If there was a word for the new and improved League of Villains, that word would be fucking annoying. Well, that was two words, but it wasn't like Tomura was on trial here. What Tomura was, was annoyed, as per his description of his team. They were a loud, energetic group of serial killers and deranged thieves who were apparently incapable of maintaining any sort of routine. Tomura was waking up at all hours these days because Twice and Toga decided to go and catch birds, for whatever reason, and bring them into the bar. Of course they didn't want to let them go, so Tomura ended up dusting them when they weren't looking.
Dabi had a nasty smoking habit, so he could usually be found in the early hours of the morning lighting up a cigarette didn't know where he got them, since he never left the bar. He wasn't sure he wanted to know. Magne and Compress needed their 'beauty sleep', even though Compress wore a mask and Magne could strangle anyone that called her butch with her pinky finger. Seriously, she was built like a brick wall and Tomura didn't think any of the League that actually made appearances were ready to go toe to toe with all that. Muscular and Moonfish mostly stayed in their rooms, not wanting to do much that wasn't murder and feeding. That was fine by Tomura, so long as he could count on them when the time came.
Tomura, at six in the morning, shuffled out into the bar to see what was making noise this early in the morning, only to find Spinner sitting on the couch, playing Grand Theft Auto. He stared at the lizard, not sure if he knew that Tomura was there. He was playing one of the older installments on what looked to be an old console. When they were recruited, Tomura allowed each of his members to go back to where they were staying and get anything they wanted to keep before moving into the bar. Spinner had brought the console and a bunch of games, which Tomura had noticed. He cleared his throat, which got Spinner to turn around in a panic.
"Shigaraki! How long have you been there?" Spinner asked, clearly unnerved with his leader's presence.
"I was just about to ask you the same question. I swear, nobody in this fucking building sleeps anymore," Tomura said, walking toward the bar to make himself some coffee. He probably wasn't going back to sleep, since he could see the sun peeking through the windows.
"I … what time is it?" Spinner said, balking at the light filtering in from outside.
Tomura watched Spinner rub his eyes and come to the realization that he'd spent all night playing. It wasn't unusual for the lizard to fall into this kind of hole, but it was the first time that Tomura had left the main bar area and come back out to see Spinner in the same exact position, playing the same exact game, over ten hours later. If it wasn't so depressing, Tomura would laugh. Over the month or so that Spinner had been part of the League, he'd professed his love for gaming. Tomura had watched carefully from afar as he'd explained what games he liked, noting that they played the same kind of games, just different titles. Well, Tomura had decided he was going to be more sociable.
"You can drive through that wall, by the way," he said, cringing at his own awkward tone.
"Huh?" Spinner let out, clearly not expecting anything from his leader.
"The mission you're on," Tomura said, gesturing to the paused game on the screen. "It has an exploit where you can drive through that building wall, which more often than not will slingshot you forward so that you can win the race," he explained.
"Huh," Spinner said, turning back and unpausing the game.
Tomura was silent as Spinner took the controller in his hand again. He finished making his coffee as Spinner drove the car his character was in through a wall that wasn't coded in properly during development. Tomua had watched someone do it on YouTube, and then everyone in the community had taken advantage of it after that. He'd used it many times himself, but he'd since lost the disc for that game. Maybe if he—no, that was dumb.
"Ha!" Spinner exclaimed as his character's vehicle was sent soaring through the city, just barely not running into any buildings.
"Keep it down. It's still early," Tomura hissed.
Spinner nodded and kept playing, clearly too hyped up to stop and go to sleep now. Tomura groaned, wondering if letting him get sucked deeper into his obsessive binge was really the best move. He moved around to sit at the bar, watching the game silently. It was still mostly dark, so Tomura could get away with the lurking for now, while Spinner was distracted. It wasn't long until the sun rose a little more and illuminated the room, showing a truly abhorrent number of energy drink cans littered around Spinner. Tomura felt his own heart burn in what was likely a poor imitation of what was happening to Spinner with that much caffeine and sugar in his system.
