Chapter 12 - Meeting

Tokyo, Japan's busy capital, mixes the ultramodern and the traditional, from neon-lit skyscrapers to historic temples, was now a place of predominantly runes. Well, mostly the eastern part of Tokyo, where the ward area of Tokyo Metropolis lies.

The outburst of the suicide holocaust started in the Ginza district of Chūō special ward, soon spreading out to the others around it. It lasted only 57 minutes, but the suicide holocaust had affected all the other wards and even a bit of Mitaka.

Minato was one of the wards that bordered Chuo, meaning it was one of the hardest hit areas. The Roppongi district of the Azabu Area of Minato was now primarily a wasteland due to the extravagant ways people chose to commit suicide.

Some might even call it art.

It was during this time that the pilot of the plane flying over the city was struck. As a result, he crashed into the Roppongi Hills Mori tower in order to commit suicide. This killed the 300 passengers on the plane and thousands inside the tower.

As a result of the Mori tower destruction, several smaller buildings were affected, resulting in even more deaths. It even got uglier for the roads, with trucks running into houses in numerous places.

"Detective Tsukauchi, hold on." A man cut off Tsukauchi's presentation, drawing the attention of everyone else at the conference table. "You haven't yet said the actual cause of this. You are explaining the effect but not the causes, so please do."

"Right." A woman added, turning back to Naomasa, who had fixed up his appearance and now wearing his signature tan overcoat and matching hat. "Do tell us.

This is the conference room of one of the government official buildings in Chūō, being more spacious than the one in the main building, housing 30 seats. It was now holding a conference with influential people like the president of the Public Safety Commission, Kenji Tsuragamae, the local government officials of Tokyo, some heroes, and many more to discuss the damage to the wards area of Tokyo Metropolis and how to deal with it. Nezu was not part of this meeting since he wasn't in a high enough position to be in it.

"Well," Naomasa typed something in his computer as two images popped up, belonging to Ankoku Kijima and a child named Kuragari. "This man used the child to cause the holocaust."

"So it was caused by the Mad Ankoku and the Horror Vessel we heard about eight months ago." A man looked at the president of the Public Safety Commission and Kenji sitting next to him and chuckled. "So you two failed to capture them? What an incompetent bunch."

"I agree." The president of the Public Safety Commission agreed, "We are incompetent, but I doubt you will be able to do better if you were in our position."

The man scoffed, folding his arm. "Yes. I do doubt I will be able to do better. I run a company that deals with Machinery." He glared at them, "But you don't see me letting my Machinery fall into the hands of a villain. I do my job, and I expected you two to do yours by capturing those things."

"It is more complicated than you think." Naomasa said as Ankoku's profile disappeared, replaced by three images of two different black ghosts and one transparent ghost. "The black ones are easy to deal with, but the transparent ones, which we coded with the name negative ghost, are the problem."

"They are intangible, making them immune to all attacks thrown at them and are extremely fast with an estimated speed of 129 kpm." Kenji interrupted and started explaining, "The most dangerous thing about them is their attacks."

"If those ghosts pass through anyone, those people will become overwhelmed with negative emotion, go into chronic depression, ultimately leading to suicide." The president's eyes scanned the table, "Meaning just one ghost can cause the death of everyone in this room in less than five seconds, and the child has six of them. Now imagine what would happen if a psychopath gained control of that child?" She chuckled, "Well, we don't have to imagine anymore. A suicide holocaust is what happens."

Silence fell upon them as a cold wind passed through the room. They felt as if death was staring at them, ready to kill them at any time. "We-where is the child?" A man stuttered, "Please tell me you have the child in custody."

"We will discuss that matter at the end of the meeting since we aren't here to talk about the child but the damage to the wards." The president replied, leaning back in her seat. "Continue, Naomasa."

"Thank you." Naomasa nodded, typing something on his laptop to send away Kuragari and the ghost's profiles and bringing up multiple images of the destroyed wards, people who have become homeless due to the damage, injured people, hospitals overflowing with patients, and many more. "First, I will start with the damages done. More than 260 square km has fallen to ruins-"

"How?!" A man shouted, standing up. "I know those ghosts make people commit suicide, but that shouldn't affect the environment to that extent. 260 sq km? That's almost half of the total ward area of Tokyo."

