If Izuku would have known that the league villains couldn't find a random bar, he might not have agreed to this deal after all. Because he was now stuck with several other me,beds inside an abandoned build that to be me sort of business
And it was even worse since Kurogiri separated from the group to do some kind of unspecified job that All for One trusted him with.
The abandoned building had cardboard and wooden boxes spread out everywhere, mostly along the wall. It had old couches and chairs covered in white sheets from the old business that used to stand proud and tall in this area. But they were pushed to they sides of the building to provide space in the middle. The middle of the building had tire sacks from when Izuku instead showed off his driving skills to them.
And there they had stayed for a few days, living off the money they had stolen from the bank. Kurogiri had provided them with a small television to use for entertainment and for Izuku to analyze any recent villain fights.
Izuku was reclining on a dusty couch when he caught Toga approaching him out of the corner of his eye. He brought up a cheap soda can up to his mouth right as Toga disrupted his silence. "Heyyy, Midori. Can I have a taste of your blood?"
Midori slowly turned towards her with a deadpan expression, "I feel like you and I need to have a higher level in allyship or friendship to have that sort of level unless it is used for combat." Midori passed to take a sip of his drink before continuing, "I don't trust just anyone stabbing me and tasting my blood."
"Did Stain taste your blood?" Toga asked, leaning her chin onto her hand.
"Yes," Midori said, holding a finger in the air when Toga tried to interrupt him. "But I did consent to it beforehand just, so I could get more of a deeper analysis on it to help him in the future."
"So I just need to befriend you? That's easy," Toga grinned happily. "I'm friends with almost everyone here already."
Midori breathed in as the other teenager skipped away from him with a bounce to her step. He sighed, he could only imagine what she might do to make him her friend.
*
"Hey, what are you doing?"
Izuku looked down at his green drink, "Nothing much besides drinking this soda and waiting to be needed."
Spinner pursed his lips and swayed on his feet. His lips popped as he opened up his mouth to ask, "Okay, so you aren't doing anything?"
"I just said I wasn't. Why? Do you need something?"
Spinner braced his arms on the back of the covered couch to get closer to Midori. "Can you tell me more about Stain? I have been following his rule of code for a while now since I was so inspired by him. And now since you are here in the flesh, you could tell me all about him."
"You want some information based on my interactions with him," Izuku said as a confirmation to himself. Spinner nodded frantically back at him with hopeful eyes. He briefly thought back to when he was younger, did he have that kind of hero worship back then?
Midori shrugged, "Alright then. He was standoffish at first and didn't want to work with me when I first encountered him. It took running into each other again and the help of Giran to finally talk with him longer about his ideals and future plans."
"I offered my services so I could pinpoint the more useless heroes that he could take down easily that were corrupt in one way or the other. A card based hero that preyed on underage teenagers, a sidekick that took joy in attacking the stray cats, and a hero that was taking bribes to let criminals go," Midori listed them off on his fingers. He took a long sip from his soda to wet his mouth that was becoming dry. "I pointed him in their direction and he gladly took my notes. But I also criticized him on some of the heroes he was planning on."
"You criticized his ideals? But why?" Spinner questioned, leaning forward against the back of the couch, making his gross fall into the back cushions. "They are so pure!"
Midori looked over at him with a dry expression. "That statement is appreciated on the surface level only. Looking for 'true' heroes sounds good on paper, but determining who is a worthy hero is something else entirely," Midori waved his hand in the air as he thought about an example to tell the scaled villain beside him. "One might say a true hero will save the civilians first. And another would say that the one who takes care of the villain is the worthy one since they prevented any future situations."
"It was my job to tell Stain to narrow down his search of 'true' heroes to ones that have truly done good. Anyone like I mentioned would be taken down. But he originally wanted to get rid of I genius, I was the one to talk him out of it since he wouldn't be following his own ideal if he took him down."
"How? What does Ingenium have that makes him a 'True' Hero?" Spinner questioned.
"And here comes that 'true' and 'worthy' talk again," Midori highlighted by using air quotes while he talked. "Ingenium is a good Hero, he does his best to save people and make them feel safe from every observation I have made on his fights and battles he has been in. He doesn't do it just for fame and money like some other heroes. In my eyes, he is a good hero that doesn't deserve that kind of treatment. And many others are like him.
