Chapter Text
"A 2010s karaoke competition?" Todoroki asked, confused "Seems rather random."
"Yeah, well, we used to do a traditional music competition, but you try to keep kids these days interested with that. Eventually, we settled on pre-Quirk music and removed pretty much all other requirements, and as it turns out 2010s pop is the most popular genre for some reason, so it ended up like this." The man running the booth in front of the large stage said, "Want to try?"
Ochaco looked at Todoroki, who looked back at her. "Do you want to?" He asked.
"Ah, I'm not much of a singer." Ochaco admitted, "What about you?"
"My father said hobbies like singing were in the ways of heroics."
"Oh, sor-"
"So I learned to sing very well just to spite him." Todoroki said with a shrug. Ochaco blinked.
"You… Can sing because you wanted to stick it up to your dad?" Ochaco asked.
"Yeah. Is that weird?"
"Oh, not at all, but now I am a bit curious." She said.
The clerk smiled, looking at Todoroki, "So, what do you say, big man? Want to impress the lady."
Todoroki looked at her, and Ochaco was about to say he didn't need to if he didn't want to, but then he nodded. "Alright."
"Excellent. You are after the embodiment of gothic fashion gone wrong." The man said, accepting the thousand yen while pointing at a guy with enough piercings on his scarred face to make someone wonder if he had stitched another person's face on top of his, standing next to a girl in a green yukata.
Todoroki nodded, stepping forward to walk up to him while Ochaco found herself a seat. The piercings guy for some reason jumped three meters to the left when he saw Todoroki, before he seemingly cleared his throat and calmed himself. Uh, maybe he recognized him from the Sports Festival? He wouldn't have been the first.
They talked for a bit, it seemed, then the current singer finished and the guy got on the stage, the girl in green standing in front of the stage. His song was pretty good, Ochaco had to admit, though his voice was a bit too raspy. Still, it seemed the girl he was with liked it.
And then Todoroki stepped on the stage.
-
"Shoto took a deep breath as he grabbed the mic and stepped forward. Frankly, he wasn't that worried. He didn't have any particular reason to work for this. His father would be angry just at the thought of Shoto wasting time with 'frivolous pop music'.
And yet… And yet, he felt the need to put his all into it just by looking at Uraraka.
The guy before him had given him some tips. For some reason he was an expert in songs Endeavor disliked particularly, and the ones Shoto knew were mostly in that category anyway, so it just took them a few words to figure out which song he was going with, especially after the guy with scars realized he was here with a girl.
He stepped forward and started to sing. It was a silly song, he knew, but it was one his dad particularly disliked.
Absolutely no other reason.
Definitely.
"I don't want a girl who gets a car for her sweet sixteen, or spends a stack of dollar bills on a limousine…"
-
"I want a girl who takes the bus and who wears baggy jeans…" Ochaco covered her face as Todoroki went on, singing about wanting a girl that was smart, independent, strong, who had 'common sense, dripping with competence'.
'Of course ya want a girl like that ya maniac, ya've zero common sense for just singin' that in public while out with me!' She half wanted to shout, though her other half was busy gripping her chest as her heart tried to shot out of it. Was this a confession, or was this Todoroki being Todoroki? Was she supposed to kiss him when he finished? Did she want to kiss him? Was Todoroki really going to be her boyfriend?
She… She didn't know. She liked him. Dammit, she could tell she liked him, yes! But was he boyfriend material? Right now, Uraraka wasn't sure. He was sweet, and strong, and smart, but he could also be so absurdly dumb at times! So… So dumb…
"And I say to people, "That's my lady" And we don't need nothing else."
Her face turned another shade of red as she clenched her fist, 'Dammiiiiiiiiit…' She whined in her mind.
By the time the song had finished, Ochaco was several shades redder, as Todoroki walked down the stage and back to her. "How was that?"
"V-Very good." Ochaco said.
"Thanks." Todoroki replied, before staying quiet.
Ochaco looked at him.
Todoroki looked at her.
Ochaco looked at him harder.
Todoroki tilted his head, seemingly puzzled.
'Say something!' Ochaco shouted in her mind, not even sure if that was for Todoroki or for her.
"Good show kid." A voice suddenly said, making them both turn to look at the guy with piercings, "This will show hi- I mean them, will show them."
"Show them what?" Todoroki asked, confused.
"… It's a figure of speech." The man replied, "Anyway, make sure to have fun with your girl."
