Oboro's Back Alley Tavern, 5:35 PM…
Stepping through the portal, Inko and Izuku entered a dimly-light but clean tavern. In one corner of the room, a couple of rough-looking thugs sat in a booth, drinking and laughing. Another corner had a small couch, where a blue-haired preteen growled indignantly while playing an archaic beat-'em-up video game. Two other thugs stood on either side of the couch, drunkenly cheering the kid on as his character executed a brutal piledriver move on a similar-looking thug on the screen.
"Lady Midoriya, Young Lord" spoke the voice Inko had heard on the phone a minute or two earlier. Turning to look behind them, the mother-son duo was met with the sight of a well-maintained oak bar with several cabinets of quality liquor behind it. Standing behind the bar was a man seemingly made from the same dark purple mist as the portal they had arrived through, wearing a fancy suit and waistcoat.
"Are you Kurogiri…sir?" Izuku asked.
The mist man nodded as the black fog slowly receded from around him, revealing a youthful-looking man with several nasty scars on his head and neck. "When on-duty for All For One, that is my codename. However, when in public or working behind the bar, you may call me Oboro Shirakumo; it was my name before my…accident" he responded. "Can I get you anything to drink?"
"Two waters, please," Inko said. Gesturing to the preteen gaming in the corner with the two drunks cheering him on, her face took on a concerned expression. "Is it really alright for someone his age to be here without supervision?"
"I see" Shirakumo - or was it Kurogiri? - responded. "Lord All For One must not have told you about young Tomura then, and I think I understand why" Gesturing at the boy, the mist man elaborated. "Tomura Shigaraki's real name is Tenko Shimura."
Inko gasped. "Shimura? Did something happen to my brother?" she asked, thinking of her younger twin brother and the cold attitude he had adopted towards their mother after she placed them in foster care - something she did due to the threat posed by the very same man who was her husband now, ironically.
Oboro nodded. "Your brother became abusive towards his children over any mention of heroics in his household. Tenko was presumed Quirkless, but after one particularly bad day his Quirk manifested in a destructive and fatal manner." As he spoke, the preteen's game character was killed in a boss fight; while the two men drunkenly laughed, Tomura screamed in inarticulate rage and grabbed his controller tightly in one hand. The plastic device quickly crumbled into dust, spilling all over the floor.
The mist man loudly sighed and opened a warp gate, producing a new controller while another warp gate vacuumed away the ashes from the floor. "Tomura Shigaraki, please remember Sensei's instructions and wear your gloves when playing your video games" he reprimanded his ward.
"It's their fault! I want to destroy them-" began the bluenette preteen as he gestured at the two drunk thugs, before being interrupted by a green-haired motormouth.
"Wow? Is that your Quirk? Looks like a five-point contact-based disintegration Quirk. That has so many potential applications! You could use it in the private sector to clear construction debris and build pathways through difficult terrain or efficiently dispose of hazardous waste if Japanese Quirk regulations were more lenient" Izuku began to ramble as his pencil flashed across the paper of his notebook. "But the potential as a Rescue Hero is amazing! You could be just like Thirteen-!"
"And him!" Tomura shouted. "Who is this brat, anyway? Another stupid hero-worshipper, a symptom of everything wrong with society! Why I ought to-" he ranted, starting to reach towards the greenette with all five fingers.
"Tomura Shigaraki, this child is Sensei's biological son, and this woman is his wife" Kurogiri elaborated, gesturing at Inko. "She is also your biological father's sister, and thus your aunt."
The blue-haired preteen stopped reaching forward immediately, frozen stiff. "My father's…?" he asked slowly, his hands reaching up to scratch at his neck. "No…no! That can't be; he never said anything-!"
His hands were stopped by two others. "My brother hated our mother for putting her career before her family" Inko said, slowly lowering the boy's hands down to his sides. "In a way, I understand him…but he went too far, and I can't forgive him for what he did to you, now or ever."
Ruffling her nephew's hair, the greenette woman elaborated. "It sounds like what you did was a pure accident, Tenko. You are no monster…but your father was." Looking up at the ceiling, Inko glared. "Wherever he is, I hope he never knows peace for what he did."
