Kiriyama quietly checked out of his hotel early after being unable to sleep and called Mustard to see if he could stay with him. He didn't tell Toga because he felt it would be too awkward to talk with her after their exchanges. The phone rang for a few seconds before a sleepy voice answered. ["H-hello?"]
"Mustard, I kinda need to crash with you."
Mustard groaned at the other end of the phone and gave an approving grunt. Kiriyama breathed a sigh of relief. "So, where are you at right now?"
"This one place by the Nabu shopping square, it has a big pirate sign. Hurry up, I'm not gonna be conscious for long man,"
"Thanks Mustard,"
LATE AUGUST
Kiriyama was assigned to enroll a public high school where he would be able to look out for potential members. He however, has not found anyone promising and found it's become a lot harder to blend in the crowd and keep a low profile this time around. He usually spent his lunch trying to find an empty area to eat in and declining people's offers to eat with them because his job wasn't to make friends, his job was to find potential villains.
It was a Saturday afternoon, Kiriyama opened the apartment's door he and Mustard have been staying in for about a month after the brief stay at a cheap hotel. He took off his black t-shirt drenched in sweat and threw it into a laundry basket filled with the two teen's dirty clothes. He has just finished working out at the local gym which he has become a routine thing for him to do on weekends. He walked towards the small kitchen area and opened the fridge and took out a cold waterbottle. He finished drinking it in a few seconds and dropped it in the trash can right next to the fridge.
"Oi, Kiriyama!" exclaimed Mustard. The black haired teen turns around to see Mustard in his dark blue pajamas with stars and rockets printed on it, that Kiriyama thought was the lamest thing he's seen a villain wear. He stopped the urge to laugh and responded. "Yeah?"
"I told you to wake me up when you did! I wanted to meet up with Akuma for lunch, it's 4 p.m. and I'm still in my jammies!" yelled Mustard, scowling at the older teen.
Kiriyama bursted out in laughter and Mustard's face turned red as he got even angrier. "What!?"
"You called them 'jammies'!" laughed Kiriyama. "Are you really thirteen? Are you really a villain?"
"SH-SHUT IT!" stammered Mustard.
"Alright, alright. And hey, it's not my fault you stayed up all night talking to him that you woke up so late," replied Kiriyama. Mustard rolled his eyes at him and walked inside their apartment's only bathroom.
Kiriyama heard the shower turn on and walked to his room to put on some new clothes. He put on a long sleeved white t-shirt that he recently bought after Mustard suggested he buys clothes that aren't black after he found out that all Kiriyama owned were black shirts and black or dark colored jeans and pants.
Kiriyama unplugged his charging phone and checked if he had any new messages. He got a good morning message from Midori who recently got a cheap one room apartment in the Nabu ward after her summer vacation ended, using the money she was given by the League of Villains. Other than that he didn't get one message. He sighed and felt disappointed that he hasn't heard from Toga ever since he quietly left the hotel they both went to early. He sent a message a few days after when he decided to just end the awkwardness between them and meet up but she never responded leaving him worried that he screwed up their friendship. He felt that he was just going to defuse the situation and make it so that they'll just ignore anything awkward and embarrassing that happened between them and continue being friends and team mates.
Kiriyama's phone buzzed as he got another message from Midori, asking him what the two teens were going to do. He replied to Midori's message by telling her that Mustard was going to get ready to recruit a villain that Mustard had met through some deep-web website. Kiriyama wasn't so sure about Mustard being so eager and keen on recruiting the guy he met but decided that he was going to trust him. When push comes to shove he's skilled enough to get away, especially with Mustard being able to knock someone out with his quirk. He just hoped that they're recruiting someone strong and dependable.
Cool! replied Midori. Good luck! Make sure to give details after, k? :D
Thanks and I'll be sure to tell you texted Kiriyama. He turned his phone off, plugged the charger in, and rested his head on his bed's pillow. He then realized that he still didn't know why she wanted to be a villain. She could've been a great asset to the heroes or hospitals everywhere but decided to throw all of that away. Surely she didn't join the League of Villains just so she could repay her debt to Toga and him right? He felt a little worried but at the same time, a little thankful that their team had a medic.
Kiriyama's mind then wandered off to the day he was recruited into the League of Villains. He remembered thinking about changing society so that the quirkless or weak-quirked people would not be treated poorly by people with better quirks. He did not want anymore kids to be treated like he was. Kiriyama's eyelids got heavy and he shut his eyes. He thought about how he wanted to take revenge on his childhood bullies. He wanted to hurt and even kill one of them. He then remembered the moment he realized that his thoughts meant he shouldn't be allowed to be a hero. Heroes didn't take revenge on their bullies, heroes don't kill. Kiriyama's thoughts got lazier and foggier as the black haired teen drifted off to sleep.
Kiriyama was in a blank space and heard a hauntingly familiar laughter of children behind him. He turned around to see a four boys forming a circle around something. The red backpacks next to them suggested that they were still in elementary school.
"Worthless!" said a faceless child.
"Pathetic!" said another faceless child.
"Useless!" said another.
"Tell me, trash..." this time a boy with spiky purple hair, an icy, piercing red glare and a sadistic smirk on his blurred face. "Why! The hell! Are weaklings! Like you! Still! Alive!?"
