Arc 4 - SASC VS The Murder
Shigaraki Tomura's face was glued to the screen of the bar, or it would be if he didn't have a severed hand clasping his face. Usually he would play his games in his room, but they were expecting a visit, so he moved his set up to the bar to pass the time.
There was a knock on the door of the bar, but Tomura didn't bother stopping his game. Kurogiri wordlessly walked over to the door, and opened it, letting Giran in.
"Giran. Good to see you."
"Good? I think I've never heard you express your opinion on anything before."
"It's just a manner of speech. Do not think anything of it. Would you want anything?"
Giran shrugged his shoulders, used to the monotone and matter of fact way that Kurogiri talks.
"Now that you mention it, a beer would be nice."
Kurogiri made a slight node and went back behind the bar to prepare his drink. Giran sat on the other side of the table Tomura was seated on. His character in the game finished killing off the last of the wave of zombies, and Tomura finally relaxed as he went over to the next level.
"So, what do you want"
"So harsh Shigaraki~ Just the usual, making some bodies disappear~"
"Your definition of 'some bodies' always varies. I'm tired of you using me as your personal dumpster." Tomura gritted his teeth behind his 'mask'.
"Ehh, you know the usual~ This time it may be more though."
Tomura paused the game and turned to look at Giran just as Kurogiri gave Giran his drink.
"What do you mean 'may'." It wasn't a question, it was a demand.
"Well, the bodies haven't arrived yet. Karasu is going to go 'do the cleaning' on some personal matters again."
"Ahhh, Karasu, you should have started with that." Tomura's annoyance disappeared and smirked under his hand. "I heard of the stunt she pulled a week ago. Her stealth stat must be very high if she managed to humiliate the heroes like that. Definitely an NPC worth having around."
"I'm sorry, she?" Giran asked, making a genuinely surprised expression.
"Oh, so you can be surprised."
"I just don't know what made you think that."
Tomura turned to look at the screen on the wall displaying his name.
"Sensei was talking about Karasu and I got it from there."
Even though the screen wasn't displaying the "Audio only" message that appeared when Sensei spoke, Giran still felt a little unnerved. He took a sip from his glass to bury his nerves.
"I see, you didn't hear it from me. Anyway~ Karasu may need one of your hands to clean up. Can I count on you with that?"
Tomura didn't like the comment about needing one of his hands and rubbed his already irritated neck to calm down.
"I'll do it only if you get her to do a long term job for me. For free."
"For free? Oh, come on Shigaraki, you know there's always a pa–"
"She already told me I have a discount if I ever wanted to employ her. Well, with this I want it for free. I can promise you that it isn't a job she'll find boring."
Tomura asking Giran for something was odd. Normally Sensei took care of everything, and Tomura just reaped the benefits of whatever it was that Giran got. But to ask him to get Karasu for a job? He seemed oddly motivated about something.
Giran didn't know what could motivate someone like Tomura, at least something that didn't have anything to do with videogames.
The broker looked at the screen of the bar again, and then sighed, giving Tomura his confident grin again.
"Alright, I'll see what I can do. Karasu is fond of taking their–oh, whatever, of taking her time, but she's never worked on a 'long term' job. When she's done with the cleaning I'll give you an update of what she decided."
Tomura's smirked widened, and he could feel the tension on his dry lips from not moving his muscles that way often.
"Good."
And without saying another word, Tomura went back to his game, as Giran finished his glass and thought about what could be brewing in his mind.
18 - Hunters Hunting
"I'm just saying, Panzer, I don't like meeting here! We should meet at the roundtable at the Order in Kyoto!"
Backfire huffed, his face twisted into a frown and his arms closed. The oldest hunter merely sighed, tired. The same could be said of the rest of the hunters of the Order gathered.
"I heard you the first five times, Backfire, but this is a meeting called by the SASC for the whole Order of Orion. We had our first meeting when we became their permanent contractors here as well."
"Those managers just want to take more control over us! If they want to have a serious meeting with the whole of us, they should do it on our terms!" He spat the word 'managers' as someone would a hateful slur.
"Oh, grow up already, old man." Diana said from the other side of the room.
The three rookies from the room felt a shiver go down their spines as they felt Backfire's glare being thrown out their way.
"Huh?! Something to say, bitch?!"
"Yes. Get over yourself. Be professional. How did anyone ever stand you enough to employ you?"
"You little–!"
"Now, Backfire, come on. Let's not make a scene." Backfire glared at Panzerfaust.
He stood completely still for so long that it seemed that the already standing hair from his beard was going to pop out, but in the end, he clicked his tongue and crossed his arms, grumbling something under his breath.
Shadowsneaker, Nedusa and Enharden breathed a sigh of relief. Unlike their meetings in Kyoto, for this meeting in the headquarters of the SASC they had been seated in their order of seniority in the Order.
Pluto seemed pretty happy with himself for being higher in the hierarchy than Diana, who was with the three other rookies. Though they all agreed that after the last meeting, considering Diana a rookie was foolishness, and that she had an aura around herself of calmness and professionalism matching that of the veterans.
