"Is... that it for the team...?" asked a stunned Mustard. Kiriyama didn't reply, all he did was look down at the floor. His pitch black bangs covering his tired, yet widened eyes. It took a couple minutes until Toga once again asks, "What do we do?"
Kiriyama lifted his head up to give Toga a defeated look. "Try... try calling Atsuhiro-san,"
"R-right!" agreed Mustard. Kiriyama blankly stares at the girl as she pressed on the screen of her phone to call their team mate. He thought about their goals that they have not yet accomplished and he grinded his teeth and tightened the clench of his fists. Mustard was anxious and silent, usually he'd be arguing with, teasing, or insulting Kiriyama but he did not have any desire to do so at that moment. Even if it would ease the tension, he just wasn't up to it for obvious reasons. Toga pressed the speaker button as the phone rang, awaiting Mr. Compress to answer. ["Toga-san!? Are you with the other two!?"]
"Sa-san! Where are you guys!?" replied Toga, a little relieved that their team mate was able to answer their call.
["Are those the three...? Here, give it to me..."] said a distant voice. ["Toga, Kiriyama, Mustard. We're in a hideout in the Nabu ward, an abandoned warehouse next to a club called 'Nabu Nights', but hurry over here! I'm handing it to Shigaraki now,"]
["If you're on a train, get off, walk back to your hotel rooms, and pack up all your shit. I'll call a cab to pick you three up in two hours. I'll explain everything when everyone's gathered."] said Shigaraki's voice, a lot more... calm and composed than what the three had thought he would sound like, especially after everything that happened. The train stopped and the doors opened, to no one's surprise, no one was waiting to get on. The station must've been empty with all the events that happened. Kiriyama got off the train, not speaking a word. He walked with a fast pace, a lot faster than the two other teens, who had shorter strides than the tall boy.
The group of villains saw all the damage dealt during the fight and decided to ignore it. They hoped that their hotel is still standing so they could get all their stuff. The three teens soon arrived at their hotel, they could see some people rushing out, yelling something about All Might fighting villains in Kamino. As everyone seemed to be getting out of the hotel, the group of teens were the only ones entering the hotel. All the elevators were busy and Kiriyama decided to use the stairs, seeing as they were only one floor above anyway. His two friends followed him, struggling a little to keep up with the black haired boy.
Kiriyama sat in between Toga and Mustard as they rode the taxi to Nabu ward. They were silent the entire way, Toga and Mustard unusually quiet due to Kiriyama's seemingly permanent scowl. Mustard began to doze off until the taxi stopped and Kiriyama jabbed his elbow into the younger boy's left arm. "Stay awake, we're here."
The three got off the taxi after Kiriyama paid and noticed that the sun was about to rise and they had yet to sleep. The three teens kept walking until they found the abandoned warehouse that was soon going to be their second hideout. Kiriyama sighed and ruffled his black hair. He opened up the door, causing a cloud of dust to pass by his legs. "We're back, Atsuhiro-san, Shigaraki,"
Kiriyama examined the room and saw that every one was there, looking disappointed and defeated. His eyes met with Shigaraki's. The blue haired man's cold glare pierced Kiriyama's tired, dark brown eyes. Kiriyama was unnerved however as he returned it with a scowl, too irritated and angry to be scared off by his leader's stare. Shigaraki scratched at his neck furiously with his left hand and gestured the three teens to come inside. Kiriyama walked to a nearby wall and dropped his backpack on the floor. He sat down next to it, leaning on the wall and he ran his right hand through his hair. Toga sat to his right, and set her red backpack on her lap. Mustard dropped his bag to the left of Kiriyama's bag and decided to stay standing. He was very tired, so he thought standing up would make him stay more awake. "What're we doin' now, Shigaraki?"
"Sensei..." the blue haired man began. "Sensei was defeated by All Might after he saved us..."
"So we heard," said Kiriyama.
"But... my precious team is here, All for One may be gone but the League of Villains is still here. Yes... we're still here..." continued Shigaraki. His dry, cracked lips curled into an ugly, chilling smile. "All for One sacrificed himself and the symbol of peace is no more... Now that Sensei is gone, it is our turn. We're next... and we're not letting his sacrifice go to waste,"
"So what are we going to do, Shigaraki?" asked Dabi, who was holding an icepack to the side of his head.
"First of all, we're gonna have to scatter for a little bit and I'm giving you guys a thousand dollars each..." replied Shigaraki. He nodded at Blackmist andturned his head to face the three young villains. "The pigs know everyone except our three favorite punks. They found us out through our criminal records but since you guys are clean, you weren't found out. Making you three our secret weapons..."
Shigaraki scratched at his neck with both hands and faced away from the teenagers. "We need everyone to recruit more members... a lot more, to compensate for the loss of Sensei. Now, let's get to scattering..."
Every one walked out the exit except Kiriyama who was stopped by Shigaraki. "Tell that high school brat that healed you about our plans... If you're gonna recruit anyone, call Atsuhiro."
Kiriyama nodded and walked outside. The sun had risen and strained Kiriyama's tired eyes. He was irritated and just wanted to go to sleep so he began to wander around the town until he found a hotel. He didn't even realize that his blonde friend was walking behind him, following him around. "Hey, Kiriyama-kun, where are we going?"
"Holy sh...!" Kiriyama jumped up in surprise. He turned around to face his team mate and sighed in relief. "You were following me all this time?"
