Chapter Two

The Power Behind a Name

"Giran."

The older man looked up from the papers scattered over his desk. In one hand he bounced a pen between two fingers as he studied whatever it was he was looking at, lips pursed. As soon as Yuki spoke, however, he glanced up toward the door, smile breaking over his face. "Yuki and Nakamoto!" he greeted them, the paperwork immediately forgotten. Usually he met his clients in one of his bars or lounges, but Yuki had long ago set up meetings with him at his office. It was the place he usually met his clients who needed the meeting to seem a little more official - usually clients who kept one foot in the underworld and one foot in the public eye.

The walls of his office were exposed brick, all except the wall directly behind his desk, which were windows that looked out onto the street below - at least when the blinds weren't drawn. Two bookcases stood behind his desk, against the exposed brick, crammed with books. His office at least had the look of a Western business man.

Yuki wasted no time in crossing the room from the doorway with a huff, while Isane stepped into the office and closed the door behind her. Once the latch caught, she took a few more steps into the office, but otherwise stayed standing behind Yuki, who took the seat across from Giran.

She'd changed out of her usual all-black attire, and had donned jeans. She'd ditched her usual jacket for the meeting, but had simply stuck with the black long-sleeved under armour shirt and her usual mask. Even Isane had changed out of her usual trench coat and had put on jeans and a button-down. No point in being recognized right as they were trying to join the League.

Giran stacked the papers that were in front of him and set them aside, giving Yuki his entire focus. "Still no contact from Dabi?" Before Yuki could respond, he glanced up, eyes meeting with Isane's. "Nakamoto, would you like a seat?"

The question was more of a formality than an actual question. Every time they visited Giran he offered Isane a seat, and every time she declined. This visit was no different. "I'll stand, thank you."

He nodded and turned back to Yuki. Yuki's poise in an office building told anyone watching close enough that she knew how to handle herself from a business standpoint. In the underworld, though, she was still naive. She even trusted Giran enough to know her full name. Even though Yuki had known Giran for years, Isane still had her doubts. He was a black-market dealer, after all, and had ties to known villains. Alliances often shifted in the underworld, and shifted quickly, especially if knowing secrets was beneficial. That wasn't to say Yuki would trust others so easily. Once she was introduced to the underworld, she quickly learned how to survive. But she was still Yuki, and letting down her guard came as naturally to her as using her quirk.

"Oh, there's been contact," Isane heard Yuki heave a sigh as she took in the room around them. No major changes had been made to it since the last time they were there four weeks prior. "Twice, in fact. He said he'd find us weeks ago to meet the boss, but has that happened? Nope!" She popped the "p" at the end of the word. Isane didn't need to see Yuki to know the expression she wore. Even half-covered by the mask, Isane recognized the clipped tone of voice and could feel the tension that Yuki exuded.

Giran was chuckling halfway through Yuki's vent session. "So, you're finally going to take me up on an introduction, then?"

Yuki didn't reply. Not immediately. Hesitation slipped into her demeanor.

Yuki had brought up her idea to Isane on their way up in the elevator, who had immediately shot it down. Doing this, Yuki would lose anonymity before she even knew if they could trust the League.

Slowly, Yuki strung a sentence together, "How much do they owe?"

Giran settled back in his seat, appraising Yuki, who didn't flinch. When he was convinced that she was serious, he pulled out a file from the drawer to his right and grabbed a calculator. After flipping through some pages and punching in numbers, he wrote down the figure on a piece of paper and pushed it toward Yuki.

She read the number, still wearing her poker face. From this distance, Isane couldn't read the number and frankly, didn't want to. This was a bad idea, but Yuki knew how Isane felt about it. Whether Yuki decided to go through with it or not was a moot point. She would, ultimately. Once an idea got stuck in her head, she had to see it though. For better or for worse.

Giran watched Yuki think. The wheels turning in her head was almost audible, but she didn't say a word as she took out her wallet and counted the bills. She'd come prepared. Fuck. So her ask in the elevator was more of a formality, then.

Yuki slid the bills to Giran, who took the money and counted it again. "Every penny," he said, impressed. "Do you want to leave a note?"

Of course she wanted to leave a note. It was Yuki, after all, and doing this would definitely attract the League's attention. She was going to completely circumvent Dabi, which felt like a bad idea all around. If he was the recruiter for the League - apart from Giran, at least - that meant that the boss trusted his opinion. And after the night prior, he likely didn't think too highly of Yuki.