With every phrase, he kicked something in the circle formed by the him and the faceless children. The last kick launched a boy towards Kiriyama.
Kiriyama attempted to catch the boy but his hands went through him as if he were a ghost. He turned around to see a black haired boy wearing a torn shirt colored red with his own blood. He had bruises, bumps, tears, and blood everywhere on his body. Kiriyama felt a lump in his throat found out the identity of the boy and the reason as to why this had felt familiar to him... because this pathetic, half-dead child was ten year old Kiriyama Ken.
The purple haired boy's face cleared and Kiriyama felt himself getting crushed by some invisible pressure that brought him to his knees. Ah. Yes, this feeling. It was fear. This boy was Kiriyama's boogeyman. Kiriyama remembered that the boy was his classmate for only two months before he moved away, but in those brief two months, he made Kiriyama's life hell. The first day of their fifth grade class, he asked everyone for info about their quirks and when he found out that Kiriyama's quirk made his blood taste sweet, he broke down laughing. His quirk was so useless that he was basically quirkless, and so he decided to have some fun with Kiriyama.
"Quirks are everything, you know. I thin-no, I know that quirks determine your worth to society, the stronger or the more useful your quirk is; the more worth you have as a person. But the thing is, you disgusting freak! You're a pathetic, quirkless, piece of garbage! And quirkless people HAVE ZERO WORTH! You're just a waste of space. You're a damn eyesore, Trashiyama." said the violet haired boy, kneeling down by the beaten Kiriyama. A horrible grin appeared on his face and he stood up. "Now then! That was lesson three and by now you should remember what I've taught you, right? Tell me, Scummyama, what did you learn?"
"...I...-rthless...-aste...of space..." whispered the beaten boy, somehow still conscious. The purple haired boy's grin widened. "Look at that! He's finally learned! Before you pass out, worm, you took a nasty fall while climbing trees and got all these nasty injuries all right? And you love going to school and love living your pathetic life. Alright?"
The purple haired boy moved away the next week, and Kiriyama remembered the class giving him a tearful farewell party. He hated these memories of his elementary school days. He hated how weak and pathetic he felt. And for a long time he hated himself for being weak, pathetic, and worthless. He hated that they were right about him. Kiriyama dropped to his knees on the floor and couldn't hold back the tears. Funny, he was still too weak to fight back his tears.
Kiriyama opened his eyes and was wide awake. He wiped his wet face with his sleeve and sighed. It had been a long time since he had a dream like that. He used to have dreams like that a lot when he was younger and hated it. The purple haired boy that had bullied him moved away a few months later but the emotional and physical scars he gave to Kiriyama had stayed with him ever since. "I'm better now... I'm stronger, much stronger, I have worth to the League, a lot of worth! I'm not the same helpless child back then, I'm different now! DIFFERENT! Not that weakling, quirkless, waste of space child that I was back then!"
Kiriyama took a deep breath to relax himself and ran his hand through his hair. He picked up his phone and found out he had slept for five hours. He opens up his messages and read a text Mustard sent, letting Kiriyama know that he had to reschedule his meeting and instead he was going to meet up with Atsuhiro for dinner and tell him about the 'Akuma' person he met online, and that he was also going to come back home late.
Kiriyama felt his stomach grumble and realized that he hasn't eaten dinner yet. He got up and grabbed his dark red oni mask and tucked it inside his pants' waistband and put his shirt over it. He walked outside, locked the door and walked to a nearby convenience store where he bought a bento and a couple of bottles of lemon iced-tea.
"Ken-chan?" said a masculine voice. The black haired teen froze and lowered his hand to where he had the mask tucked in. He slowly turned around and breathed a sigh of relief when he realized it was Magne. But then he sported a look of confusion on his face
"Yes, Magne-san?" replied Kiriyama. Magne examined the raven haired teen and shook his head. Kiriyama looked like a disaster. His hair was messier than usual, his skin was pale opposed to the usual tanned skin, and his eyes were red and strained.
"You look like a hot mess, more than you usually do!"
"Uh, thanks?"
"It's not a compliment,"
"I'm fine though, Magne-san,"
"Tell me what's botherin' ya, I'm betting something's in your mind right?"
Kiriyama was not in the mood for chit-chat, he was still feeling terrible after waking up from that nightmare. And Magne was just a teammate that he had barely spoken to, so he didn't feel comfortable enough to tell him. Seeing the look of discomfort and annoyance on the boy's face, the transgender villain sighed. "Look, Ken-chan. When I was feeling down about me being the way I am... I talked to a friend that accepted me for who I was and I felt better. I promise you, you will feel the same way if we talk about your problems. We're both in the same team right? And as far as I'm concerned, you're still a lost and confused teenager that needs some help, and I believe I can give you an ear if you need it."
Kiriyama gave a small and warm smile. For a crew of villains, some of them were real softies. Kiriyama then remembered Magne had attempted murder twenty-nine times but here she was, attempting to help him with his problems just because she wanted to be a good teammate.
"Alright, Magne-san, let's head to my apartment and I'll share some of the tea I bought. And talk about our feelings, like real villains." replied Kiriyama, with a sarcastic tone at the last sentence.