"Ah, we aren't-"
"Sure, I will." Todoroki said, making Ochaco turn towards him and stare at his face.
"What?!"
"What?" He asked, "We will have fun." Todoroki replied. Ochaco saw the girl in green that was with piercings guy blush.
Goddammit, why did she like this idiot?
"After all, you are very important to me." Todoroki continued, utterly honest.
'Ah right, that's why.' Ochaco decided, 'Curse ya, teenage hormones and genuine attraction.'
"Good, you make a good couple." Piercings guy said, "Make sure to make each other as happy as possible."
"I-"
"As I said, I will."
'Gaaaaaaaah!'
-
Himiko tilted her head to the side, a happy grin spreading over her face.
"Hello Zuzu." She said. The greenish canary chirped. "Hello Mimi." She continued. The yellow canary chirped as well.
"Zuzu."
The canary chirped.
"Mimi."
The canary chirped.
"Zuzu. Mimi. Zuzu. Mimi. Zuzu. Mimi." She repeated, looking back and forth between the two giddily.
"What the heck are you doing?" Masutaro asked, looking at her from where he was sitting on her chair. She turned to him, a grin on her face.
"Izuku gifted me two canaries!" She explained, "Aren't they the cutest thing ever? They are a couple, like us!" She pointed at the two birds, who chirped in unison.
"Ah, so they are from Izuku. I was wondering how that happened." He replied, "Are you sure you can…"
She waved a thermos filled with blood, "I'm on it. Can't have anything happen to the little things, if my instincts flare up."
"You know, I find it concerning that I'm not even questioning the fact one of my best friends needs to constantly drink blood if she doesn't want to suck my other best friend dry in a not fun way."
"Well I'd also do it in the fun way but Izuku says we are just sixteen and we shouldn't rush…"
"… You know, I should be jealous or rush to Izukun's room to beat some sense into his 'too pure for this world when he wants to but absolutely wants to lick some abs' head, but I'm worried of what would happen if you did." Masutaro said.
"What do you mean?"
"Well, I mean, your instincts flare up when you get… lovey dovey, right?"
"Right."
"So what happens if you go all the way?"
Himiko made to answer, then paused. "Oh."
Masutaro sighed, "Yeah, 'oh' is right." He shrugged, "Seriously, are you sure you shouldn't talk to a doctor?"
"I did talk to a doctor." Himiko defended. Masutaro raised an eyebrow, "He is a respected researcher in the field of Quirk development with a long history of founding orphanages and private institutions for those in need of attention for their Quirks."
"And as an aside spends his shift making abominations against nature from the corpses he steals from morgues and the Quirks he collects from said children."
"He is still a professional!"
"Not a professional psychologist he is not. A professional psycho, maybe, but that's it." Masutaro waved his hand, "Look, Himiko, I can't force you to go to therapy, but seriously, what's the downside?"
"That if I go to therapy my doctor might figure out I'm Himiko Toga and not Himiko Shimura, alerting the authorities and getting me arrested?"
"… Alright, that is a good reason. But that's only if they figure it out and decide to go through with informing the Heroes." Masutaro pointed out.
"Don't act as if it's impossible. My Quirk is already the same, the only reason they haven't put together who I am already is that dad made enough fake documents to fool anyone and that this whole Shimura thing keeps All Might and Nedzu from looking too deep into it out of respect for 'my' grandmother."
"Who isn't actually your grandmother…" Masutaro sighed, "You know, I'm happy most of my family just doesn't care enough to look into it."
"Except your sister."
"Except my sister." He waved it off, "But Camie is… weird. She is smart, otherwise she wouldn't have gotten in the Hero School she did, but she is a bit of a ditz. She will forget about this whole thing soon."
"… You think she will forget her brother is in another school pretending to be a Hero student?"
"Yeah probably. I mean, what else can she do? It's not like she can start an investigation."
-
"So, like, as you can see there is this gal here that is super cute, with the fangs n' all that, and all her friends, like, say she is Masutaro's oldest friend." She put a picture of Himiko Shimura on the blackboard, "But like, if that's my bro-bro than that's, like, completely impossible."
"Maybe she isn't your brother?" Shishikura suggested.
"Ahah, that's lulz bestie, ofc that's my bro-bro."
"Of course…" Shishikura coughed in his fist, "So, where do you take this?"
"Well, here is the thing, there is this guy who is a total hottie, green hair and big muscles and all that, and he is the bf of the cute fangs gal, and apparently also an old friend of bro-bro."
