-Rain of Sins-

-Arc Start: Phantoms Dance-

-Phantoms Dance: Ch 1-

Three Days From Coronation

Tobo Abiko was in what you might call a "difficult situation".

As Prime Minister of Japan he had been put in office by a stable nation that, thanks to All Might, was the safest it had been in centuries. Really the only major issue was that with such a thriving Hero industry, the country's other economic sectors had been somewhat neglected. He had run on a platform of ambitious economic strategy, dropping tariffs and signing free trade agreements with as many friendly nations that he could, to give his nation's companies a larger market for their goods- Australia, Indonesia, even the ever supportive far away America. (Always so eager to be friends with their gateway into Asia, and willing to bend backwards for the continued right to station military bases on the Island.)

It had initially faced some backlash, but people settled down when he began funneling the tax revenue from the enormous Hero industry to subsidize any struggling industries, to not only protect them from being run out by cheap foreign goods, but to actually be able to drop their own prices and compete with the giants.

The amount being spent on subsidies wasn't sustainable in the long term, but it would have given the private sector the time to grow into something that could stand on its own, and help diversify Japan's economy.

…

It would have, but it was hard for companies to grow when the country was on fire.

"The Constitutional Republic party was a cornerstone of the coalition, and they've practically dissolved into nothing from a drop in voters and vicious infighting after the safety bill passed. Without them I don't know how we can get her enough seats to keep you in office." His assistant said grimly as she finished updating him with the situation.

"Then get some other parties on our side damnit! What about the greens? They gained seats in yesterday's election, right? We could offer to help them pass those emission standards they've been whining for. The conservatives won't like it but we've been good to them, we can afford to push them a bit."

"That would require us to be able to get something through congress. The Communists have formed a non-grata block, voting against every legislation no matter what it is, even if it includes things they've been demanding for years. They're saying they won't let anything pass until they're made the head of a governing coalition, they've roped the socialists in on it too, and it's made it incredibly easy for any other mildly large power-blok to completely burn a bill, as a third of the seats aren't even participating."

"Bastards!" Abiko grumbled. "They're willing to collapse the country if it means they get their way. What about the far right? We might be able to play them off their hatred for the far left."

"Rutherford said he won't collaborate with our coalition until you publicly retract your comments about the HPSC's recent actions, and his party is a populist one, none of them would break their party line to go against him."

"Retract my statement!?" Abiko slammed a hand on his desk. "Those fucking bastards are the reason we're in this mess! First they go and start shooting everyone who steals a candy bar, then they start torturing people who haven't even been found guilty in court! No, not even! They record themselves doing it, and get it leaked online!"

"Come now Prime Minister, we both know that's not what our official statement on the matter says."

The door to the room creaked open, to reveal Martin Melian, Vice President of the HPSC, wearing a crisply ironed suit.

The PM and Vp stared at each other for a moment with unreadable expressions.

"...Leave us." Abiko shooed his assistant who made a hurried retreat out the door.

"The interrogation was done by an individual agent who overstepped their authority and acted without the approval, or knowledge of the President, and the higher brass. They have been relieved of duty and tak-"

"That's crap and we both know it." Abiko spat. "I should have your whole organization gutted. You've always operated outside your legal limits, and we were forced to let it slide, turn a blind eye, because you were to rooted into the Hero system-"

"Because our work was convenient for you at the time." Martin corrected.

"You crossed a line!" The PM snapped. "People are watching an innocent man get cut open on their TV, watching Villain attacks spike through the roof and point their fingers at me!"

"Innocent? No, the man was a Villain, we have the confession for such."

"That you beat out of him before he was put in front of a jury!"

"The interrogation was done by an individual agent who overstepped their authority and acted without the approval, or knowledge of the President, and the higher brass-"

"I'M NOT A FUCKING IDIOT!"

The Prime Minister slammed his hands on his desk, papers and pens clattering to the floor.

"...Tell me, Prime Minister, do you know of the Russian term vranyo?"

"I think I've heard of it before." The PM mulled it over in his head, pulling up old language classes. "It's one of the Russian words for lying, right?"

"It means a certain situation where I'm lying, you know I'm lying, and I know that you know I'm lying, but we both go along with it because it's what's best for the both of us to do so."

Aboki laughed, it was a hollow, exhausted, and angry thing. "So let me get this straight. You want me to turn a blind eye to what you're doing? Sell out my own citizens' rights, while also sabotaging my life's political career?"

"No. We want you to acknowledge that the incident was caused by an individual who acted on their own authority without oversight, and publicly make a statement approving how we arrested him and turned him into the police, in an act of good faith."

"And why the Hell would I do that?"

