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Chapter 15: The Paladin
🕑 Added 2024-08-05 15:47:01 +0000 UTC“Text” – Normal speech
‘Text’ – Thought
“Text” – Quirk Spirit speaking in the human world
“Text” - Attacks
“Text” – Radio/Communication lines
“Text” – None Japanese speech
(text) – Subtext/meaning behind a spoken word
Chapter 15: The Paladin
“You good on the drinks?” Midoriya asked as he returned from the kitchen, the group had decided that with classes officially starting the following day, they might as well hang out and get to know each other better and his and Yuga's place was picked.
“Yeah, man. Don’t need to bust out the fancy stuff for us.” Jiro held up the glass of water she had asked for, her jacket removed and resting on her armrest.
“I didn’t, we didn’t pack that,” Midoriya replied, though he looked a little irritated as he said the next part. “Despite how much Yuga wanted us to.”
Iida hummed at that, placing his cup of orange juice down. that hadn’t been the first time he had heard Midoriya refer to Aoyama with his first name, and vice versa. “Forgive me for assuming, but you’re close to Aoyama, Midoriya?”
Midoriya sat down between Tetsutetsu and Hagakure, letting out a relaxed sigh. “No, you’re not wrong, Iida. Yuga and I have known each other since we were in kindergarten and have been best friends for almost as long." He smiled as he recalled all the things they got up to growing up. The secrets that only they knew about the other.
“I could totally tell, you two have this energy where you don’t need words and can get what the other is thinking just like that.” Hagakure snapped her fingers at the end there, or at least, she assumed she did.
"Years of trial and error on our end, I couldn't tell you how many times we thought we were on the same page only to miscommunicate," Midoriya replied, though he didn’t give up details as the last thing he wanted was for them to have ammo to tease the two about. He got enough of that from Yuga and Saiko.
“It must have made for some fun stories.” Uraraka smiled as if she was honest, she was a little jealous of what Midoriya and Aoyama had. Oh, she wasn't friendless growing up, where she went to middle and high school, no one cared about her family situation, but sadly only a couple of her friends even attempted to get into U.A. and all had failed. The rest either went to work their family's trade or some other kind of trade school.
“A bunch, there is a reason my mother stopped letting us mess around her lab.” Midoriya laughed at a memory, though he kept it to himself. Still, that statement, vague as it was, did give some insight into them.
“Her lab? Is your mother a scientist? Does she work in the support industry?” Kamakiri asked. A fair question as it wasn't rare for hero students to come from families with ties to the industry, he was pretty sure that was the case with Todoroki for example.
“Nothing like that, she’s just a quirk researcher,” Midoriya shook his head, though there was something he wished to share. “Actually, it was Yuga’s parents that gave her a big break after she left I-island and returned to Japan, and our two families have been close since.” He was far too young to really remember I-island, but he knew that it was a downgrade for her, to go from such a place to just a little clinic in the corner of the street.
Her genius would have never shined as bright as it does now if the Aoyamas hadn't tracked her down that day. She wouldn't have been able to make so many breakthroughs in quirk science or help nearly as many people as her work has done by now.
Ojiro and the rest could detect just how proud he was of his mother, and how grateful he was to the Aoyamas. “So your mom works with quirks? It must have made it so easy for you to train then, you have an expert right there and all the gadgets you could want.” He noted that someone with a quirk as versatile as Midoriya's would need more than the dojo he used growing up.
Midoriya chuckled, as while Ojiro had been right on the money, such facilities weren’t on the legal blueprints of his mother’s lab, so he shouldn’t let people assume such. “My mom’s lab isn’t built to be a quirk gym you know.” His eye turned to the TV, which had been on mute for a while now but it seemed to be playing something important so he grabbed the remote and turned the volume up.
“The incident occurred just outside Kuchiki station less than 2 hours ago just as the afternoon rush was in full swing. Witnesses report hearing a loud crash and feeling the ground shake beneath their feet, but as of this moment, no villain has been found connected to the attack, nor was anything reported stolen.” The group watched the news report, with the footage being played off the station, one near the other side of town, wrecked with emergency services still rushing about, clearing away rubble and getting the tracks back into operation.
“The heck was that about?” Tetsutetsu asked.
“No clue, but who in their right mind would start shit when this is U.A.’s tuff? They itching to get a beat-down or something?” Kamakiri asked, but Iida was more concerned than irritated like his classmate.