For the first time in years, all members of the Order had come to two back to back meetings, something that didn't happen almost since the Order had joined up and been made part of the SASC.
The door of the meeting room finally opened, and the higher ups of the SASC came inside, including the president.
"Thank you all for coming here on such short notice, everyone. Though I see that there's someone missing…"
President Jikken said, looking at the empty spot beside Diana.
"No one's missing, Jikken-san. I informed the Commission that Bullseye sadly left the Order a while ago."
Diana turned her head slightly at Panzerfaust, an eyebrow raised.
"He left?" The president was putting a calm demeanor, but it was clear to everyone that he didn't like that reveal in the slightest. "I see, he left, hmmm. How come I wasn't notified of this?" He was grinding his teeth and smiling, but there was a vein popping in his forehead betraying his thoughts. "Surely you don't think that you can abandon the or deal with the Criminal Assimilation Act so easily."
Panzerfaust and several men that had come into the meeting room sighed, rolling their eyes.
"Jikken-san, you don't have to worry about that. Bullseye joined after we stopped admitting villains into the Order, so there's no issue with him breaking the Criminal Assimilation Act. Besides, even if he were… there'd be no problem with the way he left."
"What do you mean no problem, Tsuyo?" The president's smile was beginning to falter and his cheerful facade was about to break. "We'd be in quite the problem if any of you broke the act that binds you legally. Remember that if you break it you'd all return into being criminals, and we won't ignore your former crimes any longer."
Panzerfaust's eyes hardened at the mention of his name. The rest of the Order (barring the three newbies) looked completely calm, unbothered by the threat of the President of the Commission.
"Relax, Sagi-san. He just means that Bullseye is dead."
Another man entered the meeting room. Several heads turned to look at him, mostly the oldest hunters of the Order and other hunters that had been deep into the Underground of society before.
"Oh, that's it? Then you should have started with that, hmmph!" Jikken looked away with a frown.
"Honestly for the better. His work was always sloppy." The man said, straightening his lab coat and looking at the members of the Order with calculating eyes.
He had gray hair and was balding on the top of his head. His voice was soothing yet firm and authoritative. There was a diagonal scar that went above his left eye and below his right. The way he carried himself let hunters that didn't recognize him able to tell directly that he wasn't someone to think of lightly.
Diana narrowed her eyes at him, looking him up and down without a single comment.
"It can't be– Whisperer you old asshole! Haha!"
Backfire got up from his seat and went over to stretch his hand. The Whisperer smiled fondly and shook his hand.
"But it is you grumpy drunk."
"I thought All Might got you back in the day! Let me tell you, Musutafu hasn't been the same since you left. Lots and lots of idiots roam our streets nowadays."
"I can imagine, no one compares to how our old times were. This meeting is somewhat to talk about that. In a way."
"Oh yeah! How come you are here old pal?"
Jikken coughed into his fist, breaking the two old men from their reunion.
"If you two are done reminiscing about your past crime and saying how things aren't how they used to be, may we begin? Need I remind you that you shouldn't be involving yourself in any crimes in accordance with our deal, Backfire?"
"Bah! I was just greeting an old friend." He scoffed and returned to his seat. "Don't act so high and mighty now after showing how you aren't keeping up with us correctly."
Jikken frowned but didn't say anything, whispering instead to his secretary and demanding why she didn't inform him about one of the members of the Order having died a while ago.
Diana saw the secretary sigh and take the President's protest without complaint. Her opinion on that man wasn't good to begin with considering his involvement with the Whisperer, but his lack of professionalism ticked her off.
Of course she showed nothing of it, keeping herself unbothered and silent, in complete control of her emotions and appearance.
"Well gentlemen," Pitcher coughed into her wrist, "and esteemed ladies." He winked at her, making a few hunters like Wild, Pluto or Diana cringe openly or internally respectively. "As some of you may remember, I'm the Whisperer, a former villain from Musutafu, though I go by my given name now, Masuta Dōbutsu. I also came to the Super Animal Commission after seeing the error of my ways and joined them thanks to the Criminal Assimilation Act"
"Good to see you 'reformed', Masuta-kun." Pitcher said with a coy smirk.
The former villains shared a chuckle amongst themselves, making the newbies and a few of the executives from the SASC sweat a little.
"Good to see you in good health, Masuta-san." Panzerfaust said. "There was a rumor that your crows ate you after your disappearance."
"Especially since crows have been on the talk recently." Hound said. "I imagine that this meeting has something to do with that."
"Precisely my friends. I sadly lost my crows after fleeing, ah, no, I mean, leaving Musutafu so many years ago. Here Sagi-san will explain why we needed to summon the entire Order for this specific job."
Masuta Dōbutsu, that was his name. He had an animal control quirk, but he was familiar with dealing and leading other people around. Some of the smarter hunters weren't impressed by his manners, and saw his true sweet-talking nature to get in everyone's good graces. Diana kept her guard up, and didn't let herself be led by his words into anything that she didn't think for herself.
"Thank you, Dōbutsu-san. Ahem! As I'm sure that you know already, a week ago there was a big operation in Musutafu trying to deal with the recent upstart villain Karasu."
