Author's Notes: Chapter edited and corrected by Vongrak.
Aizawa Pov.
"I hope this is important. I have work to finish. If you called me here for nothing, I'll kick you all the way to Nagoya." Mirko grumbled as she entered the room where Sir Nighteye and I were. I could see how tired she was, even though she tried to hide it, but it was easy to tell.
After all, it was the same exhaustion I felt in my body. Today had been a damn long day, and it seemed like it would never end. One problem after another. First, the raid on Shie Hassaikai turned out to be much more complicated than we expected.
And once again, I really couldn't help but feel relieved that Miyamura was somehow at the center of it all. That troublemaker had a knack for getting involved in things, but luckily he was on our side. I shuddered at the mere thought of trying to restrain Chisaki if she went berserk without Miyamura.
Even so, it was only midday and I was already tired. The police and the HPSC were working tirelessly. The job had become complicated, not only because of the Shie Hassaikai, but also because the League was definitely involved. We found one of the portal-opening machines at the facility, and that, along with Chisaki's statement, had complicated everything.
And then there was the matter of Chisaki's victims; they were all missing persons from at least 10 different countries. Very few people could pull off something like that; a teleportation quirk is the first option, but Compress could easily traffic people using his quirk.
The only good thing was that Miyamura hadn't been injured; the doctors had said it was simply fatigue and that he should wake up within several hours.
Even so, speaking of the League…
"Miyamura was right." I said without hesitation. Mirko stopped and frowned, looked at Nighteye before looking back at me, walked over to one of the chairs and sat down.
"Explain yourself." Mirko said without hesitation. I nodded towards Sir Nighteye. He touched a small control and the screen behind us.
"The League of Villains attacked Chisaki's transport." Sir Nighteye said solemnly. I could see Mirko straighten up as her brow deepened while her eyes focused on the screen.
The screen showed the image of a reinforced black pickup truck as it traveled down the road before a second pickup truck pulled ahead and the back door opened to reveal the League of Villains.
The video clearly showed Cinder, along with Dabi and Compress, as well as the villain driving, whom the camera couldn't capture. The League easily took down the convoy, even killing the guards and a heroine who was there. They freed Chisaki and brought her down to the road.
The villains seemed to talk quickly before Cinder stuck a needle in and began forcibly drawing blood from Chisaki, repeating this several times until at least 5 vials were completely filled with Chisaki's blood.
Then she began searching Chisaki as if she were looking for something, then she yelled at Dabi and Compress, both of them went to search through the belongings of the guards and the van, the three villains began to get frustrated and angry more and more when they did not find what they were looking for.
Finally, other heroines began to arrive at the scene, but the League, instead of staying to fight, simply allowed themselves to be enveloped in the black mud and disappeared, although they had an expression of frustration on their faces.
"Those bastards." Mirko grumbled irritably, her eyes fixed on the League's image, as if she wanted to punch holes in its head from there. "Even so, I still don't understand why they made me come here." Mirko grumbled. "Izumi was right, yes, and the League returning to Japan is worrying, but it seems like something the HPSC should resolve." I added. I nodded.
"It is, and they're doing it." I said without hesitation. "And it's really lucky that Miyamura warned us, so the League definitely didn't get what they were after." I said with a grimace.
"Chisaki's quirk no longer exists. I took care of it myself before the transport; no one saw me do it, so only we know that her quirk, in fact, doesn't exist. So the blood the League took is completely useless unless they find a way to reverse the effect of the bullets."
"And secondly, they didn't find those bullets." Sir Nighteye said, holding up two small cartridges. "We did find a second cartridge among the Precept's belongings, though we're almost certain that it is the temporary effect bullet." Sir Nighteye said, placing the cartridges on the table. "And the HPSC still doesn't know about these cartridges." Mirko's eyes widened.
"Explain yourself." Mirko repeated, and I grunted in annoyance.
"Nezu has reason to believe the HPSC is compromised." I said directly, and Mirko froze.
"Are they working for the League?" Mirko hissed, and I shook my head.
"No," I said easily. "Or at least not directly. There's a group behind the HPSC that has several high-ranking members under its control, like puppets, and Nezu has more than enough reason to suspect that group, but they have absolutely no connection to the League."
"In fact, they seem to be trying to stay out of all League business; they're definitely afraid of All for One," I said with a sneer.
"Be direct, Eraser, who are they? " Mirko grumbled, I nodded.
"The Zenin." I said coldly, Mirko's eyes widened.