“Wasn’t that in the direction that Aoyama went?” Iida asked Midoriya, but the green-haired boy waved it off.
“I wouldn’t worry too much; he can handle himself just fine. Besides, they haven’t mentioned any injuries. At best, he’s just been delayed and is running around wondering how he’ll make it in time.” Midoriya replied. He knew more than they did, but what he knew wasn’t cause for alarm.
Line Break
As Iida feared, that incident was in the direction that Aoyama had left in, but what he and the rest bar Izuku didn't know was that it was that very incident that drew him to the area. The area was already sectioned off by police tape, but only a few pros were on the scene once it was made clear that any villain that could have done this wasn't around, they left to either search for them or continue with their patrols, leaving just a couple in the area just in case they were wrong.
Rather, it was police and firefighters that were in full force, putting out fires, examining evidence, or questioning witnesses for details. The press right at the yellow tape with their cameras running even now as they talked about, and much to the police's irritation, reminding people that they had no idea what caused this.
Aoyama casually walked among the police and firefighters, decked out in his Paladin gear as he kneeled to inspect a piece of debris. Holding it up to the light, he saw that there were signs of slime on it. 'No, not slime, sludge maybe?'
“What’s the difference?” Luminance asked as she appeared next to him, the years have been nothing but kind to her as in the time since they first met and bonded, she had only grown more beautiful, colorful, and large. Then, she had been the size of a golden retriever sans tail, but now she was massive, easily the size of an ostrich.
A worker passed on by them, after which Aoyama replied. “Slime is mucus made by animals like snails and slugs, it's natural. Sludge is the residual stuff left behind from industrial work, it's artificial." He pulled something from his belt, and scraped off some of the sludge into a test tube, before placing it back into a special device hidden on his belt by his cape.
“So you’re saying this was artificial? Seems suspicious for such a substance to end up here, far from any industrial zones.” He agreed with her, especially since his helmet's scanners didn't pick up other signs of an industrial accident such as higher concentrations than normal of typical industrial chemicals.
“You’re right, but I have a hunch.” He voiced that, only to hear a soft beep from his belt. The info from the quick scan appeared on his helmet’s HUD, a rarely used feature but one that made such things all the easier, he’ll have to thank those new support engineers Madam Midoriya managed to hire for this later.
Looking through the info, he saw that the substance he had collected was in fact quirk quirk-based, but there were clear signs of DNA in it, something that didn't exist in a quirk spirit. He firmed his lips as he turned and walked right past some police talking about how nosy the press was and grabbed another piece of debris, one that didn't appear like the first. “More of it, and if these two pieces of debris are what I think they are,”
Holding them up, he saw that one came from the sidewalk, but the other was from the station line that ran overhead. One from above, and another from below…
“So, it was a Ha, perhaps a Gekiha?” Luminance suspected.
“Doubtful, this destruction would match up with most of that class, I would put it at best a high level (Jitsunagi)Earth-Bond Fragments.” At least, he hoped it wasn't a Gekiha, not after the mess that was Hiroyuki's rampage. However, there was one thing that seemed similar to that earlier incident.
“It was probably chasing someone then, though who that was is still a mystery.”
"One that I want to solve before people are hurt if not worse by this," Aoyama stated, resolved to carry that through as he turned and left the scene, not a single person even acknowledging that he was ever there to begin with. How could they when as far as they and every camera in the area was concerned, he was never seen, though many would wonder about the weird voice they heard speaking, but never saw someone close enough to put a face to it.
Line Break
“Hiroyuki Hitsugaya?” Endeavour asked, his Flaming Sidekicks having gathered in his office to give the report he had wanted for months now.
When the bandaged Kido nodded, Endeavour grunted out with disapproval. “It took far too long to find just the one name.” It might not have been their primary case, as they had plenty of work to handle but still, it was shameful that it took this long for them to find a name.
Kido didn‘t try to defend himself, Endeavour hated excuses, so he went with the truth. “Sorry about that boss, there were a lot of reports we had to sort through.”
That was an understatement as while it would have been hard enough tracking names when the criminals destroyed large parts of it, as a trafficking ring, they had business in other countries which meant extensive and pro-longed communications with law enforcement in countries they knew the group operated it, which came out to 8 different places. All had to go through missing person reports and do smaller investigations, eliminating people painfully slowly till they came back with this.
