Gray Areas
After making his way into the bar, a place where so many of the people he'd met during the course of his work when he wasn't patrolling the streets as All Might, Toshinori smiled softly as he caught sight of the many people that he'd worked with. The people he'd helped to settle into happy lives where they could be warm, safe, and as comfortable as they wanted to be.
He also spotted a familiar, masked face among the people enjoying themselves at the bar.
Smiling softly, Toshinori made his way over to where the masked man was sitting, watching over the bar's patrons with his head leaning on his left hand.
"Good evening, Sako-san," he said, making his way over to the man who always seemed to be watching over the bar patrons whenever he would come to the bar to check up on the people he was trying to help.
"Toshinori," the masked man said, a grin clearly audible in his voice. "Come to check up on the friends you make everywhere you go?" Sako-san asked, stirring his drink with a soft chuckle.
"Something like that," he said, smiling back at the man who'd always greeted him so warmly when he came to visit this place.
This haven for those who couldn't find their place within society; or those who had lost that same place.
After he'd settled down at his usual table just for long enough to order himself a plate of onion rings and a crème soda, the sound of a commotion at the front door drew his attention. Rising from his seat at the table, Toshinori made his way up to the entrance. Narrowing his eyes as he caught sight of the man causing so much trouble, Toshinori felt his teeth almost instinctively clenching.
Of all the people to show up at Old Jou's Bar, it had to be him.
The familiar shape of Armadillo – the man who was called a Pro Hero, but certainly didn't act like one, at least not when there were no paparazzi or fellow Pros to keep an eye on him – brought a scowl to Toshinori's face, as he made his way up to the front of the bar. Sure, everyone here knew him as Quirkless, but on the other hand Toshinori Shimura did have more options for dealing with this particular man than All Might. The Symbol of Peace, after all, couldn't really be seen to attack one of his fellow Pro Heroes.
Particularly one who had such a devoted following; the bastard really did seem to know how to work a crowd.
"Never seen you before," Armadillo sneered, a leer on his face as he looked over Toshinori and the rest of the people who'd gathered in the entranceway in an effort to keep the man out of the bar. "What brings a guy like you to a Villain bar like this?"
"These are my friends," he gritted out, narrowing his eyes as he watched the man attempting to push his way into the bar; the rest of the patrons were more than willing to push him right back out, of course.
"So, if you're here in a Villain bar like this, I guess that makes you a Villain, too."
"There aren't any Villains here," he growled, feeling slightly more free without the constraints of public opinion. "There's just the people who want to decompress after a long day, and the asshole who wants to disturb their peace."
The Symbol of Peace, after all, couldn't be seen attacking one of his fellow Pros; but Toshinori Shimura was hardly a Symbol of anything.
"Whoever told you that Villains deserve to have peace?" Armadillo drawled, grinning as he tried to shove his way into Old Jou's again.
Toshinori braced himself, feeling the others standing behind him doing the same, all of them standing against Armadillo, united in their efforts to prevent him from forcing his way into their space. Holding himself so that he didn't react, as he caught a brief glimpse of something dark moving fast through the swiftly-falling night, Toshinori forced his attention back to Armadillo. He might not have known just who it was that was following in Armadillo's footsteps, but the fact that they didn't seem to want him to know about it gave Toshinori at least some hope.
If they were working with him, after all, they'd have showed themselves, considering that they had to know where he was.
"Do you Villains really think you're going to be able to hide from me forever?" Armadillo demanded, an arrogant smirk on his face, even as he tried to push forward again; Toshinori and all of his friends, as well as the people he hadn't met yes, all continued to stand firm against him. "You can either let me in now, or I can come back here with a warrant and force you to let me in."
"Or, you can leave and let these people get on with their lives, before I report you for overreach of authority," Toshinori snapped, narrowing his eyes as he continued to stand against the man, all of the friends he had made in Old Jou's stood firmly behind him.
"You really think anyone's going to listen to a Quirkless loser like you?" Armadillo leered, leaning in close enough that Toshinori could have smelled his breath if he'd been so inclined.
"You might not, but he'll be a useful witness for the case I've been building against you," said another voice – this one deeper, gruffer, and more than a little familiar to Toshinori in particular – from behind Armadillo.
When Eraserhead's capture-weapon wrapped around Armadillo's neck, Toshinori stepped forward into him, slamming his right knee into the man's balls, even as Eraserhead erased the man's Quirk and dragged him to the ground. Armadillo, who had a Quirk that resembled a combination of Hisashi's Armored Shell and a generic strength-augmentation Quirk, fell to the ground, writhing in pain, jaw working like he was trying as hard as he could not to scream.
"Good work," Eraserhead said, returning his attention to Toshinori where he was standing.
Forcing himself to stop glaring down at Armadillo, sorely tempted as he was to stomp on the man's balls, Toshinori turned his attention to Eraserhead. "You're trying to bring a case against this bastard, too?"
"I've been following him for some time, ever since I heard from some of my contacts, and since I didn't hear from some others," Eraserhead said, narrowing his red-glowing eyes as he looked down at Armadillo where he lay. "I've also heard more than a few things about you from my contacts," Eraserhead said, eyes still locked on Armadillo. "They call you Mr. Sunshine, at least according to what I've heard."
Toshinori chuckled softly. "Yeah, that's what some people call me."
