Hidden in plain sight

by DropsOfSun

Summary:

The League of Villains wants to destroy the society of heroes. Dabi wants revenge for her ruined life.
Hawks wants to get Dabi's attention. And Miruko wants her friend to finally calm down.
And, it would seem, what with the massive suit?

Or AU, in which the League of Villains destroys the society of heroes in a slightly different way, and the Hawks is still a double agent who fell in love with his enemy.

Notes:

This story would not have been without this cartoon https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DfQOsiIQfI8
Unfortunately, I could not find this cartoon with subtitles, but it seems to me that if someone is interested, then it is clear without words.
Actually from the phrase "This is a woman, not a hero" and the idea of this fan fiction appeared.

Chapter 1

The bar Giran brought her to be not remarkable for anything, and the lass decided that this was a well thought out move. No one in their mind would have thought what exactly the League of Villains hiding here is. Inside, the room also looked pretty decent, so is the police suddenly appear, it can pretend to be a normal bar.

The guy at the counter, who called himself the leader of the villains, did not make a big impression on the lass. Pale, thin and very nervous, he was clearly not the kind of person she could follow. But the foggy bartender seemed a judicious expert in his field. And while Giran solved the payment issues with the latter, the lass carefully watched the recruits who had come earlier.

The short blonde, who was standing next to her against the wall, practically vibrated, from the desire to do something, and looked very much like a schoolgirl, but she was not so simple. A butterfly knife was sticking out of a girl’s pocket, and the edge of her skirt was stained with something red. The guy with the mutational quirk, who was sitting at the window, although he came in ordinary clothes, but, obviously imitating Stain, tied a bandana on his head. And although all the media claimed that Stain was in the League of Villains, the lass was very doubtful that their goals were similar. A strange guy with a paper bag on his head was whispering about something to a man who looked like a magician, while a tall woman with boredom on her face twisted sunglasses in her hands.

They did not look like the vanguard of the Forces of Evil, but the lass did not look like a typical villain too: thin, with short black hair, but in good clothes, unlike the same type with a paper bag. And, if madness clearly appeared on the schoolgirl's face, then in her appearance there was nothing villainous: no scars, no piercings, not even an evil grin. On the contrary, a pretty face, on the one hand, made people trust her, and on the other, it allowed her to be effectively lost in the crowd.

No distinguishing features. Absolutely ordinary. Such half of a city. Exactly what you need when you hide from the police and heroes. Immersed in thoughts, the lass almost missed the moment when the newly appeared villains began to introduce themselves.

The crazy schoolgirl turned out to be Toga Himiko, and Stain's fan  was Iguchi Shuichi or Spinner. They wanted to follow Stain, though each with their own methods. The guy in the paper bag argued with himself for a long time, introduce himself alternately either Jin or Twice. He suffered from loneliness and looked for people who would understand him, while the tall woman, Magne, wanted no one else to tell her how to live and what to do.

“My name is Sato Teruko, but I would prefer you to call me Dabi,” the lass finally took off her hood, revealing her face to everyone present, and looking directly at Shigaraki, “I'm here to take revenge on the heroes.”

Joining the League of Villains turned out to be ridiculously simple.

***

For the first week, the lass was on guard all the time, especially in the presence of the guys. And involuntarily shuddered and tried to move away from them. If anyone noticed, they said nothing. Dabi was in no hurry to get closer to the others. They were not friends or buddies. So, work colleagues. Moreover, for unloved work.

She did not like strangers. They aroused her hostility and fear of being discovered. Even in her completely ordinary and legal job, she got used to co-workers for a long time, and, even getting used to them, she nevertheless tried to minimize communication. Because now she was afraid to let herself out. A little clue would have been enough for an inquiring mind, and to be returned to the family after so many years of hide and seek was the last thing the lass wanted.

She sincerely believed that it was better not to become attached to anyone and be safe than to trust and get a knife in the back. With such an approach, everything would continue in the same vein, if not for Toga. For some reason, the girl decided that the League should be, if not family, then, at worst, best friends, and in spite of everything, stubbornly went to its goal.

We villains must stick together,” she said at a meeting with a sly smile.

This phrase was the beginning of the end for the alienation and coldness of Dabi, because Himiko did not know anything about personal space at all. She could calmly go up to Dabi, who was messing around on the sofa and unsuspecting anything, and bite her. And then with a laughter run away from her all over the bar. Or she diligently seated the whole League on that same ill-fated sofa, so that later she would flop on top of them. She could calmly fall asleep on Magne’s shoulder or try out the secrets of tricks from Mr. Compress. She was not afraid even of the openly unstable Shigaraki, over and over again, calling him by name.

At first, Dabi was angry, then she tried not to pay attention to the annoying schoolgirl, but by the end of the second week she was forced to reconcile and admit, at least to herself, that Toga somehow united them. Now they were no longer a group of strangers. They approached, and the lass stopped shuddering when one of the guys came too close, and no longer jerked at every casual touch. She even got into the habit of asking Spinner about his business, shopping with Twice, and helping Kurogiri cook on those days when the League was all gathered.

