A city of over a million people bustles and brims with energy every hour of every day. There are chain stores, independently-owned stores, new businesses and old ones. People wait to cross the streets and people wait in cars at intersections to get from one destination to the next. Bakeries open their windows to let the smell of fresh bread be carried by the ocean-side wind and into the noses of people passing by. Flower stores, perfume stores, and coffee shops all do the same on hundreds of other street blocks. Ten floors and up, residents and workers can see the ocean. An intern giving out coffee to his coworkers at a hero agency stops briefly to admire the glare of the morning sun on the water.
Several blocks away, different views and different smells fill the air. Like lifting a newly polished shoe to reveal an underside caked in dried dirt, another side of the city wakes in the morning light. Some stores sell their advertised merchandise, others sell something they can't legally advertise, and several lots sit vacant, for lease. People are bent over at the waist, staring with enlarged pupils and far away expressions on their faces, at the pavement under their feet. Certain people dart quickly from one destination to another with their heads down while others walk confidently with hands in their pockets and hard expressions on their faces. Windows are cracked open and the smell of cigarette smoke is carried into the noses of people passing by. Rather than reflecting off the ocean, the light reflects the chipped paint on windowsills, the trash littering the streets, the garbage cans that have been turned over and picked through, and smoke-stained windows in cheap motels and dive bars. The alleys are cold and dark and full of trash.
Within this ugly underbelly of the city, a small underground bar sits hidden between a convenience store selling knock-off All Might merchandise and a store for lease. Two men sit inside the bar on vintage upholstered chairs around small round tables.
"If only we could find a more powerful regenerative quirk for you, Master." One of the men, who is tall yet skinny with pale, almost grey skin, paler hair, and a distant look in his eyes, speaks in a hoarse voice.
The other man physically appears to be the opposite. He's taller, larger, and has a body composed of black smoke. Two piercing yellow eyes glow from the smoke constituting his head. He knows the other man is not referring to him, so he says nothing.
"Modern medicine is failing you. It's hindering the success of defeating the Symbol of Peace." The first man spits venomously.
"We must work with what we have, Shigaraki." A deep, disembodied voice replies from a small TV embedded into the brick wall beside the two men.
"Besides, it's not too late. There are plenty of young heroes ready to show off their quirks, especially at U.A. An entirely new crop of students will be entering this year. You never know what we might find."
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Next To Me
Fanfiction(Female reader x various male characters) [Y/n] [L/n] has always been told her quirk was nothing special. Determined to defy expectations, she imagined that proving everyone wrong would boost her confidence and establish respect for her efforts to...
