CHAPTER 3: FROM BAD TO GOOD TO BAD
Sir Nighteye was a one of a kind hero, he is not a frontline fighter, he is no rescue type, or even underground, as he was known for being the first and only sidekick of All-Might.
He is akin more to support, by no means is he weak, he can beat someone down if needed, but honestly he likes his approach better.
Pick his opponents weakness, exploit the shit out them, destroy their operations with impunity, cave in their dignity and self-respect and then, just then, call the police to raid the fuck out of them.
In paper sounded simple, in action it was anything but simple.
So he was kinda grateful for this case when the police asked for his help, would help him from the blockade that was their current case, because it sounded simple, keywords, sounded simple.
Then he took a deeper look at the case, and made their main case look like a simple one.
There on paper was the white whale of Musutafu police department, Musutafu Department of heroics and law firms in the city.
The Aldera High case.
In all honesty Nighteye has actually lost count of how many detectives, lawyers and heroes had tried and failed to bring the case to a close, he had read the case before, his final year thesis had been about this case and the many illegalities that had caused the case to be as infamous as to be long.
The lawyers usually employed by Aldera were not afraid to play dirty, usually muscling their opponents with tactics that ranged from legal actions for the most slow but cleaner to actual attacks to families and friends of those carrying the case.
Another factor was that even if the intimidations didn't worked, there was always little evidence to help tie them down, usually the cases were closed with Aldera being the winner.
Two days ago, that changed.
Sexual assault, Quirk assault, self-defense and destruction of property, he stared at the picture of the five involved, one of them was moved to another school, the subject of the assault Mikaela Johnson of the United States, two were expelled, one for assault, Mamoru Nakamura, with a quirk that allowed him to effectively muffle sound within a ten meter radius, and the other, the one of self-defense, quirk assault and destruction of property, Izuku Midoriya, who unlike Nakamura didn't had a bad record on him, only hearsay by students and teachers, calling him a 'problem' and the like.
The other two remained in Aldera, but if Naosama was right, those two would lead them to dismantle a juvenile, but dangerous gang in Musutafu, one that might have ties with the Shie Hassaikai, and less probable with the Meta Liberation Army, providing both with minimal, but youthful manpower and direct contact lines with a school that produces villains like there is no tomorrow.
Right now they had one of the best opportunities to nail down Aldera High, or more precisely the higher-ups, the ones that enabled all this to pass, taking down the headmaster and the teachers would allow the ministry of education to actually place new personnel to mitigate the damage the old staff have caused.
This had been something they had tried for years, but they had always been blocked, there was always someone within the ministry of education that prevented it.
Now this, this they could not deflect, sexual assault, even one that didn't not end with rape (thankfully) was something Japan took very seriously, even more since it happened in a school, you know, a place where IT SHOULD NOT HAPPEN.
Right now Naosama was assembling a team to hit this case with all they got, all the failures against Aldera had taught them something, strike hard, strike fast, strike true.
He was part of that team, his Quirk, Foresight would give them an advantage they could not deny, using it against both their designed targets and that dammed lawyer would give them an edge to predict actions they would carry out and be prepared against them.
Of course he was not there only for his Quirk, his intelligence alone would allow land him on this job, especially with what they have in mind.
Aldera seemed to have way too many funds, more than any other school in the city, that alone was not cause of concern, most schools had to do with the budget given to them, but Aldera was a special case, especially since the headmaster seemed to be living an opulent life, something that someone with his salary should not be able to.
That was one, the amount of gangs in Aldera proper was unknown, but numbers estimated at least ten, the biggest was over a hundred members proper, with elements of another school, the smallest at least twenty, the violence they caused was well catalogued as well, but they could not pursue them, at least not before the incident, the police had been driven out in more occasions thanks to that damn lawyer and his contacts within the Ministry of Defense and Education.
The lawyer was another subject to be studied, the man had too much power for a lawyer, he knew way too many influential people, one of the reasons his cases seemed to always been on the winning, he knew when to use his influence and when, he was a man that had kept Aldera from falling in the past fifty years, he was old, but also well learned thanks to his age.
The fourth issue was the gangs and their relation with the villain underworld, according to the police, the ten gangs in the school had at least some sort of association with criminal elements in the underworld, aside the Shie Hassaikai, there was evidence of other interactions with other elements, the Meta Liberation Army, at least their most radical elements, a new rising force called The League of Villains, a childish name, drug peddlers, arms dealers, and if the police was right, the Troupe.
