Narrator:- Grey.
Izuku sat back at the main base as he was waiting for all of the Verdant Guards and Lieutenants to appear after they were done with all of their work.
"Yeah right 'work'," Mirio grumbled under his breath.
"Mirio, I think when Verdant said work he meant it," Izuku said, "besides, Verdant is not one of those people who will sugarcoat the word murder."
Izuku was watching the TV and it was talking about how the Verdant had saved the innocent Inko Midoirya and dealt with the vicious hero commission president and some of the national diet that had approved the disturbing public execution.
"Must be one of those sell-out media houses owned by Verdant," Nighteye said.
"Yeah, you are right," Nejire said with sarcasm laid in her voice, "because normal media was going to appreciate commission for murdering an innocent woman on live television."
Now, most of the news that was reporting it like that was owned by Izuku while the others weren't as hard they didn't exactly fault Izuku or the Verdant for what they did.
"See even others understand how evil that was," Nejire said.
Though they were all talking about the ramifications of Verdant taking over the National Diet building. There was now a large amount of police and heroes surrounding the building by the order of the government. There was also an increasing presence of the JSDF or Japanese Self-Defense Force which dealt with any hostile threats that attacked the country or wanted to attack the country.
"Can't say I am surprised," Nezu said, "because of the Commission's stupid decision Verdant now has control over such an important building of our nation."
'To think they already got involved isn't surprising. I didn't want totake such a large step this soon but we got to do it now regardless.' Izukuthought.
"Right, when we took over the National Diet Building we just announced to the world that this is not a drill and we are here to take over the country," Izuku said.
He was at least glad that they had Twice so they didn't have to wasteactual human resources on the guarding of the national diet building. All thepeople there were clones and a few clones of twice and Dabi to control thebuilding.
"Guys, I just realized something interesting," Kaminari said, "what if Twice made a bunch of clones of himself and then all of those clones made clones of Ectoplasm sensei, and then those clones can make more clones using his quirk."
After a bit of silence, Ectoplasm spoke, "that does sound interesting... and terrifying."
"You know Kaminari if you used even a little bit of that brain power while studying you can easily glide through the exams," Momo said.
The news was also heated about the UA traitor problem.
"Of course, it is," Aizawa rolled his eyes, "I will be more surprised if they didn't jump on any opportunity to slender U.A 's name."
Based on what the spy network was reporting from the bugs, Mineta hadbeen detained and questioned. The truth came out that he indeed was themole in UA and indeed lied about Inko Midoriya.
"So he really was a traitor huh..." Kaminari sighed. He was the only one from their class who was somewhat of a friend to that guy. In a way, he pitied that guy because Kaminari always thought that he would have been treated just like Mineta if he didn't have his somewhat good looks and a strong quirk to support that.
It turned out he learned the name from Bakugo when he saw Izuku on theTV at Kamino Ward. Izuku knew that was the likely answer but he was glad to haveconfirmation now.
"I really don't wanna be in Mineta's shoes right now," Sero said.
Mineta was still being held in UA since they didn't know what to do withhim. If they threw him out the gates it was certain that Mineta would die atIzuku's hands and UA and the heroes were having a hard time justifyingknowingly sending someone to their death while others stated that he was nolonger a student but a villain so he should just be given to the police and ifanything happens it would no longer be their fault.
"Ohh! I love democracy," Dabi said which got him some weird looks from the audience.
"Well putting his weird comment aside," Stain said while Dabi made an offending sound in the background, "you heroes will go to any length to protect one of yours."
"You are wrong," Aizawa said, "we heroes will never send someone to their death, doesn't matter if that person is a hero or not."
Izuku just shook his head at UA's stance right now. They were tryingto protect their neutrality but also trying to figure out how to not send aperson to their death. Izuku didn't blame them in the slightest for how theyfound the situation complex to solve but Izuku didn't care. Mineta would dieone way or another.
"So now this so-called Emperor is ready to murder a child," Nighteye said, "this only shows why a 16-year-old unstable child shouldn't hold this much power."
"That applies to 38-year-old commission dogs as well," Bakugo said
"Boy, watch your language," Nighteye said while glaring at Bakugo.
"Be the change you want to see," Bakugo answered with a shit-eating grin.
