Chapter Text
“Should you be sleeping like that?” Mustard questioned as he looked down at him. “And out here of all places?”
Tomura opened an eye and stared up at the young villain. “I’ll sleep where I damned well please.”
“You’re on top of Machia,” the kid added.
He turned his head to the side and saw he was using Machia’s arm as a pillow. “...Camaraderie building.”
“I ain’t spooning with you,” Dabi chimed in as he approached.
He flipped the burnt fire villain off.
Dabi responded in turn.
“Children,” Compress greeted as he approached, stretching his arms above his head, or what remained of his left arm. He’d been complaining about the weather growing colder recently, and how it made his arm ache.
‘Phantom limbs must be a bitch to deal with,’ he thought to himself.
“Your back must be fucked,” Twice greeted, “nothing like sleeping in a good bed.”
He sat up and groaned.
“Dumbass,” Dabi chided.
“I will kill you all,” he grunted as he got to his feet.
“Midoriya said you aren’t allowed to kill us,” Mustard rebuked.
“Izuku’s here?” he questioned, opening his other eye to fully look around the battle-worn area. He hadn’t heard the word ‘smash!’ shouted with the energy of a shonen protagonist, nor had the yandere tried to cut his head off as a symbol of undying affection to said protagonist.
“No, but I’d bet he’d be disapproving regardless,” the kid admitted, not sounding ashamed of lying to him about Izuku. Though he hadn't actually said Izuku was here.
He was being hasty. “Did any of you get any food?” he questioned. Izuku was probably off sinning with his women, the pervert.
“No,” Dabi replied, useless as ever.
“Yes,” Compress replied, his most dependable thief. “Though we will still need to clean the fish,” he added as he held up several of his marbles.
“I’ve never cleaned a fish before,” Mustard stated, looking up at the older villains expectantly.
He frowned at that. “Oy—” he drove his elbow into Gigantomachia’s side, making the giant grunt as he opened his eyes. “—we’re gonna eat breakfast, you want to join us?” If he was gonna have to step in and parent, he was going to make everyone partake in the debacle.
Gigantomachia simply stared at him. “I have not yet accepted you as master’s successor.”
“Yeah, and I’m hungry, and I’m willing to share with you because it’s something Sensei would tell me to do with you. Attracting flies with honey, not vinegar and all that. An open palm versus a fist, or whatever the saying is.”
“What are you eating?” the tall villain inquired, as he gently corrected the radio hanging from around his neck.
“Fish,” Compress replied as he released his quirk, letting several fish flop onto the ground before them. “Fishing with my quirk was quite the exercise in timing and spatial control, especially with having only one arm now.”
Gigantomachia looked at the thief’s prosthetic. “What happened?”
“I lost it trying to avenge the death of one of our members,” the man replied, “but we got them back in the end.”
“The yakuza are no longer a threat,” Tomura elaborated, “Their leader has been killed, and their empire destroyed. Now only one enemy remains before me—”
The ringing of a cell phone cut him off.
“Hey, it’s Giran!” Twice exclaimed. “Ignore his call, he’s been giving us the hot shoulder!”
Tomura dug the banged-up phone out of his pocket, and swiped his thumb over the green icon, answering it. “Giran, where have you been?” he demanded.
“Is this Shigaraki Tomura?” a voice responded, clear of the gravelly tone of a heavy smoker.
“Who are you?” he asked. Someone had Giran’s phone, had had it for a while at least. Giran wouldn’t have given them up easily.
“You may call me Re-Destro, I am the Grand Commander of the Meta Liberation Army, and I—”
“Is Giran still alive?” he inquired, cutting his enemy off.
Re-Destro faltered at being cut off, but seemed to right himself quickly as he cleared his throat. “He is.”
“Good. I’m coming for him, tell me where he is,” Tomura calmly said, his eyes focused on the trees ahead of him as everyone gave him a curious look.
“...Not how I expected this call to go,” Re-Destro muttered. “Deika City, it is our stronghold.”
“Are we calling Midoriya?” Mustard inquired.
