Disclaimer: I do not own My Hero Academia/Boku No Hero Academia, or any other property in this work that I did not make myself.
A couple that will go down in legend
Chapter twenty-seven: The big three of the Front
Mrs. Uraraka, the mother of U.A. student Ochaco Uraraka, was at home alone one well enough day, between morning and afternoon. Things had been picking up for the construction company that she and her husband own and ran. The mother of the gravity girl felt that she, as well as both her husband and Ochaco as well, owed a lot to Ochaco's classmates and schoolmates over at U.A. After all, it was due to the commercial that they all made for Uraraka Construction, as well as how they managed to get a lot of pro heroes to help, that the Uraraka family was finally able to step out of the shadow of low to mid-lower class.
The woman calmly and contently hummed a tune to herself as she washed a plate that was in the dirty dishes in her family's kitchen; with her husband doing some interviews for people that applied to try to get a job working for Uraraka Construction, as well as Ochaco being busy with her schooling over at the best hero high school in Japan, Mrs. Uraraka felt a bit lonely all by her lonesome in the house, which by the way was now a bit more spruced up and well stocked due to the Urarakas now having a larger income.
So it goes without saying that when she heard the front door open, Mrs. Uraraka couldn't help but be surprised. Only her husband or their daughter would enter the house without knocking, so it had to be one of them. That's where Mrs. Uraraka's surprise stemmed from partly; she wasn't expecting her husband back until a little after five, and Ochaco was still over at U.A., so one of them coming here now was a bit out of the blue. Especially so for Ochaco, as it was her who had walked into the Uraraka family home. Her eyes met with those of her mother's, and the gravity girl had the decency to look embarrassed for this out of the blue drop in.
Ochaco gently rubbed the back of her head as she giggled a bit in a mildly embarrassed manner when she was greeted by her mother. "Sorry if this is unexpected, mom, but there was something that I needed to go over you with, and it wouldn't exactly do if we talked over the phone."
Mrs. Uraraka, although still a tad surprised by her daughter dropping in to visit, was still nonetheless happy to see her daughter. The older Uraraka woman gave a sympathetic smile as she greeted her daughter. "There's no need to sweat it, Ochaco. Either way, I'm glad that you decided to drop in." Mrs. Uraraka gestured for her daughter to follow her to the kitchen, which was an invitation that the gravity girl accepted wordlessly. "Although now that you mention it, it is a bit on the surprising side that you'd drop in without at least contacting your father or I about it first. Does your school even know you're here?"
Ochaco nodded briskly before saying, "Oh yeah, I told my teachers that I needed to see you for something of an emergency."
An emergency? That instantly drew out a bit of worry from Mrs. Uraraka. The woman turned to fully face her daughter, a look of concern on the older Uraraka woman's face. "An emergency? Ochaco, sweetie, what happened?"
Ochaco let out a resigned, mildly troubled sigh before she proceeded to explain. "You know my special ring? The big, bulky gold one with the red stone?"
"You mean your late grandfather's class ring?" Ochaco nodded once in the affirmative to her mother's question.
Letting out a troubled sigh, the gravity girl said, "I put it in my locker at school in the girls locker room before I had to go out to play tennis with the rest of the class. During that time, someone got into my locker and stole it."
"Someone stole your grandfather's ring?" Mrs. Uraraka said, clearly shocked. Ochaco had the decency to look ashamed of this, but her mother quickly reassured her. "…Sweetie, there's nothing that can be done about someone having the gall to break into your locker and stealing the ring you inherited from your grandfather, although I am a bit surprised that someone at a hero high school would steal anything."
The older Uraraka woman turned around to face the sink again, going back to washing some dishes. "Did you at least tell your teachers about it?" Mrs. Uraraka asked as she picked up a plate and began to hand dry it with a small towel.
A hum of 'mmm hmm' from her daughter told Mrs. Uraraka that her daughter was taking the necessary steps to recover her stolen possession. As Mrs. Uraraka continued to wash the dishes, something her daughter said caught her attention. "I'm not sure how much good it will come of it, though, given how busy they all are with a lot of stuff that's going on right now. However, I do have a rather strong feeling on who it was that stole my ring, so I intend to look getting my ring back myself."
"Ah, that's good," Mrs. Uraraka remarked, a bit amused by how her daughter was taking charge to bring the detestable thief who stole a family heirloom to justice. The older Uraraka woman even gave off a bit of an amused smirk, wanting to hear what was on her daughter's mind. Never turning her attention from the sink where the dirty dishes were, Mrs. Uraraka continued, "So then sweetie. Who do you think the thief that-"
*SHUK*
Mrs. Uraraka was cut off when she felt a blazingly searing pain shoot up from her right side. Which was appropriate as there was a pocketknife with a three-inch blade sticking out from there, just under where the right side of the rib cage ended. Although she was in a lot of pain, Mrs. Uraraka was more shocked by how she was suddenly stabbed. The older Uraraka woman turned around to see her daughter standing there, a somber, regretful frown on her face as she hung her head a bit.
