Word Count : 2251 words
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( Location : Hawks Agency )
( Third Person POV )
Currently, Keigo Takami, simply known as Hawks, was surfing the net, hoping to find some useful information regarding the sighting of (F/N) (L/N) in Hosu City.
It had become hot news that Hero Killer Stain had been murdered. And by none other than (F/N) (L/N) himself.
This news came as both a shocker and a relief to the Hero Department. A part of it was relieved knowing that the Hero Killer was no more, but a more vigilant part of the Association had come to realize the sheer power and technique that (F/N) (L/N) possessed. Rumors had it that Stain was killed within a span of 5 seconds, and (F/N) (L/N)'s looming threat had only become widespread in the country.
But Hawks today was not worried about (F/N) (L/N)'s threat.
He was more interested in his motive.
Why did (F/N) (L/N) kill Stain? Aren't they technically on the same side? (F/N) (L/N) has also started murdering Pro Heroes.
Last week, he had taken out a low ranked veteran Pro. The body was found in the dumpster, reported by the old lady across the street who had complained of stinky garbage.
What Keigo Takami did not understand is (F/N) (L/N)'s motives.
Who exactly is (F/N) (L/N), and why does he kill such low-level Pro Heroes? Is he out for revenge? That seemed to be the most plausible option. After all, all of his kills are Heroes who have work experience of over 10 years or more.
In other words, he was targeting those Heroes who played a part in The 28th Genocide. It would also explain why (F/N) (L/N) did not murder Pro Hero Hound, and instead just left him in a half-dead state. After all, Hound is still a relatively new Hero. He's been around for only 7-8 years.
It would also give reason as to why Cementoss was brutally murdered.
Another thing that bugged Hawks was (F/N) (L/N)'s information source.
If Hawks, as a distinguished Pro Hero, cannot legally obtain any information regarding the 28th Genocide, how does (F/N) (L/N) have so much information?
Granted, the young man was present during the crisis, and saw the horrors unfold right before him. However, how did (F/N) (L/N) know which Heroes were present during the Raid, and which heroes weren't?
If you go purely by logic, then shouldn't (F/N) (L/N) have some sort of target list? A list of all the Heroes involved in the massacre?
Hawks let out a giant sigh.
"I'm getting nowhere....."
Hawks had never been more frustrated with the internet that he was today. Not only did he get absolutely zero information, the internet was circulating a huge amount of fake news as well — news about (F/N) (L/N)'s past, his whereabouts and his possible next areas of strike.
If information like that were so easy to obtain, then the world would not have had any villains.
However, a part of Keigo Takami still wanted to uncover this mysterious enigma known as (F/N) (L/N). He wanted to know more about his methods, his ideals and his past.
Hawks, Mount Lady and Mirko had already scoured the entire mansion two weeks prior, but had not found any conclusive evidence or proof.
But one thing bothered Hawks, and that was a rather exquisite painting that he had noticed inside the mansion on almost all the floors.
A man with blood-red eyes, one red with black circle, and another with concentric white circles. Long hair that flowed all the way down to his waist. A man with an aura that Hawks could not quite register.
However, the picture seemed to have been hung on various spots in the house. Hawks had considered that he must have been some ancestor of the (L/N)s. But the more he thought about it, the lesser sense it made.
The picture was, first of all, a portrait. It gave off a vibe that it must have been rather old, but Hawks did not want to draw any conclusion just yet.
Hawks had managed to sneak out a single unharmed portrait from the mansion, much to Mirko's and Mount Lady's chagrin. But they did not seem to mind as much.
After making sure the portrait was rather intact, Hawks ran a simple face analysis, and tried to match up the face with any notable references on the web.
"Huh....." Hawks stared at his computer screen.
"No results.....?"
The Hero run the scan once again, this time making sure to properly crop out the face and try to find any potential matches.
But nothing came up. Absolutely nothing. Just some references and hyperlinks that had nothing to do with the investigation.
"Come on, this guy wasn't famous or something.....?"
