To the guest who reviewed Rigor Samsa, a fic wholly unrelated to Runner Ups aside from the BNHA setting and an OC who will appear later, with just "where runner ups cast list", here's your goddamn cast list. Hope you feel proud of yourself if your character is on it.
II.
Boogeyman
"Sabu? Did you hear me?"
He looked away from Uncle, back to his cell phone, and let out a small chuckle. "Right, right, sorry Chiaki-chan. I'm inside the house, okay? Safe and sound."
Skathi let out a relieved breath on the other end, finally at ease now that he was home. Ever since this business with the copycats started, she'd been on edge making sure none of the newer heroes didn't wind up targets. It was thoughtful of her, looking out for the new graduates. But he'd been out of school for three years now, surely she knew he could handle himself and was out of the danger zone?
The door shut behind him, and he clicked the lock in place. Despite his cheerful tone, the gaze he set onto Uncle as he kicked off his shoes was blank. Wordlessly demanding what he was doing in his apartment.
"Good. I've been thinking, with the construction of the new staff dorms, are you sure you don't wanna stay in one of the completed rooms?" Skathi asked him. He shrugged off his coat and swapped ears, pinning the phone between his left shoulder and ear as he hung his coat by the door.
"No, no," he said, "that would be too loud. You know I'm a light sleeper, Chiaki-chan. Besides, I think things will be quiet until school starts up again—without students in the public eye anymore, surely no one will act. It's all come off as very sensationalist, going by the timing of bodies showing up."
At least with regards to the copycats. Him, on the other hand—he made sure the timing was right, never something to capitalise on and make a show of. What he did was far too intimate to just put his work on display to the world like that.
"I hope you're right…" Skathi hesitated for a moment. "Then, if you're home, I'll leave you be. Thank you for humouring me, Sabu."
"Don't apologise for caring," he chided her. "It's how you show it, and I'd never shame you for wanting to convey that care."
"Thank you. I'll see you tomorrow, then?"
"Bright and early, as usual. Try not to have too much paperwork for me when I get there."
He hung up shortly after. Uncle stared at him, still not answering his silent demand. The old man just stood there, arms crossed over his chest, impassive.
Finally, Uncle sighed at him, "Is this how you welcome family into your home?"
"Family doesn't typically break into my home," he fired back. He breezed past Uncle, beelining for the kitchen. He needed some coffee—he had a long night of work ahead, too much to put off for another day. And Uncle apparently wanted attention, to boot. He may as well be a good host and offer a mug of coffee to start. "How do you take your coffee?"
"I don't."
He furrowed his brows and sucked in a deep breath. "You're truly a riveting guest," he grumbled. "Why are you here, Uncle?"
"Can't a man visit his nephew without a—"
"Uncle. Last time I saw you, you took some blood to give to your followers. You think I didn't notice my Quirk being used when the bombs went off? Your little pet was lucky I was one of the Pro Heroes on scene to control it and actually make that convoluted plan work." He clicked his tongue, turning the kettle on as he grabbed a mug from the top cupboard. "Who even was that girl? Such a tasteless way to discard her. No care whatsoever."
Uncle sighed. He slowly slid into a chair nearby, elbow propped up on the dining room table and just out of view of his nephew. "You didn't grab me the Quirkless girl," he finally admitted.
"Oh? You wanted something from that? For God's sake, Uncle, use your words. My Quirk isn't mind reading."
Uncle rolled his eyes. He pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed, finally relenting under his "nephew's" ribbing. "Not coffee," Uncle grumbled. "I want iced milk tea."
Such a picky old man.
Uncle's stay was extended by the process, and he was silent all the while. He didn't speak again until both men were seated at the small dining table together, with their drinks sipped at and complimented. Manners, of course, were a must in this home.
"The kodoku will begin soon."
He glanced at Uncle over the rim of his mug. "And you wanted the Quirkless girl to round it out."
"No." Uncle shook his head. "No, the parents have provided more than enough Quirkless children to round it out. The girl would've been to increase the effectiveness."
"Oh. So you wanted to make it more of a challenge for the other children," he sighed. Goodness, Uncle was meticulous. "I could have you arrested for trying to take one of my precious students."
"Your mother would disapprove." Uncle leaned back in his seat and sipped his drink.
"Ah, yes. She'd be rolling in her grave."
"Don't be so dramatic, she's just in Tartarus."
"The very same Tartarus she compared to a villain's graveyard. Hence, she'd be rolling in her grave." He punctuated his rebuttal with a very loud sip from his mug. "In any case. I decline helping you, Uncle. The girl may have been Quirkless, but what you planned to do was not something I could agree with."
Uncle sighed heavily. "I suppose I should've seen it coming," Uncle agreed.
"I won't get in the way of the copycats you've sent out, though," he went on. "Their work may be sloppy, but somehow the authorities can't differentiate between my own acts of love and their own crass amateur work. You're giving me alibis, I suppose."
"Glad to know I've helped in some way."
Right. Helped. He gave Uncle a glance, and Uncle wasted no time in continuing. "So, tell me, which student did you take this time?"
