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CHAPTER START---
"Horizon, can you please tell us what you learned."
"Sure thing Nighteye..."
Everyone gets ready to listen in, and later they'd be thankful that this is all being recorded, because the information was so stomach churning they could hardly take notes.
"How long have you been building this case?"
"Six weeks," Nighteye says. "I got a lead when one of their members was caught hanging around some drug dealers, we kept an eye on him and learned he was the supplier, and now we're here."
"Right, well you've barely scratched the surface," Horizon says. "For the past three days I've been analyzing the sample Fatgum sent me and doing some research of my own."
"We're listening.""What you're dealing with isn't some nonsense like Trigger, this is a new type of arms race, the kind that can go global very quickly.
The red bullet Fatgum sent has a blue counterpart I found two weeks ago, but that one doesn't make any sense on its own since it doesn't do anything.
The red suppresses Quirks, but I think it's more like a Quirk Deletion Bullet."
"But my Quirk came back," Suneater says.
"Yeah, after a few hours, but I contacted the Commission for their records, any reports of Pro Heroes losing access to their Quirk, got hits from all across Japan. Dozens of reports, some for a few minutes, others for a few days, the evidence is inconsistent.
That means this is still in its trial run, and the end goal is likely a permanent result. One lucky shot and your career is over, in a battle, you'd just die more often than not."
Everyone looks sickened at the thought.
"The blue one does the opposite. On its own, you could apply it to yourself and nothing would happen, but if you've been shot by a Deleter Round, it counters the effect and matures your Quirk factor back to its usable state."
"A plague and a cure," Nighteye says.
"Exactly, they plan to sell the Deleter Rounds to villains and the cure to the government, can't imagine what a government wouldn't pay for their Top Pro Heroes to have their Quirks restored."
"How would they make that deal happen?"
"Already found that out," Horizon says, once again surprising everyone. "I found a small pharmaceutical company that applied for approval on the patent to the cure, it's hidden fairly well as something else but the chemical markers are nearly identical.
I tracked it though nearly a dozen shell companies back to the Shie Hassaikai, or atleast one of their ghost accounts."
"No wonder the Commission is so closely involved," Ryukyu says. "But from the sounds of it, the Shie Hassaikai are manufacturing these drugs, not importing it."
"That they are, and I know how to stop them from making more. I read the briefing Nighteye sent, thankfully Fatgum sent me a copy so I'd be up to speed."
Nighteye gives him a slightly annoyed look since it's confidential information, but Fatgum just shrugs and smiles awkwardly.
"Arresting Overhaul is a priority, but his supposed daughter is of equal importance."
"Eri?" Lemillion asks, a sinking feeling forming in his gut. "When we bumped into him we saw her, what's she got to do with this?"
"She's the product..."
The entire room is silent, mortified, hoping he didn't mean what they think he meant.
"Seriously?" Ryukyu didn't try to hide her disgust. "He's using his own daughter to make drugs?"
"Worse, his Quirk is Overhaul, it lets him disassemble matter and reassemble it however he wants. And the genetic markers I found in the samples are from the brain stem and spinal fluid of a girl, young, around 7 or 8 years old, blonde."
"That's Eri," Lemillion mutters, a pissed-off expression on his face. Angry at this whole situation, at the fact that he was so close but didn't save her, he handed her right back to that monster.
'Midoriya was right,' Nighteye thinks. 'If this plays out as Horizon suspects, I'll have to apologize for not believing in him...with instinct like that, it's no wonder All Might has such faith in the boy.'
"What's her Quirk?" Sir Nighteye asks.
"Well I managed to dig up a report by her mom, Overhaul's adoptive father, the previous boss who mysteriously fell ill is actually her grandfather. His daughter is Eri's mom...was, she abandoned her. Her father was a lawyer."
"Was? Did Overhaul kill him?"
"No, Eri did," they all look aghast at that. "Her Quirk is the ability to Rewind time itself, storing Chronons in her body somehow and giving them out to other living beings, then manipulating their Chronons to rewind."
"So she sent him into the past?" Fatgum asks.
"No, time travel isn't possible," Horizon says. "We don't move through time, it flows through us, that's how Quirks like Sir Nighteye's foresight work, he reads the Chronos while Eri acts like some kind of viral infection to them."
"So she touched him, and he vanished," Ryukyu says. "Just like that?"
"Precisely, and her mom left the next day, its a freak mutation kind of like mine, but much weaker," Horizon says. "The bullets rewind your Quirk factor to remove the Quirk, but from the looks of it Overhaul hasn't perfected grafting her genetic material onto the catalyst he uses to make it permanent."
"So it's like a battery," Nighteye says. "You said she uses her own Chronos, so each bullet has some, and the more he can fit into one the closer he gets to making it permanent, but anything less only needs a certain amount of time to mature into being usable again."
"Yeah, so the longer between uses of her Quirk the stronger the next use can be, the further she can rewind you."
"But she erased a grown man, right?" Fatgum asks.
"It's not uncommon for Quirks to have a sort of 'limit break' when they first manifest, when the body suddenly unleashes unsustainable power. She'll likely never be able to do that again, but I'd still be careful when touching her."
"So we gotta rescue the kid, arrest Chisaki, and shut down this operation, right?" Rocklock asks.
"Hmm, you're actually keeping up, I'm surprised."
Before Rocklock can respond Nighteye cuts him off, "anything else Horizon?"
"Yeah. Because of the danger this situation poses to the stability of the world. The threat of Quirk Deleter Rounds, the Commission wants this deal with Quietly. President Pantu will send each of you a set of guidelines soon but she's already hashed it out with me this morning."