Hawks kicked his table in frustration. What the hell? There is absolutely no doubt about it, the person in the painting is definitely a (L/N). However, if there is nothing regarding him on the internet, then is it possible that information was, once again, removed or made private?
"The Association is hiding information..... so much goddamn information."
But if there was on thing that Hawks believed in, it was that information can never be truly lost. There have to be some people in the world who know the truth. He just needs to find them.
After a few minutes of pacing around the room, Hawks calmed down a bit, and decided to head over to the Archives Section once again.
But this time, he would take Mount Lady and Mirko along. Three heads are better than one, after all.
He picked up his phone, and drafted a quick message regarding the rendezvous time and location. After receiving confirmation from both the heroines, Hawks set flight towards the Association Building once again.
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( Location : The Hero Association Building, Musutafu )
( Third Person POV )
"Sup."
Hawks waved at the two heroines making their way down the street. "You ready to go in?"
Mirko and Mount Lady nodded, and the 3 heroes entered the building after rather thorough security checks.
The Heroes entered the thirteenth floor, and walked up the door right at the end of the corridor, labelled as 'Archives'.
Hawks pushed the door open.
The room was the same as Hawks had seen it a few months prior. Almost nothing had changed. Except that the dust had piled up again, and Hawks felt a sudden urge to sneeze.
"Jesus Christ, this is a landfill," Mirko said, holding her nose with her fingers. "How did you actually come here the last time, chicken nugget....."
"Open the window," Hawks said, and Mount Lady threw the window open. The fresh air was still the same, and the 3 heroes felt relieved as the cold wind provided some ventilation.
"So we're here for.....?" Mount Lady asked amusingly.
"We're here to try and search for anything related to this guy right here," Hawks said, and he pulled out a snapshot photo of the portrait that he had taken. "He's someone from the (L/N), I'm sure of that. But since there's no information on him on the internet, I had to drop by here."
"How are you sure you'll find something here?" Mirko asked. "For all I know, you came here the last time as well, and you didn't find anything."
"I searched files dating back to only about 10 years and later," Hawks said. "This guy is definitely ages before that. The peeled-off paint says so. So I think we should start searching for something at least 40-50 years back."
"Oh my god....."
Mount Lady mumbled incoherently, and stared at the mountain of files in the room. "We need to dig through all of these?"
"Hopefully not, but you get the gist."
After some childish complaining from Mount Lady, the three heroes set down to work. Mirko turned on some music to make the process a bit less tedious.
One, two, three hours passed by.
The heroes continued to dig through massive heaps of information. Several irrelevant files were also searched through, in hopes of getting some connection, but nothing came up. Not a single file even mentioned the (L/N), let alone have a picture of the man they were searching for.
"I give up," Mount Lady said, and she threw one of the files back into the shelf in agitation. "This is impossible. I've gone through almost a hundred files already, word by word. And there's nothing."
"Keep searching, keep searching....." Hawks said, as he flipped through pages. "We'll eventually find something....."
"We need to be realistic, Nugget," Mirko sighed. "There has to be another way to get information. We're betting on thin air."
"Hmm?"
Mount Lady stopped fingering through the pages of the next file she picked up, and slowly turned to the contents page.
'List of Major Pro Heroes'
"A complete list of all Pro Heroes, from around the world," Mount Lady murmured. "Maybe I'll find something in here....."
"Hey Nugget, change the song. What is this shit?"
"Did you just call Def Leppard shit, Mirko? You've got no taste."
"Give me something more heavy."
"This is already heavy. Anything after this is death metal, and I'm not particularly a fan."
"Guys."
"No wait! This isn't heavy metal. What the hell, Justin Bieber?! Turn it off!"
"I didn't put that! Damn you, Spotify!"
"GUYS!"
Mount Lady raised her voice, and both Mirko and Hawks stopped bickering almost immediately.
"L-look."
Mount Lady turned to the 2 other Pros, and slammed the heavy book down on the table. She whisked through the pages, and stopped on a certain page.
