vigilante

Forty Eight

- Kosuke's Point of View -

I finally found out what day it was. Low and behold, I had been kept in captivity for a little over two weeks! It was now August 29th, meaning school would soon be starting up again, since it was scheduled to begin on the first Tuesday of September. But that didn't really matter to me anymore, considering I would never be going back to school except for that one last time. 

At the moment, I was sitting in Dabi's kitchen, using the counter space to map out Tartarus' blueprints so I could accurately predict where my dad was kept, and cause only minimal damage since most of the creeps in there definitely shouldn't be freed. If my guess was off, we'd probably be fucked, which was why I wasn't leaving it up to predictions. "This was too easy," Mr. Compress scoffed, producing a marble as he stepped out of a warp. 

"Easy is better than hard," I reminded him with a nod to put the marble down. Dabi stood beside him as backup, and so with a snap of his fingers, the blue orb burst into a person. 

"Wha--Where am I?!" He tried to reach for his guns to defend himself, but they'd already been taken from him before they captured him. "Shit!"

"Calm down," I smiled brightly at him, leaning back into my chair. "I just need you to tell me which block, level and cell number the hero killer is being held in," I told him, but he didn't seem to want to cooperate.

"Damn fanatics! You'll never be able to get him out!" the person yelled, probably holding onto the last shred of sanity he had left. I could relate, a few days ago at least. Now, I no longer clung to my sanity, instead I embraced the insanity that my plan needed. 

"Come now," I rolled my eyes, "You don't want us to get rough with you, do you? If you answer truthfully, I'll free you, easy as that. So just tell us what we want to know," I bargained, not missing how Dabi's eyebrows raised ever so slightly. 

"Y-you promise?" The guard stammered. I had specifically instructed Mr. Compress to obtain a quirkless guard, or one with something so useless it wouldn't be of any help or merit to them. I hummed with a nod. 

"I promise," I stated, then leaned forward. "So?" Of course the dude spilled his guts, probably too scared of the people behind him to put up much of a fuss. 

"I-it's here," he put his finger on the blueprints, on a specific cell. 

"Perfect," I beamed at him, patting him on the shoulder. "Thank you so much," He didn't have time to respond or even look at me before I had cut off his head, barely even blinking. 

"I thought you said you'd set him free," Mr. Compress sounded offput from behind his mask, causing me to shrug. 

"I did. I freed him from this wretched world," I said, and suddenly Dabi was snickering. 

"You really are perfect, Kosuke."

"Eh," I shrugged again. "Compress, can you get Toga in here? It would be great if she could pose as this guy for a few shifts so nobody will suspect anything."

"Toga's not here right now," Shigaraki came ambling over, having been in the bathroom for some time. "She's on a mission. Kurogiri," He called. "Bring the blood collecting gear here."

"Of course," The warp gate agreed, quickly disappearing and reappearing with the device required. 

"Compress, if you would do the honors," I offered the thing to him, causing him to flinch, but do as told while grumbling how gross it was that he had to poke a needle into a dead body. "Anyway, seems like he didn't recognize me, so that's good." I commented.

"Yeah," Dabi nodded his agreement, his face returning to his usual bored expression. His eyes were still laughing a bit, though. "You and Spinner like his costume too much."

"You do realize this is his spare costume, right?" I made a show of flipping the scarf over my shoulder. "As in my dad has worn this before."

"..Really?" Dabi's fanboy side came out as his eyes danced with stars and his hands started flexing as if he wanted to touch it. I snickered, pushing up the mask so it was no longer over my eyes but resting on my forehead. 

"Yeah. Its a bit big on me, but I still love it to hell and back," I reached out, "Feel free to touch, but don't rip anything off please. I'll smack you and make you eat salad until you die."

"Noted," The patchwork villain seemed too focused on hovering over the cloth to actually touch or damage it, so I was no longer worried. After he'd finished his task, Compress seemed to like the scarf and mask as he touched them a bit before deeming it good enough. 

"So now that we know which cell he's in," Shigaraki sat on my left. "What are you going to do now?"

"Find the best route in and out," I said. "The cell he's in is under sea level, or in other words, underground, so we can't exactly bust in from right outside the containment space. We're gonna need to go in through the front gate," I put my finger on the spot. 

"Not even you should be that bold, Akaguro," Handman scowled. "That's sure to get us caught and killed, what the hell are you thinking?"

"...I'll be honest," I looked down. "I haven't done this kind of thing before, but if I get some practice in, I'm sure I can make it work."

"No one's done this kind of thing before, Kosuke," Dabi deadpanned at me, but I shook my head.

"I don't mean this whole opperation," I reiterated. "I mean how I'm gonna get me and Kurogiri in."

"You and me?" The warp gate repeated with a confused tone. 

"Yes. Since you haven't been to the prison before, you wouldn't be able to warp everyone in at the right spot, so if we can get inside, it'll give you a better sense of where you need to open the warp. Then you can warp out and bring everyone back with you, right?" I tilted my head, and then he made a noise of affirmation. 

"That would make mistakes less likely, so I am in agreement. But," His eyes narrowed. "How do you plan to get us in?"

"You remember how I would randomly appear and slice your knees?" I asked the handman, who instantly growled. 

"Of course. That hurt, you prick. Are you saying you can randomly appear in the prison or something?" He squinted angrilly, and I grinned as I patted his back. "Don't touch me."

"Touch is my love language."

"Violence is mine."

"Want me to choke you then?"

"You can choke me all you want cupcake."

"Another time," I playfully threw a pen at the patchwork villain, who dodged easily. "Anyway, you're half rigth and half wrong buddy," I told Shigaraki. 

"I'm not your buddy."

"Yeah you are."

"How is that assumption half wrong?" Kurogiri interjected, probably trying to make sure we didn't go off on another tangent, so I turned my attention to him instead. 

"I was inside my shadow," I elaborated. "And I'm not sure if it'll work, which is why I said this is a maybe, but I can train for a bit to be able to bring people into my shadow with me," I told them, and smiled nervously. "I've never tried it though, so it might take a while."

"It's not like we're in a rush," Shigaraki rolled his eyes. "Do what you need to, since it seems like a solid plan." He gave his permission, standing up with his hands in his pockets. 

"Great!" I beamed. And that's how I started working on my quirk at the warehouse we had met at a few days before.