Chapter 28

Izuku woke up to the door of his apartment locked and his key missing. On his bedside table, he found a note from Tomura. " I locked the door so you wouldn't run off like an idiot to deal with Overhaul yourself. Thank me later when I bring lunch." Izuku huffed. He thought back to the events at the warehouse and immediately, the anger returned. He couldn't believe everything went so wrong. Magne and Shoto got hurt really badly. And then there was Spinner. It was all his fault. He was the one who suggested they bring Overhaul to them, after all. He should have prepared more.

The slow opening of his door caught his attention. " Hmm? Tomura?"

" No. It's me." Looking up, he caught as Toru closed his door. " Kurogiri gave me the key."

" What time is it?"

" 10:30 in the morning."

" Did you come here that early just to see if I was alright?"

" Actually, I never went home." Toru answered nervously. " I crashed with Himiko and Mina. Not that I got much sleep. They are really loud."

" Ha. Tell me about it. I can here them dancing around to their music down here sometimes." Izuku scratched the back of his head.

" Are you doing OK? I heard Tomura knocked you out after… that."

" More like Magne did it for him." Izuku sighed. " Not that I blame her. He was right. I was letting my anger get the best of me again. Never thought that would happen when Katsuki wasn't involved." Izuku glanced over at her. " Are you good?"

" Yeah. Hitoshi got ambushed by some of those bird masked guys so I went to help him. Sorry I couldn't be there."

" No, it's not your fault." Izuku looked up. " It's mine."

" What? No it isn't!"

" I was the one who wanted to meet with Overhaul. I knew his group had a lot of resources but I just figured he was another Yakuza head. That I could do what everyone else does with them. Use them as foot soldiers. Whatever. But now…" Izuku paused.

" Izu…"

" Spinner's dead, Toru. Shoto lost an arm. Magne lost a hand. I caused everyone so much pain." Izuku sighed. " It's not just that either. After Yokohama, I've been way too cocky. Like we had a chance at doing anything. It's as Overhaul said. All Might is gone. The Heroes lost their leader. I knew that and tried to capitalize. I acted so blase, raiding that license exam and meeting Overhaul with no safety precautions. I thought we were untouchable but now... It's times like this I wish I'd taken Katsuki's advice a year ago."

" Don't speak like that!"

" I know." Izuku admitted. "I just feel awful. The League accepted me when I was at my lowest point and gave me purpose. I don't want to fail here. I don't want to go back to being what I was like before. I..." Toru grabbed Izuku and pulled him into a hug, cutting him off.

" You shouldn't feel that way. You helped us, remember?" Toru gave Izuku a small smile. " You gave Shoto and Hitoshi a place to stay when there lives got to rough. Helped Denki and I with our quirks. We… I'll always love you for that. You're a lot of things, Izu. A failure's not one of them." Izuku gave her a surprised look. The he smiled, letting his worries go, before giving his girlfriend a kiss.

" Thanks Toru. I'm lucky to have you."

Walter angrily kicked a can as he passed around the busy crowds through the back streets, heading home from work. And what a crappy job it was. Walter was a member of the Shie Hassaikai. He came to Japan from America and hit hard times. Then he got drawn in by the glitz and glamour behind the historic name of the Yakuza. But it was all smoke and mirrors. He didn't know until after he joined that no-one in Japan took the Yakuza seriously anymore. Even worse he got thrown under the bus and was stuck babysitting the bosses shitty niece he didn't even know existed until the day he met her. She never talked, was so difficult to work with and if the boss even thought he'd upset her, he'd kill him. He should've just stayed in his home country. His home neighborhood was a shit hole, but at least he wasn't under threat of death every day.

" Hey! Watch it!" He growled as he was bumped into by some dark, spikey haired guy in an ugly purple long coat and a scarf. The man stopped.

" Hey. You." He called back. " You a member of the bird mafia pricks?"

" Huh? Who?"

" She Hissaki or something like that."

" Shie Hissaikai?"

" Ah. So you are part of them. Good. That helps." The man turned around. " Where are they hiding?"

" Ha. So what if I am?" Walter smirked, turning around to face the man. " What's a piece of gutter trash like you want with the Shie… Hiss...ai…" Walter trailed off. His blood ran cold. As the man turned, he pulled his scarf down slightly, giving Walter a good look at the scars covering his face and neck. He swallowed.

" What's the matter, dude. You look pale." Dabi of the League of Villains grinned. " Don't tell me a piece of Gutter Trash like me is scaring you."

" M-M-Mister D-Dabi sir." Walter stuttered. " I-I-I didn't mean-" Walter yelped as he was dragged into the shade of nearby underpass and slammed into the wall. Dabi's eyes glowed with anger.

" Tell me where Overhaul is." Dabi growled.