The bluenette's breathing steadied. Opting not to dwell on his aunt for too long, Tomura turned his attention to his cousin and adopted brother. "This is Sensei's son?" he asked in a disappointed voice. "He's so small! And weak! And obsessed with heroes; how did Sensei even let that happen?"
Izuku stopped writing and looked his cousin in the eye. "It's not our grandmother's fault as a hero that my uncle treated you the way he did, and it's not my dad's fault either as a villain" he said. "It's only Uncle Kotaro's fault that he was a bad dad to you. I hope my dad has been better."
Tomura made a strangled sound of rage - or maybe just sheer existential frustration - and sat down on the couch, returning to his pre-Quirk video game. Izuku stared at him pensively, lost in thought.
"He's not wrong though…society really is a mess. Dad being a villain was part of it, but I think our grandma might have been somehow pressured to give up my mom and uncle to continue her career as a hero" the greenette thought, flipping to another page and noting these thoughts down.
"Maybe being a hero isn't the perfect pedestal I thought it was."
Two years later…
Izuku Midoriya: Age 10
Tenko Shimura: Age 14
Izuku Midoriya's day…could definitely have been going better. The green-haired child slid down a railing, banked hard right around a corner and scrambled up a fire escape to the rooftop of a flower shop, his green head of hair helping him blend in with the planter boxes around the edges of the roof. A few seconds later, the splashing sounds of footsteps in the cold rain echoed down the street as Bakugo, Yubiri and a couple of other bullies whose names he didn't know dashed into view.
"Where the hell did he go?!" Yubiri shouted, looking left and right.
"Hell if I know, chucklenuts! Keep looking!" ordered Bakugo as they continued down the street. Midoriya stayed under cover for another minute despite the rainy weather and gray skies, before shimmying down a drainpipe and escaping into a back alley. "Stupid Kacchan…no, Bakugo, he doesn't deserve that nickname anymore. How is it my fault that I'm his favorite target just because of something I can't control?"
As he walked past a side alley, the sound of heavy breathing and sniffling caught his attention. Curious, the boy turned to his right to see the source of the noise, only for his eyes to widen in shock. A blonde-haired girl not much older than himself, covered in grime and streaks of blood, sat in the alleyway in a gap behind a dumpster, attempting to use a piece of cardboard from the waste bin to keep the rain off of her. Before he knew it, his feet were already moving.
"Hey…are you alright?" he asked softly, kneeling down next to her. The girl recoiled in shock, attempting to curl further into the cardboard-covered hole behind the dumpster. "Easy, easy, I promise I won't hurt you."
"I…I'm not worried about you hurting me" the girl murmured. "I'm worried that I'll hurt you."
"What? Why?" Midoriya asked, extending his right hand towards her in what was supposed to be a calming gesture. This was the wrong thing to do, as the girl violently recoiled into the hole behind the waste bin, dropping the piece of cardboard as a shield between them.
"Because I'm a monster! A freak! I hurt people!" she shouted, breaking down in tears. "I could hurt you! Why are you being so nice to me?!"
"Isn't saving someone who needs to be saved what heroes do? Do I need more of a reason than that?" the greenette asked. Silence greeted him; moving aside the cardboard, he found the girl staring at him with teary eyes sparkling with a glimmer of…hope, maybe? Before he had much time to dwell on that thought, however, he heard angry shouting that was all too familiar further down the alley.
"God dammit Bakugo…" Midoriya thought to himself, looking around the alley and spying a stack of intact cardboard boxes. Thinking quickly, the greenette grabbed three empty ones, placing one over the blonde girl and then stacking the other two over the top of them.
Shooting a text with a location off to Kurogiri, Midoriya calmed his breath and watched Bakugo and his cronies race past the alleyway, still looking for him. "Damned Deku! I'll give him the beating of a lifetime when I find him!" the explosive blond shouted.
Deciding he'd burn that bridge on Monday when they returned to school, the boy waited until the angry voices had retreated far into the distance before standing up and removing the boxes. Behind him, the familiar barometric change from Kurogiri's Quirk swelled into existence, and he almost felt himself sagging in relief.
Lifting the last box up, he found that the blonde girl had passed out at some point in the past few minutes, possibly from being emotionally overwhelmed by someone asking her if she was alright. "Kurogiri, we need to get this girl out of the rain, and get me out of here before Bakugo comes back" Midoriya elaborated.
