Her eyes scanned the brochure, promising a beautiful beach park located on the coastline in Musutafu. It was plain deception with the sheer comparison. The little brochure she acquired downtown, showed a crystal clear beach with a fine pier and gazebo. Instead, it was a trashy mess with piles of waste and tossed furniture blocking said gazebo.

The stench was awful - rancid and putrid. Animal feces, urine, and spoiled food permeated the area. The smell of a fresh, salty ocean was blotted out by its odor. Makima couldn't help but squeeze her nose, ready to leave this place and find another to ponder about her objectives in peace and wait for those forged documents. She stopped and spotted a lone boy hauling some of the trash away.

Was this some sort of body-building exercise? He'd managed to only get rid of a few broken-down recliner chairs, but that was it. He had a mountain of this garbage dump to take care of soon after. It would probably take at least ten months or more to get it all cleared.

Makima found herself walking closer to the half-cleared site and was met with an interesting individual that appeared out of nowhere. He looked deathly ill and skeletal in appearance. She would not be surprised if a strong breeze whisked him away like a piece of paper or if a tiny push from her would shatter all the bones in his body from a slight fall.

"I'm sorry, ma'am, but I'm trying to train that boy's endurance and strength. Any distractions will only serve to prolong his growth."

Makima peeked over the man's shoulder and saw a green-haired boy pulling with all his might as he tried one of the thrown-away washers this time. The same skeletal man shuffled to his right, blocking the boy from view and standing face-to-face with her again.

"If you'd like, I can entertain you with company, just don't get in the way of his training."

Makima ignored him and kept searching her mind on where she'd seen this boy before. It'd been three weeks since she arrived in this world and she scoured her scent memory like a file cabinet; cycling through the smells of all the individuals she'd met thus far - boys pretending to be men at several bars, a few cashiers who were trying their hardest at keeping her attention when she shopped for snacks, and some young students who tried working up the courage to speak with her. None of their aromas matched this boy.

A skeletal hand that smelt of peppermint and kiwi was waving in front of her and snapped its fingers to get her out of her thoughts. "Are you okay?"

"Hm, I'm fine. I just tend to space out sometimes, I apologize. What were you saying?" Makima's eyes left the struggling young boy and went back to the man. The skeletal man with sharp angular features shrugged and scratched his wild blonde hair.

"I was saying if you wanted to join me, I got another lawn chair if you want."

"I don't see why not. I need to kill some time anyway."

"Great, follow me. "

Toshinori felt pretty awkward talking to people in this form. He was glad that this woman wasn't a disrupter who told him to get off his ass and help the young boy like others did before. They complained and whined about every little thing wrong with society and how he wasn't helping by not providing assistance to young Midoriya while he cleaned up the beach.

Then again, he did this because he also wanted to have a nice gazebo to sit back on without the smell, but he didn't tell the boy that. While the spot he chose was far from perfect, it was good enough to bask in some sunlight and evade most of the smell. He unfolded another lawn chair and laid it out for this stranger who was probably a tourist by the looks of it. She wore an oversized beach hat and a black dress with the oddest pair of eyes he'd seen yet.

He only then realized that they were sitting in silence for a while, neither of them saying anything to each other as they watched young Midoriya clean up the Takoba beach. Between them, the ripple of the waves crashed gently against the beachside as more silence took place.

"So, uh… what brings you out here?" He asked out of the blue, scratching his cheek to get rid of the awkward silence.

"I'm just visiting until a friend of mine texts me back. He's taken a long time getting back to me." She didn't look at him.

"Oh, a lover's spat?"

She laughed a little, "No. Very much the opposite. He's supposed to get back to me on some things I needed."

"Ah, I get you. You'd think that with all the high-tech, it'd be instantaneous. Heh, quite a hard thing these days, isn't it?" Toshinori tapped his thigh and looked around, thinking of something else to say.

"Yes, very difficult these days." The woman shifted a bit in the cheap lawn chair.

Toshinori didn't know what to say to the woman. These one-sided conversations continued for another three minutes and he deeply regretted inviting her to sit with him.

"Why are you training him?" She finally asked, "I imagine all of this heavy lifting will raise his physical strength and his physique as well."

