Chapter Text
Izuko and the League of Villains had gathered at an abandoned warehouse to await their guest. With their underground base raided and authorities on the lookout for the now twice-missing Izuko, they had to lay low. They were meeting this man away from their own city and closer towards his. Izuko took Tenko’s hand as the warehouse doors opened. He wore a long black trench coat over the suit he put on to steal her away, and he had the hands covering his face again. Twice brought in someone who could potentially help them, maybe even join them.
“You brought a crazy big fish, huh, Twice?” Shigaraki asked.
“Big fish? That’s ironic, League of Villains.” The mysterious young man said as he stood in front of them, wearing his own colorful outfit of a feathered jacket and a beaked plague mask over his mouth. Izuko also noted the white gloves on his hands.
“What? Is that guy famous or something?” Magne asked Shigaraki. Izuko was also curious, as usual.
“My master showed me a picture of him before,” Shigaraki explained, “He’s yakuza. The young head of the Shie Hassaikai, Overhaul.”
Izuko’s eyes widened and she quietly gasped. Yakuza? She, like many people, thought that they were a thing of the past, eradicated during All Might’s reign as the Symbol of Peace. But then of course, with All Might’s retirement, those older symbols of organized crime would attempt to make a comeback. Still, she didn’t expect the head of one of these groups to be such a young man. He probably wasn’t even alive to remember the “glory days” of the Yakuza. Perhaps he was a descendant of such a person, another person filling in the large shoes of someone before him. Like she was. Like Tenko was.
“So he’s the number two of organized crime?” Magne said, almost gushing like a fangirl, “Oh my, I’ve never seen anything like him! He even smells dangerous!”
“Organized crime?” Toga asked, “How’s that different from us?”
Mr. Compress took it upon himself to explain it to her. He told her what Izuko already knew, but then he added parts that she didn’t know.
“The survivors who hadn’t been caught became designated villain groups. In other words, they were treated like villain reserves, just scraping by to make a living under the watch of the police. Frankly, they’re obsolete and should be a protected species.” He said out loud.
“Villain reserves…” Izuko muttered under her breath. So in a way, they had never disappeared at all, they had just reinvented themselves to fit into society’s hero/villain dichotomy.
“Protected species, huh? Well, he’s not wrong.” Overhaul said.
“So how could this impoverished Yakuza boy be of use to us? He’s probably under more of a radar that we are right now.” Mr. Compress asked, “Are you also on a high because of All Might’s retirement? Or maybe you just wanted to see the lost UA student for yourself.”
“No, it’s less about All Might and the girl,” Overhaul said, dismissing Izuko as if she wasn’t even in the room, “and more about the loss of All for One. The emperor of darkness who ruled over all of the underside of society. My generation treated him like an urban legend, but our elders believed they had reason to fear him, even after he was rumored to be dead. But this time...he showed up in the flesh. All Might retired and All for One was thrown into Tartarus. In other words, for both those in the sun and those in the shadows...there is no leader. So then, who will be the next leader?”
Izuko took a deep breath and held Tomura’s arm tighter. She knew that was sure to tick him off. Tomura was supposed to be that new leader, the King of the Underworld. He had even gone as far as to steal back his queen in broad daylight, right off of the UA campus.
Tomura couldn’t slip out of Izuko’s grip as he walked closer to the man, so he carried her along with him, “If you know who my master is and you’re still saying that...Are you here to challenge me? I’m the next leader. Even now, I’m gathering my troops, my resources, they’re growing even as we speak. And then, we’re going to crush hero society, starting from the head.”
“Do you have a plan?” Overhaul asked.
“A plan?” Tomura asked. Usually, planning was Izuko’s strong suit, but she had only just chosen to stay with the League of Villains this morning. She didn’t have a grand scheme for hero society yet. And crushing was a of an overstatement on Tomura’s part. Izuko didn’t want to crush it. She just wanted to change it. Break the mold, not the whole structure. Although she did have a semblance of a plan, and it started with Endeavor. But even that belonged more to Dabi than to her. And even if the plan was ready, she wasn’t just going to spoil the whole thing to some gangster in a bird mask that they just met!
“You little…” Tomura growled, “You were brought here to assist us, weren’t you?”