"How, Mai?" Mirko asked, surprised. I nodded.
"Likewise, Mai and Maki Zenin are descendants of the main branch of the Zenin clan, as is Izumi. His mother, Iori Miyamura, formerly Iori Zenin, was the daughter of the former leader of the Zenin clan. None of them are directly involved with them; they all chose to distance themselves from them for their own reasons."
"But putting that aside, the Zenin are a group that controls almost the entire Japanese underworld; they have their fingers in every business, spreading themselves in the shadows trying to control everything."
"They have at least four unregistered S-rank members and many more members," I said with a grimace.
"So many?" Mirko asked, surprised. I nodded.
"They've hidden themselves very well," Nighteye said with a sneer. "Their name came up a couple of times while I was investigating the Shie Hassaikai. I thought they were just another yakuza subgroup, but they're... something more," Nighteye said. "I only recently learned everything thanks to Nezu and Aizawa."
"Okay, so when are we going to go and beat them up?" Mirko asked eagerly. I shook my head.
"Not in the short term," I said, dampening Mirko's excitement. "The Zenin are not just a group with powerful members; they've been accumulating wealth and favor for decades, probably even centuries."
"We don't know the extent of their influence, much less their full fighting capacity. Izumi has confirmed he's capable of facing them head-on if necessary, but that confrontation was spontaneous. We don't know if it will be the same now that they're better prepared for any fight," I said with a grimace.
"So what's the point of telling me all that? Get to the point already," Mirko grumbled.
"Context matters, Mirko." Nighteye sighed, and Mirko just glared at him. "We're telling you this for several reasons. First, you accepted Izumi Miyamura and Mai Zenin as interns, so you already have a connection with them. Therefore, it's possible you'll run into the Zenins sooner or later."
"The second one, the cases." Nighteye said, holding up both cartridges. "The HPSC is aware of the temporary quirk-erasing bullets, so I'll have to hand over that case to avoid raising suspicion. We'll mention that we were able to stop them before they completed their research, and we'll hide the second case."
"Nezu can safely store it inside UA. Also, although we handed over the case with the time-travel bullets, I'll destroy them before handing it over. I'll mention that they were destroyed during the fight; no one will be able to question it after seeing the fight against Chisaki."
"We will follow Miyamura's idea and the strange interaction between powers to explain the disappearance of Chisaki's quirk and conduct an empty investigation into it."
"In this way, we are denying the Zenin access to the quirk-erasing bullets. You are one of the few people who know of the existence of the bullets, at least the permanent ones; we need you to keep quiet." Nighteye said, staring at her intently. Mirko frowned.
"Whatever it is, I don't care what they're planning. I trust Nezu. If he's involved in all this, let him handle it," Mirko said simply. Nighteye sighed and nodded. "Even so, they seem very... insistent that these Zenin not get the bullets. Why?" Mirko asked sharply.
"And that's the third reason," Nighteye said coldly. "Tell me... what do you know about the Meta Liberation Army?" Nighteye asked solemnly. Mirko frowned.
"Should I know?" Mirko asked curtly before stopping. "No, wait, wasn't that pro-quirk army from like a century ago?" Mirko asked, snapping her fingers.
"The Meta Liberation Army itself is an organization founded and led by the infamous Destro. It was supposed to have been disbanded upon her death, but it turns out that's not the case," I said with a grimace. "It turns out that a descendant of Destro has refounded and is leading the army while they amass members en masse in the shadows."
"How much are we talking about?" Mirko asked immediately.
"The entire Deika city." Nighteye said, and Mirko opened her eyes.
"An entire city?!" he asked incredulously. We nodded.
"More than 100,000 members in the last census, all the heroes, villains and hunters of the city, are part of the MLA." I said solemnly, Mirko's gaze darkened.
"Okay, I understand the danger they pose, but if you mentioned them along with the Zenin, are they involved?" Mirko asked directly.
"Nezu thinks so," I said without hesitation. "We still don't know in what capacity. They could simply be business partners, they could just be supplying resources, or vice versa, and that would be the end of it."
"But it could also be that the Zenin control the whole thing, or at least have members in high-ranking positions within the MLA." I said with a grimace. "Until we know the full extent of the Zenin's influence within the MLA, we'd rather they didn't get hold of something like quirk-erasing bullets."
"Even if they don't give them to the MLA, the fact that they have them is just as dangerous, or even more so," I said with a grimace. Mirko just frowned before growling.