"You mean Valiant? The up-and-coming Hero-in-Training and already predicted to be future Number One after All Might retires despite being barely a first year? The supposed biggest enemy of the League of Villains? Miruko's first and only protégée?"
"That's the guy!" She said, putting his picture on the board. And then another. And then another. And then one that showed him without the shirt.
"Where did you get that?!"
"What, this? I met some new besties at the whole Hero Schools exchange thing, and they are like, super into Valiant. They are super cool, they even have a mole in his class that like, grabs saucy snaps for them during training. Isn't that like, the coolest? It's like they are super spies or something."
"I think the word you are looking for isn't 'coolest', more 'illegal'. To think students of the prestigious UA would stoop this low…" Shishikura grumbled.
"Nah, it's all in good fun. It's not like any of these are candid shots in the bathroom or stuff like that, it's all him in the open. That gf of his sure is a lucky gal…"
Shishikura wanted to argue, but he had never won an argument against Camie and probably wasn't starting today. "Alright, so, what are you getting at exactly? That Valiant, Himiko Shimura and Masutaro are for some reason allied in making up a different civilian identity for him."
"Nah fam, that's not it, I think they must be connected to someone that is like, covering their asses or something like that. I mean, like, UA is a super duper big high school with them teachs being all Heroes and such, so it goes without saying that they'd do some deep deep background checks and figure out what's in your past. So it can't be, like, super easy for some bozo to just show up with some faked documents, it has to be some ultradetailed high quality forgery. And the only place to get them forged documents would be some big name villain." She tapped a few pictures on the page, "So like, these are the big three Villains of Japanese origins atm. This is the potato face guy that got SS tier because of that whole purging the evil org thing, though I guess he doesn't really work in Japan so it doesn't seem likely. Then there is handyman," She pointed at Handjob, "But like, he is a bit too edgy for forgery? He looks like he'd be working on big mass murder shit, and he has been targeting Heroes and Valiant so that tracks. He's also up and coming and a lot of his big hits are kinda mid, like they do some damage but most of them get stomped easy, so I'm guessing he is actually a young king of crime, not some bigwig. All this to say I doubt he is the forgery one, though perhaps it's one of his many henchmen."
"I… Uh… Alright… But…" Shishikura breathed slowly, "So, who's the third?"
"Glad you asked! So, I went deep into this whole research stuff, it's actually pretty cool if I don't have to get grades for it, 'No Camie you can't call the legendary Crimson Riot 'the GOAT' in a school paper' style, and I figure that this guy here is actually pretty likely, right? This is the mystery boss of the American-Japanese gang called the Green Valley Clan, Some Isaiah Green or a dozen other names. Super spooky shadow leader shit, but the thing is this gang is big in America but small in Japan. Except some Heroes seem to think they are actually a lot bigger, and they just hide it behind proxies and fake names and 'smaller gang' that are actually just factions of the Clan. And you know who pushes that theory the most?" She slammed a picture on the board, "That's right fam, it's The Murder Bunny herself, The Thighs of Doom, The Abs Rabbit, Miruko herself!" She smiled smugly, "Which all makes sense right? If the doom bunny herself has some inkling of this, she deffo tried to investigate, so she took Valiant in, because he is as sus as he is hot."
"Why?"
"I mean… Midoriya… Green Valley… Not very original of them, don't you think?"
"I…" He could have argued that it was probably too on the nose to be more than a coincidence, but it would have just caused him more than a headache, and for all he didn't believe a word of it Shishikura was still curious about where this was going, in a 'Maybe I can convince her to put some of this effort into raising her grades' sort of way, so he waved, "Alright, let's assume for a moment you are right. Why?"
"Ez, fam. I postulate – eh, hear me use them big words – that Izuku Midoriya is none other than a relative of the bigwigs of the Clan, maybe even Isaiah Green himself, and he uses that influence to get his gf a new identity. Then Masutaro also became his bff, probably because he was looking for help and Midoriya offered it to him, or maybe for once bro-bro remembered that you don't have to be anti-social 24/7 just because mom is annoying af and actually made a friend, and so he also got wrapped into the Clan."
"But he has been fighting the League every day."
"Well, duh, you can't be the big boy of the underworld if there is another big boy, so they are duking it out."
"… Camie."
"Yes?"
"This all makes somewhat sense, in a 'it's a trainwreck you can't look away from' sort of way, but I feel you haven't really explained a big thing. Why would a supposed member of the Green Valley Clan go to a Hero School?"
