『Hakari Kotaro』
I looked up at Mirko as she put her hands on her hips and smiled at me with her ever-present grin despite me looking like a botched cadaver. Seeing me not saying anything due to surprise, she tilted her head.
"What? Cat got your tongue? Or did you get that one ripped out too?"
My eye twitched, she really was going for where it hurt most eh? No pity even when I'm lying down half dead.
"Why are you here, Mirko-san? Come to laugh at me like you are right now?"
She pulled a chair and sat down without losing her grin.
"Why else? You're obviously still my intern. Even if you obviously won't be able to continue at this rate. Damn you're beat up to hell and back aren't you?"
"Really? I didn't fucking notice."
Mirko hummed and leaned back in her chair, not even registering my hostile tone.
"You still didn't answer my question, why do you look so depressed, from what I heard, you acted like a big damn hero and fought a maniac off."
Closing my eyes I thought of the Police officer chastising me for what I did. On some level, I recognized that the laws existed for a reason, I knew that. But at the same time, for some reason it felt horrible to hear that.
That saving something was not something I should have tried.
"Apparently, being a hero is not my calling after all. Figures."
Mirko rested her cheek on her hand and frowned.
"This about the detectives I saw on the way out? Let me guess, blah blah, unlicensed, blah blah blah, property damage, blah blah, you need a lawyer, blah blah."
"How spot on, were you in the room?"
"So, you let those stuffy suits get to you?"
"Shocker. Are you a mind reader now? Can you see what I'm picturing?"
While I firmly held onto the picture of a middle finger in my mind, Mirko shrugged.
"Not hard to guess, you look like a deflated balloon. You're that weak, huh?"
"Sorry, what did you say? You were too far away for me to hear."
I pulled some blood into my mouth in preparation to spit in Mirko's eyes, but she got up and leaned over me with a mocking grin.
"That's what I'm saying, now that I hear about it, you're probably right. You're a reckless brat, you're just not cut out to be a hero, you shouldn't have saved anyone-"
Whack!
Lurching out of bed, I punched Mirko right across the cheek without even thinking, my fist impacted her cheek heavily and made her head tilt to the side. But instead of getting angry, she smiled.
"What's this? I thought you didn't think you were a hero? What's with that violent reaction?"
"Shut your fucking mouth."
Mirko sat back in her chair and propped up her chin with her hand while I wheezed, my body started hurting despite the anesthetics.
"You really let those stuffy suits get to your head didn't ya? Let me share a secret, I used to be an underground fighter before becoming a hero to dodge juvie. I got into your position a bunch of times, even before becoming a hero, I got sent to detention centers for beating up a bank robber without a license. But guess what I did?"
I didn't give her an answer, but she took my silence as one.
"I got right back into Hero training. I did what I thought was right again, they sent me to juvie again. I was good at what I did though, they couldn't fuck with me too much. I didn't give a damn and kept going. Those suits? They know jack shit about being a hero, they may know about the job, but nothing about being a hero."
She put a hand on my shoulder.
"Do you care about what they tell you? Those suits can whine and throw the rulebook at you all they want, but you did the right thing. If you want to be a hero, don't let that stop you. Who do you care about more, the people you saved, or the people who want to punish for doing what's right?"
I looked down and stared at my mangled hand.
"I don't know. In the first place, I didn't become a hero because I wanted to save people. I don't even have a reason to be one in the first place. I just didn't want to be a villain. When I compare that to other people, and what I do myself... I don't know if the goal I'm aiming for is even a hero."
In the first place, I chose this path to fix my fuckup. And to get stronger and get tickets. It was all a selfish desire that I didn't delude myself about. But now, I didn't know what I was doing. Was I doing this because I wanted to save people now too? Why would I?
Mirko tilted up my chin with a hand and locked eyes with me.
"That's fine! I initially become a hero just to beat up people legally and dodge juvie, sometimes you find your reason to become a hero after becoming one. So just don't think too hard about it, and follow your heart. If you do that, you'll become as awesome as me, not as sexy though."
That advice was not very wise, I'll admit. She essentially said 'Follow your heart, you can figure it out later!' but... maybe that's what I'd do. Nobody said I had to hurry up. And besides...
Why should I care about what suits said, just as Mirko said? They don't give that shade to All Might when he punches away a city district. I'll become greater than All Might eventually, so I just had to keep going and doing my own thing.
"Only as awesome as you? You must be delusional. I'd surpass you easily."
"HAHA! Good luck! Try saying that when you've got all digits intact, kid! Come back for round 2 whenever you want, I'll be waiting!"
With that, Mirko walked past me before opening a window and leaping out of it, making me sigh with a fond smile.
Some might call it unconventional, but she had her way of cheering people up.
I fell back down onto the bed and rapidly rammed the call nurse button.
...Moving that fast just tore open several dozen stitches and the painkillers are suddenly putting in a lot less work.
⚀—⚁⚂⚃—⚄—•⚅•—⚄—⚃⚂⚁—⚀
『Shigaraki Tomura - League of Villains Hideout - Right After the Fight』
"Welcome back, Tomura."
"Yeah yeah, save the speech, Kurogiri."
