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Quirkless Existence Chapter 9
🕑 Added 2023-05-31 12:51:56 +0000 UTCSummary: Kizuki hasn't been far from idle since her last communication with Izuku, she's managed to get insider information and preps a rescue plan for Izuku and Eri. Meanwhile, the stress, pain and hate take their toll on Izuku into something she isn't sure that she'll like.
Chapter 9: A Curious Hope
“You weren’t followed?” Curious looked at the woman that took a seat across from her over her sunglasses. It was a sunny day, warm weather with a few clouds in the sky. It would have been great to take the family out and enjoy a day at the park if not for the fact the news couldn’t stop talking about the USJ incident as it was now coined. Of course, she wasn’t innocent on that front either a few of the tabloids she controlled and their main news agency had been quick to jump onto that, especially the fact All Might had been present yet couldn’t save his students. It was a shame that the man had declined interview requests and let the school handle things.
Still, that was in the past and this was the present, a present when she sat in a small café across from a woman with straight short orange hair and pale-yellow eyes, Aki Jun. Jun shook her head, but still shivered in her seat, no doubt nervous about this meeting. “No…I checked.”
“It was brave of you to meet with me, especially on such short notice.” Curious started small, trying to ease her in as while they had spoken on the phone, this was much different to that, namely in the fact that they were exposed.
“One of the others is covering for me, if I’m back before my husband finishes his work, they’ll never know I left.” She replied as she had cashed in a favour with another of the wives to handle the chores she would normally do. If she could get back to the compound before 6, she'll be fine.
“Then let’s not waste time. What do you know about Kai Chisaki?” Curious asked her, subtly turning on a recorder she had on her person, it would draw more attention if she had her pen and notepad.
"Not much I'm afraid. He was the boss-the old boss's ward or something, all I know is that they weren't related by blood. The older women say they used to be really close, even if he had a bit of a temper.” Curious nodded.
“Used to? Are they distant?” Wouldn’t be the first time a villain group fought over power, but to her minor surprise, Jun shook her head.
"Not really. It started right when I married into the family, they used to argue a lot about how to manage the family and its businesses, the old master wished to remain tied to the old ways but Kai…he wanted to change things." That was one way to put it, she had spent quite a lot of her time and resources looking into this Yakuza group in particular, looking into their background and it seemed that they only got into the quirk drug game recently, a little over a year back max. Before then it was the standard racketeering, prostitution and gambling though few could be legally tied to them.
“Things started to improve though, the master’s daughter left him with her kid, rumor has it there was a quick accident and she didn’t want to take care of her anymore. He had Kai look into her, figure out her quirk and take care of her as he was too busy to help with the day-to-day.” Curious felt her ire rise a little at that, she was no stranger to stories of children with difficult meta-abilities being abandoned, abused, killed or sold off. She despised how so many failed to properly care for their children as while it made for tragic stories, which sold more than most of her others, it didn’t mean she liked to report on them.
The only solace came when she or her company published the work and the court of public opinion ensured the guilty parties got their just desserts.
"I…I overheard them arguing sometime later, I didn't hear much but I did hear Eri's name being mentioned. I didn't stay long enough to hear the rest." Jun recalled the day. She had been delivering some tea to the master's office when she heard it, Kai was calm and collected as normal but the master wasn't, yelling about how they wouldn't do such a thing and how Kai was sick if he ever thought he'll give his consent to such. She chose to leave before things got ugly. “The next thing we learn, is that the master was in a coma and Kai was taking over.”
"Just like that? I would imagine that an old-school Yakuza fit wouldn't appreciate having a young upstart with new ideas." Curious asked as one of the main reasons that Yakuza were a dying breed of criminal was due to their stubborn refusal to adapt and let go of the past. It was even less likely they'll listen to the man who if she was reading into things right, nearly killed their previous leader.