Yuki nodded in answer to Giran's question and this time he slid a piece of stationary to her and a pen.

It didn't take her long to figure out what she wanted to write. She wrote it quickly, pen scratching neatly against the paper, then folded it neatly in half and gave it and the pen back to Giran. "Now we wait," she said with a smile.

Yuki rose with Giran, who offered her a short bow, which she returned, before taking her exit. Isane got the door for her and followed her out of the office after a quick glance back at Giran, who was already taking out his phone, likely to let someone in the League know their balance had been covered. Who knew? Isane didn't stay behind long enough to find out.

The office was official enough with a receptionist outside of Giran's office, as well as a few other offices in the same space. Once she and Yuki were back in the elevator and on their ride down, Isane growled, "You are so dramatic." The corners of Yuki's eyes crinkled in appreciation. "That wasn't a compliment."

"Oh, I know," Yuki said with a nod. She was a handful of inches shorter than Isane, but usually carried herself taller than she was. Now, however, she was leaning against the elevator's railing.

A beat passed. "Death Quake wasn't even a year ago," Isane said quietly. Did Yuki just need a reminder of where the knowledge of who she was had landed her before? It was not knowledge that should be shared commonly. Half the time it seemed like Yuki got it, and the other half it seemed like she was trying to flaunt it.

Isane's comment sobered Yuki up, who took a breath and drew herself up to her full height. "I'm aware."

It took two days for the League to contact them after Yuki's stunt. Then another day to set up a meeting location and time. By the fourth day after Yuki had decided to pay their debt to Giran, their car was bouncing over a gravel road toward an old factory that was over-grown by underbrush. Yuki had shut off her headlights four miles back and had been traveling down the dirt road slow enough that four miles took an hour. They didn't want to alert anyone watching or listening of their meeting.

"Well, this looks foreboding," Yuki said, a grin making her eyes crinkle. She was back in her usual attire: black pants and combat boots, black under armour, black jacket, and black mask pulled up just over her nose. Isane had put on her usual villain attire, too, though it had more color than Yuki's general ensemble. For Yuki, her splash of color was her hair and eyes. For Isane, it was the rose-colored t-shirt she wore, and the red-tasseled kanzashi pair that held back her hair. The rest of her attire was black: black pants, black trench coat that swirled around her calves, black shoes that kept her movements silent.

Yuki threw the car into park as she sneaked a glance at Isane. "You can still back out," Isane said evenly.

The younger girl rolled her eyes. "Oh, Isane, it sounds like you're not excited at all!"

"I'm not," Isane replied coolly, getting out of the car and bracing her arms against the roof. The half-moon above their heads didn't provide much light, but some was better than nothing. "This was your idea. We don't need these guys." She jabbed a thumb over her shoulder at the building behind them. It loomed, terrible and dark in the night. A great stone building covered in ivy; it was raised above the ground. The instructions Giran had gotten to them had told them to follow the path into the underbelly of the building. "And we definitely don't have to give up your identity."

Yuki faced opposite her but didn't put her arms on the roof. In all honesty, she was too short, and it would have been awkward for her to mimic Isane's position. Instead, she stepped away from the car, hands shoved into her pants' pockets. "I didn't want to keep us waiting forever for a reply," she leveled her gaze at Isane, dropping the care-free attitude she so often wore. "And I think I fucked up by contacting Dabi again - yeah, I know you told me so."

Isane sighed, exasperated. "Any chance you might listen to my wisdom again?"

"Are you two done?"

As one, they turned toward the person who had spoken. Muscled arms crossed over his chest; the man's quirk looked like it had manifested in such a way to make him look like a lizard.

"Perfect timing!" Yuki changed the conversation's direction with ease. "I'm guessing you're with the League?"

The man cocked a brow at her, unimpressed by her energy. Really, Yuki didn't have energy in the typical sense of the word. Yuki was sharp and stayed on top of conversations with little difficulty. She was always constantly aware of herself, what was said, and what she said, and the side of her personality that she showed to the world was part of that.

Lizard-man led them to the building they were to meet the League at. Really, they were to meet them under the building. Above them, glass walls looked out over the landscape, a balcony built into the building itself. They were just underneath it.

The underbelly of the building was dark, and the smell of mildew reached Isane's nose almost as soon as they stepped into the shadows. "It's not a good first impression, being late," a voice said, breaking through the shadows of night and greeting them. As their eyes adjusted to darkness without the aid of the moon, Isane saw that they faced four people, while the lizard-man stepped away from Isane and Yuki and joined the others. One was distinctly feminine and young. Two had their faces covered, one by a black and white geometric mask, the other by a hand. And the final person was broad-shouldered and leaning against the ivy-covered building.