Meanwhile, Mina was looking at the exchange with a curious expression, "so, no one is going to question how Bakugo knows about that guy's age?"
"That's simple actually," Izuku said, "Kacchan is as much a hero nerd as I am."
"Really!" Kirishima said and looked at Bakugo but before he could say anything Bakugo said, "shut it red hair," and looked away. While Kirishima was thinking 'he didn't call me shitty hair,' and smiled knowing that Bakugo is trying to improve himself.
As he came out of his thoughts he was greeted by all of his Guards andLieutenants coming into the room and sitting down. Inko Midoirya was also inthe room and Izuku didn't know how to feel about involving his mother in all ofthis. "Mother... I don't know how I feel about involving you in all ofthis... you were never meant to get your hands dirty for my goals." Izukustated with a tense expression.
Izuku sighed in defeat as looked at Verdant with sad eyes. He knew what was he going through right now. This was the same thing Izuku felt when All Might told him about the real truth behind One for All the day before he decided to tell his mom the secret behind his quirk.
200-year-old legacy, quirk-stealing demon, and only god knew what more dangers were tied to this quirk. And that changed his mind.
He knew that the Inko Midoriya was a strong woman but her heart was equally fragile when it comes to Izuku. What scared him the most was the odd chance that his mother will ask him to return his quirk or will lash out at All Might for giving him the quirk. And for him, both were equally bad outcomes.
She shook her head and scolded him. "Sweetie shush. I am a part ofthis now and it's the government's fault when they tried to execute me for abullshit reason. I could understand if they imprisoned me but to execute mewent too far." Inko said.
"Well so much for being an innocent woman," Nighteye said, "that makes you question. Was she a non-accomplice in the first place? She knew he was a criminal. She knew he was going to do something like that and despite that, she still did not warn the authorities," Nighteye continued ignoring his student who was asking him to quiet down, "so can you really fault commission for-"
"Nighteye," a cold voice echoed in the auditorium. When Nighteye looked at the source of the voice he saw Izuku glaring at him, "I don't give a shit about what you say or think about me or if you find me worthy of All Might's legacy or not but if you talk anything bad about my mother you will cross that safe line."
"Or what?" Nighteye gulped and asked.
"I thought you can see the future," Izuku said with a cruel smile, "or maybe one cannot see past their demise."
"That's enough," All Might said as he stood between them, "young Midoriya I know you are angry but please don't do anything stupid... not until I teach you how to hide a body," there was a pin-drop silence in the auditorium until Yagi started laughing awkwardly, "I was just kidding... yeah it was a little harmless joke."
Meanwhile, Izuku shook his fondly on his mentor's antics and went back to his seat.
"That was really hot you know," Uraraka said with a teasing smile, "I never knew you had the confidence to threaten a pro hero on his face."
"Maybe it was the magic of your kiss," Izuku whispered to her with his own teasing grin.
Ochako's face went red but as competitive as she was, she didn't want to lose this battle, "in that case, you might just take over the world when we do other things."
As soon as she said that they heard Jiro spit out a handful of water.
"Oops!" Ochako said as she realized what just happened and stared at the screen.
Izuku just pouted a bit at being scolded in front of his men but let itgo.
"Yep! Living up to your name, Tiny Emperor," Himiko said with a giggle.
"Anyway, it's time to start this meeting. First, thank you forsaving my mother. Second, this screws our plans but we can adjust to fit thenew direction. I was at first planning to slowly come out of the shadows todemoralize the heroes' side and the government but we will speed that up."
"I think the government and commission are helping him quite well on that front," Nezu said.
"I also want to increase our influence across all of Japan and to bringall crime gangs and criminals that meet our pre-set rules under our control. Iwant to bring crime to a near standstill. This will also provide us with more peoplefor the war since I don't want random civilians having to stain their hands forthis war. Their public support is enough for me." Izuku stated andeveryone nodded their heads.
"See Mirio, he is actively trying to reduce the civilian casualties," Nejire said.
"But that won't help people who will die in the crossfire," Mirio countered.
"I don't know what to say to you anymore," Nejire sighed, "I am not saying that Verdant is completely in the right but you and your mentor are refusing to see the good in him as well."