The mist man nodded, gently picking up the girl and carrying her through his portal. A small card fell out of her dirty school uniform as he did, and the curious greenette picked it up to read it. "Himiko Toga, huh? I get the feeling your story isn't going to be any happier than Tenko's…"
One year later…
Izuku Midoriya: Age 11
Tenko Shimura: Age 15
Himiko Toga: Age 12
The girl that Midoriya had found in that alley, Himiko Toga, turned out to indeed have a tragic backstory involving abusive parents, in her case because of her blood-based transformation Quirk and her dietary need for blood. Whatever quack counselor the Togas had used clearly did not understand the ramifications of suppressing her Quirk and her dietary requirements for nearly a decade, and Midoriya himself was amazed she had survived so long without consuming blood, given her body's need for the substance.
This was quickly remedied when she (unofficially and probably illegally) took up residence in an upstairs room of Oboro's Back-Alley Tavern. Inko had wanted to take the girl in as a proper family member and adopt her. However, the discovery that Himiko's biological parents had paid off the school district to erase all footage of the incident that made her a criminal on her first day in middle school (her urge to consume blood had reawakened from seeing one of her classmates bloody after a fight; she stabbed him and drank his blood with a straw while he was unconscious) and Inko's time commitments as a de facto single parent and full-time doctor made it unfeasible.
Himiko had quickly proven that she fit in well with both Tenko (who was slowly becoming a less unstable and more well-adjusted teenager) and Izuku, and was academically at the same level as the former due to his need to catch up from his period of childhood instability. To Tenko's dismay and Izuku's amusement, she also proved to be very good at fighting games, causing the Decay user to rage-quit several times while playing against her. She also seemed more naturally inclined towards villainy than Izuku, putting her in close alignment with Tenko.
As a prospective villain group, the trio (plus Kurogiri by default) decided to call themselves the "League of Villains" and ultimately decided they needed to start recruiting members. This leads us to the present day, where the three of them are now conducting their first interview with a potential member, forwarded their direction by the info broker/sleazy bastard Okuta "Giran" Kagero. Giran initially tried to charge the three teens and preteens a high price for his services, but curiously backed off the second that Izuku mentioned that he didn't like this deal and was going to call his mother. Odd.
"So, you're…Twice, right?" Himiko asked the man sitting across the booth from them.
"That's my name; don't wear it out!" the masked man replied cheerfully, before his voice took on a completely different tone. "Who the hell is 'Twice'? You little runts have the wrong guy!"
"Whatever you say, Mister Twice," Tenko said, a cheeky grin on his face.
"Thank you! Watch your tone, you little bastard!" Once again, the man's personality swung like a pendulum in a matter of moments. The three "interviewers", dressed in dark suits and ties, looked at one another quizzically. Luckily, they had already researched the man in front of them, so Izuku knew how to approach the situation.
"Twice. Quirk: Double, allows you to duplicate yourself or others provided that you have basic dimensional measurements on hand for them. Wanted for twenty-four cases of armed robbery, destruction of public property and disturbing the peace. Real name: Jin Bubagaiwara-!" The greenette smirked as the masked man suddenly shot to his feet in alarm, gripping his head with both hands.
"I'm not Jin! Jin tried to kill us!" the man ranted in an agitated voice, his voice swinging back and forth as his personalities met in agreement on something. "Where is he?! We'll kill him before he can kill us!"
"Why would Jin kill you?" Himiko asked the man, leaving through some of the papers on the table.
"Jin created us, but we tried to kill Jin. We know we failed because if Jin died, so would we," Twice said in the odd fusion-voice. "Jin would want revenge on us for being just a clone."
"Mister Twice…how much damage can one of your doubles take before dissolving back into mud?" the greenette queried, passing a note to Tenko. The bluenette teen read the note, made eye contact with the other and nodded quickly as he got up from the table.
"About as much damage as a broken bone. More than that causes us to disintegrate" came the masked man's response, still caught in his mental breakdown.
Izuku smiled warmly and nodded. "Good to know. Tenko, if you would."
