"What did you just say?"

"I said to bring me the Hero Killer. Is that a problem?" Tomura asked again.

Giran looked at Tomura like he was crazy, which he was, but that was irrelevant. Tomura stared Giran down, knowing that it was going to skeeve him out to meet his eyes through the fingers of his hand-mask. Giran shifted his gaze to Kurogiri for a moment, silently pleading with the mist man to cut the shit with him. Tomura smiled, not taking his eyes off the information broker sitting in front of him.

"I … are you serious? That guy doesn't work with anyone. He's … different from you or me. If we're off the grid, he was never even on it. I came from somewhere, you know? I'm sure you did, too," Giran said, and something about the way he did rubbed Tomura the wrong way. "This guy?" he continued, "He just popped up and started slaughtering Heroes. Nobody knows where he came from. There's a few who know his name, but that's it. I can't help you with that guy. The Hero Killer isn't someone you can get into contact with," Giran explained.

Tomura felt his smile fall, twisted into a snarl. He'd hoped for more from Giran. He leaned forward and took a closer look at the man before him. Giran looked scared, like they were talking about some kind of boogeyman.

"What's his name?" Tomura asked, narrowing his eyes at Giran.

"They call him Stain; it's the only thing at his crime scenes that tells us he was ever there — bloodstains soak everything in sight. The shit he leaves behind is … messy, kid. I'd advise not chasing after that kinda guy," Giran said.

"Well, this Stain is someone I'd like to meet. So, you'll find him for me. For a price, of course. You're a professional, so we wouldn't want you going hungry. Would we?" Tomura said, turning to Kurogiri.

"No, we would not," Kurogiri answered, sounding intensely uncomfortable.

Tomura let his words sit and settle in Giran's mind. He stared at the man, who stared back, Giran's face becoming more and more clear to read as nervous instead of simply frightened of the boogeyman. If Giran was anything, it was confident, and self-assured. Something told Tomura that Giran thought that he could absolutely find Stain with a little effort, but that he wouldn't like what he found. But, that wasn't going to be Giran's problem. That was where Tomura came in. He'd do the talking to Stain; Giran just had to find him.

"Giran, we are not asking you to speak with the Hero Killer. We are simply asking you to find his physical location. I can warp him here, and we can speak with him by ourselves. There is no risk posed to your safety with this job. Will you help us?" Kurogiri asked, sighing as he somehow brought Tomura's thoughts into reality.

Giran seemed to contemplate. His eyes flicked between Tomura and Kurogiri, who Tomura was actually glad to have there. The two were always together, more or less, but it definitely helped him in these kinds of situations. Kurogiri was the more amicable and down to earth of them. Tomura knew that he had a habit of jumping to threats or just straight up killing whoever he was trying to make a deal with. That was why it had taken longer than anticipated to build their invasion force for the USJ; Tomura had killed some of the people they'd interviewed for their army. What an army it ended up being.

"How much are you offering for this job?" Giran asked, smoothing down his hair with his hand.

Tomura and Kurogiri exchanged a look. He gestured with his hand to discuss. The two of them had a way of communicating where pretty much nobody except for people with hearing Quirks could pick up what they were saying. Because Kurogiri could warp himself without having to make a gate, he could simply warp a small amount of the mist around his mouth right next to Tomura's ear and whisper, forcing the sound through the warp and making it so that only Tomura could hear. It seemed to others like telepathy, but people like Master knew better.

"We have around a hundred million yen here, but we can acquire more," Kurogiri whispered.

It would be a dark day in hell before anyone but Kurogiri and Master knew that Tomura Shigaraki wasn't good with numbers. He'd always had a weird, instinctual understanding of distance and speed and how to calculate it, but when it came to properly putting the numbers together and doing it for an assessment, Tomura was no good. He always got frustrated and gave up. But, he'd still gotten an above average education from a curriculum built using Master's many intelligence Quirks. Master had a Quirk for just about anything. When Tomura was young, Master would sometimes take the time to explain a Quirk he had that was particularly interesting. He didn't do that anymore, mainly because Tomura saw Master less and less after what All Might had done to him. Tomura moved away from that train of thought as quickly as it came and focused back on the conversation in the present.

"We can give you seventy five million yen in one payment, after we've spoken with the Hero Killer. Got it?" Tomura said, getting a small nod from Kurogiri in approval.

