Chapter 5 - Kira Takes On U.A.!: 3

Kaminari was nervous. Then again, fighting against anyone who even looked like Kira was scary enough as it was, let alone the fact that her Quirk was extremely powerful—or so he had been told. She was a recommended student with a powerful Quirk, so right off the hop, the matchup was going to be intense. And that was without the context that she had been paired up with Yaoyorozu Momo, another recommended student.

But of course, as luck may have it, there was something else about Kira that made Kaminari wary of the blond tomboy. Something that was just, unnatural.

There was something about Kira that honestly scared the boy, something wrong, something that made her seem… off. Was that the right word? Honestly he didn't know, and quite frankly he wasn't wanting to find out what it was that would best describe it. Her eyes were empty, dull of life or emotion. Whether Kira knew that they were or not was another thing entirely—a fear tactic perhaps? If it was, it did its job pretty well.

Her Hero costume was bland. It was a basic suit and tie with a pair of gloves. There was no fanfare, there were no flashy add-ons, it was just a basic suit and tie. It was almost like it was purposely designed to make her look like a casual citizen, someone who could blend into the crowd of people on their daily commute to work. Perhaps that had been the point, but what point was there to make? What exactly had Kira been trying to prove?

Whatever it was, Kaminari, once again, didn't want to find out.

Of course, there was Yaoyorozu and her equally as powerful Quirk to worry about, but that was neither here nor there. Sure, the daughter of the super-rich support item tycoon Takeo Yaoyorozu was no laughing matter, but she at least seemed normal. The difference lay in that. Yaoyorozu seemed like a nice person, while Kira did not.

It was that separation that made Kaminari nervous. The sheer difference of thought that the two must have had was dangerous when separated. But putting them together in a situation like this could only spell disaster.

The electricity Quirk user stood idly behind Jirou, his partner, as he adjusted his black jacket, dusting off the white thunder decals of the dust that had encroached on its pristine colour. His pants, leather-based and great for conducting electricity, were also a shade of black, as were his shoes. His yellow eyes showed nervousness, though that was to be expected.

His partner, Jirou, showed none of that in her black eyes. Her wavy, short-cut hair sat firmly on her head as she fiddled with one of her earphone jacks, which was what her Quirk was. Obvious as an observation as it was, it was an observation. She wore a black leather jacket, a torn pink shirt, and black leather pants with massive speakers attached to the lower leg that also acted as boots.

They had yet to have been given the all-clear to be deployed out for the training exercise by All Might, leaving them standing by their lonesome out in front of the faux city gates. To be honest, Kaminari kinda hoped that it would remain that way—only so he could get his barrings, he wasn't scared or anything, no-sir!

"So, uh… do you got a plan or something, uh, Jirou-san?" Kaminari asked as the purplette looked over her shoulder.

"Not particularly. If I had to guess, Kira is going to be the attacker in this situation, while Yaoyorozu is going to be laying it thick with defence. My jacks can plug into walls, which allows me to hear vibrations, so I can tell if someone is moving around. If we can get the jump on Kira, we can overwhelm Yaoyorozu and take the bomb. There, that's the plan, okay?" Jirou said, turning her head away from facing Kaminari.

The plan was interesting, and in theory, it could work. But there were a lot of things that could go wrong, at least in Kaminari's opinion. He wanted to strike up his own ideas, but with the way that she had looked at him, with eyes that basically said "do not object" he felt like it was a bad idea.

They stayed there in silence, waiting for the buzzer for what felt like ages. Neither Jirou nor Kaminari tried to strike up a conversation, and as the electronic clock ticked down to zero, the buzzer echoed out and the gates to the faux city opened. Jirou pulled out a map from her jacket, opened it up and pointed at the X planted on one of the buildings.

"This is where the building is, just down this corner and to the right. We gotta disarm that nuke before it blows up the city," Jirou said, putting the map back into her jacket. Kaminari was taken aback by her acting skills, and a part of him wanted to get in on the act, but he had to take it seriously. Besides, the last thing he wanted to do was to overdo it.

"Y-Yeah, sure thing!" Kaminari responded as the pair ran towards the objective. As they got closer to the building, Jirou ran ahead of Kaminari, crouched beside the entrance of the building, then plugged one of her jacks into the wall.

