Chapter 7: Imposter

It was in a dark corner, just behind a high school in Kamino that a teenage boy, dressed in a school uniform, was sitting against the wall of the building in a growing puddle of his own blood. Beneath each of his eyes were a set of deep cuts that gave the illusion that the boy was crying tears of blood, and technically he was, as his own salty tears had mixed with the blood, allowing those red droplets to flow more freely down to his chin and neck, staining the collar of his white shirt.

Right in front of the boy was a girl who looked to be the same age as the boy. She had ash blonde hair tied up into two buns, and catlike yellow eyes that gleamed in the dimly lit place. The girl danced before the dying boy with the practiced grace of a ballerina, as she twirled and lunged in an enchanting display.

But as her performance came to a halt, she looked back into the dying boy's eyes as he quietly moaned in agony from his wounds, and as his eyes closed for the last time, the girl blushed and leaped into the air with joy, cheering as she did so.

The girl in question was named Himiko Toga and today had marked her fourth kill yet. Up until about a week ago, Toga had been trapped, living a "normal" life under this hero society. Ever since she was a child and her quirk manifested, she had been forced by her parents to act like everyone else, to put on a mask and to suppress her true self, and to refrain from expressing her love.

For a long time, for her whole life, she had just lied to herself, convinced herself that she was happy. But a couple months ago she saw a video online that changed everything. Someone had managed to upload footage taken from security cameras of the villain known as "Deku" killing the pro hero "Tungsten Burst" in a bloody duel, and she had watched it along with her friend group at school. It wasn't until she finally saw Deku on that footage, bloody and bruised, but still determined to live his own way, that she finally realized how much she herself had been hurting, and how badly her true colors yearned to break free.

The next few months after that had been a living hell, again and again she had to keep wearing that painful facade of normalcy, and each time it got harder and harder to keep affixed. But a little over a week ago one of her friends, a boy named Saito, got into a fight at school, and when Toga saw the way he bled, she couldn't help but think of Deku. So that day after school, she had trapped and killed him, and then, just like she had seen Deku do in the video, she had cut deeply beneath his eyes to make him look as though he was crying tears of blood.

She just simply couldn't help it anymore, she didn't want to help it anymore, she was in love with Deku, and she just wanted nothing more than to kill for him, to kill like him. She wanted to see him bleed and break, and to become him, but most of all she wanted to see him kill everything in sight, so at last she could see the monster, and all it's horrific beauty.

On the other side of Kamino…

Deku was present, darting through the empty alleyways about a kilometer away from the train station in Kamino Ward. He had recently changed into his villain costume and donned his mask, and strapped to his torso was his black bag in which he held all his earthly possessions. Of which there were all of his Villainy Series notebooks of which there were so far five, a spare grey hoodie and blue baseball cap that he used to disguise himself in public. And also all of his cash, some bandages, his phone, a fake ID that he had acquired from Giran, as well as just enough space for the odds and ends of his costume.

He had only just arrived in the city less than an hour ago, and he had already set out onto the streets, in order to find the person he had come back here to find in the first place. The thing that this person had done to force Deku back to Kamino was something that is considered a great taboo among villains, something villains only ever did if they wanted to invite wrath.

Apparently someone in Kamino had gone around murdering innocent people, and had been using Deku's calling card. And because Kamino was the last city he had been at before going to Mustafu, the police had assumed that it was him who had committed the murders, and now all of Japan was convinced that he was some common serial killer.

As soon as Deku had learned of the first killing, he had set out to find them, and by the time he had arrived back in Kamino, one murder had turned into two, and two became three, and by this time number four was probably rolling around. Of course, while spreading fear was his initial aim as a villain, and these murders were certainly a surefire way to accomplish that, it took away the whole idea of what Deku represented.

Everything he did revolved around one simple fact, the fact that the line between the powerful and the powerless wasn't so defined, and to prove that the monsters called "humans" still existed in this superhuman world, and had to be feared above everything. But to simply prey upon the weak and powerless, added nothing to such a truth, and that was why he had sworn his revenge on this imposter.

"Finally, I've found you." said a dehydrated voice coming from behind Deku. "You have no idea how hard I've been searching for you."

Startled by the voice, Deku immediately spun around on his heel, and got into a combat stance, placing his hands on the hilts of the knives at his belt. To find himself facing a grey haired man who had somehow snuck up on him, even though he had constantly been observing his surroundings, this man had gotten past Deku's notice, which could only mean that he was dangerous. But what was even more concerning about the man, was that upon his face he wore what appeared to be a seared left hand, and it looked real too. The sight made even Deku feel a tad uneasy, and he was someone who cut bloody tears into peoples faces.

"Who are you, and what do you want?!" Deku said back to the man with a voice that held a sense of both anger and authority.

"My name is Tomura Shigaraki." The man with the shaky voice said, as he began to walk forward in a lifeless way that reminded Deku of an animate corpse. "I've come to you with a…"

"...business proposal." the man who called himself Tomura Shigaraki sounded as if he wasn't very sure of himself, or what he was doing here.