Finally, Toshinori could get behind a topic like this. "It's for the U.A Entrance Exam, it's coming up in ten months, and I'm getting him ready for that. That young boy wants to become a pro hero and he doesn't have a quirk, but he wanted to give it a shot anyway."

The woman leaned a bit closer to him, obviously more intrigued now, "Oh? Don't most people say that being quirkless is as good as closing that career path?"

Toshinori squeezed the armrests on his lawn chair, "I thought so too at one point, but…" He looked at Midoriya, still moving more and more trash all by himself. "He showed me that resolve and sheer determination is a quirk all on its own, and I couldn't turn down his optimism."

Makima hummed, "You have a lot of faith in him, don't you?" The frail-looking man nodded, "I admire that in people. When faced with insurmountable odds, it makes it much more rewarding when they overcome them with a handicap." Toshinori couldn't agree more.

"Are you his uncle or father?" She asked with even more intrigue than she did before.

Toshinori waved his hands away. "No, I'm just a retired hero getting past his prime. I was thinking I can do him this one favor and hope to pass my knowledge and advice onto him once I whip him into shape."

Toshinori noticed the slight smile he saw at the edge of her lips when he mentioned that he was a retired hero. He prepared for this moment. The moment when someone asked what sort of hero he was and if he had a picture.

Talking and speaking with this man got more intriguing as time went on. She found a way to get him talking by asking more about training, and sure enough, he talked her ear off about heroes and this young boy who he thought had tons of potential.

He told her that he was a pretty good Pro Hero back in the day and that he was the one to call on in times of crisis. He mentioned that his quirk was strength-enhancing and it diminished his health greatly over time. Makima indulged his talks of the past nonetheless and occasionally he'd bring up that boy again like he was something to be proud of.

All she saw was a regular little boy with above-average muscles cleaning up a garbage yard. She didn't understand what this man saw in him. Then again, she couldn't quite grasp a human's sense of pride in another human being. Maybe it was a familial feeling, something that isn't innately about being prideful about one's own self but to share that pride with another. She couldn't understand it, so she kept asking him about the things this boy had accomplished.

To have someone unknowingly love you or be proud of the small things you did, as a father would for a son who did well on a mathematical test, sounded utterly alien to Makima. She compared that to her own childhood with the government never gave her that. It was either a predictable outcome that she excelled in an advanced placement class or a harsh and severe punishment if she ever failed at a course they taught her.

She still recalled those memories vividly.

"As expected of Makima, you've passed with flying colors."

"Why can't you understand? You don't have any learning disabilities, so why are you failing?"

"Friends? No, dear Makima. To have friends in this field is to become weak. Friends are only tools to further your standing, remember that."

"A hug? We don't do that around here, Makima. To show empathy to others is to be taken advantage of. The only time you ask for a hug is when you want something."

"I want her ready by tomorrow. What do you mean she's a child? She's not human. She doesn't have rights; she's a devil."

Makima clenched her armrest tightly and smiled when she finally got rid of those voices. Of those people. She remembered having the Japanese Prime Minster gather all of the people who raised her and their families into a room for her to deal with as she saw fit.

Their screams and shouts were like a musical composition made entirely of their combined suffering. She'd ordered the teacher who taught her all her known subjects to gouge her eyes out; she forced the man who taught her all of those useful psychology tricks to continuously slam his head against his own work desk until he couldn't think; she made the man who taught her how to use her powers against other people watch as her loyal dogs mauled his seven-year-old daughter to pieces; she let go of those demonic thoughts with a sharp exhale and slowly opened her eyes back to the real world.

"Can you tell me more? I want to know more about your time with this boy and… of your old mentor."

The skeletal man smiled. "Of course."

Toshinori thought that this was a first. He never sat down on a crappy beach filled with trash and expected to tell parts of his life story to a complete stranger. It was fulfilling to get old memories off his chest with someone and had them completely invested in his tale.

She was genuinely laughing at the times he told her about his mentor who scolded him on something he shouldn't have done, or when he, in a time of crisis, had to fight with a villain who shrunk his clothing, revealing his ass cheeks to the public. They stayed an hour longer talking about stuff like that and he didn't mind telling her more. She never once interrupted his stories, she just listened.

