My Villain Isekai 5 (MHA)

New Beginning

“And so it is with great anticipation that I introduce you to our new leader and Grand Commander, Shisaki Yotsubashi, Lady Destro!” Trumpet declared grandly. The young woman in question had a barely visible stumble as she walked on stage that could easily be attributed to her being unused to the long, fancy cape draped over her shoulders.

Tomoyasu Chikazoku, better known to this crowd of fellow revolutionaries as ‘Skeptic,’ knew better. She hates the name ‘Lady Destro,’ but she wasn’t able to come up with a better one that still tied into her family’s roots, so she’s stuck with it. I was kind of irked with how she wanted to drop the ‘metahuman’ part of our organization’s title at first, but thankfully all the other Commanders, even the new ones, disagreed with that choice, so she was forced to compromise.

The crowd definitely ate it up, at least, cheering ‘Lady Destro,’ loudly. The words echoed around the massive underground chamber, making it seem even louder than the chants of the select couple  thousand MLA members that had been gathered here.

Shisaki sat down in the grand chair (read: throne) set up at the center of the stage. Her punk rock look remained, but the regal cape gave it a different vibe. Could use work before we go public with it, but at least everyone here is eating it up. Then again, she could have walked in wearing a trashbag and these folk would have cheered her on. They’re waiting in an empty, barren cave just to catch a glimpse of her, of course they would. 

Skeptic specialized in tearing people down, not building them up, but he had picked up enough tricks to recognize how to boost an image, at least to a basic degree. With Curious gone, I’ll need to do more of that anyways. Joy.

The Grand Commander raised a hand in the air as the cheering died down, and it stopped completely, the audience waiting raptly upon her words. “Hello everyone. We’ve faced many challenges in pursuit of our goals, but I’m happy to declare that our time is nigh!”

This provoked another round of applause and cheers for which she waited through before continuing. “To my left, the original Commanders of the Meta Liberation Army,” she said, tossing a hand out towards Trumpet, Geten, and Skeptic standing beside her. “They’ve served well in championing my father’s vision and I’m sure they’ll serve me well too.” That earned a polite round of applause.

“The times are changing, however, and we will adapt with them. We have new blood among our ranks, in the form of the former League of Villains.” She gestured to the right, and from the other side of the stage, Toga Himiko, Gin Bubaigawara, Shuichi Iguchi, and the enigmatic ‘Mr. Compress,’ entered from the right, to varying degrees of enthusiasm (from both them and the audience). 

It’s an awkward union to say the least. Despite that, Shisaki’s voice was full of cheer as she introduced them all. “They may have fought against us before, but we’ve worked out those differences. Now, they have become my newest Commanders, and we are united in our mission. To become unfettered from the foolhardy rules that hold us back. To use our Quirks to the fullest! To live life the way we want!” She stood up dramatically to punctuate her words, earning more cheers.

“To this end, I am renaming our organization, from the Meta Liberation Army to the Metahuman Liberation Front, for we are more than soldiers in an army, we are a movement! The Revival Celebration was a resounding success as new members flock to our cause everyday! We are the future, and this is our new beginning!” She had to shout loud to raise her voice above all the cheering and applause that thundered through the hall.

“Together, I promise we will make Quirks legal to be used by all! Persecution for ‘villainous’ Quirks or unusual appearances will be a thing of the past! Law enforcement will be held accountable for their abuses of power!” That added even more cheering to the crowd, though slightly muted in comparison to before. She lacks her father’s fiery rhetoric.

This carried on for a bit before the enthusiasm died down to a reasonable level and she finished by commanding them to, “Gather your strength for the promised day, because it will be coming soon, and no one can stop us!” With that dramatic and ominous note, she turned on her heel, sweeping out of the grand hall, the commanders trailing behind her.

What are you up to, silly child? Tomoyasu wondered as he followed her. He remembered this girl, the strange child of Chitose and Rikiya. Her mother had begged that their daughter share Rikiya’s last name, in an attempt from Chitose to bind herself closer to him. Tomoyasu had warned him of that, but still he accepted it, their leader blinded by the sight of his legacy surrounding her.

