Chapter 62: Part 3 – Execution.

With the intel of the heroes amassing, Overhaul was confident that they were finally moving on him. It was unfortunate, particularly after all the hard work he had put into eradicating any evidence that could give them legal cause. Still, it wasn't as if he hadn't planned for such an event.

Either way, with the heroes coming after them before lunch, they needed to start moving things. Even if they could fend off the assault, they'd just keep coming until they got what they wanted, probably his arrest, considering he was the leader of the Yakuza group. But before then, he had to speak with someone.

Unwittingly walking down the same hallway that Pyre had used the night before, he approached his father's room and slowly opened the door. He thought he smelled an acrid, charred chemical plastic stench for a moment. Still, with another sniff, he could smell the disinfectant that had been used to regularly clean every surface of the room. Nothing else was out of place, so while puzzled, Overhaul could assume he was just smelling things.

Especially as his father was, as he always was, perfectly still in his bed. Only the faintest rise and fall of his chest confirmed that the bed-ridden man before could still claim to be among the living as his life support continued to work, the steady beat of the Cardiac monitor being a constant sound in this room. The old man wasn’t brain dead, but Overhaul had ensured he was close to it, an unpleasant decision made for the benefit of the Shie Hassaikai. Still, he'll understand once he succeeds and wakes the old man.

"Sorry, pops." Overhaul apologized, standing over his father with the light to his back shrouding his face. His eyes befitted a curious and yet indifferent owl with their almost eerie yellow glow. "Things are about to get noisy."

Having said his piece, Overhaul turned and calmly walked out. The door slid shut behind him, leaving only the monitor's sound for a few moments before Hassaikai Naomi slowly opened his eyes. Arising from the bed, the monitor remained constant. It was not connected to him, only made to look like it.

"So, we'll be having trouble, just like the boy thought would happen…" Hassaikai thought aloud, as Pyre had guessed that Overhaul was making too much noise for the heroes to ignore. Still, for it to be this soon, he doubted even the oddball had seen it coming.

But a part of him, who had ruled for years and steered them through even the reign of the now-imprisoned Underworld King, told him this would only benefit Pyre and his ilk. "I only hope things aren't as bloody as they could become." The old man sighed as he prepared himself for what was to come.

Line Break

Not even 30 minutes later, dozens of police equipped in riot gear stood outside the entrance to the Shie Hassaikai's headquarters, along with the heroes that Nighteye had recruited for the operation, standing at the ready for whatever might happen as predicted, infighting or not,, this won't be an easy assignment.

Having confirmed with his officers, the detective turned to the group in general. “Once they’ve read the warrant, you’re free to move! I’m counting on everyone to act swiftly.”

Lock Rock seemed to have an issue with the simple instructions. Did the guy think they were rookies? “Is he for real? He’s talking like we don’t know how to do our jobs.”

“You know that’s not what he means, Lock Rock. Give it a rest.” Fatgum spoke up as the detective was surely talking to the students with them. This was their first big mission, after all.

Lock Rock still had issues with them involving a bunch of students, U.A or not, but he had been a minority on that, and now wasn't the time to argue about that. Instead, he focused on the mission. "The real problem is that these Yakuza types are good at living in the shadows. No way they didn't notice us out here, so what's stopping them from trying to run for it now?"

As he spoke, one of the police reached for the doorbell, and while the chance was small, it was still protocol to give the people inside a chance to comply with their orders. As Lock Rock had asked his question, that same door had been smashed off its hinges, nearly killing the officers that had been standing in its direct line of fire if not for Eraser grabbing onto 2 of them while Uraraka rescued the last one.

Uraraka landed, and the officer safely placed them on the side of the road as she powered down OFA and Zero Gravity. “Are you hurt?” she asked the man. Looking him over, she didn't see any obvious signs of injury, but her provisional license exam experience taught her to be clear and thorough about these things.

The man was dazed for a moment but quickly nodded. “N-no, I’m good. Thanks.” She left him in the care of another officer as she and the rest turned to see the reason the door had nearly killed people. It took a moment, but she couldn’t recognize the incredibly large and muscular man and the plague mask he wore over his face. He wasn't on the list of known members.

That was trouble, but as Eraser had told them early on, this was expected in hero work.

