Remember when I warned you it may get dark? This is the second warning, this isn't going to be sunshine and rainbows. People are going to die. This one is pretty long and I have a feeling the next will be long as well. We're really starting to get into things now so I'm pretty sure the plot is going to start moving a bit faster from here on out. Still open to any and all suggestions from you all especially when it comes to the UA/Hero side of things. I sure hope you all like this, because I'm getting really excited for the next arc.

-8-

It had been five days since Inko Midoriya had seen her son. On Monday morning when she went to wake him up and talk after their fight the previous day she opened his door to find his already nearly barren room completely bare. The box she hid his notebooks in was laid on the floor of his room and his window was left wide open. He left. It was the work of a few minutes before the woman was out the door running to her friends house down the street. What were the chances Izuku had run to Katsukis' house after their fight? She couldn't imagine any other place he would have been, her son didn't have many friends .

When she arrived she was greeted by her very tired friend Mitsuki who seemed to wake up immediately after noticing the look on her friends face. Inko broke down in tears on the spot as if everything she had been holding in over the last year finally made its way to the surface. It wasn't long before Mitsuki got her calmed down and she explained the situation. They hadn't seen or heard from him either. This was her only lead, she had no idea where to look for Izuku if he wasn't here.

"I've got an idea where he might be," Katsuki said flatly , "I'll help you look for him."

Katsuki took her to a small hideout area hidden in the woods near the neighborhood park. As they walked there Katsuki explained to her that he and Izuku used to hide there all the time as kids. That they used to dream of running away to live there and be mountain men like they had read in their favorite stories. It seemed like a good lead and when they got there they noticed a few scraps of paper on the ground that looked like they had fallen out of someone's hands. She picked them up and they were definitely Izukus. She would recognize that strange shorthand from anywhere. And yet her son was nowhere to be found and Katsuki had to get going off to his internship.

When he didn't come home again that night Inko made the decision to get the police involved. It had been enough time and she was so worried about what could have happened to him out there. They told her that in situations like this the child usually returns home on his own and that there probably wouldn't be too much to worry about. Inko just went home and made some fliers to pass around the neighborhood. When the fourth day rolled around, Inko could no longer sit back. She demanded that the police do some investigating and to her surprise they had never stopped investigating. They had a lead that the boy had been spotted in the area by a black haired girl. Don't be too excited, Ma'am. People tend to link this girl to everything that goes wrong in the neighborhood.

But she was excited. She remembered her son mentioning while they were fighting that he'd just fallen asleep hanging out with a girl he met talking about quirks. This could be the girl. She told the police everything she remembered about what had been said and went back home to wait for their call. When they did call it wasn't good news.

I want you to spend at least two hours a day on physical training.

Shigarakis' words echoed through Izukus mind as he ran through the alleyways that surrounded their bar. Every morning he would sprint in a different direction. The goal was to get as physically fit as he possibly could as quickly as possible while also getting a good sense for the way the intricate alley system worked. It was littered with random stops, turns, and dead ends that could easily be used to lose a tail should he ever have one. The last thing he needed was to get spotted on the street and followed back to his new home. He'd noticed the posters with his face starting to show up in the area.

In the afternoons you will work on combat training with Kurogiri. We can't have you being useless in a fight.

Izuku had never fired a gun before, but the feeling was amazing. They gave him a pistol and told him it was his. When he had nothing to do at night he would pull it apart and clean it as a relaxation exercise. Kurogiri was a hell of a teacher too, it wasn't but a few hours of practice with it before they could move to more advanced techniques. They also worked on his knife work in case of close combat and Kurogiri promised that when they had someone on the team who was a bit better with hand to hand combat they would get him some lessons with that as well.

At night we sit down with your notes. Everytime we get a new member I want a full quirk analysis done on them. I also want you to devise strategies of optimal pairings for combat. Focus on UA teachers and students. Find the best combination for how to divide and conquer them.

This was the best part by far. Izuku had worried that that he wouldn't have much to offer an organization like this but he was very wrong. Shigaraki was completely infatuated with his notes and happy to show off his quirk for an analysis. It was the same with Kurogiri although the way that man looked over him reminded Izuku of his own father. Such a kind and gentle tone. They didn't make him translate his shorthand. Quite the contrary, Shigaraki said that it was best that he kept writing them in ways no one else could read just in case. They couldn't have the enemy getting this kind of intelligence. He had value here. It was an amazing feeling to have purpose and be working toward his goals. Although he had reservations about killing, Izuku was a smart enough kid to understand that the world never really changes through peace. Sometimes sacrifices had to be made for the greater good. Shigaraki made sure he understood that.

Welcome to the League of Villains. Now it's time to go get your friend.

It had been three days since Midoriya left her house and Asola couldn't get his ideas out of her head. Where would they even find allies to help them? She went yesterday to her old place of employment and picked up the remainder of her things. Her old boss was apologetic and offered her two weeks of severance which she accepted happily. He really was a good man and she knew if he had a choice he wouldn't have let her go. It was just too much of a liability. At least now she had some kind of cushion while she looked for further employment.

