Blossoms of the Dark

LXXIV Selene: Debt

Trigger Warnings:

- rape

- physical abuse: slapping

- euphemisms

- crude language

- graphic murder depiction

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One month ago, I swore to kill the man who stole the last of my treasures from me.

Tonight, I act upon that vow.

I stand in the center of the bedroom, dressed as the Lady of Hell herself, waiting for the portal to open.

At midnight sharp, the purple-black vortex opens and I step in.

The setting is the same as always: Kurogiri stands behind the bar counter, Shigaraki reclines in a bar stool, All for One attends via a monitor.

"I heard the school was off yesterday. Did you learn anything today?" Shigaraki asks with undisguised interest. He looks healthier now.

I sit on a barstool and respond to the question. "Yes. It's serious. This morning, just before classes were in session, the U.A. faculty had a meeting discussing the events at the U.S.J. There was a policeman present as well." It was not easy eavesdropping on the conversation from hundreds of meters away in a classroom while pretending to read a book. "The policeman said he conducted a thorough investigation of you and Kurogiri. He knows that your quirk is disintegration and Kurogiri's is warp-gate based on the attack, but he couldn't find any registration records of either." Shigaraki grins at the last part. "He postulates that your names are aliases or that neither of you was accounted for in the population census." His grin widens.

"Keep going," he says excitedly.

"All Might called you a man-child."

His grin drops immediately. "What?"

"All Might said that you were a man-child."

"How did he reach that conclusion?" He's angry.

"He admitted that you planned a daring and meticulous plan. But he condemned your logic and stated how you went on and on about the noumu's abilities, but never your own. He said, 'When things aren't going his way, it's like he gets downright sick in the head!' His words, not mine. All Might elaborated on that by describing how you had an overly simplistic view and a 'toddler's sense of feeling like he can do whatever he wants.'" Shigaraki frowns and scratches his neck. He's understandably vexed, but he beckons me to continue. "The school principal thought differently. He interpreted the man-child comment as though you were someone who had the potential to develop like U.A.'s students. If you were mentored and had someone nurtured you with love, then you wouldn't have turned out like this. Essentially, the principal pitied you ..." I trail off at the end. I'm all too familiar with how it feels to be pitied.

Shigaraki doesn't speak for a while. He's as still as a statue, and obviously lost in emotions I'm well acquainted with. "What else did you learn?" he asks.

"U.A.'s Sports Festival is coming up at the end of next month. I think that I should take part in it."

His mood changes. "Why?"

I scoff. "I think the answer to that should be obvious. Didn't my motherly scolding teach you anything? The festival will showcase the quirks of U.A. students. Imagine the cornucopia of intel that will be there. The festival will be recorded, but the media will only show the most dramatic, most tense moments. There's only so much that you can learn from that. But if I take part, I can observe the students' quirks. Their strengths, their weaknesses, their modus operandi. I can report all of that to you. The League of Villains can use that when it plans its next attack." I had thought I would need to convince All for One, but I suppose I miscalculated.