"Top floor, they seem to be pacing. Did they not make up a plan or something?" Jirou thought aloud before shaking her head. "They're up there, we can get them by surprise!" the purplette said, unplugging her earphone jack from the wall, and taking a step into the building. But before she could enter the building, a group of bubbles flew out of the ground, all with skull-shaped iconography within them.

As soon as they appeared, Kaminari's eyes widened. By the time he had realized what it was they were, it had already been too late.

"JIROU! GET BACK!"

"huh?—"

An explosion ripped through the air, knocking Jirou back and onto the floor. The explosion in question caused major skin damage to the purplette with small cuts and bruises all over her body. It had sent her flying, but not a great distance. When she landed, it was on her back, and when she did, she had bounced in the air ever so slightly, grunting in pain upon impact with the ground. A pained groan escaped her lips as she weakly tried to get up. Jirou coughed, waving away smoke that travelled from the explosion and into the surrounding outside area.

"Ow… shit that hurt…." The purplette said, blood dripping from her arms, legs, and hands. She didn't notice it until it splashed right in front of her face, which caused her eyes to widen. "H-Huh?!" the purplette stumbled over her attempt to get up as Kaminari stepped back, horror in his eyes.

The wounds weren't deep, they were surface at best, but the damage had already been done. Jirou wasn't in immediate danger of bleeding out, in fact, it was quite the opposite. The wounds were comparable to paper cuts, but damn if they weren't going to be annoying to deal with.

"That was one attack! One surprise attack, and Kira, without even being here, was able to do so much damage in so little time!" "Jirou, are you okay!" Kaminari asked, getting over to her side. The electric blond helped the purplette get up, grabbing one of her hands and shoulder to help her stand… at least that was what he wanted to do had the girl not slapped his hand away and glared at him.

"What does it look like!? Fuck, what the hell was that!" Jirou said, trying to push back whatever tears had been forming in her eyes. Kaminari didn't know, nor wanted to know, how much pain the purplette had been in, but it appeared to be a lot.

Slight squelching sounds came from the spurting blood, the sickening sound giving Kaminari shivers. That had been the last thing the boy wanted to hear—the sound of blood gushing and squirting from open wounds.

It was all too real for the electric Quirk user. It was clear that Kira had it out for them. If there were more traps like that set up throughout the building, then it could be extremely dangerous to traverse if one was not prepared.

There was structural damage done to the front of the building caused by the explosive trap the girl had set. It wasn't bad enough to worry about the place collapsing, but it was alarming. Cracks formed in the concrete walls, and small dust particles fell to the ground, leaving small chips of concrete on the floor of the entrance. It looked like it was about to collapse, the doorway, that was, not the building.

That attack… it was clear that Kira had to have some fighting experience if she was willing to booby trap the entrance with an attack like that. Going up against an analytical mind such as that was a scary prospect, but then again, what was he supposed to expect from a recommended student? If he was going to win this, he had to think with his head and not with his heart.

How many more booby traps such as that were sprinkled throughout the building? There had to be a way to disable them, everything had a pre-disposed weakness—he had played enough strategy games on his Play Station X to know that simple fact. He had to think about it, in the same way, one would play a Medal Gear Solid game from the pre-quirk era, if he didn't, he could end up just as injured as Jirou had.

And that was the last thing he wanted. Heh, All Might was right—obviously—practical experience teaches the basics.

"Kaminari, do you read me?! Is Jirou alright? Does she need medical attention?!" All Might's voice boomed from the electric blond's earpiece. The electricity Quirk user jumped in his place for a second, not expecting their teacher to speak so suddenly and urgently.

"I-I… U-Uh…?" Kaminari froze on the spot, looking over to Jirou, who was having a hard time standing up. He didn't know why the pro didn't ask Jirou. Maybe her com had been fried by the explosion? That had to have been the case. He looked at the purplette, and with a serious expression, he spoke.

"Jirou-san, do you need to be pulled out for the exercise, or can you still fight?" the electric blond asked as the purplette glared at him before coughing again. She let a sigh escape her lips before letting up on the glare, groaning.

