Fly High, Burn Bright

Chapter 77

Getting into the agency was a lot easier than I thought it would be, but that could've been because not only were Toga and I invisible to anyone and everyone around us, but because we were both quick and silent on our feet, too. All it took was waiting for the right moment when someone left the door open for a little too long, and the two of us were safely inside the grandiose agency. Now I understood why the mission had been given to me and Toga - anyone else wouldn't have managed to get in, or would've accidentally been way too loud and gotten discovered. There was also the fact that others would've probably ended up destroying the agency as soon as we were done with it, but that wasn't the task for today. We just needed to get in and out, taking nothing but precious information with us.

That didn't change the fact that we were basically going in blind. I'd had the displeasure of visiting Endeavor Agency a few times for hero work, but it wasn't nearly enough to help me navigate through the endlessly confusing halls. Then again, Shigaraki had requested a clear walk-through of the entire agency, so a little bit of lost wandering couldn't hurt, as long as it was under the guise of displaying the agency to the rest of the League.  The sight of the interior with its bustling workplace and dozens of receptionists, however, was enough to jog my memory, and even though there wasn't really much to remember, I was more than sure that we'd find Endeavor's office on the fourth floor and the archives on the sixth.

That didn't change the fact that we still needed to record a layout of the agency, no matter how silly it felt to keep wandering even though I knew where we needed to go. I tilted my chin to the overly-grandiose staircase that adorned the center of the lobby room, accompanied by two elevator doors. Considering the size of the agency, there were probably dozens more elevators to avoid 'traffic', but they were simply hidden from plain sight. Toga followed me, turning her head this way and that to capture the sight of the agency's interior, and although it looked pretty stupid, I held back a sigh and did the same. Toga's eyes were wide with amazement, and I almost laughed as I remembered that she wasn't exactly used to such extravagant buildings, not the way that I was, though this agency was certainly fancier than Hawks'. 

The room was large enough to fit the entire apartment that I used to live in and still have room to spare, and it was adorned with high ceilings and beautiful light fixtures. I now remembered that the building was made of one-way glass, and the outside streets were easily seen through the see-through walls. It was certainly an interesting design, but was more than efficient with its easy way to keep track of what was happening outside. Once the scan of the lobby was complete, I turned to one of the two halls that led further into the agency - might as well go floor by floor to stay organized. To no surprise, the halls were just as dramatic as the main room, meaning entirely over-the-top to the point that it was almost funny. The building must've cost up to trillions of yen, what with the entirely ridiculous amounts of decoratory vases and paintings that looked like they could cover the cost of a small apartment. 

Once I was sure that I'd looked through every nook and cranny of the hall on the right, including peaking into every single room to scan it entirely with a slow turn of my head, Toga and I did the same to the one on the left. It was a slow process, but I wanted to make sure that there wouldn't be any surprises for us if we chose to launch an attack on the agency later. I couldn't help but notice that although I'd been using my quirk for a good twenty minutes now on such a large amount of people, I barely felt tired. All those training sessions really did pay off. It felt a little strange to walk so out in the open with dozens of workers bustling around me and Toga, but they didn't see nor hear us, so we moved forward.

The second floor was no less dramatic than the first, although it definitely had a lot more rooms that we needed to investigate. This was a little harder, since I also had to make it look as though no one was entering the rooms by keeping up the image of a closed door rather than one that was being opened by two invisible villains, but thankfully, there weren't many people around, so the task was barely necessary. Even so, by the time we'd examined every little corner of the second floor, I could feel some of the tiredness creep up on me, which was a problem. We were only two floors in - there were countless more, and I couldn't just stop using my quirk, especially not since Toga and I would e discovered within seconds without it. I should've drank more coffee today, or at least grabbed an energy drink before leaving. 

By the time we got to the fourth floor and found Endeavor's thankfully-empty office, I was definitely a little slower with my moves than before, but I never once stopped being thorough. The door to the office was locked, but it was nothing that a few twists of a bobby pin couldn't fix. Toga and I silently crept into the office, and upon confirming that there wasn't a single hidden camera in the room, I let my quirk drop for a few precious minutes of rest as I immediately headed straight for the massive desk at the center of the room, my hands pulling open the drawers in search of anything I could use. Toga was doing yet another thorough inspection of the room before turning to a shelf of binders that she started to flip through, but I focused my attention on the desk's contents.

Among a few piles of paperwork that lay patiently waiting to be filled out and dozens of letters either from fans or from other agencies begging for Endeavor's help, neither of which I'd had the pleasure of receiving before, lay an agenda filled out to mark off any and every upcoming mission of the number one hero. Perfect. I didn't dare take the agenda with me - Endeavor would surely notice its absence - but I took the time to carefully read over each page, knowing that the camera within the contacts would relay the information back to the League, and the pages would be forever saved on videotape. When every single piece of information was taken in, I carefully put the small notebook back into the same exact position that I'd found it in and tilted my chin back to the door. Toga, thankfully, got the message that we were done here, and after activating my quirk once again we slipped out of the office and up to the next floor completely unnoticed. 

Although I was more than thankful for the fact that all I needed to do was glance around the agency to capture its blueprint, I still couldn't help but be annoyed with the tedious task, especially since each floor had more or less the same layout as the last. Then again, that wasn't something I could complain about, since it made the job so much easier and faster to complete. The fifth floor contained the offices of the lower-ranked heroes that occupied the agency, though thankfully, none of them were present at the moment, or else it could've gotten really messy really fast. The sixth, however, was much more beneficial.

The second room to the left of the main hallway was labeled with the word "Archives" in bold silver print, much the same way that every other door was titled, and I gave Toga a pleased grin. We just needed to slip in, quickly glance through all the files to relay the information to headquarters, finish with the rest of the agency, and then we'd be free to go. The trusty bobby pin came into use once again, and with a quiet click and a look around to make sure no one was there to see us, the door opened to reveal rows upon rows of neatly organized filing cabinets that were, no doubt, stuffed to the brim with precious, precious information. I tilted my chin to the right and Toga nodded, heading to the left instead, and I once again let go of my quirk, welcoming the relaxing feeling.

Still, I didn't let myself get distracted as I immediately started reading every single label until I finally spotted the drawer titled with "Employee Records". For an agency as esteemed as this, their security really was shit. I signaled for Toga to join me, and together, we rifled through the files, taking a few seconds to stare at each page - just long enough for the League to see the information via video. I was a little sad that we wouldn't be able to take the physical copies of the files with us unless we wanted to alert the agency that we'd been there, but this would be enough. There seemed to be an endless amount of pages, but I kept flipping through them despite the growing tiredness that I felt start descend over me. One file, however, was enough to shake the exhaustion away within seconds.

There, across the yellow of the folder, "Keigo Takami - Hawks" was written in bold black letters.