Chapter 62: Data Sifting

Summary: A different vector towards a Unicorn Girl.

Chapter 62: Data Sifting

"I think I found something."

Izumi blinked, looking up from where she'd been fiddling with the newest generation of their QE energy storage capacitors. 2B was in the prototype of her 'civilian platform' adult body they'd recently finished, breaking in its systems while doing more digging into the Shie Hassaikai and their associated groups. Like all of the physical platforms they'd built for her to inhabit, it was far more limited than the summoned copy of her original body. But the additional years spent on this particular model meant it was decently combat-capable, as well as having a robust ECM/ECCM suite that was advanced enough to be helpful in 2B's current task. Of course, half the parts had needed to be made via Momo's Quirk, but still…progress was progress.

"Something on the Shie Hassaikai, or on the bullets?"

"Both, I think. Though the intersection of the two is troubling."

The frown building on 2B's face as she continued to dig through whatever she'd found was enough to make Izumi outright abandon her own work and shift her attention to their link. Her partner sensed her doing so and sent over the initial data packet she'd found. A minute of reading later and Izumi's frown was building to match 2B's own.

"Human experimentation. Has to be. The Quirk-factor in the bullets is too warped to be anything else. It can't even be a Quirked animal, given that there are enough DNA traces to indicate it's human-sourced." Reaching the end of the initial file and peeking in on what 2B was doing, Izumi nodded to herself. "You're trying to back track who the Quirk belongs to. Anything so far?"

2B shook her head, then paused and grimaced.

"I've found several places that look like they've been deleted and overwritten. Someone with this profile did exist, at some point. But all evidence suggests that their identity has been carefully erased. I'm working around the edges to try and piece together what remains."

Izumi nodded at that. A normal investigator would be stuck when they hit the type of dead end 2B had found. Trying to correlate thousands of datapoints to create an outline of what was missing in the data would be beyond even most cyberpaths. But 2B was still, for all intents and purposes, an extremely advanced AI. Just because she'd become a Quirk, and learned to be human, didn't change the fact that she had a processing and data-sifting ability that was so far beyond human that you could barely use the same definitions. And unlike the dumb-AI of the modern era, 2B could make the intuitive leaps a sentient being does. Even Izumi, who could turn herself into a near duplicate of 2B, couldn't really compare. Her human perceptions were too inherently limiting to quite keep up, even if she could come closer than any other human had a chance to.

Still, that didn't mean Izumi couldn't pursue a different angle. Diving into the digital investigation herself, Izumi focused on the period of radicalization, when the Shie Hassaikai had started to shift focus. It was quickly obvious that it had been a change of leadership that caused it, with the new quasi-villain Overhaul being the source of the shift. Still, entire teams had looked into him. Instead, Izumi decided to look into his predecessor. She didn't have a clue what she was looking for, only having the vague idea of perhaps finding a reason for the change. Which was why she blinked as she stumbled over an unexpected clue.

"2B? Why am I seeing pictures of the Shie Hassaikai's old boss with a daughter? He's listed as not having any family."

2B's voice was distracted as she answered.

"That's one of the things I found that was deleted. Someone seems not to want anyone to know about her. Though I've found a death certificate for both her and her husband. A few years apart."

Another image, pulled from an aggregator that scraped social media sites, made Izumi frown even more.

"What about their daughter?"

The question actually caused 2B to stop, head moving to meet Izumi's eyes, expression confused.

"…What daughter? I haven't found anything about a grandchild?"

Izumi sent the image over, even as she looked for more. What she was doing was a bit of a grey area, but not technically illegal. After all, she was paying for the scraped content, just like any company that wanted to target ads. She just wasn't using it for ad targeting. 2B accepted the image with a frown, and Izumi could feel her partner's direction shift as she paused her previous investigation to try running the girl down. Minutes passed, with Izumi passing on more images of a very young child, including a name that had been tagged in one photo. Eri. She even found an image of the old Yakuzi boss with the girl on his knee. Eventually, 2B exclaimed in triumph…and passed a file over to Izumi.

The file was a backup of another file, displaying the preschool records of one Eri Ichimura. Inside were records of an adorable three-and-a-half-year-old girl with light blue hair and a raised bump on one side of her forehead. The girl was brightly smiling at the camera…and matched almost perfectly with the images Izumi had found of the Yakuzi boss's granddaughter with her mother, father, and grandfather. A quick skim of the file revealed that 'Eri' hadn't displayed her Quirk yet at the time the file was last updated. Which wasn't atypical at all, with most non-mutant-Quirk children only having their Quirks come in at around the age of four. Izumi herself had been five, if only just barely, and she'd only a little bit of an outlier. Satisfied that this was likely the girl in question, Izumi checked the date and was instantly concerned.

"There's no more sign of her? No missing person case? Death certificate? Nothing?"

2B quickly confirmed that to be the case and Izumi hissed out a displeased breath, attempting to hold onto her calm.

"She'd only be six right now, if that's true. If she's the one involved in the experimentation…"

Only a grim silence answered her from 2B…and Izumi reached for her phone. Ryukyu needed to know about this, right now.

... ...

It was less than a day later when Izumi walked into a meeting of heroes and heroines at the Nighteye Agency. Nejire had come along with her and Ryukyu, of course. Though Setsuna had been left behind to patrol with other members of the Dragon Heroine's agency. The Group B student had protested, but been shut down due to it being impossible to make her uniform fully bullet proof. Setsuna's general costume was, of course. But whenever Hydra 'split' using her Quirk, it exposed portions of her body that couldn't be covered while she was all put together. Given they had no idea what would happen to her if she was hit with the 'Quirk Erasing' bullets while split, bringing her had been deemed an unacceptable risk.