"Ahh, the attempt to apprehend him, correct?" Deathglare said, his two eyes closed and his third one open as usual, hands clasped together.
"Yes, precisely that one."
"Let me tell you, that messy work from the Heroes. After that embarrassment they've been wandering around Musutafu way more often, hoping they somehow catch Karasu there. A pain in the ass is what they are."
"Now, now, old friend, remember that that's part of their job." Masuta said, putting a hand on Backfire's shoulder. "And besides, you are about to get rid of that particular issue of more vigilant heroes. You see, one thing that the heroes and police discovered in their attempt to apprehend Karasu was their quirk, an Animal Control quirk."
"Oh, I see. So that's why the SASC is getting involved." Overkill said, rubbing her chin with one of her many hands.
"Now, that's an interesting turn of events~" Pitcher smirked.
Wild growled, a low rumble coming from her throat as she showed her teeth in a hungry smirk, drooling like an animal. Whiplash used her hair to extend towards Wild's neck and pull her down into her seat as if it were a leash.
"Interesting indeed~ Wild there is getting restless~"
"So I guess you want us to eliminate Karasu?" Boar said, ignoring the unhinged behavior of Wild beside him. "That won't be easy considering that operation you speak of failed so miserably."
"I don't think it'll be that difficult." Pluto smirked smugly. "Though I feel it'll be a conflict of interest for you, right Diana?"
Masuta's eyes dug into Diana, his calm demeanor washed away and piercing her with the ferocity of someone that didn't tolerate any sort of disobedience.
"And why exactly would there be a conflict of interest, Diana?" His words were calm and gentle, but his eyes demanded her to answer him.
Diana didn't let herself be intimidated, and was tempted to end this all and throw a dart into Masuta's face. He was so close… he wouldn't see it coming so suddenly. But she stopped herself. The entire Order was here. She had a plan, and if she acted now it would miserably fail before even starting. So Diana kept her cool and answered him, giving him the satisfaction of listening to him… for now.
"Pluto is just being overly dramatic. Both Karasu and I share the same handler, Giran, so he implied that I'd have something to say about a seeming 'partner' being targeted. I couldn't care less."
"So you are saying that you don't have a problem with targeting your close associates? Wow, it definitely puts the rest of us at ease."
"Pluto, stop antagonizing Diana." Deathglare sighed, while a few others rolled their eyes.
"So, you don't have a problem with going after your friend, Diana? Giran may not like you going after his other clients."
"He definitely didn't like it when Karasu was told to target Diana herself." Pluto added, seemingly adamant on making Diana's stance with Masuta and the SASC worse.
"That's different, Pluto. Karasu ignored that job because I was considered 'boring' as a target, not because we share a working relationship with Giran, he was the one that informed me of the fact afterwards. From what he's told me on a few occasions, Karasu is someone that has a great interest in only going after exciting and 'hard' targets. That's why they target heroes."
"You seem to share some tastes in your opinion of your targets~" Pitcher said with a coy smile.
"I wouldn't consider myself an unworthy target."
"Ego much?"
"Unlike you, Pluto, I can say with confidence that I'm a good hunter."
"Oh, you little shi–!"
Deathglare opened his eyes and kept Pluto from standing up and his mouth closed. Pluto glared at him, puffing cold gusts of wind from his nostrils.
"I see… So you merely have a common acquaintance…" Masuta said, rubbing his chin in thought, the intensity of his eyes leaving Diana.
"Hmph, if the Hero Commission knew we had such a close contact with Karasu already they'd be fuming." Jikken smirked, and a few other executives looked similarly smug.
Diana allowed herself to roll her eyes at that. If only they knew how close Karasu really is…
"So, Diana. Anything you can tell us about Karasu? Your contribution would be greatly appreciated."
"Now, wait a moment! You called for all of us, didn't you?" Backfire protested, and Pluto seemed to want to similarly protest, squirming in Deathglare's mental grip.
"I'm not interested in any sort of additional payment." Diana cut them off. "I don't know much more than what the rumors about Karasu are though. Their thoughts on targets and their insistence on only going after seemingly worthy foes are the only things I know. That and the fact that they are extremely capable and probably one of the best shots of Japan."
"That's quite the praise." Masuta said, and Diana could tell that his mood was slightly soured from that comment. She felt a pinch of satisfaction from that.
"There's also the control they seem to have on the crows that attacked in the incident of Musutafu, but I guess that you already knew that."
"Yes, I did."
Diana saw him grit his teeth and frown for a moment. Oh he didn't really like the implications of Karasu being successful with the crows to the point that just a mention already made him mad. Diana stored that valuable information. A target that cannot keep their cool like that it's a great vulnerability to know about.
"So I assume that you don't have a problem with going after Karasu, right?"
"You are correct. I can deal with Giran's response on my own. It's definitely… an interesting hunt."
"You are one of the younger hunters, right?" Jikken said, reading a document that his secretary had handed him. "We haven't had the entire Order handle jobs involving people for a while now. Mostly those are given to the veterans. Are you fi–four newest hunters prepared for this?"
