A/N: Just to address something here that has been raised a couple of times - headcanon in this story is being applied that Toga is the same age as Izuku, just a few months older. Sorry if previously unclear.

Three guesses from this title who crops up in this chapter huh?

(***)

"Kyoka? Honey?"

Kyoka Jiro, holding her head in her hands and staring blankly at the paper in front of her through dark onyx eyes, started at the sound of her mother's voice behind her. "M-Mom! What are you-"

"You disappeared off into your trailer between sessions, sweetie. The band kinda got worried about you, but I figured if you were in a funk it would be best I came to see you and left them back in the studio." Her mom Mika looked at her through her glasses with sad eyes. "And here you are. Staring at lyrics and not reading a single word."

"..." Kyoka couldn't deny it. "... Yeah. I guess I was huh?"

"What are you thinking about, sweetie?"

Kyoka sighed, and fiddled with her jack nervously, twirling it around a strand of her purple hair. "J-Just the latest song. Umm... I don't really know how to say it-"

"It's not what you want to be singing, is it?"

How her mom was so in tune with what she was feeling remained a mystery to her, but was welcome. "... Yeah. I just... It's sad, mom. Really sad."

"If you don't like it, we can talk to your manager and-"

"It's not that. It's just, I dunno..." Kyoka huffed. "It's beautiful. It's really sweet and I get what they're trying to do. That whole 'we're apt to sacrifice ourselves' line is kinda cool, and I'm sure it'll make a great song. But I just don't think it's me. It's not... what I wanted to do with my music."

Her mother looked sad at her, as she took a sip of the coffee she held. "You wanted to inspire people. You always told me and your dad that."

"Y-Yeah." Kyoka looked at her mom and tried not to wobble emotionally. "I just... don't think he would call this inspiring. The world is shit and people wanna listen to me singing sad songs and complain about how bad it is. That's... not what I wanna make people feel with my songs."

"I get that." Her mom put the coffee cup down and came to wrap her arms around her daughter's shoulders as she sat there, to give her a hug from behind. "He would be proud of you. I know that much."

Kyoka wished that she could agree. She really did.

Kyotoku Jiro had been a great father growing up. He had taken her to gigs and sat her on his shoulders, introduced her to Deep Dope (a band she still claimed would be the only love of her life) and encouraged every bit of her growing love for everything punk rock. Between him and Mom, who had taught Kyoka how to play guitar and bass and had sung her to sleep every night, Kyoka had been blessed, but it wasn't just her music they encouraged. They brought her to the hero movies, bought her comics, and let her dream that it could be her saving people someday.

Then Incident Zero had happened, All Might and a villain demolishing office blocks in Musutafu as they both perished in combat, and Kyotoku Jiro had been another one of the people who hadn't made it home. Collateral damage, and a young girl struggling to understand why she would never see her father again.

Kyoka had given up all hope of being a hero at that point. Why should she? The Heroes hadn't been there to save her dad, and now she couldn't see him again. She couldn't laugh out loud as he broke the drum kit he bought for her at Christmas, she couldn't be embarrassed as he turned up to school on a motorbike screaming along to old metal, she couldn't curl up on a sofa next to him and watch old concert live-streams until four in the morning. They had failed him, and she had lost him, and she couldn't be like them. The Heroes they were left with were nothing.

She threw herself into music as her escape, a young girl aged eight, and poured her heart into everything she made. At the age of twelve, she had sung at a friend's party and had been spotted by an executive for a studio in Tokyo, haunted by her voice and the emotion with which she plucked at the strings of her purple bass, the gift she had inherited in Kyotoku's will that had been meant for a high school graduation present. Her debut single had been Each Goal, a song she had written herself, sung in a voice wavering with insecurity and melancholy.

That had been released on her thirteenth birthday. Not long after, Endeavor and the Hero Commission had torn apart the rulebook on Heroes and fractured the country more than it ever had been after All Might, and her song had become an anthem for the discordant society of Japan. Now it was all they wanted from her, the management above her- songs of sadness and lost hope, of a world that had suffered and continued to suffer, wallowing in self-pity. They wanted negativity because it was what the country felt, what resonated with people, and they just didn't want to know about the battle cries she wrote, or the songs which screamed from the top of their lungs that better days were to come. She was just Kyoka, the sad voice of our times.

