Chapter Fifteen
~Shina's POV~
"Do I dare ask why you want to include the Hero Killer?" Shina asked in disbelief when she'd joined Shigaraki at the bar that night. She hadn't even bothered to sit down, instead standing in the middle of the room with her arms crossed, glaring at the newly healed Shigaraki who was sipping his drink unbothered by her anger.
"I thought you'd be thrilled to have a partner." Shina's glare darkened.
"If you want to include the Hero Killer be my guest but I am not working with him. I have my own group and while we are on loan to you, that doesn't mean I will be exposing my clansmen to anyone I haven't fully researched."
"You seem to know a lot about the Hero Killer already." Shigaraki mused. Shina was getting tired of how disinterested he seemed. While she felt her anger was appropriate she had to remind herself that this was essentially a child she was talking to.
"Only what the media has portrayed, and they aren't always reliable. As you well know or should know." She muttered the last sentence under her breath. "In any case I doubt he'd want to work with me. His ideals seem to be to kill anyone parading around as a hero or using their Quirks for selfish reasons. I doubt our goals align as I'm not a killer and considering I steal for my own interests; you can make the leap from there."
"Would you say my goals and his align?" Shigaraki asked.
"Honestly? I have no clue. As I said, I would have to research him and his ideals further. You may have matching ideals on the surface but perhaps those ideals differ greatly underneath. In which case, I can't say he won't just kill you or us for that difference." Shigaraki glanced at her, turning his head slightly.
"What makes you say that?"
"If our goals were perfectly aligned but after some time they differed and I had no desire to continue with 'world domination', would you allow me to leave peacefully?" Shina asked rhetorically. "If I was the one who had hired you and this situation was presented, I doubt I would feel comfortable letting you wander free. Especially since you know certain things about me that I would prefer remained secret."
"And you would kill me to keep those secrets?" Shigaraki asked. Shina relaxed her tense frame and moved closer to the bar to accept the drink Kurogiri placed in front of her.
"To keep myself and my clansmen safe?" Shina asked, "No doubt." She took a sip of her drink before she met his gaze. "Thankfully I don't have to worry about that with you since my services are bought and paid for. My loyalty to my clientele is absolute."
"Is it now?" Shigaraki asked. Shina hummed.
"As long as you stick with the contract guidelines we shall have no problems. Do you have any other candidates besides the Hero Killer?" Shigaraki took a sip of his drink before he spoke.
"I have asked Giren to recommend some known interests. Beyond that I have no other way to find candidates unless you have some recommendations yourself?" Shina thought about it before shrugging.
"Most of my connections are based in other parts of the world, I may be able to refer someone from time to time however I don't really have any contacts in the villain game."
"Are most of your contacts thieves also?" Kurogiri asked.
"Some of them." Shina stated honestly. "Most of them have their own issues and lives so I wouldn't feel comfortable dragging them halfway around the world for this."
"Not even to help aide the League's future plans?" Shina gave Shigaraki a side eye as she asked,
"Do you have the League's future plans thought out beyond 'Kill All Might'?" He glared at her before looking straight ahead.
"That's what joining with Stain the Hero Killer would help accomplish."
"A Nomu couldn't kill him, and it was superpowered." Shina stated flatly.
"Stain wouldn't kill All Might." Shigaraki growled, becoming impatient with her. "I have no doubt that he will either accept or decline the offer to join the League. Either way, I have a backup plan."
"Ah, I see you've learned from the school of Shina about the back up plans." Shina mused as she finished off her drink. "If you've already made up your mind on bringing in Stain, when are you going to ask him to join the League?"
"Once Kurogiri finds him we will bring him in." Shigaraki stated.
"I am hoping to locate Stain the Hero Killer within the next 48 hours." Kurogiri announced. Shina nodded.
"In that case I will try and come by after that. Let me know how it goes."
