Chapter Text
"Get ready, Kurogiri."
"Tenko, I don't know if this is a — "
"START!"
Kurogiri gripped the plastic rifle in his hands like his life depended on it. Eyes darting from edge to edge of the pulsing screen, his mind devolved into a feral state of seek-and-destroy.
Zombie.
Zombie.
Civilian.
Zombie.
"Stop killing civilians!" Tenko scolded from his right side, blue crosshairs moving expertly from zombie to zombie, scoring headshot after headshot with brutal efficiency. Even in his hyperfocused state, Kurogiri was aware of Tenko's precision — a stark contrast to his own technique of just aiming for centers of mass and unloading a third of the magazine. Compared to people in his own age group, he was probably quite good. But juxtaposed to Tenko?
"I'm trying!" he griped.
“All you need to do is stay alive!”
Kurogiri was stressed out enough without Tenko yelling at him. Then his half of the screen began to flash red,
"Uh, Tenko..."
"Stay alive, Kurogiri."
It sounded more like a threat than an order and for the sake of his own sanity he stopped looking at the health bar. By some miracle, they made it to the last level and completed the game. Kurogiri heaved a sigh of relief and dropped the gun in its holster like a cursed object. He jumped when Tenko suddenly exclaimed,
"Wait what?" Startled, Kurogiri follow the teen's gaze to the screen, where a table of high scores was displayed in bold white numbers. Tenko's handle name [HANDS] occupied eight of the top 10 ranks. In #1 and #5 was the alias [dab].
"Someone beat your high score?" he asked lightly, knowing that was exactly what would bother the competitive teen. He had also been here often enough over the past years to know that no one ever topped Tenko’s scores.
"Only by 50 points," Tenko muttered and adjusted his grip on the mock rifle, "Kurogiri, put more tokens in."
Tenko spent the next six hours reclaiming the top spot on his most frequently played games, only stopping for a prolonged length of time once for lunch. Kurogiri was happy to follow and observe, occasionally checking through his phone for any company emails or messages from the estate. Once 3 o'clock came to pass, middle and high school students began to file in and Kurogiri noticed a few wearing the same uniform as Tenko's school. The truant pointedly avoided these groups and ended up replaying a first-person shooting game he'd just played less than ten minutes ago. Kurogiri was thinking about suggesting that they head out at some point when Tenko suddenly exclaimed,
"Hah?!" Caught off guard, the butler flinched and immediately straightened, heart rate increasing with anxiety that something had happened. Tenko was standing with the gun in both hands, staring at the screen with dubious wide eyes. Curious, Kurogiri scrutinized the display thinking some sort of glitch might have interrupted the game but it was showing the high score screen.
"Did something happen, Tenko?" Tenko didn't turn away from the screen, just replied in an ominous tone,
"He's here." Kurogiri blinked,
"Who?"
"The challenger." He jabbed the screen with a finger, pointing out the alias that was placed above Tenko's new high score: [dab].
"Hmm, he's likely a student then." He scanned the crowd, idly wondering which one was skilled enough to repeatedly top Tenko's scores.
"Let's find him." Kurogiri looked down with surprise,
"What for?"
"I want a 1v1." Was all Tenko said before setting off down the row of machines. Kurogiri followed behind, wondering how tenacious Tenko was going to be about this.
Most of the students were in friend groups, and none of them seemed to be playing with the same focus as Tenko had. They wandered around about half of the arcade space when Tenko suddenly stopped. He was looking to his right, where the wall was completely dominated by claw machines. Friends and couples were scattered between, but there was one pair directly in the center of Tenko's focus. Operating the machine was a black-haired teenager of about the same age, and standing on his left side was a child of probably five years who had a hair coloration even stranger than Tenko's pale blue. Red and white, split perfectly down the middle.
How curious, Kurogiri thought. Still, it wasn't polite to ogle and he hoped no one else was looking in their direction because Tenko was making absolutely no attempt at being discreet. It wasn't in character for him to stare at something like funny hair color for long, though, which is how Kurogiri knew that he was watching the teenager play. Slender fingers were gracefully perched on the tip of the joystick and piloted the claw towards the center of the pit. There was an astounding amount of focus on the player's young face, mouth pressed in a flat line. His eyes were confident and as he deployed the claw. Three prongs wrapped around a cute red panda, and the bi-colored child leaned forward towards the glass as the claw began to rise. Kurogiri nearly had a heart attack when the claws began to slip around the soft fur but two opposite ones hooked just under the thread that sewed a fore- and hindpaw together. The plush swung precariously as it was towed to the delivery box and he actually sighed with relief when the toy dropped safely into the bin below. The child cheered and held it above his head in both hands, earning a laugh and affectionate hair ruffle. Kurogiri knew they had to be brothers when the player knelt down to adjust the boy's hold of his new toy in one arm, before gently taking hold of the opposite wrist and leading the way to a different game. It was a touching scene that gave a warm and fuzzy feeling, until Tenko made to follow the pair.
"Tenko?"
"Come on."
"Didn't you want to find 'the challenger'?"
"I did."
"When?" Tenko spared him an unimpressed look before resuming his pursuit. Kurogiri had to think to himself for several strides before guessing,
"You think he is the one?"
"Guess we'll find out."
The challenger candidate had moved on to the zombie game they had played earlier. His younger brother climbed up onto the seat meant for a second player but seemed to be only there to watch. Kurogiri and Tenko stood just a little ways behind them, not close enough to be unpleasant but close enough to have a detailed view of the screen. They watched in silence as the player sped through each level with deadly accuracy, shooting with a precision that Kurogiri had only ever seen Tenko exhibit. Actually, he was shooting with really good form. It was almost professional. No wonder he'd been able to beat Tenko's score. In fact...
