MHA Story Thing (2022)

“A message from the police!” A dispatcher announces to everyone in the room. “A group of gangs have been clustering around an abandoned building along Meiji street. Local police are asking for some assistance to disperse the gangs so that they do not disturb the neighboring civilians.”

    “Aghh~ You know what that means,” Rupture yawns, swiveling in his chair and turning to face his hero cohorts. They all faced the bright pink hero and sighed along with him. “It’s up to us sidekicks to do all the cleanup. Again.”

    “Oh c’mon Rupture! It will be easy work.” A bright preppy voice answers back. It was Hero Sugarplum. She wasn’t one of the agency’s top sidekicks, but she did hold a reputation for doing some modeling before she got serious with her herowork. She had soft orange hair, a pink mask that obscured her round eyes, and an odd frilly short dress to compliment her paper-thin fairy wings on her back. Despite her fairy-like appearances, she was tall and gangly. It was a mystery how her wings could hold her weight.

    “Mm, sure. But I’m not in the mood to ruin my outfit again. I spent thirty minutes on my hair.” Rupture replies, giving his hair a little fluff at the bottom. Sugarplum only responds by flicking his hair.

    “As long as you don’t make me do all the work, I’m fine with you holding back.” She harrumphs. Rupture only laughs half heartedly as they both stand up from their stations and bolt to the door. 

    As they made their way down the streets of Tokyo, the dispatcher relayed some more information about their case. The building used to be a company building that burnt down years ago in a quirk accident. It was never restored. The gangs that were occupying it weren’t just small rag-tag delinquents, but rumored to be mafia and terrorists. It was why apprehending them was important.

    Rupture wasn’t so sure why they only let him and Sugarplum go alone. Their quirks were complementary, sure, but not useful in gang busts. Rupture could take resources from the surrounding area and transform it into any object of his liking with the help of visual aid. Sugarplum’s quirk focused on offense attacks and blinding enemies with sparkles. Someone with a scouting quirk or a restraining quirk would be better. Then again, Rupture could’ve been paired with worse.

    As they neared the building, they kept themselves on edge as they identified the building described by the dispatcher. After that, they were all on their own. The two of them crouched by the door, Sugarplum being the first to peek her head through a busted door. Inside, barrels and oil lamps burned as it lit up the abandoned floor. Lit by the burn barrel, Sugarplum easily identified about 25 people. Most features were obscured from their distance and low lighting.

“On three?” Rupture asks, readying his quirk.

“Yeah. One, two… three!”

Sprinting from the entrance, fists went flying through the guys closest to the entrance. Once they were on the ground, the gangsters drew an alarm and readied their quirks and weapons. Rupture made a dash to the side, picking his way through the outer circle of villains before cutting straight through the center. On cue, Sugarplum pitched a small candy-like object on the floor, hearing it roll between their opponents legs. The candy bursted into bright pink smoke, and almost the entire floor was obscured.

Rupture gagged at the taste. The smoke tasted like fine, powdered sugar, making it hard to breathe through. It did a good job at stunning their targets, but Rupture wasn’t fond of hacking up pixie stix dust after every mission. Wanting to get this mission over with, he digs into his satchel and fishes out a stack of laminated cards. On every face, there was an image of a specific object that was useful for his missions. Everytime he touches a card, he can manifest the object from that card to appear at the expense of taking minerals and objects from his surroundings. The object he chose was rope. 

He was too blinded by the candy smoke to see where his rope manifested from but now that there was a giant coil of rope in his hands, he used the opportunity to apprehend and tie up the gangsters. Sugarplum worked swiftly alongside him, using her own rope and tying all the men down. Considering they were mostly mafia and gangster wannabes with low grade quirks, hopefully they don’t find a way to break out of their restraints.

Rupture thought they got everyone until the smoke dissipated and the light from the busted doors poured through the floor. Sugarplum noticed a man in a dark coat already bolting out the door, hoping for a chance to escape. 

