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Chapter 33: A New Job
🕑 Added 2024-08-07 15:48:23 +0000 UTCChapter 33: A New Job
The door to the bar slammed shut behind Shigaraki, the villain having left in a murderous mood. The two would be recruits for the League, one Toga Himiko and Dabi, stood close to the bar, both still on edge after Shigaraki had tried to kill them for the crime of being annoying to him. Of course, they weren't going to just let him do that and if not for Kurogiri, the place would have looked a lot messier right about now.
Giran, seeing all that, merely took a drag from his cigarette. “Oh boy, I don’t like badmouthing clients but he’s young-too young.” He lamented as he would still work for Shigaraki, money was money, but damn did the guy act immature at times. To think, all this over the fact Toga mentioned how she wanted to meet Pyre and Dabi not giving her real name.
"I thought he was going to kill me," Toga stated, her smile a little more reserved, less on her face from any joy, and more as if it was a default facial expression.
“Asshole made me sick to my stomach.” Dabi was more upfront in her disapproval of her potential boss and teammate. If she wanted to hang out with brats, she would.
Kurogiri, as Midoriya and Koharu had come to expect, was left being the mature one of the two as he bowed towards them. "I deeply apologize on the master's behalf and ask if you wouldn't be open to receiving an answer at a late date. I believe he knows what he should do." Getting up from his bow, he looked towards the door, knowing that his master was probably going out for a walk.
"It's because he knows that he left without saying anything, his plans have yet to bear the fruit he desires and he's rather…frustrated about it." He explained to them.
“You mean he’s not happy that he isn’t all over the news.” Pyre took the chance to speak up for the first time since the little meeting started, all eyes jetting over to him, no doubt they were surprised they didn’t notice him. a weird skill as he hadn’t changed from his preferred clothing but Mummy did note he had a way of vanishing into the background.
Getting up, he addressed Giran for his comment, his hands on his hips. “And by the way, Giran, I’m younger than Shigaraki and I don’t go trying to kill people when I get upset.”
Giran merely chuckled at Pyre’s response. "You, my boy, are an exceptionally well-mannered villain, a notion that I'm pretty sure most of polite society would call a contradiction." Toga didn't seem to care for the conversation as she ran over to him, her cheeks red and her wide so wide, that Pyre could make out those pearly white quite clearly.
The shorter girl seemed to be more than a little excited about meeting him, grasping his surprised hands into her own. "It's you! Oh, you're just as cute in person as I thought you'd be! I love the outfit, brings out those eyes of yours!"
Pyre…Midoriya didn't quite know how to take that. She had, after all, said among other things that she wished to kill him with this same sort of smile. But on the other hand, he couldn't detect malice or deceit from her. it was a unique, but not unwanted experience. Also, she was the first person outside the Thunder to complicate his look which made him blush a little.
“Oh-thank you? Most people don’t really mention it.” If they did, it was confusion that he dressed so feminine or mockery. All of which soon turned to fear when they learned who he was, or he made it known how he felt about their…opinions.
Toga blew a raspberry at the notion of such morons. “Well sucks to be then cause it looks great in you.” She acted like what he expected normal female friends would act like. At least, teenage friends did as Slice was more reserved whenever they spoke, though she could be emotional when caught flat-footed by a comment or surprise hug.
Dabi too approached him, but not nearly as eagerly as Toga did. “You’re shorter than I thought.” She stated, looking down at him as Midoriya realized that aside from Toga, he was the shortest person there, with Dabi being tall enough that Pyre had to look up else he would be staring at her burn-covered chin.
Looking into her eyes, while Pyre saw that they were a clear, deep, bright blue that was exceptionally pretty, he also saw something else in them. “You’re burning, and you don’t mind.” Without thinking, he reached over to her face, grasping it, feeling the burned skin, and to Giran's mild surprise, Dabi didn't react as he would expect someone to touch her, especially her burns.