Mrs. Uraraka was beyond shocked that her own daughter would attack her in such a fashion. Her daughter, who was aiming to be a pro hero, just attacked her with a knife. Uraraka brought her head back up so that she could see the look of betrayed shock on her mother's face. Interestingly, Uraraka still looked upset, as if what she was doing wasn't something that she had much say in doing. "I'm really sorry about this, ma'am," the gravity girl remarked, ashamed.
Ochaco then reached forward and yanked the pocketknife out of her mother's right side. As she did this, the gravity girl's skin began to turn gray, before blobs of her began to fall off and splat on the floor, much to Mrs. Uraraka's ever-increasing horror and confusion. After a few moments, Ochaco had been replaced with a psychotic-looking, but notably regretful, high school girl with blonde hair in twin buns that had strands sticking out at random places. This girl, a scary mystery to Mrs. Uraraka, stood in the middle of a mess of gray blobs in the kitchen with her.
The psychotic looking girl, with a somber look on her face, casually pointed at the woman she had attacked with the bloodied blade of her pocketknife. "Uraraka-chan must get a lot of her toughness from you," the mystery girl said, "She's pretty tough, and you're still standing even though I just stabbed you." Reaching into one of the pockets on the cardigan that she wore, the psychotic girl removed a men's class ring that Mrs. Uraraka could tell at a glance was the ring her daughter inherited from her grandfather. "Oh, and umm, actually, I was the one who took Uraraka-chan's special ring. It just that it seemed so special to her, and she's so special to me, so I just had to have it. That way, it would be like Uraraka-chan is always by my side."
"Who…" Mrs. Uraraka said somewhat shakily, alarms blaring inside of her head, "…Who are you? What did you do to my daughter?"
The psychotic looking girl gave a heartbroken sigh as she waved away Mrs. Uraraka's worries. "Relax, ma'am. I didn't kill her if that's what's got you so worried. I just got enough of her blood so I can live as her for a few hours." Contemplatively, the girl looked at the bloodied blade of her pocketknife. "…Although with what I've used of her blood since I got it, I figure I got about fifteen minutes worth of blood left before I'm out."
Mrs. Uraraka couldn't believe it; she not only let a psychotic girl disguised as Ochaco into her house, but said girl had attacked her, and was now acting like all of her blood rending was as casual as someone asking someone else for the time. The older Uraraka woman knew that she had to get out of here, and get out of her fast. Otherwise, there was no telling what would happen to her if she remained alone with a-
*FWOOOOSH*
Mrs. Uraraka's thought process was cut off when a ball of blue flames the size of a softball flew right past her in front of her face. The blue flame ball smacked into the wall between the cabinets where dry food was stored and the refrigerator; a calendar caught fire, but it soon went out. More to the point, Mrs. Uraraka wasn't concerned about the blue fire, but rather who it was that threw some of it in her general direction.
The panicked, bleeding woman turned to see a black-haired man with purple patches of skin over various parts of his body, giving her a grim, serious look. "…Lady, this will be a hell of a lot easier for all of us involved here if you just cooperate and not make a scene." The blue flame man held up both hands, which were engulfed in his fire. This was done in a way that made it clear to Mrs. Uraraka that these villains, for they clearly were as such, weren't going to let her get away. Like the mystery girl, this mystery guy sounded like he didn't want to do this.
"…P-Please…" Mrs. Uraraka said as she was scared for her life. These villains sounded like they didn't want to harm her, so she was going to try to reason with them. "…I have no idea what it is you two want with me, but there isn't all that much in the way of valuables here. My…my family and I just got out of the red, and we're still far away from building up enough to-"
The older Uraraka woman was cut off when she felt the blade of a knife pressed against the front of her throat, held there by someone standing behind her. Straining her eyes, Mrs. Uraraka was able to see just a bit of the person who was holding her at knife point; to her shock and surprise, it was a humanoid lizard man with purple hair. He also wore a ninja-like eye mask over his eyes, eyes that looked at her with…resigned sadness?
"Nothing personal. It's just business."