***

Everything was going well enough, and Dabi saw no reason to change anything. But the next meeting, which fell on a frankly dank and cold day, made many changes to her life. It was raining cats and dogs, so that nothing more than half a meter was not visible. Huge puddles prevented rare passers-by from reaching their home faster, and the wind did not allow them to escape from the water even under an umbrella. So everyone managed to get wet through, while getting to the bar.

“Dabi, help me!” Toga with a snort squeezed water from her hair, but without a mirror she could not get a leaf tangled in her hair.

“No, and we already talked about this,” the lass answered calmly, sitting down at the counter. She came one of the first and had already managed to dry, and now she was warming slowly, activating the quirk a little. This was the only part of the quirk she could afford to use.

“Okay, okay. Dabi, please help me,” Himiko grumbled irritably, more and more tangled hair in unsuccessful attempts to get a leaf.

“Now, this is another matter,” the lass went up to the schoolgirl and began to unraveling her hair busily. Dabi knew almost nothing about the girl. Toga, despite her fairly open personality, was stubbornly silently, when they began to question her. And the lass did not blame her for this. Everyone had their secrets. And, if someone, like Magne or Spinner, could calmly talk about their own problems, this did not mean that everyone should be ready to turn their soul in front of everyone.

Mr. Compress, by the way, also didn’t really talk about himself. The man in his characteristic manner of hints and metaphors told that he saw light in the League and reached out to him. Although Dabi suspected that it was all about his not-so-secret love for Kurogiri. So the comparison with the light was quite ironic.

Toga's squeak pulled out her of thoughts, and at the first moment the lass thought that she carelessly pulled girl's hair, but everything turned out to be simpler.

“Guys, she’s so warm,” Himiko clung to Dabi’s hand with a dumbfounded look, and only then the lass remembered that she had not suppressed her quirk before approaching the schoolgirl.

“Wow, you're right!” Twice who was nearby immediately grabbed her second hand, but then added. “Not so warm at all.”

“Hey, let me go, you morons,” the lass tried to shake them off, but they only clung to her harder.

“Tomura, Kurogiri, come here,” Himiko waved invitingly, releasing Dabi for a second, but not letting her escape. Under the weight of Toga and Twice hanging on her, she was forced to bend over and stoop a little. Her chest swelled heavily and it became difficult to breathe.

“It seems to me that this is not a good idea,” Magne began to say, but the lass no longer heard her. Her hands were heavy, her ears hear noise, and her head was spinning. The phantom smell of burning skin hit her nose. The shape of the bar swam before her eyes, and the bony figure of the approaching Shigaraki gave way to another.

She is standing in a dojo. Around the fire rages, but this is not enough.

She can't budge. Her arms and legs are too heavy, as if filled with lead.

The tall, menacing silhouette of her father obscures the light.

“You disappointed me, girl.”

And she can't breathe.

“Dabi! Dabi damn it!“ the voice of Mr. Compress came through like the water column, rang in her head, the lass was trembling. A sudden touch made her jump sharply.

“Don't touch her, you idiot,” Shigaraki's voice returned her to reality. Watching in a half-insane glance at the quiet bar and woried villains, she finally realized that she was safe. She was lying on the couch. All was good. He was not there.

***

“What was it?” half an hour after the incident, Tomura sat gloomy at the bar and gradually looked at Dabi, who was talking about something with Spinner.

“Apparently, it was a memory,” it seemed that Kurogiri was melancholically rubbing the next glass, but the guy knew the man long enough to notice that he was excited, “but this is not the most important thing. The problem is…”

“That she didn't use the quirk, did she?” - Shigaraki grinned, he knew all too well that in a critical situation, when fear prevails over reason, the first thing a person does is use their quirk. Unknowingly, chaotically, somehow. But use a quirk. “She definitely has a quirk. She just hides it very well. So good that even with a fright did not use. This requires a lot of willpower. Moreover, her quirk has to be some kind of emitter quirks.”

“And this is something related to heat,” Kurogiri added, “most likely a fire, although something else is possible.”

“It’s a fire, and it’s strong enough,” the guy began to comb his neck in thought, but under the barman’s reproachful gaze, he stopped immediately, “she hides it under long sleeves, but all her hands are in small, almost imperceptible burns and scars.”

They looked synchronously in the direction of the lass who, although pretended to recover, but still looked pretty tense.

“I'll talk to Mr. Compress. He has the gift of taking people to clean water.”

“Mr. Compress? Where did Atsuhiro go?” mockingly handed Tomura, with all his appearance showing that he knows about the affair of Kurogiri and Sako.

The bartender just sighed.

***

Dabi was very upset by the panic attack provoked by Toga and Twice, but she was even more upset by the fact that Mr. Compress was constantly looking after her. And also because the magician seemed to think of himself as a psychoanalyst. If the lass did not have time to escape under the protection of Spinner and his stories about the Stain or to Magna and her patterns (the villainous costume will not sew itself!), then the man somehow found himself next to her.