All she wanted to do was make people smile with her music. To make her dad proud of what she could do with her music. And yet she didn't feel like she was doing that anymore. Now she was just sat trying not to cry, in a trailer on the outside of the studio that they'd given her as a rec room, failing to learn the lines of the latest sad song and wondering where she had gone wrong.

"I don't think he'd be proud of me." Kyoka said with a sniff, cursing the fact she was on the brink of shedding tears she hadn't shed in years. "The world is a mess and I'm just sat in a studio singing sad songs about it. I don't believe in the Heroes anymore, not the ones we have, not for what they did, but I can't even believe in myself."

She coughed, pulling herself together to stop the tears. "I just... I don't want to do anymore today."

Her mom patted her on the shoulder and stood up. "I'll head back to the studio and let them know you need the rest of the day. We can discuss the song with the managers tomorrow if you're not happy, but for now let's get you home, okay?"

Kyoka could only nod, and she buried her head in her hands as she heard the trailer door click behind her departing mother, slumping in despair. She wanted to save people with music, and she couldn't even save herself. She was barely holding it together as a musician; who was she kidding if she thought she could be a hero too?

"God dammit." She slid the paper containing the lyrics to the studio's song to one side and pulled another scrap of paper to her, ferociously willing herself not to cry. A song she had been writing, trying to dredge up positivity from the bottom of a well of emotion, but hadn't yet been able to crack. "Can't even get you right, huh?"

It just didn't fit yet. She didn't even have a tune, she just had random snippets of lyrics she wanted to include. Talk of not backing down and standing up for what she believed in, parts of lines that didn't seem to mesh well together, and no idea how she was going to get it out. She wanted it to be big and bold and give people more hope than what they had, but she just couldn't find the spark to finish the lines and give her a song to blast out to the heavens, the song for all time she always wanted to write.

She groaned, reached for her phone, and extended one of her jacks to plug herself in. Earphone Jack was a blessing of a Quirk for a music lover when she didn't have to bother with headphones, and could actually feel the music she was listening to. "Deep Dope, give me strength. Get me outta my head for a little bit, okay?"

"No..."

Kyoka's sense of hearing was outstanding, and just as she was about to click play to shuffle through her favourite album, she heard the faintest of whimpers from outside the trailer. "Huh?"

"Please, I-"

"Keep it down, lady!" The other voice was hissed and male. "Just give me the bag and I'll leave-"

"I have a daughter-"

"Mom?" Kyoka asked out loud, her triangular eyes widening. What the hell was happening to her mom?

"And she won't have a mom if you keep this shit up! Gimme the damn bag-"

Oh hell no. Kyoka clutched the phone that was still plugged into her jack. This guy was trying to rob her mom!

"Please, I-"

"Don't make me use the knife, stupid! Last chance, give me the bag-"

"NO!"

Kyoka had no idea how she moved so fast. One second she was slumped at the table in her little rec room, head in her hands and no motivation at all, and the next second she had charged the door of the trailer, kicking it open and storming outside. As the door slammed back on its hinge and threatened to hit, she took in the scene; one mom, a terrified look on her face, and one punk in a raggedy hoodie, pointing a dirty knife at her mom, stunned at the site of an angry teenager practically vibrating as he glared at him. "The hell are you doing to her?"

The idiot in the hoodie snarled. "Oh there's two of you! Great! Now you get to watch! HRRAGH-"

"HEARTBEAT!"

Kyoka's Quirk did strange things which had taken her completely by surprise. For a long time she thought, like her mother did, that all she could do was listen. To her great surprise one day when she plugged herself into her dad's largest subwoofer for a dare, she could use her jacks to blast vibrations out, in some kind of strange sonic wave. Now, with her phone in hand, Kyoka had a weapon too in its speakers, and a heartbeat she could use to blast out as a wave.

With all the anger she was feeling, the pulse of sound from the phone's speaker came out with such force that it sent the low-life flying, knife flying out of his grasp. "Hurk-!"

Kyoka didn't even wait for the guy to hit the ground, slumped unconscious, before she ran over to her mother and dragged her into the trailer. "Mom! Are you-"

"Kyoka-" Her mom looked stunned. "What did you do-"

"You're alright?"

