Author's Notes: Chapter edited and corrected by Scott Fellman.
Izumi Pov.
"How did you know?!" Trickster growled as she took a step forward, trying to look threatening. I smirked at her.
"Wow, calm down, Krouser, I'm sure you don't want to put on such a show in front of your boyfriend, I don't think Mr. Meinhardt would like it." I said with a wide smile as I watched the male version of Noelle shudder slightly and take a step back. Trickster stood in the middle as she glared at me.
"Shut up!" Trickster growled, and I laughed lightly. Really, Trickster had a terrible personality; it was quite easy to annoy her and get her off her rocker.
"Hey, I'm just making small talk. After all, I'm tied up and kidnapped. I don't have much to do. Besides, I'm really curious. I mean, you're all a long way from Madison, Wisconsin. It's rare to find you in Japan." I scoffed. Trickster flinched slightly, as did the others.
"How do you know all that!?" Trickster growled. I laughed once again.
"Oh, I know a lot of things, like that you're missing a friend, where is she? Did you abandon her?" I asked with a sadistic smile, which only grew when most of the Travelers shuddered. Perfect, so Perdition is a woman, too. "Ah, they abandoned her. I wonder where she is. Wait, Gasp! You sold her to the Chinese, to the Yangban as a slave!?" I asked, feigning surprise.
"Did he just say, Gasp?" Dabi muttered with an amused smile.
"Shut up!" Trickster growled, getting angrier and angrier. I laughed lightly.
"Oh yeah, I guess Accord's help was worth far more than her friend's life. As long as they could help Mr. Meinhardt, everything would be fine, right?" I asked with a mocking smile, looking at Trickster. "Besides, I must applaud you. Two birds with one stone."
"Quite manipulative of you, if I must say, I'm sure your... friend, had a romantic crush on Mr. Meinhardt, and you didn't like her. You wanted Meinhardt for yourself, you removed her from her school's eSports team, turned her friends against her, and when you found the opportunity, you got rid of her permanently."
"Bravo, I would applaud you slowly and sarcastically, but as you see, I'm at-"
"Shut the fuck up!" Trickster growled as she interrupted me. I saw her coming with so much time to react; it was pathetic. Trickster took long strides towards me and punched me in the cheek. I didn't even flinch. My neck and head didn't even move.
I just stared at her with a broad smile despite her fist on my cheek. I could see the other Travelers sway slightly as they stared at Trickster as if they couldn't believe what they were hearing.
"Thanks for the confirmation," I said playfully. Trickster roared and reached back.
"Enough!" Cinder interrupted forcefully as she grabbed Trickster's wrist. "I don't care about your troubles, but the boy must not be harmed until he frees the prisoners within his shadows." Cinder said as she pushed Trickster.
"What a party pooper, I didn't even get to the important part, about Meinhardt's broken quirk. Tell me, did All For One promise to help you with that?" I asked, amusedly, while tilting my head slightly. 'Noelle's eyes widened slightly.
"She already did." Trickster mocked before clicking her tongue and walking away, grumbling. I suppressed a shudder. Having AFO help with Meinhardt's quirk was terrifying, depending on the implications.
If I simply take away his Quirk, then... well, I don't want to think about the implications. Now, the question was why and how they got here. Although she answered something I'd been wondering about, his Quirk was broken here, too.
And there were no broken quirks in this world, but… There was something that was very similar.
"What a shame to be a victim of the Quirk Singularity, a Quirk too strong for your small body. How terrible, isn't it, Meinhardt? How many did you hurt? How many did you eat to satisfy your hunger?" I asked lightly, I could see 'Noelle' visibly tremble as she turned completely pale. Bingo. "I suppose Accord put them in contact with AFO, with Kyudai Garaki, the author of the concept-"
"Enough." Cinder interrupted me with a frown. "Let's stop playing games, free Shigaraki, Kurogiri, and Ragdoll, you can keep Mandalay and the boy." Cinder said suddenly, I just blinked in her direction.
"Excuse me, and who the hell are you?" I asked boredly. Cinder just raised an eyebrow at me and scoffed.
"I guess your information didn't cover me, I'm Cinder -"
"Cinder Fall!" I exclaimed suddenly, interrupting her with a huge smile. Cinder blinked and smiled slightly. She seemed about to speak, but I interrupted her. "I almost didn't recognize you without your slave collar!" I said with a huge smile.
Cinder froze, like, completely frozen, like her brain had short-circuited. I smiled.
