Was it still a legend if it was true?

The Tokyo Clan hadn't always been so divided. The clan was too vast to be commanded by just anyone, and upon their death, timely or otherwise the clan would splinter into seven. Always seven. No more. No less. One for each circle.

One for each ring.

Hitoshi fumbled with the rings in his fingers. Each one was unique, gaudy, but undeniably valuable. And more for just the material and artistry put into them. Whoever had the rings had the clan. And right now Hitoshi had three of the seven. One more and he'd have the majority. Then the rest should be easy.

Beyond their monetary and symbolic value, there was another value hidden within the rings. The legends that surrounded them. The whispers of power. The hints of just being more than mere rings.

Legend had it that the rings were created not by a jeweler, but by a man. A man with a quirk. With all the quirks in the world, it didn't seem impossible for there to be a quirk that allowed him to create rings like this. There was even that girl at U.A. that could make anything with her quirk. If that was all, then Hitoshi wouldn't have thought much of it. But there was so much more to it than that.

There had always been the boogie man of a person that could steal quirks. Eraserhead was proof enough that quirks could affect other quirks, so what about someone that could turn quirks into rings?

And use them.

"Their boss is dead!" Chomaru slammed his fist against the table, causing the drinks to clatter and the food to waver on its plates. The other members all gathered around the smoke-filled rumors jumped back at the sudden outburst. "Now's the time to strike!"

"Yeah!" Saruto and Nasuke nodded in agreement.

"They have a point, Hitoshi," Hime moaned as she scooted ever closer to him. Her lithe body was as alluring as her quirk was. Her soft pink hair fell from her bun, and the bright red of her lips shined in the dull light. Her interest in him was only because of his status. "If you deal with the Amagi now, the others will be willing to follow you, rings or no."

Hitoshi gazed across the table. Smoke filled the air, and the scent of booze lingered on every breath. His circle was hardly loyal, and hardly had the wisdom to be considered leaders—the eldest amongst them was barely twenty-seven—but they had become steadfast allies ever since he found himself as their leader.

He pulled his leg up and rested his arm on it before he gave a dull dry laugh. "Most of you can't go to a comedy show without shitting yourselves. Or did you forget Tanaka is still around?"

Chomaru crossed his arms again and scratched his chin. "Yeah, but—"

"Furthermore, Izuku isn't a threat we can take lightly." Hitoshi felt the rings in his hands again. It'd be nice if the legend was true. "Even with the weapons we stole."

"So we're just going to do nothing?" Chomaru beat his fist against the table. "We didn't put our lot in with you to just sit here and do nothing! If you don't take action I might—"

"I'm not saying we do nothing." Hitoshi kept his voice firm and gave a soft groan. "Right now the Amagi won't be a problem, since they're going to be focusing on the Shie Hassakai. I want to focus on the Tokyo Clan."

"The others won't listen to you!" Nasuke grunted. "They think you're weak because you didn't kill Tanaka and Izuku."

"Neither have they." Hitoshi let out a small breath and looked at the room. "You guys all shared a border with the Amagi, but the other four branches, what exactly have they been doing? Fighting amongst themselves?"

The room went silent, and Hitoshi let out a long sigh. "I understand you all hate the Amagi for having the things that we do not: order, a casino that brings in more cash than all the branches combined, or their fight club that the police and heroes turn a blind eye to. Aye, I envy their freedom too." He looked at all the members slowly and ran his tongue between his gums and his lip. "But who do we have to blame for that?"

Saruto snapped his fingers. "The Amagi!"

"No! The cops!" Nasuke bumped shoulders with Saruto.

"You're all idiots!" Hime rolled her eyes and gestured towards Hitoshi. "He's saying it's us! We're the reason why we're failing."

Hitoshi nodded. "If we stopped fighting ourselves, if we stopped throwing ourselves against the Amagi, we could have our own operations just as grand as theirs." He sighed and looked towards Chomaru again. "That's why you gave me your ring, wasn't it?"