The three newbies looked amongst themselves, feeling the pressure of the question, but nodded. Even though they joined an Order of Orion past their villain days, that didn't mean that the new members were goodie two shoes that would protest over being told to go hunt down a serial killer.
Still, the eagerness of Diana to go after Karasu only because they were capable was slightly unnerving for them. She had already killed once, their fellow member of the Order, and everyone knew that Diana was the correct amount of unhinged to carry out the job.
The president seemed content with the response, and signaled Masuta to keep going.
"Alright, now that that's covered, we'll continue with the details of the job. The animals under the control of Karasu that you need to capture and return back to me" Jikken coughed into his fist "to us, are a murder of crows."
"So the villain called Karasu has a bunch of crows to do their dirty work? Adorable." Whiplash giggled.
"A bunch of flying menaces were the ones that caused the big fire in Musutafu?" Backfire said, surprise clear in his voice.
"How are you surprised? You operate in Musutafu." Diana's disdain for his lack of knowledge was genuine, and by the way not even Deathglare and Panzerfaust said anything to her about disrespecting Backfire, they must have felt similarly disappointed he didn't figure it out on his own.
"Oh, what the hell would you know! Fucking snot-nosed brat."
"I know quite a lot. Unlike you, I know what goes on on my territory. I'm sure I don't need to remind you of the measures I take?" She turned to look at Masuta, setting up the bait. "For example, the large number of crows wandering on and about Tia forest on the regular."
Everyone turned to look at her, but especially Masuta.
"What did you just say?"
"There's quite a nest of crows deep into Tia. It's best to stay out of their way, learn pretty early on that they are scarily smart and would retaliate excessively at the slightest wrong." She slowly turned her head as she said that towards the members of the Order that had slacked off the most from watching over their territories over the years, mainly Backfire and Boar.
That seemed to tick the heteromorph off, who made a porcine grunt and glared down at her, but didn't say anything. Backfire meanwhile had balled his hands into fists so hard his bones popped and his beard was starting to get spiky.
"And why didn't you inform the SASC before, Diana? You know that anyone, not only civilians would get compensated for telling the Super Animal Commission about some Super Animals~"
The way Masuta spoke was definitely not gentle, and was doing a poor job at hiding his anger.
"I didn't have proof that there were quirked crows among them. As far as I know you don't handle non-quirked animals here, right?"
Masuta hummed, impressed by how Diana would go as far as to fish for any sort of information when questioned.
"I see that your hunting skills aren't the only sharp thing at your disposal."
That compliment definitely made a few other hunters roll their eyes or glare at Diana.
"Yet you said that you 'didn't' have proof… Did something change?"
Diana looked at Masuta's eyes, acknowledging the fact that he was indeed a threat on the level of all the precautions and the plans that she and the murder had made. She took out a feather from her pocket and showed it to him.
"I recently found a bunch of feathers like this near a lightning strike. I tested them, and realized they are charged in some way. I've hunted enough quirked beasts to know that this is a feather from a quirked crow, related to lightning in some kind."
Masuta inspected the feather, looking at it from different sides and angles. It made Diana sick to think that she willingly gave him one of Gorogoro's feathers, but she needed the full trust of the SASC and the Order in order for her plan to work.
"Yes… this is indeed a feather from one of my crows…" Masuta said, with a light that wasn't before in his eyes.
"Your crows?" Agent said, his expressionless face remaining blank, the voice coming his way being the only clue pointing out it was him who was talking. "I thought that we were being called because of Karasu's crows. What does a bunch of crows being in Tia have to do with anything, much less your crows."
"Well my friend, it's because the crows that I used to have control over were lost when I joined up with the SASC." Masuta continued, still examining the feather, but still enjoying getting to talk about his time as a villain. "My greatest regret… I invested so much in them… even managed to breed some magnificent specimens with quite some quirks… this lightning quirk being one of them… Tell me, Diana. Did you kill this crow?"
She swallowed the knot on her throat and forced herself to not show her hatred, feeling absolutely vile over hearing him talk about the crows as his 'specimens'.
"I wasn't tasked to."
"I see… I can't help remembering the state of the body of your last job, heavily disfigured and with burns all over its body. Care to explain how you put it down?"
"Metal couldn't get close, so I had to get creative. There was many materials around that helped me bring it down."
Several of the executives from the SASC widened their eyes, realizing what happened.
"The sudden storm of the other day then…"
"That strange lightning strike…"
Diana felt how the older hunters looked at her with newfound respect over her resourcefulness (begrudgingly for some) and even better for her plan, Masuta seemed intrigued on her now.
"I'm impressed." Was all he said, but Diana knew that she had successfully made an impression on him.
"Well, let's keep this meeting going, I don't have all day." Pluto huffed.
"Ah, yes, my apologies. It seems that we got a bit sidetracked." Masuta coughed into his fist, getting back to his explanation. "Well, since it seems that Diana's knowledge doesn't go beyond our own I'll cut to the chase. We want Karasu eliminated, and their control over my crows released."
"Ideally we'd prefer if you captured Karasu alive, as the HPSC has directly requested us to deliver Karasu to them to answer for their crimes against heroes." The president chimed in. "But we know that may be asking a bit much, so you are welcome to use lethal force if you deem it necessary."
