Chapter 15: The League of Villains Part 1
Katori looks down at her phone with tangling brows at the cryptic message, figuring that it must be from her father. She decides to follow the instructions in the text to meet him in a new location. Her father sends her on a scavenger hunt of various locations with coded messages that lead to clues to the next location she's to find. It's clear her father is being extra precautions to ensure she is not being tailed or tracked.
After four or so locations, she is finally taken to a park where she notices Magnetic hidden behind glasses and a hat, that she barely recognizes the man if it were not for the fact that he helped her father raise her, and he is practically her second father.
She sits down on the bench facing away from the one he sits on. Once she is situated, she speaks lowly, "Magnetic, what is going on?" she asks him with confusion lacing her tone.
"Have you heard the news?" he asks her, sitting on a bench turned away from her. "Regarding the Hero Killer: Stain?" she shrugs her shoulders, having not seen the news since her days are focused with Aizawa and then sleep to immediately follow. "He's stirring up the underground, and your father has been working on gaining control over the narrative as villains are on the verge of an uprising."
"What?" she calls out, before quickly lowering her tone.
"Your father is working with the League of Villains to calm the tides, but they don't seem to want to cooperate," he tells her and she swallows hard as her hand brushes against the hand-shaped scar on her forearm.
"Can I see him?" she asks the muscular man and he nods once, telling her that he will escort her to their new location.
She follows behind him at a good distance so that if she is noticed, it is not with him. Her eyes shoot up to the screens on the street that report on the Hero Killer: Stain and his rise from a petty thief, to a symbol for villains looking to rise up against the heroes and question the society they have built. She swallows hard at the narrative, knowing that it was something her father has always taught her, but stressed the importance of patience and tact. He often warned her that to rush into the collapse of the hero society, is to ensure the collapse of everything we hold dear, and she can't help but feel the foundation crumbling under the hysteria the media begins to spread.
Once they are out of well-travelled areas, Magnetic informs Katori that for her safety, and the safety of her father, she will need to be blindfolded for the rest of the journey to the lair. Her brows come together, understanding the purpose of Magnetic's worry, but not liking the idea that they may not fully trust her to keep the secret of the lair's location. Regardless, she decides against arguing with the man and nods once, allowing him to blindfold her and escort her to the location.
She tries to keep note of every turn, and every step that she takes, in the case that she will need to know where this location is on the off chance that her father is in danger and she needs to help him, but with the various twists, turns, and steps, she easily finds herself lost in the journey and is unable to keep up.
Magnetic removes the blindfold from her face when they are in front of the lair, and she looks around, seeing nothing distinguishable about the building. She enters the lair that she is taken to and sees that it is a small bar. Her eyes instantly land on her father standing at the bar with a drink in his hand. Her heart races at the image of him in front of her after months of not seeing him, and she moves in quick strides to him.
"Da—" she's cut off by the harsh look in his eyes and she staggers away from him, understanding that look as he has given it to her when he's in the middle of business with less than favorable company.
He turns towards her and that is when she notices the man that slumps at the bar top just beyond her father. Her heart begins to beat wildly in her chest and up her throat, making her feel like she's choking.
Her eyes land on the red-eyed bastard that decayed her skin, and her hair lifts off her shoulders as she takes his Quirk for her own. "It's you!" she growls at him as she steps towards him.
The pale blue-haired man stiffens at the sight of her as well, lifting himself wildly off of his seat and preparing himself to approach her. "You little brat," he calls out to her, "Because of you, my arm's been healing for months!"
"Come over here and I'll give you a matching one on your face!" she threatens him when her father steps between the two of them.
"That's enough," her father growls in a foreboding tone that stiffens Katori into submission immediately, while the blue-haired man is less compliant. Her father strides towards her, snatching her arm with a painful force, twisting it in his grip to expose the hand-shaped scar on her forearm. He shakes his head at her in disappointment and drops her hand from his grip.
"I've come to your little group with a proposal, Tomura Shigaraki," her father begins in a chilling tone that she has only heard him use to people he is seconds away from killing. "You've welcomed me into your quaint little hideout, and offered me a drink. Might the pleasantries continue for a moment longer?"
"Do as he asks, Child," a voice from the television says, and Katori notices that it is on, but there is no visual signal coming from it.
The blue-haired man grumbles in aggravation but concedes to the man's words to him. Her father smiles at this and continues, "Stain has caused quite the stir with the public's perception of heroes and their place in society. I think we can all collectively agree this is bad for business."
"Tsh," Shigaraki scoffs, "He stole all the credit and no one is talking about my Nomus!" he complains as a child would, and Katori watches him with confusion pressing to her brows.
"The Nomus are not the issue," Replicant stresses, but keeps his thoughts to himself. The hero society needs to remain afloat for his plans to operate the way he wants them to, and he can't do that with single-minded villains intervening.