"How are Madame and your stepsisters? I must say, they did an excellent job keeping Glass Unicorn, a pretty nice hotel." I said playfully, and Cinder finally seemed to react; her aura exploded, and her hand went to my neck without hesitation.
"Wow, wow, wow, leader, calm down." Mercury interrupted as she grabbed Cinder's wrist and stopped it a few inches from my face. I could see her hands glow and emit intense heat. Cinder looked at me with an enormous amount of hatred. I just smiled widely at her.
"They're dead, my dear mother and my beloved sisters, they're dead, and you will be too if you don't do what I just said." Cinder hissed dangerously, and I smiled and laughed lightly.
"Well, kid, I'd do what she says. I don't think I could stop her a second time," Mercury said with an amused smile.
"Ah... Mercury Black, no?" I asked lightly, and Mercury just raised an eyebrow at me. "How was your... mother? Is she still rotting where you left her body after killing her? I understand she left you a nice gift." I said while looking at her prosthetic legs, amusedly, before looking at Mercury.
Her smile had already vanished, and she had an almost empty, emotionless look. After looking at me for a few seconds, she shrugged and raised both hands while releasing Cinder, while smiling again.
"All yours, boss. Make him suffer." Mercury said lightly, though I could hear the tension in her voice. I just laughed lightly.
"How sensitive, they should be more like that street rat, she doesn't really have any sad backstory, just the bad luck of being born on the streets." I scoffed as I pointed my chin at Esmerald. Esmerald glared at me.
"Stop playing games, the hostages, now." Cinder said immediately.
"Calm down, Fall, don't get all worked up. I just want to chat, I haven't even started with them yet." I said playfully, pointing at the members of the League of Villains.
"As if you know anything about us." Dabi mocked, my smile growing almost sadistically.
"Look what we have here, Endeavor's long-lost daughter." I said playfully.
Dabi's eyes widened slightly before she growled. Her hands moved, and my body was engulfed in blue fire almost immediately. I coated my body with Haki and my aura to resist the fire until it finally went out. Once I was no longer engulfed in flames, I began to laugh.
"Wow! What a temper! Just like your mom!" I scoffed playfully. Dabi let out a guttural noise and started moving once more.
"Enough!" Cinder growled, stopping her in her tracks. "Wait until that bastard releases the targets! Then you can do whatever you want to him!" Cinder exclaimed. Dabi glared at me with intense hatred before clicking her tongue.
"Don't mention Endeavor again," Dabi spat. I scoffed.
"Poor thing, throwing a tantrum because Mom hurt her." I mocked Dabi, and she gritted her teeth. "And the rest of your family? How was the reunion with your sister? Should I tell her about you?" I asked playfully, and I could feel the heat starting to rise.
"Ah! It's hot! Please calm down, Dabi!" Twice exclaimed suddenly as he walked away.
"Twice." I said playfully, and twice flinched, looking at me while shaking.
"It's my turn!? I don't want it to be me!" Twice squealing in panic, I shrugged.
"Calm down, I'm not going to say anything about you." I said dismissively. Twice froze and looked at me, confused.
"Oh no? Why not? Ah! You can't tell who I am because of my mask!" Twice chirped. I snorted in amusement before smiling sadistically.
"No, it's not that, I just don't talk to clones, I want to talk to the real Bubaigawara." I said mockingly. I could see Twice freeze in place.
"clone? I'm not a clone, I'm the real one, I'm Twice, I'm the real one, I'm the only one! No, you're not! You're a clone! Shut up! I'm not a clone! I'm the real one! I killed all the clones! They all turned into clay! Not me! Are you sure? Perhaps it's part of our quirk: we turn into clay when we die. Shut up! You shut up !"
I blinked for a couple of seconds as I watched Twice basically have a mental breakdown, well… that was easy… almost feeling pity as I watched her argue with herself, she was clutching her head and shaking it from side to side.
I frowned slightly as I immediately wrapped my neck with haki, just in time for a knife to clash uselessly against my armor haki.
" Aaww … I wanted some of your blood." Himiko said as she appeared behind me, hugging me lightly before attempting to stab my chest once more. I used Haki once more to avoid the stabbing.
Himiko tried several more times in different places, only to get the same result.
"Are you done?" I asked, almost bored, as I looked at her out of the corner of my eye. Her face was practically glued to mine as she pouted.
"You're no fun. You're quite handsome. Can I have some of your blood, please?" Himiko asked with a shy smile and a slight blush. I raised an eyebrow at her.