“They weren't….but they didn't last long after Kai purged their leaders. Afterwards, he brought in his people, the Eight Bullets." Jun gulped; her husband hadn’t been close to the leaders but he had been vocal like many others about Overhaul. He didn’t let their frustrations shimmer too long as within days, he started to eliminate those who spoke against him. She was one of the lucky ones as in more than a few cases, Overhaul didn’t just kill them, he made them watch as he killed their wives before killing them afterwards. She was only alive because she and her husband shut up quickly and avoided his ire. Once he cleared the old guard, and intimidated those that would stand against him into submission, he brought in his new lieutenants.
“Lieutenants?”
“Only the two, the rest are essentially muscle. I doubt they would know that much about his operations if you could ask them.” She hadn’t seen more than just Chrono and Nemoto ever speak with Chisaki about anything of importance.
“So, he’s using them to keep the rest in line? They must be loyal to him over the organization.” Curious asked, making a mental note to see if Skeptic and his people couldn’t dig up any useful information about these eight bullets as it was assured that if they attacked them, they’ll have to get through them first.
"Yeah, they are-wait, there is one that isn't," Jun recalled something, Curious eye’s widening a little as she leaned in.
“If he’s not like the rest, why would be there?” Jun looked at her drink for a moment, gathering herself to make sure she could recall things right before she replied.
"He used to fight in the underground and was one of the best in the circuit from what I heard. Overhaul recruited him for his power, but he never wanted to join and hates working for him." That was an understatement as the man never let anyone believe he liked being there, nor did he have any respect for their ways which meant he spent most of his time away from the others with his handler, only sent out when Chisaki needed something dealt with violently.
“What keeps him in line then if not loyalty or money?”
“Fighting. He lives and breathes combat, it’s the thing he almost always talks about. He only joined because he lost a bet to Overhaul.” Jun informed her. She hadn’t been present for any of it, but the other wives and girls talked about him, how he would challenge anyone that seemed even remotely strong, and how he would always win with a single blow.
“What was the bet?” Curious asked as this reminded her of someone, but she couldn’t say whom.
“Beat him and he’ll follow him…Since then, he’s challenged Overhaul 4 times and lost every single one.” She felt her eyebrows rise at that. If Overhaul sought him out for his strength in his kind of work, then he must have been no joke, most likely he could be classed as a C-Rank at least but with the fact that Overhaul had managed to beat him multiple times, he was a B-Rank.
“And what would be his name?” She asked, needing more information.
“Rappa Kendō.” When she heard the name, it all clicked in her mind.
‘Oh on, I’ve heard of him! He wasn’t one of the best in just a circuit, but one of the best underground fighters in Japan.’ She had people look into him and others like him, especially after the incident involving a pre-pro Mirko and the retired Knuckleduster. It appears that she had been right to assume that a man like that didn’t just hang up his gloves as he lived for battle, for him to just vanish from the underground fight scene would have only happened if he had been arrested, killed or forced with it falling to that last one. ‘But if this Chisaki managed to beat him 5 separate times…yes, we need information.' Overhaul must have been A-rank if not higher considering he bested Rappa who was classed as B-rank.
“So, he brought him new muscle, killed the elements of the old guard that opposed and supposedly put his father figure into a coma. All that seems like a means to an end, what is it?" She asked her, concerned, if this Overhaul wanted to pull something like every other two-bit villain out there, he would have. He certainly would have had the manpower to pull off his own USJ-style attack, but he wasn't…
“I…don’t know much, my husband never really talks about work.” He rarely spoke to her these days, but the stress of working as a criminal for a boss that killed without warning would do that to you.
“Anything you know could prove useful.” Curious pressed, as Re-Destro wouldn't sign off on an operation that didn't do its best to get as much information as possible, lest unaccounted-for factors backfiring on them. Jun's shivering increased as she reached for her drink, spilling some of it as she took a large gulp, finishing it and hoping the alcohol will help her regain some courage.
Taking a breath, she continued. “He’s...he’s trying to take over the drug trade, at least when it comes to three things: Trigger, Venom and a special drug he’s developing, I don’t know what it does but heard rumors around the compound that it has something to do with quirks.” Curious kept her concern and ire carefully hidden, it wouldn’t do to scare her when she was this frazzled.
