The tour bus touched down on the front lawn of Yamadori High School less than five minutes after they'd taken off from the hotel in Jaku. There were two police officers standing next to a man and a woman in plain clothes waiting for them in front of the school. The teacher who had answered the analyst's call to notify them of their need to requisition their computer lab had informed him that the school was currently closed for spring break and there would only be a limited number of staff on hand to assist them. Hakone, the analyst, had assured them that the only help they might need would be in directing them to the room and they would take it from there.
As the team of analysts swiftly began to exit the vehicle, Misaki sat in her seat next to Hotaru and patiently waited for everyone to pass by before standing and holding her hand out to the little girl. She slid down off of the seat and reached out to take it, still tightly clutching her teddy bear to her side with her other arm. Misaki led the child along the aisle and down the stairs before lifting her off of the bottom step and setting her on the ground. As the teachers ushered the team of analysts inside, the two police officers made their way over to Misaki and Hotaru.
"A Detective Tsukauchi notified us about a lost child?" One of them addressed her, tipping his head toward the little girl with a cordial smile on his face.
"Her name is Kazehaya Hotaru. I picked her up near the Grand Lotus Hotel in Jaku City. We were hoping that you'd be able to help her locate her parents," Misaki explained, glancing down at Hotaru as she spoke.
The police officer nodded to her. "Of course. We'll take care of her."
Misaki crouched down next to the child to look her in the eye. "Hotaru, these police officers are going to help you find your parents, okay?"
The little girl stepped forward and flung her arms around Misaki's neck, hugging her tightly as she whispered in her ear, "Thank you for saving me."
A rush of emotion clenched her chest, and she wrapped her own arms around the girl to hug her back. If it hadn't been for Hotaru's quirk, she would have been decayed into dust along with the rest of Jaku City. She kind of understood a little better now about the concept of heroism not being a choice for some people. As soon as she'd seen that little girl cowering in the alleyway, there had been no choice for her to make, she was going to save her, and her body had moved on its own to do just that. She had no regrets, one way or the other, about saving this child's life. She was just glad that they had both managed to make it out safely.
Pulling back, Misaki reached out to brush a strand of hair out of the little girl's face, smiling at her warmly as she replied, "Back at'cha kiddo."
The police officer who had greeted them held out his hand to Hotaru. She reached out to take it, letting him lead her away to the police cruiser parked a few meters away. She turned halfway around as Misaki stood from her crouched position and lifted her hand which was still clutching her teddy bear to wave. Misaki lifted her own hand and waved back, watching the officers help the girl into the back of the car before driving away.
"Commissioner Torimodo," a deep voice with a heavy middle eastern accent addressed her suddenly from the left.
She turned her head to view the short, darkly tanned Flying Carpet Hero standing next to her. "Sultan?"
"I just wanted to say, what you did... That was one of the bravest things I've ever seen in my life." He reached up to remove his purple turban and lowered his bald head in her direction. "I tip my turban to you, madam. And I am sincerely regretful for having nearly left you behind."
Misaki reached out to lay a hand on the heavily padded shoulder of his cream-colored cape and told him, "Thank you for prioritizing the lives of my team, Sultan."
He lifted his surprised gaze up to her and smiled bashfully before replacing his turban and telling her, "Well, I must go. I'm afraid there are a great many more lives that need saving yet today!"
Misaki nodded to him, offering him a closed-lipped smile and a small wave as he flew away. Her hand dropped heavily to her side as she stood there, staring off into the distance in the direction of Jaku. From her elevated position, she could see the smoke and dust still rising from the ruined city, and she couldn't help but feel like she had failed them. Squeezing her eyes shut, she pivoted on the balls of her feet, letting them carry her away from the regrets of the past and ahead toward a plan for the future. Dwelling on whatever missteps or bad decisions she may have made wasn't going to help the people who really needed it right now. Least of all she and her team.
Tying her jacket around her waist as she walked into the schoolroom they'd commandeered for their makeshift command center, Misaki briskly asked, "Are we set up?"
"Five more minutes," one of the analysts who was helping move a few more computers into the room answered.
Misaki nodded, swiftly moving to sit down at one of the computers that were already on and opened up a command prompt. Her fingers practically flew across the keyboard as she said, "I'll work on getting us patched into headquarters."
