17 Chapter 16 – A New Deal With Giran

3rd POV

The Next Day

The chairman of the hero association had expected a lot of things this morning, when he got to work, but he certainly hadn't expected 29 respectable and fairly powerful underground heroes to be in the hospital, suffering from mild to more severe concussions and a few broken bones and bruises.

And those 29 heroes were obviously the ones he had sent to ambush and capture knockout. Strangely, though, there was one hero that was also participating in the operation that was practically unharmed, Eraserhead.

Speaking of him, he had a meeting with him soon, as Eraserhead was the only one who had seen the entire operation, from start to when it was failed.

The chairman of the hero association entered his office, only to find Eraserhead already writing there, reading a bunch of papers that were probably a report of the operation.

The Charmain started speaking as soon as he entered the room:

"Eraserhead, I want a full report of what happened during the ambush, from start to finish, and what we could do next time to get a better result."

The underground hero nodded, as he was already prepared for those questions, and answered:

"Firstly, exactly 47 minutes before knockout arrived, we took position in the designated alley and hid, waiting for Knockout to arrive."

"Forty-seven minutes after, knockout arrived with three villains tied with him. As soon as he was within range, I used my quirk to erase his warp gate quirk and told him to surrender, he chuckled in response, not seeming surprised by our ambush. He then said my real name and what my quirk did out loud before we could attack him."

"After, he snapped his fingers and Bind, the hero, was thrown from a rooftop to his feet by a small but controlled explosion. He then continued by saying the same information about Bind, before knocking him out with a kick. We were too shocked and didn't attack straight away, so he had the opportunity to repeat the process with another one of the heroes, Echo."

"It was at this moment that we all simultaneously attacked him, teaming up in hopes of bringing him down before he would say more incriminating information. Unfortunately, I didn't work at all, and during the next minute, he continued to regularly throw heroes at his feet with explosions, before revealing their private information. It went like this until I was the last one remaining."

"He said that the only reason I wasn't knocked out like the others was because he admired me and that I was one of his models, before taking a picture of all the knocked-out heroes and leaving. After he left, I called the hero association to take care of the knocked heroes and returned home to get a good night of sleep."

Eraserhead finished explaining and tried to leave to go sleep, but, to his regret, they still needed him in case they had any question.

"Well that was…Horrible", the hero association chairman said. "I'd even say this whole operation was a disaster. He likely knew about it in advance, so he managed to sneak explosives on the hiding spots of the heroes directly. He also took the time to discover the identity of every single hero participating. Also, we greatly underestimated his combat capabilities. Thank God he wasn't a villain or this could've turned out way worse."

"But the explosions are confusing me, he needed to have or put a bomb on each of the heroes, which would've been near impossible, or he could have bombed the exact spot the heroes were hiding, which is also unlikely, because we were monitoring the alley the whole time, or he could also have an explosion quirk, which is even more unlikely as, first, people with three quirks are extremely rare, secondly, an explosion quirk like this doesn't make a lot of sense, he made explosions on spots he didn't have a visual on, and from thin air….So how did he do it."

"What am I thinking, he could've of put bombs on all of the hiding spots possible beforehand with his quirk by making small warp gates…We really underestimated him, I understand now, he did all of this to send a message…He could've opened a warp gate in my office and dropped a bomb at any time if he wanted to. Wait, he must've also bugged my office, that's why he knew about the ambush beforehand!"

"We played in his palm the whole time…"

The chairman was the one who had proposed this operation in the first place, so he was responsible for what happened during it. He gladly admitted that it was a big mistake to try and capture knockout, but they were lucky he went easy on the heroes. He was also pretty intelligent most of the time, and he realized he was way too hasty in trying to deal with knockout, so he had severely underestimated him

"Also, I think we would be none the wiser to continue to try to capture knockout for now. This time, he went easy on us and warned us, but he may not be as gentle next time…"Eraserhead spoke again.

"Yes, I agree with you. Knockout had just shown that he has extremely good information, even about us and he warned us. I don't think we'll do another operation like this before quite some time. We also need to warn about everyone that their offices could be bugged by a criminal."

Even though the hero association chairman was one of the men who disapproved and feared knockout the most, he was by no means stupid and understood that further actions against him would immensely backfire. He would let knockout of the hook….For now…

Giran's POV

I found myself thinking about this Vigilante, Knockout, once again. He really had surpassed my expectations, he had taken down AnArchY basically by himself, in about six months. Even a fully fledged villain group had failed to destroy AnArchY, so it was quite the surprise he had done it.

Also, I had just learned that he had just obliterated an ambush of thirty heroes and was tailor-made against him. And from what I had heard, it had been a one-sided slaughter, though none were killed or would suffer permanent injuries.

The more I thought about him, the for I was thinking that he would be the best person for a certain deal I had in mind. A deal that would benefit us both.

