After listening to Akaya Kaiun explain the situation over the phone and hearing her carefully ask for help tracking down the escaped villain known as the Bloodthirsty Muscle Maniac, Shigaraki couldn't stop the faint twitch at the corner of his mouth.
His disciple really had started treating him like some kind of universal problem-solver.
Something happened?
Call Master.
Dangerous villain escaped?
Call Master.
Need someone hunted down?
Still Master.
Had he accidentally built the image of some righteous underground vigilante in her head?
Some dark hero obsessed with justice?
…Well.
To be fair, the things he'd been doing lately did look suspiciously close to that.
But that was only because it benefited him.
Criminals meant Evolution Points.
Evolution Points meant strength.
That was the beginning and end of it.
At his core, Shigaraki understood himself perfectly well.
He was a villain.
A far worse one than most of the criminals he had casually disposed of these past few weeks.
Which made this entire situation strangely amusing.
Because the villain Akaya wanted him to hunt down…
was someone Shigaraki himself had deliberately released.
The prison break had been his work from beginning to end.
Long before today, while acting as the so-called "Dark Knight," Shigaraki hadn't only been delivering criminals to the authorities.
He had also quietly planted one of his own pieces inside the system.
The sludge villain.
Or rather, the sludge villain occupying a freshly acquired body.
After investigating where Muscular was being held, Shigaraki immediately realized the man's value.
Muscular's strength was useful.
Too useful to leave rotting in prison.
So Shigaraki began preparing a way to reach him.
Naturally, not just any criminal could be sent into the same containment facility.
Because of that, Shigaraki carefully selected a sufficiently dangerous criminal, had the sludge villain take over the body, staged a convincing fight, and then conveniently "captured" the body before handing it over to the authorities.
Everything after that became simple.
The possessed criminal was transported directly into the same prison as Muscular.
From there, all it took was a little manipulation, some stealth, and a burst of violence at the right moment.
Then Muscular walked free.
As for why the prison guards failed to notice the escape for an entire day?
That had nothing to do with laziness.
The guards had actually done their jobs properly.
Unfortunately for them, proper procedure meant very little when the enemy could possess people from the inside.
A few subtle misdirections from someone they believed was another guard, followed by a swift ambush, was enough to cripple the facility before anyone understood what was happening.
By the time they recovered, the escape had already happened yesterday.
That was the truth behind the incident.
Which meant Shigaraki had spent considerable effort arranging Muscular's release.
And now Akaya was asking him to help throw the man back into prison.
Impossible.
Not happening.
More importantly, why would he interrupt a perfectly enjoyable outing with his future wife just to sabotage his own plans?
The answer was obvious.
Still, outright refusing would create problems.
Not moral problems.
Image problems.
The current public image of Shimura Tenko was that of a mysterious, justice-driven youth who hated evil and acted whenever necessary.
Flatly rejecting Akaya would feel inconsistent with that image.
So after a short pause, Shigaraki carefully chose his words.
He didn't refuse directly.
Instead, he explained that he was busy at the moment and couldn't immediately deal with Muscular himself, but that he would ask around, gather information, and look into the matter once he had time.
Smooth.
Reasonable.
And most importantly, perfectly in character.
He also had Akaya send over all the information she had gathered.
Akaya herself wasn't disappointed.
This was roughly the answer she expected.
In her eyes, her master was always occupied with important matters. Naturally, he couldn't immediately abandon everything to chase after a dangerous escaped villain.
So she simply forwarded the files obediently and ended the call.
Because honestly, her reasons for contacting him had never been complicated.
Part of it was hatred toward Muscular.
Part of it was her lack of confidence in the police and heroes.
And another part was simply practicality.
The more people searching, the greater the chance Muscular would be found quickly.
That was all.
Meanwhile, after receiving the files, Shigaraki casually opened them while walking through the shopping district beside Himiko.
The more he read, the more thoughtful his expression became.
Interestingly, what caught his attention most wasn't Muscular himself.
It was another line buried in the report.
The heroes had prepared a "trump card."
Akaya only found the wording suspicious.
Shigaraki, however, immediately formed a guess.
Especially after remembering his conversation with All Might yesterday.
The so-called trump card the news kept hyping up…
was almost certainly All Might himself.
And honestly, that made sense.
If All Might entered the operation, then Muscular would be hopelessly outmatched.
The gap between them was absurd.
Against the Number One Hero, Muscular was little more than an oversized punching bag.
There was only one issue.
All Might still needed to find him first.
And that changed everything.
Strength meant nothing without a target.
If they couldn't locate Muscular, even someone like All Might could only waste time running in circles.
That realization eased some of Shigaraki's tension.
But only slightly.
Because he wasn't foolish enough to rely entirely on the incompetence of others.
Waiting around and hoping the heroes failed would be stupid.
Hope was not a strategy.
And relying on mistakes was even worse.
In the end, it was always safer to rely on himself.
Besides, Muscular still wasn't fully under his control yet.
And given the man's personality, asking him to quietly hide forever was unrealistic.
Muscular was addicted to violence.
Sooner or later, he would start causing trouble again.
Which meant waiting passively was not an option.
As Himiko happily dragged him from store to store, occasionally holding clothes against herself and asking for his opinion with sparkling eyes, Shigaraki quietly organized his thoughts.
He answered her automatically, but most of his attention remained elsewhere.
Calculating.
Adjusting.
Rearranging pieces.
And eventually, a plan began taking shape.
Slowly, Shigaraki exhaled.
Then he glanced toward Himiko.
"Himiko."
She immediately turned toward him.
"Mm?"
"I need to make a call."
A faint smile appeared on his face.
"Give me a minute."
Himiko puffed out her cheeks dramatically before waving him away like a generous queen.
"Fine. But don't make me wait too long, Tenko."
Shigaraki stepped away from the crowd and pulled out his phone.
Then he dialed the sludge villain's number.
If All Might wanted to play hero…
then Shigaraki would give him a proper stage.
A dramatic one.
A memorable one.
Something carefully prepared.
Something capable of distracting him, testing him, and shaking the board hard enough to expose useful pieces in the process.
At the same time, it would also serve as the perfect opportunity to tighten his control over Muscular completely.
After all, the fastest ways to secure loyalty from useful subordinates were fear, power, and demonstrated value.
And if he could accomplish all of that while also handing the heroes a pleasant little "surprise"—
then really, that was just good manners.
The call connected.
A slow smile spread across Shigaraki's face.
Time to make the next move.
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