Requiem of the Broken

Chapter 15: The Hounds of Zeus

Nezu was seated at the head of the U.A. meeting table with various different teachers, heroes, and H.A. representatives. They were all involved in small discussions amongst themselves while Nezu waited in silence with Aizawa and Detective Tsukauchi to his left and right respectively. They had been waiting in the room for about 10 minutes so far, waiting for Dr. Okimi to arrive with her report.

So far the assembled individuals had all been briefed on the attack at Yaoyorozu Manor, and how nearly all persons involved had been drugged and restrained. It was a distressing and very disturbing event. The fact that Zeus's organization had managed to move nearly 50 para-military personnel through the city and to a highly secure private property owned by one of the wealthiest and most powerful heroes in the country undetected, was one of the most alarming events in the past few years. It spoke to both Zeus's rapidly growing power and the Association's failings in keeping tabs on him and his people. It had been three days since then, and the Association was in chaos trying to discover as much as they could. The woman they had captured was currently in one of the few quirk-suppression rooms at New Tartarus, under constant surveillance and being fed sedatives to keep her unconscious. As no one knew the upper limits of her strength they wanted to play it safe.

"Things are progressing faster than I had anticipated. Should I start putting some of my contingencies into play this early?" wondered Nezu darkly.

"At the very least I'll need him to come out of retirement. I should also work on accelerating Project Rebirth, should the worst come to pass it will be our last chance in the long term for victory." Nezu sighed and took another sip of his tea, as another problem came to mind.

"Why sedatives? why not kill them outright? All For One displayed the ability to use corpses to create Nomu, as he did with Kurogiri. So why only sedatives?"  This was the one thing about the attack he didn't understand. Of all the scenarios he had envisioned, of the reasons and results of the attack, the desire to only render them unconscious was the one thing that didn't add up.

"Obviously, he wanted them alive for something, and the leader of the attack said they would all wake up in the same place where they had been put under. Assuming he was telling the truth, it meant that they needed them only unconscious for whatever it is they wanted. Or, he needed them alive for something first before killing them." He took another sip of his tea. He needed more information, but he wasn't likely to get that anytime soon. He did feel like there was something lurking at the edge of his mind though. Some answer or theory that might clear this mystery up, but just wouldn't come to him just yet. It gnawed at his mind and he hated that feeling.

His thoughts were cut short however when the door opened and a familiar figure in a white coat and blue dress shirt came in.

"Ah, Dr. Okimi, it's good that you have arrived. I presume your report is ready?" Asked Nezu, raising his voice so everyone could hear.

"Yes, I'll just need a moment to get everything set up." She replied as she went to the computer connected to the projector and inserted the dongle. It took her another minute or two, but eventually, she stood up, remote in hand, and turned the projector on.

"The attacker's identity has been confirmed to be that of Aria Lin. A half-Japanese, half-European immigrant who moved into the country with her husband about 13 years ago. She would later give birth to a son and seven years ago the entire family vanished into thin air. Authorities suspected a quirk-related homicide and spent a great deal of time trying to tie anyone to the murder. Needless to say, it's now obvious she wasn't in fact murdered but abducted instead. Her quirk was registered as Blood-Conversion, with the power to absorb and assimilate any imbibed blood into her own. Her blood type is also unique to her alone. The following video is as much of the footage we could obtain of the attack. Only the interior cameras were operational, as exterior ones had been disabled. " She said as she played the video compilation detailing as much of the recorded attack as possible.