As Shisaki grew older, Rikiya regretted that decision. The girl’s tongue was too sharp, her will unyielding, and her eyes carrying ages with them, even as a child. They would argue whenever they talked, on business, or support items, her schooling, and most especially on the direction and goals of the MLA. Which makes what she’s doing now so suspicious! Why did she do a one-eighty and suddenly espouse our values as her own?

There were a few possibilities that leapt out at him. The first was that she wanted power. This was the most acceptable option in Skeptic’s mind. Assuming, of course, that she was going to do something with said power. Some people just craved a small modicum of fanatical support, happy to be monarchs of their own little sect or cult, but from how public Shisaki had been with the organization, the big moves she was making, that clearly wasn’t the case - she had grander goals than where she was now.

Ambition is an easy motive to understand, and more importantly, to manipulate. With the right words it would be easy to guide Shisaki and keep her following the path set down by the original Destro.

He doubted this, and more than just because it was always the first instinct of Tomoyasu Chikazoku to doubt. Ever since his friends had betrayed him to the police during a bout of petty shoplifting, ever since he found his mother cheating on his father, ever since he discovered his business partner had been stealing money from their company… The betrayals grew until he was suspicious of everyone. A gut feeling had developed that made Tomoyasu really worried, and it was triggering right now, around Shisaki.

She says words mostly in-line with Destro, but they’re the wrong words. Any quotes or spins on quotes she gives aren’t from the Meta Liberation War, but the few scattered pieces of lore we have from Destro’s speeches before he was sent to jail. She’s definitely backed off on Quirk Supremacy. For a focus on Quirk Liberation, sure, but is this just the precursor to Shisaki molding our organization entirely how she desires?

I had no time for further questions as we were led inside ‘the War Room.’ It was really a simple, square room within our underground bunker, with a large white rectangular table in the center. Around it were chairs enough for all the Commanders and Shisaki, the Grand Commander taking the sole chair at the front and unclasping the cumbersome cloak.

“Alright, I think that went well enough. Let’s get down to the nitty gritty. There’s a lot we have to cover. Skeptic, I believe you had something prepared?”

“Of course, Grand Commander. Here are our plans for the future,” he declared, pulling out a thick folder full of paper out from his deep jacket pocket and passed it over to her.

The girl who would lead us snatched the papers up off the desk, flipping through the stack at blinding speeds. Then, after letting out a single, dramatic sigh, she tossed it to the ground. “This is trash,” she declared.

“What do you mean!” Skeptic got half up from his seat, slamming his hands against the table. “This was years and years of work - your father’s true vision. Before he ‘went crazy.’” The man didn’t make the air quotes physically, but everyone in the room could clearly hear the sarcasm dripping off his tone. Rikiya was making a bold choice, that was for sure, but it could have still worked, to use the League to our own ends. Of course, Shisaki is managing the same, in her own way.

“It was overly optimistic in the best of scenarios. And some parts far more foolish than that,” Shisaki explained, and Tomoyasu resisted the urge to grit his teeth together. She talks like she’s speaking down to us, like a parent would to a child. It was funny when she did so as a toddler, but to hear it now grates on me. She was still the leader of the MLF now, so he gave her the chance to explain, instead of just jumping to shouting.

“One of our ‘divisions,’ is based entirely on Heteromorphs. It’s complete foolishness, and a notion we can ill afford.” She said dismissively.

“I would have thought you of all people would be supportive of the Heteromorphic community,” Mr. Compress pointed out. He wasn’t the only one of their ‘new commanders’ that were surprised by Shisaki’s words, Spinner narrowing his eyes at the girl. But only after his friend brought up the point - clearly this young man hasn’t had to fight hard for Heteromorphic rights.

Many in the city hadn’t, which was what made them easy recruits from the countryside. As they were shunned by the local, rural communities they lived in, Heteromorphs would flock to the MLA’s side with a few well-written anonymous posts. It was part of why they had such a high percentage of Heteromorphs in their movement to make up a full divisions worth.

