All For One smiled at the woman talking to him. Her name was Shufen. She was telling him how her company could definitely keep his supplied. He already knew that but it was expected that he attend these business functions. It helped to seal the deal. In some ways he preferred the underworld. Then if things went wrong, they could be dealt with directly, rather than with delicate excuses uttered while sipping champagne surrounded by artwork.
Still, he had agreed to this function because his target was here. This wing of the gallery was beautiful and to anyone interested in Song Dynasty Art, this was the place to be. Except almost no one was interested. The connections offered here by the people were far more interesting. It was slightly amusing to him, that amidst all the finery here, it would be considered uncouth to actually make a deal. He was here for that though and was tracking his target. It was slightly difficult with all the people given that he'd never really needed to do this much. He should have thought about it earlier and perhaps gotten a quirk to help. No matter, it was something he could look into later. For now, he had one eye covertly on his target who was beginning to show signs of boredom with the function.
He should be able to complete his transaction shortly.
"Weizhi! It's so good to see you!"
All For One looked at the man who came over. It took him a moment to recall who they were. "Yiyuan!" He greeted the man. Interestingly Shufen didn't look happy. Her company was a supplier, Yiyuan's business was a client, so there was no clash of interest there. Infact, All For One thought that they had a separate business deal as well. So why was she unhappy? Oh… She hadn't seriously been trying to get him into bed, had she? The ancient man almost laughed at that thought but let it go as he focused on Yiyuan's words.
"We have a new project you may be interested in," he said in a conspiratorial whisper, which basically meant everyone in a 5 meter radius could hear.
"We are always interested, Yiyuan, you know that. The opportunity to work with you is welcomed."
Yiyuan beamed at him.
"Come to my office tomorrow, and we'll discuss it?" All For One suggested. Now that Yiyuan had told everyone about the opportunity that was probably what he wanted anyway.
"Of course! I trust things are going well?"
"The usual," he told Yiyuan. "Shareholders wanting profit now, forgetting that you need to invest!" That was a standard complaint.
"Surely not Weizhi!" Shufen objected. It was a simpering objection and confirmed his earlier thought.
All For One gave her a slightly condescending smile. "Be thankful you are the sole owner," he told her. "Dealing with shareholders is exhausting!" he added with a chuckle, that Yiyuan echoed. On paper, his company had shareholders but 80% of them were his other shell companies. 20% were actually legitimate but he had employees who dealt with that aspect of the company and they made sure the business was run according to the law.
From the corner of his eye, All For One saw his target move away and if you weren't looking for it, the slight opening of the door would be missed. He was looking for it but no one else was so even those in the vicinity of the door didn't notice.
"Yiyuan, we shall chat tomorrow," All For One said when he deemed enough time had passed. "Shufen, it is, as always, it was lovely to see you. Let me know if there is anything I can do to help you," he added by way of parting.
Shufen's face flashed with annoyance but she was a businesswoman first, and she smoothed it out and nodded, giving him what she thought was a seductive smile. "The same applies," she murmured. "Anything, Weizhu, anything," came the extra emphasis.
Yiyuan nodded at him and as All For One moved away, he heard Yiyuan and Shufen strike up their own conversation.
He activated a small quirk he'd come across. It was useful in situations like this. The quirk had a childish name of Hide Away but that wasn't what it did. The quirk simply encouraged people not to notice him. People saw him and avoided him but they just didn't register his presence. Not properly. If you asked them later if they had seen him, they'd say yes, and then wonder how they'd missed him. He used it now to move smoothly across the room and let himself through the door he had observed his target using.
The corridor beyond was dark and Hisashi kept the quirk up. It would be best if he could approach his quarry without them being startled. He added an extra quirk so that he could see in the dark. Most people thought he only liked huge flashy combat quirks but some of the smaller ones, with more pointed uses did come in handy, not just in combat. Radar Vision was useful in many situations, not just when the room was filled with tear gas, as the previous holder had utilised it.
But it was not a quirk he needed now. He moved along the corridor but already knew where his target would be. There was a patch of night sky visible at the end of the corridor from the large bay windows there. The boy would be there, not stuck in one of the rooms that adjoined the corridor. He was too young for a romantic liaison.
All For One moved silently and paused, just out of the light to find his quarry. The boy hadn't tried to go outside and was sitting in the feeble starlight looking out at the garden.
"You can go outside you know," All For One said softly.
The boy jumped and whirled around to look at him.
He plastered a smile on his face and held out his hands. "I didn't mean to startle you," All For One said.
The boy looked at him. All For One saw the way his eyes assessed his garments. "The party is rather boring," he commented, confirming what the child should already know. He wasn't one of the gallery's security guards. He didn't have on their uniform and he was dressed in the ubiquitous suit that the male party goers had been wearing. The boy had black hair, and black eyes with narrow, inwardly set eyebrows.
"It is," came the soft reply. The voice was high pitched but then the child was only 8, like his Izuku.
"Shall we go into the gardens then?" All For One invited. He had some time, and if he could get the child into the garden, then there were more scenarios that could be played out. Or rather, more scenarios that the police could make up to explain why Hiryu had been in the garden.
"Who are you?"
"My name is Hao Xiaozi," he introduced himself, picking the name randomly. He wasn't planning on having the boy remember him and his Weizhi alias should be safe enough but there was no need to take chances, "And you are?"
"Hiryu Rin," came the soft reply.
"Well then Hiryu, why don't we go into the gardens?"
"The door is locked," the boy told him.
"I think I can fix that," All For One said conspiratorially, reaching out to grasp the handle. The door was locked, and alarmed but if you made it appear as if it was opened with the key, then the alarm wouldn't go off. There might be a log that it was opened, but that wasn't important. He swung open the door.