Dabi’s eyes instead glanced at his hand, before turning his stare. “Why should I?” She asked back as they continued to look deep into each other's eyes, scorching emerald meeting blazing turquoise, a silent dialogue occurring between the two that only they could ever have, they could ever understand. Whatever it was seemed to excite the two as their quirks acted up, smoke and embers appearing on her hands and in his mouth.
Just as Kurogiri was reaching for the fire extinguisher, it ended.
Retracting his hand, Pyre smiled. “I think we can be friends then.” Yes, she was like him, she was like him! He didn’t know that was possible but it opened so many doors for him. sure, she didn’t seem to have the healing part, but they could fix that real easy.
“Hey, what about me?” He turned to see Toga pouting at him for ignoring her.
“I thought you said you want to kill me?” He asked her, to which she giggled and leaned closer.
“Oh, not kill-kill, but just take a little of your blood, see? I want to see you bleed; you must have pretty blood!” Toga pressed the issue, her hand grasping for the box cutter she had nearly used to fight for her life against Shigaraki.
“I’m not so sure about that, but then again, I’ve never judged blood.” Pyre thought about it, but then he saw the way Kurogiri was looking at them and toned it down. “But I don’t think Kurogiri would like it if we got blood all over his bar.”
"It's quite difficult to clean up," Kurogiri spoke in a tone that heavily implied that he had experience in that, but seeing how this bar was owned by the League, he wouldn't be surprised if he had to deal with people…or just clean up whatever remains were left after Shigaraki got annoyed.
"Hey, are you in the League? It'll be great if you were, and what about the rest? Can we all be friends?" Toga asked rapid-fire questions, her face only getting redder as she went, Pyre wondering if she was just as an excitable person. He wouldn't know as he was the excitable one in the Thunder and Toga had him beat on that front.
“Um, no, we’re not. We just work for them from time to time. As for the friends thing, I don’t see why not.” He wasn’t so sure he could speak for the others, but he certainly didn’t mind having more friends.
“Oh, we’re going to have a ton of fun!” Toga hugged him close, Pyre blushing harder at the fact that a cute girl was hugging him without warning, Koharu having to shift to not be buried between the two.
“Alright, if you aren’t with the brat, then why are you here?” Dabi asked, as while she wasn’t against meeting the one that gave that Todoroki brat a beating, she wasn’t blind to the fact that him being here couldn’t be happenstance.
“I was asked to show up today for a meeting. I assumed it was about your guys when you walked in, but well…” With Toga's arms still around him, he looked at the empty seat that Shigaraki had been in, and then at the door he walked out of. “Maybe it’s been postponed.”
“That isn’t quite the case, Pyre.”
Immediately, any sense of levity that had built with Shigaraki leaving vanished, a cold dense cloud forming around each of them. it was just a voice, nothing more but something in it, its cadence, its tone-they couldn't be sure what, but something spoke to their core instincts as villains and living creatures that evolved to avoid predators. Toga's cat-like eyes only got narrower as she went into full alert mode, her body near in panic. Dabi nearly let loose a burst of flames, only stopping herself as she had no target for it.
Midoriya was the only one of the three that had heard it before, but in a way that made it worse as he knew who it was, he knew what it was on the other line. He knew that the old king might not appear, but that he knew far more about them than he would ever be comfortable with. A sweat on his brow, he turned his attention to the old TV, one that like always, displayed no picture.
“Giran said that Shigaraki had business with the Thunder.” Midoriya shifted his eyes to the broker, one that he had come to trust the most in his field, with the man looking as nervous as the rest of them, holding up in hands with a rare look of shock in those sleazy eyes of his.
The voice chuckled at his retort, the sound sounding like the executioner sharpening the axe, making all bar Kurogiri sweat even more. “Forgive him on that affront, my boy, he had been informed of that by Kurogiri. In truth, I wished to speak with you about a job, well 2 jobs.”
At the queue, the polite but loyal bartender opened a portal in the middle of the bar. “If you will, Pyre. The master would like to speak with you, face to face." Kurogiri bowed, Koharu telling him to run as this was walking into the beast's den, no backup, no knowledge of where it was, unplanned as the rest thought he was at the bar, they wouldn't know anything was up.
