Chapter Text
Walking home from the store, Shigaraki Tomura did something that he didn’t do often. He reflected on the plans.
First of all, the Nomu wasn’t going well. There had been a major setback in the labs and so it wouldn’t be ready for a few more months, thus pushing their plans back even further than both Sensei and he would have liked. Second, they were having issues finding canon fodder for the attack. After all, the minute people heard UA, All Might, and kill in the same sentence they lost all of the spine they obtained ‘facing the law’. Even with the Nomu as insurance those useless NPCs still dropped out faster than flies.
It was disgusting that they even had the gall to call themselves villains. No self respecting ‘villain’ would let themselves chicken out of the deal of the century. If Tomura had had his way, well, they wouldn’t have had to worry about dropping out of things anymore, but Sensei said that those NPCs would prove their worth even without joining the mission so they’d been spared. How their lives were worth anything, only Sensei knew, but Tomura trusted him.
Lights flickered around him as he entered the final few blocks to the bar in Kamino. People passed him by, giving the mysterious stranger a wide berth. One person loitered right outside the bar, typing out something on his phone, another sat just inside the shadows of the building, seemingly asleep. It was disgusting that all these maggots just existed without seeing the scum of the world. The one on his phone even had an All Might case, deplorable .
Before he could reach out and touch the man with all five fingers, he remembered that he didn’t want to drag attention to himself. So, he reeled in the impulse with what self control he had and continued walking up the stairs to the door. Glaring slightly at it, he hoped Kurogiri had good news. Or, at least, something to rid him of this terrible mood.
Opening the door though he was met with not the normal squeak of Kurogiri’s cloth on the shot glasses, but instead silence.
Odd.
So he opened the door further and was met with an intruder sitting on one of the bar stools, feet kicked up on Kurogiri’s perpetually clean mahogany bar with no Kurogiri behind it. The person had a nail file in one of their hands and seemed to be filing down their thumb.
“Who" Tomura started only to be cut off like a vestigial limb.
“Ah you must be the leader of this fine establishment,” The voice reminded Tomura of a snake in the woods. Coiled tight, willing to let you go, but should you step on it, that would be your last mistake. “I apologize for ah, breaking in however, I really did need to talk to you,”
“And what the hell’s so important that you had to invite yourself in?” Tomura approached the seat where the woman was now running a hand through the hair that had loosened from the pony tail. He reached out a little to touch one of the glasses but was stopped when he heard a gun’s safety come off.
“I’d be careful with what you do around the boss,” A voice drawled from where the door to the bar had just shut. A young man with white hair and a mess of tattoos on his exposed arms was revealed, and he was pointing a pistol right at Tomura’s head. Great.
He’d walked right into a trap. One that he could negotiate his way out of sure, but he’d still accidentally triggered a boss. And judging by the people appearing out of the shadows, a pretty powerful one.
“I will,” Tomura scratched his neck, the urge to kill all these new (potential) enemies was increasing.
“I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” The woman said, reading his mind and finally looking him in the face. Tomura was surprised to recognize the person who the face belonged to, it was the woman who’d escaped from America. Prisoner Zero. Her face had been broadcasted across the globe, and no one knew where she’d gone. “I’d rather not continue to be rude, so I’ll introduce myself first. I’m Kawasaki Kana, or, depending on my mood, Phobos.”
“Shigaraki Tomura,” He inclined his head a little, peering out of the fingers from the hand that he’d placed on his face after he’d sat down. She moved her head as well, mirroring his movements. “Now, why are you here, NPC?”
“NPC hmm,” Kawasaki hummed and then leaned her head back to look at him through the corner of her pale violet eyes. “Well, no matter.” She waved off the members of her organization, telling them to stand down and then spoke again.
“Well, I would simply adore to be part of your wonderful raid that I’ve been hearing about.”
“You know we’re going after All Might,” Tomura didn’t need another faker getting his hopes up.
“I do, in fact know that,” She grinned wryly and rolled her eyes. “However, you won’t have to concern yourself about me taking the glory. I’m not interested in the number one. There’s a kid in the class who I think might have some answers I’m looking for,”
Tomura’s eyebrows raised, that was interesting. An NPC looking for another NPC, what was this? An escort mission?
“What the hell makes you think for a single second I want a useless NPC helping me out? Especially one that wants to add kidnapping to the list of side quests,” Tomura glared and scratched the side of his neck, dead skin flaking off with every movement.
“I’ll personally participate in your little raid and give you a bit more street cred,” She grinned and then tapped the bar twice, a woman who’d been sitting on the couch stood up and began to pull something out.
“And beyond that?” Tomura was beginning to think this would only benefit her. She gets whatever kid she’s gunning for, and he gets approximately one new body. Unbalanced, not equivalent exchange, as that one ancient anime said.
“Why, other than my services, you would get access to whatever I can salvage of the Red Steel Deck Mafia. You’ve already met a few of my Aces,” She motioned to the white haired man who’d begun to clean a weapon and then the woman with sandy blonde hair. “I promise, this agreement will end with both parties satisfied. You won’t even have to worry about betrayal, because I’m wanted in several countries and you could call the cops on me at any point. They’d be real happy to see me again,”
“Fine, but remember your place,” Tomura spat. “NPC,”
“God, that’s such a pretentious line. You’re real fuckin annoying, so maybe you need an ego check here,” Phobos grinned and pulled her feet off the table. Her eyes locked onto his through the hand and he got chills . Something was walking across his grave as this woman moved slowly, telegraphing every move like he was an unruly child. Her very body language spoke as if she was talking him out of a temper tantrum. All curved shoulders, drooping eyebrows, and pitying eyes.
“I’m going to be honest here. Your plan is doomed to fail. You’re an overconfident brat who was obviously raised to think they were the strongest in the room. Sure you’ve got a neat quirk there, but do you know how many people like you I’ve met? People who call themselves supervillains with goals grander than rooms gilded in gold? Well I’ll tell you, I’ve met plenty , and most of those cocky, arrogant assholes are rotting in the bottom of a prison without any help, because they were abandoned after they ground their heel into the cannon fodder one too many times.
Put some respect to my fucking name, and then maybe I’ll actually take you seriously,”
Tomura’s eyes widened and he snarled, reaching out for the person who dared to insult the genius of his plan. She would die for her insolence.
Laughing, the woman moved like water through a siv, avoiding every attack, every hand that Tomura shot out. Her coat fluttered and her hair flew as she ducked under his hand one last time, and before he could even register it, a hand gently tapped his collar bone.
That singular touch reignited a part of Tomura’s memories that he thought he’d lost forever until he was forced to rewatch his worst fears from his torrid past.
And Prisoner Zero, Kawasaki Kana, Phobos , left the building, the sandy blonde woman, the gun toting male, the All Might cased man, and the person from the shadows, tailing her all the way back to a warehouse that no one but those involved in it’s destruction knew about.