And when Dabi could not stand it and demanded an explanation, Sako quite sincerely said that he was concerned about her emotional condition. The lass tried to assure him that everything was fine with her, yes, sometimes she might panic a little bit, but that’s almost in the past. And in general, this is the first time in six months. But then Kurogiri already got into the conversation, who recalled that all of them in the League should deal with their problems so that some stupid accident would not interfere with their plans.

“My problems will be solved when I destroy Endeavor!” evil snapped Dabi, involuntarily attracting the attention of the entire League to their talk.

“He's really vile,” Magne answered, not looking up from the pattern, “his treatment of the fans needs much to be better.”

“But he seems honest enough for the hero,” Spinner distracted from polishing the knife, meticulously examining the blade, “his disclosure rates are higher than that of other heroes.”

This was the last straw in the bowl of patience. And Dabi literally exploded in a flood of rage and hatred.

“What do you know!” she screamed, causing everyone to flinch in surprise. “This beast! Do you know what he is doing behind closed doors?! How could you, Spinner, you know that all this heroic nonsense is only fake!”

“Dabi, do you know something?” Kurogiri's gaze and calm question slightly cooled her ardor.

The lass sighed and rubbed her face with hands. She did not want to tell the League about her past, but further excuses would look suspicious. And, since it happened, they could find out. She, of course, will release all the names and the most miserable moments. Perhaps she will even feel better if at least someone is aware of what happened to her.

“What do you know about quirk marriages?” she asked, her voice deaf from pent-up emotions.

“Is it not illegal?” Spinner excitedly got up from the sofa and went to the bar, where the other villains, already burning with curiosity, had already pulled themselves up.

“Not if no one knows about it, or if you have enough money to shut up everyone. My family,” Dabi grinned sadly, “was one of those. My father actually bought my mother. He was a very high-ranking and rich man, and since I escaped, he probably became even richer.”

“It's disgusting!” suddenly intervened Twice, and the lass was already waiting for the second part of the commentary, something justifying, but this time Jin was surprisingly unanimous.

“And there is. And he was very conceited. He was never satisfied. Little grandeur, little recognition, little prestige. He did not see the child in me, he saw a tool with which he could achieve his goal,” she grimaced contemptuously. “He wanted me to become a pro-heroine. Preparing me for this. My whole life has been focused only on this!”

“Dhabi, you are smoking,” Toga remarked, the lass only wave her hand in exasperation, and a little smoke disappeared.

“But I had a disadvantage, a defect. My flame was too strong and hurt me. But I was not the only one child,” Dabi giggled hysterically, “and when the next child was born with better quirk, he decided that the only thing I could do was give birth to his grandchildren.”

She noticed that the newspaper, which she first take from Mr. Compress, and then nervously turned in her hands, began to charred under her fingers more and more, only when Magne silently took it away.

“This old bastard decided to find me a husband with the right quirk. And do you know who he started from? Of course, the heroes! I was seventeen, and he began to drag me through omiyai. And no one. No one! No one did not suspect anything bad! He was a respected man,” the lass clutched her head in despair, “God sees, I tried to convince him. I tried to explain, say that it was too early, and at least delay it. I even wanted to disfigure myself. I told him that I’ll burn myself, and then no one will want me. Do you know what he answered to this? He said that it doesn’t matter, because all my value is in a quirk and the opportunity to give birth.

Dabi was shaking. She had never told anyone this before. No one knew about this. Since she disappeared, she has not said a single living soul about this.

“I tried to talk with my mother,” she continued, gathering her strength, “but she did not care. And my sister, who was deprived of father’s attention since childhood because of an inappropriate quirk, did not understand me and advised me to obey that we were a “normal” family. But we were not! We have never been a “normal family”! I was saved only that he could not decide what he wanted. He could not decide what quirk he wanted from my future husband, and pulled. By the time I was eighteen, I was able to escape. Since then, I have not used my quirk, I'm afraid that he will find me, will return me. That he will force me to marry someone. I'm afraid, afraid of...”

“You are afraid of men,” Magne finished for her, “I'm sorry, but we all noticed how at first you shied away from the guys.”

“I know this is wrong,” Dabi whispered, lead her shoulders from the cold, although the bar was in a terrible heat caused by her fury, “but I can do nothing about it. I got used to you guys, now everything is fine. But...”

“It's okay. No need to make excuses,” Shigaraki said unexpectedly, getting up heavily from his chair and approaching the lass who was barely holding back her tears. “It's not your fault that this happened to you. Endeavor helped him, right? Helped find people with special  quirks?”

And, when she nodded in agreement, he continued.

“In that case, we must help make him one of the first to die. And as soon as possible.”

***

To the honor of the villains, they never mentioned what happened that evening. There were no pitying looks or encouraging pats, but their silent support helped Dabi. Made it clear that she would not be left alone. In general, it turned out that being a villain is not so difficult. All they have been doing is gathering at the bar several times a week and sharing news. They also discussed Shigaraki’s new plans to take over Japan.

“We won’t be able to bring this plan to life,” the lass patiently repeated once more, with a tired sigh avoiding Tomura’s lazy attempt to kill her, “we need at least five more people, because Twice's clones will disappear after the first serious blow, and Nomus are not so smart.

