[75: Shout Out to all the Pear]
"The Hero Public Safety Commission has reached a record low in approval rating among the population. HPSC headquarters have been put on high alert, and extra security has been put in place following the recent firebomb attack. Despite increased security, there are still protestors, and even some extreme actions taking place, though they are outliers. We can also report that the HPSC will finally give a formal statement and also hold a public press conference addressing the recent leaks."
Nezu turned off the TV. 'Something's wrong. Protestors are normal. But why are people still doing acts of violence against the HPSC? The leaks are bad, but these attacks can't be considered outliers; they're rare events. But with so many people here, rare events seem to be common. There's foul play here. But who? Who would benefit from sustained action against the HPSC? Who except for Eleanor?'
"Nezu, come on! It's your turn! Ignore the person on the TV!"
Nezu was taken out of his thoughts when the little girl in front of him "scolded" him. Eri and Nezu were playing a board game in his office.
"Oh, sorry, little one. Let's see here." Nezu and Eri continued playing.
"Hey, Nezu. When will Eleanor come back?"
"Eleanor is…busy doing something very important, Eri. She'll return eventually. You just need a bit of patience, Eri."
This had been a recurring thing. Eri would get curious about Eleanor, and Nezu had to skirt around the subject. He couldn't tell Eri the truth. She was too young for that.
"I miss Eleanor. I want to see her." Eri's voice got sadder. She was treated very well by everyone here. Quite literally the princess treatment. Her skin looked healthier, and she gained much-needed weight, no longer looking so thin and skinny.
"You're not alone in those thoughts, Eri. Many of us here at the school miss her in our own way as well."
⁂
'This is all so troublesome. League of Villains are out for now, probably a power vacuum of sorts, but that's not my problem. The HPSC is fighting a losing battle. Now, it's the MLA we have to worry about.' Eleanor was in deep thought about everything that had happened. For a long while, she seemed to stare out into nothingness, seated still and not moving much.
"Hey, Eleanor, whatcha thinking about?" Toga's voice finally interrupted and got her out of her thoughts. After she and Jin wreaked havoc on many League of Villains gathering spots and hideouts, they were taking a break at their own hideout.
Eleanor faced Toga. "It's nothing, Toga. Just some stuff."
"So, what are we doing next?" Toga asked impatiently, already looking forward to the next exciting thing.
"Well, we're going to target the HPSC next, Toga."
"Oh? Are we going to sneak into another building or something?"
"Uh, no, not this time. It's something I promised Kaina we'd do after our little thing in Deika City."
"So, me and Jin won't be doing anything? But I feel like we've been doing great things together lately!" Toga's mood deflated a little bit,
"Not for now. With what's happening with the League of Villains, it's too dangerous, and you and Jin have already done quite a bit. Instead, you and Jin will be moving on the MLA. While Kaina and I move against the HPSC, you two will move against the MLA. Basically, I want you two to do to the MLA what you did to the League of Villains, except bigger, because the future of Japan quite literally depends on it. So, no pressure."
"Oh‽ Yeah, that sounds so exciting! You can count on us, Eleanor! When do we move out?" Toga was waving her arms excitedly, a complete turnaround from her deflated mood. She was getting a bit impatient now.
Eleanor moved her hands to calm Toga down. "Whoa there, Toga, calm down a bit. I can't exactly just send you in without any plan. And even then, this stuff is really dangerous. The MLA is embedded in all parts of Japanese society, so we have to pick the most important ones."
"The heroes‽ Yes, we can totally take out some heroes!"
Eleanot chuckled a little bit. "No, Toga, not heroes. Heroes are not the most important part of this. You see, heroes rely on political policy and support from the people. Take that away, and they become dysfunctional. Heroes in Japan have to rely on the will of politicians and whatever policy they implement, as well as having to maintain robust support from the people. But that's only with heroes." Eleanor had a small but cruel smirk on her face.
"Huh?"
"Listen, Toga. Heroes, as we know them in the professional sense, are just workers. If we target them, they'll just replace them with someone else. The MLA does have undercover heroes, but the really important stuff is the politicians and the military. Even taking out just one of them is enough to throw everything out of balance. Actually, you can apply this to any kind of conflict or war. Anyway, ideally, we could knock out both, but we can probably only do one."
"And which one are we doing?"
"Political. The politicians and the political goals they set are supreme over the military, so we have to target the politicians who are undercover MLA members. Without the MLA having the political will from their embedded agents, it'll be way too hard to use the agents also embedded in the Japanese military.
"Whoa, this sounds like a really big deal."
Eleanor raised an eyebrow at Toga. "You're just now getting this?"
"But…how do we even do that? We can't exactly just barge in and take them out, right?"
"Come on, Toga, we don't need to assassinate anyone. We can just get them out with some other means. We can blackmail them, coerce them, and use other methods to achieve our goals."
"Oh, I see!"
"I have some stuff set up for you, so it should be relatively easy." Eleanor typed a few things on a keyboard before some things were printed. Eleanor got up and got the papers. She returned and handed them to Toga. "These are the politicians that are part of the MLA. This also included other personal information, habits, schedules, and a lot of other things. Use this to get to your targets. Don't kill them; threaten them, and do so in a way that won't expose you. And if you have to, use your quirk to hide your identity."
"Okay, but what if I had to? And I mean, really, really, had to?"
Eleanor sighed. "Well, hypothetically speaking, accidents happen all the time, Toga. People drown, crash their cars, and other stuff. But these are accidents; no one killed them or anything, okay? Accidents. Just freak events that are unfortunate."
Toga grinned wickedly at Eleanor's words. "Yeah. 'Accident.' I got you, Eleanor."
"Don't go doing anything too crazy now, alright?"
"You can trust me, Eleanor!"
⁂
"This is unusual."
In a dark room, someone was looking at data on a computer.
"What is Aoyama doing? What is he sending? Who is he sending messages to?"
Fast, rhythmic clacking filled the room as the person typed on a keyboard.
"This is too hard to break with my current hardware; I'll need something stronger, but I can save the data and transfer it later."
The figure got a data storage device and started uploading the data that was being intercepted.
"All For One will need to know about this; he can't have his spy on the inside potentially leaking activities. Is this why some of the hideouts have been so easily targeted? Is Aoyama responsible for getting Shigaraki killed?" The figure shook their head. "No, it can't be; Aoyama doesn't have access to that kind of information. Nevertheless, we need to monitor him more closely."
The figure left the computer running to collect data while they prepared the report for All For One.