Rejected Stones

Best Laid Plans

Beta'd and edited by kylekatarn77 and Poliamida

71. Best Laid Plans

Men plan, God laughs.

-Yiddish Proverb

"...Kyoto still isn't willing to talk. I've tried every connection the pros we have here gave me, and Tsuragame has tried too. We can't get through," Shinso said, looking up from his phone and grimacing. It had been two week since they'd left UA, and so far they'd only picked up about a dozen pros, most of them fairly minor ones. More police had trickled in, but even so the underground complex had plenty of room.

Izuku groaned and massaged his forehead. "What about international aid? The United States was an old ally of All Might's. Perhaps they can give us some support."

"They're sitting this one out, like the rest of the international community. The UN has made it clear: this is an internal Japanese affair, and they won't do anything until the dust settles," Shinso said with a heavy sigh. "It's the same line everyone took with Chile two years ago when those villains tried to seize power. No one wants to get involved in an international Quirk War after what happened between the EU and Russia."

"So, no one's willing to do anything," Izuku growled. He heard a snap, and looked down to see his hand and crushed another pen. He grimaced and tossed it in the trash can, taking out a cloth to wipe the ink from his metal fist.

"We're on our own. Even the rest of the Japanese heroes that aren't on Honshu are trying to distance themselves. So far, the PLF has mostly limited its activities to Tokyo and its prefectures as it establishes a base of power. But that won't last."

"Thank you, Hitoshi," Izuku sighed. "Well. We'll work with what we have. See if you can dig up any information on the PLF's plans. Do you have any contacts?"

"Working on it. I'll let you know as soon as I get anything concrete," Shinso promised.

Izuku nodded, and Shinso left. He picked up another pen, and set to work on the myriad tasks of trying to run a rebellion, even a small and haphazard one like the one he found himself in charge of. He lost himself in the work for a few hours, until a voice broke his concentration.

"He's awake, and it's definitely him."

Izuku looked up from the paperwork on his desk to see Recovery Girl standing in the entrance.

"I'm sorry, who?" Izuku asked, rubbing at his forehead as he set down the paper, related to the quantities of foodstuffs they had and how long they were projected to last, accounting for Lunch Rush's quirk.

"Power Loader. He's awake. We're sure we got all the tracking devices they put into him, so no need to fret about that," Recovery Girl explained.

"Good," Izuku said, quickly standing and hurrying out. "How is he doing?"

"He should make a full recovery. However," Recovery Girl hesitated, and Izuku slowed his stride to match her own slower pace. She was getting up there in years, and had to totter along with a cane now. "He's like Hatsume, or Shiretoko, that is, Ragdoll. His quirk is gone."

"We can take care of that," Izuku said firmly. Mei was still perfecting her technique, but she had started a special gene therapy on Ragdoll that should restore her own quirk, using DNA found in an old hairbrush at the Training Camp, though it would be months before she had a viable solution, let alone the quirk manifesting. Bakugo showed no signs of his own quirk being restored, though Mei insisted it could take weeks or even months for that to happen.