Shisaki waved a hand up and down at herself. “I might not be different enough in appearance to face much persecution, but I clearly have no qualms with the desire for Heteromorphic equality. And if you and Trumpet want to work with the Heteromorphs and make some awareness posts on social media, rally up support from that angle, great, go for it. But when it comes to the effectiveness of the Metahuman Liberation Front as a group of combatants, we can’t afford to make mistakes based on PR. We need everyone grouped in ways to best capitalize on the strengths of their individual Quirks to make effective squadrons.”

“Ohh, great idea boss/Sounds like a lotta work, why bother?” Twice said loudly. That big mouth of his will get us all in trouble some day.

“Recruitment from going public wasn’t as great as we’d hoped. Despite killing Shigaraki and presenting it in the best light possible, when all of Japan was quivering in their boots over the League… we barely tripled our numbers.”

“Isn’t that a great thing? We had trouble enough with the hundred thousand we had to fight before,” Mr. Compress pointed out. Of our new fellow ‘commanders’ I find him to be the least objectionable of the bunch. Spinner has no spine, while Twice and Toga act like children. Compress at least has a level head about him. Even thinking that, Skeptic could guess what problem their new leader had with it.

“Exactly, and while you only actually fought like, ten thousand directly, a handful of you were able to match them.” At the confused looks on the others faces, Skeptic stepped in, explaining.

“If our numbers have swelled up but all we have is trash, then we just have a bunch more trash, that’s what you think, isn’t it?”

She didn’t refute the man. “While every new comrade we have is valuable and plays a role in our revolution, there are certain realities we need to face. The vast majority of the rank and file, especially the newcomers, simply aren’t equipped to take on the heroes. Let’s put it another way. Toga, you’ve just awakened your Quirk, so you’re stronger than ever before. Tell me how many students from one of the first year classes at U.A. do you think you could beat?”

“Ooh can it be from class 1-A? I want to fight Ochako again, take her blood, become he-”

“Sure,” Shisaki interrupted to move things along, and the other teenage girl in the room frowned, thinking the question over.

“Four, maybe five. Depends on who I fought.” The answer caused a split reaction in the group; the League members were impressed and slightly congratulatory, while the original Liberation commanders were shocked and horrified (and Shisaki, who seemed entirely unfazed by the answer).

“Only five at most? That’s pathetic!” Geten exclaimed, slamming a hand on the table and causing his water glass to frost over. “They’re only children!”

“You don’t know how tough those damn brats are!” Mr. Compress shouted back. “We’ve fought them before and they’ve got plenty of tricks up their sleeves.”

“How could they possibly be that tough? Or are you just not worth anything?!” Trumpet yelled, adding his own voice to the cacophony.

“Take that back! We were beating your pathetic crew! If it wasn’t for Shisaki, we would have killed you all,” Spinner spat back, joining the argument. Out of the corner of his eye, Skeptic caught the slight upturn of her lips before Shisaki hid that expression underneath the calm facade she wore. Of course she’d like to be viewed as strong; she’s faced years of being looked down on. Everyone assumed that she couldn’t live up to her father’s Quirk, which is why she trained her body and mind in old-fashioned ways. But that wasn’t the case, she merely never chose to step up until now. Why?

The question burned in his mind, such that Chikazoku barely heard Geten point out that Mr. Compress and Spinner had barely done a thing, and Toga had nearly died fighting Curious. Shisaki won’t answer me when I ask her directly however, merely deflecting or ignoring me. If the long haired man was inclined to be reasonable, he’d understand that she truly was quite busy taking the reins of the Liberation Front, but the demand to know what drove her outweighed that.

Mr. Compress looked like he wanted to argue back, but stopped at the sight of Shisaki’s slightly swollen arm, raised in the air. “Peace,” she ordered, and the men settled back down. Relaxing her power, the muscle deflated back to her normally proportioned (if still well toned) state.

“As for the question of how they could be so strong, well, look at how much the average hero trains. At school, in work studies, and as a sidekick before becoming a Pro Hero. That’s got to be close to a decade for most Pros before even counting any experience they have in their time on the job. With buckets of resources liberally tossed their way in the forms of massive campuses with state of the art training grounds. Simply put, their quality trumps our quantity.”

