Winds of Destiny: Rising ~ {Hawks x OC}

Chapter Six: Cat and Mouse

It had been almost three weeks since Misaki had accepted her promotion and stepped into her new role as the Hero Public Safety Commission's Commissioner of Analytics. The President had made a pointed suggestion that she apply for a patent for her tracking program, which she'd done somewhat reluctantly under the name ROAM: Realtime Observational Analysis Matrix. Using ROAM, she'd begun to develop a series of geographic profiles that pertained to the people's views of heroes and the work they did. The goal in mind was to use the data ROAM collected to evaluate the potential hotbeds of communal discontent and develop outreach programs to try and ease some of the tension.

She'd also been visiting with Eri at UA a couple of times a week. At the moment, she was just taking some time to get to know the little girl before she attempted to start training her on the use of her quirk. She wanted to wait until Eri was comfortable with her. It felt like pushing her into something she wasn't ready for would only lead her to develop more bad feelings about her quirk. Eri had quite a few teachers and students around her that were doing their utmost to help her feel safe and happy in the meantime.

At the moment, Misaki had diverted her attention from her geographic profiling algorithm into analyzing an interesting new case. A severed finger had been left in front of the gate at the Shie Hassaikai's main compound the previous day, wrapped in a tan scarf. No note, or any other indication of who the finger belonged to, or why it had been left there, was recovered from the scene. The general consensus from the police investigators was that it had belonged to someone within the Shie Hassaikai's ranks and had been left as a message by a rival gang.

Several things about that assessment hadn't added up for her. Ever since Overhaul's arrest, the Shie Hassaikai had been practically dormant as a yakuza organization. Their previous boss was still in a coma and there was no clear successor to continue the business. They'd effectively shut the doors on their criminal enterprises. Other than the apparent intended recipient, the thing that had stood out for her the most was the location.

Looking at it objectively, there was one particularly significant event that had occurred within those premises in addition to the apprehension of Overhaul: the recruitment of Toga and Twice from the League of Villains into the ranks of the Shie Hassaikai, and their inevitable betrayal that had assisted the heroes in taking down the young boss. If the message hadn't been for the group, it could very well have been for the League.

On that hunch, Misaki had asked the lead detective on the case if they'd found any matches in the known criminal database when they'd run a fingerprint analysis. He'd grudgingly informed her that they had come up with none. No matches in any database, criminal or otherwise, to identify the victim. She had expected as much. If the finger belonged to who she suspected it belonged to, he would have been the type to be extra careful to make sure he never wound up in any database. But it was the people who were so careful to erase their presence that were actually some of the easiest to track down. Since she'd been doing that herself for almost eight years while she'd been growing up, she was very familiar with what to look for.

A flashing alert message at the bottom right corner of her computer screen caught her attention and drew her out of her musings. She'd written a protocol into ROAM to alert her if there were any more mentions of severed fingers being found at several key locations that were associated with past League activities. Apparently, she'd just gotten a hit. Clicking on the alert box, Misaki quickly read through the message that popped up from the police band.

Her eyes narrowed as she said under her breath, "I knew it."

Rising quickly from her desk, she grabbed her tablet from the stand next to her monitor and walked down the hall to the President's office. Without even knocking, she strode inside and announced, "We have another finger."