Giran seemed to take another moment to think, his eyes wide and panicked. He drummed his fingers on the wood of the bar, which irritated Tomura into grinding his teeth to stay quiet about it. He had no doubt that Kurogiri noticed, always urging him to fight what he called 'nervous tics'. The scratching, the tooth grinding, whatever popped up. They'd never even spoken of the mask, which was a relief for Tomura. The hand was a kind of grounding mechanism, it made Tomura calm, but also full of some unplaceable emotion that made him want to throw up. Weird.

"Alright. That's doable. I'll find the Hero Killer for you, but I'm not getting anywhere near him," Giran said.

"Mmm. Then we have a deal," Tomura said, smiling.

"We do. I'll start on it right away. I'll contact you when I have him," Giran replied, standing and stepping away from the bar.

Tomura simply stared at the man as he was warped away by Kurogiri. He smiled, knowing that he'd get his meeting with the Hero Killer after all. He'd thought for a moment that Giran would really refuse, but he'd come around in the end. Tomura turned to Kurogiri and saw that he was very carefully not looking at him. He frowned, looking at Kurogiri with narrowed eyes from behind Father. He didn't make any effort to talk, as Kurogiri likely wanted peace and quiet.

Checking the time, Tomura found that it was still reasonable enough for him to go back to sleep. He'd felt dead tired ever since he'd woken up, but he didn't know why. Tomura said nothing as he stood and made his way back to his room. When he sat on his bed, Tomura took Father off and looked at it. It was an inanimate hand, supposedly the real thing that belonged to his real father before he'd died. It felt an awful lot like plastic some days, but the Doctor reassured him that it was just what they had to do to keep it from decaying that made it feel like that. Tomura looked at the hand, feeling like he needed to throw up just seeing its sickly white fingers, splayed out at odd angles just so that it could stick to his face. An odd sense of serenity washed over him when he saw it, though. When he just sat here like this, with Father in his hand, it made all the bad things in the world disappear. It helped when the others were on, but Father made the difference, in Tomura's mind. He put Father on his bedside table and collapsed back into bed.

It took a little over a week for Giran to find the Hero Killer, Stain. Tomura, in that time, had gotten a new desk brought in with Kurogiri's help. He'd spent the next few days after that staring at his computer, rewatching the final part of the Sports Festival that he hadn't gotten to see due to him lashing out at his desk. Tomura saw that Katsuki Bakugo had the spirit of a warrior, but that the limitations placed on him by UA, the law and Hero society as a whole had him shackled to the ground, when he could fly among the clouds. Shoto Todoroki also had the potential for brutality, as he annihilated anyone in his path until Bakugo, who won because he still wouldn't use his fire in battle. He'd looked vaguely pissed off that they'd had to make up a ruling on a contestant dropping out mid-event when Izuku Midoriya, the little prick, had disappeared suddenly. It seemed that the Todoroki boy had some disdain for Midoriya. That, they shared.

It was after a few days of this that Kurogiri had asked Tomura to at least come out of his room. He'd reluctantly agreed to this, and had emerged to a dinner already made for him. That was when Tomura had realized that he'd spent the last two full days staring at a computer screen, and promptly was told to take a break. Tomura had taken a walk the next day, going around town and seeing sights. It helped Tomura to focus his feelings when he could roam about town and name specific things that he hated. Like babies, or toddlers, or kids, or teenagers, or adults. Everyone got on Tomura's nerves, and it seemed like they all had just one of his buttons that only they could press. Some people chewed too loudly, some people played music without headphones on in public, some people let their kids cry without even trying to stop them, which especially irritated Tomura. Why even have a kid if you're not going to parent them? That's the fucking point! What a waste of time and energy. Well, it didn't matter in the long run. All of it was going to be ash and dust under his rule.

Tomura was going to be powerful when he could command an army of Nomu as well as the regular, single-Quirked infantry. Tomura would be the king of it all, and not just in Japan, either. Master had plans for the whole world before All Might almost killed him, so it was only right that Tomura continue those schemes and bring the terror that Japan would face under his rule to the whole world. He'd make Master proud and more, so of course he was going to do whatever he could in order to bring about the new world order that they talked about. Tomura would do it, and it would be grand. He let out a small chuckle at the thought of it, and carried on with his walk.

