Seductress

2

𝒯𝒽𝑒𝓈е 𝒽𝑜𝓇𝓃𝓈 𝓇𝓊𝓃 𝓉𝒽𝓇𝑜𝓊𝑔𝒽 𝓂𝓎 𝒻𝒶𝓂𝒾𝓁𝓎

Shouta Aizawa wasn't really sure why he was doing this job in the first place. Sure, he needed to do some work at some point and his cat had racked up a considerable amount in vet fees over the last month, but still... this thing looked like such a small time job, he normally wouldn't even go for it, because there were enough other local heroes that would be able to do a good job - maybe even a better job - than he could. But something about it piqued his interest.

There was a young man that had popped up a few months ago, dealing some of the regular drugs and some quirk enhancers. Villains like that tended to pop up in the neighbourhood from time to time and usually they didn't make huge waves and disappeared again after a couple of weeks. But this guy was different. He was wildly successful and he was boasting all that success, even going so far as to put himself over Succubus. And Shouta knew that he wasn't going to survive that for very long, as soon as she heard about it. She was protective of her territory.

Shouta was glad never to have had any run-ins with her before. From what he heard she was incredibly good at what she did and she had been ruling the neighbourhood with an iron fist for the last... maybe ten years? He wasn't too keen on trying to mess with her, if he was honest. She was a villain, yes, and at some point they'd have to move against her, but compared to some of the other drug lords and villains, she wasn't even close to being the worst. If she disappeared from the scene, who knew what kind of villain was going to fill the subsequent vacuum.

Either way, that was nothing he had to worry about right now. All he had to worry about right now was how he was going to catch that new guy alive. And he had to hope that Succubus hadn't found out about him just yet, because otherwise she might be a step ahead of him and Shouta wanted to avoid an encounter at all costs. He had heard too many stories about how easy it was for her to manipulate people (especially men, but not exclusively) with her Quirk. She didn't seem to use it excessively, but it seemed like she reserved it for the times she really had to.

Shouta sighed and glanced down at the files in front of him again. This was going to be harder than he would have thought, after all. Apparently Fujimoto - the Mountain (which was likely one of the dumbest villain names Shouta had ever heard) - had gathered quite the following around him and was willing to risk it all on overthrowing Succubus. Shouta wasn't sure what his beef with her was, but he knew that a string of her scorned lovers were teaming up with Fujimoto to bring her down eventually. It was almost a shame that they made such a big deal out of it, because she was definitely going to hear of this and end this whole thing before it even started, but there was a small part of Shouta that wanted to see it all go down just out of morbid curiosity.

But that wasn't what he was supposed to do. He was supposed to get Fujimoto alive, so the police could lock him away and question him. They were hoping to get some more information about Succubus out of him, not that he thought it was going to work. He was almost certain that Succubus had to be aware of him - from what he heard she wasn't stupid. If she found out that they had captured him and he was alive and well and able to talk she'd probably either hide her tracks very well or she'd somehow manage to get him killed in prison before he could say anything. Quite likely it would be both. But Shouta wasn't the one making the decisions, unfortunately.

He sighed and was about to close his file, so he could get himself a cup of coffee, when his phone rang. He knew immediately who it was. He had picked the most annoying ringtone he had found for the most annoying person he knew and to this day it still irritated him every single time when he had to hear it during the day. It was Hizashi. Hizashi was calling him. Shouta stared at the phone for a few seconds, before deciding to bite the bullet and pick up the call from his annoying best friend.

"What do you want?" he asked, as he closed the file with one hand and shoved it into one of the drawers in his desk. He was going to get that coffee anyway, no matter if he had to get it while talking to Hizashi or not. Why the hell was he even calling him? Hizashi knew that Shouta hated getting phone calls. Not that it stopped him or anything, but it was still not something that happened often.

"Wow, what kind of greeting is that? You in a bad mood or something?" Hizashi asked. Shouta got up from his desk and stretched.

"I wasn't in a bad mood until recently. Why are you calling?" he wanted to know once more. Shouta wondered if Hizashi would only be half as annoying if he would get to the damn point already. But getting to the point wasn't really Hizashi's style and everyone knew that. Shouta most of all.

"You really are no good at small talk, huh? How are you doing? Are you keeping up well? Are you stressed? What's going on in your life?" Hizashi replied. Shouta rolled his eyes, glad that he couldn't see him.

"Hizashi, we see each other almost every single day. You're well aware of what's going on in my life." he answered, as he walked up to the door, opening it and closing it behind him again once he was out of his office.

"I guess so. Which is why I'm calling. I saw you took that job, with the drug dealer... Mountain or something?" Hizashi said.

"Yes, and?"

"I don't know, it just seemed out of character for you. Are you in any trouble? Like, financially? Or are you taking that job just for the fun of it? I'm a little worried, you know..." he answered. Shouta sighed. He didn't even know how to explain this to Hizashi. That, yes, he was in a little bit of a tight spot, but he wouldn't call it financial trouble and he just felt like that case might be interesting and that's why he took it on. Plus, for what it was, it did pay pretty well and Shouta didn't mind getting a bit of a break with a job that was easier than the usual stuff he did.

"I'm taking it for the fun of it. I figured I could do with some variety and all. Plus, it pays well for what it is, really. Why do you care so much?" Shouta replied. And why do you snoop around in my business?

"You're my friend, of course I care when I think you might be struggling. So this is more of a personality crisis than a money thing then?" Hizashi asked. Shouta frowned as he stepped into his kitchen.

"I am not having a personality crisis, Hizashi. I don't know why you can't just let me live my life, honestly. This has nothing to do with you."

"I guess so. Well, just be careful, because the whole thing is giving me a bad vibe, ya know?" Hizashi told him. Shouta raised his eyebrows and started putting coffee into his coffee machine. A bad vibe? Usually Shouta wanted to disregard that comment, because he didn't trust in vibes, but... Hizashi's vibes hadn't been off in a long, long time. Maybe he should keep that in mind.

"What kind of bad vibe?"

"The kind that says you'll get yourself into a lot more trouble than you bargained for. I don't know, Shou, something about this guy seems a little fishy. The way that Succubus is involved, too. Like, I wouldn't want to mess with her, you know what I mean?" Hizashi answered.

"I know what you mean. But honestly, if she knows about this, she's probably already taking care of it and then the job is gone and I can just get a new one. And if not, I suppose I'd be doing her a favour, really. Sounds like a win-win to me." Shouta replied as he poured some hot water in his coffee machine. He'd make coffee at home way more often if there wasn't such a long process involved.

"I suppose. Just be careful, okay? Anyway, Nem and I were going to head to karaoke on the weekend and we were wondering if you'd like to-"

Shouta didn't hear the rest of the sentence. He despised going to karaoke with anyone, let alone those two. There was no point in continuing this conversation, so he figured it would be best to hang up the phone.