CHAPTER 6: THE AFTERMATH
Dabi had escaped, which in itself had been a miracle, the symbol of peace had been on his ass, distracting him with some burn up jackasses had been the perfect way to distract someone so high strung as All-Might.
The escape of the coliseum proper had been trickier, but he was everything but a quitter, he is a survivor, and survive this he did, despite the chokehold the police and the military had made on the coliseum and the fact the top ranked heroes of Japan where there pretty much destroying asses left and right, Dabi's escape was nothing but miraculous.
After pretty much running until his legs gave in, Dabi made sure no one had followed him, he was able to reorient himself and correct his route, now heading back home.
Home being used as loosely as possible, it was a warehouse that had seen better days, but it had lights, water, and most important no one knew about it, so he could go there whenever he pleased without issue.
Which he did, once he made a pit stop.
"Two Plus Ultra combo please"
After making his buy, and paying (it left less of a trail than stealing) he made his way back home.
His trek back to the warehouse was uneventful, it seemed the majority of the police force had been called for the raid there, which suited him just fine, he wasn't on the mood for a fight, despite those in the underground believe of him, he isn't a brute that looks for a fight and someone to kill.
He already has his own hit list, when the time is right, then he will go full retard with his Quirk and kill, kill and kill, maybe maim, but definitely kill.
After fifteen minutes of walking, he finally made it home, the fences were as usual, closed, but he knew a way around them, after finding the true entrance, he made his way to the warehouse proper, the main door was a no go because duh it was stupid to use the front door for a property that is supposed to be abandoned.
So he went to the side, with a grin he saw the 'secondary' entrance, a hole on the side that was covered with wood and piled up cars, it had taken a while for him to make it a hidden entrance that no one would look at it two times, but he made one, it was a simple affair of moving the wood, entering and placing it back, the days were getting colder and the warehouse could get colder if he wasn't careful.
The inside wasn't so different, the warehouse had been, at one point in the era before Quirk an assembly line, then Quirks came and chaos followed, the aftermath was the abandonment of several properties, this one in particular was unique because it was made in brick, as a result it had resisted the test of time, much to Dabi's pleasant surprise, while most of it was empty, the offices weren't.
Making to a set of stairs, Dabi made his way onward, once up, he opened the door of the office, the doors were of wood and the other side had blankets to keep the heat inside, the windows were painted black and the walls all had blankets, the floors had rugs over rugs, this to prevent heat to leaving the room too fast and any sort of light that might indicate there is a person inside.
Dabi didn't liked to share, this was his home, his castle, his shit, but…
"YO Dabilicuos, you're early"
You can't really say no to Himiko Toga, the 'Yandere' of Osaka.
Never in a million years would any villain imagine the 'arsonist of Musutafu' and the 'Butcher of Osaka' would be sharing a roof, let alone food and protection, but here they were.
It was a rather boring story to be honest, one day Toga just…appeared on his sofa after he had taken a nap, eating his food, seeing on his TV, part of him wanted to boil her alive.
Then she motioned him to the sofa and a chicken leg, and the rest is history, apart from an attempt of her to suck his blood while he was asleep and the one time he burned her underwear out of spite, and the time she stabbed him in the foot, and the time he dropped a chair on her foot, and the time he switched the heater of the water while she was washing, and the time she slammed what he assumed was sentient rice that tried to eat his face and was probably two years old…
Yeah it was a crazy roommate relationship.
"Yeah, brought dinner" he said as he placed the 'dinner' on her hands, for her part Himiko actually looked at Dabi with some concern, he was never this early.
"Dabi" her tone was serious as he unpacked the dinner, "What happened?"
"There was a raid" Dabi said as he sat on the sofa and turned the TV on.
"Excuse me?" Toga said with a shocked look, "There was a raid in the coliseum?" he nodded, "That's impossible…the defenses?"
"Didn't worked, probably sabotaged beforehand"
"The monsters there?"
"Killed, I don't know what happened in the pens, but considering that All-Might was there"
"ALL-MIGHT?" Toga exclaimed in shock, "The hell the number one hero is doing here? Wasn't he in Tokyo?"
"Apparently not anymore" Dabi answered, "Eat your burger" he added as he took a bite of his All-Mighty burger, with three meats, five buns and enough cheese, vegetables and condiments to cause a heart attack to someone without a Quirk or a heart condition.
To Dabi and Toga, whose Quirks activations left them starved, this was an average dinner.
"So" Toga began, taking a sip of her drink, "The coliseum it's a bust now"
"Yep"
"The BOW's were a no go, they were sabotaged and All-Might and the top heroes of the country collectively skull-fucked the Troupe"
"That's about the size of it, oh also there was a T-Doll, don't know what happened to it, it went to the pens, and Chronostasis was there"
"…The hell a Yakuza is doing there"
"Apparently looking for a little girl, the source of the Quirk Erasing Bullets" Dabi supplied.
"With all that chaos I'm pretty sure none made it out" Toga muttered, taking another chomp of her hamburger, and looking at the TV.
"Odd, this kind of thing would be plastered all over the news" she added with a frown.
"Nah, considering the military was involved, they want to keep this as tight lipped as possible, especially with the Troupe involved, I give it three days before they find out via any loose lip dickhead" Dabi supplied.
"Four, the Troupe was a no show according to the government, they'll try to downplay it and try to have one of their orators try to speak out the mess as much as possible" Toga grinded.