“A variant of Trigger?” Those were a dime a dozen, she had written one of her first stories on the tale of an idol that was drugged with the stuff, turning her up to that point, 'cute' spider mutation into a full spider lower body. She had liked the girl, helped her get her life back together, start another idol agency, murder the bitch that drugged her out of jealousy and cover up the fact. Good times.
“I don’t think so…but I can’t say for certain. Oh!” Jun shot to attention, recalling something crucial now that her panic had finally started to settle. “But I do know that the two girls he has are the keys to the entire thing.”
‘Izuku and Eri? Why?’ Curious already knew about them, as it was Midoriya bringing this to her attention that started this entire investigation/recovery. But Jun didn’t know what she knew and she wasn’t about to make her paranoid, so she chose to play dumb. “Girls? There’s more than just Eri?” Jun shook her head, thinking that she believed that Overhaul had a daughter along with Eri.
“Yeah…he kidnapped another last year, she apparently saw Eri and he didn’t want loose ends. He uses her as a means to control the both as if one misbehaves in his eyes…” Curious’ blood boiled at that, she didn’t need to hear more to understand what that outdated bastard had been doing. It just made her want to see him crumble all the more.
“It’s not the worst part,” Jun took another breath, not out of fear but of resignation as she knew that by saying it, no matter what, she was implicating herself and her husband in it. “He’s using them as the source of them.”
“Source…?” At the question, she only looked away in shame, biting her lip as Curious realized what she meant and felt her stomach drop. Midori-Izuku, had mentioned that Eri had bandages on her exposed limbs that she suspected weren't from accidents. Venom only started appearing on the streets after she had been kidnapped. “No.” Jun could only nod.
“He harvests whatever he needs from them…and fixes the worst of it with his quirk after the fact…I’ve seen what they look like afterwards.” Jun hadn’t been present for Eri in the beginning, as she was given other tasks, but after Midoriya was brought into the fold, she had been called to every session for the two…she wasn't ashamed to admit she passed out the first time from the sight and lost her lunch the second time as Overhaul's inclusion of anaesthesia as recent, horribly so as he didn't seem to care for the well-being of the girls being sliced up.
Curious didn’t miss a beat as she leaned in. “Tell me all that you know.”
Line Break
Tomoyasu Chikazoku sometimes wondered if he should have become a recluse in the mountains. Oh sure, he was intelligent, a modern-day genius who could and did make decisions and innovations that affected millions, but that all came with the downside of having to deal with the people below him, with idiots. How he could not think such when he just finished a board meeting where he had to sit and listen to some abstract person give them a financial report that they should have already read if they didn't waste their time on women and booze? He saw himself as a saint for not blowing up when the rest of the board started to discuss topics that should have been over in a few minutes, but instead took at least 30, all because one or two thought they knew better, or had another superior idea when newsflash, they didn't.
Frankly, most days he could only tolerate them because they were marginally more useful than the people under them, most days as today was one of those days when he asked to be left alone, went up to the rooftop garden of the 60-floor Headquarters of Feel Good Inc. for a quirk smoke break. He had once wondered why people would poison themselves with this stuff, but then he started spending his 9-5 six days a week dealing with morons and finally understood. As he leaned on the guardrail, taking in the sites of the many skyscrapers that dotted the Minato ward skyline, he let the nicotine and beautifully cultivated gardens calm him down.
His phone, his second phone to be exact ringing ruined that calm but as he knew it could only be important, he quickly fished it from his pocket, going through the voice and fingerprint scan to unlock it before he answered the call, seeing the caller idea as he brought it to his ear. “Curious, I wasn’t expecting the-”
“I found them.” It took only a few seconds for the 'them' in question to be known to him, which only made him even more incensed.
“…I see, tracking those fools has proven to be an…challenge, one that I was about to crack.” He replied to save face, as when he had first started work on this, he had assured her that he’ll be able to crack their phones, track their locations, find the two girls and have them free before they knew it.
That was 6 months ago.
