AN: I'm sorry this came a day late, but due to some circumstances, I simply couldn't get anything out yesterday.

In recompense, I added a little something extra on the last chapter, so go look at that.

"We have no lasting friends,

no lasting enemies,

only lasting interests."

-Winston Churchhill

The officer narrowed his eyes at the young teen with eyes too old for his youth.

"...Compensation, you say? While we may not have any true evidence to lock you behind bars, Izuku Midoriya... We certainly aren't blind either," Utilizing his greater physique, he bared down 'menacingly' at the boy, in the pathetic way that all politicians tried to emulate but failed miserably in the end. "You are nothing more than a Villain. Be grateful that we aren't throwing you behind some bars and throwing away the key."

Or maybe his sense of danger had just dulled after being exposed to monsters like All for One and All Might.

It certainly seemed likely, not that it made the man before him any more threatening.

No, the tricky thing, in this case, was what he represented; a member of the government. A government that could make him a criminal, and more vitally, sent their swarm of heroes after him if he looked the hornet's nest too much. But it wasn't like he didn't know that. Retrospectively, the reason why he asked as such in the first place wasn't in any grand bid to make the government spit out their coffers.

They would, most likely, spit on him.

After all, it wasn't as if the ruling body of the land played by its own rules. If things got inconvenient enough, Deku reckoned that he'd get a swath of make-believe charges on his head condemning him to hell and back, with a few 'eyewitnesses' of his 'heinous crimes' to push him along. Which, if they were already that certain enough of his identity and it wasn't just a side adventure they'd gandered down all by themselves, meant that something else was going on here.

'Which must mean it has something to do with the timing. I'm sure they didn't just now get this information. It's because I showed something unknowingly of worth that made them spring into action without a second thought at a 'known' Villain. So it can only be...'

The quirk erasing bullets that Zero had sent word about.

In other words...

It sure was a good thing that he was only setting the stage of negotiation. Starting with something absurd and then lowering it down 'graciously' to the thing you actually want and expect to get is one of the pillars of the negotiation world, and he knew well enough about it to abuse it fully.

After all, he couldn't necessarily count on Gray's ability since the government dog had the guts to come out in front of him.

Even as the Heroes were still under paralysis and unable to move whatsoever.

"Is that so?" He pretended to grumble, before quickly moving on to the next point of contention. "Fine then. Have it your way, even if you do make some truly ludicrous claims about me. At the very least, however, don't you think you owe me the decency of an explanation for this false attack? Of course, if you cooperate with me nicely, I'll make sure to seal my lips on this incident entirely. I'll never breathe a word of this to the media for as long as I live."

A compromise, a threat, and a bribe all in one.

He had outdone himself here if he did say so himself.

While it was a bit of a shame to just throw away this incident entirely, he didn't have a squeaky clean background he was projecting he did. While he had done a good job covering up his tracks, to the point that even the government couldn't easily find any dirt on him, that didn't mean that cracks didn't exist. He wasn't omnipotent, after all, and the fewer minds peering at his most recent activities, the better.

Even if he did do it, it might provoke some outrage among the citizens, but it might not make a difference among the other baits he set up.

All in all, wrapping this up quietly was the best-case scenario for him.

Not that he would ever let Mr. Officer know that.

The man threw an unconscious look over his shoulder, features hesitant, mouth sliding into a grim line as no reply came back.

Deku instantly felt the alarm bells ring.

What if they didn't have a counter-measure against him, but-

"We don't bargain with Villains, Sir."

-the man himself was just expendable?

'Goddammit. This is the worst-case scenario, and worst yet, one I hadn't accounted for. Isn't the government a place of scrawny officials and cowardice? Why the hell are they acting like kamikaze warriors, off to slay the enemy's head even if they die themselves in the process? And Gray still can't get a read on his companions, so I can't say for sure if they are recording this or something else...'

He clicked his tongue.

'No, even without it, I'm sure they can find some kind of charge for daring to bargain with an official. It seems that... I have no choice.'

He had to leave here without finding out their motive, for the unknowns were too great in recompense.

With a frown, he stared at the room, plotting possible exit routes that weren't likely to be on lock-down. Really, the only real avenue was the window; the fellow had looked back unconsciously at the hallway past one of the two doors of the room. While that still did leave the other door, common sense and his instincts didn't like that either. For one, he couldn't see past it, and two, they were stupidly easy to barricade.

While the window was an obvious choice, his speed should be enough to circumvent that.

The government officials, while being mysteriously brave, weren't widely renowned for their strength, after all. Everyone with a fancy combat quirk went out into the world with the intent of being a hero, not a kamikaze government official. And since strength was mainly an innate feature in this world, unable to be trained that much, he doubted the government had too many special forces of considerable strength under their belt.

'Okay, enough thinking. It hasn't been long, but there's no point in asking questions without viable answers. Time to break out.'

"He's building up energy! He's gonna-"

Gray flared within him, runes of lightning condensing around his calves as he shot out of the room like the devil was on his tail.

"-escape?"

The Heroes and the Government Team seemed to be paralyzed by stupefaction, although the Heroes were still under the hold of Gray's influence, so perhaps it wasn't far to say that they were just as surprised and distraught, although there definitely was a degree of shock there as well. And to the officially dubbed Government Team, they did react relatively quickly.

Just not quickly enough.

And so, as he crashed through the reflective window and into the garden outside, not only did his pursuers not catch him, even the one's in hiding could do little more than stare as he sped on past him in what was seemingly the blink of an eye. It was almost anti-climatic, really, although that was only an illusion.

He had been on a very, very fine tightrope that he could have plummeted off at any second if he didn't react quickly enough or didn't think things through. So razor-fine, in fact, that he felt the paltry amount of pride he had stir, leaving a bad aftertaste of anger in his mouth. He had just about had it with people forcefully inserting themselves in his life and trying to control everything he did, even if, in this case, it was a direct result of the crimes he committed.

He definitely knew that, and yet...

It didn't stop the anger threatening to tear him apart.

It was with those thoughts and feelings in mind that when he skidded to a stop in an abandoned parking lot with an equally creepy warehouse to match and the connection he had over the heroes fizzled to an end because of distance, that he had only one command for Gray.

'Contact Dabi and the rest. Tell them that it's time to begin the operation— this farce has gone on long enough.'

The glistening serpentine grin in his mindscape would have frightened him, if he wasn't feeling the exact same.

{With pleasure.}