"I'm going to tap out… I can barely stand up straight without—" as she said that, she fell to a single knee, groaning again in pain. "As you can see… I'm not doing so hot…." And with that, a med bot was deployed from out of one of the buildings, an automatic stretcher coming out of its arms as another med bot picked the purplette up and took her off to Recovery Girl, the school's resident nurse.

"Be careful Kaminari, keep a straight face and push forward," All Might said, the connection cutting. Kaminari sighed, staring toward the building. A full minute and a half passed just for that to transpire. The trap had succeeded in delaying him and also taking out a vital teammate in the exercise. He was alone, and he had to face two recommended students. One had battle experience from what he could tell, and the other was Yaoyorozu Momo, who had a pretty overpowered Quirk and a smart mind to back it up.

"Luck does not seem to be in the favour of Kaminari Denki today, no sir!" The electric blond thought.

Back in the viewing room, the other members of Class 1 - A had been watching the fight unfold, and out of everyone in the room, Ida had spoken up. "All Might-Sensei! Shouldn't you reprimand Kira-san for her actions toward harming Jirou-san in such a horrible way?!" Ida asked as All Might let out a small laugh.

"On the contrary, young Ida! While it may have looked bad, and while I have to assume young Jirou is in a lot of pain, the attack was non-life-threatening. Besides, it's injuries like those that will happen a lot in your times as Pro-heroes, and seeing as Jirou is far from badly injured, or bleeding excessively, Kira will not be reprimanded for this action. I would also have to assume on Kira's part that she had thought this outcome through, and had lowered the strength of her explosions to use her traps non-lethally!" All Might responded, earning a raised eyebrow from a pink-skinned girl, as well as a shutter.

"I hate to ask, All Might-sensei, but if that was a "weak explosion," just how powerful is Kira's quirk?" the girl asked as Josefumi was the one who answered for All Might.

"I can answer that. I've known Kira for over a month now, and I've seen her Quirk in action at its strongest whenever we would spar together. Believe me when I say that is NOTHING compared to what she could have done. To put things into perspective, Kira's bombs have the ability to atomize someone or something if she puts enough effort into them. She did it to her… guardian's…? Mother's…? I don't know—favourite wine as revenge for embarrassing her over something.

Everyone else, except All Might, shuttered at that. However, out of everyone there who had been the most impacted by not only the display of power, and the possibly dubious explanation of Kira's full power, was Bakugo Katsuki.

It sounded outlandish, there was no way in hell that there was someone with a more powerful explosion-based power than him. But even he had to concede that they were at least on par from the footage he saw. He didn't believe a single thing that boot-hair having wannabe extra said about Kira's full strength, that just wasn't possible.

If someone had that much power, they could theoretically just take over the world and force themselves as the number one hero. But obviously, that wasn't the case. Obviously, Kira did NOT have that kind of strength.

There was no way a Quirk could be THAT strong. Even All Might had to have a weakness. Now granted no one knew All Might's weakness, but he does have one. Still, he would have to watch, just to see how strong Kira really was, mostly because he refused to believe that statement made by boot-hair.

Yeah. Because that was impossible.

It had to be impossible.

Back on the battlefield, Kaminari scooped up a few bits of rubble from the ground by the entrance, then stepped into the building. He had eight rocks in total, meaning he could pre-emptively set off eight potential booby traps—that was, of course, if they were motion-triggered. He didn't have long to secure the bomb, or at the very least knock out both of the "villains," but he had a sure-fire way of doing so.

The only catch was actually making it to them before the timer ran out.

Due to his control over the electricity that he had in his body, he could generate enough electricity to knock someone out, or "paralyze them" long enough so that he could seize victory. But in order for him to actually get to that point and actually unleash his attack, which he fittingly dubbed "25-volt paralyze blast," he would have to reach the bomb and, subsequently, Kira and Yaoyorozu.

Now, that would've been easy, had he not been met with a choice.

In front of him were three hallways, one sprouting off to the left, the other sprouting off to the right, and one straight down the middle. He couldn't see down any of them due to the severe lack of lighting. He theorized, however, that If one had a booby trap, then that would lead him down the correct path to the stairwell.

