NeonHorizon: I posted my planned holiday oneshots for 2019 on my profile, if anyone's interested. There are two stories I'm sure at least a few of you will be interested in _ Now who's ready to embrace some chaos?

How do you persuade a teenage boy to do something? Kugutsu crossed the bar and halted in front of their bound "potential new member". The boy was glaring up at her, mouth set in a firm scowl that easily said "you can't tell me what to do!" and it just made her that much more determined to win him over.

She tucked both hands into the pocket of the hoodie she wore and tilted her head, feline ears twitching faintly. Non-lethal tactics. So I could cut him, right? I just have to make sure he doesn't bleed to death. I need to think this through carefully though. Too much of a mess and Shigaraki will be probably be mad. Too little of a mess and it's way less impressive.

The female villain sat on the wooden floor in front of him, her legs crossed beneath her. Pulling out her phone, she scrolled through his social media information again as she pondered her options. Cutting him might not work. He doesn't really have any friends, either. Besides this Kirishima kid. I could capture him and bring him here, torture him. That might make this brat to give in or it might break him and we can just use him as a tool.

She bit her lip as she stared down at the screen of her phone. This was proving challenging. The villain really wanted to make this as fast as possible, but she had to make sure he was one hundred percent on board with the League. If he believed he could benefit from joining, he would be more likely to cooperate so her best bet would be to attempt diplomacy.

Or I could start cutting off fingers. Wait, but he needs his hands for his quirk, right? I can't mess him up too much. Kugutsu's head tilted a bit more and she leaned forward. I'm pretty sure we couldn't win him over by promising him women. I don't think he's into girls. She had used that tactic in the past; promising women to a man she wanted information from. Of course, that man had been killed the second she got what she needed from him.

Reaching out, she set a hand on top of the boy's head and stared intently into his sharp red eyes. Her lips were set in a straight line as she tried to maintain a neutral expression. "You know you…look pretty hungry. Bakugou Katsuki. So what does Bakugou like to eat? You don't look like a fruit and veggies kind of guy."

"Stop touching me!"

"Hm." She withdrew her hand slowly, watching him closely, and then struck him across the face with a slap that echoed throughout the room. Now all of the other villains were looking their way. Bakugou looked genuinely surprised by her actions and she heard a feminine gasp somewhere behind her.

Kugutsu planted a hand on the teenager's right knee, her other hand returning to the top of his head. "Let's try this again. What. Do. You. Want. To. Eat? If you reject my kind offer again, I'll have Twice pry your mouth open and I'll just feed you like a baby bird! Is that what you want, you aggressive little shit?!"

Shift P.O.V

When he had given her the task of persuading the boy to join, using any means that would not result in the kid's death, this was not what Shigaraki expected. He stared at his fan girl, seeing her feline ears shift back in annoyance as she glared down at the boy. She was losing control of her emotions. She might actually kill the kid if she got too excited.

A grin pulled at the corners of his dry, chapped lips and Shigaraki found himself unable to look away. When she had brought up that she had experience with keeping hostages and interrogating people, he had expected some sort of mind-breaking technique. This was almost better.

He knew that if this was All Might, she would have already put a few shadow blades through his chest. As he tried to imagine this, his heart started to thump faster and harder. It was something he wanted to see. It was something that he was now determined to see. Shigaraki promised himself that one day he would see Kugutsu tear All Might apart.

"Is this really okay?" Spinner's voice came from somewhere to Shigaraki's right. "What if she kills him?"

She won't kill him. She doesn't want to let down her idol so she'll do whatever it takes to win that kid over. Just so she can impress me. His pride started to grow as he thought of how much effort she was willing to put into her every action just so she could try to make him happy. No one had ever looked at him the way she did; with so much admiration and bliss.

Kugutsu had shifted into a crouch when she leaned up to grab the top of the kid's head and she slowly moved onto her knees. One small, pale hand was resting on Bakugou's right knee. Her other hand started to ruffle the boy's hair almost like she was petting a dog.

"So…let's try this again," she started as Twice came to stand next to her for support. "Remember. This is me being nice. I'm never this nice to strangers. But we can be friends, right? Now tell me. What kind of food do you want to eat?"

"Just give me whatever! I'm starving!" the brat roared. He glared up at her, but there was the faintest hint of warmth in his face.

Shigaraki narrowed his gaze on the scene unfolding in front of him. Kugutsu briefly let go of the kid so she could dig around her bag and soon produced a box of Pocky. She withdrew a stick and held it out in front of his face to take a bite, her free hand planted kind of high on his knee to steady herself.

To anyone else, this would have been basically nothing. It was knee touching and this kid was their captive. She was acting cold and merciless toward him just moments ago. There was still a bright red mark on the side of his face from where she had slapped him. The villain seethed, however, as he kept his eyes on the hand that was touching the boy's leg.

The Pocky was soon gone and Kugutsu settled back onto the floor. Twice leaned against the wall beside the "potential new member's" chair with his arms crossed, waiting in case Kugutsu needed help. The female villain was talking now, but her voice was too quiet to hear from this distance.

Everything seemed to be going alright. The boy was growling back at her, in an equally low tone. Shigaraki was starting to get annoyed by the low volume and contemplated going over to hover like Twice was.

Suddenly, it seemed to take a turn. Kugutsu bristled; her body tensing visibly and her posture changing. She was leaning forward now in a "cat about to pounce" sort of pose. Her left hand was on the floor, touching her shadow. Even from across the bar, Shigaraki could see the shadows beneath her starting to twitch and shudder to life. When it spread out around her and began to form spikes, he knew he would have to interfere to prevent her from murdering the boy.