The rest of her time was spent looking for another job she wanted to find something she could do working from home. It was better if she stayed away from the general public to avoid anything like this happening to her again. In between applications Asola found herself opening the link that Midoriya had sent her and scrolling through posts online about the hero killer and random accounts where posters claimed they heard some of his 'teachings.' If they were true this guy would be a great ally for her and Midoriya, but how could she possibly get in touch with him.

She also found herself continually re-drafting an email to Shigaraki that she still hadn't sent. She wanted to at least thank him for his kindness and the offer of a job but she couldn't take advantage. She needed to do this on her own. As she was staring at the draft message hoping the perfect words would simply come to her she received another email from Midoriya.

'Pack a bag, I found us allies. Coming for you tonight at 8. -M'

Pack a bag? Why would she need to do that? Asola did what she was told but found herself the entire time asking why she was. This was a fifteen year old boy who was talking right now. There is no way he has gotten more done in this time than she had. She wondered if he'd talked to the Hero Killer already. Would a man like that even listen to the words of a boy that young? Somehow through all of her internal naysaying Asola got a bag packed with enough of her stuff to last through the weekend. She wasn't much for possessions anyway considering nearly everything she has ever owned had been vandalized at least once.

At 8pm exactly there was a knock on her door. Asola walked over and prepared to answer the door with some speech about how she wasn't going to run off on some crazy adventure and that she needed to be the adult and take care of this kid who was hurting. They could change the world when he was a little older. But as the door swung open her heart stopped and she forgot her entire grasp of language. Standing behind Midoriya was Shigaraki and the shadow man from the alley. She wanted to move her body or say anything at all but her only option was to stand and stare at the three of them with a stupid look of shock on her face.

Izuku smiled at the girl he would consider his friend and walked past her and into the apartment. She would need a second to process what was happening right now and he could understand. He took a look around and noticed that while there was definitely an effort made to clean up all the ash from their quirk analysis a couple of days ago, the room still kind of looked like a volcano would erupt at any minute. He may have been a little concerned that she wouldn't have actually packed a bag and was surprised to see a medium sized duffle on the floor next to her dining table. She really did respect him even though he was quirkless and young. What a treasure.

"Mind if we have a word?" Izuku said as the two men behind him filed into the apartment and closed the door behind them.

Inko was starting to lose hope. The police called her to inform her that when they got to the girls apartment the door was cracked open and there was a lot of disturbance outside so they went in to investigate. They found that the place had been essentially cleared out and was trashed. They also said there was a lot of debris around the room and it looked like there may have been some kind of struggle inside. The girl was missing and she had some kind of medication that she would definitely need left behind. They seemed to be acting like they thought it may have been a kidnapping. What had her son gotten himself into? Please just be alive, she begged her god as she laid on the floor of her sons room and wept.

Izuku had never felt so alive as he ran his friend Asola around the League of Villains base. He was surprised how little convincing it took to get her to follow him and Shigaraki into the portal back to the bar. She was on board and it felt amazing. Not only would he be their strategist, but he was helping the League with recruitment too. Shigaraki was proud of him and it made him swell with joy. Finally he wasn't useless.

Asola hadn't said much, but she didn't really need to. They made perfect sense as they told her of their plans to destroy hero society and kill All Might. And though some of this was a little bit much for her taste, she understood well enough that if she wasn't on board with their plan her lifespan would likely decrease significantly. She also realized that it was likely she would have ended up here either way. She was always going to send Shigaraki a message to thank him. And if he had his eyes on her power he would have lured her here one way or another. Some things are just fate, she mused as she settled her duffle bag on the bed of the small room they had given her and prepared to get some sleep. Training started tomorrow morning.

They wanted her to train her quirk. Shigaraki and Midoriya went over the notes he'd taken about her and believed that it had a lot more potential for power if she got more used to using it. It was the first time someone had wanted to see more of her quirk and it made her pretty excited. She would train her quirk while Midoriya did combat training with weapons nearby. They were still a pretty small operation, so she had to do a lot of her training without a partner. Though it seemed like during each one of her breaks either Midoriya or Kurogiri would have some note as to how she could improve. It was so impressive that the two of them could be in active mock combat with each other and have the ability to keep an eye on her progress. She had insisted that they allow her to work should she find a job, and they agreed which made a lot of her anxieties about working with them disappear. She wasn't going to sit around all day without pulling her weight especially after seeing how hard Midoriya was working for the League. It was funny how that kid seemed to inspire everyone around him with his tenacity.

This morning she found an interesting gig online for a call center. Essentially she would just have to take a call and record the customers answers onto the spreadsheet and send it back to the company for processing. Seemed easy enough and Kurogiri said the internet they had at the bar would be good enough to maintain a job like that. He also told her that it wouldn't be a bad idea to go onsite this evening an fill out an application in person. Apparently they had a guest coming later and he wasn't sure how well the man did around women. She understood and agreed to make herself scarce for a few hours later on while they did their business. With the Hero Killer. Holy crap what had she gotten into?

