Wedding Bells

Kings and pawns

July 8th, 11:00
Unknown location.

The Man walked slowly between the two lines of wrestlers who stood rigid and silent along a wide metal platform. These henchmen wearing black tights and masks were of different sizes and complexions, and each of them may have his own story, but all of them shared the red and black mask logo on their chests, as well as their loyalty to its owner.

For a considerable while the only sound it could be heard where the big man's heavy walking. Then, at the end of the platform he got up some steel steps to a stage from where he looked at his most recently initiated men with that penetrating behind his own mask.

"Losers. Worthless. Good for nothings. Useless. Failures. That's how they called you" his voice sounded louder, clearer and more intimidating than usual with the help of a micro he held in his hand. "Some of you were born with no Quirk at all; others, with Quirks too weak to protect yourselves in a dark and cruel world. A world that rejected you and assumed that your only role in life was to die in order to make way for a stronger generation. But I didn't."

Shigaraki relaxed on his seat from a lookout in the distance. He had to admit his host had one hell of a lair: the place was built in the inside of an inactive volcano, and from the lookout of The Man's comfortable office, full of weights and training machines, along with belts and other trophies, posters and photos that gave testimony of the past of a great figure of wrestling, he could view the sophisticated and well equipped arena where the members of the band trained and fought. A mechanism would make the platform lower deep into the bowels of the volcano, where the fighters would be surrounded by magma and other amusing and creative ways prepared to guarantee a great show, while the personal would make the huge platform change its shape or features under the orders of their boss. And how would the heroes or the police know something about it, when The Man was a billionaire who owned the whole island they were in?

"I didn't" The Man continued. "Because, much like you, I didn't ask for the world we live in. We were simply told to deal with the fact that world was built way before we were born. We had to face lies, discrimination and worse things from a society based on Quirks. That's the world heroes created. Heroes... those who claim to fight for freedom, equality and justice... while we were considered mediocres or directly crashed by more powerful people. The hero society was as full of corruption as the mobs, but people who were pushed into crime to avoid getting eaten and achieve their goals were targeted as villains, while they kept posing for the cameras and telling a submissive population everything would be OK for the sake of their fame and wealth. When I was young it didn't bother me very much, though. I was born a fighter, and I found in wrestling a reason for living, but I was also born with a handicap that would prevent me from achieving my dream to become the best wrestler in that world. Luckily, there was a man who put into practice a different vision..."

"Yes" Shigaraki thought from that distance. "The vision he shared with me. The vision he trusted me and I will make come true in time..."

"He was one of the many crime lords I met when I was fighting to make a name of myself at Japanese wrestling. He taught me becoming the best in the eyes of a hero society meant nothing. It is in the underworld that exists beyond their presumptuous eyes where the true nature of a fighter can be revealed, so once I received and developed my power and skills I progressed and became the supreme leader of illegal wrestling mobs in America. They say fighting 'til the death is a cruel, barbaric and inmoral source of business, but they don't have what it takes to understand only in this ambient of self-destruction and reborn the true beauty of the fight takes shape. All of you have faced pain and death for all your lives because of the world such presumptuous people created, and you have done whatever it took to survive, until someone gave you the opportunity of being something more. Tell me... who was that someone?"