“We’ve trained hard too!” Geten hissed. “Have you missed how much our army has trained, the time they’ve put in?” He demanded. Such a sore point for him. Rikiya was the only one stronger than Geten, and even then it was close. For Shisaki to basically call our organization trash stings… even if realistically, she has a point, at least in comparison.

“While the MLA- sorry, MLF now, I’m still getting used to the change too - trains harder than the average civilian, it simply can’t compare to the trials the Heroes go through. We have to train in secret due to the restrictive laws placed on public Quirk use by the government.” It wasn’t as fiery as her father’s impassioned cries for ‘revolution,’ but there was a clear hint of distaste in her words. “Geten, you could wipe the floor with your squadron alone, and yours is the most elite of our force.”

This was in no small part due to Geten picking only the best of the best for his squad and training them relentlessly. His perfectionism matched Tomoyasu’s paranoia, and that pure drive was one of the few things Tomoyasu had found he could take at face value.

The new Grand Commander continued. “The point stands however, that the Pro Heroes are vastly stronger than us. Honestly, if you took every non-MLF citizen out of the picture, and just had us versus the government officials - including the pro heroes - we’d lose. Badly.” She let out a short, bitter chuckle. “Honestly, even if we had all of the country on our side, save the military, pro heroes, and related support staff, we’d likely lose.”

Silence reigned over the table for a minute as they took those words in, the enormity of the task laid out before them. How did none of us realize this before? Why did we think we could win? The answer was quickly formulated in Skeptic’s mind: The Metahuman Liberation Front simply hadn’t faced a challenge like that ever before. Unlike the League, who has constantly clashed with the Heroes, we’ve done our best to hide away from them. So we lacked a proper measure of how strong they were.

“Were those just empty words you tossed out on the stage?” Compress asked, shocked.

“How can that be? You promised us a new world!” Spinner shouted and Shisaki let slip a heavy sigh.

“They need something to believe in, so I’m giving it to them. That being said, I haven’t lied; it’s not a habit I’m fond of. Still, they experienced their truth, so now I’ll tell you yours. You’re my commanders, so you get a fuller picture of the situation at hand. I’m just explaining that it will take time and effort. We’re on the backfoot right now, but this is hardly impossible.” She took a sip of her own water, letting everyone settle down. 

I don’t sense her lying, or being deceitful. Tomoyasu had earned his moniker from Re-Destro after his former leader had commented on how ‘skeptical’ he was of everything. With good reason; everyone in this world lies. Even Rikiya did, to the rest of the world… and possibly to himself, given how easily he let go of everything at the end. So why can’t I sense deceit from her? Is she just delusional?

“If the situation is so against us, are you saying there’s no point in training our people up? We’ve worked hard for this, you can’t tell us it was all in vain!” Geten barked out, not quite as angry as he was before, but still clearly frustrated.

The frustration was shared by Shisaki, the young woman lightly massaging the temples of her head. “Of course not; if anything, I’ll want you to up the training. I have Support gear I’ve been working on during my time at U.A. which will be helpful too, some of it even tailored to certain members. Every effort helps, I’m just pointing out that we’ll need even more than that to succeed here.”

“Wait a moment, I can even the odds in a flash! I’ll just overwhelm the heroes with an army of mes!/Even though I really hate the idea of dying that many times,” Bubiagawara said, and the Grand Commander inclined her head towards him.

“It’s true that you’re one of the trump cards we have to field,” she admitted. “But the Heroes have their own trump cards. I can think of at least three off the top of my head that could shut you down.”

“Uh oh/There’s no way! Who could defeat an instant army?” Twice argued.

“The most likely would be Eraserhead. If he nullifies a copy, that will get rid of the copies they made, and he can do it by sight. The same goes for Eri, the least likely one they’d use, if only due to her age. She can rewind time to even erase people out of existence. Given how short lived the clones would be, even as a Stockpiled power, she could sweep through an army of Twice’s just as easily.”