" I-I'm sorry but-"

" You can't. You're the fifth member of Shie Hissaikai who's told me that today." Dabi growled. Fire flickered across his arm, slowly cooking Walter's shoulder and casting Dabi in a demonic glow. " That bastard stole my brother's right arm. That's why I'm hunting him down. So tell me. Where. Is. He."

" I… I don't-" Walter was cut off by his own cries of pain.

" Keep lying to me. I don't care about killing you. I've done it four times today. I'm not too concerned. After all, Overhaul has a lot of extras he keep spare right? So here's my bargain." Walter screamed as blue flames engulfed his entire left arm. " We're gonna play hangman. Every time you lie to me, you lose a limb. First your arms. Then your legs. Then your torso. Finally your head." Dabi smirked cruelly. " Of course, you can't say no. So get to talking." Walter swallowed. He made a silent apology to his friends and family. If he never came to Japan, if he hadn't been an idiot and got roped in to the wrong path maybe he could have told them he loved them all before he died. But now, he never could. He truly was an idiot.

Masao ran as fast as her legs could carry her, trying to tune out the psychotic giggling that seemed to echo all around her. " Where are you going?" The voice of the psycho hunting her asked. " We're not done playing yet." Masao tried not to scream as a knife stabbed into her back. She stumbled but she tried to keep running through the woods towards the Shie Hissaikai safe house. " Keep running." The voice sung cruelly. " Maybe you'll make it."

" Or maybe." Masao's eyes widened as a pink skinned girl with horns dropped from the trees in front of her. " She should watch where she's going." The girl mocked before throwing several globs of a strange substance at her. Masao screamed in pain as a searing of pain stung her where she was hit with the quirk. She lost her footing, slipping and falling onto the forest floor, cutting her self on the twigs and rocks across it. She tried in a panic to struggle to her feet only to roughly get stomped on.

" Tag. You lose." Masao struggled to look up at the creepy, blond haired girl leering over her. " Now then. Since you lost, tell us what you know."

" W-W-What do you-"

" Where's the bird masked fuckface you call Overhaul?" The horned girl asked.

" W-What do you want with Mister Chisaki?" Masao asked nervously.

" Simple really. Ever heard of the League of Villains?" Masao squeaked. That's who these psychopaths were? She was so screwed. Why did her quirk have to be so weak?

" P-Please. I'll tell you everything." She muttered in a panic. The blond League girl, Himiko Toga Masao realized, stomped on her hard again. " Mister Setsuno. Save me."

" Oh. We know you will." The horned girl said laughing. The searing pain from before spread across the back of her neck, earning a scream. " It doesn't matter how long we have to drag it out. You will tell us everything."

" I don't think you get it." Himiko grinned manically. " You people fucked with our friends. Now we getta fuck with you." Masao looked up in fear. She wasn't going to make it out of this alive, she realized. Tears pricked her eyes. She regretted not telling Setsuno her feelings for him while she could.

Izuku leant back against his chair as Tomura and Momo gave him the run down of their current situation. It had been a few days since the meeting with Overhaul. Izuku had a long time to clear his head. Toru rarely left his side, just messaging her parents that she'd be staying with friends for a few days and that she'd be back before the new school term started. Tomura and the others just seemed happy Izuku was back to normal.

With Dabi, Himiko and Mina looking into the Yakuza and messaging back their findings, they had a decent string of leads in Mustutafa and its surrounding cities. The three a also raided a Shie Hissaikai base with the help of Hitoshi and Mustard, so they had a decent amount of paper work to go through to figure out transactions and Overhaul's orders. The place had been one of many places they had been storing Trigger, with the boss of the place able to create fakes of objects in their left hand if they were touching the original with their right and track the fake objects, allowing them to create a seemingly endless supply of the drugs, even if the fake Trigger had weakened effects. Izuku picked up a vial of the drug. " This is Trigger then?"

" Yeah." Tomura nodded. " The real shit. The fakes vanished after the human 3D printer died."

" I see." Izuku looked over to Haru. " Doctor. What are the health risks?"

" The drug is a power enhancer, much like Steroids. The health risks are similar. High blood pressure and cholesterol, cancer and, in extreme cases, Liver failure. When taking the drug, people can be effected mentally with extreme bouts of anger, jealousy or even mental regression to that of a child. As with all drugs, it has addictive properties. Finally, most obviously, those who take the drug too much can see their tongue turn purple." Haru told him. " A single dose should be harmless, but repeated use will cause problems, if that was your line of reasoning, Midoriya."

" You're not thinking of using it, are you Izuku?" Toru asked from her seat beside him. Izuku looked at the drug before shaking his head.

" Too many variables. Relying on something like this is stupid." Izuku admitted. " Still, these things are too valuable to simply destroy. Doctor. I'll leave them to you. You're the best with drugs we have more than likely, so I'll leave them in your care. No-one gets them without either my or Tomura's say so."

