Mastermind: Strategist For Hire

To Be a Hero

Shouto woke up dazed and disoriented. By the time he was aware enough to look around the room, he'd been tied to a chair with quirk suppressant cuffs. A man with painful looking scars sat in a chair across from him, but from what Shouto could see, they were the only two in the room.

"Hey Shouto," the man said softly, "It's good to see you."

Shouto frowned slightly, he didn't understand why a villain, even one who just kidnapped him, was happy to see him, "Who are you?"

The man smiled slightly, "I go by Dabi, but I think you can guess that's not my real name." He leaned forward, "We actually knew each other once, back before I got these scars."

"Am I just supposed to know who you are?"

Dabi shrugged, "It's not like you knew a whole lot of people back then. That flaming bastard kept you isolated so no one could distract you from your training."

That made Shouto pause. He'd never heard anyone else talk about Endeavor that way, with the same intense hatred he himself felt. Against his better judgement, he found himself actually liking the villain that had kidnapped him. But how did he know about Shouto's isolation?

"My hair was red then, too, kinda like yours." Dabi continued, producing a brilliant blue flame and watching it flicker with brilliant teal eyes.

Shouto wracked his brain, trying to think of who this guy could be. Red hair, like his left side...strong flame quirk, like his left side...teal eyes, like...Shouto's eyes widened.

"Touya?"

The man smiled, "Hey there, little brother."

Aizawa rested his head in his hands as he sat in the interrogation room waiting for Tsukauchi. Dozens of students hurt by the gas or the other villains, another in critical condition from a classmate's rampaging quirk, an abducted pro hero, a kidnapped student, and a dead child. The three measly villains they'd managed to capture were nothing in comparison to the unmitigated horror that the training camp had been.

Aizawa looked up when he heard the door open. Tsukauchi looked at him sympathetically and set a cup of coffee down in front of him, "How are you holding up?"

"I couldn't save him," Aizawa said, "I knew they'd taken him and I got so close , but at the last minute, I was too weak." He looked at the detective, "What kind of a teacher lets his student be kidnapped?"

Tsukauchi sighed, "We're dealing with elite villains the likes of which we haven't seen since before All Might's debut. The blame for this incident is theirs and theirs alone. This was the same group that managed to kill the symbol of peace, so don't blame yourself that you couldn't take them all out. That being said, we do need your statement of the incident. Maybe it can help us find Todoroki in time."

"Do you know why he was taken?" Aizawa asked.

Tsukauchi shook his head, "We were hoping you knew. The best we can come up with is that he was probably abducted to use as leverage against Endeavor. These villains are targeting hero society itself, so it'd be in line with their goals."

Aizawa nodded, "The first I knew of the attack was when Mandalay sent out the message. I left Vlad King with the other students and left to go fight. As soon as I left the main building, I was confronted by a flame user who implied that they were after the students. I tried to interrogate him, but he dissolved into goo before I could get any information out of him."

"Goo?" Tsukauchi questioned, "I thought you said he had a fire quirk?"

"He did," Aizawa sighed, "I think the goo was some kind of cloning quirk belonging to another villain."