Summary: Action ahoy! At least a little bit! As the Shie Hassaki arc begins...

Warning! Chapters 59-61 were all published back-to-back! Make sure you don't miss any!

Chapter 61: Underworld

"Resolution, what's your ETA on the security system?"

Izumi hummed and forwarded the security camera footage from inside the warehouse to Nejire and Ryukyu.

"I'm already in, I'm just cross-referencing all the cameras. There are five blind spots where more could be out of sight, but there are thirteen total goons visible, plus Crackerjack and Nox. I've marked the map with the blind spots, if Hydra can take a look?"

There was a quick acknowledgement from both her Nejire and Setsuna, so Izumi set that aside and went on with what she'd discovered so far.

"Most of the goons don't have anything more than a few small-time crimes on their rap sheets, but three of them have Quirks that could make them dangerous. Here, I'm highlighting them on the security feeds. Taser hands, Dazzle, and Spectral Armor. High output electrical current from Taser Hands, enough to be a problem if he touches anyone but me. Dazzle essentially makes heatless fireworks. Not a physical threat, but can act like the flash part of a flashbang. Spectral Armor is the most combat-oriented of the problem Quirks, as it summons a set of ethereal armor around the user with extremely high physical resistance. That goon is the only one with some more serious offenses on his sheet, and he's hanging out near Carackerjack and Nox. Possibly a previously unknown lieutenant."

A pleased hum came across the comm as Nejire looked over the information. It was the older student that had asked for the ETA, having been put in charge of running this bust by Ryukyu. The Dragon Heroine was present, but would only step in if they ran into a major problem or made a serious mistake. So far, she hadn't said a word, which Izumi took as a good sign.

This was the first operation more involved than simple patrols that she and Setsuna had been allowed to participate in, though it was also only their second week. The first of their 4-day weeks had consisted mostly training and said patrols, getting into the groove of working at an agency. Both she and Setsuna had been assigned the same schedule, at least for now, working a part day on Wednesday, then full shifts on Thursday through Saturday.

It would have been a lot for most people, and Izumi could see the stress it was putting on her fellow Work Studies student already, but for Izumi it felt like getting to properly stretch for the first time in a while. While the chaotic events of the year had kept the issue mostly at bay, the truth was that Izumi had felt more than a little stifled by being back in a classroom again. The issue with a brain that, even without hyper-cognition activated, worked at a speed several times faster than a baseline human was…well…that it was easy to get bored.

The fact that Izumi already knew the vast majority of the material her courses were covering didn't help, and neither did the fact that she didn't need as much sleep as most people. Prior to UA, she and Momo had left the traditional academic system behind years ago, mostly working through correspondence style courses…while simultaneously running Aegis Inc, inventing support gear, helping with disaster relief, and training.

What might have been worrying amounts of overwork for normal people was simply their normal operating tempo because of the changes their respective Quirks had made to their minds and bodies. Izumi's case was more drastic for obvious reasons. But Momo's Quirk had induced some similar changes on her, at least in terms of mental capacity. Her girlfriend's brain couldn't have handled real-time construction of massively complex items at the atomic level if it hadn't been majorly rewired by her Quirk, after all. Those changes, enhanced by more natural genius, had been the entire reason Momo was in the same advancement schooling system that Izumi had earned her way into. One that had been designed to work with people whose Quirks caused them to outstrip any sort of normal educational environment.

Izumi admittedly felt a bit guilty as she watched the other students who had chosen Work Studies struggle. Most of them were only doing 2- or 3-day work week agreements, something she suspected Setsuna would eventually break down and accept as well. Yet, despite that, they were all clearly feeling the strain that Midnight had warned them about. Izumi, on the other hand, was just feeling like she had an actual challenge for once. Which was, if anything, somewhat invigorating. A feeling she knew carried over to 2B, who had been let loose in cyberspace to help track down a number of minor villain groups.

One of which they were set up to raid right now.

This group had some Yakuza affiliations, and seemed to be pushing some new type of enhanced Trigger the powers-that-be were worried about. Normally it would be something more for the police to handle, if not for both the Trigger presence and a number of minor villains acting as enforcers for the groups involved in distribution. It smacked of a greater organizational level than the Yakuza was supposed to be capable of these days, which had gotten a number of agencies involved. Not to mention, of course, that combining Trigger and villain enforcers made the need for Heroes to contain the inevitable rampage critical.

"All blind spots checked out. Two additional goons at lookout points in spots 3 and 4, the two up on the catwalk. Scouter pulled details that I'm forwarding, looks like both have heightened sensory Quirks."

Izumi frowned as the packet came across from Setsuna. One man with infravision, another with a type of sonar. Useful for criminal work. But, again, their presence in what was, pretty obviously intentional, concealment in security blind spots spoke of far more organization than low-level groups like this one were normally known for. It could simply be a particularly competent gang leader, but neither Crackerjack nor Nox showed that sort of competence on their own criminal rap sheets.

