Kugutsu could hardly concentrate on her work. The laptop was open, the location of her upcoming meeting was brought up in the image search so she could know the terrain ahead of time. Her thoughts should have been on how she would convince a yakuza member to work with her. Instead, Kugutsu was remembering the day before and all that had happened.

Just thinking about it made her feel giddy. A bubbly sort of happiness filled her every fiber and it was so intense that she almost wanted to cry. The look on the clerk's face when Shigaraki appeared and then the scream of anguish as his flesh began to disintegrate. The brief gurgling of his own blood, the strong smell of iron in the air, and best of all the expression on the villain's face when he dropped the clerk's corpse and turned to look at her.

Her heart skipped a beat when she remembered how he had look upon her; his eyes narrowed, lips twisted into a scowl. The cold way that he first regarded her sent a shiver down her spine, but she was unable to hide her joy. It was beyond embarrassing to act so excited in front of him. Worse than laughing and smiling; she had experience an uncontrollable urge to hug him.

She was reflecting on that hug, allowing herself a brief moment of daydreaming, but it was soon shattered. A sharp knock against the surface of her desk jolted her into the present. Kugutsu saw the smug half-grin on her boss's face and realized that she had been smiling. Lowering her head, she slapped a hand over her mouth and narrowed her eyes.

"So I take it your date went well?"

"…wasn't a date…" she muttered, attempting to force her lips to form a frown. Even with this moment of annoyance, she could still remember the feeling of Shigaraki's hand gripping hers and it made her heart start to palpitate.

"Sure, sure. You know, you were out pretty late. It's okay if you had a good time, Kugutsu-chan. Everyone's gotta cut loose sometimes. Even people like you. So…your meeting's pretty soon, right?"

"I have an hour and a half." Kugutsu finally succeeded in shaping her lips into a look of semi-neutral displeasure and lifted her gaze toward Giran.

The man raised an eyebrow. "You should probably get ready."

"I'm ready."

"You're going to meet a yakuza guy like him wearing something like that?"

Her frown deepened and she stood, bracing her hands against her desk's surface to stop them from curling into fists. "What? I always wear this."

His sigh was loud, dramatic, and he shook his head. "You have nice clothes. What about the dress I bought for you when you had that recruiting mission?" Placing a hand on her shoulder, his expression shifted from its usual smugness to actual concern. "Look. Yakuza are kinda old-fashioned. You want to make yourself look nice if you want him to want to work with you. You need to impress this guy and leave a good impression, alright? So. The dress. And maybe try putting on some makeup, huh? The way you look and act is gonna reflect on me."

She was not at all pleased with the idea of putting on airs just to secure a contract with a client. However, this would be her first client. And he was a pretty important one, even if he was yakuza rather than an actual villain. If she wanted to make any progress as a broker, she would need for this to work out.

Kugutsu set aside her pride and comfort. The outfit she decided on included a knee-length black dress with her usual boots, a jacket, and her black choker. Simple, but when paired with the faint hint of pink on her lips and the fact that Giran made her actually brush her hair, she looked rather stylish.

The entire train ride to the area of the meeting, her heart pounded with excitement. She wiped her palms on the dark fabric of her dress, nervously awaiting the moment she would meet him. Her potential first client. The powerful, ambitious Chisaki Kai.

The meeting place she had selected was a small café with an outdoor garden seating area that provided a number of secluded tables where a private conversation could take place. The garden had many trees, thus providing her with all of the shadows she could need in case things took a dangerous turn. It was an ambient, peaceful place so she hoped that things would remain civil.

Kugutsu arrived and went to a table as far from the café as possible, hoping that he would be able to find her there. As luck, or misfortune, would have it, Chisaki appeared seconds later. Now she had no extra time to consider how to talk him into signing a contract with her.

She immediately felt her pulse start to race when she set eyes on him. The yakuza member was around her age and had rather nice features. What really made her stomach do flips were his eyes. They were a warm golden shade and when they settled on her, despite narrowing, it sent a shiver through her. "Thank you for coming," she greeted him, standing to bow.

He simply nodded and gestured for her to sit again. Chisaki was watching her closely, catching every little detail. The anxious twitch of her feline ears, the sheen of her gaze, the slight warm hue that rose to her cheeks and made her freckles less noticeable. Despite these things, her lips remained in a flat, straight line.

The sales pitch that she had heard Giran give to a number of villains felt wrong for this occasion so she had decided to take a different approach. She mentioned the perks of working with a broker; getting supplies, new members, weapons, items to boost quirks. She brought up a few of her past jobs that she had performed for Giran; recruitment missions, item retrieval, and money collecting. Kugutsu could see a spark of interest in his eyes when she spoke of her previous experience working for Giran and it filled her heart with hope.

He's so cool! He hasn't even said anything since he sat down! I think I might actually start shaking! She finished her explanation of how the partnership would work and retrieved a copy of a standard contract from her bag, sliding it across the table to him.

Chisaki gave it a brief glance before returning his gaze to her. "How do you write your name?" His voice was slightly muffled by the plain, black medical mask he wore over his nose and mouth. Kugutsu had noticed this as well as his gloves and had assumed that he simply had a phobia of germs or dirt.

"Ah. "Kugutsu" is written as "puppet" and "Kurayami" is just written as "darkness". It's not a very good name, I'm afraid." She tried not to let the question affect her, but she could feel the warmth in her face increasing by the second.

"You have…an ability…it's called "shadow play"."

