And I tapped into the vampiric quirk that came next. Much like after my first Nomu battle, something had changed in me, my bond with my quirk. The flow into dual-copy was almost intuitive, now.
The vampire was a blonde woman in a messy schoolgirl uniform, even messier hair in twin buns, and to round out the look, a butcher's cleaver. "Shigi might not, but I think I should kill you... I don't care what the boss says." She said all while keeping a broad, happy, if somewhat manic, smile.
"Lemme guess, Stain's daughter? Here to get revenge for his death?" She wasn't, not unless her mother fucked a twelve year old, but Stain's identity wasn't public knowledge. Even if they knew, they wouldn't know that I knew his actual age.
I opened my arms, as if to offer a hug. "Well, you found his killer, sweetheart. But you're not as strong as daddy dearest."
The blond was wriggling in place, with quite the blush to go with. "Oh!? You think ~Stainy~ is my ~daddy~?!"
Yup. Like all vampires, she was fucking cray cray. "Or older brother, or uncle. Your quirks aren't identical, but they're damn close."
That was the thing about vampires and their mind-altering succubus subspecies, they all had quirks related to blood consumption. It was endemic to the subtype, like canine heteromorphs with their sense of smell. Or felines and their agility.
Her grin widened. "Oh? You know what Stainy's quirk was? I'll cut that information out of you right before I end your life."
"Paralyzed people by drinking their blood." I feigned a bored sort of calm. It wouldn't fool the vamp, but she should be able to realize I was telling the truth. "You're a doppelganger via same method."
I looked over to the next one. A tall, bulky man. "Muscle enhancement and limited shapeshifting?" If we come to blows, I might be fucked even if I reveal my copy quirk. "Gotta say, I'm a little jealous. I have to work hard for these abs."
"~Are you ignoring me?!~"
I very much was not, but I needed her to believe I was.
"Yeah, gotta say I'm glad you're not some weakling. Keep being entertaining, and maybe I won't kill you."
Yeah, that's basically my life for now, though not from you. I wasn't sure I could beat this guy straight on, but I could easily run. All for One was a different sort of monster. "I hope you don't mean my standup routine. I suck at improv."
He laughed, and crossed his arms. "Not from where I'm standing."
I took that as a 'win' and moved to the next. The man in a top hat and a full coverage mask with a giant grin on it. "Oh... that is a busted quirk."
"Oh?" He said. "I admit, I take some pride in my power, but compared to what you must be accustomed to..."
"Let's just say if you went hero, you'd have a damn good shot at second pl-" NOW!
I stepped to the side, as little miss vampire sailed past me. She was fast enough to spin and attempt a slash from what had been a near perfect stab at my heart. The fullest extent of my Nomu enhancement giving me just enough speed, my quirk tracking her, and my emulation of her combat instincts all came together.
I caught her by the neck of her uniform on her way past, and twisted. She choked, and with my other hand I caught and twisted her wrist to force her to drop the knife. "My apologies, it seems I must cut our little chat short. A distraction came up."
I was unable to see anything behind his mask, but his body language was 'strategically relaxed' like my own. "Yes, perhaps it would be better for you to deal with this, first."
I could have busted her to pieces at this angle, with my strength compared to hers. Instead I shoved her forward. She tumbled onto her face, but was quick to roll and flip her way to facing me again, snarling like the wild animal she was.
I responded by kicking her knife across the concrete, where it slid to a stop almost at her knees.
I knew I wasn't getting through this confrontation without a fight. If I showed any weakness, I bet it would have been the muscle-guy. If I pushed Shigaraki too hard, it would have been a group attack.
And if I just randomly punched the weakest of them, the rest would also know I was too weak to take seriously.
And most of them... there was no way I could put them down without revealing my quirk's true nature. Something I needed to avoid even more now than I ever had before.
This vampire was the perfect pick for what I needed. Unstable enough for it to not be me who started the fight. Strong enough that it wouldn't look like bullying when I won.
"I'm giving you the one chance to back down before I take you apart..." I paused. "Or, on second thought, I'm down for friendly little match. I'm sure everyone here would love to see the moves that put Stain down like the mad dog he was. Like father, like daughter."
She pulled a second knife from hiding under her skirt. "Oh, you think you're so cute, don't you?" Her grin was that of a wild animal, baring her teeth to warn off threats.
"Bitch, I'm adorable. Now are we talking or fighting?"
"You'll be beautiful when I'm done with you!" She lunged, and I hopped back. She was faster than anticipated, and it was more than just her animal instincts. In fact, I'd dare say she was a match for me in natural agility.
That, plus the knives, made her a real threat.
I tapped into her instincts, and joined the melee. A swerve to avoid a slash, a twist to avoid a stab. I baited an opening, and took a cut along the forearm in order to deck her in the jaw and send her sprawling.
She righted herself midair, landed and then jumped to the side when I came down with enough force to splinter the concrete below our feet. Maybe I was a bit too zealous, having Momo make me tungsten plated soles.
Worry about that later, vamp was rebounding while I was 'distracted'. I flipped back, caught one of her knives with my foot, and sent it spinning up into the air. I grinned right back at her. "Well, you're a better fighter than your daddy, I'll grant you that."
I lied through my fucking teeth, and she had to know it. But this fight wasn't about her, or even me, it was about the audience.