The sun had set long ago, and Tomura came back around to the bar and let himself in. Tomura let himself in and walked over to the seating of the bar, where Kurogiri was sitting and reading. Kurogiri was extremely well read, mostly because he was Tomura's teacher, but he also enjoyed it, apparently. Tomura was one for visual stories, as he couldn't imagine just sitting down and staying still enough to read for hours on end. No, Tomura craved action, and so he found that in video games. Tomura just couldn't find it in himself to willingly read. Kurogiri, though, was the opposite side of that coin. Whenever he wasn't in the bar, he was reading. The mist man had a room at the bar, and the few times that Tomura had seen inside of it, he'd had two different bookshelves, stocked full of books like a weirdo. Oh, well. They were just so different that it was hard to imagine that they'd gotten along as long as they had.

As Tomura sat back down at the bar, the phone rang. The only calls that came through on that phone were from Giran, so Tomura knew it was him. The two of them looked at each other, Tomura smirking at Kurogiri's wide eyes. If what Kurogiri had said about Giran was true, he shouldn't have been surprised that the man could find the Hero Killer, but here they were, really about to talk to the Villainous myth himself.

"This is Kurogiri speaking," the mist man said as he picked up the phone.

As moments passed, Kurogiri said nothing more. He simply nodded, and then hung up. Tomura looked at Kurogiri and narrowed his eyes, wondering what was going on. He gestured for Kurogiri to speak, which he did after a moment of hesitation.

"It seems as though the Hero Killer is in Hosu. Giran's sources were able to confirm sightings of him the last few nights on the Pro Hero known as Native's patrol route," Kurogiri said.

"Good. Stake it out and bring him to me," Tomura replied, smiling an unnaturally wide grin.

Kurogiri nodded and then became mist, collapsing in on a single point near his chest and warping away. Tomura turned to the middle of the room, anticipating Kurogiri's return. Tomura wondered what the Hero Killer would be like. What does a man who slaughters Heroes for a living look like? What kind of outfit would someone like that wear? Tomura imagined something like Master, a suave, charming man who talked people into their own doom. That was the kind of ruler that Tomura wanted to be; and he'd rip anyone who didn't take the bait to shreds. The anticipation was almost killing Tomura, but he only had to wait a few minutes, luckily.

A warp gate big enough for Tomura to easily step through opened across the room from the bar and a red and gray blur sped out of it. The blur of color streaked across the floor, tumbling over the floorboards until it came to a stop in the shape of a man with entirely too much going on. He had black and gray body armor on, with spiked boots and two long scarves around his neck, one gray and one blood red. He had enough knives to surely be impractical in sheathes littered across his body, the largest one being a sword that was hung on his back. Tomura chuckled, causing the Hero Killer to look up at him in surprise.

"So, you're the Hero Killer?" Tomura asked, looking down at the man before him with a smirk.

Stain simply stared up at Tomura, his completely white eyes devoid of any emotion or thought. It seemed like he was just a lifeless puppet, like Nomu, until he moved. Stain turned back around and dashed toward the gate, which closed into the shape of Kurogiri, taking his exit away from him. Tomura whistled at his efforts, getting the man to look back at him with a scowl on his face.

"Who is it that has kept me from my goal?" Stain said, his scratchy voice making Tomura laugh under his breath.

"Oh, just some of your secret admirers as of late. See, we've heard about you, and think that you could do so much more than just killing C-List Heroes if given the chance," Tomura said, meeting Stain's eyes.

"You mock my crusade?" Stain asked, putting a hand on his thigh.

Tomura kept himself from flinching when a throwing knife came at him. As the gleaming silver blade rushed to meet his skull, a warp gate from Kurogiri made it disappear. Tomura grinned at Stain, who looked to figure out that it was Kurogiri who'd brought him here as he spun around to look at the misty bartender.

"No. We're not mocking your crusade . We're looking to expand, and we want you to join our cause. We are the League of Villains, and we aim to take this corrupted society that negligent Heroes have built and reduce it to ash and rubble. We'll rule in this new world that we build, and you can too. Want to start a revolution?" Tomura said.

Stain seemed to consider it. He scoffed after a moment, moving his hand away from the other knives he had strapped to him. Tomura smiled, seeing that at least something he'd said had gotten through; that was an improvement. He could pull this off.

"Elaborate," Stain said, eyeing Tomura skeptically.