Soon they started to talk about where they would start expanding. As it stood, Izuku controlled everything in the light blue area andthe purple area on the map. Izuku wanted everything in the light green underhis control since that is where the seat of government and UA were also at.
"Wow! That's almost 1/3 of the nation," Momo said, "that too when Verdant hasn't even started actually expanding."
This also meant that if they gained control of everything in green thenthey would have more than half of the criminal world under their control. As itstood their organization force currently stood at 800,000 members. 390,000 ofthat 800,000 was combat-capable. After taking control of the green area they wouldbe pushing their member count near 1,000,000 members most likely and thisdidn't count any normal civilians that publicly supported them either.
"Even then, they are still not considering Twice into that mix," Aizawa said, "he can increase their numbers by 50 thousand all by himself."
Izuku then decided on what to do. "Starting in the purple area. Start having the prefectures comeunder our control completely and public control. Force the surrender of the leaders ofeach individual prefecture. Don't appear in the light blue area since I wantthem to suspect that it isn't under our control yet. We will make it seem likewe are operating out of that area and slowly advance outwards. Also, we willpublicly set up a public display base in Osaka. The Osaka Castle will becomethe first public founding location." Izuku stated and everyone talkedabout how to go about taking control of the areas and decided on advanced teamsbeing deployed in every place with twice clones to duplicate a large army foreach prefecture.
"But why Osaka Castle?" Kaminari asked, "I mean why are they trying to take over an old castle when they can easily take over something like Might Tower?"
"Because our country firmly believes in honor and tradition," Nezu explained, "I agree that taking over Might Tower might be more advantageous for them but capturing The Osaka Castle, which was built as a display of power and grandeur is more of a symbolic gesture. By doing that they are showing the world their power as well as making a statement that they are here to rule this nation by taking over the previous ruler's castle."
"Remember, limit the number of deaths if you can butanyone that resists is open to be killed if you can't capture them," Izukustated and they all nodded their heads.
Mirio frowned upon hearing the Verdant's orders. He didn't like the way Midoriy- Verdant ordered his people to kill someone without even changing his expression. It almost felt like he is listing to villains' debriefs.
As such this is how the advancement of the plans began because withinfive hours of the meeting the news broke about the actions of the Verdantgroup.
"Just under five hours," Mic said, "they move a little too fast, don't you think Shota?"
"I don't think so," Aizawa said, "they have the right people for the right work, teleports, and a solid plan. I would say they are moving appropriately."
The news broke and showed the Verdant Symbol being unraveled across theOsaka castle walls.
"Zuzu look it's Dragon!!!" Eri cheered.
"Yeah, it is," Izuku chuckled y both, Eri's excitement and the new nickname.
The symbol that Izuku had taken to use was straightforward. It was agreen dragon. The green represented the Verdant while the Dragon representedlife, death, and rebirth. It was the symbol of the Verdant Rebirth of theVerdant Revolution to take control of Japan.
"I can't wait to tell Ryuko about this," Nejire said, "she really loves when someone praises dragons."
"But this is an Eastern dragon, and she turns into a western one," Tamaki pointed out.
"Yeah tomato tomata, it's the same thing," Nejire said.
The news was reporting that the symbol was being seen across the entireIsaka prefecture and a public statement was received from the prefecture officeannouncing their surrender to the Verdant Emperor and the Verdant organization.
'And thus the official conquering begins,' Izuku thought to himself.
Camera crews and helicopters were in the city within the hour and youcould see some destruction where the verdant group had to fight heroes, police,and some military forces. The death count was still being reported but as itstood 1,000 people from the government side died with only 50 civiliancasualties which actually weren't caused by the Verdant side at all.
Izuku sighed sadly for the dead people and prayed for their souls in his mind.
As the cameras viewed the city it showed that the Verdant members werehelping people get out of any destruction that was caused and was setting upaid stations.
"Verdant protect, Verdant attack but most importantly they save people's lives," Himiko cheered.
Then as the news channels reported that another breaking news happened that camefrom UA hero school. They announced the results of their investigation into Mineta and wereable to confirm the information provided by the Verdant Emperor Izuku Midoriya.
"Now that even Nezu confirmed it, there is no doubt about it," Naomasa said, "now let's see how he decides to handle this."