*SLASH*
…
Dabi fished a pair of gloves out of the left pocket of his long black coat that he wore while Spinner told Toga off for getting aroused by the pool of blood on the floor, a pool that the body of Mrs. Uraraka laid in, front-side down and with her head turned so that it faced the sink. The eyes of the now late Uraraka matriarch were glossed over, and the lids were halfway closed. The blue flame villain, as he snuck a casual glance at where Mrs. Uraraka's remains laid on the kitchen floor, let out a troubled, mildly resigned sigh.
As much as this was something Dabi, as well as both Spinner and Toga, did not want to do, they didn't have much of a choice. Given that their group lost one of their main sources of income, they now had to do whatever job may come their way from the mysterious benefactor that has been supplying their group with funds since before All For One's last battle against All Might. Re-Destro being cut off from a lot of his wealth wasn't helping a lot with the issue, either.
…Still, a job with a nature like this did not sit well with Dabi and his two companions.
After he had put his gloves on, Dabi reached into the right pocket on his black long coat and fished out a plastic sandwich bag that held a folded up sheet of paper and a pocketknife; this was prepared ahead of time in such a manner to ensure that Dabi would be leaving no fingerprints on anything. Similarly, both Spinner and Toga were exercising similar caution, even though the heroes and police had enough info on them that such efforts on their respective parts could be argued as pointless.
Dabi opened the bag, removed the folded paper and pocketknife, unfolded the sheet of paper, then held it up against the wall in the kitchen before stabbing the top of the sheet with the pocketknife with such force that it effectively pinned the sheet of paper to the wall in the kitchen. Seeing that he did that little bit well enough, Dabi turned to face Spinner and Toga, both of whom had seen him pin the paper to the wall with the pocketknife.
The blue flame villain shrugged as he addressed his fellows. "…Did either of you take the picture that our benefactor will be needing to see?"
"Got it right here," Spinner said with a notable lack of enthusiasm as he held up a single polaroid photo with his right hand; an old model camera, one that printed the photo after it was taken, was held in the lizard man's left hand. Dabi gently received the photo from Spinner and took a look at it. Sure enough, it was a photo of Mrs. Uraraka's face, stained with the blood from the pool that formed from the gash on her throat.
Dabi let out a resigned breath as he confirmed that this photo would be sufficient for the purposes of the grim job that he, Spinner and Toga had to do. Sure, they normally had no trouble with killing people, and have done so multiple times in the past. But this one…this one was a killing that neither Dabi, Spinner nor Toga were proud of. Even so, it had to be done, and it was. Dabi gestured for Spinner and Toga to follow him, given that they had to get out of there.
The three villains left the scene of their crime, a location that became eerily quiet after their departure. A slight gust of wind blew through the sliding glass door that was left open by the fleeing villains, allowing the paper that Dabi pinned to the wall with a pocketknife to sway a bit in the breeze, but not fall down from where it was pinned. Written on the paper was a message. Short and simple, but more than sufficient to get a point across.
YOU'VE BEEN WARNED
Dabi, Spinner and Toga were at a hidden location that seemed to be an abandoned warehouse that was set up as something of a bar. A villain that was a member of the Meta Liberation Army before it was absorbed by the League and combined became the Front served as the bartender, standing behind the counter as he retrieved a bottle of beer and slid it to Trumpet, who said that he was needing a drink all day long.
Dabi, with Spinner and Toga, sat at a table by themselves, having just arrived at the Front-owned makeshift bar. As the three of them cooled off a bit after having just completed their job that saw them eliminate Mrs. Uraraka, they were approached by Mr. Compress, who tipped the brim of his hat to them in greeting. "I heard from Shigaraki that you three successfully completed the job that you were sent out to do. That's good, as one of our funding lines was cut, and Re-Destro can't access his Detnerat wealth for the time being because of allegations thrown at him."
"It wasn't a difficult job," was all that Dabi said before he picked up his glass of soda and took a sip from it. Both Spinner and Toga were similarly quiet. This did not escape the attention of the dapperly dressed villain, who gave a sympathetic sigh.
He gestured to an empty chair at the table that Dabi and his group occupied, and both Dabi and Spinner nodded once in unison, giving Mr. Compress the okay to sit down with them. "It would seem that you three had been assigned to carry out a killing that, unlike others you all have done in the past, was not quite your cup of tea."
"I just don't see why we had to assassinate some random housewife who with her husband was part owner of a construction company that barely just got out of the red," Spinner said, a hint of exasperated frustration with all that he, Dabi and Toga had to do showing through. The lizard man crossed his arms over his chest, gave a bemused huff. "She was no fake hero, did no one any upfront harm. Hers was a killing that Stain wouldn't have carried out."
"And yet the gentleman who is our mysterious benefactor," Mr. Compress began to point out, "Who we have to rely on more now for funding since our men who were serving as agents in that accounting business were caught by Endeavor, wanted to see the good lady Uraraka dead."