“No,” he replied as he shook his head, “this will be my gift to him.”
“Gift? Wait, did you say, Midoriya—?”
Tomura ended the call as a wide grin split across his face before he broke out into laughter. “This is too good. My enemies are coming to me, offering themselves on a platter for me to kill them. Gigantomachia, we’re done for now. One of my allies needs rescuing, and I will not give him up if it’s in my power to save him. It is time the League fulfilled its purpose and protected its own.”
“But not Stain…” Spinner mused.
He let out a sigh as he pushed himself to his feet. Worst outcome, he could easily take Spinner, maybe Dabi as well… though a quirk he couldn’t decay would be an issue, but he was faster.
“Shigaraki?” Mustard questioned, head tilted to the side.
“No more lies,” he stated. “Stain never joined the League the night that I brought him to the bar. He refused to join as I had no conviction worth following at the time, considering that my goal was to simply ‘kill All Might’, and nothing more. Something both he and Izuku chided me for.”
“Did he try to kill you?” Spinner questioned, his body tense.
“He did, because at the time, killing All Might—and Izuku—were goals of mine,” he admitted.
“Why did you lie to us?”
“Stain being called a member of the League was a useful tool in finding members, it led you all to me. We used his status to draw people to us. And now a choice is before you: stay or leave.”
“So everything was a lie?” the green-scaled villain questioned, his tone raising as he grit his teeth. “All along, you’ve been stringing us along on lies?!”
“I only lied about Stain being a member of the League. Did I do nothing when Magne died? Did I do nothing when Compress lost an arm trying to avenge her? I have done my best to protect us without the aid of Sensei,” the cyan-haired villain stated, looking at each of them in turn.
“Did I regret losing Moonfish and Muscular? No, because they were not the villains I needed in the League to obtain my goals. To reach our goals,” he declared. “Muscular wants to die fighting, while Moonfish wants to keep eating people while being degraded, the freak.” He looked at Dabi. “Dabi, you want to kill Endeavor and other heroes like him for some unknown reason. Twice, you wish to live in peace without fear of Jin killing you. Compress wishes to carry on his family’s legacy as a thief. Mustard…” he looked down at the young villain in the middle of them all, a child to anyone, but to them a fellow villain. “Mustard, I don’t know what your goals are now that your ‘death’ has been revealed to be a hoax, though your parents would never take you back now. They’d prefer to say their child is dead, than to claim a villain as their own family. This will not do.”
“What do you intend to do?” Dabi questioned, hands in his pockets, seemingly unphased about the lie regarding Stain. Either he suspected the truth, or Stain didn’t matter as much to him as the man did to Spinner.
“I intend to still tear down the hero-obsessed society and shove their noses in all of the problems they left to fester, thinking their precious heroes would solve them for them. Any quirk is dangerous if the person using it wishes for it to be so, just as they can be dangerous in the hands of a kid who doesn’t have great control. That hero Midnight has a gas quirk herself, and uses it to put people to sleep all the time, and she’s praised for it. I bet she knocked people out in dangerous situations when she was a little kid herself.”
Compress shrugged. “I used to gouge holes in doors when I was tired, so who knows?”
He nodded, he too used to decay stuff, forgetting to keep a finger raised. “But first, we need to rescue Giran. So tell me: Who’s leaving, and who’s coming with me to Deika City to burn it to the ground after we save Giran?”
There was a brief moment of tense silence.
“...What did you mean by gift?” Mustard, questioned.
“Do you know what you’ve done?” the info broker questioned as he looked up at Rikiya, the Grand Commander of the Meta Liberation Army.
He looked at the man’s phone. The random letters signifying Shigaraki Tomura meant nothing to him, but he was sure Skeptic could work out who was who in the contacts list. After all, Giran was one of the best known info brokers in Japan, and having access to his sources would be a boon to their goals. “You ask that as if I should be threatened,” he replied. “We number in the tens of thousands, versus his paltry seven—no, make that six. I heard rumors about Kurogiri being captured from a reliable source. If we were to fight, I see no reason why we would lose.”