"... Yeah." Mika took a deep breath. "You just... saved me."

"I wasn't gonna let him hurt you mom!" Kyoka took a moment to steady herself, before leaning back against the door and letting out a whistle. "Holy crap. I used my Quirk on him didn't I?"

"... Yeah." Her mom rubbed her arm. "You did good, Kyoka. I was worried before you turned up. Thank you."

"... Heh. Nobody messes with us." Kyoka paused. "That... felt good."

"Maybe, but I don't think you can do something like that again," Mika said, looking concerned. "What if someone in the Police finds out you used your Quirk illegally? You know what they're like about unlicensed Quirk use, and then the studio would be on our backs too."

That truth hit Kyoka as she came down from the adrenaline high. Her mother was right, unfortunately- the new rules made by Endeavor and the Commission saw to it that anyone using their Quirk in public without a licence would be punished. Their patience for people taking the law into their own hands was shorter than UA's principal, and with her profile as a singer, they wouldn't drop a case against her if they found her. Every rational thought in her head said to her that maybe her mom was right to be concerned; maybe it was for the best to sweep that incident under the rug and pretend it never happened, and go back to making music in the hope that someone would take the message to heart.

But...

"You know what... maybe I can."

... Why did she have to draw the line just at saving her mother? Why couldn't she do more?

"Well... maybe I should, anyway."

"Kyoka?"

"No, mom, I..." Why did she have to stop with just one person? Why was what she did something that the rest of society would frown on? Why couldn't she do more? "I can do so much more. I can... save other people."

"You..." Her mom stared at her, curious. "You want to train? Become a Pro Hero? I think you've missed the intake for UA and Shiketsu this year, but you can apply next year. I'm sure even as a celebrity you'd be welcomed-"

"No, mom. I wanna save people." Kyoka clenched a fist, aware how skinny how her fingers were, and how much work she would have to do to get herself into shape. "I always wanted to do it. Since dad died... I wanted to do it with my music. But... I can do so much more."

"I want to be a hero. I don't have to be a Pro to do that. I don't want to wait and jump through hoops when I could start right now." Onyx eyes met those of her mother, and Kyoka made up her mind, taking the leap. "I can do it my way, one person at a time, on my own terms. Screw waiting for UA to tell me when I can start a three-year path to learn how to help people. I can do it myself."

Light dawned on her mother's face. "Are you suggesting-"

"To be a vigilante?" Kyoka smirked. "Hell yeah."

"It's against the law-"

"Yep."

"The Pro Heroes would come down on you so hard if they caught you-"

"Yep."

"And you could get hurt-"

"I could." Kyoka cracked her knuckles. "But I wanna do it, mom. For all those people in the dark places that get forgotten. Those people who listen to my music and think there's no hope. I wanna give that to them."

"Kyoka..." Her mom looked at her. "That's-"

"Insane? Yeah, I know. It's crazy and it's stupid and I could get hurt or arrested or killed or all sorts of weird shit could happen. It's-"

"- totally punk rock."

Whatever answer she was expecting from her mom, that wasn't it. "HUH?!"

"You really wanna do that around being a musician? To do it the dangerous way and still sing your songs?" Mika shook her head with a chuckle. "You're our daughter, alright."

"You're not mad?"

"Kyoka, dear, I couldn't change your mind if I wanted to. But... I don't want to." Her mom smiled faintly. "You've always been a rebel, because that's how we raised you, but you've got such a big heart. If you wanna use that to help people and give them hope, by doing more than watching the world get darker... then I'm proud of you."

"Mom-"

"Just promise me you'll get a disguise, for crying out loud. I know the jacks are hard to hide but you're kind of a celebrity singer, Kyoka. We can't have you exposed the second you take on your first bad guy."

"I promise."

"That's my girl... you just aren't happy to sit by anymore, are you?"

"Not when I could do something, right now."

"Then you're gonna do great, Kyoka." Her mom shook her head. "If you're half as good saving people as you are writing songs, then you're going to go platinum as a vigilante."

"I can do it around my music, and I can make a difference," she said, clenching a fist. "If I save even just one person, then I'll be proud. And I hope somewhere dad can be too."

