Trial of Fools: Ch 4

Don't you just hate it when one of the most important organizations in a series is heavily implied to do all their work from the shadows, so they don't pop up often in the character-focused narrative of the story, and so the audience never gets any decent characters to work with from them? In fact the series gives them so little screen time that even though we know who runs the thing, they're never even officially named!

*Sigh*

Fuck it, I'm (un)officially naming her "Meli Kinoshita", it's just a mashup of her two voice actors' names. And now that I'm forced to fill in the blanks, MHA cannon is gonna come out of nowhere and drop an entire essay on them, just like they did with Kuogiri and Ujiko.

*Sips Hot Chocolate*

Le Sigh~

-Rain of Sins-

-Trial of Fools: Ch 4-

Meli Kinoshita sighed as she put down the stack of papers she'd been reading over, and took a sip of tea in an attempt to stave off her growing headache.

Being the president of the Public Safety Commission meant being the de facto person that people went to when things went wrong. And unfortunately, in a post Quirk-Collapse modern society, where Villain attacks were common, fights decimated entire cities, and every single civilian had the potential to be born with a weapon of mass destruction… things tended to go wrong quite frequently.

However, due to how important their jobs were, and the sensitive information that they often had to deal with, it was policy to only hire individuals they were absolutely sure could be completely trusted.

…That number was a lot smaller than most people would think.

So between an incredibly small influx of new workers, a seemingly ever growing amount of work, and the not insignificant rate that they lost existing operatives to said work; the PSC almost always found itself short staffed, with their manpower stretched thin and overworked.

Which meant that Meli Kinoshita was accustomed to situations like this, with countless things needing immediate attention, mountains of important paperwork to sign off on, and any prospect of sleep days away.

But damn was this time something different.

"I don't like this Ma'am." The white haired man sitting across from here said. "There's something off about all this."

"Thank you for your brilliant deduction Joe." Kino placed her cup down and pinched the bridge of her nose. "I am once again reminded why I chose you as the Vice President of the PSC."

"That's not what I mean, and you know it." Joe sent what she could only assume was a glare through his black tinted glasses. "All of our contacts, informants, and field operatives have reported a huge increase in underground activity. On top of that, the black market prices on just about everything we have on our watch list have spiked, indicating that someone is buying it all up." Joe interlaced his fingers and put his hands on the table. "Someone is moving pieces for their next move, and we don't know who."

"Who is obvious." Kino picked up another batch of papers, and began to sift through them. "This new 'League of Villains' that broke into UA, stole their schedule, and then attacked the unforeseen simulations joint facility."

"No, we thought the attack on the USJ was their big play, but underground activity hasn't died down after it, if anything it's ramped up!"

"I wasn't just talking about the League, Joe, I was also inferring to whoever it is that's backing them." She gave him a meaningful look. "Organizations with the strength necessary to assault UA of all places, don't just spring up overnight, and the character profile on this 'Tomura Shigaraki' has all the signs of being a puppet king."

Her followup seemed to satisfy her VP's concerns that she wasn't taking the situation seriously enough, and instead he tried to broach another topic.

"Speaking about UA, have there been any updates? I know Nezu can be a tough nut to crack."

Kino sighed at the mention of UA, just the thought of the Rat in charge of it was enough to bring her headache back.

"Agent Rose is arguably our best 'people person', with a degree in psychology and human behavior, she's incredibly proficient at playing to emotions and using the 'good cop' act to get the job done without even needing a 'bad cop'. But unfortunately she, like the operative before her, was unable to get through to Nezu." Kino drummed her fingers on the table and frowned. "I told her to pull out this morning, and assigned the Chief of Security to fill in for her. Knowing Nezu's fondness for logic, his cutthroat approach to things will probably have the best results, anyway."

"The Chief of Security? You mean Dixie?" Joe raised an eyebrow at her. "You know he wants your job, right?"

"Do you ever remember me wanting it?" Kino countered Joe's eyebrow with one of her own, but couldn't bring herself to smile as she saw him flinch and cow his head.

When Lady Nagant went rogue all those years ago, her letter of resignation had been a bullet through the head of the Public Safety Commission's president. Kinoshita had been the Vice President at the time, more of an advisory role than anything, but had automatically received the powers of Acting President the moment the official President hit the floor- a system set up so that someone could do something in the chaos that followed.