"Well, we know that you kill Heroes. We believe that the system we live within has given rise to corruption at the top. So, we wish to become the top so that we can start over. No more rules, no more systems, no more oppression. Well, for us. The common people will be able to live their lives, mostly. We wish to dismantle this corrupt Hero society and build a better one," Tomura said. He wasn't sure if he had the guy hooked enough to straight up lie, so he sprinkled in parts of the truth. Tomura did want to build a better society, but he wasn't going to be targeting just the Heroes.

Tomura snapped his fingers, and Kurogiri perked up. They'd talked about what that meant in the days they'd had to prepare, and Kurogiri opened up a gate above Tomura's hand that forced his notebook through. Tomura caught it easily and opened it up, flipping to the pages on his UA enemies, taking their pictures into his hand as he closed it once again. He flicked the picture of Izuku Midoriya toward Stain, who caught it easily.

"We start with him and his little posse," Tomura said, grinning maniacally.

"What did he do to you?" Stain asked, looking closer at the picture.

Tomura traced the scar along his face, and Stain's eyes narrowed. He looked at the picture again, but disgust grew in his eyes and on his face this time, making Tomura grin wider, somehow.

"He nearly killed me. I only survived because I am in league with very, very powerful forces. He and his friends were perfectly fine with killing me. They're no Heroes; they're fiends and hypocrites pretending to be good and decent. That's why I hate them. That one had the audacity to almost kill me and then smile to the whole country while talking about how he was doing just fine two weeks later. They're monsters, the exact kind of people we aim to dispose of," Tomura explained.

Stain was looking between the photo and Tomura with a sort of deranged smile. It looked like he was winning the Hero Killer over. This was great! He leaned forward, toward Stain, and raised his eyebrows at the man, waiting for him to respond.

"I thought I was the only one who saw it. All my life, I told people that Heroes were getting weak. They were becoming fraudulent and decadent. I wanted to be a Hero, too, but not if that was what Heroes were. I saw that there was only one way to purge that corruption from the system and weed out the true Heroes from the false idols that the masses worshiped without care for who they could've been saving, if not for their attention being taken by fanboys and other fakers. I saw only blood as the way to a better future," Stain rambled, stepping closer to Tomura.

Kurogiri began to move forward to stop Stain from approaching Tomura, but he stopped him with the wave of his hand. Tomura stood to meet the Hero Killer's height, but found that he came up short against the man before him. That was okay. Tomura would hold all the power in their relationship if Stain accepted. Which he could sense he would if the rest of their conversation played out like this.

"Blood and dust. Together, we could build a new world. A world free from the lunatics who dress up and play at being Heroes. A world where we rule, and make our own systems," Tomura said, beginning to pace around Stain.

"A world where the tenets of All Might reign supreme, and all false Heroes are culled without mercy!" Stain exclaimed, looking to the ceiling.

Tomura whipped around to meet Kurogiri's eyes at the mention of All Might. Fuck, Tomura didn't know that this guy was one of those underground cultists that thought All Might was the second coming. Or was he? Did he truly believe that All Might, as he was, was a force for good? Or could Tomura twist that belief in his zealotry into something that more benefitted Master's vision of the world. Maybe. Tomura nodded to Kurogiri, getting him to back away slowly from where he'd once again started to move to protect Tomura.

"Precisely. We can teach them. All Might's example is … a good one," Tomura barely spat out. "But, we can improve upon it," he continued.

Stain was on him in an instant. The force of his dash forced Tomura back, slamming him against the wall. Stain pinned him against it with his strength, holding a hand to Tomura's throat and squeezing. He unsheathed his sword and pressed the tip up against Tomura's chin, taking his hand away slowly. Tomura glared, meeting Stain's eyes once again through Father's fingers. The two stared at each other for a moment, Tomura's hand still out to stop Kurogiri's counterattack.

"Take that back. You think you're better than All Might? He's the only true Hero, the only one allowed to kill me. You're dirt under his heel. Say it," Stain growled.

Tomura quickly grabbed the dull edge of the sword with all five of his fingers, causing a line of cracks to run up the metal blade. Stain's eyes went wide as his weapon fell apart before his eyes, causing him to step back and release Tomura. He stared at Stain, letting his arms fall as he glared at the Hero Killer. The two stared at each other for a moment more, Tomura taking a moment to think of his rebuttal.

"We can be more than All Might. He's just a man. We can be gods . You can take his example and enforce it with the will you wish more Heroes would have. You admire All Might? You can be All Might if you join my League of Villains. You can cull all the false idols in the world if you simply take my offer. So, Hero Killer, will you join me?" Tomura said.

