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When Tomura was sixteen, he met this guy online.
The dude was horrible at the game. Seeming a bit slow to maneuver and missing their targets by a mile, yet somehow they lasted long enough for Tomura to kill them three minutes before the final round. The teen figured the noob just got lucky and forgot about them quickly.
But then he snipped them in the next round.
Then he ran into them in the next.
Then he ambushed them in the one after that.
Eventually Tomura realized, despite the dude’s clear inexperience, they seemed to have a knack for the game. So, he messaged them, suggesting a team up for the next round.
With how long it took for a response, the teen almost thought the jerk just ignored him. But no. They eventually responded, agreeing to join.
The time spent after that was time Tomura took to train the guy the basic fucking controls. It was already frustrating that the noob didn’t even know he could sprint in the game. It was more infuriating that he had to explain it all in the chat since this dude apparently didn’t have any kind of headset.
Once they got the hang of it though, the two became unstoppable. Claiming victory after victory, Tomura was filled with a kind of satisfaction he hadn’t felt in a long time.
And when it was time to go, Tomura was sure to friend the guy and demand they meet up again the next day. Same time.
At some point, during the following years of gaming together, Tomura helped his player two change their gamer tag from the default. This resulted in “Player92374” becoming “Katach1Na1_0” or, as Tomura called him, Kata.
While Tomura was distracted gaming, a new informant made their presence known in the underground.
They seemed like the typical sketchy seller at first. Someone down on their luck trying to make quick money with useless shit. Eventually however, word got around about the quality of the dude’s info.
It was said that one glance from them and they would have ten ways to take a person down. And this rumor was proven when people would show off the step by step guides they were given on how to defeat their enemies.
This obviously caused quite the stir, many vying to get the guy on their side. However, the informant had two rules.
One, no sides. He refused to pick and join anyone’s team. Preferring to stay solo and out of the greedy grasps of others.
And two, no heroes. No talking about heroes, no talking to heroes, no information whether good or bad was to make its way to or from this man if it had anything to do with heroes.
Understandably, this caused quite a few people to be upset. They either wanted this informant for themselves, wanted intel on heroes, or didn’t want the dude selling them out to their adversaries. So, eventually, a group decided to take action and tried to kidnap the guy.
It failed. The informant got away and the group was left empty handed.
A week later though, that same group were raided by police and heroes with many brought into custody. The ones who got away that night would later find themselves caught by various heroes, all of which would report having been given an anonymous tip. Every member would go on to say that they had spotted a pair of toxic green eyes staring at them from a distance as they were hauled to prison.
Needless to say, no one messed with the informant, now officially dubbed Specter, after that.
Tomura, being freshly twenty-one, had finally joined the underground scene with a bang, having infiltrated U.A. as his debut. Unfortunately, said debut didn’t go as planned, causing the young man to rage. Only calming down once he talked with Kata about what happened.
Of course, he didn’t explain everything, only that he had been planning this raid for months and it still failed. His friend in turn asked why Tomura didn’t invite him to join.
“Sensei entrusted this mission to me. He trusted that I would be able to handle it but I still failed him.” Tomura confessed, knowing Kata would hear him with the cheap earbuds he acquired a couple years ago.
Katach1Na1_0: Doesn’t mean you couldn’t ask for help. Flashed across his screen, a reminder that Kata still didn’t own a mic to properly converse with despite Tomura demanding he get one.
Karach1Na1_0: You need allies if you wish to win. One man can only do so much after all. I mean, that’s why we're a team right?
After their chat, Tomura set out to find new party members to join his League. After all, Kata was right. He would need allies if he wanted to destroy hero society. So when he heard of Specter, he wanted nothing more than the ghost of the underground on his team.
When other members were told of Tomura’s plan, they immediately scoffed and laughed. They all knew Specter didn’t deal with heroes, whether that was to help or destroy them, but Tomura persisted. Ordering all members to get any info they could on the informant.
So when said informant appeared in their hideout, sitting at the bar as if it were no big deal, you could imagine their surprise.
Specter immediately squashed their hopes however, telling them he only came ‘cause he heard they were looking. With his piercing green eyes looking straight into Tomura’s red, he declared he had no intentions of joining the League then disappeared into the night.
Despite that though, he kept coming back. Whether found hunched over in one of the booths writing in a notebook or sitting at the bar talking with Kurogiri, the informant seemed to take refuge there.
Tomura used every opportunity to try and persuade Specter but he was swiftly rejected each time. No matter if the villain offered to give him anything he desired or threatened to disintegrate his notebooks, Specter wouldn’t join. Instead, he just became a recurring presence.
He would spar with Toga, fight to get his notebooks back from Dabi, talk with Twice about his quirk, or even silently have tea with Compress. He wouldn’t play games with Tomura though, preferring to sit next to him and comment on his screw ups. Acting like a bratty younger brother. (Even more so when he accidentally admitted he was only fifteen.)
