them just yet, Izuku wasn't offended since he also got lost in his own head and it was interesting to see it from the other side, though he privately reminded himself to get some lessons on spacial awareness from someone.
Riya was wearing a pair of headphones and his fingers were typing away on his laptop at lightning speed muttering in Russian. Mido was scowling as he paced the room also muttering in Russian while he proof-read one of his notebooks, only stopping to glance at his cork board full of names but noticed Izuku standing there.
Mido blinked and glanced at his watch "Merde." he cursed under his breath, and he poked Riya's shoulder getting his attention "Sorry, is it your turn- Oh! Hey Ori." Riya said with a wave and took off the headphones so he could hear them properly "Guess Mido and I lost track of time, huh?" Riya muttered embarrassed as he rubbed the back of his neck.
Izuku nodded with a smile and sat down "Yeah, but I only got here a few seconds ago guys." he assured them, and both of his doubles looked a touch less flustered.
Mido took his own seat at their main table while Riya closed the laptop "Who's going first?" Izuku asked and Riya's hand rose "Alright, how are things going Riya? Make any headway on those theories?" Izuku inquired.
Riya puffed up with pride "I have, and I stumbled across something that could help us in our future case against Todoroki while I was scrolling through the public quirk database." Riya told them and successfully getting both of their attention, without waiting Riya jumped to his feet and rushed over to his desk to fish out a notebook then handed it off to Izuku.
"I know the main concern we've had of the fallout was what would happen to Shouto, as the only child under eighteen he would either fall under the custody of a family member or in the foster system." Riya explained and they both nodded.
"Given his only "living" brother is in college and working a job, he can't take custody without dropping out and finding a suitable place to live which makes him getting custody a hard sell. His sister looks good on the surface with a stable job in childcare but according to my sources she has a bad case of denial when it comes to their father's abuse, if not outright Stockholm syndrome which could lead to her gaslighting Shouto about the abuse if she isn't already." Riya listed off pacing as he did.
"Dabi would be an ideal guardian, he could get a safe home for Shouto to live, has a stable high paying job, and he'd certainly be a great help undoing whatever mental trauma he has with fire specifically... but Dabi would have to come forward as Touya, which is something we know nearly caused him a panic attack." Riya admitted and Izuku winced, he didn't like thinking about that day much.
"Their grandparents are either dead or implicit in Todoroki's quirk marriage, I've looked through their official family trees on both sides but haven't found any suitable candidates to take Shouto in and we all know Shouto would not last in the foster system more than a day before H.P.S.C. or someone else swipes him up." Riya further said with a dismissive wave of the hand but then he grinned.
"However... as powerful rich people tend to do, they slipped up." Riya and he walked over to the portable projector and plugged it in, placing in some slides "About twenty-four years ago rumors spread that the Himuras were fighting because of an affair, something that was denied for obvious reasons, but the Vespas confirmed that Himura Shigeo had an affair with a junior staff member at his company." Riya explained showing a picture of Dabi's maternal grandfather and some woman with pale blue hair and definitely not his wife.
"A year after she was fired the woman had a baby boy named Geten and received a monthly check from the Himuras for eighteen years, all but confirming her son is Rei's half-brother, one old enough to take guardianship over Shouto." Riya told them before showing a slide of who Izuku believed to be Geten.
A young man in a sharp black suit with nearly white-blue hair and blue eyes with thick eyelashes matching the woman previously, his face while cold and harsh shared a lot of traits with the pictures of Rei's side of the family Izuku had seen.
"I've been looking into him, and I think he might be our best bet at keeping Shouto safe if Dabi doesn't want to reveal himself, but there is one issue... according to the Vespas he's a part of a very radical sect of the MLA and will need some de-brainwashing before he'd be a capable guardian." Riya admitted rubbing the back of his head.
Mido crossed his arms and leaned back "Hm, he shows promise and we all know they need more family unrelated to Endeavour but I'm not sure we'll be able to de-escalate Geten in time for him to be good for Shouto, the MLA's tagline now a days promotions the same quirkist "might makes right" Endeavour has been pushing down his throat for years." Mido pointed out.
"That's why I plan on bringing him out before he's fully indoctrinated by making him disillusioned with the cult, which wouldn't be as hard given there's no quirks manipulating his way of thinking like with Tenko. We'd just have to show him evidence that the world the MLA wants to make is horrible and we have more than enough proof and people to do that." Riya countered before looking to Izuku.
