[lonewolf]

If Mark was being honest with himself, he hated McDonalds. From the atmosphere to the employees to the food, it was the absolute worst. Granted, this particular one was nice and clean and people cared about the service and the burgers were decent, but there was no personality. That, and these burgers were not as good as ones thrown over an open fire. All of these were evils he had to bear, unfortunately.

For once, he was dressed up professionally. Suit, tie, full nine yards. This particular job caught his interest, and as it was the best lead he had he decided to jump on it. And, against all professional standards, he texted Kokoro so that she'd join him. Obviously telling her to dress a tad more professional, using the specific wording: "Pretend you're a fed." He'd keep a few details to himself, but he explained the jist: he wanted a little bit of backup investigating a white collar place nearby. Real estate firm, specifically. There were obviously some risks in doing what he was doing, but he'd swallow them with pride. If things weren't ever going sideways for him, then was he ever truly doing things in Lone Wolf style?

Once she arrived he looked her over up and down, smiling. "Damn. Guess I'll have to get all my flirting out of the way before we take the walk over," he says, sitting up. "You want anything? I hate this place, but I can't tell if it's because it's not as awful as the original, or Japan got a better deal than the entire first half of my childhood."

Kokoro

[Kokoro]

She was a bit surprised that Mark was actually serious about committing to this partnership in crime. After all, he was a hero, could he really afford to take a chance and trust someone like her? If news got out that he had been working with a criminal it probably wouldn't reflect well on him. That was the exact reason she wasn't going to leak this secret alliance. There were good heroes and bad heroes and she couldn't afford to let someone like Mark fall to the system when he was trying to do good.

A fed? She mulled it over for a bit, but once the day came she rocked up in full costume, suit, tie and of course the black shades to tie it all together. ''You sure know how to flatter me, wouldn't mind being arrested by the feds if it was you bringing me in. ~'' She pulled her shades down and offered him a wink as she slid into the seat next to him. ''I'm not particularly hungry... How about a kiss instead?'' She smiled up at him as her hand traced down his arm to try and hold his. If he gave her permission she would lean up and kiss him on the lips.

''So what's this whole thing about? Did you find a good lead on your brother?'' For some reason she had to assume it was about his brother. After all, the investigation meant a lot to Mark and she would wager her own problem was far more complex to investigate given that it involved more people that liked to stay secretive.

lonewolf

[lonewolf]

It wasn't hard to get a kiss out of him. He leaned down to meet her lips, letting her slide in next to him. There was something about Kokoro that really got him going, and he had to get himself in neutral before moving onto the professional part of the job. "A potential one. Believe it or not, villains also need a place to stay or a place to operate. Some firms have even managed to get hold of land on foreign soil. There's a fraud case I've been following, something a bank reported. Figured it couldn't hurt to pay a visit to the source of the complaint."

He reached into his coat pocket, pulling out a sheet of paper before handing it to her. "I'm gonna want this back, but considerin' I'm askin' for help figured you'd want to know some of the details." If she opened up the sheet she'd be met with several blocks of text of what looked to be legal sounding jargon. The firm in question was called Randosunatchāzu Unlimited, a real estate company that operated in suburban Tokyo and some of the prefectures north of it. On paper it seemed innocuous, but there were a few things circled in the document. A few looked to be locations of interest, but one of them was a name: Nemo Smith. "These places have been marked as sold and supposedly paid for, but when the bank ran the numbers they didn't add up. When questioned, the firm insisted that the bill had been paid. They can't disclose records, so I'm gonna do a little bendin' of the law to get my way."

He slid a small leather book her way, looking over at her. "This won't hold up to close scrutiny. All you gotta do is flash this and lemme do most of the talkin'. We're basically gonna dig into their records, make notes of things that seem important or screwy, and follow up at a later date."

Kokoro

[Kokoro]

She stood on her toes for a moment as they kissed, enjoying it for the brief few seconds she could before getting comfortable in her seat next to him. Would it be too much if she leaned on him too? They weren't in disguise as a couple after all. ''Smart! ~ Target them where they are staying.'' It wasn't something she would have thought to do, but then again she didn't really have the resources to go into all that. Not without breaking another couple of laws in the process first.