“He may seem like an upstart, but he was trained by All for One himself,” Giran stated. “A kid doesn’t go through that and be a simple pushover. He wanted his debut to be killing All Might after he invaded UA. Sure, a big goal to reach, but he got there. Did what no one else had done before, and he made All Might bleed.”
Rikiya thickly swallowed. “Be that as it may, he can not take on thousands of us and win, he can’t even defeat Taikyu—”
“You idiot.”
“Do not disrespect the commander!” Skeptic scolded as he backhanded their prisoner.
“What makes me an idiot?” he questioned, softly pushing Skeptic back. He appreciated the devotion of those in the Army, but this called for a delicate hand.
“They’re working together,” Giran offered, a grin on his face. “Taikyu sought him out to ask for his help in taking down the yakuza, and Shigaraki agreed to his terms—all to avenge Magne’s death, and the loss of one of Compress’ arms. If he isn’t asking Taikyu for help in saving me, it means he has plans for you all.”
“We can handle them,” Geten scoffed as he lounged in his seat, “trash like them belongs beneath our heels.”
He frowned at the ice quirk user. Geten and his coalition in the army had been the most vocal on wanting to suppress and rule over those they dubbed as weaker. Stating that might is right, and that’s what Destro wanted, for those with power to rule over those without it. There had been many heated debates on what his father wanted, and some infighting between the army’s rank and file had even started recently. They couldn’t afford a coup, or for such a huge chunk to break off and become their own group. “Guards,” he called, two men quickly answered, saluting him with the symbol of Liberation. “Take Giran back to his holding cell. Carefully, mind you, I don’t want him any more banged up. And don't let him touch you, either. Miyazuki and Hishanami are still unable to remember what they told him when he used his quirk on them, who knows what he knows or has managed to put together with that knowledge.”
“Then maybe it’s best if we just kill him,” Geten cut in, “Curious can get rid of him like the others, though she’d need to touch him first. Think you can keep your wits about you?”
The blue women shot a glare at the ice user. “Of course I can, I also know I can just touch his jacket and make that into a landmine strong enough to burn him away.”
“Now, now,” Re-Destro urged, raising a hand up before him. “Murder isn’t always the only way to get what you need. I am willing to try diplomacy with the League—after all, they have assets we could put to use, not to mention they still have those nomu of theirs. We all saw what just one did to a city, even with Endeavor and Hawks on site to deal with it. None of us have a fire quirk that strong, and those that have been trying to emulate Endeavor have caused serious harm to themselves and those around them since the fight was televised.”
“Of course, sir,” Curious quickly agreed.
He was grateful for her loyalty. He’d never understood why people judged her for her blue skin, it was striking, and showed just how wonderful quirks could be, though he’d kept things professional between them. Romance amongst the leaders could lead to serious issues if things went bad for them. He could seek his happiness once he’d obtained his father’s goal, and maybe she’d stand by his side then too.
“Though. I do worry about what gift he has in store for Midoriya, given our relation to…” she trailed off, the unspoken name had essentially become banned for the curse of bad luck it had brought them.
Letting Geten have control over the schools had been a mistake, he’d decided one night after the interview with Midoriya had been aired, and the army suffered heavy losses for what they had done to a single child. A softer, more delicate hand would be needed to teach the children of the future. ‘Maybe Hanabata could oversee that, especially if he can get enough power in the Diet to back his moves, though we can’t afford to be too overt until we are in full control.’ “Yes, Aldera would be an issue in most cases. But why would Shigaraki give Taikyu a gift?”
Curious looked down at her notebook. “Midoriya spoke about Shigaraki in a familiar tone that day. Like he knew him well. And then there was the kidnapping incident, where he was kept hostage for several days, and when he fought against All for One with All Might, he looked perfectly fine.”