"Yes, Chisaki-san. That's correct." Puzzlement threatened to furrow her brow as she tried to determine why he was bringing this up. Her quirk had nothing to do with their contract and he seemed almost disgusted when he mentioned it.

There was a brief pause before he slid the contract back to her, unsigned. "I have an offer for you."

Shift P.O.V

"Huh? Sorry, Shigaraki. She's out right now."

His fingers tightened on the phone, teeth digging into his lower lip. A boredom had set in, so heavy that it felt like it was literally weighing him down. He was still healing from his USJ injuries and little could be done until he had more members for the League of Villains. At the very least, he thought that seeing his fan girl again would lift the weight of boredom.

"Do you want me to tell her you called? I can have her call you."

"I wanted to see my fan," he murmured, more to himself than to Giran. "What's so important that she's busy?"

"It's kind of a secret side project. Don't worry; she'll be done soon. Want me to send her your way when it's all wrapped up?"

"…fine…"

"I know you don't want to wait, but she'll be done pretty soon. She's gonna be pretty happy to see you again, too. I don't think I've seen her smile so much before. She must be really into you."

He had been scowling since he heard the news that she was busy, but now he could feel the corner of his lips twitch upward incrementally. My loyal fan. She really likes me. His nails dug at his neck as he heard Giran say that he would have Kugutsu bring food to the mah-jongg bar when she was finished.

Their time together had not stopped after leaving the shopping center. No, they had spent hours together afterwards. Kugutsu had her console and games with her so she played a few games against him. She had blushed when she showed him the Pokémon that she had named after him, timidly looking away when she mentioned that it was her favorite Pokémon.

It was level one hundred. She must've put a lot of work into that. Just to try to impress me. It was rare for anyone to try to impress him so the fact that this girl, his fan girl, spent hours grinding away and leveling up so she could show him a level one hundred Pokémon named after him, showed immense dedication.

Shigaraki drew his nails from his neck and briefly thought about how it felt when she threw her arms around him. That moment of a warm embrace from someone that admired him. Someone that liked him so much. A hug from his fan girl. It had given him such a boost of confidence and gave him another feeling that was indescribable.

Shift P.O.V

I can't believe it…Kugutsu's heart was pounding, even a half hour after the fact. Looking down at the business card in her hand, she blinked and almost expected the card to vanish. The offer itself to have been a delusion cooked up by her sleep-deprived mind.

Even after shaking her head, the card was still there and she still had that feeling of terrified excitement. I can't believe that he wants me to join the Shie Hassakai! Someone…as powerful and ambitious as Chisaki-san…wants me to work for him! This is insane! That would be such an honor! And he's so cool!

Her phone started to ring and she answered it to find Giran. "I'm coming back now, Giran-san. You're never going to believe-"

"Shigaraki wants to see you so I'm gonna need you to pick up a takeout order and bring it to him, okay?"

She paused in her steps, her pulse seeming to skip a beat. "Huh?"

"Shigaraki wants to see you-"

"Shigaraki-san…wants to see me?" The bubbly happiness from before began to crash over her terrified excitement like an ocean wave, washing it away and replacing it with pure elation over the fact that he wanted to see her.

"Yeah. So can you grab some food and go see him? You've got the rest of the day off anyway; I cleared up your schedule after that meeting. I didn't know how it'd go so I had to plan for the worst-case scenario."

Did he think I was going to get killed? It's kind of the opposite. She looked down at the card in her hand again and her stomach began to twist in knots. Wait. If I join Chisaki-san, I couldn't become a broker. I couldn't work with Shigaraki-san. But this is a huge opportunity. But…

"And, hey, don't tell Shigaraki what you did today. He doesn't need to know that you're trying to make a contract with someone else. Something tells me he wouldn't like it."

She shoved the business card deep into her bag and shrugged to herself. "It's just business. Isn't that what you always say?" Like a good assistant, Kugutsu went to pick up the food. Like a good fan, she grabbed something a little extra as a gift for her object of admiration.

With each step closer to the mah-jongg bar, she could feel herself being pushed just that much closer to nervous-vomiting. After geeking out over her own Pokémon for hours the night before and losing a few games to Shigaraki, she was afraid of what he may think of her now. I kept babbling about that Pokémon. He probably thinks I'm lame. I shouldn't have even showed him that!

Kugutsu entered the mah-jongg place through the front entrance and was greeted with the sight of Shigaraki seated at the counter with a stack of playing cards in front of him and Kurogiri behind the counter attempting to get bar-related work done. She bowed and greeted the two villains, every fiber of her being trembling with excitement at the mere sight of Shigaraki.

It was as he looked over that she remembered how she looked and subconsciously lifted a hand to her hair. Fingers began to anxiously ruffle at the neatly combed obsidian locks until they were their usual chaotic fluff, but it did nothing to ease her nerves. The hand that was gripping the bag of takeout was shaking so much that the bag was audibly rustling.

She lifted the bag, now drawing Kurogiri's attention as well, and bowed her head. "I brought food," she announced, humiliated when her voice actually cracked a little. What's wrong with me? Is it because I hugged him? I feel…like I'm kind of afraid he's mad, but I'm still really excited to see him. What kind of feeling is this?

Shigaraki stared in her direction from behind the hand that was over his face, his expression completely unreadable. When he finally stood, he saw her tense up. Approaching Kugutsu, the villain's lips twisted in displeasure behind the hand and he scratched absently at his neck. "Let's go. I wasted enough time waiting around for you to show up."