As time went on, Tomura found that he wasn't so much looking at the game, but at the screen. It was the same screen that he used to contact Master, which hadn't happened since he'd sworn to grow and had signed off so that he could contact Stain. Tomura had promised himself that he wouldn't go back to Master until he could show how he'd grown, and show Master his new League of Villains. It had been a little under two months since they'd spoken, and Tomura missed Master's calming voice. But, he could finally show Master the full force that he'd put together. The League of Villains had been reborn, and Tomura could finally unveil them to the man who'd made it all possible. The day was here that Tomura could reunite with Master, and he wasn't going to waste a second of it.
Tomura left his mug at the bar as he stood up. He walked over to Spinner, who looked at him with wide, bloodshot eyes. He really had been up for too long.
"Turn it off. I need the screen," Tomura said, glaring down through Father's fingers.
Spinner frowned, his eyes somehow getting even more frantic and wide. He quickly scurried to close the game and turn off his console, pushing it out of the way gently so that Tomura could set up the computer once again. It had been turned off for far too long. Tomura pressed the power button after plugging in what he needed to. The laptop's screen came to life with a soft whirring sound, and Tomura smiled. He was ready. He just needed his League to gather.
Tomura stood up once again and walked down the hall toward the living quarters. Everyone had a room now, and they'd even had a few to spare. Tomura knocked on the first door, knowing that it was Dabi's. There was silence inside the room, but the door opened to reveal Dabi holding a bottle of hair dye. Tomura smirked at the dye, making Dabi groan in annoyance.
"Going through your punk phase, kid?" Tomura asked.
"I'm older than you," Dabi said, before closing his door in Tomura's face.
"We're having a team meeting. Meet in the bar in ten minutes," Tomura said through the door, not caring if he got a reply before moving on.
It was like this for many of the members. Tomura would tell them that they were needed in the bar, they'd do something that only they would do — Moonfish would always salivate at the sight of all the hands — and he'd move on thoroughly unimpressed with his recruits. Tomura couldn't afford to pick and choose, though. This was what he was working with. As he rounded up his crew, Tomura became more and more impatient to get this started already. Kurogiri must have seen nothing but a smear of color against his retina as Tomura power walked into the bar, followed by his League. Tomura was itching to speak to Master again, and almost felt the old urge to scratch resurface again. His fingers twitched, but he kept himself under control. It wouldn't be good if Master's impression of Tomura's growth was a twitchy maniac who couldn't keep himself contained for more than a few seconds.
The League gathered around, standing behind Tomura as he took his place in front of the screen. Toga was trying to inch closer and closer to Stain, as usual, and Dabi was distinctly as far away from everyone else as he could be while still in the camera's view. Twice, Magne and Compress seemed to be doing poses, which made Tomura grumble under his breath about theatrical assholes ruining things. Muscular's place was at the back, towering over everyone else in the League by far. Moonfish was able to be quiet for just a moment, which Tomura begrudgingly appreciated. The time had come, and Tomura pressed the button to call Master.
It only rang once. The screen showed that an audio call was taking place, and Tomura wanted to laugh out loud at hearing his Master once again.
"Hello, Tomura," Master said.
"Master! I've done it. You told me that I had to grow, and I've grown. I've put together a team," Tomura said.
"A team?" Master asked.
"Yes! They're an elite force of Villains that I built myself. Mostly by myself. I had help. We started this new League of Villains ourselves," Tomura admitted.
"The name still needs to change," Stain said.
There was silence from the screen for a few moments. Tomura couldn't tell if Master had known he wasn't alone, because he knew that while Master was blind, he had a lot of other sensory Quirks to help him overcome that block. If Tomura had to guess, Master was … surprised?
"The man who just spoke. Step forward and tell me your name," Master said in a tone that made it clear that he wasn't going to be ordering anything twice.
"My name is Stain," he said, stepping closer to the screen.
"The Hero Killer? Interesting. Where did you find Tomura?" Master asked.
"He found me, actually. He tracked me down and pitched his ideal new society to me. That was about two months ago, now. Our goals align, and our ideals mesh. We are partners now, whether he likes it or not. I have helped him build this new group, but I suggest a name change so that people take us more seriously," Stain said.
"Very good. Who else is with you, Tomura?" Master asked.
