CHAPTER 270(Nuclear Hot Potato)
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CHAPTER START---
Sitting in a large conference room, Shigaraki slumps down in his chair as he anxiously taps the table, still carrying Shinji on his shoulder.
Even now in this luxurious base he still wore his simple clothes, the only new addition being a large coat with some fur lining.
"So many complications," Shigaraki grumbles as he looks at Scalpel, Horizon's blade lying on the table in front of him, as if taunting him.
"Damn it," he leans forward and reaches out for the blade, but as he's about to grab it he stops, not even daring to lay a single finger on it.
She leans back in his chair and rubs his face, "if I touch that thing I'd better be sure to disintegrate it instantly, but what the hell do I do with this..."
As he's considering his options, the door to the room opens and in walks Dabi and Hawks, closely followed but Twice who's shoulders were slumped.
"Oh no," was Hawks immediate reaction to seeing the blade, "so this really is where it went."
"Seems like a bit of good luck to me," Dabi says as they take their seats. "Horizon must have a way to find this thing right, perfect way to get him face to face with Machia', right?"
"Depends," Shigaraki looks over at Twice, "Jin, Gentle just woke up, so tell us everything he told you about how this happened."
"Wait, who is this 'Gentle' anyway?" Hawks asks.
"He's a small-time villain," Twice says.
"A wannabe, glorified street magician," Dabi grumbles.
"He got on our radar when we were forming a special team to operate under Compress, a team that could break into UA and acquire some things for us," Shigaraki says. "But that plan is dead now."
"So this wannabe, just woke up and decided to break into Horizon Tower?" Hawks asks.
"Jin?" Shigaraki asks.
"Uh, well, you see, Gentle was actually someone I scouted, but he didn't want to team up with us and share any spotlight. See its a funny story but him and his girl---"
"Get to the important shit," Dabi says.
"---sorry, uh, he broke into Horizon tower and stole a trophy of sorts to get the public's attention, but there were some, mmm, complications, someone was apparently at the tower."
Dabi and Shigaraki look between each other, confused.
"Team Horizon and the psycho himself were confirmed at UA," Shigaraki says. "We always keep eyes on Musutafu to know when we can operate.
Hawks sighs and rests his head on the table, "fuck," he mutters.
Shigaraki and Dabi look over to him, "something you care to share with us Hawks?" Dabi asks.
"Was the person who hurt them, a woman?" Hawks asks.
"Uh-huh, how'd you---"
"Blonde?"
"That's what Gentle said."
"Ugh!" Hawks groans loudly and leans back in the chair, taking off his eye protector to rub his face. "You've got to be kidding me."
"So you knew about this person?" Shigaraki asks.
"Pantu keeps an eye on her because of shit like this," Hawks says.
"Well you gonna leave us guessing or what?" Dabi asks.
"She's Horizon's girlfriend, I think, not exactly in a position to ask," Hawks says. "Nobody is supposed to know about her, and Pantu usually has people keeping an eye on her incase some idiot villain attacks her."
Everyone at the table feels a cold chin run down their spines, faces suddenly drained of color.
"So...he attacked Horizon Tower, fought his girlfriend, then stole his sword," Shigaraki mutters in disbelief. "And then he called us afterward and made this our problem!"
"I'm sorry boss, I didn't---"
Shigaraki raises a hand to stop Twice's apology, "its not your fault Jin, nobody could have expected anyone to be this stupid, or suicidal, now we just have to focus on a plan to move forward and get ourselves as far away from this as possible."
"How's the girlfriend?" Dabi asks. "That La Brava woman is dead, Horizon's girlfriend must be some kind of savage animal."
"Uh," Twice looks down at the table. "She's, probably dead."
Everyone in the room groans at that, feeling yet another headache starting.
"Really glad we aren't in Japan right now," Shigaraki says. "So, I'm open to suggestions to how we deal with this, I say we dump Gentle and his girlfriend's corpse in Japan and let Horizon deal with it."
"We should get as much info as possible on the girlfriend and Horizon Tower before we do, it would be a waste to not gain something from this," Dabi says.
"And La Brava's Quirk!" Twice added. "It's a power-up for her allies, but I'm sure our mystery doctor can mass produce it for us."
"Both good ideas," Shigaraki says. "Until Horizon gets his hands on Gentle and rips that information out of him, then suddenly it looks like we sent him to attack Horizon Tower and kill the girlfriend, do either of you want that problem? We also can't not send him back, otherwise Horizon will keep searching until he finds us."
Dabi and Twice frown at that thought.
"We can't even harvest her Quirk, because eventually he'll notice it in a Nomu and the same thing will happen, we just have to dump them somewhere."
"Or you could get the best of all worlds," Hawks says. "Let me call Pantu, I'll organize a spot for you to drop them off and have one of our people there to find them quickly. They get captured and interrogated, I leak the info we get about Horizon to you guys, and maybe La Brava's corpse vanishes from the morgue before it gets to the incinerator."
"That's a lot, can you really make it happen?" Dabi asks.
"Pantu wants everything she can get on Horizon, and you guys, and this gets you away from the issue when her...interrogation, reveals that you refused to help Gentle."
"Horizon will still want a piece of him, can Pantu deal with that?" Shigaraki asks.
"Nobody can, that's why she's so worried about him," Hawks says. "But better her problem than yours, right?"
