My shoulders were tense with discomfort as I tapped my fingers against my thighs as a way to drown out the sound of the fluorescent light buzzing just above my head. I was currently in the basement of a tattoo parlor near the center of ABB territory. It was a relatively unpopular spot, especially since it was open only a few days a week, and the reason for this was the woman who owned and operated the parlor itself. Nana Akagi.

The reason for my current discomfort was the fact that the woman herself was actually practicing her craft mere feet away from me, separated by nothing but a relatively thick stone wall.

The one currently being subjected to the woman's… treatment was the last of the bunch that had been captured at the warehouse. He was also the last one who could possibly tell us exactly what was going on as the rest of them had known exactly nothing.

Nana had actually been waiting outside for me when I had arrived to her 'playroom'. The woman had greeted me happily and when I had requested information on her progress, she had simply said that she was nearly done and that 'she could feel him about to break'. How lovely.

So here I was, waiting for nearly two hours as the woman tortured a man not a room away. Truly the best way to spend my evening.

I sighed lightly, crossing one jean-clad leg over the other as I adjusted my position on my chair to a much more comfortable one. I wasn't currently wearing my costume due to the fact that there wasn't really any reason to. Anyone who saw me enter would just think I was another patron and those that didn't would know better than to ask questions. There was also no way to tell how long I would have been stuck here beforehand, Nana was very thorough in her craft after all, and even the smooth fabrics of my costume started to get uncomfortable after a while.

Given how long I had been waiting so far, I was glad that I had made the decision.

To occupy my thoughts as I waited for Nana to finish, I turned them towards recent events. It had been a little over a week since my bout with Glory Girl, and all had been well since that particular hiccup. My role in the ABB had been solidified with her defeat, and the numerous detractors to my position in the gang had been silent since. All was well.

I personally was happy with my performance against the heroine. The fight had been a resounding victory all around and had been a good way to introduce myself to the city's heroes. My father had also been pleased with my victory, as had Hiashi. The man had even gotten over his apparent fear of me to congratulate me, even going so far as to offer me the services of the guards that had accompanied me that night.

I had declined as I didn't have any true need for guards, but I had kept true to my words to the men and commended them all for their actions, informing Hiashi to raise their pay accordingly. He had accepted my words without any fuss and last I heard, the group of men had been given much more responsibility in their respective branch of the gang.

I sighed to myself as a shrill scream followed by a happy groan broke me out of my thoughts once again. I brought a hand up to my face, rubbing lightly at the bridge of my nose as the room went silent once more. By all means Nana's playroom was almost completely soundproof. It just happened to be that I was unfortunate enough to possess powers that granted me enhanced hearing. Lucky me.

While my powers may have mainly revolved around my transformations, even while in my human form I retained some traits from my shifts. Enhanced hearing and smell, slightly enhanced strength that made me strong enough to crack stone if I really tried, and the need to only sleep an hour or so every day.

It wouldn't be apparent to anyone looking in from the outside, as unless I was actively using them my powers had no apparent signs. Only my father knew about these aspects of my power and I planned to keep it that way for as long as I possibly could. It wouldn't do to give my potential enemies any extra information, especially in a place like Brockton Bay.

At that thought, I couldn't help but wonder how much of a known entity I had become in the city thanks to my bout with Glory Girl. While our fight had taken place in the middle of the night and in a relatively empty part of the city, I knew that that didn't really matter all that much to the users of PHO. Word had a habit of getting around despite the fact that it by all means shouldn't, especially in the cape capital of the US that was the city I called home.

And even despite that, there was no doubt in my mind that the heroes had already written up a report on me and my abilities. My father was already one of the most feared individuals in the country, and as his daughter I would no doubt inherit some of that fear myself. It just made sense that the Protectorate would at the very least make a threat assessment as they tended to do with all of the parahumans in the city.

I suppose it was a good thing that I had managed to avoid using more than one transformation against Glory Girl. The New Wave cape would have a very limited scope of my powers and wouldn't be able to inform the other heroes of many of my actual abilities as a result. That was likely to be an extremely large help in any future battles.

Knowing is half the battle after all. The less my potential enemies knew, the greater my advantage.

My thoughts were interrupted once again, this time by a happy shout, "There we go! Was that so hard?" That was Nana, she sounded happy. It seemed that she had finally gotten what she wanted out of the man, "Now I need to step out for just a moment honey, I've got a very important guest to tend to. Don't go anywhere, I would just hate to pull out the clamps again~"

I shook my head lightly at her words, purposefully sadistic. There was no doubt in my mind that Nana had tied him up to whatever surface she was torturing him on, the words were simply meant to make the man quake in fear as he awaited her return.

I stood from my chair, adjusting the jacket on my shoulders as I turned to the door to Nana's playroom as it clicked open softly, admitting the woman herself.