Now that was a cause of concern, The Troupe was a villain organization, or better said a super villain organization that dabbled on genetics and biological weapons, they actually made BOW and sold them to the highest bidder, Interpol has been on their ass ever since their conception and England's Black parliament, and event that saw the very first BOW deployed by The Troupe to kill the parliament members while in a session, it did kill several members, almost half of them before a hero, codename Pub Joe, stopped it, but the message was clear.
The Troupe would go for the most well protected targets, let it be politicians or even heroes, as All-Might himself fought one of their BOW's, he won easily, but the point stood, to promote themselves they would go to any lengths.
They were responsible for several kidnappings across the globe, immoral genetic tampering, creation of forbidden weapons, the creation of a drug that mimicked Trigger, but was ten times more lethal than Trigger, and if any of the Aldera High Gangs had dealings with them, then it would mean a world of trouble for everyone.
It would mean the Troupe had elements in Japan, and that could not be allowed to continue.
Concerning, yeah, also it was oddly convenient, all this connected to his original work with the Shie Hassaikai and the new product that has been hitting the streets, some sort of Quirk erasing bullet, at the moment the bullet was capable of erasing the quirk of anyone hit with it for an hour, not much, for a hero in the heat of combat, that is a death sentence.
One that had took some heroes lives in Tokyo and Kyoto, the investigation had been going well, but walls had been found in the investigation, the QEB (quirk Erasing Bullets) had some sort of genetic material in them, alongside a ton of suppressants, several drugs that had to be carefully selected because most of their core ingredients interacted wrongly with the biological material in it, reason why the biological material, the possible reason the bullets were effective in the first place as the drug cocktail in them would barely suppress a quirk for a minute, tended to be so corrupted upon inspection.
They only knew this, the bullets were fired from custom made pistols, the bullets were in fact custom made bullets with the tips being pressure sensible, containing a small needle that administer the drug in question, and apparently these were unfinished products, unfinished products that could get a hero killed, secure a villain's escape, cost a lot and the biological material in them belongs to a human, possibly blood.
Nighteye knew that the Shie Hassaikai were the makers, and right now they must have reach a dead end, after all the Yakuza as they are now, are not even a shadow of what they used to be, right now Nighteye wagers they are pulling from everything they can get their hands on, even second hand gear, that would mean that their labs as well were second, if not third rate, barely capable of producing the QEB.
There the horrible thought that, by some miracle, they end up being contacted by the Troupe by proxy by using one of the younger gang-members within their ranks, and therefore have access to their facilities, something like the QEB would be something the Troupe would not pass up.
In front of him now lay the choices, he, and by extension the investigation team could focus on the big picture, the Shie Hassaikai, and after taking them out they began to dismantle any organization tied to them one by one, cut the head, then eviscerate the corpse.
Then there was option two, which was the one Naosama was suggesting, take the Aldera case, if Nighteye could not bring Aldera down, then no one would, it would easily help them take down possible reinforcements and if possible discover the Troupe's member's identities or their connections.
Either option required something else, the first was to actually capture someone of the Shie Kassaikai, a feat on its own, as they didn't knew any of their core members.
Option two required one of the kids related to the event that caused the Aldera investigation in the first place.
And he had an idea of who might help him the most.
The kid with the non-named quirk, Izuku Midoriya.
Or as his Blog post name is, SmallMighty43.
His nemesis.
For this, he will need allies.
Three days in a hospital for a fractured leg, shredded skin and ruptured muscles.
Two hundred years ago that sounded like malpractice, letting someone go in such a state was a sure way to get sued, depending on the country you were in.
Now that was regular thing, Quirks had changed the ways a patient was treated, it also helped that the medical field has advanced in its treatments if a quirk that could heal was not readily available.
For Izuku it was a bit of both.
The first day was pretty much examinations, checking the damage in detail, also the thing with the lawyer, the one he wanted to shout to a wall, or shout his soul out, he had made his mom both angry and stressed, things Izuku hated for his mother to suffer.
The second day was of course the operation, a very sensible one, he had to be put on anesthesia due to what was going to be done to him, in a short term, they had to glue the bones back together, it was a blessing the breaks were clean and smooth, and oddity among fractures, especially one as brutal as his, this was done to ensure the bones would mend and fuse together naturally, then came the hard parts, the muscles and the skin.