She had just finished configuring the school's network to allow them to tunnel into the internal network at the Safety Commission headquarters when she heard Migi's frantic voice suddenly call out, "Commissioner! Gigantomachia has plowed through the heroes at the villa and is headed for Jaku!"
Misaki cursed darkly under her breath and shot up from her seat, gesturing to one of the yellow team analysts to take over her task as she pulled her smartphone out of her pocket and called out to the room, "Someone calculate Machia's eta with Jaku as the destination!"
She swiftly dialed the number to connect her to Best Jeanist's team.
"Chirashi here," the voice of the team's female pilot answered.
"What's your status?" Misaki brusquely asked.
"We've finished loading the cables on the jet. Just waiting for the doctor to clear Best Jeanist for duty," she swiftly replied.
"Got it!" One of the analysts suddenly called out.
Her eyes shot over to him as she sharply asked, "How long?"
"If he maintains his current speed and course, Gigantomachia will be in Jaku in forty minutes," the analyst said in a rush.
"Did you catch that?" She asked the pilot.
"We'll be in the air in five," Chirashi confirmed.
"Do better," Misaki replied.
"Yes ma'am," came the pilot's clipped reply just before the line went dead.
She couldn't say she didn't appreciate the woman's conciseness at the moment.
"Commissioner, we're up!" One of the analysts called out.
Misaki slid her phone back into her pocket and immediately ordered, "Forward what we have on Machia's route to the media."
"It's going to create mass panic if we do that," the yellow team analyst who had calculated Machia's course retorted, his voice full of concern.
"We don't have a choice. There are no heroes to help them right now. The media is the quickest way we have to warn them to evacuate the area," she tersely explained.
She didn't like it any more than he did, but they didn't have time to be worrying about logistics. People's lives were in imminent danger and they needed to be warned. The analyst swallowed heavily and nodded, swiftly taking his seat to begin carrying out the order.
"What's our status?" Misaki inquired openly to the room.
One of the red team analysts responded, "We've lost connection with Endeavor and the others. All coms within a fifty-meter radius of Shigaraki's last known location have gone dark. We're completely out of contact with the hospital raid team."
"Were the devices destroyed?" She asked.
A yellow team analyst spoke up in reply to her query, "No ma'am. It's the signal. It's like it's been scrambled."
She turned her attention to him and said, "See if you can fix it."
The analyst nodded and quickly went back to work.
"Do we have any other eyes on the hospital, or, what's left of it?" She asked to the room.
"There's a news chopper in the area," a yellow team analyst responded.
"Any sign of Shigaraki or the hospital team?" She asked him.
He glanced back at her and shook his head.
Misaki sighed. "Alright, red team reallocate your focus to assisting blue team with evacuation and rescue efforts. Notify the heroes in the evacuation zone who are still within com range about Machia's speed and course. We need to get word to Endeavor and the others engaging Shigaraki."
"On it," one of the senior analysts assigned to the red team confirmed.
She turned to one of the green team analysts seated near her and asked, "How are the rest of the raids going?"
"We have word coming in from several teams in the Kyoto and Osaka regions that they've completed rounding up the Liberation supporters at their assigned locations and are sending support to Jaku," the man reported.
"Show me their locations and run an eta analysis," she calmly directed.
The analyst quickly went to work on completing the order and within minutes, he had an answer for her. "Looks like the closest team is the Nighteye Agency. They're about ten kilometers west of Jaku."
Looking at the map he'd plotted, she could clearly see that it would be more beneficial for the majority of the reinforcements to head south along Gigantomachia's projected path and start evacuating people instead. "Reroute all reinforcements outside that radius to assist with evacuations in the probable stampede zone."
The analyst appeared to be caught a bit off guard by the direction, but he quickly affirmed the order and went to work.
Stepping back from the analyst's computer, Misaki caught sight of Migi fidgeting nervously from the corner of her eye and she turned to address her, "Migi? What is it?"
The young woman gasped, tensing suddenly as she squeaked out, "Nothing!"
Misaki raised an eyebrow at the obvious lie, wondering to herself if she had looked like that when she'd lied to the President about going to Hosu, and asked, "You sure?"
She stiffly nodded her head, a tight, forced smile stretching across her thin face as she replied, "Uh huh!"
