"No, they served as a good filter." Tsukauchi replied. "Everything points that The League of Villains isn’t the sa as other villain organizations. They’re not buying or supplying anything on the black market. Their contacts also run from small to practically nonexistent. If I had to bet, he’s sitting in one place with everything he needs already there. In simpler terms, the League of Villains has no connections to the underworld at all."
The officer stared at the whiteboard, following Tsukauchi’s logic. "Then how are they surviving? Everyone needs supplies. Food, weapons, equipnt..."
"They have a warp-gate quirk user," Tsukauchi said, tapping the photo of Kurogiri pinned to the board. "Kurogiri can source anything they need from anywhere in Japan without leaving a trace. No suppliers ans no paper trail. No regular contacts ans no one to interrogate. Not to ntion after their attack on U.SJ, so of not all of their underlings were captured. As for the Nomu, recent tests shows that they can’t even be considered human anymore by this point so they don’t count as ..."
Tsukauchi paused.𝓯𝙧𝙚𝒆𝙬𝙚𝒃𝙣𝙤𝒗𝓮𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢
"What is it detective?"
"Oh, it’s nothing. I just thought of sothing. That aside, the League of Villains operates like a closed cell. Self-sufficient and no external dependencies we can exploit." Tsukauchi set down the marker.
"So we’re back to zero," an officer muttered, tapping a pen against a stack of useless transcripts. "If they aren’t using brokers or black markets, they could be anywhere in the country."
The officers traded uneasy glances. If the League had no connections to the underworld, it ant the police were punching at shadows.
"Not zero exactly. At least now we know where to focus our efforts." Tsukauchi shook his head. The Hero Task force mobilization across the country was a massive expenditure of both ti, energy and resources.
It was more so the wider their search and longer things dragged out. Maintaining such high pressure efforts indefinitely was impossible in the long term, hence the more precise they were, the greater their chances. At least now they could save the majority of their ti that would otherwise have been spent searching places of no importance.
Of course that course of action also had so risks if they were wrong and stopped just because they didn’t look hard enough.
"Then how do we find them?" another officer asked from across the room.
Tsukauchi didn’t respond.
The honest answer was they couldn’t. As long as the League remained in hiding and kept a low profile, then it would ultimately amount to luck to find anything substantial.
"We find them through their mistakes. Through the few external contacts they do maintain. In such small circles, all it takes is one slip-up to lead to a total collapse. And eventually..." He paused. "They’ll make one."
Of course he couldn’t just be blunt about it.
The room fell into contemplative silence, broken only by the hum of computers and the distant sound of phones ringing in adjacent offices.
Tsukauchi pulled out his phone, checking the ti. Nearly seven. Another day of raids and ...
The door burst open. A young officer, Detective Sato from the western division entered carrying a tablet, his expression urgent.
"Detective Tsukauchi. We have a lead Mirko’s team just hit an unlicensed fighting ring in the Naniwa Ward."
Every head in the room turned. Tsukauchi set down his coffee. "What kind of lead?"
"They raided a quirk-drug operation two hours ago. Standard bust with an underground lab and illegal stimulants. But one of the suspects they brought in..." Sato pulled up a file on the tablet. "He’s claiming he was approached for League of Villains recruitnt."
The room went dead silent.
Tsukauchi was across the room in three strides. "Show ."
Sato handed over the tablet. On screen was a mugshot—male, early thirties, scarred face that ca from years of villain work.
"Kaito Murasa. Known enforcer. Multiple assault charges. Works muscle-for-hire jobs in the Kansai region." Sato pulled up the interrogation notes. "Mirko’s team picked him up during the raid. During his interrogation, he admitted to being approached by a man offering a recruitnt pitch for the League of Villains."
’Speak of the devil.’ Tsukauchi thought. "When?"
"He says about a week ago."
"A week ago. That puts the recruitnt window right after the Yamanote crash."
"Does he have a location?" another officer asked.
"No," Sato replied, swiping to the next page of the file. "The suspect says the eting happened in a neutral zone—a back-alley gambling den in Osaka. The location might not be of much help but he gave us a vague description of the recruiter."
Sato pulled up another screen. "Mid-fifties. Smoker. Always wore a brown coat. Operated out of Kamino Ward according to old dealings."
Tsukauchi’s eyes narrowed. "Did he give a na?"
"Goes by ’Giran.’"
The detective stopped scrolling.
"Giran," he repeated quietly. "You’re certain that’s the na?"
"Murasa was very specific. According to him the recruiter claid he was the exclusive talent scout for the League."
Tsukauchi pulled up the police database on a nearby terminal. "Giran. Just that?"
"That’s all Murasa had. Said the guy operated strictly on aliases, never gave a real na."
Tsukauchi typed: **ALIAS: GIRAN / REGION: KAMINO WARD / CRI: BROKERING**
The system processed for several seconds.
**1 RESULT FOUND**
[NATIONAL POLICE AGENCY - CRIMINAL INVESTIGATION DIVISION]
FILE ID: JP-8821-B
CLASSIFICATION: PERSON OF INTEREST
ALIAS: "Giran" (ギラン)
REAL NA: [UNKNOWN]
STATUS: ACTIVE / WANTED FOR INTERROGATION
THREAT LEVEL: C-Rank (Non-Combatant / Support Class)
[IMAGE_ATTACHNT: 01_surveillance_2018.jpg]
(Grainy black-and-white CCTV still from elevated angle. Male figure in dark overcoat and hat, face obscured by cigarette smoke and low resolution. Insufficient detail for facial recognition match.)
PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION (ESTIMATED):
- Age: Late 40s to mid-50s (as of last sighting)
- Build: Average height, lean build
He had barely been given ergency care when the police ca back for this. Even at this mont, how he had ended up in such a state at the hands of a bunny bitch was beyond him.
"It was dark so don’t expect my description to be all accurate."
"Rest assured, if your sketch proves to be of so use, you’ll avoid the death penalty." He huffed even more. Previously, even as villains, the worst they would face was life imprisonnt in Tartarus.
However, with the stunt pulled by that darned league, that was no longer the case. To appease public outrage, those with more severe cris of murder would imdiately get the death penalty instead of incarceration in Tartarus.
__
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