There was a doctor with a muscle regenerator quirk, he had been one of the reasons many heroes with similar muscle damage or even chemical based damage to the muscles could fight again, he said to Izuku once he was out of the procedure that his muscles where the second time he had seen such damage, but they were fixable, however he would have to spend two months with his leg immobilized, as the muscles would have to heal on their own in that part, that and the skin grafts.
The last part, the skin grafts, that was the delicate part, even if the science behind it had improved in the past two hundred years, and the skin that was grafted over his newly healed and grown leg muscles was in fact his, there was still some things that made it hard, veins had to be remade because the impact had compromise them, nerves were also damaged, but thankfully they weren't damaged enough for to be replaced, or that would have extended his stay for a week, in short the operation was a success, but now came the really hard part, according to the doctors, healing by time.
Izuku was pretty much forced to wear what in his opinion was a marvel of bio-technology, a skin tight, transparent plastic looking compressor that acted as a source of nutrients for the new skin to feed in, also it helped encourage the new skin to grow its own blood vessels to prevent the graft to die because it has no blood and oxygen flowing into it, also it had a small cocktail of drugs in it that prevented infection, the new skin was grown of his cells, as such there was little to no risk of his body to reject it, also he had to take daily Iron Supplements, he had lost a lot of blood thanks to Queen bee attack, by the time he reached the hospital he was effectively anemic, after the operation he was required to take those supplements for his body to generate new blood naturally without side-effects, especially with the new tissue, both grew and grafted.
Also he had to wear a cast on his leg, because his bones might be glued, but they weren't mended, thankfully the cast was of a similar material that to the compressor he had underneath the cast, so there was no issue, that and he had to wear crutches for the two months, and after that he would have to undergo therapy to recover full mobility for his leg.
All in all, the three days on the hospital, with the third one being one of observation to see how the healing went, was pretty uneventful, painful yes, as he sometimes had to grind his teeth and not scream with all he had at the phantom pain at his very bones, the doctors assured this was normal, a sign of his bones mending, and his nerves transmitting the painful ordeal, same with the skin and muscles, yet it still hurt.
The trip back home was more of a chore than anything else, making it to the floor where their apartment was, thankfully not a problem, as the complex had elevators for the elderly and like him, the wounded who could not use the stairs.
The first day after he left the hospital he had been…depressed, the reality that had happened settling in finally, he was hurt, he had been expelled because the headmaster was a spineless bastard and all because Queen Bee had this wrapped sense of how society should work, and to make it worse their families endorsed it, wanting it to happen.
That day he had been angry, the next one he had decided that he needed to distract himself with something.
That something turned to be Superman returns, not as bad as Superman 64, lauded as the worse game ever.
Like really, ET was done in four weeks, that was all the time they had to do that game, superman 64 had two years to make, the disaster that it was upon launch had no excuse, well they kinda did had some, a lot of licensing nonsense and a studio that tried to make a game that was…too much for the console of that time.
On the topic at hand, Superman Returns put you in the shoes of Superman, with his powers, most of them, against limitations of the console and hardware, but at the very least they showed an attempt to replicate what would be to have the tremendous power of the Man of Steel on your hands, it was a partial success in that regard, you get to control the man in question, the rest was that hurt the game, from the graphics to the story and combat and everything else, again it was no Superman 64, at least you could fly well, or well-ish, oh and no ring section.
Izuku did had his ulterior motives to play this game, it was relatively easy to complete, not that long too, you just had to struggle with the controls and the AI a little, which was not new to him, but eventually he did beat the game, on its hardest difficulty and with the completion rate of a 100% something that could be achieved on most free-roam games like this one.
There was a little problem of course.
He…got nothing, like really nothing.
He felt his Quirk activate, the odd sensation of something crawling everywhere inside of him, not bad, not good, just…odd, he felt the same after he got Blade Mode, and he had stayed on bed, letting the feeling wash over as his Quirk did its job, just that this time the feeling got cut short, and rather abruptly.
Now that made him flinch, when Blade Mode was finally copied into his body, the feeling slowly died out, like water drying out slowly of your arm, this time the feeling was more like if you were seated on a car and it suddenly, without reason stopped, you were pushed onward and you hit your head with what's in front of you, he felt disoriented and oddly exhausted.