"I want you here." Shigaraki stated. Shina froze from getting up off the barstool at the order. She frowned in confusion at Shigaraki, intending to object but he continued to speak. "You are essentially my right hand while Kurogiri is my left hand. If your loyalty is absolute then I expect you to be present during this upcoming meet. Who knows, you could be the deciding factor in having Stain join us."
"Or I could be the thing that breaks it." Shina stated. Shigaraki gave her a creepy grin. "Ugh, okay fine I'll be here just please don't smile at me like that. It's like facing the Jeepers Creepers guy in the second movie."
"You watch outdated movies." Shigaraki said as he returned to his drink.
"Call it a hobby." Shina snapped as she pulled her mask and hood back up. "Call me when you find Stain. Kurogiri can bring me in, or I'll have my clansman portal me in."
"Fine." Shina exited the bar, climbing up the steps to the streets above. She didn't have anything else to do currently. With her own personal programs at home categorizing all the Heroes data from the USB she'd stolen from the Hero Commission; her job was essentially done. The kids were already asleep due to the Sports Festival injuries and fatigue they'd sustained, she didn't want to over do it for them by calling and waking them up to do a job.
Guess she was going to have to do a job on her own. Shina grinned in excitement. She had been meaning to hit the jewelry store that opened downtown. They had some exquisite pieces that she wanted to look at in person.
With that Shina was on her bike and racing downtown.
She came to a stop in a lesser used alleyway that she'd hidden her bike in before. The jewelry store was only four blocks away and it was a good distance to lose any Heroes if she was caught. Shina swung her leg over the bike, tightened her small pack on her back and glanced up at the rooftops. She pulled out a light rope and hopped her way up the building. Thankfully there weren't many heroes who surveyed the rooftops especially on moonless nights.
A quick jump over the alleyway to the next building was repeated a few more times until Shina landed on the building of the jewelry store. The rooftop's ventilation system was usually the best way to go down so with a quick swipe of her light sword she was entering the metal maze. She made quick work shimmying through the vents to the janitorial closet. When Shina was safely sitting inside the closet she waited a few minutes to get her nerves under control before she opened the circuit breaker and switched the electricity off.
Shina smiled as she opened the door wider and glanced around the store's interior. There wouldn't be anything in the jewelry cases per the stores policy, everything would be locked up to prevent thieves like her from getting any bright ideas but, she didn't exactly need Kana's portal abilities for breaking locks. Shina found the large metal safe easily enough. All it took was another light sword to cut through the locks and the safe swung open.
There was an assortment of necklaces, rings, and bracelets that Shina couldn't help but stare at for a minute as her Gremlin mode awoke and simply muttered, 'Precious'. She shook her head, snapping out of it before she started to load up her bag. When the bag was full there was sadly still some jewels left in the safe. Shina didn't try to over do it though as that had been a hard lesson learned. Instead, she pulled out a small plastic trash bag that she'd swiped from the janitor's closet and put the rest of the jewels inside it. This one was something she'd have to come back for later.
Shina left through the back door, not bothering to turn on the electricity as that would take too much time and she didn't want to have to destroy the security system. Shina hid the jewelry in the plastic trash bag under the sewer grate before she glanced around a final time. She then made another light rope and jumped up to the rooftops.
A quick flash of pain on her cheek had her freezing in place.
"Good to see you again." The woman in front of her drawled. Shina unfroze, her mind thinking this through on how to escape.
"You know, I didn't think a bunny would carry around any weapons." Shina called. "I thought it was just you and those freakishly strong legs."
"Have to improvise especially when you keep evading every Hero you run into." Mirko jumped at her, but Shina quickly dodged it by rolling to the side.
"Well let's be honest here hunny bunny." Shina grinned as she stood up with two light swords in hand. "Do you guys really want to catch me? Cause I'm all kinds of fun."
"You and your clansmen caused all kinds of chaos during that prank you pulled a couple weeks back." Mirko said as she attempted to fight Shina. Shina couldn't dodge the fast rabbit so she merely blocked with light shields when she could. The kicks were stronger than her fists and pushed her back until she was pressed against the edge of the roof. "I will not make the mistake to allow you to escape this time."
