The USB card jammed into the computer kept flashing. A parade of green and back danced across
root kali:~# sqlmap -u " Proheroes/?p=459&match=search" -dbs
Left. Right. Left. Right. Left. Right. The bots moved creating a code across the screen.
Available databases [4]:
[o] current
[o] retired
[o] most_villains_caught
[o] most_popular
Dabi narrowed his eyes at the screen. What a pain, data scraping was. He glanced at the clock in the corner of his screen. It was probably only a matter of time, before someone discovered he wasn't just testing out a laptop to buy.
"Alright, time to speed this up." He typed in a new search.
root kali:~# sqlmap -u " heroes/?p=459&match=search" -most_villains_caught -tables
The screen flashed, pulling up records of heroes ordered by most captures and the name of villians with their affiliation. He paused as one table caught his eye.
[INFO] retrieved: "Pro Hero=Fatgum" _"Villain=Rei"_Affiliation:Yakuza, organization_Shie_Hassaikai
A Yakuza was recently captured? Didn't those gang bangers control the crime underworld in the past?
He exited the Kali Linux application.
Google search: Shie Hassaikai.
Nothing out of the ordinary, except the old boss was in a coma. So the new boss listed was: Kai Chisaki.
"Kai. The perfect name for a lying asshole." Dabi cracked his knuckles. "Let's see what Google has."
"Hey, stop talking to yourself and talk to me."
Dabi turned away from the computer to see Shigaraki pushing a cart full of groceries. Shigaraki stopped beside him and Kota jumped off the cart to try and see the computer screen.
"Are you going untraced?" Shigaraki watched the screen.
"I was going to use a VPN, but figured I didn't have the time." Dabi said. There was no way he was purposely risking getting caught. "But this is a public computer so if they trace the IP address, it won't matter."
"Hmp." Shigaraki gestured to the jewelry section. "They're over there. What info you got?" He leaned over Dabi's shoulder.
"A few hits." Dabi scrolled down, the computer screen changing to display a few profiles. "The most likely one is he's a Yakuzu, named Kai, but no noticeable villain profiles unless it's from some underlings."
"A gang leader? Pff, what type of weak shit is that?"
"There's a number but it's probably somebody who knows a guy who knows a guy."
"Call it." Kota said.
Dabi noticed how Kota was standing on his tippy-toes to try and see the computer. He lifted Kota onto his shoulders.
"I can see over all the shelves from up here." Kota gazed around the store. He noticed the signs for food, hardware, and jewelry.
"You got eyes on the target?" Shigaraki asked as if ensuring the five year old stayed focused.
"Yes." Kota stared at the targets. The other two hooded men were nowhere to be seen. Eri was sitting in a chair as an employee cleaned a piercing gun in her hand. Kai was holding up two pairs of earrings. He could almost hear their conversation.
"This is just a spur of the moment gift. You should be thankful." Kai waved around one pair of earrings. "What color would you like? Green or something more flashy?"
"I...don't know. Will getting my ears pierced hurt?" Eri tapped the tip of her shoes together.
"That wasn't the question. I didn't know what your preference for colors was, so I brought over both." Kai switched the earring to lay in one hand, then presented them to Eri. "Choose one." His hand grew closer to Eri's face. "Or I'll just have you get a cartilage and a lobe piercing."
"I don't want to do it if it hurts." Eri stared at the selection blankly and stopped tapping her shoes.
"Oh...you want both, is that it?" Kai gave the earrings in his hand over to the employee.
"No. That's not what I—" Eri seemed to tense up as the piercing gun closed in near her ear.
"Why do you keep saying things, I don't understand?" Kai shrugged almost carelessly. His eyes widened as Eri squeezed the arm of the chair. "Speak up."
"I...I like the green ones." Eri trembled as Kai pulled back her long hair.
"See, how easy that was? All you had to do was say that." Kai whispered into her ear. "You of all people should know, I only hear what I want to hear." He tucked her hair back and smiled. "So you should learn to say only what I want you to say."
"Yes, sir." Eri closed her eyes.
"Give her a lobe piercing." Kai fiddled with his gloves.
Kota felt himself cringe as Eri let out a blood curdling scream. The piercing must have hurt a heck of a lot. He swallowed numbly. "He got her ears pierced."
"Likely a cover up for the true reason, they're here." Shigaraki said.
Kota found it amazing and disturbing how Shigaraki brushed off the scream like it was nothing. He looked down at Dabi's mess of hair and wished to see his expression. Maybe both villains were just stone cold indifferent about this.
"Got any word from Toga yet?" Shigaraki asked.
"No." Dabi shook his head. "But if those two other guys aren't over there, Toga probably got them."
"That's true." Shigaraki pulled out his phone. "Call the number just in case. This seems too convenient."
"Alright, I'll *67 to block them from seeing the caller ID." Dabi typed in a few digits on the keypad.
The phone rang only once before someone picked up.
"Hello?"
A man. But not the man who he wanted.
"Hello." Dabi said.
"Infamous, troublemakers... The League Of Villains." The voice said.