The man with the hand covering his face stepped away from the others, toward where Yuki and Isane stopped, just far enough away that they were out of range for an immediate attack. He must have been the one to speak. Besides his face, other disembodied hands covered his body in various locations.

Yuki didn't skip a beat and pulled out her phone, illuminating it briefly. "As of now, we are… right on time!" She pocketed it again. "We're never late. You must be the League of Villains," she said with a hint of a smirk in her voice.

Hands didn't reply in any direct manner. "You paid our balance," he said carefully. It was a statement, not a question.

"I did."

"Why?"

"To get your attention."

"Consider it gotten. You want to join the League?"

Yuki was stringing him along in her typical fashion, giving short answers without giving any unnecessary information, and while Hands' attention was on her, it allowed Isane to be able to observe the cavernous area around them. The other league members' attention was on Yuki and Hands, but she caught the gaze of the broad-shouldered person, and after a moment of staring each other down, Isane was roughly pulled back into the conversation as she heard, "Then why does it look like she just swallowed glass?"

Isane's gaze narrowed into a glare as her attention landed on Hands. Keeping her body loose and ready to strike wasn't an issue as it had been when she'd been in training as a child. It was second nature to her, now. They had walked into the League's territory; they had to be ready for anything.

"She has a name," Isane replied coolly.

Hands didn't skip a beat, either. "Which is?"

She could feel the attention of the small crowd shift onto her, but she didn't try to cross her arms over her chest or shift her weight between her feet. That would give away her discomfort. She didn't react as she gave her name. "Nakamoto Isane. You can call me Nakamoto."

"Quirk?" Hands was doing the talking, but the other league members seemed to be hanging on every word. The singular eye that was visible between the fingers of the hand covering his face was wide and expectant.

"Ink Flow," she said, the lie easy on her lips. It was a half-truth after all, "I can manipulate anything that is drawn on my skin, and in specific cases, make it come to life. Tattoos work as well." Isane activated her quirk, specifically the cat that was tattooed on the inside of her left hip beneath her clothes. The black ink flowed from her skin and re-formed on the ground in front of her, perfectly shaped in a black cat with amber eyes. "Anything this cat sees I see. Anything it hears, I hear. It has all the traits that a normal cat has." To demonstrate her point, she had the cat hiss and swipe at the air, claws outstretched, ears flat against its head. "The creatures can sustain damage up to a certain point. I'm also skilled in weaponry and was trained in hand-to-hand combat."

"Weapons?" Lizard-man commented from his spot several paces ahead of where Isane and Yuki stood. "You don't have any weapons on you."

After the demonstration with the cat, Isane would have thought the answer would be obvious, but it seemed she needed another demonstration. Without a word, she summoned the tattoo etched into her skin along her right ribcage, the ink flowing and building on itself until the katana she gripped was corporeal. Gripping the sheath, she removed the blade with a shink of metal on metal, and pointed it at him, not breaking eye contact. "Weapons."

Lizard-man smirked.

"And creatures?" Hands asked, bringing the conversation back. Her attention turned back to him.

"I have various creatures inked on my body that all serve a purpose." If he wanted her to give a demonstration, she would be happy to, but she doubted he wanted to be cleaning up his comrades that night.

"You're like an entire armory," the young girl muttered, almost in awe.

"Any notable crimes?" Hands asked, not nearly as impressed with her as the girl was.

A beat passed. She could feel the eyes of Hands on her, and she glanced back to him. She pretended to think for a moment before shrugging. "Nothing you'd recognize and nothing I'm proud of." She dismissed the katana in her hand and the cat at her feet, the ink flowing back onto her body.

Hands didn't give her a reply, but instead turned back to Yuki. "And your name?"

"Yuki," she said, her voice upbeat, the difference between her attitude and Isane's a stark contrast.

"No… last name?" Mask asked.

"Not that I want to openly share," Yuki replied quickly, before glancing at Isane. The older girl felt her eyes on her, but she didn't bother glancing at Yuki in return. Her attention was on the league members against the wall.

The young girl, who looked more excited than Isane thought she should be at that moment, said, "She's like Dabi, isn't she?"

"To a point." Hands said without inflection. "What's your quirk?"

"Ice-fourteen!"