“If you don’t like my plans like that, then maybe you have better ones?!” the guy exploded, grabbing a pen from Dabi's hands and turning it into dust. He jumped up from behind the bar, which the villains used as a table and began to measure the steps of the room. Toga, like a cat watching him, taking aim, and then stealthily threw a knife at him, which Kurogiri redirected to the wall in time.

“We need more people. And Himiko agrees with me!” the lass waved her hand in the direction of the grinning girl and grabbed another knife.

“And we need a constant presence in the news,” Mr. Compress interjected, distracted from juggling glasses and trying to pretend that he was not trying to impress Kurogiir at all, “people probably have already forgotten that the League even exists.”

“And another place. Boss, I found bugs here!” as always climbed Twice. “There is no better headquarters!”

“Shut up everyone!” Shigaraki with such hatred kicked the nearest chair, so the poor thing crashed into the opposite wall. Taking a deep breath and, away from sin, putting his hands behind his back, the guy again went to the counter. “If you so want new people, ideas or something else, then go ahead, assholes, no one is holding you. Go and look for them. In the meantime, you play your children’s games, I’m going to do real things!”

With one deft movement of his hand, Tomura grabbed all the papers and, stomping fiercely, went into his room. Dabi pursed her lips in resentment and only wanted to turn around and leave, when an idea suddenly occurred to her. Cunningly glancing at Kurogiri, she motioned Mr. Compress to sit down.

Chapter 2: Chapter 2

Notes:

I'm sorry this chapter is coming out so late. In my defense, I can only say that my work tried to kill me.

“Miyagi Daikaku is with you, and this is the evening news release of Musutafu. The tense situation around the League of Villains has not subsided for weeks. During this time, they managed to hold more than a dozen promotions, and the number of their fans is growing rapidly. Their speeches were dismantled into quotes, and a clenched fist became their symbol. Our journalist has witnessed these events, I pass his word to him.”

“Thank you, Miyagi-san. The sudden appearance of the foggy gate is the first sign that the three main figures of the League of Villains will now appear: Kurogiri, Mr. Compress and Dabi. It was they who became the face of the League in the eyes of the public and attracted the attention of ordinary inhabitants by their speeches. A fierce protest against the society of heroes and the exposure of the corrupt police, all this is more like an election race than an attack by villains, but this is the tactic the League chose for...”

The TV screen went blank and silence fell in the meeting room of the Hero Public Safety Commission. All the heroes gathered here understood that something needed to be done. For the first time since Stain was imprisoned, the public was so excited. Attacks on heroes, terror and horror would be understandable, everyone knew how to deal with it. But what if the civilians themselves, those whom the heroes were supposed to protect, began to interfere? The last time, the police could not even come to Dabi, who broadcasting from an impromptu tribune, the crowd simply did not pass the officers.

Hawks frowned and peered at the tablet with information about the villains. Information was catastrophically not enought. And if Kurogiri lit up in attacks on USJ, and Mr. Compress in police reports, then nothing was known about Dabi. Nothing. Absolutely. Not a damn mention! As if this guy materialized only a month ago, and immediately joined the League. The only clues were those damn performances.

Dabi was definitely a guy. He was rather tall and thin, although it was difficult to see anything behind a massive suit, carefully hiding his identity, but specialists from the auxiliary equipment department noticed this. In another situation, Hawks would even laugh at the fact that the thin guy is trying to add significance to himself with a large suit, but the situation was not funny at all.

Motives? Quirk? Real indentify? One could only guess about all this. Although some people have suggested that the villain has some kind of mental quirk. Perhaps even a hypnosis. Because after his last speech, the crowd assaulted the police station, where they kept a woman who fought off a rapist who attacked her and crippled him with her quirk. She, by the way, was later released anyway, but the League fans, despite the detentions, felt like winners.

Hawks sighed heavily and looked at Miruko, who writing something in a notebook, and was genuinely surprised. Usually, a lass with a sufficient share of sarcasm was related to the League’s speeches and even once said to the camera that it’s better to let the villains play detectives and rally than kill people. Something important was supposed to make her display such inexplicable zeal.

***

“Something is wrong with this Dabi,” Miruko thoughtfully twisted the pen in her hands, while friends were waiting for their order in the cafe, “he's moving wrong.”

“It's all about the suit,” the guy said confidently, grabbing a heavy tray with his feathers and preventing the waiter from dropping their coffee and pastries, “as our techies found out, the suit is big for him. Of course, it is inconvenient. And why? Because you have to be less conceited and wear clothes in size!”

“Yes, but that’s not the point,” the lass dismissed. “It seems to me that he is not the one he claims to be.”

“And who do you think he is, Rumi? Three owls in a raincoat?” Hawks laughed, taking food from the waiter. “And in general, no matter who does he impersonate, we will find him from the databases of registered quirks.”

“This is not funny, Takami Keigo,” Usagiyama poked a guy with a pen in the side in retaliation, and while he was suffering, she continued calmly, “if it weren’t for this terrible bass that sounds like computer processing, I would have decided that our Dabi is a woman. I mean, seriously, have you not seen how other villains treat him? They give a hand to him and all that things.”

