Life is Simple, Love is Not (Izuku x Miruko)

Chapter 6: The Calm Before the Storm

Izuku stood in the crowded briefing room surrounded by his colleagues and waited for the briefing to begin. One day had passed since it had been discovered that Miruko had been captured, and Izuku had barely gotten more than a few hours of a sleep along with a handful of short naps.

However, that was what coffee was for.

Surprisingly, his logistics team was actually working well under the pressure. Something about working with lives hanging in the balance had really brought the group together and for the first time they were acting like an actual team. Hell, even the slacker Saito was only taking breaks when told to. Izuku had made sure to make a mental note to reward the young analysts for their efforts after everything was over.

Izuku was roused from his musing by the sound of someone clearing their throat for attention.

A tall and stocky man with balding black hair, five arachnid-like eyes, and dressed in a standard black suit walked to the front and motioned for his female assistant to man the projector. The suited man was Director Fujikawa, the one who was at the top of the departmental totem pole. While Izuku had only met the man a few times he had definitely heard the many stories about the enigmatic director. It was well-known how seriously the man took his job and apparently had no sense of humor at all. One of the most common pranks pulled on new agents was to convince them to tell the director a joke, only for them to be answered with icy silence and a disapproving glare.

"Good evening everyone." Director Fujikawa said in a deep and clear voice. "The briefing will now begin. As you know, the pro-hero that goes by the name of Miruko has been captured by local criminal elements. How they managed to do such a feat is still unknown to us, but time is of the essence so we need to act quickly and decisively."

The projector clicked and a map of the city was shown on the screen with a single location circled in red.

Director Fujikawa continued as images of a large warehouse slowly scrolled by on the screen. "One of our logistics teams has pinpointed the location where Miruko is being held. A warehouse in the industrial district that has long been suspected of having ties to local organized crime. However, until now there has never been any solid reason to necessitate a search warrant, so we only have a limited amount of information."

The images then changed to pictures taken from hidden locations around the warehouse, revealing that the area was heavily patrolled by a group of thugs.

"These images of guard patrols have only cemented the fact that the criminals are hiding something of extreme importance in the warehouse." The director stated.

"Let me make myself perfectly clear agents." Director Fujikawa said icily. "This is a highly classified operation and I will not tolerate any breaches of security. We all remember how the pro-heroes went after Tomura Shigaraki and nearly got massacred due to their overconfidence. If the criminals have someone or something that was able to take down the fifth-ranked pro-hero we need to go in expecting the worst."

Izuku could see a few nervous gulps or beads of sweat from some of the newer agents. The director was not wrong though, in a situation like this the smallest detail could be the difference between life and death.

The image from the projector changed to show the current hero roster, but with marks on it to signify heroes that had either been injured or killed.

"Because of this we are keeping this operation a secret from even the local police forces and pro-heroes." The arachnid-eyed man stated. "Only the highest members of the Hero Commission's administration have been notified of our plans. No longer can we trust the pro-heroes to bail us out if things go wrong, we need to handle this ourselves. This kind of situation is exactly why the Ministry of Defense stepped in with the liaison project. These dangerous individuals are not just villains, but terrorists as well."