“What do you want? It’s too early for visitors.” The man's voice was groggy and a little slurred as if he had just woken up.

"You kidding me? No way he was just at the gate; how'd they figure out we would be coming?" Lock Rock yelled.

"We can figure that out later. Let's focus on taking this guy out!" Mr. Brave countered, pulling out a lump of his hair, which turned into a rough-looking blade in his hands as they faced off against the monster of a man.

Being a little wobbly on his feet, the unknown yakuza hummed. "Oh, that's the stuff. I'm waking up a little." He lifted his right arm, showcasing how it bulged and grew. Did he have some sort of strength quirk? Muscle augmentation like Muscular? Uraraka didn't know, but she could see this wasn't just a man flexing.

Ryukyu saw it as well and moved in front of a crowd of police, her hand moving to her bone-themed headdress. "Brace yourselves!" she said.

“Why are you people here?” The yakuza demanded as he swung his giant fist towards her. Steam burst out around Ryukyu, believing he'd kill them all with a single hit. The impact kicked up dust and caused a small shockwave, police hunkering behind their riot shields as Asui, Hado, and Bakugo all shifted to keep those who seemed at risk from flying off.

For the yakuza, he immediately knew something was off as instead of meeting flesh, which broke and tore on impact with his attack, his first was stopped.

The reason was made clear as the steam faded, revealing the Dragon Hero having taken on her namesake by shifting into a dragon. Her clawed hand was much larger than her opponents', clamping around it and preventing the man from pulling back.

“Listen to me!” Ryukyu kept her focus on the villain. "We shouldn't split up too much. The Ryukyu agency will handle this; the rest should move ahead with the mission." She stated as she palmed the yakuza and slammed him into the ground, holding him down with her claw and weight.

Uraraka and Kirishima seemed hesitant, as they'd be leaving some of their own with this. Still, Bakugo smacked Kirishima's shoulder, glaring at him. “You heard her, shitty hair, get going! We’ll follow after we’ve handled big and ugly over there!” With that, he blasted off to lend Ryukyu support, Nejire-Chan having already moved to do so with Froppy following after the Explosive Hero.

The rest didn't argue or wait and rushed through the now gateless entrance into the Yakuza property, where they saw three other members of the group standing aggressively in their way. Pulling out a copy of the warrant, the detective declared, "This is the heroes and police! We have a warrant to search the premises under suspicion of illegal drug manufacturing and dealing."

They didn't listen and started to attack, one using their quirk to take control of the leaves of a nearby bush, which he hardened and fired at them, the police again hiding behind their riot shields as the seemingly harmless plants drug deep into the shields.

But once more, that was why they came with heroes. One of them dashed forward and quickly restrained the villain, allowing others to move in and handle the other two. That seemed to be the main obstacle ahead of them as the heroes continued leading the charge.

“They should lead with a brawler; what's up with these guys? Why'd they fight?" Lock Rock asked as this didn't make sense. Yakuza were criminals, sure, but they avoided conflict. It was why they had managed to last things long, as they just made it hard to stick any charge against them.

"Just focus on getting to the girl and capturing Chisaki. We can question those we capture later!" Nighteye reminded him, a sentiment that was at the forefront of Uravity and Lemillion’s minds. They had let Eri go once, and they'd be damned if she was allowed to slip through their fingers again.

As they reached the entrance to the main building, even more yakuza came pouring out to confront them. However, they were far from strong individuals, and while they could make up for that with numbers, it wasn't enough, as the heroes easily managed to fight their way through. Police quickly moved on any downed member of the yakuza and restraining them or assisting heroes as they did the same.

"I repeat, we have a warrant to search the premises!" The detective yelled through the melee as more yakuza came pouring out, matching the numbers of police they had brought and then out-numbering, with more coming.

"We don't care; get the hell outta here!" one of them yelled back, trying to force his way toward the detective, but another officer held him back.

“Everyone, calm down!” Br. Brave clashed with a Yakuza wielding a bat, his hair blade cutting deep into the wooden weapon.

"Clear a path. The faster we get inside, the better!" another hero called out, as this had to be a delaying act. They knew that Overhaul had an underground component; that was their destination, but they had no idea how vast it was. For all they knew, all the evidence was being destroyed, and he and the girl were escaping as they wasted time out here.