Dabi let out a disgusted scoff when his dapperly dressed associate mentioned the current number one hero by name. "…Please refrain from saying that fucker's name while I'm within earshot, dude." The blue flame villain turned to regard Mr. Compress, a look of disgust mixed with a slight dash of pleading in his eyes. "You know he's a thorn in my balls." Mr. Compress saw the point that Dabi was trying to make, realized that he crossed a line with Dabi.
Turning to properly face the blue flame villain, Mr. Compress bowed his head once in a gesture of apology. "It's clear to me that you, as well as Spinner and Toga, need to have some time off to let some stress off." Mr. Compressed raised his head from bowing it so as to look at his three fellow villains. "And as it just so happened, Shigaraki said that you three have more than earned a few days of R&R."
Dabi, Spinner and Toga all raised some brows at that, with Toga being the first to speak. "It's rare to hear Shiggy being so lenient."
Mr. Compress arched a wry eyebrow, although his mask hid it. "He was quite happy with how much you three were paid by our mysterious benefactor for the job you just completed."
Dabi turned to regard Spinner and Toga, gave them a look that was twenty-seven percent confused and sixty-three percent curious. "…Well, guys? What say the two of you to a trip to the mall to get some stuff?" Both Spinner and Toga were on board with Dabi's idea of activity to kick back a bit after completing the job that made them less than comfortable. Perhaps a little bit of window shopping, as well as some actual shopping, may be just what the three villains need to cool off a bit after their latest job.
Later the following morning, the three villains were at a nearby mall, doing a bit of looking around. To their piqued interest, nobody recognized them; Dabi and Spinner even did away with their attempts to keep themselves disguised, and still no one batted an eye. Likewise, no police or pro heroes were ever called in to arrest either of them or Toga. As such, the three villains walked around the mall in their respective casual outfits.
Dabi just walked out of an edgy-looking retail store in the mall, having bought a green knit scarf that represented a house in a certain fictional school for wizards. The blue flame villain was quite frankly surprised that he was able to walk around the mall like this without people freaking out at the sight of him; or was everyone so distracted with their respective shopping that they simply did not realize that the guy who bought a green knit scarf was a known villain?
As he stood outside of the store he just made a purchase at, Dabi was greeted by Spinner, who looked relaxed in his civilian outfit. "Well I just found out a possible reason for why no none's freaking out about the two of us and Toga walking around here in broad daylight." The lizard man villain removed a folded-up newspaper from his one shopping bag from a novelty and gag gift store, unfolded said newspaper and handed it to Dabi. "Look at the article that's located over on page three."
Dabi, noticing the slight hint of urgency in Spinner's tone, curiously opened the newspaper to the page that Spinner denoted. The blue flame villain's eyes widened a bit when he spotted a fairly big article whose title was 'Wife of Uraraka Construction owner found murdered in own home'. The article went on to say that a number of pro heroes, all of whom were among the many that had assisted the U.A. students in making the commercial that was a great deal responsible for helping to bring Uraraka Construction to such prominence, were all occupied with helping police with trying to investigate.
Dabi looked up from Spinner's paper to Spinner himself, who gestured to the newspaper that he handed to his fellow villain. "When something has the attention of so many notable pro heroes, then the civilian populace is bound to pick up on the event and follow it. That's probably why the two of us and Toga have been able to-"
Spinner was cut off when he and Dabi heard a young male child cry out in mild alarm and distress. That was followed by a squishmallow-type plushy of the pro hero Ryukyu falling from the second floor walkway above Dabi and Spinner and right on the ground between where the two villains stood. "Hey boys!" Dabi and Spinner, having heard Toga call out to them from above, turned their attention upwards and saw their fellow villain waiving to them.
Curiously, Toga was accompanied by a somewhat frog-looking woman in a purple sweater with a dark purple turtleneck, an elementary-aged boy with black hair with the bangs obscuring one of his eyes, and a younger elementary-aged girl with dark green hair in twin low pigtails. "Up here!" Toga called down to Dabi and Spinner, "Some lady that rushed past us bumped into the kid and made him drop the toy that fell between you two! Can you hold onto it for us until we get down there?"
…
Toga, accompanied by the lady and her two children, reached Dabi and Spinner, the latter having picked up the Ryukyu squishmallow and handing it over to the boy. Similarly, both Spinner and Dabi noticed that the girl held a Mirko squishmallow.
