Chapter 57: Into the Yakuza

“Man, this doesn’t look good.”

Hawks' statement summed up the situation quite nicely. Not even a full 24 hours since the task force had been formed, and they had already been called into action. He had already been nearly back in Kyushu, having decided to skip the trains and fly the distance. Still, right as he was thinking of doing a late-night patrol and hitting the sake, he got a call to race not back to Tokyo but north to Hokkaido because of another Thunder attack.

Having been too tired to even bother, he booked the first flight out to catch some sleep while someone else handled the flying for one. As he dozed off, he wondered why. Why strike this far north? What could lure them here? How did they get over, and when and how did they leave?

When he was woken up and told where they were heading, memories helped to fill in at least some of those gaps.

"Damn, they really went to down here." Mirko whistled as she looked around; the winter retreat might have been a nice place for some rich civilians to relax if it wasn't in ruins. Most structures were little more than smashed piles of rubble, with everything else still smoldering from the inferno that had engulfed it. Police teams that the commission had sent in were already heading deeper into the structure. However, that took time as the place was such a wreck; they had to clear out and reinforce tunnels first.

Lucky for them, the Thunder followed their apparent no-kill standard. While they found most of the people seriously injured, none would be meeting their maker anytime soon.

The two turned, spotting Hound Dog and Aizawa approaching, both having been pulled away from their duties at U.A. for this. “Hound dog?”

Their tracker shook his head, growling a little as he replied, "No good. The snow has covered the scent; it fades about 30km north of here."

“Tracks?” Mirko asked.

"None, if they were any to be found; they got covered by last night's snow," Eraser replied, getting the rabbit woman to grunt, as it was a long shot, but it was worth it. They discussed other issues relating to this, namely how the tracks seemed large and that there was evidence, fading as it was, that there was more than their targets here, to which Pixie-bob finally spoke up.

"Okay, I'm just going to come out and say it since none of you want to:" The woman, having just left the hospital, wasn't yet cleared for duty, but when had that ever stopped a hero? In fact, she seemed ready to fight someone on this. "Just what the hell is this place? Why does a country villa have an underground complex, and why was it manned by commission workers?"

"That much; I can explain, Pixie-bob." Someone spoke up, and the heroes turned to see a tired-looking man in a suit approaching. None of them recognized him, but Eraser did as he saw him at his class's provisional license exams yesterday. Was he assigned to his as well?

Mera Yokumiru wished that he could have been at home, snuggled up in his bed sheets, able to wake up at 2 in the afternoon and binge some of his shows that he hadn't been able to watch, but instead, right as he finished his duties examining their future generation of heroes, he only got a couple of hours to nap before he was told about this mess and that he had to manage things.

"This was one of your youth training centers," Mera stated, having had little time to plan out how he'll spin things, but he was nothing if not adaptive; it was why he was shuffled around so damn much when things needed to get done fast and well.

“A what?” Mirko asked as this sure as hell didn't look like any training center she'd seen.

"You all already know that people can have unfortunate backgrounds, and family or economic issues can leave children in dire straits. So, the commission works to see such children, should they show an aptitude for it, be taken under our custody, be raised well, and as they age, be trained into being heroes." Mera didn’t lie; he knew that would be pointless when these were people who regularly looked for deception.

Instead, as Hawks must have picked up on, he was leaving out context. "Of course, should the children desire to take another role in life, they're free to do so as their education mirrors what is standard for other students. Hawks is one example of someone raised through the program who chose to remain on the hero's path." The lack of context excluded that almost every kid in the program had no other routes but hero work when they had so little agency to choose something else.

Despite his own feelings towards his fate as a caged bird, Hawks' mask didn't so much as flinch, leaving the rest to take Mera's word for it.

"So this must hit close to home for you," Eletress asked Hawks, who hummed as he thought about how to respond.

“That’s one way of looking at it, but that only leaves me wondering how those villains found this place?” He kept his attention off him and on the case, his gaze locked onto Mera's as they both understood just how rare it was supposed to be for this place to be attacked. More than that, why hadn't commission reinforcements locked it down? They both knew that the president wouldn't like their secrets out there.

“We’ve already handed over everything about the sight and its personal to the police. However, we have more pressing concerns here," Mera replied, though whether that was true was debatable. The odds are that they kept the more sensitive files.

"The kids," Eraser stated as if this place housed them, and they weren't here when they arrived; that didn't spell a good situation.

