Chapter Text
Hero Destroys Circus in Blazing Fire
The Starlight Hero: Comet, was apprehended earlier yesterday morning on grounds of possible Homicide and Neglect of Duty after failing to stop a villain attack. Police and firefighters arrived on scene confirming the destruction of several buildings, including an elementary school, several apartment buildings, an office building, and a circus tent set up in the nearby park. Several victims of the incident have been confirmed dead, including the ringmaster of the circus and his wife.
Witnesses state Comet made no move to contain the circus fire, going so far as to ignore not only staff, but civilians in the park who were caught in the crossfire. After the fire was brought under control, a number of deceased victims were located within, including a young teacher from the elementary school. One woman claims the teacher had brought a group of students to the circus on a field trip, and was later seen again running back into the burning structure to assist in evacuation.
What’s more? The teenage son of the deceased ringmaster and his wife, Atsuhiro Sako, was reported missing later yesterday afternoon after failing to meet a group of friends. Surviving staff claim to have seen him leave the park shortly after the incident was contained, and hasn’t been heard from since. Authorities request any possible sightings to be reported immediately to your local police station.
— — — — — — — —
Nezu has been principal of UA for a long time now, and with that standing, he’s established the greatest known hero school in all of Japan. He cares greatly for his students, former and current, and every staff member that assists in keeping the school running. Their safety means the world to him, and he would do anything to ensure they remain that way, even if his motives are, at times, questionable to say the least. Hiring a member of the League of Villains, for example, may seem a conflict of interest to those who don’t know what they’re looking for.
Visibility is rather terrible with the lights off, especially without the sun peaking through the windows to lighten the room, but the glow of his computer screen has been doing a fine enough job illuminating his desk so far. Far too many things litter his space, loose papers and documents in disarray compared to his usual organization, a handful of words repeating again and again. The Hero Commission logo grins forebodingly from a stack to the side, reports of the League of Villains, crimes of one Mr. Compress, and a series of documents containing possible connections. Old contacts, crimes and heists that could never fully be tied back to him, all sorted into sections and neatly labeled with a single sticky note on top.
If he could say nothing else nice about the HPSC, it would primarily be about the wealth of information they possess. Not so much the method of retrieval in most cases, but beggars can’t be choosers, and he rather does need any information he can get. Deeper he digs, and more he does find, information plentiful in secure digital archives, scattered with blacked out segments still, and why those could possibly be hiding, he could never begin to imagine.
From the archives, he prints a handful of documents, sorting and stapling documents together when needed. A second stack is placed on the opposite side of his desk in the final remaining space, gritting his teeth as he reads over Oboro Shirakumo’s autopsy report. Too many blacked out sections mock him with the information they obscure from his view, a clearly false report labeled by the Commission to have been questionable when it was submitted. Whoever did the report has their name blacked out, and not by the Commission as far as he can tell, but seemingly by the Doctor themselves. It’s frustrating not to know, even more so to know he could have if he’d decided to look a little deeper the first time.
No matter, it’s not as if it matters now, nearly fifteen years later. What he did or didn’t do is something he’s long expected to beg for forgiveness over. Perhaps the first was missing the signs, the hints he can see buried in sketchy paperwork and rogue heroes. The second he would confidently say falls under anything to do with Atsuhiro Sako, and the resulting villain, Mr. Compress. A preventable outcome, had he put more effort into searching after he heard the news, had he and the staff not been so busy with Oboro Shirakumo’s death. And yet, it was Sako’s disappearance that had distracted him from looking deeper into Shirakumo’s death. Around and around, and he was still the one who failed them so horribly. Or at least the easiest to blame for it. He’s certain the press would feel the same if they knew the right details.
A glance to the clock on the wall, and he stands from his desk, decidedly setting his more loathsome thoughts aside for the moment. He pulls his office door open seconds before Toshinori can knock, a false grin spreading over his face that he knows the man can see straight through.
“Principal Nezu,” the skeletal man greets, opening the door further to let Nezu through. “You said this was important?”
“Indeed I did.” Nezu nods, starting off down the hall with Toshinori a few short steps behind, noticeably slowing his pace to better follow along.
“Aizawa and Present Mic told me what happened at the hospital,” Toshinori says, and Nezu pauses, just a few doors away from their designated meeting room.
Nezu sighs, rubbing a paw over his eyes. “I’ll explain once everyone is present.”
Toshinori seems to accept the answer, opening the door for Nezu when he makes no move to do so himself. The table is mostly filled already, minus Ectoplasm and Vlad King, who wander in shortly after Nezu and Toshinori take their seats, leaving one blank chair at the opposite end of the table. With everyone finally present, silent in their anticipation, Nezu pulls a tablet from beneath the table and queues up his presentation on the projector screen behind him.
