Fly High, Burn Bright

Chapter 62

Even though our group of eight turned into six, I didn't stop my trek through the agency until we were standing right in front of the archives. Although it was a lot harder to do than if we were all walking as a group, I was able to concentrate hard enough on keeping the two other villains hidden as well as ourselves. I knew I was pushing the limit of my quirk here and I'd feel the repercussions later, but for now, while I still had the adrenaline to force myself forward, I didn't hesitate to use as much potential of my quirk as I possibly could. Though as far as I could tell, the entirety of the building was either already sleeping or about to pass out, I didn't loosen my grip on my quirk for fear that we'd somehow get discovered before we got the records.

The door was locked, obviously, but Toga was more than capable of silently tearing down the lock. I motioned for the group to head inside before nodding to the left - I'd been able to give them a pretty detailed description of the room from memory and had already explained the filing system, along with the general location of the reports. The right side was full to the brim with daily reports and crimes organized alphabetically, and to be frank, those were absolutely useless to the League. I pulled open one of the cabinets on the left side of the room, quickly scanning the first report - Kagami's photograph stared back, along with anything and everything that had to do with her quirk and fighting style. Perfect.

I waved the others forward with a nod, signaling that this was it. Mustard stood guard outside the door, just in case someone had escaped his gas and was searching for its source, while the rest of us got to work on pulling open every single cabinet and grabbing all the reports that had anything to do with the heroes of the agency. Sure, the information I'd provided for Shigaraki was valuable, but these papers were more thorough and detailed than I could ever be. They had everything written down, from the hero's strength to their every weakness, not to mention the side notes that recorded what kind of job the hero was best for. When I'd worked with the agency, I'd felt more than awkward with telling them so many details, and now I realized how much of a hindrance these paper were. 

One of the villains that I recognized to be Sara, who I'd bonded with over coffee, already had a massive briefcase with her, and I hurriedly placed Kagami's file in it before returning to my search for other documents. Dabi had taken on one of the cabinets that held data about the villains that the agency encountered, and he was rifling through the papers with more speed than I thought humanly possible. Once he confirmed that the files were the ones we needed, he put them in the briefcase, too - if we wanted the upper hand, we had to know every little detail that the agency had on us. Another two folders of documents regarding the heroes of the agency made the briefcase just a little more full.

My eyes landed on one particular file as I skimmed through the cabinet - in fine print, "Hiroko Kira - Vizion" was written across the top. It was so ironic that my papers were still filed next to those of the heroes of the agency, I almost laughed. If they knew what I was doing, the overly-detailed papers would've long joined the other cabinet to be placed with the villains. I had half a mind to leave the papers there as a calling card, so the agency knew who to blame for the chaos. They already hated me anyway, so now I could at least give them a real reason to do so. I pushed that idea away, instead adding the file to the rest of the piling up documents that the briefcase held. It wasn't like I could just leave behind such valuable information about myself behind.

The five of us worked quickly, not letting anything distract us from the clear goal. By now, every report that existed about the heroes was already packed away, and I joined Dabi's search through the villain files. I recognized some of the names - after all, I'd taken part in writing the files - but most remained foreign to me. Dabi, on the other hand, seemed to know almost every single one. I tried to recall the details I'd written in each report, but that only made my already-tired brain hurt even more, so I mindlessly worked instead. I'd hoped that my wave of exhaustion from using the quirk so widely would've come later, but I tried to ignore the urge to fall asleep in favor of shoving as many papers into the briefcase as possible.

Only once the archives were cleaned of any possible information on both heroes and villains did we securely close the almost-bursting briefcase, and I sighed in relief, letting my quirk dissipate almost completely - now, the only thing I needed to hide was our little stock that held so much valuable information. I extended my senses one last time out of pure paranoia, but except for the active minds of the villains beside me and the two that rushed off to probably destroy some of the offices, no one else was awake. This was almost too good to be true - no resistance at all, no pathetic heroes to get in our way - just a clean mission, in and out of the building with the goal completed and hundreds of files tucked into a single briefcase. 

The second we stepped out of the room, chaos began. I held the briefcase close to my chest, deciding to completely let go of my quirk so as to not completely tire myself out for no reason. Toga rushed off somewhere, no doubt to get blood samples for herself so that she'd be able to transform into ordinary people if the need ever arose, while Mustard stood awkwardly as if he had no idea what to do, and only then did I remember how young the boy was. I'd never talked to him outside of meetings that Shigaraki led, and I had no clue why he even joined the League - at least everyone else was old enough to know what they were getting into. Mustard seemed a little too young to be throwing his life down the drain like that. Then again, I'd stopped living my own life when I was eleven, so it wasn't like I could judge him.

There was a  deafening rumble of something being torn down - maybe the others were busy breaking down the walls of the office? I didn't particularly want to find out, but I followed the sound anyway for fear that the others would get too far out of hand and bring the entire building down on us. Sure enough, one of the villains that had a quirk to strengthen their body was trying to destroy not only the walls but the entire interior of one of the departments, and for a second, I froze in place. I worked in this building for so long - could I really let them demolish it just like that? Wouldn't that be wrong, especially since there were so many people still inside that didn't need to be pointlessly injured? 

I almost growled at myself in annoyance. It didn't matter if it was right or wrong - the agency hurt us, so now it was our turn to hurt the agency, and I just needed to stop being a weak idiot that let the fake fleeting moments of happiness I had in my past get in my way. The agency did nothing good for me, so it was only fair that I hurt it in return. Still, the priority remained in keeping the files safe, and I clutched the precious briefcase a little closer to my chest before joining Sara in overturning the furniture within the small cubicles where office workers lay, passed out and snoring. A desk clattered loudly as I kicked it over, the noise drowning out any thoughts of stopping that I had. Another chair fell to the ground, and I experimentally leaped from the floor, pushing off the wall and hurling myself against one of the shelves, which toppled over, forcing me to dodge out of the way. 

Any chance of the mission being silent and clean was gone as we destroyed every single room we came across, manic grins that were covered by gas masks overtaking everyone's expressions. All of my previous hesitation faded into nothing as I dragged the six others from the building as Dabi shot row after row of flames to the agency. The gas inside caught on fire, burning in that beautiful azure hue of extremely hot destruction, and I almost felt bad for the people inside. Almost. Then again, they deserved it. When we were at a safe enough distance, I ripped the gas mask off, exhilarated with how damned good it felt to get revenge against the agency. When the flames started to pour out of the window, I made no attempt to save lives - I stood in the small group of criminals, now part of them permanently, and watched the havoc unfold.