Misaki sighed. "Migi."
The young woman's eyes guiltily slid to the side. "Yes?"
"You're an even worse liar than I am," Misaki flatly told her, staring at her suspiciously as she crossed her arms under her breasts.
"W-w-w-what are you talking about?" Migi stuttered, a cold sweat swiftly beginning to bead across her face which was twisting into a very uncomfortable expression at the moment.
"Are you alright?" Misaki asked, concerned for the way she seemed to be struggling with holding back.
Migi squeezed her eyes shut and ducked her head. "I'm sorry..."
Misaki sighed and reached out to lay a hand on her shoulder. "It's okay, Migi. I'm sorry for pressing you."
Her remorseful blue eyes lifted, and she said, "If I could tell you I would, but I've been ordered not to..."
Misaki laid a hand on her shoulder and told her, "I understand. Don't worry about it."
Still looking disheartened, Migi ducked her head a bit and nodded. Misaki suspected that something must have happened that Shadou didn't want her to know about. An image of Hawks flashed through her mind and her anxiety immediately flared outward from her gut all the way through every nerve ending in her body, sending a wave of goosebumps cascading across her arms. She shook her hands out and took a few deep breaths to clear the feeling away. It didn't help.
"Roka, Homura," Misaki addressed two of the red team analysts sitting nearby. "See if the school has any television sets we can borrow. I want them lined up, side by side, and set up to screen share."
Both analysts nodded and quickly rose from their seats to leave the room.
Misaki turned back to Migi and said, "I think I'm gonna go use the lady's room. Will you let me know if anything happens?"
The dejected-looking woman perked up a bit at the request and immediately replied with an enthusiastic nod, "Yes ma'am!"
"Thanks," Misaki softly said before heading out of the room herself.
She walked down the hall to one of the women's restrooms and headed over to the sink as soon as she stepped inside. Turning on the water, she cupped her hands under the stream and splashed the handful of cold liquid up over her face. She needed to calm down and regroup. Dwelling on something she couldn't control was only going to make her anxiety even worse, and she couldn't afford to have a nervous breakdown here when there were people counting on her to lead them.
Taking a deep breath, she walked over to one of the stalls and locked herself inside, plopping herself down on the toilet bowl and dropping her head into her hands. It was almost unbelievable that less than two hours had passed since she'd landed in Jaku that morning; a city that, as of thirty minutes ago, had been wiped off the face of the earth. It was just too much to process at the moment. She needed to get her head back in the game, take a breather, get some water, and reset.
Misaki walked back into the makeshift command center five minutes later with a bottle of water in her hand and called out to the room, "Status report?"
The somber voice of one yellow team analyst answered, "Machia is fifteen minutes out from Jaku. Jeanist's team is reporting a twenty-minute ETA."
An equally somber toned blue team analyst followed up, "They're still working on evacuating citizens. He's just moving too fast and his area of effect is too wide for the limited number of heroes who are able to respond to clear an area before he gets there."
"Raid teams are sending reinforcements, but most of them are too far out to reach the target areas in time to assist with evacuation. They'll just be focusing on search and rescue at this point..." The green team analyst who spoke next trailed off dejectedly.
What the hell? She'd been gone for five minutes and suddenly it felt like a funeral in here.
She glanced over at Migi and cocked her head to the side, shooting her a bewildered expression. The young woman grimaced and lifted her hands up next to her shoulders before shrugging. Misaki sighed and hung her head, giving it a small shake before setting her water bottle down and moving into the center of the room.
She cleared her throat before addressing the room once more. "Okay. So let's focus on making that effort as quick and efficient as possible. Start by making lists for every city in Machia's direct path of people who may not have gotten the news in time to get out of the way. Specifically those with elderly family members or children under grade school age, and anyone with disabilities. Let's prioritize help for those who aren't able to help themselves."
The analysts immediately perked up at the orders and got to work.
"You're really good at this," Migi told her several minutes later as she walked back up to the front of the room where Roka and Homura were currently setting up the television sets she'd asked for.
"Huh?" She asked, turning her head, and blinking at the blue-haired young woman.
Migi wrung her hands in front of her and glanced up shyly as she said, "The way you took command of the room like that. It was really impressive."
Misaki opened her mouth to respond when all of a sudden, every screen in the room started going on the fritz.
