Chapter 98: Breadcrumbs
Summary: Back on the trail of the League...
Chapter 98: Breadcrumbs
Distracting Izumi with sex, no matter how kinky, had only been a temporary measure and Momo had known it. Thankfully, she'd also had more plans than just the one, and had enlisted Inko and Nedzu both in said plans. Inko had managed to sit on her daughter for another day, insisting both that she attend an in-person visit with their therapist, then spend the rest of the day cooking and relaxing in the Midoriya penthouse. A safe space for all of them that, thankfully, had so far remained untouched by the war with the Empire.
After Inko had come Nedzu. Momo knew her girlfriend well enough to understand she didn't sit still very well. Not when there were things to be done and problems to be solved. It was thus that she'd arranged for Nedzu to personally task Izumi with something that would help her find closure regarding the Jaku operation, while also keeping her away from direct combat and other stressors for a bit longer. Specifically, he'd tasked Izumi, Momo, and 2B with putting the investigation skills he'd started training them in before the war to attempt to locate where the League of Villains might have fled too. To that end, he'd provided them access to all the material that had been complied on the League and its assets. Which, interestingly enough, included follow up on the work Izumi and Momo had done trying to track who owned the cameras pointed at UA's gate.
The job was something nice and traditionally heroic and served to give Izumi something to focus on. Even more importantly, it got her away from the large-scale meetings that were so draining on her social/emotional batteries. All while being something that needed doing, so Momo's girlfriend wouldn't feel guilty about being assigned to the task. Honestly, the only downside is that they'd had to let Jirou go elsewhere for the time being. Their other girlfriend didn't have any training at all in investigation, and was off rotation after the post-Bristol break. That said, with the lower number of Rifts opening country-wide, Jirou had actually been assigned to a search and rescue team for the time being. Which was a relief for both of them.
"I think I might have something?"
Momo straightened, turning from her own currently fruitless perusal of the data the forensics people were still pulling out of Jaku four days after the raid. Seeing she had her attention, Izumi threw something up on one of the workshop's projectors. It was a complex series of schematics, generated by someone going over the Nomu growing/stasis pods with a scanner-type Quirk that created a high-fidelity 3D image. Moments after the image appeared on the wall, specific parts were highlighted in red.
"See these parts? All of them are highly custom work, high quality too. They all show signs of being made to the same standard, by the same manufacturer. Right down to the serialization on them. More to the point…" Izumi waved at the screen and two of the smallest parts turned green. "…these two parts were also present in a handful of the cameras that we helped Nedzu try to track backwards after the mass attack on Hero schools."
Izumi's powers meant she didn't actually need any flashy hand waving, only using them for theatrical effect. Something that was shown off as, this time, a far more complex series of actions happened on the screen as Izumi sliced the 3D model apart and isolated the components. After they were all alone, another set of identical components appeared next to them, labeled as coming from seven of the cameras that had been observing UA. More importantly, under them was opened the result of an independent investigation that had been run into their source. A quick skim caused Momo to straighten in alarm.
"Wait, Nabu Island? Isn't that the island off the coast that's been surrounded by storms since the invasion?!"
Izumi nodded grimly.
"Yes. Given how grim things have been, and the indication that it was a villain takeover rather than an action of the invaders, it hasn't been dealt with. The population there was small to start with, and no one could justify freeing up the level of force needed to breach the storms. Thankfully, that equation has changed, and it's actually on the list of places to be dealt with by Clean Slate, anyway. We even have some initial scouting results from the less combat-focused members of our taskforce."
The parts and reports vanished, replaced by a different set of reports. These signed with a familiar name that made Momo smile.
"I'm glad to see that Koda is doing well. Even if he was unsuited for combat, his Quirk is incredibly useful for intel gathering. I wasn't aware he'd been shifted away from Rift monitoring, but it makes sense with the much lower rate of them opening now. That and most of them being predicted by the algorithms anyway."
Izumi nodded, a little bit of tension vanishing at the reminder that not everyone who had been lost from UA's heroics groups was for horrible reasons. Some of them were, as far as anyone could tell from the few contacts they'd retained, actually doing quite well. Koda's gentle nature had been horribly unsuited for the violence needed against the Empire, but he'd done fantastically good work as a scout spotting Rifts. And now they were looking at a scouting report compiled entirely by him, with him having been able to communicate with a number of sea animals that could pass under the storms, rather than through them.
"According to him, the villains there are led by someone called Nine. Who, most suspiciously, appears to be named after the number of Quirks he has. Either he's secretly a Nomu that's able to retain human appearance, or else he's got a lesser copy of All for One in the same way many of the Nomu at Jaku had copies of the same Quirk."
Momo grimaced at both possibilities. A Nomu able to look and act normal would be a serious danger for infiltration. The ability to copy All for One, on the other hand, was a quiet nightmare everyone involved had thought of, but which no one wanted to mention. Unfortunately, she tended to agree with Izumi's conclusions. Though there was, of course, one additional possibility.
