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“Go out and recruit some followers of your own, Tomura. Tch.” The pale man muttered to himself as he trudged through streets that were empty and too clean for his liking. He scratched absently at his neck before a hand made of dark smoke pulled it away.
“Sensei’s order has merit, Tomura Shigaraki.” Came a voice from the smoke as the individual it belonged to fell into step with the younger man. “You will need to build a power base of your own if you are to become his successor.”
“Tch.” Shigaraki repeated, “I know that, but all of the villains in the League will follow me once I inherit All for One anyway, so really…” He trailed off, resuming his scratching.
Kurogiri just sighed, quietly enough that the distracted man beside him wouldn’t notice. He cast his eyes around for his own distraction, when they caught on a small figure sitting on the roof of a nearby middle school.
“Hmm.” The smoky man turned to see that his companion had followed his eyeline and seen the child too.
“Tomura Shigaraki.” Kurogiri said sternly.
“What do you think?” Shigaraki’s face split into a peeling grin. “Someone young, easily led, lonely enough to latch onto the first hand that reaches out to him, no?”
“And if he tries to run, or call the police?” Kurogiri returned.
Shigaraki shrugged. “Then we just push him over the edge. He’s obviously suicidal, so no one will question it closely. Come on, let’s go.”
Kurogiri opened a warp gate and stood back to let the younger man through, feeling that things were not going to go nearly as smooth as the other intended.
Izuku had been sitting on the roof for he didn’t even know how long. He had been told to jump off this roof earlier that day. Then he had met All Might. He was staring down at the number one heroes signature in his notebook! The same number one who told him he couldn’t be a hero without a quirk, and then lept away, leaving him in the tunnel where he had been attacked, alone. So he came back to school. He climbed onto the roof. He stared at his notebook.
He jumped at the strange sound from behind him, fumbling to catch his notebook before a pale, cracked hand shot out to catch it.
“Hero analysis for the future #13.” Read the man. He glanced up through pale blue hair at Izuku before opening the notebook and paging through a bit.
“Can- can I have that back?” Izuku said, holding out his hand. His eyes roamed over the pale figure and his smokey companion, taking in everything he could, and he scooted ever so slightly sideways on the wall away from them.
“Hmmm. You’re pretty sharp, kid.” The pale man commented. He flipped to the most recent page and stopped dead at the All Might signature. Izuku watch his face turn hard, saw the snarl on his lips as he crushed Izuku’s journal in his hand, disintegrating it.
“He-- Hey! That was mine!”
“Oh, come on, kid.” The man snorted, dusting off his hands. “All Might isn’t here, he isn’t gonna save you from yourself.” He gestured at the edge of the roof where Izuku was still sitting. “The Number One Hero” he sneered “is nothing more than a cheap gimmick and empty words.”
“Y-yeah? Then, then what are you supposed to- to be?” Izuku shivered at the answering grin.
“Me? Kid, I’m the real deal.”
“You? You’re a hero?” He couldn’t contain his skepticism. The other’s grin fell like the door on a high security prison cell.
“No. I mean that I’m the real deal. I’m going to change the world, make it pay for how it treats people with ‘villainous’ quirks, and uproot this entire Pro Hero system then burn it to the ground.” The pale man snarled.
“...W-what? How?” Green eyes went wide, and the man grinned once more at seeing a spark of interest.
“We’re going to crush All Might, as well as all of those other so called heroes. Our group is taking all comers, and you’re clever enough to be useful. Why don’t you come and see for yourself?” He offered.
“Uh.” Izuku glanced towards the smokey figure, then back to the pale one who offered a hand. “But I don’t, don’t even know your names?”
The pale man huffed and opened his mouth to say something before he was cut off.
“We have been rude, my name is Kurogiri and that man there is Tomura Shigaraki.” The smoke introduced.
The newly revealed Shigaraki huffed.
“Great. Now?”
“But, but, I just met you? And I don’t really know what you’re about?” Izuku said. “Really, I’m flattered that you want me in your group, but I already deal with some pretty bad people on a daily basis and I don’t want to make that worse.”
“You don’t want to be around people who would respect you for your insight? Who would use their powers to aid yours? Kid, if you follow me, we can run this country!”
“What kind of powers?” Shigaraki sent a look over to Kurogiri who bowed his head before disappearing into a warp gate. The green boy mumbled under his breath, from what Shigaraki could catch it was about Kurogiri’s quirk, before he was interrupted by the return of Kurogiri and the arrival of two others.
“Hi!” The girl said, bouncing up to the edge where Izuku sat. “I’m Himiko Toga! You’re cute, could I make you cuter?” She pulled out a knife. Shigaraki disintegrated it. Toga pouted.
“I’m Dabi.” The other person grunts.
“Well, tell him about your powers, about the League!” Shigaraki was impatient.
“Oh! Are we doing recruitment now?” Toga’s head flipped quickly between Izuku and Shigaraki. “Well, I can drink someone’s blood and transform into them! Dabi has, like, really strong blue flames. Shiggy here can decay anything and Kuro over there can warp anyone anywhere within a certain distance!”
“Wow, that’s really cool!” Izuku said, letting Toga’s enthusiasm affect him. “I’m guessing Shigaraki’s quirk works with all five fingers on an object.”
“You are pretty sharp, kid.” The man in question grinned. Then screamed.
“What the fuck, Toga!” He shrieked, looking at the girl in question who now held a bigger knife, and both of his pinkies.
“Well, it looks like you can’t use your quirk anymore.” Izuku said, jumping off of the ledge and onto the roof proper. “Unless you have someone in your League that can reattach or regrow limbs. Do you?”
“No. Kurogiri--” He choked as he was cut off by the kid yanking him down by the front of his hoodie.
“So, if you can’t use your quirk, and you aren’t very smart, and you obviously don’t play well with others,” Here, Izuku looks at the three behind him who are all in some state of boredom or disappointment, “then what do I need you for?”
“What?” Shigaraki shrieked. “What do you think you’re doing!?! I’m the leader! I’m the one with the plans! I--”
Izuku shoved the pale man off of the roof. All four still up there watched as he fell and hit the ground with a rather unsatisfying thump.
“Well, that was anticlimactic.” Toga pouted.
“Mmm. He really shouldn’t have been trying to prey on middle school kids.” Izuku said. “Dabi, be a doll would you and clean this up? We don’t want anything left of him.”
“Sure, bunny.” Dabi grinned as the greenette groaned.
“Really?”
“What? It fits!” Himiko cooed. “You’re small, like a bunny, fast, like a bunny, and you tend to squeak like a bunny when you’re startled. It’s cute!”
Izuku simply rolled his eyes.
“Whatever, let’s just get going before someone sees us.”
Himiko and Izuku walked through a warp gate onto the roof of Izuku’s apartment complex, Dabi and Kurogiri following after Shigaraki had been burned to nothing but ash.
“You know what the worst thing was?” Izuku asked the other three as they headed downstairs.
“That you had to pretend to be afraid of him?” Dabi put forth.
“No, that he never even asked me my name.” Izuku said.
“Yes, he always was horribly unprofessional and rude that way.” Kurogiri chimed in.
“But now we get to eat Mamadoriya’s cooking!” Toga cheered as they entered the apartment.
“I hope you’re all hungry!” Came the woman’s voice from the kitchen.
All four of them hurried to wash up and get to their places; no one wanted to miss a dinner date with Inko Midoriya.