"What the hell is this...?" She trailed off, sweeping her gaze around the room with open alarm in her cherry blossom colored eyes.
As the static began to clear, she could barely make out the form of a dark-haired man hunched over in a chair with his head bowed behind his tented hands.
"Where is this coming from?" She asked the room.
"Every broadcast signal's been hijacked! They've taken over the entire network!" A yellow team analyst called out in alarm.
Misaki's eyes widened in recognition before narrowing sharply as she seethed between clenched teeth, "Skeptic—!"
She immediately headed for the nearest open computer and pulled the power, waiting a few seconds before plugging it back in. When the machine began its reboot sequence, she selected the option to boot in safe mode with command prompt and began configuring the device's IP to make it an autonomous system, keeping it out of reach from the broadcast interference. While it was pinging the router, she pulled her smartphone out and set it on the desk next to the keyboard before initiating a call into the server room at the Safety Commission Headquarters.
"Kashi here," the voice of the long-legged head of server management who had assisted her with filling out her new employee paperwork the day she'd been hired as the President's secretary answered.
"Kashi-san, this is Torimodo Misaki," she said as she continued typing away at the computer.
"What can I do for you, Commissioner?" Kashi asked with a pleasant tone.
"I need you to patch me into ROAM," she replied succinctly.
ROAM was effectively a special-purpose supercomputer dedicated to collecting and analyzing source data from any device connected to the internet with a Japanese IP. She already had hacking protocols written into its programming that would allow her to break into Feel Good's network and access their satellite communication frequencies. She could shut down the feed from there. The problem was, she could only tunnel into the Commission's internal network from outside through the proxy server. But ROAM's operational server was on an isolated LAN for the specific purpose of preventing any outside access. She would need to be hardwired in.
"Right now?" Kashi's incredulous voice asked.
"As soon as possible, please," Misaki impatiently replied.
"Yeah, sure. I'll run a line," he answered, a bit flustered, and disappeared for a moment. She noticed the connection pop up a few seconds before Kashi's voice came back over the line to ask, "You got it?"
"Yeah, I'm in," she confirmed. "Thanks."
She couldn't afford to waste any time reaching out to end the call, so she wasn't all that surprised to hear Kashi's voice over the line a few seconds later, asking, "Wait, are you hacking into Feel Good's satellite network right now?"
"Yep," she affirmed shortly.
"You got a warrant for that?" He incredulously asked.
Again, she shortly replied, "Nope."
"O—kay then..." Kashi's nervous voice trailed off.
"Could use your help though, Kashi-san," Misaki casually offered, knowing that he wouldn't be able to turn down the opportunity. He was a true programmer, through and through.
She heard the sound of knuckles cracking over the line just before Kashi's excited voice chimed, "Let's do this!"
A knowing grin teased the edges of her lips. "I'll work on getting us access to the broadcast frequency. I need you to write a shutdown protocol bot to kill the feed as soon as we're in."
"You got it," Kashi confirmed and they both silently went to work on their respective hacks.
She almost had the frequency encryption cracked when she heard the name "Hawks" suddenly sound out from the speaker of one of the computers next to her. Her eyes reflexively shot over to the monitor just in time to see an image of what appeared to be Hawks, stabbing one of his long feathers into the back of the villain known as Twice.
She gasped softly and her fingers froze over the keys.
"I'm ready with the kill switch. You got the door open?" Kashi's voice sounded out from the phone speaker, breaking her out of her momentary shock.
"Uh, yeah. A-almost," Misaki replied, flustered.
Luckily, the momentary distraction hadn't undone much of her progress and she was able to catch up enough to crack the encryption a couple of minutes later, granting them access to Feel Good's entire satellite network. As soon as they were in, Kashi downloaded the virus he'd written to shut down the signal, and the feed hijacking their computers cut out a few seconds later, restoring their regular processes.
Misaki collapsed back in her chair in relief as Kashi's joyous exclamation sounded out over the open phone line, "Hot damn we're good!"
"Thanks for your help, Kashi-san," she said, glancing down at her phone with a small, weary smile.
"Just so you know, if anyone asks—" his apprehensive sounding voice began.
"I made you do it," Misaki exhaustedly cut him off.
