The sun was slowly setting, its light finally hidden behind the buildings, casting the city street into darkness. It was the only time of day when the arcade's unassuming and rather decrepit appearance was ever noticeable as its neon sign flickered weakly in the dimming light. Mori looked up as someone entered his arcade. Another regular. He sighed. Those were the only people who seemed to visit anymore; the ones who already knew about the place.

He glanced at her again. Emo blue-hair. Got it. He sighed again and checked to make sure Bleed 'em Vampires! was unlocked and working, then returned to leaning his elbows on the counter and staring into the street.

The phone rang. He picked it up and upon recognizing the voice, he glanced around the arcade and disappeared into the back.

"I got two more coming in tonight. You gonna stay open for me, Mori?"

Mori picked at something in his teeth and shrugged his shoulders. "What do you think? You and your clients are the only reason I'm still open, Giran. Look, I don't know what you and that 'league' are up to, but as long as I can keep my place running, I don't care. Just try not to catch the pros' attention, 'kay? For all our sakes."

Giran's dry laugh echoed through the phone. "You have no need to worry, my friend. I've been doing this a long time and with everything that happened with Stain, business is booming and the pros are too busy chasing their tails to notice little old me. You can expect my clients in an hour." and with that, the broker hung up and Mori returned to the counter.

Dragonslayer 's celebration music rang out, indicating someone had beat the high score and Mori looked over in interest, but it was just him, beating his own high score…again. Mori's eyes lingered on the figure in the black hoodie, wondering if he was here for Giran's clients, but then he shrugged and pulled out his phone to try and stave off the boredom. Sometimes the kid would do business here, but mostly, as Mori had figured it, he just liked playing games. He would slink out of some hidden spot in a building down the street, come play for hours, then return, never once saying a word to anyone. Everyone's gotta have a hobby to blow off some steam, even the leader of the League of Villains.

Shigaraki felt the cold prickle of someone's gaze on the back of his head. It was more than just someone looking over at him for beating the high score. He inserted another coin and started the game again, his hands moving deftly across the controls. After about a minute, he finally snuck a glance at the counter, but that stupid arcade owner, Mori, was just staring at his phone. It could have been him, Shigaraki had caught him staring before. "Please play nice with Mori, he's kind enough to let the likes of us come and go from his establishment." Giran's words echoed in his mind. Whatever. He was annoying.

But there it was again. Someone was definitely staring and it wasn't the stupid owner. His eyes and fingers remained fixated on the game, but his mind raced through what he knew about his surroundings.

He was at the start of the game and Baldr was facing the first goblin miniboss alone, no team mates yet. He recalled noticing no one was at Gunzone Impact, meaning Spinner, the new guy, wasn't here. All the games in that part of the store were also likewise deserted.

This part of the game was tricky. You were low level and the miniboss was a misdirect. Made you feel comfortable, like I got this, it's not that hard. But no, because the goblin attacking the village NPCs wasn't the miniboss. Its health was down to fifty percent and the village leader was safe. Mori was at the counter. As annoying as he was, he wasn't a problem. Just an NPC.

Another NPC got away, upping his total score. He heard the door open and like clockwork, the girl who always played All Might Justice was headed home for the night.

Twenty percent. He was running out of time to figure out the misdirect. The witch behind the goblin attack would take the player by surprise if you couldn't pinpoint where she was by the time the goblin reached zero health. Shigaraki knew she was one of the NPCs, but which one she was changed every time you played, but there was a pattern. You could start to see it, the more time you played the game. Two NPCs ran and hid behind bushes. Pros Unite! and Robot Robo Attack were both bums who would be here until close. Non-issues.

Three NPCs were backed up against the wall behind the goblin, obviously screaming. Finally, this was the part of the pattern he hadn't discovered yet. One was the game's 'damsel'. He had seen both versions of the game where the witch was one of the other two NPCs, it was the main go-to scenario. Behind him, two games stood occupied. Bleed 'em Vampires! was a regular, but Fairytale Adventures was someone who had only started showing up a couple days ago.

Five percent. He took the chance and shot the arrow at the NPC just a split second after knocking the goblin to zero, hoping to take away the witch's surprise attack advantage that was almost always a clean KO. He whipped around, ripping off his glove at the same time, and grabbed his assailant's collar. He slammed her to the ground, his knee digging into her gut and his hand wrapped around her throat, all his fingers but his pinky squeezed firmly around her neck.

"And it looks like the damsel is the witch, Miss Bleed em Vampires!" He leaned in and hissed in her ear. "And what exactly were you hoping to accomplish here?" A manic grin spread across his face and his eyes glinted darkly. "You know what?" He laughed. "I don't care. You can go to hell." and he dropped his pinky finger to her neck.

Nothing happened.

They stared at each other, frozen.

Shigaraki lifted his finger and tapped it against her neck again.

Still nothing.

What the fuck?

Nix stared up at him in shock. Holy shit! It's Shigaraki…Shigaraki Tomura… Her eyes went wide just as she felt all five of his fingers on her neck. And…and he just…tried to murder me. Fuck! Fuck fuck fuck! She took a slow breath as her heart threatened to leap out of her chest. Must de-escalate the situation. There are other people in the building and I don't want to get into a fight with civilians around. She stared into the red eyes of the man above her. And then I need to report back to Hawks…if I survive long enough.