"How they're willing to sacrifice the entire organization going by how many are out here!" Nighteye, as he hadn't thought Overhaul would be so desperate, he would throw his very group for it. What good would it have been to create his quirk erasing/destroyer bullets if the Yakuza group had died? These sorts valued loyalty and brotherhood, and he'll never be able to rebuild if it got out what he ordered here.

“Can we leave these ones to you?” Nighteye called out as he tripped and knocked out a man trying to sneak up on him.

“Sure, you go on ahead. We’ll keep them off your backs!” Br. Brave replied before they heard a P.A. system turn on with an ear-piercing ping. The heroes expected that it would be Overhaul or someone else coming to rally their forces or taunt the heroes.

“Attention.” But for Lemillion and Uravity, the voice they heard couldn't have been Overhaul's. It sounded nothing like that. Glancing at the other heroes, none seemed to know the voice either.

“Whose…” Fatgum started to ask, stopping when he noticed the one word's effect on the yakuza. Most had just stopped fighting and looked towards the speakers in surprise, awe, and, if he wasn't crazy, hope.

“No way.”

“It can’t be.”

"But it has to be; no one else has that voice!"

Nighteye frowned, but he didn't act and waited to hear how this went, as he had a feeling he already knew.

“Sons of the Shie Hassaikai, this is your leader speaking. I have returned to you all at long last.” Having left his room, the true boss of the Shie Hassaikai had gone to the radio room and turned on the long-disused P.A.

He wasn't just broadcasting his message to the main house and the yard, but throughout the underground as wherever a speaker was, his voice reached. Many who heard it were relieved and hopeful to hear him; those among the 8 bullets were surprised, but most didn't even know him.

But Overhaul was stunned to hear the old man speaking- no, that couldn't be the old man. He was in a coma, and he made sure of it! This had to be fake, a trick from the heroes, but it didn't matter if those fools believed it.

Toga and Pyre only giggled at the announcement while Twice high-fived both. It was early, but they could improvise. They just wished they could see Chisaki's face.

“I have many things to say and many things to atone for by leaving you, but I must ask this of you before anything else: Lay down your weapons. This path you've been forced down is not the way of the Shie Hassaikai. It's a flawed, selfish, and self-destructive road that only fools should trek, and is not someone I'm willing to allow any of you to suffer for.” The old man continued, his age doing nothing to limit the strength in his tone or the confidence in his words as he forsook the path his adopted son had set their beloved organization down.

He knew his boys, and he knew what would happen. But even though he knew, he couldn’t stay silent about this. “I say it again, lay down your arms and let the heroes through!” With the transmission ending, the heroes who had just been fighting witnessed the yakuza seem to revel in the announcement.

“The boss…he’s back!”

"He's awake, I just knew he'd wake up!"

One of them, who had just been fighting with Fat Gum and nearly got packed up, laughed before he yelled to the rest. “All right, you ugly bastards, you heard him. We aren’t gonna go down with that Chisaki bastard! We ain’t got no horse in his stupid race!”

His words carried through, as many didn't question that. They ceased using their quirks, dropped their weapons, and stepped aside. Of course, not everyone followed the apparent true leader's wishes and tried to continue fighting, only now it wasn't just against heroes but against their brethren as well, with yells and shouts of 'spineless,' 'traitor,' and 'turncoat' flying as much as fists.

“Is this the revolt you mentioned, Nighteye?” Lock Rock asked. They found they weren't nearly as swarmed, as over half of these gangsters either stood aside or were now helping deal with those who still fought.

"It is, though it seems that Chisaki's position within the organization wasn't as strong as I believed. That explains why he was willing to let it burn." Nighteye replied, as if all it took for a group known for brotherhood and loyalty to flip on him was a single request from another high-ranking member, this evident true leader. Then, he must have realized his position was never stable.

Fat Gum, seeing one of the gangsters glaring at them, approached anyway. As he wasn't fighting them anymore, maybe he could give them some help. “Hey, since you’re not gonna fight, any idea where Overhaul is?”

“No clue, but we can get you down to him.” The man grunted as he turned and led them into the mansion. His glare only burned hotter when none took off their shoes, but he didn't say anything as he led them deeper. As he did so, Nighteye reviewed what he had seen in his earlier prediction and found that their impromptu guide was using the same route.

