The Shogun

Chapter 23 : The Whispers in Steam

Then

The rhythmic hum of espresso machines and rich yet disgusting aroma of coffee beans fill Izuku's nose as he enters the coffee shop with the ding of the bell going off as soon as he opens the door. The place was quaint but it felt homey enough and he quickly understood why the person he was about to meet chose this place.

It's been two weeks since Gentle and La Brava joined and to say that he was not busy would be an understatement. With La Brava on board, they could finally go forward with their plan. The stages of blackmailing they had prepared went like this. Izuku chose the hero to be blackmailed. La Brava and Mori would look into them. When they find dirt on the said hero, Izuku would step in to begin blackmail. La Brava bounced his phone location with her skills. He would call them once, and let them know about the dirt they had found. It would cause the hero to give up some amount of the money they had earned. The money would be asked to drop at a random location in the city and Gentle would collect it. But before bringing the money back to their place, Gentle would take a detour and would go through the contents, just to make sure that there was no tracker. Repeat the above two processes one more time and when they take the money for the third time, expose the dirt to the entire world. That way they wouldn't stick their heads out for long, risking exposure and lay low for a while.

Till now, only two heroes have become victims of their blackmailing. It's not that they couldn't find dirt, but if the blackmail attacks become too frequent, it will definitely bring in some attention, making La Brava's job very difficult. There were heroes whose specialty is cybercrime afterall. La Brava also had a job of managing stocks. She would help Izuku to select which stocks were better to invest, which stocks to sell and all that gibberish stuff.

While all this stuff was going down, Izuku and Mori were looking into business opportunities. With the money they had coming in now, both of them decided to start a salvaging company. They would take in steel and recycle it. The recycled steel would be sold to support companies. With around 50% of the funds Oyabun had left for them and some of the money Melissa had managed to send, they managed to buy a small ship. They already had people who can dive in water. So under the name of Akatani Mikumo, Akatani Salvage Company came into existence.

And now, here was Izuku, waiting for what could be his future business partner. His master had managed to get a list of contacts of people who were struggling in their business. There were few people who caught his eyes, but when he saw this name, he knew who he wanted to partner.

Uraraka Construction Company. A business venture that has seen better days at one point but now they are at the point of going under. The owner was doing everything to stay afloat. But that was not the only reason Izuku wanted to partner with them. While looking into the family background of the owner, he came across a familiar face. The girl who saved him from the embarrassment at UA turned out to be their daughter. Uraraka Ochako was her name and right now she works under Dragon Hero Ryukyu using Uravity as her hero name. The green haired man felt guilty when he went through their background in detail and it turns out she became a hero to support her family.

He didn't know why he chose this company, but if he had to guess, it was because of the kindness she had shown even for a small while. Maybe it was his way of thanking her.

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Now

"Don't tell me that the Uraraka you are talking about is actually the Urarakas we know? The Urarakas who are known to be one of the leading construction companies in Japan? That Uraraka!?" Reina asks in shock.

"Would it be weird if I said yes?" Seiran asks sheepishly.

"I wouldn't be surprised if that is the case", replies Reina.