“Sadly, yes. The attack was so fast that we only managed to evacuate 24 of them,” Mera explained, his frown growing. “As of now, 97 are unaccounted for.”

“And you didn’t get the local police involved sooner?” Pixie-Bob questioned, as this place was hit last night, and they only got here this morning because none of them were remotely close.

"Against such a force, they would have been crushed and wouldn't have bought nearly as much time for reinforcements to arrive as needed," Mera told her, which again was not a lie. Hokkaido was not known for its crime, and it didn't have nearly as much law enforcement or heroes as the rest of the country. Those that it did have would have been embarrassed if they had arrived.

Of course, Hawks mused that also meant that it kept the number of possible witnesses down as with the place as wrecked as it was, he doubted that they’ll find much that could disprove Mera’s words to the rest.

“Enough, there’s no point arguing about that. We have almost a hundred children to rescue.” Kido spoke up before they could tear into the commission officer. Did they trust him? No, especially, but they had no reason to let suspicion get to them.

“True, but how did they get them all out? They’ve proven even now they won’t kill, primarily because they don’t need to, so logic dictates that they wouldn’t have trekked through the wilderness in the middle of the night while it snowed.” Eraser asked, as while it wasn't snowing at the moment, it was still cold enough that even Mirko had to wear a thick jacket. He doubted that children would last long in such conditions, which made everything more complicated because there were nearly 100 of them.

For once, he hoped the villains were competent; otherwise, they might need to search the area for small bodies.

"We believe they must have prepared something in advance, a small plane or something. We've already sent word to all ATCs in Hokkaido, and all road, rail, and port authorities are being questioned now." Mera replied though he doubted they'd get anything. Whoever was running things with this had managed to locate the facility, block communications to the outside world, and get the Thunder out without issue.

“We’ve cleared the way in!” As the last of the rubble had been removed, one of the workers called to block the main entry into the base proper.

"Come on, maybe they left us some clues below," Kido told them as the group turned and walked to join the investigators.

‘There’s something he’s not telling them,’ Hawks thought but didn't speak.

Line Break

Making it back to Honshu without issues, they separated from their contract ride. They went to one of the safehouses, but it remained low for several days. At that time, they confirmed with Giran that they did, in fact, get a bonus while they kept tabs on the news, which mentioned the assault and their hand in a kidnapping, but that was it.

Midoriya, at this point, wasn't even surprised that they didn't bring up that they saved their children, as it would only hurt the heroes and the system they protected to admit to such. Still, if they thought it would hurt their support, the heroes and their people were only half-right. True, some civilians who had seemed receptive or warm to their actions got cold feet. Still, it only made them all the more respected and feared among the criminal underworld.

That was something they could leverage, as it meant that fellow villains of lower rank were willing to listen when they were told to do something. With the fall of All for One having been so visceral, it wasn't hard to see that the underbelly of society, those that the light refused to touch, needed a new leader. They were shaping themselves up to be strong candidates.

Then, one day, after Pyre had finished patrolling their territory and Mummy returned from the store—as even villains needed to eat—they got a message from Giran. There was another job from the League, but they would wish to meet in person.

“Should we wait for the rest to get back?” Pyre asked as the trio approached an abandoned office building. The sun was already setting, and this part of town was deserted—a perfect place for a meeting between two of Japan's most wanted criminal groups.

"Nine and Slice can handle things with that…special project," Chimera replied as their last two members had gone off to speak with someone about building all versions of the Crown of Aegis, modified to suit each.

“You think they’ll get it done?” As Nine had shown them all the plans, Mummy asked, and he wouldn't pretend that he understood even a quarter of what was written.

“Giran calls them legit, and if they can’t, they’ll know to keep their mouth shut while we look for someone who can.” Chimer snorted as he recalled how they fought for those I-island gains they had; he could imagine that when they heard the proposal to create this, they would jump for joy and try their hardest to deliver.

Pyre let Koharu curl around his hand, his serpent noting how they could use such a device, especially in a world without the threat of All Might or All for One to keep them in check. “Oh, I can’t wait to have it. You should have seen it in action; Wolfram wasn't weak; at least, I think he was capable, but with it, he could give All Might a run for his money. Imagine what one of us could do."