"Yup!" beamed Toga.
"How are you still so energetic? I think you've gotten like three hours of sleep these past two days,"
"Really? This is pretty normal for me,"
Kiriyama sighed again and played with the ends of his bangs. "So... why are you followin' me around as I cluelessly try to find a hotel?"
"I just wanted to," replied Toga. Kiriyama nodded and decided he was too tired to dig deeper. He turned around and continued his walk. After a couple minutes of the two teens silently walking side by side they spot a cheap looking hotel.
"Hey, Kiriyama-kun," said Toga, breaking the silence in the elevator. The black haired teen yawned and stretched his arms. "Yes?"
"What do you think of me, Kiriyama-kun?"
Kiriyama's felt his face heat up and he looked down at the floor, unable to make eye contact and quietly replied, "I think... you're really nice. I know you're a m-... a murderer... I know that you're a villain, I know that you've done some really gruesome shit and I know at times you can be even more crazy than usual. But I will continue to believe that it really is your quirk's fault that you're like that. I really do believe that you can be a lot better than what others see you as... I mean you did befriend me when you didn't need to; you helped me get Mustard even though the orders said to leave anyone who got beaten by the heroes; you helped patch me up after the attack; you stayed by my side when I was in pain; you made an effort to get to know me and Mustard better; and you tried to cover up the scars on my arm when Midori-san stared at it..."
"You... think I'm nice?"
"Yeah..."
"Before... before Mii-chan called, what were you going to say?" asked Toga. Feeling embarrassed, Kiriyama looked away and scratched his head. The elevator stopped and the door opened. He didn't feel like responding and walked towards his room's door and Toga tugged at his shirt.
"I was just getting revenge on you, it was just me teasing you, hahaha" said Kiriyama. He gave Toga a small smile, hoping that she'll drop the issue. Toga let go of the boy's shirt and smiled back.
Toga walked towards the room next to Kiriyama. "I'll see you later, Kiriyama-kun, next time don't run, teehee~!"
The boy watched Toga enter her room and close the door before he does the same. He throws his bag next to his bed and collapsed on top of it. He had thought he would just pass out as soon as his head hit a pillow but he found it a little hard to drift off to sleep. He thought about the situation the League of Villains had found themselves in and felt frustrated, but didn't fret too much, since he knew that all he could do for now was follow orders. Instead, he worried about Toga. "Villains shouldn't date" Mustard's words repeated in his head and he felt his frustration grow. Just how did he feel... about her?
"You know... If we weren't villains... by now I would've...probably already... be-" Kiriyama rolled over the bed and looked up at the hotel room's ceiling. He sharply inhaled through his teeth and sighed. He felt like it was a mistake to have said that much and shut his eyes tight. "Lying's not good, huh? Man... I can't be that bad of a liar," thought Kiriyama.
Toga sat on her bed and opened her backpack. She took out a knife with a red handle and a whetstone. She began to sharpen her knife and thought about Kiriyama, which she did often. She hoped he wasn't going to end up hating her from calling him out on his lie. She didn't want that to happem because Kiriyama was special to her. The boy said she was his first friend and Toga was ecstatic at hearing that. Because he too was her first friend. She liked teasing him and seeing him flustered and his face flushed.
She had always been interested in the boy after seeing his ruthlessness when he was a vigilante and was infatuated when she saw his arms covered in scars. She was stalking him for a while and was surprised when he chose to go after the yakuza that she targeted as well.
Earlier on, she thought of making the boy her target. She wanted to drain his blood and drink it, she wanted to transform into Kiriyama and disappointed when she learned that he was going to be recruited into the League of Villains because then she wouldn't be allowed to kill him. Toga was however, surprised at how she was treated by the boy even after everything she did. She got him framed as a villain, went totally batshit on him and yet the boy still treated her as if she was a normal girl, and even thought of her as his first friend. "Blood quirks just have side effects like that" she remembered him saying that after getting caught fighting in the forest. She hoped he was right and smiled to herself.
She stopped sharpening her knife and laid down on the bed, raising the knife with both hands gripping the handle and pointed it to the hotel room's ceiling. "Next time don't run, teehee~!" Toga frowned and lowered her arms to her side. "I'm running too aren't I? I mean... I'm crazy... I've stalked, killed, and drained people's blood, then I drink their blood and become them. And I try to run away from myself... because I don't like being Toga Himiko. At the sight of violence I get the urge to inflict violence of my own. I can't control it and I hate it. I stalk criminals and the desire to kill, drain, and drink gets stronger. But when I become someone else... the desire is gone. I finally feel... normal. And it's funny... I've gotta drink someone's blood, transform into someone else just to feel like I'm not some monster. And the rush and adrenaline I feel during the hunting and the fighting is just intoxicating. It poisons my mind... The guilt and the bloodlust... I hate it, I hate being myself. I feel so much better being a yakuza or some scumbag than being... than being myself,"
Toga's mind then wandered back to Kiriyama. "But he thinks I'm... nice?"
She felt a lump form in her throat and her eyes began to water. She tried imagining herself killing Kiriyama. She wanted to see if she had changed, since she used to feel very excited when she thought of murdering the boy. And sure enough, she could tell she had changed when she felt tears stream down her face and her convulsive gasps. She didn't want to kill him.. she thought about Kiriyama dying and she felt immense sadness overcome her. "I don't... want to kill him? I dont... want him to die?"