Arc 1: Flower Language

Chapter One: Explosive Roses

"Hyacinth strikes again…"

"-two confirmed deaths-"

"again in Katsuragi…"

"... despite their best efforts.. "

"- still on the loose"

"cameras didn't even witness.."

"left red Hyacinth-"

"experts consulted…"

"BREAKING NEWS: Three victims died in hospital!"

"-assure once more Hyacinth's soon imprisonment-"

"Best Jeanist now in on the case!"

"How long will it take?"

Hyacinth had been Katsuragi's main topic for several weeks. But not just this city was wary of her. The neighbouring cities had been in high alert mode and more and more Pro Heroes were called to the crime scenes.

The media didn't talk about anything else than the boldness of that particular Villain that appeared out of nowhere. It was told among the citizens that no less than forty children and sixteen adults fell prey to the ruthless Villain, with more to add in the future. It's also said that every kill was accompanied by her name in bloody letters, like a painter's signature.

But despite the police forces' best efforts, they weren't able to determine who she was, where she'd strike tomorrow and who would die next.

A thick folder was dumped before a young female of approximately twenty-seven years.

The police was working on her identity, because she appeared to be foreign, both by language and looks. And, coincidentally forgot her iD.

"Miss, I am Detective Watanabe Umeko and was assigned to your questioning as the leading detective of the Hyacinth-case."

"Madame, je ne suis pas un criminel. S'il vous plaît écoutez! C'est un gros malentendu. Je n'ai aucune idée de ce que tu veux de moi. S'il vous plaît je-" the auburn haired woman babbled on French, trying to get her point across.

"Can we get a translator?" The Detective asked into her earpiece.

Not a minute later a middle-aged man entered the interrogation cell, taking place beside Watanabe.

"Qui-est tu?" The man asked in perfect executed french, writing down what he just had said. Detective Watanabe leaned over his shoulder.

"Je suis Natalie Autry…" The woman started to cry, seemingly very distraught.

"Pourqoui es-tu au Japon?" Watanabe tensed, crossing her arms behind her back. Right now she could do nothing but wait.

"Je rends visite à ma fille - elle va se marier dans trois jours..." The woman admitted she was going to visit her daughter's marriage.

"Où sont vos documents?"

"Je n'ai aucune idée. Je les avais à l'aéroport, mais alors - ils étaient - étaient juste partis ..." Looking at the translators notes, she figured the woman lost her documents. How convenient - if she really was Hyacinth. But Watanabe doubted it every second a little bit more. Was she just wasting her precious time on somebody innocent when she could move on in the case?

"Wrap this up. I don't believe she is Hyacinth." The detective ordered with a heavy sigh, already on her way to her office.

Rose was happy. As happy as one of the most wanted information brokers of Japan could be. She just landed a flawless coup-de-grace on the police station of Katsuragi. As she was escorted out, the Number Six of Japan's Heroes arrived at the station. And exactly as he opened their door, the whole complex blew up.

She could hear the screams of people burning alive and couldn't suppress the triumphant grin anymore. Oh what a terrible, terrible accident.

Rose giggled happily as Ginger picked her up.

Hyacinth awaited her companions in an abandoned warehouse at the edge of the district. She plaited her hair as Rose and Ginger made their entrance.

"Flower Queen! Guess who's back!", Rose sang and skipped the last five or so steps of the staircase, landing elegantly before Hyacinth. The Villain scrunched up her nose, seemingly disgruntled by that nickname.

"You can't call her that", Ginger said quietly, his steps echoing off the walls. "She is no Queen." Rose rolled her eyes and flipped him off.

"You're such a grinfucker, ever realized that? I would do something against that attitude, honey!" She grinned at him and sat down next to Hyacinth on a card box.

"I assume you blew the station up?" Hyacinth chimed in before it could escalate. She noticed the subtle twitch of Gingers hand towards the knife hidden up his sleeve and decided she needed both of her assets alive.

"Oh yes, I did! Totally in the face of that Jeans-wearing idiot."

"Are you sure he didn't follow you?"

"Affirmative", was the immediate response of Ginger. "I checked about ten times and we took the longer route." Hyacinth nodded acknowledgingly and stood up, finishing her braid.