"Nine might be able to blanket entire cities in storms strong enough to tear them apart, and you?" Mummy looked Pyre over and, not for the first time, chuckled at how innocent and harmless Pyre looked. And yet, one only had to look in his eyes to see that Pyre was just as if not more dangerous than Mummy and Slice. “I think we know what you’ll do.”

"Darn straight, and once we have that and more support, our dreams can finally be realized." Midoriya smiled, recalling that first meeting with Nine. The day when he should have been rewarded, or at least left alone. Instead, he was treated as he always was, but in their new world, that wouldn’t happen…to him or anyone.

The best part was that he would play a pivotal role in seeing the old order put to the torch and consumed in a brilliant blaze so hot that not even ash would remain of what was, giving way to what could be.

"First, we need to see what the League wants. Word on the street is that they met with some Yakuza group not long ago, and it didn't go well." Mummy noted, which confused the two.

"Why'd they want to meet with those fossils?" Chimera asked, as just about everyone in the underworld knew that the Yakuza had been a breed of criminal for a long time. Their peak was in the early days of quirks, but as heroes became more common, they were stifled and forced into decline. All for One then made himself known and forced almost every major group to either bend the knee or be destroyed.

Then, All Might came along and ensured their decline would be permanent. Now, most Yakuza groups that remain were tiny, hardly held any territory or sway, and, more often than not, were little more than hired guns to more modern and adapted villain groups. Pyre would know as they had a few under their command, working as middle management for their growing territory.

"Hell, if I know, you can probably ask Shigaraki at the meeting, provided he's not childish," Mummy replied, to which Chimera threw back his head and laughed.

"So you better keep the questions to yourself." Pyre rolled his eyes at his comrade's antics but didn't disagree as they entered the building. Following Giran's instructions, they made their way to the third floor.

“Good afternoon….” Pyre started, only to pause. He could pick up on the room's atmosphere and the fact that Compress, the magician-themed villain, was missing his left arm, with Giran as the side with a replacement. “What happened?”

"They had a meet-up with some Yakuza bastards, and they took their pound of flesh," Dabi replied, the woman frowning as she looked over the sorry state of her comrades; twice especially looked like he was about to blow up, though she couldn't blame the nut-case.

“A Yakuza…did that?” Mummy asked, looking around them. While they had their disagreements, mainly with Shigaraki, he could acknowledge their strength. For this to be the outcome…it wasn't a good sign.

“Where’s Magne?” Pyre asked, only to see Twice flinch and Toga look away, a tear already in her eye, which was, along with the fact he could see the woman's magnet leaning against the wall, told him enough as he bowed his head. "I…I'm sorry for bringing it up; that was rude."

As Pyre rushed to Compress's side and offered aide to the confused man, Shigaraki gave more details. "We couldn't kill their leader, though that's not important. You heard why I wanted to meet?"

“No, Giran over there said you wanted to tell us yourself.” Chimera crossed his arms as Pyre explained how he could help Compress. Kon bet that they were there to hunt down this upstart Yakuza group and remind them they were a dying breed, one that didn't enjoy the same protections as an endangered species.

"That's simple; I need one of you for a job. You're going to join Toga and Twice and work with the Shie Hassaikai, the group we disagreed with." Chimera's brow creased, but he wasn't the only one caught off guard. Not even seeing Pyre engulfing the Compress' left stomp in emerald flames could draw their attention away.

“Wait, what? You can’t be serious, Shigaraki!” Twice was the first to speak up, quite passionately.

"Their plans have some serious potential; from tomorrow till our partnership ends, you two will be Yakuza members." Shigaraki continued, hardly recognizing the clone user's concerns over this apparent partnership. Mummy, in the meantime, watched as things progressed, same with Pyre, who finished, stepping back from Compress, who now had a badly burnt arm, the pyromancy telling him the burns would recede in 20 minutes as he had never rebuilt an entire limb got someone else.

Twice certainly didn’t appreciate his words seemingly being ignored. “I don’t find this joke humorous, that’s hilarious, Shigaraki!”

"They also wanted Kurogiri, but I managed to negotiate it with one of the Thunder, who paid out of our dime. Our warper has a job right now, and we can't spare him." That explained some things to Mummy; AFO probably left a few accounts for his proxy group. However, with the big guy gone, they must form themselves into a true villain organization.

Twice had enough, grabbing Shigaraki by the shoulder. "What are you thinking with this crap? Stop pretending everything is cool just cause Pyre can give Mr. back his arm; we didn't know he could do that, and we still lost big sis Magne! Are you just going to let this guy give us orders now? Is that it?"