Flash forward five months, multiple coverups, several outright lies to the public, and only two less to the Prime Minister, they had finally managed to recapture their assassin-shadow-operative turned Villain. And the government was so happy with their work, and ability to keep a lid on the whole thing, that they decided to officially name Kino as the new President of the Public Safety Commission.

"If Dixie wants this thankless position, then he's more than welcome to it, he is consistently one of our best performing men, after all." Kino huffed and winced as her back flared up when she tried to lean over. "My old age is starting to chew away at me, but unfortunately I've already gone to both the new Prime Minister and the senate, and both rejected my retirement notice." She gave a half hearted chuckle. "At this rate, Dixie will just have to accept that I'll probably wind up dead before he gets his promotion."

Joe just sighed and shuffled through the mountain of paperwork. "That's exactly what I'm afraid of."

-Rain of Sins-

"Are you sure this is a good idea?" Endeavor asked for what must have been the hundredth time this meeting, obviously not sold on whatever it was.

"Absolutely certain." The representative from the Hero Public Safety Commission said with a smile.

The no. 2 Hero had been called for a meeting with the PSC after his debacle with the whole burning-down-an-apartment-building incident almost a month ago, where they had discussed how to best handle the situation and keep Endeavor from losing face. Today was supposed to be a follow up to that meeting, but when he arrived, his usual agent that the PSC assigned to him was absent.

Instead of a firm but bland woman waiting for him, he had found a middle aged blond man wearing a black suit, a charcoal coat, lounging in Endeavor's special fire-resistant chair that the PSC kept around for him.

Somehow, it appeared that the situation had attracted the PSC's chief of security.

That tended to be a sign of something bad.

"Absolutely Certain." Endeavor spat. "You say that so lightly as though what you're suggesting couldn't end my career!"

"End your career? Now you're just being melodramatic, this isn't career ending. At worst it could cause irreparable brand damage if handled incorrectly."

"That's exactly what I mean!"

"Well then," The Public Safety Commission's chief of security, William Dixie propped his feet up on the desk. "It's a good thing I know what I'm doing."

"Why does that not reassure me?"

"Look, think about it like this: people know you as Endeavor, and so all the articles people have written about this little fiasco have used 'Endeavor' because that's your name. Now when people search for that name, those articles pop up. Now imagine for a second, if we wait for all this to cool down, do some good PR, sweep it all under the rug, and then you announce that you're changing your Hero name to mark a 'new era' or whatever BS you choose. Suddenly when people search up your new name, those old articles suddenly are a lot harder to find without specifically going and looking for them."

"Here, watch." He pulled out his phone and typed in 'Endeavor' and news articles about the apartment fire were the first thing that popped up, then he punched in another completely unrelated word, and sure enough the articles weren't there anymore. "They don't pop up anymore because they don't contain the new key search word."

"I understand how search results work, what I don't, is why this is even necessary!" Endeavor fumed. "You've covered up controversies in the past, why is this any different?"

"Because, with your family, only the people in the house knew, whereas this-" Dixie tapped the screen. "Has been on every news outlet for the past two weeks. We kept the story from breaking as long as possible, so we could run damage control, and for the most part it's worked. While many people are upset and angry about what happened, most of that has been shifted towards the Villain taking civilians as hostages. No one's said anything outright hostile to you, out of respect, but well…"

"A mob is only as smart as it's dumbest member." Endeavor grumbled, causing Dixie to smirk.

"Exactly."

"I don't know what's worse, the fact you had the audacity to suggest this, or the fact that I actually have to consider it." Endeavor growled, grinding his teeth so hard it was audible. "My NAME, the thing that encapsulates what I am and all my accomplishments, thrown away because of a single mistake!"

"Well, I wouldn't exactly call the death of 32 civilians a 'single mistake'." Dixie shrugged, letting the Hero's death glare slide off him. "But incident aside, it goes a lot deeper than that, do you know why you've lost to All Might every year in the rankings?"

"Don't patronize me with rhetorical questions!" Endeavor glared, his fire flaring up briefly. "It's because his speed lets him solve more cases than me, and because he's the one called in to deal with any really dangerous situations. He's the number one, so he's the one called in to deal with the worst of the worst, it's a self fulfilling cycle."

"Wrong."