“I’ll admit,” Nezu says, “I haven’t been the most honest with all of you.”
He watches his staff stiffen further, and for someone who’s quirk is intelligence based, he feels like an idiot for not saying something sooner. Aizawa nods for him to continue, and he clicks on the next slide, a report from the hospital claiming Kurogiri’s escape with a captive civilian flashing in bold across the screen.
“As you all should know by now, the League of Villains member Kurogiri was a former student at UA, and a classmate to several here under the name Oboro Shirakumo.”
Thirteen hums in affirmation, tapping idly at the tabletop, nail clicking audibly without their suit to block it. “What does he have to do with the situation? The last time we had a meeting that started like this, you told us why Toshinori was starting here.”
“And I’m afraid this is a very similar situation,” Nezu says gravely. “In our last meeting, I informed you all that Atsuhiro Sako would be a new teacher here at UA. I neglected to tell you all why that was.”
Tapping the screen again, the slide changes, this one an official Hero Commission report citing the disappearance of Mr. Compress, dated for a few weeks after the Hood Incident. Midnight stands suddenly, her chair’s legs screeching from the rough treatment.
“I’m sorry, you expect me to believe Oboro’s sweetheart of a high school boyfriend, is Mr. Compress?” she asks incredulously.
Nezu raises a paw in a calm down motion, Midnight reluctantly taking her seat and the room quieting once again. “I was surprised as well, but unfortunately the facts and witnesses speak for themselves.”
“And we’re supposed to be okay with this?” Vlad crosses his arms.
“The safety of our students is always my first priority,” Nezu responds, “If I was concerned there would be an issue regarding this matter, I would never have offered. Unfortunately, I cannot claim any knowledge for what Sako and Shirakumo may choose to do with the freedom I’ve granted them, they are factors acting outside my current knowledge.”
“You still think we should trust them?” Snipe inquires.
“To an extent, as both fellow staff members and teachers,” Nezu says.
Leaning back in his chair, Mic throws out, “Like strangers you’re meeting for the first time.”
Nezu taps the screen of his tablet again and switches the screen to a blank slide, nodding. “Precisely. We may decide to trust them more over time, but for now, we don’t know how they will react to anything, or why. I suggest you all get to know them better before making any final decisions.”
Curiously, Ectoplasm asks, “And the League of Villains?”
“The attack Sako was injured in was a disaster caused directly by the League of Villains.”
Thirteen hums thoughtfully. “You think this was targeted?”
“Not by the League,” Aizawa interjects, “If what we’ve heard from Oboro is anything to go off of, the League would never betray one of their own without reason. Closer allies of All For One however… We do know All For One’s doctor made the Nomu.”
A beat of silence passes around the room, nothing but the faint ticking of the clock mounted over the door and the quiet tapping of Thirteen’s nails against the desktop. It is a lot of information to sort through, everything they now know about All For One and the League of Villains thanks to All Might’s connections and Nezu’s recently established habit of sweeping through the HPSC archives, and everything they’ve unfortunately had to learn through their students themselves. Eventually, Toshinori seems to think of something.
“What do you all know about the Runaway Circus?” he asks.
Another beat passes, Mic hesitantly speaking again. “The circus Sako’s parents owned?”
The more Nezu thinks about it, the more dots that connect, a dreary picture forming in his head. How he wished for once he could be the last to know something, ignorantly in the dark as his failings are laid before him.
“Two students attacked in the same week, in accidents with no known origin, and heroes who seemed to let it happen.” The tablet is set on the desktop, and Nezu pushes himself up to stand on the wooden surface next to it, arms held behind his back as he turns to Toshinori. “Could this really have been All For One? This entire time?”
Toshinori stands as well, flattening his hands on the table in front of him. “I don’t know if I believe in coincidences anymore, but I do know All For One follows a very specific pattern when it comes to things like this. It’s not an impossibility.”
“Right,” Nezu mutters, “I’ll have to look into this further.” He climbs back down into his chair, replacing the tablet in its designated spot. “As for the rest of you, I will provide what updates I can when I come across them. There’s nothing we can do until we have more information, so do try your best not to do anything rash knowing what you do now. Anything to do with the students in regards to this topic will be discussed next week at our usual meeting time.”
“How can we trust them,” Cemetos challenges.
Nezu pauses a half step away from his seat, pivoting back to the blocky man and the other teachers waiting with bated breath. Sincerely, he answers, “I don’t think they’ll be causing us any problems.”