"He will be as proud as me. He always said you would make a great musician," her mom said, holding out a hand to squeeze her arm. "But he said you'd make a great hero too."

"Hero too..." Kyoka's eyes went wide, and she felt something she hadn't felt in a long time. The feeling of watching All Might wind up to land a final blow on TV, the feeling she got when the Deep Dope drummer lift his drumsticks high before bringing them crashing down to start a song. The feeling the very first time she sang on stage at a school performance, two beaming parents in the front row in a better time.

Lightning.

"MOM!"

"W-What?" Her mom watched, startled, as Kyoka scrambled for her piece of paper and scribbled something in shocking handwriting, before reaching for an acoustic guitar she kept by the table in the room. "What are you-"

She was silenced as Kyoka's fingers danced across the strings as if in a trance, and finally, finally, after so long where they just wouldn't stick the words came, fitting a tune she had plucked from thin air.

"Hero too, I am a hero too, my heart is set... and I won't back down..."

Kyoka looked up at her mom and felt her shoulders lift higher, as if a great weight had finally been lifted from them. "... I found it."

"You found it?"

"The song."

"The song to beat all songs?" Her mom smiled, and Kyoka knew she understood. "The song you promised your dad?"

"Dad's song." Kyoka met her mom's eyes with her own and smiled herself, in a way she hadn't in a long time. "I'll be a proper hero for him, I'll save people for him, and I'll sing this song for him to celebrate it all."

"That sparkle in your eyes..." Her mom's eyes glistened with pride. "I've not seen that in a long time. That's my girl."

"You're really gonna support me on this?"

"Hell yeah I am. I've been dreaming of making my daughter a kick-ass costume since she was a little girl." Mika adjusted her classes and smirked just like a daughter. "But we'll sort that later, Earphone Jack. You've got a song to write. Pass me that paper and I'll do lyrics for you as you go, okay?"

"Got it!"

As she chucked the pen across to her mother, Kyoka's hands settled back on the guitar and strummed at it like it was second nature, a single C minor chord that seemed to reverberate up through her arms and in her heart. She drank in the sound of the guitar and savoured the moment, the adrenaline kick from what she was planning to do, the taste of victory as she finally found the song she had been looking for her whole life.

What she was planning was dangerous, reckless, impulsive, and terribly thought-out. There were risks at every corner, and potential enemies to be made with any action she took simply because their politics didn't stand for her doing it. But she had never felt more alive than she did the moment she decided to act, to be the type of hero she missed seeing rather than let it all pass her by. She was going to save people, and she was going to use her music to make people smile.

She could do both. She would do both. And she would kick ass doing both.

Song first, kick ass as a vigilante later.

"Hero too, strength doesn't make a hero..."

(***)

"Touya?"

Dabi looked up from picking at an itching piece of burned skin to look at his brother, hunched over on a crate and buried in a hoodie three sizes two big for him. "Sho?"

"Can you trust these guys?"

Dabi paused. "... You're scared, huh?"

"It's... just been us up until now." Shoto looked up at him, mismatched eyes meeting his blue ones, his face betraying his nerves. "And Endeavor-"

"I know." Dabi sighed. "Trust me, I know. These aren't the sort of people who would turn you in for the bounty on your head, I promise."

"You don't think?"

"I don't think it at all. They're not like those guys in Kyushu."

That made them a rarity, as far as he was concerned. Everyone else just had it out for them.

Since Shoto Todoroki had fallen into his life, angry at the world and wanting to rebel against Endeavor for becoming an undeserving Number One Hero, Dabi's life had become a complicated mess. He had slipped under the radar and into the underworld when Endeavor had cast him aside, and it had been easy for the world to forget his past name. The lowest of the low welcomed him among their ranks with open arms, and nobody batted an eyelid.

Shoto had been completely different. Father's perfect progeny, the boy he wanted to surpass him, had upped and left the second that Endeavor announced that he wanted to change the world. Word had gotten round that a boy destined to be stronger than Endeavor had rejected him, undermining that message, and so bounties were put on Shoto's head. Now the Police and Heroes were out looking for him, and the bloodhounds in the shadows saw the chance at glory and money, taking on work for the Number One to bring down his son. All of them were hunting.