The number 2 hero sputtered as Dixie leisurely took a sip of water and pocketed his phone, acting as if he hadn't just casually dropped a life shattering fact.

"All Might's overall performance has been dipping over time, especially in recent years, meanwhile you've continued your relentless climb upwards. The whole premise of having two continuous lines inverted of each other, is that they will eventually intersect." The agent gave Endeavor a meaningful look. "We hit that inversion point two years ago."

"Wait," Endeavor's eyes widened, "That means-!"

"Exactly." The agent nodded to him. "For the past two years, whenever the PSC adds up the 'points' all the Heroes have earned for doing their job, you have placed first overall."

Endeavor leaned back, trying to process the absolute bomb that had just been dropped on him, but it didn't take long for the brief look of awe in his eyes to be replaced with a burning rage.

"If I'm doing the best job, if I'm first," He growled as the temperature skyrocketed, "When. Why. Aren't. I. Number. ONE!?"

"Two reasons. Though really just one, if you boil it down." Dixie gave him a meaningful look. "Public Image."

"Public Image!?" Endeavor sounded almost offended. "I have a great public image!"

"No you don't." The PSC chief cut off the no.2 without any remorse. "And you especially don't have any compared to All Might, the whole reason we had to shift the voting system from 'choose your favorite Hero' to 'top 10 favorite Heroes' is because the very presence of All Might meant no one else even got mentioned. Compared to that, you ain't got nothing."

He sighed.

"Hell, forget the top ten, you have the single lowest community vote out of the top twenty. Your performance numbers are the only thing keeping you where you are, and the fact you're still number two even with that, is a testament to just how insane your numbers are. Look at it like this. You know that perceived gap between you and All Might? Yeah, the gap between you and number 3 is twice that size!"

"But what does any of that have to do with changing my name?"

"Oh we wouldn't just be changing your Hero name, we're planning on a whole re-branding of your entire career." Dixie smirked.

"You've already got the stoic-badass vibe down pat, we just need to change your brand to reflect that." The PSC chief motioned with his hands. "You see the main problem is that All Might set the tone for what everyone thinks modern Heroes should be, and every Hero agency's PR team- yours included, has been taught to try and push that. You and All Might are fundamentally different and to try and catch up with him, you've been trying to follow the same steps he took for the same result. In case you haven't noticed, it's not working."

Endeavor made an unhappy sound, but motioned for him to continue.

"All Might was a pop culture phenomenon way before he ever became the symbol of peace, he got his name around by doing photo shoots, signing autographs, attending local events, and overall just being a good guy- what made him absolutely groundbreaking was that he kept doing those things after he made it big. Which is something that sounds obvious today, but back before we had a 'symbol of peace', Villains were much more active in the open, and Heroes who let their guard down were viewed as easy targets."

"Look," Dixie leaned forward, "What I'm trying to say is that you and All Might play on different instruments, but you're trying to play a Tuba like Guitar. Ignore what All Might's done, play to your strengths instead! Lean into the prideful stoicism. People love All Might, yeah, but they also love the badass movie protagonist who rolls up like he owns the place, kicks the bad guy's teeth in, and then smarts off some cocky one liners."

Dixie reached under the desk and brought out a stack of papers that he handed to Endeavor. "This has been something the PSC has been debating on for a decent amount of time, trying to find a way to not have our best Hero be ranked number one on a public opinion poll named 'Hero most likely to become a Villain'. This fiasco with the apartment complex was just the tipping point that made us give it the green light."

The chief of security sat back and let Endeavor shift through the papers for a few seconds to confirm that he was telling the truth.

"Our propaganda branch took a special interest in this case, and have provided more name choices than you'll ever be able to read through, let alone choose from. 'Though I for one thought they were onto something in section three." Dixie tilted his head back to look at the ceiling, and gestured with his hand. "You need something Regal! Something that's not 'run up and ask for an autograph' but 'stand back and watch in awe'. Something like 'Providence!' or 'Caesar!' or-"

"King." Endeavor finished for him.

Dixie's eyes drifted back down to meet the Hero's with a smirk.

"King."

-Rain of Sins-

Yuyara walked down the white hallways of the Origins Lab, and shivered at the unfamiliar temperature- it felt like it kept getting colder the further down she got, and down here at Izuku's personal testing room, in the heart of the facility, it was damn near freezing!