"Because as it is, with the League running rampant and Heroes stretched thin, it's only our specialists and our recent mobilization of the nation's police defense forces that have kept the situation from devolving into pure anarchy."

"Yeah, it's almost like someone made a huge power vacuum in the underworld for Shigaraki to take advantage of." Tobo Abiko scoffed. "Whatever, it's not like I can do anything anymore. My coalition fractured thanks to your 'security' bill," He said the word with finger air marks, and clear disdain. "And yesterday's emergency election pushed all the moderate parties to the side, now the senate is filled with extremists and dozens of new parties that have managed to scrape the votes for a seat or two and good luck trying to get any of them to agree with one another."

Abiko sighed and slumped back in his chair.

"There are 500 seats in the senate, 250 are needed for a coalition to put a PM in office, I had 332, as of today I have a third of that."

"You might be surprised at the places you can find support, if you're willing to be opportunistic. After all, as you said, the moderate parties had shrunk considerably, perhaps it would be wise to make new friends."

Tobo raised an eyebrow at his counterpart.

"Vranyo Mr Abiko." Martin smiled coldly as he outstretched an open hand. "The lie no one believes, but everyone goes with, because the alternative is unsustainable. Help us bring this situation back under control, retract your public statements against us, and I will get you a new coalition. Then, once this is all over, you can go back to worrying over economic policy and trade agreements for a stable Japan. You save your career, I save the Safety Commission, and together we save our country."

The Prime Minister stared at the hand for a long while, before slowly collapsing it with his own.

"Let it be known that I am doing this for my country, not for you." He said, mentally adding. 'And when this is over, I'll take great delight putting you behind bars alongside Shigaraki.'

Martin's grin widened.

-Rain of Sins-

Three Days From Coronation

"A traitor?" Nezu asked. "In my school? What would make you think that?"

"The overwhelming evidence in support of it." Meli Kinoshita snapped her fingers, and one of the two men in suits beside her dropped a folder on the Principal's desk. It opened naturally from the amount of paper forced into it, revealing stacks of papers and pictures all linked to one person.

"Ah, I see you've finally found out about Mr Aoyama."

"You can't just hide a missing Hero student, Nezu, especially when they publicly tie themselves to the largest leak of classified documents in modern history."

"Yes, the Gentle Knights have been making something of a name for themselves, haven't they?" Nezu hummed in amusement as he began flipping through the files covering the fake identity Aoyama had made in Japan, and his real birth records from the Frankish-Germanic border zone.

Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

"So you did know."

"Of course I did, I'm me."

"And you didn't tell us?"

"Of course I didn't, I'm me."

"Nezu." Kino narrowed her eyes. "I understand the bad blood between us, and to a point I even sympathize, but this isn't the time for us to be squabbling amongst ourselves, we need to put up a united front to squash this rapidly growing problem quickly."

"And as much as I dislike it, I'm afraid I do have to agree with you on that." Nezu sighed and pushed both the folder and his cup of tea away from him. "The League of Villains needs to be stopped. They've already grown too large as it is."

"If you agree, then why is it that as of two days ago, every Hero school in Japan began coordinating their efforts to push us out?"

"I agree that I should help you with the League, but the League isn't in our classrooms."

"With your school's track record, they will be by next week."

"Harsh, but not unwarranted. You know, this is why I never missed our banter when we went our separate ways." Nezu reached into his desk and pulled out a small hologram projector the size of his paw.

"I have a plan to deal with the League, if you're interested, but it would involve ruining the event you're hosting for Endeavor."

"Ruin the coronation?" Kino raised an eyebrow. "We have a lot riding on it, why in the world would I do that?"

Nezu paused, tilting his head in thought. "Do you want me to be frank, or play nice?"

"Give me your honest opinion, I don't exactly offend easily."

"Well, it's because I think you couldn't care less about the Coronation or Endeavor, and are hijacking your Security Chief's pet project for an All Might replacement, to lay the world's largest mousetrap."

"Nezu, Nezu, Nezu…" A small genuine smile cracked through on the President's face, and her eyes twinkled with life. "You really are still the same rat we worked with, aren't you?"

-Rain of Sins-

Two Days From Coronation

Sparks flew as blades clashed, and Stain trained the most promising of his students in the most efficient way possible.

Repeatedly beat them to a pulp until they learn to dodge and block properly.

It might push them into leaning more into a defensive style of fighting, but that was fine, he could iron that out later- what he couldn't fix was if they died in combat before they finished their training.

Toga laughed gleefully as she leapt above him, stabbing down with dual long knives with serrated edges. The laughter stopped abruptly when he raised his sword to block and took advantage of the fact that he, on the ground, had plenty of leverage while she, in the air, didn't have any, brute forcing past her guard and slamming the hilt into her face.