"Oh, well my husband Ganma recently got a really big promotion at work," the frog-like lady explained when the villains (neither she nor either of her children recognized Dabi, Spinner or Toga) asked her, "So he asked me to take our kids here to get each of them something nice to celebrate." The frog-like lady gently laid a hand on her son's right shoulder. "Samidare here is partly the reason why my husband got the promotion, so Ganma and I were especially keen on getting him something nice."
Dabi arched a mildly wry eyebrow as he looked at the boy, identified to him as Samidare, who was looking down at the ground as if nervous. In Samidare's left hand was a shopping bag that held his squishmallow plushy. Dabi pointed at the boy while looking at the frog-like lady. "He seems rather attached to the plushy toy that you got him."
The frog-like lady let out a mildly amused chuckle. "Well, Samidare's never really been one that was hard to impress. He's perfectly happy with that squishmallow of his favorite pro hero, whereas most other kids that would be in his position would have wanted something that carried a much bigger price tag."
"I wasn't aware that there were a line of those plushies based off of pro heroes," Spinner said in a curious tone, crossing his arms over his chest.
"The new hero plushies are really soft!" the young girl remarked, making the villains turn to see her. The young girl nodded once in confirmation before she went on. "I got the one that looks like Mirko, and it's really cute! The one that looked like Scary Fire Beard looked ugly, though. It was also scary to my big brother here."
Dabi, recognizing right away that by 'Scary Fire Beard' the little girl was talking about Endeavor, had to snort back some laughter. "Yeah, you got a really good point about Scary Fire Beard right there, young lady."
The frog-like woman perked up a bit when Dabi approved of her daughter's opinion of the current number one pro hero. "You…aren't a fan of that man?"
"No way is he a fan of Endeavor, ma'am," Toga began, "My friend-"
Toga was cut off when Samidare let out a mildly frightened squeal as he moved to hide behind his mother. The frog-like woman turned to regard Toga and the other two villains. "You didn't know so I won't hold it against you, but my son is rather terrified of Japan's current number one hero, enough so that just mention that man by name is enough to make my son move to hide." The psychotic girl looked mildly worried that she had unintentionally frightened a young child.
To her credit, Toga quickly apologized for unknowingly frightening the frog-like woman's son. The frog-like woman nodded in understanding, and thanked Toga for not only promising to refrain from mentioning Endeavor (who Toga at that moment called Scary Fire Beard, having taken a cue from the young girl) by his actual name. Likewise, Spinner and (a secretly rather amused) Dabi both made the same promise.
To the surprise of the trio of villains, they ended up accompanying the frog-like woman and her two elementary-aged children on their mall trip. The combined six of them stopped for lunch in the food court, where the villains learned that the frog-like woman was named Beru and that her daughter was named Satsuki; Dabi, Spinner and Toga already got Samidare's name. Beru and her two children got some lunch from the one burger joint in the food court, same as Toga. Dabi got a relatively big take-out dish of orange chicken from a Chinese restaurant in the food court, and Spinner got a turkey gyro meal combo from a Greek restaurant in the food court.
As the villains sat down with Beru and her children to eat lunch together, Dabi noted with some curiosity that Samidare put on a pair of somewhat bulky-looking studio headphones that lack any cord attached to them. Dabi pointed to the boy while looking at Beru with a look of curiosity. "You son has a thing for music, I take it?"
Beru saw what the villain (who she has still yet to realize was a villain) was pointing out and asking about, then gently shook her head. "Oh no. Those aren't headphones for listening to music. They're a pair of noise-canceling headphones." Beru gave a quick look around the food court, paying a passing attention to the crowds and noise levels. "I can see why he'd put them on here, given the overall volume of everyone talking here. Too many noises, as well as noises that are really loud, tend to distress my son."
"Yeah, things being loud tend to grind the gears of a lot of-" Dabi began to remark in a tone of agreement, but before he could get the last few words out, he was cut off when a number of the shoppers eating lunch in the food court all cried out in panic. Alarmed, Dabi, accompanied by Spinner and Toga, stood up from the table they sat at with Beru and her two young children. The three villains looked over in the direction a number of shoppers were fleeing from, and ended up spotting the cause of all of their panicked fleeing; the villain Trapezius Head Gear was causing quite the big scene.
"Hey, I recognize that fellow." Spinner looked over where the large, pink villain was throwing around a few food court tables with his left hand as he was using his right arm to hold a few random civilians hostage. The lizard man crossed his arms over his chest, gave off an unamused huff. "He's a moderately notable villain that was stopped by All Might sometime shortly before he had to step down from hero work."
"I recognize him as well, since I saw of his arrest a while ago in the papers," Dabi said, "But what I'd like to know is what he's doing here." Both the blue flame villain's expression and tone of voice showed his curiosity, his piqued interest. "How did he get out of prison?"