"Is that your quirk?" Hiryu asked him.
He winked but didn't deny it. "What is your quirk?" All For One asked as the Hiryu ran onto the small balcony that was outside. There was a set of stairs that then went down to the ornate garden. Which, by the smell, just had the grass mowed. Darn. He didn't want to risk getting grass on his shoes. While it was doubtful anyone would notice, there might be some with enhanced senses who would smell the grass and then wonder why he'd been outside. He walked to the edge of the balcony and sat on the balustrade.
"My quirk is Scales!" Hiryu told him excitedly, taking the hint and sitting with him. "Do you want to see?"
"I would love to see it!" All For One exclaimed.
Hiryu pushed out his arm and rolled up his sleeve and then a frown appeared on his features before his arm was covered in scales.
All For One grinned, and made sure the expression could be seen in the low light. He reached out, making sure to telegraph his movements and poked at the scales. "That's fantastic!"
Hiryu smiled at him. "I can also launch them!" he told the older man.
"Launch them?" This wasn't an aspect of Hiryu's quirk he'd been aware of.
The boy looked around. "I can't do it here," he said slowly. "But they propel like little bullets!"
"Amazing!" All For One said. He meant it and before Hiryu could do anything more than give him another smile, his other hand flew out and grasped the boy's head. All For One activated his quirk and grabbed the light green glow that was Hiryu's quirk. Under his hand Hiryu's eyes rolled back and All For One caught him as he lost consciousness.
He laid the boy down on the balcony and activated another of his quirks. Memory Change. As carefully as he could, because there was no need to be overly cruel, Hisashi erased the last 10 minutes from Hiryu's mind. Extremely short term memory, was a very nebulous thing and All For One hoped he'd gotten enough. It was a difficult and he didn't want to erase too much. Honestly if he possessed Giran's quirk it would have been easier, but Juhin had trained Giran well and he was a good broker. .
He rose and looked down at Hiryu. "Thank you," he told the unconscious boy, because there was no need to be rude. The night air wasn't cool enough that the boy would be in any real danger and at the gallery, there were no large dangerous animals. He'd be safe enough until found. The door was still open as well so if he was not found before he woke up, he could still let himself in.
All For One walked away, activating a slight strength quirk to jump over several balconies to another doorway. He opened the door and went back to the party. He had an alibi to attend to now.
The light and warmth of the party was almost blinding compared to the dark and chill of the night but Hisashi smiled as he re-entered the room, keeping his presence muted with Hide Away until he was well away from the entry. Then he let the quirk drop.
"Weizhi! Where have you been?" The cry was almost instantaneous, and All For One smiled as he turned to the man.
"Ambassador Thirkell," he greeted the man. "I've been talking with my business partners," he gave the excuse.
"Tut!" The Ambassador waved one hand to dismiss the question. "Tonight is for celebration, to look at art! Not for business," he said.
Now that he had Izuku's gift, All For One nodded. "I couldn't agree more," he smiled. "What can you tell me about this piece?" he asked, gesturing to the silk scroll on the wall behind them, knowing that the Ambassador was one of the few people genuinely interested in Song Dynasty Artwork.
"Ah, that one-" the Ambassador gushed.
Hisashi let the words roll over him as he plucked a glass of mediocre champaign from one of the passing wait staff who was doing an excellent job of balancing several trays on their limbs. A quirk was definitely in use there.
It had been a productive night.
-ted-
Mrs Shuyona pressed submit on the form with a certain amount of glee. Hisashi Riji thought he was so smart. He thought he had everything under control. Well, he might control the Minister but he didn't control the bureaucracy. And even if he had her complaint dismissed (which she fully expected to happen) he couldn't erase the memory of it in the workers who had passed it up the chain.
And he'd made it so very easy for her to report an anomaly.
Izuku Kawa had been enrolled in a new Elementary School in Saitama Prefecture, at her school's expense and it had taken some very creative adjustment of the books to hide that, but he had been enrolled as Izuku Inpei. He'd also supposedly gained a quirk. Fire Proofing. Hah! A quirk that was stupidly easy to test for but one you would be accused of cruelty if you did. And one you couldn't prove that you had without demonstration!
The first issue was that Inpei was not his name! She was beginning to suspect that Kawa was not his name either but that wasn't the point. The change of name was the problem itself.
Schools were instructed to look for such discrepancies. Teachers had to report if they suspected that a student's home life was bad. They were trained to recognise certain warning signs and to flag them with the school and the Education Department. She was simply doing that.
The quirk was the second issue. Maybe Izuku did have that quirk. Maybe they'd only found out about it now. But then he should have been enrolled in her school as 'Quirk Unknown' rather than 'Quirkless'. She couldn't access the records which would confirm Izuku was truly quirkless, but others could. If he was really quirkless, and the Fire Proofing quirk-label had been added merely to make his life easier, well, that was another issue and falsifying official government records had hefty penalties. Unfortunately, it was not something she could prove at her level.
Oh, Mrs Shuyona had no doubt that the Minister would suppress her complaint, or bury it, or make it go away somehow, but if he tried to have her fired, well, he'd be in for a fight. How would it look to fire the Principal who had raised the suspicion of child trafficking? She could play this any number of ways which would work to her benefit. And of course, she was simply trying to keep government documents accurate.
But she fully suspected nothing would happen immediately but it was the little things that would trip up people, and it was her fond hope that this would be a little thing. Beneath Hisashi Riji's notice. He'd trip though. On the name, or the quirk registry.
And from there, it was a long fall.