"It's also possible it's convergent evolution. Copy Quirks aren't unheard of by any means. If he's copying them rather than stealing them, it might just mean he's simply got a similar Quirk."
Izumi shrugged back in response.
"Sure, it's possible. But you and I both know it's not likely. Either way, I think this is enough to take the case to Nedzu, don't you?"
Momo sighed and nodded. They'd only been at this for two days. She should be glad it had taken so little time. But she was afraid it meant they were going to get thrown right back into the grinder again. Possibly before Izumi was really ready. Well, needs must when a slow-burn apocalypse has the world's steering wheel…
... ...
Nedzu looked over the data silently.
They had, of course, spent several hours compiling more of it. Including siccing 2B on running down possible identities for the handful of villains Koda's animal spies had gotten them images of. Who knew that dolphins and turtles made such good spies with the right bribes? They hadn't managed to identify Nine's real name, but they'd linked him to previous crimes, some pretty 'mass death' sort of crimes as it happened. He'd even appeared alongside his current companions several times in the past, and two of them they did have names for. Kon Chōjūrō, Villian name Chimera and Hasaki Kiruka, Villain name Slice. Another villain had gone unidentified, with all they had to go on being that he appeared to be able to manipulate the cloth wrappings he wore.
"This is good work. A solid lead. It also, unfortunately, presents us with a problem."
Nedzu had, apparently, finished their report. Closing the files they'd provided, he turned and accepted a teacup from Momo with a nod of thanks. She was one of the very few people that he would actually accept making him tea, and he took a slow sip of it appreciatively before he spoke again.
"The interrogation of the fire villain has also finished. There were some…disturbing revelations that aren't going to be made public any time soon, as they would be a major blow to public morale. We also, however, got a feel for the current state of the League and their plans. According to what Dabi knew, Shigaraki was being 'upgraded' in a medical pod much like those used for the Nomu, though somewhat more streamlined and advanced looking. Presumably, it is the same pod that you noticed missing, causing you to realize that most of the raid targets had escaped Jaku."
Izumi and Momo both paused, grimacing and putting down their own teacups. The idea of the already-dangerous Shigaraki being 'upgraded' by a mad scientist was certainly not good news. Though at least the job didn't seem to be complete just yet, if they'd escaped with him still in a medical pod.
"Unfortunately, in addition to that information, he knew something of their plans. Apparently, they were planning strikes on both UA and Tartarus. Supposedly, they have someone on the inside at UA, who has fed them information about how relatively weak our defenses are due to spreading ourselves out helping against the invasion. Oddly, whoever their mole is doesn't seem to have told them anything about operation Clean Slate. Given how obvious your training was, I can only conclude that whoever the spy is doesn't want the League to succeed. Had they attacked while you were training, they'd have lost more completely than even at Jaku."
That was…alarming. The idea of a mole had certainly been an obvious one to consider, after the USJ. But, at least for Izumi and Momo, the idea had fallen by the wayside after All for One's death and the start of the Invasion. The idea that a mole might have been in place this entire time was disconcerting, to say the least.
"As for the Tartarus strike, that one was meant to be more surgical. They intended to take out the guards and blow the high security wing wide open. A special Nomu, made from a villain named Mustard, apparently has some sort of chemical warfare ability that was supposed to send the guards into a berserk fit, leaving them unable to respond when a set of suicide-Nomu took care of the wall. We have a location they were planning to stage from, and had been intending another rapid raid in hopes the League was still going to go with that plan."
Nedzu set his tea down after one more sip, then leaned back and closed his eyes for a moment as he considered. Then, he nodded to himself.
"They still might launch the Tartarus plan, if nothing else as a distraction to keep us busy. So we'll have to take that threat seriously and raid the hideout we've identified. However, I believe you may have given us a better idea of their actual fallback location. Nabu Island really shouldn't have the sort of facilities to make those parts. Not at the quantities they would have needed for them to produce both cameras and all the Nomu containers."
Nedzu pulled up the information they had on Nabu island before the storms. Rural, low population, mostly only of interest to the relaxation-seeking type of tourists.
"Just the cameras was excusable. A small specialty shop run by someone making custom parts was what the investigator found, and it was feasible. But Nabu has a population of less than 1,000 and is virtually entirely rural. The larger facilities needed to make such parts in bulk should never have been able to remain unknown there. Which indicates a hidden facility, perhaps quite an old one which supplied All for One during his original reign. Combined with this Nine and his actions, it does seem like an extremely likely target. Which means we need to find a way to plan two separate raids, in short succession, on two wildly different targets."
The dean's smile was just a little too excited at the prospect for them to like as he clapped his hands together.
"Now then. Since this is a tough problem indeed, and you're both familiar with the personnel available for Clean Slate, I suggest we do some preliminary brainstorming immediately…"
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A/N: Ha! Bet you all thought I forgot they were studying investigation before everything went to hell, hmmm? Or that I hadn't remembered them tracking the cameras? How dare you doubt me ;-).