Much to his ever-growing frustrations, he found that the Yakuza group in particular, the Shie Hassaikai were far from the average morons. It didn’t help that not a single one used a Feel Good Inc. Device, no phones, laptops, tablets, smart TVs and internet routers to access and track. Then there was the fact that not only did just about all of them make use of burners but they were smart on when and where they made calls, at least that was what he thought till he learned that they were using a similar trick that the fucking drug cartels in Mexico used to throw off their call locations which saw their cell tower data scrambled. Sure, there were cameras but that didn’t mean much when it was clear that this Overhaul ensured that the goons, he did had never done anything damning close to one, nor did they allow them to catch them too much to leave incomplete trails to follow.
"I'm sure you were, but you must admit that they have proven to be, especially smart vermin," Curious replied, the sound of traffic in the background implying she was on her way back to her office, a quick look at his watch showed that it wasn’t lunch hour so she must have gone out for other business.
Accepting her attempts to soothe his unrightfully damaged ego, he focused on the prize. “Unfortunately. But you say you’ve located them?”
“Yeah, they’re being held in an underground maze of the main residence.” The felt his eye twitch at that, after all this time, all the resources he spent looking into their safe houses starting from the furthest out going in, did she mean to tell him that the Yakuza shit stain had been keeping them under his damn house?!
“Arrogant.” He ground out as he felt like punching something but had the frame of mind not to do that with the steel railing, breaking his knuckles might calm his anger, but he didn't need the wasted time seeing a doctor about it.
“Very. But I’ve also learned something else,” Curious agreed as she quickly informed him of what she had learned from her new informant, from how they were right in the fact Overhaul was dealing trigger but also how he was the source of Venom and finally, the true source of the new drug that was taking the streets by storm.
Upon hearing it all, it was safe to say that he was livid as he punched the railing, broken knuckles by damned. “What!” He yelled, his eyes blazing while he could admit he didn't care for people all that much, there was a difference between caring if someone got mugged and if someone was being cut up like a fucking piece of meat. His fury only increased due to the why of the situation. “They would dare pervert meta-abilities like that?”
“He definitely would. But we now have a location and an insider to aid with our attack. Right now, I'm going to need some help organizing that attack, finetuning it with any intelligence we receive from our mole.” Though the haze of his rage, he could hear the blue-skinned woman smiling as her little talk had been far more productive than she hoped as she not only got all the woman knew about the operation, but also got her to agree to be their mole in the Shie Hassakai, one that Overhaul and his Eight Bullets wouldn’t notice thanks to how the Yakuza saw women, as far as they were concerned, she was a fly on the wall.
“You’ll have your help,” Soothing his knuckles, he immediately jumped on board as with a location, they could start to make plans. “Make sure it hurts.”
Line Break
Finishing the lullaby, Izuku continued to rock Eri in her arms as she carried her to bed, tucking her in with a smile and a kiss on the forehead. It was only after she was sure that her Blessing wouldn't start to stir that she collapsed onto her chair, exhausted in more ways than one. If her math was right, it should be the 2nd week of the new school year, another week in which she was still trapped down her, unable to save her daughter, unable to do anything but sit and ponder just what kind of destruction her blood was causing. Oh sure, they never told her anything about the outside world, not even basic news or weather forecasts, but she had been awake through enough of Overhaul's torturous 'sessions' to be able to put together what he was using her cells for.
Looking towards the sleeping Eri, she felt her love douse a little of her misery, that same love that drove her to ensure that whatever evil her blood played a role in, it was her blood as she pushed to decrease the number of times Eri had to spend with her spectre, it might have been a small rebellion, but it was all she could do to keep her safe and ensure his research into her daughter's blood was slowed down. Looking at herself in the mirror, she took in her appearance, how the exhaustion, frailness and scars, how the white hair strands, sunken cheeks and darkened eye bags made her look 40 years older. But it was her eyes that she always focused on, eyes she always made sure to be pleasant, and kind when she was with her Blessing, but in this moment, when she was by herself.
All she saw was hate and despair. Hate for her situation, for the pain that her Blessing had to endure, that she had the endure, at the people around her that allowed it, for Overhaul for propagating it, for the heroes that cared more about themselves than the people, she found herself hating a lot of things that she once liked, enough that she'd entertain murderous fantasies more then she thought she would be comfortable with…but she fine with it. All Might wouldn’t have approved, he had always talked about being the better person, that true heroes didn’t give into such dark thoughts but she can’t help it anymore, she didn’t want to help it anymore.