"I'm sorry, what?" Mask asked. The conversation had turned from an interrogation by Hands to a conversation with everyone.

Yuki sucked in a deep breath dramatically. "Ice-fourteen is the coldest ice in existence. I can freeze anything down to negative one hundred sixty degrees Celsius. I'm skilled in ice creation and manipulation. And I can hold my own at hand-to-hand combat." Yuki motioned to Isane. "She's been training me."

"She's literally a carbon-copy of Dabi," the girl muttered again, but no one paid her any attention.

"What's with the weird name of your quirk?" The broad-shouldered person finally spoke, their voice slightly feminine.

To anyone who didn't know her, Yuki's deep breath in was another dramatic way to begin. To Isane, who had faced the same question with Yuki for over a year, understood just how much that question annoyed her. Her deep breath in was less for dramatics and more to calm her own annoyance. "The guy who thinks up creative quirk names was on holiday or something; I don't know!"

Hands pulled the conversation back. "Why do you want to join us?"

Point-blank Yuki replied, "Hero society is a toxic cesspool." She didn't give any other explanation, but it seemed to be enough for Hands, who turned to Isane.

"Nakamoto?"

The moment of truth. They were inches from getting in. She could still walk away.

Against her better judgement, she answered anyway, "Why do some people get to tell others that their lives are worth less based on the way they want to live their God-given lives? I want to live with my family and friends and use my quirk freely."

Yuki didn't let the pause after Isane's answer lengthen. "So, are we in?"

Hands glared at Yuki. "How did you get the money to pay off the debt?"

"That goes hand-in-hand with my last name," Yuki replied, voice even.

"This is getting old-"

"-Are you an heir or something?" the young girl cut off Hands.

Yuki's eyes crinkled at the corners - a clear indication of a smile. "Something like that," she replied to the girl before turning back to Hands. "I'm just trying to protect my identity. It would be bad if my real name were to be linked to my alias, as I'm sure most of you can understand."

"That's the reason for the mask, too, then?"

"Isn't it always?" Yuki changed direction. "So what's next?"

Hands looked between both of them, his gaze lingering on Isane. "You're in."

The girl behind him squealed in excitement, throwing her hands up in the air in her excitement. The others seemed to visibly relax, too.

"We don't know any of your names," Isane said, voice quiet, but her words stilled everyone. Truthfully, they could probably have guessed based on the news they had been watching over the last few weeks, but polite was polite.

"Shigaraki Tomura," Hands replied.

"Mr. Compress," Mask lifted his hat and bowed like a gentleman might.

"Toga Himiko!"

"Spinner," Lizard-man said with an appreciative smile.

"Magne."

"And there are three others that aren't here tonight: Twice, Kurogiri, and Dabi." Mr. Compress added as an afterthought. "You'll meet them later."

The young girl had approached Yuki and Isane, her cheeks flushed. "Magne, we've got two new sisters!"

Yuki smirked. "So, where's the base?"

"Base?" Shigaraki asked.

"Yeah, base," Yuki replied as if it was obvious. "Surely you have a base. I know this can't be it - it's too public, even if it is abandoned." She gestured to the building that loomed over them. No one spoke for several seconds. "Oh, tell me you have a base."

"It's too dangerous to be in the same place for long, especially after Kamino," Mr. Compress said, approaching Yuki and Shigaraki.

Slowly, like something out of a film, Yuki turned to Isane, gaze pleading. Isane stood firm, returning her silent plea with a glare.

To anyone watching, they were having a silent conversation, shared just between them. Finally, Isane relented, turning away with a roll of her eyes. She heard Yuki say, "On second thought, Leader, I'm going to tell you my real name, but only you."

"Why?"

"You'll see as soon as I tell you." Two sets of footsteps moved away from their group, and even though most of the League wanted to talk to her in that moment, Isane ignored them to gaze after Yuki. The girl barely came up to Shigaraki's shoulder, and their personalities were apparent just in the way they carried themselves. Ultimately, Yuki could do what she wanted, but Isane couldn't help but feel that this was a bad idea.

NOTES:

And here we are with chapter two! We get a few more answers in this chapter. Isane is one of my favorite characters, I think. Her character development is going to be fun, I think. I hope you all like her as much as I do.

All of you stay safe and healthy out there. What a year 2020 has shaped up to be.

I do not own, in any way, the characters, places, or ideas of the My Hero Academia universe created by Kohei Horikoshi. I only own my own characters and plot. No money is made off of this story.