The Sweet Beginning of a Bitter End

For the rest of his weekend, Mikumo spent the whole day on his bed, catching up on a much needed rest after going through the most eventful week of his life; from having killed his father, discovering his quirk, getting a job in Esuha City, and then killing some more.

With a new notebook in hand, he wrote down all of his discoveries, known usages, and weaknesses of his quirk. Basic notes such as how his quirk, despite the creations being fake, can affect the real world, and how he cannot create situations which he deems absolutely impossible.

Recently, he had also found out that he could not apply his quirk on his own body such as how, if he imagined himself growing wings, nothing would happen. It mostly likely had to do with his body acting as some sort of gateway between his mindscape and the real world.

This, in itself, is a huge weakness if people were to know. Because, if he got injured in any way, even if he imagined himself healing, he wouldn't be healed at all. It is still yet to be seen if quirks from his creations can affect him. But apparently, physical attacks from them could still injure him, judging from how his past conjuration of his father managed to throw him against a wall.

So, for the rest of his Monday afternoon, his primary goal was to secure his Wish supply which meant, going to Himitsuno Yume's base once again and train his quirk in the evening on the rooftop of Akatsuki.

What he didn't know though, was that on this day, he would be meeting a person who would change his worldview completely.

...

Foxy sighed dejectedly, carrying an armful of spider lilies wrapped carefully in newspaper as he limped on his way back to the orphanage. It was only Monday and he already knew his week wouldn't go well. His only hope was that he wouldn't run into anyone who knew him on his way back.

But like everything in his life, nothing ever went the way he wanted it to.

Lost in thought, he didn't see a group of teenagers smoking in an alley suddenly walk towards him and purposely bump into his shoulder, causing him to drop his crimson flowers.

"How unlucky! To think we'd end up bumping into a villain at the first day of the week!"

He hissed in pain, the harsh contact jostling his already injured arm. As he looked up, the sight of five sneering teenagers caused him to visibly reel back and wince, already foreseeing his bleak fate.

"What do you want? If you're here to beat me up, then I'm sorry to say that you're a little late to the party. Busuo and his goons already went first." Foxy snapped in false bravery, contrary to his shaking knees. "But if you want to cause public disturbance and assault right in front of dozens of people, then by all means."

If there was one thing he learned after ten years of bullying, it was that showing weakness will only rile them up further. He had to stand his ground and look them in the eye, casting aside his weak self even though all he really wanted was to curl up and hide. If he cried for hours on his pillow at night, then no one but him would know.

"You know, that attitude of yours is the only thing I like about you." One of the bullies grinned, his sharp teeth glimmering dangerously. "It makes it all the more fun for me to beat you. Although it makes me wonder what you'd look like after you'd lost all that confidence."

The rest of the goons snickered as one of them pointed to a dark alley behind a clothing store. "Hey, let's drag him in that alley! No one would see us there!"

"Who cares if anyone would see us? We'd be doing them a favor by beating a villain anyways." Another quipped, his fists turning into stone as he sent a threatening glare towards Foxy.

Already knowing what would come next, Foxy allowed himself to be dragged into the alley, knowing full well that he wouldn't be able to escape as one of them possessed a speed enhancing quirk. All he could do now was square himself up for a fight, hoping that they'd back down before he got too injured. It also didn't help that he was already injured from a previous fight with another group.

Foxy bit his lips harshly. Why won't anything go his way for once?!

...

Mikumo didn't think it would be this easy to acquire Wish. Sure, Shisei had told him that he got Dreamcloud to agree in supplying him regularly with the drug in exchange for his service but, he had thought there'd be more conditions that came with it but, contrary to his expectations, it was too easy.

Almost suspiciously easy.

"Look, kid. The only reason I'm supplying you, a minor, with Wish, is because, unlike most of our users, you're actually one that really needs it for health reasons." Dreamcloud said seriously from his seat while a green skinned man covered in dark purple scales stood behind him silently. "Since we are aware of your financial situation, we'll offer you a different payment method that will benefit us both."

Mikumo nodded as he studied the green skinned man, who introduced himself as Kappa prior to the conversation, suspiciously. "Please continue."

"Alright." Dreamcloud tapped the table, slightly relieved about how smoothly the conversation was going. "You should know about the nature of my business so, let's skip that over and head straight to the deal."

"More often than not, there will be workers who'll leak business informations, betrayers, and business rivals who'll jeopardize my business. And sometimes, my group wouldn't be able to deal with them alone." Dreamcloud explain lightly, eliciting an understanding nod from Mikumo. "That is why, we would be hiring you to catch them, dead or alive."

From the corner of his eye, he could see Kappa's mouth hang open slightly in disbelief, as if he couldn't believe that his boss was actually asking a literal child to be his hired hitman.

Not knowing the complex emotions of his underling, Dreamcloud continued. "During those times, I will be paying you the average amount paid to hired hitmen which, I would be deducting the amount for your consumed Wish supply. Do we have a deal?"

Mikumo leaned back on the soft couch, contemplating his choices. Currently, his work at Akatsuki only took two days of the week, meaning, he had another five days of free time.

And although the money he got at his current job was enough for him to live without worries, he knew that he wouldn't be able to work there forever, with Akatsuki housing vigilantes and him being technically a villain by law. His presence there would pose as a problem for them.

So needless to say, such a convenient deal as this was a very welcome one, which gave him more options to think of in the future.

The rest of the deal proceeded quickly, and after signing several papers and being handed a week's supply of Wish in a cooled metal box, he was on his way back to Akatsuki; his mind replaying their entire conversation to see if there was a detail he missed, or a loophole which Dreamcloud would take advantage of and use against him.

He was so deep in his thoughts that he almost missed the sound of muffled whimpering from a secluded alley to his left.

Keyword: almost.

And such, on this day, a rare occurrence of two parallel roads meeting together was witnessed by the entire world.