"So you want me to be a part of you crumbling little league?" The Hero Killer spat. It all happened so fast Izuku didn't know what to do. One second they were having what seemed like a normal conversation. He was to sit at the corner of the bar and take notes on the conversation and keep out of it. The next second the Hero Killer had cut Kurogiri and pinned Shigaraki on the ground.

"But you won't accomplish anything if you don't have conviction. And desire. Without those you'll always be an aimless weakling achieving nothing. That's how you got here." The Hero Killer continued. Izuku just noticed that Shigaraki had a blade shoved into his shoulder as he laid on the ground. Out of instinct his hand reached for his gun but Kurogiri shook his head subtly to stop him.

"Hey now, you're being a little rough, aren't you?" Shigaraki chuckled out, "Kurogiri take this guy back."

"I'm sorry," Kurogiri answered, "I can't move. It must be the Hero Killers quirk at work."

Izuku moved to take note of this. Did it have something to do with the cut? His blades maybe cause people to freeze. He wrote his theories as the conversation continued. No conviction? This man had no idea what he was talking about. Izuku had plenty of conviction.

"The word hero has lost all meaning in this society, the world is overrun with fakes and criminals like you who chase petty dreams. They must all be purged." The Hero Killer said as he moved his second blade to strike Shigaraki. Izuku dropped his pen and reached immediately for his gun but stopped when he noticed Shigaraki grabbing the blade with his quirk hand.

"What do you think you're doing? If you touch this palm, I'll kill you." Shigaraki said as the blade started to turn to dust before the Hero Killers eyes, "You sure talk a lot, Hero Killer. Conviction? Maybe I don't have anything as loaded as that. If I had to choose a desire though, yeah, it'd be killing All Might. If this world wants to worship trash like him I'll destroy their beloved Symbol of Peace and then crush them while their in shock."

Shigarakis' hand swiped for the Hero Killer and he jumped off of Shigaraki who stood back up and straightened himself. The two men faced each other for a beat before the boss continued.

"The last of my injuries was just about to finish healing and now this," He held his arm out as a bit of blood trickled down from his shoulder, his other hand scratching compulsively at his neck, "You should learn not to play with knives, we don't have a healer in our party you know."

"I see your nature, it seems our goals fundamentally oppose each other. However, this wasn't in vain. We agree that we need to destroy the present. " He replied.

"I'm over this. Leave. Drop dead. I'm the kind of person you hate most, right?" Shigaraki was getting tired of this conversation Midoriya could tell. What he didn't understand was why he boss wasn't getting angry. The Hero Killer had no idea what he was talking about.

"I was testing your motives. People always show their true colors when on the verge of death. It's abnormal, but there is desire, a warped sprout of conviction inside of you. How will it-"

"You're wrong." Izuku said as he stood up. He couldn't take it anymore. How did this man not understand what they were trying to do. "You say we don't have conviction? You don't know the first thing about us."

It was like all the adults remembered that he was in the room which irritated Izuku to no end. Here they were babbling about semantics when there was a much bigger problem going on. Were all adults so dense?

"Who are you?" The Hero Killer said turning toward him and locking eyes. He seemed taken aback for a second but continued to hold Izukus' gaze.

"I'm the Strategist." He answered, "And you're a fool. You think just because our first priority is to kill All Might we don't have a sense of purpose? I have more conviction than you. This society is a flawed cesspool infected and festering. And the Symbol of Peace is the source. You want to root out an infection you have to cut out the source first. Then you can get to treating the rest of the problem. You're too stuck on the flawed belief that All Might is a real hero. You couldn't be more wrong. He may have used to be a hero, but he is just as twisted and corrupt as the rest of them now." By the time he finished Izuku had squeezed the pen in his hand so hard it had burst and his fist was dripping red ink and blood. All the adults just stared at him im shock.

It actually worked. They got the Hero Killer to agree to a truce of some sort. Kurogiri knew the only reason it all worked out was the kid. He seemed to be a great balance for Shigarakis tendencies to make people, well, loathe him. The boss seemed a little irritated that the kid spoke up when he wasn't supposed to but Kurogiri knew that deep down the boss was proud of his new recruit. He knew this because the kid was still alive and had actually been invited along to Hosu City to watch the Hero Killer in action. Part of him wondered if Shigaraki had any other tricks up his sleeve, as he asked Sensei for a couple of Nomus to wreak havoc on the city. This couldn't just be about gathering notes on the Hero Killers movements and quirk.

He left a note for the girl to let her know they would be home late and not to concern herself with their absence. It was strange to have people in their group now that they would need to keep in contact with. He tossed around the idea of having some kind if communication system set up between the group of them. He also took a moment to personally check in with Sensei as sometime he was told things that even Shigaraki didn't know about. It was the best way to deal with Tomura, he was very childlike in a lot of ways which Sensei decided to combat by using him as a median for some tasks. It was great to be of service. Sensei didn't have much to say outside of a few comments about the new recruits and a request to keep special tabs on Asola. She was considered to be still a wild card. Izuku on the other hand?

He was ready for his initiation.