"Guess we're at an impasse." Dabi felt a smirk tug on his lips. He enjoyed when people cut straight to the point instead of all the unnecessary small talk. "You know who we are, but we don't know you."
Silence.
"You'll be s—"
"We have the girl. Toga? If you want her back, come meet us." The man's breathing was heavier now; more pissed off, more distraught. It was hard to read people based off their voice, but...the poor fool had answered the phone, while Kai stood a few feet away.
Dabi knew this wasn't their target. And if Kai was the boss, he would know for sure where Toga was and approach them about it. Kota was still spying on them and hadn't alerted anyone of any suspicious activity. That meant...
"Put her on the phone." Dabi demanded.
"Can't do that." The voice responded.
Coward.
"But I assure you, this is no game."
Dabi listened to the air go in and out of the man's mouth—in and out, in and out. He motioned for Shigaraki to take the phone.
"Who is that?" Shigaraki asked.
"Well you know how we thought Toga got them, they got Toga." Dabi handed the phone over. "According to this guy."
"I'm sending the location." The voice said as the phone rang to alert a new message. "Meet us there in three hours. Hopefully, by then you can forgive our late introductions."
"What makes you think we're actually coming for her?" Shigaraki held the phone at a distance as if something might jump through and attack him.
"Because, we have something that might be to both our benefits." A picture message sent of a mini box with little red bullets. "A solution to ending those infected scummy heroes."
Dabi looked at Shigaraki. They seemed to share a moment of equal confusion.
"What does Toga have to do with you showing us something?"
"She's just a little insurance. You have three hours."
The call ended with a beep.
"Hmp." Shigaraki stared at the time stamp. "They could be telling the truth, but then again, they could not." He put his phone away. "There's no telling where they are or if they also have a visual of our location and noticed Toga's absence."
"We know where the boss is though." Kota pointed.
"The little one's, right. The boss is all that matters." Dabi exited out the computer tabs and unplugged the USB drive. "But if he wants to end heroes, he might be to our advantage." His mind wandered to his fight with Endeavor...if only things would have gone differently.
"This doesn't add up." Shigaraki leaned against the shopping cart. "Why be extra to get our attention, instead of approaching us directly?"
"Higher risk of getting caught." Dabi tucked the USB drive in his coat pocket.
"Let's just head to the checkout line." Shigaraki shook his head. "I'm gonna text everyone in the group chat, there's a meeting in one hour. But it will be at the old hideout."
"Don't spin around on the bar stool, you'll break it." Shigaraki quipped.
"Your fault for having a loose seat." Kota spun around a bit faster. The villain hideout, now that he was able to actually experience it, wasn't anything to be proud of. A dusty old bar tucked behind a decaying building that needed a condemned sign.
"I'm telling you not to do the action." Shigaraki pressed his hand on the metal part of the seat.
Kota jumped off before the cushion disconnected from the metal. He ran over to hide behind Dabi. "So lame!" He shouted, feeling at a safe distance from the powerful quirk.
"That was kinda lame. Heh. Did you see the way he ran?" Twice said.
Kota peeked to see the other villains—they were never formally introduced to him, but he knew them. They had helped break into the news station.
"Don't try to be too crazy Twice." Dabi patted Kota's head. "You'll scare the little one."
"Out of everyone, he's the least scary." Kota gave Twice a thumbs down. "Even Mr. Compress has a creepy mask on, you're just a joke."
"Who ya callin a joke?" Twice sounded like he was ready to throw hands with a five year old.
"I was trying to make sure you don't fall." Shigaraki motioned to his ankle, an ice pack rested on the purplish swollen ankle. "Because I think we've all learned a lesson about what falling can do."
"You." Kurogiri cleaned out a shot glass. "You learned a lesson."
"A lesson that we can all benefit from." Shigaraki said.
"I've warned you about being reckless like this." Kurogiri placed the glass on the table. "First, Dabi goes rogue and robs a toy store. Now you go off into a grocery store less than twenty four hours after committing a crime. This is foolishness."
"Can't change the past. Okay?" Shigaraki sighed. "What we have to do is look forward and look out for each other."
"It's all because of that kid." Kurogiri lowered his voice. "I warned you about Kota, about attachments."
Kota bit his bottom lip and pulled on Dabi's jacket. He wasn't making trouble. He'd been pretty good at doing what the villain's wanted. Well, he thought he was.
"He's our symbol. The only symbol now." Shigaraki gazed up at the clock. "Sensei made it like this on purpose. It would be a shame to throw everything away, we capitalized on, because you fear something like attachments being weak." He gazed back at Kurogiri as if wanting to see some type of reaction. "I know what weakness is. I know what pain is. I also know that they're not a single person in this room who doesn't know that alone, we're susceptible to heroes' dirty ways." He faced everyone at the bar, with a little smile. "But together, well even heroes can't kill an idea."
"Honestly, boss it's impossible to tell what you're thinking." Spinner shook his head. "But when you give speeches like that, I've never been more concerned and amused." He uncrossed his arms. "You have our attention."