Coming up to the large metal door that she knew housed Izuku, she briefly looked around and swiped her card on the reader next to the door.

She huffed and tapped her foot, waiting for the door to open.

…

The door did not open.

Swiping her card on the reader again, she watched it flash red, and swore several choice words as she remembered that Izuku was technically ranked higher than her now.

"Damnit Green!" She muttered under her breath before banging her fist on the door. "Hey it's me! Open up!"

She crossed her arms and shivered, tapping her foot more incessantly, not in impatience but as an attempt to distract her from how cold she was. But before she lost her frozen temper and struck the door again, the light on the reader flashed green and the door slid upward.

Yuyara opened her mouth to say something snappy, maybe a sarcastic jab about the AC, but all words fell short as she saw Izuku's personal lab operational for the first time.

You would have thought that walking through the rest of the facility would have clued her in on what she'd find here, and that working for Ujiko of all people for years on end would have made her immune to the worst… but this was different.

Numerous tubes lined the walls of the circular room, filled, not with the green sludge that was standard for Nomu creation, but with a strange faintly glowing blue liquid. But what really put her off foot, was the- the- the things inside them. She'd dealt with Nomu countless times, but these weren't Nomu, they weren't even people.

Test tube after test tube, lined up, containing unknown, floating homunculi… disfigured forms of questionably living things. Creatures that had never known existence outside of the vat they were grown in- that were not made to survive outside of the vat they were grown in.

Some were identifiable, rough but brutal attempts at mixing together different creatures, but others… Others were more akin to blobs and strings of ground meat, than anything that should be considered living.

"Ah, Yuyara! So nice of you to visit." Izuku chuckled as he turned around, drawing her eyes to the center of the room. "It's been a while, hasn't it? Sorry for not calling, but as you can probably see," He gestured vaguely, referring not only to the room around him, but to the entire lab itself, "I've been somewhat busy here recently."

He stood at a desk completely different from her and Ujiko's. First off, it was less of a desk and more of a giant computer, with keyboards, buttons, knobs, and countless terminals and screens. One that she could only assume must act as some sort of backdoor control panel of, not just this room, but most of the facility, with how large and complex it was.

He stepped out from behind the desk, and she was able to get a better look at him. The most obvious difference from the last she'd seen him was his black coat and matching gloves. She knew he had it dyed, but he had also apparently gotten it modified, made of a much thicker material to deal with the near freezing temperatures down here. It made him look a bit larger, more intimidating.

What also added to the intimidating vibe, was the heavy footsteps of metal tipped boots she could hear but not see, thanks to the thick fog that rolled across the room's floor, created just from how cold it was. And then, of course, there was the sleek black metal mask that covered the bottom half of his face.

She recognized the mask, knew what it was even, it was a standard piece of facewear used in the labs, a rebreather that filtered out smoke, particles, chemicals, and any other nasty stuff that could get into the air in a lab full of hazardous materials.

She also recognized the fact that aside from the color and thickness, he was wearing just a standard lab coat, but that didn't change the fact that when it was all was dyed black and put on a very tall person, it gave off a needlessly large amount of Villain vibes.

"It's good to see ya again Green!" She forced a smile and reminded herself that this was Green, the scrawny kid that caught a chemical rack on fire and nerded out on Heroes, he couldn't be scary. "What've you been up to down in this Igloo?"

"Learning." Izuku said with a chuckle. "I've always had a keen interest in quirks, but now I've expanded that to how they fit into genetics- a truly fascinating question when you think about it, how can genetics let you control something like gravity? It looks like Trigger, of all things, may turn out to be the key to get the ball rolling." Izuku's eyes lit up and he snapped, as though he just remembered something.

"Speaking of Trigger, did you know that it also has the effect of increasing the intensity that bioluminescent jellyfish glow? The genes are the same ones used for quirks in humans, and considering that the first documented quirk was a luminescent emitter-type, well… Further studies will need to be done, but this could be a crucial piece of the puzzle."

"Well that's nice, but I was more referring to, ya'know." She gestured to the things floating at the edge of the room.

"Oh those, well you see I went back in the logs, and it turns out that Ujiko jumped straight to trying to clone humans. So I decided to start by seeing if we could start with more basic things and work our way up." He tapped the glass of a blue jellyfish floating in a small tube on his 'desk'. "We were successful, and after a few beginner mistakes, we were able to work our way up the food chain without any problems."