"I agree with him." A woman replied, typing away on her laptop in front of her. "If this much damage happened from people simply committing suicide, the ghosts would have chosen the people whose death would cause the most destruction."

"Exactly. The ghosts specifically targeted places that will deal the most damage and kill the most people." Naomasa replied, changing the screen to show pictures of multiple large-scale accidents caused by suicide. "Tokyo Shuto Expressway, a total of 5 airplane crashes, one power plant explosion, and many more."

"That's a very dangerous quirk." A woman mumbled, clenching her fist on the table. "In less than an hour, it caused this much damage. If this had carried on for six to seven more hours, all of Tokyo would have been affected."

"It's devilish." A man shuddered. "I truly hope you will tell us the good news at the end of this meeting that you have the child in your custody."

The president didn't respond to their statement and continued, "So, what should we do about the damage?"

"You phrase it as if you don't know who will fix these damages." A man replied. Unlike everyone else, he wasn't there but was part of the meeting through a laptop live streaming. Sitting on his chair at the table was his beautiful female secretary. She was in charge of carrying the laptop around to where he wanted to visit or the meeting he was called to, due to his inability to get there by himself.

The person on the other side of the screen was a massively obese man weighing over 2,000 pounds. He sat on a massive mattress on the ground, his naked body only covered with a blanket.

"You look fatter than last time I saw you." A woman said, her face morphing in disgust.

"Yep. I am about to reach 2,500 pounds. Isn't that cool?" He replied, smiling, which caused all the fat on his face to jiggle. "No one would be able to break this record! HAHAHAHA!" He laughed, the fat in his entire body trembling, genuinely proud of his massive weight, which 90% of the people he meets find disgusting.

"I get disgusted whenever I see you." A man grumbled, looking away from the screen. "Please turn off the camera."

"You can turn it off, Nezuko." The obese man spoke, referring to his secretary, who silently turned off the video. "So, let's get right to the point.*Munch*I would fix the damage*Slurp*but I---"

"Are you fucking eating!" A man shouted, slamming the table with his fist and standing up. "In a serious meeting like this?"

"I need more fat*Sluuuurp*to fix them." The obese man replied, his voice suddenly turning serious. "But, I am not willing to do it for free."

"What do you mean!?" A woman asked, glaring at the computer screen.

"Don't you see the situations the people are in?"

"You are still asking for money in this kind of situation? I can accept it any other time, but how greedy can you get?"

"You are the owner of 'Damage Control.' Japan's largest AND the world's second-largest construction company specializing in constructing new structures and repairing property damage caused by conflicts between heroes and villains. We all know you can fix most of these damages without spending money." A man said.

"...You are right. I don't need any money to fix the damages caused to those parts of Tokyo, and I doubt those people that have lost their friends, family, and homes have the money to pay for the repair." The man replied, causing everyone else to sigh. At least he understands. "But, I am a businessman, so I need payment."

"..."

"Hahahaha! Did I get your hopes up!?" The man roared wildly in laughter, causing most people on the table to boil in rage. "No, seriously," He calmed down. "I am not a hero or a good Samaritan. I am a greedy bastard, and I crave money. My employees need their money for themselves or their families. I won't let them work unpaid labor. I also need the money since I am currently the 11th richest person in the world and need to get into the top ten."

"You are a greedy bastard. You know that?" A man who hadn't reacted to his word sighed. "Don't worry about the money. The local government will pay you. I will also try to get the prime minister on board with this."

"We just need to know how quickly you can fix these damages." A woman by his side asked.

"Depends on the amount of money I get." The man replied, causing groans to sound around the table. "If I get sufficient funds, I can finish all the constructions in one year, according to my estimate."

"How much do you need?" The woman asked, looking down at her tablet. "If you don't know, just give me an estimation."

"..." He remained silent for a while before asking, "What do you think, Nezuko?"

