My Villain Isekai 3 (MHA)

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Deika City… what happened here? Keigo Takami, better known as the number 2 top hero, Hawks, wondered as he drifted towards the ruins of what had been a prosperous city just earlier today. 

Obviously, there was the massive crater near the center of the city. A wide hole in the ground with cracks and a pit that went down far deeper, as if a meteor had hit the place, and then had a bunch of shaped charges dropped on one spot. No, not a meteor, Tomura Shigaraki. Only his power could explain the lack of rubble and debris. There was still plenty of torn up shards of stone and earth that littered the crater, but compared to the rest of the city, only Decay could leave it so empty.

“Speaking of,” Keigo muttered to himself as he watched people sifting through the rubble of nearby streets. Houses were blown to bits, some streets still raged on fire, and bodies covered the ground. In one district a massive iceberg sat in the middle of the road, water from torn up pipes used to make it. At least I can see a cryokinetic currently breaking it down and sending the ice off to other parts of the city.

It was good disaster response training. Also, highly illegal if the situation was not a drastic emergency. While Deika might have been one a few hours ago, this is the kind of thing that should be left to the pros. As with all things in the world, there were degrees to which breaking the ‘no public Quirk use’ was considered acceptable. 

Accidental or incidental uses in public but otherwise closed off room? Would never get taken to court. Sometimes even used on purpose by braggarts or just as a way to socialize, so long as it was in a small fashion that didn’t get anyone hurt. Using your Quirk out in public obviously and purposefully would be frowned upon, but so long as it was non-disruptive, it likely wouldn’t see much worse than that. But using them like this, in a grand scale and to do a Hero’s job? There would be charges brought up. It left people hesitant to act, in most cases.

Yet here, no one was holding back. Even as they saw Hawks approach, they waved at him, pointed out disaster zones. On reflex, he waved back, sending feathers to point out people still trapped under rubble and direct some of the efforts. This is odd. Obviously, because Dabi called me in here and said it was urgent, but also in how everyone is reacting.

The city was a disaster site if it could ever be called one, yet there was an air of hope to the people. More than that, joy. What could destroy someone’s home yet leave them happy? Hawks didn’t have the best personal experience with the subject, but his training and years as a Pro Hero all said that this situation wasn’t normal.

Shaking off those thoughts as he felt a spike of heat nearby one of his feathers, Hawks flew down to Dabi, his contact within the League. “What happened here?”

“Aww, no nice to see you again, Dabi? Where’s that Pro charm?” The stitched man asked mockingly, chuckling. “I thought heroes were supposed to make people feel better in a disaster. What are your little fans going to think of this side of you?”

“It looks like things are handled pretty well here, though I admit that I’m happy for the break. Just didn’t think the League would be calling me in for something like this.” Hawks replied easily, his cover slotting in place like a second skin.

The pyromaniac shrugged. “Looks like the League is going through some changes. The boss wants to meetcha, have a little face-to-face after this dustup.” It took all of Hawk’s training no to visibly tense up at that. Access to Shigaraki? The ability to finally end this charade? It was so tempting that he immediately expected a trap.

“Wow, guess things really are changing here,” he commented blandly instead. “You were pretty stringent before, needing me to remove Best Jeanest and even then I didn’t get invited to this shindig.” Pointing out how little he trusted me might seem like a bad move, but Dabi is too smart not to realize how this looks. If I didn’t question it somewhat, I’d be even more suspicious.

He shrugged again, agreeing with the hero’s words. “Yeah. Oh, there is one thing we need you to do before meeting the boss.”

“Sure thing.” I’ve already ‘killed’ a fellow Pro, I doubt there’s anything he could say that would give me pause.

***

“You got your script down?” A tired sounding man said, quietly enough to avoid being heard by the cameras. He likely would have looked tired too, but this was harder to gauge as he was a heteromorph with what looked like a printer for a head. It was a part of his Quirk, which he had used to pass out the scripts all at the direction of a girl with blue-ish skin and many piercings.

Said girl, Shisaki Yotsubashi, was currently giving a live speech to Japan, and the world, through several media outlets and social media platforms. He hadn’t caught the beginnings of her speech as he’d been sequestered to a side room to go over the script. 

There were others, citizens who had been picked and given scripts and similar instructions, but as far as Hawks could tell none of them had been told to lie directly. This was all about ‘framing the narrative,’ as Yotsubashi put it. A fact that had the man with a printer head crying ink tears of joy, claiming that, “Chitose would be so proud.”

None of this is too shocking, and while it will be a blow for me to publicly go against the HPSC standards, they’ll understand that this is part of my cover. So long as I get to Shigaraki, it’ll be worth it. I can give a public statement recanting it after.

If he was being entirely honest, a lot of it even fit what he wanted from the world. Though there is a fair bit of praise for Yotsubashi’s actions here. Shading the League in a better light is to be expected, though at least there’s nothing excusing Shigaraki’s actions. Honestly, it feels like the average listener could almost read into this as me saying the League was manipulated by Shigaraki. He had determined that the League had clashed with another villain here, possibly several of them, but the pieces still weren’t adding up.

Hawks didn’t have time to wonder about the situation further as he got his cue. Flying out a window, he swooped onto the scene. Shisaki stood in front of the rubble, her arms flung out to indicate the devastation around her, a camera crew staged a few meters back.

“... People may be decrying my actions in the days to come. Pundits will come out of the woodwork saying things like ‘the law is the law!’ Forums will be made debating my fight with a fine-toothed comb, wondering if I had other options, as if I had weeks and the minds of thousands pouring over every detail to analyze every aspect of what could have been. Some will say that I was motivated by revenge, for what the villains did to my father.”

