Mastermind: Strategist For Hire

What Happens Next?

Shouto adjusted his beanie one more time before entering the train station to make sure it covered all his hair. His scar was a bit more difficult, but thankfully in this age of quirks, it wasn't terribly odd to see someone wearing an oversized eye patch. He got a few weird looks, but no one started gasping or screaming about a member of the league of villains, so he figured his disguise must be at least somewhat convincing.

He picked a random bench within sight of the platform and sat down, reading a newspaper. He was all over the front page, but then again, he knew that already. He and Dabi had wanted to make an impact, so he would have been disappointed if they'd failed. Part of him wished he was like Izuku though, a faceless villain who could go about daily life without worrying about being arrested. Before long a student in a UA uniform came and sat down next to him.

"Do you really think it's a good idea for you to be out and about right now?" Monoma scoffed. "You might not be in 1A anymore, but you're still an idiot."

Shouto rolled his eyes, "Yeah, yeah, 1B is superior and all that, spare me your superiority complex, I got enough of that from Bakugo, thank you very much. What have you got for me?"

Monoma shrugged, "The school's being careful right now. They're planning the school festival, which my class is totally going to win by the way, but I'm pretty sure Gentle and La Brava called disrupting that, so the league going as well would probably just get everyone caught. Other than that, I think they've started suspecting there's a traitor, they'd be idiots if they didn't, but they're looking into the teachers first, so we don't have anything to worry about on that front. How are things at the league? I heard you guys lost Kurogiri. Tough luck there."

Shouto groaned, "The new base is too small and we're running low on funds. I'm pretty sure most of the money used to come from All for One, but the heroes froze a lot of his assets when they arrested him. We were doing fine still when Kurogiri was around, since he could just warp money in from literally anywhere, but it's a lot more complicated now. So far, we've been robbing some rich looking houses, but a lot of them are fronts for cults and the like so they don't have a lot of sellable assets either."

Monoma looked at him like he was an idiot, "With all the powerhouse quirks you've got, are you telling me you haven't even tried robbing a bank?"

Shouto huffed, "We thought about it, but part of the reason we're so big right now is because of the ideals we embody, and those will crumble if we openly turn to petty crime."

"Then just find a bank that does something sketchy or whose CEO is racist or something." Monoma said haughtily. "You can say you're only attacking those who go against your ideals or something, but at the end of the day, you still have cash. It's a win-win!"

Shouto thought about that for a moment, "That...would probably work. But how would we know which banks to attack?"

Monoma stood, "That, my dear Shouto, is above my paygrade. Good luck. Do try not to get caught."

Shouto mumbled an affirmative as Monoma hurried off to catch his train. Rob a bank, huh? If they could find the right target, it might even further their cause. He was sure Izuku or La Brava could probably point them in the right direction if they got a cut. And that'd give him an excuse to talk to Izuku again. Not that he was trying to find reasons to talk to him. Why would he do that?

Either way, he got out his phone and dialed Dabi. He should probably call Shigaraki for something like this, but the guy still got on his nerves. He hadn't been allowed to play videogames growing up, so half the time Shigaraki may as well be speaking greek for all Shouto could understand him. His brother was much easier to talk to.

"Don't tell me you got caught?"

Shouto huffed, "Come on, Dabi, try to have a little bit of faith in me! I haven't even been recognized."