Down a knife, I expected her to grow more cautious, but if anything she grew all the more frenetic in her assault. And I matched her pace, pushing my agility to its limits and still being forced to make the difference with strength, endurance, and reach.
I was going wild, too.
The blood. The scent of it- hers, my own, it was awash in my senses. The pounding of my heartbeat in my ears the most ecstatic music in my hears.
The way she panted, the heat of her skin and the smell of her sweat and blood. It drove me as wild as her.
But I was better at hiding it. I'd been training against a mind control quirks for months, years of experience with many quirks that gave their own 'instincts' to their wielders. This was artificial, this wasn't me.
And those heady vampiric instincts were also working on my side, constantly reminding me that my mission was stealth, and how best to lie with my movements and body language even as I increased my pace.
I could do that, if I did it right. I needed only to hide the frenzy, not repress it. Make them think I was playing around and matching her pace, rather than riding the high of this drug that was her power.
This power of hers, she had spent her childhood immersed in this experience... no wonder she was a villain. To live your life this way and not become an addict, especially with Japan's hideous neglect in the 'mental' side of the health care field.
Even in fucking U.A., 'psychology' seemed to be 'that thing you use to mindfuck your enemies into submission' rather than a healing art.
We kept fighting. A flip of a coin whether I was ruining her tattered psyche even further by drawing this fight out, or mending it by virtue of her having an outlet that could meet her at her worst and survive.
I did know it wasn't good for my wellbeing. The stench of blood was the sweetest, most delectable thing I'd ever experienced. It dug its tendrils into my mind, giving me visions of how beautiful she'd be when she broke. That moment when the last light in her eyes went out the greatest thrill I could imagine.
I didn't win this match on speed, I didn't even win it on skill. I won it on maintaining just enough control to match her frenzy, and keep her escalating the speed and passion until her body couldn't handle it and she slowed.
A quick slap sent her other knife clacking across the warehouse floor, and before even I could think, I had my hand around her throat and pinned her to the ground.
She stared up at me, a wild beast that knew she was beaten, but refused to be broken.
I looked down, and it was everything I could do not to lick the blood leaking from the cut on her lip where I'd punched her. She was subdued, her copied power told me that.
I flipped her over onto her face, pinned both arms behind her back and locked her legs down with my feet. She was my better (albeit not by much) in speed, but I was far beyond her in strength.
But with the combat high fading, I felt something else here. A watchful, hateful thing... All for One was using some remote scrying power to observe the festivities.
Even if he wasn't... "You know, bitch, it's been a long time since anyone cut me... I think I deserve an apology. Maybe you should kiss it better."
I lowered my arm down, just in front of her face, and her tongue extended out like an animal desperate for water.
"But you'd like that, wouldn't you?" I drew away, and she struggled in my grasp. "No, I should be taking something from you, not the other way around."
Even with the vamp's power gone, the effect on my mind wasn't entirely faded, that and the stress, the intensity of the fight.
This sick fuck watching from the shadows.
Well, if they wanted a show, I'd give them a show. "I wonder... how many men you lured to their deaths with a pretty face and admittedly flawless body. Did you ever let any of them fuck you before you killed them?"
She tensed. "What!? No! I never!"
"Then this'll be a treat for me." I hooked my finger into the hem of her skirt and panties, then tore them away. "And a learning experience for you."
=====
I can't do this. Adrenaline and mind-fucking vampire bullshit notwithstanding, I didn't want to do this. If I tried, I wouldn't even be able to get it up.
I also couldn't afford to put myself in this situation a second time.
"Consider yourself lucky, bitch." I stood up and walked away with a frustrated sigh. "I ain't doing this while a bunch of faggots watch my ass. But you try this again, and I'll drag you into a side room by your tits."
I tossed a packet of first aid supplies back at her. "Clean yourself up." I began applying some gauze to my arm.
Let the asshole with the nonsense psych profile add 'homophobic' to the list, I'm sure it'd fit in nicely with the whole 'mother married to another woman who pretends I'm not her kid' thing.
"Who do you think you're calling a faggot!?" One of the villains I hadn't gotten to yelled.
"Everyone who's looking at me instead of the pretty teen ass on display." I then looked over at the magnokinetic. "Except you, of course, Ma'am."
Behind me, the vampire scrambled for her skirt. As beat up as she was, she'd be no threat for the time being. But I got the feeling this was not over. Next time... I might be forced to make good on my threat. Agreeing to terms wasn't quite consent, but so be it.
Momo... I would ask her understanding, but... not her forgiveness. That would hurt me more than her hate.
"You sure go from polite to crazy and back again fast, huh?" She said to me.
"I was raised to treat people how they treat me. She tried to shove a foreign object in my guts, you've been nothing but polite. Speaking of, I should finish my introductions."
I went back to the masked guy. "I do apologize for the interruption. As I was saying, you generate localized spatial distortions that can fold an area about the size of a small shed into a marble-sized ball. Some mass, time, and concentration limits I'm sure you've trained for.
"If that was all you could do, you'd have an A-tier quirk. But an object doesn't have to be entirely inside your zone. You can rip walls open, tear people in half, store a box full of explosives to blow a building apart. All without getting creative. That's a power deserving fear and envy, even at the top."
"Explosives, huh?" he put his hand up to his mask, in an exaggerated rubbing his jaw in thought gesture. "That sounds pretty creative to me."
"American. We celebrate the birth of our country by letting kids blow up parts of it. A bit of bomb smuggling isn't creativity, it's tax evasion."
