Significantly earlier than the 10th March I predicted for the next update, I know, but since the chapter was completed and beta read I didn't see any reason to hold it back. Enjoy.
Hatsume was just as frighteningly enthusiastic as ever, Izuku thought as she all but dragged him into the Support workshop, happily directing a stream of technobabble and fresh ideas at him. Izuku let her pull him along, contributing little more than nods and noises of agreement – he'd found that Hatsume worked best when she was largely left to her own devices. Yes, she got side-tracked, built things that were impractical, irrelevant or crimes against humanity – and not always only one of those – but in the end you got what you wanted and maybe something else. Case in point, while Hatsume's Suppressor Suit Mark One was far too large and clunky for Izuku to make decent use of and possessed a name that…well, it needed work, it was a good proof of concept. Bruce's Mark Thirteen, after all, had put up a good fight against Superman, even if he'd lost in the end. In a suit half as good Izuku might well be able to put himself in a near-All Might weight class.
A lot of assumptions there. Nevertheless, his point stood, especially given that Hatsume had come through: despite everything else she'd created, the first functioning version of a slimline grenade launcher was finished, the snap-freeze rounds that they'd been working on were in production and the concussion shuriken were coming along nicely. From what he'd managed to sort from Hatsume's ramblings they'd probably be finished by the Final Exams, which was just fine by him. Hatsume finally hauled him the last part of the way and left him standing at her workbench, eyeing the clutter on it.
"Right!" Hatsume announced, her eyes fixing on him: by some miracle Izuku didn't wince at the intensity of her stare.
"Right?" he echoed uncertainly. Hatsume slammed one closed fist into the palm of her other hand.
"Right! You still have those bolas, right? The basic-bitch, embarrassing to be seen using ones?"
Personally Izuku thought that was going a bit far. Yes, he'd largely phased them out of his arsenal given that his guns were, well, better at almost any task, but they weren't bad. They did their job just fine. But Hatsume probably wouldn't appreciate the subtleties of that argument. In fact, 'probably' was definitely giving her far too much credit.
"Ah – yeah, I still have them."
Hatsume nodded.
"Great! Throw them away, they're worthless. Here, I've got you some new ones. Better ones."
Hatsume bustled around the table, rummaging through the apparent mess that Izuku knew full-well was actually some sort of eldritch filing system, and came out with a pair of bola. They looked slightly different to his own, heavier, but when she thrust them at him he took them. With his left hand, of course, since he wasn't completely bereft of self-preservation instincts, but Hatsume just patted him encouragingly on the shoulder.
"So," she continued, walking away, "How do they feel? Too heavy? Too light?"
Izuku weighed them in his hand, transferring them to his flesh arm to get a better idea, slowly lifting them up and down and nodded.
"They seem pretty good," he said, "A bit heavier than usual but nothing too dramatic. Why?"
"You'll see," Hatsume sang, all but skipping over to an empty area and dragging a battered dummy upright. She poked at it, a scowl briefly displacing her toothy grin, and produced an almost comically large wrench from…from somewhere. A pocket? Izuku didn't think too much on it, in the interest of maintaining his sanity. A solid whack with the wrench and the dummy straightened up, standing at attention.
"Now!" Hatsume announced, "Let's get to it! Throw the bola, once I'm out of the way."
She took two quick steps away from the dummy, whirling around.
"What're you waiting for? Throw it!"
Izuku would never admit that he flinched a little at the sudden loudness of her yell, but it didn't impact his aim: his arm snapped up and out and the bola flew through the air, whirling smoothly before it hit the dummy and wrapped around it. The two weights on the bola whipped towards each other as though magnetised, a red light flashing and Izuku shut his eyes a second before there was a bright flash of light and a wave of freezing air washed over him. He opened his eyes again to Hatsume's raucous cheering.
"Hell yeah!" she shouted, "I knew it would work! My babies never let me down!"
Having Hatsume as his primary tech support was bad for his heart and nerves, but Izuku had to admit – when she went all out she did some extremely good work. The dummy was still present but it was now encased in a shimmeringly translucent wall of ice, its raised hand giving the result a ghoulish look. Hatsume whooped and punched the air and Izuku felt a grin spread across his face.
"Hatsume, that was amazing!" he said, completely unfeigned – sure he could remember freezing 'tech, but Jason had never gotten his hands on some despite always sort of wanting to. Having the power of freezing people at his fingertips was intoxicating. Although…
"Uh, Hatsume?"
Hatsume danced for a little while longer despite hearing him, but eventually she calmed down enough to turn her attention back to him.
"Greeny. Yes?"
Izuku gestured broadly at the dummy, which was starting to lean over despite the encasing ice. Hatsume followed his arm, looking baffled.
"Not that I mind being able to ice people over," Izuku said, "But being completely buried in ice is…you know, I think it might be fatal."
Hatsume squinted at the dummy, her smile fading to a thoughtful expression. Izuku waited, the silence seeming to wrap around him, enfolding him in a distinctly awkward embrace.
"Well," Hatsume eventually said, "You aren't wrong. Hmm."
Izuku felt bad for bursting her bubble, he really did, but her new quiet and intense consideration was really starting to worry him. Hatsume being quiet was setting off far too many danger instincts for him to be comfortable and he twitched towards the place where his guns should be when she abruptly clapped her hands together and beamed.
"Well, nothing's perfect first try!" she bellowed, her toothy grin firmly back in place, "But it's amazing, right? I thought, why stay with those wimpy bullets when you could do something like that and it worked right out! Teething problems, teething problems!"
Hatsume put a gloved hand to her chin, considering, before reaching out and shoving the dummy over with a deceptively strong push. Izuku winced as it crashed to the ground, shards of ice skittering over the floor, and Hatsume shook her head.
"Obviously there's that," she said, "But I feel like you might not want that."
"No," Izuku admitted, "I'd like to avoid that. I can, um, aim low I guess? Try to only hit the legs so it doesn't spread up to the head?"
Hatsume shook her head.
"No! No, no way. Mei Hatsume does not send out sub-par equipment!"
Izuku raised his hands in the universal gesture of surrender, not missing the way Hatsume's eyes briefly narrowed on his prosthetic. She shook her head again.
"Too many points of failure," she said, "I'll rework them. No baby of mine will go out there like that, I'd be ashamed of myself. You'll have to wait. You'll need to wait for the additions to your arm, as well. I've got a prototype grapple but it needs more testing, to make sure that it won't wrench your arm out of its socket or damage the prosthetic. Really we could do with some different materials…"
She went quiet, eyes narrowing at nothing, and Izuku waited patiently for her to sort through her thoughts.
"You know I-Island has nanotechnology?" she abruptly asked, a gleam in her eyes, "It's a shame that they won't share. I could do so much with that. Would be a lot easier to design a helmet for you if it can reconfigure to what you need…"
Hatsume trailed off leadingly and Izuku pulled a face.
"Sorry, Hatsume. I draw the line at industrial espionage."
