The backlash was immediate. It had barely been an hour since the Hero Public Safety Commission's announcement, yet the entire country seemed to have already formed an opinion.
The television screens scattered throughout the emergency response center continued displaying the same footage.
PROJECT HAVEN
The words remained at the bottom of the screen while a panel of commentators argued over the announcement.
"...I understand the intention, but asking people to leave their homes is an extraordinary measure."
"Extraordinary times call for extraordinary measures."
"Are you suggesting the Commission shouldn't be doing anything?" The lead commentator slammed his fist on the table. "You need to stop speaking from a high and mighty position. Don't you even understand what this means for regular citizens?"
The other gritted his teeth. "You think I don't know? What exactly can the people do in this situation? Sit around and wait and keep being attacked by villains? Have you not seen the reports? We're ... "
Momo Yaoyorozu barely paid attention to the debate on the Television. Her phone was pressed against her ear as she stood near one of the windows overlooking the emergency response center.
"Yes."
"No, I understand." There was a moment of silence. "I see. That's good news." Her shoulders finally relaxed. "Please tell her that I said she should rest. And make sure she doesn't try to return to work immediately."
On the other end, Uraraka had barely replied when Midnight's voice came through.
"Well, I'm happy my students care so much about me. Still though, I am not that fragile girls."
"Ribbit! All she's saying is you need proper rest."
Uraraka protested. "Yeah miss Midnight. You got pierced through the shoulder so you ought to take it easy."
"Alright girls. I get it. I'm not so young that I need to be nagged by you all. Anyway, we're safe now, Yaoyorozu. Take care of yourselves over there."
"I will. Please be careful on your way back," Momo said. She lowered the phone with a long, drawn-out sigh, pressing a hand to her chest as the connection cut out. The knot that had been twisting in her stomach since the first reports of the ambush finally loosened."
"News got you worked up?" The voice came from behind her.
Momo turned to see Setsuna Tokage leaning against the adjacent wall, her hands resting behind her head with her trademark sharp, razor-toothed grin.
"Things are pretty chaotic, aren't they?"
Momo shook her head. "It's not that. While the Commission's announcement regarding Project Haven is certainly concerning... my call was mainly inquiring about the well-being of my friends and teacher."
Setsuna's eyebrows rose.
"Oh. You mean the convoy the Nomu attacked? Is everyone ok?"
Momo nodded. "Mostly. I heard there were a few casualties but my classmates are fine. Honestly I don't know what to feel."
"No kidding. Another Nomu popping up out of nowhere. With what they faced, it feels like a small miracle amidst everything happening today."
"I wouldn't call it a miracle," a familiar voice interjected into their conversation. "Just bad timing and worse luck." Momo turned her head snapping toward the hallway entrance. Standing there in his hero costume was Yuta, his red hair slightly disheveled, with Tokoyami walking half a step behind him.
Momo's expression immediately brightened.
"Yuta."
"Hey girls .." Before Yuta could even finish, Momo moved towards him. driven purely by a sense of relief seeing him standing there alive and intact after that terrifying broadcast, she rushed across the floor and threw her arms around him in a tight hug.
Yuta froze entirely, his arms sticking out at his sides like wooden planks, his eyes wide in absolute shock.
A second passed. Realizing what she had just done, and feeling the sudden silence of the room, Momo flushed crimson. She immediately scrambled a step back, bringing her hands up to cover her cheeks.
"I—I am so sorry!" Momo stammered, her voice an octave higher than usual, her eyes darting everywhere except at his face. "That was... extremely forward of me! I simply... after seeing that interview on the news... I was so deeply concerned that you had done something completely reckless ..."
".."
Yuta looked at her with a deadpan expression. It was far worse than he expected. Yaoyorozu was the one with the most composure among the class girls, and second most after Todoroki in the whole class.
If even she was acting like this, he didn't even want to imagine what would happen if he saw the others.
"Do I seriously look suicidal to you guys?"
"Well, yeah, a little bit," Setsuna chimed in, pushing off the wall and sauntering over with a mischievous glint in her green eyes. "I mean, I sure was convinced."
Yaoyorozu didn't say anything else.
".."
Yuta resisted the urge to facepalm, realising just how convincing his ability to manipulate his facial expressions were. Thankfully, Eri didn't have access to the internet yet and had been away from the television else even she would be worried.
As for his mom .. well, that was a whole other story.
"Let's drop this topic."
"Agreed," Setsuna grinned, stepping up right beside them with her hands resting casually on her hips. Her sharp, razor-toothed smirk was as mischievous as ever as she scanned Yuta from head to toe. "Though I doubt there's much to talk about. After all, ..."
Even though this wasn't the first time they had met, Setsuna's approach was unexpectedly forward. She leaned in slightly, nudging his shoulder with an amused glint in her green eyes. "You were practically the main event today. Half the country was probably reaching for their emergency heart meds when you said your piece."
Yuta blinked, features looking a little taken back. "Oh .. sorry. You are?"
"..." Setsuna's facial muscles twitched.
"You know it's rude to joke around. You know that right?"
".."
The facial muscles twitched even more.
On the other hand, Yuta wasn't kidding. During the summer camp, there had been a lot on his mind and Class 1b weren't particularly memorable.