"I had heard things to that effect, I thought that was just a stereotype?"
"I think we've both been around long enough to know that most stereotypes are true most of the time. The danger is when you start thinking they're always true."
"Hmm, you've given me something to think about."
Did he really not think about using his quirk as a bomb delivery system? Well, shit, I just made him far more dangerous. "Happy to be of service."
I moved on, before I made things worse for everyone. Next was the guy who objecting to the 'faggot' comment. "Biokinetic, limited to plants. Speaking of breaking stereotypes, don't see a lot of plant manipulators on the villain side of the law."
"Yeah, well, the hero side of the law are the real villains..."
Ah, edgy teenager, got it. I shrugged at the comment. "Yeah, been getting that impression myself. That seems like a 'Japan' problem. I've been to most of the non-shithole countries, and your whole system has got to be the worst."
Maybe with some time to process, he'll realize that everyone stood watching a girl, a supposed colleague at that, almost lose her virginity to rape. Even here the heroes are better than the villains.
"Says the man who killed the guy making it better."
"Stain? Please. I fought him." Kind of. "He was in it for the thrill of the hunt. He didn't even make things better, every attack only galvanized people to support their heroes. He was creating martyrs for their cause... and now he is a martyr. If he believed his own bullshit, he'd agree that dying was the best thing he could do."
This one... was going to be a problem. The rest of this group were crazies and pretend idealists. This one was a naive useful idiot. With any luck, he'd pussy out and quit the moment it got real.
"Yeah, well, got any ideas for my quirk, then?"
"Botanical power armor. Might take some research into which trees are hardy enough to handle the strain, but I'd look into mulberry. They're the cockroach of trees."
And last of the group, another fully-masked individual. "Okay, I take back what I said, you might have the most busted quirk in this room. The ability to copy yourself and other objects or people, and the copies come with their quirks?"
This was an objective upgrade on Momo's power, save that the copies lacked durability and permanency.
Why was All for One trying to steal my power, and leaving this guy alone?
"No... no," I said. "You don't have control over your copies, do you? They'd always act like the original person."
If All for One was as batshit as he seemed to be, that was a recipe for having to kill his own copies on the regular. Some people could handle dealing with themselves like that. Some people very much could not.
"You're a real smart guy, you know?" He leaned forward in a manner that was either ostentatious or flirty. "And you might even be crazier than I am. I like you, but I'll never turn my back on you. What do you think you'd you do if I made a copy of you?"
It was hard to read him with his full body suit and mask hiding almost any physical tell, but it wasn't hard to guess he was speaking from experience. Monsters lurked beneath this question. So I gave it all due consideration.
"I... don't rightly know, but if I had to guess... do something crazy and driven entirely by impulse. Something I wouldn't, because I have to worry about consequences, but doesn't matter to a clone who won't live long enough to care.
"Like base jumping without a chute, or picking a fight with one of those Nomu weapons just to see how I stack up. Something the real me can never experience, for spite of being created only to die."
That was about half accurate. Leaving aside I was tough enough now to survive terminal velocity with maybe a few bruises, I probably would do something suicidal, but to advance the fucking cause. If I was going to live for minutes, then my death must resonate for a lifetime.
But 'resentful hedonist', would fit nicely into Asshole for Ever's fake profile.
"You scare me, let's be friends."
Yep, this one's also nuts. "Better than the alternative." I looked around. "All told, pretty solid team you've got here, we might even be able to accomplish something real. Now, let's start talking business. I'll be at a bit of a disadvantage, not knowing Japan like a native, but I was thinking we start by chipping away at-"
"U.A." Shigaraki declared.
Dude... "What is your obsession with U.A.?"
"Knew you were too weak to go after your former comrades," he said.
Ah. "Yeah, I pretty much am," I said. "That place has some of the strongest quirks I've ever seen, and I'd be willing to bet money the only reason any of them won't be in the top ten in ten years is because they'll be competing with each other for the position. I will lose, and so will you."
"All the more reason to kill them now, before they develop the skill to be a threat. And to break All Might's spirit."
All Might, you need to herd your tsunderes better. I took a breath. "You idiot. They already have the skills to be a threat! I was trained by American special forces instructors, and the weakest of my class have caught up to where I was at the beginning of the year. The strongest of them match me now!"
I gestured over to Toga. "You saw our match. That's what you're up against, plus a plethora of finely honed deadly quirks."
Huh, you know what? Maybe I should just let them. Thin this herd of psychos without pissing off the boss.
"Besides, you don't win wars by going after students. You win wars by going after soldiers, economies, and infrastructure. Speaking as the guy whose country never lost a war." Lost the peace... several times. The late 20th and early 21st centuries were fucking pathetic like that. But even at our worst, we never lost a war.
"Hmm, how would you do that?" the pyrokinetic asked.
"Well... any successful war starts with intel. We have a clone-maker... those clones keep their memories, which we can interrogate them for. That and the doppelganger lets us infiltrate with impunity. Use that to gather more information. Then it's a matter of using that to strike them at their weakest points."
"Ugh, now you're starting to bore me," the muscle-quirk grumbled. "I'll take the 'kill my way through a bunch of kids' option, thanks."
Your funeral, fuckface. He was strong, sure... but he wasn't Nomu strong, and he didn't have their regeneration. At least a dozen among my classmates could solo him, and any team of three should.
