There was a reason Matt had only come to her after she had asked.
And if he was polite enough not to call her out on it, she would very much not do so herself.
...
"I see… So… You've been using this thing to track down who she's been seeking out?"
"Yeah… So far, she's been contacting a lot of the heroes with these symbols. Though getting whatever information she imparts to them has been… Tricky."
She chuckled.
"I can imagine. So… Izuku is the center here…"
Matt actually looked chagrined.
"Yes… That… That took me way, way too long to figure out. I've met the boy before, not to mention "seen" him plenty of times… But it wasn't before Nelson and his family saw it on TV that he pointed out to me he had the pattern on him. It was a crucial detail I missed for months on end."
The consequences of a blind man having to play detective.
Wait…
"Wait, on TV? You mean you only realized it during the Yuei tournament?"
"Yes."
"Then why the hell did you hire his mom? You've had her on for over a year now, haven't you? Or are you going to try and tell me that you just happened to hire the mother of the very center of this whole thing by coincidence?"
"Well… It wasn't a coincidence… I didn't choose her at random. But I didn't hire her because I thought she was related to this. I hired her for two reasons. The first is that we genuinely needed Japanese lawyers to operate in Japan. The fact is, that while we can do all the work of helping our clients set up a defence just fine, the unfortunate fact is that we need a native-born lawyer to actually represent the client in court. The chances of us losing if we don't… Well, it's way too high."
"Yeah… That's not really a problem for us heroes… We build our success on performance and popularity. But yeah, the law system isn't kind to foreigners."
As the highest ranking immigrant hero in Japan, Felicia's agency had served as a lightning rod for other immigrant heroes, who made up a massive part of her agency. And she'd heard enough horror stories about Japanese courts for foreigners to fully comprehend why Matt wanted Japanese lawyers to represent his clients in the court itself.
The days when Japan instantly found almost all accused guilty were long, long gone, but xenophobia and racism still lived in the legal system alive and well.
"Right. So, when we set up a branch here, we had to hire extra lawyers. One of those was Inko Midoriya. Competent, experienced, and blacklisted from any native Japanese firms due to a scandal that sunk her former firm quite spectacularly. She was the perfect lawyer who was both desperate, and good enough for our new branch."
"And the second reason? The real reason you picked her specifically?"
"Yes… That reason… The real reason was that I wanted to keep an eye on his dad… You said you did your research on Izuku's family… What did you find out about Izuku's father?"
"Hisashi? He grew up in the U.S.A. That he works overseas, and that he was a child of Japanese immigrants to the U.S.A who moved back to the old homeland in his early adult life."
She narrowed her eyes at him anew.
"I'm guessing there is something I missed there?"
"Well… Not particularly… That is indeed Hisashi's life story… Of course, there is a bit you probably didn't find out from here in Japan. Most notably, that right before he left, Hisashi had come down with a very serious disease. Of the life-threatening kind."
Matt, having finished his beer, pulled out another one.
"Then he had an absolutely miraculous recovery, managing to fully and totally turn his situation around from a complete, bedridden wreck, to a healthy and fit person with absolutely none of the destroyed muscles and body problems you might imagine."
"How fortuitous for him. I'm guessing there was an underground healer involved?"
"Yeah, that is what the government thought as well, but there was little proof of it. Not to mention there were precious few people in the U.S.A capable of healing the kind of disease he had. So, with lack of evidence, and a lack of interest, the government let it drop."
She nodded.
"It's the same here in Japan. Underground healers with the right quirks earn a fortune on healing those willing to pay… And the government basically turns a blind eye to it. After all… It's not really hurting anyone."
"Yeah… Funny story that…" Matt grimaced. "As it turns out, it was only after making his miraculous recovery that Hisashi decided to skip across the pond. Something that surprised pretty much his entire friend circle, as he had never once suggested being interested in doing so. At all. Hell, he didn't even speak Japanese. And then he left without saying a word to any of them."