Was this flawed logic? Yes, but it was the only thing he had to go off of, and he'd be damned if he had ended up like Jirou and thrown the match. Plus, no self-respecting hero-in-training would give up because of a small hiccup—especially if a nuclear weapon had been involved. Granted, this wasn't a real nuclear bomb, but All Might did say to treat it as a real situation.

So with that in mind, he threw the first stone down the middle hallway, and the result was nothing. That marked one off the list of the three options that had been presented to him.

Collecting the stone, he returned to the entrance and threw one of the stones down the right hallway, and it had a Booby trap. The bubbles that launched up from the ground exploded, leaving nothing of the stone that he had thrown. So, with that in mind, he walked down the hallway, and sure enough, it lead to the staircase.

He was met with the same three decisions, and each time he would throw a rock down one of the hallways. It even became somewhat of a pattern, and some of the hallways even doubled up—thankfully a single rock took care of them—and some even had booby traps that didn't lead to the staircase of that respective floor, which was smart on Kira's part, but that still didn't mean he wasn't going to continue his plan.

The rest of the way up the building went something along the lines of this:

Middle—nothing—don't go.

Left—Booby trap!—a dead end.

Right—nothing—go down.

Middle—double booby trap—a dead end.

Left—nothing—don't go.

Right—booby trap!—go down.

This pattern continued till he got to the fifth floor, where he was met with a straightaway, a staircase, and no booby trap. There was still a decent amount of time on the clock, 6 minutes to be exact, and he had two rocks to his name. He stared up the final staircase, narrowing his eyes. He threw one of the stones to the stairs, just to make sure it wasn't booby-trapped, and thankfully it wasn't. He picked up the rock and continued on his way up the stairs. Once he got to the top floor, he was met with a door. He again threw a rock, and there was no booby trap.

He was beginning to think he was walking INTO a trap. Neither of them had left the room since he entered the building, so he felt as if something had to have been set up. There was no way in HELL they didn't have something planned for him once he opened that door. So with that in mind, he had an idea.

He stood beside the door and grabbed the handle. Pushing down on the door handle, he let the door drift open, and when it did, a massive explosion erupted from the room, and a cannonball came flying out. Of course, the cannonball had been made of rubber—so maybe calling it a rubber ball would've suited it more, but still! The ball bounced against the wall, then ping-ponged around the small room before the room with the bomb, causing Kaminari to press himself up against the wall beside the door. It eventually stopped, coming to a halt in the middle of the room.

Kaminari's heart was racing. Had he been bit by that ball, he would've been knocked out, and lost the round. Thankfully that hadn't been the case, but there was probably a chance that it would've been so if he didn't do what he had done.

"HOLY SHIT! That was a close one!" Kaminari thought, coughing into his hand. Now with no more distractions or reasons to not step into the doorway and confront the "villains," he stepped into the doorway, made a mock gun out of his index finger and his thumb, then smirked, aiming it directly at Yaoyorozu. The ravenette stepped back in confusion, a rubber ball in her hand and a cannon to her left. Before she could do anything, Kaminari's fingers began to glow with electricity as he let out his attack.

"25-volt paralyzing blast!" Kaminari said, shooting directly at the ponytailed girl, who attempted to dodge out of the way, only to be hit by the lightning-fast attack. Upon it impacting the rich girl, it caused her to freeze up and fall to the floor. Electricity danced around her as she twitched, laying down on the concrete.

The attack wasn't fatal—he made sure of that—then pointed towards where he had hoped Kira, I.E. next to or somewhere next to the bomb, had been, only to notice she wasn't there. In fact, as he looked around the room, it had been practically empty—say aside from the bomb.

There were three windows all of which were opened, and the bomb had been smack dab in the center of the room. It was alluring, the idea of running up to get the easy victory, but it seemed like that would've been too easy.

"Why does this feel like a trap?" Then, he saw her out of the corner of his eye. Coming at him with a karate chop aimed at his neck, was Kira. Kaminari jumped back just enough to avoid the swing, only to be met with another swing aimed directly at his gut, causing him to double over in pain.

