Midoriya Izuku... that child was frustrating to deal with.

Shigaraki Tomura was perplexed by the little heroling, he was a strange little gremlin. Sensei's curiosity slowly leaked down to Tomura as well. Though, Tomura knew something.

There was something between the two, he knew.

"Don't touch Midoriya", was the first rule that Shigaraki learned after the whole debacle in the USJ.

Bastard could fight, he'd give him that.

To be perfectly honest, he froze the first time he had seen Midoriya, the hair, the eyes, the aura he had.

It was the same as Sensei's.

But Sensei showed no weakness, so he too powered through this trial.

"Observe him, Tomura." The soft spoken tone of voice they both had didn't miss Tomura's ears. So he did.

It took some time, dedication; blood, sweat, and tears, if you will. But Tomura had taken Sensei's advice to heart.

Tomura knew Midoriya now.

He knew where he lived, his family, his friends, his hero name, his schedule, he knew everything.

But at the same time, it felt like he knows nothing.

"Is he an enemy, Sensei?" Tomura asked once, a strong hand made its way to his shoulder.

"No." Sensei, his mentor, his idol replied. With a single word, he left Tomura befuddled.

Midoriya wasn't an enemy.

But he wasn't a spy either?

Tomura knew this, he knew which one of the hero brats was the spy for the league. So what made that Midoriya brat special.

"Patience Tomura, you'll get to know him. Soon enough." The man reassured him. Shigaraki didn't feel assured in the slightest.

And so he pondered, looking over a video of Midoriya accepting the gold medal from the USJ sports festival. Tomura narrowed his eyes, Midoriya was right next to All Might, playfully biting the gold medal while posing with the hero for the camera.

All Might's disciple, Sensei had stated.

After that revelation, the golden rule towards Midoriya had changed.

"Don't touch" to "Bring him here."

And so Tomura pondered once more.

"He will be hard to grab, Tomura, you must find someone who aligns with his values. Then he will follow." His values?

Values.

Values.

Values.

What a strange word, it felt unnatural on Tomura's tongue when he had spoken it out loud.

Every single hour digging deeper into the boy's history proved more and more the little nugget of a hunch that Tomura had on him.

The first thing that stood out was that Midoriya's father went missing. Well, not really missing per se. Absent was the word he'd describe it.

Of course that wasn't the entirety of the story, now was it?

What values did Midoriya stand by?

In the USJ, Tomura saw a feral little creature with a sledgehammer repeatedly mashing the Noumu's head in, multiple times. Thank God that the Noumu would automatically come to his aid, or he'd just be red paste on the ground. If anything, he'd say that the little gremlin was more villain adjacent, what with the zero hesitation in braining the bio-engineered weapon. But Sensei had said that he was important, so Tomura recognized him to be as well.

Values.

Stain had been making waves, whether he was doing it intentionally or not, he was popping up on a lot of civilian caught videos on the internet lately, maybe.

Maybe Midoriya was crazy enough to align himself with the hero killer?

Tomura pondered. He snapped his fingers, Kurogiri by his side, he tasked the warper to bring the vigilante to his base of operations.

... with some less than legal protection of course, some low rate thugs would do some good to have around now and again, might as well, if anybody was going to die in the bar, it better not be himself.

And so Stain appeared, looking more than willing to lob Tomura's head off if he said anything wrong.

So Tomura readied his monologue, he raised his arms up non threateningly. "We didn't send you here to fight." Stain sneered at him, so this was how things were going to be, huh?

And so they talked.

Tomura could see the way that Stain's eyes would glaze over, of course he wasn't listening "Aren't you curious, Stain?" Shigaraki grinned his most polite smile, to which Stain hid his disgust towards. "Aren't you curious about All Might's successor?"

And so the seed was planted, the conversation was done the moment that the vigilante started yelling at him and threatened violence, storming off to God knows where.

"He's at Hosu, Lord Tomura." Kurogiri politely added. So he stormed off to Hosu then.

