After securing the scene, Hawks knocked the dealer out and placed an anonymous call to the police. With that handled, he and Tamaki left the apartment and took to the sky.
A short flight later, they arrived at a large house on the outskirts of the neighborhood. Unlike the cramped buildings in the center, the houses here were more spacious, almost luxurious in comparison.
"This is the place?" Tamaki asked hesitantly, eyeing the house. "It looks nice, but… something about it feels off about what are we doing."
Hawks nodded. "If we were cops, what we did today could've taken weeks—maybe months. But we don't have time for that. We're skipping the waiting game. Now, we gather intel."
Tamaki frowned. "Are we even allowed to do this?"
Hawks shrugged, giving him a knowing smirk. "So-so. But if we sit back and wait, it could take years before we get any real leads." He flapped his wings lightly, lifting himself higher for a better view. After a quick aerial scan, he returned to Tamaki.
"Good news—no cameras on the roof. Every security feed starts inside, on the second floor. That means we can slip in unnoticed. We'll enter through a window in the backyard. Is funy how people still underestimate the sky."
With that, they took off, flying toward the house. Hawks extended a single feather, skillfully slipping it between a window frame to unlatch the lock. With a soft creak, the window slid open, and they climbed inside.
Moving in silence, they split up to search the house. Hawks used his Quirk to nudge the security cameras subtly, shifting their angles to avoid detection. The place was big, but not so big that it took long to check every room. Within minutes, they had scoured most of the house.
The house's decor was crude, almost distasteful. Large framed images of nude women covered the walls, and statues of women in various provocative poses stood in different corners of the room. The whole place had the air of someone with too much money and too little class.
Tamaki swallowed hard, forcing himself to focus on the mission. He kept his eyes straight ahead, doing his best to ignore the surroundings.
Hawks used his Quirk to nudge security cameras just enough to shift their angles, ensuring they wouldn't be caught on video. Their search was methodical and quick—while the house was large, it wasn't so big that they couldn't sweep it in a few minutes.
On the first floor, they could hear people moving around, and voices murmuring in the rooms. The second floor, however, was almost deserted. Taking advantage of the quiet, they focused on the most suspicious-looking room so far—the master bedroom.
The room was extravagant, centered around an absurdly oversized bed—easily double king-sized. Hawks and Tamaki spread out, searching for anything that might give them a lead. Unlike Lady Nagant, who preferred a more aggressive approach, Hawks was careful, putting things back exactly where he found them after checking.
They combed through drawers, checked under the bed, and examined every suspicious detail, but nothing stood out. Just as frustration began to creep in, Tamaki paused. His gaze locked onto a bookshelf against the far wall. Something about it seemed… off.
"Here," he muttered, stepping forward and gripping the shelf's edge. With a grunt, he pushed it aside, revealing a hidden safe embedded in the wall.
Hawks let out a low whistle. "Well, well. What do we have here?"
The safe was old—analog, not digital—almost an antique. It was absurdly ornate, covered in intricate metalwork and elaborate decorations, as if it belonged in a museum rather than a criminal's hideout.
"Alright, let's play," Hawks said with a smirk. "Kid, watch my back."
He pressed his ear to the safe, fingers expertly rotating the dial, listening for the faintest clicks. One by one, he tested different combinations, pausing at each subtle shift in resistance. After several tense moments, a final click echoed in the room.
The safe door swung open.
Tamaki and Hawks leaned in, only to be met with… disappointment.
Stacks of cash, expensive jewelry, high-end watches—nothing that screamed evidence, just the luxuries of a rich man.
"You sure this isn't just the stash of some wealthy guy?" Tamaki asked, frowning.
Hawks didn't answer immediately. Instead, he pushed past the valuables, digging deeper with a knowing look.
"You just have to look a little harder," he murmured.
His fingers brushed against something small and solid. Pulling it out, he revealed a sleek black box.
The moment he flipped it open, a row of SD cards glinted under the dim light. Hawjs exhaled sharply. "This is it. The first real lead."
With luck, the SD cards likely contained records of transactions—supplier names, transport routes, and possibly connections to other organizations.
If they were lucky, this could be the key to unraveling a much bigger operation ot at least enough evidence to grabb this man by the balls.
With the right intel, they might even trace it all back to whoever orchestrated the attacks on the hotel and commercial district, one clue should lead no another, the underworld was one big web after all.
However, before they could secure the evidence, a voice interrupted.
"You made a mistake, yoh."
Tamaki and Hawks spun around to face the speaker. A young man stood in the doorway, his oversized clothes hang ing loosely on his lanky frame. He couldn't have been much older than his early twenties, his blond hair messy, his expression cocky.
'Too young', Hawks thought.
"And you are?" Hawks asked casually, though his posture remained alert.
The man grinned, flashing sharp teeth. "Confident for a hero, huh? But you're in my territory now. This is Snake's domain… and you're not walking out of here. yoh"
As he spoke, figures emerged from the hallway behind him.
One by one, armed men stepped into the room, their rifles and submachine guns aimed directly at Hawks and Tamaki. but instead of concern, Hawks simply smirked.
"And there it is," he said, almost amused. "The second thing we were looking for, the ones who will answer all of our questions."
The armed men didn't hesitate. Their fingers tightened on the triggers—gunfire erupted in a deafening burst.
But the bullets never reached them.
Hawks shielded himself in an instant, wrapping his wings around his body like a cocoon, the red feathers absorbing the impact with ease. Tamaki, meanwhile, activated his Quirk, hardening his skin with thick layers of seashell armor. The bullets ricocheted harmlessly off both heroes, clattering uselessly to the floor.
