Various Plans, All To Come Back To Strength
Shigaraki had attended a number of meetings with Overhaul and her yakuza members but all he could make out of the various papers and plans proposed was that the situation was not on their side, not at all. Nighteye's ability could predict any imminent attacks in the day and the flexible routing for patrols served as fine sieves, only letting small packages and items through.
Furthermore, his guesswork for Overhaul's quirk had reached a satisfactory standstill as he could only pry the last piece of information about the mechanism, anything else he had discovered already.
" Shigaraki, are you up for some demolition?"
" Demolition? Are you asking me to dig using my quirk?"
" Think of it as practice. Your control can be upgraded using this opportunity. How is it?"
The Haissakai needed expansion done to their underground system, Overhaul had already planned out everything but the removal of material proved a bottleneck until Shigaraki's arrival. He had gotten on better terms with the gang, helping them create this concrete labyrinth beneath the various Districts of the city. His part in the job was so significant that all of the members were now calling him their Waste Manager. From debris to corpses to blood stains, Overhaul would separated these things into large chunks before throwing it for him to decay using his quirk. Despite being offended at first, Shigaraki had long grown custom to the nickname. It was not that the members were mocking him. No, they were simply not smart enough to come up with better name except for Overhaul who never cared about names in the first place.
" Your coffee."
" Thanks for wiping it clean."
"Hmm."
Overhaul and Shigaraki was standing side by side in the kitchen area. The lady had spent the weekends doing experiments and crafting something. The silence was beginning to grown tedious when she opened up first.
" Do your side have scientist, bio ones?"
Thinking back at the Doctor's figure, Shigaraki nodded.
" Is the guy trustworthy?"
" No"
The answer came immediately. Shigaraki had soon concluded that killing the Doctor would be the very first thing he would do to win the upcoming war. The man posed as the pint holding the entire lake back. Responsible for research, Nomu ( Implemented Quirks Soldiers) production and healing, Doctor needed to be killed on sight.
" A big game... then the research data for Trigger."
" Why the offer? Aren't we surviving?"
" Picking a side for your rebellion against All For One is something too heavy for the Hassakai. "
Shit! Shit! Shit!, she knew, that was what Shigaraki's brain could think only about. Every negotiation tricks he learnt from Ace Attorney had been thrown out the window. Before he could repute anything, Overhaul continued.
"This gang will either rot in Tartarus or be killed under All For One's order. But you offer a chance and we take it. The diseased won't cry for our deaths."
Overhaul still remained calling Quirk 'disease' and not staying near anyone for a distance closer than a decimeter. The boy tailing her seemed to be the only exception to this despite how begrudgingly her tone expressed the speaker's dissatisfaction.
" Why share your research?"
" Woman's intuition ... Something large is being planned for our downfall. Have you dug my requested exits? "
" Yes... Why did you tell me you are researching Quirk removal? "
" A favor... Take the boy with you if I fail."
" I do not take well to kids being murdered. Without a favor I will still do the same before a large scale conflict. "
"Another favor... I need you to join the frontline. "
Shigaraki was then thrown a small bullet, one used for police pistol. The casing was altered to a larger length, inside something slushing around with its pinkish color. Before he could inquire what it was, Overhaul took the stage to elaborate slightly more.
" Null, my magnum opus. A prototype is what you are holding. Effective for 4 hours. This will be enough to show my goodwill toward your organization."
Overhaul stopped, her gaze landing on the clock.
"You still have digging to do tomorrow. Rest up..."
Letting the perfunctory goodbye to a dead end, Overhaul left the scene to go back to her lab to finish up today's work. A month had gone by since Shigaraki's arrival at the group. Time was ticking toward an end for this game of family and comradeship. A tumble was all it needed to crumble.
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Nighteye's office
"Sir! Have you been able find out the location of the Hasskai?"
Centipede, a Mutant hero whose body resembled that of ... a centipede, asked the man sitting at the desk. His sleek, well-kempt hair in tandem with his piercing gaze sent the area into a stressful atmosphere.
