"Life is too important

to be taken seriously."

-Oscar Wilde

----------------------------------------

"Oh, you two know each other? That's certainly interesting..."

"I've never seen her in my life. Or I don't remember her at the very least."

He glanced at her once more out of his eye, and silently confirmed with Gray one more time. Indeed, she didn't remember her either. It was true that having Gray greatly improved his memory capacity and speed of function, but his brain was primarily human, and he hadn't been born with a photographic memory. It was only natural that he couldn't remember each and every person; the things that he deemed unimportant were the first thing that went away.

But for her to have such a reaction to him was incredibly weird.

{...Do you want me to remember everyone in the future? It would take up a great deal of my operating capacity, but-}

'Don't worry about it. We can't stress about each and every little unexpected thing, Gray. It's okay to... lose control of the situation once and a while. All that matters is that we can get through it on top. That girl clearly has never conditioned her body in her life. While we have no idea what her quirk is, we can only be cautious. If we get too caught up on her unexpected reaction, we may miss the big picture.'

He felt a faint hum of electricity wrap around his neck, so faint that it was invisible to the naked eye.

It felt like a hug, somehow.

{You've grown up. I'm proud of you, Izuku.}

His eyes were smiling, a direct contrast to their usual dead fish look. But it was such a fragile, carefully crafted construct made with trembling hands and hollowed out hearts, that it somehow was even sadder. And as for whether this construct was real or simply imaginary... No one quite knew the answer to that. Not even Deku himself.

He was a constant mass of contradictions; one moment he wanted to soak himself in the blood of him, and the next he was just... tired. Tired and done with everything that had ever happened to him. Tired with what he had done. He had been broken and shattered so much that he somehow resembled a whole. A whole made up of myriad shattered pieces that all combined together for the illusion of normality. The little holes and wounds weren't a glaring hole in the picture anymore, because everything had been broken and rearranged.

Leaving a mess of shattered shards in the shape of a heart.

'...but at what cost?'

Indeed. The price he had to pay was far too much, but that was often the case in life.

You pay so much, gain so little, and try so hard just to come out in the middle.

The door slammed open abruptly, catapulting Gray and Deku out of their conversation; the faint electric numbness and surprising heat of the hug dissipated as well. It was a shame; out of all the 'hugs' he had ever gotten (had it ever gotten past 10 or maybe 5? He wasn't certain) it was one of the best. Out of the door came a slender, sinister-looking man, followed by a fellow that seemed to radiate warmth.

If it weren't for the speck of red on his cheek that had remained there unknowingly.

(Or perhaps it was purposeful..? A way to intimidate newcomers? Still, it didn't matter.)

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"You two are here for the test-"

"I'm sorry to interrupt you, but I'm not here to join your organization. I need to find someone among your ranks; I have a job for him."

The welcoming man's smile remained on his face, but there was a slight crease of irritation on his brow.

Evidently, his show of 'stupidity' had gotten him annoyed.

"...Dear customer, why did you not come through the back door? I'm sure that if you know about us, you would know that..."

"Yes, I know. But your... brethren wouldn't let me through the door. Saying that I looked too poor for their services."

That was actually a lie; he didn't dare to go to the back door, simply because he knew that he didn't have enough money. He had gotten a 'salary' (the liquid wealth of the dead bodies. The rest was offered up to the organization. Even if he hadn't disagreed with the morality of it, he would have disagreed with the extortion), but the price for hiring through the Milka Cafe was truly atrocious; only the big wigs could possibly scrounge up enough change to satisfy these ravenous beasts.

And every time they did it, it was a legend that they always left with bright green and red faces, like they were the mainstay of some Christmas musical play. Red from their anger/high blood pressure, and green for their envy of the Milka Cafe. They might not do many deals, but the deals they did make were enough to feed everybody for 5 years.

Although, it did make sense. They were running an incredibly risky business with the heroes having an especially pin-point focus on them. The debut of All Might made them completely go underground out of fear for his terrifyingly powerful quirk. If they met him in the field, they wouldn't be able to scream before they would be safely...

Locked up in jail.

For quite a long time, in fact.

But they couldn't just give up on the business, since it made that much money. Of course, there was also a catch to it. Since they were pretty much the only competent villains in the field (in this country, at least), they had a very strong monopoly. And they weren't shy about it either. Just having 'Milka Cafe' next to whatever service they were offering doubled, no, tripled the price instantly. And that was why he was here regardless of the fact that he didn't have money to hire the Milka Cafe; he just needed to hire an individual.

That, he had the capability to do.

The tricky part was tricking them into letting him do that.

"So I came through here instead. My business really is urgent, you see, and I need to see a specific member of yours. I had no choice but to take the risk. Of course, I dearly hope that you'll make it up to me for the bad treatment of your men. Don't forget that this relationship of ours can turn cold in an instant and that we can lock you up in jail for good. Like the little rats that you are."

The atmosphere turned slightly cold, but...

'Good, it seems he's used to it as I thought. Officials have always loved throwing their weight around in front of hired criminals.'

The main reason that the Milka Cafe could still operate was the protection of all of the officials.

If it weren't for that protection/deal, they would have jacked up the prices tenfold.

And since the prices barely remained within the acceptable range of those bigwigs, this relationship continued.

"Surely you jest. Why would this esteemed sir be in such dire straits, then? Surely someone of your patronage wouldn't joke around?"

And it was true. While Deku's clothes were not as bad as the woman beside him, they weren't exactly high class either. Anyone of sufficiently high status would never wear these clothes because doing so meant enduring untold 'humiliation'. It was just the crap people higher up used to spew about to make themselves feel even more superior than the common folk, but it was a thing. And Deku knew that as well.

But he also knew that if he used his money to buy perfectly pristine clothing, he wouldn't have been 'turned away at the gate'.

Or turned away at all, actually; they were known for being accepting of anything, as long as that thing had money.

Thus, it had to be at least somewhat plausible for the leader to accept it.

"...Don't talk with me about this. In any case, all that really matters is that I see a member of yours, immediately. I urgently need him, and only him, to complete a task for my boss."

'I could give him an excuse, but it's better to avoid talking about it at all. No official would talk in-depth about this, after all.'

"White roses are waiting to be-..."

Deku blinked. He certainly hadn't heard about this in his research about the cafe...

'Darn it, it must be some sort of secret code only shared among officials. I've truly run into a steel plate now-'

"This damn bastard... He doesn't know the passcode, boys! Kill him!"

'-but steel can be kicked down, I suppose. It's just harder than normal...'

He punched the first one in the nose, and diaphragm, leaving him stunned on the floor.

Gray jumped out and electrocuted the second one whole.

While the third one was dealt with easily; a quick backhand and spray down of electricity was all that was needed.

'Why does this feel less like steel and more like copper?'