Giran walks by Izuku's right side, smoking a cigarette as their footsteps echoed on the cracked cement of the sidewalk beneath them.
"I can't believe I agreed to do this," Izuku mumbled as they continued to walk past dark buildings until Giran started to head towards a dimly lit up sign down an alleyway. Izuku glanced at the tall walls on both sides of him as they headed towards the bar.
"Trust me. They aren't as bad as they look. I have known some of them for longer than I have. Twice is cool. Spinner is a big fan of Stain. Mr. Compress loves to show off. Magne is chill, you will like her. Toga can be a bit...much at times. Kurogiri watches over the entire bar. Dabi hates endeavor, so don't mention that. Shigaraki hates All Might and hero society in general, be wary of that. Other than that, everyone should be good."
Izuku furrowed his brow, "Do you have everyone's blood type?"
Giran grinned back at him, ruffling up his hair," Of course I do, Midori. But I feel like you would already know that, wouldn't you? I bet you didn't even need me to tell you about them, huh?"
Midori returned the smile, "I'm not an amateur."
Giran laughed, throwing his head back before coughing a bit on the cigarette smoke which made Izuku thump his back to help him.
"But I do feel a little bit better about this than I did at the very beginning."
Giran hummed, "That's good. Plus, if they try to do anything bad to you, I will make sure that it comes at the cost of my work with them. I made sure they understood that they respect your decision whether it is and not try to murder you if you refuse."
"Thanks," Izuku remarked dryly as the two began to walk into the rundown bar that was similar to the destroyed bar that they had before in Hosu when the heroes rescued that UA student.
"This is their backup bar, a second location," Giran introduced the bar as he walked downtown stairs, gesturing with his hands at the handrail like he was presenting him a house like a travel agent. "They won't be here for long, only for this meeting before they go off somewhere else."
"That makes sense. They wouldn't want someone to know where they are especially for someone they don't know will join them," Izuku commented, avoiding the handrails as he continued to walk down the stairs.
Giran holds out his arm from stopping him from going down the final flight of stairs. "Wait a second. I'll introduce you to them. Stay here and wait for me to wave you down."
Izuku rolled his eyes fondly for his uncle's want to set up a dramatic entrance for his nephew. "Alright, I'll wait here. Go do your thing."
His uncle gave him a thumbs up before sliding down the stairs until his feet planted onto the bar floor.
"Ah, Giran. What brings you here?" A calm voice spoke out.
"Giran, I'm so happy to see you. I hate your smug face!" Another voice called out in two different tones.
"Well, hello everyone. And no need to thank me ahead of time, but I have found you one the best drivers there are in the underground," Giran spoke with a grin across his face. "They trained under street racers and learned all the ways about the inner workings of cars to improve their own skills. And their skills don't stop at driving."
"I have brought to you the best driver I know as well as the best analyst that I have told you all about," Giran spoke dramatically, raising his hands to gesture at the top of the stairway where Izuku was waiting. "Now presenting, Midori!"
Izuku walks down stairs quickly with Giran grinning down at his nephew. He raised his hand to give a slight wave to everyone in the room. "Hi. Giran said you need a driver."
A woman with shoulder length hair raised an eyebrow, "An analyst AND a driver?"
"Oh my gosh, you're spoiling us," the man with the full face mask commented.
"Midori? You brought Midori?" A humanoid lizard man asked with noticeable excitement in his voice. "I'm Spinner!"
The man with the face mask raised his hand, "I'm Twice!"
"I'm Magne," The woman introduced herself.
Another girl giggled, placing a hand on her chest delicately while she greeted the young teen around her own age, "Toga Himiko. How pretty is your blood?"
Izuku raised an eyebrow, "Um, I haven't had any complaints about my blood so far."
"You are interesting from your reputation," a man with a mask and hat stepped forward from the corner of the room. "Greetings. I am Mr. Compress."
The smoke wisp man stared at him with their yellow eyes, "I am called Kurogiri. The man against the wall who won't bother with introductions is called Dabi."
"Shigaraki Tomura," The leader with light blue haired introduced himself with a scratchy tone of voice.
Dabi questioned from his leaning position against the wall,"How are we supposed to know that kid got what it takes?"