He chuckled and gave her a glance. "We have a spare dog now, if you're interested in adopting a pet, but not the cat- she's become something of the staff's spirit animal in the few days since we made her."

"And?" Yuyara pointedly ignored Izuku's question. "If you successfully made living things, do you think you can make humans?"

"No." Izuku sighed and sat down in his chair. "Given a copy of a functional genome, we can successfully grow basically anything, even things as close to us as chimpanzees, but wherever we try to make a human, everything just…" He made a vague gesture. "Falls apart in the tank."

"Wait, if you can make a chimpanzee then why-"

"No idea." Izuku cut her off. "Some of my scientists have gotten to the end of their rope, they're at the point that they're seriously debating the topic of souls- and at this point I'll take anything that explains why our formulas are falling apart. Math doesn't lie, Yuyara." He tapped his finger on the metal of his desk to punctuate his point. "One plus one will always be two, and I want to know what's drilling such a big hole in our calculations that it turns two plus two into five, and these-" He gestured to the tanks surrounding them. "-are the next step to finding that out."

"We can copy an existing genome just fine, but it's like cheating on a test. We've learned how to grow things, but we haven't learned anything about the genome itself, how life works. So I made that my next goal, and just like with cloning I'm starting small. These are just different genomes we've grown before, but with different bits of them interchanged. Some of them I've gone and edited the DNA myself to see if I could get a predetermined result. I can't seem to make a human, so eventually I hope to make something similar enough for nomu and other experimentation."

"Ah, well, I hate to tell you, but unless the magic word was 'spaghetti and meatballs', I don't think you hit that 'predetermined result' you were going for." She joked.

"No technical successes, yes, but all valuable learning experiments. And more than that, they're all technically alive, which is far more than I expected from my first attempt, so that's a success in my book."

"W-Wait!" Yuyara's voice cracked. "They're all a-alive!?"

She glanced back to the tube she'd looked at before, the one which looked like it'd had someone's intestines dumped into it, and to her horror she could see that it was pulsating to a heartbeat.

"W-Well, that aside, I'm not just here for visiting purposes!" The mint haired girl turned her attention back to Izuku and hurriedly tried to change the subject.

"T-The top lab heads have called a meeting to discuss some things. Chief among them is the new nomu creation process, standardization and implementation of the [Neptune] procedure has finally been applied universally, and the final results have blown even some of the most optimistic estimates out of the water. The treatment makes the nomu bases far more durable to strain, making it possible to push them through the rest of the process faster, so much so that even with the added time of the [Neptune] application, the entire process of creating a nomu has been cut by a third. And that's not even taking into consideration the improved abilities of the final products!"

"The slimy nobility have called a meeting amongst themselves, big deal- what does that have to do with me."

"Uh, well, as the one who, ya know, actually made the thing, they're kinda insisting that you attend."

Izuku made a noise of displeasure but didn't object outright. "When is it?"

"In, uh, six or so hours."

"Hmph," Izuku snorted in amusement, "Why is it that when you give a group of people power over things, they always wind up acting like smarmy politicians?"

"...What?"

"Nevermind." Izuku turned back to messing with his terminals, remotely adding something to the tube on his desk, and recording the changes in the Jellyfish's glow. "Tell them that their attempt to strongarm me into being jerked around like a dog, at the risk of looking incompetent if I don't show up to a meeting about my own serum, completely backfired on them- I already have another meeting scheduled for later, with a much more important person."

"With Ujiko?" Yuyara asked in confusion. "I thought he was out of the country this week."

"No, not Ujiko." The scientist chuckled. "It's with everyone's favorite mystery man…"

He smirked at her.

"User 0."

-Rain of Sins-

"All Might, I'd like you to meet my sidekick, student, and personal protege, Mirio Togata."

"Hello sir! It's an honor to meet you!" Mirio bowed, hiding his embarrassment from what was the equivalent of glowing praise from Nighteye.

"HAHA! WELL MET YOUNG MAN." All Might held out his hand to Mirio, which the boy gladly shook. "I HOPE MY OLD FRIEND HASN'T BEEN GIVING YOU TO MUCH OF A HARD TIME! IT'S A GOOD THING TO GROW, BUT NIGHTEYE CAN PUSH HIMSELF TOO HARD SOMETIMES, ESPECIALLY WITH PAPERWORK HAHA!"