Industrial espionage of I-Island, at least. Izuku had heard that it was as well defended as the super-max prison Tartarus, and unlike in Jason's world that meant something. There had never been a recorded escape from Tartarus, and Izuku wasn't keen to get caught and have to try his hand at an escape. Jason had raided Wayne Industries once or twice, but at least in Gotham the only people trying to catch him would be regular old Bats. Bruce's mania for keeping Metas out of his city had been excellent for keeping the regular human villain populace nice and safe, if nothing else. Honestly, sometimes when Izuku was here he wondered if this was what Bruce had felt like, being able to ask for almost any gimmicky gadget and having a decent chance of getting it. U.A. didn't quite have the obnoxious resources of Wayne Industries R&D, but it was a considerable step up from Jason's 'can I build it in a shed with a box of scraps' tech-base. Izuku was still getting used to it, really.
"Boring," Hatsume announced, "That's what you are. C'mon, it'd be fun!"
"If you want access to I-Island tech, you might need to get a position there."
Hatsume wrinkled her nose and made a dismissive noise.
"You know they don't let you leave? Yeah, I'll do fine here."
She rummaged around on the table again, coming up with two helmets. They weren't painted, the plastic dull and matte grey, but they were just about completed.
"Test copies," she said, "Besides, maybe I can sell the design. You don't mind, right?"
Izuku shrugged, quite used to her abrupt changes in topic by now.
"Not so long as I get the cutting edge stuff," he admitted, Hatsume cackling at his answer. Her grin was still in place, sharper than usual as she waved the helmets around. Izuku didn't quite wince when she knocked them together, but it was close.
"Great," she enthused, "Great! Hatsume-Midoriya Industries is already getting good with the Adaptive Gel Matrix and the Suppressive Foam, these and the Freeze Rounds will really help!"
Hatsume caught herself, coughing and shaking her head, though her grin was still in place.
"But! These helmets. Two designs. This one-" – she lifted the helmet in her right hand, one that was noticeably more heavily constructed than the other – "Is the Heavy Adaptive Helmet. Same design as usual, but it's got more in it so it's heavier."
Izuku held out a hand and Hatsume obligingly pressed the helmet into it, continuing to talk. Izuku weighed the headgear in his hand – almost twice the weight of his current helmet. Not insurmountable, since his current was relatively lightweight, but not really what he wanted.
"This has everything," Hatsume said, "Sniper zoom? We have that. Hardened communications suite? Yep. Completely bulletproof? You bet. Self-contained oxygen supply and filter? Present. Fold-out holographic sight? Included as standard. Pretty much anything you could want, in a single piece! Only problem is…it's too heavy, isn't it?"
Izuku slid it onto his head, feeling the pressure, and nodded. The extra weight made the moment slightly jerky and Hatsume beamed, apparently delighted.
"Knew it," she said cheerfully, "It'll be pretty good for other things, though! No waste. That's why there's this other one."
Izuku pulled the Heavy helmet off and exchanged it for the second – from the corner of his eye he saw Power Loader, observing them while pretending he wasn't. The second helmet weighed almost exactly the same as his current helmet and looked practically identical. He raised an eyebrow at Hatsume and she happily set off on her spiel.
"Alright! This one is the Light Adaptive Helmet, aka the Red Hood Special. It uses your helmet as a base and just adds in a couple of things: it's got a self-contained oxygen supply, but it's a lot smaller and the filter's not as good. I'm working on a holographic sight but it's not integrated yet, and obviously it's bulletproof and has a comms set, but a weaker one than the Heavy. You like this one more, though?"
Izuku weighed it in his hands, nodding, and Hatsume shrugged.
"Yeah, I guessed. All the extras in the heavy, I've got some add-ons that you'll have to carry around. It'll be awkward, but better comms, a sniper scope, an advanced gas mask – all of those. You don't mind that, do you?"
Izuku shook his head, giving her back the helmet.
"No problem," he said, watching as she plonked it back down on the table and leaned back, folding her arms. He tapped his pocket, over his notepad, and saw Hatsume's gaze focus there.
"You got something else for me?"
"Ah…yes. It's just that when I'm moving quickly – in a couple of exercises I've gone through windows quite quickly. It's no problem here, but normally windows have glass in them. So…"
"You need something to take down the glass?" Hatsume said, already reaching out as Izuku pulled his notepad free, "You've already got an idea?"
She whipped the pad from his hands, flipping through to the most recent page and scanning his prototype blueprints, mumbling to herself. Izuku shot a glance to Power Loader, who was still leaning against his desk and looking tired. Hatsume really was wearing him down, Izuku thought, probably because his grenade launcher request had sent her into a spiral of increasingly dangerous technologies. She was still determined to build a fusion reactor for her power armour, no matter what Power Loader said about it.
Really, so long as Izuku wasn't used as a test subject he was happy to leave Hatsume to it. Hatsume hummed aloud, breaking him out of his chain of thoughts.
"Sonics, huh?" she said, "Not many of those about. There's whatshername, your classmate, you know. The one with the ears?"
Hatsume made a gesture with her free hand, wiggling her fingers around next to her ears and Izuku blinked.
"Jirou?"
"Her, yeah," Hatsume chirped, "She's got some sonic things. I didn't work on them, she hasn't come to me so I don't know that much. They're like amplifiers though? I'd love to get a look at them, the way they direct sound must be fascinating!"
Power Loader made a soft noise of despair.
"Hatsume, no dissecting other student's work," he said. A pause, and then – "Or other students, come to think of it."
Hatsume sniffed.
"More like improving," she muttered mutinously, but she seemed to leave it alone as she refocused on Izuku.
"So, sonics. Hmm. Alright. Grenades and bullets are going to be a nuisance, hard to control, but this gadget? Sure. And it's more fun than usual, I must be getting to you!"
Izuku hid his shudder at the thought with instinctive skill, but Hatsume had already put his notepad down and was rifling through her stack of scrap, looking for pieces. Power Loader wandered across to take a look himself, squinting. Izuku saw his mouth move, imagining, before he nodded.
"Pretty small, kid. Re-usable?"
Izuku rubbed his fingers together in thought.
"Well, sir," he said, "Maybe? But if I'm throwing them at a window I'm probably going to be jumping out the window immediately afterwards, so…"
"Mm, yeah. You don't want to be putting too much resources into something that you're going to chuck away. Something small and light. You care much about whether it's copied? Hatsume might put some kind of self-destruct in anyway, but if you don't mind I'll try and keep her on track."
Izuku offered a small shrug – really, it probably wasn't as though it would be something that could be easily copied. And even if it was, what of it? It just made jumping through windows easier, not exactly a skill-set much in demand for petty criminals. It was tailored to Izuku's particular brand of risk.
"I don't really mind," he said, "I don't think there's many criminals who could make use of it?"
Power Loader shrugged.
"Maybe ram-raiders or something, but it's not like they couldn't smash the window anyway. Alright, kid. I'll try to keep Hatsume on check, if you're heading out."