She paused at that, looking down sadly, before crouching down to pick up a teddy bear that had been placed artfully just a few feet to the left of her. Nicely done, that definitely wasn’t there when I did my first sweep of the area, Hawks thought as he landed down beside her.

“I killed these villains because doing so was the best option to save the most people. When disaster strikes, you don’t have time to wait for the heroes, and if that means placing people over laws, then I’ll always choose the former. Rules, our government, were designed to help people, and if they don’t do that, then it’s time for a change.”

“Couldn’t have put it better myself, Shisaki.” Hawks said, half turning to her, keeping the rest of him still facing the camera. “It might sound odd, coming from a Pro like me, but I consider ‘Hero’ to be a far more important title than ‘Professional.’”

He turned around for a moment to take in the devastation, as per the instructions, adopting a mournful expression as he turned back around. Shisaki really likes to micromanage things, doesn’t she? I know how to hold myself when making a public appearance. Those lessons had been beaten into Keigo as hard as any the Hero Public Safety Commission had given him - possibly even harder than the combat and rescue ones. He could understand though why she might feel hesitant about him, considering his recent public appearance with the other top ten heroes.

“I can only regret not being fast enough to stop this disaster, so I won’t be holding Shisaki, or any of the other brave citizens accountable for what happened here. This was our fault, not theirs. Society shouldn’t blame them for its own failures. When I got here and found out what was going on, I knew that things would have been so much worse had it not been for Shisaki’s bravery.”

He sent his feathers down to the large hole in the ground, surprised at just how far they had to go to reach the body at the bottom. Jeez, she wasn’t wrong about how heavy this guy would be, Hawks thought, not letting the strain show on his face as he continued to speak, the feathers slowly lifting the body out of the hole. 

“Many of the League of Villains themselves, and others downtrodden by our oppressive rules are simply victims of our society. We need to work together to not just stop devastation, but prevent the conditions that give rise to villainy in the first place.” Facing Yotsubashi directly, he extended his hand out to her. “Shisaki, let me be the first one to officially thank you for what you’ve done.”

Her gripping his hand and shaking it was timed right as the body of ‘Gigantomachia’ was lifted from the hole and shown to the public, some photographers taking pictures of the scene. It was a dramatic image, Hawks had to admit. I carried the big guy up and he still looks a little shocking. He feels and looks almost made of stone and is as big as Mount Lady. No exposed cranium like the Nomus have, but clearly something made by All for One.

Yotsubashi let go of his hand and he gave a jaunty wave to the camera. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to go help out with the rescue efforts.”

“Of course,” the young woman said. “Make sure to let your feelings be known, everyone. Post, reblog, and share this with others. Together, we can make a brighter future. You matter.” He flew off as she finished her speech.

It was standard fair for Hawks, but despite that, he felt his head twisting around, feathers hanging nearby to catch her words. There was something almost magnetic about the girl. He pushed it aside, focusing on his mission. I’m so close. Just need to finish this up and Dabi will take me to see Shigaraki. 

He quickly found the blue-flammed man, leaning casually against the rubble, half a kilometer away from the greatest site of the devastation. “Alright, now that that’s taken care of, let’s meet the boss,” Hawks said brightly.

“You already did.” There was a sly smile on Dabi’s face, the man energetic in a way that he only seemed to get when putting one over someone.

“Haha, very funny, but that’s not Shigaraki.” The sardonic mask Hawks wore didn’t match the panic he was feeling, like the entire game had been flipped on its head.

“Yeah, that dude is dead as a doornail. Yotsubashi there killed him herself, right before assimilating us Leaguers into their little movement. The ‘Metahuman Liberation Army,’ or whatever.”

“What.” It was less a question and more a statement of shock.

“I think everyone was on edge too, but she won the rest of the League over. Specially after beating that big guy. We’d been fighting Gigantomachia for weeks on end and getting nowhere and she put him down in a few minutes.” Dread started to creep into Hawks, the man getting nervous. All for One, the ‘Symbol of Evil,’ designated Shigaraki, and by extension the League of Villains, as his successor. Taking him out was the top priority for Japan’s safety, as designated by the HPSC. But looking over at that girl, with tens of thousands of followers, the rest of the League folded into her organization, and the strength she must have… I wonder if we made a mistake.

To clarify, he asked, “And what about you, Dabi? You’re just cool with her killing your boss?”

“Oh, definitely. Never really cared for Shigaraki before all this, but our goals aligned. If anything I think she’ll help me even further. But before any of that, she went down to her father, Re-Destro, the guy who called us all here in the first place. She called him pathetic, and killed the man with her bare hands.” The pyromaniac then sighed wistfully. “Tell me Hawks, do you believe in love at first sight?”

All the infiltration training and expertise in the world would not have been enough to hold back the look of disgust on Hawks’ face. 

​A/N: So, here's the next piece I had written in this series. I kinda worry that these ones are a bit short, but they also feel like they get to the point without padding things out unnecessarily? What do you think?

I've also started to wonder if she should have Feruchemy. It's a fun power, but it might not be the most fitting for the setting, especially when something like a variant of the Stress Quirk Re-Destro had alongside some support gear could probably let her do the same as I had planned for most of the story and fit better with the background she has here. 

In any case, I've only got a couple of these left for the moment... though I've also had ideas for another Self Insert in MHA, mostly because I've been binging the show recently, and have been appalled by how criminally underused Yaoyorozu's power is.