Nox was a bruiser, whose Night-Night Quirk was a five-finger activation Quirk that disrupted the nervous system of whoever he managed to lay all five fingers on. Crackerjack, the official leader of this group, was a slightly more likely suspect. He was a decent thief, his Cracker Quirk allowing him to break into security systems so long as he could make physical contact with them. It was certainly possible that he'd noted the blind spots…but this was a thief that had gotten caught for being lazy several times. Unless someone was riding him, it seemed unlikely he'd have gone to the trouble. Something Nejire apparently agreed with, as her voice came across the channel a moment later.

"Hmmm, this whole thing is super suspicious! Izumi, can 2B get us anything more on that new guy with the armor Quirk?"

Izumi sighed…and forwarded the files of dubious legality that 2B had already acquired. She'd already been going over his known associations and pointed out the problem as she sent the files.

"Check out his rap sheet. He's known for working with the Yakuza alright. But not this group of them, and he's a lot nastier. Multiple assault and rape charges, dropped after a suspicious string of deaths involving a judge's family and three witnesses. The whole thing reeks of old-school pre-Quirk Yakuza, but there aren't supposed to be any groups left with that much influence."

For the first time that night Ryukyu spoke over the line.

"That isn't quite true, actually. It's just that the remaining groups that were large enough steered away from violence. They showed strong survival instincts by shifting away from Quirked crime and villainy. Instead, they doubled down on white-collar crime, gambling houses, brothels, and so on. Not quite legitimate, but close enough that it was deemed better to leave a lot of them in place, so long as they didn't cross certain lines. A case of 'better the devil you know.'"

Izumi frowned at that, but nodded a moment later. It was fundamentally impossible to eliminate crime. And, in some ways, it was actually easier to deal with organized crime than random acts of gang violence. Organized crime knew when not to push, if they didn't want to hose money away. Which also meant they could be convinced to stay away from certain types of crime by making things like human-trafficking too much of a losing proposition. If the Yakuza had shifted away from violence and towards scams and entertainment, she could easily see them surviving in larger numbers than most people realized.

"Why the upsurge in violence, then? Trigger alone would be sure to force action against them. But this is looking like it might go deeper than that. I'm seeing an usually high number of guns in there, too."

Ryukyu's voice was clipped as she responded, a bit of worry creeping into her voice.

"I'm not sure. Continue with the operation but take every precaution. Hold off your assault start for another three minutes. I've pulled Chamela and Titania off the northern patrol. They'll be here in three and will act as additional backup if things go wrong."

That was a slightly worrying response, actually. Particularly as Titania was easily the second heaviest hitter at Ryukyu's agency. They were being trusted to make the initial push still, at least. After a short pause, Nejire began outlining the assault plan, starting with Setsuna taking out the two hidden lookouts…

... ...

The opening phase of their attack went better than they could have hoped. Izumi wasn't a stealth specialist by any stretch of the imagination, and was forced to admit that there was a strong benefit to having one along. Setsuna, her parts armed with an Quirk-based soporific agent, managed to eliminated not just the two hidden spotters, but three more goons besides. Technically, she got one more, but that sixth had a greater degree of resistance and managed to raise the alarm. Which, in turn, got Izumi, Nejire, and 2B moving.

None of the three of them had Setsuna's penchant for sneak attacks. They'd chosen weak points that didn't house any particular structural load for the building and burst through two walls and a roof access hatch respectively. It was 2B's roof access attack that went in first, her Pod blowing the access hatch with a breeching charge and darting in through the smoke to fire a wave of capture grenades at carefully chosen clusters of goons. Of the dozen that Setsuna's opening attack had left free, 2B's capture grenades took six more out of the picture, though the Spectral Armor thug had deflected the two aimed at him and the leaders.

That was fine. Of the six that remained, all of them were too focused on 2B's Pod to react as Izumi and Nejire hammered their way through the walls and instantly eliminated the three remaining grunts, leaving only the leaders left. Crackerjack was clearly panicking, but Nox and the armor quirk user were not. Flex, the name the Scouters has pulled up in association with the Spectral Armor thug, slid neatly and professionally between the other two and Izumi…only to regret all his life choices as Izumi decided he was durable enough to treat like a bouncy ball. His ethereal armor held up just fine as she used her telekinesis to bounce him between the floor and ceiling like a toy. His brain and other assorted organs, however, protested this treatment by going on strike, the carefully-calculated G-forces of the abrupt shifts in direction quickly causing the man to black out.