Dabi just tsk'ed, but kept eating in peace, he had escaped, he was safe, and he had a full belly right now.
Life was good, and the Troupe could blow him for all he cared.
"…He was pissed"
"Oh really? How can you tell?"
Mirko looked at Oni and Spartan, and slapped the back of their heads with her hands, "Shut up you numbskulls" she snapped, kicking the severed head of a Deathclaw away, the body didn't lay far away, and she could tell by a simple glance that the head had been forcefully yanked off its neck, she didn't need a doctor to tell her that.
For the other corpses littering the hall, they might need one, or ten, and a broom.
"Still, they lay waste on an entire contingent of BOW's, the thing without a head its new to me" Oni stated.
"Man, the Troupe only deployed GOLEM's and Under Takers, I never seen half of the things that lay on the hall till this day" Spartan replied.
"True, maybe these were prototypes" Oni added.
"Does it matter? They're dead" Mirko snapped, walking past them.
"It should" Nighteye stated, looking at a dead Licker, "Till today we had only hearsay about many of the Troupe's BOW's, the GOLEM's and Under Taker units were fairly seen in North America and Europe, we had never seen something like the Lickers, the Nemesis or the Deathclaws" he added with a straight face.
"Deathclaws? That's how we are calling them?" Oni pointed to the decapitated corpse of the Deathclaw in question, Nighteye nodded.
"Fitting name, how the hell they came up with everything else, I mean you just don't get up one day and say 'I want to create a giant lizard with giant claws and I'll call it Deathclaw' this shit takes time" Spartan muttered.
Nighteye for his part kept silent, he wanted to tell them, really wanted to tell them that every single creature they had encountered was in fact a video game monster made real, but he held back, this information was a need to know basis, at least for the moment, right now he knew the Public Safety committee was preparing itself for a meeting with him and the top heroes of Japan, in at least three day time, it was standard in these kind of raids, then again there was anything but standard on this raid.
The military had been involved, a necessity considering who they were dealing with, the police too, sending both regular cops and SWAT units, so they would be sending representatives for the meeting as well, those being the chief of police of Musutafu and the General in charge of the units send to aid them in the raid, alongside a representative of the…Emperor.
It had escalated to be perfectly honest, then again dismantling a huge recruiting center of a known terrorist organization that has been threating pretty much everyone, the emperor and his family had not been exempt of such threats, and even dealt with some of them, the imperial palace had always held itself in high regard as impenetrable, not even All For One had been able to penetrate its walls in his time.
Then The Troupe pretty much dropped a BOW platoon on their heads via helicopter, it was the first sighting of the GOLEM's in Japan, and it almost ended with the death of the royal family that day, it was just sheer luck that their children's practiced their Quirks with their bodyguards, as a result they were more prepared for an assault.
Sighing, Nighteye and company kept their walk in the halls under the coliseum, the amount of dead BOW's was staggering to say the least, also the amount of bullet casings, it was obvious that while Izuku had been the main cause of death, his mother, who at the time was found with a machinegun, was also responsible for many a death.
They had to actually tiptoe on several parts, not because they were afraid one of the corpses would stand up and attack them, but because at points the floor was so chockfull with body parts, blood and corpses that they had to look around to place their feet and not slip on the massive puddles of blood and gore.
At long last they made it to what seemed to be the main cell, the sight of two Under Taker stuck to the head on a wall, more like impaled but the point stood.
"Is…this Obsidian?" Oni wondered, tapping the walls of the cell.
"It is" Mirko stated, "Never seen so much in my life in one sole spot thought" she added.
"One of Bee's henchmen has a Quirk that allows him to manipulate Obsidian of any quality and pretty much ultra-compressed it to create nigh indestructible constructs, I assume this is one, a jail cell he can only manipulate open" Nighteye stated.
"Yeah, and look up" Spartan stated as they looked up, and saw a broken projector, "One of those projectors, it looks like a thunder hit it dead on, it's fried" he added.
"Look at the ground man, it looks like a thunder crashed in this particular spot" Oni added, "What kind of Quirk that kid has? I saw him wield a hammer and had six arms" he wondered.
"It's a rare Quirk to be honest" Nighteye mentioned, looking at the group.
"And how do you know about anything about the brat" Mirko wondered.
"Me and Lemillion went to his home for some questions, he is the source of many of the things we now know about Aldera and their inner workings" Nighteye began, "During our talk the subject of his Quirk came about, and he told us, albeit with some trepidation, his Quirk has a negative dogma in our current society" he added.
"What, he steal Quirks" Mirko asked in a joking manner.
"No" Oni and Spartan breathed a sigh of relieve, "He apparently can copy powers…permanently" he dropped the bombshell.
"He copies Quirks permanently?" Mirko all but screamed, seeing how Nighteye approached a spot of the cell, and kneeled, spotting a small, dying out seed with roots and covered in blood, it didn't take too much to figure out to who that blood belonged to.
Izuku had a nasty looking wound on his forehead.
"I never mentioned he could copy Quirks, just powers"
"The fuck that means?" Mirko asked, looking how Nighteye pulled a plastic bag and some tweezers and use it to put the seed covered in blood and with roots into the bag, then seal it, the freaky part, she swears the roots moved a little.
But one thing still hung on her head after they began their trek back into the surface to signal the forensic team to do the clean-up, the kid's Quirk.
It was obviously a copy Quirk that much she could infer, there was a stigma in their society, mostly Japan to those kinds of Quirks, mostly thanks to the Kappa, many assumed the Kappa copied Quirks, but she knew better, every hero with five years of service knew better.