"Shh, we need a driver. Don't ruin this for us," Twice whispered.
Toga rolled her eyes with a bored look on her face, "None of us know how to drive, Dabi."
"Would you like an example of both of my abilities?" Izuku offered.
Kurogiri gave a short nod or at least that's what Izuku thought he did since it was hard to tell from the purple wisps of smoke surrounding him. "That would help with our decision."
"He's Midori! What else can you want?" Spinner loudly whispered. "Stain had high praises for him too!"
Izuku noticed how Shigaraki's face tensed at the mention of Stain. That was interesting given the fact that they teamed up. Izuku gazed at the majority of the members, knowing how most of them only joined after the incident with Stain.
Izuku felt a spark of interest ignite within him as he reflected on the thought of idea that Stain and Shigaraki really didn't team up. Would the team still follow him knowing that Stain didn't work with him after all?
"Good," Izuku answered. "Because this will also help with my own decision of whether to entertain this idea any longer."
"I like this kid," Magne stated, leaning against her long magnet weapon.
"Now, now. We must find out if he will be a good addition to the team."
"Ah yes, I'm guessing it is to guarantee your choice since three of your newer members already fell on the first part of that kidnapping mission," Izuku responded loudly. Giran looked between his nephew and the group that paid him to find new members as they all turned to look at his nephew strangely. "Mustard could have been more useful if he had decent self defense to fight off anyone since he just had a gun. Muscular and Moonfish would not have been as enjoyable. I probably would have turned down the job straight away because of those two if they were still here. I do have a line that I don't want to cross."
"Anyway, since you want this to be an interview, I can answer questions and show off my main two skills," Izuku scratched the back of his neck.
"How old are you?" Mr. Compress piped up.
He replied, "Around fifteen. My birthday is somewhere in July."
"I'm sixteen," Toga added.
"When did you learn how to drive?"
"I was raised around a car technician, so I started to learn about cars around nine or so. And I started driving a few years ago. I have enough experience if that's what you are asking," Midori answered.
"Can you kill?" Shigaraki asked, straight to the point.
Izuku shrugged, "I don't kill. And I don't intentionally harm innocent people."
"That's... less than ideal," Kurogiri commented while Shigaraki looked very disappointed and disinterested in him.
"I have set ideals of my own. Some may align with any of yours, but others won't," Izuku answered. "I won't kill any innocent person. But with my intensive knowledge, I can do even worse than just killing them."
Just like that, Shigaraki's interest was rising again. But Dabi scoffed at him, "Oh really?"
Izuku turned his gaze to fix upon the appearance of the fire quirk user. "You don't believe me?"
"You're just a kid. And you're not even that intimidating to look at," Dabi explained, jerking his head over to where Toga was laying down on one of the dirty couches. "Hell, Toga is more bloodthirsty which gives him more of an edge. But you don't look like you can handle it."
"You see, killing them would end their misery whether slow or painful or quirk and painless. I would never mess with someone innocent, I only deal with people that are truly bad for all the wrong reasons," Izuku told the dark-haired adult. "For example, if I were to use my skills against you, I would use your own quirk against you."
Izuku looked down at his patchwork skin, "But from what I can already see on the surface, your quirk is already doing that for me."
Dabi snarled, his fingers twitching with blue sparks. Giran looked ready to top in before Izuku raised his hands palm up. "Calm yourself. You're only doing more damage to your body since your strong quirk is obviously not suited for it."
Dabi's face slackened. Spinner looked on with a childish gleam of admiration in his eyes, "Midori is about to analyze right in front of me. This is one of the greatest days of my life."
"Judging by what I already know about you and your quirk, I know your body isn't suited for it which explains the patchwork like skin covering your body in these scars with staples holding it together. To undergo my way of doing things, I would analyze further into what will hurt the most," Midori narrowed his eyes at Dabi, examining his body from the scuffed shoes all the way to his black hair that had bit of soot falling when he took a strong step. He could tell from minuscule specks of black o; the white stitch detail of his leather trench jacket.
