Switcheroo \BnHA Various x Reincarnated!OC\

41 - Recruitment... Or Not

"And my side of the story?" Shigaraki dodges her attacks. Only noobs fight when they're hurt. "Isn't justice about mercy, fairness and all that jazz?"

"Go on. I'm all ears," The girl sends a punch the man-child's way, garnished with a sugar sweet smile. She'd like to see him explain the binoculars in his hand.

"Hold up, hold up, hold up. Let me catch my breath." Shigaraki runs on the asphalt and several cars honk at him angrily. "Hard to tell a sob story when I'm winded!" He yells from across the road when she missed the gap in traffic to cross.

"You sound pretty eloquent to me!" Petals shadow the motion of Renka arms as if she's a maestro and they, an orchestra. They form a band between two street lamps, and said band bends with her in front of it.

Shigaraki takes one look at that and shrugs, "I'm not sure which of us is clinically insane now."

Those words don't reach Renka (or she'd have protested vehemently... not that she's sane but she doesn't want to be compared to him). The band of petals catapults her to Shigaraki's side of the street.

The rushing wind stings but she glares at the target with unblinking eyes.

Almost... there...!

"The answer is both." Kurogiri appears beside Shigaraki just as dark fog blocks Renka's trajectory.

"Shitake." Surprise attacks suck when you're on the receiving end.

Breakfast threatens to come up when the fog swallows her and her skin feels icky—like on humid, rainy days. But it lasts only a moment because she falls from a height of two-storeys the next. Not enough to kill, but more than so to stun and maybe break something.

Shigaraki looks at her fallen form at his feet, pleased. "Perfect." Finally some peace and quiet. Snickers rumble from his throat at the thought. "I wanted to destroy you and that brat but I changed my mind. Stop playing hero and join me. My party needs a buffer."

Renka rolls over, groaning, such that she's facing Shigaraki's bent form. There's no falsity in his face. She decides that she hates looking up at people and no amount of donuts will change her mind. "And do what? Conquer the world with your merry band? I'm too old for flights of fancy."

The look on Shigaraki's face says that he doesn't understand. Like a child who doesn't understand why the dentist banned him from lollipops.

"You launched a raid and attacked my class." Most of her friends came out unscathed but Izuku and the teachers had not. "What makes you think I want to be a part of that?"

Scritch, scritch, scritch. Bony fingers scrape his exposed skin. He hates it when things don't go his way. First the Hero Killer's rejection, and now this kid. There's this surging impulse...

To destroy.

"You'll regret it," he spat at the idiotic kid.

"I seriously doubt that." Her sweet smile doesn't wane even as a massive creature with exposed brain comes into picture and Shigaraki's quiet voice steeped with madness says:

"Get her."

Renka shelves her smile. Should have known it'd come to this. Maybe lying was the better option? Pretend to join them and track down their hideout... No, she hates lies.

"Only children throw tantrums after rejection, hun." Renka pops her bone back in place.

Kurogiri looks at her funny. Her words and actions are unexpected for a child. Then again Shigaraki's words and actions are unexpected for an adult.

The man-child scoffs. "Buying time? Nice try. Have fun playing with my Noumu."

"Fight your own battles, coward!" Renka struggles to stand.

"IIIdiot. I'm not falling for it." Shigaraki gives her one last sneer and enters the foggy portal with Kurogiri following suit.

"It's just me and you now, buddy. How much is Handboi paying you? I'll double it."

The creature's mouth opens so wide that its head appears to have split into half.

"I just wanted to try saying that." Renka wipes the slobber from her face, "And would you mind some social distancing?"

※※※

"A villain's passed out in the next street over," Renka says to the first police officer she sees. "Follow the white trail. He's impossible to miss."

It ended almost all too easily. Renka wasn't stronger than Noumu in the truest sense... it was just a bad matchup. Any other opponent would have dodged or destroyed her petals but Noumus were built to follow orders and didn't have much in the department of intelligence.

The policewoman eyes Renka's battered costume. The flower-themed outfit is something you'd see on a cloying girl idol than on a hero. It's an awful time for a prank but protocol is protocol. She relays the coordinates through a walkie talkie and turns to the little girl, "Your name and affiliation—" But of course she'd gone AWOL.

Only when she grudgingly follows the trail of petals did her misjudgement come to light. There lay a docile monster—if you can describe it so. White coated the Noumu, mourning clothes made to measure.

She looks back the way she came. Who was that kid?

※※※

Right out a back alley of Hosu City, Izuku was just saved by the very criminal that hurt his friend's brother... the Hero Killer.