AS WITHIN, SO WITHOUT | MHA × OC

PROLOGUE ✧ Tartarus-Level Threat

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Shoto Todoroki did not like the floor.
This was not, Midoriya thought, the most pressing concern they currently had.

"It sticks."

Bakugo didn't bother looking down. "No shit."

Todoroki lifted one boot experimentally. The floor released it with an audible tack. His expression tightened. "I wasn't expecting that."

"It's a bar."

"I've been in bars."

"Clearly not shitty ones."

Midoriya pulled his hood a little farther forward and tried not to smile. Technically, Bakugo was wrong. The place wasn't shitty. It had simply spent several decades becoming extremely good at looking that way.

The venue sat half underground beneath an unremarkable building, accessible through a black-painted door they'd nearly walked past twice. Inside, exposed brick disappeared beneath layers of old concert posters, stickers, graffiti and framed photographs of musicians Midoriya actually recognized.

Names had been carved into the bar itself. Some were old enough to have little brass plaques beneath them now. The stage was barely large enough for a full band.

The sound system could probably damage neighboring buildings.

And whoever was currently using it had the entire room by the throat.

Midoriya had heard her before he'd seen her.

A woman's voice carried cleanly over distorted guitar as they descended the last few stairs, low and smoky, sliding through a song that appeared to be about bad judgment, worse men, and enjoying both significantly more than was advisable.

The lyrics were provocative. The performance was worse.

Or better. Depending on perspective.

Smoke hung beneath the ceiling, mixing with artificial fog until everything beyond twenty feet dissolved into bodies and colored light. The crowd was packed shoulder to shoulder.

Midoriya's eyes moved over them automatically.

Exit.
Bar.
Hallway.
Possible backstage access.
Civilian density...
He stopped.

"Oh."

Bakugo followed his stare. "What?"

Midoriya pointed.

Bakugo's expression immediately soured. "You've gotta be fucking kidding me."

Himiko Toga was at the front of the stage. There was no question. Midoriya knew that face far better than he particularly wanted to. Toga had pursued him during the provisional licensing exam while disguised as someone else, invaded his personal space with tremendous enthusiasm, later come after him at the training camp and maintained an unsettling interest in both him and his blood.

Tonight, she was doing none of those things.

Tonight, Toga had both hands over her head and was singing along like she'd paid too much for the ticket.

Midoriya stared. "That's definitely..."

"Toga," Bakugo finished. "Yeah."

Todoroki was looking somewhere else. "Dabi's here."

Of course he was.

Dabi sat at the bar with one elbow braced against the wood and a drink dangling loosely from his fingers.

And...

Midoriya squinted. "Is he singing?"

Badly.

But yes.

Dabi knew the words. A few seats away, Spinner looked like a man who had been promised they were leaving forty minutes ago. Shigaraki sat hunched beside him, staring at his phone with the exhausted resentment of someone being held socially hostage.