"Me 'giving him a hard time' as you put it, is actually why we're here." Nighteye sighed. "Mirio is incredibly skilled, and miles above the current level of his peers. I give him a specialized training regime so that he can keep up that growth, but with the future as uncertain as it is, I'd like to take this opportunity to ask for your assistance."

"Sir…" Mirio looked at Nighteye in awe, but was pointedly ignored.

"If you could give him some training sessions every once and awhile, even if it's just a light spar where you show him how much he still has to grow, I would-"

"DONE!" All Might smiled, cutting off his friend. "HELPING OUT A FRIEND AND GETTING TO STRENGTHEN THE NEXT GENERATION OF HEROES? OF COURSE I'LL HELP!"

All Might smiled, but his voice trailed off as he stared at Mirio, his mind wandering back to him and Nighteye's argument all those years ago.

A gifted boy, a good quirk, skilled, top of his class, a protege… could Nighteye be trying to subtly push him to choose a successor? Or worse, be trying to make that choice for him? Was that the real reason he'd come back?

"…uh, All Might?"

"HUH? OH SORRY! I WAS JUST THINKING ABOUT SOME TRAINING EXERCISES WE COULD DO!"

"Awesome!" Mirio cheered, unaware of All Might's real thoughts.

No, Nighteye and him had one fight out of nearly a decade of having each other's backs. They'd saved each other's lives more times than they could count. They were brothers in all but blood. THOSE were the reasons Nighteye had gathered the courage to reach out to him, and he was ashamed for even entertaining the idea otherwise.

Sasaki Mirai was his brother in arms, and while everyone had their flaws, his brother would never try to lie or manipulate him.

-Rain of Sins-

"No."

The one syllable word was so simple, so elementary, that Dixie had to honestly take a moment to process just how it was possible that it was about to give him an aneurysm.

"Nezu, please reconsider-"

"No." The mouse smiled cheerfully. "UA does not require any help at the moment."

"What I think you're forgetting, Nezu-" Will spoke through grit teeth, "-is that UA is funded by the government. The Heroes for All Act, passed roughly 30 years ago, shifted financial responsibility, so that society wouldn't be deprived of Heroes just because they couldn't afford tuition- or even worse have people with Hero-level quirks turn to crime because of it. Because of that, UA, as well as every Hero school in Japan, is technically government property."

"Yes, I am well aware of that."

"But I really don't think you are, Nezu." Will tapped the desk. "The law might have been unreasonably generous about the amount of power it allowed the individual schools to keep, but it was very clear that the government, and by extension the Public Safety Commission, is allowed to take total control in case of a crisis."

"This isn't a crisis." Nezu took a sip of his tea, a twinkle in his eye.

"A 'Crisis', Nezu, is defined by the government as 'an unexpected, unplanned situation or rather threat that suddenly dawns' or as 'an event that threatens the stability of an area, peoples, or institution', and the attack on the USJ fits both of those definitions!"

"Yes, but we're not still in the middle of the USJ attack now are we? We're in the aftermath, and the procedure you're trying to activate has a subsection entirely about you taking over after a crisis has passed, and it requires five different conditions to be met- fortunately they are not all met!"

"That's what the paperwork says, yes, however that is widely understood as poor phrasing. The precedent set during the Shikoku crisis 20 years ago was that the Safety Commission was asked to step in after only three conditions were met- and that precedent was upheld during the Akita Incident 7 years ago." Dixie leaned forward. "Standard operating procedure reflects that, and the PSC is to step in, acting as though still in a state of crisis, when at least three of the listed crisis conditions are met. The attack at the USJ met four."

"Chief of security, I thank you for your concern, but I must humbly reject the Hero Public Safety Commission's offer of assistance." Nezu stressed the word Hero, something that PSC members had a habit of leaving out. "The document clearly states that you are only allowed to step in when the acting head of a Hero school requests such, or when a state of crisis has occurred on government property- and you are only permitted to retain control in the aftermath of a crisis when all five required conditions are met." Nezu put his paws in front of him and smiled a tv smile. "And I am happy to inform you that no one died."

"And while I'm glad for that, I must stress that-"

"One of the five requirements for you holding onto control once a crisis has passed, is that at least one fatality occurred in the crisis, and I am happy to inform you," Nezu tilted his head, but his smile didn't reach his eyes, "No. One. Died."

