5

Inko stood with Nezu on her shoulder across the street from a school that was swarmed by a collection of police, curious civilians, and the media. The duo of retired pro hero and chimera watched as another set of teachers was escorted from the building in handcuffs, the reporters on scene scrambling to get statements from anyone they could about the developing series of school districts that had been "infiltrated by quirkist terrorists."

The two were drinking celebratory slushees (Nezu's being tea flavored) at another MLA scheme foiled. This school was the last of the 12th district (by their count) across Japan that had been seized, and they were beginning to realize just how insidious the issue had truly been. Once one went down, several more accidentally revealed themselves by going on high alert. Occasionally, some teachers that either weren't buying into the scheme or had suspicions of a conspiracy going on within the faculty sent in anonymous reports about their schools. The former led to a lot more indoctrination plots being revealed, whereas the latter still brought some to light but often unearthed even more unsavory happenings.

There was one particular school in Hiroshima that was discovered to not be a quirk supremacy racket, but it instead groomed those with decently powerful quirks toward the path of heroics, and then if they failed the entrance exam to their school of choice, they would be kidnapped and sold off to a mystery buyer. Nezu had yet to identify who was buying the kids, try as he might.

The two watched on as the media converged on another set of police with guilty staff members in tow.

"We're working our way up to Deika, right?" Inko asked, taking another sip from her slushee.

"Eventually," Nezu confirmed. "I don't doubt that attacking the small cells of extremists and the school districts they've infected have tipped them off, so it wouldn't surprise me if they've sequestered themselves in Deika and ramped up their timeline."

"Do we have to worry about any stragglers making their way over there to join their ranks?" Inko questioned.

"Not likely," Nezu began. "So far, interrogations haven't revealed anything about Detnerat or any modern iterations of the MLA. Those who have been questioned only revealed their connections to various quirk supremacy groups. Some even had ties to the Creature Rejection Clan of all things, and as such, the crackdowns appear as a nationwide move against quirk discrimination of any kind rather than a specific move against a terrorist group."

"And that's the story the media is running with," Inko sighed.

"It appears so."

"So, no great loss for the MLA either way. At least we took down their undercover immersive propaganda machine. Although, I'm curious as to what the point of it all was if they weren't creating soldiers with it."

Nezu hummed in consideration while taking a sip from his tea slushee. "Staging an insurrection and sparking an inevitable civil war for an antiquated ideology is one thing. Doing so with a population who are already sympathetic to the fundamental principles of that ideology is another thing entirely. These indoctrination camps were just set up to preemptively get the populous amenable to their cause for when they do decide to move. It makes it a much more difficult battle for the government to fight."

"Well, I suppose anti-discrimination isn't exactly quirk liberation, so they're no closer now to that goal than they were before our crusade," Inko concluded.

"Perhaps, but I'm not naive enough to think that they can't work with this. Fighting discrimination against mutation quirks is somewhat tangential to quirk liberation; there's enough of a thread there to latch onto if they have a competent PR team."

"Let's hope they don't," Inko slumped, finishing her slushee. "We all done here?"

"Indeed, let us return to UA. The entrance exam needs planning!" the chimera excitedly chirped.

"About that," Inko began and she started the trek back to UA with her boss still on her shoulder, "Is Izuku taking the recommendation exam?"

Nezu hummed in consideration once more at the question. "I considered it at first given his circumstances, but his admittance into the hero course is a foregone conclusion at this point. There are only 4 available spots for recommended applicants, so it would be wasteful to cut it down to 3 right off the bat and boot an applicant down to the general exam whom otherwise would have qualified."

"That's… strangely considerate of you," Inko replied with narrowed eyes and suspicion coloring her voice.

"I also wouldn't get to throw scores of robots at him in the recommendation exam," he joyfully added.

"Ah, there it is," she dryly replied.