Pyre noticed that his anger also seemed to be grief, which he couldn't sympathize with as all he cared for were still alive. Twice, he didn't have that, and so he started crying. “It’s all my fault; I brought him to meet with us, and look what happened!" Rising his mask, he exposed his face to Shigaraki and the rest. "I'm a villain but a human too; we all are, man. Doesn't that count for something to you?"

“Come on, Toga, don’t you agree with me?” He turned to Toga, who was unusually silent but now with attention on her…

"He's not wrong, Tomura. But I want to hear it from you; what do we mean to you? Do you see us as people, as villains, or as players in your games?" She asked as she jumped off the hold desk she had been sitting on. "For me, the League is where I feel at home. Sure, I joined because of Pyre and how adorable he was, dancing through the flames," She smiled towards Pyre, though unlike when they met, she didn't seem quite the opposite.

“But it was here where I can be the real me for the first time in my life. Where I could work to make a world where I could live freely, express my love, and live my life how I wish to." She continued, twirling as she approached Shigaraki, before right as she got to him, she pulled her knife to his neck, ready to see him bleed out with just a flick of her wrist.

“So why should I do something I don’t want to do with people I want to cut?” She questioned, the rest waiting to hear Shigaraki’s response as Pyre didn’t know what to expect from him. The man he met before wouldn’t have seemingly surrendered to the requests of some Yakuza group, especially after they killed one of his people and turned another into an amputee.

The old Shigaraki would never have listened to Twice's concerns or tolerated Toga so boldly threatening his life while the rest remained silent, not a finger-twitching to defend him.

“It’s simple, it’s because,” Shigaraki proved he wasn't the same Shigaraki by removing his hand mask, his gave causing both Toga and Twice to shiver. At the same time, Pyre's eyes widened at the sight, as he felt danger-yes, but that was the typical kind.

This was refined, controlled, and targeted, with none in its crosshairs. Tomura's ire was reserved for the world, but at the moment, it was squarely on this Yakuza group. "This is for all of us. They want to keep all of us in check, win the 3 of you over, little by little, and keep us from relying on you if they decide to just try and get rid of us."

"Use that to your advantage, get in deep, flatter them, but never forget that they're beneath us. Never forget that they dared to insult us by killing Magne and acting like it was some misfortunate misunderstanding.” Shigaraki couldn't keep his rage in check, the same one that burned in Toga and Twice.

“Chimera, Mummy…” He looked to their add-ons. "Pyre, I'm paying for one of you, but to be frank, I'd rather fight to see who dominates the underworld with you than some Yakuza bastards. But they're dangerous in of themselves as just before Compress lost his arm, he was shot with something that suppressed his quirk."

“Really?” Pyre turned towards Compress, who hissed a little at his arm, but it was a definite upgrade to what had nearly been his reality.

"Have no dear, my young shrine maiden. The effects lasted little less than a day; fortunately, you came along before I got the new prosthetic." Compress demonstrated this by touching a piece of debris; just like that, it was nothing but a blue marble in his hand. Tossing it to the other side of the room, he snapped his left hand, happy his mask hid his grimace as the marble was returned to normal.

“So that’s it then?” Pyre mused, looking towards the broker. “Giran, did they pay the usual?”

Giran looked a little confused by that question. “Yes?”

“Return half of it, I’m going along with this.” Pyre declared, standing up and turning towards his employer.

“Is that wise, Pyre?” Mummy asked, as they typically discussed these things with the rest of the family.

"We're carving our paths to our goals, one that will create a better world. The last thing we need is the resurgence of a dying breed of criminals from days long past. And if they have more of those quirk suppressors, we can't ignore it." Pyre replied though part of his decision rested in Magne's fate. He could admit he didn't know her that well, but she didn't deserve to be killed, and he'd make sure these Yakuza repented in the glory of the flames.

“So, what’s my objective for this? Besides remembering that these Yakuza are beneath us?” Pyre asked, to which Shigaraki gave him the jist of things.

Line break

All that led to now: Pyre standing next to Toga and Twice as they met in Overhaul's base. The Yakuza boss in question was seated on the sofa opposite him. At his back were several masked people.

"My name's Toga, and I was told to come here." Toga blandly told them.

"Long time no see, birdman. Be warned, I'll never forgive you." Twice moved his thumb over his neck as he said so, but then he flipped tune. "So happy to be on the team!"