"I'm glad you asked, bestie!" She said, pulling out a folder of pictures, "Get ready for my next theory, 'every hero student in UA is Izuku's underling or will be'. This one involves China, the US and at least five martial art dojos!"
'Why did I ask?' Shishikura wondered. He really hoped she didn't tell anyone, because this sounded like a slander suit waiting to happen.
Unless she was right, but what-
-
"-Are the chances?" Masutaro asked.
…
"Why aren't you answering Himiko?"
"I'm just letting you figure it out for yourself." Himiko said. Masutaro didn't know what to make of that.
-
Izuku Midoriya woke up to absolute peace. As in, he had a few blissful moments of peace for himself, before the events of the night before came back to him in full force.
"Oh god, I started a gang war." He realized. Sure, Overhaul would probably win without causing much chaos, the guy was an S-Class Villain that didn't get the rank only because up to this point he stayed under the radar, but what the heck Izuku Midoriya?! You are supposed to be the strait-laced good guy Hero, not the 'I'll let you leave if you do me a little favor' yakuza kind!
Izuku sighed. Unfortunately, he doubted he could have gotten out of it as the Hero. He could have arrested Overhaul, losing Eri forever and probably condemning her to suffer for a long time before she was rescued, if that happened at all, or let Overhaul go, with nothing to show from having bested the yakuza in combat.
Well, one of his bodyguards having bested him combat.
Like, completely trounced.
Absolutely destroyed.
Massively dominated.
Izuku was kinda scared, he had to admit. Good thing Tokage was on his side. He just had to wonder how she had gotten so strong.
-
"… And then I punched him in the balls!" Setsuna concluded triumphantly, "I hit hard and fast, like you said sensei!"
There was a soft chuckle from the other end of the line, "Oh dear, I'm sure you were amazing."
Setsuna beamed. Her sensei was praising her. Aaaaaaaaah! Best day of her life!
"Th-thank you, sensei. Uhm, if I might ask, though, w-would it be alright if we met up again for some training? I know that I haven't been around much, but…"
"Nonsense, dear. I'd love to, but I'm currently unable to take too much physical stress, so we will have to postpone. But feel free to visit if you want."
"V-v-v-v… Visit?" Setsuna was without words. Visit her sensei's house?! She had never been allowed before! All that 'I'm not sure you'd be a good influence on my son'… Oh gosh, was this what she thought this was? Was this a passing of the mantle?! "I will, as soon as I can!"
"Great, but make sure to call. I wouldn't want you to show up and find we aren't home."
"Alright, ma'am!" She said, before saying goodbye and hanging up. She squealed, "Oh my gosh oh my gosh, omg! She's like, tots gonna pass that mantle-" She froze, clearing her throat. Damn, her gyaru speech sometimes still slipped out. Good thing it hadn't during her fight with Overhaul.
Setsuna leaned back on her bed. She knew she was lucky. Her master had retired over a decade before, and she only got to take lessons from her because her mom was a close friend of a close friend of master. Being born in her family, Setsuna has always known that she was going to be a member of the Green Valley Clan, but according to both her mom and her master she was better off leaving behind the old assassination job and move into the Hero industry.
But of course, now she had also her job as bodyguard. Tsunotori and Jiro could keep their roles as the ones that shielded Midoriya up close. She was going to keep her distance and act from the shadows. She was going to get strong, and her teacher would acknowledge her skills to the point of making her the next…
"One thing at a time, Setsuna." Setsuna told herself, "For now, do a good job guarding the boss, become a Hero, take out everyone, and one day you will be the next Tiger of Musutafu!"
-
"She is such a dear." Inko said, looking at her phone with a happy smile on her face, "I wish we knew in advance you wouldn't manage to keep Izuku away from the Yakuza, he could have had a friend."
"Yeah, hindsight is 20/20 but had I known I would have had Izuku grow up closer to his cousins and some of the other youngsters." Hisashi sighed, holding his wife close, "I just thought I could help him dodge that bullet, at least until he decided what he wanted to do in life once this Hero idea crashed, but…"
Inko put a finger on his lips, "I know, I know. It's what you needed to do. And our son is doing great, isn't he?"
"Of course! I'm amazed at Izuku's success. He will be a great Hero and a great boss." He sighed, "I just hope no one finds out. It would crush him."
"Oh dear, don't worry." Inko said, patting him on the head, "I'm sure that nothing will go wrong. And if something does… Well, I'm not going to be pleased."