She wanted to escape, she wanted to give Eri a better future.
She wanted to destroy the Shie Hassaikai, to watch it all burn and salt the ashes, to make that bastard Overhaul watch it all go up in smoke before she broke him.
Despair always came last, dampening her fury with the reality of her situation as she despaired for how little she could do, for how little the world cared for people like her. Despite that, she pondered for what felt like the 100th time how she could escape with Eri, or at least give her an opening and pray that she didn’t run into a failure like her, someone strong, someone with a good heart, a he-No.
Not a hero, she won't make that mistake again. She couldn't afford to trust them, not when the top pro was just a feeble old man lying to the world, not when pros would happily stand aside despite seeing what was happening here.
She needed to build her daughter a way out, but how was the question? She was never the picture of health, which looking back, made her dreams all the more delusional as she wasn't going to be able to compete with anyone for a spot in a hero course as she was. But now? It was a miracle that she could still support Eri's weight without buckling, diet was all she had going for her as if nothing else, Overhaul didn't want his 'golden girls' eating unhealthy foods and compromising the viability of the samples. Could she use the fruits of her blood, Venom to escape? Maybe, but that plan had too many holes, namely, she didn't know where he kept it, how much he kept and how much she would need to take as the last thing she needed was to conquer the first two, only to overdose and die.
Another glance to the side, to see her daughter fast asleep after a good meal and she recalled her promise to her, she might not be able to ever become a hero like she dreamed, but she promised that she’ll be a mother to Eri. A mother that would see her free and happy, able to smile, to play, to experience all the joys of childhood that this place, that Overhaul robbed her of.
She just didn’t know how but that wouldn’t stop her from trying.
As she reached for the textbooks to start her nightly study session, she heard a beeping, her back stiffening, she looked around for the source, wondering if she was merely hearing things.
But she heard it again.
Getting up from her seat, she started to listen in, pin down its location as she moved around the room, waiting for it to beep once more. When that beep came, she immediately zeroed in on its source, which was the food tray that their dinner had come on, seeing nothing that could be the cause on its surface, she removed the plates, utensils and cups from it, hearing a beep from it as she did so, before she looked under and saw, hidden in the cervices of the tray's bottom, was a little earbud stuck onto it with the same kind of adhesive that she used to stick Eri's drawings to the wall. Picking it up, she inspected it, it letting out another beep, faster than before.
Cautiously, she gripped it in her first and left for the bathroom attached to their room, there weren't any cameras or other surveillance in the room itself, but she didn't wish to disturb Eri as she left. Taking a quick breath as she looked at herself in the bathroom mirror, she placed the earbud in her ear and waited, not sure for what.
“So, you finally picked up my call.” An amused voice carried through the earbud, a feminine one that she didn’t recognize.
“W-who is this…?” She asked, getting a small chuckle in response to her caution.
“I'm shocked that you have forgotten me so quickly. I would imagine that being a curious little Chesire cat, I would be quite memorable.” The person on the other end mentioned, when she heard the cat remark, Izuku thought back to the only person she knew that used that.
“M-Ms. Kizuki!?” She did her best to keep her voice low, but her surprise still carried through.
“The one and only, I told you that I’ll do my best you help you, Izuku and I intend to keep that promise," Kizuki told her, getting tears to form in her eyes, though she wasn’t sure if there were due to relief or joy as she heard what could be the first friendly voice outside of Eri’s in months.
“B-but how…Is…is this a cruel prank?” She whispered, praying that this wasn't just some twisted scheme from Overhaul to break her down even further.
Kizuki hummed to herself, thinking of a way to respond to the question as she could hear just how scared and paranoid the girl was before she landed on something. “I doubt it, but if you need any more proof of it it's me, should I quote something that you wrote in your second last essay on Ryukyu, specifically the part where you went on a tangent on canine mutant quirks and the ease of live support items many could use to limit the drawbacks of having an increased sense of hearing and smell.” At that, Izuku couldn’t help the relief crashing into her as she fell to her knees, there was no way Overhaul or his contacts could have known about that, she had submitted then when she was 12. There were only a few people that could have even known what she chose to write about so her tears flowed freely as she started to cry, a smile breaking out across her face.