Izuku glanced at his watch – it probably was time to go. Kirishima and Mina were waiting for him, and he didn't want to keep them too long. He quickly retrieved his notepad, thanking Power Loader and offering a soundly ignored farewell to Hatsume before he slipped out of the door and re-joined his friends. Kirishima was grinning – he'd spoken to another student about some alterations to his own costume, based on Izuku's own taser gauntlets, but it had taken him a lot less time than Izuku.
"You lived, then?" he asked. Izuku made a brief show of exaggeratedly wiping sweat from his brow and Kirishima snorted with laughter.
"Yeah, Hatsume's a hell of a time," he said, "You're the only guy who works exclusively with her for a reason, you know?"
"Makes good gear, though," Mina chipped in, offering Izuku a brief fist-bump in greeting, "Definitely worth it so long as you don't die. Those guns she made are much better than the ones Snipe keeps for people to train with."
Izuku preened just a little, because of course he did – they were his design, after all – and Kirishima gave Mina a surprised look.
"Didn't know you were into guns, Mina," he admitted. She shrugged in return.
"After Snipe gave me my first lesson I thought I'd keep going along," she confessed, "Might be useful some time. Haven't managed to do as well as Midori yet, even just on the range. I think Snipe's getting jealous."
Izuku pulled an embarrassed face but didn't say anything. Jason, after all, had been an excellent gunman, if not quite in the league of that bastard Deadshot, and it almost felt like cheating sometimes. Almost, because hey. Other people had literal superpowers, and everything. He felt like he wasn't really cheating.
"It's funny," Izuku said, "You might think that Snipe wouldn't actually be that good a shot, since his Quirk does it for him. But no. He shoots every day, without his Quirk. He might shoot better without his Quirk than he does with it."
Mina grinned at him.
"Jealous?"
Izuku laughed.
"Maybe of how much time he has," he said, smiling. He still practiced, of course, but every day was a little too hard on his schedule. Mina shrugged.
"Hey, you might need to be careful. I'll be taking your gimmick soon. You think Pink Hood works as a Hero name?"
"It might be better than Pinky, at least," Kirishima cut in and Mina pulled an exaggerated face.
"Hey!"
"I guess that there's not that many people who want to learn how to shoot," Kirishima added, "Since it's not been that long since whats-her-name, Lady Nagant. Weren't you looking into her, Midoriya?"
Izuku shrugged.
"Yeah," he admitted, "I thought it was interesting, since she was the highest profile gun Hero other than Snipe. But then she started killing people."
Mina nodded, having bounced a step ahead and turned to keep them in view.
"Yeah, you said there was something weird about her. Did you ever find out what?"
Izuku shook his head.
"As far as I can tell, she just went mad one day," he said, the lie falling easily from his lips, "I guess the pressure got to her."
In fairness, he suspected that the pressure had indeed gotten to her – but not the pressure to be a good Hero. A brief look over unsolved gun murders around the time, a lingering feeling of unease over her costume choice and, though Nagant hadn't attended U.A., there had been just enough footage of her to…well, Izuku was pretty sure that Hero schools didn't teach the sort of assassination tactics that Nagant had used. The thought had crossed his mind, while he researched – he'd wondered if there was an equivalent to Amanda Waller here. And that had been it, the realisation he'd needed.
Izuku had stopped his search, erased his traces as best he could and buried the thought deep, deep in the recesses of his mind the moment he'd made the connection. Even Jason and Bruce had been slightly wary of Waller, and Izuku didn't have Bruce's connections or Jason's lack of easy hostages. No, that was something to leave on the backburner, at least until he had a better footing and a grasp on the politics of Hero Agencies. He comforted himself with the thought that, at the very least, Nagant had committed the crimes she'd been imprisoned for. At least there wasn't an innocent woman rotting behind bars. But neither Mina nor Kirishima needed to know that – it was safer that way.
"It's sad, really," he said, "She seemed like a good hero before, well, you know."
Mina nodded.
"Yep," she agreed, "But it is what it is, I guess. Speaking of – you free this weekend, Midori? I talked to Yaoyorozu and she said that there's no problem inviting you along to the study sessions. You too, Kiri, if you want."
Kiri nodded, shrugging.
"Sure, I could do with going over everything before the exams."
They both looked at Izuku, who frowned thoughtfully. The next weekend? He was fairly sure that there was nothing happening then – he could make excuses with the OMC easily enough. The only risk might be something coming up, since the OMC had managed another meeting with the Eight Precepts in the last two weeks and they were supposed to meet with Overhaul soon, but he could truthfully tell Usami that he was revising for his final exams of the term and be done.
"Sure," he said, "I'm not doing anything, so far as I know."
He wasn't actually sure if Kiri and Mina were completely up to date on the whole infiltration thing. He was fairly sure that they had both guessed – he'd told them about making contact with the OMC, after all, and neither of them was stupid – but in the interests of not stirring anything up he hadn't asked. Mina pumped her fist in the air.
"Alright!" she cheered, beaming, "Knew you wouldn't let me down!"
Izuku shrugged again, smiling in a slightly embarrassed fashion.
"You know me, I do my best," he said, "Is everyone invited? I think I missed it."
Mina nodded.
"Yeah, pretty much everyone's been invited," she said, "Although a few people weren't really interested. Bakugo, obviously, and Todoroki. I don't think Mineta or Koda have been coming, either. But most people have. Her house is…yeah, it's kinda big enough for all of us."
Made sense, Izuku thought. Yaoyorozu was rich – not Bruce Wayne rich, maybe, but definitely rich enough. Come to think of it, given the way her Quirk worked – could she just create more materials? Could she single-handedly crash an economy with an abundance of gold? Could she make a fortune from supplying silicon to the tech industry? What was the limit of her ability – he'd have to ask her. And then, maybe, keep her far away from Hatsume so she didn't end up traumatised by Hatsume's demands for materials. They had only walked a couple of steps further when Izuku noticed that Mina was glancing at him, as though she had a question that she wasn't sure how to ask. He caught her eye, raising an eyebrow, and saw her frown before nodding, almost to herself.
"So," she said, "I kinda feel like this is going to be an awkward question, because…well, I guess you'll work out why it's awkward. But have you ever heard of Humarise? Because they're a…a sort of Quirkless advocacy group, I saw a thing about them earlier and I wondered if you knew anything about them."
Izuku wrinkled his nose in thought, chewing on his lip. It sounded familiar, he thought, if not that familiar…he closed his eyes, trying to remember.
"I don't think…oh. Uh, yeah, now I remember. Mom and I got a pamphlet from them, years ago. They sounded a bit like a cult, to be honest. Always got the feeling that they were sort of offering to send people around to beat up your bullies so long as you made a donation."
Mina's eyes narrowed in thought and Izuku shrugged.
"Not that I ever needed or thought about anything like that," he said, lying again. Mina gave him an unimpressed look and he quickly changed the subject.
"Anyway, why did you think it would be an awkward question? It seemed pretty normal to me."
