"What do you mean a duplicate quirk user has gone missing?!"
The scream could be heard from a meeting room in the HPSC. The Director asked, everyone else there stayed silence at the arrival of the news and their face graced. Most people here were high-ranking officials from various sectors: legislation, education, military and hero economics.
" It has been confirmed many times before I go here to inform you, Director. Jin Bubaigawara, also known as the villain Twice, has gone off our radar. No camera sightings, no interactions physically or digitally, no transactions. He has disappeared from the Earth. No capture records, no news of villain fracticide."
" What a mess we are in right now. Who are you thinking to be the culprit?"
An old skinny general asked, his eyes shoned with wisdom and understanding. The Director, despite some oppositions against her tyranical method of doing things, scored a lot of points in the governing system. The general was willing to aid her also because of his belief of cutting the roots before the tree even grew.
" Him, the giver and taker."
The drop caused people in the room to shudder. They understood.
" The missing guy has not passed our country border. If so then the government should cut spending to border control. And in Japan, he is the only one with enough wit and strength to capture our surveillance target. Of course Nezu is possible but he is an anti-human monster bounded by his belief in the innocence of the young. He will not do such thing because it is too obvious of a move."
" Have you reached your conclusion hastily? I need your line of thoughts here."
The one from the education sector spoke up. A man in his mid fifties and had experienced the brunt of All For One's impacts on teenage violence and gang activities, he had no qualm with making guesses but that should be backed by something other than pure fiction. That being showing up would be the end of any peaceful curriculum. He hated with all of his hearts the ideas of bringing back the discriminatory strength ranking to teach students how to protect themselves if villains attacked.
" This subject should be for the latter half of this meeting but ... there has been an increase in villain activity across the entire nation. Yet the big fish were too quiet. The Church of Mutants has stopped their kidnapping and brainwashing, the Hands and Claws have not accepted any new commissions, even that bunch of pro-quirk-usage revolutionists are hiding their tails in their base in Deka city, Hokkaido.
Our department's prediction: they are preparing for something big."
" Ha... I admit. That's a lot of signs. I can now see why it can be him. But one question remains. Is there foreign influence? Aside from that man, "
The one doubting the Director's answer was satisfied. A common behavior that all big factions did... it spelt an even bigger threat, enough to force enemies to ally with one another.
"And the 'Liberated District'... we are in a stalemate on the diplomatic warfare. Re Destro is not relenting under pressures economically and socially. His company is still prevalent in the Aichi prefecture. We have made concessions to his anti-hero ideology and pro-quirk-right belief in letting his company survives."
The Director continued onto the main topic of today's meeting: The Liberation Army. The villains knew that the HPSC knew their presence, the HPSC knew that the faction was growing and knew that the HPSC knew. The Director had sent assassins to kill Re Destro but all plans failed from not so inconspicuous 'accidents'. They were basically in a stalemate. If only something shook the field...
"Director! An unregistered vehicle has entered Deka city!"
A secretary stationed outside rushed in, her face sweaty from the run to the surveillance center underground. The clicking of heels on carpet and the sudden announcement brought everyone attention to a possibility: someone else was contacting Re Destro. With most vehicles registered with the Bureau of Transportation, only those outside of laws would use something else. The notion of other sectors having ties with the Liberation Army was impossible due to the fact that the HPSC's spies had not reported back any involvements ( the spies were planted in various seats just below the heads). But then, who was this individual or group of interest who had the gall to contact Re Destro?
The meeting continued on with that question. Everyone suggested ways to deal with this growing time bomb that they could not safely defuse. The unregistered vehicles surfaced from time to time but without further credentials and evidences, the meeting ended with further stalling as the strategy and keeping eyes out on the arrival of a surprise.
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2 weeks later
"Shigaraki-san! Are we really going to meet Detnerat CEO?!"
"Yes, Hatsume-san. We are here to purchase something big and it requires the presence of the CEO Rikiya Yotsubashi to formalize the trades. I and him have prior discussions about our cooperation. I will let you be our company's engineer. Check their products and leave the negotiation to me. And please bring some of your series 10 with you."
"But why do I need them? Isn't this just me checking out their lab?"
" I want you to awe them with your babies. We cannot just let your talents be hidden under our company's trademark. You need to built yourself a reputation."
"Of course!"
Letting the childish eager of Hatsume Mei to the back of his mind, Shigaraki continued reading a book wrapped in red, Meta Liberation War. It was interesting to read as in it allowed for readers to view how fanatical a perspective could be.