"I know I've been making some questionable choices lately." Shigaraki focused his eyes back on the clock. "It might have attracted the attention of an unwanted enemy. The last thing I want is to have more bad shit on my conscience, so here is a fair warning watch your back. As you can all see, we're missing a member."
"Toga." Twice seemed to whimper, under his breath.
"Not really questionable, you've just been hanging with Dabi and Toga more often." Magne said. "It's understandable. You want to help raise Kota."
"Something like that." Shigaraki agreed. "Dabi did some information grabbing." He threw a few papers on the table. "Not anything about why a Yakuzu would be after us."
"Yakuzu." Mr. Compress chuckled. "They're trying to rise up and control the underworld again?" He pulled off his top hat and dusted it off. "It's time they came to accept their era was ended by the rise of heroes."
"You know about them?" Shigaraki's eyes widened.
"Not much anymore." Mr. Compress fixed the feather on his hat. "They're just a bunch of wannabes now, broken in fractions like the Shie Hassaikai."
"Nobody said anything about the Shie Hassaikai." Dabi narrowed his eyes. It sucked that Compress wore a mask, it was impossible to see the expression on his face.
"Lucky guess." Mr. Compress put his hat back on. "They're located in these parts. No shock they'd take an interest in us."
Dabi couldn't bring himself to believe Compress knew this out of the blue. It took him about an hour to hack into the hero database just to find that tad bit of information.
"This is so much work!" A loud banging came from the door. "Leaving me, forcing me to find other means of transportation!" The door swung open to reveal Toga.
She was wearing the same outfit as earlier, no noticeable cuts or scratches on her body. Her clothes were a little torn, but otherwise she looked fine.
"Toga, you made it!" Twice sounded relieved.
"I'm late because I got left at the store! So mean." Toga said. Dabi held an arm out, as if threatening to form a barrier of fire to prevent her from stepping forward. She paused, then the glee fell from her face. "Leave me? Then set my corpus ablaze? There's no fun. No blood in that."
"Hey, Dabi!" Twice shouted.
"Quick, what's Twice's real name?" Dabi raised a brow.
"Haha?" Toga giggled almost nervously. "What's your deal?"
"Answer it."
"Jin." Toga held out her empty hands. She ran them up her arm, then clapped her hands and waved them around.
"She's clean." Dabi lowered his arm and took a step away. He raised a brow as Toga strolled past with her hands on her hips. "Welcome, back."
"Hmp!" Toga raised her nose in the air.
"What's wrong? You look pissed off! Is it because of Dabi?" Twice beckoned to her side.
"Toga, no hard feelings." Shigaraki said. "The Yakuza claimed they kidnapped you. Had to check that they didn't send a clone of you or something."
"We really were worried." Mange said.
"Like I'd ever," Toga detached a canister from her hip. "I got a nick of their blood." She sat down at the bar and unscrewed the cap. "And a little something more."
A few drops of blood rolled out before something clumpy and pink seemed to crawl out. It slugged on the table—proudly displayed like a trophy.
"Is that a tongue?" Mr. Compress whistled. "Toga, you're pretty scary."
"I only cut it out because I thought about bringing back a gift from Kota!" Toga grinned ear to ear. She picked up the muscle and squeezed it like a stress ball. "All the blood is mostly gone though. It's not as good a gift as it could be."
Kota held down a whimper as Toga held it out to him.
"It's dead, see? It's not moving, see?" Toga pushed the blood covered tongue closer. "It's owner still is though, but he'll never be able to tell another living soul what happened to him. Hah!"
"What makes you think you can give that to somebody?" Spinner took the body part away from her. "It has to be properly preserved first."
"Really?" Toga tilted her head.
"I'll do it for you." Spinner said.
Kota really hoped that was code word for: Get rid of this. He didn't want to accept a gift like that.
"Good. I worked hard to get it." Toga sealed the canister back up. "I also got blood from three others. No drops from the cute girl."
"No problem. This confirms my suspicion." Shigaraki decayed the papers in his hand. "We're not working with any lying gang bangers. But I do want to know what those bullets are. Here's a special mission, one only Kota can do." He turned to the child. "You need to befriend Eri, she's bound to know something about the Yazaku's plan."
"Got it." Kota nodded. His first solo mission as a villain. Something he wouldn't... no—couldn't afford to mess up. "It might be kind of hard, though. She doesn't talk much."
"Earn a person's loyalty and earn their mind." Dabi seemed to encourage him. "She'll talk."
Kota nodded again. Was this a good time to tell them about Eri's plea for help? Would it matter? He was surrounded by villains who did things for their own personal gain. Saving peoples...wasn't very villain like. It was probably better to let the idea go.
"Can we call it, operation play date?" Toga asked.
"Sure." Shigaraki shrugged. "I could care less about the name, long as it gets done."
In Ones Justice 2, Mr. Compress has a line about how he "one time ruled the underworld." I guess I'm gonna branch off a little something to him knowing the about the Shie Hassaikai for the sake of story plot. Lol, Dabi has a line calling Mr. Compress and "Mr. one arm getting old and weak." So make of that as you will. Thanks for reading! Stay safe and chill guys!~Mel