"About 200 billion, give or take 70 billion." She quickly replied, causing the man to chuckle. "You hear that? Write it down."

"Ok." The president spoke, drawing the attention back to herself. "Now that the topic has been addressed, let's move on to the next topic."

"In these three days after the suicide holocaust, the heroes and the police force have been working together, and we have retrieved more than 200 thousand bodies." Kenji's words shocked everyone except Naomasa, including the president. "It might even be more, so we should discuss what to do."

"Th-this is outrageous." Someone stumbled, holding their head. "200 thousand people? What kind of monster is Ankoku to make the child do that!?"

"And the worst part is that he seemed extremely proud of what he did." Naomasa added, chuckling. "The guy is crazy."

"No. We don't have the right to discuss this." The male government official, who hadn't reacted to the obese man's words, said, shaking his head. "This should be under the control of the prime minister. Two hundred thousand lives and more to come? This is beyond our authority."

"I agree." The woman beside him added. "This is similar to when Nana Shimura fought All for One, causing the death of 270,000."

"If the battle wasn't on that island, I am sure 1/4th of Japan would be destroyed." Someone mumbled, to which the others agreed to.

"It's funny how we are able to compare a child's quirk to the fight between the world's strongest hero and villain." Kenji pointed out, clasping his hands on the table. "It seems like the Paranormal Singularity Theory is real. A five-year-old child has a quirk that can bring chaos and death far surpassing everyone in the past."

"Then, do you guys have the child in custody?" Someone eagerly asked, "We are done with this meeting, so it is time for you to answer our question."

"No." The president replied with downcast eyes. "The child and Ankok have been reported missing."

The room fell silent. A while later, the obese man's voice came through the computer. "*Chuckles* We are in danger."

"What the actual fuck!" A man shouted, slamming the table with enough force to break it in half. "How the hell did you let them slip by after they have caused this much chaos."

"This is outrageous." A woman shouted, "If that child grows up and learns to control its quirk, it will be nearly impossible to capture it since it turns out we can't permanently kill it since it can revive." She wasn't even thinking of imprisoning the child, only killing it.

"Oh, the child can also revive." Naomasa added, presenting Kuragari's profile. "Meaning he could revive from---"

"Wait. The child can also revive?" A woman cut him off, "If that is so, then I know where she is."

"What?" The president asked, leaning forward on her seat. "Where."

The others were also curious, to which she explained, "There is a rumor spreading around in Shōwa, Yamanashi. It's of a child that revived from death after being torn apart by a truck." She explained, noticing the confusion in everyone's eyes. "It seems like Ankoku escaped with the child, leaving Tokyo."

The man who broke the table stood up. "This meeting is over. I will send the investigation to Shōwa." With that, he hurriedly left the room.

Everyone stood up and hurriedly left, leaving only the president, Kenji, and Naomasa, who was packing his things. Just as the president stood up to depart, Naomasa turned to her, "All this was your fault."

The president turned to Naomasa with narrowed eyes. "Me?" She asked, confused.

"Yes." Naomasa replied, turning to face her. "I looked through the security footage of that day before it mysteriously disappeared. You ordered one of your men to kill this child, which led to the event of that day, and a chain of events led to what happened three days ago."

Shaking her head with a grin, the president said, "That's amusing."

"What do you mean?" Kenji asked, turning to the woman. "Is what he's saying true?"

"It can be." The president shrugged, walking to the door. "But, there is no evidence, so it isn't true."

"An absence of evidence is not evidence of absence." Naomasa recited, causing the president to pause.

"You are right." She smiled, "However, what can be asserted without evidence can also be dismissed without evidence." With that, she left the room and walked towards the door, turning to Naomasa one last time. "Try to find more evidence before you come to me with that claim next time. It hurts me to be connected with this holocaust." She shouted from down the hall.

"I knew something was wrong with that whole situation." Kenji sighed, massaging his forehead. "There was one body missing from the dead officers we retrieved that day. Several things were going on, so we didn't dig deep into that matter, but now I understand."