The book and the author argued for the completely decentralization of quirk control, letting every one used their quirk freely with no government restrictions. This book also painted the government as a hunt dog for those with funds and powers, leaving the innocent civilians to be defenseless against quirks. The writing was quite descriptive and expressive, pulling some people into the ideology with its persuasive language.
He was reading to figure out how to appeal to the emotional side of this militia faction. Leaving aside the ideological pathway, benefits could also be used. Money, the militia did not lack such thing. Their company was among the top in the supply for electronics products and software in Japan. Force, ... they had plenty of common people as soldiers but not as many elites. Maybe he could utilize this point.
Shigaraki hummed while thinking, this time was a negotiation. If all thing failed, maybe he could ask the Doctor for some aid. He had heard of a duplicating Nomu. What can be scarier on a battlefield than a never-ending tsunami of enemies.
But the information from Giran was only partial. It had only fulfilled some of his requests but not all. And the most important question: Where was Mendel? The girl was his sister but she was also sensei's daughter.
Thinking that maybe the girl was just staying over night with Giran, Shigaraki continued to savor the Bible of his target.
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"Skeptic, did you find out where our guest come from?"
"Re Destro-san, this filth here comes from a group of villains called 'League Of Villains'. It has not been confirmed whether or not it is the real name but his most recent contact has this name. Any other contacts lead to dead-end oversea."
"You will find ... nothing there ... ptooey!"
Skeptic raised the left foot to dodge the bloody spit from the sound. His face grunted in disgust but Re Destro had ordered him to stop the interrogation to give a report. He could not punch the filthy bastard tied onto a chair in front of him. Re Destro had more things to do and it seemed he intended to move on to more important things.
"Please take a rest, Giran-san. I'm willing to accept that little girl beside you into our ranks. And besides ... I'm growing weary of interacting with you. Skeptic, let him rest for today. You still have to upgrade our network."
"Yes sir!"
Leaving Giran behind, the two of them made their way away from the blood-stained walls.
"How is the girl? Her quirk will be useful for our cause. The loss of our Erika is unfortunate but I believe she will be happy if she knew of this little one's meta ability"
"She is still unconscious. Can I schedule her training? If the girl truly cares for that weakling, she will accept our deal in order to protect him."
"Let's wait until she wakes up. We judge by abilities and we need to see her meta ability in more details. It intrigues me. Let's just return to our business as usual. I still have some guests to meet. I believe this coming deal will be beneficial for our cause."
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" Who decides to build something in such a desolate place? Some rich snob?"
" Stop belittling our customer. We have already lost the bid for reconstruction works from the recent villains fight in Saitama. Uraka-san has been pulling hairs and strings to get us work. To even have work this near in this time of year is already a blessing from gods. Focus on the construction vehicles, especially the roller. We need to level and dig out a space for basement today and the sooner we get it done, the sooner money comes to us."
The bulldozer began to tore through the few centimeters of top most soil, clearing out small vegetations and medium trunks. The project would have taken a year if all construction laws are followed but as it is often said, "No evidence, no crime."
" Girl, we are plucking up that piece of rock. Give us a lift!"
" Yes!"
"But are we even supposed to let Uraraka-san's daughter help us? Hasn't he almost docked our pay for endangering his daughter?"
" And that's why I am coming with her. Wait for uncle!"
The burly man quickly caught up to the girl and picked her u, carrying her to the rock. She gave the heavy load a simple touch and got away safely. The man now wrapped his arms around the rock, using his legs to provide lifts in order to preserve his back. The rock dislodged from the surrounding earth and floated upward slowly as pieces of dirt and invertebrates fell off.
"Hmm!"
With a resounding breath taken in, he threw it toward the waste material pile. The rock made its way and the right moment was all it took.
" Ochako, now!"
Gravity returned to the object, tugging it toward the ground. Soon a big smoke cloud erupted from the collision point.
"Is it at the right place?"
"Yes. Good job, Ochako. We will finish cleaning this area in this afternoon. We still have more obstacles to go. Brace yourself. I have already brought a bucket for you."
With that reminder, the construction team worked all afternoon to clean out a large area, flatten and compress it simultaneously using rollers and just before the team left for dinner, Ochako was still playing around with small items she had made floating. Watching the irregular rocks and branches oscillated up and down due to her quirk was something she had learnt to enjoy.
"You have helped the team a lot now. Come with us. We will get you something a girl like you may like. I have already asked your father to bring you along."
"Yes. I am going!"
After Ochako and the construction team had left for quite some time, the gravity-defied toys began to break free and floated higher and higher, stopping at the boundary between space and the final frontier of the atmosphere.