A file its always give to a hero who has five years under their belt, an attachment note one can sign or do not, it changes a lot, if you sign they you commit yourself to keep the secret, if you don't, then you can continue your life as a hero without a burden of a secret.
Obviously she signed hers, what she read there freaked her out, a man that could steals Quirks and use them, a Quirk that, when used violently, at best left someone catatonic and at worst left them brain dead, a Quirk belonging to a villain that subdued Japan years before her own mother was even born.
When she asked why they were given this, the answer of the governmental representative chill her to the bone.
'To be prepared' he had said, apparently no one from their higher up to their mothers believed the man was dead, or that he hadn't left a legacy behind, a son or a daughter to carry out his will, and if so said person had his Quirk.
People might call Japanese paranoid people, she like to think they are prepared for 'unforeseen consequences' and a man that could steal Quirks and might be alive or with heirs with a bone to pick was definitely such scenario.
One that she dreaded.
On their way to 'the pens' as they were know, she noted a hand, or better said a forearm and a hand not laying far, the forearm looked burnt, exposing a silver bone and wires that were coated in white liquid, the hand that lay not far was smashed in, a blade under the palm was not far behind, also it had the same white liquid pouring out of the wound.
Mirko looked at both limbs, and her blood ran cold, "Shit! Nighteye" she called the former sidekick of All-Might, "Might wanna interrogate that crazy bitch of Bee when she wakes up, I think the Midoriyas didn't just ran against BOW's and a fucking Yakuza"
The THOR, it was, in laymen terms, a teleporter, the first of its kind, after studying Quirk users with teleportation Quirks (and dissecting them) they had been able to create a compact teleported that could be carried anywhere and used at any time.
But it had its kinks to work with in first place, like most teleportation's, it needed a destination, and the THOR needed a relay to be used effectively, two messy accidents had taught them that.
The second problem had not been the energy requirements, but rather the user in question, as they learned right now…
"Jesus! Clam its leg, where it's leg!"
"It's somewhere in the relay, it just fell off!"
"Start emergency protocols! Prepare an emergency shutdown and 'milk' transfusion!"
"Forget that! Start core shutdown and PB transplant! The body it's a lost!"
Omega, a man clad in black, all black, black shirt, black cargo pants, black boots, black leather gloves, and a blank mask, with no eyeholes in them and with a cloth covering the head and hair, just 'looked' as the recovery team carried M98, or what was left of it, away, all while M98 shuddered as the damage done by Izuku Midoriya was amplified by the THOR transportation.
This was one of the greatest flaws of the THOR, if you want to be teleported, be prepared to suffer, a lot, reason why it was only issued to the Dolls, they were about the only thing that could survive it, and survive it was being used very loosely here, they could move their cores and positronic brains, or PB's for short, the bodies could be recycled for something else, both those two components were the most delicate and important parts of a Terminator Doll, the rest was expendable.
Yet, never before the THOR had delivered them such a damaged Doll, one thing was the readings and telemetry, other was his eyes, Omega stared as M98 was wheeled away, eyes rolled back and leaking white blood, 'milk' as it was called by the technicians due to its coloration and actual flavor being very close to real milk, the last person who drank a whole glass on a dare had his esophagus burned by the concentration of chemicals in it, it might taste like milk, but it behaves more like battery acid.
"I never imagined I would see M98 like this" the handler of M98, just like everyone in the room, unlike him, was clad in a white hazmat suit that clung to his chest, loose on the arms and legs, covering most of the head, and a gas mask covering his face.
Everyone in the Troupe inner workings wore clothes like this, Omega, being of a higher status wore black, as required, while H8, or Handler 8, and the rest of scientists and technicians wore this instead.
No one could know the identity of other personnel, names were forgotten, and while sex did occur among their ranks, it was more informal than anything else, venting, keeping their identities hidden at any time was paramount, although some did show their faces from time to time, but no one knew the names of the others, just their codenames.
"Indeed" Omega whispered, looking at H8 straight at the lenses, "Any idea what those strange energy readings where?" H8 simply motioned his superior to his work space, a desk filled with five monitors and three CPU towers, two keyboards and a mouse that had seen better days.
"Not a clue, they are in the 'exotic' category, and by exotic I mean the guys back in R&D are about to crack their skulls open trying to figure it out, their supercomputer is running blanks" H8 stated.
"There hasn't been too much time since they were recorded, I presume their equipment will be able to catalog it in a day's time" Omega saw H8 shake his head.
"No, when I meant running blanks, what I wanted to say was that one single reading of the over thirty exotic readings we got, crashed their computer" Omega blinked behind his mask.
"It's a supercomputer, a supercomputer that leaves the ones in I-Island looking like solar calculators"
"I know boss, but those readings are off the charts, they violate every single law we can think off, before it crashed the computer catalogued it as emission white, you know what that means" Omega did, emission white of energies.
Energies that should not exist, yet they did, and as a result violated natural laws.
At least the natural laws established by the Troupe, I-Island scientists were stupid in his opinion and was shared among the Troupe scientists, thinking that studying Quirks would open doors to new opportunities for human development, they were blind, Quirks were a poison, and they were all living a dream.
The Troupe would wake them up of that dream, and drag them to a new era, kicking and screaming if needed.
"…Never mind that, have M98 memories copied, and have I44, I45 and I46 study them, and once done, deploy them against Izuku Midoriya" H8 nodded, already relaying the orders on his workplace.