“Oh no you dont!” She yells, speeding her way through the exit. Rupture wasn’t in a rush to go after her. He had to watch over the other twenty men who were still dazed from the smoke. After weighing his options, he figured it would be better to at least make sure Sugarplum didn’t get jumped by any more surprise gang members

After stepping outside, continuously flitting his gaze to the tied down men inside the building, he heard the sounds of struggle and Sugarplum giggling off to the side. He followed the sound into a side alley, only to find a tied up man on the floor, and Sugarplum arresting him.

“Hah! We did it, Rupture!” Sugarplum congratulates. There was no immediate response, but she didn’t mind it as she kept her hands secure over the mobster. He struggled in her grip frantically, panting through his mask like a rabid animal. “Chill out! You can be charged for resisting arrest.”

The restrained man fell quiet as Sugarplum continued to dream about future plans. “Ah. Once we turn that group and this guy in, maybe we can get a drink afterwards. It’s been a while since we got to hang out; just the two of us. How does that soun-“

But Sugarplum didn’t get to finish her sentence when she felt the metal of a cold blade puncturing through her body. As she gagged out the blood climbing her throat, she turned to the one who had stabbed her, only to feel her vision blur when the one holding the knife was none other than Rupture himself. 

He stood over behind her menacingly, the long dagger stiff in his hands as he gave her a look of unreadable intent. Sugarplum didn’t have the time to process what was happening, why Rupture had stabbed her or anything. Before she knew it, her knees could no longer hold her weight and she fell onto the cold concrete, the ground beneath her staining a bright red. 

“…Rupture… how could you…”

“No hard feelings right? Just doing what is best.” Rupture grinned, taking the now bloodied knife and using his quirk to turn the metal into a stained tincan. Sugarplum’s mind screamed, knowing that the only evidence of her stabbing was now destroyed. She was doomed to die a death of unknown cause, and Rupture’s hands would be washed of his sins. How could such a psychopath be left unchecked in a Heroes Agency?

Eventually, Sugarplum couldn’t hold out much longer. Paralyzed and bleeding out, Rupture stood over her gasping body as she wheezed out her last breath. Movement stilled, and she was no longer on this Earth, this city, or this body. The organic material of her body no longer served a high moral purpose anymore. Thank god. It was irritating watching her prance around the agency and touching his hair unwarranted. He was glad she was gone.

Just before he could chuckle, Rupture remembered about the guy Sugarplum captured. He laid frozen in fear with his hands behind his back, therefore not giving him enough support to stand up properly. The man breathed through his mask, tears pricking at his eyes at the brutal sight. At first, Rupture could’ve killed him off without much thought, but upon further thinking, it would be interesting to play around with him. He was a gangster after all, right? If this guy didn’t want to end up a few years in jail for his affiliation with a gang, he wouldn’t think about outing Rupture’s crime to anyone. If he did somehow, it wasn’t like anyone was going to believe him anyways. It was perfect.

Rupture walked over to the frozen man and sat him up. “My. You’re handsome. What’s your name?”

The man didn’t answer. At least not right away. He was still stunned. Rupture laid his palm flat on the man’s head, caressing the man with such tenderness. His hair was a soft raven color with thick white highlights. His face was worn to the bone from stress and fatigue, but he looked pretty youthful. 

“Don’t worry, I won’t hurt you. Now, please. Your name.”

“M…M-Manubrium.” The man breathed out.

“Is that a villain name? My, you’re way ahead of yourself if you think you could ever be a top-dog villain. Afterall, you got captured by us.” Rupture teases. Manubrium was silent, flitting his glance between the pink hero and the corpse by his feet. For a villain, he was oddly sympathetic for the dead hero. Most villains would’ve gone down with a fight. Manubrium was neutralized, shaking like a beaten puppy. Rupture thought it was adorable. “Here’s the deal, Manubrium. I will walk away from this scene, and you, the villain, will take the blame for it, okay?”

“E-Excuse me?!” The man shouted, suddenly squirming away from Rupture. Rupture doesn’t let him move very far. “N-No, I d-don’t kill people. I save them. You are the killer. You are the villain here.”

