Days later Tohru stood with Kurogiri outside of the bar, admiring the new sign. At least, they would have been admiring it if it weren't for a glaring problem. Kurogiri had gone all out with a new digital sign, large enough to advertise the name for anyone passing by - which admittedly, wouldn't be that many people in this back alleyway - with a plethora of options for customizing it. Alas, either the sign arrived defective or Shigaraki must have brushed it for but a moment because it was already broken. Kurogiri could only stare at it in dejected misery.

"I didn't think we were actually rebranding." Tohru said. "I like 'Go In.' It's better than the last one."

"We're not 'Go In,'" Kurogiri grumbled.

Tohru watched the name scroll by yet again on the large screen on its deliberate if misnamed march to nowhere. There was an odd space between the 'G' and the 'O' but it was otherwise readable, if awkward. A bit like the people running the place, she supposed.

"Well," she offered, trying to sound hopeful. "We do need people to do… that. Maybe it'll be good for business?"

"I have business to take care of in the back," Kurogiri declared, his wispy head shaking in frustration. "The bar is yours."

"Sure thing, boss."

Kurogiri stopped, a grumble escaping his gassy form. Tohru couldn't be sure but judging from his posture, he seemed to be mulling something over.

"Sakaime Tohru. You've been with us… longer than expected," Kurogiri started and Tohnru tried not to feel insulted. It was just as likely that Shigaraki had scared off any other potential employees as it was a jab at her. Kurogiri continued, "I suppose it wouldn't hurt if you kept an eye out for … prospective clients or other patrons who might be interested in becoming… regulars. Yes, regulars, at… the bar."

"We don't get a lot of new faces, you know," Tohru replied, wondering why he kept pausing before words like that.

"Regardless, just keep an eye out. If you see someone who might… fit in, take their name and contact information. Find a sales pitch if you must."

How did you pitch a questionable theme bar in a positive light? "All right..."

Kurogiri said nothing else and disappeared into the back room. Tohru was almost certain it was just the kitchen back there but maybe the man just needed some alone time. Or stress baking. She hoped it was stress baking.

Tohru had the radio tuned to the U.A. sports festival. It sounded like there were a lot of exciting things going on back at her old school. She could feel herself wearing a sad smile as she numbly did chores around the bar. She did miss the place. The old memories were all she could think about. Mr. Compress was no help. He was hanging out but keeping to himself. Literally. The man was playing three games of solitaire at his corner of the bar. When a deck bored him he compressed it down into a marble and started a new one.

Tohru was shining up a few glasses when the door opened with a flourish, almost slamming on its hinges. Tohru nearly dropped the stein; no one, not even Shigaraki, opened the door like that. And that was definitely a new face right here, right now, in the bar with identity issues.

"Hi! Uh, welcome to uh- erm, Welcome!" Tohru started.

"'Go In', huh?" the stranger declared with an enthusiastic smile.

"Well, that is, we're actually-"

"An English pub is a little different from what I usually prefer but I might find something here that I'll like! Please tell me you have a good selection of teas here," the stranger continued.

The man was tall, dignified and bristling with energy. He was also sharply dressed, flamboyantly so, with formal pants, gloves, a cane and what was going on with his coat and collar?

'Oh, Kurogiri would love this.'

"We're a little limited on our selection of teas but could I interest you in a gin or maybe a malted stout if you're looking for something of an English theme?" Tohru offered.

"Oh well, perhaps, but I'm more interested in teas," the man replied with a hearty chuckle.

"Well, I suppose I might have a tea or two somewhere," Tohru said, the gears in her head spinning. ' Kurogiri never mentioned it but maybe there's a bonus in recruiting new people. I'll have to persuade him he meant to give those when he gets back.'

" You know, we're a bit of a theme bar," Tohru added, taking the chance that a man wearing a cape in broad daylight might like that sort of thing.

"Oh?"

"Yep, and we're always looking to attract new clients. My boss might be willing to give you more information when he gets back. In fact, I'm sure you both would get along just fine. I almost bet you have a lot in common."

"Is that so? Well, how about we discuss that over a cup of your finest tea!" the gentleman declared.

"Let me heat up the water and I'll be right back!" Tohru replied with a smile.

Tohru was proud of herself. She was going to get this new client, she just knew it. He obviously was serious about his teas but there was something about him, a sort of aura, that told Tohru he would probably fit right in with Kurogiri and Shigaraki and the others. Well, maybe not Shigaraki specifically but who did? Besides, what was a tea fixation alongside a man with too many hands, a marble magician and a grumpy cloud for a direct supervisor?

"Listening to the U.A. sports festival?" the elegant stranger asked, finally paying attention to the radio.