The entire event hadn't lasted long either.Besides a few memorable ones like Neito Monoma who was naturally obnoxious, Tetsutetsu who was buddies with Kirishima and had been introduced to the boy friend group and Kendo Itsuka, the class representative, the others had barely fit into his memory.
Well in the original anime, most of class 1b had been forgettable to begin with.
Setsuna took a deep breath, her eyes twitching as she crossed her arms and stared at him like he was an alien species. "I'm Tokage Setsuna! Class 1-B? Recommended student? I literally split my body into fifty pieces! How do you forget a floating lizard?!"
Yuta blinked again, slowly connecting the dots. "Ah. Right. The green hair. My bad."
Setsuna too a deep breath. "I can see what you're doing, trying to change the subject like this."
Momo, who was still trying to recover her composure and flush away the lingering embarrassment from her sudden embrace, cleared her throat and looked away slightly. "Akutami-san... does tend to be somewhat preoccupied with his own thoughts."
"Hmph. Well, I can see how he got to announcing his retirement without a second thought. Would it kill you to at least pretend."
"It wasn't that bad. I was just being honest about how annoying the whole thing was."
"You have quite the perspective young man." A calm voice came through the corridor. Everyone turned to see Majestic walking towards them.
"Sensei."
"Sensei."
Majestic nodded in acknowledgement before focusing his attention towards the new arrivals.
"Welcome both of you. I'm Enma Kannagi, you can call me Majestic."
"Hello sir."
Majestic smile slightly before turning to Yuta entirely. "Do not belittle yourself, young man. Lizardy's words, flippant as they may sound, carry the truth. You did extraordinary work today, and even more so as a young hero still in training. Defeating such a creature is a feat many veteran pros would struggle to accomplish."
The Pro Hero paused, reaching out to place a hand on Yuta's shoulder.
"If these were normal times, you would be receiving grand parades, national admiration, and the full praise of the country for what you accomplished today. I am truly sorry that instead, so much burden has been placed on you like this. I hope my words can at least let you know... those of us standing here recognize what you've done."
Yuta looked at the Pro Hero's sincere face for a second, then simply gave a light smile in return as he brushed off the speech given. After all, All Might had given him plenty of those already.
"Thanks, Majestic-san. But really, everything is fine," Yuta replied. "I wasn't looking for a parade anyway."
'Poor child.'
Enma thought internally at the reply. In this day and age, what child could say on live Television that were going to give up their career as a hero? This was probably a first in the history of hero society.
He sighed and changed the subject. "Now then, I believe Hawks has already explained the situation."
Tokoyami nodded. "He has."
"Excellent." Majestic gestured toward the nearby room. "Come with me." He said, turning around and leading the whole group. "The Commission has expanded the search for the League of Villains. We'll be assisting with the investigation."
"Any leads Sensei?"
"None. Teams are searching abandoned facilities, underground routes and possible safe houses throughout the surrounding prefectures. We're primarily handling the western sector."
Yuta fell into deep thought. How the League of villains had been found was unknown to him, but since they managed to escape and had a warp quirk at their disposal, then he doubted they would leave any traces in the short term.
Long story short, this wasn't going to go anywhere. Facts proved that his theory was correct.
Hours of fruitless searches passed and nothing showed up.
From one area of the western sector to the other, the team searched. Instead of finding the league of villains, Yuta proceeded to stop several more criminals and petty crimes in the process, receiving a host of looks and attention everywhere he appeared.
'I guess I don't really have any choice now, do I?' Yuta thought, checking another location that had turned up empty.
Taking Kurogiri away had proved useless. Aside from not trusting the authorities to handle the warpgate after the series of events that took place, Yuta's imprisonment of Kurogiri was meant to lure the league of villains to find him. After all, warp quirks were rare, and Kurogiri was supposed to be a valued member of the league of villains.
In Yuta's impression, with the abilities he had displayed so far, crossed with Kurogiri's value, he had assumed the League would be unafraid of him and attempted to locate him by now.
That way, he could catch them himself.
Of course that plan came to a bust after two weeks.
Either the League were now extremely cautious and not confident enough to retrieve him, which made no sense with the appearance of the Nomu he incinerated to ashes hours ago. Or they simply had no way to locate him to begin with.
The third option was that they knew but simply didn't want to risk anything. It would be no surprise as they had another warp quirk in their possession.
Yuta chose to believe the second option. If that were the case, then keeping the warpgate in captivity outsider of a fortified prison was no longer ideal.
'Should I stage a reverse tailing? ...'
He was halfway through his thoughts when the sound of murmurs came from the street below.
'Huh?'
Curious, he flew down, only to see a large group of people gathering before a billboard.
'What's going on? Don't tell me it's another attack.'
Yuta slowed his descent and landed on the pavement several meters away. A few heads immediately turned.
"Isn't that—"
"That's him!"
"Wait, is he the one from earlier?"
Yuta immediately regretted coming down.
'Great.'
He ignored the growing attention and looked toward the billboard.
The standard news broadcast—which had been endlessly dissecting the HPSC's Project Haven announcement was replaced with the scene of a press conference underway at a corporate headquarters.
Standing behind a podium was an ugly looking man with a long nose, skinny features, thinning hair and a well tailored business suit.
"Good evening Citizens of Japan," Yotsubashi began.
"My name is Rikiya Yotsubashi. CEO of Detnerat enterprises, and today I have an announcement to make, specifically regarding the HPSC's project Haven."
'Now what?'