The Truth of Akatsuki

As the afternoon sun set into the horizons, the night finally began with the red light district coming to life.

"Mikumo, meet me in my office after your shift. We need to talk about what happened last night."

Mikumo bit the insides of his cheek.

Shisei seemed serious, judging from how he actually said Mikumo's name properly instead of 'Kumo-chan'.

"Shisei! Sorry, I couldn't come yesterday! My sugar daddy booked me for the whole night." Before Mikumo could ask what part exactly of last night he wanted to talk about, a tall woman burst through the bar doors and pulled Shisei away. "You're still offering those free drinks though, right?"

Mikumo tilted his head. He recognized the woman as the one working at Checkered Rogue, which, until now, he was still unsure whether it was a strip club or a brothel.

"A-are you going t-to wear that h-hoodie to work...? Arriving early at the bar counter to make sure the glasses were clean, Haruse nervously stuttered.

Mikumo was confused. Haruse seemed more nervous around him today than he was yesterday. Wonder what happened.

"I suppose?" Mikumo raised an eyebrow, leaning on one of the bar stools. He didn't think there were any rules against wearing bunny hoodies to work.

"Y-you should change... I think." Haruse whispered, rubbing his arms as he fidgeted. "You'll b-be noticed."

"Why?"

"You haven't seen the v-video?" Haruse looked up so fast that Mikumo took a step back in surprise, instinctively taking a battle stance.

Realizing that he wasn't under attack, Mikumo calmed down. "No? What video?"

"T-this..." Pulling out his phone, Haruse unlocked it and, instantly, a video was shown as soon as the screen lit up. He must've been watching it just recently.

It was a secluded site with a permanent dark mode set-up which had confidential posts concerning more of villains and vigilantes than heroes. If it were any other site, these kind of posts would have been banned immediately.

Villain.net?

Sounded like the darker version Herotube.

"Who came up with the site name?" Mikumo snorted, not really expecting an answer but got one anyway.

"I-I did..." Haruse muttered as he scratched the back of his neck nervously. "I m-made the s-site."

Mikumo turned to Haruse and reassessed the the socially awkward man, impressed.

"Huh. So you were actually skilled at this area. That's really cool. Wish I could do that." Mikumo stated honestly as he casually took a tour of the site with Haruse's phone, putting the viral video of him aside since he already knew what it was about, having recognized the location in the video.

Well as viral as a video circulated in only a specific circle could get.

Name aside, the site was really impressive in its privacy and safety, requiring the recommendations of three or more official members in order to enter, plus the confirmation of an admin or moderator. Aside from that, accounts will automatically be banned or deleted when the site determines the device's location to be inside or belonging to a government/hero agency.

"..." Haruse visibly blushed, his wings twitching and raising a few notches higher. "D-do you want m-me to teach you..?"

Haruse's voice was quiet. So quiet that Mikumo nearly missed it.

"Really? That'd be awesome."

With eyes widened in surprise, Mikumo made himself comfortable on the chair as he and Haruse conversed about software and coding knowledge before Mikumo had to change his clothes as per Haruse's advice half an hour before the bar opened.

And now, Mikumo found himself standing outside of Shisei's office after his shift was over. Fortunately, the creepy guy who kept staring at him the previous night was nowhere to be found, making him feel more relaxed at work despite the sudden drastic increase of patrons. Which, also meant that people started to put in more requests for him.

Mikumo snorted as he remembered about a certain weirdly specific request from a guy celebrating his birthday.

He wanted to see All Might dancing to Nico Nico Ni in a pink sailor girl costume.

Since the guy also had his phone up during most of the performance, Mikumo more or less expected to see a video of it circulating the internet by tomorrow.

He sighed and shook his head. The things people do for entertainment.

"Come in."

Pushing the door open quietly, Shisei sat behind his desk, bidding Mikumo to take a seat in front of him as he prepared two cups of tea.

Mikumo was silent, watching the steaming tea on his cup as he contemplated what to say.

"Before you say anything, I have a confession to make." Shisei started, his face sporting a serious expression. "I haven't been entirely honest with you."

"What I manage, the Akatsuki, is not just a simple establishment... It is an organization of vigilantes."

"I know."

"Wait- Really?!" Shisei nearly sputtered his tea, staring in disbelief at Mikumo who just calmly blew at his tea before taking a cautious sip.

Instantly, the heavy atmosphere that Shisei created with his previous demeanor was destroyed.

"I mean, the working schedule that Akatsuki implements is irregular, with more employees than necessary in charge of certain days of the week and, while a certain group is set to work, the other groups not working disappear at regular intervals of the night. Plus, there's also those suspicious costumes and masks. Also, last night, Akira came back with injuries and I had to pick up Hotaru-san outside."

Suddenly, Mikumo's muttering habit made its appearance, putting Shisei in a blank daze. "There's also the issue of the establishment employees being killed by nearby gangs. I previously thought they were killed inside the bar but, now I'm more inclined to believe they died while working outside as vigilantes."

"Aside from that, I heard from the heroes chasing them that they refused to fight against them even when they got injured. That cancels them being villains. Which only leaves the option for vigilantes, since, apparently, you're also connected to a drug group."

"W-wait! You picked all those up from your less than four days stay here?!" Shisei nearly choked out, accidentally biting his tongue midsentence.

"Well, yeah?" Mikumo eyed Shisei suspiciously as he finished his tea. "Was this all you wanted to talk about?"

"..." Shisei stared at Mikumo, speechless, before he composed himself. "Since you already know, then I'll say this straight."

"I want to have you in our group."

Backstage Act:

Reporter: All Might! Can you explain why there's a controversial video of you in Herotube?! How do you think this will affect your reputation as the number 1 Hero?

All Might: Wot?