"Yeah," Tohru replied, searching the cabinets under the bar for tea. She was certain she had seen some sort of it once before. Finally she located the forgotten tin and held it up in triumph. Catching the action too late to stop it Tohru glances in the direction of the stranger; he hadn't seemed to notice.

"That's such a big event," the stranger said. "Can you imagine getting into that place, er, event? I imagine that there aren't a lot of...events that someone from the general public could, ah, participate in."

"There's the school festival too," Tohru said, thinking about the first and only one she participated in. "That'll be in a few months."

"A few months? Indeed, you're right!" the stranger declared, seeming more chipper than ever. Distantly, Tohru wondered how long it took him to do his eyeliner in the morning.

"There should already be a kettle on in the kitchen," Tohru said. "Let me go get it."

Tohru did her best not to awkwardly scramble to the back. Fake it till you make it. Opening the back door she found Kurogiri finishing up an inventory and was scribbling over some order forms.

"Kurogiri," Tohru breathed. "I think I found a new client!"

"Oh?"

"You'll like him, I promise! He seems like just your type. Mr. Compress thinks he's being subtle but I've caught him watching the guy as well. He'll fit right in with all of you." Maybe all of you can pass notes on your tailors.

"I'll be right there."

Tohru returned with the cup of tea, complete with a fancy cup and saucer (an absolutely amazing find in this bar), and passed it to the mustached man. It looked like Mr. Compress had finally decided to talk with the man, both of them were having a conversation on all the "flaws of heroes these days."

"My boss will be with you in a moment," Tohru smiled.

"Of course, of course," the stranger chuckled before taking a sip of the tea. She caught him frowning at the tea but immediately forgot about it when Mr. Compress made a disparaging joke about Endeavor. Even Tohru had to laugh about it.

Kurogiri emerged from the back. Tohru tried to keep herself from beaming. The three men all shared a nod of admiration for each other in that moment. It was almost as if they were wearing a uniform, one that proudly displayed their tastes and hinted at their ideals.

"Let me get my immediate superior," Kurogiri announced. "He'll want to be here."

It wasn't long before Kurogiri arrived, leading Shigaraki down the steps. Tohru had to keep herself from cringing. Shigaraki was his usual unkempt self. Maybe it was time for Kurogiri to start a dress code policy. The stranger must've felt the same way. He set his tea down and leaned in close to Tohru.

"I say, Miss," he whispered conspiratorially, as if the hand he lifted to his mouth would actually muffle the sound. "Is that… man the owner?"

Unfortunately , Tohru thought about saying. But with both Shigaraki and Kurogiri within earshot that was likely a bad idea. "He's my boss' supervisor so that would make him the big boss."

"Oh. Oh dear. Oh no. Nope," the stranger muttered. Tohru felt her heart sink as the man turned, his cape fluttering as he ejected himself out the door, leaving it open as he did.

"There he goes…" Tohru said dimly. The man disappeared nearly as quickly as he'd come. How, exactly, did someone with a cape that large just disappear?

Shigaraki grumbled, dropping into the vacated seat. "Giant waste of my time. I don't care what Kurogiri said, you're not allowed to look for new assets unless they're canonfodder mooks."

"Yeesh," Tohru made a face. "It was your grubby appearance that scared him off."

"What was that?"

"Nothing~," she corrected, pleasant smile returning. "But since you're out here, can I get you anything?" An actual lunch, maybe? Something hearty to put some meat on his scrawny ass bones.

Shigaraki said nothing, still clearly sulking, as he waved her back to the bar. Tohru shrugged and did as she was told.

When she returned to the bar she was surprised that Kurogiri was working beside her, helping her shine the glasses. She was even more surprised when he was the first to speak up.

"Why did you drop out of U.A.?"

The suddenness of the question should have made her pause; the fact that Kurogiri even bothered to ask should have caught her by surprise. If she had thought about it for longer than it took to form an answer it might have.

"I'm sorry," Tohru said before she could even think better of it. "But you must be a Level Three Friend to unlock my Tragic Backstory."

"Is it tragic?" Kurogiri wondered, sounding skeptic, but his criticism was lost to the scraping sound of the chair Shigaraki was seated in. Suddenly interested, the pale-haired man abandoned his pouting table and crossed the room to the bar counter.

"Levels? What level are we at now?"

Tohru considered, placing a finger to her chin and making a show of thinking the question over. "-2."

"Negative," Shigaraki repeated blankly before pivoting into annoyance, "There can't be negatives. That's not how the scale works."

Tohru shrugged. "Maybe I'm the ending locked secret character that you can't get on your first playthrough."

