Tomura lurked in a back alley, waiting. He was supposed to be meeting up with some thugs who reached out to Giran for a job. Tomura had been waiting for about ten minutes, having been warped to the meeting spot by Kurogiri. He needed this to work, this time. It had been a month since he'd convinced Stain to join the League, and they hadn't brought on new members. Despite that, Stain had stuck with Tomura and Kurogiri. Tomura thought that meant something. They had been trying to get Giran to come to the bar so they could discuss channels for recruitment, but he still refused to share the same space as the Hero Killer.
So, Tomura and Stain had split up for the week in order to search for recruits among the seedier parts of town. Stain also left the bar every now and then for his own reasons, chief among them being to slaughter a fake Hero, so Kurogiri had suggested that Tomura pick up his own 'hobby', as he'd called it. So, for the past week Tomura had been leaving the bar during the night and trying to persuade people to meet with him so that he could pitch the League to them, which he still hadn't thought of another name for at Stain's insistence.
Tomura was leaning against the back wall of an alley waiting for two guys who'd agreed to show up ten minutes ago. He groaned and shoved his hands into the pockets of his jacket, feeling the cold begin to soak into his bones. Tomura was sporting his entire collection of hands, fourteen in total. Father was on his face, Grandmother was on the back of his head. Mother was around his neck. Granny was around his biceps, and Granddad was around his forearms. Sister was clutching his shoulders, pushing him forward and never wavering in her support. His whole family was here with him, so it only made sense that Tomura would succeed in this mission.
Brought out of his thoughts of the past, Tomura saw two figures, both around the same height, standing at the mouth of the alley. He pushed off the wall and stepped into the light that was pouring in from the street behind the two silhouettes. He kept his hood on, for that would make him drop Grandmother. He couldn't be doing that, now. The other two, though, stepped into the alley and stopped next to Tomura so that the light shone on them and let him see who they were.
One of them was a little taller now that they were closer, one with black spiky hair and piercing blue eyes. This one's skin looked to be burnt to a crisp, with patches of gnarly purple skin showing on his face like he'd died and kept walking. Tomura didn't doubt that the rest of him looked like that, too. He was looking down at Tomura, even though they were about the same height. This guy had the air of a douchebag, and Tomura already didn't like him.
The other one, a little smaller than the douche, was a Mutant. He had green, scaly skin and a gray bandana mask similar to Stain's. Tomura smiled underneath his mask, as it was satisfying to know that his partnership with Stain really had led to something. The lizard also had something massive strapped to his back, but Tomura couldn't properly see what it was in these light conditions.
"First, what are your names?" Tomura asked.
"They call me Spinner," the lizard said.
The first one didn't answer, so Tomura looked over at him to see his narrowed eyes staring back at him. Tomura stayed silent, not moving on with this meetup until the stranger gave him a name.
"Dabi. Who are you?" the scarred one said.
"I am Tomura Shigaraki, the man who called you here. You two are here because you expressed interest in joining my group. What do you hope to accomplish with us?" Tomura explained.
"I want to follow Stain's example. I saw how bold he was with getting that UA kid, and I want to be like that. I want to go down in history as someone who did something. I'm dedicating myself to your cause in the hope that I can meet and work with the legend himself," Spinner said.
"Right, and you?" Tomura asked, turning to Dabi.
"I have my own goals. I'm looking for a place to lie low until I can make things happen, and if you can help me with my shit, I may be able to help you," Dabi said, his low drawl grating Tomura's patience to shreds.
"Okay. What can you both do?" Tomura asked.
Spinner looked toward Dabi, but found the taller man staring at him instead. Tomura narrowed his eyes at the two, wondering how long it would take until he killed Dabi. He seemed like an antisocial, secretive asshole. Of course, Tomura knew that he was building his League of Villains, but he knew how to have a conversation . It seemed like this 'Dabi' fellow was content to just ride this one out. Tomura's focus was drawn to Spinner as he turned around and faced the wall, showing off what had been strapped to his back.
It was a giant sword. No, not a sword; this thing was like fifteen different blades all wrapped in a massive cloth and made into a sword. How exactly did a person make something like that? Spinner obviously made it himself, which unnerved Tomura more than he'd admit, but he couldn't deny that it showed how dedicated he was. If he was so ready to give his life for Stain's cause that he'd make a sword out of swords and then leave his life and try to join Tomura's League, then maybe that was the kind of conviction that he was looking for. Maybe.
Spinner began to climb the wall, but he didn't appear to be using any footholds. Tomura realized that he must've been able to stick to the wall like a gecko, hence the lizard mutation. An average Quirk, but it would help in running from Heroes. If the Hero didn't have a way to move vertically, they were fucked. That often wasn't the case, but Tomura was looking at the longterm game now, and it wasn't too bad for now.
