"I didn't know this place had a basement," Naomi marvels at the… "Wait, did somebody dig this out recently!?" She touches one wall, rubbing her fingers over it. It's smooth in some places, pitted in others… "With Acid!?"
"He was correct that you would be an asset," Kurogiri says, eyes going all slit and squinty. "Shigaraki Tomura is very important to both of us. If you are going to be of use, we will need to train you. Protect you. Provide for you. This will be your room, and your clinic."
She looks around again, taking stock again of the things in the room. "How the hell… did you get these machines… is this a solar generator?"
She looks up, seeing some cables running from the generator, up through the ceiling. 'Solar panels on the roof? This here is just an energy bank. To plug everything into and to hold a charge.'
"There are many now hidden in the walls of the bar," Kurogiri says. "They are all connected to this one. Each socket drains from a different battery."
She blinks. "You have someone with a tech-y Quirk and an acid-spitter as well as somebody who could either make or steal all this equipment. I see your resources are quite vast, even if they aren't flashy." It was probably all All for One, with his many quirks. Or maybe a few people he'd given quirks to.
"Master can get anything," a raspy voice speaks from behind her.
Naomi turns to see Shigaraki all geared up in his familys' hands. "Whoa, really leaning into a style there, huh?" It's not something a 'normal' person would see and not comment upon.
"Do you have everything you need?" he asks, ignoring her comment. Surprisingly.
She turns, glancing at the machines. "No, not everything. I need chickens. To produce eggs. And incubators to keep them alive. You can set that up at the apartment I'm currently living in. As long as I can make rent there, we'll have a ready source of energy for healing."
"I'll tell Master," he says. His voice is somewhat bored. Maybe a little sad? She isn't sure why it sounds sad. "Once we start getting the eggs, I can introduce you to the hired help. We'll be undertaking a mission soon…"
'The USJ thing?' she wonders. 'The actual League members weren't upstairs, and they probably should've been, if it were later in the story…'
"A mission, huh?" she asks, sitting on a nearby stool. Something set up next to a cot, an adjustable one. Cheap-looking, but similar to the cots you see in hospitals. "What kind of injuries will I have to heal? Are you going into a really dangerous situation? I'll need a lot of morphine and disinfectant if there'll be stab wounds or gunshots…"
"Your Quirk will be enough to stop the bleeding," he says. "Disinfectant might be necessary, but pain is unavoidable. We don't have the money for that."
"Then, is your first mission to get money?" she asks, tilting her head. "That might be a good idea if you can't afford to outfit people. It'd also give you the chance to see everyone's skills and maybe even get them to rely on each other a little…"
"No," he replies. "Our mission is to destroy All Might."
She blinks at him. Giving him the exact reaction she had when they showed up at the USJ and announced their intentions… the same reason she had when she watched the first time and marveled at the…utter incompetence of their 'plans'. "Ahaha… please tell me that was a joke?"
He tilts his head and his eye is visible around one of Fathers' fingers. "It's not."
"Kurogiri," she turns to him. "You have no money."
"That is correct," he replies.
"You have to rely on an outside source of goods that goes through another person," she says.
"That is correct," he replies.
"You have no network of your own," she says.
"What's your point?" Shigaraki cuts in before Kurogiri can answer.
"Look, you seem new to being the boss," she says and turns to him. "So I'm just gonna come out and say it. Even if All Might were on his last legs, bleeding out and coughing up blood… you would not be able to defeat him with no resources. Do you at least have a plan? Something strategic?"
"We have a plan," he says, with some annoyance. His hand lifts to start lightly scraping at the skin on his throat. "We're going to corner the brats he's teaching-"
"Oh dear god," she sighs explosively. "You're gonna give him something to protect? You do know that the reason heroes seem so strong is because there is literally a response in your brain for 'someone I am protecting is in danger' which maxes out your power level? It's like a Limit Break."
He pauses in his scratching, taking in the gaming metaphor. "A response in the brain?"
"Yes," she replies. "If you give him someone right in front of him to fight for, he's going to be able to defeat you, no matter what. Because that is what always happens. I studied some of his fights and it appears that his desire to protect civilians tends to make him hypervigilant. But if you can fight him in an isolated place where only he is in danger, he might not be able to pull out that power move at the last second."
"...why did you study him?" he asks.
"Because he's All Might?" she replies. "Everyone talks about him. I was curious."
'He's really quick to figure shit out,' she thinks. 'In the show he was analytical, he just lacked experience.'
"I am quite impressed," Kurogiri says. "You are trying very hard to advise Shigaraki Tomura on his next course of action. Almost as though loyalty has already been won."
"He's going to be protecting me, so I don't want him dying on me," she replies. "If you just go after All Might with a bunch of Lackeys, giving him something to protect… just don't die on me. Anything is fine but that."
"We're going to win," he says. But it sounds… uncertain? "We have the numbers and the information we need."
'Did I manage to shake him?' she wonders. 'Can I keep him away from the kids, even if only for a while, if I push it?'
"Numbers won't be of any use if the team isn't cohesive," she says. "You said 'the hired help' which brings to mind freelancers, and people of that ilk. Any lump of coal can become a diamond, but you have to apply the right conditions, pluck out the flawed stones and cut it to perfection. If you don't, you just end up with a necklace of craggy pieces of crystallized carbon."
"You think the League's new hires would benefit from preliminary missions?" Kurogiri asks as Shigaraki commences scratching at his neck again. "What do you suggest?"
'They're actually listening to me,' she thinks with some surprise. 'It's… so strange.'
"Something to get money for equipment and other fees," she says. "But not like, robbing a bank. Something that could secure an entire revenue stream."
"Like taking territory?" Shigaraki asks, scratching at his neck again. "I don't want any territory. I want to destroy the system, not put myself at the top of it."
"Territory isn't necessary," she replies. "Though, you do know that you don't necessarily have to have the same structure as other gangs and organizations? And also… who are you fooling, exactly?"
Shigaraki's eyes narrow and his hand pauses.
Kurogiri tenses. Though she thinks it's more to be ready to deflect an attack from Shigaraki rather than to say something to her.
"You want to be the 'boss' here but you don't want to put yourself at the top of the pecking order?" she says, propping her feet up on the stool rungs, with her elbows on her thighs. "If you're the boss, then you're a boss, and that's already a pecking order. Your mission, if 'destroying the system' is it- will require you to take on a role. That role will demand things of you that you don't like. That's life. If you manage to accomplish your goal, then those things go away… that's the reward you get for your work. Your sacrifices."
"...what do you mean, it goes away?" he asks, finally. Strangely quiet.
"If 'destroy the system' is the end goal, then at the end of the system, your movement just disbands. They live their own lives and do their own things. Anarchy, essentially," she says. "People are going to form up into groups no matter what you do, so it will never truly end. But you'll end the current system, at least."
Kurogiri looks between them, head shifting every so slightly.
Shigaraki reaches up and removes father from his face. Giving her the first really good look at his face. When he was in the alley, his head was hanging down and his hair covered his face. And every other interaction, he was looking at her from the side of his eyes, or only lifting his head for a moment.
But this time, he lifts his head and stares into her eyes.
He looks both like and unlike how she remembered. He was definitely still a red-eyed, blue haired man with pasty white skin that was constantly dry and cracked…but there was something else, too.
The eyes were tired, but direct. His mouth was a firm line, but he didn't look angry or displeased. He was just the kind of person with 'resting serious face'.
She decides to break the tension. "Oof, you need something for your lips and around your eyes, that looks painful."
He replaces father over his face almost faster than the eye can see. "Whatever, I'll think about it." And then he turns and walks out of her new clinic/bedroom.