“A goal with no plan is called a delusion.” Overhaul said, stepping closer to them, “If you present me with a delusion, then how am I supposed to react? What are you even doing with all your new resources? You couldn’t even schedule a meeting in a proper building.”
“We do have a plan!” Izuko exclaimed, letting go of Tomura’s arm and standing in front of him. She took a breath and toned it down a bit before continuing, “Of course, we have a plan, but that’s not something with disclose with new members right away. It’s for the inner circle only.”
“Inner circle...of what? A couple of teenage girls and some...vagrants?” Overhaul argued, “You had the Hero Killer Stain, Muscular, Moonfish, all first-class game pieces, and you lost them all right away, didn’t you? And this girl…”
Izuko backed up into Tomura when Overhaul pointed his gloved finger accusingly at her.
“She’s the one who took them away from you. Not even a fallen hero, a student. And now, like a fool, you’ve invited her into your ranks.” Overhaul said, “You don’t know the pieces you’re playing with, and you can’t even manage ten or so crazy people. How do you know your troops are truly faithful to you? How are you going to manage the ones trying to stab you in the back? You can’t go off of her plan.”
Overhaul clenched his fist and thrust it into his palm, “I have a plan of my own. I didn’t come here today to help you.”
“Twice…” Tomura reprimanded him, “Don’t bring people here before checking their intent.”
“In order to execute my plan, I need a lot of money.” Overhaul continued, “No one wants to invest in some small-time obsolete yakuza. But it would be different if I had you guys, with your increasing name recognition. Put yourselves under me. I’ll show you how well I can use you. And then, I’ll become the next leader.”
Tomura had one simple response, “Go home.”
Magne’s response was not so calm, however.
“Sorry, yakuza boy, we didn’t come together to be under someone!” Magne exclaimed as he threw off the tarp from her large magnet, “I’m here because I don’t want to be bound by anything. We will decide where we belong!”
Izuko gasped as she saw Magne start her attack. Overhaul began to glow blue from the polarization. Magne liked to use her magnet to bring in enemies for a close-range attack, but that also made her vulnerable as well, especially to enemies with...touch-based quirks. She saw Overhaul start to slip off his glove. Like Tomura, he probably had a touch-based quirk as well. But she didn’t know what. And she didn’t want Magne to find out.
“Magne! NO!” Izuko screamed as she leaped towards Magne. Overhaul was coming in too fast for her to get between them, and technically, he wasn’t being pulled towards Magne herself. Izuko raised up her leg in the air and used 1% of One For All to kick the giant magnet away from her. That sent Overhaul in a curve away from both Magne and Izuko. His ungloved hand which had reached out to touch them missed them by a hair.
He collided with the magnet several feet away from them.
“Izuko!” Toga and Tomura rushed over to see if she was hurt, since she was the pregnant one after all.
“We’re fine.” Izuko said, standing her and Magne up.
“How dare you make our Queen put herself in danger!” Mr. Compress leaped to Overhaul while he was still down. But Izuko saw Overhaul put his hand on the magnet and suddenly the blue glow around him disappeared. He had rendered the magnet useless.
“Wait, Compress!” Tomura warned him.
“This guy’s trouble. I’ll use my Compress to seal him away!” Mr. Compress said.
“No, Mr. Compress!” Izuko tried to warn him, “His quirk is tou-”
But was too late. Before Mr. Compress could lay his hand on Overhaul, a small bullet hit his arm, like a tranquilizer dart. He tried to turn Overhaul into a marble, but it didn’t work.
“I can’t use my quirk?” Mr. Compress said under his breath.
“Don’t touch me!” Overhaul said loudly as he slapped Mr. Compress away, making his arm explode into blood at the shoulder. As Compress cried out in immense pain, Tomura and Izuko both jumped forward to handle Overhaul themselves.
“Shield.” Overhaul commanded, and suddenly one of his underlings appeared and stood between him and Shigaraki. Izuko used Tomura’s back as support to leap forward over the minion and reach for Overhaul. She couldn’t get to close, but she could use her power to make a gust of wind to strike. She thought that Tomura would just decay the underling’s mask and get dust in his eye or degrade part of his skin, like he did with Mr. Aizawa. But as she leaped over them, she saw the man turn completely to dust and collapse into ashes. It shook her. She knew he could do that in theory, but she had never seen him actually do it before, and so fast too. The man was just gone in an instant.
