Flea

Chapter Forty Five

Maeve explained the situation as succinctly and calmly as she could. Which, if she said so herself, made it one of the most succinct, calm briefings she'd been a part of. Dr Shinso, whom she'd also summoned, graced Maeve with one of his unique looks at that particular thought. They always indicated he would be exasperated if the man had the energy to care.

"So all in all, it doesn't make a huge difference. He's not going to be back until they know if I'm pregnant. Before then I can practise mental defence with Shinso in our therapy sessions."

"Not a huge difference," Tsukauchi repeated back in what she thought was an unfairly disbelieving tone.

"Dabi's perceptive, I'll give him that, but came to the wrong conclusions. I hugged my stomach when I first saw him. He thought it was my way of protecting the baby, in reality, I'd just had a delectably grotesque nightmare regarding innards becoming outids."

"It was impressively unpleasant," Dr Shinso agreed absentmindedly, rubbing his left temple with such practised ease Maeve had started classifying the motion as a nervous tic.

"Anyway, it gives us a safe zone between now and a week and a half's time. They're stupid, but not dumb enough to go to the effort to get me back if you guys can protect my uterus for them. No need to get worked up," Maeve repeated calmly, twisting herself around in lazy circles on an office chair.

"Did he touch you?" Aizawa asked, hunched over the staff meeting table.

"Nope. Well, at one point he caught me after I tripped over a pot plant, but doesn't really count. He was there to scare me into cooperating, that's it."

Tsukauchi sighed and ran a hand yet again through his rumpled hair, causing it to stand on end.

"Maeve, I don't think you understand how serious it is that the villains have a direct line right to you now. There's a lot of things they could want apart from a baby."

"Like what? If it's not real, it doesn't matter, right?" She asked wryly, brow arched. No one, including Dr Shinso, could tell if she was being fully sarcastic.

"Well, for one thing, your head is practically a multi-gigabyte hard drive full of top-secret information. They'll probably catch on to that when your involvement in bolstering All Might's declining health comes to light in the press."

"If you're worried about that, don't. I'm not going to break confidentiality-"

"Even if you were being tortured?" Nezu asked quietly, paws folded in his lap.

"Because from what I'd heard of this cremation villain, he seems fully capable of that. We need to find whoever's quirk is forming the connection and sever it. As quickly as possible. Did Dabi reveal anything about them, anything at all?"   

"He's not stupid. I have a sneaking suspicion that he's the real brains behind their entire operation. Shigaraki has the 'charisma,' but in terms of strategy..." Maeve explained, tapping a pen against her folded legs. 

"They actually admitted they disagreed with All for One's actions and were just making the best of a shitty situation. I think he wants me to at least be able to stomach the league, the guy had plenty of chances to hurt me but chose not to, even when provoked. I threw a book at him," she grinned to Aizawa expecting a proud father moment. He was not forthcoming.

"You have self-defence classes starting tomorrow. I've already organised a tutor who has Dabi's rough physique, which is a fortunate coincidence. No use of your quirk, I want you to be able to fight someone off without it."

Maeve's eyebrows scrunched together.

"That's not going to make a difference. We're talking about a ruthless six foot four twenty-something-year-old with a quirk that's similar to the number one hero. All the training in the world still wouldn't give me a chance quirkless."