"All for One," Replicant says, glancing at the television as the two villains in the room stiffen at this. "That's who you are, is it not?" he says having more information on everyone in this room than they would have expected from the man. "You and I have something in common; All Might."
Katori stiffens at this as the man on the television speaks. "I see you have done your research," All for One says with an amused tone. "Yes, your very public battle with the Number One Hero. How close you were to snuffing out the Symbol of Peace," he muses.
"I can see that your plans with the Nomu and this man-child outreach those of that petty criminal, Stain," he says as Shigaraki stews at his tone. "You're after All Might and destroying the Symbol of Peace, but what will you do once you've completed that task?"
There is silence for a moment, until the man on the television speaks, "A new world order," he returns vaguely.
"Of course," Replicant responds with disappointment at the ambiguous answer. "I have plans of my own, though far more thought out," he offhandedly adds. "Regardless, our motives parallel for the time being, and I'd like to take advantage of that. Else my forces can take this place and everyone in it down to the ground with one swoop. And I'd hate to dismantle what you've just built," he finishes in a condescending tone.
"What do you suggest," the man on the television says, still not convinced.
Her father leans against the bar top, taking a sip of his drink. "One for All has passed on," he says simply and there is another longer pause while Katori wonders what is going on.
"You're certain?" he finally responds.
"My daughter has experienced his power waning, as well as the power of his successor," he says and Katori's heart begins pumping wildly.
'All Might's power? It can be transferred? And it's been transferred to Midoriya?'
"Your vendetta against the Symbol of Peace aligns with mine, and I will gladly provide you with manpower to align with your vision. But Stain's ideology to dismantle the hero society altogether puts my goals at risk, so I'd have your group reconsider their new world order, for the time being," he says and when the man says nothing, he continues, "You've been nothing more than an urban legend debated on the threads of the internet, whereas I have built my time collecting an unshakable force of underlings that I think you would find useful to your cause."
"From my understanding, your daughter there has enrolled in UA's hero courses?" All for One says in a chilling tone.
Replicant stays unmoving as he speaks, "Yes, upon my orders, she has been accepted in the courses, and is working closely with All Might himself."
"And what have you learned, Child?" All for One directs his question to Katori. Her father attempts to speak on her behalf, but All for One speaks over the villain. "I asked the child," he says in a chilling tone that makes Katori's heart thump against her chest.
She swallows the lump building in her throat as she looks at her father for guidance. He gives her a subtle nod and she licks her lips before she speaks, "His Quirk is not as powerful as I would have expected from the Number One Hero," she begins, but she can't hear her voice as her heart beats in her ears. "But he is still very powerful, your Nomu was still bested by him," she says as she thinks back on that day at the USJ. "He's holding on because his successor's body is unable to withstand the power of his Quirk. I doubt that he will look for a more suitable host, since he is investing a lot of his time with the boy."
"The boy's name?" he asks her.
She swallows hard, looking down at her feet, knowing that she has no other choice but to tell him. "Izuku Midoriya," her voice croaks as the sting of betrayal constricts in her throat.
"And how are your studies going?" he asks her in a fatherly tone, that makes her glance over at her own father, who returns with a controlled natural look, while she internally panics at the man's shivering nature.
"They are going well, Sir," she returns respectively as her father has taught her. "I am fourth in my class," she tells him with a slight bow of her head.
"Ah well, you have room to improve; keep up the good work." She nods at him, glancing at her father who's now adopts a bored look in his eyes, and she can't help but wonder how he can remain so calm under this pressure.
"All for One," her father sighs, "Do we have a deal?" he asks in a bored tone. "I give you my man power to dismantle the Symbol of Peace, then you allow me to enact my own new world order."
There is another silence until the man finally speaks up, "Do as he requests, Shigaraki; we will need his men."
The blue-haired man quietly grumbles to himself, but he does not verbally speak against the man's orders and the tension in the room finally begins to disperse.
Katori jumps when she hears the bell on the door to their hideout ring out, only for a man with glasses and a cigarette in his mouth enter the room. His hair is white and unkempt, and he wears a purple suit while he sucks on the cigarette, blowing out the smoke in the room with no regard to the others.
He has a lopsided smile on his face as he enters the room, holding the door open for two others that come in after him.
A blonde girl in a school's uniform is the first to emerge behind him. She has golden eyes, with her blonde hair held back in two messy buns atop her head. Katori notices that she is her age, maybe a year older, and her teeth are sharpened similarly to Kirishima's. However, the most chilling thing about her is the dead look in her eyes. It's clear that she is not all there and there is a wildness inside her that makes her look frighteningly sinister.
Past her comes in a black-haired man in a trench coat with purple patches of what Katori believes to be burned skin stapled under his eyes, jaw, and all over his exposed arms. She swallows hard at the chilling sight of him, figuring as the laxness of his posture is no indicator to the type of villain he is. Though he seems cool and uninterested in their conversation as he digs his hands in his pockets and leans to the side with lidded indifference painting his eyes, Katori can tell there is something unequivocally vicious about him.
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