Coming to a spot by a painting, the gangster removed a vase and its stand and pressed down on the tiles in the exact way that Nighteye had seen in his vision. And just like the vision, the secret panel opened up, revealing concrete stairs leading into the belly of the beast.

Stepping aside, the gangster gestured down the stairs. “Knowing him, he’s probably already on the move, " he stated. Kirishima called out Overhaul for abandoning his men while he ran, which, as much as he hated, the gangster agreed with.

He just took issue with the notion that Chisaki was one of them, not after all he’s done to besmirch their names and disrespect the boss.

As the heroes stepped forward, the man placed a hand on Nighteye’s shoulder, who only allowed it because he didn’t see the low-level criminal as a true threat. Still, his gaze said enough about his opinions about him.

It was a mutual sentiment. "Listen, I don't like you, and you don't like me, so I'll keep this short. Most of us hate that Chisaki bastard and only remained members for the boss's sake. But there's bound to still be some too scared to surrender now, and he's got those crazies he brought with him; you got to watch out. You saw one of them at the front.”

Uraraka and the other students recalled that and could vaguely hear how that fight was still happening out at the front.

"Noted, but I hope you understand that this won't excuse your organization from the crimes you've committed under Overhaul." Nighteye reminded the man as if he thought they'd get off light because they stood down; he was sorely mistaken.

The blonde just shrugged. "We'll cross that bridge when we get there; you have bigger fish to fry."

Line Break

Overhaul kept a brisk pace within the base as he walked down a hallway along with Chrono, his assistant, carrying Eri for him. He would have been moving slower, but with the no-doubt ploy from the heroes, he wouldn't trust most of his men to slow the pros down. In fact, he wouldn't be surprised if they stood aside and helped the pros to get rid of him.

He'll have to remember their names and faces so he can slaughter them later.

“Sir, did you?” Chrono often spoke candidly with him, as one would expect from his right hand and closest ally, but even he walked on eggshells right now. While Overhaul seemed calm, he was anything but, and both he and Eri could pick up on it. The latter later terrified into silence as she tried making herself as small as possible.

"No. And I ensured that such a miracle could have occurred…something is happening here. We have a rat." Overhaul concluded as it wasn't well known that his reign was, on paper, temporary. Nor that he and the boss weren't on, to put it lightly, the same page.

Even if the pros could have gotten someone or used a quirk to mimic his voice, that prior knowledge wouldn't have been something they would have known without help.

Chrono agreed with him on that, but they had a problem. "To be blunt, if their goal was to awaken the boss, that would give us a wide suspect pool and no time to question any of them on who."

"And they wondered why I didn't inform them of my plans at the first chance. They all turn. I can at least trust that the Bullets won't be so easily swayed." Overhaul replied, taking a breath to try and cool his anger over this embarrassment.

Yes, he could trust those trash as he had recruited them, and aside from Rappa, they were loyal to him, the boss, or the organization. Katsukame was handling the front, but he couldn't handle all of them. So he had left Irinaka in charge of slowing those who got past and spreading them out so the rest of the bullets could handle them.

“Still, if the heroes came in force, would they be enough to slow them down?” Chrono had thoughts similar to those on their underlings, as Overhaul did: they didn't put too much value on them. Useful, yes. Loyal, certainly, except the battle drunk, but game changers?

No, not even close.

"Doesn't matter; in a way, I should be grateful. They never understood my vision and never accepted that I respect the boss's will more than all of them combined. In the long run, this is just a minor setback, and our comeback will make a good story for potential investors." Overhaul replied, already thinking of ways he could spin this once they set up shop somewhere else, probably down south. No, the West would do. He had some properties under non-Hassaikai names in Tokyama.

"A full-scale raid on what they perceived as a dying breed of criminal, all because of my work. Because they fear what we could one day do with it, that'll sure get some attention." He could already imagine the sales pitch, all rooted in the case he held in his hand and the girl that Chrono carried.

"As long as we have the finished product and the serum, I can rebuild the Hassaikai more than ever, this time with people who don't turn out to be so useless." A hint of murderous fury broke through his typical calm voice, but it was gone as soon as it came.

“But you three,” Overhaul didn't speak to Chrono but to the 3 villains he loaned out. Pyre, Toga, and Twice to their backs. “Get to work.”