She pulled her glasses up, putting them in her hair as she looked over the paper he handed her. ''You're really trusting me with something so important?'' She teased him, nudging into him playfully. ''Aren't you living life dangerously?'' She giggled before she opened it and realized the contents of the paper were so dense she wouldn't get it even if she took hours to parse through it. She just sat there in stunned silence for a couple of seconds before she spoke again. ''This is a lot, you read all this already?'' She sifted through the pages, noticing the things he had highlighted and circled for her. ''Hence the disguises?'' After all, Lone Wolf the hero bending the law to get results? Sure, he might arrest some villains because of it, but she knew heroes and the government were all about rules so she doubted he would get that much leeway from up high.

''I see.'' She took the book and looked it over before smiling up at him. ''So you brought me along to the be eye candy? ~ But I can't compete with you.'' She winked before pulling her shades back down. ''When are we heading out?''

lonewolf

[lonewolf]

"Skimmed it. It's all legal bullshit, eyes crossed and tees dotted. If you know what to look for it ain't hard to find the meat of these things." He was downplaying it hard. You had to sift through a lot in documents such as that to find what was necessary. Even then it was possible to miss major details. "Technically speaking, I'm a local hero. I have no honor, or prestige, or any of that other stuff. Getting warrants and all that sort of stuff would take too long, even if I did I'd probably be stonewalled, blah blah blah. I've found it better to skirt authority somewhat by operating as high-level feds that supersedes." He smirked, leaning on the table. "I don't know if the stats hold up as well here in Japan, but in the States the average citizen can't get by without breaking at least three laws a day, one fo them federal. Not sayin' what we're doing is lawful, but sometimes what needs to be done has to go beyond it." He had a liberal view of the law, and most of the time kept to it. There were times, though, when you had to bend things just right to get what you needed.

"We can head out now. Place is just down the street." When they got up Mark would take point, heading for the door. "Story is we're with Interpol. It ain't uncommon for agents to work in pairs, one senior and one junior. I could have gone by myself, but as good as I am there is always the worry that I'll miss something. My quirk is great in these situations, but if I'm on a timetable I can easily get lose in the sauce." He put on a pair of sunglasses, looking over at her. "Plus, despite my moniker, having an extra pair of eyes you can rely on can come in handy from time to time. Especially beautiful ones like yours." He wasn't going to discount the eye candy comment, a smirk creeping on his face. "That, and...well not to sour things right as we're starting this, but I looked into what you're trying to find. State has a catalogue of all quirk users in Japan. Problem is, they're all confidential and sealed away. I'm working on a few leads into some areas that are more lax about quirk usage, especially in the north, but...it's slow going right now. Not much of an update, but figured I'd give the broad strokes of what I'm facin'."

Kokoro

[Kokoro]

''Ehhh really?'' She said, still impressed with his research as she flipped through a few more pages. ''You might as well have handed me hieroglyphs I can't read this at all.'' She admitted with a small chuckle, not afraid to admit that she had weaknesses and they clearly involved documents and electronics. ''Is that so?'' She blinked her eyes, putting a finger up to her chin in thought. ''Well, I've lost count of how many laws I've broken over the years but that sounds like it checks out.'' The fact that he took such a relaxed approach to the law at times really benefitted her. She was one step closer to finding the Ruler, one step closer to finding the quirk that controls time.

''That close? You really plan ahead, Mark.'' She rested one of her hands on the sword hilts on her hip as they got up. An Interpol agent carrying swords? There were stranger weapons out there surely so she didn't think she would draw any unnecessary suspicion. ''He's so smooth. ~'' She smiled up at him as he complimented her eyes, making sure she had her shades on as they went outside. ''It's a shame I'll have to hide them away or you'd get too distracted looking at me.'' She teased him one last time before things would start getting intense. ''I see. I've been looking for this person for a while, and I don't know anything about how to contact him or where he is. Just that you need some kind of access card to get to speak to him.'' She slipped her hand into his and gave it a squeeze. ''Thank you, Mark-kun. With your help I'm sure we'll find what we're looking for.'' She looked to further down the street as she began walking. ''Let's see what we can find out about your brother.''

lonewolf

[lonewolf]

An access card, huh? He should ask her more about this person when they had a minute. For the time being there was a job to be done and he had to start getting into character.

The walk was fairly short, no more than two blocks away. The building itself was not terribly large, four stories at most. The receptionist was behind her desk, carry out spread out so she could eat and work at the same time; Mark was not the most meticulous planner, but even he knew the best time to catch these corporate types off guard was to strike at lunch hour. While Kokoro's swords were a bit of a red flag, the fake authority they would have might make up for that.