Uncle's question wasn't out of curiosity. He knew the son of Mirko had been taken this time. The question he was asking was why.
"The copycats are spread out," he told Uncle. "But I noticed not many of them targeted the schools in Ararisu City. So, with Zenshi being the only hero academy in the area and quite frankly, the only one exclusively targeted by myself, the decision was obvious. With everyone else doing what they want in the other parts of the country, no one will know for sure which is the real killer."
"Why him? In the heat of the moment, there were others you could've taken."
"Surely you have enough sense to gather that the girl who splits into three would eventually uncover my identity if I took her. Or perhaps even one part of her." He shrugged. "Besides, the boy needs my guidance more than she does."
Uncle's eyes drifted past him. They slid over the kitchen sink, towards the large fridge, and Uncle idly noted, "Your apartment is small. Once you see the inside in comparison to out, I mean."
"Your words, Uncle."
"Which area of the house did you block off for your little 'guidance' sessions?"
He rose from his chair rather quickly. So glad Uncle had asked, because now Uncle owed him even more—there was no doubt Uncle would do the same, install a panic room somewhere that would hide his elicit going ons until the kodoku was finished. On top of the blood he'd given to Uncle so his Quirk could be borrowed, the man was beginning to show just how much he'd hoped his nephew would be the one to succeed him back when everyone thought the Boogeyman was Quirkless.
"If you'll follow me," he said, and he set aside his drink on the counter as he moved to his fridge. Uncle was right to look at it, note how small the kitchen was. But Uncle had failed to note one thing in particular—the lack of sounds from the apartment below, how quiet the floor of this room was. Not a single creak, never a sign of someone else coming or going below. The large doors to the fridge opened, and when a button was pressed on the inside, the back of the fridge folded out and carefully rearranged the food inside to accommodate a person entering. All Uncle would be told as he walked in was, "Close the doors behind you."
The entrance to the safe room was short, a quick stairway leading to the space between apartment floors. Each floor had one such space, designed in the event of intruders in the past but sealed over eventually once fire safety hazards had come about. People, even the landlord, had forgotten about these spaces. But him? He knew of such setups thanks to his mother, rest her soul, and the apartment he'd been raised in by her.
There was only one lock on the door to his safe room, and next to the door was a box of gloves and sets of masks. It was never necessary to wear such masks, but the gloves were a must. Fingerprints were the undoing of so many people, he was taught, and this lesson had come to life in his job as a Pro Hero. He'd caught so many criminals for police just with fingerprint evidence alone. He nodded to the gloves, making sure Uncle knew to take a pair; he tied back his hair, nice and secure, and placed a mask over the bottom half of his face with extra care to turn on the voice modifier.
He glanced back at Uncle—and found Uncle in the middle of morphing, changing his appearance to match that of a child. Probably one of his Quirkless pets for the kodoku. "Don't worry about me," Uncle informed him, the child's voice trapped in the small hallway. No one would even be able to hear from the fridge if anyone made a sound. "Continue as though I were never here."
"How kind of you," came the distorted voice from his mask.
He opened the door, switched on the lights, and the first immediate sight he was met with was the broken, shackled legs of Usagiyama Usamaru. He truly was his mother's son, and the biggest precaution that had to be taken was handling those strong legs of his. Everything else was up to chance, and very little room had been left for even that. Beyond Usamaru's shackles and battered body, the tiled walls and floor were dirtied with a night of Usamaru's wounds weeping and other unmentionables from the boy; thankfully the plumbing had been installed to the safe rooms, untouched even when the rooms were sealed off, and it was just a matter of turning on the hose and cleaning the boy to make things spick and span again.
To one side of the room, out of Usamaru's reach should he miraculously recover the ability to walk, the tools of the fearsome Boogeyman were on display and neatly lined up in their respective places; to the other side of the room, almost bare if not for the installations, were three metal tables drilled into the floor not unlike the sight within a morgue. He could hold captive multiple hero students if he so wished, but splitting his attention between even two was far too cruel for him to do. His precious victims needed all of his attention, all of his love, to truly know how he felt about them.
"Poor boy," Uncle's childish voice rang out as the door locked behind him. "Stunned silent."
Usamaru may have been quiet, watching the duo from the floor as he stayed still to keep the pain to a minimum, but he was mute long before the betrayal he'd been served. "Have some respect, the boy has apraxia. He opted out of speech therapy to focus on his studies—very selfless of him, putting the lives he could save as a hero before his own voice."
"Ironic, Mirko's son being the one with a motor disorder." Uncle chuckled into his hand, clearly amused. "Makes for an easy target, I suppose."
He rolled his eyes. He approached Usamaru, glanced at the swollen legs trapped inside the small pillory that had been reinforced thoroughly. Hobbling Usamaru had been a difficult ordeal, but it was clear the bones had healed wrong already. He reached out, wanted to touch one of the legs, but Usamaru let out a high-pitched squeak and began to tremble. Poor thing, he still didn't understand that this was all done out of love. Love and pride in Usamaru's efforts.