Endeavour knew that, but that didn't mean he had to like it. Still, he could focus on what they could do something about, which was digging deeper into possible ties to this Caretaker vigilante, who had been spotted over a dozen more times since that day. “Can’t be helped, what do we know?”
Onima took it from there, reading off the file they managed to compile about the kid. “Hitsugaya Hiroyuki would be age 11 this year. Born November 13th to Isshin Hitsugaya and an unknown mother, according to the files, she gave up full custody when the kid was born and vanished.” Nothing out of the ordinary there, parents gave up custody all the time, besides by all accounts it wasn’t like this Isshin character was anything less than an exemplary father.
Speaking of that father, he handed Endeavour a picture of the man, Endeavour taking in the black hair, white eyes, and stubbly. “Father was an insurance broker. Around 2 years ago, his then 9-year-old son didn’t return home from school and he filed the missing person’s report, pretty active in the search for his son after that.” There were at least 8 different police reports. One filed not even 3 hours after the boy's elementary school closed for the day.
He spoke with the cops and they told him they turned the man away as it hadn't been long enough for it to count as a disappearance, but they did make a report of it and had some people check spots where children liked to hang out instead of heading home. But when night had fallen, they opened up the case and sadly, it went nowhere. Based on what they had on record, the man spent all his free time searching for his son, gathering support and even hiring a couple PIs.
“And now?” Endeavour asked them, as he would imagine a man like that would have been over the moon when his boy was found after all that time. Sadly, Onima didn't have a good ending to the story.
“He was killed in a car crash last year.” The number one frowned harder at that, his flames spiked if only for a moment as Kida handed him the news article about the incident, a drunk truck driver rammed into several cars that happened to be leaving from a rally for missing kids Isshin set up, his being the 3rd car to be hit. Along with that was the autopsy report confirming the man died in the crash.
Tragic, but he focused on the investigation. Now that they knew the father couldn't have been the one, perhaps it was the son who through luck happened upon their vigilante friend or someone that connected them to him. “And the boy? Did he escape from those bastards?”
"I'm afraid not, according to them, he was one of 3 kids who died in a loading accident at the docks. They tossed his body overboard while at sea and there's been no reports of corpses washing up since." Burnin told him, having gone through the gang’s papers herself, and aside from wanting to burn some fuckers, she didn’t find much of use in them.
"So if not the father or the son-who got Caretaker involved in this?" Endeavour asked as this was getting ridiculous, they had already run down most other leads, even with these newer cases. The commission wanted answers, and so did he yet he had nothing he could give them.
“Maybe it was the family of another of the kids. One was a foster boy but a girl, a 13-year-old, came from a pretty wealthy family up north. They even called in PI during the missing person’s case and have been vocal about the rather lenient sentences that most involved got.” Kido stated, pulling another report about a girl that had been killed, thankfully they managed to recover her files intact.
“Their name?”
“The Hinamori family.” Kido answered as Endeavour picked up the file and inspected the girl, it was a picture of her during her captivity, and one could tell she was both terrified, but resigned to whatever fate awaited her.
“Hinamori…I’ve heard the name.” He thought about it for a moment, before he recalled. They were a powerful legal firm; he had contracted them in the past for some excessive force charges or destruction of public property brought against him and his agency. If his memory served him right, they had another daughter, one around Natsuo’s age.
“Look into that.” He instructed Kido, who nodded before the number 2 turned to his right-hand woman. “Burnin, what more do we know about Caretaker and his supposed vigilante network?”
Burnin grumbled something about this being insane as she dumped a large folder on his desk. “That if it’s a thing, it’s been around a while. I got reports that describe at least 3 dozen different people, all unknown, all doing some kind of hero work. They’re smart too, as they never do it in the same place, one person who goes by Paladin has a report that mentions them from as far northern Akita and central Toyama.”
Endeavour didn’t like that; he didn’t like that one bit. Vigilantes, like pros, tend to remain in the same city, it was easier to handle that as one could build up a familiarity with the environment and locals. But to disregard that meant that they were extremely confident in their skills and ability to adapt.
"So we can conclude that they are somewhat mobile, and switch around to keep law enforcement on the back foot." Endeavour closed his eyes in thought, taking all that they knew and trying to piece together a picture.