As they approached the desk the woman would look up, surprised as she had a mouthful of food and she couldn't respond right away. Perfect. He reached into his coat, pulling free his badge and flashing it. "Good afternoon. I am Agent Smith, this is Agent Myers with Interpol. We are in the middle of an investigation and need to take a look at your records."

The woman gained enough composure, looking at Mark and then at Kokoro. "Uh, well, see...I uh. I can't just send you-"

"Ma'am, we already know what we're looking for. Shouldn't take no more than twenty, thirty minutes and we'll be out of your hair."

The secretary was obviously uncertain, looking over at Kokoro and then the swords at her sides.

Kokoro

[Kokoro]

Kokoro glanced up at Mark, letting him lead the conversation with the secretary for a bit until the attention fell on her and her swords. Oops, maybe she wasn't as covert as she thought. She smiled back at the secretary and bowed her head politely. Anything to make herself seem more amiable and less like a direct threat. ''We hate to interrupt you during your lunch, Miss, but we are on urgent business. As my partner here just said we won't be around for long.'' She didn't want to talk too much and risk exposing their plans. After all, Mark told her he would be doing most of the talking.

''However, if you don't let us in willingly we will have to file a report and list that your establishment was uncooperative and got in the way of official Interpol business.'' She was no stranger to faking identities, but impersonating Interpol? Mark really didn't mess around. She stayed silent for now so that he could chime in with anything he needed to say, and so she could wait for a response from the secretary.

Kokoro was willing to resort to actual threats of violence, or straight up violence if it came down to it, but she was going to play it cool so long as Mark's real identity was at the risk of leaking.

lonewolf

[lonewolf]

The woman's eyes went wide at that, and swallowing hard she stood up. "R-right, um...right this way please!" Mark wanted to give Kokoro a thumbs up, but he didn't want to take too many chances. He'd wait for them to be alone for the praise. The woman would start to lead them through the building, with Mark making notes here and there about the layout. Looking at blueprints was one thing, but seeing the building itself was another. It gave him an idea who worked where, in the event he needed to come back.

Going up a level and into a building near the back, the woman would open up a room that was relatively big, filled all the way around with file cabinets four drawers high. "This is where they keep most of their physical data, sales over the last five years. They do a purge of anything older every six months," she says, fidgeting. "You won't...mention my name in your investigation, will you?"

Mark looked at her, taking off his sunglasses and smiled. "Don't worry. We'll say 'anonymous source'. Thank ya." With a sigh of relief, followed by a bow, the woman turned and left. Taking a breath Mark looked around and took out his cheat sheet. "Alright. Now the real challenge." He began walking down the aisle, looking at the labels on the cabinets. "Nemo, nemo..."

Kokoro

[Kokoro]

The building looked surprisingly ordinary to her as they walked through it. Granted, she wasn't exactly an expert on what an office job might look like, but it made her think... If it hadn't been for Mark's intel, would she ever have suspected that something shady was going on here?

She was a bit taken aback to see just how many files they would have to go through, but she hid her true feelings behind a reassuring smile at the secretary as she let Mark tell her that they weren't going to expose the fact that she helped them get in here. She waited to speak until the secretary left them alone. ''They really don't make it easy, do they. It's like a whole library in here.'' She squatted down in front of one of the shelves and just got to work looking, only looking up from the file she had picked out to look over at Mark. ''Nemo?'' She closed the file and looked up. ''Is that the name we are looking for?'' She was glad that she wasn't here alone. Mainly because it would have been an incredibly boring job without Mark here, but also because she was short, and she knew he would be able to reach the top shelf a lot easier. ''For being such a good guy, you sure know your way around the law.'' She grinned over at him, trying to tease him a bit, but not speak too loudly.

lonewolf

[lonewolf]

Mark nodded at the library comment, sighing. "Tell me about it. Makes me incredibly happy I have little paperwork to worry about. Or...well, I'm supposed to fill these things out at the college, but I tend to not do them. Haven't gotten in trouble yet." He'd looked at two cabinets at a time, skimming over the names available in them. "Nemo. Latin for 'Nobody'. Pretty sure that's Sean being cute. Which means he's put himself in a position where he wants to be found. Unsettlin'."

He pulled out a file that looked promising, skimmed it, then put it back. "Well, I am American. If there's anything we love more than guns, baseball, and apple pie it's figuring out ways to fuck our government whenever they attempt to fuck us. In some cases that comes in less than legal means...or in the bad cases, awful but lawful." He paused a moment, looking over another file. "What was it like, growing up in one place? You said it was up in the mountains, right?"