"Okay, you want me to stay quiet, I understand, so what's the plan for the MLA? " Mirko asked easily.
"There's little we can do without the HPSC's help. Against an army like the MLA, we're at a disadvantage on our own. Nezu has his contacts, and we're gathering information, but it's very difficult to infiltrate a city where practically everyone is an MLA member."
"At some point we'll have to involve the HPSC, but Nezu wants to make sure he knows who's playing both sides and who the HPSC could trust, so things were moving slowly." Nighteye said before sighing as he massaged his temple.
"So, what's my role?" Mirko asked.
"For now, just stay away from the Zenin. Don't go to Deika City for the time being; you'll be the first one called if we have to fight the MLA." I told Mirko, and she just nodded.
"Fine," Mirko said, crossing her shoulders. "By the way, how on earth did you find out about all this? From what you said, the MLA has been going on for decades; I seriously doubt they let the secret slip." Mirko said incredulously.
"Miyamura," I said, shrugging. "He mentioned and explained everything about the MLA, although we obviously had to confirm it, but once we knew what to look for and where, it was easy to confirm." I said easily. Mirko snorted.
"I can't believe Izumi was right, about this and practically everything." Mirko grumbled with a grimace. I sighed.
"He almost always is, and that's the most annoying thing, and you never get used to it." I grumbled in annoyance.
"He knows much more than he lets on," Sir Nighteye said with a grimace.
"Obviously," I said with a sneer. "Nezu knows it, I know it, anyone who knows Miyamura's abilities knows it, and he knows we know it." I sneered. "Even so, we can't pressure him for information. You yourself should know how difficult it is to extract information from a precog." I growled at Nighteye. He grimaced but didn't refute me.
"Huh? They ever asked him? That kid likes the sound of his own voice." Mirko grumbled in annoyance, and I snorted amusedly.
"I'm glad you know Miyamura so well now, but for every dozen of the things he says, a lot of them are wrong, and he thrives on those parts." I grumbled in annoyance. "Though... we've learned a lot just by listening." I sighed. "He talks about it at UA with his partners; you just have to pay attention." I shrugged.
"Are they spying on him?" Nighteye asked, raising an eyebrow. I snorted.
"Of course not, Nezu would never order a student who hasn't done anything wrong to do that, and I wouldn't follow such orders without a good reason either, but Miyamura lets his guard down at UA, just like Hebert. Both are capable of localized omniscience, the former with his Haki and the latter with her insects. Normally, it would be difficult to sneak up on them."
"But at UA, they both just relax, let their guard down; Izumi doesn't use his Haki at UA and Hebert doesn't bring her insects into most of the university's habitable rooms."
"So they just chatter about it no matter who's listening." I rolled my eyes.
"Some kind of trap?" Nighteye asked, raising an eyebrow. "Is he planning something, leading them to a certain point?" he continued. I snorted loudly, as did Mirko.
"No, Izumi doesn't plan. Oh, he's intelligent and one of the most talented people I've ever met in a fight, but he's no mastermind capable of planning anything. He's too carefree and just goes with the flow." I said almost dismissively. "He does prepare, yes, he's prepared for any eventuality, and so far, we've been lucky that he's been in the right places at the right times and prepared enough to face difficult situations, but that's due to Miyamura's luck, or bad luck, nothing he planned." I shook my head.
"The only time I saw him planning something had to do with sex," Mirko said dryly. I resisted the urge to groan loudly in annoyance, because yes, that sounded like that idiot Miyamura, so I just sighed.
"The only reason we know about the MLA is because he's starting to trust Nezu and us more, which is good. Several of the things he told us are... worrying, but it's good to know now, so we're not going to reciprocate that trust with suspicion." I said with a grimace of disgust. Nighteye just frowned, but nodded.
It was obvious he wasn't sure, and I couldn't really blame him; Izumi's personality left much to be desired, especially when he decided to be annoying himself.
But for all that Izumi was annoying, a headache, and a complete problem, he was one of my students, he's a good person, and he would make an excellent hero in the future; I had no doubt about it.
Nighteye could have his doubts, he could suspect whatever he wanted, that's just how he was, I wouldn't reproach him for it, as long as he didn't interfere with or hurt Miyamura, I wasn't worried about what he might do.
"Now, come on, the police and the HPSC must be waiting for us to finish our job." I said easily, I could hear some reproachful groans from Mirko and Nighteye, yes, I felt exactly the same.