Hisashi shivered. 'I pity the poor bastard that tries to cross Izuku.'
-
Izuku was sitting in the living room of the UA dorms, Himiko leaning against him happily. There were only a few people, most of the class either still studying or out for training, but Izuku had finished his homework and had a day off from training – which didn't stop him from going out for some jogging, but it did mean he had at least some free time – so he had decided to spend the afternoon with Himiko.
It should have been relaxing, if it wasn't for the news.
"It's still unclear how many criminals were found at the scene, but the simultaneous attack of this small Yakuza gang known as Shie Hassaikai has led to the arrest of several larger groups, well known to the police and now completely destroyed in the span of a single day. The HPSC believes this to be an act of intimidation from the Yakuza gang in response to a recent investigation that-"
"Oh man, Midoriya, those are the guys you have to take out, right?" Sero asked.
"Not just me." Izuku shook his hand, "The Heroes will be the ones that do all the job, I'll probably just help from the sidelines."
"But you have been beating Villains all the time, right? What's the difference?"
"I've been beating goons from the League of Villain that then vanish into a portal and get to run home to lick their wounds. It really feels more like a cartoon." He said, sighing, "This will be an all-out fight, it's very different."
Sero hummed, "I see. Makes sense boss."
Midoriya froze, "Wh-What did you just call me?"
"Boss? Everyone calls you that, except Himiko and Bakugo."
Izuku coughed, "Come on, not everyone calls me that…"
"Alright boss, I'm done with my homework, let's watch some anime now." Pony said, slumping on the couch.
"Uuugh, Midnight's homework is always the worst." Tooru said, a tired Masutaru nodding as he landed next to her, "How did you finish so fast, boss?"
Before he could answer his phone buzzed, making Izuku raise his index finger to make her wait as he answered, "Hello?"
"Hello Midoriya, it's Yaoyorozu. I just got a mail from Kendo, she was asking if 1-A and 1-B can train together next week. Since you are the class representative I figured I'd ask your opinion." Momo said.
"Yeah, sure." Izuku said, happy to here at least Momo wasn't-
"Alright, I'll take care of it. Thank you, boss." She said, closing the call. Dammit.
Izuku looked at Sero.
Sero looked back at him.
Izuku sighed.
-
"So, how was the date?" Momo asked.
Ochaco blushed, looking away. "W-What date? I didn't go on a date! It was a friendly thing! Friends going out together!" Momo looked at her with such a non-plussed look Ochaco couldn't help but think it didn't fit her face. "W-Well, my friendly outing with a boy, who is also a friend, but not my boyfriend, was pretty good. Especially the song part."
"Song part?"
Ochaco felt a smile creep on her face. Oh gosh, the song part… She really needed to thank the guy with the scars and piercings.
-
Dabi looked at the ceiling.
He knew he was a bad person. He had killed people, killed people that wanted to avenge the people he killed before, and was seeking vengeance by hopefully one day killing his siblings to make his father suffer as much as possible before killing him to. You know, normal stuff.
But he didn't think he ever did anything as evil as pushing Shoto toward getting into a relationship. Shoto Todoroki! His brother who was sheltered for years! In a relationship? He was bound to fail and get his heart broken.
'Mwahahah. Delightfully devilish, Toya.' He thought. People before had wondered if he was a bit of chuuni, but he shook his head. No, he was a totally mature man. The obvious course of action once your father abuses you and your family is dressing in all black, get piercings all over your face to accentuate your scars, hide your identity from the authority that could likely legally persecute him, and plan to murder the entire family.
It's just sensible.
With that put aside, he focused on the other matter. His date with Beros had gone quite well, though the girl seemed unable to tell he was actually interested in her. He needed some advice on what to do next, but he was a bit stumped. Going to Compress was embarrassing, Hina and Shigaraki were his love rivals – as far as Hina's current plans to get herself a massive harem made of every woman in Japan and beyond and Shigaraki's attempts to intensely stare at Beros counted for 'rivalry' – and asking everyone else in the League would have been humiliating. The day he went to ask Stain for romantic advice was the day he asked his father too.
No, he needed a different perspective, but he could only think of one person. His rival, his archnemesis, a self-proclaimed expert in all matters of romance. He sighed, grabbing his phone.
"Hello?" A feminine voice asked.
"Hello? It's Dabi."
"Heeeeeeyyyy, if it isn't my greatest rival! Want to set up a new face off? You know I'm always ready for it."
"Actually, I need romantic advice, if you don't mind."