“Peh, I can take ‘em-”

“Finally there’s the American top hero, Stars and Stripes. She has an unusually powerful Quirk that could possibly kill all instances of Gin Bubaigawara by touching a single clone. Oh, and she’s almost as strong as All Might to boot,” Shisaki tossed out, as if it was an afterthought.

“- I’m in danger,” The man whimpered out, looking down. Toga quickly rushed over to pat him on the back and reassure him, glaring mild daggers at Shisaki, who shrugged in response.

“These situations might be unlikely to begin with, but they’ll increase the more we press the Heroes, so we need to be prepared for them.” After a second, she relented slightly and added, “Don’t worry, I’ll protect you if Stars and Stripes show up.”

“I don’t need your help!/Thank you soooo much!” Gin snapped out and wailed in relief. Ugh. He’s such a nuisance, and too free with his words. We can’t afford to lose him, however; she’s right about him being our trump card.

He decided to press Shisaki on that point. “If the odds are so stacked against us, how do you propose we prevail? Surely you must have a plan to share with your ‘commanders,’” Tomoyasu shot out, the last word sizzling on his tongue like acid. She hasn’t seen fit to inform us of her overarching plans for a week and then tosses everything I’ve worked for to the ground!? She better have a good explanation.

The teenager let out a long suffering sigh, as if this was a huge ask on his part. Shisaki opened her mouth to speak, before pausing, her eyes flickering towards Bubaigawara. “Mind bringing up the Anti-Quirk Bullets from the vault? I need them.”

“What am I, your errand boy?/Sure thing, love to boss!” He exclaimed, creating a copy before Shisaki stopped him.

“No, remember, we have a power nullifier guarding it to prevent any spies from getting in while under disguises or illusions. You might as well join him,” she added to the clone. “I’ll have to fill the original in later anyways since you don’t share memories.”

The two identical men left, actually grumbling this time, but without much heat to it. Hmm, it appears our illustrious leader is under no illusions of how well Gin can keep a secret either, sending him off on some pointless errand. Tomoyasu didn’t call her out on that, since she’d clearly gone out of her way to do so in a subtle manner. Provided the plan she lays out is solid, at least.

“While the Heroes and government hold an overwhelming advantage, the situation I mentioned before wouldn’t actually have us losing. They are not a monolith, and so if every citizen rose up against them, the Heroes would acquiesce to our demands. If they truly were the kinds of people to use sheer force to rule the country - well, they’d probably be far more open to our ideology.” Her words were wry, as if it was a joke.

“So there are multiple paths to victory, either eroding the public’s belief in the Heroes or defeating them. We’ll pursue both at once. As the current gamestate isn’t favorable to either option, we’ll change it.”

“Wouldn’t the original plan fix that? If we cause enough chaos-” Skeptic began before Shisaki shut him down.

“The original plan moves too fast. Also, relies entirely on the Heroes acting exactly in accordance to how we want them too. Even if we chip them down, if they leave certain sites alone and concentrate on the critical points of the government, they’ll reinstate their control easily. Besides, more to the point, if we go on the aggressive, no matter how well we spin it, they’ll show us as ‘the Villains.’”

Shisaki got up from her seat, pacing around the table. “I really detest how the government took the words ‘hero’ and ‘villain’, and turned them into labels. I can’t deny the effectiveness of it though. They took mythologized ideals from humanity's earliest histories and turned them into their shield and spear.”

“We don’t need your useless philosophizing!” Spinner exclaimed and Shisaki whirled around, fixing the heteromorph with a glare that had the young man withering. Her neck twitched in anger, and for a moment Tomoyasu wondered if this might see the first of their inner circle dead - but then the moment passed. Shisaki exhaled heavily and rolled the tension out.

“I was trying to lend the proper gravitas to the situation at hand. Also, no one else wants to hear me talk about this stuff and you guys are basically my captive audience.”

“Boo!” Toga cheered with a thumbs down, joined by her fellow Leaguers, and surprisingly, Geten.