Izuku sat up in shock, looking at his hands, he clenched them, trying to find out his new power.
Nothing.
There he began to panic, did his quirk malfunction? Or was Superman powers too much?
In panic he grabbed the controller and began to scroll on other video-game, one short, but with heroes.
X-men would have to do.
Five hours later…
Izuku was now miffed, he beaten the X-men game, even endure Magento's 'welcome to die' several times as he completed it with every single playable character.
Still nothing, the same feeling, and then the abrupt stop as his Quirk 'short-circuited' for the lack of a better word.
He tried it one more time, this time with a game he was very close, and was very long, reason why he had been saving it for a special occasion, as those two games from before had something in common, and he wanted to see if this was too.
The Witcher 3 confirmed his theory.
His quirk only interacted with game based characters, if they began their lives in videogames, but if he tried to get powers from video games with comic or book based characters, like Superman or Geralt of Rivia, then his quirk would short-circuit after a while, being able to identify if the power in question belonged to the game and character in question or they were first seen in books and comics.
Which kinda sucked, now more than half of his list was going to get scratched, this left him severely depressed, he really hoped he could use Superman powers and fly, and shoot lasers out of his eyes but mostly fly.
Still he had several selections and games on hold, it sucked yes, but thanks to this setback, he had his eyes opened, his Quirk as powerful it feels, has weaknesses, it is not only him, his Quirk, like any other Quirk has a fundamental flaw, his just violated enough laws of physics and probably several more of existence by what he plans to add.
"Well, no point I crying" he thought, reaching for his hero notebook, and starting the task of scratching the list of games where he would get nothing.
It took him an hour because he had to Google and wiki all the items in the list to check if any of them had started as a comic, book or anything else that wasn't a videogame.
Pretty much it had to have started in a videogame.
As he worked on his new list, he began to put what he had already, what he was closest to complete and what he was farthest to.
Once done he looked at his list and nodded, it took him an hour of planning, but he had something to work on, if he wanted to become a hero, he had to be able to fight in different scenarios and against multiple opponents with varied Quirks, the reason All-Might was able to win so many fights was because he simply was too overwhelming of a foe, like the WEAPON bosses of Final Fantasy, you were intimidated by his presence alone, getting hit by him was like getting hit by an Ultima spell, over ten times over, in a row.
But now, now he had the means, also he had to remind himself that he wouldn't be able to add more powers until he heals, he needs to train with them to get used to them and how he can adapt them to what he has, but now with his leg the way it is, that was not going to happen, at least for the next two months.
At the very least he should focus on near completing them and his online studies, his mom was rather stubborn on that part, she isn't too trusting of schools now, so online schooling was going to cut it, at least he wouldn't have to endure taunts, jeers and…Bakugou.
DING-DONG!
With a slight frown, Izuku heard the bell from their apartment ring, with his mother outside on her work, he was effectively alone for at least-he checked the clock on the wall of his room, oddly enough it was not All-Might themed, but Endeavor themed.
Say what you will about the man, his clocks were pure perfection.
He had two more hours before his mother returned home from work, so he was left wondering who it was.
With a sigh and a grimace he reached for his crutch and began a very slow walk towards the door.
Once there he looked through the peephole and groaned.
There on the other side was Bakugou, not looking happy.
"Nid" he groaned in dragon, weighting his choices, which were simply open the door, but not let Bakugou in, he was in fact not in the mood to deal with his bullshit right now.
Opening the door, Izuku simply stared at the frowning Bakugou, who looked like he was ready to murder someone, that someone being him.
"Ugh, Bakugou, this better be important" Izuku said, not regretting those words, he was honestly not in the mood for anything but his mother and anything his games might throw at him, and the last one is a big might.
For his part Katsuki's frown deepened, "Don't give me shit deku, you fucking liar" Izuku eyes twitched in barely contained annoyance.
"I swear if this is for my quirk, let me tell you this, it literally triggered the day after my birthday" Izuku argued, still blocking the way into his home.
"Likely story" Katsuki snarled, "I expected a lot of things from a scrub like you, deku, but lying about your quirk…you were looking down on me weren't you?"
"Oh for the" Izuku couldn't believe it, this was his problem? That he thinks that he toyed with his precious pride because for the lols?