And Toshinori was never a ladies' man, but he thought it was the first time he'd made a woman cry about something like this. He didn't point it out because the woman wasn't wiping them away, she just let them continue to flow like a river. She just kept staring at him with those eyes and waited for him to continue. It was sad and depressing, and he couldn't stand seeing those tears any longer, his heroic side would never stand for it. He got out of his chair and stood in front of her, gesturing to stand up as well as he held her hand.

"What are you doing? Is your student-" The woman was wiping tears away with one hand, that genuine and somber smile still present on her. Toshinori without a second thought pulled her closer and gave her a hug.

She went quiet and it looked like she was speechless. In fact, she seemed as though she froze into solid ice and it made Toshinori think he was hugging a log.

Midoriya's muscles were on fire and felt like jelly as he stumbled over to All-Might's lawn chair. He stopped himself when he was that his idol was hugging some random lady. All-Might obviously saw and gave him a brief wave over the woman's shoulder and kept talking to her.

He didn't want to interrupt anything and just laid back on the sand, staring at the dark-blue sky as it began pushing the sun down.

Makima didn't understand what had transpired. She was still processing what that man said to her and was staring at the little note he gave her while waiting for a taxi. This was the first time someone hugged her without asking. She felt no malice or ulterior motive behind his embrace either. It was just a hug and it felt so strange to her. She brought up the tiny piece of paper he gave her and read the little note.

'Don't bottle up your emotions.' She crumbled the note and stuffed it into a pocket in her dress.

Makima felt conflicted and kept thinking about the whole thing on the ride back to her hotel. Did he hug her because he was thankful that someone listened to his boring life story?

Did he do that because her made-up personality for him actually looked like she enjoyed his stories about some dead and gone mentor, and he wanted to express gratitude for that?

Her mind came up with so many conclusions as to why she got a hug out of everything. She only cried because she felt envious of him. She hated how he told her about this family of friends he had who cared for him. She disliked how much affection was oozing out of his soul. All Makima could think about was how greedy that man was with what she wanted. It was like dangling food in front of a hungry person and having the audacity to savor every bite in front of them as they starved. It made her angry that this fake pitiful feeling was welling up inside of her because of this one interaction. She'd wished she left the beach the moment she saw it, so she would have never met this stranger.

What she didn't know was that a part of her, the tiniest part that made her slightly human, knew those were excuses and lies. That minuscule part of Makima which contained a sliver of empathy, wanted to stay and listen to more of those stories.

The driver, on the other hand, saw a frown on that woman's face in his rearview mirror throughout the whole ride back.

Birds were chirping and the cold morning dew swept over the outside of Giran's bar. It was almost sunrise, but his new-soon-to-be business partner demanded that they meet as early as possible. The way she talked this morning on the phone with him was nothing short of Makima feeling irritated about something. Something obviously got her panties twisted in a bunch and Giran didn't dare ask. He just agreed to meet at six in the goddamn morning and made sure to gather up all the things she wanted from that list she gave him a while back.

Six in the morning, jeez…

A large yellow packet slid across the booth table and a gentle hand took it and opened its contents. Inside were a pristine identification card and driver's license, several personal documents, and a completed resume with loads of references.

"Making all of that was a piece of cake for someone like me. That thing is as good as the real deal. I made sure to get your good side too."

He went through an arduous process of making it the cleanest set of personal information in all of Japan.

"Answer me one thing, you're really wanting to join up with the Musutafu Police Force? Are you serious about that?" Even he, an infamous villain thought that idea was batshit insane.

"You do realize hound dogs like Detective Tsukauchi's bunch don't let go of scents once they get a whiff of you." He wouldn't be surprised if Tsukauchi and a whole gang of Pro Heroes just nabbed his new contact right there and then when she waltzes into that den of pigs.

Makima hummed and nodded, "I've been meaning to get acquainted with the local law enforcement around here. It's a position that I was formerly in, and I'd like to get into a similar work force."

"Geez, you must like being in charge, eh? Holding both the whip and leash at the same time?"

"Something like that."

Makima didn't acknowledge Giran for another solid minute and kept looking over the rest of the things she'd asked him to make. A bachelor's in criminal justice and law enforcement from the University of Tokyo, a passport, and many precious certificates and reports needed to get into any typical law enforcement agency.