“You guys don’t get it,” Giran said as he reached the door, the guards firmly holding him by his clothes, hands kept away from them. “Midoriya asked Shigaraki to help him take down the yakuza. The kidnapping was basically a sleepover. They’re friends of a sort. They’re competing to see who can reform society first. Taikyu seeks to end the coming Age of Villains, and is working to ensure heroes are heroes to help people first and foremost, not line their pockets; while Shigaraki plans to tear society completely down and rebuild it with the titles of heroes and villains thrown away.
“Regardless of your reasons, you’re in their way, and I’d expect no leniency from the League. If you care about your people, evacuate the civilians. If they bring clones of Muscular and Moonfish, you will lose them—I will give you that advice for free. Muscular has no qualms killing children, nor Moonfish with eating them,” he added before he left the room.
Rikiya looked down the phone, trepidation growing in his heart at the idea of what he had invited to his home. “Recall all of our heroes, and prepare to evacuate the non combatants.”
“You know, when I was told winter internships would start soon, I thought they meant in like a week or so,” Izuku grumbled to Shouto and Tenya as they walked down the street, having left the nearby convenience store all laden down with their snacks for the monthly movie night they had started recently.
“We still have classes to finish, as well as the finals themselves,” Tenya countered, chopping with his one free arm. “It would be unfitting for UA to send us out to do internships when we still had classes and exams to take.”
Shouto merely nodded along in agreement.
“I was looking forward to doing more hero work,” Izuku defended. “Don’t you guys want to get out and do patrols? And I mean actual patrols, not patrol routing, Tenya.”
The blue-haired boy slumped at that. “But it matters…”
“I can also stalk heroes using their patrol routes so I can get their autographs. Like up ahead, Present Mic is going to walk past us as he has today set aside for patrols,” Izuku explained, and right on cue their English teacher came around the corner, grooving to some music he was listening to as a young kid handed him a photo to sign.
The hero deftly snatched the photo and signed it with a flourish before kneeling down on one knee. “Let’s add a picture too, little listener!” he suggested, the young girl furiously nodding her head as she pulled a phone out of her pocket and took a photo with him.
Shouto looked at him. “That is…”
“How many hero patrol routes do you know?” Tenya questioned.
He began to count them in his head.
Tenya and Shouto shared a look as Present Mic joined them.
“What’s the little listener doing?” the blond hero questioned.
“He’s about to terrify us,” Tenya declared.
“I am not ,” Izuku countered, “and five hundred seventy one routes, though that’s for heroes whose routes I know, not their alternate routes counted.”
Their English teacher took his sunglasses off, folded them up, and put them in his pocket. “Izuku, you need to spend less time with Nezu. I am officially terrified and wish I had Shouta and Nemuri with me.”
“For comfort?” Shouto questioned.
“Comfort? No, I want them to experience this terror alongside me.”
Before Izuku could reply, the sound of tires screeching erupted behind them. Mic’s face turned serious and his body tensed as he started to move forward. Izuku spun around to see a truck drifting around the far street corner, with several villains wearing massive backpacks that had hoses running to some kind of gun in their hands. They blasted the street with snow and ice as a cop car came around the corner and hit the ice, spinning out of control.
The ground crumpled as Izuku took off towards the truck. Tenya was right beside him, engines roaring, his legs already coated in ice from Shouto. The bichromatic hero then shot a gout of flame ahead of the truck, making it suddenly brake, sending the villains in the back toppling over themselves.
“I'm a hero student with a provisional license,” Izuku announced as he landed on the roof of the truck cab, looking down at the armed villains.
“AND I AM A FULL PRO HERO!” Mic shouted past Tenya, who ran around the truck and yanked the driver’s door open and pulled him out.
“Stand down, or we will take you down.” The verdette declared, finger poised to flick a gust of wind at them.
“Fuck you, kid! Die-!” one of the villains shouted as he raised one of the ice weapons.
He flicked his finger.
The truck’s suspension buckled as the vehicle was slammed into the ground, and the villains were slammed into the truck bed as they tried to attack him.
Several of them whimpered in pain as Present Mic approached the truck. “Good job, you guys,” he called out as Tenya restrained the driver by kneeling on his back.
“How are the police?” Tenya questioned.