The screen changed to Nezu at a podium where he started to speak, "As of 8:00 PM Today we concluded the investigation into Mr. Minetawhere we discovered that the information provided by the Verdant Emperor wasindeed correct and true. Mr. Mineta was indeed the UA traitor who helped thedisbanded League of Villains and All For One break into the U.S.J and block theemergency signals with a device provided by the League which prevented oursystems from alerting heroes of the attack. He is also responsible for leakingthe location of the 1-A & 1-B summer camp that allowed the League toassault our students and teachers." Nezu stated.
"It really saddens me to think that one of our fellow students will do such a thing," Iida said.
"You are not the only one Iida we all feel the same," Izuku added.
Then reporters broke out into questions and someone asked about theaccusations regarding Mr. Mineta and how he framed Inko Midoriya. Nezu took adrink of water and started to speak again. "As it stands, we can confirmthat the accusations are true. Mr. Mineta confessed that he only wanted areward from the government and told false accusations since he heard the nameIzuku Midoriya from a former childhood friend of Izuku Midoriya who is in class1-A. This student spoke the name of the Verdant Emperor when he had a breakdownwhen he saw Izuku Midoriya on the TV at the Kamino Ward incident. It was therethat Mr. Mineta learned the Midoriya name and how he found out about InkoMidoriya who he falsely accused of working with her son even though it wasuntrue."
Bakugo angrily stomped his foot on the ground. He was really pissed that the ball fucker used his moment of venerability to harm someone innocent no... to harm someone who was like a mother to him.
"This means that the government attempted to put an innocent woman todeath and UA hereby condemns these actions though the former president of thecommission now lays dead and can't face charges since she invoked the wrath ofthe Verdant Emperor," Nezu stated that made everyone break out inchaos that UA had just condemned the government for what they did.
"Great just great," Nighteye gritted his teeth, "Nezu you don't understand, do you? You do not understand how big of a threat that boy is to your school and to the hero society itself."
"Oh Nighteye you and your sense of humor," Nezu chuckled.
"Very well, you will see my point when you will see your students dying to him," Nighteye said.
Someone asked what would happen to Mr. Mineta and Nezu said he wastransferred to the police. It was right at that time that the news broke that the police convoy had been hit and a Mr. Mineta was taken away by the Verdant group. The screen then cut back to Nezu who had just been told. Nezu excused himself from the stage and left.
"So you decided to abandon him?" Mirio asked shock written on his face, "but you said heroes protect people."
"Yes but sometimes you have to choose between the two options," Aizawa said, "and at this time we couldn't risk keeping Mineta on the school campus."
Izuku had the spy network keep track of Nezu's movements to ensure hedidn't get suspicious of being spied on since the group had attacked theconvoy.
"It is really strange that Nezu still hasn't figured out about our spies," Izuku said.
"I don't think even I am capable of suspecting bugs would be spying on us," Nezu chuckled.
Izuku then ran over to the teleportation room waiting for them to bringMr. Mineta to him! Within about 10 minutes they had brought him in and Izukuhad a wide grin on his face. "WELL HELLO THERE!" Izuku yelled out ashe moved forward and just put a bullet in the kid's head.
Everyone shut their eyes tightly. Even tho he was a traitor they would never want to see a kid getting shot in the head.
"Now that makes me feel better. I would have likely wanted to causehim a lot of pain but I got more important things to deal with," Izukusaid as he turned around and left. Dabi and Mr. Compress were shocked butshrugged since Izuku was right. They indeed had more important things to get towork on.
"Huh? Just like that?" Kamainari asked, "I thought it would be a little more dramatic."
"I mean as he said, don't have time to play this revenge game," Izuku shrugged.
A week passed and the news kept reporting non-stop on the Verdant issue.Izuku's group had solidified their control over Osaka and had expanded theirpublic display into Wakayama by that Friday.
"Great! Now they are picking up cities like grocery," Mina said.
The news was allowed into the Verdant-controlled areas with no issuessince they had nothing to hide. The news reported that the everyday life of thecitizens had gone uninterrupted for the most part as there were Verdant Memberswalking out in broad daylight but weren't causing anyone issues nor was anyonestopped like the Media. The news was showing everyone that life didn'tdrastically change from these prefectures being taken over.