Shift P.O.V

Kugutsu was used to getting taunted. She was used to trash talk and cruel laughter. After all, she was a broker's assistant and a girl. Money-collecting, villain recruitment, and murder were a "man's job" so she was used to being underestimated and made fun of. She could usually kill the people that did it, though. This was different. Shigaraki had been specific about not killing Bakugou.

When the brat called her a "freak", it broke her. She had thought Dabi was a jerk, but this kid was pissing her off so badly that she was losing control of her anger. "Freak" was one word that she could not tolerate. She snapped. The shadows were spiking up around her and she gritted her teeth.

"I'm a "freak"? I fed you, you little fluffy-haired piece of shit angry bunny! I was nice to you and this is how you're going to repay me?! I should just fucking gut you and hang you by your intestines!" Kugutsu was about to growl more, but she was abruptly enshrouded in darkness as something fell over her head.

"Calm down, kitty. You're going to disappoint the leader if you put your claws in the kid."

The sound of Dabi's voice was enough to make her see red, but she managed to refrain from murdering everyone within range of her shadows when she remembered that Twice was still close. The girl tore the dark covering off of her and scowled when she realized that it was Dabi's coat. To make matters worse, the crispy villain set a hand on the top of her head once the coat was off of her.

"You should just join and get it over with," he spoke, looking down at the teenager. "She'll keep bothering you until you do." A smirk curved the villain's two-toned mouth. "Unless she just loses it and kills you."

The girl bristled at the feeling of his fingers slipping into her dark, scruffy hair. "Hands…off, you dumpster-fire ragdoll!"

He ignored her and started ruffling her hair. Paying absolutely no heed to the low growl emanating from Kugutsu. "What do you get out of being a hero anyway?"

She was five seconds from sending a surge of shadow spikes into his body, but was soon distracted. Feverishly warm fingers rubbed behind her right ear, drawing a humiliating purr from her before she could bite her lip to suppress it. "…the fuck do you think you're doing…?!" she muttered.

"Don't you have a job to do, kitty? Or are you giving up already?"

I'm going to tear him apart and burn him! I swear! She tried to keep herself from purring. The internal conflict was only making her angrier; the bliss that came from having her ear rubbed and the outrage at the humiliation of this happening in front of everyone. I can't let Shigaraki see me get weak over something like this! Keep it together!

Kugutsu bit her lip so hard that she soon tasted blood. It mixed with the dried blood from her earlier nosebleed, making her look that much more crazed. She took a deep, but kind of shaky breath and tried to calm herself enough to try once more to convince this baby hero to become a villain.

"Why do you want to be a hero so badly anyway?" she managed to demand.

"Like I'm gonna tell you anything!"

"Keep that up…and your next meal will be force-fed to you through a tube down your throat." Kugutsu slapped Dabi's hand away from her hair and leaned forward, gripping both of the teenager's knees tightly. "Join us. You like winning? You like feeling powerful? How about…you put your quirk to good use? If you join us, you'll get stronger that much faster."

The boy glared up at her, but was silent. Her fingertips dug into his knees as her grip tightened and she leaned up a little more. Close enough that she could have booped noses with him if she was feeling slightly less homicidal.

She remembered all of the pages the kid followed on social media and the few posts that he had made. "You want to be stronger than All Might, don't you? So why wouldn't you want to join us? You'll have people to lift you up and help you achieve that goal. Think about it and stop being so stubborn."

The female villain sat back and stared into the boy's eyes. If he doesn't give in, I'll start making little cuts all over him until he can't keep fighting. I'll just close him up in a shadow bubble and force shadow blades through it. She felt a hand grip the hood of her sweatshirt and pull her back more.

"Maybe you should try to seduce him," Dabi taunted. "If it works on the leader, then why not?" Seeing the maniacal, enraged gleam in her sharp yellow eyes, he smirked and patted the top of her head.

"Back the fuck up before I cut off your hand and give it to him as a present," the girl snarled.

"Awww. Too bad." He leaned down close to her right ear and chuckled. "Your double was way more fun."

"What the hell are you talking about?!" She turned abruptly and, in that same moment, there was a sharp pull at her shoulder. Kugutsu had been so wrapped up in her hatred of Dabi that she failed to notice the approaching footsteps.

Shigaraki had crossed the bar in a few seconds and yanked her away from Dabi with one hand, keeping his little finger extended. His other hand darted forward with the intention of slamming into the half-burned villain's face. Instead of making contact, his hand plunged through a warp gate that abruptly opened halfway between them.

"Shigaraki Tomura, what are you doing?" Kurogiri's voice came from the doorway. "Why are you attacking your own ally?"

The blue-haired villain glared toward the man and gave Kugutsu's sleeve a sharp tug, as if this would somehow answer Kurogiri's question. "Let me kill him."

"What sort of message will that send? You need to show that you're a strong leader. How will you accomplish that by murdering your allies? He is a useful member of the group."

Kugutsu wanted to say that Dabi was a lazy, sentient slice of burnt toast. She wanted to dart forward and tackle the flame-quirk villain's legs to throw him onto the floor. The grip on her sleeve managed to keep her from doing it. Instead of viciously attacking the walking piece of burnable trash, she focused on Shigaraki and the fact that he had nearly killed Dabi and she seemed to be the cause.

There was no time for her to have a fan girl moment, though. She was soon being guided back to the counter by a very grumpy-looking Shigaraki. The blue-haired villain seated himself first before pulling her to sit on the edge of the seat, between his legs. He said nothing, but it was clear he was angry.

Heat took over her face as she felt him press against her back and lifted a hand to cover the smile forming on her lips. I know he's angry, but…I feel so giddy! Why am I like this?! This is so uncool of me!