"What do we need to know?" Nighteye asks.
"Just keep this quiet, don't let any of the rounds get away from you, and your priorities are Eri and the remaining rounds. Without her they can't make more, we can always send in more muscle to deal with Overhaul another time, neutralizing the threat of this drug is the priority."
"If this is such a big deal, does that mean you're coming to help us?" Rocklock asks.
"Good question," Nighteye says, before Horizon can form another petty comment.
"Hostage rescue and investigations like these are easy, but I can't just leave Tokyo and head to the other side of Japan without the crime rate here spiking. My existence is keeping Minato Tokyo and Musutafu suppressed, even leaving for a few days will cause problems for the people here, ideally, you deal with this without me.
And unfortunately, it's much of the same with other top Pro Heroes like Endeavor, luckily you've got one of the Top 10 on your side already, that should be enough. Any of us suddenly heading toward their territories will cause Overhaul to take Eri and flee."
"That makes sense," Nighteye says. "But we've got enough to deal with this situation."
"If things escalate or the League Of Villains shows up then give me a call, but unless absolutely necessary I need to stay put."
"Understood, and since this is a sensitive matter, what timeframe, I assume we have one, right?"
"Yeah, ten days, if this isn't dealt with in ten days I'm coming down there. People here will get hurt and probably die...but Japan is unstable as is, the sudden emergence of these bullets will do a lot more harm than the result of me leaving my domain for a while. Luckily it should only take me a day or two to wrap up Overhaul and his Yakuza losers."
"Understood," Nighteye says. "I'll keep you in the loop as much as possible. Tha---" Horizon hangs up.
Ryukyu facepalms, feeling second-hand embarrassment, "I swear he's nice when you get to know him."
"Oh, I don't know about that," Froppy says. "I think you're just being nice, he's always kind of a jerk..."
"Yeah," Rocklock agrees. "Normally I don't speak like this about kids but...that guy is as--- a jerk."
Almost everyone nods in agreement.
"That's irrelevant," Nighteye says. "In three days he uncovered more than I knew existed in the past 6 weeks, the information he provided is beyond critical for this investigation. I'll have to alter our action plan but your roles as discussed today are unchanged. We're only now entering the observation stage of things."
"Then we should all head back to our territories after exchanging contacts," Ryukyu says. "We'll save Eri and stop these monster, I can feel it, but don't let your desire to save her quickly cause you to take unnecessary risks. Believe me, I want to save her as much as any of you, the thought of a child enduring torture like that sickens me, but the risk of us over reaching and scaring off Overhaul is far too great."
"Agreed," Nighteye says. "Heed her words everyone, be careful in your approach, now let's get to work..."
After everyone leaves, only Nighteye and his sidekicks are in his office, grim expressions as they sit around his coffee table.
"We have to tell him, right?" Bubble girl asks.
"The case is confidential, and he's not a part of it anymore," Centipeder says.
"Deku deserves to know," Lemillion says, a grim expression on his face, fist balled so tight it hurts. "He was right, he was right and I stopped him from saving her. I handed her back over to that monster...I don't know how I can look him in the eyes after that, or her."
"By doing what heroes do, by saving her," Sir Nighteye says to the young hero. "Don't beat yourself up for the choice you made, with the information you had I would have done the exact same thing. You couldn't have known, and clearly Chisaki manipulated the records so nobody suspected his abuse of Eri... just do what you can, and save her, that's how you apologize to them."
"Right," Lemillion wipes the one tear flowing down his cheek, "thank you sir!"
"Good, now I need all of you to give me a moment, I need to call Midoriya, and I've been given a lot to think about..."
"You're going to tell him?" Centipeder asks.
"Of course," Nighteye says. "He may not have his Provisional License right now, but the moment he gets it back, I hope he'll return and be my sidekick, I have much to teach him..."
As they all exit the office, Nighteye takes out his phone, his finger hovering above Deku's contact.
'It should be lunchtime at UA right now...but what do I say to him.'
He thinks back on all he learned that day, and quietly laughs to himself, 'I didn't know what I didn't know, and stumbled into something far more nefarious than I could have ever imagined, but today I got a lot of insight.
Midoriya's instincts are atleast on part with All Might's, that heroic spirit they share, something I always lacked. It must be nurtured and allowed to bloom fully. I certainly see why you chose him as your successor instead of Mirio, I suppose my time with Mirio has made him a bit too much like me.
He always thinks before he leaps, and sometimes being a Hero means having faith.
But I also see why Principal Nezu likes Horizon so much, that boy...that man, as crude and prideful as he may be. His accolades far outshine any of the bad in his character, he'll be a fine hero, but to be the Symbol of Peace you need to inspire people, and he fundamentally lacks that.
His attitude constantly makes it clear that he thinks of himself as being above everyone else.
Even through the phone I could feel him looking down on everyone, the complete opposite of All Might who would always lift others up to new heights.'
Nighteye touches Deku's contact and the call begins connecting.
'Horizon is certainly an all-star in every category the Hero Public Safety Commission ranks in, the undisputed future #1 Pro Hero...but you'll be the Symbol of Peace to the people, their champion.'
---Meanwhile At Horizon Tower...
Horizon was finishing up some work on his computer while Ryuko was bawling her eyes out on the couch.
"See this is why you don't eavesdrop, I told you that you couldn't handle it."
"But how can they do that to a child!"
Horizon just rolls his eyes, "you women and your feelings..." he mutters before warping away, leaving the crying woman behind, now ready for a day of hero work in Tokyo...
END CHAPTER---