"I will not suffer any kind of delays in our plans, have him killed, have his mother killed and have the child with them killed, then bring the corpses, if nothing else their corpses will help usher our goals" with that said Omega walked away, H8 nodded at his boss commands, not even questioning them.
The Troupe had already killed many people, children included, what was one more?
Two days later, Musutafu's General Hospital…
Paracasual forces, in Eri's opinion, were pretty.
Not that she had much to compared them to, most of her life had been a blend of white, grey and red, and she could associate each color with a mood, white for loneliness, grey for dread, red for pain.
Now there were other colors, blue, purple, yellow, green, sounds too, the staccato of fire, the screeches, the sudden crackle of lighting and the strange sound the Void made, or the very sound of fire so hot it should burn her to cinders yet felt so warm that it chased the bad memories that haunted her.
Green was now a color she associated with protection and warmth, also a strange feeling of…doing something, never before she would have dared to do what she did to that man, also she didn't realize her horn was that sharp, might had used it before if she had, but the point stood, being around them…made her feel…alive.
She didn't feel like a cursed object, the way they smiled at her, how their hands felt so warm and soft, the care, she didn't realized, but she craved that, the warmth, the sense of…belonging, to have someone actually care for you and not being treated like trash.
Sounds that at one point made her afraid made her comfortable, the strange, almost ancient words he spoke it made her believe that with a single word the darkness could be chased away.
For once in her life, Eri felt hope.
Also she got a taste of it.
It tasted to apples, sweet, juicy and refreshing.
She didn't want to let this go.
"Izuku…what the doctor told you about starting fires while on bed" Inko supplied, all while cutting more apple slices for Eri, who had her attention divided between greedily looking at the slices and looking at the miniature sun that floated between Izuku's cupped hands.
"Mom, it's okay, I need to practice, besides this is more of for how long I can hold into it, not making it bigger" Izuku said from his place on the hospital bed and clad in hospital scrubs.
"You're making a miniature sun" Inko stated, "A really warm miniature sun" she added as an afterthought, making another apple slice for Eri to eat, the girl was ravenous when it came to apples.
"It is a sun mom, of course it's warm" Izuku said without looking up, slowly closing his hands over the miniature sun and slowly extinguish it.
"I like the warm" Eri said, munching on a slice and enjoying its taste, Izuku and Inko just shared a small glance as the little girl ate the apple slice with gusto.
After the incident in the coliseum, the trio had been taken to the Musutafu Hospital, first because it was customary for kidnapped people to be taken into a safe location for healing and rest, second because they had been in a combat scenario as well, at the time they hadn't realized, but they had accumulated wound son their escape, it wasn't until everything was said and done that they had realized of it.
Izuku had collapsed the moment they had reached an ambulance, his right leg was swollen due to the pressure he had put into it, he had small black spots on his skin that to the paramedics that had treated him were consistent with bullet impacts, he assumed that Dragon Aspect and the constant use of the Light had made his skin somewhat bullet-proof, but the worse he was an exhaustion symptom acute to the over usage of a Quirk, after all for all their power, a Quirk was a physical ability, like a muscle it can be strained, even tore if overused.
Add that to a strange concoction of drugs that they found in his system later, the wound on his forehead, and a severe case of dehydration, Izuku was put on a bed immediately, the cast on his leg replaced, put on a sling, also put on serum, lots of it while he recovered and his body now strange body functions burned the strange drug cocktail he was sure belonged to the seed that had found home on his forehead and his mom had pulled off.
Inko had wounds as well, grazing shots around her body, mostly her legs and arms, it was a surprise that she or Izuku didn't noticed until a paramedic pointed them out, then Izuku freaked out, and she freaked out, and Eri freaked out, but seeing that most wounds she had were in fact superficial, glancing wounds, bullets coming too close to hit her, but actually spitting open skin, like a knife, there was little to do but to disinfect, clean and stich.
Eri on the other hand, now that was a scary discovery.
She wasn't hurt per se, she presented early signs of dehydration and starvation, at least two days at most, and that was the peak of the iceberg when it came to Eri's wounds.
Once a doctor, with Inko's help, removed her bandages on her arms and legs, the horror truly began, her arms, at least forearms had a myriad of aging scars that were both superficial and thin to deep and wide, almost leaving crevices over her skin, however there was a recent wound in her arm, showing signs that it had been…peeled off, showing the flesh underneath.
Her legs, while not showing the same amount of scars, did had wounds, more precisely on her soles, they were old also, but one could infer that when done, they had hurt her and limited her movement a lot, to makes matters worse, her right calve was also missing a small chunk of skin, it would have been chalked as falling off and scrapping her leg, if it wasn't for the surgical like precision both wounds had, squared shaped, the edge of the skin around it showing signs of burning, likely a laser, which somehow prevented the wound from bleeding too much.
Eri showed…shame of those wounds, she looked at them and seemed to zone out, and pale, likely remembering the person who did them in the first place, suffice to say that the Doctor in attendance had been angry enough for both Inko and Izuku, being a parent himself with a child of Eri's age.
Then Eri dropped the bombshell, the lack of skin came also with…molestation.
The room they were now was in fact the second room, the first room they had been was now…uninhabitable thanks to Izuku suddenly bursting into flames so hot that they melted the ceramic of the floor and fused it with the bed he was in.
Also Eri said they had took blood and tears of her, officially the Troupe was in Izuku's 'I'm going to cave their skulls in' list, a very surprisingly short list, so far they were the only names in it.