Chomaru closed his eyes and scratched his chin for a moment. "I still really want to get back at Tanaka."

Hitoshi groaned. Revenge was such a stupid thing. That was a bitter pill he had to swallow after he attempted to kill Izuku. Their encounter had been an accident, a raid on a warehouse hoping to find something good when no one was looking. Finding a stache of weapons strong enough to take down All Might, and then finding out that the Amagi were coming to make a deal…

Such a stupid thing.

Such a stupid mistake.

There was no going back though.

"With the Amagi focused on the Shie Hassakai, this is our chance to focus on ourselves. When we face the Amagi next, I want all of us there." He played with the rings again and squared his shoulders. "This is our best bet. This is what we should have done from the start."

The table was silent in agreement.

"Now then, tell me about the other leaders."

XXXX

He'd gotten used to sleeping with one eye open. His insomnia matched well with that natural paranoia he had cultivated over the years. It was a damn mystery how he functioned at all with how little sleep he got, though he placed a lot of that burden onto coffee.

Of which he was out.

With a groan that made him sound like he was in his fifties, Hitoshi stood and scratched his back while staring at what he had been reading: a police report on the previous leader of the Tokyo Clan. He was a young man that died some fifteen years ago. Somehow, he had united the clan without obtaining every ring. Sadly, no one currently in the clan had a clue as to why they did that, just hearsay and worth of mouth.

Another thing the Amagi had them beat in. Hell, even the Shie Hassakai kept better records than they did.

Hitoshi clicked his tongue and let a flash of bitterness wash over him. "Wouldn't surprise me if no one knew exactly why the Tokyo Clan hated the Amagi so much."

Besides the whole, 'they had it good while we had it not good'.

But he was going to make it better.

The weapons would help, but he'd have to be careful using them. They couldn't handle drawing the ire of the police and heroes, especially not with the heat the Shie Hassakai was getting. They needed to play it cool.

They needed to consolidate power.

The remaining groups that made up the Tokyo Clan were all obnoxious in some way or another, the two with the largest territories particularly so. One was led by a man called Orochi. He commanded by far the largest area and the most people; they often clashed with the raiders, the second-largest who had more than one bike shop in their territory. The remaining two were odd; they shared the same tiny alcove to the north of the city and had nothing of value. He'd have to go meet with them and then deal with Orochi and the raiders.

Hitoshi stifled a yawn as he walked down the hallway towards his coffee pot. As nice as his home was, he wished that he wouldn't have to walk quite so far just to get a refill.

The hair on the back of his neck stood on end.

It wasn't just quiet.

It was silent.

The kind of silence that was impossible in a city like Tokyo.

No drunkards arguing outside, no loud motorbikes.

Nothing.

Just the sound of his own breath.

Izuku appeared from the wall, a half-there image that solidified into a vicious scowl that Hitoshi could only see a moment of before Izuku's right fist slammed into his cheek. It was a surprisingly weak punch from someone as well-built as Izuku, but it still hurt like fuck. Then he saw the way Izuku's sleeve roiled and realized that this was only the first part of the punch.

Izuku's sleeve flung itself open as the fist of his ape merged over Izuku's arm, carrying much more force.

Hitoshi felt his head get slammed into the wall before his ears started ringing, the ape's palm completely covering his mouth.

Izuku stepped away from the ape's arm, as the creature slowly manifested around both of them. Its other hand went on top of Hitoshi's head while its massive bulk pushed against both sides of the hallway. Despite the situation of being moments away from having his head torn from his body, Hitoshi found himself being remarkably calm as he stared at Izuku.

Mostly because his former friend was taking the time to button up his sleeve, and since he wasn't already dead, that meant that Izuku wanted to talk.

"Before you ask, your guards have been taken care of. I technically told her not to kill them, but she has problems knowing her own strength." Izuku calmly buttoned up the sleeve that his ape had come out of and then slowly popped his neck while looking at Hitoshi. There was an unchecked fury in Izuku's eyes that seemed ready to swallow the world. "For the life of me, I can't figure out why you would try to kill me. Were you just hurt that I was in the Amagi and you were in the Tokyo Clan?" Izuku asked and rolled his eyes. "Because honestly, I didn't give a fuck about that."

