Mastermind: Strategist For Hire

Face to Face

Mastermind looked back at Izuku from the full length mirror in Giran's office. He didn't want to get dressed in his villain outfit at home and potentially risk getting caught by his mom or the neighbors. If everything went well tonight, he would be finding his own base soon enough, but until then, Giran's office would have to do.

His villain outfit was practical, but still managed to look intimidating. Or at least it would, if Izuku wasn't so short. The black armored pants were fitted, but flexible, and were paired with a black armored shirt made from the same material, but what tied the outfit together was the jacket. It was a dark green and had a hood he had pulled up, his hair just peeking out from underneath it. There were dozens of pockets that had smoke bombs, grenades, flash bangs, and, of course, his knives. He also had knives strapped to each of his legs and a few hidden in his dark red boots for emergencies. After a few months training with Toga, he was deadly with a knife, if not quite as good as his teacher. The last thing he put on was his mask. It was a solid black and covered his entire face below the nose. It didn't look like a standard gas mask, looking instead like a simple ski mask, but Giran assured him it would filter out any harmful gas attacks. Looking in the mirror, the effect was stunning. The knives alone would have been intimidating, but the hood partially shaded Izuku's face so that the only distinguishing feature were his bright green eyes, lit with a deadly sort of fire. He loved it.

Giran had arranged a face to face meetup now that Toga said he probably wouldn't die immediately as soon as he was attacked. The meeting was with a small gang that had territory in eastern tokyo and were wanting to rob a casino. Izuku himself was still considered small time, even if he was becoming more well known, so Giran said this would be a good chance for Mastermind to start showing his face, even if it was behind a mask.

"Looking pretty snazzy." Giran was leaning against the doorframe, smoking his ever present cigarette. "I'd say knock 'em dead, but that'd be bad for business."

Izuku rolled his eyes, again marveling at how they stood out against his outfit, "Let's go. The sooner we get this over with, the sooner I can pretend I'm not nervous."

Giran chuckled, but grabbed his keys, "You're such a smart kid, I keep forgetting how new to the game you are. Normally it takes years for small fry like you to get to this point in their careers."

"Yeah well, normally small fry don't make a living killing heroes."

The drive to the warehouse was short, but maybe that was because there's not really any traffic at two o'clock in the morning. As they walked in, Giran and Mastermind were met with a dozen armed guards surrounding a man almost as big as Fatgum who was obviously the head honcho. Izuku immediately started analyzing, matching the people and quirks he saw to the research he'd done beforehand.

The head honcho was sneering at him "Giran, I said I wanted to meet with Mastermind, not some kid who's still wearing diapers! What kind of a joke are you trying to pull here?"

Giran just smirked, Izuku was fairly certain it was his default expression, but there was a possibility that he was genuinely amused by the situation. "Yeah, I know he doesn't look like much, but I guarantee you he's the real deal. Apparently, you don't have to be tall to be smart."

Izuku's nervousness was slowly morphing into anger and determination. If there was anything he was used to from his life before villainy, it was jerks who thought it was their right to look down on him. The head honcho had gone on a rant about Giran not taking him seriously and how he was powerful and blah, blah blah. Izuku just sat down on the chair provided for him and spoke quietly, the determination in his voice and eyes passing for confidence in his words.

"Takumi Fujito. Age: 42. Quirk: Spines, you convert the fat in your body into spines that can be detached, however they have a tendency to bleed when you do that, so you avoid detaching them if at all possible. Family: you have a wife that you married ten years ago and four kids, all under the age of 15. Your youngest just turned six last wednesday, congratulations, by the way. Weaknesses: your family, the dependence of your quirk on your previous fat stores and the risk of blood loss if forced to use it in the wrong way. You also have a severe allergy to shellfish. Did I get anything wrong?"