Ozora Arashi—finally cooperative after surrendering—answered every question Lock asked.
Not out of loyalty, but because Yamamoto Ape had abandoned him so thoroughly that all remaining loyalty evaporated.
By the way, Ozora Arashi was his real name.
His Quirk: Wings—granting flight and the ability to flap out, slicing wind blades.
But after injecting the Quirk-Enhancement Potion, his wings had evolved into their previous strange form—allowing his entire body to disperse into countless feathers, materializing from any one of them at will.
Lock checked Arashi's body with magic, confirming it.
Each feather was indeed part of his physical structure.
And in one of those feathers, the leftover side-effect toxin from the enhancement drug was still present.
But just like Iron Shark, Lock's Fire Dragon's Roar had burned the toxin out of his system—
making Ozora Arashi one of the rare cases where the enhancement caused evolution without collapsing his body.
Of course… the "treatment" involved being roasted alive.
Only someone as durable—or lucky—as Arashi could survive that.
Next came what Lock wanted most:
Information about the Evolutionary Organization.
The lab was destroyed tonight?
Only a small branch of a nationwide—no, global—network.
Each branch had a group leader. Yamamoto Ape was one such leader.
The organization used a strict hierarchy:
Arashi only took orders from Yamamoto.
Yamamoto only took orders from his superior.
But Arashi never knew anyone above Yamamoto.
The system completely obscured the identity of their true leader.
And Arashi's memory had nothing—no details, not even rumors—about the Evolutionary's highest figure.
One more thing:
The Evolutionaries absolutely had dealings with the League of Villains.
The Nomu and the enhancement drug were the second half of their cooperation.
As for the Nomu Lock had just annihilated—
They were incomplete models, barely functional shells.
No wonder they hadn't pressured him at all.
Lock let out a breath.
He had hoped the Evolutionaries were simply another organization under All For One…
But the truth was worse.
Their leader seemed to stand on equal footing with All For One.
A League of Villains already made the My Hero Academia timeline chaotic enough—
And now another massive villain faction?
Lock held his head, exasperated.
He really had no idea how much the original plot had unraveled.
"Go outside and surrender to my teammates. Don't even think about running."
Lock pointed to the factory's exit with a calm smile.
Ozora Arashi's whole body trembled—
That smile looked less like a smile and more like a devil's grin.
Even injured and limping, he knew Lock could fly.
Escape was impossible.
"Sigh… I just hope I don't get sentenced to twenty years…"
With that miserable line, he staggered toward Lock's teammates to surrender.
Lock then headed toward the lab area.
The ruins still reeked of blood beneath the shattered stone.
"If only Sirius were here…"
With Sirius's enhanced hearing, he might detect breathing or heartbeats beneath the debris.
Instead, corpses were buried beneath the rubble left by Lock's own lightning storm.
"…Should I just burn the place clean?"
Lock clenched a fist.
Fire magic blossomed across his knuckles.
Yamamoto Ape was hiding under these ruins somewhere—
And fire would force him out.
Suddenly—
Space warped ten meters ahead.
A huge black vortex spiraled open from nothing.
Lock's eyes narrowed.
"Kurogiri!?"
Black mist flowed outward as a man in a high-collared suit stepped through—
yellow eyes glowing within shifting shadows.
It was indeed Kurogiri, the League of Villains' gatekeeper—
The one responsible for countless attacks on U.A.
At the same moment, rubble exploded upward nearby.
Yamamoto Ape burst out, filthy and panicked.
"Kurogiri! Finally—get me out of this hellhole!"
"Trying to run?"
Lock snorted coldly.
He clapped his palms together and channeled ice magic.
"Ice-Make: Casting Net!"
A woven fishing net of blue-white ice shot forward—
But Kurogiri's mist surged.
The black fog enveloped Yamamoto's body, and the net phased through it—
vanishing into the mist and reappearing harmlessly behind him.
Kurogiri spoke in his calm, velvet voice:
"Lock… 'The Mage'.
A frightening young genius… truly remarkable."
He didn't bother fighting.
He simply grasped Yamamoto and stepped back toward the vortex.
Both vanished into the swirling darkness.
"Damn it."
Lock clenched his teeth.
There was nothing he could do.
He could have jumped in after them—
But that would mean entering the League of Villains' nest while nearly out of magic.
That would be suicide.
And so—
The Hero commission concluded.
The Evolutionary stronghold in this city was destroyed.
One villain killed.
One surrendered.
One escaped with Kurogiri.
And most importantly—
The USB drive with all the enhancement drug data was recovered safely.
Lock immediately handed it over.
He wasn't interested in scientific research.
And in return—
He received the commission reward
AND an enormous bounty for recovering the data.
When Mt. Lady returned from her patrol later and heard what had happened, she almost cried.
If she had delayed accepting her patrol mission by just a bit…
She might've participated in this major combat commission.
Regardless, Fairy Tail Agency's name spread even faster.
Every report carried Lock's contribution.
Around this time, Fire Buster officially resigned from his old agency and joined Fairy Tail.
And after this incident—
Fairy Tail's phones never stopped ringing.
Commissions flooded in daily.
Fire Buster and Sirius took most rescue-type missions.
Mt. Lady, Kamui Woods, and Death Chicken handled patrols and combat calls.
All grew steadily in reputation and income.
As for Lock—
When not handling missions himself, he spent most of his time "cultivating magic power."
(Outsiders… called it "slacking off.")
Months flew by.
Winter ended.
Spring arrived.
Life settled into a rhythm.
But Lock felt like he had forgotten something…
Until one morning—
He opened his phone and found a furious email from his childhood friend, Jirō Kyōka—
And finally remembered what he had forgotten.
---
A/N: Advanced Chapters Have Been Uploaded On My Patreon
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