"As a whole, it's not about finding the true heroes that act exactly like All Might or whoever," Midori tried to explain to the stunned villain who was staring at him in a new light as he continued. "It's about weeding out the corrupt ones who do nothing to truly help people and are only out there to earn the money to spoil themselves. That is one way you could get rid of the evil roots of the hero worship society we live in now."
"Woah," Spinner mumbled. "Are you always looking for the corrupt heroes?"
"When I'm not busy doing other analysis, then yes. I will do further research into heroes that haven't passed the top fifty or so. And deliver that information to Stain if he asks for it. I have also extended this type of information with corrupt businesses to Gentle Criminal and La Brava since they deal with that type more often than actual people."
"You mean the vigilante-tubers? I love watching those two," Mr. Compress piped up as he entered the room, walking over to them with a flounce in his step. "It feels fancy with the tea preparation at the very beginning of the videos. I often practice my stage magic while the video runs."
"You do stage magic?" Izuku perked up in his seat. He didn't know that the magician look wasn't just for the aesthetic. He just thought the villain did that to stand out.
"I have a multitude of tricks up my sleeves," Mr. Compress announces loudly while pulling up his sleeves. He reaches out his hand swiftly behind Midori's ear to pull out one of his blue marbles seemingly out of nowhere. "I can show you much more magic now that you are a member of our team."
Midori would have realistically pushed away the offer. But that small childlike part of him craved to see more close up magic even though the logical part of him would pick apart each trick. "I would like that."
Mr. Compress mask smiled back at him while Spinner turned slightly to watch as the other villain pulled out a deck of cards to confine with the impromptu magic show.
And before his eyes, Mr. Compress pulled out a spark plug out of his arm sleeve. Izuku's eyes narrowed and he threw his own hand against his chest to pat at the pocket inside his jacket only to find it empty, "Hey, that's my lucky spark plug."
"Yes it is."
"Hmm," Izuku hummed while the magician delivered his object back to him. "Do it again."
*
Later on in the day, Izuku sat by the back door of the building to breathe in the fresh air. Except he wasn't expecting the air to smell like smoke until he started to cough.
"Oh. Sorry Midori," Twice apologized before straightening up with a wicked grin. "Breathe it in, youngin!"
"You taking a smoke break, Twice?"
"Yeah," Twice nodded more calmly, gesturing to the cigarette in his hand. His mask was pulled up to his nose just so he could smoke. "You want one?"
"No, I'm good," Izuku waved him off, making Twice shrug while breathing in the smoke. "Keep them to yourself."
Twice blew out another plume of smoke, "So, Midori, how long have you known Giran?
"I've known him for a few years now," Izuku replies. He scooted closer to the door, allowing the fresher air along with the traces of cigarette smoke to hit him more. He threw the question back at Twice. "How long have you two known each other?"
"Same as you, for years," Twice smiled before taking another puff of the cigarette. "I ran into him when I was a teenager and getting into trouble. And I have been in contact with him since."
"And Giran told me about you before the rest of the underground found out. I found out last!" Twice cleared his throat from the sudden hitch in his voice. He dropped the cigarette to the ground and stubbed it out with his shoe. He pulled his mask down before turning to talk with Midori more directly, "I know you do the quirk analysis stuff."
"Yeah, I do," Midori replies. "I can tell you a bit about yours if you want. I have nothing else to do."
Twice shrugged before telling him a bit more about his quirk including the details like the fact that Twice needed exact measurements for any clone he made.
"I used to steal a lot with my clones in the past," Twice sighed. "But I can't really do that anymore."
Izuku paused and looked up at the older man, "So you could double yourself, multiple at once, but not anymore because of what exactly?"
"Well after the whole clone incident happened, I don't have any clue if I'm a clone. Or the original!"
"I can help you with that," Izuku hummed to himself.
"Hmm?" Twice looked up in surprise. "You said something? I totally heard you!"
"Nothing. I was just thinking out loud," Midori replied back, standing up from the ground. "Enjoy the fresh air, Twice. I'll head back inside for now."
And then he walked back inside, passing by Dabi who shifted farther away from him when he walked by.
Thought began to fill Midori's head. 'Maybe if Twice broke his arm he would learn he wasn't a clone?' Before another thought cut into the previous idea. 'But his mental health is unstable enough, something like that could cause it to deteriorate further.' It looks like he needs to look into Twice's quirk a bit further along with his mental state since there could be a connection from what Twice had told him.