“No kidding, this will be a real pain, especially since they always pop up for the craziest stuff," Burnin asked, blowing some of her flaming hair out of her face. But Endeavour focused on what she said at the end there, was it possible? It would fit, but…no, there was some water in that well.
“Maybe we can use that.” He muttered, his sidekicks turning to him, puzzled.
“Sir?” Onima asked as Endeavour quickly opened up their files on Caretaker, looking through a couple of them before moving on to the ones about other cases involving Paladin, Cloud-Jumper, and Rumble-and all fit into a picture he was furious he didn't notice before.
“They don’t go after regular crime; all of these cases are for incidents we hardly understand. But they seem to know exactly what they're doing." Endeavour emphasized, that as these guys moved like true pros, they kept collateral to a minimum, didn't fight law enforcement even as they fled, and always got the job done.
“So what, we track the weird, we track them?” Burnin asked, as that felt like a tall order when by the very nature of quirks, most calls could sound weird.
"It's a variable idea. Start listening for reports of strange events in the area. As soon as one is reported, I want to know about it." Endeavour ordered nonetheless, and they were quick to obey.
"Sir!" The sidekicks saluted him, Burning being a little cheeky about it as they left to get on that and carry out the rest of their duties before their shifts ended. His would also be over soon, but he could put in a couple extra hours before returning to his house.
‘I don’t know who you are, Caretaker,’ He looked at the blurred image of Caretaker, the figure holding a blade that Endeavour didn't see when they met, striking down a beast made from leaves of all things. ‘But I intend to find out.’
Line Break
‘I need to get out of here, before that…thing finds me!’ Nagasawa Tetsuo, a low-level villain thought to himself as he creeped and seeped out of a sewers via a manhole. It was nearly dark, which was good for him as if he could just find himself a new invisibility cloak, maybe he could cut his losses and skip town. He had thought coming here would be easy money, strike where villains aren’t expected and he could make a killing but no, that…thing! Had been hounding him all day.
But it seemed like his luck was getting better as he saw two people, a couple, he didn’t know, he didn’t care. So he rushed towards them, the man spotting him and yelling out as he grabbed his girl, not that it would do them any good as he was on them like a flash, moments away from crashing down on them like a flood. “Thanks for being my cover, you’re my heroes!”
But his luck hadn’t changed as right as he was about to grab onto the woman and try and take her body, a bright yellow star crashed into him.
“What the-!” He yelled out in surprise and pain as despite his semi-liquid body, he was thrown off to the side, splatting against a wall. As he slowly reformed himself, he looked at the figure that had stopped him as the light that had engulfed them faded away, revealing the caped, armored Paladin.
"They're your heroes? What an awful way to describe your victims." Paladin spoke up, insulted that someone like him would dare use the term hero in such a manner. But his fury was reserved for the villain alone as when he turned to the two, his tone dropped to a softer, kinder one. “Are you all right, good sir? My lady?” He asked the two as the man was helping the woman back up.
“N-no.” The woman shook but remained even just a little calm in the presence of what she must have assumed to be a hero. Aoyama didn't correct that, though he did crack a smile at the fact that in a couple years, he would legally be one.
“Then it would appear that I was right on time.” He nodded, pleased that he had done so before turning back to the threat. Light started to congregate at his side, hidden by his cape before Nagasawa saw the hilt of a sword peak out.
Reaching for his blade, Paladin drew the katana, one which had a brilliant blade, polished and shined so much it didn't reflect the light of the setting sun as it was radiated it. The blade's blue and golden hilt was held in Paladin's hand. “You weren’t the prey I was hunting, but I would be a heartless fool to ignore villainy when I see it.”
As he spoke, the two civilians made the smart decision to flee, much to the annoyance of the villain. "Damn you! I needed a new disguise! So you'll have to make due!" He charged at Paladin, stretching out his body wide to engulf him, but Paladin jumped up, landing on a street light
“Disguise? What, were you plotting to wear the madam’s clothing?” Paladin asked him, his blade held low as he jumped to avoid another strike, his speed frustrating the villain.
Still, he figured that there was something he could say that could get under the man's skin, and make him slip. So he laughed, Paladin getting a sick feeling in his stomach. "Oh, more than that? Sure, he would take her clothes…and her body, but you’ll be even better, especially with a fancy quirk like that!” He set another tentacle towards Paladin, who ducked and rushed forward, just as he planned.
