"Just don't make a mess," Rina muttered as she finally let herself rest, curling up in the chair, her body aching with exhaustion. She could still hear the soft rustle of Dabi shifting on the couch, his movements slow and deliberate.
"Mess?" he scof...
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Rina stood just outside the back alley of a dingy corner store, pretending to browse the shelves for something she didn't need. Her eyes were half-lidded, scanning the labels of cheap liquor bottles, her mind elsewhere. The hum of city life swirled around her, the usual mix of honking cars, distant conversations, and the occasional shout from a street vendor. But there was something else, something she could hear through the usual din—a few whispers cutting through the ambient noise, the subtle thrum of a plan being laid out in hushed voices.
She couldn't pinpoint exactly where it was coming from at first. Her Echo Sense didn't always give her clear-cut answers, but there was a familiar tone to the conversation—something about it felt deliberate. Curious, she turned slightly to the side, honing in on the faint vibrations in the air.
"...we need to hit them where it hurts," a deep voice said, its owner sounding far too confident. Rina narrowed her eyes, recognizing the tone immediately. Jiro. She'd heard him around before—part of a group that was often in the shadows, making trouble. A bit of a loose cannon with a chip on his shoulder. And now, apparently, plotting something big.
"We've got the tech now," another voice chimed in. This one was lighter, a younger tone, maybe eager or overenthusiastic. "We move in quick, strike hard, and we'll have them running scared."
Rina's brow furrowed slightly as she concentrated. They were discussing heroes, probably a specific target, but the details were still too murky. She'd heard snippets of other similar conversations from this crew in the past—talks about sabotages, heists, and scuffles that sometimes made it to the news, but never anything that sounded like a coordinated effort. This time, though, it felt different. Bigger. Whatever they were planning, it wasn't going to be small.
"We do it tomorrow night," Jiro continued, his voice lowered but insistent. "Get it done clean, and we'll make sure the whole city knows who runs this place. Not the League but us. We will be the big bad guys."
Rina's pulse quickened. Attacking the League? They were definitely planning something major. She wasn't sure what exactly, but it was enough to make her take a step back and think about getting out of earshot before she was noticed. Her instinct was to slip away quietly, just another civilian fading into the noise of the city.
But as her foot moved to take the first step back into the alley, she froze.
There was a sound—a subtle creak of a door behind her, and then a low chuckle. She didn't need her quirk to know they had caught her.
"Well, well," Jiro's voice came from behind her, too smooth and amused. "What do we have here? An eavesdropper."
Rina didn't turn around. She stood still for a moment, her back to them, trying to keep her composure. Her Echo Sense was already pulsing with the vibrations of their movement behind her—footsteps, shifting weight, the scrape of a chair being pushed back. She could feel their eyes on her, the subtle tension in the air as they processed the situation.
