UA's Immortal Teacher

Part 42

"Uhh... No, I'm good." Hawks was obviously off-put by how Kurogiri insisted on acting, blinking slowly as he surveyed the room full of villains, all ignoring him. To be honest, it was an underwhelming experience for Dabi as well.

"Whatever. Enough of the prologue, I'm ready to move onto the next chapter." Shigaraki spins around to face Hawks head on, his red eyes intently fixed on the number two hero. "Start talking."

Hawks blinked. "Sure. About what?"

Dabi snorted and rolled his eyes, sauntering over to the empty chair on the other side of the bar. There was no chance in hell he was going to miss this shit show. "Uh, I don't know, dumbass. How about why you want to join the League?"

"Oh. Well, I guess I want to join because I think something is wrong with our society. I've known that for a long time, and I'm ready to see things change. I thought that the quickest way to do that would be from the inside, but the Commission hasn't done anything about it. The League has accomplished more change in the short time they've been active than dozens upon dozens of movements talking about the same things. If the first route doesn't work, then I'm more than willing to go down this road."

Hmm. He wasn't saying that he was going to trust the hero right away; far from it, but he was willing to admit that the explanation made a certain amount of sense. It was still flimsy as shit, though.

"Really? Is that so? What exactly do you want to restart in hero society?"

"I told Dabi this before, but Stain was right about a lot of things." It brought Dabi no small amount of pleasure to see that Shigaraki's hands clenched at those words. Jealous bastard. "Right now, we're so focused on hero rankings and ridiculous little petty things that it's getting in the way of helping people." Dabi can attest first-hand to that. "All I've ever wanted is to help people. If this is the best way to do it, then fine."

Something in the hero's voice rang true, and the League all looked between him and Shigaraki, waiting to see what their 'leader's' reaction would be. And by that, he meant they were watching Kurogiri to see what he would do.

"...Fine. One last question: are you working for the Hero Commission to take us down?" Oh. Oh. Now this was riveting. If Hawks even took a second of hesitation to say 'no', then they would be having barbecued chicken for dinner.

...Except not really. Because that was disgusting.

"No. I made up some excuse about searching the underground for clues relating to recent criminal activity so I would be able to get away for the time being. I also told them I might be going undercover at some small-time crime movement. They do not know I am meeting with you." Hmm. He didn't hesitate before saying anything, and he didn't do anything that immediately tipped Dabi off to the fact that he was lying. He didn't hold eye contact longer than he normally would to make them believe him, and he didn't avoid it either. They could have been having a casual conversation on the streets for all it was worth.

But that didn't mean he wasn't lying. Just that he was good at it.

Shigaraki hummed raspily, drumming his fingertips against the bar top. Kurogiri was staying silent, letting the light blue-haired man make his own decision. Looks like someone finally started to get some independence from their babysitter...

"Then I suppose I should say welcome to the League, Hawks. I think you'll be a most valuable asset. You probably have really high stats." Ugh. "But I don't trust you as far as I can throw you, so Dabi will be overseeing you. Wouldn't want you pulling a fast one on us, now would we?"

"Okay. Glad to-"

"Wait, what the shit?!" Dabi burst angrily to his feet. "Like hell I'm going to be bird brains' watcher! If you don't know if he's going to betray us, then why don't we just kill him?" Hawks didn't even flinch at his venemous tone.