Chapter 124: Chapter 124: Start of War
March.
End of the month.
That fateful day...heroes vanished from the city.
Combining both Shido's and Hawks' information, the government and Pro Hero Association concluded with dealing with the League of Villains and their 'liberation' army.
The Paranormal Liberation Front was currently divided into various units, and the coalition's members and lieutenants had each been divided into these units by their respective dispositions.
The one responsible for the support for each of the other three bosses' units was Twice, leading The New World Movement Tactical Force, 'Black'.
The leaders who supervised everyone's positions around the country, with one exception, were Geten and Dabi, who led The New World Movement Raid Regiment, 'Violet'.
The ones responsible for the organization's intelligence were Skeptic and Curious, leading The New World Movement Intelligence Division, 'Carmine'.
And lastly, The New World Movement Support Unit, 'Brown', lead by Re-Destro and Trumpet.
But those seven were just the surface members. There was one more person that played a vital role in enhancing the League of Villains.
Shiga Maruta. Quirk: none.
Founder and CEO of the Jakku general hospital.
He upholds the idea of 'quirk-based community healthcare', and after the hospital's establishment, he began focusing his efforts on philanthropic work. He had set up orphanages and nursing homes all over the country and partnered with several private clinics. It's an extraordinary resume, and it had garnered him a great deal of respect.
Until today, that was.
"Based on the commission's advice, I had one of my subordinates go undercover...the blueprints of the hospital included an unlabelled space that even the workers don't know the purpose of," Tsukauchi quickly explained why they needed to target this well-respected quirkless man with the full might of the heroes, "It's an area you can only get to through the morgue....only Shiga is allowed access to it. But one of my workers managed to dig up some info on him..."
Tsukauchi quickly tapped on his tablet a few times before eventually releasing a photo to the rest of the heroes.
"Huh? What's wrong?" One of the heroes asked before another immediately slapped the back of his head.
"What's wrong with you?! Can't you see that creepy little thing down by Shiga's foot?!"
The hero who questioned the photo took a closer look and freaked out a little. Beside Shiga's foot, there existed something like a ball with a face, legs, and a tail.
The shape itself was already a creepy feature of that thing, but the most prominent and distinguishable feature was that semi-exposed brain - a trademark of nomu's.
"Gross! A tiny nomu!!" Pixie-bob shivered as she saw the tiny nomu on the screen.
"Shiga Maruta's arrest itself won't be difficult! However...if we mess this up, our people on the front line will be discovered...we have the trauma of Hosu and Kamino still haunting us..."
"Shiga, the nomu...Shigaraki twins...and the league...no!" Tsukauchi exclaimed, "Our destiny is to eradicate the entire 'Paranormal Liberation Front'! We will be making that destiny a reality at the mansion of the leaders' regular meetings at the mansion of the leaders' regular meetings."
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"Their ability to warp is alarming..."
"But the hospital team said they're taking care of the person behind it."
"If we catch the one who helps them run away..."
"Then they won't have any way to escape...."
Conversations similar to this happened all among the people present here.
Kinoko was shivering in her boots. Unlike some of her fearless classmates and friends, she was feeling scared and worried.
"Are you sure it's here? Weren't the League of Villains after UA?"
"Komori, their little group has gotten much bigger than before. The previous League of Villains is nothing compared to the League now." Shido, who was nearby, heard her question and replied with a smile.
"Itsuka-sensei..."
"We believe they've found a way to increase someone's power greatly...and the Shigaraki twins are trying to attain this increase in power as quickly as possible. You're not the only ones in danger anymore. If things went the way they planned, the whole country would be damned."
Although that was what Shido told the class 1-B students, his internal thoughts were different.
'If this doesn't go the way I planned it to, I will just erase the top brass of the organization and leave the minions to let the heroes deal with them.'
However, he knew that as All Might's successor, Izuku must overcome immense hardship to become the new symbol of peace in his own way. Shido was trying his best to help Izuku grow as a hero so that when he was finally forced out of this world, at least the heroes' side would still have the upper hand.
Shido looked up to the empty sky and frowned slightly. He had a feeling that someone was watching him over a month ago, and that feeling only intensified over time.
He asked Eri and All Might if they could feel anyone watching them, and while All Might denied any such things, Eri could also feel someone watching her, though it was just every once in a while.
After unlocking a bit of her potential, her senses had soared beyond what humans were capable of, and her instincts were pretty accurate.
He asked a few more of his acquaintances and friends, but none of them ever felt that feeling.
It was just Eri and Shido.
Shido had promised that he would fight the world for Eri's safety when he took her in six years ago, and perhaps, it was finally time to keep that promise.
He had hoped that that day would never come but following Murphy's law, "Anything that can go wrong will go wrong".
Shido sighed. He only prayed that this battle wouldn't go south.
[A/N: Things 'going south' is an idiom for things going wrong for those plebs who don't know the meaning.]
"Alright! Let's get to position!"
As the highest-ranking hero present, Shido would naturally take the lead, with the second-highest-ranking hero present, Edgeshot, assisting him.