As Spinner got down from his place on the wall, Tomura looked to Dabi. The scarred man sighed and held a hand palm-up, which then glowed with a bright blue light as a small flame came to life within it. The flame itself was blue, something that Tomura had never seen from a fire Quirk, but the smell was also something that he'd never noted with any kind of Quirk. The way that Dabi also seemed to smell it and extinguish the flame as a consequence made it look to Tomura like it burned him the same way it burned everything else. Weird.
"So, you're a gecko and you're a bootleg Endeavor?" Tomura asked, smirking.
Dabi's arms began smoking, and his face went from relaxed and calm to beyond enraged in an instant. His scowl formed so fast that it gave Tomura whiplash as smoke began rising from the coat he wore. Tomura backtracked, waving his hands in front of him nonchalantly in order to get Dabi to cool off, with the pun absolutely intended.
"Don't say his name," Dabi said, his blue eyes almost glowing with anger.
"Alright, fine. Keep your shit under wraps and I'll make sure it doesn't happen. In return, you can give me a solid reason to let you into my circle," Tomura said, meeting the now less bright, but still piercing blue eyes.
"You've got Stain in your group. I happen to know of a few Heroes who need purging," Dabi said, the smoke finally drifting away from him and into the air on the street.
Tomura supposed that was good enough. He'd already decided on letting Spinner go with him, but that cemented Dabi as someone who could be useful given the right opportunity. Tomura nodded to the two of them and began to walk back to the end of the alley. He pulled out his phone and typed out a message to Kurogiri telling him that he was ready for a warp gate. The two of them stood still, probably wondering what he was doing walking toward a dead-end.
"What are you standing around for? Follow me," Tomura said, turning as a warp gate opened at the end of the alley.
Spinner looked shocked, his eyes lighting up at the sight of the gate. Dabi just looked tired, like he had the whole time. Tomura walked backwards through the gate and emerged in the bar. He turned and saw Stain standing in the middle of the room with his new recruit. He looked to be teaching her how to properly use all of the knives she had on her. Stain had admitted to Tomura that she was already adept at using them, but that she lacked proper form, which was what he was teaching her.
Himiko Toga was … a lot. She was a hyperactive little girl that had stalked Stain until he'd agreed to listen to her. She'd ranted for a good twenty minutes to him about how she wanted to be him. Not like him, Toga wanted to physically be Stain . Which was odd. She explained that it was because her Quirk allowed her to transform into people that she drank the blood of, which was similar to Stain's own Bloodcurdle, if only in theme. She'd won him over, though, and he'd agreed to let her have a shot at joining them, which, to Tomura's annoyance, she'd succeeded at. She'd been living at the bar for a few days now, and with these two recruits that Tomura was bringing in he was thinking that they'd have to start clearing out storage rooms so that everyone could have a space. He sure as hell wasn't sharing.
Tomura stepped forward in order for his scores to come through, which caused the spar between Stain and Toga to come to an end. Dabi and Spinner emerged from the gate, which then promptly closed. Tomura nodded to Kurogiri behind the bar, who nodded back. He walked over to a seat and took it, gesturing for Stain and Toga to come over.
"The lizard's name is Spinner and he sticks to walls. The dickhead's Dabi, and he's a flamethrower. Don't compare him to his more famous cousin, though. That's a recipe for disaster," Tomura said, flipping his hood down and readjusting Grandmother on the back of his head, now touching his hair and scalp.
Stain walked up to the two of them, standing taller than them both. He stared them down, specifically Spinner as his attire and weaponry was clearly an emulation of Stain's. The two shared a silent moment, staring at each other as Stain examined the fan of his and Spinner seemingly shook in his boots. Tomura heard Toga chuckle under her breath, and he was tempted to himself. As that moment was happening, Tomura leaned back toward Kurogiri.
"How many rooms are in the building that we can use?" he asked.
"Everything can technically be stored at another location if we need space," Kurogiri answered.
"Good. I get the feeling that we'll need it," Tomura said, turning back to the others.
"So, you're the Hero Killer. It's a pleasure," Dabi said, drawing the attention away from Spinner, intentionally or not.
Toga ran up as her chance apparently presented itself, grabbing onto the hand Dabi had used his Quirk with before and shaking it. She began to introduce herself with enthusiasm that reminded Tomura of fucking Izuku Midoriya, of all people.
"Hey! I'm Himiko Toga! It's super duper cool to be on a team with you guys. Your hand is really warm!" Toga rambled on, clearly not caring that Dabi looked intensely uncomfortable with her touching him.