Raiko's POV

I entered Giran's office another time, I must say I was becoming a regular, but this time, it wasn't me who had requested of the meeting, and that was confusing me a lot. I really don't know why he would've requested to see, as the last time I had paid him for information was some weeks ago, and since then I had been busy annihilating AnArchY.

We shook hands, as we have always done, and he spoke first:

"Ah, Knockout, it has been quite some time since we last saw each other. I must congratulate you for having finally destroyed AnArchY. You really surpassed my expectations. They were truly inhuman and even most of the underworld is happy that they are gone. Although, you are frightening some of the most, daring, not to say cruel, villain groups."

Now I was definitely confused, it wasn't in Giran's style to give even the tiniest bit of information for free, and, although the information he had given wasn't really surprising, it was still important. So he must have a request for me, I don't see why he would've given me information otherwise. Fine, it's not like it wouldn't benefit me as well. With that in mind, I answered:

"Yes, it was quite satisfying to finally clean Japan of these scums. Although, you probably didn't ask to meet me only because you wanted to congratulate me, didn't you. You must have a reason, otherwise you could've used this time to make more money, and I know there's nothing you love more than making money. So, why did you want to meet me."

"Quite perceptive, aren't you", Giran said. "And also straight to the point, as always. Well, the reason I asked to meet you was that I have an offer for you, an offer that I believe will benefit us both."

"Oh, consider me interested. Although you know my stand about everything evil, or that don't agree with my moral code."

"Yes, I believe that it won't go against your morals. You see, I intended to make a deal with you. As you know, being in the informant isn't always safe, there are a lot of people that covet you and, most importantly, what you know. Thus, once in a while, a particularly ambitious villain group decides to try to "convince" me to give them information for free or to work for them. Of course, as I value my freedom and security quite a lot, I naturally decline those offers, but sometimes, the ones that made the offers in the first place don't exactly have the same opinion about it and decided to get a little more…Physical."

"So you want protection, and what would you offer me in exchange for it. Also, don't expect me to become your bodyguard, I won't and you know that."

"Yes, yes, I understand. And actually, it would be a partnership. You would take care of the more, ambitious, villains, and I would provide you with information that would normally be inaccessible or impossible to buy. Before you ask, the reason I chose you is that you are quite powerful, certainly powerful enough to protect me from whoever would want to harm me. Also, you wouldn't be my bodyguard, but I would have something like an emergency line to contact you if things go south."

That was pretty good for the both of us, I would get the information I needed, and he would bet the safety he needed without it limiting his freedom.

If I had the perfect spying quirks, why didn't I just get the information myself. Well, it wasn't as simple as that. Information isn't always said out loud, at random times, and even then, I couldn't have fingers typing for me everywhere. So, the best way to get information was to have contacts. And, I was a vigilante, I didn't have many contacts. Giran, on the other had, knew everyone. Like, every single person in the underworld was known by Giran. Not seeing any reason why I shouldn't accept his offer, I accepted it and we shook hand to seal the deal.

Now that we were partners, I needed some information…

"So, Giran, I have a request for you since we are now partners. I need to know everything about The Invisible Rose."

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AN: So, I'll review your other suggestions. But its the last time I do that because I probably won't be taking other suggestions for his quirk in the future now that the main setup is decided. You can still send some ideas and if they're good, I'll consider it.

First, Gigantification/Miniaturization. Well, if we went for Gigantification, I would've probably done something similar, but since you guys are into some creepy sh*t..

Second, Self-Biological Manipulation. This will probably a quirk that he would have in the far future, since it would be incredibly powerful, thus expensive. For now, though, he'll get a lot of quirks that he will be able to all fuse together in the future to get this, like Regeneration (obviously), Bone manipulation, Hana-Hana no mi, etc.

Third, Bone Manipulation/Gigantification. Yes, it would be good, but his bone manipulation will already be extremely strong, and it goes rather well with Hana Hana no mi, so it would be a good idea. Maybe in the far furure MC will have a Gigantification quirk, but he has lot of quirks to buy before that. Also, Hana Hana no mi can kinda be used as a gignatificaiton quirk

Fourth, someone said tha the MC should have an armor of some kind in his quirks, and he will have one. There's nothing preventing him from using bone manipulation, steel body and a bone hardening quirk to make himself a near indestructible bone armor.

Fifth, Deadpool regeneration. He will have something similar, but wayyyy less OP.

Sixth, Shadow Clone. I honnestly do not see the use of shadow clone for him, but Post Timeskip Robin in One Piece was able to use Hana Hana no mi to make a clone of herself.

Seventh, someone mentioned only a finger/hand gigantification quirk and that's honnestly a very good idea, so I'll consider it

Eigth, Control over Bio Electricity. Even though it's a good idea, I don't think he will have it since I already have a lot of quirks planned for him and I think it would a bit redundant with everything he will have. Thanks for the idea though.

Ninth, Yes, he will get some more body ehancing quirks because they're just sooooo good with his current build.