Dabi and Shoto had spent a few weeks on the run at this point, and the one time that Dabi tried to cash some favours, he had learned the hard way how strong an incentive Shoto provided. Friends of his in the back alleys of Kyushu, who had supported his raids on drug dealers and small-time gangs to clean them out of areas the Police wouldn't touch, turned on him in an instant. If it weren't for Shoto's insane Quirk, they might have got the jump on both of them; as it was, it took a bus-sized iceberg to buy them enough time to escape, and curse their bad luck.

He went back and hunted them down later that night, when Shoto had finally succumbed to sleep and got over the adrenaline rush. He didn't even care that they made bad fuel. Nobody tried to hurt his brother.

He stretched his arms out, and focused back on Shoto. "It's not like that. Those guys did a lot of dirty work like me. The two we want to speak to are at the top of their game. Trust me."

"You haven't even told me who they are," Shoto said, and if Dabi didn't know better he detected a touch of a sulk in his brother's tone. "I'll trust them more when I see who we're dealing with."

Dabi looked around the abandoned warehouse they had ended up calling their impromptu base in Hosu. Some long time ago this was a distribution centre for a clothing giant, but now it was just a mausoleum to bad fashion, no other person around for miles. That suited Dabi perfectly; Ingenium was active in Hosu, and was one of the good Heroes left. It was best they kept under the radar. "The best in the business. Perfect for what we need to do."

Shoto looked up now. "Do you still think this is the best plan?"

"For now, absolutely." Dabi nodded to his younger brother. "You want to get back at our old man, right?"

The mismatched eyes flashed with rage for just a second. "More than anything."

Dabi smirked. "Good. Then trust me when I say this- we can't go after him personally. We do more damage going after those who hold him up, and bring him down a piece at a time. And for that, we need help. We can't do it alone."

Shoto seemed to stare right through him. "How do you do it?"

"Do what?"

"He..." The monotone voice cracked for a second. "He rejected you. He hurt you and cast you out because you weren't perfect for his little project. He hurts so many more people besides us. How... how do you not hate him with everything you have?"

"I do." Blue flames flickered in his palm for a second as his composure faltered. "I hate the bastard. I hate what he did to me, and to you, and what he does to so many people. But... we have to do better than him. We have to beat him."

Dabi could understand the kid's fury more than anything. He had lived it, after all, at rock bottom when he was first struggling to scrounge enough food together from the leftovers chucked into dumpsters, when he didn't have a roof over his head. At his lowest, when the rain poured down his back through the collar of his coat and the burn marks on his skin screamed out in pain, he wanted nothing more than to watch his father turn to ash before his eyes. Sometimes that rage and desire to make Endeavor pay was all that had got him through.

But when he properly opened his eyes, and saw what the world had become after All Might had died, he saw what patience he needed to have to deal with his dear old dad. Endeavor had stepped into an All Might-sized vacuum to stem the tide of villainy across Japan, and had divided society by doing so to the point that there were already murmurs of those turning against him. To confront him head-on when the nation was angriest would have been suicide; their chances were better the more they chipped away at his support, until it was Endeavor standing alone against his sons, and until hero society could rise up to put someone worthy in his place to be the symbol they needed.

Then they could snuff out his flames for good.

"We don't want him to go down. We want him to be put down so he doesn't get back up." Dabi looked Shoto up and down, oversized hood hanging over one side of his face now as if to obscure the scar over his eye. "You're strong, but he's been training you, right?"

"Yeah-"

"Then we need to be stronger. To the point he won't know what's coming from you."

"So we train-"

"And we work." Dabi looked up at the roof. "We take away the bastard's support networks. We target his sponsors, his sidekicks, his Agency, anyone associated we can get our hands on. The more they turn their backs on him, the better chance we have of keeping him down. These guys can help with that. They're probably better at what I'm planning than I am- more experienced, for sure."

"I see now," Shoto responded, looking thoughtful. "I... had my concerns."

"I know you did." Dabi reached over with a scarred hand to ruffle his younger brother's hair, and suppressed a laugh as Shoto flinched. "You wanted to be a proper Hero before, and go to UA, right?"

"Y-Yeah-"

"And now here we are, planning to rob people to prove a point. Not exactly heroic."

"I see why some people think that vigilantes are villains, now," Shoto replied, coldly.