"Himiko Toga… I really feel sorry for you. You didn't deserve anything that happened to you as a child." I said honestly. Himiko's smile immediately disappeared.
"You're lying." Himiko said immediately, I sighed as I shook my head.
"Believe what you want, your parents were wrong, you're not abnormal, nor a monster, you're just a cute, normal girl, with a taste for blood." I said simply while shrugging my shoulders.
Himiko stared at me for a few seconds before her face exploded red. She brought her hands up to her face and covered her face.
"Is-is this love?! I'm in love?! A boy likes me ?!" Himiko squealed in embarrassment as she looked away. I blinked and mentally groaned. Great, that wasn't what I was trying to do. I really felt bad for Himiko's situation; out of all the villains present, she was the one who least deserved to be on this side.
Everyone else was a complete idiot. I mean, I can understand them to a certain extent. Endeavor was an idiot and deserved everything that happened to her, honestly. Still, Dabi decided to go nuclear and burn everything in her path, not just Endeavor, but anyone she found, including her family; anyone she encountered was fair game.
Like Madame's death at Cinder's hands, it was understandable, but the escalation after that was ridiculous. Cinder had taken on so much of Madame's personality that it was almost laughable if it wasn't sad. Cinder could have walked away and simply lived her life quietly; instead, she decided to seek more power by any means possible.
The backstory of Trickster and the Travelers still left me somewhat confused, for one, there is no Simurgh here, so they do not come from an alternate world, as in canon, and are not lost with a broken and uncontrollable power in an unknown world.
So the question was, why did they become villains? What happened to everyone's family? And the only thing that comes to mind is that Trickster pushed them down that path. Like I said, she was a manipulative bastard when she wanted to be, and she—she now—loved "Noelle" so much that she wouldn't take no for an answer the first time and ended up wearing her down over time with her "good boy" attitude.
I'm sure Trickster wants to position herself as Noelle's savior in some way, so that, thanks to her, they were able to find a cure for Noelle, and Noelle would be grateful to her. I almost felt sorry for Noelle if my thoughts were true.
The others were simply followers of Trickster's plans.
I really wanted to kill Trickster.
Returning to Himiko, she was one of the few whom her parents and society in general failed. She wasn't the first, nor the last, to have a specific Quirk that generated some strange impulses. If she remembered correctly, Himiko was admitted to Quirk therapy. They should have identified the root of her problem there and provided her with the help she deserved. Instead, they made her repress everything until she exploded.
I mean... she was a social outcast, and I'd say Spinner would be the same, but Spinner was an idiot. Yes, she was part of a great deal of racism and discrimination in this society, and yes, it's sad, but the moment she saw Stain on TV, she jumped on the super-terrorist love train.
So yeah, I had no love for Spinner, but Himiko was something else, or well, she was for the moment, the more she joins the League of Villains, the more hypocritical she becomes, like when the heroes kill Twice and she blames them for everything, and she's just another villain, really a shame.
"Hey, why do you praise her and rub our traumas in our faces?" Mercury complained, I snorted.
"You guys decided to be idiots, not so much her," I said dryly. "I mean, Magne is just another villain and murderer. On the other hand, I don't dislike Compress that much. He's the great-great-grandson of the Peerless Thief. He just joined to fight against a corrupt system and heroic injustices... It's a shame he joined the League of Villains, really." I added with a sigh.
And it was true, Compress was easily the one who had the least problematic members, really, until he joined the League of Villains, I mean, he started monologuing about his past and his history, right after Shigaraki destroyed an entire city, that no longer had anything to do with wanting to change society.
I sighed once more. Really, I had enough problems with the Villains of this world.
"Wow, I didn't know this generation remembered my great-great-grandfather," Compress said, almost sounding cheerful.
"Can we get to the point? Why are we letting him keep talking?" Trickster growled, sounding almost furious. I rolled my eyes.
"What a killjoy, Krouser," I said boredly.
"Even so, she's right, release Shigaraki and the others at once." Cinder said, finally.
"Shut up, slave. Your superiors are talking." I mocked her without even looking at her. Her hand found my jaw, and she activated her quirk. I used my armor haki and protected myself from her. I stared at her with a mocking smile.
"You're a damn pest. I'm sure everything you have in your shadows will come out once you're dead." Cinder growled furiously.
"Are you sure that's what's going to happen? I wouldn't do it if I were you. You wouldn't want to upset your boss, would you?" I asked playfully.
clapclapclapclapclapclap
I flinched slightly at the sounds of applause coming from the television. The BOSS was here.