“That is rich, my dear friend. No matter how you like it, I am in charge and this is how you’re going to play my game.” Rupture bent down and cut the restraints on Manubrium’s wrists before standing up again. “God made you the villain for a reason, no? The police are almost here. I can hear their voices on the dispatch.”

Just as Rupture says that, he hears siren’s wailing close to their location. Rupture kneels by the corpse and holds the limp body in his arms. Manubrium only watches in horror as crocodile tears begin to run down the hero’s face.

“You c-can’t be serious! You can't be serious!” Manubrium cried out.

“I suggest you run.” Rupture grins through his tears. When police heard the sound of yelling, they rushed to the scene. Rupture sobbed loudly as he held his deceased cohort close to his chest. The responding law force grimaced in pity at the sight. “He killed Sugarplum! Oh my god- he killed her. He killed her! Now she’s gone. Damnit!!”

The police surrounded Rupture and Sugarplum, further scouting the area and signaling for an ambulance. By then, the villain was long gone. “Who did it, Rupture? Tell us, who killed Sugarplum?”

Through fabricated sobs and sniffles, Rupture mustered out a name that rolled off the tongue with ease. “His name is Manubrium.”

—-

Manubrium sat at his desk, his stomach churning hard as he watched the news on his computer. Barely an hour after his encounter with Hero Sugarplum and Rupture, the news of Sugarplum’s death was broadcasted everywhere on any Tokyo news outlet ever. Accompanying the news of her death, a wanted poster with his name and face plastered the scene. It was an old image of him during his time studying for his medical license.

The sight of his exposed face made Manubrium cringe. The police and private detectives were trying to dig up as much background information as they could on him. He sat stiff in his chair as they rehashed the details. Born in 1995 in Osaka, Tokyo, he studied Pre-Medicine, Nursing and Radiology in Tokyo’s prestigious Akemi Hospital. He was one year away from getting his masters before he suddenly dropped out of the Akemi Residential Program. Interviews from his colleagues said that his quirk had the ability to control people.

They were half wrong. Manubrium’s quirk could only control people’s bones, making him able to control certain movements. It was understandable as to why they believed that his quirk could “control” people. Normally he only used his quirk to assess the health of his patient’s bones and garner more insight on past injuries. He could also heal certain bone diseases if he wanted to, his quirk certainly allowed that. 

“Boss.” A voice interrupts, and Manubrium fumbles for the pause button. When he looks up, he sees his most loyal henchman, Yoko, standing before him, arms folded at his front. “So you saw the news.”

“Yeah. I did.” Manubrium sighs, placing a hand on his forehead before completely allowing himself to sink onto his desk. “Fuck. This is bad. Real bad.”

“I apologize. I shouldn’t have let you chase down the lackeys who were attending the meeting at that abandoned building. If I had gone there myself, you wouldn’t be a national criminal,” Yoko frowns and folds over. He bows lower than the wooden desk, and Manubrium wonders if he’s going to snap his back. “I’m so sorry, Boss.”

“No-Nonononono- stop it, stop.” Manubrium says, using his quirk to put Yoko back in an upright standing position. Yoko yelps, but remains frozen from the sensation of his bones moving on their own. “It’s okay. We just stay low for now. They might know me, but they won’t catch me. I’ll make sure of it.”

“Boss…” Yoko starts, unsure how to follow up what he started. He couldn’t wrap around the idea of how his Boss wasn’t so pissed off at the idea of being on the nation's most-wanted list. “Is… there something I can do for you?”

“If you want to be of use, look up every detail you can on Rupture. I have a feeling that boy is going to be a pain in the ass.”

“You got it sir.” Yoko immediately trekked to the door, making sure to close it softly behind him.

Manubrium sighed now that he was alone once more. He looked at his phone, nothing but a black empty but reflective screen staring back. If he stared hard enough, he could see the ceiling lamp and tufts of his hair still displaced by Rupture’s hand. Manubrium quickly fixed it before sinking back into his chair.

“What am I going to do?”