" Understood."

" What's next?" Tomura asked.

" Here." Momo leant into her coat pocket." I took this after Tomura threatened to dust it." She said. " I thought you might want to see it." Momo passed the card to Izuku.

" I see. So after all of that, he still expects us to call him." Izuku scoffed. " Well, he certainly has the ego for the supreme leader of evil position down."

" Maybe if we get him to monologue, he'll spill all his plans to us." Tomura joked.

" I don't think we need to go that far for him to do that." Izuku mused. " He wants us to join his gang, right?"

" Where are you going with this?" Momo asked. Izuku smirked.

" I say we give him what he wants." He said.

Tomura didn't want to meet with Overhaul again. He wanted to reach his hand out to the bird man's face and turn him to dust. However, he also knew that he couldn't. Not yet. Before the heroes invasion of their bases in Yokohama, he had a strategy meeting. Just him, Izuku and Sensei. He understood what they needed to this. In the end, not many people knew they endgame of this stage of the plan. Currently active in the League, only he, Izuku and Toru knew the full extent. Why they were even trying to curry favour with Yakuza to begin with. But that wasn't what this was anymore.

Tomura and Overhaul sat in a small meeting room in the mafia groups base. To one side was the bastard with the white raincoat who'd used his quirk on Spinner resulting in his death. On the other was the foul mouthed midget that lead the cavalry that day. Overhaul leant over the glass table. " I have to admit. I'm glad you decided to meet again. After what happened at the Warehouse, I thought our relations were spoiled."

" Water under the bridge." Tomura lied, shrugging.

" Good. I'd have brought a Shogi board but I didn't know if you played."

" Usagi tried teaching me once. I don't have the patience for it."

" Shame. It might help you see the bigger picture." Overhaul loosened his tie slightly. " It's an interesting game since it let's you use pieces you take from your opponent unlike Chess where you just simply reclaim your own lost pieces." Overhaul leant back in his seat. " If you want this alliance to work, I need something from you."

" Go on."

" Give us Kurogiri or Shinso, Toga and maybe Bubaigawara too." He said. Tomura scratched at his neck. He tried not to give away the annoyance he felt at such a nobody was trying to steal his pieces. " My apologies, but if you move too freely, it would put us at a disadvantage."

" They're useful to us. Trying to restrict our actions, eh?" Tomura grumbled. " You expect too much. Why would I give you so many of my men?"

" Call it a trust building exercise. After the Warehouse incident, there's too much ill will between our two groups." Overhaul shrugged.

" And who do I get in return?"

" Huh?"

" You said it yourself. This is a trust building exercise. I'm not about to share my toys if you won't share yours. You want trust then I expect you giving some in exchange."

" Hey!" The short man shouted. " Watch what your saying, gutter trash! You're not in the place to demand-"

" Who do you have in mind?"

" Boss?!" Tomura smirked. He leant back, thinking to the list of people Izuku had talked him through. He'd put Overhaul's top officers in a list. It was just a simple from appearances thing, but it was something Tomura decided to work with.

" Shinso, Toga and Twice for Rappa and Setsuno." Tomura stated.

" Rappa and Tengai."

" I'll happily trade Toga and Twice for just Rappa."

" No deal." Tomura clicked his tongue in annoyance.

" Fine. We'll play by your rules then. Shinso, Toga and Twice for Rappa and Tengai."

" Deal."

" Kai, are you sure about this?" The White coat asked. Overhaul tilted his head slightly.

" The Boss once told me you won't get anything for nothing. Not resources and not people." Overhaul said simply. " However, I must ask. What is your plans?" Tomura chuckled.

" We simply want to expand the League into a full, underground organisation. For that, we need man power, connections and resources. Once we're established, we can strike whenever we want, where ever we want."

" You want power for the sake of power? That boy, Midoriya, seemed to belief he had a true plan but it seems it is just a goal with no road to reach it." Overhaul shrugged. " You need me and I need you. Let me guide you."

" We haven't agreed to that quite yet. Call this a mutual partnership." Tomura told him. " You haven't even told me your scheme yet."

" Believe me." Overhaul stated confidently. " You'll learn in time."

" That was the results of the meeting." Tomura leant back in his seat, sipping from his glass. " Shinso. Toga. Twice. In three days time, you'll be working with Overhaul's Yakzua directly."

" We're WORKING with the Yakuza?!" Mina shouted. " You can't be serious!"

" Don't make me repeat myself." Tomura said annoyed. " It was either you three or Kurogiri and I prefer not letting them have our escape route."

" But why me?" Toga grumbled. " I don't wanna do this."

" This is an unfunny joke. This sounds really interesting. Can't wait." Twice said bitterly.

" That's enough you two." Hitoshi said. " I'm not happy either, but it's to progress our plans."