"Heh, me too. But we beat him this way. We take money from the rich and the corrupt, the ones who he helped profit off the back of his rise, and we destroy their faith in his ability to protect them."

"I..." Shoto sagged. "I know. It's... difficult to understand that from my view. But I understand why you want to do it... and I'm with you."

Dabi nodded to him. "Good kid. You won't be as involved as me or the others. If everything goes south, we'll take the fall so you can go free."

"Touya-"

"You have a better chance than me of still making it. Of being the Hero he should be. I'll make sure of it."

"Do... do your friends think the same as you?"

"Hmm?"

"You said they were people who you've stolen with before. Do they do it for the same reasons? Are they greedy, or is there more of a goal to their work?"

"Oh yeah. They're like you and me." Dabi nodded. "They see the fake Heroes out there too. They strike out against the greedy, and the corrupt. Turns out we all wanted the same thing- a world where people just did the right thing."

"I see."

"You'll recognise them I'm sure. The Hero Commission put big bounties on them just like the one Endeavor put on ours. They hate vigilantes after all, and people who steal from them."

"They're famous?"

"Infamous. Always chasing the spotlight."

"Quite so, but what is the fun of shying away from the spotlight, Dabi?"

Dabi smirked at the way in which Shoto jumped up and iced his entire left side in preparation for a fight. He was used to the tricks they deployed by now. "Easy, Juhyo. He's with us."

The masked man before them was in a funny outfit, and Dabi wasn't surprised at his brother's reaction. A long orange coat covered up what looked like smart clothes, and there was no chance of catching any distinguishing features whatsoever; between the massive brown top hat atop his head and the white and black mask with it's intricate patterning on his face, the man was completely covered. How he had snuck up on them completely unnoticed was a credit to his skill, and half of the reason Dabi had reached out to him so quickly. For an attention seeker in such bizarre clothing, he could sneak around with the best of them.

The man looked Shoto up and down, and gave a little bow, his orange coat flapping slightly as a breeze blew through the old warehouse. "Well, well. The prodigal son of Endeavor, here before me. I assure you, young man, I mean you and your guardian no harm."

"If he meant harm, you wouldn't have known a thing about it," Dabi said, leaning back against a pillar. "Stick to the codenames though, Compress. We're tired of the unwanted attention."

"Ha! Well said!" The masked man clapped his hands, before extending one out to Shoto. "Atsuhiro Sako, at your service. I gather from Dabi that you go by Juhyo these days, so if you please when we're in the field, I am Mister Compress."

"Compress?" Shoto paused for thought and then shook the offered hand. "I think Endeavor talked about you before. Aren't you the magician thief, the one who broke into the Commission itself?"

"Bravo!" The older man bounced a little bit, and although the mask gave nothing away, Dabi could tell when his old acquaintance was smiling. "I must say, you did well to find out Dabi as a guardian and convince him to take you on. He's notoriously hard to please."

Dabi could take that coming from Compress. He had earned it.

In his time working in the shadows, he had met very few people he could trust, and very few he had the patience to work with more than once. Compress was a thief rather than a vigilante, but a damn good one, and one with principles; he had been someone who he partnered with to rob an Agency affiliated to Endeavor, in order to expose some of the sidekicks for taking bribes from local officials. As much as the man's constant flair for dramatics had probably caused more chaos than necessary, he was competent, reliable for his ability to escape from tight situations, and ultimately willing to share in Dabi's goal of striking at those in high places (if only to indulge his own desire to seek attention with high-profile work). When Shoto came to him, and as he started the first plans to strike out at Endeavor, Dabi knew he could rely on Compress to get involved. Anything for a moment of glory.

"The kid wants the same as me, Compress," Dabi replied. "Anything to get at the corrupt, and anything to get at Endeavor."

"Ah, a kindred spirit." Compress clutched a fist to his chest as if emotional. "A Robin Hood, a daring rogue, itching to strike a blow to the mighty and corrupt and bring down those who make a mockery of us all."

"... Something like that," Shoto replied uneasily. "May I ask you something?"

"Of course! Fire away, young apprentice."

"I... I came with Dabi because I want to get back at Endeavor. I want him to pay. Do... you think this is the right way to do it? Why shouldn't I fight him now?"

