ALL NOVEL Chapter 30: Debriefing
Summary: A peak into just how bad the attack actually was...
Chapter 30: Debriefing
Ryukyu might have had a shower, a coffee, and a costume change…but she still looked exhausted as she sat down with that coffee. Fourteen hours had passed since the first of the Nomu attacked, and not a single one of the Heroines around the table had slept yet. The attack itself, comprised of 8 'lesser' Nomus and the two 'greater' Nomus that had targeted Ryukyu and Izumi with single-minded focus, had ended roughly an hour and a half after first contact. The Dragon Heroine and her entire agency however, had proven, yet again, that Izumi had chosen the right people to take an internship with. Every single one of them, even many of the support staff that weren't heroes, had dug in with grim determination after the battle.
Emergency services had been crippled in the aftermath of the fighting, even with Izumi and 2B on hand to jury-rig a temporary method for said services to communicate via the Hero Scan Network's secure com lines. Amidst that chaos, every Heroine and Sidekick in the room, and several more that had already collapsed in heaps around the agency, had gotten to work with no hesitation. They'd pulled people from collapsing buildings, put out fires, performed first aid, and refused to stop even when hundreds of personnel from neighboring districts and dozens of additional heroes and heroines had poured in to aid in the aftermath.
"How bad is it, Chamela?"
Ryukyu's question was directed at Tess, whose rather uninspired hero name might explain why she insisted so hard on 'Tess.' The support heroine looked just as exhausted as her boss as she responded.
"Not good. But it could have been a hell of a lot worse, boss. So far, we have 336 confirmed dead, including three Pros. El Boy, Mr. Brave, and Nuisance."
Everyone flinched at the numbers, but Tess went doggedly on.
"There's also, of course, a huge amount of property damage. Though it will take weeks to get a proper figure on that. Despite how horrible the number seems…we got off light as hell. Both you and Resolution managed to contain the two Greater Nomu with zero loss of life. The worst those two caused was property damage, along with some admittedly fairly serious burn injuries from a near-miss of the plasma beam Resolution's opponent was spitting out. The majority of the dead are actually from two collapsed buildings caused by fights with the Lesser Nomus. At least one of which shouldn't have collapsed. The whole building was apparently riddled with code violations that the police are pissed about. They're pretty blatantly preparing to all but burn whoever is responsible for letting those through inspections at the stake, along with the owners and construction company. Understandable, since that one building accounts for nearly 200 of the dead."
Faces were grim around the table with more than just sorry for the deaths now. Anger smoldered in every eye at the news that those 200 people were dead simply because some bastard had probably bribed a safety inspector…and the inspector had let themselves be bribed. Tess let the news settle for a moment, then took a deep breath and continued her summary.
"I know it doesn't matter a hell of a lot to any of you right now, but our agency is actually being lauded for how well we contained this. Fully seventy percent of the take downs were from our people, with two being from our interns. And we prevented a lot of additional loss of life both before and after the fighting. That being said..." Tess sighed and held up a remote. "We also know who was responsible. Formally, I mean. The presence of the Nomu made it clear to us from the start, of course."
Before anyone could say anything to that, Tess used the remote to trigger a nearby TV, a large affair taking up most of one wall of the conference room. On it, a familiar set of faces appeared. Shigaraki and Kurogiri were staring right into a camera a news crew had gotten on them as they perched on top of a building. Moments later, both of them vanished in the swirling smoke of one of the warper's portals.
"In addition to being spotted by that camera, the League of Villains has released a statement. Mostly, it's a bit of an anarchist rant about how they will 'pull down the supposed world of heroes,' to show the world just how 'useless they are.' Frankly, it's not all that coherent, but it's the closest thing we've gotten to a manifesto or statement of goals from them. It was delivered by Shigaraki, not whoever might be behind him, so it's hard to say how close to the truth it is."
Izumi nodded at that, biting her lip against the desire to say something. Apparently, UA had at least passed along suspicions that the man-child from the USJ wasn't the one truly behind the League. But it appeared she was the only one in the room aware that it was probably All for One. She was going to need to talk to All Might and Nedzu as soon as possible. After all, she had no idea if she'd been targeted for spoiling their plans at the USJ…or because All for One thought she might be the next One for All holder. Worse, if it was the latter...had today's engagement made him more or less certain of that? She shook off the thought as Tess turned off the TV and resumed her report.
"If their goal was to shatter faith in heroes…the results they got were mixed. At least so far. The fact we managed to repel an attack on this scale has boosted our agency's reputation. Likewise, all three hero deaths were caught on camera and all three were killed while shielding groups of civilians. In some ways, public faith in heroes has firmed. In others…well, to be blunt, there hasn't been a villain incident this deadly in quite some time. Not in Japan at least. The fact that it happened at all, during our little Era of Peace, isn't going over particularly well with the public. For the moment, most of their ire is being directed at the HPSC for failing to anticipate something of this scale. But that could easily change as the HPSC itself tries to shift blame."
Tess fell silent, report finished, and they all mulled those final observations over. Unfortunately, it was true. A few decades ago, it wouldn't have been a remarkable attack. But under All Might's reign, the current generations had grown unused to just how devasting large scale Villain attacks could be. Such attacks were things that happened to other countries, ones that didn't have such a strong Pillar. That was…not good, particularly given that Izumi was aware just how fragile said pillar actually was. She was trying to avoid thinking about that to hard and welcomed the distraction as Ryukyu sighed, stood, and took over the meeting again.
"Alright. We need to go over individual observations and post-action debriefs for everything. Resolution, I'm afraid we are going to have to start with you. And then you need to try and get some sleep. UA has recalled all it's interns in light of that Greater Nomu that was focused so thoroughly on you. They are afraid more of your class might be targeted, and none of you are licensed. Given the circumstances and the explicit permission I gave you, none of it will splash on you, and I won't face more than a small slap on the wrist. But they want you back by tomorrow morning, so we need to get through your debrief first. Start with the moment you first heard the explosion that started everything and walk us through your actions and thought process…"
Izumi scowled for a moment at the fact she was being recalled. Of everyone in the room she was the least exhausted due to her ability to recover energy from ambient QE. Still, she understood why UA was doing it. She forced her irritation at the move down as she began to give her report…