"These are perfect, thank you, Giran." She put the papers down and gave him her undivided attention, her cold mood diminishing from earlier, which was good. A 'I am pleased' type of Makima was a lot better than 'I'll make you murder the shit out of yourself' type of Makima. "As for your question, I hear that there's quirks similar to mine, isn't that correct?"

He shrugged, "I suppose so, but what about it?"

"You're going to scour far and wide in all of Musutafu to find someone that fits my description so that they can take the fall for it." She continued, "When you find a match, bring me their names, age, addresses, and their close relatives, friends, lovers, everything."

Giran could already imagine the loads of people he'd have to in touch with to make this happen. "What do you need close relatives and all that for?"

"I'll need them to make false alibis for my doppelganger. Just having the one person take the blame won't be enough." She did that signature creepy ass smile that Giran didn't like. "If I could get access to their relatives and friends to say that they have been acting suspicious, like not talking as much, being paranoid over the course of several weeks, and shutting people out, it'd make the perfect breakthrough for those detectives to go after. Isn't it nice to fool a hound's sense of smell by making it sniff out an animal's grave and giving up, only to not realize the corpse hidden underneath it all?" She tapped her nose to emphasize it.

"And the evidence that they have on your red hair and that they know the killer is a woman already?"

"Just leave those little hiccups to me."

Fuck sake, this woman is not right in the head…

"I'll see what I can do. Psychopathic plotting aside, we got to talk about what you owe me now. I'm going to be bending over backwards getting all this, so I expect you to do the same.

He waved his hands and made to light a cigar, giving it a few puffs before speaking, "I've got some friends I'd like you to meet. They're a handful, I'll tell you that right now. Most of them, though I say probably only the one, is a real anarchist; wants to change society's viewpoints about heroes and stuff." He tossed a picture of a young teenager with a bunch of hands on his body.

"This here's their spoiled brat that's sorta leading the whole thing." He tapped the photo with a finger, "His advisor, the one that's probably the competent one, is the guy who's wanting to meet you. He sets up meetings with the brat and his mysterious 'investor' to recruit people for their new and upcoming organization." Giran puffed out some smoke, "Thing is, not a lot of people are meeting up to their expectations. It's like they're building up their own league of criminals, and Kurogiri here," He threw another photo of a man covered in dark blue mist, "was really interested when I told him about you."

"What is this one's quirk?" She pointed at Kurogiri's picture.

"It's teleportation, probably why he's so well needed by that investor. He's a 'get out of jail' free card with that ability." As soon as he said that, Makima's smile grew a tiny bit, "I'm afraid I don't know much about the brat. It has something to do with his hands, or so I'm told."

"Hm, that's alright. And what is this about a job they're wanting me for?" Her eyes focused back onto him, and Giran always felt as though it was piercing directly into him. He shuffled a bit in his seat uncomfortably and took another hit of his cigar.

"These guys want to break into the U.A High School to whack All-Might for good." Giran lifted a finger before Makima could say anything, "And I know, it sounds like the most dumbest plan I've ever heard, but apparently, they got some secret weapon against the big guy. Something that was made to fight him one-on-one."

A weapon to take down Japan's mightiest and strongest hero? Was it a gun or a person?

"Dumb ideas aside, they need people to distract the other heroes while their weapon goes to work on All-Might. That is where you come in." He pulled out another packet with photos of a separate training area inside the school called the Unforeseen Simulation Joint. "You're going to be with a few groups of other villains that will keep the school kiddies at bay, though it won't be easy. I hear that each group will have to take care of either a supporting teacher there or if you're unlucky, a pro hero like Eraser Head."

Makima tilted her head at the title, "Eraser Head?" A man with a pencil eraser on his head came to her mind.

"He's trouble, especially to you. He has the ability to temporarily erase the quirks of anyone he looks at."

Makima hummed at the thought of this Eraser Head, his quirk sounded really useful. More useful than her current dog. She glanced over to Gyu in the corner of Giran's bar who jumped a little when he caught her staring at him.