"So he using the carrot and stick approach," Hound Dog said, "he showed the stick to the government who was showing resistance to him, and now he is showing the carrot to people to bring them to his side."
Suddenly Kaminari snickered and said, "just imagine what would happen if his underlings misunderstood the plan and destroyed an entire nation just to make an example out of it."
"Dude," Sero looked at him with a serious expression, "that's messed up."
"Yeah, sorry," Kaminari said rubbing the back of his head.
They even started to ask people questions about what was going on intheir cities.
"Overall, I think things have gotten better. I haven't been hearing about any crimes going on and I've even asked police officers how it's changed for them and they still work as they did before. As long as they don't try to stop the Verdant members they allow the police to still conduct business like normal. They have even gotten more resources from the Verdant since the Verdant group had publicly stated they plan to abolish the heroes and return criminal and law enforcement to the police fully." Stated one person.
"That doesn't sound bad at all," Nejire said.
"What are you talking about, he is going to abolish the hero system," Mirio said, "if that happens who will help people in need."
Nejire gave him a 'are you serious?' look and said, "cops, duh!"
"But they don't have permission to use their quirks," Mirio countered.
"Then they will get permission to use it," Nejire shrugged, "besides, I don't see a problem in this. Who cares what are we called as long as we get to help people."
"No... it's not the same," Mirio mumbled under his breath.
The news reporter just kept asking multiple people questions.
"I've heard about some law changes that will be enacted soon fromsome police. The Verdant group is going to have quirk licenses sold via thepolice department. If you want to use your quirk in your daily life you wouldapply for the permit and just show it if you were ever stopped by an officer orVerdant member. Of course, I've heard some talk that there are rules likealways. You can't use your quirk on others for ill intent and the typical commonsense things but I intend to get a quirk permit. My quirk allows me to speedmyself up slightly and it would be nice to get to places quicker everyday." stated one lady that was asked how she felt under the Verdantcontrol.
"This is really a great idea," Ochako said, "with this, I could have helped my family much earlier."
Overall, there was nothing negative said about living under the Verdantcontrol.
"Maybe they are afraid to speak the truth," Nighteye said.
"Now you are just pushing your luck," All Might said.
Some did mention that they wish it didn't have to come via violence butthey could see where the Verdant group was coming from and some expressed theirsupport to overthrow the government which earned laughs from Izuku.
"Green you are enjoying this little too much," Jiro said with a teasing grin while Izuku just shrugged with a smile.
Izuku just now needed to wait to get more control of all the crimeunderworld in the other prefectures and they would also slowly reveal theircontrol of the other prefectures as they would take control publicly. ThoughIzuku knew he would get more resistance the further he went since thegovernment was caught by surprise when they took Osaka over.
"Yeah, this is just the beginning," Stain said, "the real fight will be for cities like Tokoyo which has more influence."
The death reports out of Wakayama had come in and there were about 5,000dead on the government side with around 200 civilians dead this time. They alsosuffered a few deaths as well since Izuku had the actual members present ineach Prefecture so the clones could be directly made off them. One group gothit by a hero who took out 10 of their members which displeased Izuku but heknew he would start losing members.
The smile on Izuku's face disappeared as heard about the news. He knew it was inevitable to not lose anyone but it still stuck to his consciousness since he was the leader.
So far, the death count was at 6,000 movement side, 250 civilians, and10 Verdant. Izuku hated how the number has already hit the thousands with onlytwo prefectures being under his control and knew that number would likely growinto the hundreds of thousands by the end of the war.
"Then stop," Mirio grumbled.
"You know Mirio, even if we surrendered right now there is a high chance that all of my people and anyone who supported us will get killed," Izuku explained.
Mirio wanted to say something but he didn't have an answer. Tho he also noticed that Izuku was not using 'senpai' in front of his name anymore.
'God, forgive me for the deaths but I must do this. The corruption mustend!' Izuku said as he prayed for the least amounts of deaths possible.
Some people in the audience did the same.
Soon it was time for sleep as Izuku had been swamped with a lot of work.
Then the screen turned black and the words appeared on the screen. Ep.20 'Advancing Plans & Growing.'
To be continued...