His message was clear: kill Karasu, don't focus too much on capturing them alive.
"Do not kill the crows. I repeat, do not kill them." Masuta repeated the words while looking directly at Wild, who clicked her tongue and looked away, her face quickly pushed back forward by Whiplash's hair.
"Those crows belonged to me once, and I want them retrieved in one piece. You are welcome to stun them, but do not kill the ones that seemingly don't have quirks. They are smart and know how to hide them. There's also a bunch of them with subtle quirks including emitters that may not be too clear to tell they have quirks."
"Just how many crows have quirks, and what are them?" Snaptrap said. "There's the one with the lightning quirk that Diana mentioned, and one with some sort of fire quirk, but what exactly should we be expecting?"
"Excellent question. When I had them, I managed to breed them and create 10 unique quirks. Though it's been so long that a few of those specimens might have died off already. The fire and lightning quirks you already know, but there is also one with echolocation, voice amplification, strong feathers, enhanced memory, perfect speech replication, body combustion, frictionless wings and camouflage."
"That's quite a lot, and some seem strong." Ripper mentioned.
"Yes, but as I said, some were quite old, so I don't expect many to still live. There's also the very interesting possibility that they have kept breeding and creating more. From the report of the HPSC alone on Karasu's latest attack, I can tell that the spotted quirked crows are different from the ones I know."
"Do you have a guess on how different we can expect them to be?" Panzerfaust asked.
"Yes, the fire crow seems like a combination of the body combustion and fire crows that I used to have. The white fire is a dead giveaway, the combustion quirk crow was an albino, and combined with the fire, they could match the description of a crow igniting its body with white fire."
"There's been quite the talk about the nature of Karasu's bullets, as they are made from a metal unknown to many." Trickshot mused in thought. "I heard that one of the first guesses for his quirk was some type of shooting or marksmanship quirk, similar to the one of the old hero Lady Nagant, or even like Bullseye's."
"Quite correct, Trickshot. The HPSC very generously handed us a sample of a retrieved bullet of Karasu, and after examining it in the lab, I can confidently say that the metal is organic in origin, specifically containing crow DNA on it."
"So there's a crow that can create bullets? How does that even come to be from any of the quirks you mentioned?" Backfire asked, confused.
"After analyzing it with old samples of my crows, I confirmed the DNA matching both the strong feathers and frictionless wings samples, so that must be coming from a crow spawning those two. The HPSC's report also mentioned a jet black large crow that seemed to deflect bullets shot at it like they were nothing, while able to fly without an issue.I suspect that raven may be the one with that quirk. Most fascinating. I want both those crows, the new fire quirk one and the metal bullet and invulnerable body one. Those two must be retrieved without exception."
Everyone nodded and hummed a yes, even Diana. She was eerily calm, giving the rest of the hunters just a confident look, hiding her anger and hatred over the entire conversation.
She took all the learned information though, about what Masuta knew and said about the crows. He was probably right about the crows mating to form those quirks, and she could tell that Yami ought to be the one with the perfect speech replication, with Urusai being the one whose parents had the echolocation and voice amplification quirks.
She didn't know about the crow with the camouflage quirk though, did she not meet them? Or did they die from old age like Masuta himself had speculated. She'd think about that later.
"So you want the most interesting quirks back, huh? That can be done." Backfire said with a grin. "We'll track down and eliminate Karasu and then hunt down every single last quirked flying menace."
"Do you even know where to start? Karasu has successfully evaded the police and heroes for months now." Trickshot reminded him.
"I feel like you should first locate the nest that Diana was talking about." Masuta said, walking to the center of the room to address everyone. "If there's a place where you could find any clue about either Karasu or where to find some of those crows that need to come back to me… is there."
There was silence in the room, to the point Masuta, Jikken and the rest of executives and higher ups of the SASC looked around each other with mild concern.
"Is there a problem with that?"
"It's just that getting inside Diana's territory is a bit…" Enharden said, making a face, thinking of what happened to the last person that went into her territory.
"Don't worry about that. This is part of a collective job. If it wasn't my territory, we'd have to go into one of the other hunter's in order to chase out Karasu."
Enharden and the other newbies breathed a sigh of relief, and even older hunters seemed content with not having to persuade Diana in front of the SASC. The last thing they wanted was to show them any sort of disorganization among them.
"Alright then." Jikken clasped his hands together, satisfied. "Let's get the operation to confiscate Karasu's crows and bring him to justice started."
Masuta clicked his tongue after hearing about 'Karasu's crows' and backed off, letting the president handle the discussion about the payment for the Order's service along with a few other of the higher ups with Panzerfaust and a few other hunters.
He looked at Diana with mild interest. She tended to deliver the corpses of her targets in a messy state, often disfigured, so he knew not to ask her to retrieve her targets alive, not that he ever needed to retrieve what few animals that escape into the forest alive.
The way the rest of the Order acted around her was also interesting. She carried herself with more confidence than the rest of the members of the Order that joined around the same time as her, and most of her seniors seemed to respect her.