***

At that time, the guy did not argue with Miruko, hoping that the lass would forget her stupid theory. What is it that the other villains give Dabi a hand? Hawks himself would not mind if someone offered their hand to him. Damn it, why villains behave friendlier to each other than his bosses to him?

But the hysteria around the League rose to a new level, after they began to scatter leaflets. And all would be fine, but these were leaflets exposing the heroes. Thousands and thousands of photographs in which various heroes, one way or another, were presented in a bad light. The guy did not know if they were all real, or it was a high-quality photoshop, but people's trust was undermined. And the fact that the police began to conduct raids and seize these leaflets only prompted the townspeople to think that the photographs were true.

The President of the Commission freted and fumed, demanding, if not to catch the League, and then at least force them to stop their sorties. And Takami was confronted with the fact - he needs to get into the League. No matter how he does it, the main thing is that the villains are arrested and the raids "defaming the honor and dignity" of the heroes stop.

***

Miruko walked through the dark streets, clutching her bag to herself, and wondering when her work shift would end. The area where she had walked for the third hour under the guise of an ordinary girl was one of the poorest in the city and had already suffered for a month from a maniac who managed to successfully hide from the police and heroes. Young girls became his victims, so every evening several heroines went out into the street undercover and patrolled the area in the hope of catching him. And although in the last week he was quiet, the police were in no hurry to rejoice, rightly feared that the maniac could move to cover his tracks.

Rumi once again checked the time and, putting her phone in her pocket, breathed out happily. There were only miserable half an hour left, and she would go home, where she would take a hot bath first to warm herself, and then...

“Excuese me, you dropped it,” a sudden voice from behind her shoulder made Usagiyama cry out in a non-heroic way and quickly turn around. She very carefully monitored the situation, a second ago there was no one around.

“Sorry, I didn’t want to scare you,” a thin stranger shyly held out to Miruko the phone that somehow managed to slip out of her pocket. The light of a street lamp fell on a stranger's face and the heroine suddenly realized that she was facing a woman.

“I just didn’t expect it,” Rumi honestly admitted, and put the phone in her bag, immediately entering the role, hoping to find out something from the local resident, “my boss, that bastard, delayed me at work, although he knows what this is a troubled place. The maniac is still free.”

“So you're the first time in that neighborhood?” the stranger absent-mindedly ruffled short black hair and spread her hands in a very familiar gesture. “We no longer have a maniac.”

“What means no?” from surprise, even Miruko’s voice sat down, and the new-found acquaintance, not at all embarrassed, took out one of the leaflets of the League of Villains and handed it to the heroine.

“It's okay. They did it all out. The police and heroes still did nothing”, the poison in the girl’s voice could kill not only the entire police and heroes of Musutafu, but in all of Japan. “Now it’s gotten better, but you should be on the alert anyway.”

The stranger waved her hand and disappeared around the bend, leaving Rumi in a complete stupor. Miruko saw this girl for the first time, but something in her was elusively familiar.

***

Hawks tragically sighed and finally broke away from work to stretch his legs and wings. To get into the League of Villains, you had to find contact with them. And how to find this same contact, if each time they appear in a new place, and their leaflets do not contain any information? The only clue that could be used was the areas in which villains appeared most often. And even then, it was not clear whether they appear there because these are the closest areas to their base or because they, on the contrary, are the most remote?

Of course, he could always try to go to these places undercover, but the guy was sure that he would be recognized almost immediately. And he did not want to run away from the crowd of angry League fans, who became more and more every day. There was only one thing left, to try to find the signs by which a new place of agitation was chosen, and to be there before everyone else.

***

“I saw Dabi without a suit!” this was the first thing that Miruko said, breaking into the Hawks' office early in the morning.

“Then why didn't you arrested him?” the guy raised his red eyes from lack of sleep, with all his appearance showing that he was too tired for this shit.

“Well, I did not immediately understand that it was this girl is Dabi,” Usagiyama was not embarrassed, sitting down opposite Hawks and moving a box of donuts to her.

“For God's sake, Rumi, are you again for this strange theory?” Takami looked irritably at his friend and returned the donuts to their place. “Well, come on, try to convince me.”

“Firstly, this girl is from the same district in which the League’s first appearance was, and she had their leaflet with her. At one in the morning, and this is after three raids by the police,” Miruko began to bend her fingers. “Secondly, she has the same gestures and gait as Dabi. And the manner of speech is the same. And finally, if you look at CCTV cameras, you can notice it a day or two before they appear.”

“And what is the portrait of the suspect?” not hiding sarcasm, asked Hawks.

“Actually, it is very similar to the one made up by the police,” the girl, offended by such mistrust, pulled the last donut and pointed to him accusingly. “Tall, short-haired brunette. Thin, by the way. She looked a little over twenty. She was dressed in some kind of courier uniform.”

“You're crazy, Rumi! She works as a courier! I won’t be surprised if we find her on cameras all over the city.” Keigo even jumped up in indignation and involuntarily crowed her feathers. “Dabi can't be a woman! You watched his performances with me. How can he be a woman?”