A vibration in his pocket. He withdrew his hand before it could touch Usamaru.
"Tsukauchi, your timing is as horrible as ever," he sighed. A gloved hand passed the phone back to Uncle, only telling him, "He never calls this late. Whatever he needs, tell him I'll be by. Never calls unless it's urgent this time of night."
Uncle took the phone. Usamaru opened his eyes, dull red following Uncle to the door—and then Uncle morphed into his nephew, and Usamaru's expression became pained. Sensei had undeniably been the one to take him, and seeing two of him was giving Usamaru less room for denial.
"Hm?" His own voice came out of Uncle's mouth, and for the umpteenth time he was surprised at how softly he spoke. No one ever pointed it out to him. "Tsukauchi-san, what's wrong? You should be off work by now."
Uncle hummed along with Tsukauchi on the phone, playing the part of concerned Pro Hero, and the phone call ended less than two minutes later. Uncle hung up, promising to show up, and he turned to his nephew with an unimpressed face. "The body they found," Uncle told him. "They linked her cause of death to a specific kind of Quirk. I'm afraid you'll have to apprehend one of my copycats tonight."
"Sloppy," he scoffed again, clicking his tongue.
"I'll be sure to make an example out of them to the others," Uncle assured him. "You're a punishment to heroes and villains alike."
"A bloodhound, more like. You all just point and I follow, provided I don't disagree with the direction."
Uncle chuckled. His phone was placed delicately on a nearby tray of tools, irking his nephew in the process. Everything had a place, and the phone's place was not a tool collection. He leaned forward, stroked Usamaru's white hair softly, and whispered, "I'll be back soon, Usamaru-kun. I'll make you a lovely dinner and give you a nice bath."
As he left the room behind, saw Uncle off for the night, he ran a hand down his face and sighed. Finally, another sloppy copycat was going to be punished for their heartless work. And he was practically handed the gavel to judge them.
And, of course, the Goddamn Cast List in question! Thanks to everyone who submitted, it was hard to narrow down the choices but in the end, these are the ones who got through. Thanks to everyone who submitted, and keep an eye open for submissions to open again in the future for villains of a certain kind!
Seat 1 - Arashi Lyoko / M / Play-Or-Pain / heartattak (VA: Yamashita Daiki)
Seat 2 - Bara Momoiro / M / Bloom Body / The Pocketwatch Ripper (VA: Kobayashi Yuu)
Seat 3 - Eguchi Mugi / F / Spinner / Arrow-chan3 (VA: Anzai Chika)
Seat 4 - Hachisuka Hime / F / Queen Bee / YoRHa-aHRoY (VA: Taneda Risa)
Seat 5 - Hagane Tetsuya / M / Electromagnetic / Zero-tan (VA: Matsuoka Yoshitsugu)
Seat 6 - Irinaga Kanon / M / Strikethrough / Butterfly Chikage (VA: Tatsuhisa Suzuki)
Seat 7 - Ishibashi Sumie / F / Corrosion / arans (VA: Miyamoto Yume)
Seat 8 - Kaiyo Ryuichi / M / Water Dragon / StylishDescent (VA: Kaji Yuki)
Seat 9 - Kirameki Hibana / F / Let's Play / KawaiiPinky (VA: Hikasa Yoko)
Seat 10 - Koizumi Mirato / M / All Seeing / LifeisBeautiful17 (VA: Uchiyama Kouki)
Seat 11 - Kousaki Teruki / M / Jewel Skin / nerfherder-han (VA: Hanae Natsuki)
Seat 12 - Mori Emiko / F / Drake / Captain Jaku (VA: Hayami Saori)
Seat 13 - Nekota Miyuki / F / Snow Leopard / chiaki ebooks (VA: Tanezaki Atsumi)
Seat 14 - Ono Tora / M / Hotrock / Flaming Fate Zero (VA: Tanaka Mayumi)
Seat 15 - Sasaki Kaiten / M / Nail Bullets / SSJ3 Godtenks (VA: Namikawa Daisuke)
Seat 16 - Shinkai Mizuki / F / Angler Fish / Firealis (VA: Koshimizu Ami)
Seat 17 - Shizu Shogo / M / Hyper Density / Luke5921 (VA: Nagatsuka Takuma)
Seat 18 - Shuzenji Shiki / M / Lifeforce / QuarmboneMarkIV (VA: Sakurai Takahiro)
Seat 19 - Suzuki Aoi / F / Steel Skeleton / ekoshio (VA: Sakamoto Maaya)
Seat 20 - Takami Kiaria / F / Fierce Wings / A.J. Aviary (VA: Iguchu Yuka)
Seat 21 - Takishima Asuka / F / Cherry Bomber / Monty's Cloudy Day (VA: Hanazawa Kana)
Seat 22 - Torihiki Yuzuru / M / Oath / LightFlair (VA: Irino Miyu)
Seat 23 - Yoyo Yoyo / F / Deep Space / JackHammerMan (VA: Kanou Mari)
Seat 24 - Yumeya Hanabi / F / Sweet Dreams / AtlasJoule (VA: Noto Mamiko)