He didn't know her quirk, probably an emitter that helped her hunt in some way, or maybe even something more subtle. The fact she heavily implied having used the feathers of the lightning crow she found to either shock or have STT-127 be struck with lightning was incredibly interesting.
That showed resourcefulness he hadn't seen in many people. Back then villains struggled to adapt if the heroes managed to catch up to them, that's why when the unbeatable force known as All Might appeared, they were forced to hide, get captured or join powerful people, with very few big villains having survived in the shadows until today.
If Diana had appeared a few decades earlier and had still decided to join the Order of Orion, she could have been one of the most influential and key players of the Underground.
Masuta decided to keep an eye on her after this operation. He also knew how to adapt and use every resource available.
The Order of Orion had divided itself into two teams: the Guard Team and the Hunting Team. Diana had gone ahead to the edge of the forest to grab all the materials and weapons she'd need for a hunt, and to prepare to guide the Hunting Team through Tia forest to search for the crow's nest.
"I still think that splitting up wasn't necessary." Backfire said, his hands behind his head.
"You heard Panzerfaust." Hound said, not bothering to turn to look at Backfire as they walked to the edge of the city, where they were supposed to meet with Diana. "Depending on how Karasu's control over the crows is, they may already know that there's another animal control quirk user in the SASC, and that after their quirk being exposed in their last job, they may decide to go after them."
"We finally get a job to be assassins again, and all Panzer decides that half should stay to act as bodyguards, bah!"
"I'm more annoyed by having to get into Jupiter's damn forest, and having a newbie guide us through it!" Pluto complained, huffing cold bursts of air from his mouth.
"Now, now, don't be like that. What do you have against Diana, anyway? She isn't Jupiter."
Whiplash said, using her hair as leashes for her two large hunting dogs, while teasing Wild with another strand of her tentacle hair.
"Acts as damn superiorly as he did! Besides, she has the same eyes."
"So you are also into the theory of them being related?" Shotgun said.
"Oh? I didn't take you for one to like gossip, Shotgun." Whiplash teased.
"She joined in surprisingly quickly after Jupiter was arrested, and also had a working relationship with Giran. It really makes you think."
Hound have been named the leader of the team by Panzerfaust, being the oldest and that didn't have anything against Diana like Backfire. He wasn't much of a leader, preferring to do things on his own, much like most of the Order.
Actually, Whiplash and Wild were kind of an odd duo, working together almost from the moment they joined the Order, but they had… a strange relationship.
Hound and Boar had been chosen to be on the Hunting team because of their accurate sense of smell, always useful in forests. Backfire and Pluto had joined in because they wanted to keep an eye on Diana, still not liking the idea of her being essentially the second in command of the team behind Hound.
The rest of the team was filled by the three newbies, to get them to see the pros in action, as well as Whiplash and Wild, who also had a lot of experience in forests.
The group finally reached the edge of Konukoru City, and found Diana waiting for them, with a large bag in the shape of what seemed like a weapon, and hunting clothes.
"Good, you're finally here."
"Did you change your clothes?" Pluto said, looking her up and down.
"I just put on better shoes for the forest, and my regular hunting gear. You took so long I didn't end up wasting time."
"You little–!"
"Great, that's why you went ahead." Hound said quickly, already tired over having to babysit them from picking up a fight. He wished Deathglare had come, he was great at de-escalating fights.
"Let's get going already." Boar said, making his neck pop and putting on brass knuckles. "The quicker we get to that nest, the quicker we can be out of the forest."
"For someone with that face, you'd think they liked to be in the Wild more." Pluto smirked.
"Oi! You asshole! Repeat that!"
"Stop it, the both of you!" Hound got in between them, pushing them away. "This shouldn't take long, and you don't have to like each other, but we have a job to do, let's go. Diana, lead the way please."
"Finally."
She rolled her eyes and turned around, getting deep into the woods. The rest of the hunters looked at each other, before going into her trail.
Whiplash released her mutts, which unfortunately for everyone else in the group, also meant Wild. She had put on a collar with fur from the mutts on it, and used her quirk to transform her hands and feet into paws. Her nose stretched into a snout and her ears went up her head and stretched into canine, furry ears. She joined the mutts on the tracking and went ahead, joining with Diana, sniffing the ground and looking for any clues or trail for crows.
Hound and Boar were also near the front of the group, helping with the tracking using their advanced sense of smell. It had been a while since Hound was able to see any other hunters work, and quickly understood why Whiplash and Wild worked so well in tracking down missing targets.
But it was Diana who surprised him. He figured she managed to get Bullseye because of having intel about him from Giran, and setting up a trap for him in her territory when he dared to cross it.
What he saw was a professional that knew the forest like the back of her hand, guided by instinct and experience, managing to find clues and a trail of the crows faster than even him, Boar or the mutts.
Hound now understood why Diana looked down on the current state of the Order. She was exceptional even by the old standards, and he was sure that she would have made a fearsome assassin back in the day, probably becoming the most coveted one in the Order.
But there was something off about her. He thought that it was an odd smell at first, something…metallic about her, but figured it must be her weapon under the bag. Hound was also a hunter, had been for many years, and even though he may have gotten a bit rusty since stopping going after people, he trusted his instinct.