'I can shoot them a text but, no, he's watching me. I can't be sure if…Kurogiri watching as well. But would he react to me doing that? This was unplanned, he tricked us! Surely, he expects me to tell the others where I'll be, or who I'll be with, right?' Midoriya's mind raced as he tried to find a means to react that wouldn't end in a fight he was sure he couldn't win. An unwelcomed cold pit formed in his core as he realized he had been cornered, he didn't like the feeling, he didn't like it at all but he couldn't make it go away no matter how much he willed it.
“Come now, Pyre. I trust that a boy like yourself has learned not to waste time from your temple days. I assure you, I mean you no ill will. I merely wish to offer a job, that is all.” The voice assured him of safe passage, though Midoriya detected bemusement at his terror. He knew that it was a promise easily broken, held only as long as he proved useful.
Reaching up to Koharu, he whispered a prayer for protection, his other hand pulling away from his hidden pocket where his burner phone was kept. Taking a breath and trying to warm himself up, he looked Kurogiri in the eye. "How long would we be talking?" He asked the villain present, the one who didn't make him want to run and hide under a rock in cold terror.
"The master shouldn't take too long with his offer. I imagine you'll be back in 15-20 minutes at most." If Kurogiri suspected why he was being addressed, he didn't make anything of it. Toga looked worried, and so did Dabi though she didn't express as well. The blonde tugging at his sleeve, afraid that if he went into the dark portal, he wouldn't come back.
‘Maybe she was right, and we’ll be good friends.’ Midoriya took some solace in that as he turned to her and offered her a wobbly smile, the best he could do at the moment as he made the decision.
"Alright, let's talk." Midoriya turned back to the TV, sure that he was on the other side watching as he took a step forward, then another and another till he vanished into the portal that closed behind him.
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The first thing that Midoriya felt when he crossed through the portal was cold. A deep perversive cold pierced his body like a million needles to his very bones. Koharu was the same as she curled up around him, both for warmth and out of fear of being in the beast's den. Midoriya wondered if this was the effect of a quirk, as when he let out a breath, it came with steam and smoke, so he wasn't truly being cooled or anything like that, but his heart and soul couldn't be convinced otherwise.
Looking around, he saw the space was filled with machines, humming with electricity, gears, and other pieces quietly shifting and grinding away like he had walked into a massive factory. The next thing he noticed was the smell, it was disinfectant and sterile, akin to a hospital which only became clearer when he heard above the sounds of the machines and computers around them, that there was breathing, an unnatural sort, the one that came not from the strength of one lungs’ but from a machine life support assisting one.
"Welcome, Pyre. I do apologize for the mess, but these days I don't get many guests." The cold seemed to intensify from that one statement, Pyre shivering as he internalized that the kind wasn't speaking through some TV, but he was here, Pyre was in his layer.
Looking around, he spotted a figure in the shadows, seated on a throne of all things, wearing what appeared to be a fine suit, the sort that business executives would spend half their annual salary on. He couldn’t make out much else, as the lights were out, leaving only the glow of the many screens in the room bathing the patches of the place in an ominous teal glow.
“So…you’re the boss? The real boss?” Pyre asked him, slowly approaching the throne and resisting the urge to bow his head.
The figure chuckled, a terrible sound that ended with a cough, Pyre being able to spot tubes and wires connecting the figure to life support machines at his side. “In a way, though despite what you might think, the League is truly Shigaraki’s project, I’m merely his teacher, guiding him to his true potential.” The figure replied, leaning forward just a little, and Pyre leaning back.
“But I think you were asking if I’m the boogieman, the king of the underworld as they called me.” He smiled at Pyre's fear and shock, he tried his best to hide his suspicions, but he never spoke it aloud in public.
“How-!”
Again, the figure chuckled, only deeper this time, smoother like poison. “Oh Midoriya, you’re still young and inexperienced. Even you’ll find that keeping secrets from me is near impossible, and often fatal.” Koharu bared her fangs at him with a hiss, Midoriya near reflexively shifting to his other form but the man held up his hand. "I jest, I jest! I promised you safe passage, did I not? And even villains need to honor their deals, or else we could never work together."