Dabi hadn't been expecting that question, but nor did he expect Compress to take it in such good stride, sliding across to put an arm on his brother's shoulder. "I understand. You crave the ability to take him on, to make a final stand and expose him immediately. That's good- that desire will carry you far, and it's a good drive for you to perform well. But Dabi is right, of course, with the experience of a life in the shadows working towards that goal. Strike at him now and people will be there to pick him back up. Strike at him when you've isolated him, and you can achieve what you want."

"You think so?"

"Absolutely! It's like a game of chess," Compress said, with a flourish. "It wouldn't do to rush the king when all of his supporting army is intact. Knock out the key pieces and force him into a corner so he submits to checkmate. That's your game plan, isn't it Dabi?"

"That's right." Dabi looked around behind Compress. "Weren't you supposed to arrive together?"

The older man sighed loudly, exuberantly. "He got distracted along the way. A mugger in an alleyway required his attention."

"That's-"

"To be expected with him." Compress fiddled with his mask. "If I know anything of my friend though, he's curious to hear your plans, or he wouldn't have agreed to meet so easily. He's a busy man these days."

"Clearly," Dabi said with a smirk. "He's got his hands full with the muggers of this city, for a start."

"All in a fine day's work for vigilantes such as ourselves! We do the work the Heroes fail to do, for the good of all. Wouldn't you agree, Compress?"

Shoto's lack of awareness for his surroundings made him leap out of his skin at the sudden booming voice above him. "That voice! That's-"

Dabi couldn't help but feel a little bit impressed as he looked up. He had accepted the invite after all. Now they had a fierce little group if only he could convince him to stay. "I'm glad you came. I'm small fry in the vigilante scene compared to you."

"Nonsense! You're rather notorious in our world, Dabi." The newcomer leapt down from the rafters and landed before the trio in a flourish, black coat billowing behind him. "When I heard from Compress that you wanted to team up for a job, I found myself rather intrigued. The Blueflame himself, an unbeaten vigilante, wants my help. This must be good."

"We could use all the help we can get. We're going after a big target."

"I gathered. Endeavor, correct?" The newcomer, tall and lanky and dressed in fine tailored clothes, bunched a gloved fist. "He and the Commission have spent long enough trying to put me behind bars for trying to help those less fortunate. I think it's high time someone took a stand and struck a blow against him in return."

"Good to see you, old friend," Compress said warmly, tipping his hat to the grey-haired man opposite him. "I'm glad you came along."

"Any excuse to work with you again, you old rogue." The man returned a friendly nod to Compress with twinkling blue eyes, and then smiled warmly at Shoto, moustache curling upwards. "And you would be the young Todoroki. A pleasure to meet you. The name is Danjuro Tobita, but the rest of the world knows a different name. You may call me... Gentle."

"You're really him..." Shoto seemed in awe. "You're the gentleman thief who's never been caught. The elastic hero of the night. The most famous vigilante in Western Japan, Gentle Criminal-"

"Just Gentle, my boy! The Commission added the Criminal when they wanted to stop me being a better Hero than their own!" Gentle winked at him. "You sound like a fan. May I assume that you watch my videos?"

"Every single one." Shoto had the closest thing to a smile on his scarred face. "... Thank you for coming. If you're helping us then we might just succeed."

"My dear boy, it is my pleasure to assist," Gentle said soothingly. "When I heard the rumours about how Endeavor treated you, I found myself appalled. When I heard that you had run away and become one of us, one of the vigilantes trying to do the Heroes' jobs, I couldn't have been prouder. If we can be of assistance in bringing that vile man down, we will do what we can."

"We?" Dabi frowned. "You and Compress, or-"

Gentle shook his head. "I brought one more, actually, if you don't mind."

"A sidekick?" Dabi raised an eyebrow as a short woman with two gigantic red pigtails walked through from behind him to stand by Gentle's side. He really did need to work on spotting people sneaking around. "I always thought you were a solo act, Gentle."

"I could say the same about you, until you picked the young Todoroki up as a companion," Gentle said in an amused tone. "Manami has been with me for a couple of years now, behind the scenes. You didn't think I filmed all those videos myself, did you?"