Pyre frowned, but they had been asked to introduce themselves. “You probably already know who I am, but I’ll introduce myself just to be clear. Maiden of Purgatory, Pyre the Green of the Thunder. I was paid to accompany them here, but I don't really care for any of you, Yakuza."

To their credit, their complete lack of respect didn't get the gangsters to react as Pyre thought they would, as he would have expected maybe one of them to speak up. Perhaps they had learned their lesson from the last time, or maybe they didn't want him setting off a blaze in their underground and, therefore, every hard-to-escape base.

He didn’t quite care for which was which.

"Oh, this is perfect; I've heard all about you; let's brawl!" The big one with wrapping around his fists declared. Hearing that, Pyre turned his eyes towards him, appraising him.

"Name a time and place, and I'll show you the beauty of the inferno." He would probably get some hits, but if he wanted to win any brawl, he'd have to take his head off before Pyre set him on fire or pummelled him into the ground.

“No thanks.” Toga had no such reservations.

“I’ll kill you!” Pyre was…somewhat sure Twice was in Toga’s camp.

"Sorry about the whole Magna thing. I had no ill will towards you or him, and I didn't want things to end like they did." Oh…oh yeah, Pyre could see why Shigaraki and the rest hated this guy. That statement said enough about how little he cared about offering one of them.

“You mean her.” Twice corrected as shadows fell over Toga's feline-like eyes, eyeing Overhaul like a mouse, with whom she would enjoy toying before killing him.

“Don’t make that mistake again.”

“Anyway,” Koharu hissed; the bastard ignored the chance to apologize or correct himself, which only made it all the easier to want to see him improved through a slow-cooked method, longer than what he used on that younger Ingenium—much longer. "This is no time to be holding grudges against one another. We're on the same team now. I want your help with my plans."

“Bastard,” Twice wasn’t in the business of hiding how he felt. “You tried to play it cool the first time, remember? Like you don’t care about anything!”

“So, what are my orders?” Once more, he flipped on a dime.

"Same here, though just so you know, I reserve the right to refuse anything extreme. And out of courtesy, I'll also inform you that I won't kill, and if you try and make me…" Pyre's eyes started glowing a little, the same as Koharu's, as he eyed the man; his smile was more terrifying than open and friendly. “You’ll live to regret it, that I can promise.”

Overhaul sighed, hardly intimidated by the clear threat to his well-being. "That's a bit of a let-down, but I can work with it. Just follow my orders like everyone else in the organization. But before we get to that, I want the details of your quirks.” He didn't ask as much as he demanded. "It'll be better for me to better utilize you if I know the strengths and weaknesses of your abilities."

To which Toga gave him a smug smirk. "I'll tell you about my powers when you need to know about them, and just so we're clear, I still don't like you."

"So much for making good impressions. Don't underestimate the Shie Hassaikai, you brats! All you've done since you've walked in here is act like you're some big-shots. Show some respect, or you'll be dog food!" One of Overhaul's people finally spoke up, the shortest person Pyre had ever seen, more so than that purple-balled kid from U.A.

“I was paid to work with, not to show respect. You want that, it’ll be 200K a day.” Though he was quite serious, Toga laughed at Pyre's no-nonsense delivery of that retort. He was even working at an insane discount; why would he include benefits?

"Sorry about that, but unlike Pyre, I'm not for sale. You'll learn about my quirk when I feel like it." Twice shook his head, only for one of Overhaul's people, one dressed in the full plague doctor, get-up with the hat to boot, to step up.

“Twice, what is your quirk?”

Pyre was about to question the point of asking it again before Twice spilled his guts. "I can make doubles of anything. For it to work, I need to have a detailed image of whatever I'm copying in my mind. That means height, chest measurement, and shoe size if it's a person. You have it; I need it, gotta have as much info as possible. The main difference between the doubles and the real thing is that it's not nearly as durable and falls apart if it gets knocked out too much."

"I can make 2 things of anything, but the damage the second object can take is even lower, and for personal reasons, I refuse to make doubles of myself!" When he finished, the man was left stunned and silent, Pyre looking at him in confusion while Toga just looked unimpressed. “Wha-why’d I just say all that?! It was like I couldn’t stop the words from coming!” Twice asked, freaking out.

"Wow, that was pretty stupid," Toga stated as Twice tried to defend himself.