After that they remained in the hospital, under police protection and custody, despite everything that had happened, Izuku, Inko and Eri were key witnesses of the events that transpired two nights ago, and while most of the interrogation had been done after they arrived to the hospital, there was no guarantee that the police would come asking for more, especially asking for Eri's cooperation, the Yakuza who they encountered knew Eri on a personal basis, and Eri was afraid enough of him to know who he was, and who he worked for.
To be able dismantle one of the last Yakuza organizations in Japan had been a huge goal for the police and heroes in general, to be able to get rid of the shadow of the organization and name itself brought was something many in the law enforcement department wished, one less problem to deal with.
KNOCK! KNOCK! KNOCK!
Inko tensed, gripping the knife in her hand a little tighter than usual.
"Come in" she called, letting a small breath out as she saw the form of the Detective Naomasa Tsukauchi enter the room.
"Midoriya-san, Midoriya-kun, Eri-chan, afternoon" Naomasa called, taking his hat off and letting someone else enter, Izuku's breath hitched.
"Oh my god, it's the youthful heroine, Recovery Girl" he geeked out, spotting the aged form of the legendary medic and heroine, despite her age and obvious lack of height, she carried herself with an aura of pride, pride for her work that is.
"Well, good to finally meet the child that has All-Might all flustered and worried about" Recovery Girl said, entering the room, which made Izuku flustered even more, and began to mutter, a lot.
For a minute, straight.
Eventually it would be Eri who would silence him, with a slice of apple shoved to his flapping mouth, "Thank you child, although it was fascinating to see him talk without breathing at such speed" Recovery Girl said, walking to the bed and taking the medical notes nearby and started to read them.
"Well, that could have gone better, onto business then, I know you three want to leave as soon as possible" Naomasa began, "First order of business, thanks to your efforts, you spared us a very difficult fight in securing the coliseum, on behalf of the Police Force we thank you" he said with a small bow to the trio.
Inko and Izuku flustered, waving their arms around, saying 'it was nothing' at the same time, it was kinda cute to see from who Izuku got his sensibilities.
"With that out of the way, we got to the second part of this meeting, due to the fact you three can identify the main actors that orchestrated your kidnapping, it is sensible to put you three in witness protection program, and no we are not changing your names, we will have a police and hero detail escorting you whenever you go until the day of the trial occurs" Naomasa began.
"Trial? There's going to be a trial?" Izuku wondered out loud.
"Yes Midoriya-kun, ignoring the fact they all knew this was a Troupe operation, every single soul in the coliseum was engaging in some very illegal deals, drugs deals, weapon trafficking, assassinations believe it or not, hell we have reasons to believe some of the older individuals captured in the coliseum were in fact able to influence the Mayor elections two years ago, and to make matters worse, half of them belong to Aldera High, students and teachers alike" Izuku actually was without words.
"Even the teachers?" Naomasa nodded.
"The one you used to learn from was exempt of any kind of culpability, aside negligence, oddly enough there was no one from your class in the coliseum, which leads us to believe your class in particular was some sort of…control specimen or something, with the ties the Troupe had in the coliseum and the knowledge we have so far, we can assume the teachers captured knew about the Troupe, and your entire class was a social experiment of some sort, but right now that's only speculations" Izuku looked rather…pale at that revelation.
"…Are you trying to say that my son's suffering so far has been an experiment?" Inko hissed at Naomasa.
"We can't really tell unless we start interrogations proper, the amount of captures that night alone broke the current record the station had on captures on raids by a large margin, the fact most of them are minors makes it worse, every single one of them will have a lawyer or their legal guardian present during those interrogations, we cannot allow us to fail now, especially with what we got during the raid" Naomasa continued as he walked around the room, picked a chair and sat down.
Recovery Girl just kept reading the medical file of Izuku.
"Right now we have officers working overtime in the interrogations, gathering evidence and believe it or not, video evidence, the coliseum had serves on it, tied to the security cameras that were located in the entrances and the pens" Izuku tensed up, "By the way congratulations, you're the first civilian, if not the first Quirk user period to make a T-Doll retreat with severe damage AND expose a means of escape we didn't knew about them" Naomasa praised.
"As I heard it, the scientists of I-Island want to meet you and study your Quirk in detail" Recovery Girl said with a smile.
"…Wait…I…Island…how…why…how" Izuku whispered, and Recovery Girl had to raise an eyebrow, his whispers were loud enough to be confused as normal voice tone.
"I'll explain that later, continue detective" Recovery Girl said, Naomasa nodded, not wanting to be on the bad side of the elderly nurse that could bend All-Might to a blubbering mess with a glance.
"Very well, despite your accomplishment, and raking the highest kill count, there is more, a T-Doll has not been in Japan for the past five years, the last confirmed sighting was by Endeavor, and usually their sighting means that they are carrying sensitive Troupe operations, the fact it engaged you personally tells us that you were the sensitive operation the Doll was supposed to take care off"
"That doesn't fill me with confidence" Izuku muttered.
"Can relate, having a bullseye painted on your back can be intimidating, but I heard you want to be a Hero, that comes with the territory" Naomasa encouraged, "Just don't let this get over your head, last thing we need it's another power hungry would be villain" Izuku shook his head vigorously, making Naomasa smile.