"Call me La Brava when we're working," she chided Gentle, despite being nearly half his height, before turning to Dabi and Shoto. "If you're calling in my Gentle for a job, then you must have something big planned, right? Big targets?"

"You could say that," Dabi said evenly.

"Right! I'm good with computers and good at creating escape routes. I can have your back while you're on the job, okay?"

For a moment Dabi found himself pausing, before he nodded. A surprise, but a welcome one; she might actually make his plans even easier to accomplish. "That... would actually be a help. It's good you're here. Thank you."

"Then fire away, Dabi," Gentle said with a flourish. "We're all here, after all. What exactly were you planning on having us do?"

"I'd love to know myself," Shoto said, coolly as only Shoto could. "He hasn't even shared with me."

"How daring! A secret plan, Dabi?"

He had them hooked. Good. Now he got to share. "Right. The kid and I want to take Endeavor down, and all the corrupt people along the way. Compress said it before you got here, we have to take down those holding him up if we want him to stay down for good."

"Ooh!" La Brava bounced as if she knew the answer. "You want us to steal from Detnerat? They're sponsoring his Agency, after all."

Dabi raised a stapled eyebrow. "... If this goes well, then yes, I wanna go after Detnerat. But they're a big target, with links to people in the shadows, and I don't think we're ready for them yet. Even with a group this strong."

"Intriguing," Compress said, "and unexpected. You have a different target in mind?"

"I do." Dabi folded his arms. "Endeavor causes more collateral damage than any other hero. People constantly have to rebuild after his fights and fix his mess. So we go after the people who do that for him."

"To steal their money?" Shoto asked.

"It's more than that." Dabi smirked. "Steal their money and they won't be able to fund his rebuilds, but they'll raise it another way. Steal their data, their files, and we can leak them all. All those NDAs for victims who got caught in the crossfire, all the damage brushed under the carpet-"

"All there in the public eye." Compress chuckled. "How dramatic. I like it."

"Thank you." Dabi nodded. "We play it right, reveal the full extent of it, and we can send his reputation to rock bottom."

"A fine sentiment," Gentle nodded, raising an eyebrow. "La Brava and I can certainly assist, especially with publicising the files online. And who do you propose that we target to achieve this? Whose closet is brimming with enough skeletons for our purposes?"

"One company has profited massively from him. They've grown like no other construction business, and because they're new on the scene, I don't think their security is up to scratch at all. They're there for the taking."

Dabi looked at Compress, then Gentle, then La Brava. "I wanted to ask you to join me and Shoto to take from them. To put it all in the public eye and let them know that they deserve better than their Number One Hero."

"If you're with us... then we hit Uraraka Construction Limited in a week, and take everything they have." His patchwork grin grew wide and blue fire danced in his eyes. "What do you say?"

(***)

Kyoka Jiro. Aged: 14.

Touya Todoroki (Dabi) and Shoto Todoroki (Juhyo). Aged: 24 and 14.

(***)

A/N: Jiro and Dabi POVs in one chapter? Not a combo I expected to combine when I was drafting this, but we roll with it.

My Kyoka was teased earlier as a singer, but she won't be at UA. It just seems right that she wouldn't stand for the society they have and would want to give people hope. Expect her to run into some of the cast in the near future. I hope you like her.

As for Dabi, well, I wanted to reflect that in canon, we know nothing about his past; my headcanon that he is Touya applies, but the fact that we know nothing suggests to me that he never actively tried to confront Endeavor on his own, and was happy to bide his time. My Dabi is more active and is babysitting Shoto, but if he's going to take on Endeavor, he can't just go in guns blazing, and has to be clever. Plus this gives me the chance to worldbuild further and give us more vigilantes in the shadows. If you like the idea of more Compress and Gentle, go read my Afternoon Tea oneshot- I insist you try.

Next chapter- back to Izuku as per usual, and the night before UA exams. Exciting times.

As always, thank you beyond words for your support. We hit 400 favourites this week and over 500 followers. 500 of you! Where did you all come from? It's madness and I'm so unbelievably grateful- my grandad ended up in hospital this week, so seeing some kind reviews and a flurry of new readers makes me very happy despite that.

As always, feel free to leave a review, and chat to me in PMs; if you haven't followed or favourited, and want to, I always appreciate it. Until next time, gang.

Ya boy, out.