A man in his mid-thirties walks down the streets of the small back alley town of Yogen-Jaya, he has fluffy green hair that was lined with a few wisps of black, green eyes, and a few freckles dotting each of his cheeks. He wore a simple dark green hoodie, cargo shorts, and a pair of red high-tops that had seen their fair share of abuse.
The man smiled to himself as he came across a cafe named Leblanc and entered the quiet coffee shop. He sat down in one of the booths and waited for his attic dwelling friends to come down and greet him.
It wasn't too long before the creaking stairs brought his attention to the stairwell, where a very sleepy looking woman, only a year older than the man in the booth, was standing. She had short brown hair and deep red eyes, she was wearing a large button up shirt that hung halfway down her thighs.
"I-Izuku?!" She yelled out surprised as she noticed he was there.
"Morning Makoto, is Ren still asleep?" Izuku asked the former student council president of Shujin highschool.
"He is, and I told you to stop walking in here when we're not awake," Makoto scolded.
"You're the one who leaves the door unlocked," Izuku grumbled to himself.
The bell to the shop rang once more and an additional two people walked into the shop. The first was a thin man, with medium length blue hair, and gray eyes. He was wearing a blue, long sleeved shirt and a pair of black pants.
The second was a man with short, spiky blonde hair, brown eyes, and a blonde box beard. He wore a leather jacket with a yellow shirt underneath, leather pants, and a silver chain. Both men were the same age as Izuku
"Yo!" The blonde man ecstatically greeted, he ruffled his hand through Izuku's hair and smiled, "Still dying your hair I see."
"Hey Ryuji, still going through a midlife crisis I see," Izuku shot back.
"It ain't a damn midlife crisis!" Ryuji yelled.
The other man was simply staring at a painting on a wall and smiling, much to the confusion of the others.
"Are you feeling well, Yusuke?" Makoto asked.
"Oh, it's nothing. I just can't help but stare at the Sayuri's beauty everytime I see it," Yusuke explained.
"So Izuku, where's the old ball and chain?" Ryuji asked.
"Old?" An irritated female voice asked, prompting Ryuji to scream and fall out of the booth.
A woman of the same age as everyone else, sat down where Ryuji had been, right next to Izuku. She had pale blonde hair tied into twin tails, and green eyes, she wore a pair of blue jeans and a red crop top.
"Ann, what kept you so long?" Yusuke questioned.
"Sorry, I got caught up in Shibuya," Ann answered.
"You guys are so loud," yet another voice said, this time from the stairwell. Another man was standing at the entrance running a hand through his black hair, he had black eyes, and was wearing a black sleep shirt along with a pair of green sweatpants.
"Hey there's our guy," Ryuji smiled as he threw his arm over the man's shoulder.
"When Sojiro retired and gave the shop to me I thought I'd get a lot more peace around here," the man grumbled.
"You won't get much peace with us around, Ren," Izuku joked.
"So where's Futaba and Haru?" Ren asked.
As if on cue the door opened once more and an additional two people walked in, the first was a short girl, who looked to be a year or two younger than the rest, with long orange hair, a pair of round glasses, and brown eyes, she was wearing a pair of gray sweatpants, a bright green shirt that was so big it exposed one of her shoulders, and a pair of red headphones around her neck.
And the other was a girl with brown hair in a curly bob, her eyes her a light brown, and she wore a fluffy sleeveless sweater, a ruffled skirt, and a pair of white leggings.
Both girls greeted the rest of them enthusiastically, and Ren began preparing the coffee and curry, with Makoto's help. The 8 of them chatted for a long time, laughing about their current and past adventures.
"Do you guys remember how we met?" Izuku asked with a nostalgic smile on his face.
"How could we forget?" Ren asked back, "Especially after basically discovering an entirely new world."
-- Many years earlier
"30,000 Yen?! That's all an Olympic medal is worth?!" A much younger Ryuji cried out.
Currently Ryuji, Ann, and Ren were all gathered around a table on the rooftop of Shujin highschool.
"Remember that time in middle school, I lent you some money?" Ann asked with a sly smile on her face.
"There is no way in hell I borrowed 30,000 Yen from you!" Ryuji argued.
"No, but with interest rates-"
"'Interest rates' my ass!"
"What if we use the money to go out to a fancy restaurant?" Ren suggested.
"That's a good idea, there's this place that me and Shiho have been wanting to go to for a while. We should do it on the last day of our break, so we're all rejuvenated when classes start back up," Ann said.