"Nice workin' with ya, Commissioner!" Kashi replied just before the line went dead.
Shaking off her sudden fatigue, Misaki rose from her seat and inquired to the room, "What's the situation?"
"Gigantomachia arrived at Jaku about five minutes ago. The shuttle dropped Best Jeanist in just before you cut off the broadcast. He's succeeded in restraining Gigantomachia and Shigaraki," a red team analyst answered after a moment.
That must have been why she'd encountered so little resistance from Skeptic. He'd literally been tied up.
"Hakone," she called out to one of the yellow team analysts, gesturing to him to come over.
He looked down at the monitor when he made it over to her and asked, "What is this?"
"The satellite feed I appropriated from Feel Good Inc. which is currently monitoring the situation at Jaku," she explained. "Can you handle this?"
The buff analyst nodded and emphatically replied, "Yes ma'am."
As he took his seat, she headed over to the line of televisions and ordered, "Give me an expanded view in a five-kilometer radius around the hospital ruins."
The feed appeared on the middle screen just before Hakone reported, "There appears to be a group of Nomu breaking off from the heroes engaging them near the hospital. They're headed for Endeavor's location."
"Heroes from the Nighteye Agency are arriving on the scene!" A green team analyst suddenly called out as he shot up from his seat.
Misaki looked back at him in alarm. "Already?"
The analyst cringed sitting back down as he said, "Sorry! Correction! Just one hero."
Her eyes narrowed suspiciously as she asked, "Who?"
"His name is Lemillion," the analyst replied, confirming her suspicion.
She turned to Hakone and directed, "Keep monitoring the situation with Best Jeanist and the others." At his affirming nod, she turned to one of the blue team analysts and asked, "Where are we with search and rescue and evacuations?"
"Everyone has been successfully evacuated from Jaku and the surrounding area," the analyst she'd addressed replied.
A green team analyst chimed in, "Search and rescue teams are working through the rubble of Gigantomachia's stampede and medical crews are setting up triage centers in every major city that was affected."
"Police are working to compile a list of possible missing and confirmed deceased from both the Decay wave at Jaku and Gigantomachia's stampede zone," one of the red team analysts announced.
"The villa raid team is rounding up the supporters from the underground tunnels. The main leaders are still fighting back but it's looking like the hero forces are overwhelming them," Migi reported, coming to stand by her side.
"Dabi's broadcast is trending with the hashtag #FakeHereos," the flat tone of one of the yellow team analysts reported. As all eyes in the room turned to glare at him, he shrugged and said, "What? It is."
"News crews are focusing on reporting on the rescue efforts," a different yellow team analyst stated, his voice sounding mildly disgusted as he continued to glare at his teammate.
Misaki shook her head and turned to Hakone. "How is the situation with Jeanist?"
"Machia is struggling, but the heroes who responded as backup are holding off the Nomu so Jeanist can keep a hold on him," he reported.
She leaned down a little closer to his screen and asked, "What is Endeavor doing?"
Hakone immediately zoomed in on the area where Endeavor was standing in response to her query, observing dubiously, "He's just standing there..."
Misaki reached over and zoomed out the feed.
"Ma'am—?" Hakone asked, cutting off as the voice of one of the red analysts monitoring the situation on the television screen sounded out.
"Machia's breaking free!"
Just as the cables surrounding the giant broke apart, the once stagnant form of Endeavor shot into the sky like a rocket and knocked him in the mouth.
"Endeavor?! But—!" Hakone incredulously exclaimed.
Misaki placed a hand on his shoulder and glanced down at him out of the corner of her eye. "He's our Number One Hero."
Hakone's brown eyes widened for a second before he nodded his head and said, "Yes ma'am."
"More teams are incoming to help with search and rescue efforts," a green team analyst reported.
"The heroes fighting the Nomu in the ruins of the hospital have taken down their numbers by half!" Spoke the excited voice of a red team analyst.
"The villa raid team is reporting that the enemy commanders have been defeated and they are rounding up the remaining supporters as we speak," Migi optimistically informed her.
The brief outpouring of good news was quickly broken by Hakone. "One of the League members has broken free of Jeanist's cables and he's making a break with the others! Lemillion is in pursuit!"
"Coms are down again!" Someone else suddenly reported.