"The kids themselves will probably be push-overs, and the areas are all meant to be rescue joints, like a simulation kinda. There will be urban areas with alleyways, your specialty," He earned a little chuckle from Makima. Giran did a little fist pump in his mind, "Others will include burning buildings, forests, or a flooded zone."

"And when will I meet these clients?"

"They'll be here in about a few weeks through Kurogiri's portal. They said they had to take care of some business up in Hosu and Kamino, so we may have a bit of a delay before you actually meet them. Oh, and a word of advice, don't tell them too much about your power. You'll have them pounding on your hotel room every day with how useful it sounds. Just tell them a little white lie that it has a time limit or only works on certain conditions. It won't be good if my partner is suddenly whisked away from me."

"Hm, I'll keep that in mind." She saw him slam a bottle of black fluid and a pair of dark denim clothes too onto the table.

"You'll also have to change up your look for these guys and for your crazy-ass police infiltration. I like them, well, that's a lie, I only like Kurogiri, really. But, it'd be better if you wore something more discreet for them and for the attack on the USJ.

Giran tapped the bottle and it switched colors slowly, "It's black dye for your hair. Don't worry, it's really neat, I got it from some of my support-gear contacts up in the Americas. Just pour it on your head and snap your fingers. It changes from black to your original hair color in about a minute or two, give or take."

"And these clothes…" She lifted up the stone-washed denim jacket and pants, noticing the plates inside the coat's fabric.

"Bulletproof denim jacket and jeans, my friend. I'm really proud that these things will finally be put to use. You see I got these for a girl I liked and she said they didn't fit her and…" He saw Makima was ignoring him again. "Never mind, in any case, they're good to last a couple shots."

"Thank you, Giran. I'll be sure to express my gratitude after all this is done and finished."

"You're welcome. Just remember, don't tell those guys too much."

All she did was give him a nod and exited the bar. He ran a hand through his hair, sitting with that woman is like walking on thin ice half of the time. He'd hoped that with his gifts, she'd look at him more favorably. Giran already drew up plans of planning a bank heist with her powers

Just baby steps, Giran. Just baby steps.

Seven weeks.

It had been seven weeks and nothing resembling his suspect had popped up at all. Ever since he and that young boy who could talk with animals got a lead, it was like this girl just up and disappeared. He knew that with the news getting out, any chance of finding this control quirk user had vanished. She'd probably seen the articles and figured it'd be better to skip town or stop for a while. He wished he could've slapped the person responsible for leaking it.

Tsukauchi looked up to the sky and saw the grey clouds forming, weeping as if they knew that this case was becoming muddier.

The pitter-patter of rain came shortly afterward and he rushed to get inside a busy café. A nice warm latte would ease his nerves and give him time to think of what to do next. Some of his buddies said that this might turn into a cold case with how little they'd gotten with it - that fact was further solidified when the overseas tests came back the same as theirs - this person didn't exist. Whoever they were, they were doing a damn good job at being incognito.

He thanked the girl who made him his latte and took a seat next to the café's exit, taking his trench coat off and placing it on his chair.

More rain lightly splattered against the windows with a small wind picking up, it was getting heavier. He'd have to wait here for a while until it died down. He looked outside, hoping to at least be distracted by the scenery.

People out in the rain were jogging or walking faster to find cover and umbrellas soon came out as the clouds spat out beads of water from the sky. Puddles began forming nearby and the faint plinks of the rain became a bit therapeutic to Tsukauchi's ears.

He heard conversations of some schoolboys talking about U.A. and how they planned to ace the entrance exam, with one of them sounding more arrogant than all the others. Tsukauchi tuned out that riff-raff and brought out his phone, checking to see if he'd gotten any texts or missed calls while out today.

News articles pertaining to upcoming events, like a dancing competition for youth ages fourteen and older, or a visit from the United States with their own number one hero Captain Freedom. Tsukauchi's index finger scrolled through more articles and it just showed more stuff he didn't care about.

Tsukauchi sipped more at his latte and saw a text from the Chief and he read it thoroughly.

'Detective, I am elated to tell you that we're getting some help from the Hosu branch on your case. They recommended one of their newer additions to the force that specializes in analyzing crime scenes. From what I can tell you, she's determined, hard-working, and a no-nonsense kind of character. Swing by the office to introduce yourself when you get the chance.'