Yet nothing about Diana seemed wrong, so he just attributed his uneasiness to feeling subconsciously one upped by her. It felt bad to admit when someone so young had surpassed him, but he was getting on his years. Unlike Backfire, he was ready to admit that soon the new generation would overtake them.
Diana was probably going to lead the Order of Orion into a new era. She didn't like the current state one bit, and Hound figured that when the time comes for her to revise who gets to be part of the Order, she'd demand quite a lot.
But he'll be long retired by then. No use in thinking about that right now.
"How much are you going to make us walk? Do you even have any idea where the nest is?" Pluto grumbled.
"Shut up. You are going to alert them."
"Not more than you with that stupid voice changer. Why are you still using it anyway?"
She merely gave him a tired, deadpan stare, and ignored him. That seemed to tick him off, and was about to snap at her, when they heard the sound of twigs snapping.
Backfire reacted almost instantly, turning the source of the sound, his beard spiking up and shooting into the direction of the sound. The hair impaled into a tree, and then quickly expanded, inflating into a balloon in the blink of an eye.
The tree was torn apart in a bang, and the hair stands left circular craters in the ground around the tree. The top of the tree fell to the side with a loud thud, both ends having the same circular crater-like shape to them.
A simple unassuming squirrel ran out the side of the tree, squealing, scared, and leaving the hunters behind.
The newbies breathed a sigh of relief, realizing there was no danger, and that it was just a false alarm. Whiplash's mutts (Wild included) weren't as happy, and barked at Backfire, having to be stopped by Whiplash using her hair as leashes to keep them from mauling him (again, Wild included).
"Did you have to be that loud? You scared my pets." She rolled her eyes.
Everyone was looking at Backfire now.
"What? Don't tell me you weren't on the way to killing whatever made that noise?"
"Backfire, just… what if it was one of the crows that we aren't supposed to kill? Do you think that the Whisperer would be happy with that?" Hound growled at him.
"Bah, what is he going to do? He always made animals do his dirty work."
"Weren't you friends with him? Some friendship you have to offer." Boar scoffed, also similarly pissed off.
"I didn't get any crows, ok? Relax."
"But you made a whole lot of noise. Now if there were crows around they'd be alerted, and believe me, you'd be the first one they go after."
"Huh?! Why should I be scared of a bunch of crows? There's only a few quirked ones, and only the fire one seems like an actual threat!"
"You are more of an idiot than I thought if you truly believe that. You didn't even get the squirrel, how can you be so confident?"
"Hey, who do you think you are to speak like that to your seniors, bitch?" Pluto said, giving Diana the meanest look he could muster.
"Yeah, you have a serious discipline problem, Diana! Do you wanna see how I do with a way bigger target, huh!?"
"I'll do you two one better, do you want to end up like the last idiot that pissed me off in this forest?" Diana said moving a hand to the bag on her back while glaring at Pluto.
"Everyone! Calm down!" Hound screamed. "Let's focus on the task at hand! Backfire, please, calm down and do not fire your hair so quick."
"Huh!? Who are you calling quickshot, you mutt!?"
Hound couldn't help but curl his lips and show his teeth, growling at Backfire.
"Nothing to say? I have no clue why so many of you are so tame with Diana's shit. If it were me in charge I would already have kicked her out of the Order the moment she started spilling shit about us!"
"Get yourself together, you drunk bastard!" Hound barked. "Can't you fucking do something as simple as admit when you are wrong!"
Hound was left panting after his outburst. Everyone looked at the two old men, unsure of what was going to happen. Whiplash's mutts barked and had to be held back by Whiplash, but other than that, no hunter made a move.
Diana looked aside into the air, and moved a hand into a pouch in her pants. Pluto looked where Diana's eyes were pointing, but didn't find anything. The newbies were looking at Hound and Backfire, moving their heads from one to the other, not knowing what was going to happen next.
Backfire was clearly pissed, veins in his forehead popping and pulsing while his beard started to spike up again. Hound growled at him, ball his hands into fists and making his knuckles pop just from that.
Backfire was the first one to move, getting closer to Hound until his beard was almost touching Hound's body.
"Care to repeat that, mutt?"
"Watch your mouth. Act professional for a goddamn time and get moving. I'm the leader of the team, and you will do as I say." Hound pushed Backfire back, trying his hardest to keep his already thinning patience from breaking completely.
Diana breathed out, getting herself in the mood. With the tension so high, no one noticed her do that.
"If you think you can order me around then you are full of yourself, mutt! I'm–"
SPLAT!
Backfire's head moved to the side unnaturally, as if he had received a blow that pushed him out of balance, making him fall to his side.
As Backfire's body started to move to the side and fall down, Hound finally processed the information. The scent of blood filled his nostrils, and he quickly made out the blood coming from the side of Backfire as his eyes widened in realization.
He had been shot!
Hound turned around, to scream to the team to take cover, a thousand thoughts in his mind.
They had made too much sound, Karasu was probably here and was known to be a sniper, he had gotten Backfire probably because he had seen him use his quirk, and decided he was the current most dangerous target.
