Hello! Here is the second chapter of this fiction; I hope you will enjoy it :)

fencer29: You're absolutely right; you will have Shigaraki's perspective on the events in this chapter, I hope you will enjoy it. Thank you so much for commenting!

Chapter 02.

Tomura Shigaraki had never been a very patient person, and he had had his fair of temper tantrums, but he felt like anyone in his place would have blown a fuse by now. Some madmen had destroyed four of the buildings he owned, burning them and killing every single of his men. If he put aside the sheer uselessness of his men – how could members of the Front allow themselves to get killed in such a… simple way? –, the loss of his properties was angering him. Minions were replaceable. The nōmus laboratories and the doctor's research were not. He had had to deploy high-end nōmus to protect the remaining ones when they could be attacking hero facilities and schools.

This situation was slowing down his plans, and he hated that. He had sent Himiko and two of her clones created by Twice to get some information in the black market as she was their best spy, but he disliked it. He would rather decay his way through the situation, turning whoever was doing this to dust. However, his new enemy knew how to remain in the shadows. There were no clear patterns to the attacks, and they even went after public factories and facilities. Tomura had nothing against someone getting rid of a hero gear manufacturing factory, but it was overall pretty confusing. What was their plan? What was their goal? Understanding his enemies had always something been he was good at. Yet, this particular one was the most obscure one had ever come across. They did not even steal the research, they simply burned it with the rest. Why?

The leader of the Paranormal Liberation Front grabbed one of his game controllers and turned on his PlayStation 5. Destroying the computer at Smash would be a perfect way to decompress. He quickly launched the game and picked some random characters. He would win either way. He had years of training on video games; it was not like he could just go out and socialize with other kids when he was younger. He snorted at the idea. Him, spending time playing catch or hide-and-seek with some other brats. Or worse, playing heroes. The simple idea made him shiver, and he blasted his virtual opponent in the sky.

"Who plays with fucking Kirby?", a raspy voice asked from behind.

Tomura did not bother turning around or greeting Dabi. The blue flames wielder was back from one of his current trips to their doctor to get rid of his half-assed done stables and replace them with some actual medical treatment for the burns covering his body. There were some talks about trying to make him fire-resistant, but that would have to wait for now. The nōmus was still not an exact science, and Tomura was not about to lose his most efficient and powerful lieutenants to an experiment. Although he would never say it loud; otherwise, he would never hear the end of it.

"Me, because I need a challenge. Want to get your ass own?"

"No, I don't want to get my ass kicked at Smash, cause we got a situation." That perked Tomura's interest, and he paused the game. He turned around, glaring at the other villain who was, once again, being overly dramatic with his pause. "We're out of alcohol", Dabi finally said.

"Are you fucking kidding me?", the white-haired man snarled, glaring at his lieutenant. "That's not a situation, that's you being a fucking alcoholic. A situation is the wackos going after my factories destroying another one!"

"We're going to get them. The vampire should be back soon with some intel on who these guys are."

Tomura grunted and would have decayed his controller if it was not for the gloves covering two of his fingers. He hated this situation; he felt like he was losing control, and even if he had Re-Destro and Skeptic working for him – although the League of Villains had slaughtered almost all of their men during their fights –, they were not making a lot of progress. The heroes were carefully keeping the information they had about this whole mess to themselves, and Tomura did not really feel like waltzing a commissariat and share his own information with them, although he did like to imagine their bewildered faces.

Himiko returned from the black market about an hour later, and Tomura almost assaulted her for answers, but the grave expression on her face told him she had found something out. Satisfied, he called his lieutenants and they all reunited in one of their numerous offices to listen to what she had to say. Shigaraki sat in the central armchair, his chin resting on his left hand. He was not really used to the feelings of the brace replacing his three missing fingers, but it was only a matter of time.

"I don't have anything on the guys themselves", she started, but Tomura knew better than to interrupt her. She would go on a rant about how mean he was for about twenty minutes and everyone would lose their patience. And he was all out of patience. "They don't mingle in the black market, and no one has seen them. Besides some bad publicity for us, there wasn't anything interesting regarding that. However, I have something. I ran into an undercover hero passing as an assassin. Shapeshifter; so, don't ask me their names, I don't have it. But! They gave me a message from detective Tsukaushi and Mirko themselves. They know what these guys are after, and they need help in tracking them down. They don't have access to the underworld as we do, but they know who they are. They're willing to call a ceasefire the time we get them."

The silence in the room was deafening. There was no uproar, not even a snarky comment by Dabi. They were probably still digesting what they had just heard. Heroes were reaching out to them. 'They must be really desperate', he thought, amused. Although he wondered why them. There were other villain groups who could help them infiltrate the underworld as discreetly as the Paranormal Liberation Front and with the plethora of heroes and technologies they had access to, he did not know what his group could have they needed. It could be a trap, but it would be a pretty stupid one. He was not just going to show up wherever they wanted if he agreed to the truce.