Kizuki let her have her moment to cry before she continued. “Sorry it took so long, you're a harder cookie to find than we thought. It didn't help but that the police gave up the search months ago.”
Hearing that her fears had been confirmed didn't upset her as much as she thought it would. If she couldn't trust Pros, would the police be any better? Regardless, she was completely forgotten as Kizuki hadn't stopped, she kept at it and found a way to her which meant more than she could vocalize at present. “Still, you still kept at it…thank you, so much.” She wiped her tears and snot away, reaching for the toilet paper to clean herself up a little before a thought occurred. “How…how did you even get this in? Overhaul controls everything.”
Kizuki merely laughed off the question. “I have some capable friends and in time, I hope you can meet them but we have other concerns, don’t we?” She redirected the conversation, but Izuku didn’t even notice as wholeheartedly agreed.
“Y-yes.”
“Good. First things first, we’re coming for you two, Izuku, don’t forget that fact.” Kizuki made sure to assure her of that fact, her amused voice gone and replaced with that of a woman that didn't lie, who always got her story.
Izuku nodded her head, but recalled that Kizuki couldn't see her before she replied with her words, allowing her assured words to calm her distressed heart as it was no longer a question of IF they'll bother to find her, but WHEN they'll rescue them. “I-I won’t.”
“Good, but it’ll help things if we could get some information. Information such as what is happening with Overhaul’s plans regarding Venom and whatever he’s doing with Eri.” Kizuki inquired as while her mole had known quite a bit, she mainly knew information about the layout of the main building and the meta-abilities of Kai's inner circle.
The thought of what Overhaul was doing made her blood boil as she relayed what she knew. “He’s using us to make them. He takes from me to make Venom, and he takes from Blessing to make his masterpiece; a quirk-erasing bullet."
Kizuki paused at that, she had known about the venom, or at least have reason to suspect, and could figure out that Blessing must have been Eri, but she hadn’t known about the bullet plan. Her mole had known nothing about this! “A what?” This was bad, it was already bad enough that the government and pros they hired kept people from truly expressing themselves, the notion that a madman was working in a way to destroy something so close to the very identity of another sent chills down her spine.
“He’s never spoken to either of us directly, but before he started to put me under for the…sessions, I would overhear him talking to his right-hand man, Chrono. It’s only in the prototype stage, with them having a bullet that only temporarily suppresses quirks but he’s close to perfecting it.” Midoriya shivered as she recalled those times when she was in nothing but body-racking pain as she was cut open and dissected like a corpse, all while Overhaul carried on conversations with Chrono as if she wasn't screaming her heart out. Still, she had gone through it enough to learn how to focus, to keep herself lucid enough to listen in as they spoke.
“How long?” Kizuki asked her, the sound of her pulling out a pen and paper clear, to write down what she could about this.
“I don’t know, maybe a month or 2? He’s never given exact dates.” That was the annoying part as she couldn't plan things when the bastard never gave away clear details, speaking in ways that made it seem like the other party just knew more than she did, which she was sure he did as she never saw Overhaul without Chrono close by, he was the bomber jacket wearing monster's shadow.
“Then we don’t have a lot of time to work with to get the two of your out of there," Kizuki replied, muttering how she’ll need to pull some strings about this. “We’ll keep talking, but for your sakes, destroy this earbud and get rid of its remains, flush it if you have to. Another will arrive with your dinner tomorrow.” Izuku agreed to it. They exchanged a little more information before she cut the call. Izuku did as she was told and stomped the earpiece as hard and as many times as she could, reducing it to a pile of plastic and junk, before she scooped it up and flushed every little piece she could. It was only after the toilet water settled and it was clear that she washed her hands and left the bathroom, getting into bed with a smile as she now had something to hold onto other than hate and love.
Hope.
Comments
Sit Lord
Plz make her female Bane. If the quirk-erasing bullet doesn't kick them into gear, don't know what will.