"I do not care about your Kah, your pride, I did not tell you because I know you" Izuku argued back, feeling the bad nights of sleep finally making a mess of his temper at long last.
"You don't fucking know me!"
"Oh really? Have I told you about my quirk you would have looked for a Krif, a fight, only to feel superior" Izuku hissed.
"Bitch do not talk down to me, I can break your other leg if I want to" Katsuki snarled back.
"Try me and the next thing you'll know is what that asshole felt when I shouted him into a wall, only you won't have the benefit of one to stop you" Izuku hissed loudly, he had a small feeling of joy when he saw Bakugou recoil, that and the feeling of his voice causing the area to ripple with its power.
"I can make a list of every fight you picked, only to feel superior, our sempai last year? Remember him? You fought him because you felt like it, that Indian girl two years ago on the other class? Didn't you nearly blasted her to a wall because she told you she wanted to be a hero? And you wanted me to tell you about my quirk" Izuku said, shaking his head.
"I am in no obligation to tell you anything, so don't come here telling me that I owe you an explanation, I owe you nothing of the sort" Izuku snapped, stepping back and closing the door on Katsuki's face, not caring about the consequences, or the fact it was of bad manner.
He immediately went back to his room, not caring that he could hear Bakugou's heavy breathing and several curse choices as he loudly left, alongside the sound of explosions his Quirk activation left.
Izuku honestly didn't care about his temper of pride, he was done trying to tiptoe it and soothe it.
He had tried to be a friend to him and he got curses and pain back.
He didn't care about him being butthurt, honestly he was so done with him.
You can't juts undo ten years of attempting to form a freaking friendship and bullying without some side-effects and aftermaths.
His side-effects included shyness, total inability to talk to girls (aside from Mikaela) being soft spoken and actually too hard headed and stubborn, after all how can you explain him still wanting to be a hero after the world and life itself tried to stop him?
Of course there were the aftermaths, he was expelled of the school, now had a broken leg and all that after he broke his friendship with Bakugou.
Mikaela was right, he was too toxic, he needed to distant himself of him if he wanted to grow.
Making his way towards his room, he instantly made his way towards his bed, sat softly and began to rest, that short walk on a leg and a crutch had been, tiresome, to be honest, having to support himself on a single leg, now he had another thgin to add to his ever growing list of 'to-do' train, like actual physical training, if he wants to be a hero he needs some stamina, and some muscles.
After he heals of course, right now he wants to rest, study and then develop more what he has, honestly there was little more what he could do now.
While officially the Aldera case was handed to Sir Nighteye and his agency, with support from the police, the fact that the Shie Hassaikai might be involved also meant that the other two agencies that have been assisting his agency with information from the streets and anything weird regarding them, meant that they too were dragged into the case, if just by proxy.
Fat Gum's agency by default had been the first to fight the grunts of the yakuza in question, while there had not been captures by his part, Fat Gum and his interns and sidekicks have had experience in combating these new Yakuza and been exposed, in more than one occasion to the QEB, it was thanks to the 'buddy system' that Fat Gum enforces that there had not been casualties.
Then there was Ryukyu, her agency, while not at the frontlines fighting the Yakuza, had been gathering information like his, only that they have been more daring in their approach, infiltrating several meetings and quite literally 'hiding' in plain sight, handing these tasks to most of her sidekicks and people she believes can handle the task, none had proven her faith in them misplaced.
They were part of the team made by the Hero Public Safety Commission, once the word got out that bullets that could erase Quirk (if temporally) existed, and were made in some manner by the Yakuza, they had formed the team of the Pro-heroes that had directly engaged the Yakuza and had conducted their own investigation on them.
"So…any advances?" Fat Gum began, looking at his fellow pros, "Because so far I had just a few, and its regarding the guns, they are cheap made, like I don't kid you, I have seen flintlock pistols more advanced than those things" he added.
"They were modified to fire the special shells the QEB are encased on, also the Yakuza are a dying breed, those guns are made of different guns because they have access to very limited material" Ryukyu stated, "On my front I have found some…startling discoveries" she continued, looking at both men in the room, "But before anything, Nighteye, have you found anything?"
He sighed slightly, "Not much, just possible connections the local gangs in Aldera might have with them, alongside the Troupe" now that drew his colleagues attention.
"The Troupe? Man you better be kidding" Fat Gum asked in shock.