It made Tomura crack a small smile to see him get what he deserved for being a vague asshole earlier. He tuned Toga out as she moved on to Spinner, asking him all sorts of questions about how long he'd been a fan of Stain, what his favorite kill of his was and if he'd ever been to one of his crime scenes. It was easy to get disarmed by the school uniform and the excitable, ditzy personality, but Toga was a seasoned killer. She'd been running from the law for years, and had killed over fifty police officers just to get away because of her Quirk. She was a Villain in her own right, so Tomura had to remind himself not to get too close to her.
Stain took a seat next to Tomura as his pupil distracted the new recruits. Tomura looked at him, noticing something weird about his first partner. He decided to ignore it, and wordlessly took the drink that Kurogiri passed to him and began to drink it. He frowned, trying to figure out why he felt off.
"You seem disappointed with your recruits. Why?" Stain asked.
"I'm not. It's just my fucking luck, though, to have a month of work outdone by a few good days," Tomura said, taking another swig of his drink.
"Is more recruits not a good thing? We can not be picky with how we receive the very little support we're getting. You are disappointed that it's taken this long to get going properly, but if you think about it the opposite way, we already have three new members and it's only been a month. That is faster than I imagined when I agreed to join your cause that night," Stain said.
Tomura looked at Stain, who was sitting and staring at a random spot in the wall as he spoke. He then laughed an airly, wheezing laugh.
"Careful with the advice, Hero Killer. I'll think you like talking to me or something," Tomura said, chuckling into his drink.
"We are not dissimilar," Stain interjected, causing Tomura to almost choke on his drink. "Men of great ambition are one of a kind. This Master you have spoken of seems to be an ambitious man as well. The fates often conspire against us, but we must be stronger than fate. We must power through the world trying to tell us no, and throw that rejection back at the world. What I am saying is that we are in this together, I think, so putting in effort with each other is hardly something that should be discouraged."
Tomura supposed that made sense. If he was being honest, Tomura felt like putting in the effort to be sociable this past month was making it easier and easier to deal with setbacks that popped up. With Kurogiri and then Stain, he'd learned how to cope with people disagreeing with him over the last month or so. That had extended, somewhat, to when he hadn't been able to find recruits. He'd handled it well, Tomura thought, and it had been thanks to being around people more. Maybe some people could be together and not want to rip each other limb from limb. Tomura chuckled at that thought, though, because who had the patience for people beyond putting up with their bullshit?
Letting the new recruits fuck around for another few minutes, Tomura sat and drank with Stain. He knew that he should enjoy the fact that he'd been able to recruit two people. It was more than they'd snagged in total up to that point, let alone at once. Tomura also knew that it wasn't enough. They needed more people if they were going to go up against Tomura's enemies at UA. Izuku Midoriya, Hitoshi Shinso, Katsuki Bakugo and Shoto Todoroki were powerful by themselves, but together Tomura would say they could take out dozens of Villains with their Quirks. They didn't need a half-dozen strong team. They needed an army. So, an army they'd get. Tomura downed the rest of his drink and looked at Kurogiri.
"Give me the phone," Tomura said.
Kurogiri warped the phone so that it was right in front of Tomura. He picked up the handset and hit the button they had Giran's speed dial on. He breathed in, knowing that this was going to be a tough one. Giran had refused to come to the bar any time Stain was there, out of fear of the infamous Hero Killer, so he had to do something about it. After Stain's little pep talk, he felt like making him leave was out of the question. It wasn't that he wanted Stain to stay, it was so that he wouldn't kill anyone while he was out and take attention away from the League when they acted. That was it. So, Tomura needed to figure out how to get Giran here without making Stain leave to make that happen.
"If you rang this phone, you know who you're talking to," Giran said, his usual greeting.
"Giran, I need to talk to you. In person," Tomura said.
"Ugh. Shigaraki, I've told you this before. I'm not being in the same room as the Hero Killer. If he leaves, I'll meet with you, but if he's there when Kurogiri warps me in, I'm not doing business with you," Giran said.
"I know that. He won't be there. Just you, me and Kurogiri," Tomura said.
"Alright. If you're fucking with me on this, we're done. Have Kurogiri open a gate at the usual location," Giran said, and hung up.
Tomura put the phone back on the base and sighed. He turned to the others and decided that he'd start the moving in process right then and there. Tomura looked at Stain and let his head roll for a moment out of annoyance. This was such a pain to have to go through.
"Stain, help the newbies pick out rooms in the back to stay in. If they're filled with shit, tell them that we'll clean it out later," Tomura said.