Tomura remained silent, weighing his options. On the one hand, he loathed the very idea of working with heroes. On the other hand, he could not keep losing his facilities. De Restro had a lot of money, and the doctor could always provide him with funding – plus he had gotten his hands on some narcotic groups – but his funds were not limitless. He could not afford to rebuild them forever, and he could certainly not keep on losing years of progress in nōmu science. Plus, the idea of heroes getting their hands dirty made him smirk.

"Re Destro, you and all your recognizable men must remain invisible. They can't know you're with us. The only ones they'll interact with will be the known-members of the former League", he said after a few minutes of reflection.

"Yes, Grand Commander!"

Gods, this man was pathetic. But his fanatism had his use, such as his funds and influence in and out of the underworld.

"We're really doing this, boss?", Dabi asked.

"Don't you want to see some heroes get their hands dirty? The uproar it will cause when this shit goes public! The people will tear them apart for us, they won't even care about the lives saved. Their precious heroes have cooperated with the enemy. The horror!", he replied, grinning at the future headlines.

"Hm, can't say I'd hate that", the blue fire wielder said, and Tomura could hear his smirk.

"Himiko, how do we contact them? I assume they don't expect us to just show up at the closest police station."

The blonde handed him a phone which he took between two fingers. He might have gloves on his right hand, but old habits die hard, and he could never be too prudent. Especially since he could active his quirk with only one finger now. It was stronger but more dangerous.

"He gave it to me to call them if we want to talk about the deal", she said.

"Keep Machia out of their sights too, they don't need to know about him."

"Roger, boss!", Himiko playfully replied, back to her cheerful self after the more serious attitude she had adopted while making her report.

Soon after, the meeting was over, and Tomura was left alone with the phone. He stared at it for a few minutes before going through the contacts. There was only one, with no name, just a number. He pushed the dial button and pressed the phone against his ear, listening to the bips. After a few seconds, a man picked up.

"Shigaraki Tomura."

"Detective Tsukaushi."

"I'm glad we're able to contact you this fast. What did Toga Himiko tell you?"

Tomura walked to Skeptic's office and tapped the phone, silently ordering him to track the localisation of Tsukaushi's phone while he talked with him. The long-haired man immediately started typing on his computer, and Tomura looked through the window, keeping the conversation going.

"The basic. Although what makes you think I even care about these guys? They burned some of your facilities, and I kinda encourage this kind of behaviour."

"You called, didn't you? Plus, I'm quite sure the private facilities are actually yours. You want these guys gone as much as we do."

"Hm. Who says I can't do it on my own? I rule the underworld."

"If people burn your facilities down, then your rule is pretty fragile if you want my opinion. If you could have gotten rid of them on your own, it would be done. Except you haven't, meaning you can't. You know nothing of these people. We do, and we have to meet to talk about it. I can't disclose any more information, otherwise, your little hacker will keep pestering mine in order to record this conversation."

"Ah, I'm not sure he'll appreciate you insulting his work. He's the proud type."

"That's not my problem. Would you agree to meet? The details are better spoken in person."

"Sure. However, we're meeting on neutral ground. I have no intention to fall into some kind of trap."

"This is not the kind of trap I would design to lure you out. But I'm ready to make concessions for this to work. In exchange, I want to know in advance who will be there. I'll give you my list too."

"How benevolent", Tomura snarked. "I'll have someone I know prepare a neutral ground; he knows some nice places. As for who will be with me… Hm… Dabi and Spinner will do."

"Mirko and Creati will be with me."

"I'll text the location. When do you want the meeting to take place?"

"Tomorrow night, eleven p.m."

"You really are desperate", Tomura mocked. "See you tomorrow night, detective", he concluded before disconnecting the call. He turned to Skeptic. "Have you found where they are?"

"Of course, Grand Commander. Their pitiful hacker was fighting against a bot I programmed to be a decoy. They're in Musutafu, unsurprisingly, in the Sakura Park. I can get you satellite images if you want to."

"No need. Keep tracking them, I don't care how. Get me something on Creati and Mirko too."

"Yes, Grand Commander."

Tomura left Skeptic to his devices, leaving the phone with him should the man need for whatever hacking he was doing. He had some minion find and send Dabi and Spinner to his office whilst he went to Re Destro's one. The half-bald man was in charge of their finances for, even though Tomura knew about economics, he found it far too boring to really bother himself with it. Plus, Re Destro was good at handling his company and money laundering, and Tomura did not see the point of removing the man from his position. As long as they had money, the Grand Commander did not care how they got it. He came in without knocking, mentally preparing himself for Re Destro's fanatism.

