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"Hurry up and get in assholes, there are gonna be more heroes here any second!" Spinner shouted at them from the driver's seat of the van. Dabi pushed Tomura out of his way to race to the passenger seat.
"What the fuck, Dabi?" Tomura demanded as he and Mr. Compress jumped in the back and slammed the door shut.
"I told you I get carsick. It's better in the front." Dabi drawled.
"You can kill each other later," Mr. Compress interrupted. "Spinner? If you please?"
Spinner didn't need to be told twice and peeled off, leaving behind them a massive car wreck and a Yakuza boss bleeding to death.
Nobody said much of anything on the way to the rendezvous. Tomura was to busy examining his new bullets, Spinner was concentrating on not killing them, Dabi was trying not to puke, and Mr. Compress was fiddling with his prosthetic.
When they hit the edge of the city they ditched the van in a seedy ally and high tailed it on foot through back streets to meet up with Twice and Toga.
"Were you followed?" Tomura asked quickly.
"Have I ever been followed Tomura-kun?" Toga asked him sweetly. Tomura chuckled.
"Alright, we need to get out of here." He said. "I'm going north, I want to find Kurogiri. You're welcome to come with me or you can stay behind on your own. I have nothing for you though. Without the Yakuza I have no resources, no cash, no nothing. It's going to be rough."
"We certainly aren't going to let you go alone." Mr. Compress said emphatically. "I will go with you."
"I'd like...I WOULD NOT LIKE....no, I would like to come with you too, Shigaraki." Twice muttered out. He was holding his head tightly and Toga frowned a bit and gently petted his hair.
"Then I'm coming too." She said firmly.
Tomura looked at Dabi and Spinner.
"What's your preference? We don't have a lot of time." he hurried them.
"I'm staying behind," Dabi said curtly.
"Dabi! Don't be like that!" Toga admonished him.
"No, it's not that...I have a lead. A lead on a really powerful recruit and I need to be in the area for him. I'll stay in contact." Tomura raised an eyebrow but Dabi offered no more information so he gave him up as a lost cause and turned to Spinner.
"What's your decision, Spinner?" He asked.
"I..." he started and stopped.
"You...what?" Tomura pressed him.
"I don't know about this. I don't know how we are following Stain's will," Tomura looked about ready to blow a gasket. "But I have faith in you, Shigaraki, so I will join you."
"Alright, let's move then. Dabi, keep your head low and stay in contact. This recruit had better be good." He ordered. Dabi disappeared into the shadows with a mock salute. Tomura muttered something probably profane but otherwise unintelligible. "We need transport. There's a parking garage a few blocks from here, hope that we find something big enough for all of us."
Swiftly and silently the remains of the League took to allies and side streets, staying in the shade of the buildings and hiding from the late morning sun. It was just far enough from lunchtime for anyone working in the area that the garage should be clear.
The back door was locked when they got there but a locked door wasn't going to stop Tomura. He casually pressed a hand to the door, it turned to a fine powder in seconds and ushered the League inside. Toga turned to go up a level but Tomura stopped her.
"No, let's go to the sublevels." He whispered.
"Why?" Toga asked.
"Sublevels are for company and maintenance vehicles. There might be a van or something down there."
The group followed his long gait down into the depths of the concrete structure and there they were able to find an old white 16 passenger van that looked like it hadn't seen the streets in years.
"Perfect," Tomura muttered. Making quick work of things he decayed the driver's side window and hauled himself through the opening into the seat.
"Shigaraki, we don't have keys..." Spinner tried to reason with him but Tomura had already tucked Father into a pocket and was under the dash and decaying the plastic so he could get to the wiring. Less than a minute later the van roared into life and Tomura popped back up with a smug grin on his face. He unlocked the doors for them.
"Why do you know how to hotwire a car?" Spinner asked as everyone piled in the side door in front of him.
"I was raised in the underworld, Spinner, I am competent in most of the basic Rogue feats." He said. "Why aren't you in the van yet?"
"Um...don't I have to drive?" He asked.
"Hell no, we're not doing that again, we don't want to get caught I'm driving."
"You can..."
"Get. In. The. Van. Spinner." Tomura growled out. Spinner was not about to get in a dick measuring contest with Tomura so he grumbled and got into the passenger seat.
Quickly and efficiently Tomura got them out of the garage and onto the road.