Mina raked a hand through her hair, laughing awkwardly.
"Yeah, I…uh…well, I guess it felt kind of Quirkless-ist? Just seeing a group who've got this whole Quirkless advocacy thing going on and immediately going to the Quirkless person I know to ask them about it. It seems a bit, I dunno, tactless? Tasteless?"
Izuku was fairly sure that Kirishima was tearing up – there was a faint mumble of 'so thoughtful' from Mina's other side, where Kiri was located. Izuku did his best to ignore it, because he just wasn't sure he could deal with something like that now. Instead he offered a broad shrug, hands out.
"I…well, it's thoughtful. But I don't really mind? It doesn't offend me, I mean. I'm Quirkless. It's just what I am – makes sense to ask me about a group that mostly works with people like me."
Mina nodded slowly, relief flickering over her face, and Kirishima leaned over.
"It's weird, though," he said, "I was looking up some stats – they said that Japan has something like half the world average of Quirkless people, because of the MLA. But, you know, where are they?"
Izuku gestured around them.
"Where are they here? I mean, it's a lot harder to get into a Hero Course Quirkless than with a Quirk-"
Kirishima shook his head quickly.
"No, no, not that. I mean yes that, too, because unless the population in our generation is down to something like five percent there's forty people in the two Hero classes, you'd expect more than one Quirkless person to have made it, but the other classes. And I don't think I've, well, met a Quirkless person before you. So either they're really good at hiding it or, well, the statistics gotta be wrong. Right?"
Izuku…had suspicions, about that. Kiri was right – at a twenty percent population, they should be looking at eight Quirkless people in the Hero Course, and even allowing the Hero Course selecting for combat ability Izuku had gotten in, and so had that guy Mirio talked about. So where was everyone else? But sure. Assume two percent in this generation, which seemed like a steep drop to Izuku. That was still one in every fifty people, Aldera Middle School had had hundreds of students but Izuku was the only one without a Quirk? No way.
Unless, of course, there was someone scooping up the Quirkless and offering them Quirks in exchange for working for him. It should have skewed the statistics considerably more heavily, but did the government really care that much? All it would need was a few contacts in the hospitals and medical records, to pick up on which kids were diagnosed Quirkless once they turned four, and visits and promises could begin. All For One had been presumed dead five years ago, but even then – the Quirkless diagnosed just before he died would only be turning nine or ten now. The people older than that, All For One had already had his pick.
Then again, how many Quirkless could All For One realistically pick up? Even if he found and convinced one every single day, that was only three hundred and sixty-five people and he'd need three hundred and sixty-five Quirks to give away. Really, without a better census there was just no way to know if there was something suspicious going on or if it was just a result of biology and Quirkless populations being concentrated. A shame that there wasn't really any solid research done on how Quirks actually worked – after all, Izuku's parents were both Quirked, and so were all his grandparents. Perhaps it was just a matter of Quirklessness being a recessive gene, but…well. But it didn't really matter.
"I think that a lot of Quirkless people live away from the city," he said, instead, "It's carried over from the MLA. When attacks on Quirkless people were at their worst, they moved away to be around people they could trust. And once a community's set up…I'm a bit rarer, I think, because my family are Quirked. I think it's a mix of the numbers in our generation being smaller and Quirkless people not really living around here."
Izuku shook his head, glancing at Mina.
"How did you end up hearing about Humarise anyway, Mina?"
"Ah – I was watching a show about Europe, and they visited Otheon. Humarise sort of started there, I think, so the show visited one of their outreach centres or whatever they're called. It was pretty interesting; they've got branches all over the world apparently."
"Huh," Izuku said, "Didn't even know that. Guess they must fly under the radar – although I think Europe has a higher Quirkless population, so it makes sense that something like Humarise would be larger there."
For a moment Izuku thought, just a little wistfully, of a world where Humarise had a strong foothold in Japan and could be directed against the MLA. Cult against cult, let them bleed each other white before swooping in and delivering the finishing blow. Bruce had always been too squeamish to really do that with the Gotham gangs, but Jason hadn't been so delicate. Seeing the Rogues tear into each other over some slight, imagined or real, had always been a delight.
Still. A large anti-Quirk organisation and a pro-Quirk organisation fighting would probably get messy very, very quickly: if Izuku was going to say anything for Quirks, it tended to keep collateral damage limited. There were very few people with Quirks strong enough to cause mass casualties, relatively speaking. A Quirkless group, comparatively, would have to rely on more old-fashioned means, and bombs and guns were less discriminate.
Besides, there was a good chance that was already going to happen with the MLA and the Eight Precepts, so Izuku didn't want to over-complicate things. And there was always a chance that Humarise was genuinely peaceful and weren't interested in enforcing their ideology.
Izuku didn't actually laugh aloud, but he was certainly tempted. Yeah, he was pretty certain that wasn't the case. Still, Humarise was a long way away for the moment – he had far more important things to do.
"Speaking of revising for the final exams," he said, diverting the conversation back to an earlier topic, "Have either of you heard anything about them? I meant to try and look into them but I haven't got time."
Mina grinned, brief and sly, and Izuku blinked at her.
"Like you did for the Entrance Exam?" she asked, "Let me in on that if you find some stuff out, Midori. I heard, though, that the Final Exams are probably gonna be robots again."
"Makes sense," Kirishima added thoughtfully, "There's plenty of robots around. And I know that our whole Battle Trial thing was against each other, but we've done a bunch of training, like that hostage rescue thing, against robots. So I guess getting us to do a bunch of those, or a combined version, would be good for working out how much we've taken in?"
"Like a gauntlet, maybe?" Izuku asked, "Bomb disposal, and then hostage rescue, and then hostage defence?"
Mina and Kirishima nodded in sync, heads bobbing at the same time.
"Yeah," Mina said, "Something like that. Although some people said it might not be done alone, so we might get randomly picked into teams? Well…"
"'Randomly,'" Izuku and Kirishima chorused with her, all three of them making the finger-quotes gesture. Mina winked at them both.
"But yeah, randomly. Who knows, Midori, maybe you'll end up working with one of us! That'd work out well. Either that or it'll go horribly wrong and you'll end up working with Bakugo or Uraraka."
"Okay," Izuku said, "I understand Bakugo, because he's Bakugo, but why would working with Uraraka be bad? She's not…"
Izuku abruptly remembered the almost crazed look in Uraraka's eyes before the Sports Festival, the increasingly manic way she'd been acting as the exams drew near, and it took an effort of will not to trail off.
"…too bad," he finished lamely, only just managing to avoid the sentence from ending like a question. Mina made a triumphant noise.
"Told you he's scared of her," she said, elbowing Kirishima in the side, "I knew it."
Kirishima was shaking his head at Izuku, an expression of mock disappointment on his face.
"Really, bro? I mean sure it's kinda crazy that she could probably throw us into orbit…and she's got all those martial arts moves after her internship…and her fight with Bakugo, whoo, that was just some crazy on display from both of them, yeah I completely get why you're scared of her. I think I might be too, actually."