"Hmm? This page is....." Mirko stared at the seemingly normal page. It looked just like the rest. With the names of Pro Heroes from all around the world, this book looked more like a dictionary than anything else.
"This record right here," Mount Lady pointed out.
Hawks and Mirko widened their eyes.
The record had been scratched out with permanent marker. But not just any normal permanent marker. It was white in color, so it blended in with the page.
"This was done purposely," Mount Lady pressed on. "Look. All the names are arranged alphabetically, right? And the name (L/N) fits this record perfectly!"
It was true. The names of all the Pro Heroes were arranged according to their last names. And going by that order, the name (L/N) fit perfectly in the crossed out record.
"Is there any other information other than this?" Hawks asked. "I can possibly tear this page out and try to do something about the marker. But it'll only give us a name."
"And a name is quite important," Mirko added. "With the way information is being withheld from us, even a name could prove beneficial."
"Just a sec....." Mount Lady said, as she tried to somehow scratch off the marker from the paper, hoping it would come off. "It doesn't budge....."
"We need to use acetone," Hawks said. "Perfume or deodorant would work as well. I'll buy one right now."
Saying so, Hawks jumped out of the window, and flew towards the nearest convenience store. He returned with the cheapest deodorant he could find on the shelves.
"Wait. That idiot's going to have to enter from the main entrance again," Mirko grumbled. "Damn these security....."
"The rest of the book is sorta empty," Mount said, as she whisked through the pages. "There's nothing regarding the Pro Heroes, just their names, country of origin, years active, date of birth, date of death....."
By the time Mount Lady had finished, Hawks entered the room with a deodorant spray, and hastily snatched the book from her hands.
"Alright, hopefully this works," Hawks said uneasily. "Please work....."
Slowly, the hero sprayed the paper lightly with the deodorant, and allowed it to settle for a while. Then, with a piece of cloth, he slowly wiped the sheet, making sure not to accidentally tear it.
"It's working, it's working!" Mirko said out loud, and she anxiously stared over at the paper.
"Almost there....." Hawks dabbed the deo onto the paper for the third time, and wiped off the remaining marker marks with utmost care and precision.
The three heroes stared at the name that had been revealed on the paper.
Name — (L/N), Madara
Country — Japan
Date of Birth — *****
Date of Death — *****
Years Active — 23
Solved Cases — 4136
"4136 solved cases.....?!" Mount Lady exclaimed, aghast. "That's..... that's almost triple the number that All Might has solved!"
"This is incredible....." Hawks murmured. "He was active for almost 23 years, and has the most solved cases in the history of heroes. Why haven't we ever heard of him? Going by the statistics, he's even more powerful than All Might."
"I have a bad feeling about this....." Mirko said. "It's possible to hide information regarding the lives of the (L/N)s, but to hide something like this..... it's impossible. There's no way that no one in the world knows about this."
"But it is true," Hawks said. "I've never heard of anyone named Madara (L/N) myself. But if the book says so....."
"So are we assuming that the person in the picture is this Madara (L/N)?" Mount Lady asked.
"No other option," Hawks surmised. "This is the first lead we've got, and it's a very important piece of information. It seems that there once existed a Pro Hero about 60-70 years back, who was equal to, if not stronger, than All Might himself."
"Wait, if this picture was hung in the walls of the (L/N) Mansion, then does that mean the (L/N)s know of his existence?" Mirko asked suddenly.
"Umm....."
Hawks scrunched up his eyes. Things were not making sense anymore.
Madara (L/N) was definitely known by the (L/N) Family, but completely shrouded in mystery to the world.
An underground hero, maybe?
But that seemed too farfetched. After all, with solved cases exceeding 4000, it is impossible to stay away from the radar without being noticed.
After all, Pro Hero Eraserhead is an underground hero as well. However, he's already extremely well-known among the public, even though his case count doesn't exceed 100.
The three heroes decided to dwell upon their findings, and called it a day.
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