Stain stared at Tomura, narrowing his eyes. Tomura knew that he almost had him, but he wasn't sure what would seal the deal. A few moments passed in silence, with Stain looking from Tomura to Kurogiri in apparent contemplation. It was in this moment that Tomura got a good look at Stain's face for the first time, and it wasn't pretty. The bandana that wrapped around his eyes as a kind of mask concealed it for the most part, but it was clear that the Hero Killer had no nose. How he'd lost it, Tomura couldn't begin to guess, but it was likely connected to the man's lack of clear pupils. Were these regular mutations for his Quirk, whatever it was, or were these injuries that he'd sustained on what he called his crusade?

"The name is tacky, and unimaginative," Stain said, sheathing what remained of his sword.

"What?" Tomura asked, tilting his head in confusion.

" The League of Villains ? No one will take you … us seriously until it changes," Stain said, beginning to make his way toward a seat at the bar.

Tomura shared a look with Kurogiri, that of hesitant excitement. Kurogiri nodded to Tomura in what looked like pride, which Tomura would vehemently deny enjoying if anybody asked. Smiling, Tomura joined Stain at the bar, where Kurogiri warped behind and began to write something down. He turned to Stain and raised an eyebrow, getting the Hero Killer to look at him.

"And what would you propose as an alternate title?" Tomura asked.

"I do not know. Naming is not in my purview," Stain admitted.

"Well, you can't just rely on reputation," Tomura shot back in indignation.

"Can't you, Tomura Shigaraki?" Stain asked, narrowing his eyes at him.

"I didn't tell you my name," Tomura said, feeling his own eyes widen.

Tomura realized, with a chuckle, that it had been Stain's point. Tomura's reputation had apparently preceded him with Stain, even if it had taken a while for it to sink in with the Hero Killer exactly who he'd been talking to. Tomura guessed that it was okay to just coast for a while when building their numbers. He also guessed that getting their numbers could wait, and began thinking of what drink he wanted from the bar.

While he thought, Stain brought his sword, apparently a katana by the shape — Tomura recognized it as it was a weapon in one of his games, Immortal Combat 5: Super. All that remained was a small part of the blade and the hilt. But, even that was covered in blood, a small drop of which dripped onto Stain's hand. He'd killed just before Kurogiri had found him, Tomura realized. He was in Native's area tonight, as Kurogiri had said earlier, though Tomura didn't know who that was.

"You got a kill before we dragged you away?" Tomura asked, getting his usual drink from Kurogiri.

"I did. Native was a false Hero who would rather stay out of danger than put himself in any real risk to do his job. He was a coward, and that could not go unpunished," Stain said, though Tomura noted the tension in his shoulders. There was something else.

"Who else?" he asked.

"Before I could punish Native, a young man calling himself Ingenium tried to stop me. I killed him soon enough. He was just a child, but he was pretending at being a Hero so that he could get revenge, another fatal mistake. I culled both of them," Stain elaborated.

"I recall reading that Ingenium was in his early thirties, and that you'd already paralyzed him for life," Kurogiri said, yellow eyes creasing in a questioning expression.

"I had. This was his younger brother, or so he said. He wore a similar costume. He was fifteen or sixteen, but he looked older as he attempted to crack my skull with a jet-propelled kick," Stain explained.

Tomura was struck with a wave of deja vu. He'd seen something like that before, but he couldn't immediately tell where he'd seen it. When he got an inkling of where he'd seen it, Tomura pulled out his phone and pulled up footage of the Sports Festival, the third event in particular. In that event, a UA bra that had been on the same team as Izuku Midoriya in the second event had used his Quirk to pull off what Stain was describing. Tomura chuckled to himself, and flipped his phone over so that Stain could see the screen.

"That's him. I never learned his name, but I supposed that's him. Tenya Iida was the one who fell to my blade. What a fool," Stain said, staring into the tiny reflection in the remainder of his blade.

"I sense that this partnership is going to be interesting ," Tomura said, laughing to himself.

Tomura was overjoyed. Stain had managed to kill someone who Izuku Midoriya had associated with. He hadn't seen Tenya Iida at the USJ, but Tomura had seen him fight and he was good. Stain was even better. This was spelling out an extremely beneficial joining of forces, if Tomura was reading the signs right.

The first step of his plan had been completed, so now it was time to raise an army.