She yelped, and he kicked her as she fell, punting her across the room like a football.

Spinner slid under his ally before throwing himself forward like a coiled spring, and bringing his shiny new lab weapon around with an angry roar- a sword with powered teeth that ran along its single-edged blade like that of a chainsaw.

It made a horrible grinding noise as it crashed against his katana, the sparks illuminating the many bruises, and new scars, littering the mutant's form- each a lesson to learn from.

But there were always new lessons to teach.

Spinner jumped, dodging the sweeping kick that tried to knock out his legs, and parried the immediate follow up strike, but didn't have the reaction time to pull out of the way of the throwing knife that buried itself in his hand.

The chain sword fell to the ground with a crash, and Spinner followed not a second later, sporting a new boot shaped bruise on his cheek.

"You're getting better." Stain judged as he sheathed his katana. "But you are still far from being good enough to face the enemy in combat. Be fortunate I only intend to push you past the level of the snakes that parade themselves around in flashy outfits- if I attempted to train you to the level of a true Hero, you would die before you made the cut."

""Yes Sensei."" The two students groaned as they scraped themselves off the floor.

A slow clapping sounded from the roof, and Stain whirled around, throwing a dagger like a bullet.

"EEK!" Kuin shrieked as she fell from the ceiling, clutching a black case in her arms. "Friendly Fire! Friendly Fire!"

"The secretary from the lab?" Toga tilted her head in confusion. "What's she doing here?"

"Yes! I'm-" Kuin winced as she forced the word out. "I'm the secretary from the lab, just- SHIT!" She ducked under another knife, this one from Spinner. "STOP THROWING SHARP SHIT AT ME!"

"Then don't sneak up behind me." Stain growled. "It's instinct."

"Yeah, well, the people out front wouldn't let me in, so I had to use a window."

"I knew we should have boarded those up." He said under his breath. "Why are you here, what does your master want?"

"My boss sent me to deliver this." She held up the case and hurled it at Spinner's head. The lizard was caught off guard and the box slammed into his face with a metallic thud. "That's for throwing the second knife, dipshit."

Toga snickered at him, and Stain just shrugged with a "Should have ducked."

Seeing he wasn't going to get any help from his allies, Spinner decided to move the subject, but when he scowled and opened the case his attitude changed.

"Woah! Sick! What is this gear!?"

"It's the first batch of advanced combat equipment, right off the production belt. It's chock full of nanomesh titanium weave and a bunch of other fancy sounding shit that I don't understand. It's only enough for you three for now, haven't had the time to make enough for the entire Guard."

She licked her lips, nervousness slightly bleeding into her voice at the end.

"And I've also got an invitation for you, from Prometheus."

-Rain of Sins-

Two Days From Coronation

All for One twirled a ball of liquid silver in his hand, the world's most exotic fidget toy, and idly plucked at one of his new favorite Quirks.

Echo.

Such a simple name for such an interesting quirk.

Plucked from a pair of identical twins, it worked as an open line between them, letting them communicate to one another over distances, listen in on whatever the other was doing, and be able to locate them whenever they wanted to.

Identical twins with two ends of an identical quirk, oh it had been marvelous to savor its taste as he plucked it from its vine. Few quirks could surprise him anymore, the flavors that he had once sampled like fine wine, had blurred together over the past two hundred years.

Of course, with his unparalleled experience with quirks, and countless of his own to bend it with, he was easily able to figure out how to keep his end of the telephone closed so it turned into a one way listening device.

He grasped the string inside his mind and held up a hand to his ear.

"-ee I told you guys I could take them on my own. I'm super strong, there's no need to worry about me."

"Wow Ochako, yeah, I guess I shouldn't have doubted you. You wiped up those bots like nothing, and since I was just able to blitz for the bomb our team finished way ahead of everyone else. Jeeze, and to think our teachers were talking about a training camp. If you're this good now, then you'll be an absolute devil after that."

All for One just smiled.

-Rain of Sins-

One Day From Coronation

Bakugo stared down at his hand, looking over the vicious tear scars that ripped across his palm as he opened and closed it, feeling the light pain in his wrists as he slowly turned it.

He had been cleared to operate fully at 100% with his quirk again, but Recovery girl had been clear: what he had done to his hands during his fight with Todoroki during the sports festival was permanent, and pulling a stunt like that again would make it worse.

To be honest, he didn't really mind. Pain was mental, nothing that he couldn't get through with some willpower, and thanks to Momo's redesign of his gauntlets, he wouldn't need to strain his hands to manually produce his larger explosions that would otherwise risk making his hands worse.