But his plot proved for naught as when he tried to box in the vigilante, his sludge fist smashed through what felt like a mirror, with the vigilante nowhere to be seen. “…Such scum.” He looked to the side, seeing that his prey had somehow teleported to the middle of the street. “No morals or remorse, you speak of taking another’s body, snuffing out their spirits as if it were as mundane as taking out the trash.” He sneered at the villain, his words conveying that he was glaring at him underneath that helmet of his.
“I can easily tell that you’ve done this before, which would explain why it’s after you.” Paladin at least had that, but while a part of him wished to allow the rampaging quirk to get its justice, that wasn’t what he was there to do, nor was that what being a hero meant to him, even if he wouldn’t lose sleep over it.
Nagasawa was only getting angrier as this went on, he had lost his disguise, this vigilante was too much trouble and that didn't mean he didn't have time to relax from that…thing chasing him. “Wait are you babbling one about? You stalling for time since that trick only work-!”
His words were cut off when Paladin dashed towards him, a single leap covering the distance as he pulled back his sword hand, and with near casual effort, swung it, the blade predictably passing through his sludge body without much difficulty, but unlike other times when he faced off against people with physical quirks or weapons, he let out a scream of pain as the blade cut through him.
Landing a little off from the screaming villain, Paladin turned to him. “I am stalling for time, but not because my blade can’t harm you. You’ll do wise to remember that.” He flicked his sword to the side.
“Damn you!” The villain lost all composure and attacked him like a rabid animal. This time Paladin didn't retreat but met the random, yet sloppy and weak attempt to defeat him with practiced grace and quirk decisive action. Holding the blade in both hands, he parried and blocked the attack, only to launch blinding slashes quick bee-sting-like thrusts, stabbing into the villain, each one drawing cries from him as he couldn't believe it, he couldn't believe he had found something whose quirk made his greatest strength into a weakness.
After a few more minutes, the villain was nearly drained of stamina, his body hurting all over from the many times Paladin's blade tasted his flesh, despite not showing it, he could feel the dozens of stab wounds, shallow or deep, and slashes, big or small, all over his body. In complete contrast to him, Paladin remained as clean as he'd been when the fight started.
“I think that’s been enough time.” Paladin mused, before they both what sounded like an explosion fused with a roar in the distance, coming from the same sewage entrance that the villain had slipped out from when this started. “Right on queue.”
“Shit, it’s back-I’m out of here!” Nagasawa cut his losses and turned to flee, a foolish mistake when faced with a stronger foe.
“No,” Paladin sheathed his blade and crouched, his entire body giving off bright yellow sunlight before he dashed towards the villain who turned just in time to see the blinding flash of his sword being drawn. “You’re not. I might have not the means to restrain you, but that should keep you down long enough for proper law enforcement to arrive and handle your despicable self.”
Paladin stated this as he looked behind him right as the villain splat against the fall, the damage done not being lethal, or even lasting as he avoided the eyes, but the pain of being sliced in two was more than enough to knock the villain out. But while the one threat was handled, the one that he had been chasing made itself known when a manhole cover blasted off the hole, Paladin noting it buried itself into the adjacent wall.
From the open manhole, a quirk spirit came through, squeezing out of it till its slug-like body broke free. Observing it as it came into the light, Paladin noted that it was a plump, centipede-like quirk spirit, with half its body raised off the ground. The segments that made up its body were a dark magenta, expecting for its smooth, dark underside though he couldn't be sure of the exact color at the moment. The spirit had long, bent horns akin to antennae, with an identical set on its rear with purple bands on both sides. Across the segments of its body, were tear-drop-shaped rings. The look was finished by its four pairs of short, purple fore-claws and four larger, thicker hind legs.
The quirk looked about for a moment before its eyes caught the unmoving splatter of slice on the ground and it flew into a murderous frenzy. “You! Time to die!” The quirk rushed the man, determined to kill him for whatever wrong he did to its user in life.
“Mirror!” Only to run smack into a wall of light, as it shook its head, it turned to Paladin who it hadn’t even noticed before. "My deepest apologies, lost Jitsunagi, but you can’t have him. His to answer for his crimes in a court of law, judged by the living.”