The squeal from the other end of the line pierced Dabi's ears. "Tell me everything."
"Well, Ashido, I have this colleague at work…" Dabi started, smiling. Eh, now this was a plan that couldn't backfire.
-
Another week went by fast. Izuku spent most of it in school, since Miruko explained that they didn't want their movements to look suspicious and Valiant spending too long at once away from UA would do exactly that, but on Friday morning she was back to pick him up and spend two days in Niigata for work. In the course of that week, all the news talked about was the Hassaikai's systematic assault on other Yakuza groups.
"It's an intimidation tactic." Miruko explained, "They want to let us know that they are strong, to make us rethink our plan."
"Are we?" Izuku asked.
"Oh no, we are just going to kick Overhaul's ass harder for this." Miruko said, "There's a child to save and a Villain to catch. Simple as that."
Izuku smiled. Overhaul was strong, but he wasn't invincible, and they had enough Heroes specialized in ranged combat to defeat him without casualties. It was all a matter of time.
-
"It's all a matter of time now." Shigaraki said, standing in front of the crowd of League members. "We are getting stronger, and Overhaul is overextending and getting weaker. Am I right?" The crowd cheered. "Rody." He said, pointing at his second in command.
"Yes sir?" Rody asked.
"Did you approach Overhaul with our offer."
"Yes sir."
"Good. Thanks to my ingenious plan to infiltrate the enemy guild, I now know all the sensitive information on the raid on Overhaul's guild from both sides. The Hero guild has set up a plan that involves all their main players, and while no other villain guild can use this information, since they don't have the exact time and date, we are in the unique position of striking wherever we want. We can collect resources, do some Player Killing, or even advance the plot however we wish."
"I fucking hate working for this guy…" Stain grumbled.
"In the past month, you have all been gaining experience, ranking up and gaining levels! We did some small attacks, but it's now time to move to the next event. Are you ready?" The crowd cheered again, and Shigaraki grinned as he saw his guild pumped up. He had spent the last month turning useless NPCs into decent drops, and now it was time to use them. "Good! Now, I want you to form the teams as we discussed. Make sure to balance Tanks, Marksmen and Fighters, bring at least one Support. Mages and Assassins are somewhat rare, given our rank, but I'm sure we will find more. For now they have been assigned on certain key duties."
The people in the crowd looked at each other for a moment, before they started to quickly move to team up. Stain sighed. "I can't believe this is working. Are you really going to use terminology from that stupid game?"
"Hey, League of Legends is not stupid. It taught me everything I know."
"… Really?"
"Of course. Nothing makes you hate humanity like a LoL match. Hey!" He shouted, pointing at a trio of Villains, "No, no, no, you three are all Tanks, you can't all band together or some of our other squads will run out of defense options. Ugh, noobs…" Shigaraki shook his head, before turning to Rody, "By the way, I'll be Togaraki that day, Rody, so it's up to you to lead them."
Pino and Rody turned to stare at him, a confused look on their face. "What."
"It's you or Stain, and he is needed elsewhere."
"Compress?"
"Needed elsewhere."
"Dabi."
"Endeavor is there, and I'm not letting the flaming pile of angst anywhere near the number 2 Player in the Japanese board until I'm reasonably sure he won't get OHKO'd, so he will be somewhere else." He frowned, "Especially after he tried to one-up me on the romance route."
"Hina?"
"I need someone that won't try to kill every man and romance every woman on both sides. Also, Miruko knows her a bit too intimately for her to go unnoticed."
"Spinner?"
"… Who?"
"Your fanboy?"
"Doesn't ring a bell. No Rody, it's up to you. I'm sure you will do fine. You are an S-Class Villain after all."
Rody really wanted to argue with that, but that would require him to go argue about it with the World Heroes Association, which in practice would mean getting arrested and if he was lucky sent to prison forever.
The unlucky part included the unspeakable things All for One would do to him and his siblings, which made prison sound like the nice option.
For the tenth time that week, Rody cursed fate and suitcase manufacturers that made all suitcases look the same, the two greatest evils of his life.
Well, them and the actual evil overlord that had kidnapped him and turned him into a Villain for the lulz, but he was a bit worried his boss might have long range mindreading and punish him for it. Being paranoid of a literal dark lord wasn't paranoia at all, it was just being sensible.
Rody sighed. Well, one crime a day keeps the dark lord away.
"Oh, by the way, dad said to call him. He has a fun experiment he wants to try and it involves you."
Goddammit.