“It wasn’t me, Toga, I swear!”

“And you, Toga?” The yakuza plague doctor shifted his attention, and the second verse was the same as the first.

“If I drink someone’s blood, I can become them. Whatever I take in turns into energy, so the more I drink, the longer I can hold the form. One cup lets me look and sound like someone for about a day. Plus, if I drink a whole bunch of people's blood at the same time, I can turn into any of them." Toga seemingly happily explained something she just said she wouldn’t.

“I can recreate their clothes too, but they get layered under my own, so it helps to get naked first, which is a little embarrassing." She quickly covered her mouth as she finished, but the damage was done as Twice seemed a little surer of himself.

“See?” he asked, now that she knew what it was like to be forced to respond.

As he turned to Pyre, the pyromancy realized that this guy's quirk didn't just force someone to speak but to answer whatever was asked as truthfully as possible, as they didn't just stop at what their quirks were called. The basics of their function, but had gone into detail. “Finally, that would be you, Pyre.”

Before he could burn his tongue, Pyre joined the first two in being forced to speak. "My quirk turns my body into a walking volcano, and my core is basically a perpetually burning furnace that allows me to spit out and control green flames. I don't have a particularly high resistance to them, so even mild usage of my quirk burns at my innards. I also have a super-fast regeneration to heal just about anything."

"If I get hot enough, I transform fully, which gives me the widest range and greatest power output, but it burns through my energy and can leave me weak and sluggish if I use it without eating. Also, I can heal others through my flames." When he stopped, his jaw clenched shut, nearly biting his tongue off. As it steamed in his mouth, healing the damage, he glared at the Yakuza for daring to do something like that.

“That. Wasn’t. Nice.” Pyre bared his teeth, smoke leaking through them as he had to hold himself back from seeing how the gangster liked being made to talk when he set his feet on fire and made him sing.

“Would you all have said anything otherwise,” Overhaul’s retort only turned Pyre’s ire towards the man. However, as good as it would feel to set him and this entire complex ablaze…

"You're lucky I'm under your supervision now; otherwise, this entire room would already be burning." Pyre didn’t bother hiding his growing contempt for how these relics did things.

"Speaking of, you are attacking us," Overhaul only raised an eyebrow, which only enraged Pyre, all the man.

“Did Shigaraki say anything about betraying us?” The plague doctor asked them all.

“No!” They all cried out in the same or form, which seemed to relieve Overhaul of some of his caution, though the man still looked as wound up as a coil.

"Okay, then. I'll accept you as members of the Hassaikai now." Overhaul got up and walked towards the second door, which was different from the one they had been led through. “Unless I say otherwise, don’t leave the underground facilities.”

“What? You wanted us just to put us on house arrest?” Twice asked.

“That sounds super lame!” Toga complained though Pyre kept his piece.

"When I trust you a little more, you can do as you want, but you'll have to prove yourselves," Overhaul told them, and with that, he left, the door closing behind him.

"Like I said, you gotta fix those attitudes if you want to be taken seriously." The same short person from before started, acting like he was some big shot when he and his ilk were the ones part of a dying group. "You might be the talk of the town now, but that's going to change real soon, and we'll be calling the shots of society from the shadows. I bet the boss would even get out of his sick bed when he hears the news, so you three best stop thinking we're some back-alley thugs and start watching your mouths!”

Pyre’s eyes narrowed at him. "Well, I'm me. Not you, so I'll keep doing as I've been since I entered this life of crime.”

'He's a loudmouth, either short-tempered or super loyal to Overhaul, but that doesn't mean he's not giving up info.' The thunder member thought, taking in all he had seen and heard through this operation, smiling at the good fortune that came with Shigaraki giving them no such orders to betray the Yakuza.

He knew they'd do that on their own.

‘He thinks that their plans are already close to fruition, and Overhaul isn't the true boss, but someone who is apparently bed-ridden, I wonder…' Oh, that was a plan waiting to happen, but he'll need more details and, more importantly, a good day to set off that fireworks show.

Line Break

We’re back with another chapter, one which was a little bit of a challenge to write as while I have plenty of ideas for later arcs, this one seemed to be something of a slump for a while, but then I recalled several plot trends that I set up and thought that it would be fun to play with them. Also, about that broken thing I talked about last week, that's still likely, but focused on this; that'll be no update next week as I'm going to work on something of a 2-shot that covers an AU related to Emerald Furnace.