Hitoshi kept his mouth shut even as he felt the blood from his nose pour down over his lips.

"I can't help but think that all of this is so fucking stupid." Izuku laughed and placed both hands in his pockets before he kicked the wall out of anger. "So fucking stupid! Like, we could have worked together! We could have brought peace between our groups, could have helped each other. But you had to open fire on me. You had to try and not only take my life, but those of my friends."

Izuku took in a deep breath and chuckled again. "I spent a lot of time thinking about you, thinking about what to do with you, and honestly, I still don't know what to do," He spread his arms wide and then let them fall. "It'd be easy to kill you. It'd be good practice for what I'm going to do to the Shie Hassakai."

Izuku walked close and then punched Hitoshi in the stomach.

That one was not weak.

"Worse part is because of your fucking quirk, I can't even talk this shit out with you." Izuku groaned and scratched the back of his head in annoyance. "And I'm going to be real, that's kind of what I fucking need right about now."

Great, now he was feeling guilt on top of probably being killed.

Izuku looked towards the ground. "I asked my friends, you know. Most of them said I should rip out your tongue so you can't use your quirk anymore."

At that, Hitoshi attempted to squirm until he felt the Ape's fingers roll along his skull.

"Good news, I decided to not fucking to that." Izuku laughed and scratched the back of his head. "I also," another punch to the stomach, "decided I wasn't going to kill you."

Great.

"Which," Izuku got right in Hitoshi's face and placed both hands on his head, "if you make me fucking regret, I will show up here again, and I will end you."

Hitoshi held up his hand and gave a thumbs up.

"Great." Izuku clapped his hands and gave a laugh that made Hitoshi question his sanity. "So this was my first time threatening someone, and I think I did a great job. Don't you agree Raijin?"

The ape nodded.

Sentient quirks were a pain in the ass.

"So, before I go," another punch, "I'm going to make this really clear. If you attack me or the Amagi again, it will be the second to last thing you dohe last thing would be you hiding in fear knowing that I'm coming for you, because apparently, I have a ninja that can deadlift cars, and a Tanaka. So basically, my guns are bigger than yours."

Izuku touched Raijin's arm, and the ape was sucked back into his skin like bubbles going down the drain. In the ape's place was a phantasmal tiger with multiple tails that looked like the arms of a galaxy. "Also, I put a crow on you. Also, most of the reason why I decided not to kill you was because Kai killed my grandma, so he's going to be the first person I kill. Any questions that I won't answer because your quirk is a bitch?"

Hitoshi wiped the blood from his nose and slumped down onto the floor. "Nope, you've made things clear."

Izuku opened his mouth then slapped his mouth shut and nodded. Then he left the same way he entered. Through a hole in the wall that didn't exist.

Hitoshi pushed himself up against the wall and held his stomach. Damn, he could hit hard. And was the fancy move of the punch into a giant ape face grab really needed? He should probably go check on his guards, especially if Izuku's 'Ninja' couldn't control her strength. Guh, did he meet her? It wasn't Ori.

Light from his hand caught his attention. A small flame floated just in the palm of his hand. He stared at it for a moment. Was this another one of Izuku's quirks? Or was this something else?

He bounced his hand, trying to touch the flame, but it moved with him, its flame dancing with every motion.

He closed his hand and smiled as he stared at the blood-covered ring that he had been wearing.

"I guess I owe you a thank you, Izuku," He gave a soft laugh and opened his hand again to once again conjure the flame.

Was it still a legend if it was true?

AN: Izuku's kit is kind of scary huh? Also, writing him unhinged is kind of fun. Let me know if you'd like more from Hitoshi and his struggles uniting the Tokyo Clan.

AN 2.0: No the rings aren't a reference to what ever the fuck you think they're a reference too. And no. This is not crossover.