She could feel his eyes narrowing behind that hand he insisted on wearing and Tohru wondered just how many people in his life had ever told him 'no'. "Cheat codes it is, then."

Tohru blinked, "Cheat codes?"

Instead of answering Shigaraki simply turned on his heel (making that horrible screeching noise with his sneakers) and loped out of the bar, giving no indication of what he was doing or where he was going. The only thing that even closed the front door behind him had been gravity.

"You know," Tohru began, when it was just the two of them in the room. "He's probably going to be disappointed, it's really not all that exciting."

Kurogiri sighed, the action rippling his smoky form. "I don't recommend antagonizing Shigaraki Tomura."

"Aw, a little is good for him. Probably." she countered, smothering the urge to stick out her tongue in protest. "Anyway, I didn't expect you to ask about my past. You haven't really seemed that interested, to be honest."

Kurogiri's eyes narrowed a bit, but not at her. He seemed to be having a moment of introspection. "It seems important," he started. "I'm not ignorant of our clientele's...eccentricities. They may begin talking to you whether you like it or not. And it's my job to look after our staff's overall well being."

"Oh. Thanks," Tohru replied, a little surprised.

"Keeping tabs on your old school?" Kurogiri asked, motioning towards the radio.

"Yes. I was just thinking about the training camp they had in the summer."

"Training camp?" Kurogiri asked, curiosity rising in his voice.

"Yep. It was a lot of fun. Er, fun that made you feel like dying but I'm pretty sure that's just U.A.'s idea of fun. They said they always had different consultants each year. I heard talk among the Pro Hero circuit is that the Wild Wild Pussycats are a popular choice for putting the students through the ringer this year," Tohru sighed, almost wistful, though she didn't envy the camp itself. Back in the day she had thought about interning with the group, but they had still been relatively new and hadn't been taking on interns.

"Interesting…" A pause. "You hear Pro Hero gossip?"

"Eh," Tohru shrugged, "Just a bit here and there."

"I return," Shigaraki declared, twenty minutes later, kicking the front door open as he entered, "with Cheat Codes."

He presented some sort of box and it wasn't until he reached the bar counter that Tohru recognized it as being from the fancy bakery by the station: Triol. Shigaraki set the box in front of her and when she did nothing but stare blankly he scooted it closer.

"Tell me your secrets."

The corner of Tohru's mouth twitched and she wasn't sure if she should laugh or feel insulted. Undecided, she glanced at the cake box. It seemed to sparkle in the dim bar light. There was no way this was actually cake from Triol. They had a waiting list at least a week out. And yet…

"I don't want to encourage this behavior," Tohru said, even as she reached out to pull the cake box to her. "But I do want cake, so, just this once." She paused, considering her words. He might have led with 'tell me your secrets' but he only really expected to know what had caused her to leave U.A. "I had a building fall on me."

Shigaraki reached out, hooking a finger under the cake box handle and pulling it back to him. "Elaborate."

Tohru frowned, but the siren call of the cake was strong. "So, I was in my second year, right? And second year is when students do a sort of work study or internship with Pro Heroes. Well my first choice wasn't taking students on and I didn't really have another one in mind so I just sort of started applying." Not the best plan but it had worked out well, all things considered. "I ended up with FatGum. He'd only been a Pro for a few years at the time, so it was pretty unusual for him to take a work study, but he's a good guy and I think he took pity on me."

Shigaraki leaned across the counter toward Kurogiri, not bothering to whisper even though his body language said that he clearly expected not to be heard. "Which one is that?"

Kurogiri said nothing, simply stared forward with a look that read as 'If you were anyone else I'd call you an idiot'.

Tohru's eyes narrowed but Shigaraki only waved a hand for her to continue.

She huffed, annoyed and defensive of her brief mentor. "So we have a run in with a villain, right? Real big on structural damage but something of a glass jaw when it came to close combat. So we just had to buy time until we could get in close and punch him. No problem except some fuckass college kid decided to sneak in past the evacuation zone to try and film the fight on his phone. As if that wasn't bad enough the idiot chose the most structurally unstable building to stand under. The next attack finally broke it but he didn't notice because he was too focused on his filming."

"And he died horribly!" Shigaraki provided, sounding oddly gleeful. He cackled and Tohru really hoped it wasn't at the idea of someone getting squished under tons of rubble. "What a loser."

"N… no." Tohru said slowly. "I, uh, caught the rubble. For lack of a better word. It… didn't end well."

"And?"

Tohru's eyebrows rose, unsure of what to say. She glanced at Kurogiri; he remained stoic and unhelpful. "And the human body makes some really gross crunching noises when caught under a large amount of concrete and rebar?"

"I'm sorry," Compress began, reminding everyone of his presence. "But are you saying that your first thought was to catch the rubble? Why not simply move the idiot?"