"The cardbox entails your rewards. See you at the next meeting." She spoke with her back turned towards them.

"Goodbye, sister." Gingers words send a shudder down her back. She really didn't like it when people assigned her nicknames out of nowhere…

"Guys- I've received a message from Mx. X!" A young boy jumped up and down in delight, oblivious to the glares filled with jealousy and fear from his peers.

"Really? What does it say? That you are disposable?", a girl sneered as one of the supervisors approached the boy who spoke up, dragging the ecstatic boy with him out of the room.

Not a minute later the remaining children and teens heard a scream. The girl paled drastically as suddenly all the phones in the room were ringing. Nobody wanted to answer the call, because they heard stories from the older children. And there had been no happy end for anyone.

Ten minutes later no screams were heard and the first time in forever there was a happy ending for the children.

"The same day as another murder courtesy of Hyacinth, and the Katsuragi-"

"Vigilante Loophole rescued-"

"that held approximately one hundred children-"

"-between three and seventeen..."

"kidnapped children reunited with their families"

"-should Loophole become a Hero?"

Tomokira Sora grinned an award-winning smile, flashing his ID to the police officers behind the tape. They simply nodded and let him through, afterwards dealing with the press trying to invade the crime scene.

He whistled acknowledgingly as he approached the building. That was the manufactory of the Villains of Tomorrow? It looked pretty neat. He wondered how nobody noticed what was going on inside the massive mansion in one of the livelier parts of Katsuragi.

But, he thought, that's precisely the point.

If no one knew there went some pretty shady business down, you wouldn't search in the children-friendly area of a city. Quite ironic that the victims were children from the parks nearby. There were quite a lot, Katsuragi simply had more green than some of the other prefectures combined. A feast for kidnappers with such a goal.

"Detective Tomokira, what brings you here?", one of the higher-ranking police officers asked, not bothering to hide his surprise. Sora smiled at him and told him that he was now the leading investigator of this case.

"What do you know by now?" Sora quickly pulled his notebook out, pen at the ready.

"There were one hundred and twenty-three children alive, aged between three and eighteen. We found the corpses of another thirty children in the cellar, along with huge piles of ash. It looks like they used a Fire-based Quirk to cremate the bodies." While the police officer reported, Sora was busy scribbling down notes, brows furrowed in thought.

"Do we know if there were children from other districts or prefectures?"

"Not yet. We are still searching for some of the parents because the children don't know their real names."

"So they were assigned other names", he concluded.

"It appears so, yes. We had a nine year old girl remembering the name of her sister, but not her own."

"Did they have a system behind it? Did they number them thoroughly or was it random at best?"

"We can only guess. The older kids aren't really responsive. Most of them had a mental breakdown or can't be touched without following panic attacks."

"Yeah, I thought so. Alright, thank you. I'll go around a bit."

"Sir."

Hyacinth leaned against the wall of a rather questionable etablissement, face mostly covered by the hood of her sweater. She was on the look-out for someone that she was supposed to meet there, chocolate eyes roaming over the patrons of the bar and all it's corners. There weren't many people there, considering it was a Thursday evening, the perfect place to blow off some steam after a long work day. But it just so happened that there were twenty, including her twenty-one, patrons.

She warily eyed a man dressed in casual clothes, who ordered his seventh bottle of high-priced sake, downed it and paid, before clumsily walking outside, stumbling over empty stools on his way out. As he passed her corner, his supposedly-clouded eyes were devoid of any kind of alcohol-induced haze. One blink later he was out the door and Hyacinth followed suit.

Once Amaya returned home, she sported a headache as big as the UA building. And as she exited the lift bringing her to the twentieth floor, she spotted an even bigger headache. It was the retired General Akamine from Japan's CIRO. He stood with his back to her, observing a photography that originally stood in an vitrine in her bedroom.

Amaya frowned, dropping her school bag unceremoniously on top of her couch. "Can I help you?"

He replied with his back still turned: "Do you know someone that goes by the name of Rose?"

X

A/N: Sorry for the radio silence that took place. This won't happen again!

Thanks for your patience and I want to remind you that there are infinite slots for Villains and Vigilantes, so gimme all the characters! Would help a lot.

The next chapter(s) follow September 4th, so read you then.