"I mean that sounds like something Hawks promised also, and I got away from him too." Shina grunted. "So much for the 'fastest man alive'."
"No offense to the bird brain, but women are so much better at handling these kinds of things." Mirko then kicked harder than necessary pushing Shina backward off the roof. Shina twisted her body and grabbed the ledge of the roof top. She kicked the wall, pushing her backwards into the air. She was aiming for the building's rooftop across this building, but her heel ended up getting caught on the rooftop's edge making her back hit the rooftops floor before she rolled to land in a sloppy crouch.
"What was that move?" Mirko snorted. She was already on the rooftop watching Shina as she groaned.
"Be quiet! I doubt you could recover from that gracefully."
"I would recover better than that at least." Mirko laughed. Shina growled and swiped her left arm, making a light whip that struck where Mirko had stood initially. Shina got up, groaning in pain before she jumped to the side out of Mirko's kick. "How have we been letting you escape if you can't fight that well?"
"Oh, it's simple really," Shina snapped. "I don't fight you guys seriously. In fact, I take great pleasure in just frustrating you guys off as much as possible. Kinda like this." Shina stepped off the roof, going invisible as she stepped into the shadows. When she looked up she saw Mirko looking down in the dark, trying to find her. Shina created multiple illusions of herself and sent them running out of the alleyway. She joined one group and they spilled into the streets, escaping Mirko who screamed in frustration. Shina chuckled evilly as she and her illusions vaulted over cars and people, effectively making an escape.
Shina ran through the streets, her illusions splitting off from her until she was the last one. She herself hid in an alley as she took a deep breath and cancelled her illusions. The fatigue was enough to have her almost take a quick nap right here. The only thing keeping her moving was the fact that this alleyway wasn't very safe, and she had jewels that, if found, were going to either get her locked up or have some other mugger very motivated to attacking. Not that she would allow that. Shina used her illusions to turn herself into another person as she walked through the streets of Japan as a regular woman with very boring looks.
About an hour later, Shina was back at her bike wondering how it had gotten ridiculous in evading the top 10 Pro Heroes in Japan. She was just glad that the kids didn't have to deal with this kind of thing. At least now she wouldn't have to worry about any more jobs for this week, at least unless she couldn't help going after the shiny jewels.
~Kana's POV~
"I had all these people talking to me on the way here!" Mina gushed when Kana entered the classroom with James and Yuto behind her.
"Same here! So many stares it was embarrassing." Hagakure giggled.
"Me too!" Kirishima grinned at her when she sat down. "Morning Kana! Did you get any stares, or anyone try to talk to you about your placing in the Sports Festival?"
"Uh no." Kana answered.
"What?" Kirishima asked in shock.
"You're lying, you've gotta be lying!" Denki spoke up. "You did a great job in the festival. You sure no one's come and say this?"
"No." Kana thought back before she amended, "I mean the house staff and our cousin sister did throw us a party for doing good and placing in the top ten. But we don't really go out in public since there is everything we need at home."
"Well, what about when you walked to school?" Denki asked.
"We get dropped off at the gates." Kana stated matter-of-factly.
"So, you had a party with just the house staff and your cousin sister? That must have been lots of fun!" Uraraka asked. Kana smiled and nodded. "What about your parents? Did they say anything?"
"Uh Uraraka-" She saw the motions that Denki was giving as Kana hesitated to answer this question tactfully. It wasn't like it was a big deal but, she didn't want to bring down the high spirits.
"We don't have parents." James said bluntly as he dropped his bag on his desk. He gave a bored look at Uraraka who blushed in mortification. The rest of the class grew tense at that small bombshell. Kana noted Momo didn't seem shocked by that. She wondered how but was brought to the present as Uraraka stuttered, or tried to stutter, an apology.