"I'm not interested." Deku answered bluntly, his stance unflinching. "Now get lost."

With that said Shigaraki's demeanor shifted to irritation as he moved his hands up, and began scratching his neck aggressively.

"You… You don't get it, what I'm offering, do you?" Shigaraki said, this time with annoyance.

"And I don't think that you get my point, I'm not interested in some partnership with a half-witted creep, who can't even speak like a normal person." Deku retorted, this time drawing one of his knives and pointing it's tip right at Shigaraki. "Now get lost, before I chop that hand into a million pieces and dump them down the storm drain!"

Shigarak then stopped scratching, and he then dropped his hand to his sides with the same puppet-like movement. The two villains stood still for several seconds, Deku with his combat ready stance, and Shigaraki with his arms resting at his sides, like a puppet standing still.

But the grey haired husk of a man suddenly took off towards Deku in a sprint, as if he had suddenly come to life. As Shigaraki ran, he outstretched his hands in front of him, like he intended to grapple with the red-clad villain.

"YOU'LL PAY FOR DISRESPECTING MY FATHER!" the grey-haired villain yelled at the top of his lungs as he ran forth.

Deku still didn't know what this guy's quirk was, so he didn't know what to expect, but the fact that he was charging with his hands first spoke truths about Tomura's strategy. That, coupled with the fact that he wore a hand on his face, Deku got the feeling that he wouldn't like what those bare hands could do to him.

Deku waited until the last second to evade his attack, and as Shigaraki reached out with his right hand to grab him, Deku ducked and ran low to the ground, right under his arm, and he maneuvered right behind Shigaraki's back. With his foe now vulnerable, Deku drew a knife in his left hand and made to stab Tomura right in the neck. But Shigaraki spun around quickly and intercepted Deku's attempt to end the fight by grasping Deku's left hand with his right.

Seeing that Shigaraki had successfully made physical contact as he had first intended to, Deku wasted no time in yanking his left hand away and then jumping backwards a good distance. Deku had successfully pulled away in time to avoid becoming a pile of ash, but as he looked at his left hand he saw that his knife and glove were no more. But this development had confirmed his suspicions as to what Shigaraki's quirk was, and he could now use this info to aid him in the fight.

"So you have a disintegration quirk" Deku said out loud, making his observation known.

Shigaraki, having no visible reaction to the remark, once again prepared to make another attack, but this time he took a stance that showed some preparation behind it. Deku too, prepared for another attack, and grabbed another knife in his left hand. At the same time, the two ran at each other, Deku once again got low, this time in an attempt to cut Shigaraki across the knee, but Shigaraki anticipated this and reached for Deku with his right hand.

Deku sidestepped to the left, and with the knife in his right hand, he swiped up at Shigaraki's arm, leaving a deep cut that caused Tomura to cry out in pain. Before his foe could react Deku spun and kicked Shigaraki in the ribs, sending him crashing into a trash can, and knocking it over.

Shigaraki quickly got back up with a pained noise and tried to swipe at Deku with his left hand yelling as he did so. But Deku ducked and cut at Shigaraki's stomach, causing some of his blood to splatter across the ground in an arc. Deku then sent a kick upward, nailing Shigaraki in the jaw, knocking the hand off his face and causing him to stumble backwards.

"I think it's about time we finished this fight. Don't you?" Deku said.

Having proved himself to be the superior fighter, Deku began twirling a knife in his right hand, and walked towards Shigaraki. Shigaraki was backing away from the villain who had bested him, as he held his hands over his now exposed face, and whispered something under his breath while he shook with fear, or anger, or some other emotion, that Deku couldn't quite get a read on.

As Deku slowly advanced, the beaten Shigaraki stopped backing away as he backed into a wall. Seeing that he had frightened his foe enough, Deku pulled back his right arm with the knife, and thrust it forward in an attempt to stab Tomura through the skull. But before he could end the villain's life, Shigaraki, removed his hands from his face at last revealing his red eyes, and shouted something into the night air.

"KUROGIRI!" the name echoed throughout the alleyway.

Just as Deku's weapon was about to make contact with Shigaraki's face, a soccer ball sized swirl of black mist appeared in front of him, swallowing his whole arm.

"Aaaagh!" Deku cried as he felt a stabbing pain in his right shoulder that he had not expected. As he looked to the spot where he felt the pain, he saw a hand wearing a red and black glove, holding a bloody knife that was lodged into his arm. Looking further down the arm he saw a swirl of mist identical to the one in front of Shigaraki, he pulled his arm back, removing the knife from his shoulder with a pained cry.

He tried to back away from Shigaraki, but as soon as he removed his arm from the black mist, it disappeared, and in front of him he saw the red eyed face of Tomura Shigaraki, smiling cruelly. Before Deku could turn away to run, Shigaraki delivered a kick to his chest that knocked him off his feet, Deku turned his gaze away from Shigaraki in the midst of his fall, and the only thing that met his eyes as soon as he did, was a misty blackness, that swallowed him whole.