Izuku turned to the notebook and read it, he considered it for a few moments then looked up to Riya "Can you guarantee he will be deradicalized by the time we have Endeavour in court?" Izuku inquired and Riya nodded.
"The MLA are powerful, and they have noticed that we can boost their quirks, they think it's quirk related for some reason, but it is an opening that we can take advantage of as Deku-Sensei and slowly lure Geten out of the cult, we can even start communication today if you both approve." Riya confirmed.
Izuku looked at Mido, Mido shrugged, and they turned back to Riya "Approved." they both said, and Riya looked downright giddy.
"Anything else?" Izuku asked but Riya shook his head.
"Afraid not, while I've made headway, I'm not at a solid point with any of the other theories yet. Our quirk theory head cannons have been a bit more promising, and I've added them to our reading material like always." Riya replied grabbing up his stuff and sitting back down.
"Alright, what about you Mido?" Izuku prompted.
Mido passed him a notebook as well "Profits are up by 2.3% and I'm working on closing the deal on the nice old clinic in Hokkaido. We've seen an increase in sales now that we have Twice getting things for people in the South Side, we should think about opening similar positions in the other areas. And we just have to get another building in Yaizu, and we'll have two properties in every red-light district outside of All For One's influence." Mido explained to him.
"And there have been repayments from the gangs, roughly ¥56m in all, the Kells gave us nearly ¥2,000,000 since Ilah was an important granddaughter or something, so they gave us a lot more than the usual trouble making fees." Mido commented off-handedly as he flipped through a notepad "But most of that was from Юрий-сан, I talked him down from giving us seventy-five million alone, not sure we can keep him from doing that next month." Mido told him apologetically.
Izuku shook his head, of course Юрий-сан would do that. He and the Vespas were Izuku's main backers and the only reason Izuku wasn't as upset by the Vespas money was because he technically earned their money by teaching their kids and for making his quirk analysis, Юрий-сан did it just because.
Since it was ultimately what helped him buy up more land Izuku supposed he shouldn't complain too much but he didn't want anyone thinking they could bribe him to stay in his good graces "I'll try to talk with him, phrase it to be more about my independence, he's more likely to listen then." Izuku promised "Any luck on finding an insurance company?" Izuku questioned.
Mido shook his head sadly "No. None of the smaller companies could handle our regular claims for damages, especially by the heroes. And we all know the bigger ones are in the H.P.S.C's pocket and we don't need people like that questioning why we have so much money and land." Mido answered.
Izuku merely nodded to show his understanding, the less people that knew about his odd number of resources the better "Okay, anything else to report Mido?" Izuku asked.
Mido pursed his lips as he thought "Was thinking about playing the stock market but I don't feel confident enough any of us know enough about the global Econet to bet our money there." Mido responded.
"Alright then, I suppose it's my turn then?" Izuku guessed and the other two nodded, Izuku reached into his messenger bag and gave the two of them a notebook each "Here's our updated list of contacts and relationships, Setsuno still isn't responding to my texts... I think it's time we accepted he might not contact us again." Izuku somberly explained.
Both of his doubles were deeply saddened and a touch hurt but didn't say anything as they read through the notebooks, flipping a page a second before nodding to themselves "It's his choice." Riya muttered.
"I'll get to work adding these new names, any chance you have thought of a better title?" Mido questioned adding the phone numbers to his phone.
"I have." Izuku answered, his gaze falling to the board above Mido's desk.
"Well, what are we calling it then?" Mido asked, because despite doing most of the work compiling the novel Mido, both he and Riya refused to name it and pushed giving its title back to Izuku.
Standing up Izuku walked over to the board of names and let his hand trail down the dozens of names already there "Heroic Sacrifice: the cost of peace." Izuku offered morosely.
Mido tapped his mouth with a pencil "Better than the last one, the public will probably be more receptive to buying if we go with that, think it's a book about the pains of being a professional hero and those sell pretty well." Mido admitted walking over to join Izuku by the board.
"And the more people that read the better." Riya added, moving to stand at Izuku's other side to stare at the list of names on it "How many more are left?" Riya questioned.
"For this book? Two more and we'll have ninety-nine." Mido replied with his arms crossed.
"Do you still want-" Riya tried to ask but Izuku cut him off having heard the question well over hundred times from both of them.
"Yes, regardless of if Dabi wants to come forward as Touya, he deserves to have a part of our plan to destroy his father's life. After everything that's happened to that family their stories will be what guarantees people won't ignore us." Izuku firmly told them.
"Okay." they both replied in sync, which wasn't as weird to hear after the hundredth time.
Merde.
Damn it.