Twice didn't have enough time to react before he found his right hand in the firm grip of Tenko Shimura. Prying up the hand's middle finger, the bluenette nodded before suddenly pulling it backwards with a loud snap.
The masked man screamed in pain, shock and horror. "It hurts! It hurts so damned much!" he shouted, before the situation caught up with him. "It hurts…but I'm not dissolving!" Jin began to laugh. "It really was true! I'm really the real me!" Tears streamed down from his eyes, but the expression on his face was anything but sad.
"So how does it feel, Jin Bubagaiwara, to know that you're really you? That you're not a clone or an imposter or a double, but the real deal down to the core?" Izuku asked. The greenette was surprised when he found himself suddenly embraced from across the table by the other man, who removed his mask to reveal an average-looking blond male in his early thirties with a large scar bisecting his forehead vertically.
"Knowing I'm really me feels so good!" Jin shouted, his voice slowly losing the unnerving two-toned harmony it has previously and becoming more of a normal tone. "I'm in your debt for life, Boss!" With that, the man went back to sniffling and crying joyfully on the preteen's shoulders.
Izuku turned as best he could to his partners in eventual crime and shrugged. "Our annual Recruitment Drive is a success…I guess?" he said hesitantly.
Tenko laughed. "Given that he's treating you like the second coming of Amaterasu right now, I think 'I guess' is an understatement" the bluenette said. Himiko rolled her eyes and kicked him in the shin over that comment, but it was more of a good-natured love tap than anything malicious.
"Would you like us to find a healer to get your finger fixed?" the blonde girl asked. "I'm pretty sure Hisashi-san is probably capable of healing that up with no scarring."
Jin Bubagaiwara, the newest member of the League of Villains, straightened up and bowed as he held his damaged right hand out. "No need; I just need it splinted and iced and I will be fine in two weeks. I want to keep this scar on my hand as a symbol of my loyalty" he said, looking at the swollen and crooked purple appendage with an expression of nigh-reverence.
Izuku sideyed Tenko and Himiko, shrugged in confusion and turned back to his new recruit. "Welcome to the League of Villains then, Jin Bubagaiwara. We can provide you with food, housing, a day job here at the bar to cover up involvement in any illegal activities, and most of all, a purpose."
"A purpose?" the older blond man asked curiously.
The greenette nodded, a determined expression steeled on his face. "To reform society, by any means necessary, whatever the cost and no matter how much blood we must spill. Are you up to the task?" he asked.
Jin nodded vigorously. "I would be honored to join you, Mister Midoriya."
Izuku laughed. "Please, Mister Midoriya is my father. Call me Izuku when we're not on duty. As for when we're on-duty, you may address me as…"
"Prometheus."
Notes:
Incredible. One month later, despite my promises, I can now present all of you with chapter two of Playing Both Sides. Just to recap where we're at…
Kurogiri remembers his past life as Shirakumo and has semi-reconciled his two identities with each other. There will be differences between the two personalities, however; off-duty as Shirakumo the bartender, he'll be more happy-go-lucky and joking. Meanwhile, when on-duty as Kurogiri, he'll be more formal and no-nonsense.
Tenko has been de facto adopted by Inko as a maternal figure (despite being his biological aunt), but Kurogiri is still his caretaker. However, with actual friends, stabilizing parental influences, and Hisashi trying to set him up to become a better man instead of the most hate-filled sack of hatred possible, he'll be much less of a psycho than he was in-canon.
Himiko's tragic backstory happened at the start of middle school in this timeline, not her graduation from it. As a result, she is saved by young Izuku and becomes a friend (and eventually maybe something more?) for him and an annoying sister figure/best friend for life to Tenko.
Twice got a very raw deal in canon, so I'm trying to give him a better possible life and purpose in this timeline. He's also going to be mostly cured of his identity disorder…mostly because I very rapidly got tired of formatting his identity swings in just this introduction scene. Having to do this for the next ninety-eight-ish chapters sounds like actual torture.
Next chapter is the final one in the three-part introduction mini-arc. We'll be meeting a certain adorable unicorn child and a damned murder toucan man and getting a massive lore/information dump from Hisashi before entering the second arc of the series - the Yakuza Extermination Arc!
Until later, frens,
~DVD181