"Urgk…!" Kaminari grunted. When he bent down, he received a high kick to the nose, making him stagger backwards. During the impromptu pummeling, Kira remained silent, giving him a cold glare. She wasn't trying to taunt him, nor was she trying to make him feel like an equal. She was solely focused on beating him to attain victory.

He scrambled to protect himself, putting his arms up to block another hit to the chest. He returned the favour, balling up his fist to try and sock her in the jaw, but she simply moved it out of the way and punched him in the shoulder, making him stagger again.

She was physically strong, which again, made sense, since she was a recommended student—but damn if it didn't hurt!

Kaminari got into some defensive stances his dad had taught him and began to block as many attacks as possible, being pushed back by each one. It was hard to ignore, but Kira was a professional. She had to have had some sort of formal martial arts training. The attacks she was dishing out were stuff he had seen in Karate movies, and kung-fu movies—of course not with the same finesse, but still.

And it was because of that lack of mastery, she left a small opening right on her chest. It was embarrassing to do, and he knew it could get him some snide remarks from the other girls, but it wasn't like he had any other choice in the matter—it wasn't as if he wanted to touch Kira's chest, but again, what other choice did he have?

As soon as she went in for a grapple, Kaminari took the chance to slam his hand into her chest, making her face turn beat red, stunning her for a split second, which was all he needed. "25-volt Paralyzing blast!" Kaminari said, zapping Kira, causing her to fall backward onto the floor—again, another non-fatal attack.

"Sorry, Kira, but I had no other choice. Hope I didn't offend ya!" Kaminari said as All Might's voice came over the speakers.

"The Villain team is unable to continue thus Hero Team Wins! Please report back to the viewing room for assessment!" As All Might finished talking, Kaminari let out a sigh of relief. He had won, thank god. He walked over to both Yaoyorozu and Kira and stood them up, both of whom shook their heads.

Kira gave the electric blond a sharp glare, her face still red, and it caused Kaminari to clam up. And just like that, all of the bravado he had been feeling upon his victory had been lost, all thanks to the angry stare of a woman.

"I-I, Uh—"

"Don't. Not another word." Kira's blunt answer was enough for Kaminari, her face still red as she walked out of the doorway and out of sight, straightening her tie as she walked. Kaminari and Yaoyorozu walked back, following just behind the explosive blond as they made their way to the viewing room.

He had felt a bit awkward for touching a girl's chest of all things. He couldn't say it was an accident, she had been well guarded and that had been the only place where he could've striked, as it was the only opening that he could've seen in the frantic flurry of action that the small scuffle had been.

Once he had returned to the viewing room, he was greeted by All Might smiling at him. "Good job Kaminari! You were not only able to win on behalf of Jirou, but you did so in a professional way! I think it is obvious who the M.V.P. of that match was!" All Might declared as Kaminari looked away with embarrassment.

"T-Thank you, All Might-Sensei!" The teen said, bowing quickly before taking his seat.

"Well then, let us continue the exercise! The next teams will be…!"

The fights continued well into the late afternoon, ending with Koda Koji and Rikido Sata vs Asui Tsuyu and Tokoyami Fumikage, with the latter being the victors. Team Asui had been the villains, and Team Koji had been the heroes. The fight wasn't as interesting to watch as some of the other fights had been, but Yoshihara simply chalked it up to being tired.

Speaking of the blond—she had been humiliated! She had thought up a plan to let them win, and if push came to shove Yaoyorozu's canon would've come in to finish it. But that Kaminari kid… was smarter than she had thought.

Yoshihara had thought that he was dumb after seeing him in the other classes, but it was clear that hadn't been the case, at least in a pinch. Not only had he beaten her, despite it seeming that she was beating him when they fought one on one, but he had also touched her chest! The bastard had touched her chest!

Of course, it wasn't on purpose, at least she thought so, but the point still stood! She was upset, but she wasn't going to let that spoil her mood any more than it already had. The class had ended after that last match, and everyone was gathered at the entrance of the testing facility where it would lead back into the change rooms to get back into school uniforms, then head for home.

Yoshihara stood beside Josefumi, who had been side-glancing her from time to time, almost as if he wanted to talk to her about something. Just before they were about to leave, All Might spoke up in front of everyone.