"the drivers we found on their servers will allow us to pin a lot of those kids with charges that begin with assault and end with first degree homicide and homicide with Quirk, some of them will be as old as Recovery Girl is now when they get out" so said woman was about to slam her cane on the shin of the detective, but bit the urge to do so, he was right after all.
A complete waste of potential in her honest opinion.
"And our testimony will sink them further, good" Inko stated, honestly happy that this would have a fitting ending.
"Yeah, but we got an issue" Naomasa began, reaching for his coat and pulling some pictures, then placing them on the bed, Inko reached for them, and actually gasped in shock.
"Mom?" Izuku asked, Inko wordlessly handed the pictures to her son, and he gasped as well.
The department complex where they lived was nothing more than rubble, every single apartment, just gone.
"…What happened?" Izuku asked.
"It happened a day ago, witnesses claim a man with a green furred coat" Eri tensed, "And a, and I quote, toucan like mask covering his mouth" Eri began to shake, "Came around, touched a wall of the building, and…this is the result" Naomasa stated.
"No" Eri whispered, "He's gonna find mecan'tfindmewontfindme" Eri's rant ended when Izuku hugged her, hard.
"Eri, calm down, take deep breaths, with me, Su'um ahrk morah" Izuku began.
"Su-"
"Su'um ahrk morah"
"Su'um…ahrk…morah"
"Again, Su'um ahrk morah"
"Su'um ahrk morah"
"Good, su'um ahrk morah, breath and focus" Izuku said, still holding Eri, who began to take deep breaths and slowly stop her panic attack, or the beginning of one.
"Well, that about confirms it" Naomasa began seeing Izuku comfort Eri, "No one aside the heroes and very selected officers knew about where you guys lived or your names, just your faces, which lead us to believe we have a mole, there was no way this guy knew about you guys, let alone where you lived" Naomasa began, "And before you panic, the hospital is being currently patrolled by several heroes, if this guy tries anything, we'll be ready" Eri actually shook her head.
"You won't" she began, taking deep breaths, "…Overhaul…used me…to make something" Eri continued.
"So his name's Overhaul" Naomasa muttered, "About two years ago, a new drug began flowing in the underworld, a drug that could cancel Quirks and be fired from a gun, its potency began to increase, from minutes to the current standard, two hours" Naomasa said, glancing at Eri's arms, and the myriad of scars dotted in them.
A girl as young as her shouldn't had so many scars, if none at all.
"He did this to you, right?" Eri slowly nodded, "How?" he asked.
"…He…touches you…then there is pain…then darkness…then pain again, and again and again" she whispered, glancing at her arms, "Sometimes I would…get away…he didn't like that…so he…broke me apart and…put me together…as painful…as possible" she added with a choked sob, turning to Izuku and burying her face on his chest, crying.
Naomasa looked at the sobbing child, then at Izuku, who looked less than happy about what was told, he seemed…really considering going after Overhaul for what he did to Eri.
"And after seeing what he did to those BOW's" Naomasa thought, "I shudder to think how this battle will end" with a sigh the detective patted Eri's head.
"Eri, listen to me very carefully" Naomasa began, "I know you won't like this, to bring more painful memories" he added, taking a deep breath, "But we need to know more about him, where's his base, who are his allies, how developed the bullets are, we need that info, so others don't suffer like you" Eri was now sobbing, but not as loud as before.
"Detective, she already suffered enough" Inko interfered, "Wouldn't be better if you let her rest?" she asked.
Naomasa shook his head, "Impossible, what Overhaul did to your home was clearly a message, and while we restricted the information of your location, it is just a matter of time before he figures out, so we have a plan" Naomasa began, "But first, Eri, can I believe in you, who believes in me?"
"…that was so bad" Eri said with a snort, also snorting some mucus from her nose, then cleaning it up with her scrubs, "But yes" she stated, looking at Izuku and Inko for support.
"We'll be here all the way" Inko said with a kind smile, "We won't go anywhere, you're stuck with us" Eri smiled at that statement.
"Okay, that's good, because Eri here is pretty much a ghost" Naomasa added, "No files, no birth certificate, not even a facebook picture with her on it, this Overhaul went to great lengths to erase her of the map, thankfully we can use this to our advantage" the detective stated.
"How?" Izuku asked.
"Right now little Eri is registered, but under Inko Midoriya's legal custody, those files are sealed now due to the Incognito clause most heroes can apply their families and associates to" Naomasa said.
"But I don't have a hero relative" Inko summarized.
"No, but you work on a hero agency, Magma Dragoon and Frost vouched for your family, as of right now, only the top ten can access those files, only government officials with the right clearance can access them, if someone tries to get them, we'll know, and they will wish it was Mirko who got them, trust me" Naomasa stated seriously, "Albeit we might have a clue who might have leaked your home location" he added as an afterthought.
"But never mind that" he said, reaching for his coat again, and pulling what seemed a recorded from its inner pockets, then placing it in front of Eri and Izuku.
"Now Eri-chan, like Midoriya-kun said, breath and focus, when you're ready, just nod, and we'll start" Eri looked at Naomasa, then at Izuku, then at Inko, took a deep breath, and nodded.
Naomasa clicked the recorder on.
"Eri, I want you to tell me, who is Overhaul" Naomasa asked.
"…His name…is Kai Chisaki…he hates it…he hates…heroes…he hates…me…" Eri began.
"He is a monster who hates…everyone"
Two hours later…
Naomasa clicked the recorder off, swallowing bile and the urge to pull his gun and hunt Overhaul himself and empty his gun on his skull.