"Boys," Mina said, sounding profoundly disappointed. Izuku refused to make eye contact, looking away as Mina tutted at him.
"Seriously though," she said, "I know that she's pretty intense, but is it really enough to be actually frightened of her? She's so sweet!"
"That makes it worse," Izuku hissed, making a show of looking around as though afraid Uraraka might appear from behind a tree, "She's so nice! And then, out of nowhere, something like the Sports Festival is coming up and she gets all…you know."
"That speech she gave before the Sports Festival, when Shinsou did his whole declaration of war thing, was pretty intimidating," Mina admitted, "And she actually gave another one right before the Festival started, you know? You weren't there, though."
No, he hadn't been. He was almost glad of it, because Uraraka could be scary.
"Isn't she trying to make her own martial art?" Kirishima asked, "I heard Ojiro mention that she'd been speaking to him about getting it all to work together, since he's had to adapt his to his tail."
Mina nodded.
"Yeah, mixing Gunhead Martial Arts with her Quirk. I think she mostly wants to do that movie thing, you know, where you grab someone by the wrist and just flip them one-handed? She says she wants it for a rematch with Bakugo, I think she took it really personally that he technically won at the Festival."
"Wonder how Bakugo thinks about that," Izuku said musingly. Probably he'd consider it offensive, the simple reminder that he'd been almost beaten spiking his anger. Then again, he might be more focused on Todoroki, since he hadn't had a chance to even fight him.
"I dunno if he's even noticed," Mina admitted, "You know what he's like. Doesn't really speak to anyone except to sling insults and he definitely doesn't turn up to these revision sessions. But yeah, Midori – Uraraka's always there and she might want to speak to you about her martial arts, too, so try not to flinch too much?"
Izuku rolled his eyes at her teasing, smiling.
"I'll do my best, Mina," he said. He should be alright, though. After all, the OMC had given him plenty of practice in avoiding flinching, hadn't they?
Izuku wasn't invited to the first meeting with Overhaul. It was annoying, definitely, but it made sense. Overhaul had a healthy paranoia, enough to demand that Usami only took one person along, and Usami had taken Oyama. Izuku suspected it was partly because Oyama was the first member Usami had recruited.
A small part of him, more cynical, suggested it was because Oyama was the most expendable of them all. Either way, Izuku was spending his Friday night just…waiting. Waiting and waiting, and moreover waiting alone because Bennet was off doing something unexplained. Izuku had considered trying to trail her but decided against it in the end: better to wait here, find out what the OMC were doing.
That didn't make it any less boring though. He couldn't even work on his prosthetic, because he wasn't supposed to be much good at tinkering with tech in his Akatani disguise. Of course, there was also the little issue of wanting to keep any alterations hidden for a particularly rainy day, and the augmentations would be arriving soon – he'd gotten an excited text from Hatsume, not long earlier, that his careful translations had worked out to be an estimate. Hatsume was certain that the inbuilt grapple would be ready in the next day or so, it was all coming together. Izuku leaned back in his chair, closed his eyes and frowned as he heard footsteps rapidly approaching, towards the door. He sat up and opened his eyes again, flicking his gaze over the room to look for a weapon – a noticeable lack but if someone thought he was vulnerable they'd have another thing coming –
"I can't believe that bastard Overhaul!" Oyama shouted at the top of his lungs, storming into the house. Izuku narrowed his eyes, looking past the volatile man to see Usami, looking grim, and Bennet. He blinked, confused. Bennet? She hadn't gone with them, although she looked baffled, just starting with anger. Izuku stood, making sure he wasn't in Oyama's way as the man stomped past, and turned a worried gaze onto Usami. The cell leader was tight-lipped, grim, his eyes hard.
"What happened?" he asked, careful not to sound too eager. If a fight had started, Izuku was pretty sure that the first he'd know of it was when a group of Eight Precepts thugs kicked down the door so things might not have been irreparably damaged yet, but it could be a close thing. Usami shook his head, turning back and making sure that the door was closed before ushering Bennet and Izuku into the kitchen, where Oyama had shoved his head into the full sink and now stood, dripping with water and anger.
"He had a fuckin' kid," Oyama snapped, "You saw her! You saw her, she was scared of him – she was fuckin' petrified!"
"Oyama," Usami snapped, "Cool it. If you lose your head at Overhaul…"
Oyama made a disgusted gesture, shaking his head and spattering droplets of water everywhere.
"I made it through the rest of the meeting, didn't I?" he said, "I know what an abused kid looks like, Usami. Why don't you tell them, they'll get it too."
Usami sighed, scrubbing a hand from his chin to the back of his head. His hair stuck up behind the path his fingers raked and it made him look tired, somehow, as though some of the energy had been sucked out of him.
"We met with Overhaul," he said, "It was going well, I think. We'd organised a steady supply of Trigger and he didn't seem too inconsiderate…"
"Wears a fuckin' mask, creepy mask," Oyama snapped, "Can't trust a man like that. What kind of nutcase wears a plague doctor mask? Why is he cosplaying as a…a, like, a Medieval European?"
Usami gave Oyama a quelling glare, the man subsiding with muttered grumbles, before continuing.
"So, it was going well," he said, picking up the earlier thread of conversation, "Until one of Overhaul's goons comes running in. He bent over and whispered to Overhaul – whatever he said, Overhaul didn't like it. Hard to read someone wearing a mask, but I could see in his eyes that it was bad news. As soon as he got that news he was busy hurrying us out, still polite, but definitely in a rush. We were escorted out, more like marched, but we didn't make it all the way."
Usami sank into a chair, shaking his head. Izuku listened in silence, as did Bennet, while Oyama paced angrily.
"We were about three quarters of the way out, I guess," Usami said, "When this side door opens and this little kid comes sprinting out. A girl, maybe about five or six I guess. White hair, this horn on her forehead. She looked terrified, and she was dressed like…like…"
Like, Izuku thought, tension coiling in his stomach. He hadn't heard anything particularly unsavoury about Overhaul in regards to…but then, how likely would it be to have heard that? He leaned forwards, holding his breath as Usami struggled to find his words again.
"She was dressed like a hospital patient, or something," Oyama interrupted, "And I could see bandages on her arms. Like she'd been cut up, or something. Sick bastard probably gets his kicks out of-"
"Oyama!" Usami snarled and Oyama subsided again, leaning back with a scowl. Izuku thought hard. Why would Overhaul be keeping a kid around to cut up? More importantly, why would she even be injured? Overhaul, from what Nighteye had said about his Quirk, could essentially heal people. Then again, there was no ruling out sadism.
"They – Overhaul's goons escorting us – seemed nervous around her. Really nervous, like they were frightened of being touched," Usami continued, "But they picked her up until Overhaul turned up. She was frightened of him, we could tell, absolutely terrified, but she still went over to him. Didn't say a word. But the way she looked at us, like just for a moment she hoped that…I don't know what she hoped. But I know what pure despair looks like."
