"You want to become stronger?" The question hung in the air; an amused look displayed on Shigaraki's expression as he watched Souseiki nod her head. "No offense," he said, crossing the room and picking up his phone off the bar's counter, "but we really aren't in the hero making department."

The room grew silent as the response was given. Souseiki remained with her head low and her gaze on her cup of coffee. "There must be a way, right? Maybe I can learn to turn off my quirk or expand the area affected by it," she rambled while stirring the brown liquid to simmer down the heat. "If it were possible, I want to be able to help you in any way I can," she muttered softly in the end. She had decided to bring up her concerns now that Shigaraki was more so healed and bathed.

He didn't seem to understand the need for her to become stronger in his head. The idea of her becoming stronger meant she would no longer need him and would be able to stand on her own without him as a crutch. Just the mere thought of it rubbed him the wrong way. Why in the world did she think he, of all people, needed help? Had her thoughts about him withered with their time spent together? Did she not see him as the strong leader who took care of her from the start anymore? These new concerns began to trouble the man. Shigaraki knew he was more than capable of taking care of them both, so why did she feel the need to become stronger? He knew there wasn't a way for her to expand her quirk or "turn it off"; as she had aforementioned. Such possibilities had already been discussed with the doctor when she first joined his party. Her quirk was what it was. "I can take care of us," he grumbled as he slid into a stool beside her.

"It's not about taking care of me," she sighed, turning to look at the man. She waited to see if he would reply with anything else, but all he did was take her coffee cup and drink from it. "Should I learn to fight? Maybe at least carry a knife with me?" Souseiki watched him intensely, but all he did was glance at her from the corner of his eye and kept drinking the coffee. "Let me put it this way: if someone kidnaps me, or the heroes take me, I want to be able to have a fighting cha-"

Shigaraki set the coffee cup down, cutting off her speech, "You'll be fine," he said in a sharp tone as he finally turned his head to make direct eye contact. "Nothing has happened to us yet, and it never will," he said, raising his hand to his neck and angrily scratching at it, "Why would a hero get us? I'm not done yet, I have to-"

"Okay," Souseiki said softly, snatching his hand away from his neck and holding it in her small ones. "We're fine then," she smiled; despite being unsure of the decision. Shigaraki, for once, did not appreciate the gesture and snatched his arm back. He stared at her with narrowed eyes until she quickly apologized and picked up the cup before leaving to the kitchen.

To say Shigaraki was irritated would be an understatement. He was livid. Five entire years and she comes up with this shit because of a mere accident. Such an accident didn't happen because of his lack of awareness. His wounds happened because of a lack of intel. Shigaraki had underestimated the student's strength and tenacity. Neither would he have ever imagined that Kurogiri would let one slip past him.

Yet, it happened.

He couldn't dwell on the past though. He had to continue moving forward, if not there wouldn't be a chance for him to exact his revenge on the hero society.

On All Might and that new kid.

His thoughts didn't travel far before Kurogiri stepped into the room with a newspaper in hand. He sets it down on the counter and points at a small advertisement, "UA's sports festival starts today," he mentions looking at the young leader.

"Isn't that the school you two went to a few weeks ago?" Souseiki asked as she brought out a second cup of coffee for herself. She sips at the warm drink as she looks back and forth from Shigaraki and Kurogiri.

"Yeah," Shigaraki replied as he stood up from his seat, "Come on. We're gonna watch it in my room."

Souseiki's nose scrunched as she watched him stand up, "Tomura, no offense but your room is a shithole these days."

Shigaraki looked over his shoulder and clicked his tongue, "I cleaned it last night. Are you coming or not?"

Hearing the short banter, Kurogiri turned around and held in a laugh. He knew Souseiki didn't trust the leader's hygiene, let alone the cleanliness of his room. Despite that, he also knew she would follow him anywhere if he ordered her to. He turned to look back at the two once again and saw the woman following Shigaraki down the hallway, but she didn't enter the room behind him. She stood there with a scowl on her face with her mug of coffee under her nose.

Maybe to mask the stench.

"It's clean!" Shigaraki shouted in his defense even though Souseiki hasn't said a word, but her actions did say it all.

She stepped forward a bit and took a look into the room. All the clothes that were previously on the floor a few days ago were in the closet, but he hadn't bothered washing them just yet. "Just because you emptied a can of Febreeze in here doesn't mean you cleaned," she deadpanned as she took a quick sniff. All that wafted into her nose was a mixture of sweat and what she would guess was "Ocean Breeze". " You should disintegrate your dirty clothes, Tomura. No amount of wash cycles is going to make that rancid smell go away."

Shigaraki took Father off his face and set him down on his surprisingly clean desk. "You're a fucking comedian, aren't you?" he asks rhetorically as he sets himself in his chair and turns on the computer screen.

"Yes," she replies, setting down her mug on his desk and wrapping Father around it. "I'll go dump your laundry in the machine while you start that up. I'm going now," she tells him before leaving with his dirty hamper. It's sort of become a rule of sorts to tell him when she's leaving his side. Shigaraki has become accustomed to holding things normally when she's around, so much so that he forgets about his quirk if she leaves the room unannounced. Recently, Kurogiri has had to buy more glasses due to this.

Shigaraki leans back into his computer chair and pulls up the live local news station that's filming the Sports Festival at UA. His tired eyes flit over the screen as Present Mic over excitedly announces this year's first challenge for the teenagers. Immediately after the the loud hero is done with introductions the races start and off goes the swarm of children

He watches intensely, looking for that certain teenager that ruined his chances at defeating All Might. He was looking for the number one hero's Player Two. The race started off slow, but quickly picked up pace, then there he was. A green haired boy with wide eyes flew across his screen as he got ahead in the race, it was that little shit that helped over power All Might. "Tch, I'll get him."

Behind him, he could hear Souseiki's footsteps as she made her way into his room and took a seat on the undone bed behind him. She picked at her nails a bit before looking up to the monitor. "Holy crap," she muttered to herself as she stood up and hovered over Shigaraki. She too became sucked into the annual Sports Festival. It was nothing special per-say. He watched it every year too. It was just a form of entertainment, but that didn't catch his attention. It was the name she muttered afterwards: "Midoriya?"

His heart skipped a beat or two as he realized she knew who he was. His name wasn't even on the screen. She must know him. "Who?" he asked nonchalantly.

"Midoriya Izuku," She continued. "That's my neighbor's old friend!" Souseiki sounded excited as she watched him run across the screen. "Or bully victim, whatever they'd call it. What's he doing in UA?" she was now muttering to herself.

Shigaraki glanced up at her and watched how her brow creased as her old acquaintance made first place in the race. "He's obviously training to be a hero, idiot."

"I know that much!" she huffed looking down at Shigaraki with a glare, but her eyes quickly softened as she caught him looking at her already. "Its just that- well my neighbor said he was quirkless. Like come on? A quirkless hero? That's like me becoming a hero."

"Oh, he's not quirkless," Shigaraki seethed, as he stood up from his seat. Souseiki took a step back and watched Tomura move out of the room. "That brat was the one that caused me my fight with All Might."

From the bedroom's doorway, the girl watched the bathroom door shut. She shrugged off his anger and walked back to his chair and sat in it. Present Mic was once again giving a small preview of the upcoming challenge as the student's took a break, but all she could think about was Midoriya. Why would Shigaraki say he wasn't quirkless? Of course she would never doubt him, but from what she knew that poor kid was always bullied because of that. Maybe he was like her?

"Who cares about that though," Souseiki uncontrollably giggled in her seat. "I finally have a way to help Tomura!" she whispered to herself gleefully.