Turning around, Dabi and Spinner saw Toga running to them from the direction that a big retail store was located in; said retail store was in the direction opposite of the direction that Trapezius Head Gear was having his rampage in. "I got Beru and her kids over to that big fancy retail store, so none of them are in immediate danger."
"You speak as if we're planning to actually stop Trapezius Head Gear," Spinner said, a look of incredulousness on the lizard man's face as he regarded his psychotic fellow. Spinner crossed his arms over his chest as he gave Toga a questioning look. "We're villains as well, remember? It's not like we'd be able to get away with taking any notable action here without drawing attention to ourselves. It's best if we just make ourselves scarce before any pro heroes show up." A nod of agreement came from Dabi, showing that he was on board with Spinner's plan.
However, Toga wasn't as quick to agree. "But Beru and her kids were really nice to us! How can we just up and leave while not only is their trip to the mall here being ruined, but the three of them are in potential danger?"
Both male villains let out exasperated sighs, as both of them saw that there wasn't going to be a lot of reasoning with the psychotic school girl. Looking around as he tried to quickly formulate a plan, Dabi saw spotted a wide-brimmed white fedora with a black band around the base of the head part, a simple black walking cane with a golden orb for the handle, and a hockey mask; all of these objects were abandoned by fleeing shoppers in their haste to escape the large villain.
"…I have an idea."
…
"Who here is going to try to stop me?!" Headgear exclaimed triumphantly, confident that there would be no heroes to stop him since he heard a lot of them were wrapped up in helping police with investigating some random murder. The large, pink villain picked up another food court table and threw it as far as he could, causing it to fly into the sign above the Greek restaurant that Spinner got his lunch from earlier.
Headgear laughed in self-assured confidence when he saw the table he threw shatter the sign completely, making the one woman he held as hostage shriek a bit out of fright. "Oi, shut the hell up, woman!" Headgear snapped, "I just broke out of that place I was being held at right before I could be transferred to Tartarus, so the last thing that I need right now is-"
The large, pink villain was cut off midsentence when a ball of blue flames the size of a basketball whizzed past the left side of his head, startling him a bit and making him look over in the general direction that the blue fire came from. As such, Headgear saw Dabi, but did not recognize him for multiple reasons; one, the two of them never actually met, so Headgear would not have known it was Dabi anyway, and two, Dabi wore the hockey mask and fedora that he found abandoned, as well as carry the cane he found abandoned as well.
Dabi, emulating his fellow villain Mr. Compress, flamboyantly tipped the brim of his hat that he found after he saw he got Headgear's attention. Dabi was also now wearing his villain outfit, what with the long black coat with sleeves ending at the elbows. "Oh, do forgive me for the surprise, but I wanted to make sure that I got your attention. After all, a showman like myself needs to make a statement." From where they hid, both Spinner and Toga laughed at how Dabi was acting like Mr. Compress.
Unlike the two hidden villains, Headgear was not amused. "Grr…And just who the hell do you think you are?!" the large, pink villain snapped.
Dabi grabbed his fedora with his right hand and held it over his chest as he gave a bow, holding his cane in his left hand off to the side. "I am the Dandy Magician, wizard extraordinaire." Dabi came out of his bowing, replaced the fedora onto the top of his head. He then pointed the golden orb end of his cane right at Headgear. "And you, good sir, are by no means dandy, what with how you terrorize innocent mall shoppers!"
"And you think some two-bit hero that no one's heard of like yourself can stop the likes of me?" The large, pink villain laughed at the ridiculousness of what this nobody was trying to threaten him with.
To Headgear's surprise, the disguised Dabi laughed as well. "Oh no, I am not a hero. I am a wizard, like I said." Raising his hands up into the air, Dabi continued, "And I shall be using my wizard magics to defeat you!" Again, the hidden Spinner and Toga laughed at how their fellow villain was putting on a show.
The large, pink villain decided that he needed to put all of his focus on facing this self-proclaimed wizard, so he dropped the hostages he held and charged headlong at where the Dandy Magician stood on top of a table. Dabi saw Headgear charge right at him, so he thrusted his right hand at the large villain and unleashed a torrent of blue flames, striking Headgear dead-on and making him cry out in a bit of pain but mostly alarmed surprise.
The disguised villain's torrent of blue flames ended, and he brought his right hand back. "Do you wish to try to continue this dance the two of us find ourselves in? Or perhaps you find that taking the time to yield would be a better alternative?"