"You better hope nobody looks through your window, Tomura-kun." Toga drawled from the backseat.
"YEAH, IT WAS PRETTY STUPID TO DESTROY THE WINDOW...no it had to be done!" Twice supplied.
"How else was I going to get in?" Tomura asked. "I don't have a slimjim on me and I couldn't do the whole door so window it was."
"Still best keep to the back roads, boss." Mr. Compress said from where he was sprawled across the last row of seats. "They're looking for us and will likely be checking all major exits out of the city."
After some clever maneuvering on Tomura's part, they got out of Musutafu with little issue. They hadn't seen too many police so they were probably still cleaning up the mess at the Shie Hassaikai Base and the highway.
No one spoke for the first hour or so for which Tomura was grateful. He was running high on adrenaline and wanted to be with his own victory for a while. But nothing gold can stay and about an hour and a half outside of Musutafu he heard a whiny voice from the back.
"Tomura-kun, I'm hungry. Jin and I did a lot of work today and we want food."
Tomura's careful grip on the steering wheel tightened.
"I told you earlier we don't have any money and it's too dangerous for us to cause a scene."
"Well, I still have some of Rock Lock's blood, I could transform into him. I bet people would give a hero free food."
"We can't leave a trail, Toga," Tomura said, his voice tight. "When people see the news later they'll know Rock Lock is in Musutafu and having him show up somewhere out here will be suspicious."
"We can't go on the run with no food Tomura-kun. Be reasonable."
So much of Tomura wanted to slam on the break, crawl into the backseat and murder the brat but he couldn't do that. Toga was a valuable piece. He was the leader now he couldn't go about wasting key players like that.
"Do you have anyone besides Rock Lock?" he finally asked.
"Um...no?" she said with a giggle. Breath, Tomura. She wasn't wrong, they would need to eat eventually.
"You need to wait for a bit. I'll think of something."
The silence could only go for so long before someone, Tomura wasn't sure who, started tapping their fingers against the window. Just ignore it, Tomura. He said to himself. Just ignore it. He tried. Oh, how he did try. But the incessant little *tap tap* noise was going to put him in an early grave.
"For fuck's sake stop tapping!" he finally yelled, whipping around to find the culprit.
"Boss, the road!" Spinner cried reaching for the steering wheel.
"You're gonna lose that goddamn hand if you touch my wheel, Spinner, I guarantee it."
"Sorry." Twice said sheepishly, he had pulled his mask back on. "It's just to quiet. It hurts my head."
"Why don't we put on some music?" Mr. Compress asked.
"Fine, whatever, I don't care, just stop tapping." Tomura sighed.
Spinner turned on the radio and started flipping through channels. Static, static, national talk radio, static, educational lectures, static. Tomura knew the radio wasn't really popular in the nation but nothing? Really? Finally, Spinner flipped to a relatively clear station playing J-rock.
"Oh, I love this song!" Toga squeaked, and then, to Tomura's horror, she started singing. Apparently, Mr. Compress also knew the song because he started in with her.
Tomura had never in his life prayed before but he thought now would be a good time to try it because when the chorus came in, with some ribbing from Toga, Twice added his god awful singing voice to the mix.
He couldn't help it. It was just the worst thing he had ever heard. And he had heard plenty of people's screaming deaths. He started scratching. Spinner looked at him with concern but Tomura pointedly ignored him. Finally, the song ended and the terrible singing stopped.
"Hey, uh, guys? How about we don't sing." Spinner said jabbing his head in Tomura's direction.
"Come on Tomura-kun, we're not that bad!" Toga wailed.
"If you want the music to stay on no more singing." Tomura hissed. Toga frowned and slumped back in her seat with her arms crossed.
The music wasn't so bad without the singing. Tomura had never really been into rock but this was okay. At least the band's singer was good.
"So, where exactly are we going?" Twice spoke up after while.
"I lost contact with Kurogiri somewhere around Niigata. We'll start there."
"But that's so far away!" Toga complained.
"And if we don't have any money then we're gonna be shit out of luck when we run out of gas." Spinner added thoughtfully.
"It's best if we keep changing vehicles anyway," Tomura answered. "Someone will eventually notice this van is gone and put out an APB for it. We don't want to be in it when the cops find it."
"And what about food? I'm still hungry!" Toga demanded.
"Toga." Tomura's voice was low and threatening. "I'm working on it. Can't you do something to preoccupy yourself?"