The guy got out of the table and went to the cabinet with the cases, pulling out several folders, he unloaded them on the table and began to frantically pull out photographs of them.

“Look, these are the cases in which the women turned out to be criminals. They all wore fairly open suits, even the vigilante Pop-Step!”

“Do you seriously think that Dabi is a guy because of a suit?” grinned Miruko.

“You think Dabi is a woman because Kurogiri take his hand, so why don't I refer to the suit? And in general, do not interrupt me.” Takami severely shook his finger at the lass, while his feathers were all in place. “In addition, our experts have already found out that his speech is not a record, which means that there can be no computer processing. And then,” the guy made a couple of circles around the room, thinking about how to explain his feelings. “I don’t know how to describe it, but when you watch his performances, you literally feel his passion and pressure. It’s like if Endeavor was a villain or All Might, understand? I swear that Dabi is a man.”

“And the fact that that girl had a brand new League leaflet? They began to distribute them only a day after I met her. Does that not seem strange to you?” Usagiyama did not let up.

“I agree that if you include an internal conspiracy theorist, then this girl may seem suspicious. Perhaps she really is somehow connected with the League,” the guy, tired of the argument, sat down again at the table and buried himself in the papers, “as, indeed, is everything in this damned area, where the villains are constantly covered. Was it a joke during the last police detour that the officers' machine was thrown eggs? But this does not mean that Dabi is a woman. And even more so does not mean that Dabi is this woman.”

***

Hawks has always considered him a lucky guy. But on the day when he finally managed to meet with Dabi, he realized that luck was practically his middle name. And how else to explain the fact that without finding a single clue either in the video of the League’s speeches or in their leaflets, Keigo accidentally saw the villain, simply deciding to fly over the unfortunate area?

To the credit of Dabi, he did not go in the middle of the street and did not laugh viciously, but stood in one of the dark nooks that were visible only from above, and, apparently, was waiting for someone. Keigo could easily arrest him now, but there were two problems.

First, what will they incriminate to him? In fact, Dabi did nothing, and the maximum that threatens him is community service and a fine for disturbing public order. Of course, there was an opportunity to attract him for joining the League if they could prove that he works for Shigaraki. In any, even the most serious, case, a couple of years in prison is all that they can threaten him with, and at the same time that the public is now on the side of the League, a jury could even justify it.

Secondly, the remaining members of the League of Villains might well have tried to avenge the arrested friend. And, knowing their excellent teamwork, there was a chance that the escape would happen immediately after the sentencing. By the way, no one ruled out that Dabi had a whole League on quick dial, which would immediately appear and kick Hawks' ass if he tried to attack.

Takami sighed heavily. There was nothing to do. He still has to play the role of a traitor who has become disillusioned with the world of heroes.

***

The first thing Hawks learned since he went to Dabi was that all the "fake" photos that the villains distributed in the city were one hundred percent true. Mainly because the League, thanks to their performances, had an extensive network of informants who did not know anything about each other, except for the fact of existing.

Keigo was afraid that the villains would demand from him secret plans, murders, to swear allegiance to Shigaraki on the body of the All Might, but everything turned out to be simpler. Dabi needed all the information on Endeavor, which could only be obtained outside the Internet. It seems that in the absence of compromising evidence on All Might, the League started a loud exposure of hero number two.

The guy did not want to cause the trouble of his idol, but had to admit that it was better to try to find information about Todoroki's family (who would have thought that the Endeavor had four children?) than, for example, planning someone's murder.

The second discovery was that Dabi actually turned out to be a damn interesting and attractive guy. Of course, he kept his distance, both emotional and physical, but Takami was sure that soon he would finally gain the confidence of the villain and enter the League.

Once he came to a meeting wounded, and Dabi helped him bandage his hand. And another time, Keigo, carried away by the conversation, stumbled, but the villain managed to catch him. After that, Hawks'  little pansexual heart each time began to beat harder at the sight of a mysterious villain.

But Miruko did not share his enthusiasm.

“You didn't even see his face,” the girl replied skeptically, after another enthusiastic rant, “maybe he is a ugly? And wears a closed mask, because he has no eyes and his face is scarring?”

“Why do you reduce it all to this?” Takami was indignant. “The fact that you went on a date with a guy who didn’t have a photo with a face in his profile, and it turned out to be Centipeder, does not mean that all the guys who hide their faces should be frightening.”

“Or maybe he's a pervert?” Usagiyama did not let up. “And he has some torture devices at home! Lashes and chains!”

“Well, if only a little bit,” the guy pretended to think seriously about this idea.

“Keigo!”

“What? You asked, I answered,” - spread his hands Hawks, “and in general...”

“...and in general,” the girl interrupted, “Dabi can be straight to the core. Although I'm still sure that Dabi is a woman.”

“And I'm sure he likes guys,” Takami completely ignored his friend’s remark, “at the last meeting, I asked him if he had seen the last photo of Edgeshot...”

“What the hell are you talking about with your contact in the League?”