"Grand Commander! How may I serve you?", the man asked gleefully.

"I'm meeting the heroes tomorrow night with Dabi and Spinner on supposedly neutral ground, but I want to keep an advantage. They don't know you work for me, so I want to use someplace you own. You do have warehouses, don't you?"

"Of course! I'll get one for you!"

Tomura watched in silence the man going through the records of his possession and, after about twenty seconds, seemed to find what he was looking for. Re Destro handed him a document that Tomura grabbed. It was an old warehouse, far away from the closest city, about an hour and a half away from Musutafu.

"Would this do? I haven't used it in years, so it should be empty, and no one should be around."

"It's perfect. Give it to Skeptic and send the location to the detective."

Afterward, he left and went to his own office – which was closer to a brainstorming room, if he was being honest –, where he found Dabi and Spinner waiting for him. He laid out the plan pretty quickly. Spinner was the driver and close-range muscle, Dabi was heavy long-ranged muscle in case of an attack.

000

Momo donned her hero costume and stared at her reflection in the mirror. Her costume had evolved to a sleeveless red leathery jumpsuit exposing the top of her breasts and her back. It was tied behind her neck with a magnet and stopped right above her knees, allowing her to create objects with her back, calves, arms, and chest. If needed she did not mind tearing her costume to expose more skin, for she could always reconstruct it later. She readjusted her belt and breathed deeply. She would meet Tomura Shigaraki face to face in about two hours. The idea of seeing him face-to-face, to talk to him, terrified her. Momo shook her head. They had a common goal and for the time, and thus she ought to put her personal worries

Momo sighed slightly, her eyes on the road, mind focused on the future meeting. She closed her eyes, thinking of every way it could go wrong and what they should do if it did. The main possibility was, of course, for the villains to double-cross them and attacking them by surprise. They knew who was coming and could have come up with plans to subdue both Mirko and her. Momo bit her lip. It was quite unlikely, however. Mirko was the number five hero, and she was without a doubt the fastest one besides Hawks. She would cause serious damage to the villains before they could even land a blow on her. Then, there was Momo herself. Her quirk was too versatile for someone to devise a plan to counter it. The villains would need Shigaraki's Decay against her Creation, and she would keep him quite busy.

Decay against Creation. She gulped at the thought. She and Shigaraki were the target of the cult, and the clash of their quirks was exactly what the Ashuva cult wanted, for their twisted and delusional goal. She idly wondered how Shigaraki would react when he learnt that the cult was after him. He would probably decide to kill each and every single one of them. She shivered at the thought. The cultists were without a doubt horrible people who needed to be punished for their actions, but murder was not justice. And she would not allow Tomura Shigaraki to murder these people. She breathed deeply, trying to push all unimportant thoughts aside. She ought to focus on tonight's negotiations; they had not found the cultists yet.

When they reached their destination, Momo had gone over about twenty-two safety plans in case something went wrong. If she had not been distracted by her thoughts, she might have been able to devise more, but she could not berate herself right now. They were going to meet villains, and she could afford to be having internal turmoil at the moment. The three heroes and the detective quickly made a tour of the perimeter, checking for traps. Mirko entered the warehouse first, kicking the door open. It fell on the ground with a loud thud, and dust flew off the ground in small clouds. The warehouse was empty safe for a few abandoned boxes. There were graffitis on the walls and no functioning light.

"Let's wait outside", Mirko said. "I want to see them arrive."

A few minutes later, a van with no plaques or visible brand arrived. It stopped a few meters away from their car, and people descended, slamming the doors. Momo tensed. Here he was. The leader of the Paranormal Liberation Front. He wore a black shirt and black jeans, and combat boots. She also noticed he was wearing a brace replacing three of his left fingers. 'To whom did he lose his fingers?', she thought, a lump in her throat, wondering who might be able to tear apart his hand before Decay could do its destructive job. The most impressive thing about him however was the absence of the usual fourteen hands glued to his body. She had no idea what had happened to him, but she was certain he was much more dangerous than he used to.

Momo then assessed his two subordinates. There was Dabi, who had not changed much, although he did seem a bit healthier, his scars looking slightly better. She mentally grimaced. She was not one to wish harm to others, but she disliked the idea of the Paranormal Liberation Front known members to get stronger. They were already strong enough, as far as she was concerned. Spinner had not changed at all; maybe he had even more blades than he had the last he had been sighted but he was not a threat.

The two groups stared at each other in deafening silence for a few seconds before Shigaraki took a step towards them. Mirko did the same. Detective Tsukaushi might be in charge of the case but here, the law of the strongest had taken over, and Mirko stood above all. Momo sensed her body tense and gulped. Negotiations were about to begin.