"Well done, everyone! No serious injuries, apart from Midoriya's and Jirou's! Great teamwork, though! You all did splendidly, considering this was your first training exercise!" All Might said before turning around. A boy with rounded elbows spoke up, rubbing the back of his neck as he did so.

"Coming after Aizawa-sensei, such a straightforward class is… almost a letdown…." The boy said as All Might responded almost immediately.

"We teachers are free to hold no-nonsense classes if we choose! Now, I'm off to give Midoriya and Jirou their evaluations! Change out of those costumes and head back to the classroom!" And with that, All Might disappeared in a cloud of smoke generated by his fast running speed. Before Yoshihara left to go get changed, Josefumi elbowed her gently on the shoulder, gaining her attention.

"Hey, after you get changed, meet me in the hallway across from our classroom, I need to tell you about what I found out about it. Okay?" Josefumi whispered as Yoshihara nodded, not even needing the context of what it was Josefumi was talking about. If he had more information on The Stand Bullets, then she was going to need it.

Once getting into the changing room and walking to her locker, which she unlocked and opened, the blond pulled out the suitcase her costume came in. Opening the case on the bench splitting the change room in two, she began to take off her suit and folded it nicely so that everything would fit within the case.

And that was when a gasp erupted through the changing room. The gasp came from the pink-skinned girl who covered her mouth from shock, and the gasp drew attention directly to the blond. She had forgotten that in her stupor of thinking about what Josefumi had spoken about that she didn't change in one of the stalls, meaning her skin had been exposed to the air.

The scar-riddled skin on her back, shoulders, and parts of her arms, had been exposed to the air for everyone to see.

There were scars of all types on her back—deep ones, shallow ones, some thin some thick. All of them were random, there was no rhyme or reason for them. None of them had any fancy designs to them, at least not inherently so, all except for one, and it was by the nape of her neck, the only one that actually had any distinct shape to it, and one that she never really paid attention to, seeing as it was so small and insignificant compared to her other scars.

It was star-shaped, and unlike the rest of the scars, it had more of a bruise-ish colouring to it, nearing purple.

But of course, nobody else really talked about that one in particular, and when everyone saw her scars, all eyes were on her. And the first person who spoke up amongst Yoshihara's building panic was Uraraka.

"O-Oh my god, Kira-san what happened to you?!" The brunette's voice was shaky and had the blond bothered to stare any of them in the face, she would've seen that all colour had drained from their faces, except for Mina, whose skin turned a lighter shade of pink.

Her eyes were covered in shadow, her head lowered as sweat dripped off of her face from the panic that had been slowly encroaching on her. She didn't want to feel panic, she didn't want to have a panic attack in front of everyone, so she pushed past the panic that had been arising and spoke a simple, yet shaky, sentence.

"I am fine. Nothing is going on with me anymore. Please do not ask where they came from. Please…." Her tone of voice was almost on a begging level because, in all honesty, that was what it was. She was begging them to shut up. She just wanted to get changed, talk to Josefumi, then get home without having to look anyone in the eye.

And thankfully, as if some ethereal being granted her wish, nobody else said a word. With that grace of an opportunity she had, Yoshihara Kira quickly finished getting undressed and put on her school uniform. She closed up her suitcase that had her hero costume in it, then bolted out of the locker room, forgetting to lock up her now empty locker.

She stormed off to the meeting location that Josefumi had set and waited there patiently, tapping her foot to the sound of her heartbeat. She had come extremely close to having a meltdown in the locker room, and for obvious reasons, too. Thankfully, it had been avoided.

The less she thought about it, the better. Besides, it will never happen again.

It didn't take long for Josefumi to show up, and by the time he did, Yoshihara had calmed down enough that she could hold a conversation. When Josefumi approached, he got close to her, so much so that he could say all that it was he wanted to say without any of the cameras picking up their voices.

"I'll have to keep this brief, seeing as I don't want either of us to be late to class, but a source of mine mentioned that he is in cohorts with someone who knows another person that is in league with the people who are creating the bullets."

Yoshihara hummed, crossing her arms as she looked down at the floor. "Is that all?" The blond asked, raising an eyebrow as Josefumi nodded.