Which wasn't to say that UA wasn't represented by others at the table. Pro Hero wise, Fat Gum, Rock Lock, Kesagiri Man, Eraserhead, and Gunhead were all present. Along, of course, with the entirety of the Nighteye Agency. Alongside their mentors, however, were a number of UA students. The other two members of the Big 3 were there of course, but so were both Kirishima and TetsuTetsu with Fatgum. Likewise Kendo and Hiryu of Group B were present with Gunhead, and Honenuki was present with Rock Lock. For once, this meant that Group B was actually better represented than Group A for what was promising to be a major raid…but Izumi was able to quickly put together the logic of those present.

At least three of them, like Izumi herself, were bulletproof against small arms. Keno's suit was heavily reinforced, which likely meant she was as well. And Honenuki, in particular, was potentially incredibly useful for bulling their way through the maze of underground tunnels they now knew were present. Just as she settled those observations to herself, Sir Nighteye keyed a control that sealed the room and stood to address everyone present.

"Welcome, everyone. Given the seriousness of our potential situation, I would have liked to have more time to gather more firepower for this raid. However, recent discovers have indicated that we no longer have time."

Nighteye pulled out a remote and brought a holoprojector at the center of the table to life. On it was shown the profile of Chisaki Kai, AKA Overhaul. While his information dominated the display, eight more dossiers of varying detail appeared below his.

"As of this morning, Chisaki Kai has been officially but quietly reclassified as a Villain, allowing us to act against him and his group of Yakuza. This has been done on the down low by the government due to the recent distribution of something new from his organization. A Quirk Erasing bullet. Current versions are temporary, but both the HPSC and the government fear the Yakuza may be working on a permanent version. Some of you, such as Fatgum and Ryukyu, have already encounter them, though luckily without any lasting harm."

There were grim nods of acknowledgement around the table. The idea of something like a Quirk Erasing bullet going into general distribution was a disaster that none of them needed. Especially not right when the death of All for One was finally settling down the waves that had been stirring across Japan in the wake of the League of Villains attacks.

"The final push that allowed us to force through the needed approval was proof, provided by analysis from Aegis Inc, that the source of the new drug is likely some sort of human experimentation. Combined with other data collected by both Lemiliion and Resolution," Nighteye paused to point out Togata and Izumi, "we now believe the most likely victim of the experimentation to be a child."

Several heroes growled, with Gunhead half-standing in outrage, at that new piece of information. Nighteye let their outraged words flow for several moments, before slamming one of his hyperdense seals against the reinforced table. Once he had all of their attention again, he pointed to Izumi.

"The bulk of our information comes from some incredibly good data sifting done by Resolution and her sentient Quirk, 2B. Resolution, if you would?"

Izumi took a deep breath at suddenly being the center of attention. But this was important, and she'd been prepared for it. She stood and silently took control of the projector, shifting it to display the handful of images they'd managed to acquire of Eri. The most recent was from a security camera, near where Mirio had encountered her attempting to flee Overhaul just a day ago. Mirio was one of the rare heroes that didn't wear a Hero Scouter, not because he didn't want to, but because they hadn't yet figured out how to make one that would phase with him. Even so, knowing about the encounter, 2B had managed to pull images from some local cameras…before another cyberpath came through and wiped them.

The image showed an older version of the girl whose preschool pictures they'd found, now sporting paler hair and a horn where the raised bump on her head had been before. More critically, she was heavily bandaged and visibly afraid. The anger in the room ratcheted up at the sight, but Izumi remained as calm as she could as she spoke about what they'd found.

"We believe this to be Eri Ichimura, a child whose records were wiped from virtually every system in Japan, in a way that screams 'a cyberpath did it.' Those records were wiped shortly after the death of her father, with Eri Ichimura passing into the custody of her grandfather, the previous head of the Yakuza Group that Overhaul now leads. Despite having access to a high-level cyberpath of our own in the form of 2B, we've only been able to restore fragmentary information about her and her family. How she came into Overhaul's charge we are unsure, we do know for sure that he is not her legal guardian, as he claimed to Lemillion. Given the suspicious timing of her disappearance, the extreme efforts taken to erase her existence, and the extensive bandages seen in the most recent images, we strongly suspect her to be the source of the genetic material in the Quirk Erasing Bullets."

The only calm expressions around the table were of the 'deadly calm' flavor, and the anger in the air could have been cut with a knife.

"For better or worse, our ability to provide enough proof that this is likely the case, was finally enough to force the powers that be to let us raid this Yakuzu group. Human and Quirk trafficking is on the list of crimes that provide cause of that alteration, regardless of Quirk involvement. That means, however, that this is primarily a rescue operation. Our first goal is the recovery of young Eri, with the apprehension of Overhaul and his Eight Bullets, as well as the seizing of his lab equipment for analysis, as merely a nice secondary bonus. As for what to expect from our opponents, I'll hand this back to Sir Nighteye, as he and his Agency has been investigating the group as a whole longer."

Sir Nighteye nodded and stood again, taking control of the projector back and returning it to the dossiers his agency had put together on the group.

"We will start with Overhaul, as he is by far the most dangerous of the group. He is, in fact, the primary reason I specifically requested the presence of Eraserhead, as Overhaul's Quirk is instant death if he makes physical contact with anyone…"

As the briefing began, the air of anger in the room didn't fade, so much as it was converted into iron-hard determination to do this thing right…