"Besides, we have a trump card," Shigi said. "This isn't all our members, only the ones that are safe enough to let roam freely. The others will be more than enough to overcome U.A.'s resistance, during their summer training camp."
Precog or mole. Had to be a mole, precogs of any true power were rare. Probably that laser-belly guy, was he the one telling All for One I was a serial killer level psycho? Well, then I either owed him a favor, or a beating.
"Fine, but I want to reiterate that this is a terrible fucking idea and you're sending your people on a suicide mission." I looked around at the group. "Those of you who are okay with being thrown away like cannon fodder, don't let me stop you."
Several of them seemed to take this as a personal challenge- muscle guy in particular was more convinced that ever to do it just to prove me wrong.
If they only knew this made them so very like their quarry.
Others, the tree guy in particular, was hesitating. But his hesitation wasn't out of moral or strategic reasons. It was cowardice, and that cowardice only convinced people to go harder in that direction. And so, treeboy folded and went along with the crowd.
I fucking warned them. That was more than they deserved.
While they continued their plans- which I wasn't privy to, since I wasn't trusted- I found a steel beam near the middle of the warehouse to sit against and submerge. Whatever All for One did to me, whatever I did to myself, whatever All Might's power did in tandem... what had once been a narrow bridge laden with rotting boards was now a highway, built from that trial and expenditure of power.
My quirk responded in moments, with the equivalent of a hug. Gratitude, for being safe, for remaining with me. We all saved each other, I thought back. To both my power, and to the cooling embers that gave the heat needed to forge this bond.
I'll get it back, some day.
But until then, there were other avenues of power. I reached out to the Nomu in the basement. Its combination of unique powers had an obvious purpose. An automatic transportation hub.
Shadow warping, some sort of 'perfect sustenance' power that rendered food, water, and sleep unnecessary. Achieved little where air was concerned, however.
And a very specific, very limited hybrid of astral projection and telepathy. Allowing it to mentally lock on to a target, partially read their thoughts, and then its senses would follow that target anywhere in the world until the quirk was deactivated. Up to a dozen targets at a time.
I don't know what quirks were broken and twisted together to make up that abomination, but I wasn't going to touch it with a ten foot pole. If I ever got bored of sanity, I'd rather the vampire's quirk. At least that wouldn't leave me an insensate husk incapable of perceiving my own body.
That no-sleep thing, however? Yeah, that was going to be my baby while I was here.
But I had a specific goal for now. I had a muscle-enhancing quirk and Nomu regeneration (though not to the original's level) to play with.
The muscle quirk was, ultimately, shapeshifting. And had a level of control over what sort of muscle he wanted. It could be skeletal, and even deeper into fast-twitch agile muscle and slow-twitch endurance muscle. Could also get into cardiovascular and smooth muscles. But I... didn't know enough to fuck around with smooth muscle to any great degree.
Still, I set about body building on a very literal level, improving my muscle as much as I dared without a whole lot more training, and then tapping into Nomu regeneration to force the changes to remain.
There would be a ceiling to this project- that being about the strength of that specific Nomu- and it'd take a month or so to reach it- but that was a month that would see me approach Endeavor's physical conditioning.
But, I now had a guest.
"It's called quirktalking, I could teach it to you if you like." I said well before I was approached. That fire quirk was easy to spot from any distance. But I kept my eyes closed, working away at my project. Optimizing my heart muscle and blood flow to sustain the new strength I'd given myself.
"Maybe some day," the pyro said. "I'm more interested in what you said about working for Endeavor. He really that bad?"
Dammit, Endeavor. Am I going to have to fix another of your parental fuckups? "Second worst excuse for a human being I've ever met in my life. And that is saying something, given the places I've been and the people I've killed."
I could sense him relax a little in one way, and grow more focused another. I waited for him to get ready to say something, then went on.
"I'm expecting Shoto to snap and quite literally impale his ass on an ice spike. No jury would convict. Wouldn't that be a fun time for a family reunion?"
His quirk flared up, power washed over him and that is when I realized that maybe I went a bit too far. And also his power didn't include resistance to fire. If anything, the exact opposite.
I was holding Nomu regeneration, so I was safer than anyone else in this building.
Then the heat faded. "I... see." He walked up to me, and sat down on the back side of the pillar. "Tell me, what has my little brother's life been like?"
"Let's start by saying I wouldn't wish his childhood on my worst enemy..."
=====
A/N- Not gonna lie, the people on the edge of their seats on whether or not Alex would go through with it? Absolutely great. But, no, he's not capable of that. Not yet, anyway.
Talking all the shit about Endeavor, on the other hand?
Telling Shoto's story felt more than a little skeevy to me. But Dabi kept asking questions, and I filled in as I could. It helped that Shoto was willing to reveal this himself when we were still basically strangers. Maybe he wouldn't be too upset when I shared it with his long lost brother.
Dabi, I fast concluded, was broken inside. And not only because I'd finished my project and went back to emulating the vampire. Who was hiding in the shadows in the back of the warehouse, watching me like an angry cat. I didn't think we were talking loud enough to be overheard even by her senses, but I tried not to say anything out of character.
This place could be bugged like crazy, after all.
"So... when he threw me away..." Dabi was grinning through much of the story, like this was good, somehow.
Not knowing Dabi's life story, I could only shrug. "Near as I can tell, Endeavor cares only about power and prestige. I doubt he ever thought of you or Shoto as people, let alone his children. Just tools to be used or discarded for his ambitions. Like everyone else in his life."