Occasionally he would drop little warnings to them about not going out that night or avoiding certain groups but in the end still refused to officially join the League.
Tomura was sitting at the bar playing on his switch when he was interrupted by the door slamming open. Immediately annoyed, he looked up only to be surprised by Specter standing in the doorway. After all, the informant made it a habit to kinda just appear at this point, leaving everyone guessing when he showed up. He didn’t normally use the door.
Marching into the space, Specter made his way to Tomura and threw one of his notebooks onto the bar.
“You wanted this right?” Specter grunted.
Still processing what the fuck was happening, the villian only blinked.
The informant didn’t seem to care about the lack of answer though, instead just waving his hand as he turned to leave. “Well Merry Christmas, happy Hanukkah, whatever else you celebrate. Bye.”
Finally out of his stupor, Tomura quickly reached out to grab Specter’s arm, careful to keep his pinky raised, and tugged. “Hold on. What is this?”
As the informant was violently turned to face Tomura, the villain noticed Specter stumbling a bit to stay up. An almost silent grunt managing to escape from behind the thin fabric covering the bottom half of his face.
“My notebook. You’ve been asking to see it. There it is. Now let go.”
Jerking his arm out of the villain's grip, Specter seemed ready to book it out of there but Tomura was having none of it. Reaching for the bastard's other arm, the one still in his hoodie pocket, the villain pulled it out into the open.
Instantly, the informant hunched into himself as he winced. Tomura however was more focused on Specter’s hand.
“You're bleeding.”
“Thanks, captain obvious.” Specter growled, glaring up at the villain through his black skull-like mask. “How would I have ever noticed without you? Now, let go.”
“Let go? Fuck letting go! Take off your jacket.”
“What? No! Let me go you pedo!”
“I’m not a pedophile you brat! We need to stop the bleeding!”
“We? When did you start speaking French? I’ll handle it!”
“Bullshit! You're just a brat!”
“I’ve dealt with worse.”
“The fuck you mean you’ve dealt with worse?!”
“What's with all the yelling?!” Dabi shouted, entering the bar with a look of someone who was just woken up.
Turning to the new presence, Specter instantly answered, “Nothing. Tomura’s just overreacting.”
The villain in question, was quick to shake the hand in his grasp, the one still covered in blood, as he asked, “Since when is wanting to stop someone from fucking bleeding out, overreacting?”
“When the person wanting to stop the bleeding is a fucking villain.”
“Don't pull the villian card on me brat!”
“I’m sooo pulling the villain card.”
“Fucking shut it you two.” Dabi cut in, grabbing a first aid kit. “Get him to the couch.”
“What?” Specter exclaimed as he started getting dragged. “N-no! I’m fine! Just let me go already!”
“Tell that to your soaked sweater.” Dabi grumbled as he made his way over with the kit.
Specter was still fighting Tomura during all of this. Digging his heels in the ground, trying to twist his wrist free, even kicking out after being shoved on the couch.
Tomura couldn’t help but growl. “Would you quit it? You're just making your HP drop faster.”
“No!” Specter practically shouted as he tried to get up again. Not that Tomura let him. It wasn’t exactly hard either with how weak the informant’s efforts were getting.
“Hold his arms up.” Dabi demanded, moving to pull off the sweater.
“Let me gooo!” the teen whined as Tomura held up his arms from behind.
Once the dark hoodie was finally off, the villains were able to see the stab wound Specter had in his stomach. Slowly oozing out blood as the boy continued to fight them every step of the way. So focused on the injury, none noticed that the top plastic half of Specter’s mask was yanked off with the hoodie, leaving only the bottom cloth mask.
“Who the hell stabbed you?” Tomura growled, keeping a hold on the boy’s wrists after the teen tried to shove Dabi away again.
“Doesn’t ma’ter.” Specter pouted, weakly kicking at Dabi when he started disinfecting the wound.
“It does when it leaves you on death's door, you twerp.” Dabi retorted, moving to press his leg into the informant's legs so he wouldn’t be kicked again.
“It doesn’t when I’m th’ one knocking.” he threw back, causing the other two to freeze.
“The fuck is that suppose to mean?”
“N’thing. Just…J’st let go. I’m basically dead already…”
Looking at each other for a second, the two villains silently decided that was bull.
“I’ve cheated death before.” Dabi casually commented, pulling out some pills and taking off Specter’s mask. “What’s once more?”
“Wha-?”
“Does legally dead count?” Tomura chimed in, getting a firmer grip on the kid, as Dabi shoved the pills in the kid’s mouth and forced him to swallow.
“I’d say so.” Dabi agreed, adjusting his position to make sure the brat couldn’t move too much while also prepping a needle.
“The hell are y- ahhhhh!” Specter shouted as the flame villain got to work stitching up the stable wound.