"I am not, the police seems to validate this as well, and there is evidence that seems to confirm this" Nighteye stated with a serious look, "Which leads me to this, almost a week ago Aldera High was, again, on investigation, this time for sexual assault on a student" Nighteye swore he hear Ryukyu's neck crack in anger, or stress he wasn't sure, only thing was that she was going to love what he would say next.
"However the attack never went beyond ripped clothes thanks to another student, who I, and I quote, shouted the shit out of the offended, through a wall, into a classroom, and nearly pancaked him, with his voice alone" Nighteye actually saw Ryukyu nod her head in a certain amount of pride.
"Okay, so we got Mic 2.0. Anything else?" Fat Gum asked, "Also did he really ended up pancaked?" Nighteye nodded smugly, he had seen the pictures, both from social media that caught the aftermath and the police ones after the boy was removed from the wall, something worth of a cartoon if he was honest.
"Yes, the boy who shouted in question, one Izuku Midoriya, page three to six" Nighteye directed their attention to the folders in front of them, "Is quite an enigma, labeled quirkless, but it seems he wasn't so quirkless after all, the doctor who made the prognosis is nowhere to be found, he was wounded by the ringleader of this attempt at sexual assault, one…Queen Bee, apparently no one in the school knows her name, only her alias, we made some digging, her real name is Yuki Takanawa, her rap-sheet is rather intimidating, if you were a kid just meeting her, but to us she is a potential villain" Nighteye continued.
"The boy warned Detective Tsukauchi about what the lawyer, and by extension the school will do to ensure the case doesn't progress further, and so far he has been spot on, they have been intimidating several key witnesses who saw the aftermath, knew of the plan and remained quiet and answer no question when prompted about the act itself, the teaching staff it's no better, they have a 'no snitching' policy, again this even when brought for interrogations and confronted with the possible charges filed against them if they are proven to be withholding vital evidence" Nighteye continued.
"The lawyer has been trying to, and I find myself amused by this, remove Detective Tsukauchi from the case, and replace him with someone else, an incompetent, brainless racist caveman that makes the actual caveman look like geniuses enlightened beyond their era" Nighteye continued, looking at Fat gum, "You might know him, he did botch THAT case you were working on" there Fat Gum looked up from the file of the kid that looked like a broccoli, and actually sneered.
"Are you serious, THAT guy?" Nighteye nodded, "Oh Jesus Crist, we need to keep him away of the investigation, he ruined the last one so badly that one of the cops on site had drawn his gun and nearly blew his brains up, in front of everyone, Endeavor was there" Fat Gum stated.
"I recall Endeavor telling the cop to do it, he'll burn the evidence" Nighteye smirked.
"The brat's the city's mayor son that was what stopped internal affairs from rimming his ass with a bazooka and firing it, in fact his dad has saved him from more than one fuck-up" Fat Gum stated angrily, "We can let him get near any of the implicated on this case, if what you say is right, then we have not only the Shie Hassaikai to worry about with their QEB, but the Troupe, if those small gangs have contacts with them, and they get introduced with the Shie Hassaikai" Fat Gum let that linger in the air.
"I know, that's why I called you two, Ryukyu, you said you had something for us what is it" Nighteye, there Ryukyu nodded, closing the file on Izuku.
"Nejire-Chan, one of my interns found what seems to be an underground ring fight, Quirks are allowed in this, and are usually held to near death" she began.
"Nothing new, those 'fight clubs' are dime a dozen" Nighteye stated, Ryukyu shook her head at that.
"Not this one, they are not facing Quirk users, in fact teams of three are allowed inside, they are fighting this" she said as she reached for her pouch and pulled several pictures, placing them on the table, Fat Gum and Nighteye immediately grabbed them, then recoiled in shock.
"What in hell" Fat Gum stated, "This thing looks like if a chicken was crossed with a human and had no feathers, egh" he stated with a frown, then looked at another picture, "Holy hell what is that-oh my god it has no skin" Fat Gum stated in horror.
"And no eyes and its brain its outside, exposed, most things die when their brains are exposed to air, this did not" Ryukyu stated, "These…creatures are pitied against anyone who wants to test themselves, by Nejire-Chan accounts, these things are deadly, and numerous, which tell me that these are BOW, the Troupe IS already in Musutafu" she said with a grimace, making the two men in the room to nod solemnly.
