Assassins Can Be Heroes Too || Todoroki Shoto

|93| Just The Beginning

"Well?"

"Well, what?" she eyed Maehara, who leaned on the bench and spun the knife in his hand, "that's dangerous."

"Says the person whose literal Quirk is playing with weapons," he snorted.

"Playing with-" she echoed incredulously, choosing to not continue, "what were you saying earlier?"

"How was the third-year class?"

She fell silent, Isogai exiting the kitchen and leaning on the kitchen countertop, eying the female and awaiting her response.

"It was..." she hesitated, "eventful."

"Huh?" Nagisa sweat-dropped, "what happened?"

"To sum it up... we're doing a research project on a Villain or Villain group in groups of 3-5."

She left it at that, seeing as realisation slowly dawned on her servants' faces.

"Ah..."

No more words were exchanged among them.

What were they supposed to say?

"Who's in your group?"

"The Big 3."

"Oh..."

More silence.

"Well... at least three more people will know by the end of the year," Itona muttered finally - unhelpfully, and he knew that, though he felt as if he should have said something. Rie sighed, silently agreeing and stating that she wanted to head up to her room to clear her mind and possibly start 'researching'. She pressed the elevator button, waiting a few moments before the neon number above it flashed a bright 0, the doors opening.

A pink-haired male stood nonchalantly in the doorway, sipping on his strawberry milk with a lax expression. He wore a black leather jacket over a white shirt with darker stripes entangling the fabric. Though it was only starting to get colder, a blue scarf wrapped around his neck, his right hand reaching into his pocket to fish out his phone, which he started scrolling through. When the doors opened, he perked up, gazing forward.

A tense silence hung in the air as his mercury eyes locked with her golden ones.

"Ah."

"Karma..."

He let out a low 'tch', roughly brushing past the female, his hair covering his eyes as a dark expression fell over his face.

"Karma, wait-" called Nagisa, flinching as the door slammed shut.

Ritsu momentarily appeared on the television screen, though, sensing the thick atmosphere, wisely chose to go offline once again.

The servants slowly gazed back at Rie, watching as she wordlessly stepped into the elevator, pressing a button and waiting.

"Rie..." the servant faltered as he noticed her grip on her phone tighten, wishing he could say more but the words just wouldn't come out.

The doors slowly slid shut, opening up a barrier between her and her servants.

This was just the beginning, they had to remind themselves.

~TIMESKIP~

She opened her notebook, staring at the blank page with a thoughtful expression.

So... what did we have to research, again?

She sighed.

She certainly wasn't going to call or text any of the Big 3 for reminders - if any, she'd most likely text Amajiki, though she felt least comfortable in asking him due to things still being awkward - not that she wanted them to be - around him. She definitely wasn't about to ask Mirio or Nejire, seeing as they'd tease her for days on end for no reason - again, once things were more comfortable and less awkward between them.

I suppose I'll start with the basics... like alias, Quirk, crime...

She groaned.

Alias... well, that's simple enough: Crimson Death, formerly known as Poison Dart.

But why did the name change?

Come to think of it, Rie had never come up with the name of 'Poison Dart' herself, though she assumed that because she often uses poison darts to assassinate her targets when starting out as an assassin, people had just called her Poison Dart. And as for Crimson Death... well, her new ranking as Japan's No. 1 Villain - and assassin, though she had held that title for quite a while - meant that she apparently had to have a new name.

Next: Quirk.

At U.A., only three of the students knew what her Quirk was actually called: Iida, Kirishima, and Bakugo.

Scratch that, make that four people - Shinso from Class 1-C.

She still wasn't very happy with Aizawa disclosing her identity to a stranger.

Everyone else only knew her Quirk as 'Knight'.

Assassin allowed her to control weapons, summoning them and manipulating them to her will. Her chosen weapons would have to be a dagger, knife, or sword. She rarely used her collection of guns, as she rather quickly ran out of gunpowder - and her aiming still needed to be worked on, especially with moving targets. Bows and arrows were a similar issue - her aiming needed to be improved, and they also drained too much stamina - summoning a quiver of arrows often resulted in her collapsing after five minutes.

She could also control an opponent's bloodflow and oxygen levels - not that she knew how it worked, exactly, and how it went against the laws of science, but it was a useful method if she wanted to avoid bloodshed or wounds - evidence that would be used against her. Using them would require utmost concentration, and, like Aizawa's Erasure, she needed to be looking at the target for her to be able to control their bloodflow or oxygen levels - or both.

She stared at her notes.

Crime, huh?

How many people had she killed, and how many innocent lives had been lost because of her? Sure, she killed those who went against her orders or beliefs, as well as Heroes - what were their names again?

Next to her, her phone rang.

Oh, that's right... Aizawa gave me everyone's numbers... against my will, obviously, but...

"Hello?"

She wished she checked the contact before speaking.

"About fucking time you picked up, Sword Bastard."

She felt the corners of her mouth twitch upwards awkwardly, sweat-dropping.

"Ah... Bakugo... how can I help you?"