“... and Dabi said he saw, and that he liked it, and his voice at that moment was such, you know, very dreamy,” Hawks continued without embarrassment, “so there is no doubt that he likes guys.”

***

There were many setbacks in Hawks' life, but trying to flirt with Dabi was the guy's biggest setback in the last two years, including the case when he himself tried to repaint his wings black, and then fell into the rain. Keigo was one hundred percent sure of success, even without the advice of Rumi, who refused to participate in this venture. Who needed her advice when he had a WikiHow? Everything was perfectly timed, but something went wrong anyway.

Met with Dabi in an abandoned warehouse outside the city, Keigo very carefully and subtly hinted the villain about his sympathy, trying to take his hand while they walked. Unfortunately, at that moment, Dabi began to rummage around in his backpack and ignored the wonderful and romantic gesture. The compliment that the guy thinking about for several days, due to the lack of information about his love interest, was drowned out by a violent gust of wind, and it was somehow inconvenient to repeat it. But Takami was not upset.

When the guys finally approached the warehouse and hid behind it from the wind, Hawks reached out as naturally as possible, spread his wings, smoothing feathers disheveled by the strong wind, and took Dabi by the shoulders. He did not throw Keigo’s hand and did not become indignant, so the hero encouraged by this moved a little closer and was ready to make a pre-prepared speech, when suddenly a foggy gate opened two steps away from them.

Kurogiri, literally jumping out of them, looked as angry as a man with a face from the fog could look angry. Without saying a word, he pulled Dabi from Hawks and pushed him into the portal.

Takami took a deep breath and buried his hands in his hair. It was a complete failure.

Chapter 3

Notes:

So after all this time, I finally publish the last part.
I'm sorry it took so long.

Dabi couldn't move. From the very second that Hawks grabbed her by the shoulders, she found the strength only to hold down the signal button and call for Kurogiri. She also couldn't breathe. And she almost did not realize anything until, by inertia, she fell to the floor of the bar, passing through the foggy gate. The lass heard how someone tried to call her, but their voices grew further, replaced by others.

“This is my oldest daughter - Teruko.”

A heavy hand on her shoulder presses, and she can't budge.

The light is muted in the room, and she can't make out the face of the person opposite.

“She will make a wonderful wife.”

And she can't breathe.

“Dabi! Dabi, wake up,” someone's small and cold hands pressed against her face, and only after a moment the lass realized that she was sitting on the sofa surrounded by worried villains, and Toga worrely slaps her cheeks.

“I'm fine,” the lass croaked, wiping cold sweat from her forehead and leaning back on the couch. “I was just scared. I didn't expect him to try to do anything. The idea with the signaling was very helpful.”

“I was hoping it would never be need to you,” Magne sighed sadly and wanted to continue, but Shigaraki interrupted her.

“But I knew that sooner or later it would happen!” the guy grimaced and, mimicking Dabi, continued, “oh, please don't touch Hawks, he seems like a good guy.”

Tomura shrugged in disgust.

“And where did it lead us?! We only trusted the hero once! Once! And what did it lead to? They are all the same,” Shigaraki, with the most uncaring look, threw a blanket to the lass and began to pace the room. “All this time, we acted as if we were going to nominate a candidate for prime minister. We were polite. So he decided that he could act as he used to. He decided that since we decided to destabilize society first, and not let Nomu out, then we could not reckon with us, take it unceremoniously.”

From the intolerable desire to kill the feathered hero, the guy furiously clenched and unclenched his fists, continuing to pace the room with his steps. Suddenly he stopped.

“I will go to the next meeting with him,” a smile full of madness and thirst for violence blossomed on Tomura's face, “we have all the information we need, so we no longer need this annoying hero.”

***

Hawks was sitting in a cafe and carefully stirring his coffee, trying not to make sudden movements and not disturb the healing wounds. Of course, he could use feathers for this, small feathers were great for manipulating a teaspoon, but he did not do it on principle. What kind of hero is he if he can't take a little pain?

Miruko looked at her friend accusingly, but only rolled her eyes as the guy continued. She was confident that a stubborn man like Takami would need something worse than Shigaraki's attack to get him to follow the doctor's orders.

In general, the whole situation with the League was resolved very unsuccessfully. After Keigo failed in his attempt to charm Dabi, the villain did not get in touch for three days. And when Dabi came out, it turned out that it was all a snare. Instead of Dabi, Shigaraki came to the meeting and immediately tried to kill Hawks. Moreover, the leader of the villains did not stop even when Takami dropped his cover and called for help, which practically saved him from death. But Rumi was sure that if it weren't for Kurogiri, who picked up his boss in time and fled, Keigo would not have survived that night.

And then everything started spinning at a terrifying speed.

Doctors just loaded the badly wounded guy into an ambulance car, as a state of emergency was declared in the city. First, in the city center, and then in other districts, from almost nowhere, thousands of leaflets accusing on Endeavor began to pour on the heads of the townspeople hurrying to work. The police did not have time to destroy them, the heroes knocked off their feet in an attempt to find the culprits, and people, meanwhile, managed not only to read them, but also put them on the Internet for viewing throughout Japan. By the end of the day, spontaneous rallies erupted in Musutafu near the Endeavor's agency and the Commission building, which seems to be actively covering hero number two.