Another addition to the Musutafu Police Force? Tsukauchi downed the last bit of his coffee and went back to his notes, thinking of what he could show this new recruit about this case that he didn't already know. If he was lucky, maybe she'd point out some grand flaw in his analyzations and find a hidden clue that neither he nor the rest of the force didn't figure out yet.

Tsukauchi trudged through the rain with an umbrella he got from the café owner, who insisted that a man of the law should take it and get back to work. He took it with great thanks and kept trying to keep his hat on his head without the strong wind trying to blow it away.

It took a while to get back to the building, but he'd made it with only a slight bit of his trench coat being drenched. He pulled open the doors and was welcomed by the usual secretary at the front entrance of the lobby who told him that the Chief and the others were waiting for him.

He walked further in, seeing a large crowd of his fellow officers peeking through the cubicles and whispering to one another. Each of them curious about the new addition.

"She's really pretty." One young buzz-cut officer whispered.

"You think she's one of those geniuses? She looks really young!" A pony-tailed officer whispered back.

"Man, those guys in Hosu are lucky…." A middle-aged cop with a mustache longingly sighed blissfully.

"The sexy cavalry has arrived!" A pudgy officer with scales on her face said.

"Tsukauchi's got to be the luckiest son of a bitch to be working alongside that." They all tilted their heads to the side as if to stare at something, some blood coming from their noses as they grinned at each other and high-fived one another.

He squeezed past the leering, if not unprofessional group of officers, and strode to Chief Kenji who had a hand on this woman's shoulder. She was a nice enough-looking lady. She had black hair and yellow eyes in a long-sleeved dress shirt with a black tie and some fitted black pants accompanied by brown shoes. Her hair was tied up into a bun and she had steel-colored glasses on.

"Ah, you've made it, Tsukauchi! I was just showing her around the office, woof." He brought the young woman forward. "I want you to meet Mashiro Hayakawa, our newest addition to the team and your brand new partner, woof."

If eyes could pierce souls, then hers certainly did when she made to shake Tsukauchi's hand. "I've heard a lot about you, Tsukauchi." Mashiro's voice was serene as it was professional. "I aim to not be a burden to you and hope to be in your care."

Chief Kenji laughed and looked at Mashiro with his dog-like grin. "How about you go and get acquainted with the rest of the force? Sansa here can show you where your desk is afterward, woof." The feline officer saluted and escorted the woman away from them.

"So, what do you think of her? I've read her reports and they're all outstanding in terms of her capabilities."

Tsukauchi rubbed his head, "I don't know yet, I've only just met her, Chief." He glanced over Chief Kenji's shoulder to see Hayakawa talking politely with Gori. He sighed a bit after getting the feeling that Hosu did this as some sort of pitiful move for his department. "And why is Hosu's bunch suddenly wanting to help us? It seems pretty strange to want to send us someone like Hayakawa out of the blue."

"Eh, they said she wanted to transfer and get a new feel for things in a different environment, woof. The guys in Hosu recommended her to us and I couldn't say no to more help, woof."

"Hmm," Tsukauchi watched Hayakawa from afar as she shook hands with their dispatchers, officers, and even their undercover unit as Monika, one of their best, viciously started chatting away with her. "I'll be in my office. I'll ask Sansa to have her swing by soon enough."

Now if he could only figure out how to bring this case back to life…

AN:

I wonder who this nice Hayakawa is and why she's starting to make me want to believe that she is, indeed, a well-liked and known officer from Hosu City. I can't ever imagine saying no to whatever she asks of me. :D

Other than mind tricks, Makima feeling completely thrown off in that beginning section was, in part, due to her presence in this new world. She still has that messed up mindset which believes that she can only have people love her out of fear or manipulation. In this, I thought that a tiny part of her yearned for what Toshinori was talking about - friends who love you, regardless of your failures or upbringing, and a mentor figure who actually gives a damn about your accomplishments. Makima doesn't quite get that. She knows what it is, but as a Devil, that concept is unknown to her as a human emotion. This feeling of empathy is like oil and water within Makima and it'll continue to be thrown at her while she tries to insert herself into this society as ruthlessly as possible.