Oyama punched a wall, snarling, and Usami shook his head.
"I knew that working with Overhaul was a mistake," Oyama growled, "But whatever he's doing to that kid – that's not right. It ain't right at all."
Did he really think the MLA would care, Izuku wondered. Might makes Right, after all, and Overhaul had a mighty quirk. Mighty enough that it could shrug off a bullet to the head, however…
His communicator buzzed softly.
"Be careful, Mr Midoriya," Nedzu said softly, "Acting rashly here could get you all killed. I would advise that you try to calm them down. Have them think, before they act."
Oyama spun around, turning a glare on Usami and a now scowling Bennet.
"We know he's up to something," he snapped, "So why are we lettin' it happen? We're supposed to be in this to make things better, what's the point if we're leaving a kid to get tortured so we can work with some sicko?"
That was almost self-awareness, Izuku mused. Then again – Izuku didn't think much of the OMC, but he didn't think they'd be willing to, what? Well, combine the bandages and 'hospital patient' look with Overhaul's known antipathy towards Quirks and you got someone carving up a kid as a test subject, maybe.
"That's not everything, either," Usami said, still quiet. Even Oyama went quiet, looking at him with a frown, and Usami stood from his chair, checking the windows. Checking to see that they were closed? A prickle of anticipation chased a shiver of worry up Izuku's spine at the unusual display of paranoia.
"You didn't see it, Oyama," Usami said, "But when Overhaul arrived and the kid was backing away, one of the guys escorting us reached out and grabbed the kid by the wrist. It must've hurt, and a lot – he grabbed her right by the bandage. You looked over at Overhaul when he yelled, but the girl did too. I saw it, just from the corner of my eye. That horn on her head glowed, and the goon grabbing her just…disintegrated. For a moment, it looked like he was getting younger or something, but by the time anyone looked back he was gone. I barely saw it myself."
Izuku stared, just like all the others. Usami looked at the window again, stress lines deepening around his eyes. Bennet was the first one to find her voice.
"Are you…are you telling us that this kid, this kid Overhaul is keeping prisoner, can…what? De-age people?"
Usami licked his lips and nodded, once. Just once. Nedzu made a soft noise of realisation in Izuku's ear.
"Oh my," he whispered, "All those rumours of the Eight Precepts selling darts or bullets that can temporarily remove Quirks…a girl who can de-age people…the darts regress the Quirk gene, of course! But how does…the bandages, naturally. And Overhaul would allow Overhaul himself to take as much biological material as he wanted."
The sickness that clogged Izuku's throat at Nedzu's theory was unexpected, sudden. The anger that followed it, thick and black and suffocating…not so much. Izuku bit his lip hard enough that he tasted blood in his mouth, using the pain to throttle his instinct to find Overhaul and put him in a shallow grave. Control. Control. Rushing wouldn't help, even if Overhaul deserved – well. Izuku clenched his jaw and drew in a deep breath, pressing the emotion down. Not now, he told himself, not yet, but he took all that fury and pressed it deep inside, down into the pit where Tomura Shigaraki's name was engraved upon his soul.
Good thing that Jason had been a fuckin' pro at emotional repression, he thought darkly, although the rest of the OMC didn't have that advantage.
"Are you fuckin' kidding me?" Oyama demanded, his voice lifting to a bellow as his temper flared bright and harsh, "There's a kid with a Quirk like that and you're just leaving her with the Anti-Quirk bastard!"
Usami slammed his hand onto the table with enough force that Izuku was surprised nothing broke. Bennet had set her hands on the back of a chair, long-nailed fingers sinking into the wood with a creaking, cracking crunch. Usami directed a glare at Oyama, an unhinged gleam in his eyes.
"Yes," he snarled, "Because I'm not a fucking idiot!"
Izuku jolted at the shouted profanity, loud in the voice of the normally calm man, his hands lifting a fraction in readiness to attack or defend. No-one noticed, too fixated on Usami, but it was a close thing and Usami was stalking around the table, a finger jabbing aggressively into Oyama's chest.
"You think I wanted to leave her?" he demanded, "Leave her to whatever Overhaul's going to do? You think I wanted to be the coward, just smile and leave? I didn't! I fucking didn't! But there were two of us and over a dozen of them and even if there weren't you think we could kill Overhaul in a straight fight?"
Oyama's mouth worked like he'd just bitten into an unripe lemon, but he didn't reply. At least he could see sense, still, and Usami spun around with a cry of anguished fury.
"I should have helped her," he said, the echoes of his yell chasing themselves around the room, "I wanted to save her! If I thought I could have grabbed her and escaped, I would have! But trying and dying wouldn't have helped anyone."
Oyama flinched as though struck, saying nothing, and Usami heaved out a harsh, ragged breath and slumped.
"I wanted to help her," he repeated, "But I couldn't."
"Actually," Bennet said, "That's not true."
Usami and Oyama looked at her, expressions of weary hope dawning, and Izuku felt a stab of concern.
"If you had tried to help her and died," Bennet elaborated, "Then nobody would know why. We'd just have to assume that you started a fight with Overhaul or something, and our backers wouldn't really be able to do anything about it. But because you came back and told us, we can tell other people. And a girl with a Quirk like that…"
Oh. Oh boy. Gang warfare, Izuku's favourite – just not when he was in a position to be right on the front lines. Nedzu hummed in his ear.
"Now that's an interesting proposition," the Principal mused, "The MLA likely have a reserve of trained insurrectionists that they could turn towards Overhaul. But why bother? After all, they have a number of Hero Agencies under their thumb, and Overhaul and the Eight Precepts are criminals after all."
And if those Agencies moved against Overhaul, Izuku knew, he might well have to extract from the whole thing. Not only was there a risk of being caught up in it, but there was a far larger chance of information leak, including his identity. Given that the MLA had been successfully laying low for years, Izuku didn't doubt that being found by their Hero members would have a very quick and very bloody conclusion.
"Yes," Usami said, his tone thickening with fervour once more, his eyes glittering. Oyama nodded enthusiastically and Izuku joined in, plastering a look of nervous excitement onto his features. Bennet reached over and picked up a phone, handing it to Usami.
"You should make a call to Nash," she coaxed, "He can talk to Chitose and we'll know where to go next. But you should do it quickly, Usami – we still have a chance to be heroes to that little girl, so long as we're quick about it."
"I grow more and more suspicious," Nedzu said light-heartedly, "Of Bennet. Does she seem far too pleased with herself, to you?"
Izuku couldn't reply, of course, but Nedzu was right. If Izuku guessed right, Nedzu probably already knew more about Bennet than he was telling, but Izuku had held off from asking: If it was really important Nedzu would tell him, and he didn't want to clutter everything up with possibly irrelevant information. That, he now considered, could have been an error. Usami was already making the phone call, and he put the phone down on the table once it connected. Izuku watched as he tapped a button, switching to loudspeaker and starting to pace.
"Nash here," came the familiar drawl, "What is it?"