“Todoroki went to check on them,” the blond replied, “but from what I could see, they just looked rattled, they shouldn’t have suffered any serious injuries. Now then, I’m assuming command of the scene. Taikyu, keep an eye on them,” he ordered as he jogged around the truck to tie some restraints around the driver’s wrists as more police cars arrived on scene. Present Mic popped back up and waved at the police. “Hey guys, my students took them down, but I took over. You mind arresting the villains? I’d hate for Taikyu to have to actually start fighting.”
“Of course it’s you three again,” Detective Tsukauchi greeted as he got out of a police car while putting his hat on.
Izuku smiled at him. The man had been Toshi’s go-to police liaison for years, and he hoped he could work with the man who knew the truth about their quirk. “Hello, detective, we were talking to Present Mic when he suddenly burst into action and we followed suit.”
“Of course,” the man replied. “I wouldn’t expect you to just stand by when a hero is needed, Taikyu.”
“Taikyu?” a villain weakly questioned between pained moans.
He glanced at the villains. “Yes?”
“FFFFFFuck me, should have stayed in bed,” the villain groaned as he held his clearly broken arm against his chest.
He felt that on a spiritual level. He’d woken up to Eri squirming her way between him and Tsu this morning to snuggle with them both, earning her several forehead kisses from the both of them. “Next time I, or any other hero, tells you to stand down, you stand down .”
“Did you break your finger with that flick?” Shouto questioned as he approached, followed by an officer.
“Nope, I can safely use my quirk at low levels without breaking my body now.”
“...What the fuck is wrong with this kid?” another villain mumbled.
“I’m late for movie night with my girlfriends,” he instantly replied.
“ Girlfriend s ? We lost to a harem keeper!?”
“It’s not a harem!” he shouted, his voice raised in anger. “They date each other too, there’s a difference!”
“Yes sir,” a villain meekly muttered.
Shouto was staring at him, his eyes squinted in focus. “I wonder…”
“Shouto, no.”
“You see it, right?” his friend asked Tenya.
“See what?”
“Maybe I was wrong about All Might being your father, and instead it’s—”
Izuku was before Shouto, the cab of the truck crumpled from his sudden movement. “ Not. Another. Word ,” he warned his friend as the wind caught up with him.
Shouto blinked several times before nodding. “Sure.”
A news van screeched to a halt next to the police cars, a news reporter from some channel jumping out, microphone in hand. “We missed the police chase, but the heroes are still on site! Let’s get some interviews!”
His first thought was of the blue serial killer reporter from several months ago. “Nope!” he hastily said to himself. “Let’s go, don’t want Himiko to think Tomura kidnapped me again and go on a rampage. Lives are at stake.”
“Good call,” Present Mic chimed in as she stepped in front of them. “I’ll handle the press for you guys. Shouta would have my hide if I threw you guys to the vultures.”
“Wouldn't he do that as a lesson though?” he questioned.
“Nope! Nemuri and I made sure he wouldn't do that,” Mic assured them. “Nezu once did it to us, and he made sure Nezu never made that mistake again!”
Izuku made a note to investigate what happened. He could use that to his advantage next time Nezu or Aizawa decided to make him or the girls the victim of a logical ruse.
“Hey, aren’t you the three that took down Stain? And the one who fought alongside All Might in his final fight?” the reporter questioned, her expression growing eager as she rushed forward, thrusting her microphone under Mic’s outstretched arm as he tried to block her.
“Uhhh, no?” he questioned. “I’m not that guy, we just look similar?” he lied, he hoped he was telling a convincing lie at least. He hated the idea of giving an interview. ‘How did Toshi do this all the time?’
The reporter gave him a flat look mirrored by everyone else.
“We got taken down by that?” another villain questioned.
“Izuku,” Shouto said, getting his attention, “you’re bad at this, aren’t you?”
“I need my emotional support vampire.”
His phone pinged, making him check it.
“I am on my way! With a knife!” she had texted him.
“How did she do that?” he questioned.
“Mei,” was Tenya’s only answer.