Not having much experience in vampiric cold reading, and Dabi being physically fucked up as he was, I was effectively riding on my own guesses. Getting Dabi to see Shoto as a shared victim of their father had been my goal. I could only hope I succeeded.
"And when I kill him?" Dabi muttered as much to himself as anyone. "Can I kill him? Can your quirk barometer tell?"
"Nobody who knows him will miss him." I considered Dabi's question. "In terms of raw quirk power? Yeah... yeah, I think you can. Your ability should be able to burn him, in spite of his natural resistance. But you're something of a glass cannon, so... if he hits you first, you're pretty fucked. And he's far faster and stronger than you are, so on the non-quirk side, you've got problems.
"I'd recommend ambush tactics, if you can't find someone tough enough to take the heat."
"What about you, since you're immune to quirks?"
Ah, shit. "We'll need a damn good plan and better training before I'm up to that task- as it stands, he'd have little difficulty killing me with his bare hands." And I defy anyone to find a lie in that.
"He's really that strong, huh?"
"He's driven solely by his creepy obsession with All Might," I said. "But honestly, I think without All Might, he'd be even worse. Instead of an uncaring obsessive douchebag, he'd be an uncaring arrogant douchebag."
"Tell me... you said Shoto might help kill Endeavor?"
Well then. "If I wanted to stab you in the back, now would be a good time," I said. "I say 'yes', and you get yourself killed. But... truth is, I doubt he'd agree if you only came up and asked. I mean, that could be any number of villainous scheme, right?"
He said nothing, his quirk simmered. Pyrokinetics with low control were easy to read.
"If I were you, I'd find a way to talk to him about anything other than Endeavor. Your mother would be a good bet. Shoto... seems fixated on saving her from your father, maybe as a way to also save himself?"
Maybe... maybe it will work for you...
We sat in quiet for minutes, as Dabi considered the suggestion, or whatever might have been going on in his head. "Mom was... always better than Dad. I can talk about her, first."
"First, I suggest starting with 'hello' and then talking about yourself," I said. "Shoto's got a bit of a hair trigger when it comes to family. I'm sure you can relate. So can I, I guess."
Much as Dabi and I were having a 'moment', it was one of a mutual acquaintances and grievance, neither of us saying much about our own lives. But, I still expected every word was recorded and would be combed through by my new overlord.
Where I'd be the good little boy helping plan the murder of the number two hero. Felt bad about throwing a hero under a bus like that, but then I remembered it was Endeavor.
"Well, it's been interesting. I've got lots to think about. Have fun talking to your imaginary friend."
"Sure." I went back to working on my own enhancement project. I couldn't rush the process, not without a real risk of fucking myself up permanently and revealing my secret.
That night, well past midnight, I snuck out of the building. I was almost alone in the warehouse by then. Just me, the Nomu, and the vampire. Everyone else had somewhere to crash that didn't involve sleeping on cold concrete.
A creepy little spy quirk followed behind me, tracking my every step while I acted like I didn't know the Potatoface Peeper was following me.
I walked a bit, grew familiar with where we were. Which wasn't the same city as U.A., not that I expected it would be. A bit of a surprise that were as far apart as we were, not even the same island.
That shadow-warp quirk was powerful. A pity I had no means of controlling it. I picked the kind of bar that was open this late. This wasn't the pretty side of town, but that suited me fine.
This late, there weren't any women around. This late, there wasn't even the tough guy crowd, only the people who would be sleeping in the gutter if they weren't here. I plopped down. "Straight whiskey, hardest you've got."
The bartender smirked, but said nothing. This wasn't his concern. I downed the contents. "Keep it coming."
And then I sat and waited. And waited. Nursing the drink while looking pissed enough to ward off anyone who might be looking for trouble. More accurately, pissed enough to ward off any prostitutes who might make an offer. Eye for Spy was still right there, no doubt wondering who I was meeting.
And then felt her power enter my range.
Telepaths were rare, they were valuable, and they were only to be deployed under the most dire of circumstance. This one's weakness was that she could only read minds, not transmit information back. She got closer, entering her range while still outside my copy range, which made this a one-way conversation.
I told her of the quirk thief, of my undercover within an undercover situation. The details of every one of my new coworkers' quirks and what I'd learned of their dispositions. And that I needed orders. To be delivered very carefully hidden where I could get it, but nobody else would know.
I didn't have to fake intoxication on my walk back. The twenty thousand yen I dropped was enough to pay for the drinks with a barely-generous tip. Japan didn't have America's tipping culture, if anything it was considered rude here.
But being rude was expected of Americans. And anyone else who felt the need to drink a hundred dollars of cheap whiskey at four in the morning.
When I got back, the vampire was right at the door. "You left."
"Wasn't aware I couldn't."
"Shigaraki didn't say you could."
"I'm his coworker, not his slave." I was close enough, so I tapped into the Nomu for its regeneration- that shit could handle phosphorus, a little alcohol was nothing.
"What'd you leave for?"
"None of your fucking business. That a problem? I don't see anyone around, so if you wanna rematch before you healed up, I'm game. Or we can ditch the form- formalies and your pants."
I moved closer as I spoke. Her nose wrinkled and she stepped back. "You stink."
"And you're not my mother." I walked past her. "Whatever. Too drink to get it up, anyway."