Nana was attractive in a 'cute librarian' sort of way. Once one got past the blood that was almost always covering her at least. She was relatively tall, standing around five foot eight which was especially odd for someone of Korean descent like herself. She kept her hair pulled up in a perpetually messy bun leaving strands of hair hanging around her ears and allowing room for her glasses to sit.

The last two fingers on her right hand were missing, as became apparent when she brought her hand up to adjust her skewed glasses. They had been replaced with relatively simple prosthetics that allowed her to continue her preferred ghastly pastime. As she exited the playroom, my sensitive ears caught wind of a light sobbing, no doubt coming from the man inside, moments before Nana closed the door once more.

She gave a small sigh, before turning to me with a face flushed with what seemed like excitement and I very carefully didn't think of why that could possibly be.

"Sorry for taking so long Hime." The woman apologized, giving me a small bow, "That one was a particularly tough nut to crack."

I nodded at her, not minding the nickname since it was only the two of us and I wasn't in costume besides that. I had known Nana for several years at this point as the woman frequently met with my father and despite her… proclivities, I would tentatively call her a friend. Certainly not a friend I would invite to a wedding, but a friend all the same.

"It's alright Nana, I understand." I gave her a small smile, carefully not staring at the bloody stains on her lab coat. I rose and nodded towards the closed door she had emerged from, "Another dead end?"

At my words, Nana smiled a smile that was entirely too much teeth, "Oh I wouldn't say that. In fact, my work has turned up some very interesting results." She reached into her pocket, retrieving a small rag. She pulled her glasses from her face, wiping them free of the light speckle of blood that I had noticed earlier.

"Our friend in there was actually hired to organize the whole uprising. If you could even call something that chaotic and idiotic organized." Nana shook her head derisively, placing the rag back into her coat and her glasses back onto her face, "He was oddly protective of the information for someone of his disposition, but I suppose the person who hired him put the fear of god into him." She smiled lightly, "Too bad for them I can be much scarier than any god. I got him to sing eventually."

I hummed, "And what tune did he sing? Do we know what he was looking for in the office?"

Upon investigation of the warhouse the day after I had visited, the only things messed with in the office had been financial reports and simple spreadsheets, the kinds of things one would expect and not at all crucial to the gang or anyone looking to get a leg up on us. The overseer said that that was normal, and he knew better than to keep anything important in a warehouse on the outskirts of the territory.

Nothing of importance was lost as a result of the riot simply because nothing of importance was there in the first place apart from all the drugs. So that begged the question, why had someone set the man up to this in the first place? Were they just misinformed about the importance of the warehouse?

In response to my question, the woman reached back into her coat, producing a folded sheet of paper and holding it out. I took it with curious fingers "It's not a well known tune, but it's one that you should know. Though I'm pretty sure that's the problem in the first place." She nodded at the paper.

I unfolded the paper, examining its contents curiously. I read the words written down and my heart nearly stopped at what I saw.

Hiashi Nogi

Kaito Nanaki

Aoi Matsuda

Takumi Tani

Sadao Gumo

Takao Yamakawa

It was a list of names. Not only that, but the names were… These were the names of all the Faces! How in the world had he gotten his hands on something like this!?

"You know what this means don't you?" Nana asked rhetorically, pulling a pack of cigarettes from her coat pocket and retrieving one as I stared at the paper in quiet disbelief, "It doesn't make any sense for a low level grunt like him to know the names of the Faces. Especially considering he's never even met one of them, much less all six. And I know for a fact he wouldn't know their names. Even I only know a few of them."

She put her cigarette in her mouth before bringing her hands up and fiddling with one of her prosthetic fingers. It flipped backwards, a small flame extending from the joint which she used to light her addiction. The woman took a deep inhale, holding it for a moment before exhaling smoke through her nostrils as my own nose wrinkled at the acrid smell of nicotine.

I understood what she was getting at, Faces rarely used their names when meeting with anyone but their Officers and rarely operated outside of their purview besides that. The fact that the man even knew Aoi (the head of recruitment) much less any of the others made little to no sense.

Nor did the fact that Kaito's name was on the list. I was still admittedly doing my best to avoid thinking about him but that didn't change the fact that Kaito was dead. That meant that the list was likely made at least several weeks prior to when it was found and was planted for the man to find.

Which meant that this was planned in advance by someone who knew all of the faces by name. That list was very very short. Less than a dozen people short. Three of those people were myself, my father, and Lee who was way too loyal to even think about telling anyone. That meant…

"There's a traitor." I finally answered Nana's question, a pit settling in my stomach.

Nana nodded, "Yep. High up too, can't remember the last time one of the Faces turned coat." She hummed, "Can't imagine the Dragon will be too happy about this." She mused.

No he wouldn't. I could distinctly remember the last time one of the Faces betrayed the gang. Or more accurately, I could remember the man's screams as he was burned alive. Slowly. My father didn't suffer traitors, but he certainly enjoyed making them suffer in his place.