As a cop, and more so as a detective he had seen some messed up shit, heard it all, seen it all, but Eri's story was the kind of story you only hear once in your lifetime, a story of struggle, pain and above all how low a man can sink for his goals, even more so with powers to help him in his descent.
Kai Chisaki had placed himself, with his actions, into Naomasa's top list of most depraved men ever, what he did to Eri was just…inhuman.
From what they could infer during her 'confession' Overhaul's Quirk seemed to be a touch based Quirk, unlike most Quirks, his simply required a single touch with his finger, any finger, and then he could reassemble and disassemble at his beck and call, it was a horrifying Quirk, one Recovery Girl called a 'waste' because if he could do that, and Eri was living proof, he could do the same to a person and heal them of any illness because he did this to a molecular level.
Izuku believed it too, but such Quirk, powerful as it is, must have a weakness as crippling as it is powerful.
Eri revealed them that weakness.
She had seen him do the same to his own underlings, and every time he would flinch at the sight of blood, hell it seemed he hated anything that was grime, dirt or anything that remotely looks like trash, he was germophobic and viewed Quirks as any other disease in the world, and any Quirk user as a carrier that had to be 'cured' what this cure entailed was anyone's guess, but Naosama assumed it involved the bullets he had made with Eri's blood.
Now that was the kicker, her Quirk seemed to have permeated her blood cells as well, but obviously other factors weighted on the fact her blood was the key component for the QEB, maybe Overhaul had done something to her during one of their 'sessions' and had modify her to suit his needs, perhaps even making her Quirk stronger, thus making it sure it bled to her blood cells and thus gain more powerful material for the bullets.
But that was all speculation.
During the 'confession' Eri began to talk more and more, revealing things that would help them against the Yakuza, for once the names or rather codenames of Overhaul's most 'trusted' underlings, and trusted was being used loosely, if he viewed you as dead weight, you were as good as dead.
Once she began speaking, there was no stopping her.
She told them about the location of their compound, a route she had memorized many times before during her escapes, a secret exit in case of a raid she used as well to escape, she could truly not tell them how many Yakuza where in the compound, but she said 'many' but Overhaul's minions, the Eight Precepts of Death (such an edgy name) were the strongest, right behind Overhaul himself.
She told them about the location of the bullets, hidden deep within the compound, again, she couldn't count, but she told them they had 'many' alongside the modified guns, they already had a confiscated version of one, all thanks to Chronostasis, who looked like if All-Might had used him as a punching bag.
She even threw something he didn't expect, two bank accounts, she had learned them, after all those around her didn't expect much of her, only to be scared and submissive, not memorizing numbers and complex letter combinations, that cockiness would cost them dearly.
Of course she spoke slowly, she was barely five, but the information supplied would be tremendous.
"Thank you, Eri-Chan, this information will save lives" Naomasa was already running simulations on his head, who to delegate for the delicate task of obtaining and fact-checking the information supplied by Eri, honestly he was thinking on giving it to Nighteye, he was already knee-deep in the Yakuza case, it would only be fitting to do so.
He had another whale to catch.
"Okay, now for the third part of my reason here" Naomasa stated, looking at Inko and Izuku, "As you know, Overhaul tore your home apart, as a message" Izuku scoffed.
"Bring Eri or there will be…unintended consequences" Izuku snapped bitterly, "The only consequences will be what will happen when I rip his arms off"
"Izuku no" Inko admonished him.
"His Quirk is literally on his hands, either knock him off or cripple him, no half-measures, no compromises" Izuku snapped softly, and Naomasa had the distinct impressions that he might had tipped them for a strategy against Overhaul.
"Yes, on his message not on you ripping him limb to limb" Naomasa amended, "While he is a concern, we have others as well, first, the Troupe of course, what you did in the coliseum will have repercussions, we have some breathing room, but this will not go unanswered, then we have…pretty much every person on that raid we captured, or to be more precise, their parents"
"…I swear if they hired a lawyer to defend those little…brats" Inko swore.
"They did that, but the thing is that everything done by their children is videotaped, they even were recording on their cellphones, including when All-Might busted in, that's evidence they can't refute, but they'll try to ensure you don't testify against them, it could prove the difference between a full sentence or half of it, if nothing at all" Naomasa, "Then there's Bee and Aldera proper, their lawyer well…you can imagine what they're trying, to discredit you" Naomasa stated.
"And with me breaking her legs" Izuku left the sentence hang.
"Exactly, but it can be filled under self-defense, Bee attacked first, with all the intention of killing, what you did was legitimate, despite what that lawyer might try, but again we must move you, for the safety of you three, one has the key for a very dangerous drug in her system, the other became a sworn enemy of a terrorist organization, and the three of you are hunted by the Yakuza, there is one logical conclusion to reach here, we must move you away, of Japan if needed"
That shook Inko and Izuku to the core, "Excuse me? Move us of Japan if needed? But where? Who would welcome us?" she wondered.
"I have just the guy who arranged it, come on in!" Recovery Girl shouted-
"YOU WILL ALL BE FINE, WHY?"
"Ohmygod!" Izuku ultra nerded.
The door bursted open, and in came All-Might in the flesh, in a horrible mustard colored two piece suit, at least to Inko, to Izuku he looked glorious.
"BECAUSE I AM HERE! VISITING YOU LIKE A NORMAL PERSON!!"
"No you're not!" Recovery Girl snapped, hitting All-Might in the calves with her cane, making him yelp as he jumped on one foot, "And stop doing that you loudmouth gorilla! They are trying to remain incognito!