“Okay…okay then,” Pyre trusted that as much as he trusted a 20-yen bill, especially as he noticed the man never answered his question. But he was in no position to fight the man on it, life support or not, his primal survival instincts screamed that he was far above his level. “That’s the jobs you wished to offer us?”
“Tell me, have you heard of the name, David Shield?” Pyre blinked at that rather strange response.
“David Shield? As in Professor Shield? The noble quirk prize recipient and top quirk researcher and support item genius?”
“I expected as much, as fame is widely known, and someone that followed All Might as much as you must surely have looked deeper into than most.” Pyre clamped his mouth shut at the reminder this demon knew about his All Might obsession. “It would appear, however, that he's gotten into bed with villains.”
Pyre’s brow creased at the notion that David Shield, the David Shield would ever do something like that. Next, he’ll try and tell him All Might was into little girls. “What?”
The underworld king at least understood the gravity of his words, as he too had been caught off guard by the news so he explained things as he knew it to the boy.
“He’s reached out to some mercenaries believing them to be actors. He wishes to steal something from the most secure vault on I-island and needs their help to do it as he intends to do it during the upcoming I-Expo with the mercenaries making it appear like a hostile takeover/hostile crisis.” He stated, with Pyre only growing more confused and a little irritated as he detected no lies, but he also knew that the man before him could lie as easily as Pyre could start a fire.
But…why would he lie? He had nothing to gain, and if he wanted them out of the picture, he could do that without all this setup. No, as crazy as it sounded, it wasn’t impossible. That said, his ire turned away from the man before him, and towards someone else.
“But…why? He’s a top researcher, why would he need to steal anything? And why make it look like an attack?” Pyre asked, as David Shield was at the top of his field, respected the world over. With the respect, wealth, and fame he had, he could ask for almost anything and you'll be hard-pressed to say no without reason. If not that happened, he could just build his version of whatever it was he desired. Why do this?
Pyre couldn’t see the man’s face, as the glow from the screens didn’t reach that far, but he could tell that the king he stood before was pleased with his anger. “That I do not know, though from what the man who he contacted, Wolfram told me, he sounded desperate. Desperate enough to be offering them 10 million dollars for the job. Desperate enough to stain his hands with a serious crime.”
1-10 million? For what he thought were actors? Shield was desperate as not even their diamond heist/bank robbery got them anything close to that. "And what's our role in this then? You said it yourself, Professor Shield already contacted people, and that he thinks they're not criminals but if he saw even just one of us, he'll realize his mistake."
Pyre and the rest were all over the news, Japanese news yes, but it wouldn't be crazy that someone friends with All Might would keep up with stuff happening in the Land of the Rising Sun. More than that, there was a lot of risk to this plan as should Pyre accept it on behalf of the others, it means putting themselves out there for the world to see as I-Island wasn't owned or controlled by any one country, but the UN which meant an attack it was an attack on all.
“I learned of this through one of my many friends. It was I that contacted Wolfram and offered him additional funds and some…other means of aide, one of which would be sending you and your leader, Nine as agents under his command.” Pyre wondered if this ‘friend’ was truly that, as this man gave off nothing but a dreadful chill to him.
The king snapped his fingers. “As for your identities, he’s only contacted and met with Wolfram, he’s never met the rest of his crew so if you dress like them in the beginning, he’ll be none the wiser.”
Pyre frowned, as the idea sounded solid, but there was an issue with it, one he forced himself to speak about despite how much the man scared him. “Alright, but what do you have to gain from this? It sounds like you’re using your resources to help in someone else’s schemes.”
“And I don’t seem like the type to be so generous, that I must be working my own angle?” The king asked, a big smile stretching across his face, the man leaning forward enough to reveal that he has no face, as above his nose there was nothing. No eyes, no hair, nothing.