“Kay…” Toga, leaning against the wall with her legs spread, replied that she couldn't wait to see things play out.

“You’re on it.” Twice, crouched in the classic Slavic squat, gave Overhaul’s back a high-five.

Pyre kept his back to Overhaul, smiling even as he fought the urge to rip that little girl from Chrono's arms and burn the man alive. He had to wait; they'll get their chance but for now…"This will be real fun. I'll finally get to set these stupid tunnels ablaze." He'll play along; let Overhaul think he will walk away a winner from this.

Line Break

“Dammit, those this guy know when you say down?" Bakugo yelled as he dodged around the giant yakuza's strike, countering with a bright blast to the face, blinding the man, but Bakugo's brow twitched.

That was too weak; he was going for something else. Now that he thought about it, how did this nobody break out of Ryukyu's hold? Humble or not, she was a top ten pro for a reason, and this guy just shrugged off her hold, and now even their attempts to put him down again.

“Was there anything on this guy in the intel?” Bakugo yelled as he continued to fight against the villain. Their police backup was even more useless. Many of them were getting sleepy, struggling to move, and forcing Froppy to handle getting them out of danger.

“Nope, I would totally remember that!” Nejire-Chan replied, blasting the villain's back with her waves, which might have been fast, but they packed a punch.

At least, they typically did, but this guy was shrugging them off like the rain.

Continuing her tassel with the villain, Ryukyu added to the conversation. “It’s clear that Overhaul brought in additional muscle for this, but we should place our trust in our comrades to get things done.” She sent another strike against their opponent, but she noticed that she was sluggish, incredibly so. 'Again? Why do I feel so weak? It's like I've gone through a full shift, and it's barely 9AM.'

Her slow attack hardly affected the gangster, who only laughed at the attempt, turning his attention to her. “Keep it coming; all this energy is just a real feast!"

“Feast?” Froppy asked, the frog girl feeling like she had spent the night out without a proper jacket, as it was a struggle just to move.

Ryukyu's eyes narrowed as she figured it out. "Of course, we're not just getting weaker; you've been absorbing our energy this entire time to increase your power." She had assumed he was just causing general lethargy amongst them, a sort of area-of-effect quirk. Goes to show how tired she would have been if she hadn't caught that earlier.

“You’re right about that, dragon lady.” Katsukame laughed, the man sucking up more of their vitality and only growing stronger, stronger than he’s ever felt. “And I gotta tell you, you guys have much more energy than most. You're still moving! Even after I took that drug to boast my powers, you pros really are a special bunch.”

How he giggled as he eyed up Hado as she floated overhead reminded Froppy of Mineta for all the wrong reasons. Her mood rose when Bakugo came in like a rocket and landed an explosion on the man's shoulder, throwing him off balance as Bakugo came in for another strike.

“Like I’ll ever go down because a punk like you!” Bakugo declared as he dodged a powerful haymaker and landed another double explosion on Katsukame’s face, blinding him and getting a shout of pain out of the masked man. “As long as I can sweat, I can blast your ass to kingdom come.” As he landed, he stumbled; even the adrenaline pumping through his veins and his anger couldn't counter the full effects of being drained of stamina.

That left him open for Katsukame to nearly land a hit that would have killed him if not for Froppy and Ryukyu, the former wrapping up in her tongue and pulling him to safety, the latter pushing Katsukame off with her full body, the pro being careful to limit destruction to the area and thus, only the fence of a nearby house was damaged, but the house lay untouched.

“That doesn’t make you immune to damage, Bakugo.” Froppy reminded him.

“That’s not my hero name, Froppy!”

Line Break

And at last, we’re at the confrontation stage of the Overhaul arc. I gotta tell you that I was really excited to work on this, not just because I had some fun ideas but also because, with it coming to an end soon, I can focus on other stuff I've set up, one of which is Mellissa's fate, which was alluded to but never confirmed.

Also, when I first started working on this, I was listening to 2 songs that really got me in the mood, considering this is a villain song: DPS Crown of Flames, a Dabi track, and I Only Paint in Red Now by Lydia the Bard. Both artists are highly recommended: DPS for the more rap-aligned music fans and Lydia if you like hearing twisted songs about Disney characters who turned evil.