Midori clicked his teeth while marching over to the television spot to finish any quirk analysis he needed to do for that day. Giran hasn't needed any requests recently, so it gave him more time to work on the project that he was going to show Shigaraki.
*
Kurogiri returned at nightfall with a bag of food inside a large pot. He had to deal with one of AFO's plans that was housed in the forest for most of the day. When he entered inside the abandoned building, he could see a lot of the members leaning or lounging on the furniture around the space that was covered by sheets.
He spotted young Tomura resting against the wall furthest from everyone. But then his eyes caught on a head of green hair that was peeking out from the arm of the couch with the television screen still lighting up the small area. He approached the couch to see that their new driver was still somewhat awake.
The driver glanced over with barely open eyes and mumbled, "What's with the pot?"
"To boil water for any needs we might have," Kurogiri responded quietly.
Midori sniffed, flipping over into his other side to face away from the screen, "But the warehouse doesn't have a stovetop or a fire pit anywhere.
Kurogiri placed the pot full of groceries down on the floor. "Twice has an apartment that has a stove from the information he has given us. Or we have Dabi who could help."
"Wait, Twice lives somewhere?" Midori questioned, trying to pick his head up and look around, but giving up rather quickly because he couldn't see much of the room from his viewpoint.
"Indeed," Kurogiri answered, watching how the younger teen is laying down on the ground with his head relaxed back into the dusty couch cushions.
Kurogiri watched as the young teen curled up on the couch and decided to grip onto the sheet covering the couch. Gently, he untucked the large sheet covering the back cushions to set the thin blanket on top of the teen who was steadily falling asleep with every passing moment. "Rest well tonight."
Midori murmured a reply that was lost inside the couch as Kurogiri picked up the pot and walked away to store it somewhere for future use.
*
Shigaraki was resting for the day, tired from searching the streets the yesterday for recon on what the hero society was doing.
Sometime after a Kurogiri had prepared food for them all, Shigaraki finally got approached by the new driver that had joined the team.
He was expecting him to ask when they would be going out again for his skills to be utilized. However, he was surprised when he saw the stack of torn out notebook pages that the younger teenager was holding as he walked up to him.
"I have analyzed all of your quirks and how you can improve in your fighting with them," Midori said, dumping a stack of pages before dumping another stack right next to it. The stacks of pages were torn notebook pages with words written all over the page. "I also analyzed some lowscale heroes in the area that you might run into if we stay in this area."
Shigaraki took a moment to thumb through the pages, feeling a frown form when he realized he didn't see any weaknesses for the one hero he hated, "Why do you not have All Might?"
"Because he is already retired?" Midori replied like what he was stating was obvious. "Endeavor is the number one currently. And unless you ask, I wouldn't think to give you his analysis unless you ask directly."
"Why?" Shigaraki questioned.
"All Might was yours to take down. And you already did. The symbol of peace is gone and people haven't been taking too kindly to Endeavor yet," Midori replied, walking to the wall and leaning against the concrete as he continued his explanation. "So it would make sense to go after him now. You would wait until he has gained the public's trust and favor."
Midori turned his attention to the ceiling with in the dim light of the warehouse illuminating the space, "But if you do what an analysis of any specific hero, just tell me beforehand and I can get that ready within a day if I have a decent amount of videos of them showing off their quirk."
'Ah, so he's the key player in this. He is like the cheat code to this,' Shigaraki thought to himself as he skimmed through the pages with two fingers. He glanced up to his new driver, "What made you choose these heroes? Proximity?"
Midori shrugged, "This is just some basic heroes that could be taken down. I have done some narrowing down on which ones you might encounter and other little stragglers that won't grab that much attention. But there are enough heroes that when multiple start dying or disappearing, it will cause a mess for the hero commission to clean up."
"Hmm. So instead of taking out the big one. You aim for the smaller ones to have more loss by quantity," Shigaraki stated, picking up a page between two of his fingers to stare into a crudely drawn portrait of some hero he didn't care to know the name of.
"It's not just the quantity. It's more like unraveling a cloth string by string," Midori answered, reclining back on the couch. His voice remained calm as he continued with his analogy. "You could just burn it from the middle, making everything around it charred. But someone else can find a patch to fill the hole. It might have been damaged, but it would be fixed in no time."
Midori's green eyes seemed to shine with mischief as he looked back at him, "But if you unravel it little by little until it's nothing but thread, it will take a lot longer to build it back up."
Shigaraki could feel the grin on his face grow, "You are getting more and more interesting, Midori."