Tomura waved his hand, "All of you... Dismissed." Kurogiri's warp filled the air, letting the other thugs out of the bar. He let out an exhausted sigh, Sensei's been working him ragged these past few weeks after the USJ. Well, not like he can complain or anything. He just found a lot of stuff strange, especially when that White haired kid came into the picture.

A screen on the corner of the room buzzed to life, the static cutting into the silence. Speaking of Sensei.

"Report, Tomura." Sensei's deep voice emanated from the screen.

"Sensei..." Tomura began, "I've contacted someone who I think can push Midoriya into a more favourable position for us sir." Sensei's breathing on the screen paused, Tomura blinked.

"Good... good job Tomura, I hope this will be more fruitful than our little ventures at U.A." Tomura shut his eyes and clenched his fists, resisting the urge to dust whatever was in front of him, if it wasn't for that bra-

"Need I remind you of your current task, my disciple?" Sensei cut him off, the teal haired man resisted audibly sighing.

"No sir." He replied, his neck started to itch.

"Good... good. Give me a refresher, will you? I find that it's rather... productive... to know what our goals are." Hmm, Sensei's being a bit temperamental today. While his voice betrayed nothing of his emotion, the fact that he was so chatty today meant that there was definitely something on his mind.

"To bring Midoriya to our side, Sensei." Tomura replied curtly. Sensei hummed in thought.

"And why so?" was what the main villain continued with.

This time Tomura actually sighed, biting his lip as he caught his breath. "Because he's a confused teenager sir?"

Sensei grunted, Tomura merely side glanced at Kurogiri, already growing tired with these conversations he had with Sensei about that Midoriya kid.

Man.

It was always about that little brat.

Always, ever since the USJ.

"Yes, he is. Isn't he?" the centuries-old villain replied, Tomura supposed that Sensei was satisfied with his answer. If he was missing something, there was a bit of fondess in Sensei's tone. Just the fact that he had a tone in speaking now was strange.

At the very least, it was concerning.

"Can I ask a question Sensei?"

"Tomura? Asking questions? What, pray tell do you have on your mind to ask me about your goals?" My goals? Ever since that little brat came into the picture, it was never His goals. It was like the tide shifted with Sensei when he saw that little white-haired shrub of a creature from U.A.

Tomura was tired of prancing around the question.

"Sensei... If Midoriya isn't an enemy, what is he then? Why are we doing so much, wasting so much, for him to get a team change?" a chuckle escaped from the screen, Tomura almost jumped at the sound, with just a laugh, he was sent on high alert.

"Wasting?" Sensei's voice was still verging on the side of humour. "Young man, I think you're gravely mistaken on what we're trying to accomplish here." A bead of sweat rolled off of Tomura's forehead, his whole body experiencing fight or flight.

"Izuku is family, Tomura." The decay user's hair and skin almost whitened at Sensei's daunting tone. "And in this house... We do ANYTHING for family."

Oh God, Tomura almost killed someone so precious to Sensei.

Fuck!

Fuck!

It all made sense now!

"Best to keep that in mind, my disciple." And with that, the screen fizzled back to the grainy static that it once held.

Tomura was catching his breath, never feeling this amount of pressure in a long while.

So that's why.

Everything clicked into place all at once.

It was mind numbing.

Tomura wanted to scream.

"Lord Tomura..." Kurogiri's voice was barely heard from the ringing in his ears.

"We need to stop him! That- that psychopath's gonna kill Midoriya!" Tomura drew out through his ragged breaths. He grit his teeth.

"That Stain bastard's gonna hunt him! Fuck my life, Kurogiri, get me the doc! Should be a few failed Nomus we can sic on him!" Tomura was frantic, getting what little he had in preparation for Hosu.

"I've contacted the good doctor, what should I tell him?" the warp user added.

"Fucking, let all the bastard flying ones out! Warp them all to Hosu!"

Shit!

Shit!

SHIT!

Fuck! Of all the people, fuck. Deep down, Tomura wanted nothing but death towards Midoriya. Maybe a bit of curiosity, but now's a different situation.

If he doesn't find Midoriya safe, then it's his head on the line.

Devil's disciple or not.

Because in this house, they did ANYTHING for family.

And all the signs point towards Midoriya being Sensei's true family.