Misaki turned toward the television screens and ordered, "Zoom out the satellite feed. City-wide view."
The satellite image on the television screen immediately expanded and Hakone observed aloud, "The rest of the Nomu are headed straight for Shigaraki and the others."
"We can't let them escape. Any of them. Not after coming this far," Misaki emphatically iterated. Not after everything they had gone through to get to this point. Failure was not an option.
"I have a route projection plotted if the Nomu continues on their current course!" A blue team analyst called out.
"Send it!" Misaki ordered emphatically. "We need every hero who is able to respond doing everything they can to stop Shigaraki and the League from getting away!"
"The Nomu are moving northeast toward the mountains," one of the red team analysts announced. "Several heroes are attempting to slow them down but they're moving in coordinated patterns to protect Shigaraki."
"Once they hit the tree line, we lose all tracking," Hakone anxiously told her, glancing up at her from his station controlling the satellite feed.
This couldn't be happening. Misaki stared at the television screens in front of her in abject horror as she watched the heroes try and fail to slow down the High-End Nomu carrying Shigaraki and the League away from the city. There was no way to avoid the scene unfolding before her now. Eight months of undercover work, three months of counterintelligence meetings, all the planning and preparation that had gone into this operation and she was watching all of it spiral right down the drain in front of her. The League of Villains was going to get away again.
They'd lost.
As the Nomu broke through the tree line just outside the city, Hakone collapsed back in his chair and announced, "They're gone."
Misaki clutched her hands over her hips and hung her head. Frustration greater than anything she'd ever felt gripped her and she had to take a moment to breathe through the sudden overwhelming rush of emotion. She couldn't afford to break down here. Everyone was looking to her for guidance.
"Commissioner? What do you want us to do?" Hakone asked from her left.
She had no answer for him at the moment. It still felt like she was on the verge of having an emotional breakdown in front of the entire team. She just needed another minute to get her shit together enough to continue carrying out her duties. Outside the windows in front of her, rain steadily began to pour from the darkening clouds moving quickly across the sky above them—a fitting representation of such an overwhelmingly disastrous day.
A hand gently rested atop her shoulder before Migi's soft voice asked, "Commissioner?"
"Anyone with a tracking quirk stay on Shigaraki's trail," she said after a moment, sniffing and turning around to address the room. "Everyone else, regroup with search and rescue. Let's focus on saving as many lives as we can."
Thankfully, everyone turned around and immediately went back to work, ignoring her moment of silence while she tried to get ahold of herself, which she was very grateful for. She didn't think she would be able to handle any looks of pity at the moment.
"Um, Commissioner?" Migi's hesitant voice addressed her.
Misaki took a deep breath and turned toward the blue-haired analyst. "What is it, Migi?"
She pressed her lips in a thin line and began nervously wringing her hands in front of her as she said, "That thing I wasn't supposed to tell you about earlier? Well, I think it might be okay to tell you now..."
~*~
Preview of next week's chapter:
"What? Are you sure? When?" Detective Tsukauchi's voice suddenly exclaimed, and Misaki turned her head to look over at him. "I'm on my way."
He turned to her sharply, slipping his phone back into his pocket as he told her in a rush, "I'm sorry, Torimodo-san. I have to go."
"What's going on?" She asked, concern tinging her voice.
His expression was furiously grave as he informed her, "Shigaraki and the Nomu are attacking Tartarus."
Misaki's eyes widened, and her mouth fell open in shock as she watched the detective run down the hall and throw open the door to the stairwell before quickly disappearing from view. Horror immediately cascaded through her. Everything that had gone wrong began flashing through her mind so fast she almost couldn't keep up. The doctor waking the Nomu and Shigaraki, Gigantomachia's stampede, the League's escape from Jaku; each one of those failures had resulted in a substantial loss. As if that wasn't bad enough, the small victory they'd won in detaining the majority of the Paranormal Liberation Front's members was being washed away by Shigaraki's invasion of Tartarus. With the assistance of seven High-End Nomu, he would lay waste to the prison's defenses and reinforce his ranks with the worst villains society had ever seen.
What had they done if not make everything so much worse?
~*~
AN:
We finally have a conclusion to the PLF battle and we're onto the aftermath next!
I hope everyone has a safe and happy weekend! 🤗
❤️❤️❤️
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