…And he wasn't planning on pushing his limits for one of his mini-nuke bombs anyway, at least not if he could help it.

"Don't be so tense, we're not even going to be fighting." Momo scolded his as she fussed with her hair while they waited for their next class. "We'll be going there just for what's essentially a free PR boost. All you need to do is smile and look pretty."

"Pretty isn't really my thing, mind if I borrow some of your makeup?" Katsuki joked.

"Oh please, to make you look pretty, I'd have to drag you through at least five salons, and lend you my best dress."

Bakugo snorted in amusement. "Look, I know I'm good enough to pull off just about anything, but I think that would be a bit of a stretch, even for me. Besides, I wouldn't be caught dead wearing half of what you think is 'acceptable clothing', I'd get arrested for public indecency."

His response was a pencil bouncing off his head.

-Rain of Sins-

Day of Coronation

"Joe!"

Martin's day was suddenly made much worse with that one word.

"Dixie." The Vice President said with less than no enthusiasm. "To what do I owe the displeasure?"

"Ah, come on Joe." The Chief of Security smirked smugly as he walked up. "Why the long face?"

"It's Vice President, Sir, or Martin, if you absolutely must."

"Kino calls you Joe."

"Ms Kinoshita not only is my boss, but is also a trusted associate, and could have me disposed of at her leisure."

"All the more reason to follow her lead." Dixie laughed as he parked himself next to Martin, overlooking a massive outside stage and an audience that spilled out across streets, from a window in a nearby building.

"Word of advice. Leave the politics to me, and don't read into how other people act, your job is to shoot things that the president points at."

"Wow." Dixie whistled. "For 'Mr Politician', you're kinda bad at appealing to people. Isn't being 'fake nice' a politician's whole shtick?"

"I can be very appealing, when I need to be, however I reserve my effort for important people. You, fortunately, are not one of them."

"You wound me so!" The security chief clutched a hand over his heart in mock pain.. "Not important? Please, don't you know? It's typically the guy with the guns who comes out on top of the coup, rather than the guy in charge of running the tax department."

"And they're just as quick to lose power as they are to grab hold of it." Martin countered. "Stalin began as a bureaucrat, not a general, not a populist figurehead. You might be surprised how much power merely being in charge of giving people jobs can hand you. Give positions to some friends in exchange for support, the more support you have the more power you have, and the more power you have the more friends you have."

"Ah yes, selecting people based on loyalty and not how qualified they are at their job, a time honored tradition of dictatorships that inevitably collapses the regime from the inside out, you're really proving that you deserve your position. That makes me think, Martin, are you actually qualified for your position, or were you just the most loyal?"

"Shut up Dixie." Martin nodded his head to the scene below. "It's starting."

And far away, from atop a skyscraper, the Sovereign of Sin watched the coronation of Japan's new number one Hero, with glowing eyes.

"Caw! Caw!"

A large bird, midnight black and as large as an Eagle swooped from the sky and landed on Izuku's outstretched gauntlet.

He reached up and scratched its head with his other hand, careful not to cut it with his claws, and the bird preened under the attention it was getting from its creator, leaning into the touch. And it was a bird. Anyone who you could show it to would say it was a bird, even zoologists- though they would be hard pressed to identify exactly what kind of bird it was.

This was the full form of Izuku's branch of science. Not just mashing DNA together to see what stuck like he had in the beginning, not cutting things apart to put them together in a frankenstein jigsaw like Ujiko's original nomu program- which only ever guaranteed a life of eternal pain for the "successes" it created.

But creating new life from the ground up, weaving genetics together like art to tailor make custom organisms without the defects and inefficiencies of evolution.

"...It's time." Izuku whispered to the avian.

"CAW!" The bird outstretched its wings in anticipation at its master's command.

The tips of its feathers began glowing blue as it activated its amalgam quirk, and the wind seemingly picked up out of nowhere.

"...Go to your brothers."

"Caw!"

The bird launched itself into the air with a strong flap of its wings, and joined with a flock of identical birds circling overhead. Above them the sky darkened as moisture started to condense and clouds began to form.

A single drop of rain landed in the palm of Izuku's outstretched hand.

"What a perfect day for rain. Nature offers her own bounty to extinguish a fire." Lightning flickered in the sky, a rumble of thunder accompanying it. "Kuin, Jeremy…"

Prometheus turned to his Rook and his Bishop.

"Endeavor is not allowed to escape. Employ whatever means you need to, do not allow him to slip the net."

"Yes sir." The Queen Bee saluted.

"Haaugh." Jeremy grunted, his brain registering the serious tone of his master's voice, but none of the words.

-Rain of Sins-