Forgive And Forget

Chap. 5 🔥

9 year time skip (Hawks is 22)

"And Hawks saves the day again! So tell us, Number Two, how does it feel to be so high-ranked at such a young age?"

Hawks was patrolling Musutafu, listening to his interview from earlier being played on the big screen of the city, when his phone vibrated. He ignored it, assuming it was something unimportant. But when he received 10 other notifications and phone call, he decided to check it. It was the Hero Public Safety Commission, who apparently needed him in the leader's office ASAP. With a big sigh, he took off towards the Hero Offices. Many people in the streets saw the famous crimson wings and started yelling words of encouragement and love. Maybe there was a good side to being a hero.

Once he got to the Public Safety office, he took a deep breath and pushed open the doors. He didn't exactly have the greatest relationship with these people, but he had to suck it up and go along with it. So he leaned against the wall, nest to a picture of All Might.

"Okay, I'm here. What do you want?," he asked, not wanting to stay in the building longer than needed.

"I have a mission for you," said Commissioner Gordon, "And you might not like it."

"Get to the point."

"I'm gonna need you to infiltrate the League of Villains."

"You want me to what?!"

" I was expecting that reaction. You're going to pretend to be a villain and infiltrate the League. We're worried they're planning something but we have no other way of finding out what."

"So you're telling me to go against all my moral codes for a bit of information?"

This was his chance to get away from the commission's watchful eyes for a while. And while the ash-blonde man definitely wasn't a villain, he didn't exactly consider himself a hero. The only thing that made him hesitate to answer, was Endeavour. Hawks had quite a bit of respect for the man, and accepting the mission kind of felt like a betrayal towards him. After a bit of thinking, he agreed, with plans to tell the No. 1 hero the next time he saw him.

"Perfect. Now the terms and conditions are here," the commissioner handed him a heavy stack of paper, "And you must speak to absolutely no one about this, understand?"

Well, that foiled his original plan. He'd have to tell Endeavour some other way.

"Okay, so let me get this straight. You want me to join the League so I can get information, which is stupid since I may or may not be the No. 2 pro hero in Japan. How the fuck am i supposed to get them to believe me? Not only that, but you also want me to shut up about it, which means I have to make up excuses for every time I disappear randomly?"

"Exactly."

"I can't even tell like Mirko or something?"

"No. If I learn that you told someone, I'm kicking you out of the rankings."

"Damn bastards..." Hawks muttered under his breath. He wasn't against the whole villain infiltration thing, but the fact that the commissioner would throw him into such a dangerous area without a second thought infuriated him. It was as if he hadn't done enough damage to him as a kid. He stormed out of the office, papers in hand and went straight to his apartment.

Once there, he flopped on his couch, reading the fine print, wondering how he'd convince the villains that he was one of them. He didn't even know where their base was. Asking Endeavour was useless, considering the amount of questions he would have to answer. Any other hero wasn't gonna be much help either, since not many of them were closely involved with the League. His last option, the Public Safety Commission itself, clearly didn't know the location, since they would've told him during their meeting.

"I can't even fucking have less patrols?! Jesus Christ, these people are trying to kill me."

Hawks sighed, thinking this mission was a lot more complicated than it should be. He decided maybe a bit of fresh air would help him think properly.

As he strolled down the streets of Musutafu, stopping every once in a while to sign an autograph or take a picture, he spotted a masked man frantically looking around. He stopped walking to try and figure out if anything was wrong when he was realized that it was the villain Twice. At least that's what he suspected. Everything about the man matched the description of the criminal. The winged hero was about to go catch him when he remembered the reason he went out in the first place. Maybe this encounter was the luckiest Hawks had been in a while.

"Hey! You're Jin Bubaigawara, right?," he greeted, making Twice jump. The villain stared at him in shock for a few seconds, readying himself to fight or run.

"How do you know my name? A-and what do you want?," Jin asked warily.

"Hey, don't worry, man. I just want to talk."

The villain eyed Hawks suspiciously, although his guard was coming down.

"I'm a man of my word, alright? I promise I won't try to do anything. Now, let's go somewhere less... open. These walls got ears."

After a 5 minute walk, during which Hawks was trying to convince Twice he wouldn't hurt him, they found an abandoned alley.

"This'll do. Okay, so I want to join the League of Villains," the hero said bluntly, not wanting to waste time making a whole story.

"Cool. Wait, what?!" Twice had to do a double-take, suspecting he hadn't heard well the first time.

"I want to join the League. Is that so bad? Am I not allowed?"

"But you're pro hero Hawks... Why would you even consider becoming a villain?"

"The commission is corrupt, I have to work with a hot-headed (literally) asshole, I also have to obey orders from the people that ruined my childhood and being a hero in a broken world is not worth the exhaustion. Shall I go on?"

"I still don't understand. We'll bring you to Shigaraki! No, we won't."

Ignoring the frequent switched in answers, Hawks continued. It was surprisingly fairly easy to give reasons for wanting the villain life, but he wasn't completely sure if they were believable to the actual villain.

"I want freedom, Twice, my current lifestyle is too suffocating for me to actually enjoy it.

"I guess I could bring you to the boss... But I'm warning you, if he doesn't agree, you'll most likely end up becoming dust.

Suppressing a triumphant smile, the winged hero followed the masked criminal further into the alley.

~~~•~~~

The scene unfolding in front of Hawks was quite the unusual one. Twice was nervously explaining to Shigaraki, the seemingly leader, why a hero was in their hideout. The latter was completely ignoring his guest, more focused on threatening his underling for going behind his back.

"I swear, I didn't mean to upset you," Twice pleaded, "I just saw it as an opportunity to get info on the heroes. Like, he's the 2nd top-ranked hero in Japan, surely he must know some stuff, right?"

"Ever thought he could be a double agent for the commission?," Shigaraki sighed, "Why would such a famous hero want to become one of us?"

"You know, I'm right here," Hawks chimed in, slightly annoyed that he was being ignored, "I'm also quite confident in my answering abilities."

"Okay, you arrogant bird, how can I be sure you're serious about this?"

"I don't know, give me a task that I wouldn't do if I was kidding?"

"Alright. I want you to... kill Best Jeanist and bring his body back."