"Sure, let's play a car game!" she said brightly. "Do you guys know how to play 20 Questions?"
As Tomura listened to the group play 20 Questions he couldn't help but wonder if this deep sense of exasperation was how Kurogiri felt about him. Spinner went first.
"So, is it a person?" Mr. Compress asked.
"Yes."
"Spinner, I swear to fuck if your answer is Stain I will leave you on the side of the road."
"Ok, it's not a person."
The whole group laughed, even Tomura, who tried to play it off like a cough.
In late afternoon Tomura pulled off the highway and into a town. Most of the others had fallen asleep. Only he and Mr. Compress were still awake, and Tomura only knew that because he could hear him humming to the music softly. It wasn't as bad as the singing so Tomura didn't call him out on it.
He pulled into the parking lot of a large strip mall with a chain grocery store and pulled around the back. The mall had a car rental service ripe for the picking. They were almost out of gas anyway. He parked the van and turned it off.
"Wake up," he said turning in his seat to face the group. Slowly, everyone opened groggy eyes and stretched.
"Where are we?" Spinner asked.
"We're just outside Koriyama, about 3 hours from Niigata."
"Yes, but where specifically?" he asked.
"Oh, we're at a mall. We need to change rides and get food." Tomura supplied. "This is the plan, Toga and Mr. Compress are going to get food from the grocery store. You both need to change your appearance enough to not be recognized. Toga, take your hair down or something. Mr. Compress, lose the mask, the hat, and the coat. Toga is your daughter and you're here after school. Compress some stuff that isn't perishable and that we can eat on the go. Toga, make sure no one catches him." The pair nodded and went about as he'd asked.
"Twice, Spinner, and I are going to get us a new vehicle. There's a car rental place here, we're going to pick something out. We'll meet you at the far end of the mall closest to the highway exit. Are we clear?"
"Yep!"
"Of course."
"Whatever you say, boss!"
"Got it."
Toga and Mr. Compress left the van first. After they had cleared Tomura, Spinner, and Twice climbed out. They had all taken off their distinguishing villain paraphernalia to be less noticeable.
There was no one lurking around the lot that needed to be taken out so Tomura and his crew quickly ducked between vehicles until they found a navy blue minivan that would suit them. Tomura reached out a hand.
"Do you have to do the window?" Spinner asked.
"You got another way in, genius?" Tomura shot back. Spinner made a face and Tomura smirked.
It was the same procedure as before, decay the window, climb through, destroy the company installed tracking device, hotwire the car, let Twice and Spinner in. The whole thing was over in less than a minute. They waited with bated breath for an all-clear before Tomura backed the van out of the spot and drove around to the side.
Once Toga and Compress were back in the van they got back on the road.
"Find a station with the news and put it on," Tomura asked while Compress handed out granola bars from one of his marbles. Spinner fiddled with the radio before finding a station with a newscast.
They turned it on just in time to hear the story on the Shie Hassaikai raid and that brought everyone's spirits up, especially hearing the anchor talk about what happened to Overhaul.
They drove for a while with another music station playing softly in the background. Tomura had one arm on the door and one hand on the wheel. The night was nice so it wasn't too cold with the open window. He'd forgotten how peaceful driving could be. It had never been necessary that he learn to drive with Kurogiri always at his side but Sensei had insisted he learn so he could be independent. Tomura was thankful for that now.
After a time he felt a buzz in his pocket from his phone. It was probably Dabi checking in, he thought, but he pulled it out to check anyway.
"Don't text and drive." Mr. Compress said when he saw the screen light up.
"Fuck off."
Tomura glanced down at the screen and the text was not from Dabi.
"What the..." He opened it.
"Who is it?" Toga asked with a yawn. Tomura didn't answer.
"Tomura-kun?" she tried again.
"It's my UA informant," he said, he sounded tense. "The police have captured Kurogiri. But another one of Sensei's men got away."
"Kurogiri has been..." Spinner said agasht.
"Looks like it," Tomura said, putting his phone to sleep and shoving it in his pocket.
"You okay, Tomura-kun?" Toga asked quietly.
"No." he answered truthfully. "But, it's fine. No more easy mode. We'll be fine on our own."
"What are we gonna do now?" Twice asked.
"Well... if another one of Sensei's men got away, I guess we go look for him."