The kid put up a fight obviously. Having a small needle repeatedly stabbed into you with only a couple of pain killers wasn’t exactly pleasant after all, but he was still weak from the initial blood loss. It wasn’t hard for the two to keep him mostly still as the flame villain patched him up. Even easier when the kid passed out mid way through Dabi’s sewing.
“We should probably move him to somewhere more comfortable.” the blue eyed villain suggested as he cleaned up.
“I’ll stick him in my room.” Tomura stated, leaving to grab some gloves before returning for the kid.
Once he had him laid out on his bed, he checked Specter’s pulse. He already saw Dabi do it but, with how still the kid was, he had to check again. Feeling the steady but faint pulse, he felt like he could finally relax a little.
Specter may not officially be part of the League but he was still an important member. Tomura didn’t like having those in his party taking damage.
And now, finally able to take in the kid's face, he found he liked it even less.
Specter truly was a child. Baby fat still clinging to his round cheeks and freckles shaped like diamonds. He looked so…innocent like this. Pale from the blood loss sure, but his hair looking all curly and soft like that had to be some kind of trick.
The informant was a menace. All sharp edges and barbed tongue. Not this soft, almost doll-like, NPC. Trying to connect the image of the stubborn brat he was used to and the boy before him felt like purposefully jumping from build limit in a hardcore world he was working on for ten years without a totem. Absolutely ridiculous.
Yet here he was. Doing exactly that.
“Hey, is this notebook the kid’s?” Dabi asked, coming into the room flipping through said notebook.
“Yea.” Tomura grunted, briefly looking up at it before turning back to Specter, uncaring when the other stopped on a random page. “Kid just showed up, threw it at me, then tried to leave. Didn’t even realize he took damage right away.”
“Well, based on what he said, he was probably hoping you wouldn’t.” Then, the noirette shoved the open book in his face. “And based on this, I'd put money on it.”
Pulling it away from his face, Tomura took a look for himself before freezing.
Dear Shigara
Yo Shigi
Dear To
Hey Tom
The list was clearly written in haste, the writer not able to decide which to go with at first. Each mistake crossed out in increasing frustration. This weird list however wasn’t what made Tomura freeze. No, it was the phrase:
Dear Dusty,
Only one person called him Dusty. Not that no one would know it was in reference to him, it was just not the name they’d say. With Toga nicknaming him Shigi, Dabi calling him Handjob and Kurogiri addressing him as Tomura Shigaraki, there was no need to call him by his gamer tag.
That’s why, being the only person the villain talked to that didn’t know his name, Kata was the only one who called him that.
So why did Specter write “Dear Dusty”?
Sure, the informant knew his gamer tag just like the rest of the League but he never called him that. Preferring to call him different variations of idiot or simply saying Tomura. It just didn’t make sense for Specter to call him Dusty.
Shaking his head to rid himself of this glitch, Tomura continued to read.
Dear Dusty,
Im writing this cause I kinda got stabbed. I was being stupid and honestly deserved it. Never thought Id live this long, let alone die like this but here we are.
I was gonna just let myself bleed out here but realized I never told you who I was so figured id write this.
I knew who you were since the first day we met but finding out my only friend was a villain? Fucking crazy. I didn’t realy now how to deal with that but wanted to stay so I did. Selfish huh?
Sorry___
Anyway thought I should write you this since I dont think a stab wound is recoverable. I mea n probably if I went to a hospital but no one Is helping a quirkless and I didn’t want you to think I just ghosted you
Actully thats exactly what im doing. Ill be sure to haunt you guys in the after life :D
Change the world for me,
Specter
Kata
Izuku Midoriya
PS thx for everything
Taking it in, Tomura just stood in silence. Rereading the messy writing, filtering the mistakes, his mind spun.
No way was Specter Kata. How could he be? Specter was rude, blunt, a menace who did whatever the fuck he wanted. Kata was patient, apologetic, and never had a mean thing to say. How could they be the same person?
Sure, they had their similarities. Kata could type a mile a minute if given the right prompt while Specter could become hyper fixated on writing in his notebooks. And yea, Tomura knew Kata and Specter were younger than him, acting close to the same age. But it couldn’t be!
Could it?
“Know what he’s talking about?” Dabi asked, bring him out of his spiral.
“Yea…” Tomura almost whispered, feeling faint.
The other sighed. “Well, what now? Keep him here or let him leave when he wakes up?”
Tomura’s brows furrowed. “He might not come back if we let him leave.”
His subordinate hummed. “Fair point. So, we keeping him?”
Looking over his greasy green hair, pale complexion, and dark circles Tomura didn’t think they had much of a choice.
“Look into Izuku Midoriya.” he ordered, placing the notebook on his bedside table as he brushed some of Kata’s hair out of his face. “Make sure no one comes looking for him.”