"His body cam must have revealed something, so she took the entire body instead of only taking the body cam." Naomasa speculated, "If she had only taken the body cam, it would have raised more suspicion."

"Yes." Kenji agreed, irked by what the president had done. If what Naomasa said was true, which he believes is true, then it was all her fault that hundreds of thousands of people died. If she had just waited instead of secretly sending her men to assassinate the child if she knew that assassination wouldn't work since the child could revive after it died. All this death and destruction wouldn't have happened. "Well, it seems like all evidence has been lost."

"Not exactly." Naomasa shook, putting his laptop into his bag. "Hypnotic can help us." Although the former hero now had a hard time using his quirk due to the impact of the negative ghost on his mind, he would definitely force himself to use it if it is to find out the truth about Ankoku and Kuragari's escape, which later led to the suicide holocaust.

"Meet with him and try to get him to help." Kenji ordered, leaving the room. "Time will be ruff from now on." He grumbled, back to his usual self.

Naomasa quickly packed his stuff, putting it inside his tan leather briefcases, matching his overcoat and hat, and leaving the building. The sky, once covered in smoke three days ago, has been cleared by All Might, who did it with one punch, letting the afternoon sunlight illuminate the city.

For the past three days, All Might has been moving around the wards area of Tokyo without rest, helping everyone he could. He managed to clear 90% of the street that was occupied by cars, debris, and dead bodies by himself, the other heroes and volunteers doing the remaining 10%.

Like the symbol of peace, he kept smiling, bringing peace to those who saw him and reassuring them that everything would be all right. Because of his drive, many other people came forward to help with the destruction, some even using their quirks. Normally, this would be considered vigilantism, but at a time like this, no one cared.

Naomasa entered his car, putting his briefcase on the passenger seat before calling Garrick. The phone rang for a few seconds before he picked up. "What?" He asked in a tired tone.

"I need your help with something." Naomasa said, putting his keys in the ignition. "Can you use your ability on---"

"No." Before he had time to finish his question, Garrick declined. "My ability causes pain whenever I use it, and it isn't something I want to use. Even though it will reveal why Ankoku and Kuragari escaped nine months ago."

"...You already know?" Naomasa frowned, looking at his side mirror, watching the president of HPSC enter a black car that soon drove out of the parking lot, followed by multiple other cars that protected the one she rode.

"Yes. I work for her now. I am not a hero anymore, but I still need money to provide for my family back in America." He sighs, "And all the money I saved was put towards my therapy! Can you believe that!? Seven fucking billion!!!"

Naomasa didn't respond, so Garrick continued. "Well, I also had to pay for the 21 people I mistakenly killed with my quirk during the therapy. I might have mistakenly rumored someone to kill themselves."

Naomasa kept quiet, causing Garrick to sigh. "Hypnotic is no more. Only Garrick Fernsby remains. A quirkless man, diligently working to provide for his wife and daughter. Good-bye." With that, the call ended.

Naomasa gritted his teeth, slamming the steering wheel of his car and causing it to honk. "Fuck!" He screamed, resting his forehead on the steering wheel. "I should calm down. I don't have the right to be mad. It was his decision. I just have to find another way to make her talk on tape." He breathed, "It should be easy."

Calming down, Naomasa started his car and drove straight home. Getting out, he entered his two-story house, a house he bought as a gift to his family because their old house was too late.

"That can't happen now." He murmured as he entered the house. Throwing his coat, hat, and briefcase to the living room couch, he walked to his kitchen cupboard and brought out some dog food. "I hope my dog wasn't starving." He smiled lovingly, knowing that it was all he had left.

Putting the food in a dog bowl, he headed to the basement, turning on the light. Foam covered the room, like a padded cell in a psychiatric hospital, and his dog lay at the center.

"Hello, my dog." Laying there was Ankoku, with all his limbs served, the skin sewn together by an amateur to keep him from bleeding out, his eyelid cut to keep his eyes forever open, and all his teeth removed. "I hope you haven't been waiting." Naomasa smiled, a deep blush on his face. "I missed you~."

Chapter End~~

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Word Count: 3405

I have nothing to say. Literally.