Unfortunately, this distraction pulled her away from the fact that Overhaul still had Magne’s giant magnet close to him. He didn’t need it to work, he just needed it for scrap. Overhaul brushed the magnet with his fingers and the metal came apart. By the time Izuko’s mind snapped back into the fight, the metal was at his disposal. She didn’t know what he planned to do with it, but she could see the metal morph around him. She had already lost her opportunity to strike him, so now all she could do was continue her leap over him and land on the other side, away from him. But the metal in his hand was now flying out towards her. She tried to evade it, but it surrounded her like tentacles. And then she felt the pinch of a dart hitting her leg.
When she landed on her feet, she found the metal of the magnet had been reshaped into a chain...one that ended with metal collar around her neck and wrists. He had changed the structure of the metal itself!
“You all made the first move.” Overhaul said as he pulled the chained Izuko towards him. She tried to use power to break out of the restraints, but her quirk wasn’t working either. Soon, her body was within his reach.
“Izuko!” Tomura called out, but suddenly, the wall imploded in on the scene as more of Overhaul’s minions broke through, including a giant hulk of muscle, a smaller caricature, and a cloaked figure, all adorned in this gang’s particular beaked masks.
“You should have started with that…” Tomura said, brushing his mouth and looking at the new opponents he would have to fight through to get to his queen.
“That was close, Overhaul.” A white hooded figure joined Overhaul’s side.
“You’re late.” Overhaul told him, pulling Izuko into his arm, keeping his hand over her in a threatening manner. Izuko shivered and tried to think of out to get out of this scenario, but her hands were tied.
“I missed a shot.” His apparent number two said as he brandished his gun, “but there was enough immediate effectiveness.”
The bullets must have come from that gun and somehow turned off their quirks. Were they gone forever? Or was it temporary? Her stomach sank as she felt like fate had punished her for choosing this path. Like choosing to stay and reform the League of Villains meant she couldn’t keep One for All.
“Wait, where did you-?!” Twice exclaimed in a confused panic, “We weren’t being followed!”
“It was probably somebody’s quirk.” Tomura said to Twice before loudly declaring, “Give her back to us. Now.”
“It’ll be hard for us to make objective decisions like this.” Overhaul looked at Tomura, still holding his hand over Izuko with a taunting gleam of his golden eyes, “You took one of mine, so it’s only fair I take one of yours…”
“No!” The whole league cried out.
“But...I can see the little rat’s of importance to you.” Overhaul explained, “So if you want to behave and ask for her back like a reasonable person, I suggest we cool our heads and talk about this another day.”
“Like hell I’ll let you walk out of here with our-” Tenko growled.
“Tomura, please!” Izuko begged, looking intensely at him, “Just do as he says. I’ll be okay. We’re all going to be okay.”
“Hmm, I guess she can make some sense.” Overhaul said as he held the chain close to her neck and walked away with her, “We’ll also take the arm into consideration.”
“You bastard, I’ll kill you!” Twice growled.
“I’m going to slice you for putting your hands on Izuko.” Toga brandished her knife.
“No.” Tomura said, keeping his eyes on Izuko as he held his hands out to command his team, “Listen to her. We will work this out...another day.”
“A wise decision, Hand Guy.” The little plush of a minion said from on top of their tank player.
“It doesn’t have to be right away, but the sooner the better.” Overhaul said.
“Tomorrow.” Tomura said.
“If you insist.” Overhaul tossed his business card towards him, “I’m pretty booked tomorrow, but I’m sure I can schedule you in. Call my number and we can give you the details.”
“Be strong, my Queen!” Magne cried out as Overhaul took Izuko away. After all, if she hadn’t acted out, maybe it wouldn’t have ended up like this.
“Take care of yourselves while I’m gone.” Izuko said, “And get Mr. Compress to a doctor.”
As the League of Villains watched their Queen get taken away from them once again, Izuko was led into Overhaul’s limousine with his minions. For a group that didn’t have any money, they still had a nice ride to take them away. As she sat in the back of the limo, squished in with members of the Shie Hassaikai, she felt an intense deja vu wash over her.