Confused, Shigaraki stared back at her. Why…why is she still alive? What the fuck? He lifted up his finger again and pushed down against her throat harder. Still nothing happened. He did it a couple more times in quick succession.

The part of Nix that was scared and panicky was slowly getting replaced by a deep, normally thoroughly kept in check and buried...anger. Anger over having been 'murdered' several times over. "Chill dude! I just wanted to congratulate you on getting the high score," she said with a hitch in her voice. She pushed with her leg and kicked Shigaraki hard off of her and into Robot Robo Attack across from DragonSlayer and got to her feet.

He remained leaned up against the machine as he stared at his hands in utter confusion.

She gestured very dramatically to the Dragonslayer high score screen, specifically to the fourth place score with the player handle of KUR which was several hundred points behind TOM which held the top three scores. "I'm KUR, you asshole. I just wanted to say good job on beating my score and you attacked me like some feral child."

Giving no response, Shigaraki continued to stare at his hands. Something…strange had just happened and now he felt strange.

"You know what? I don't need this. This was my night off and I just wanted to blow off some steam, but you ruined it, TOM!" she said with a high amount of venom. I need to get out of here, not argue with him. "I'm outta here, you useless bag of dicks." She turned to the counter. "Have a good night, Mori," she said, but the shop owner had walked away from his counter and disappeared into an adjacent back room for some reason.

Not giving it much thought and desperate to get out of there, Nix moved to walk past Shigaraki when he turned to finally look at her...and stepped in her way. Fuck.

He glowered down at her, clenching his fists and slouching his shoulders forward. He tilted his head to the side as he stared at her, taking her tiny appearance in and trying to shake off that feeling he had gotten when he grabbed her. His expression was just short of angry as he obviously was still trying to process the shock of what just happened. "Don't you know better than to sneak up behind someone?"

She froze as she stared up at him, her anger slowly giving way again to the panic she had initially felt. Tall…he's really fucking tall. F-fuccckkk. She took in a shaky breath as their height difference was now very apparent.

He glanced down at his glove that was still lying on the ground, too uncomfortably close to where 'Damsel Witch' was standing. He could feel the panic swell inside him as he resisted the urge to scratch at his neck. Is Eraser somewhere nearby? No, that's unlikely. Heroes don't spend time around this part of town, and besides, he slowly looked her up and down, assessing, she doesn't seem like the 'hero' type. He stood up straight, deciding the likelihood that he'd been made was pretty minimal. "And besides, I didn't beat your high score, I destroyed it." He scoffed and finally reached down to grab his glove, acutely aware of how exposed that left his head and neck to her.

Her eye twitched slightly. Tall…and an asshole. She felt that familiar anger slowly ebb its way up to the surface again, but she quickly shoved it back down as he bent down to pick up his glove. Staring down at the back of his head, she quickly realized how prone he was, bent so close to her when only moments before he had been on top of her, face inches from her own, with his hand around her neck. That was kinda hot, though. She internally shook her head. Not the time!

"W-Whatever," she stuttered out. "That game is archaic and only losers would want to play it more than once. No offense, Mori." She glanced over at Mori who had returned and was holding a broom and dustpan in hand with just as shocked of an expression on his face. She looked back at Shigaraki who still hadn't moved from his position as he carefully picked up the glove, clearly trying to avoid demolishing it. She took one step back to bring space between her and the supervillain, TOM. He stood fully upright, towering over her. Still so tall…still so close. "Besides you could never hope to even get close to my high score in Bleed 'em vampires. It might be too 'complex' for you." Another step back. She was almost to the door.

The panic was replaced with suspicion in Shigaraki's mind. Who the hell is this girl? He had tried to kill her and…nothing. He had never experienced anything like that before. Like her. Now she was trying to bow out as if he hadn't just tackled her to the floor. Did she even realize he had tried to kill her? Or did she really just think he was some weirdo who randomly grabbed her around the neck, but not choked her? In the back of his mind, the thought drifted across, Oh don't worry, given the chance, I'll choke her, but at the forefront of his mind, his thoughts were still spiraling with so many unanswered questions. Was it a quirk? Like Eraser? It had to be. Did she know who he was after all? If she was anything less than a criminal, was he at risk of being turned in to the heroes? Had he miscalculated? Everything had happened too fast, he wasn't sure what to think, but she was getting away and he had too many questions. Was it worth even saying anything? What if she became suspicious?

He traced her every movement as she was about to grab the door handle. The little bitch is about to get away. Before he could stop himself, the question flew out of his mouth. "Who the hell are you?"

Nix froze near the doorway. Fuck…Her eyes went wide again. If I run now…he could kill me. I'm fast, but I'm not willing to risk my life if he's faster.

"And where are you trying to go so fast?"

