[Giran's POV ]
Arms dealer, smuggler, racketeer, successful businessman, informant, broker, and simply a "good" and principled man. That is the answer a person would get if they asked Kagerou Okuta to describe himself in the briefest possible terms. Of course, only if that person actually pleased the man known in the criminal underworld as Giran.
Such thoughts and dozens of others floated through the consciousness of the lazy, cigarette smoking "good" man as he waited in one of his favorite bars. He was calmly relaxing, slowly tuning himself for the work ahead.
After all, he could not afford to relax for long periods very often, given his lifestyle. In the criminal world, few people can allow themselves to unwind for long without the risk of ending up dead or behind bars. Especially a broker like him.
If he thought about it, Giran had already saved up enough money that he could shift to safer ways of earning money without his personal involvement. His sharp intellect would allow him to run a successful business. And the chance of running into heroes would drop sharply. No matter how good heroes are in real combat, their battles against corruption and bureaucracy do not go well. A few bribes to some officials, blackmail with compromising information on another, one frame up of an overly curious hero followed by notifying journalists, and suddenly that hero is no longer interested in a modest businessman.
That would be the correct move and much safer for him.
But Giran did not want that. The decision did not sit well with him, and he did not think he would achieve anything more than just adding more zeroes to the numbers in his bank account. While he prided himself on his intellect and life experience, he considered his most important and most useful skill, acquired over the course of a very turbulent life, to be his ability to assess people. Their potential, their character, their quirks and inclinations.
After talking face to face, the broker could tell whether he should deal with a person or whether he should avoid them entirely. This was the reason he had stayed afloat when smarter and luckier men had lost their lives or their freedom. He liked finding interesting people and predicting their future achievements. And also directing them along the path that suited him. Of course, he had his failures, but who has not made mistakes in life?
And now he was waiting for the arrival of a very interesting young talent. Unfortunately, information about him was scarce.
Ken Hoshino, formerly Ken Kayoshi, known in the criminal world as Ticci Micc. Giran had racked his brain for a long time trying to figure out why he had chosen that particular "working" name, until he found an old manga from before the era of Quirks called D.Gray man. He appreciated the irony. And the preference for taking the names of fictional heroes and villains was popular in the early years of Quirks. Though he had not lived through that time, unlike him.
But he was talking about an unusual kid now. Rumors about a dwarf stealing everything in sight had started spreading quickly four years ago. At first, he was not too interested. Just another bearer of a decent Quirk who decided to take the easy way to make money. Most of them were quickly caught by heroes.
But when the dwarf lasted longer than seven months and even started stealing from other villains, Giran became interested. And he laughed for a long time, realizing that a nine year old boy was successfully stealing from famous, adult villains right under their noses. Oh, he would have paid good money to see their faces when they discovered all their cash was missing. He even began to think that the boy's survival instinct had completely atrophied. So he decided to get in touch with him.
That was a bit difficult, because despite his audacity, the boy was quite timid.
From there, a business relationship developed between them. And for someone with such a useful Quirk as "Choice," finding a use in "dark" dealings was quite easy. It was clear that Ken was hiding a lot and was afraid of some organization. The naive boy sincerely believed that he had managed to hide that from Giran.
The broker himself had never been able to learn much about that organization. Only that they needed a lot of children for a while and that they had cooperated for a time with Daruma Ujiko. Though that was not saying much. That long lived old man liked to participate in experiments and then step aside and watch the results. And those results often made Giran quite uneasy.
As for the boy, Okuta had recommended a good hired mercenary to him as a trainer, someone whose last job had not gone very well, since he had fled to Japan in a hurry and needed money. Plus, it would be good to hear his opinion on the boy's skills. The broker always tried to listen to the opinions of professionals. Excessive pride never ended well for those who possessed it.
Giran was even sometimes surprised by his own interest in Ken's future. Though the active phase of his plan was still two or three years away. And no major or interesting business was expected during that time. So it would be interesting to set the boy on the right path, so to speak. And, of course, with profit for himself. He enjoyed watching the boy try in vain to hide his greed and indignation at the prices of goods and services. He even managed to secretly take a photo of his face when he learned the price for official identification documents.
If the boy survived, he could achieve quite a lot, especially in the coming chaotic times. And the broker intended to wait for that time. Maybe then he would show him this small piece of "compromising evidence" just to see his reaction. It should be quite amusing.
After glancing at the time on his phone, Kagerou took a drag from a new cigarette, lighting it with a recently purchased pistol lighter. It was a childish trick, but it sometimes made clients nervous when he pulled it out of his pocket. Returning to his thoughts, the broker began to consider his order.
Find potential recruits for the future plan. They were not rushing him, but he needed to prepare in advance. Among possible newcomers, only Muscular and Smog came to mind so far. One had made a name for himself by killing low ranking heroes, and the other was a recently emerged serial killer. Giran sincerely doubted the sanity of both. But what could he do? Problems with logic and mental health were common among villains who were confident in the power of their Quirks. And sometimes the Quirks themselves physically affected the minds of their bearers. The broker himself had been lucky with his Quirk. "Haze" had helped him out many times early in his "career." The Quirk itself allows the user to induce mild amnesia in a target by making contact with their head. Their memories of the previous five minutes and the next five minutes become hazy.
His further thoughts were interrupted by the sound of footsteps approaching his table. Looking at the time, Okuta broke into a wide grin, showing the gap where one of his front teeth was missing.
"Ken kun, you were almost late. I was starting to think you had decided not to come see your old friend."
"I ran into some minor problems on the way. And judging by the prices you charge me, the meaning of friendship is not that great to you, old man."
At this, the broker's grin only widened. In his opinion, the boy had managed to hide his irritation and impatience behind a sarcastic reply better this time than before. Not much better, but better.
"Well, you have to separate work from personal life. Every successful businessman knows that."
Ken's eye twitched slightly. He hated being given patronizing advice and lectures on topics that did not interest him. And Giran knew this perfectly well. Ken also knew that Giran knew this, so he said with a sigh:
"Fine, Giran. We could trade jabs for a long time. I did not come here for that."
Watching the boy's face closely, the man who had become a skilled killer began to speak.
"Oh, I think this will interest you. My offer is that you retrieve something for me from a police station in Tokyo. And as a reward, I will provide you with information on the whereabouts of the American underground space hero, 'Omnipresent'…"
The boy, who had been about to refuse, froze sharply. Already knowing the answer, Okuta continued.
"…formerly known as Kayoshi. Do you agree to this offer?"
[End Giran's POV ]