"Then the 5th, on children's day," Ryuji agreed.
Ann's phone began to buzz with a text, "Sorry guys, I've gotta go."
"Alright, we're gonna stay up here for a bit, see you guys later," Ryuji called out as Ann exited the rooftop.
Ann was a few feet from the school's exit, when the sound of fists colliding against flesh, and sharp grunts of pain reached her ears.
Ann followed the sounds to the side of the school, where a frail green-haired boy was being pinned against a wall and assaulted by three other guys, one in particular standing out with his spiky, pale blonde hair.
"Now, Deku, calm down, it's not my fault that you were late on the payments, is it?" The blonde one asked with a smarmy grin on his face.
"No, Kacchan, it's my fault," the frail boy answered, his voice was so small it almost hurt.
"That's right, so that means that you have to take the punishment for not upholding your end of the deal," the blonde swiftly applied his fist to the other boy's face.
"Hey!" the second that Ann yelled, the two that were pinning the frail boy let go and ran, the blonde boy however, stayed and faced Ann.
"This has got nothing to do with you, scram bitch," the blonde spat out.
"What did you call me!?"
"Tch, I don't have time for this. Just try to remember this if you get the idea to challenge me again, Katsuki Bakugou fucking runs this school," Katsuki said before he walked off.
"Are you ok?" Ann asked the frail boy, she tried to help him up only for him to push her hand away.
"Why did you do that?" He asked.
"W-what? He was attacking you!"
"Kacchan's my friend, he wouldn't hurt me on purpose," the frail boy's tone had gone from passive to slightly angry.
"Are you for real?" Ann ludicrously questioned.
"I don't mean to be rude but I don't appreciate people sticking their noses where they don't belong," this time he sounded actually mad, the frail boy left without another word. But Ann recognized that look in his eye, it was one of a hesitant and silent plea for help.
Shiho had the same look in her eye just before he jumped. Ever since she had beaten Kamoshida's shadow she'd made it a point to herself to answer that plea, no matter who it was.
Ann pulled her phone out and opened up the metaverse navigation app, and three lines of white text popped up; the first asked for a name, the second asked for a location, and the last asked for a distortion.
She silently said Katsuki Bakugou into her phone, and the world around her began to distort. 'So he has a palace, that's a good sign. I should show this to the others before anything else though,' the quarter American girl thought as she pocketed her phone.
Ren and Ryuji were just about to exit through the school gate when Ann caught up to her, simply holding out her phone to them when they asked why she was still there.
"Hey I know that guy," Ryuji said when he saw the name on the screen, "We were on the track team together, he's a real vulgar douche."
"That must mean a lot coming from you, Ryuji," a voice said from inside Ren's bag.
"Shut it, ya damn cat!" the vulgar blonde retorted.
"Ryuji, focus. Morgana, shut it. Ann, continue," Ren ordered.
"We have to destroy his palace!"
"Uhh, why?" Ryuji asked.
"Isn't that what we're supposed to do, y'know, as Phantom Thieves?" Ann asked back.
"What's your sudden interest in this guy?" Ren questioned.
"I saw him attacking this kid with dark green hair, kept saying things about payments and deals, and when I confronted him told me not to forget who runs the school," Ann answered.
"Sounds like an overzealous idiot," Morgana commented
"Wait, green hair?" Ryuji asked, getting a conformational nod from Ann, "Four freckles on each cheek, green eyes?" Ann nodded again.
"Do you know him?" Ren asked.
"Yeah, he's in my class, sits right across from me. His name is Izuku Midoriya," Ryuji answered.
"What's worse is that Midoriya apparently thinks Bakugou is his friend," Ann ranted.
Ren sighed, "I guess it can't hurt to try and investigate it."
"If we're going to do it, we're gonna need the rest of the keywords," Morgana reminded.
"Alright, what's the locati-"
"Shujin academy," Ann, cutting off Ryuji. The world around them distorted once more.
"Alright, next is the distortion," Morgana said.
"Well, Ann said that Bakugou said he runs Shujin, so maybe he sees it as some sort of business?" Ryuji suggested.
"Well that does narrow our search, but not by a lot," Ren said.
"Let's just say random things until something pops up," Ann said.
"Just guessing isn't going to get us anywhe-" Morgana was interrupted by the others
"Factory."
"Conditions not met."
"Mall."
"Conditions not met."
"Airport."
"Conditions not met."
