I Just Want a Cig Honestly

In the darkness of dawn, a certain high schooler was walking through dark back alleys and deserted building, scouring through places where crime was most likely to happen with his phone up, livestreaming his journey as he chattered on.

When the early morning sun began to show signs of breaking through the horizon, he sighed sadly. "Well, guys, that's it for today."

"Unfortunately, after the robbery at Hakagawa, we haven't seen any notable villains in the area." The teen held his phone steadily, camera taking in the slowly brightening sky. "Please remember to follow me for more live villain content. This is Foxy, signing out."

As he stopped his livestream, his eyes instantly went to his follower count.

2.13k followers.

Foxy giggled happily.

Just two days ago, his account, dedicated to catching villains on the act on camera as he ran around the dark corners of the city at night, had followers that amounted to less than 200 but, after a life changing encounter with a new villain a day ago, his followers immediately skyrocketed, with the video being shared by hundreds of people.

The scattered white curls hidden under a black bunny hoodie, glistening green eyes alight with a burning blaze, and a sneer beneath his medical mask, the newly debuted villain which the viewers have called Bunny, commanded such a powerful presence despite his small body.

Foxy's eyes glazed over. The way the young villain stated his views on heroes in front of actual heroes so fearlessly made him and many like-minded people admire him.

There were many people in today's society who wish to fight back against the unfair system, but how many actually dared to do something about it?

Foxy clenched his fists, nervously scratching at the bandages on his wrists.

"I hope I get to meet him again..."

With an extra hop in his steps, he made his way back to the orphanage.

...

"I want to have you in our group."

Mikumo sighed as he played with his tea cup. He should've expected this coming, knowing that people were bound to want to get him involved in whatever mission they believed they were doing for the better of society.

And honestly, Mikumo wanted no part of it. He knew he had his own mission, a much bigger purpose. But this wasn't it.

"Just to clarify, would you fire me if I say no?" Mikumo stared at his empty cup.

"Of course not. We still have employees who are not connected to vigilantism at all, you know." Shisei smiled wryly.

"Oh. If that's the case, then I politely refuse." Mikumo bowed towards Shisei as he stood up. "But I appreciate the offer."

Shisei shook his head, sighing regretfully. If he had Mikumo's powerful and versatile quirk added to Akatsuki, it would've been a great addition, further providing security to their base and would've propelled the course of their missions further.

But, as tempted as he is, he respected Mikumo's decision.

"I kind of already expected this to happen." Shisei said sadly as he watched the boy exit his office. "If you ever change your mind, we will always welcome you."

With that aside, Mikumo found himself heading straight to his room, shaking his head as the buzzing feeling in his head that he gets whenever he uses his quirk too much had returned. Apparently he still hadn't gotten used to using his quirk in his job, even though he made sure to not overdo it this time.

Maybe he could visit Himitsuno Yume's base tomorrow and subsequently pick up his supply of Wish from them. It should be fine since Shisei already got Dreamcloud's agreement.

That aside, he really should practice using his quirk better during his off days but, securing his supply should come first in case something goes wrong during his training.

Though, if he were prone to hyperventilating whenever he overused his quirk, syringes would definitely be a problem. He had to find a way to make Wish more accessible. Like an inhaler..? Something like a hookah?

It would be convenient if he could use Wish while he was activating his quirk, but that would be too wasteful. Or is it possible to dilute the drug?

"Um- oof!"

Suddenly, Mikumo was forcefully pulled out of his thoughts by a force knocking onto him.

Looking up, he found himself coming face to face with Mental, the man who let him borrow his clothes, who Mikumo was introduced to as a DJ in Akatsuki's club, and a woman who appeared to be a doctor. "Sorry."

"Holy fuck! You didn't tell me that Bunny worked here?!" The doctor exclaimed, surprising Mikumo who didn't expect such crass words to come out from a person of respectable standing's mouth.

Mental, apparently used to this situation, just sighed and gave an apologetic look to Mikumo. "Up until yesterday, we knew him as Mikumo. Come on, don't scare the kid, you villain otaku. Don't forget what you came here for."

"Oh, yes! Right! Need to check up on that anxiety kid, what's his name?" The doctor laughed carelessly, her abnormally sharp incisors glinting as she spoke. "But, I can have Bunny's contact information after, right?"

"His name is Akira, Kanae. At least remember the name of your patients." Mental rubbed his forehead. "And no, you can't have his phone number. God knows what you'd do with it."

"Well what about a picture? Or an autograph?"

"You'll have to ask him first."

With a strange expression, Mikumo watched as the two walked away, chattering on between them. And all Mikumo could think of was-

What the fuck just happened?

Pushing the strange encounter out of his mind, he stepped out of the building and into the freezing dawn air outside, commencing his hunt for an open convenience store to buy a cigarette pack, which, he later learned, was harder than he thought since apparently, you needed an ID for those.

So, now, he found himself having a staring contest with a ragged old man in a rundown store along the local Chinatown.

The old man blew smoke towards Mikumo's face, his hand fiddling with a thin, Chinese smoking pipe, not breaking eye contact.

"Aren't you too young to be smoking?" The old man spoke in jerky Japanese.

"Aren't you too old to be smoking?" Mikumo shot back.

"Hah!" It seemed that the old man wasn't expecting that at all as he stared at Mikumo wide eyed before bursting out laughing. "Hahaha! Ni fengle ma? Nobody has every spoken to me like that before! Cao ni ma! Haole! Haole! Ni shi funny kid!"

The man laughed as he spoke in a strange mix of Chinese and Japanese which nearly sounded like gibberish to Mikumo.

"So are you gonna sell me the cigarettes or not?"

"Selling! Selling! Come back often okay?"

"Sure."

...

"Okay, so I'll ask this again just to be sure. You weren't anywhere near Esuha City yesterday, right?" The head of All Might's PR team asked the number 1 Hero seriously.

"Yes. I was in Saitama for the whole of this month." All Might confirmed. "I honestly have no idea how the video came about."

"Then we'll say it was a product of realistic 3D holographic technology. Is that alright for you?" The PR team head suggested.

"Please."