"O-oh, I'm sorry I didn't mean to-"
"It's fine Uraraka." Yuto said, coming to her rescue. "You didn't know, and we don't hold that against anyone for not knowing. But in answer to your earlier question, yes the party we had was fun. I got to knock James into the pool."
"He died screaming." Kana stated as James sputtered. Kirishima and Denki laughed as did Momo and Hagakure. Uraraka relaxed and the talking proceeded at least until Aizawa came in.
"Morning." Aizawa greeted.
"Good morning. Good to see your bandages are off Mr. Aizawa." Tsu spoke.
"The old lady's treatment was excessive. But moving on, today we are going to be doing Hero Informatic's. And a special one at that." Aizawa muttered. "You'll be coming up with your hero aliases."
"AWESOME!" Kana was startled to hear the class erupt into cheers about their Hero names. She honestly hadn't given that portion of the class much thought. She'd assumed they wouldn't make this decision until they were older. Of course in her and her siblings case, she didn't think they would have to do this.
"But first…. Concerning the pro drafts. It's based on who the pros think will be ready to join the hero workforce after a few more years experience. You could say it's a way for them to show interest in your future. But it's not a done deal, all offers are retractable."
"Makes sense." Kana murmured under her breath. If for any reason something… controversial happened in the future, the heroes who didn't want to be associated with that had a way out. No negative press or smear on their agency. It was underhanded but in a world where heroes were all images and reputation, it made sense.
"So, if we're picked now that just means there will be higher hurdles in the years to come." Hagakure confirmed.
"Yes. Now here's the complete draft pick numbers."
On the board was a graph with the names TODOROKI, BAKUGOU at the top of the pile. NARA- JAMES, YUTO and KANA listed next. Below them were Tokoyami, Mina, Uraraka, Yaoyarozu, and Sero.
"There's typically more of a spread, but our top two stole the spotlight. With the Nara cousins coming in third."
"Hah! They're in a while other league." Denki groaned.
"Didn't they get first and second backwards?" Kirishima asked. "Kana got second. Why's she fifth?"
"These pros don't understand the valuable lesson of 'retreating'." Yuto said. Kana snickered.
"She ran away." James snorted. "I think the pros know EXACTLY what's up."
"Says the 'fraidy cat who won't walk down a dark hallway." Kana shot back.
"If it's a dark hall, why would I go down there? I've seen what happens to the people who are dumb enough to go down them in the horror movies." James shot back.
"It's our own house J." Yuto stated. Kana raised an eyebrow at James who glared at them for tag teaming him.
"You'll all have a chance to work alongside the pros even if you weren't picked. While it's true that you've already experienced more than most, seeing the pros in action and taking part in the experience will be worthwhile training."
"That's where our hero names come in." Sato grinned. Kana could feel the energy from him practically turning the air into sugar cubes.
"This is really getting fun!" Uraraka beamed.
"They're only tentative but you still want to pick something appropriate…"
"OR ELSE YOU'LL BE IN DIRE TROUBLE!" Midnight interrupted Aizawa as she came in. Kana listened patiently as Midnight explained how their Hero name would most likely follow them into adulthood.
White boards were passed out as well as black markers for everyone to write their names down on. Kana stated at her white board, thinking of a name she could go by. Egress was her thief persona more so because the literal definition was 'exit or leave'. She was the exit when they pulled jobs and she liked that. But here, as a hero … she wasn't sure what to put down.
"I have mine picked out already." Yuto murmured in her ear. Kana looked over at his desk to see 'The Shadow Hero: Shadow King' written in his board. Kana frowned at the obviousness. Yuto shrugged. "It doesn't have to be complicated." Translation: It won't make much of a difference in they long run. Kana supposed he was right. She looked down at her white board thinking for what felt like forever but was probably only ten minutes before she took off the cap of her marker and wrote her Hero name.
When it was her time to present her Hero name Kana stood tall in front of her classmates as they read her board. On it was the hero name 'Vex'.