Usami drew in a breath and straightened.
"Nash," he said, "We've found something, in our last meeting with Overhaul. He – he had a kid, we think he was keeping her prisoner, to experiment on her."
Izuku could almost see it coming, hear it said, the cold and flat 'why should I care' that Nash was almost certainly preparing. Maybe Usami could tell it was coming too, because he quickly continued.
"I'm pretty sure that I saw her Quirk, as well. Nash, she grabbed a guy and just de-aged him out of existence in a couple of seconds."
"Well, there goes any hope of the MLA staying out of it," Aizawa growled, his voice coming over Izuku's earpiece. It was slightly distant, as anyone other than Nedzu always sounded, but clear enough. Izuku had to agree, though – the silence from Nash had gone from uncaring to sharply interested.
"That so?" Nash said, contemplative, "Alright, tell you what. Stay where you are – you're at your home, yeah?"
"Yeah."
"Alright. You stay right there, all of you, and I'll come on over, pick someone up on the way. Once we get there, we'll have a chat about what you saw."
Usami quietly said goodbye, ending the call and picking the phone up. He weighed it in his palm, looking at it like it was a wild snake, his expression turning grim.
"Well," he said softly, "That's it, isn't it? Any chance of ending this peacefully…"
"Peacefully?" Oyama barked, "It was never going to be peaceful! Don't tell me you're getting cold feet now!"
Usami shook his head.
"No, I – it's just, it's going to be ugly. People are going to die. You know, Overhaul said the girl was his daughter? I heard him. What if she really is his daughter? What if we're starting this, before we're ready, for nothing?"
"What if she is his daughter?" Bennet asked, breaking the silence that had briefly fallen, "Would it matter? Does being his daughter make it alright for him to keep her hidden away from everyone? Does it make it alright to cut her up? Does it make everything he's doing acceptable, so long as he's doing it to family?"
Usami frowned, shaking his head slightly, and Oyama cut in.
"Listen, man," he said, "My Dad wasn't the greatest of people. He got himself arrested for beating on my Mom, and he deserved it. But he wouldn't have cut me up like Overhaul's gotta be doing to that kid. We're doin' what's right. If people gotta die for that…then I'm ready for one of them to be me, you know?"
Usami took a deep breath, closing his eyes. Izuku didn't say anything, staying quiet and unnoticed, but he saw the way that Usami's jaw hardened before he opened his eyes.
"You're right," he said, "Overhaul deserves what's coming for him. And we'll make sure that he gets it."
Izuku, glancing over the other two, thought he saw triumph in Bennet's eyes, although he couldn't say for certain what would put it there. Still. Something to consider.
"Alright," Usami said briskly, "Alright. If we're in this, then lets make sure we've got a place. Oyama, you know all the others we've got in the OMC, right?"
Oyama nodded shortly, tilting his head. Usami smiled at him, a thin thing that showed far too many teeth.
"Call them up and let them know that something's going on, get them ready. Bennet, Akatani, I want the two of you to go around the house, make sure that everything's in order and…well, make sure there's a way out. Just in case, I don't want to take any chances. If Overhaul decides that he doesn't want anyone to know about the girl, we might need them."
"Aye aye, Captain," Bennet chirped, spinning on her heel and leading the way, Izuku trailing after her. Funny, he thought. Usami had thought of Overhaul coming after them, but he seemed to have a blindspot regarding Nash – after all, what if the MLA decided that their partnership with Overhaul mattered more than the OMC leaders? Either way, having a way out…Izuku wouldn't complain about it.
Personally, though, Izuku remained of the opinion that the fastest escape would be through one of the second story windows. Out a window, parkour to ground level and bolt, taking off into the tangle of alleyways that filled the space between these poorly kept houses. For the other OMC members, who he suspected didn't have his skills in that area…much the same, but through a ground floor window or door. Most likely a door – Bennet seemed to be of much the same opinion, the way she checked all the doors. Still, it would only help him if they provided a distraction.
"What do you think, about this?" Bennet abruptly asked, setting her hand against a window and looking at him. Izuku met her eyes, folding his arms in front of himself. Defensive. Nervous. Hide the fact that he was sizing her up in case a fight started.
Not that Bennet would be an easy target – Killer Croc never was, even fully equipped, and while Bennet wasn't as large a threat Izuku wasn't even near to being fully equipped. Still…Izuku had been observing her, and he was fairly sure that her Quirk did have some downsides. For a start, it seemed to Izuku that her peripheral vision – in fact, her vision in general – was weakened. In addition, Quirks tended to inform fighting style: if Izuku's analysis was correct, Bennet would likely open with a low, rising strike with her clawed fingers, in an attempt to tear flesh and muscle in a grievous wound.
So.
The rising strike, block it hard. It would hurt, but not as much as being eviscerated. The follow-up to the block, a strike directly to the nose, preferably with the metal of his prosthetic. That would stun Bennet, leave her reeling, add to that with one of his hidden smoke pellets to further ruin her vision and confuse her sense of smell. Duck to the side and flank, continue from there, whether to attack or flee.
Bennet shifted. Izuku tensed minutely and Bennet spoke.
"You know. This. This whole…attacking Overhaul thing."
Izuku didn't quite relax, but his heartbeat slowed a little, ceasing its' frenetic rise towards action readiness when Bennet made no aggressive move. He shrugged reflexively, expressively, buying himself a moment to think.
"We were always going to do it, right?" he said, "Oyama was pretty insistent. But it feels like…like, I don't know. Early."
"Early," Bennet echoed, her tone shaded with sarcasm, "Yeah, that's one way to put it. Rushed, maybe? Fucking reckless?"
Izuku didn't scoff, or laugh, or shake his head, but it was a close run thing. Where had this caution been earlier, when Bennet had been inciting Usami? Then again, she wouldn't be the first fanatic to find her ardour cooling in the face of an imminent and gruesome death.
"Nash must know what he's doing," he said instead, not letting his doubts show, "And he said he was bringing someone. He has to know that we won't be able to stop Overhaul ourselves."
Bennet laughed briefly, shaking her head.
"Well, I sure hope so," she said, her accent strengthening with her sarcasm, "Because otherwise, we'll be finding out what it's like to be cannon fodder. And I don't mind telling you that I'd like to avoid that."
They moved on, checking the entrances, and Izuku didn't need to try to put a frown on his face. He couldn't see why Nash would just use them as cannon fodder – after all, they would have still attacked Overhaul and damaged relations. No, if Nash turned up and didn't immediately try to kill them, then they could be fairly sure that he was with them – that the MLA intended to destroy Overhaul. Well, in all likelihood they always had, but the discovery of a small child with the ability to manipulate time had spurred them on. Izuku didn't make the mistake of thinking that it was a kindness.
"It's the kid," Bennet said, having apparently come to a similar conclusion, "The moment Usami mentioned her Nash perked up like a dog smelling a fresh steak. Ain't no coincidence, that. Probably thinks that the kid can make people young again, turn back time…keep them young and fresh forever, so long as she can do it to herself."