I collapsed on one of the plastic picnic tables they had in the lunch room, and pretended to sleep while going back to meditation and getting a feel for this vampire powerset under the guise of a hangover.
After this was all said and done, I needed to find a way to keep that Nomu. No-sleep was worth it alone. Regen was just a whole cherry tree on top.
The vamp didn't attack me in my 'sleep', like I more than 80% expected. I 'woke up' after a few hours, and rinsed myself as best I could in the employee bathroom. I most certainly did stink, and needed to pick up some supplies.
"Toga tells me you snuck out last night," Shigaraki said almost immediately after I'd left the bathroom. Muscles and magnets were already there, but nobody else seemed to want to arrive this early.
"Like I told her, I wasn't aware I was a prisoner. Left, did some shit, came back."
"Where'd you go, then?"
"Some dive bar a few blocks from here. Had to do some thinking, didn't feel like doing it in a dusty old warehouse."
"What were you 'thinking' about?"
"How to kick your ass in this little competition our boss has going on between us." A more or less true answer, and if the Pulpface Overlord detected a lie, it was easily explained by what I appeared to be doing. "Your methods are dumb as fuck. Mine will work better, but are going to take more work since nobody's handing me secret information about the heroes to use against them."
"You could always cooperate with my plan."
"And waste my time advancing your standing? Sorry, Shigi, kinda feel bad about bombing you since your master bragged about the shit he did to you. But I ain't giving away that kind of power for anything. Plus you'd probably kill me moments after if I did."
Shigaraki frowned under his hand-mask. "Fine. I guess you came back, and if you betray us, it just means I get you out of my hair sooner."
"Glad we've come to an understanding. Now, I'm going out a few hours. Let the guys know I'll give some training this evening when I get back. That way, if they somehow pull this suicide mission off, I'll get credit for them having the skills to do so."
Not that I'd be giving them the good stuff. Most of them, I doubted would accept my help in the first place. Assuming Handy even told them of my offer.
A long jog, some time in a thrift shop picking out some clothes, and then I went to a net cafe. Where I spent most of my time online, with some pathetic attempts at flirting with the staff whenever opportunity availed. Nothing awful, but nothing effective either.
Even then, a couple of the girls were considering taking me up on the offer. Being tall, buff, and foreign was a charm that could get even a lackluster flirt some action. But by then, I'd been shameless enough to have earned a reputation.
All this while Shit for Brains watched over my shoulder. He must have been terribly bored, waiting for anything to happen other than me skimming a bunch of conspiracy boards centered around government corruption, or warning people away from companies with abusive practices.
As well as some sincere research into Stain's delusions trying to piece together what things looked like for the Japanese citizen. The heroes, the villains, the civilians.
The more I looked, the worse it got.
Then, I should take a lot of this with a grain of salt. Claiming Japanese politicians were deliberately throttling hero and other emergency services in areas that voted for their rivals was... well, it wasn't impossible, but I'd need more than a couple rants on anon boards before I was convinced.
I mean, this was a board where one of the most upvoted threads was about how quirks were really alien parasites using humans as a breeding ground and once we reached some sort of critical mass, the mother-parasite would awaken and consume us all.
Then, when I'd gotten my fill of driving Needs a Life to tears with boredom, I got up and went back to the warehouse. While I debated the teaching I'd be giving them. I could only be so subpar, before it became obvious. So what I gave would be legitimate, but not the highest quality I had to offer.
It was either meditation or combat. Meditation would drive off muscle-boy, no doubt, but also be of great benefit to the more cerebral quirk users like marbles and Dabi.
Combat training wouldn't be of much value on the quirk side, but would make muscles and Toga all the more dangerous.
But, they were the only real brawlers in this group.
One way or another, I was going to make this organization more mine than Shigaraki's by any means available. Part of that was encouraging them to rush into the slaughter while appearing to do the opposite.
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A/N- Words my spellchecker doesn't think are words in this chapter: 'skeevy', 'snuck'.
The training session went... It went, anyway.
Dabi and Himiko were the only two that really seemed to put any effort into learning as they trained. Twice, the clone-maker, seemed to think it really didn't matter and that he'd just make copies of us to do the fighting.
Muscular was just a bruiser who... well, he boxed around a bit, but in the end... "Bah, you're not strong enough to give me a fight. Can't get my blood pumping, unless maybe you all come at me at once."
"Yeah, you're probably right," I lied like my friends' lives depended on it. Muscular had at least a dozen major flaws in his footwork and fighting style, all of it papered over by the power of his quirk.
If he was willing to stop, learn, and break bad habits... I could just about double his combat efficacy in the week or so before their attack on the summer camp. Naturally, I was very happy to not do that.
"A group attack wouldn't accomplish much, either," I 'admitted'. "It takes months to build a good team battle strategy, and we don't have that kind of time."
"And I'm more a trickster than a brute," Mr. Compress, the guy with the, well, compression quirk said. "If I'm in a direct fight, something's gone quite wrong."
As I hoped, most of these guys didn't give a fuck. They were happy to coast on powerful quirks that they were well attuned to. A common attitude among the powerful, and one which U.A. spent quite a bit of effort to beat out of its students.
If this was commonplace among the villains of Japan, then it was no wonder Aizawa was such a force to be feared.
"And you're still not going to tell me who your two secret fighters are, huh?" I looked over at Shigaraki. "Are you sure you don't want my help with your plans?"