Kokoro

[Kokoro]

''Really?'' She put her hand over her mouth as she let out a soft chuckle. ''And no one noticed? How long have you been working there?'' She turned back to the file she was going through, putting it away as she looked for traces of the name Nemo. ''I don't blame you, it probably doesn't come as a surprise, but I'm not very book smart.'' She admitted it with a laugh, thus were the consequences of dropping out of school early and only picking up life skills from being on the road all the time.

The note about Nemo being Latin for Nobody would have gone over her head completely if it wasn't for Mark's explanation. Although she had to agree, for him to name himself that, did that mean he wanted to be found, and if so, was he trying to lure Mark into a trap? ''Eh? That's how you do it in America, huh?'' She couldn't help but giggle again at his overall attitude. He was nothing like how she imagined all those heroes she had heard about on the radio and on television, but she liked him all the more for it.

''For me?'' She stood up and stretched her arms over her head, letting out a small sigh. ''It was pretty peaceful, but also really boring. I lived in a remote place with my parents and we didn't have any neighbors. I'm an only child too, so I didn't have any other kids to play with growing up.'' She didn't sound sad at all as she recounted her past, and in fact kept a somber smile on her face as she continued looking. ''Every now and then, travelers would stop by and rest at our Inn. That's how I got to hear about the world around me.'' She paused and looked back at Mark. ''What was it like for you growing up?''

lonewolf

[lonewolf]

"Long enough that I'm expecting consequences any day," he says, shrugging as he moved to another cabinet. "If it makes you feel any better, I don't have a lot of book smarts, either. Academic types like using big words and long documents to hide their intent, I've just gotten good at finding it."

The story of her youth sounded...well, dull. He didn't know how he could even live like that, and might explain why she had some of the tendencies that she did. If anything, she seemed to look back on it with a fondness that he had to admit made him feel jealous. "Well, we barely stayed in one place," he says, flipping through a file. "I was born in Oklahoma, my brother was born in Kansas. We traveled a lot growing up. Mom left us not long after Sean was born. We had to do most of our learning by ourselves. Little math here, little writing there. I technically have a high school diploma." He shrugged, putting the file back. "Didn't help Dad wasn't there when we needed him."

Like a miracle, Kokoro would find a file mentioning a "Nemo Smith", though the information in it was definitely dense and hard to understand.

Kokoro

[Kokoro]

''Living life on the edge.'' She chuckled softly, looking up from the cabinet she was looking through to search for Mark's eyes to look into. ''I like that about you.'' Some heroes might think that what Mark was doing was bad, but she could easily follow his logic, and that world was rarely so black and white that you could accomplish everything in the name of justice on the side of the law anyways. ''We're in the same boat then.'' She sighed, ''how is it being surrounded by so many academic types at that hero school?''

She blinked her eyes as she turned back to pick out a file that had just the name they were looking for. She read it one more time just to be sure. Nemo Smith... Her eyes turned soft as she stood up and looked at Mark as he talked about his past. It sounded like he didn't have it as carefree and easy as her. ''I'm sorry, Mark.'' She walked over next to him and squeezed his hand gently. ''That must've been tough. No child should be left to fend for themselves.'' She gave him a hopeful smile as she handed him the file. ''This is the one, isn't it? Nemo Smith. I'm going to need your help deciphering it because I have no clue what it says.''

lonewolf

[lonewolf]

"It's weird. It's not as bad as you might think, but at the same time UAU is like a police academy. Except like, a million times more intense." It was the best thing he could think of.

He set what he was looking for back, sighing. "Maybe. But it's all I knew. And it gave me the skills I needed to do this job. It ain't fun, but it's honest work. Minus some of the lying I do." It was something he didn't think about, but he did take pride in his work.

When she handed the file to him he opened it and skimmed the contents. "This looks like the one we're looking for." His eyes glazed over for a moment as he engaged his quirk. There was three people that had interacted with this one recently. One was Kokoro, but as much as he'd love to sift through her last three days he'd have plenty of opportunity to do that another time. That, and he figured the less shenanigans he knew that she got up to, the better. The other two were just passing workers, ones who were just managing records. As curious as he was to dig there, it wasn't worth it. What little information he saw was not making much sense, anyways. His vision returned, and he was gone for only ten seconds. "Let's make a copy of this and get out. I can skim through the contents later." And thankfully there was a copy machine nearby. "Anything else you wanna do today? And does it involve getting out of the suit first?" Implications aside, he really didn't have any other pressing things to do. And it'd be nice to have a day with her regardless.

Kokoro