"The hell?" Tenko stared at the new high score in disbelief. It was more than 200 points above his record. The player signed his alias and sure enough, this was the challenger, [dab]. The dethroned king was not going down without a fight, though, and he growled before marching over to the machine, Kurogiri trailing nervously after. He'd rarely seen Tenko confront people and it usually did not turn out well.
"Hey." the Shimura heir spoke in a flat tone but it was loud enough to not be ignored. [dab] looked over his shoulder, the light from the screen catching on a line of several helix piercings. Both teenagers stared for the span of a breath, each apparently expecting a response from the other. Eventually [dab] frowned,
"What you want to play or something?"
"1v1." [dab] blinked,
"'Kay, well, can I play one more round?" Tenko frowned,
"As a warm up?" [dab] mirrored his expression,
"Huh? No I'll just get one more in then you can do your 1v1 with ..." he looked around and noticed Kurogiri hovering nearby, "your dad?" Tenko huffed,
"He's not my dad and I'm not versing him, I'm challenging you." [dab] cocked an eyebrow,
"Why?" Tenko pointed at the screen,
"I'm HANDS." Ah, it clicked. [dab]'s confused frown immediately grew into an egotistic grin,
"Oh, salty much?" Tenko scowled and Kurogiri caught the twitch in his hands, itching to scratch his neck,
"Are you gonna play or not?" he asked impatiently. The other gamer held his hands slightly up in surrender,
"Sure, sure." he looked over at his brother, who seemed a bit anxious at the confrontation,
"Shoto, get down for a sec will ya?" his tone noticeably softer.
Shoto nodded and clambered down with his toy. He seemed to know better than to stand too close to his brother who, like Tenko, liked to play standing up rather than sitting down. But the boy seemed unsure of where to place himself so that he could still see the screen. There weren't any free seats besides the two at the console but he'd be in the way there. As the teenagers set up their game, Kurogiri approached the boy in the least threatening way he could,
"Hey there, Shoto," he knelt down with his friendliest smile but the boy still seemed intimidated, "ah, would you like sit on my shoulders so you can see?"
Shoto actually took a step back, which made Kurogiri feel like a creep even if he hadn't had any ill intentions. He was racking his brain for ways to remedy the situation when [dab]'s voice called over from the console,
"Shoto, it's okay. You can watch me whoop his ass. Not-Dad, don't drop my brother." Kurogiri blinked, unsure of how to respond. Shoto, at least, seemed to take his brother's advice to heart and soon clambered up onto Kurogiri's shoulders, stuffed animal never leaving his grip. Kurogiri straightened slowly, and there was a soft exclamation as Shota gripped his hair in tight fists. Evidently, the boy hadn't been in this position so high up before.
Well, losing a bit of hair wouldn't be that terrible of a loss, he told himself. Tenko and his new rival played multiple rounds. Having a real competitor had a significantly positive impact on both of their performances and people passing by stopped to watch the two teenagers speeding though levels with consistently record-breaking scores. Kurogiri hadn't even known this game had a 'Nightmare' difficulty setting but he definitely wouldn't have lived past the first level. [HANDS] and [dab] traded places on the scoreboard, and Kurogiri wondered how long the teenagers would be willing to go on for. Tenko, he knew for a fact, could spend 10 hours on the same game. It seemed he had finally met his match, but then the black-haired teen suddenly paused the game.
"Oi, what — " Tenko cut himself off when he saw that his opponent had a phone against his ear,
“Hello?... yeah... the arcade... ‘kay.” The phone was repocketed and the game resumed. Tenko came out on top this time and the challenger acquiesced with spread arms and a sly smile. He didn’t put anymore tokens in, instead gesturing to his brother,
“Shoto, let’s go.”
“What, you’re leaving?” Tenko drawled while Kurogiri let the child down carefully. The other teen shrugged and took his brother’s hand again before offering his other one to Tenko,
“Yeah, name’s Dabi by the way.”
“Tenko.”
“Nice play.” Dabi nodded once before turning to Kurogiri expectantly. The butler introduced himself with a polite half-bow, placing one hand above his sternum out of habit. Dabi was clearly amused by this but didn’t call him out on it, “Right, thanks for taking care of Shoto.”
“It wasn’t a problem. Thank you for indulging Tenko.” The brothers turned to leave but Tenko gave them pause,
“Oi.” Dabi turned with a slightly impatient expression, one eyebrow raised in question.
“What’s your SKOJA handle?”
“Why?” Tenko’s eye twitched with annoyance but gave his explanation,
“There’s a Nightmare dungeon coming out and everyone else here sucks.” Dabi opened his mouth, stopped to think, then widened his smile and held out an expectant hand,
“Sure.” Tenko gave him his phone to type the alias into and Kurogiri wanted to shed a tear of joy at seeing the introverted teen initiating social contact with someone. He knew that Tenko had some online teammates for various games but being somewhat unfamiliar with the community, he wasn’t sure how that compared to live friends. It was better than nothing at all, surely, but Tenko’s only interactions with those groups seemed to consist of yelling at them through his headset. After exchanging gaming information and parting ways, Tenko returned to him with a scowl,
“Stop looking so gross.” But Kurogiri wasn’t even offended,
“You made a friend.”
“He’s just an ally. Come on, let’s go.”