This chapter is more of an interlude for the villain's side, so it's noticeably shorter than my usual 2-3K words, topping about 1300 or so. On the plus side, I could get this out faster!
Tomura was having a shit day. He tried to put the pieces together about how he started from recruiting Stain to having a big ass knife in his shoulder courtesy of the aforementioned villain. He was going on about some bullshit of " needing a creed and mind to do anything". He eventually had enough and disintegrated the blade in his shoulder.
"You're awfully talkative." the red-eyed teen stated in a sing-song voice. "A conviction? A Creed? I don't care for anything so dramatic. I just want to destroy the current peace that the heroes have and burn it to the ground!" Tomura took a swipe at Stain, but the hero killer jumped away before he could even touch him.
"Fuck! Where's Archibald when you need him? He's the designated healer for shit like this!" the leader of the league complained as he remembered the injuries the crazy magus had healed before. Stain went on a rant about how he had "the sprouts of a crooked creed" and bullshit like that. When it was confirmed that Stain would, in fact, make a temporary alliance with the League of Villains, the two who brought him were glad to get rid of him. Right on queue for the hero killer's departure, the so-named 'healer' walked in leisurely before giving a glance at Tomura; more specifically, his wound.
"That-that w-will b-be fine w-with a couple, a couple of spells. N-n-now th-then, St-t-tain, was it? O-or do y-you pre-pref-fer Ch-Chizome?" the hero killer tensed when the (apparent?) Madman's tone shifted. Archibald walked over to Tomura and held his pale hand to the teen's shoulder. A calm green light came from his palm as the wound knitted itself closed.
"W-w-would you In-in-indulge m-me in a, in a walk? I'd li-like to t-t-talk i-ideals, ideals with y-you." His calm smile made Kurogiri shudder.
Stain knew that the man who pulled him away wasn't insane as his stuttering voice would lead you to believe. His gait was filled with confidence, his black dress vest and brown coat were well ironed, but what convinced him was the aura of collected control he had. Stain almost felt like a puppet under Archibald's gaze, and he hated it; his entire style was making sure everything he did would give him the most control possible, and the way it felt like he had none was nerve-wracking.
"So," the hero killer started roughly in his tone. "You wanted to talk ideals? You heard mine, so what are yours?" there was a small laugh from the well-dressed man.
"I-i-i'm going-going to beat death." The five-word sentence made the hall seem to drop in temperature. "T-there's, there's so much in this, this world to ex-explore, that m-mere, mere mortality will hinder me." Archibald's voice was brimming with venom at the limited time he had.
"You'll die eventually." Stain reasoned. "Unless there's a quirk that prevents aging, you can't beat death. Even then, just because age wouldn't kill you, doesn't mean nothing could." Stain's words echoed in the hall as the mage was shaking. Stain initially thought the shaking was due to fear, or even hysteria, but when the pale mage looked up, he only saw one emotion; Fury.
"You, you you youyou YOU. KNOW. NOTHING ABOUT SUCH MATTERS!" Archibald's tumult reverberated in the corridor as his magic filled the air. The mystic energies made Stain feel like he was choking in boiling water as the room creaked under the pressure. "I HAVE BEEN RESEARCHING IMMORTALITY FOR A HUNDRED AND NINETY YEARS! IN BRITAIN, RIGHT NOW, THERE IS A MAN WHO HAS BEEN AROUND DURING THE LATE SIXTEENTH CENTURY! I HAVE SHATTERED MY SOUL WITH EXPERIMENTS! I WILL NOT LET YOUR IGNORANCE BELITTLE MY RESEARCH BECAUSE YOUR MIND CANNOT GRASP THAT THESE SO CALLED "QUIRKS" ARE ONLY A FRACTION OF THE POWERS MANKIND HAS HAD CONTROL OVER SINCE THEY WALKED ON HIND LEGS!" the magic that Archibald was emanating started to make the walls twist in unnatural ways before he reigned his temper in. when the world was back to normal and not trying to tear itself apart, the magus gave an inquisitive sound.
"It-it s-seems that the-the loss of my temp-temper had tem-temp-porarily f-f-fixed my sp-sp-speech i-i-impedi-diment, impediment." he turned to his walking companion with a gaze of pleasure.
"S-since y-y-you threw m-my night-nightmares i-in my face, l-l-let me return the favor!"
Stain was no longer in the hallway of the bar. He was in the street, with All might hovering over him with raised fists.
"I want to fall by you, so go ahead," the hero killer smiled serenely, but the #1 hero stopped and turned to see a man in a business suit with a suitcase of money. With words that Stain couldn't hear, he saw the thing he never wanted to see; All might took the suitcase and threw his cape to the side. Chizome saw the hero walk past kids and fans without batting an eye or showing his signature smile.
His idol was bought out.
The scene changed to his hero fighting a villain, though his details were vague. The villain seemed to own multiple quirks as he worked with everything from super strength to pyrokinesis to teleportation. Near the end of the fight, the villain punched into All Might's side. The punch blew large pieces of flesh off the hero's body before they started converging inward to heal incorrectly. Chizome couldn't move. He couldn't wrap his head around the idea All Might could be hurt like that.
He felt like crying.
The last vision was his hero in the hospital, coughing blood and losing his life. He saw the ECG flatline as All Might lied in his own blood-
"H-how was it?" Archibald's words rang on deaf ears as Stain was gasping on his knees as he found himself in the foyer again. He grabbed his katana and swung blindly at the pale magus, only for the walls themselves intercepting the steel. The sensation and sound of metal biting into wood calmed him down; it was ironic that the blade many heroes fell to and feared was giving the murderer comfort.
"N-n-now th-that we-we're even, let-let-let me tell y-you s-s-someth-thing." Archibald held his hand out to the kneeling killer.
"I-i'm on-on-only with th-the l-l-lea-league for re-resources. They-they're m-means to an end, l-like they-they are f-for you. If-if you m-make a d-d-deal with m-me, I'd help y-you when the, when the league's con-contract-ct ends."
When the hero killer saw the advantage, he thought the favor he was being asked was simple, and he reached for the madman's hand.
Fiara was patrolling in Aomori for his mandatory hero work for his license when his phone alerted him. He turned the screen on to find that spell slinger, an information broker's alias, had told him there was apparently something going on in Hosu tomorrow that involved an organized villain group. If he skipped patrol, then the work he and Nedzu put in together would go to waste, so he sent the info along. Hopefully, he and his mentor could go where he could not.
Izuku got a text from Anima saying that something big was supposed to go down in Hosu, so he asked Gran Torino.
"Eh? If the info's good, then that means there'll be a lot of villains there. Let's make it a trip then." Izuku gave a nod of appreciation before sending the info on to his classmates. If they could save lives by coordinating, then the more people prepared, the better.