"He'll likely tear the entire gang up from its roots to find them. It will be a massacre." I said numbly as I thought of the amount of lives that would be lost from this debacle.

I loved and respected my father, but I knew that his way of going about these sorts of things was less than desirable. The man's rage was like a hammer, smashing everything in his way until he reached the one responsible for inciting it in the first place. If I allowed him to handle this, there was no telling the amount of innocent deaths that would be caused, dozens at the very least.

I couldn't let that happen. This situation didn't require a hammer, it required a scalpel. Someone needed to find and carefully cut the traitors out of our ranks, leaving the rest of the gang undisturbed lest it all crumble down around our ears.

That meant I couldn't let him find out about it.

I turned my attention back to Nana, finding her staring at me with a raised eyebrow. I looked at the paper in my hand, before carefully folding it into my jacket out of sight.

"So what's the plan? Should I start writing up a report to the big boss, let him know we've got a little rat problem?" Nana asked, taking another puff of her cigarette.

I shook my head slowly, the beginnings of a plan formulating in my mind, "...No. I'll handle it myself, there is no reason to inform my father."

Nana gave a sharp sigh of relief, "Thank god, I hate writing reports." She finished the last of her cigarette, flicking the remains away into a random corner of the room. I gave it a slight stare as it landed among a rather large amount of its fellows. Apparently she did that often.

She turned to me, "So what's the plan? You even have one yet?" She asked. I nodded,

"Roughly. I'm going to make the rounds in the various branches to see if I can't find anything that seems suspicious. I've already done it with Hiashi so there shouldn't be any suspicion cast on me. They would likely simply see it as me wishing to know more about how the gang is run."

I could also call upon the guards that Hiashi had offered me. Though I still didn't need them, they could be useful to give me an air of legitimacy in that people who looked upon me would believe that I was still learning the ins and outs of the gang. They would believe that my father still did not trust me and would be more liable to let their guard down me.

It was a rough plan and one that would likely require much more revision before I could put it into effect, but it would work for now.

I turned back to Nana who had pulled out yet another cigarette, "The moment I find anyone with useful information, I will send them to you. Expect to be busy in the coming months." I told her seriously.

"So many new people to play with…" She sighed happily, eyes looking up to the ceiling as she thought of it. The grin slowly stretching on her face was making me distinctly uncomfortable, "I can't wait."

I grimaced behind my mask, "Right… Please ensure you get your current victim to the hospital before he dies, I don't want to have people see a cleanup crew outside your parlor so soon after the last. You provide a valuable service to the gang and we can't have you compromised. Especially not now." I ordered.

"D'aww, you care about me Hime? How lovely." Nana teased, bending down as if she was going to pinch my cheek. I pushed her away with a slightly annoyed grimace, stepping away from her, "Don't worry, I'll take care of it. Though I have a feeling the hospital is going to have their hands full with this one." She mused, lighting her cigarette and taking a drag.

"Just make sure no DNA is left on him."

She waved her hand, "Pfft, I'm not an amateur Hime. I've been doing this for years. He'll be cleaned up before I haul him off."

I nodded at that, Nana was extremely competent but it always paid to make sure, before turning and beginning to make my way from the basement.

"Any time you want to talk, don't forget about old aunt Nana! It gets pretty lonely here you know?" The woman called after me as I exited the basement into the parlor proper, "And let me know when you want to get more work done on your back! You know I hate seeing my art fade away, Hime!"

I shook my head lightly, not giving any response. The winding dragon tattoo along my spine was far from faded given that I had only gotten it a few months ago, and it wasn't yet time to get it touched up. I knew that the woman was just looking for an excuse to try to convince me to get even more of them. Some may get tattoos for simple decoration, but I had always believed that something so permanent should have much more meaning behind it. I would get more when I had reason to.

I squinted my eyes as I exited the parlor, holding a hand up to stave off the blinding rays of the midday sun. It was a little after two by my calculations which meant I had practically the whole day left to continue planning what to tell my father.

I sighed, the next few weeks of my life would no doubt be even more busy than before and I couldn't say I was looking forward to it.

Still, just because things would be hectic, didn't mean my life needed to be completely stressful. There was always someone willing to help me unwind.

I pulled out my phone, navigating to Tammi's contact and sending the girl a text.

Are you free this weekend? Things have been busy and hectic recently and I would like to get my mind off of it.

I placed my phone back into my robe to await my friend's response, only to have to retrieve it almost immediately as said response caused it to buzz. I brought it back out, smiling at the response I had received

Yeah Im free. Usual place?

I quickly typed back my own response as I climbed into the car that would take me back home. I was extremely glad to have met Tammi, as having a friend outside of the gang had become quite a boon as my responsibilities grew. The girl may have had a crass mouth at the best of times which I wasn't too fond of, but she was always willing to hang out and simply be my friend. That was really all that mattered.

The fact that she was easy on the eyes was just a bonus.