"No, no clue. They are hiding, plotting something but my Quirk tells me nothing useful except that tomorrow is another peaceful day."
"Can we drop the tense atmosphere inside this office, Sir? We have cornered them already so isn't just maintaining the situation good enough?"
Bubble Girl, the cheerful source of the question, decided to lighten the mood against the unclear future up ahead. In her mind, the current situation was good enough: villains did not dare to do harmful things to civilians leaving them with ample leisure time, the public adored them for keeping everything under control and each of the Hero working for this agency found something to do for themselves. If that wasn't good then what was?
"Bubble Girl, the matter does not end with cornering them. Villains will always strive to tore this peaceful order into pieces for their gains. I fear, I am afraid of their plan. Even a cornered rat will attack the cat. This is, in my opinion, a calm before the storm. "
" Sir, may I be rude for a minute? Isn't that just your personal paranoia? I mean, looking at the current situation, haven't we already won the fight?"
Centipede shook his head at his junior's remark. While it was true that Sir Nighteye's paranoia was a bit too much but the very same thing had saved their lives countless time already. He was fearing for any scathing remark from the man but what came out was surprising.
"... Maybe you are right this time. Maybe I have been thinking too hard into the matter. My network finds nothing going on for over a month now. Even the shady dealings seems to have stop... A break may be needed. "
"Sir, is there a chance of them receiving outside help? From other gangs?"
"Yes. It is more likely that they receive aids from other gangs but you have to remember this, Centipede. What they are doing is a trade of benefits. The infighting between the participants is more likely than not. So I believe that even with the aid of others, the Hassakai will still be held back by greed."
Centipede nodded his head, now understanding the perspective of his mentor. The office returned to its cheerful atmosphere with a sighing Nighteye hearing his juniors discussing where to go after patrol.
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" Kurogiri, do you have experience in dealing with kids?"
" I raised you, Young Master. So yes, I have experience dealing with them."
" I have struck a deal with the gang here in Ebusa, and my agreement with them is reaching a critical point. Protection has been promised and your job is to take care of the boy while I do the fighting on this side, can you do it?"
"... Of course, Young Master. Send me the coordinate, I will arrive later to take the boy."
" Not now, and try to come as quickly as possible. Overhaul still want to spend time with the boy. Something like her guilt for wanting to kill him or along that line."
" Yes, Young Master. I will be on standby."
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Another month passed without much changing except for the tunnel system. Under the plan of Overhaul, the hands of the gang members and Shigaraki's quirk, it had expanded horizontally and vertically. Various exits had been made leading to various directions, a large map was made for each cardinal direction. Overhaul and Shigaraki did take some special care for the space underneath hero agencies and government building. Some care was given to the foundation of skyscrapers in the form of plastic explosive and bomb bought by and delivered through Kurogiri. That man was the very reason Overhaul had decided to share her work as a tradeoff for taking them in.
"Now, we need to do some final adjustments to the lab. Call your teleporter here. "
" ... What do you call me for, Overhaul-san?"
Through his phone, Shigaraki told Kurogiri to come over for a major task. The fog man quickly made a series of gates to appear beside his young master. After going through the normal disinfection and sterilization chambers, now the three of them are standing inside Overhaul's private lab.
"Take this and shoot the test subject."
In one corner of the rom was a woman sitting on the floor. The area had been separated from the cleansed scientific environment by transparent plastic strips hanging, like those in meat factory. The women, around her 30s with turquoise hair and fear-strucken black eyes, was taped over her mount and limbs. Overhaul explained that she captured "it" by disguising as a vulnerable young girl and guided the coming predators into a secluded alley at night before using her quirk to join the hands and legs of the perpetrator to their chest. She did not forget to close the above mouth by widening the lower mouth a bit.
"Why the duct tape? You can already silence and bind her with your quirk so why go to for such an inefficient method?"