Nighteye looked at each picture with a critical eye, aside the skinless monster and the 'chicken-man' were just the tip of the iceberg, from man like lizards with wicked claws to what seemed to be a man covered in tattered bandages and clothes, but with what seemed to be green fire floating at its side, the number of pictures of the creatures were both numerous and honestly disturbing.
Then he saw one last one, and he actually looked in shock, he recognized the one fighting the human looking, rather large creature without lips and…where those tentacles on its shoulders?
Despite the shock of the creature's appearance, he recognized the one fighting it, or rather the three in them.
Queen Bee and her associates, for someone who was shouted through a wall and into a wall, Mamoru Nakamura looked rather healthy in that picture.
"The Troupe, somehow inside our city, our home, has started planting their base, creating their…abominations, and drawing the troubled youth into their experiments, this 'fight club' is nothing more than a testing ground for their new BOW's, Has Nerije-chan found something else?" Nighteye asked to Ryukyu, who shook her head.
"Not much, only that the attendants are all young, fourteen to fifteen, some of them are of gangs, and use this as an initiation of sorts, like draw first blood or something, the fights are heavily monitored, and they gamble a lot in them as well, also Nejire-Chan found out that the place where it occurs sells equipment for Quirk users, if they have the money of course, and before anything else don't even think about suggesting a raid, Nejire-Chan showed me more pictures, that place it's a fort, they are using the old metro lines that are over Yahvi Park, we try something like that I'm sure they have the place rigged to collapse, and the park with it, the number of casualties, alongside the fact they have BOW's…I don't want to even think what would happen" she admitted.
Nighteye nodded at that, a raid of course was out of the question, for something as big as the Troupe, they would need to call the top ten heroes, alongside the police and the army, no half-measures with the Troupe.
With a sigh Nighteye focused again on the picture with Queen Bee and her associates, and got an idea.
He honestly was putting meeting the Midoriya boy on the backburner, he had already done his part, and the fact he fought, even with a leg on that state told him everything about the character of the boy, there was no reason to drag him into this.
But there was a chance, no matter how small, that he might know something else, he apparently knew Queen Bee by reputation and her Quirk by simple glance, also warned them about the lengths Aldera High and its lawyer would go to stop them.
He could plan a visit, Mirio could use the lesson on how to gain information and use it, no matter how small it is.
Sometimes a grain of rice can tip the balance.
An insignificant information might save thousands of lives.
Three days later, night…
Inko Midoriya is a 'traditional' house wife, and she uses the term traditional loosely, her family had raised her, taught her how a woman should behave, how a woman should behave.
In hindsight, when she looked back, their teachings were rather misogynists, and also rather…criminal to be honest.
The world, however, did a good thing, took those teaching and curb-stomp them until nothing but a stain on the ground remained.
Her school life was rather…hectic, all thanks to Mitsuki, her first friend, she was the one who pulled her of that archaic view, of course Mitsuki's strong personality landed her, and by extension Inko, into troubles, troubles that thankfully her family never learned.
Trip and fall, stand up and walk that was her life in school, the life of every person in it, she had her first kiss there, her first friendship, her first heartbreak, her first tantrum, her first overdose of sugar thanks to that girl with thick lips that cooked like a god and of course her first lesbian experience.
Mitsuki was nothing if forceful, but also gentle when she wanted to.
She lived many things in her school life, then came graduation, and the world was opened to them, for the first time she didn't knew where to go, and it excited her.
Her family of course wanted her to follow the path set by them, marry some sort of Yakuza boss, at least twenty years older than her, by her estimations, and become another link to restore what her family once was.
She never knew until that point, but her family, the Midoriyas were also part of the Yakuza, a family that somehow had survived the hero's rampage against the underworld, and now they wanted her to join the families, to become what she was meant to be.
Only that the world had opened her eyes to the reality of her family long ago, they had not been raising a daughter, they had been raising a trophy, she had been sheltered for so long that she didn't knew a lot of things, things she eventually learned once in school.
That night she knew what she had to do, she could not openly defy them, but she could offend them, and bad, she took whatever clothes she could stuff without hampering her, her money, which was a lot, her cellphone, any evidence that might guide them to any of her friends, and left her house at night, heading to Mitsuki's home.
She spend two night with her friend before deciding her next step, one that shocked Mitsuki.