"Certain. You'll just go blabbing to your hero friends and ruin everything," Shigi said right back. "Much as I await your sudden but inevitable betrayal, I won't have my people suffer for it."
Thanks, Handjob, for making my job ten times easier. "Well, suit yourself. You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink."
Physically training Dabi was... not going to happen. I wasn't a doctor, but I was pretty sure any doctor who did look at him would start with 'how the fuck are you even alive?' and go from there.
The damage was connected to his body's inability to handle his quirk, which made it all the crazier that he could function at all, or use his quirk to the level he could. Every time he activated his power, it should have rendered him insensate from pain and tore him apart inside, yet he somehow kept going.
As if spite alone kept him breathing.
Which left him out of any physical training.
And all of it was totally unnecessary, too! Ass to All could patch him up in a minute. Start some instant ramen, pull out his fire quirk, drop in any Nomu tier regeneration, swap back, and hand him a hot meal. Maybe put in some sort of a fire resistance ability for good measure, having two quirks didn't seem to destabilize people if they weren't unstable quirks.
... Shit, I was growing attached to the idea of acquiring that fucking All for One power, just to do shit like that.
Unfortunately, that left one fighter worth a damn. And much as I hated to admit it, Himiko Toga was a monster of a fighter.
Our first match I won as because I caught her by surprise as much as my physical merits.
Now that she was calm, now that this was a spar, now that there was no blood, she kept all her combat instincts and didn't go wild. Her main weakness was she had the attention span of a housecat. One of the ones who'd chase a laser pen into a bonfire.
But in our matches, she was laser focused. And that forced me to teach her for real.
"You should work on kicks more," I said. "You've got mobility to spare, and sure, knives... but the range and strength of a kick will overcome a lot of your weaknesses."
"That... seems wrong, somehow?" She tilted her head, grin wide. "Are you trying to trick me?"
Dammit, I hate vampires. "No, I'm not trying to trick you." Everyone else, and you're picking up on the difference. "I know it runs contrary to instinct and habit, but if it doesn't work, then it doesn't work. Come on, you can try it on me.
"And, no, I won't count this as you challenging me or anything. There's a big difference between training and sticking a knife in my back."
Her eyes narrowed. "Fine, I'll try it your way. But I still don't trust you."
"What else is new? Nobody trusts a damn thing I say."
She jumped at me, and gave a pretty good kick. I blocked, then rolled back when she tried to land a kick with the other foot. "Oh, maybe this does work, huh?"
"Told you, but you'll need to work on fluidity. You telegraphed that attack enough that I'm pretty sure even Shigi back there saw it."
She did, but it was very much intentional. She put in an intentional flaw, just to see if I'd point it out. The problem was, I was pretty sure she knew that I knew what she did.
She was the biggest threat here. She was building her own mental map of my nature with every moment she observed me. It wouldn't take long before she picked up on me growing stronger faster than I had any right to. I could hide behind 'holding back' for a time, but sooner or later against someone that observant...
She bared her fangs. "Oh, then show me how to do it right."
Case in fucking point. "Fine. To start with, you need to set your feet a little closer together, tighten up the movement..."
An hour of training Himiko almost exclusively, and Twice making self-contradictory comments about how were awesome and/or sucked (and that pun didn't work in Japanese, by the way), and... "Okay, that's enough for one day. Gotta give the body a chance to heal and the brain to absorb the new experiences."
She looked at me, thinking. "~I'm going to learn everything you know~!"
And I knew exactly what she meant. It wasn't the training, it was her finalizing her read, and once that happened I was fucked. I might need to provoker her into challenging me again, then 'accidentally' kill her.
That evening, and night, I spent on the roof. Himiko again opted to stay and 'watch' me, but didn't do much watching. I spent the entire night into morning running combat sims in my head via her power.
The next day I went to town, did almost exactly the same thing as yesterday, this time in a different net cafe. Flirted, poorly. Drank overpriced coffee. Studied conspiracy nonsense and got in tune with Japan's corruption.
And then more training, which was an awful lot like yesterday.
At least the boss wanted to do more post-training meeting, which gave me time to exploit the Nomu regeneration atop Muscular's power. A couple days of working out to wear down muscle, a couple seconds of shapeshifting regeneration to build back stronger.
"You look great," Twice said. "This life really agrees with you."
Don't ask me why Twice liked to say the exact opposite of the truth sometimes. That wasn't even a real mental illness, at least not that way. "I appreciate it, but you're not my type."
"Hah, funny guy. Just wanted to let you know we appreciate your hard work, no matter what the boss says."
... He probably said the exact opposite of the truth to confuse the fuck out of people when he said something sincere. "Thanks. You sure you don't want in on the training?"
"Nah, I'm no good in a fight. I'll just make two of Toga, let the terror triplets do all the heavy lifting."
Holy shit. "Twice. I've nearly been killed by Nomu more than once, had to carve my way through an army of thugs, and faced down Stain, yet nothing in my life has prepared me for the absolute horror of what you just said."
"You're welcome."
Nightmare fuel aside, I'd about reached the limit of what I could do to body build today, and tomorrow I'd... well, depending on Dad's message, I'd decide what to do, but if I stayed here, I needed to manage Toga.
That night, I left again. To visit the dive bar and play up the drunkard side of being a hedonistic douchebag. The bartender recognized me on sight, and lifted a bottle of cheap whiskey without saying a word.