"Why Vex?" Kirishima asked. Kana shrugged.
"I don't know. A play on the word 'Vortex'? It could also be due to the fact that vexing people runs in my family." Kana replied.
"I like it." Midnight stated happily. "Yes simple yet powerful. Good job." Kana nodded and sat back down in her seat.
"Good job everyone on your names." Aizawa sighed. "You'll be going by these names during your internships next week. Those of you who haven't chosen your respective Internship will need to turn those in by the end of today. Class dismissed."
"Have you chosen an agency Kana?" Denki asked, turning in his chair to initiate a conversation with her.
"Yes. It was a difficult choice, but I figured Gunhead's agency would be the best for me."
"Really? Isn't that a bit hardcore?" Kirishima asked.
"It is an odd choice I know. My cousins were confused also but," Kana glanced down at her hands, nervously fidgeting them. "As good as I am with my portals, physically I'm not that good at hand-to-hand combat. I have the strength but it's an unutilized tool right now. I want to be able to do better, physically,. Gun Head I think would be the perfect person to do this with. Or at least get me started."
"That makes sense." Kirishima nodded. "I'm going to one of the hero agencies in the city that deals with big-time crime."
"Like a detective agency?" Kana asked in amusement.
"No." Kirishima grinned. "I want to get a lot of action and this agency I picked would be the perfect one to help with this."
"Right." Kana breathed out slowly. "Well, I hope you have a good time and learn a lot."
"You too." Kana felt her phone buzz and pulled it out to check her notifications before she looked up to find Denki. She wanted to ask him about the agency he chose but he had gone to talk with Shogi for a moment.
"Where are you going Tokoyami?" She heard Yuto ask.
"I chose to go with the Flying Hero Hawks. He seemed the best fit." Kana stopped thinking of Denki so she could overhear this conversation.
"Really? That worked out then, I'm going to his agency also."
"That is surprising. I would have thought you would have gone to another agency like Edge Shot." Tokoyami stated.
"Eh, I mean being a ninja is cool, but I want to work on my speed and well, he's the fastest Hero in Japan. Who better to get some tips from?"
"The hare is not always the winner."
"But a turtle who perseveres can overcome anything." Kana was lost after that and ignored the two semi-emo boys. Denki was coming back so Kana refocused to ask him questions about his agency pick.
The rest of the day was spent with some last-minute tips from Aizawa in getting ready for their internships. By the time school was over everyone in their class had an agency picked out. Kana was nervous but also excited about next week.
"You sure you want to go to his agency?" Kana asked James as they walked out of school later that day.
"He may not be popular, but I think it would be a missed opportunity if I skipped his agency after he did put in a request. I'm not going to look a gift horse in the mouth." James stated. "Plus, it would give more info on him that Shina can learn about when I get home."
"You sure you're not just going because you're worried about Shoto?" Yuto asked.
"No." James snapped. Kana raised an eyebrow and looked at Yuto who had a knowing smirk on his face. She rolled her eyes at Yuto who laughed. "Be quiet you two." James ordered.
"You know, I'm feeling a bit left out." Kana sighed as they loitered on the sidewalk, waiting for Shina to come pick them up. "You both went to top hero agencies, and I went to Gun Head."
"You could have gone to a different agency, and you know it. You chose Gun Head. It's not our fault he's not a top 10 hero." James reminded.
"I know its just," Kana shrugged. "Feels like you guys get to report more info than I will for next week."
"Don't worry," Yuto stated, patting her head. Kana swiped at him angrily. "Your time will come angry kitten."
"I AM NOT A KITTEN!" Kana hissed as the car rolled up. The windows were down unfortunately so Shina heard her exclamation.
"Sure, you are." Shina called. "You have the most delicate claws and the prettiest fangs that only 4 week old kittens have."
"It's Kitty Soft Paws with her puffed up fur and the cutest sneeze." James cackled.
"I hate all of you." Kana muttered.
GM NASAI: Happy Memorial Day!