He remembered the conversation with Backfire. If Karasu had any means to hear them out, he'd know that Hound was the leader of the team, and was probably going to be targeted next.
His body seemed to be sinking in mud, too heavy to move it, refusing to listen to him, his voice dying before he had the chance to speak and warn the rest of the team.
What was going on? The world kept spinning and spinning, his voice dead and silent, the whole world seeming to slow down as his senses both sharpened and dulled.
Hound's vision started getting lower, while still spinning. He didn't understand what was going on. Why couldn't he speak? Why couldn't he move? Why did he taste blood in his mouth and nose? And why did he see his body come into view in front of him–
Oh.
Realization came to him, as his neck touched the dirt of the forest.
That's my body over there.
There were three thuds.
The first, Backfire's body hitting the ground violently as his head was pushed with extreme force, his brains coming from the other side where the impact came from.
The second, Hound's head finally hitting the ground as it spun in the air for a while after being cleanly cut out.
The third, Hound's body falling backwards, the headless stump in its neck staining the ground with a beautiful red.
It took the hunters a second to realize what just happened, and they all got into cover, even the three newbies, scared shitless, were able to hide behind trees from their unknown attacker.
"What the fuck was that!?" Boar screamed, his eyes fixed on Hound's head, as the light slowly faded from the wolf-man's eyes.
"We are under fucking attack, what do you think!?" Whiplash lashed out, to occupied hiding to control her dogs, and letting them go. Wild was smart enough to hide under cover from a tree and not run out like the dogs.
"Where did the attack come from!? We are going to die!" Nedusa cried, tears starting to run down her face from the fear.
Enharden and Shadowsneaker were similarly scared, legs trembling and with labored breathed, desperately trying to hide from the direction the shot came from.
"What should we do now? Retreat?" Boar asked, moving his eyes away from Hound's corpse.
"Don't be fucking ridiculous!" Pluto shouted at him, his jacket getting covered by a thin layer of frost as he spoke. "Karasu is here and just fucking killed two of us! He'll fucking kill us if we come out from hiding! Where the fuck did Diana go! She has a lot to answer to let our target come into her territory like this!"
From behind them, they heard Whiplash's dogs whine and whimper, and then two familiar thuds, as their bodies fell to the ground, dead.
Next to the bloodied corpses of the dogs was Diana, holding a black knife close to her face, and giving the hunters a chilling smirk. She licked the blood from the knife, then tilted her head.
"Hmmm, doesn't taste as good as I hoped."
"You… you bitch!" Whiplash screamed, sending her hair towards Diana. "What did you do to my dogs!?"
Diana swiped her arm in an horizontal curve in front of her, cutting the hair with zero resistance, and made a backwards summersault. When she landed, all hunters stopped in their tracks.
Diana's face was melting, a grayish goo coming out of it as she giggled. Shadowsneaker threw up at the sight, Enharden fell on his but, and Nedusa was too scared to move. The rest were on high alert, realizing that they had enemies flanking them from opposite directions.
"Did I do a good job~? None of you could tell that Diana was missing tehee~ But she wasn't, because I had become her~!"
Himiko's face started becoming recognizable behind the goo of her transformation sliding off her face. Half of her face was recognizable while the other still had the features of Diana, the facemask she wore to cover her mouth transitioning into an actual mouth, teeth sharp and shiny.
Crows started cawing around them, and the hunters looked around, realizing that they were surrounded by dozens of crows. One of the crows landed on Himiko's head, unbothered by the slime of her disappearing transformation.
"The knife cuts so well~ Just one swipe and wolfie's head just slides off~ Ahh~ His blood splashed all over me~"
As if remembering that his blood was going to get washed away after the transformation was undone, Himiko licked the blood from her arms, almost grooming herself like a cat, before the transformation slime washed it off. The crow on top of her cawed, and the rest did so shortly after, setting an oppressive aura on the remaining hunters.
With her body halfway in between Himiko and Diana, she gave the hunters a wide smile, showing her sharp fangs on one side and Diana's face twist in an unnatural way on the other.
"Sorry guys~ but we are going to kill you now~ I wonder what your blood tastes like~"
Izumi and Himiko switched up without anyone realizing it~ Did you? Hound was about to find out, but dismissed the idea. Also, the two veterans of the Hunting Team have already fallen, did anyone see that happening so soon~?
I actually have sketched up the quirks and a small part of the backstory of every single member of the Order of Orion, ever since chapter 13 where they were introduced. The extra drawing of that chapter were the faces of all of them in chibi form, with the names of their quirks, "villain" names, and their hunting territory in Japan.
If you are curious about Backfire's and Hound's quirks, I can elaborate a bit on them, hope that you aren' too disappointed they died without getting to use them much.
Backfire, quirk: Hair Expansion. His hair can inflate like a balloon without need of air, in the past he used to infuse bullets with hair to make victims pop from inside out with just one shot, but with years of practise and a quirk awakening, he managed to make the hair of his beard shoot out at will and able to use it without the need of bullets
Hound, quirk: Houndog. He has the head of a wolf, but his sense of scent is so developed that his quirk counselor renamed it to Houndog.