"Tsk." The blond man—"Snake"—clicked his tongue in irritation. "Damn, these things never work when you need them to." Then almost immediately, his body began to change.
Dark scales rippled across his skin, spreading like oil over his arms and neck. His nails elongated into sharp, curved claws, and fangs pushed past his lips as his jaw extended unnaturally. His entire form stretched, twisting and expanding, until he no longer resembled a man at all.
In a matter of seconds, he had fully transformed—a massive black-scaled serpent with a pair of arms, now he had his golden eyes gleaming with malice against Hawks and Tamaki.
With a single, powerful whip of his tail, he struck.
The force of the blow sent both heroes flying. Tamaki crashed hard against the wall, the impact rattling through his bones. Hawks, however, barely flinched, bracing himself with his wings to absorb the hit. He straightened, ready to retaliate, but then Tamaki's voice cut through the moment.
"Mr. Hawks… can I handle this?" Tamaki asked.
Hawks raised an eyebrow, momentarily surprised. Then, with a small smirk, he waved his hand, signaling for Tamaki to go ahead.
Without hesitation, Tamaki reached into his pocket, pulled out a few pieces of dried meat, and swallowed them.
Almost instantly, his body began to change. His brown wings darkened into a deep gray, growing larger and more powerful. His legs shifted, his feet elongating into sharp, talon-like claws, built for gripping and tearing. A long, prehensile tail sprouted from his lower back, flexible and agile like a monkey's. At the same time, layers of seashell armor spread over his arms, encasing his body beneath a coat of thick brown fur.
"Chimera: Harpy-Mangost."
Tamaki didn't wait. He launched himself at the villain with incredible speed, closing the distance in seconds.
Snake only grinned.
Opening his mouth wide, he bared his fangs, a thick purple venom dripping from their tips. The toxic liquid sizzled as it touched the ground, eating away at the concrete. But Tamaki didn't slow down.
Instead, he raised his forearm and shoved it directly into the villain's jaws. Snake's fangs clamped down, but instead of piercing flesh, they met solid, impenetrable armor. Tamaki kept going, using his momentum to slam into Snake at full force, sending both of them crashing through the wall and plummeting to the first floor.
The impact sent a shockwave through the building, dust and debris flying in all directions.
Tamaki recovered first. Reinforcing his hands with thick layers of seashell armor, he struck the villain's face with all his strength. Snake's head snapped back as blood splattered across the floor, but he didn't retreat. Instead, he retaliated, his massive tail whipping through the air and slamming into Tamaki, sending him skidding across the ground.
Snake wasted no time. He slithered forward, circling his prey, looking for an opening.
Tamaki gritted his teeth and adjusted his stance. Then, in a swift motion, green vines burst from his body, twisting and extending toward the serpent-like villain. The vines lashed out, aiming to restrain him, but Snake was fast. He darted between them, avoiding each strike with fluid, calculated movements.
Then he lunged.
His fangs glistened as he aimed straight for Tamaki's wing. This time, he sank his teeth deep into the limb. Tamaki flinched, pain searing through his body, but he didn't falter.
Instead, he used the vines still wrapped around him, coiling them tightly around Snake's massive frame. With a sharp tug, he lifted the villain off the ground and slammed him down, shaking the entire floor.
The snake writhed in pain, his body coiling and uncoiling violently. His breathing was ragged, his scales bruised and cracked.
"Why—" he gasped, his voice filled with disbelief. "Why aren't you on the ground, screaming in pain?! My venom should've taken you out by now!"
"You forgot he told you—he's using a mongoose," Hawks called out from behind with his hand around his mouth.
At those words, the snake villain's expression twisted in desperation. Of course, he knew about the mongoose and its natural resistance to venom—especially the neurotoxic kind he relied on. If poisoning his enemy was off the table, he needed a new strategy.
Without hesitation, he coiled his massive body around Tamaki, tightening his grip to crush him. But something was wrong.
Tamaki didn't move.
The villain squeezed harder, his muscles straining, but it was useless—Tamaki remained completely unfazed.
"The harpy eagle," Tamaki said, locking eyes with him. "It's the strongest bird of prey. That's what I am now. So, sorry, but the strength of a snake like you isn't enough to crush me. Maybe if you were a constrictor snake, but you're not."
Before the villain could process the situation, Tamaki's vines surged forward, twisting around the snake's body and pinning him down. The snake struggled, thrashing violently, but the bindings only tightened.
Then, with a final move, Tamaki reinforced his talons with hardened seashell and drove a powerful kick into the villain's chest. The impact knocked the air out of him, and leave a cut in the middle of the chest, the black snake's body convulsing as the last of his strength left him. His struggles ceased.
"Good job, kid," Hawks said, his voice relaxed. "A little more destruction than I'd prefer, but hey—good job."
Tamaki turned toward him, breathing heavily, only now noticing the pile of unconscious villains beneath Hawks, their weapons scattered across the floor. While Tamaki had been fighting, Hawks had taken down every other armed thug in the building.
"Now, now, Mr. Snake," Hawks continued, stepping toward the defeated villain. "I'd appreciate it if you deactivated your Quirk so we can talk like civilized people."
The villain groaned, still gasping for air. "Go to hell," he spat.
Hawks sighed. "Wrong answer."
Without warning, he raised his foot and brought it down hard on the villain's shoulder. The force sent a sharp crack through the air as the man's joint popped out of place, his body slamming against the floor with enough impact to crack the concrete beneath him.
"AAAHH! That's illegal, you—!" the villain howled.
"Yeah, yeah, shut up," Hawks said, crouching down. "Now, undo your transformation, and let's talk. Like civilized people."
His tone made it clear—there was no other option.
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hellow guys, here is today chapter, enjoy the reading.