Dixie glared at the principal, wordlessly drumming his fingers on the desk. After nearly a minute, he silently picked his briefcase and made his way out of Nezu's office.

"...You're playing a very dangerous game, Nezu." Dixie spat, pausing for a moment in the doorway. "You're not just picking a fight with the PSC, but you're doing it by gambling with people's lives."

The door slammed shut, leaving Nezu alone in his office

"No one died." The little mouse muttered to himself. "And no one will."

-Rain of Sins-

"Well this is a surprise…" All for One grinned as he watched the two forms exit the portal. "When the front office downstairs never reported anyone matching your description showing up, I thought you were going to be late to a meeting you yourself requested."

"No, just punctual," Izuku checked his watch again, and sure enough 5PM sharp, "I do my best to never be late to anything."

"Well take it from me, that is a very good trait to have, but might I ask why you brought your friend?"

Said "friend" growled as it lumbered forward, it's metal capped head scraping the ceiling, and it's spiked tail flicking dangerously behind it.

All for One didn't say anything, but he was honestly impressed, it was clear that the boy had worked on the beast since it's fight with All Might, evidenced just by the fact it was almost a foot taller than it'd previously been.

"Well I hope you don't mind, but after certain recent events, I've decided to bring a bodyguard with me whenever I leave the lab, and Jeremy is a prime candidate for obvious reasons."

All for One made a 'hmm'ing noise, and motioned for the boy to carry on. After all, it wasn't like he was threatened by the lizard.

"Sir, it's come to my recent attention that UA has decided to continue with the sports festival, despite what happened at the USJ."

"Oh really?" All for One tilted his head in curiosity, not about the festival, he'd already known that from his new little gravity pet, but he was interested how the kid knew.

"Yes, numerous Heros have announced that they'll be taking a week-long break next month that happens to coincide over the date of the annual festival. Which makes sense if you think about it, UA wouldn't want to take any chances after the USJ attack, and even if they were reluctant for whatever reason, the Public Safety Commission probably wouldn't let them do it without increased security."

"So there's going to be a UA festival after all, big deal." All for One suppressed a smirk and feigned a shrug. "I've told you, I'm just a wealthy businessman, funding Ujiko so I may one day market the next generation of science, why would what UA does concern-"

"You're not a businessman." Izuku cut him off. "At least, it's just a cover, it's not who you really are."

All for One's smirk began to bleed through, as it became harder to suppress it.

"I may not know who you are exactly, but I do have some suspicions…" Izuku looked the most dangerous Villain in history in the eye, without blinking. "And those suspicions say that you'd want to hear the plan I've made for UA's festival."

All for One grinned.

"Well then… let's hear it."

-End Chapter-

Hmmm, what was it that set up Endeavor to not be a total piece of shit? Being humble enough to ask All Might what it meant to be a symbol, after witnessing the battle with All for One?

It's a good thing that no one's telling him to  accept  his pride.

… oh wait!

*Sips Hot Chocolate*

And on that note, the PSC!

The Public Safety Commission has given me NO good characters to work with- we have that one sleepy guy from the exam, and a president that they didn't even bother to name- which kinda sucks considering this entire chapter was about introducing them into the story now that things have happened to catch their attention. So I am once again forced to add an OC.

I needed a side character that wasn't just a shitty 2d cutout, and one that had the depth to give a bit of life to an area of the show's world that's only ever really referenced in passing.

And why go out of my way to build a new one from the ground up when I can just use one that's already been proven to be well received by an audience, especially one that's often in morally gray situations where people will argue back and forth on whether he was wrong.

*Sips Hot Chocolate*

So badda-bing badda-boom, Will's in the story as a disposable side character I can use to flush out the PSC. Think of it as a 'funni reference', especially because I've made it clear that any OC's are not going to be incredibly important to the overall plot. They're just dominoes. Dominoes that knock more dominoes down, yes, but just ones in the row that lead toward the grand finale.

*Sips Hot Chocolate*

Speaking of dominos! I have a discord server, specifically for easier feedback! Please, come, join, send shitty memes, and give me suggestions on what I can do with Gentle Criminal!

No, please, really. Help me, I forgot they existed when planning the major plot points, and am now at a loss for what to do with them.

https://discord.gg/Hy7g6UqGQd