Chapter Text
Tomura Shigaraki hated a lot of things.
He hated this blighted Hero Society, all of its stupid bells and whistles. He hated All Might, the loudest and the stupidest bell of them all. He hated people who loved All Might as if he was the second coming of Christ; all they really needed to complete the image were cultist robes and religious symbols. How’s that for a laugh? A Funko Pop of All Might refashioned into an artifact?
He hated how this society relied so hard on their heroes, they would no doubt run around like headless chickens without them. The dumbasses in burning buildings would wait for the hero to extract them. The suicides would always jump without a second thought, convinced a hero would catch them. And, of course, you couldn’t get away from the heroes either way, no matter if you were a villain or a law-abiding citizen. Their mugs were plastered everywhere, on billboards, TV’s, covering the cars and buses and buildings with their dumb and vapid advertisement.
He hated people who wanted to uphold this blighted society; those who fell line, hook, and sinker into the narrative of “Us versus Them”. The pursesnatcher is “an incarnation of evil”, quoth Kamui Woods. What did that make Shigaraki? Clearly he was promoted to paid DLC superboss material without trying.
He hated dumb video games that substituted difficulty with various manners of artificial inflation. Just make the boss’s hp bigger! That’ll sure show them gamers! Just give them non-reactable attacks or give the basic enemy in the game a powerful hitscan attack they can use at will. Shigaraki’s copy of Blood only barely avoided getting dusted the other day (mostly because he understood that he was holding a Holy Grail of FPS’es here nonetheless, especially in this day and age).
...currently? Tomura Shigaraki hated this grocery errand he was sent on.
Why the fuck was he – the MC – supposed to do groceries? Why couldn’t Kurogiri, blessed with a very convenient Quirk for travel and transportation, do it? Well, Shigaraki had some understanding of it; unlike him, who could somewhat blend into the crowd, his number two was a bit distinctive. Even then, couldn’t they just hire some NPC for it? What if someone actually recognized him?! Sure, the bystander syndrome was strong in the streets, but even then!
Kurogiri, looking unusually smug for himself, only told him to “treat it like an important side-quest”.
And so Shigaraki was skulking about in a black hoodie and sweatpants, trying his best to look like some NEET who hastily pun on some clothes to leave for five minutes and not the ringleader of a notorious villain organization. It worked for the Kiyashi Ward outing well enough, and he wasn’t going out very far, just to a local konbini. Grab a bunch of essential stuff, some energy drinks for himself, some canned coffee. Toga asked for a strawberry sundae, but she would have to settle for industrial strawberry icecream instead. Dabi asked for nothing, and that suited Shigaraki just fine, too.
At least the cashier wasn’t too chatty. God only knew that Tomura hated chatty cashiers. Before long, he was done with his list of groceries. A simple and easy side-quest that yielded small, but worthwhile rewards. All that he needed to do was to go back to the hideout and…
An explosion rang out just outside the street. Shigaraki sucked in a breath, hoping he didn’t look too annoyed to the terrified cashier. Someone was being an idiot right in the middle of his path back home. Sure enough, he spotted some musclebound hulk stirring up trouble. Judging by the smoking crater in one of the office buildings nearby, the guy leapt out from there and onto the street. Someone’s car parted with that sordid earth today.
There was already a hero – the unmistakable form of Rabbit Hero Mirko – leaping in to meet the villain. Yeah, Shigaraki didn’t need this. Before long this place would be skittering full of pros, cops and what-have-you, and his chances of being found would become that much higher. And while he didn’t hate Mirko as much as some other heroes – though he wouldn’t admit it out loud – he would certainly hate to be folded like an accordion by a dropkick.
Thus, he skulked around and into the alleyway nearby the konbini. The last thing he saw of the fight was the musclebound villain being stomped into the ground by the dynamite bunny. Literally.
----
The detour would mean he would be later at the hideout than planned. Kurogiri could fret about it later; he would explain the situation to the mistman in due time. At least that way he could avoid the commotion that no doubt was happening across the main streets.
