3 - Underestimate

Finalising the plans for tonight is taking a while longer than I'd expected. I glance up at the clock behind the bar, and seeing that it's just gone noon, I sigh under my breath. As if the sound summoned him, the black-haired man appears behind me, frowning at the papers over my shoulder. Far too casually, he rests his arm on my shoulder, tapping his finger on the pages of notes and blueprints. His chin brushes my shaggy hair, and the warmth of his skin seeps through my black jumper. I try to ignore his presence, but of course he won't let me.

"That's not going to work. You can't underestimate the teachers at UA, Shigaraki. They'll go to any lengths to protect their assets. It'd be smartest to take just one of them and cover up the absence rather than taking more."

"You don't know what you're talking about. You haven't planned these like I have."

"And I haven't failed before like you have either."

Toga looks up at us from her phone. I stare her down until those golden eyes blink, return to her screen and she turns her attention away from us. Don't be discouraged. Take as many tries as you need. Master's voice echoes in my head.

This is for you, Shimura. All of it, for you.

I dig my fingers harder into my palm, relishing the pain that brings me back to reality. I can't kill Staples, not yet, no matter how determined he seems to tempt me. Just as I'm about to retort, I realise he is gone. I see his back retreating to his room, and almost yell after him - but that would just show my desperation to prove myself better than him, and there's no need to prove myself, is there? I am better than him, in a thousand ways. This place is mine. He is mine to command.

I turn back to my papers and plans and let him think he's had the last word. But as I'm staring at the page, I realise he's right. Taking more than one from the school is too risky. He's right, and I hate him for it.

For you, Shimura, all of it for you. Soon.

So I ignore the infuriating presence of the man with the fire Quirk, and I focus on the plans to break the world we know into something better.

Finally, at nine in the evening, the plans are finalised. Kurogiri agrees, and I'm just about to run everyone through the process before we go. We leave at ten-thirty, and we strike at ten-thirty-two after arriving using Kurogiri's Warp. Each stage is planned to the point of infallibility. I let myself grin behind Father's hand. Tonight, there will be blood.

Dabi slides onto the stool next to me.

"What are you smiling about?"

"If I wanted you to know, I'd tell you," I snap back instantly, using his own words from earlier. A faint smirk plays on Dabi's own lips, and that now-familiar boil of irritation in my blood grows stronger. It heightens when he reaches over with a scarred, burned hand and lifts my drink to his lips, tipping his head back and taking a deep swallow. I watch his exposed throat bob as I imagine all of the ways I could kill him right here and now. My fingers tremble with the sheer restraint of not strangling him and watching him disintegrate. I've never had to exercise this much restraint before... Is he stupid enough to underestimate me? Holding my drink in one hand, he pauses before setting it down in front of me.

"Just who do you think you are?" I manage through the anger causing my hand to clench and unclench repeatedly on the counter. The room falls deadly silent.

"Somebody who doesn't answer to you for long," he replies, and with that he leaves out the back door to the rain-spattered street. I drop all pretense at calm and stand up so fast that the stool clatters to the ground. Ignoring Kurogiri's warning shout, I stalk outside after him, shutting the door behind me. I can't think through the haze of red clouding my vision. All that exists, all that I want to do in this very moment, is kill him. I want to pin him against a wall and press my hand flat over his chest. I want his heart to go grey, brittle, and crumble into dust. I want to watch his eyes plead with me when his mouth is no more. I want to make this bastard beg for his life.