Okay, that was… Off.
"So… What was the secret then? There is clearly something wrong with that."
"Well, there were more strange things about it. For one, he seemingly broke off all contact with his family… Who incidentally also came into possession of an enormous bit of cash. As far as my research is able to tell, they also never seem to discuss Hisashi anymore at all."
A lot of people might not have been able to pick out what exactly Matt was implying. But she had grown up amongst thieves. She knew exactly what he was describing. She'd seen it happen several times in fact.
"Someone bought his identity. The real Hisashi died, and his family covered it up, and sold his legal identity to someone else."
"Bingo."
When it came to obtaining a new, fake identity, there were several ways to do it. People were willing to go to great lengths to start anew. But fake identities, of people who had never existed, had the tiny little problem they broke under the slightest bit of scrutiny.
Thus, this kind of deal was an alternative.
Simply steal the identity of someone dead, and take over their life. So long as the appearance and quirk matched, and you had a pesky incident where you damaged your fingers, and with them erased your fingerprints, it could work pretty well… Provided of course no one found out about the original deception.
Then it could fall apart very, very quickly.
"That's all pretty interesting… But that does raise some further questions… Like who it was that bought Hisashi's name..? How did you come to know about all of this..? And finally, why haven't you turned him in?"
She looked Matt over, as he took a sip before he was going to answer. She could read he was nervous to do so.
"Well… All the answers are related of course. But starting with how I came to know about it, When it became clear we needed to invest into Japan to try and find Web and solve this whole mystery about the supposed apocalypse, there was… Someone I decided to look up on. Someone we let go back in the day."
We.
It was a loaded word between the two of them.
It meant the old gang back in New York. Her included.
Felicia wrecked her brain trying to recall candidates for who that might be, but the simple fact was that there were too many of them to guess without further information.
"Since we were heading to Japan anyway, I decided to track him down while we were there, starting with where I knew he was headed after he and his partner left New York right before the whole Clone mess happened."
Right before the Clone Saga. That timeframe finally jogged her memory.
A man with a partner. There was only one person that fit that bill.
"Are you telling me… That Hisashi is Rose!?"
"Yes."
Felicia stared at him her throat suddenly feeling very, very dry… Then she picked up a new beer, opened it, and drank the entire thing in one go.
After she was done, she pinched her brow again. HARD.
…Of course, it could not be simple. It was NEVER simple.
And here she had thought Ben and Tomo's relationship had been a headache. At least that had just been the complication of stupid teenagers making stupid decisions.
This was something else.
Annoyed, she wondered how Mana and Mika's eventual love lives would go on to complicate her life even more. Knowing her luck, maybe they'd date Vampires… Or Aliens would be involved maybe.
How was it Peter had described it?
Like a soap opera, by the way of Stan Lee.
Yes… That was the way he'd described it all.
It had been an apt metaphor for his life. And as she'd come to learn, for herself as well.
"Look at the bright side Felicia."
"His grandfather is the fucking Kingpin of Crime. Where the hell is the bright side of THAT?"
"It could be worse. It could have been like your father and Peter's uncle."
She froze.
"Well… I suppose that's bloody true at least. I don't think you could possibly get a worse complication any worse than that."
There were indeed very, very few things worse than that awkward realization that your father killed your boyfriend's uncle and surrogate father.
"Not to mention, that as things stand, Fisk doesn't know about any of this. And given the boy doesn't look a thing like his father, I don't see it being very likely he's going to find out either."
Felicia snorted.
"Oh please, Matt… You're way too savvy to actually believe that. Murphy's law. If something can go wrong, it WILL. Peter's life should have taught you that lesson."
Matt nodded.
"I suppose that part is true enough… So… What do you want to plan to do about it all?"
Yeah… That was the big question, wasn't it?
What to do about this piece of information?
There were several factors that determined the answer to that. Some she knew already, and some she would need to figure out.
...
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