“Alright, alright. So it’s difficult to erode their trust, and despite the media empires we control, state news is received by a broader audience, and more trusted to. I have plans to discredit the Heroes which I’ll discuss in a moment, but all of that can’t shake up the board as it is. So we’ll invite new players.”

“Are you a gamer like Shigaraki?” Toga questioned and received a pout from the Grand Commander.

“No, I am nothing like Shigaraki. He was a brain-dead button masher, I am a traditional tabletop roleplayer,” she declared with a flourish of her wrist. When did she find time to play games with friends? Also, when did she find friends?? I’ve seen no sign of that from my monitoring of her. He didn’t have time to ponder it more as her next sentence knocked him straight out of any such thoughts.

“I think outside the box when it comes to problems, and to address this one, I’m going to have Skeptic discreetly deliver this Quirk Erasing bullet to Flect Turn, alongside instructions on how to find the girl they were made from.” What.

“WHAT??!?” The man shrieked after processing it a second longer. “How could you suggest such a thing? If Humarise gets their hands on that it could be the end of Quirks as we know it!” Skeptic leapt from his seat and reached out to throttle her by the collar but was stopped by her own hands grabbing his by the wrist, Shisaki’s painful grip stronger than iron.

“Exactly!” She declared with a maniacal grin on her face. “A worldwide cult descending upon Japan will lead to chaos the Heroes will be ill prepared to deal with. But even caught off guard, they’ll still prevail in the end, likely with some losses. Those losses will shake public faith in them, cracking their invincible image.”

“What if Humarise does succeed against all odds? If they only need to capture one girl, they could slink away and reform later,” Geten pointed out.

She let go of Skeptic, shoving the man lightly aside before plopping back down in her chair. “In that case, we’ll step in. Since we’re the ones leaking the information, we’ll have foreknowledge and be able to step in and bolster our own image by helping stop them. And no matter what happens, when Humarise is defeated and called out for their evil, the pendulum of public opinion will swing back the other way…”

“...Towards us,” Tomoyasu whispered out, seeing her plan in full for the first time. She’s a true schemer, just like me. All around the table were looks of consideration, anticipation, and outright awe. Alright girl. You had my attention, now you have my curiosity. Let’s hear it.

She laid out her plan in full, a few suggestions tossed around from the commanders and as the details were ironed out, Tomoyasu Chikazoku felt hope for the organization, the likes of which he hadn’t felt since Rikiya had died - or perhaps even before that, to when he had first been recruited to their organization. It’s like a new beginning.

As Shisaki called the meeting to a close, Skeptic noticed her getting an alert on her phone, about a man, Shimano something or other, being hospitalized in a villain attack. “Ah very nice, looks like we’ll be getting another powerful piece soon. Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to take a small trip out.” What could that be about?... I suppose I can wait a moment to see what she has cooked up. While new to the role, she hasn’t failed us yet.

A/N: So yeah, here we get a look at some of her plans for the future, of which the movie villains will play a more significant role than they did in canon. Also just more of her plans in general.

As for the power of the heroes, while she might be overstating how powerful the Heroes are as a whole (not every Hero is on Class 1-A’s level), there are plenty of strong ones, and Japan has a glut of Heroes overall. Moreover, that’s them when they almost never kill, and Shisaki’s assuming that if she presses them hard enough, that rule will go.

While I definitely plan on having the Metahuman Liberation Front give a better showing than the pretty much nothing they did in canon, a lot of that will be as a result of the changes Shisaki makes here. Part of it was having Hawks as an insider, but the PLF had a pathetic showing in canon. She’s going to need a lot of tricks to try to keep up with the insanity that Shigarki and All for One threw at the heroes in canon, but hopefully with her foreknowledge I won’t need to make any absurd nonsense to make that work. 

Also, because this is fanfic, I changed Star and Stripe name to add an ‘s’ on the end, because it honestly always felt kinda dumb how it was in canon, hopefully that change won’t upset anyone. Especially because she’s going to be the POV character for the final segment I have here, even if chronologically, that one takes place waaaaaaaay down the line compared to these ones, which are all fairly close together.