" Do you even know what our plans even are?" Toga asked. " I like this place. It's comfortable. The people here are nice, like Izu, Chako and Bestie. If this world becomes one I can do what I want and live real easy with all my friends by my side, it'll be bliss. But I don't know why I'm being forced to do something that sounds hard and that I don't wanna do. And that annoys me."

" Shuichi died because of these clowns." Mustard added from his corner of the room. " Working with shitheads like that. Do you expect us to just blindly follow that order?"

" I trust Izuku." Shoto said simply, folding an arm over his ice crafted prosthetic. " Whatever happens, it'll work out."

" Guys, come on. We shouldn't fight like this." Toru pleaded.

" No. It's fine." Izuku said, slowly standing up. " I get it. You guys don't know what we're up to. It'd make me nervous if I didn't know what I was working for too."

" Izuku?" Mina raised an eyebrow.

" Teaming up with the Yakuza probably is baffling for everyone. Especially after what happened. But believe me. This isn't us helping them." Izuku gave everyone a serious look. " This about crushing them in the most beneficial way for us."

" Beneficial?" Magne asked skeptically.

" If we joined the Yakuza's band wagon like Overhaul thinks we are, Izuku figured they'd likely try to limit us in some way." Momo said. "They can't do it with spies since our use of Kurogiri's teleportation and Twice's clones makes it hard to tell where out actual base is."

" So they'd ask for people." Tomura finished the thought. " They limit our movements and can win you guys over to their cause in the process. For them, it's win-win. That's why we asked for a trade. It's not like the Yakuza are known for their absolute loyalty, after all."

" You will infiltrate their base and find their weak point. Toru will be going with you since she can move around freely while you pretend to play friendly." Izuku told them. " In the mean time, we'll try and turn the Precept members we get to our side. I wanted Rappa and Setsuno since I figured they'd be the most likely to turn on them. Tengai could be an issue in that plan. I don't peg him as the disloyal type."

" So you're saying…" Toga started.

" I don't want you to join them. That's not what this is." Tomura grinned. " I want you to be the Trojan Horse. They aren't our equals. They aren't our allies. They are our number one enemies. I trust you all. So do what you do best." The group looked at Tomura with a surprised look.

For the League, there were two figureheads. Tomura Shigaraki, the groups formal leader, and Izuku Midoriya, the groups strategist. Where Tomura was aloof, got annoyed rather easily and had a chip on his shoulder even greater than the rest of them, Izuku was intelligent, considerate and charismatic. Everyone knew Izuku trusted them to do their part in his schemes and everyone trusted him in return. However, there were times when Izuku and Tomura's personalities seemed almost to switch. That day at the Sports Festival, everyone saw Izuku's brutality when he was angry. When Overhaul wronged them, Tomura proved he could be level headed. The two had a brotherly bond that seemed to help the other. Izuku became more confident in his abilities. Tomura had moved past wearing the creepy hands everywhere, only now donning them when he got serious instead during his day to day life.

So, for everyone to hear Tomura saying that he trusted them with the same serious faced expression when he told a hero he'd kill them, it was both a shock and a relief. Because something about the statement alleviated their doubts. About the Mission. About the League. About their position as Villains in a society run by Heroes. Tomura Shigaraki, they realised, was a man worth following.

Kai Chisaki leant back in his seat, watching Hojo and Setsuno escort Shigaraki from the facility. " I don't understand, Kai." Hari asked, taking off his mask and hood. " Why just hand over Rappa and Tengai to them like that?"

" Look at the big picture, Chrono." Kai said simply.

" Hmm?"

" These are the people that All For One brought together for whatever vague goal he has in mind. However, they've already made five successful attacks on the heroes. The attack UA's USJ Facility, Hosu, the Wild Wild Pussycat's little playground, Yokohama and that Hero License Exam Facility. It's clear they have something up their sleeves."

" So, the rats have something planned eh?" Joi asked.

" Izuku Midoriya I'd reckon is their most dangerous piece. A decent strategist is always annoying to deal with. I imagine the request for Rappa and Setsuno came straight from him. He's going to try and do what we're trying to do with Shinso, Toga and Bubaigawara."

" So you sent Rappa's handler to keep the big guy in check. I see." Joi chuckled. " So, we've entered a Cold War then."

" In a sense." Overhaul eyed Hari. " I want you to make sure someone keeps an eye on those three at all time when they're here. They'll likely be doing the same thing I'm sending Tengai to the League to do."

" Of course, Kai."

" Joi. Make sure everyone knows what's happening."

" Right. Right." With a stretch, Joi emerged from his doll form. Rolling his shoulder, he stepped out of the office.

" We definitely can't trust the league." Hari said. Overhaul nodded in agreement.

" Whatever happens, they can't find out about Her." Kai said. " If they find out our true plan and how it's done, that could cause a lot of problems in the future."