"I am so sorry OOUCH! Stop it!"
Inko actually blinked, not used to seeing this…face of the mighty All-Might, he looked so normal now instead of the unstoppable juggernaut that defeated evil with a smile and a concussion at a time.
"Recovery Girl" Naomasa started, "Stop it, we are strapped on time as it is" he added, making the nurse to relent.
"All-Might has offered a solution that can benefit us all from the get-go, All-Might" the symbol of peace nodded.
"First and foremost, why you broke her knee?" All-Might directed the question to Izuku.
"She broke my leg, in fourteen parts!"
"But you had a flaming hammer!"
"I fail to see what you fail to see"
All-Might just sighed at this, at one point he is justified, he was getting even, he knew the feeling, he did caved All For One's skull, still.
"Never mind that, after your display, I asked my old sidekick Nighteye regarding you young one, what he told me its nothing short of amazing, and perturbing" All-Might began, "Don't get me wrong, I don't expect you to become a villain or something, you did put the protection of your mother and the little one above all else, even yours"
"Great, you two are self-sacrificing blockheads" Recovery Girl said with a pout.
"Must I remind you the time you went for a week without sleeping to heal an entire school?"
Recovery Girl remained silent at that.
"Hm, as I was saying, your Quirk is powerful, but it is rare, and more so what you draw from, and I cannot help that you are going to end up attracting the wrong sort of attention, Troupe kind of attention notwithstanding, so I came with a solution that will benefit us all"
Inko and Izuku leaned in.
"How you feel about living with pro-heroes?"
"…"
"EEEEEEEEHHHHHHHH!"
Their combined scream made the hospital vibrate.
"Anything?" Overhaul asked, looking at Warden straight in the eyes.
"No sir, the area still remains patrolled and cordoned by heroes and the police, and there are still rescue efforts for those trapped in the rubble, but no one has seen them ever since the raid on the coliseum" Warden replied, only to receive a growl as answer from Overhaul.
"Sir don't get angry with me, what you did was needless to do" he stated firmly, usually people who criticized Overhaul tended to explode in a shower of gore, but at this point it had to be said, "Now the heroes must have them on protective custody, and hidden, and our man can't find them, because you decided to send a message we can't back up" Warden added.
"We are Yakuza, Warden" Overhaul snapped, "Before this kind of things would not be tolerated" he added.
"Exactly, before, this is not the past, we don't have the manpower or the political status to fall back to when things like this happened!" Warden argued, "And sure as hell we didn't had actual heroes beating us back then, you, as a leader, have to admit you messed up, big time!"
There Overhaul narrowed his eyes, glancing at Warden from the corner of his eyes, "And why I should do that?" Overhaul began, "Those…two, stole from us, not only that, thanks to them, Chronostasis is in Tartarus right now, the production of the bullets cannot continue without Eri, that cursed thing decided to rebel, again, so I did what I did every time Eri did that, I taught a lesson on why I shouldn't be crossed, what's so different now that I should actually admit I 'messed' up?"
Warden shook his head, "Because Eri never made it to police custody, because Eri never got close enough to a hero to have her case looked up in greater detail, because those she sought refuge weren't, one a trained soldier and an apparent Quirk juggernaut, because never one of your men was captured, because never before All-Might or any other hero had stuck their nose in our business!" Warden snapped, "But thanks to your 'flexing' we got a problem, we lost sight of the Midoriyas, we lost sight of Eri, thanks to the info you got from our inside man you tore their home, now he's alienated from the case because he is suspect! And the heroes are swarming every suspect business tied to us! Not just Troupe, us too!" Warden snapped angrily, "So excuse me when I say, yes you just fucked us big time with your impatient nature!" he added with a snarl.
All that remained then was silence as Overhaul clenched his fists together, he so wanted to blast this fool for critiquing him, but never before anyone had done this with the truth backing them up.
He was right, he should had waited, let them return home, then he could had struck, he could had gone micro, go for them, not the apartment building, now the heroes were looking for them, it wasn't stated, but it was implied, but old habits die hard, and he had learned that spreading fear so Eri could see it would bring her back to him.
He should correct himself, Eri wasn't a she, it was a thing, one with a singular purpose, and it was angering that Eri didn't buckled this time.
He blamed it on the Midoriyas, he didn't knew much of them only their names and faces, two idiots in his opinion, but one of them could easily disembowel him with a knife if given the chance, after all she trained with a legend in the military world, then there was her son, no one knew what his Quirk was, but apparently it was powerful enough to enable his survival against a small army of BOW's, and army the Troupe had used to keep them locked, and it didn't help one bit.
Now Overhaul was worried, what if this had all been planned? Eri's escape had been well timed, too well timed, not only she was now gone, but in the hands of heroes and two individuals that might not look like it, but where rather dangerous, one with a military background, the other with an apparent overpowered Quirk, placing Eri with them as protection, then making sure they were not found was…genius, and in the event they were found…there was no guarantee that whoever did it would come back to tell the tale.
Shaking those thoughts aside, Overhaul focused on what he had available at the moment.
"(Sigh) never mind, we have other matters to attend, Eri will come back to us, it is just a matter of time, in the meantime I want you to find a way to ensure our operations don't suffer from this setback, without Chronostasis around they will suffer, I want you to ensure the damage is mitigated" Warden nodded.
"And what about Chrono?" Warden asked, already knowing the answer.
"What about him?"