"Okay, so let me get this straight." Kaguna took a long sip of his coffee, all the while, staring at Mikumo, unimpressed. "You gave your actual phone number to a rando who knew of your villain identity, WHO, might I add, ended up being the same person who posted that video of you in villain.net?"
"I don't know, man! Sounds kinda sus to me!" Kaguna rubbed his forehead as Mikumo blew bubbles in his milk tea. "For the record, none of us, YOUR coworkers, even have your number yet. Care to explain why that is? Hmm??"
"It just never crossed my mind." Mikumo leaned into the couch, wanting to be swallowed whole by it and disappear.
"So we're just that unimportant to you, huh?" Kaguna snorted, dramatizing the situation.
"U-um, can I have your number?" Suddenly, Akira appeared from the doorway, fidgeting nervously as he muttered. "For emergency purposes."
Mikumo contemplated. Akira probably wanted to have a way to contact him in case his vigilante work went awry and needed his help.
"Alright. Give me a pen and paper, I'll write it down." Mikumo nodded as Kaguna stared at him in disbelief.
"What about me?! Weren't we bros?"
"I doubt you'd actually have anything important to say." Mikumo huffed.
"Rude!" Kaguna gasped in offense before turning to Akira. "By the way, shouldn't you be resting still, Akira? You got injured pretty badly, right?"
"No... Kanae-san already cleared me." Akira mumbled as he took a seat across from Mikumo, subconsciously rubbing the new scar that ran diagonally on his torso. "Also, I wanted to thank Mikumo-kun."
Mikumo looked towards Akira upon hearing his name.
"I-I heard you were the one who rescued Hotaru-san..." Akira fiddled with his fingers nervously.
"I was just repaying my debt to Shisei-san. Gratitude isn't needed." Mikumo said as he sipped on his milk tea.
"Still..." Akira chewed on his lips anxiously, not knowing how to put his thoughts into words.
Kaguna snorted in amusement. "Just let Akira say his thanks and be done with it. Goddamn it. Why do I have to suffer from watching the interaction of two people with a social ability equal to a bunch of soggy fries?"
"Not my fault that I haven't interacted with anyone outside of my dad for more than four years." Mikumo commented offhandedly.
"Okay. Now, that's messed up." Kaguna visibly shuddered. "Good thing you killed him."
"Right. Maybe we should set up a team patricide or something." Mikumo was amused.
Meanwhile, Akira coughed in horror, wondering if he should really be listening to this conversation.
"Speaking of family, Akira, is your brother not showing himself again?" Kaguna mused with an eyebrow raised.
"Mm... Yeah. He always does this whenever I get injured..." Akira muttered hesitantly, his fingers curling over the edge of his sleeves. "He's always like that... Feeling guilty since he was the one who suggested this whole... running away to become vigilantes thing."
"That's stupid. He should know that accidents always happen and you can't escape unscathed everytime." Kaguna said with furrowed brows. "And besides, if you didn't run away, you'd probably end up in a far worse situation, right?"
"Yeah..." Akira sighed.
Mikumo quietly sipped his drink with a thoughtful expression, already forming conjectures in his mind.
"Kumo-kun?" Quietly, nearly a whisper, Akira called to him, making Mikuma raise an eyebrow in inquiry.
"I- um... You're really cool and, um..." Akira stuttered, nearly shrinking himself to a ball in the couch as if to avoid his piercing gaze. "I-I really-"
"Boi just spit it out already! It's not like he's gonna eat ya!" Kaguna sighed in exasperation, his Kansai dialect slipping out accidentally.
"It's just... I've always been running away... from my past, my fears... everything. But, you're different from me. You don't hesitate to do what it takes to reach your goal! And, um... You're really cool!" Akira fidgeted nervously, his eyes trained on Mikumo's milk tea instead of meeting his eyes. "I... uh- saw the video."
Well, that answered a few questions. Like how this antisocial coworker of his suddenly decided to talk to him.
Calmly placing his drink on the table, Mikumo narrowed his eyes dangerously. "I know I've barely met Akira for five days, but if someone hurt him, I will commit murder, arson, and suicide."
"I-I? What? Huh?"
"This is blatant favoritism!" Kaguna slammed down his cup.
...
From: Shisei
Come to my office. Wear your villain gear.
To: Kumo-chan♡
Some time ago, as Mikumo laid in bed, contemplating whether he should go to bed early or watch a certain streamer in villain.net, a cryptic text from his employer came in, providing no reason nor context.
Apparently, after Kaguna acquired his phone number earlier, he had started bragging about it to the other workers, which, apparently made Shisei jealous and demanded to have his number as well.
And thus, 10 minutes later, he stood silently in front of Shisei's office door in his villain attire, eavesdropping quietly.
"How many times have I told you, Jiugo-san? We're a vigilante group! Not a hitman organization!" From behind the door, Mikumo could hear Shisei groan in frustration. "It doesn't matter if it's you or your boss putting uo the request. We don't kill people."
"Even for 250k?" An unidentified voice said, presumably, the one called Jiugo.
"Money is not the problem here, Jiugo-san!" Shisei sighed. "Whatever. I have someone to take over this request anyways. So, hopefully you'll stop coming to me after this."
Somehow, this situation made him experience deja vu. Shaking his head, Mikumo knocked quietly.
"Come in."
Upon entering the room, two pairs of eyes turned towards him, Shisei visibly sighing in relief upon seeing him.
"And this is?" Jiugo asked as he assessed him cautiously. Mikumo mentally did a celebration dance.
Finally, there was someone who didn't recognize him, even with his gear on. It was starting to freak him out, how so many people managed to recognize and connect him to his villain identity.
"This is Bunny. You might not recognize him since he's new in the circle." Shisei explained calmly. "In any case, he's fairly trustworthy so you can lay out your request to him. Whether he accepts though is still his choice."
So having Bunny as his villain name was already set in stone, huh? Did he even get any say in it? No? Okay.
Well, atleast, they did provide him a proper disguise; having mistaken his quirk for Metaloid instead of Phantasm. Though, it would take some time for him to get used to only manifesting metals instead of other things, it would be a good cover for him in the long run.