...it was honestly too quiet. For a moment Shigaraki expected some underground hero to try and get a drop on him. What an embarrassing game over that would be: caught by some random NPC in the middle of nowhere before he progressed anywhere with the main plot.
And for a moment, once he heard the sound from the nearby trash containers, Tomura felt he might have a hand on his hands, swerving wildly with the grocery bag still in his gloved (yeah, it wouldn’t do to dust it by accident) hand. Ah, shit, but that would mean he needed to take gloves off first or destroy them and then risk—
It was a dog.
A corgi, to be more precise. A malnourished, dirty corgi. How long has it been hiding in here? It seemed this little spot in the alleyway was its home, such as it was. The dog regarded him curiously, sniffing slightly. Shigaraki blinked, then looked down to his bag, briefly recalling that one of the essentials on the list was beef jerky.
Either that dog had a deathwish or it planned to roll a Nat 20 to convince him to hand some of it over.
“...don’t have anything. Shoo.” Shigaraki grumbled, waving the (surprisingly adorable) pupper away. The corgi whined, stepping out a little bit further from behind the trash bags. It had some badly-closed wounds on its butt, and its tail’s tip was chipped off. Bitten by another dog? Tomura imagined an environ like that wouldn’t exactly work very well to heal up. He could add another thing to the list of things he hated: dipshits abandoning their cute puppers.
The corgi whined again. Tomura sighed, slowly setting the bags down. Sure, he could just kill it and be done with it, or even ignore it and proceed as normal… but the latter could get him in trouble if the dog started yowling, and the former left a bad, bad taste in his mouth. That right there would be real-life Poison status effect. He thus reasoned that by giving the corgi a scrap or two, he could appraise it and move on.
Pulling out the package of beef jerky (Cow Lady’s Choice Cut!), Tomura beckoned the dog over. “Just because you’re cute, alright?” The dog sniffed a bit more, eyeing the beef slices before it slowly trudged over to the villain. It should be fine to part with some; he had another one or two packages in the bag. Tomura placed a slice on the ground, some distance away between them. The corgi sniffed at it some more before it got to eating – and he couldn’t even blink before it disappeared down the pupper’s tummy.
...before long, the whole package was gone, and the doggo (an incredibly adorable doggo) was happy to try and get in close for pets. Tomura, understandably, hesitated. Ultimately, he settled for a two-finger rub with the gloved part of his hand, idly feeling at the dog’s dirty fur. There wasn’t much he could do for the pupper; taking him with him to the hideout was absolutely not an option. Even if Kurogiri didn’t protest it, he wouldn’t want this fluffy creature to be in the same room as neither Toga nor Dabi. Over his dead body, maybe. At least the corgi was smart enough to understand that the human’s apprehension came from somewhere and didn’t ask for more than these light pets and rubs.
Shigaraki sighed. He didn’t like dogs that much, so why was this one different? Funny, it felt as if he had a dog like this one… a long time ago… weird.
“Alright, buddy, that’s enough. I gotta go.” The dog whined in protest, but chose to step back on its tiny little adorable paws and… Shigaraki wasn’t sure where all of this was coming from, but he probably needed to get clean. He could still hear the fighting from all the way over here, but it wouldn’t do to get caught despite the headstart – even if it was because of such a cute dog.
Shigaraki smiled, gave the dog a goodbye wave, and found it disturbing right after how easy it was to offer the pupper an earnest smile rather than the practiced Intimidation debuffs he gave out to others. Perhaps it was just that much easier to get along with doggos. Doggos didn’t follow heroes around or worship them like gods or didn’t care about any of this stupid society. All they wanted was good food, some comfort, headpats… a place to stay.
Well, there was that one hero called Hound Dog, but he was an exception, not a rule.
Thus, once Tomura Shigaraki resumed his walk back to the hideout, there was a light spring in his step, as if he received an Agility buff. A long-lasting buff, no doubt.