"To be fair," Tohru began, "Having a building fall on your head isn't likely to lead to smart choices."

Mr. Compress opened his mouth (presumably) to argue that the building hadn't fallen on her yet but Kurogiri interrupted. "In my experience it only made me smarter."

There was a beat in which Tohru realized that he must be joking and laughed. "Once again, Kurogiri is the exception." In her pocket her phone buzzed once, twice, and a third time making it impossible to ignore. "Excuse me, this might be important."

The messages were from Miku and multiplying so fast that Tohru wasn't sure what she was yelling about.

Miku: (WITH CHAINS.)

Miku: (AND A MUZZLE.)

Miku: (Like a legit muzzle. What is wrong with these people?!)

Miku: (Is this NORMAL? DID THEY DO THIS TO YOU?!)

When the text finally paused Tohru was able to scroll up to see what had set her friend off. It was a series of pictures, taken from the TV screen, of a blonde kid in uniform, straining against the very visible and bulky looking restraints holding him to a post. It took a minute of Tohru recalling what she'd heard on the radio to place the actual person.

Bakugou Katsuki. The kid from the slime villain incident a few months back.

"Oh," Tohru said, gripping her phone so tightly her screen protector cracked. "They did not ."

"What?" Shigaraki asked, attempting to see around her shoulder. "What?"

"Excuse me," Tohru half-growled, completely ignoring the man as she scrolled through her phone to find a number. "I have a few calls to make."

It took about a minute for her to find the number she was looking for and another three rings before the other end of the line was picked up.

"Helloooo, dear listener!" came the recognizable (and loud) voice of Present Mic, causing her phone speaker to crackle. "Welcome to the Extra Special edition of our show- U.A. School Sports Festival edition!"

"Are you really doing this now?" Tohru almost missed Aizawa's tired gripe, somehow still audible in the background despite the audio crackle.

"What the ever-loving FUCK is your problem?" Tohru began, completely missing Mr. Compress fumbling his cards at his end of the bar.

"Excuse-?"

"You can't just strap a child to a post on INTERNATIONAL TELEVISION." she gave a large sweeping motion, nearly smacking Shigaraki in the face, as if to gesture to the TV despite the fact it wasn't even on. "What were you thinking?"

"Would you have preferred-" the voice had switched to Aizawa's, implying that he had taken the phone but Tohru wasn't listening to excuses.

"No, don't answer that. Because you weren't thinking, obviously. I don't care what sort of anger issues he has, he obviously doesn't want to be there and if you were worried about him embarrassing the school or whatever then don't force him to be on stage . Have a stand in accept his award or whatever, it's not that hard. AND it probably looks better for U.A. than to have a student STRAPPED TO A POST. Nevermind the embarrassment and possible PTSD you could have dredged up by-"

Click.

"Oh! He hung up on me ," Tohru hissed, looking at her phone screen, expression caught between surprise and her anger from earlier.

"You should do something about that," Shigaraki prompted, something like excitement coloring his words.

"I should," Tohru agreed, shoving her phone back into her pocket. "You should give him a piece of your mind!" Shigaraki continued, almost bouncing a little in his seat. "Confront him? Chew him out? Hit him with a bat?"

Tohru took two steps toward the end of the bar before she paused, frowning. "No, that's a terrible idea."

Shigaraki deflated, leaning across the counter with a groan. A bit like a child denied his favorite cartoon. "You're killing me, Miss Love and Kindness."

"Oh, I could write some very angry letters to Principal Nezu."

Shigaraki groaned louder. The only thing keeping him from smacking his head against the counter top was that hand he insisted on wearing over his face.

She had been joking, mostly, but even as much as she wanted to, Tohru knew that ambushing a Pro Hero-turned-teacher at the school gates would only end poorly. And any of the points she had to make would go completely unheard.

"Listen," Tohru started, rubbing the back of her neck. "After all that's happened today, I'm finding myself not in the best of moods and my shift is almost over. Would it be okay if I left early?"

"I might have one last chore you might enjoy," Kurogiri said, putting away the final glass.

"Oh?" Tohru asked, curious, and Kurogiri produced a bat from beneath the bar. It was labeled 'security' in the fanciest calligraphy she had seen outside of the Todoroki household. But somehow, she doubted the bat had ever, or would ever, be used for its labeled purpose.

"We're giving up on the sign outside. Feel free to… remove it," he said, offering it to her.

"What should I do with the pieces?"

"Leave them. I'll take care of that," Kurogiri replied. And, as if to explain, he took the cold cup of tea from hours ago and poured it into an open palm. The liquid promptly vanished.

Tohru broke into a smile.