"Unfortunatly, yes. It's not a massive lead, but it's better than what we had before, which was nothing. Now let's get back to class so Aizawa can dismiss us," Josefumi said, the pair now making their way to their classroom. As soon as they did, Aizawa, who had been mid-nap, dismissed everyone without a second thought, going back to sleep after the fact. She had to assume that he had been tired from working all day.

The blond was glad that school was out for the day. It meant she could go home and not have to give a damn about anything else for the rest of the day till tomorrow. Besides, it wasn't as if the rest of the week was going to suck, right? There was no possible way for that to be the case.

And that had been the case! All up until the night before Thursday morning, when a series of events would occur in which everything that Yoshihara knew as normal would begin to fall apart at the seams.

Lurking in a bar, somewhere far away in the ward of Yokohama, sat a man shrouded in darkness, looking at a newspaper. Just adjacent to him was a man covered in many hands, a glare in his crimson-red eyes. His hair was a bright teal, and he wore a pure black jumpsuit. Behind the bar counter was a man made entirely of mist, and he was wearing a brace of some sort around his neck. Additionally, he wore a blueish-black button-up vest and a white shirt, along with a pair of black pants and shoes.

In the newspaper was an article that read: "All Might becomes a teacher at U.A. High!" The man completely covered in darkness smirked, adjusting his seating position to have one leg over the other, revealing the fact that he had been wearing an orange pinstripe suit. He placed the newspaper down on the counter, his equally orange eyes staring into the hand-covered man's crimson red ones.

"You see this? It says here he's a teacher at U.A. now... very interesting, don't you think, Tomura Shigaraki?" The man said, folding his arms in front of his chest.

"hmm...." Tomura started, looking at the newspaper. "Now what would happen... If villains... killed the symbol of peace?" The teal-haired man asked, his voice hoarse, almost as if he hadn't drunk any water in years.

The man's smirk increased, letting out a small huff of air. "I'll tell ya what. I'm a betting man, and considering you have... that thing over there," the man gestured over to a massive hulking bird-like creature with sharp, disgusting-looking teeth and an exposed brain. "If I give you one of my men to help kill the symbol of peace, would that sweeten the deal for you? I think a partnership between The League Of Villains and Damnatio ad Bestias would work wonders, hmm? What do you say, 'Sensei'?" The man said, saying 'sensei' in a mocking tone as a chuckle rippled throughout the bar from a TV monitor that read "audio-only."

"Well, I have to say I'm intrigued. But how am I to know that you'll keep your word?" The voice asked as the man simply smiled.

"Oh trust me, sir. If there is anything to say about me and my word, it's that it's solid. Besides, angering one of the world's most powerful men would be a surefire way to commit suicide, wouldn't you say? Besides, all those Quirk-having losers won't even be able to attack them I'm going to send in, on the account that they're a Stand User."

As the man finished speaking, he narrowed his eyes toward the screen, his tone becoming a lot more threatening. "Besides, sir, it also allows me the knowledge that I know you won't be able to take their non-existent Quirk if he intrigues you. Because allow me to be honest, All For One, you don't scare me. So even if you were to come after me in the weakened state that you're in, I can assure you that your death would be solidified."

The voice chuckled before responding. "I like bold people like you. Alright then, I'll believe you, and besides, you drive a hard bargain. Besides, I share your opinion. A joint partnership of The League of Villains and Damnatio ad Bestias would indeed work wonders, as you phrase it," the voice said as the man let out another huff of air.

"A pleasure doing business with you, All For One. I'll send one of my guys over by the morning. But just remember, they're not following the orders of your student, they'll be following their own orders, outside of the "kill All Might" one. Capiche?" The man said as Shigaraki growled.

"Whatever. Just leave before I turn you to dust," Shigaraki spat as the man got up and left without another word.

U.A. nor Class 1 – A, would understand the magnitude of the partnership between The League Of Villains and Damnatio ad Bestias. To put it into perspective, it would pertain not only to the future of U.A. and its students but to the hero society at large.

And as the man walked away, a Cheshire grin covered his face as he lit a cigar, letting a puff of smoke escape his lips. Now all that was left to do today was to talk to a certain mask-wearing fool. He needed a new batch of those bullets soon, and he wasn't going to wait any longer.