Chapter 92 What Comes Next

Later on, clearly not sleeping, Dante and Rinji stood infront of the mirror near the entrance of the salon.

Dante was adjusting his now clean and warm scarf while Rinji was standing next to him, pulling on his slightly tattered hoodie. It was a little thin, but it was his. They both looked cleaner now, having washed with actual soap and not just cold water.

Yeah, that's right, they weren't gonna sleep over.

Dante reached for a pen and notepad on the counter, flipping it open to a clean page. He didn't say anything out loud as he wrote.

When he finished, he folded the note and placed it on Kendo's bed.

"Thank you very much for taking care of us. I'm sorry that we have to go, but it needs to be done. And yes, you're right, I can't do this alone. I'll find a way to keep in touch and give you the tracker. Stay safe. — Dante."

He hesitated for a second, then added a small line beneath it.

"P.S. you suck at cutting hair, please learn before you cut it next."

Rinji tugged gently at his scarf. "Are we leaving now?"

Dante nodded. "Yeah. There isn't much sense in sticking around when we can't exactly be out in the day, nor can we stay here since her parents will see us, so we need to leave now."

Rinji just nodded silently.

They carefully walked back down the stairs, quietly as to not wake Kendo up. The hallway floor creaked once beneath Dante's weight, but the silence swallowed it quickly.

Outside, the cold midnight air brushed against Dante's skin. He had folded up the clothes Kendo had given them and left them in the house, he didn't want to steal her Fathers clothes after all.

The street was empty. No headlights. No foot traffic. It was just them.

Dante crouched down beside Rinji.

"You ready for a late night fly?"

Rinji nodded, barely hiding his excitement as he slipped his arms around Dante's shoulders.

With a slight grunt, Dante shot off into the sky, two jagged bat like wings shot out of his sides, out of Rinji's way.

They quickly rose above the rooftops, the quiet city below blissfully unaware of the duo slipping back into the underground.

Neither of them spoke during the flight. The wind was harsh against their faces and Dante narrowed his eyes as they banked over a bridge and descended into a forgotten alleyway behind a skyscraper.

They followed the path into the sewer and finally into their base.

The two walked through the hallway, Rinji rubbing his eyes.

Dante knelt beside his bed with Rinji sitting under the covers. The kid was already half asleep, blinking slowly, falling asleep.

Dante adjusted the blanket around his shoulders.

Rinji didn't protest, he just drifted off into sleep.

Dante stood slowly, casting one last glance over his shoulder at Rinji before stepping into the main room.

The old whiteboard stood at the center of the wall with some Markers tucked into a cup beside it. Dante uncapped the black one and began writing, a basic to-do list.

Priority before engaging the league of villains.

1. Achieve non time limited full body sludge mode.

Maximum mobility, stealth and can make me nigh invincible. If I can dissolve into pure sludge and reform at will without there being any time constraints, I can infiltrate, escape or fight without being hindered by a solid form. A way I can achieve this could be as my father said and just use it more often.

2. Fully control sludge disconnected from my body.

Currently, I can only retract sludge that isn't connected to my body, but I believe I can fully manipulate disconnected sludge with enough training. By doing this, I could create constructs and manipulate them, I could create other bodies and maybe have little Dante inhabit one of them so we can fight as two.

3. Combine Pyroclast and Sludge.

Fire + Sludge = molten damage, I saw what it was capable of against the Nomu, I can do it, I've done it before. It shouldn't be too hard.

4. Give Kendo the tracker.

Dante paused and then stepped back from the board.

This was a pretty good to do list, it'd keep him busy for the time being.

He nodded to himself and then moved to his own bed and drifted off to sleep.

…

…

The league of villains' hideout was quieter than usual.

A heavy silence hung in the air, only ever disrupted by the flickering lights and the occasional wince from spinner as he adjusted the bandages from his ribs. He was slouched on a couch in the corner, severely wounded from his encounter with Kazuya.

Toga sat cross legged on a worn table, humming as she flipped through an old magazine. Dabi leaned against the wall with his arms crossed, watching the old tv in the corner.

Kurogiri lingered behind the bar, his swirling form still and quiet until he turned toward the hallway leading to Shigaraki's personal room.

"He's been in there all day again," Spinner muttered, not looking up.

"He hasn't slept in days," Dabi added with a dry smirk. "Not since that incident with the lab."

Kurogiri nodded faintly and phased through the doorway, disappearing into the hallway.

Shigaraki's room was dim, lit only by the flicker of the desk lamp. The walls weee covered—absolutely COVERED—in photos.

Pictures of one boy.

Range Graves.

Grainy surveillance snapshots. News clippings. Freeze frames from traffic cameras. Even a blurry image of Dante walking with a kid near the ruins of a back alley.

A photo near the desk was pinned crookedly, stained with dried blood.

Shigaraki sat in a crouch on the floor, scratching furiously at his neck with one hand while chewing his fingernails with the over. His eyes were wide, bloodshot and twitching every now and again.

Kurogiri appeared quietly in the corner. "Tomura… you haven't eaten. I brought you—"

"Why him…" Shigaraki hissed suddenly, cutting him off. "Why isn't he broken? Why is he fine… why is he alive?"

Kurogiri tilted his head. "You're clearly… invested. But obsession clouds judgement."

Shigaraki's fingers curled and his breathing grew heavy.

"He embarrassed me. On live television. He made us look like we were a joke," he growled. "And he didn't even show his face."

He stood suddenly, pacing around the room in manic, crazed steps.

"I thought that killing his master and burning down something close to him would break him. But he just vanished. Then one of our labs go dark. If anything, we made our situation worse, he's not playing by the rules anymore."

He stopped infront of a photo of Dante standing near a blurry orange haired girl, shoulders tense, head slightly bowed.

"He's certainly looking for us, that's guaranteed."

Kurogiri's form wavered slightly. "He is dangerous. But perhaps best left in the shadows, where—"

"NO!" Shigaraki roared, spinning around violently. "We draw him out again… and we kill him."

He stood still for a long moment, breath coming out heavy.

Then… he started giggling.

A slow, steady tier laugh that slowly spread like mold.

"It seems he isn't as alone as we thought… he has someone else…"

He reached up to the wall and peeled down a photo, Dante, caught mid laugh in the background while walking beside a tall girl with vibrant orange hair.

Kendo Itsuka.

Shigaraki's nails scratched across the photo, leaving ragged white lines in the image.

"When we attack U.A.," he whispered, breath shaking. "According to our insider, Class 1-B should be there at the training camp. This girl… according to her file, she's in 1-B, and she's the only one close to him."

He turned to Kurogiri, grin splitting his cracked lips.

"We kill her."

He burst into manic laughter, head tilted back, nails scratching into the side of his neck as he stared at the ceiling.

"She dies screaming… and we make him watch."

Kurogiri didn't respond.

There wasn't anything to say.

Things were about to get wicked.