When Usagiyama saw these leaflets with her own eyes, she suddenly felt a sincere emotional impulse to go and punch Endeavor's face. The paint on the leaflets in some places did not even have time to dry, the paper smelled wonderful of fresh ink, but she wanted to howl from the photos and facts. And then either go and drown herself, from the realization that something similar can happen in this world, and no one will do anything. Or go and punch someone up. For example, Endeavor or the President of the Commission. At worst, a punching bag. But the first two are still better.

That was unbelievable. Quirk marriage, tormenting a wife and children who were born with the right quirks, and indifference to those who did not have one. God, who would have thought that Todoroki Shouto does not live in a loving family, but is forced to survive there? Or that he is not an only child? It turns out that he had two elder sisters and a brother that no one knew about. Who would have thought that Endeavor's eldest daughter had committed suicide just to avoid the fate of her mother? Who would have thought that Todoroki Rei had been locked up in a mental hospital for a long time? Or that the Commission knew about all this, but never intended to do anything? If this is their hero number two, what are the others?

There were no answers to these questions.

By the end of the week, the police had taken control of everything. And, although people many thought that the heroes and the Commission were an order of magnitude higher than the police staff, this was not the case. Ever since the League began distributing the leaflets, the police began their investigation. And everyone knew that if Chief of Police, Kenji Tsuragamae, got down to work, he just couldn't be fooled.

The results of the investigation shocked everyone. Every photo was real, every fact the League pulled out of oblivion was true. The President of the Hero Public Safety Commission was removed from her post. All the heroes who, one way or another, figured in the scandal, had their licenses suspended pending a final clarification of the circumstances. Some, including Endeavor, have already been charged. The public was jubilant.

Miruko did not understand only one thing: how did it happen that with all his work as a double agent, Hawks managed to come out dry from water? It would seem that he was the first to be put in the role of a corrupt hero, but even now, almost three weeks after the high-profile incident, no one encroached on his title of hero. Sometimes she thought that flirting with Dabi wasn't such a bad idea after all.

Takami rattled the spoon over the cup one last time and tossed it on the table in annoyance, attracting Usagiyama's attention. Since he left the hospital, he has been nervous, irritable and unusually taciturn. The lass seriously suspected that Keigo was worried about Dabi, because the villain had disappeared.

Completely. As if he never existed. Shigaraki took his place in the performances. The recordings from the security cameras, which at least occasionally used to snatch his silhouette at night, were now completely useless. Even the rumors died down suspiciously.

There was no single version of where and why Dabi disappeared. Some thought he had fulfilled his end of the league deal and left. Someone believed that he went to other cities to find supporters there. Miruko herself shamelessly joked that Shigaraki was jealous of Dabi for such a prominent guy as Hawks, and now hides him away from sin.

“I’ll probably go,” Takami resolutely pushed aside the unfinished coffee away from him as if they had been chatting incessantly for the last half hour, rather than sitting in tense silence.

“Where are you going, Keigo? Lunch is not over yet, you disappear at the agency all the time.”

“Documents won't do itself,” the guy shrugged his shoulders and, transferring a frown to the phone, suddenly brightened his face, “don't worry, Rumi, there is someone to take care of me. Do you remember how thoroughly the police checked us? So, my last secretary, the guy appointed by the Commission, was arrested. And I recently hired a lass. Doubted, of course, at first. Her education is not at all suitable. But now no one wants to go to work with the heroes, so there was little choice. Of course, I checked her everywhere, but she turned out to be surprisingly law-abiding, even if she was from a not very prosperous area.”

Hawks got up, gently wiggled his stiff wings and began to fold the papers that he brought with him, although he did not even touch it during the entire time the heroes were sitting in the cafe.

“You won’t believe it, but it turned out to be just a miracle,” Keigo continued, glancing at his watch out of the corner of his eye, “she is always neat and collected, she sends all the papers on time. She brought me lunch a couple of times when I was filling out reports all day. Damn the police, now you can't even remove a kitten from a tree just like that. You have to fill out a bunch of papers.”

The guy finally gathered everything and, with a wave of his hand, added.

“Anyway, Rumi, I'll introduce you to my new secretary sometime, I'm sure you'll like her. She's just a godsend for secretarial affairs, but don't even dare try to lure her over to you. Such as Sato Teruko - one in a million, and I will not give her to you!”

***

“Hawks' Hero Agency. How can I help you?” The lass began politely, holding the phone with one hand, and correcting the Hawks' duty schedule with the other, but when she heard a familiar voice in the receiver, she frowned, “I asked you not to call me while I'm at work. How can I make excuses if I am caught talking in person?”

Finished with the documents, Teruko leaned back in the office chair and, looking around, stretched, flexing stiff muscles.

“Will I come today? Of course, I will. Are you kidding me?” a wicked smile glimpse on Sato's face and immediately disappeared. “I have a story to tell you.”