Within a few minutes, the few hundred heroes that were present had scattered around the entire forest, each group having at least one Shido clone following them around, depending on the size and risk present.
"We've surrounded them on every side...we won't let even a single ant slip past us," Edgeshot muttered.
"Don't worry. We will succeed in this operation. We just have to place our trust in the hospital group." Shido stated as he stared at the mansion that was in his sight.
Edgeshot just looked at Shido's back with an expressionless face before eventually nodding.
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All over Japan, the streets were filled with nothing but civilians.
A couple in Nara prefecture was strolling hand-in-hand while observing and appreciating the peaceful area.
While the woman was just happily humming while holding on to the arms of her boyfriend, the man felt that something was a little off.
"Did something go wrong today...?" The man wondered out loud and tried to spot what was so different today.
After a few seconds, he eventually realized, "Where are all the heroes? Usually, there would be a few around here..."
His girlfriend heard his words and looked around before eventually spotting one.
"Ah!" She pointed in a direction and attracted her boyfriend's attention, "There's one!"
The hero who was being pointed by the woman was faring no better than the boyfriend.
Slidin' Go was an exceptionally tall, well-built man, possessing defined muscles and broad shoulders. He had small black eyes, a circular nose, and a prominently large, square jaw, with the lower jaw protruding outwards, and his mouth is notably high upon his face as a result.
He looked around the area and wondered what was going on in a panic. Usually, the place he was patrolling had tons of heroes present as this area was a popular hotspot for villains.
Yet, there wasn't any other hero in sight apart from him.
As minutes passed and he still saw no heroes, his bad feeling intensified. He was about to leave the area with the excuse of "not feeling well" when he suddenly felt a hand sliding around his neck. The first thing he noticed was the thick wristguards that the person had, and he felt his shoulders drop from the sheer weight of it.
Just as he was about to ask about the lack of active heroes, the person who held him, Death Arms, started speaking first.
"You're the only one who doesn't know..."
Slidin' Go was about to ask what he didn't know when Death Arms' next words froze him in his tracks.
"...wassup' traitorous liberation devotee!"
Slidin' Go's first instincts were to use his quirk and get out of Death Arms' arms. His quirk allowed him to smoothly slide across surfaces without resistance, increasing his speed.
However, his speed cannot be increased if he could not move at all!
Death Arms' quirk allowed him to have a superhuman level of strength in his arms, which meant that as long as Death Arms chose not to let go of his targets within his arms, the targets would never be set free unless the targets also possessed an equal might to him.
Slidin' Go didn't possess the supernatural strength Death Arms had, and as much as he tried to struggle, he could not free himself.
All around Japan, similar scenes were happening.
In Hosu city, some of the previous Ingenium's sidekicks who had turned into liberation devotees were also arrested by Shido's clones. They did not even have a chance to struggle before losing their consciousness and were tossed to jail.
Of course, all of these acts were done in secret. Even though the incident had come this far, neither the government nor the pro-hero association wanted the public to know this matter.
Heroes were supposed to protect the area, but if they were arrested by other heroes, where would their reputation go? It would be an irony to the extreme.
That was why the traitors were first being pulled somewhere before being taken down and sent to prison.
After doing that, Death Arms looked towards where the main action would take place and sighed in disappointment.
'If only I could be there to help as well...'
He shook his head and pushed that thought out of his mind.
His job was important as well, and though it might not be as flashy or directly influenced by the battle, his actions would help limit the liberation front's movement in public.
'Well, time to find more liberation traitors...'
*****************
"I wanna be...with you guys!!" Denki screamed in terror as he begrudgingly ran along with the rest of the pro heroes.
"Huh? You're already with us, aren't you?" Midnight, who was running beside him, teased him a little despite knowing precisely what he meant before turning completely serious, "Besides, you knew what you were getting into. We need your quirk. Just think of it as helping out the adults who don't have what it takes."
"Don't have what it takes?! Nope! Never thought of that at all!" Denki continued screaming, "Besides! Do you know how strong Itsuka-sensei is?! He's basically a one-man army with thousands of his clones!!"
"Kaminari. I learned something watching you play the guitar." Tokoyami, who was running beside Kinoko and just slightly in front of Denki, spoke, "You're amazing."
"Praising my shredding skills!? Not helping, here!" Although Denki was a little happy that Tokoyami praised his guitar skills, his fear overwhelmed the little happiness he had, and he started shedding tears.
Just as Tokoyami was about to elaborate further on what he meant, they reached their designated target area.
"Open up!" Cementoss yelled out in anger as he used his quirk on the entire building, creating a hole in the whole building's height on the wall.
The concrete started warping weirdly as the extra wood and metal structures fell to the floor without the cement's support.
Without even entering the building, Shido, who was right behind Cementoss, could already hear panicked screaming.
However, Shido was surprised to hear one shouting out proper commands and instructions, unlike the other mob characters.
"Oh? It seems that some high-ranking officer was just right behind this hole..." Shido smiled, "Well, let's get rid of all of them."
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