It was unnerving, as he still moved his head as if he could see him, and Koharu whispered that the man seemed to relish in their caution and fear. All for One did, but he also enjoyed the fact that despite that fear, this boy was still standing before him, shaking as he might have been. Lesser villains and even heroes would be too terrified to speak, never mind catching onto his true nature.
That was worth praise and only made him all the more interested in Midoriya Izuku. Lifting his hand, he held up two fingers and then lowered the one. "Smart boy, you're correct to assume that, in fact, Wolfram asked the same question. The first being that I wish to make All Might suffer, and when I heard I could do that by aiding his friend fall from grace, I found it hard to resist." All for One admitted as if nothing else, he would have done this just for that.
After all, what was parting with a copied quirk? He still had the original. The money? He had decades to build up a fortune in the trillions of yen, one that for all his efforts, All Might and his allies had only managed to find and confiscate a fraction of.
They then lowered the second. "The second would be that I-island is where the world's best and brightest minds gather to research, debate, and create some truly remarkable things. However, it's also one of the, if not the most secured place on Earth, and no villain or quirk can breach its defenses."
"So, you want us to use the confusion of an actual attack as a means to steal something?" Pyre guessed.
“That is correct. I require their files on quirk research, anything else you may take as a bonus for the job should you succeed.” All for One confirmed, with Pyre wondering about such a deal. As I-island was a treasure trove, even if they didn't use most of it, if they could sell that stuff on the black market, that would be tens of millions of yen they could put towards their plans, if not more should they find the right buyer.
But it was the riskiest task they would ever take, facing off against a place with security that was a leader on the world stage, during an event where heroes from all over would be in attendance. It would be an operation that should they get discovered, would surely be their end as they'll be trapped against hordes of pros.
But they’ll be trapped at sea...Nine could…it was possible.
"And what's the second job? Are we moving the product for you as well?" Pyre inquired.
"Oh no, I'll have someone on standby to retrieve what I desire should you complete the task. The second job isn't for you but for two of your comrades, Slice and Mummy." His guard went even higher at the mention of his friends. He didn’t believe them weak, far from it, but he was still uncomfortable putting them in a situation where they may face this demon face to…well, in person.
“And what is that?” Was it another heist, did he wish for them to attack a hero agency?
"U.A. will be hosting a summer training camp for their first-year hero class.” Pyre crossed his arms at that, as it was strange that the League had such a fixation on that place.
“You wish to attack them? Again?”
All for One smiled. "Not me, but I know my student well, he'll no doubt decide on that once he's calmed down and sees reason. I don't know the details however of what he'll plan to do in the attack but I trust he would take your previous critiques in mind." Tomura would wish to bloody society further, and attacking the top school while they trained somewhere secret no doubt would be a great way to do it. Also, he saw the boy’s interest in Bakugo.
“And the pay? What is your offer?” Pyre asked once Koharu reminded him to get the details of their payment.
“For both, I’ll be willing to compensate you for your services with a gift, but also 300 million yen. Would that be satisfying to you?” Pyre didn't bow to that. it was a lot of cash, but this wasn't some simple job.
“Match what Shield is paying the others. You're asking us to do what many think is impossible, even if we succeed, it'll be our faces shown to pros across the world. We'll be the ones hunted even if we leave Japan and go into hiding." He stated, putting as much confidence as he could into his words to make it clear he wouldn’t be moved on this.
“A high price, but an agreeable one. You have yourself a deal.” All for One agreed without a fuss, such funds were pennies compared to his wealth, and should they succeed, it would be an investment well worth it.
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You know, with MHA ending, I expected that they'll be some division, but dammit are some people either trolls or just not reading what is being shown or told to them. I won't pretend like I haven't had my gripes with it, I have but there are them and then there are some of the dumbest takes you can imagine reading or seeing on Twitter or Reddit.
To matters that don't confuse and frustrate me, this chapter was a bit of a time crunch for me, as I made changes to some events midway through, and had to reorganize/rewrite most of it to accommodate for those changes.
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And done! A shorter chapter, but one that did what I wanted from it, which sets us up for the movie and then season 3.