"By the way, Lady Ann, where did you want to take us to celebrate?" the cat asked.
"Oh, it's this buffet that's on the first floor of this hotel in-"
"Candidate found, mapping out navigation route," the app said before Ann could finish. The world began to distort again, only this time much stronger.
"I'm too tired for this shit," Ryuji complained.
When their vision became clear again, they were slightly surprised to find a large hotel, at least 17 stories high, towering over where the school had once been, giving off a golden aura due to the many lights shimmering through the windows.
Ryuji gave a whistle of approval, "Man, this place is fancy!" Instead of his school clothes, Ryuji was now wearing a metal plated leather jacket, leather pants, a pair of boots, a red scarf, along with a pair of yellow gloves, and a metal mask in the form of a skull covered the top part of his face.
"Don't compliment him!" Ann scolded, she was now wearing a red latex bodysuit that had a red tail attached to the back, pink gloves, and a red mask that looked similar to the face of a big cat rested on her face.
"You guys are like an old married couple," Ren chuckled, he was dressed up in a black ankle-length tailcoat, a high-necked waistcoat with gold accents, black pants, brown-black winklepickers, a pair of red gloves, and a black and white domino mask.
"Everybody remembers their codenames, right?" A bipedal cat with an oversized head and a yellow bandana tied around his neck asked.
"Yeah, I'm Skull, Ann's Panther, you're Mona, and Ren's Joker," Skull answered.
"Good, now all that's left to do is find an entrance point, the front door is a bad idea," Mona advised.
"Yo, come check this out," Skull called out, grabbing the group's attention and directing it to where a small gate flanked by two brick walls stood, "Think we could get through there?"
"Good idea Skull," Joker said, before pushing the gate open. They were now at the back of the hotel, where a pool innocently sat.
"We probably shouldn't enter through the backdoor either, it'd be too easy to be spotted," Mona warned them.
"Is this a laundry chute?! It looks big enough to fit a person," Panther said in surprise as she opened up a metal hatch in the wall.
"...Guys, I think I know how to get in undetected," Joker said.
"You don't mean-" before Skull could finish, their leader jumped down the chute. All three of them groaned before they followed him down.
The room that they landed in was dark and musty, filled with the sound of multiple large machines rumbling. The group of thieves exited the laundry room and crept through the white tile hallway into a square waiting room with an elevator in the back wall. Skull pressed the button and the doors began to pry themselves open.
"So, what floor are we going to?" Panther asked once they were inside the elevator.
"We should probably just go to the first one, then head back, don't want to burn ourselves out too much," Ryuji suggested.
Joker nodded before he pressed the button and the doors closed as they were lifted up from the basement floor. The elevator doors opened and they were forced to hide as a pair of shadows were standing not too far away.
The first shadow was wearing a white button up shirt, a black tie, red vest, a red hat with a few gold trimmings, black dress pants, and black dress shoes. The second was wearing an all white suit, with the exception of a bright red tie, his pale blonde hair looked very similar to an explosion.
"That's Bakugou's shadow!" Skull whispered.
"Be quiet so we can hear them!" Panther scolded.
"Sir, profit margins are low, it seems that a few of the guests here are refusing to pay their rent," the first shadow said.
"Well then, we will have to make an example out of one of our patrons. Pick a random guest and have them thrown out, regardless of whether or not they pay what they owe. And double the rent as well," Shadow Bakugou commanded.
"So he sees the school as a hotel, and the students are the residents that he can extort anyway he pleases," Mona said with disgust.
"Wait, who called the elevator?" Shadow Bakugou asked.
"Run for it!" Skull shouted as the group ran from the elevator to the front entrance and out, the world began to distort and the group found themselves at the school entrance once more.
"Man, that was close," Ann sighed.
"We have to be more careful, if we were caught who knows what would have happened," Morgana cautioned them, "We should meet back here tomorrow afternoon and go back into his palace."
"Yeah, yeah, but right now I just wanna take a nap, I'll see you guys tomorrow," Ryuji said before he walked off.
"I'm in the same boat, see you all later," Ann waved goodbye and left as well.
Ren, too, was extremely exhausted, but he dragged his feet all the way home, blissfully ignorant of a certain green haired boy who had seen them return from the metaverse.
Hey everyone, world's most sleep deprived crab here. I'm sorry if this chapter seems a bit rushed I was trying not to include too much exposition in it cause I didn't want the first chapter to be 10k words long, the next chapter of this should be a lot better. That's it for now, peace.