"Whatever gets this bomb out of my hands," Shigaraki says. "Go make your call."
As Shigaraki says that a purple mist shrouds Hawks and warps him away.
Hawks suddenly finds himself back in his Hero Agency, sitting on the same chair he was in a moment ago, warped along with him.
Before he can even take out his phone it begins ringing, and looking at it he sighs, "yo Lady President, what's up?"
"You've been at the Shigaraki's base for a day, things have happened that I need your focus on since then."
"I already know, and I've got some good news for you," Hawks says. "The duo that broke into Horizon Tower is currently in Shigaraki's base, along with the sword they stole."
"Was Shigaraki behind this?"
"No, even he isn't dumb enough to make a fight with Horizon personal, how's Ryuko?"
"She hasn't been seen leaving the tower, but Tokyo isn't falling from the sky, so she must be alive."
"Which is more than I can say about La Brava, Horizon's sword through the heart put an end to her."
"I see," Pantu says. "So if Shigaraki wasn't the man behind this, who was?"
"Gentle and La Brava wanted to break into Horizon Tower for the attention, apparently they're the only people who didn't get the memo to avoid Horizon. They called Twice when they got beat up, turns out they had a number for him since Gentle was on a short list of wanted recruits for a heist they wanted to do, at UA."
"UA?"
"That's literally all the info I have on it," Hawks says. "But Shigaraki doesn't want to be the guy with this hot potato when the music stops and Horizon comes knocking."
"Where will we dump them?"
"That's all I need from you, a location, they'll do it within a city, that's as specific as he'll ever go since he's scared of people running through the Warp Gate into their base."
"Send them to Ryukyu's city, the dragon can collect them and fly them over to a mountain facility for interrogation," Pantu orders. "And do you have any leads on where his base is?"
"Sorry, still no signals, and I never even get to go outside, but it's on a mountain of some kind, that's all I can tell."
"Alright, good work Hawks, contact me if anything else comes up."
"Gotcha," Hawks says before hanging up. "Kurogiri, I'm ready," he says quietly as the Warp Gate manifests around him once more.
In but a moment he's back in the meeting room with the villains, all looking at him expectantly.
"Yeah Pantu was already calling me to talk about this exact thing, just like I said, and I'm sure you heard from the bugs in my office, she wants to rip intel out of Gentle and La Brava."
"Good, we'll drop them off in five minutes, close to Ryukyu's agency, on a rooftop," Shigaraki says. "Good work Hawks, and stop sulking like that Jin, mistakes happen, and nobody could have expected this situation to ever arise."
"Well I should get out of here and go call her, and I need to show my face while doing some Hero Work, the weekend is starting after all."
"Right, you're mentoring that UA trash still," Shigaraki says.
Hawks narrows his eyes at Shigaraki, "Tsukuyomi is a good kid, not 'UA Trash'."
"Whatever," Shigaraki waves his hand and Hawks is warped away once again.
"So, we keeping the sword?" Dabi asks.
"No, it has a tracker built into the metal of the blade, the moment we send this back to Japan Horizon will show up looking for blood and answers."
"But the Radio Wave Nomus we have here don't allow the signal to leave, so shouldn't we keep it?" Twice asked. "I mean don't we want Gentle to be taken alive by the government."
"I'm not taking any chances, so go pack, we're moving to a base on the opposite side of Korea just to be safe," Shigaraki says. "Plus, Horizon wants Gentle dead, so if he shows up when the government has him, that puts them against each other, and that just sounds fun..."
---Minutes Later...
"What?!" Gentle yells as he's harshly dropped onto a concrete rooftop, only wearing a pair of shorts. Bandages wrapped around his chest and arms, as well as his head.
The impact of him hitting the rooftop sends shockwaves of excruciating pain through his body, but those are easily ignored as he looks to his side.
Hearing a thud and metal clattering, seeing La Brava's bloody corpse and Horizon's sword dropped beside him.
"La Brava!" He crawls over to her and holds her in his lap, looking at her precious face once more, wishing he had just another moment with his love. "They couldn't save you," he mutters as tears begin falling from his eyes to her body.
His quiet weeping goes on for a few minutes, until the sound of loud flapping and the feeling of strong gusts of air pushing against him are felt, but not enough to move him.
He looks over his shoulder and through tears eyes see's Dragon Hero Ryukyu landing on the roof behind him, then he looks at La Brava once more, ignoring the Pro Hero.
"Gentle Criminal," Ryukyu's voice was intense, but had a certain softness to it as she took in the scene. "I need you to come with me, it's for your own safety, please don't resist."
"Why would I resist?" Gentle asks, still not looking away from La Brava. "Life is already over for me," he gently caresses La Brava's cheek.
Seeing his injuries Ryukyu realizes the man is in no shape to fight, and shrinks down to her human form.
"I know this is hard for you," she says while walking up, gently placing a hand on his shoulder. "But if you stay here, you'll die, and so will the memories and love you have for her, then there won't be anyone left to remember her."
Gentle sniffles a bit then wipes his eyes, "you're right..." he takes a moment to recount what she said when she first got her. "Wait, you said I'm in danger? What did you mean?"
"We need to get you out of here before Hor---"
SHAMBLES!
The three people and sword disappear from the rooftop, swapped for simple leaves.
END CHAPTER---