"More than the MLA would like that, I expect," Nedzu murmured, his tone distant as though he was thinking on something else, "Although it's something of a guess. A considerable power, however, as a trained combatant."
Or, Izuku thought, an assassin. Why bother with any combat when you could simply disguise an agent, presumably thoroughly brainwashed, and simply have her wander through a crowd? A single brush of the hand and whoever you wanted gone would be de-aged into nothing in an instant, the killer vanishing into the panic. Quiet, efficient, deadly. They completed their rounds in silence, returning to the ground floor just as a knock hammered on the door, Nash sweeping in on the heels of the sound. There was a woman behind him, smiling a cold smile and wrapped in a fashionable jacket and jeans. The clothes didn't disguise her all that well, however: her very walk revealed her as a trained combatant. The only question was…Villain or Hero? Nedzu provided the answer.
"Ah," he said, "One of our traitor Heroes. Kaene Kodakari, aka the Hunting Heroine, Seabreeze. A fairly minor elemental Quirk – she has the ability to shape the wind, although not a great degree. Usually she uses it to reinforce her blows and her armour. Capable, but she's largely flown under the radar, as it were."
A soft hum, thoughtful.
"I wonder if that was purposeful."
Izuku withdrew into a corner, quiet and watchful, making himself small in a way that he knew would make him blend in as Nash shook Usami's hand, his face set into a grim and serious expression.
"I heard what you said, about that poor girl," he said, "And I knew I had to do something. This is Kodakari, she's a Hero. She can help us rescue the poor waif from Overhaul."
Laying it on a little thick, Izuku thought, but Usami and Oyama seemed to be buoyed by Kodakari's very presence and even Bennet seemed cheered.
"This is concerning," Nedzu continued – Izuku could hear other voices behind him – "The MLA must be intending to use their pet Heroes against Overhaul. It's not a bad plan, in fact, but it will cause trouble for us."
"We should plan for extraction now," Izuku heard Aizawa say in the background. He pushed at the fake spectacles, muting them in order to better listen to Nash.
"Now, listen," Nash said, "You've done a good job. We've gotten the Trigger, we can do without until we get a supply set up, since this child takes priority. A girl with a Quirk like that shouldn't be in the hands of an Anti-Quirker like Overhaul."
And of course, it would be good propaganda. Izuku had seen it in Destro's work, in the way the MLA hid: they craved legitimacy. They hungered for validation. What better way to gain it than to rescue a poor, abused girl from a criminal? Even the Heroes they had subverted might be able to ride the tide of public outrage and goodwill to wriggle out of richly deserved punishment. And that lead, inevitably, to the next thought: in order to counteract the MLA, prop up Overhaul.
Izuku didn't know if he had the stomach for that. Didn't know if any of their group had the stomach for it, although he had suspicions regarding how ruthless Nedzu could make himself be – but that was beside the point. Propping up Overhaul would only ever be a short-term solution. Kodakari took over from there, stepping forwards.
"I'm not going to waste time," she said, her voice soft but authoritative, "But before we can do anything, we need to know what you saw. Tell us, again."
Izuku listened once again to Usami's tale, thinking. How would Bruce have dealt with this? Well, maybe that was a bad example, because Bruce would probably have already broken into Overhaul's base in an attempt to rescue the child before being caught and fighting his way out – for such a clever man, Bruce's plans often came down to "And then I beat up the bad guy and haul them off to jail". Izuku guessed that when you were one of the most capable combatants in the world that sort of thing had a pleasing efficiency.
Actually, that was a thought. Rescuing the kid, maybe not himself but with someone not associated with the MLA, could shortcut the whole thing. Probably wouldn't help with stopping the approaching gang war, however. Things had been easier back in the day, when he just had to – when Jason just had to snatch some poor bastard off the street and kick some answers out of them. Izuku wasn't even sure that the MLA would know who their leader was, given their cell structure.
"Alright," Kodakari said, "I've heard enough. We need to rescue this child, but we can't just rush in and pick her up. It would be too easy for Overhaul to escape. Instead, we need to draw Overhaul out and attack his base at the same time."
Izuku adjusted his spectacles, the motion covering the reactivation of his communicator, and was treated to a genuinely irritated sounding Nedzu, right in his ear.
"They're going to ruin everything, all the plans I've made," the Principal growled. Izuku almost winced, even though he was sure Nedzu wasn't talking to him and heard someone else pipe up.
This means we have to make our own move, doesn't it? Strike while the iron's hot, right?" Mirio asked – Nighteye had leveraged Mirio's presence as part of the price for his own, and Mirio had been present for several of these sessions. He rarely said anything, however, so this was unusual. Aizawa let out a harsh laugh, short and bitten off like the caw of a crow – it fuzzed unpleasantly through Izuku's earpiece, just about drowning out the unhappy noise Nedzu made.
"While it's hot, yeah," he said, "It's barely even warm right now. The MLA are all over the place."
"Indeed," Nedzu murmured, his tone cooled to something far more dangerous, even if not directed at anyone in particular, "While your enthusiasm is commendable and you may be right that we will have to move earlier than I would have liked, it will be difficult. My pieces are not in place, names are still hidden, caches are unfound. To strike now is to risk the MLA fading into the shadows again! Confounded. And by nothing more than raw chance."
Nighteye murmured something that Izuku couldn't make out, but he was mostly tuning them out again. Kodakari was still planning and it wasn't a bad plan, but it would inevitably clash with their own.
"We'll set up a meeting, or claim to at least," she said, "Between a high-ranking MLA member and Overhaul. Nash, we'll need someone who doesn't have connections: once the meet's set up we'll attack the meet and the base at the same time. If Overhaul dies – better if he dies, really, then he can't talk to anyone, and we'll tell everyone that our friends in the OMC were part of a sting operation. The police will howl, but they're hopelessly compromised and everyone knows it so they won't make too much fuss."
"It's not even a bad plan," Nedzu said, "Just poorly timed. If they proceed with this plan we'll need to move ourselves, to extract Mr Midoriya. Having him part of the OMC will raise too many questions and it's better that the MLA remain unaware of our knowledge."
"At least we'll have dealt with Overhaul," Mirio volunteered, although he sounded uncertain, "That's worth something, right?"
"Something?" Nedzu asked softly, "Well, something indeed. But it's hardly the victory I'd hoped for, and hardly worth the risk to Mr Midoriya."
Risk, Izuku thought. The risk might not be over. After all, Overhaul would surely realise soon enough that Usami and Oyama must have seen his prisoner using her Quirk. And to try and keep that secret, well…what lengths would he go to?
Are Humarise even going to appear in the fic? No idea, but ProjectIceman over on AO3 reminded me that they exist in the last chapter so I thought I might as well mention them.
Other than that, the usual: hope you enjoyed, reviews are appreciated and the next chapter is scheduled for... let's say May 12th, on the current schedule. Either way, as always, I'll see you all in the next chapter.