Headgear was unamused by the smirking amusement in the disguised villain's tone. So much so that he roared angrily at Dabi. "You little shit! I'm going to rip your stupid little head off if it's the last thing-"
The large, pink villain was cut off again when hit by flames, but whereas Dabi's were blue, the new flames that hit him were the standard color. This also caught Dabi's attention, and when he looked over he saw Endeavor, the pro hero he hated the most, had arrived on scene. With the current number one pro hero were some of his sidekicks from the Endeavor Hero Agency; one of said sidekicks was Burnin.
"And now I take my leave," Dabi thought in his head as Endeavor and all of his sidekicks were so preoccupied with fighting Headgear that they failed to keep tabs on the blue flame villain, which allowed him to slip away. There was no way that Dabi, a known and wanted villain, was going to stick around while there were pro heroes on the scene, especially since one of said heroes is the man that he hated more than anyone else. Dabi by no means had the intention of being arrested, most of all by that man.
"You do realize that what you did technically counts as vigilante work," Beru remarked to Dabi when he, Spinner and Toga regrouped with her and her two children at the large store Toga led them to for safety. The frog-like woman gently shook her head, a sign that she wasn't caring much for legalities at the moment. "But I'm not going to grill you on it. Besides, your actions did buy enough time for some heroes to show up and stop that villain."
"Well it's a good thing I wore a disguise," Dabi replied, a smirk of amusement on his face. Dabi decided to keep the hat, mask and cane he collected for his disguise, not that the frog-like woman and her children had to know that. The blue flame villain gestured to Beru. "So, how are you and your kids holding up?"
Beru looked to Satsuki and Samidare, the latter cowering in a fetal position. Beru let out an understanding, resigned sigh. "I'm going to have to take Samidare home. Everything that has happened today had overwhelmed him, so he needs to cool down."
The three villains nodded in understanding, with Spinner adding, "Yeah, no kid should have to go through something like being there during a villain attack."
Beru nodded in thanks to Spinner for understanding as she proceeded to lead her children away. A few steps away, however, Samidare surprisingly stopped his mom. Getting her to bend down so he could whisper something to her, the young boy asked his mom for something, drawing a look of surprise out of the frog-like woman. The surprise was also mixed with some amusement, so she said as she got back up, "Well we will have to ask them if they're okay with it."
Hearing that bit from Beru got the attention of Dabi, Spinner and Toga, with the first of those three taking the initiative to ask. "What did the kid say?"
Beru, with a look of mild amusement on her face, explained, "Samidare said that he wanted to get a picture taken with the three of you."
"Ooh! Ooh! I want to be in the picture too!" Satsuki cheered, "Our new friends helped save us and stop a villain! They're awesome!" Dabi, as well as Spinner and Toga, all looked surprised by the fact that little kids wanted to have their pictures taken with the three of them. Unable to think of a reason to deny the request, Dabi and the others gestured for Samidare and Satsuki to come over and join them.
Standing in a group, the five of them stood close as Beru took a picture of them with her smartphone; the picture had the three villain in the back row (going from left to right in the picture; Toga, Spinner and Dabi) and the two kids in front, with Satsuki between Toga and Spinner and Samidare between Spinner and Dabi. The three villains were all a bit amused with the picture, and Beru was even able to send a copy of the photo to Toga's smartphone.
After the picture was taken and shared, the three villains said their good-byes as they waved Beru and her young children off. While everyone was distracted by Endeavor and his sidekicks having stopped and subdued Headgear, Dabi and the others were able to slip out of the mall without issue, their purchases in their bags.
As the three villains left to return to their hideout they shared with other members of the Front, Toga stopped the boys, a look of confused realization on her face. "Hey boys, quick question."
"What is it, Toga?" Spinner asked.
"Did we just do hero work?"
Surprised by Toga's question, as well as realizing where said question came from, Dabi and Spinner both turned to look at each other, exchanging surprised looks.
Tsuyu Asui entered her family's home later that evening. Accompanying the frog girl of U.A.'s class 1-A was her classmate Fumikage Tokoyami, who was carrying a twelve inch by ten inch closed Tupperware dish of food that he brought over. Tsuyu noted the Tupperware her dark classmate brought along to the house. "It was really nice of you to bring something for joining my family for dinner tonight kero."
"Well it wouldn't do if I didn't act like a proper guest, Tsuyu," Tokoyami replied as he was led inside by his frog-like classmate, "Even if it's just baked sweet potatoes."
As Tsuyu and Tokoyami walked into the living room, they were greeted by Tsuyu's mother Beru. "Oh, you're finally here, sweetie," the frog-like woman greeted in a pleasantly surprised tone to her teenage daughter, "And you brought a friend as well."
Tsuyu gestured to Tokoyami while facing her mother. "Mom, this is Fumikage. I told you and dad about him, remember?"
