vigilante

Forty Nine

- Third Person POV -

"Go! Go! Go! Go!" Everyone cheered behind the two as Shigaraki and Kosuke competed at one of the many video games the villain had amassed. 

"Fuck!" Shigaraki threw his controller down. 

"YEAH!" Kosuke cheered as the screen displayed that he had won. High fiving everyone, the boy grinned at Shigaraki and held his hand out. "Good game, Shigaraki!"

"Shut up, hero." He grumbled in annoyance. 

"Hey hey, that's not very nice Hand man." Toga commented as she wrapped her arms around the boy's waist. Kosuke immediately smacked her hands. 

"Nu-uh, hands off the merchandise missy."

"Awww come on don't be like that Ko!" The girl whined. 

"Get your hands off already," Dabi growled at her, snatching the former hero away and wrapping his own arms around the guy. Kosuke deadpanned, struggling slightly to get out of his grip. "Relax you're okay." He whispered in his ear, his breath fanning over the boy's skin which caused him to shiver. 

"Hey none of that lovey dovey stuff in here!" Twice yelled, covering his eyes. "Get a room!"

"You are all idiots." Shigaraki grumbled, hunching as he walked away. Kosuke quickly shoved Dani away and called after the ring leader. 

"HEY SHIGGY CAN YOU GRAB ME A SODA PLEASE?"

"Screw off."

"Aw come on, please?!" Kosuke whined, then turned back to Dabi. "Wanna play a game with me?"

"Not into video games, sorry cupcake." He shook his head, causing the boy to pout slightly. 

"How about we go a round, huh?" Spinner offered, and Kosuke spun around to face him with a grin.

"Hell yeah, let's go Spinner! If I win you have to give me a piggyback ride around the warehouse!" he yelled, running back to the video game console. 

"You have to let me touch Stain's spare costume if I win!" Spinner decided, and they shook on it before sitting down and starting to figure out what game they wanted to play. A few minutes later, the victor was decided. 

"Wha--no way!" Spinner gaped at the screen in front of them that displayed the game over sign. "Not even Shigaraki's beaten me at this one! How the hell did you do it?!"

"You'll be happy to know," Kosuke smirked, twirling the controler around his hand. "Dad really liked this game, so we played it all the time."

"STAIN LIKED THIS GAME?!" The lizard's eyes widened and his face glowed at the new information on his idol. The former hero hummed with a nod. 

"Yeah, so wanna go again?"

"Yes! Same stakes as before?"

"Yep, we'll just add a lap for you if you lose again," Kosuke challenged, causing Spinner's eyes to blaze. 

"I WON'T LOSE!"

"Quiet down, you're too loud," Shigaraki grumbled as he came back, then shoved a soda can in the former hero's face. "Here."

"Oh yeah, thanks man!" Kosuke beamed, taking the drink from his hand and opening it with a pop. After that, he put the can down and got back into the game with Spinner. 

While they were furiously moving their fingers over the controls, Shigaraki watched the new addition to their group with narrowed eyes. He knew he couldn't trust the new addition right off the bat, so he'd made it so at least one of the vanguard action squad was with the boy at all time. 

When Kosuke was training his quirk, it was usually either him, Kurogiri, Twice or Compress since they were the ones with the best likelihood of stopping the boy from escaping should all of this be an act. 

It had been almost a week since he first started working on it, and so far things were at the very least progressing. The first day, it had taken him almost eight hours to be able to bring an inanimate object inside his shadow with him. The next day, he could bring up to four inanimate objects into his shadow with him. The third day, he used plants to see if the object could breathe while in his shadow, and the answer was no. It had wilted by the time they emerged, so Kosuke could be certain that the conditions the person or object coming in with him would be the same as he himself: no air, but conscious. 

That was exactly what they needed, and Kurogiri then started his lung capacity training. The fourth day, Compress brought some animals for the boy to use to see if he could actually bring live subjects into his shadow. Luckily, it seemed that being able to have inanimate objects in with him was the key, since Kosuke had no trouble bringing any and all of the animals in and out of his shadow. 

The fifth day, that day, was the day they were going to work on humans. Compress was once again out collecting specimens to be test subjects on, so when Shigaraki got the call that the warehouse was set up and ready for Kosuke's next level of training, he walked over to the still-gaming duo. "Akaguro, let's go."

"Huh?" He didn't turn his gaze away from the screen, and seconds later, a victory notice appeared on his side of the screen as a game over screen made Spinner cry out. 

"NOT AGAIN!! THAT'S LIKE FIVE LAPS!" 

"Hahaha, another win for me!" Kosuke cheered, then turned to the handman. "Kay, what's up?"

"Compress is ready for you," He informed him, causing the former hero's expression to fall to a serious tone. 

"Alright." Just like that, Shigaraki, Kosuke, Spinner and Kurogiri warped to the warehouse, meeting Mister Compress inside. 

"Hello all! You're right on time for the first act," He greeted as they all came to stand around him. 

"Hopefully we'll only need to use one person to experiment on, but either way, thanks for all your hard work Mister Compress," Kosuke nodded to him, so he returned the gesture with a bow. 

"Of course Akaguro. Here is your first participant," The man snapped his fingers, and one of the marbles on the floor released into a middle-aged thug. Before the person could do anything other than widen their eyes, Kosuke had already stepped in front of them and then they were both falling into the familiar pit of darkness. 

The league all grinned, he'd done it: he could pull people into his shadow. 

And then the two popped back out, the thug gasping for air like it was going out of style while Kosuke just gave his comrades a thumbs up. "Seems like we really did only need one person."

"Yeah," Shigaraki agreed, huffing at the boy in front of him. Kosuke was far too cool for the heroes, and he was glad he had let it slide when Dabi kidnapped the dude as well.