"Read my damn mind." I plopped down to my drink.
He did as a good bartender did and left my to my self-inflicted liver damage. There was a thought- those Nomu healed the body to better than it was before. My liver could get pretty badass if I kept this stunt up long.
A woman draped herself onto my shoulder. I hadn't sensed her coming, which meant she was one of that minority that America called 'baseline' and Japan called 'quirkless'. Given what we were faced with, made perfect sense they wouldn't want to risk anyone with a quirk in this encounter.
"Hey, sailor, looking for company?" She ran a hand over my stomach. "Oh, my... with abs like those, I might even give you a reduced rate..."
I put my hand on hers, felt the paper.
Now it was a matter of fucking this up. "Huh?" I acted drunker than I was, and turned to look at her. "Hmm, well you ain't much to look at, but it's been a dry spell."
She wasn't ugly, or at least wouldn't be if she hadn't put on her makeup with a garden trowel. But one of the things they cultivate in the espionage line of work is looking exactly like what people expect you to look like. Some prostitute working the dregs shouldn't look good.
Still, she was good at her job. The fake seductive smile got just a bit more fake. Didn't take a telepath to hear the bartender thinking I blew that discount.
"Tell ya what, let me get a couple more shots in me, and you'll be worth a hundred." I then grabbed her ass.
She proceeded to slap me and storm out.
I gave her thirty seconds, more than enough time for her to leave the building. "What'd I say?" Another thirty seconds. "Oh, shit! I meant dollars, not yen!" I got up, to 'run after her', and then stumbled and landed on my face.
Several patrons laughed. Edge for Days probably also laughed. I took my time and then climbed back up.
Toga wasn't waiting for me at the entrance when I returned to base. She was curled up in a corner, pretending to sleep, but watching me. I'd already washed away my intoxication and picked up her power.
But I made sure to act drunk, and let my gaze linger on her 'sleeping' form long enough to be creepy. Then muttered 'fuck it' under my breath and sent to 'sleep' on the lunch table.
I wasn't exactly flying under the radar here, but... nobody thought this was going to be easier, or that I'd just magically 'fit in' with these lunatics. That was never going to work, so my job was to do as humans had done since we began human.
If the world was not right for us, then we would change that world. We had no claws, so we made our own. We had no fur, so we'd take it from something else. We would conquer fire, build farms, build cities.
My tools were finally coming together.
I read the note my father gave me. A string of meaningless letters and numbers. A code, that let me know what I needed.
The first pair, 4 and H... The former being the value of abandoning the plan, the second being the value of continuing. Because someone might realize 2 and 8 were comparative rather than a reference number.
Which meant this was not a certain path I was on, but the value was much higher than the risk. I wondered if Dad was... fudging his numbers a bit. I was under orders that if the first number was a '5', I was to bail. No matter the value.
The rest of the information would be more useful in the morning.
When I went to yet another net cafe. Three different ones, and got to work. Little miss telepath was, coincidentally, already nearby. This time close enough to touch on her quirk.
I doubt I can do this long without suspicion. Details.
Online. She led me to one of the conspiracy sites I'd already been on- as planned. A post went up less than three minutes before I clicked on it. Not suspicious at all, since I was a regular at doing exactly that. And I found a post accusing a high ranking member of Japan's hero regulation board of numerous crimes.
Not... uncommon, here. But this was the first lead that I could trust enough to act on, since it was fed to me by my father one way or another.
Or, more likely, some agent. Either way, I read through it while discussing the details with my functional handler. I had several options available to me, but it all came down to a laptop he always kept on his person.
And while none of the crimes on the message board were of any value, he was very much guilty of embezzlement in large amounts. Which was probably why he was so opposed to accepting American involvement in Japan's terrorist problem.
If I had to guess, the feds were sitting on this for the right time to blackmail him into submission, or ruin some politician's election bid. I'm sure it would have been a beautiful dance of cloaks and daggers, whatever it was, but Dad considered my needs to be of higher value.
I would not disappoint.
I returned to the warehouse, and opened the door to their meeting. "Hey, Shigaraki, I need to borrow your Nomu access code or whatever."
"Hey, funny guy!" Twice shouted. "Come on in, you're always welcome here!"
"What do you think is so important that you can just barge in here?!"
"Oh, just doing the job you should be doing," I answer. "Found some really interesting stuff on a certain politician. I just need to borrow your portal maker, take a quick jaunt halfway across the country. And persuade him to give up the goods."
"And I don't see how that's my problem," Shigaraki said.
"Okay, then I'll see you in a couple weeks. Because I am doing this, it's just a question of how fast it'll get done."
"And run off to warn the heroes?" Shigaraki asked. "Muscular, Toga..."
The pair stood, smiling and stepping toward me. Well, fuck...
"You've been approved to use the Nomu, for this one specific mission." A deep and sinister computer-altered voice came over the speakers.
"M-master?" Shigaraki snarled at saying the word. "Why?"
"I'm interested to see how this goes," All for Drama said. "And besides, you should be sporting enough to give him an opportunity to fail."
He may have been the biggest jackass, but that was still a pretty good line. "Thank you."
"I can still kill him, right?" Toga asked. "I'm not part of the competition, I can do as I like, that's the freedom you promised."
"Hmm... that, too, might be interesting."
I looked Toga in her catlike yellow eyes. "You do know what I'm going to do to you when I win, right?"
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