Beru, with an amused smile, turned to regard the dark bird boy. "Oh, so you're this Fumikage fellow that my daughter's become smitten with. …Or was it you who became smitten with Tsuyu first? How did it work out again?"
"I…would like to think that both happened at around the same time, ma'am," Tokoyami replied, blushing a bit, "I mean, Tsuyu and I did sort of hit it off just after we all moved in to the Heights Alliance dorms over on U.A. campus grounds, so it's been awhile and we can't exactly recall all of the details."
The commotion that Tsuyu, Tokoyami and Beru were making drew the attention of Satsuki and Samidare, both of whom came over. "Big sis!" Satsuki cheered, "You won't believe what happened at the mall today!"
"Happened at the mall…" Tokoyami remarked as he pondered what the six-year-old girl said. After thinking on it for a moment, Tokoyami seemed to recall something. "Ah, yes. From what I had heard on the matter, a villain known as Trapezius Head Gear had escaped police holding as he was being transported to Tartarus Prison and made his way to a local mall, where he was causing untold chaos. He even took a few random mall shoppers hostage."
Tsuyu's little sister nodded a few times in the affirmative. "Yeah huh! There was this big, pink scary villain, and he was throwing around tables, and making a lot of people scared, but one of me and Samidare's new friends that we made stopped him long enough for heroes to show up and stop the villain for good! Also, one of our new friends got me and Samidare and mom to a safe place while the heroes fought the big, scary villain!"
"You two made some new friends today kero?" Tsuyu asked, her interest piqued by hearing what her little. Beru, knowing where this was leading, took out her smartphone and pulled up the picture that she had taken earlier of Satsuki, Samidare and 'their new friends' over at the mall. Beru turned her smartphone around so she could show the picture that she took to Tsuyu, as well as Tokoyami who leaned in slightly to see the picture.
Right away, Tsuyu's eyes widened a bit in shocked realization. "Mom, those three are villains."
Beru looked shocked by what her oldest child had said. "Villains? Tsuyu, sweetie, what do you mean by that?"
"I can back Tsuyu up on this one, ma'am," Tokoyami said to Beru as he pointed to the picture, "Those three are known villains that we were warned about by our teachers over at U.A. As a matter of fact, the girl villain in the photo is the one who attacked Tsuyu and our classmate Uraraka during our stay at the training camp a while ago." Tsuyu nodded in the affirmative as Beru looked on in shock.
"Mom, you had better save that photo so we can show it to pro heroes as evidence when we report this," Tsuyu advised her mother, "A villain sighting like this has to be reported to the pro heroes. They'll be wanting to know about this."
Beru, albeit a bit shocked by what she had just learned, nodded in agreement with Tsuyu and Tokoyami. Satsuki and Samidare looked confused by what all was going on, and Satsuki was very curious about why her big sister was calling her and Samidare's new friends villains. Those three weren't villains; they were really nice to her and Samidare, and they even helped with the stopping of that big villain that Scary Fire Beard took down.
Would villains do something like all of that?
END, CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
Author's Notes;
If they get caught up in stuff and are too confused by what all is going on to object, yes. More to the point, I wanted to further expand upon the trio of Dabi, Spinner and Toga, who featured a lot in my now-completed story 'We must protect the runestone!' which has a lot of relevance to the overall plot of this story, believe it or not. Same goes for 'The quirks of living in Royal Woods', so reading both stories will help clue you in on a lot of what goes on here in this story. But all of that is beside the point.
Now, before anyone starts to complain about how Dabi, Spinner and Toga murdered Uraraka's mom in this chapter, let me just say this; they are VILLAINS, bad guys. Murdering innocent persons like that is what many would expect villains to do. Additionally, believe it or not, the death of Uraraka's mom in this chapter is necessary for happenings that will occur later on down the line in this story. It is vital to serve an important role in an overarching plot in a future arc in later on in this story.
Said narrative, in fact, was hinted at by Dabi, Spinner and Toga here, as all three of them had expressed reluctance in carrying out said murder, only doing so because they didn't exactly have a choice in the matter. This reluctance will also be playing a role later as well, especially when Dabi, Spinner and Toga are offered another job, with said offering being extended to them by the mysterious benefactor himself/herself. I do not do things without reason here, folks.
…But more to the point. The next chapter will see the usual students at U.A. deal with stuff following a math exam, with a few things discussed by teachers occurring in the background. The chapter will hint at things to come, as well as continue a few bits that have happened thus far. But overall it will try to lighten the mood a little bit, especially with what Mina does in order to insure that she gets a passing grade on the math exam.