“Screw that! He took it, he took it all and I’ll see him die screaming!” The quirk screeched at him, bashing into the barrier a couple more times, each harder than the last but it didn't give. Frustrated that it had been denied its kill, the quirk turned to him to get rid of him, then presumable move on to its true target.
‘It would seem you were right, this is a Gekiha.’ Paladin thought to himself as he rushed the charging quirk, before diving to the side with a spin, slicing off two of its fore-claws, the appendages falling to the ground with a thud as the quirk screamed out in pain, a horrible sound to his eyes.
‘Handle it with caution and respect, Yuga.’ Luminance told him via their link, his blade glowing just a little brighter as she spoke.
‘Have I ever failed you, my beautiful bird of paradise?’ Paladin asked her, blocking a furious strike from the quirk, digging his heels into the ground to keep himself from crumbling underneath the strike.
‘You speak truth, but don’t flattery for the sake of appeasement is beneath you.’ Luminance replied as Paladin gripped his blade ever tighter, he knew he didn’t have much time, so with a silent apology, he prepared to end things.
Jumping back from another strike, he held his sword over his head in both hands, the blade glowing brightly as he gathered more yellow sunlight into it before he charged the beast head-on. “Solar Saber: Midday Sun!” Swinging his blade down, he fired off a bright, piercing blade of yellow sunlight towards the quirk, which could nothing as the slash cut it through all the way, bisected it. it let out a breath, before its two sides fell to the ground with a crash, kicking up dirt.
Paladin grimaced underneath the helmet, as while quirks were nigh immortal, and could come back even from an attack like that, they still felt pain. Quickly, he grabbed a capture ball from his belt and tossed it, the device sucking in both pants and the severed fore-claws, the quirk would regenerate faster within the ball. That done, he pocketed the ball right as he heard some heroes rushing towards the scene.
Focusing, Paladin envisioned a fusion of Mirror and Reflect, but on a larger scale before he pulled off one of his most versatile moves. “House of Light.” He uttered, as around him, he created an intricately, overlapping wall of mirrors of light, each reflecting the air of the area around so well that he was completely shielded from view.
And right on time some pros just turned the corner, but surprisingly, they were led by something new. "Dammit, we must have missed him," Burnin grunted, slowing in her run as she approached, finding the still knocked out-slime villain.
"They said that there was a knight-looking hero that saved them, the description matched the fella you're looking for." One of the others pointed out, the group never noticing Paladin as he kept to the side, out of the way but well within earshot.
“Well, we know that they’re not afraid of coming this close to U.A. I’m not sure if that’s good or not, as I don’t want to involve a bunch of untrained brats on this.” Burnin frowned, as students might be skilled, especially 3rd years, but this close to campus, most would be out partying, or exhausted from classes and she’ll be damned if he had to worry about a drunk idiot messing things up.
"We'll keep an eye out for them, in the meantime, restrain…scoop up the villain, the civilians claimed he tried to attack them." Another told her, before turning to address something that they could.
'I wonder, is this related to their efforts to corner and capture one of us? Perhaps I should involve the others about this as if Endeavour's on this, it won't be easy to continue with our mission.' Paladin thought to himself, before turning and quietly walking away from the scene, entering an alley and vanishing into the darkness.
Line Break
And done, a chapter mainly about Aoyama, a first for me. Also, wanted to remind people that Endeavour hasn't given up on the case, he hasn't given up period but that just puts pressure on them as they can't just stop, they're the only ones that can handle the problem, and you tell me if someone like Izuku would sit aside when he knows he can do something. Fuck, part of his character is that his body moves before he can think.
Speaking of moving, man time has sure flown as the manga, something that has gone on for 10 fucking years has ended, and that ending wasn't what I wanted, but it was still a great ending, one with panels that made me tear up reading it, though it was a fan translation which for some stupid reason, has people misinterpreting words and forgetting entire character dynamics and personalities to make characters should like complete assholes.
The anime's still going, but seeing how episodes now can use material from 3-5 manga chapters at a time, that means we have anywhere from 21 to 12 episodes left, which I know, is a BIG margin of error, mainly brought up by how some recent episodes are the 5 manga chapter type, probably because a lot is happening and they don't want to make a season that almost a season and a half worth of episodes. (Also, let's hope they don't pull the AoT stunt of 'final season: part 2, part 2.5, etc)