" I cannot hear the report from its mouth with the hole shut."
Kurogiri and Shigariki could only offer silent prayers to the tragic girl whose perverted nature had driven her into Overhaul's experiment. Her luck seemed to be quite high this night as Overhaul left the cleaning to them.
" I hate getting dirty, so you two can check out the effect of the improved Null and dispose her if needed."
Saying just enough, Overhaul stepped out and signaled thee pair to start. Shigaraki, who was holding the bullet, took out a basic pistol often seen on the black market for just over a hundred thousands yen. He loaded the bullet filled with the Quirk-removal drug into the chamber and took aim at the tied-up woman's thighs.
"Urgh!"
A muffled scream as the bullet punch through her skin and sank itself into her flesh. The pain was quickly drained away from her face along with the colors as the feeling of something dissipating from her body took over. Her bewildered face was written down as a sign of Null taking effect in Overhaul's notebook.
Shigaraki decayed the rope into dust and the woman was about to attack him when she noticed something abnormal with her body. Her quirk, she could not feel its presence nor use it. She decided to quickly admit defeat. Shigaraki and Kurogiri left the room to the observant eyes of the scientist Overhaul to continue prepare for the plan both sides had agreed.
This week, a meeting of the city's governers would take place so the security and heroes would flock to the place to ensure everything going on neatly. Of course the main obstacle, our dearest Nighteye would not attend the whole thing but rather holed himself inside his office. The man would remain inside his agency to dig more information about the remaining criminals in Ebusa. He would be Shigaraki's responsibility to tackle with. His plan was to approach and take care of the man with Null; his value and risk as a hostage proved too much to kill immediately. All Might, his previous partner, would hunt them down if his friend was found dead. The man's quirk could be taken care off by aiming at the gap when he used his quirk, around 8 in the morning, and overloaded the thing with simultaneous disasters happening across the city. But for now, everything had to wait.
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" Onee-san, it's hurt... Why are you doing it again?"
Overhaul was taken a blood sample of young Kiro, her eyes like daggers staring at the chrono-particle concentration in the sample. Her remaining doubt and curiosity regarding the boy's quirk had been stripped bare. The boy's disease was getting worse both in terms of control and consequences. With the rate the figure was climbing, she doubted the boy would not experience trauma for the number of people he would remove.
Her remaining humanity was telling her to let the boy go after his crime of killing Big Boss. She knew logically the outburst wasn't his sin but ending her benefactor's life was something her emotions could not bear with. Maybe sending him to that boy's hands was better for Kiro's wellbeing. But the boy could remain in your grasp, healthy and all. Her logic said so. She had already replaced the majority of the needed biological material in his blood for Null production with chemical-based solutions. The main issue was the chrono-particles but she had already, albeit entirely by chance, produced through replicating a portion of the quirk factor. A clone of the kid's head connected to various organs were floating in a tube nearby, the nerves removed entirely and the blood vessels directed to distilation machinery. Looking at what would be moving away and what would be left being, Overhaul's nolatagia flared up inside her chest. Looking back, her desperation to delve into the research side was for a cure of the disease called quirk. But as time went on, she began to understand how meaningless her sentiment with the idea of the tradition yakuza was in the grand scheme off things. Despite how difficult it was, she was determined to create a solution for the society she was living in and saved the gang members who followed her from a life in prison. Of course killing some heroes on the way was a side objective but the main focus was to revenge the place at all cost.
She had already propsed the final measure with the 8 Precepts if the opponent was too powerful, but she hoped that she would not have to commit to it. They had mostly agreed with it but with mixed feelings. Only Rappa had rejected with his reason being " A man should fight directly with his body." How typical of him, she thought back.
Now, she was waiting for the distillation stage to end in this cleared off laboratory. Her eyes landed at the mass of flesh with various body parts connected together, at the dying chimera left on life support. Oh how ironic the whole situation was. The eye on her left arm blinked.