Tomura stepped back into the spotlight, thinking of who to talk about first. He supposed that he should start with the most famous and go from there, so Muscular it was.
"Muscular, the Carnal Murderer. He's a brawler that took down countless Heroes until they played dirty to get him to quit," Tomura said.
"I don't really care about ideals or a new society. I just want a chance to let loose!"
"The Death Row Inmate: Moonfish the Cannibal. He was on a spree of heinousness until Best Jeanist put him away for his urges. Himiko Toga. She's a little one, but she'll gouge your eyes out without hesitation and be gone before anyone notices," Tomura continued.
"I have a feeling I'll really like it on this team!" Toga said, swinging her arms back and forth like a little kid.
"Mr. Compress is a master thief and illusionist. He can steal anything," Tomura said.
"It's a pleasure to be in contact with someone that Shigaraki holds in such high esteem, sir," Compress said, bowing.
"Dabi set fire to a whole building with his little finger. I found him after he effortlessly incinerated six guys in a bar fight," Tomura explained, hoping Dabi wouldn't be the one to fuck this up.
"I'm not bowing," he said, which was good enough.
"Twice is diverse like nobody else with his cloning Quirk," Tomura continued, nervous for Twices' personality coming out in front of Master.
"Pleasure to meet you! Sike, I want to leave!" Twice said, making his voice deeper as he seemingly became another person. Tomura relaxed as that was all he said. That could've been way worse.
"Spinner will slice anyone apart with his master swordsmanship and ceaseless devotion to your cause. Mustard gave a Hero in the top hundred a hell of a headache, for months," Tomura hyped up his team.
"Almost had her dead, too, if she wasn't resistant to gas attacks," Mustard mumbled.
"Finally, we have Magne. Her Quirk is the only thing stronger than her perfume," Tomura concluded.
The room was filled with silence. Tomura looked at Kurogiri, who held himself with an air of nervousness. Truth be told, Tomura had been kind of wary about introducing these people to Master, but it seemed to have gone well so far. Had Master been disappointed in their powers? He could always get different soldiers. Or, he could just ask Master to give them better Quirks. Tomura caught himself thinking about Master like he thought about Nomu; just something to use. He tugged on his hair to get himself to stop, and Tomura's panic began to fade as Master spoke again.
"This is quite the League of Villains you've assembled. Though, the Hero Killer may be correct in thinking that you need a new moniker. The previous one was always a placeholder while we built our foundation, anyway. What do you suggest, Tomura?" Master said.
Tomura sighed. He couldn't think of any names! He'd been thinking since Stain mentioned it, and just couldn't get it right. Huffing in frustration, Tomura turned to his group. He gestured at them to throw out any suggestions they had, and Compress seemed to shake his hands in delight. He stepped forward and did a little bow, making Tomura scoff.
"I have been eagerly awaiting this moment, ever since you alluded to your difficulty with words. What of the title of 'Vanguard'?" Compress asked.
"What the hell does that mean?" Tomura asked.
"A vanguard is a group of people leading the way with new ideas," Stain clarified.
"Indeed! That is what we are, is it not? A vanguard, ready to take action against the world that has wronged us!" Compress cheered.
"Very well. We are the Vanguard," Tomura said, turning back to Master.
"Indeed you are. Now, you have your allies — your Vanguard. You have the power, so how will you use it?" Master asked.
Tomura thought for a good long moment. He had three people he specifically wanted dead. Izuku Midoriya, Hitoshi Shinso and Katsuki Bakugo had all made a fool out of him at the USJ. He needed them to be dust underneath his boot before he went ahead and tore down the retched society that gave rise to their selfish, arrogant, lying fucking faces. So, UA was an obvious target. But, they couldn't get to the students during the summer break that was coming up, because they'd be scattered. They'd be too far apart for them to get in one go, and they'd hide the others before they ever stood a chance. Even with Kurogiri's warping, they could have enough strength in multiple places at once. Those US brats were good. They needed one decisive strike to get them in one fell swoop. Tomura was stumped on how to go about that, though, and spoke this thought aloud to his Vanguard. Dabi was the one who replied first.
"Doesn't UA have a summer camp?"
End of Arc 8: A League of Their Own