She enlisted in the army.
Her reasoning was that in there they would not find her, as a legal adult she could do as she desired, and enlisting was one of those things, also it didn't hurt that she might get stronger, learn how to handle a gun, or a knife, in a world of Quirks people had forgotten how to defend themselves from simple weapons, besides no one would expect that 'wallflower' Inko would know how to fire a gun or wield a knife.
Her time in the army was…interesting, times had, indeed changed the army across the globe, unless it is the United States, that shit remained the same, but in Japan, the number of women that enlisted were shocking, so much that if you were to show such numbers to someone two hundred years ago, you might cause them to faint.
Half of he army now is composed of women, she counted herself among those number for three years, three years of grueling training, honestly she had been in her best form during that time, Mitsuki had not recognized the woman that was Inko once she left the army.
Those three years taught her a lot, mostly on how to steel herself and stand up for something and someone, she had been trained in the use of Guns and Knives, shocking many that trained with her, she seemed to be a natural at the last one.
'Steel nerves Ink' is what they use to call her, shorting her name and how she tended to deal with spars in close combat with dummy knives, no one had ever beaten her, well one did, a special forces guy that had the moniker of 'Mr. Death', their fight lasted five minutes, and the guys that saw the fight swore that they would never cross Inko with a knife, ever, because she lasted five minutes with a guy that lived, breathed and probably ate his craft.
Of course becoming 'swol' was not the only thing she learned, someone in the administrative side had recognized her talent with numbers and organization after a punishment of their C.O. And she was put on several tasks that required organization and numbers, this inspired her and prepared her for the next step of her life.
After leaving the army she took studies in Economy and Administration in the same college Mitsuki was studying, putting more distance between herself and her family, once she graduated three years later (it was supposed to be five but she crunched the fuck out of her studies) she began looking for a job, surprisingly there was a lot of demand on her line of job, an accountant with high organizational standards.
Was it any surprise she ended up working in a high-profile company that require at least one more because their last one had a mental breakdown? Not to her, she took the position and the unspoken challenge.
Then she met Hisashi, they married, had Izuku…and her family butted their noses in her life again.
Izuku was barely one year when they appeared on the doorstep of their home, Inko was now working more as a freelancer, helping with taxes of whoever was willing to pay for her to crunch numbers, Hisashi was still working on the company, now rising through the ranks, and was ready for his first day as a high executive, when he opened the door and there they were…
Inko still finds that day rather…one of her worst to be honest, they had all but gloated that she had become what she was taught to be, a dutiful house wife, but she had done it wrong, not helping her family to reach what they once were, that they had known where she had been all this time.
Hisashi, bless his heart had defended her, actually telling them that the 'dutiful' house wife was also the one who handle the houses finances, was sought for her skills and could defend herself well enough that heroes would have to defend any villains from her, not the other way around.
They had said nothing, only that they would be coming back for their grandson, as expected he would carry the traditions and burdens of the family.
Hisashi had slammed the door in their faces and went late for work.
That week someone had broken into their house at night, and had tried to kidnap her son, he didn't went far, paranoia had set on her, and she hadn't been sleeping well those days, the kidnapper never stood a chance, despite her years and lack of training, old skills kicked in.
The kidnapper was dragged from her house by the police, on a stretcher, and with multiple cuts all over his arms and face, she had been anything but merciful, he should be glad she didn't owned a gun or the guy would be in a body bag.
Of course that episode eventually forced them to move from their small, but cute house in the suburbs to an apartment complex, on the fifth floor, if anyone wanted to break in they would have to learn how to fly on their way out.
After that of course she didn't heard much of her parents or other relatives, cousins or otherwise, she was an only child, so she only had cousins, shitty ones.
But she grew paranoid that one day they might return, she had indeed offended them, after all she was a supposed offering to a Yakuza boss to join the families, her running away was offence enough for all parties, as a result she stayed more at home, she did her job as a freelancer sparely, not because she was growing dull, but because she was afraid one day she would return home and would not find her son in it.
Maybe because he was 'quirkless' that never came to pass, but now things were different, people took quirks as proof of value for pretty much anything, her son, that could copy fictional superpowers without harm to his body and use them with impunity, to a criminal family like her, he was nothing short than a diamond in the rough, waiting to be polished to their taste.
She couldn't let it happen, she didn't want it to happen.