Entering the hideout through the front door, Shigaraki slumped against the counter of Kurogiri's bar and sighed deeply. His entire body ached and hurt. It was his first time using so many quirks at once in the field and his body was still struggling to adapt despite the modifications the doctor gave him. Kurogiri seemed to sympathize with his plight as he prepared a drink without him even having to ask.
"So, how'd your date with your boyfriend go?"
Saying those words, a man slid into the seat next to him, it was a tall man with blue eyes and black hair, most of his skin was burnt and scarred, held together by stitches and metal hooks. Shigaraki faced Dabi, his lieutenant with a face of profound annoyance.
"You're getting awfully bold Dabi, would you like me to make sure those scars cover more of your body? But I'd say it went well. I learned a lot."
"You two, please stop fighting." Kurogiri slid over drinks to both of them, an energy drink for himself and whiskey for Dabi who downed it without hesitation.
"Are you sure about that, boss? From what I see, you went out there, didn't kill him and came back out all beat up."
A smile reached Shigaraki's lips.
"You wouldn't understand it, I got closer this time, but whenever I grow, he grows too. He is a monster, like me. He is my rival, of course I won't kill him off at the second encounter. Haven't you ever played Pokemon?"
Dabi shrugged his shoulders.
"Whatever you say. I have a hard time believing this kid is causing you this much trouble, aren't you half assing it-"
Dabi's words stopped as Shigaraki grabbed his arm that felt like burnt leather with only a pinky lifted.
"Oi, Dabi, you really don't seem like you value your limbs."
He looked down at Shigaraki's arm before raising his arms in faux surrender.
"Fine, fine, I yield. Geez."
"Go make yourself useful and arrange a raid with your party. We started a streak with Hosu, keep it going."
"Right."
Dabi put his hands in the pockets of his coat and Shigaraki nursed his drink. Having competent underlings made having his own organization far easier. After his first fight with Hakari, Sensei had drilled how to be a proper leader into Shigaraki's head, and even gave him a reading speed quirk temporarily to let him study faster before taking it away. Which was far worse than anything else Sensei had ever done before.
Despite Sensei doing a majority of the work assembling the League of Villains, Shigaraki had managed to continue running it after realizing he could run it like a guild from the MMO's he played.
Why does the guild exist? So the players can get help from other players with the same goal. How does the guild make a profit? By taking a cut from the players or directing them towards things useful for them. How does a guild operate? With raid teams that they cycle out of course. How does a guild keep their players in line? By offering rewards and punishments for completing and failing quests the guild gives of course.
Once he looked at it from that perspective, it was much easier to run the League of Villains, even Sensei was impressed by his genius. And one of the benefits that Sensei allowed him to use was giving and taking quirks. Only his best players got a new quirk to help them along, while those who failed him would have their quirk taken away by Sensei.
Slam!
"Shigaraki, this is taking too long! You said if you beat him, I'd get to take his healing quirk!"
A tall man with white hair and grey eyes slammed his hand on the counter next to him, he wore an advanced black and purple armor with a white suit over it. Nine. Nine glared at him, but Shigaraki remained unphased.
"Well, he isn't beaten, is he? Calm down Nine, it's not like you're dying."
"I am, you childish moron! We have a deal."
"I said we'd help you get a healing quirk, not find you one today."
"It doesn't feel like you are."
Shigaraki narrowed his eyes at Nine.
"Do you need me to remind you what Sensei said? If you want the healing quirk so badly, go find it on your own."
"Tsk."
Nine simply clicked his tongue and walked away. Shigaraki agreed with Master that Nine's quirk and his mastery over it were too good to discard, but he was a pain in the ass to deal with nonetheless. As he was thinking this, the monitor suddenly came to life, but instead of Sensei, it was the Doctor.
"Ahh! Shigaraki, you made it back safe and sound, good, good, I was monitoring your condition through your implant throughout the fight, your tolerance is getting higher and higher! We might not have to remove the 4th quirk this time, maybe we can eventually even give you a 5th, or even stronger ones!"
"I'll be looking forward to it, doc. I'm going to ask Sensei to switch this set though, Rivets are not as good as I thought."
"Yes, yes, I'll relay that message to the master, young Shigaraki, I'm sure he will be overjoyed to hear of your growth!"
With that, the monitor shut off without waiting for an answer from Shigaraki, making him frown. While he had the man to thank for his improved body after numerous torturous experiments and surgeries, he was also a very irritating self-centered old man. Dealing with him could get exhausting.
Regardless, Shigaraki took another sip of his drink.
'Hakari... I'll be better prepared next time, so I hope you'll be prepared too...!'
A/N: Mirko was the second-best person to give Hakari this talk, the first is of course Toga. But she did a good job of forcing him out of his funk. Hakari is slowly but surely starting to walk down the path of a hero properly. He may not be sure about it mentally, but his heart is in the right place. Mirko is a good teacher for him. Unfortunately, he'll be in hospital for a while so he'll probably not participate in the finals.
I'm sorry if it's dragging a bit, but I wanted to show off Shigaraki's growth, Hakari accidentally made him lock in and AFO is genuinely helping him grow instead of whatever he was doing in canon. He is growing into a real threat who can run his own organization and grow more and more. What did you guys think about this chapter? We'll get back on track next chapter.