"From the scarring and tight movements, you are already dealing with constant pain from the pulling of the scars and stitches from the way your body moved towards me. Using the information, I can make it so there will be no more stretch to your body by having your body essentially burn to a crisp with your own quirk as the main tool," Midori continued on as he heard the staples clink together while Dabi chewed on the inside of his cheeks in thought. "Or I can possibly do something with the opposite extreme like frost-burn. Or a combination of both where you burn than freeze. If you had done something extremely bad in my eyes, I would even find a way with molten metal to restrict any power you have
Dabi clicked his tongue at the analysis, not letting his emotions shine through the obviously horrible experience he just described offhandedly. "Huh."
"If you want a different real-life example, I can provide that as well. With vivid photo evidence in one of my folders back at the place I stay," Izuku suggested.
Giran snickered, "He once shoved a homemade mix of Carolina reapers and wasabi up a guy's noise since his quirk focused on his ability to smell. To this day, he can't activate his quirk the same way he used to. Therefore, rendering him almost completely quirkless."
Dabi glanced over at Giran while Spinner was still looking at Midori in awe, no wonder Stain had the utmost respect for the analyst that the underground relies on even if no one knew who they were. But now, they had the renowned analyst right there in the room with them, threatening one of the members with bodily harm.
It was like a dream come true.
"That is sick," Twice gagged before throwing a thumbs up, "I love it."
"Now that's the analyst part out of the way," Izuku stretched out his arms. "I'll show you just how skilled I am at driving."
"Right on time too. We need to get our hands on some money and the best way to do that is robbing. Given the fact that our name got pushed a lot, we probably shouldn't be anywhere near a bank right now from how high alert heroes are. So we will just do something easy like a gas station store," Shigaraki explained with his scratchy tone of voice. "From there, I will make the decision whether you stay or go."
"Don't slow us down," Dabi commented while looking down at the possible new recruit. The others passed by him to get to their van that they stole from a used car lot a week ago.
Giran looked proud as Izuku returned his gaze with a knowing smile, "Don't hold me back."
*
So for the test, some of the league members went into a store while Magne and Kurogiri stayed behind with Midori in the van. They waited there while the others stole the money before hearing sirens in the distance. Midori got the car ready quickly right as the other men rushed in from the backdoors.
"Everybody in?!" Midori questioned just to make sure that he didn't have to wait.
Twice called out, "Yes, now drive!"
"Don't have to tell me twice," Midori grinned as he pulled on the clutch before hitting the gas, launching the members back from the amount of start-up speed.
"Just drive until you cannot see the cars anymore, then I will portal the car away to our next location," Kurogiri calmly said, ignoring the complaints of the members being thrown side to side in the back since he was the only one buckled in.
Midori nodded, taking off down the street with precision, running red lights and swerving around cars. Some cars stopped in the middle of the street when they saw him flying by.
Dabi shouted out, "Keep the car steady, I get carsick."
"Then you picked the wrong driver, crispy!"
Shigaraki yelped when Midori drifted around the corner to escape a patrol car coming straight from them. Magne slammed into Twice when he skirted in front of an 18 p-wheeler to get away from the last car chasing them.
He reached down to mess with the clutch again when he saw the perfect opportunity ahead of them.
Midori asked loudly, drifting around another corner as he headed straight for a road he knew would be mostly empty of cars around this time of day. "Ready to warp gate, Kurogiri?"
Kurogiri gently nodded while the other members slid around in the back with pillowcases filled with money all over the floor.
Midori drives fast down the street, keeping the van straight for Kurogiri to form a portal right in front of the car. When they portal formed, Midori put force on the brakes
When they passed the portal, the van's tires bounced on the cement and gravel floored warehouse. The tires screeched as Midori pressed down on the brakes hard and turned the car hard.
Giran stood against the wall as he watched the car come to a complete stop in the middle of the warehouse with burnt rubber marks from where the portal appeared. Giran clapped slowly as all of the members exited the van with their hair sticking up. Dabi placed a hand over his mouth and raced over behind a pole.
Midori calmly got out of the driver's seat while whistling and made his way over to his uncle Giran who looked so proud of the show he had just witnessed.
"So?" Giran prompted, wrapping his arm around Midori's shoulder as he stuck his hands in his pockets. Midori and Giran had matching smug grins as Dabi dry heaved in the background.
Shigaraki breathed out shakily, "Welcome to the team."