"I…"

She paused for a second too long. His expression was beginning to shift again. I need to think fast. If I bolt for it now, he will chase me. He may not be able to kill me with his quirk, but he's still a killer and I am very much in danger. She stared at him as he scowled at her. Hero…I'm a hero and he's chasing me out of my own arcade. That anger she had capped off began leaking out, spilling over. Who the fuck does he think he is?! Does he treat everybody this way?! How many people has he killed because they've pissed him off?! Her eye twitched again. You know what, fuck it. This is my place…MY arcade! And I'll be fucked before I let some shitty-haired loser chase me out of here, villain or not!

"Now you listen here." She took a step towards him with her finger extended, pointing accusingly at him. "You don't need to know my name, you aggressive asshat."

She took another step forward.

"I don't go around telling every dickhead who assaults me what my name is. And as for where I'm going…"

Another step.

"Maybe I don't want to be spending time with shitty-haired, edge lords who think it's ok to beat up on women." She had finally closed the gap between them and pushed her finger into his chest. "My name will never cross your lips until you treat me with a little more respect, you Baldr wannabe."

Nix realized she was pushing and threatening Japan's most wanted and he was only inches away from her again. She turned her back on him against her better judgment because she didn't want him to see how flustered she was. She started walking away again. "I know it might be hard for a reject like you to get a girl," she was almost to the door, "but if you wanted to kiss me so bad, maybe pinning me to the ground was a little too bold of an opening move."

"What?!" His eyes widened with indignation. Kiss? What the fuck is she going on about?! I was trying to fucking kill her!

Why the fuck did I just say that?! Nix berated herself. He… She remembered the feeling of him on her, his hand on her throat as she blushed deeper. What the fuck is wrong with me? Need to get out of here, not fantasize about that moment. Leader of the League of Villains. Killer. Tried to kill me five minutes ago. Need to get out of here now and reassess my morals later.

She reached for the handle and held it for a moment. "I'm here every Thursday after nine!" Nix blurted out too quickly, realizing after that; that she just gave a supervillain part of her schedule. What the fuck are you thinking?! You're supposed to be turning him in right away after this, not setting up a fucking date! Ugh! Kurai! Fuck you and your questionable morals! "Maybe I'll tell you my name if you can beat my high score in Bleed 'em Vampires." She opened the door. Great, now you've issued a challenge. You've never backed down from a challenge. She sighed and grumbled imperceptibly before briefly glancing at Mori, trying not to picture the devastation this place would face if All Might came smashing in here. So much for turning him in.

Now all of Shigaraki's suspicion and panic melted away and turned into pure annoyance. It really is just her quirk…he flexed his hand, she's nothing special. His lips curled into a snarl as he flexed his fingers several more times, trying to shake the feeling of her touch. And she's just an idiot with a death wish. How fucking annoying.

"Now listen here, you Damsel Bitch. Unlike you, I don't need to bluster and insult people to feel superior. I know I'm superior. You claim only a loser will play such an 'archaic' game multiple times, so either you are declaring yourself to be a loser, or…" he slowly stalked closer to the little nuisance, sadistically satisfied that she seemed to be frozen in place again, her wide eyes following his movements cautiously. He stepped in next to her at the door and gently touched the handle. Her hand jerked back as it crumbled to dust. Good, my quirk is working. "…you're a liar."

Holy shit… Nix's eyes widened as she looked at the door, then she looked at his intimidating form. He's so close…too close. She took in a shaky breath, breathing in his slightly musky scent. A blush returned to her cheeks as she looked up at him, her steely eyes catching his intense red ones. The second their eyes met though, she immediately looked away as she focused on where the handle had been. Danger, Kurai. You're in danger. She felt the heat on her cheeks again. Red flags. I always go for the red flags. She wanted to glare back up at him, but she couldn't will herself to do it anymore. Fuck, I'm stupid… She could feel his body less than a couple centimeters away from her, imagining him pressing up against her once more, her thoughts making it way more intimate than it had actually been. And apparently horny… Fuck my life.

Shigaraki's snarl morphed into a gleeful grin as she seemed to whither and shrink before him the longer he kept her there, so he continued, "Your scores on Dragonslayer would be impressive if it weren't for mine, but they do indicate one thing: you have played that archaic game many times. And I don't lower myself to accepting idle challenges from losers…or liars." His grin disappeared instantly, replaced with a bored, unimpressed expression. "So get lost."

He shrugged and walked back inside. He could see in one of the convex mirrors by the counter that she was still watching him from the open doorway and he smiled ruefully when he noticed her unconsciously rubbing her hand that had been holding the door handle. That's right. His grin returned as he imagined pinning her again, scaring her shitless. Be afraid, Damsel Bitch. He pulled out a handful of bills and placed them on the counter. "Sorry about the handle, Mori. I got a little carried away while I was taking out the garbage."

He turned and leaned against the counter, grinning at her maniacally as she finally stepped out of the doorway and let the door swing shut behind her. He wasn't sure if she would actually be there on Thursday like she said, but he found himself looking forward to showing up and kicking her little punk ass.

Takara Kurai! Also known as "Nix, the Negation Hero"! Quirk? Negation.

She can temporarily remove a person's quirk like it never existed just by touching them!

She currently works as a sidekick at Hawks' Agency!

Go check out the rest of this story where we are able to post it without breaking guidelines! Link in profile!