The So-Called "Gray Rat Society"...
Under the blazing midday sun, the two drunkards in the alley remained intoxicated and delirious, completely unaware of what was happening at the alley entrance not far from them.
"You guys are so weak."
Uraraka Shige looked at the five thugs lying on the ground, no longer resisting, the same thought once again surfaced in his mind. This time, however, unlike the previous two times when he merely suppressed the thought, he spoke it out directly.
Because he had already won, he was entitled to say such contemptuous words to the five thugs he had defeated.
'Giggle...'
Upon hearing this, the five thugs all raised their heads and looked at Uraraka Shige standing in front of them. Their wailing and screaming stopped, and they stared intently at Uraraka Shige with wide eyes, their teeth grinding together, but they didn't say anything more.
Because the victor is king and the loser is villain.
They are hooligans, and although they often make unforgivable and irreparable mistakes due to momentary impulses, they also have their own rules and must abide by the principle of "the victor is king, the loser is villain."
More importantly, it's because they want to survive.
They were thugs from the Gray Rat Society, the lowest of all thug groups. They were all 'Quirk', and they didn't have the talent to live a good life as 'Quirk'.
In this 'Quirk' society, the lives of the lowest-level thugs who are 'Quirk' and 'untalented' are unimaginable to most people. They try hard, but always end up achieving nothing. They have fought, but their fighting spirit is ultimately extinguished by reality.
But what could they do? They couldn't just die...
So all they crave now is survival, even if it means living as humbly as rats in a sewer...
Because this so-called 'survival' is all they have left to maintain their sense of self...
Therefore, even if some people might abandon certain bottom lines and break certain rules at times to improve their lives, they won't necessarily do so. More often than not, even if they did, they wouldn't necessarily improve their lives; in fact, it might even lead to them being abandoned by others. This is determined by their abilities...
Fortunately, they also came to understand this.
So they banded together, becoming one of the lowest and most lowly groups known as the Gray Rat Society. They might see an opportunity and their eyes would light up, rushing to seize it in droves. But ultimately, when faced with the possibility of being abandoned by the group, losing their right to survive, or facing an even more unpleasant future...
Even if these are just possibilities, they would give up these opportunities just to continue living this monotonous and uninteresting life, like a lowly gray rat, a life so dull that it almost completely fails to inspire any hope.
They are a group of people who have accomplished nothing and are destined to accomplish nothing in the future, a group of people who are sitting and waiting for death, a group of people who are almost completely beyond redemption, who are not worthy of sympathy or pity. And even if someone does sympathize with them or feel sorry for them, it will not bring about any changes that can be etched into their bones.
This is a group of hopeless, inflexible, and self-destructive individuals who only seek survival.
But precisely because of this, when faced with the contemptuous words of Uraraka Shige, who had defeated them as a mere elementary school student, these five thugs belonging to the Gray Rat Society did not, like the other thugs who could still be saved, utter angry curses, rebuttals, or denouncements... They were more willing to accept the established facts.
So the five thugs gritted their teeth and stopped crying out in pain, using this behavior of daring to be angry but not daring to speak out to conceal their true nature.
Uraraka Shige also failed to see through their act, which was actually just a cover-up.
So Uraraka Shige looked at them and asked indifferently, as if the state of these five thugs had nothing to do with him at all.
Why did you target us before?
If the five thugs present were individuals with 'Quirk,' or even those who hadn't yet fallen to the level of 'gray rats' (not squirrels, but common sewer rats, which appear blackish-gray due to their filth), they would at least hold out for a while before revealing what Uraraka Shige wanted to know after he resorted to some Uraraka Shige -than-refined methods. Some might even persist until Uraraka Shige gave up.
But these five thugs wouldn't listen. They quickly told Uraraka Shige he wanted to know, which even made Uraraka Shige wonder if there was something wrong with it. He repeatedly questioned them in various ways until he finally confirmed that the information the five thugs gave him was either true or they would never change their minds...
Because the things he wanted to know came too easily.
In any case, Uraraka Shige had already obtained the information he wanted: why these thugs had come to cause trouble for him and Ochaco. He had also successfully vented some of the resentment and anger he felt from the trouble caused by these Ochaco through this act of revenge.
It can be said that Uraraka Shige has achieved his goal in coming to find these five thugs.
So after that, Uraraka Shige quickly left the alleyway and went to the small park where he usually exercised and practiced his 'Quirk'. He started his workout for the day while thinking about the information he had obtained from the five thugs.
"Boss... boss... mission... how can I resolve this..."
As for those five thugs who relented without any sense of responsibility, they knew that their actions would earn them the contempt of their fellow gang members. They even knew that if they were in that situation, they would unhesitatingly join the ranks of those who despised them, because they needed to demonstrate their 'loyalty' through such behavior.
But that's all.
Because they are different from those who truly value loyalty. For them, so-called 'loyalty' is just a facade, like their previous behavior of daring not to speak out against injustice.
Just like the name of their group...
'Gray Rat Society'?
That couldn't be more apt.