To his credit, Stain saw through it immediately but nodded anyway. Tomura had come to learn that Stain was impossibly good at sniffing out intent in words and actions. He just had a knack for reading something and understanding it completely. Stain stood and walked over to the three new recruits, Toga and Spinner freezing to admire him when he did. Dabi was able to finish what he was saying before turning to give Stain his attention, and Tomura would've said that he saw genuine respect if he thought that Dabi was capable of it from the brief time he'd known the man.
Stain ushered the new recruits out of the bar and down the hallway. Tomura was glad that all the doors locked automatically, otherwise he'd be worried about them going into his own room. He sat back, waiting for them to be gone until he let Kurogiri know to open a gate for Giran. The swirling purple vortex ripped open the air in the middle of the room, forming one of Kurogiri's gates. Tomura didn't understand exactly how it worked, but he thought it was a cool power to have. It certainly wasn't the one Kurogiri was born with, as Tomura was aware that he was similar to a Nomu in concept, just much more autonomous. It seemed that the way Kurogiri's Quirk worked was a combination of a bunch of other, smaller powers to make the bigger effect of opening warp gates.
Giran quickly stepped through, returning to the bar after a month of silence. He looked around, probably for Stain. Tomura waved his concerns away and spun around to the bar to get another drink. The broker joined him, sitting beside Tomura at the bar and looking at the man who'd called him there.
"So, what do you need?" Giran asked.
"What, not even a thank you? After all, I made sure the Hero Killer wasn't around when you came," Tomura said, smirking.
"Whatever. Thanks. Now, what did you want to talk about?" Giran said.
"I need you to scout out more potential members. I've got four, but I need a lot more than that," Tomura admitted.
"What do you have in mind?" Giran asked, taking a sip of the drink Kurogiri placed in front of him.
"Well, it's like a party in a game. They all have their role. Of the three I have, only one seems to have any power in a fight. If we're talking about combat, then Spinner and Toga may as well be Quirkless. Dabi's a good start, but he's defective. I'm thinking that we need all the power we can get. Some more immediately useful utility couldn't hurt, either. What do you got that fits with that?" Tomura thought out loud.
"If you're looking for utility, this guy I just started with is for you. His name's Twice, and he can make an exact clone of anything, as long as he knows its measurements," Giran explained.
"Hmm. What else?" Tomura asked.
"This one guy's a real showman. He's a master of misdirection, so he can charm you while he steals your shit. He calls himself Mr. Compress, and he can turn you into a marble if he lays even a finger on you. He can do it to anything, too, not just people or objects. Then, there's Magne. Oh, I'm telling you that she's a riot. Her personality's the only thing more magnetic than her Quirk. She can magnetize people. Get it?" Giran said, stopping to make sure that Tomura fucking got it .
"Keep going," Tomura groaned.
"Jeez, you take all the fun out of things. Well, if you want power, you want Muscular. He can make himself stronger, faster and tougher almost infinitely. He's A-Rank, so you know he's good," Giran said.
"How are you working with A-Rank? I thought you only did B and below," Tomura asked.
"Well, new horizons and all that. Anyway, the next guy's Mustard. He's young, but he's got a Quirk that puts Midnight to shame. He's basically got a better version of her gas Quirk, except he puts everyone to sleep. It also has a chance to kill them if they breathe too much in, which is always a plus. And … Moonfish," Giran said, pausing at the end to think of more.
"The cannibal?" Tomura asked, intrigued.
"You got it. He was on death row, but let's just say that there were certain factors that led to him going free," Giran said, coyly winking at Tomura.
"I'll take them all," Tomura said.
Kurogiri looked at him like he'd grown a hundred hands from his body. Giran frowned, waving his hands out in front of himself and chuckling. Tomura was being treated like a fool; he wasn't. He knew how much that would be worth. It was worth the cost, and he was sure that Master would agree if they had time to talk, but they didn't. This was happening now, so Tomura stared at Kurogiri until he looked away.
"Whoa, buddy, slow down there. Do you got them kinda funds?" Giran asked.
"I have what you'll need. All we need is an introduction, though, so if you could bring … Muscular to me first thing tomorrow, that would be nice," Tomura shot back, putting on a cocky smile.
Giran looked between Tomura and Kurogiri, seemingly trying to figure out if Tomura was joking or not. Tomura dropped the smile and glared at Giran, trying to get it through the man's apparently thick skull that he was being serious. Giran quickly nodded and began to stand up, shakily putting down the glass he'd been drinking out of. Tomura knew it was a lot of money, but he would be getting a lot out of it. It was a fair trade.
Kurogiri warped Giran away, and Tomura sighed. It looked like he'd be meeting with a serial killer only surpassed by Stain himself in the morning. Tomura would need to get some rest to deal with that whole mess with any sort of chill.