The move was one Izumi had long ago worked out to deal with villains who had 'impenetrable defenses,' without having to risk leveling a city block or two finding the limits of said defenses. It worked neatly here…but it did leave her slightly vulnerable, as her telekinesis required a bit of concentration to prevent an over enthusiastic application that would leave the target dead instead of just knocked out. Nox wasn't an issue, Nejire neatly handling him…but Crackerjack managed to get his shit together enough to pull a pistol and fire a single round at Izumi.

A single round that stopped short as Izumi plucked it out of the air with two fingers. She blinked curiously at the needle tip on the bullet, cocking her head as she looked at the gaping villain and held it up.

"Was this…supposed to do something special?"

The man never had a chance to answer as Setsuna rejoined the fight by jabbing him in the ass with one of her soporific-laced needles…

... ...

Izumi was once again around the main conference table at Ryukyu's agency, undergoing a debriefing. Thankfully, things were not as dire this time as they had been on the previous occasion. Fate, however, seemed discontent with leaving well enough alone and had replaced the heavy air of death from the Nagoya Incident with an air of confusion. Even tinged with worry as the confusion was, it was still better than before. Which still didn't exactly make it ideal. One of the agency's police contacts had joined them, and the detective was consulting something on a tablet as she carefully examined the bullet-dart that Izumi had snatched out of the air. Ryukyu had run them through a debrief of their actual actions in the field as they waited, but now the police expert had gotten their attention as she snapped the tablet closed.

"No doubt about it. This is the same as the other cases we've run into in the last few weeks. Some sort of Quirk-Factor-Damaging bullet. Its effects are, so far at least, temporary. But a number of heroes in disturbingly far-flung areas have run into it. The longest recovery time thus far has been three days, but the variance in effect is a concern, as it indicates it could be a prototype of something far more dangerous."

The worried frown on Ryukyu's face had grown deeper, and she pointedly asked a follow up question.

"Has there been any connection to the Yakuza with previous usage? Or are they just another buyer?"

The detective hesitated for a moment, then seemed to come to a decision.

"Technically, this is an ongoing investigation by Sir Nighteye's agency. However, since you now have a reason to be involved, I can say that the suspected source of both the new Trigger formula and the anti-Quirk bullet are the same. Specifically, all current evidence points to a dangerous Yakuza faction called the Shie Hassaikai that has recently radicalized. They are, at this point, on the border of being declared a villain organization instead of Yakuza. I'd strongly recommend, given what you ran into, that you get in touch with the Nighteye Agency."

The Dragon Hero's expression smoothed somewhat, though a touch of annoyance replaced the retreating frown.

"Never have liked that man, but he is good at investigation. We will follow up with him and see what comes of it. Thank you, Detective Shawiarza."

The detective, a brunette in her thirties, took the obvious dismissal for it was it was. She quickly forwarded the case file numbers to the agency and left Ryukyu, Tess, Izumi and Setsuna to discuss the matter farther. The moment the detective left, the Dragon Hero turned to Izumi and Setsuna, giving them a small bow.

"My apologies for getting you involved in something so dangerous Resolution, Hydra. I know you've become used to such situations entirely too early in your career. But that's no excuse for me, however unintentionally, putting you in the middle of an operation like this on your first major deployment with the agency."

Izumi quickly shook her head.

"No! Much better me than virtually anyone else. I mean, even if that bullet had actually hit me, I'm effectively impervious to small arms like that. Even with the small surface area of a needle, that round didn't have enough velocity to actually penetrate since I was in Brute Mode with all my physical defenses maximized."

Ryukyu paused as Setsuna echo a denial that apology was needed, though looked a tiny bit more pale doing so. Understandable, given it was hard to predict what such a bullet would do with a Quirk like Setsuna's if it got past the light armor of her suit. Still, apology made, the heroine chose not to belabor the point. As she herself had pointed out, the current crop of UA students had far too much experience to really be considered proper rookies.

"Regardless, you and Hydra performed admirably. Depending on what we find once we contact Sir Nighteye, you may or may not be involved farther. But you did good work tonight. The two of you will take tomorrow off from both patrols and training to rest, before returning to work. Got it?"

Reluctantly, Izumi agreed. More for Setsuna's sake than her own. Her fellow UA student was looking a little rough. Besides, there were always plenty of things Izumi could do with the time. Like follow up with the leads the suspiciously silent 2B was undoubtedly digging up as they spoke. As much as she hated to admit it, even to herself, having a partner with dubiously grey morality when it came to hacking was proving to be seductively useful as a heroine-in-training…

... ... ... ...

(A/N): This is the one-per-release that I mention this and my other works have a Patreon Page. Currently, chapters 62-66 (roughly 16,000 additional words) are already up in early access! Not to mention there are early access chapters of my other stories amounting to roughly another 30-40k words at any given time. If you're enjoying this story, please consider tossing a bit of support my way?