Chapter 8: Partners in Crime

When Deku awoke, he did so to a feeling that he normally was all too familiar with, pain, but this time it was a different, much worse kind of pain, one he couldn't bear. He had just woken up from a humiliating defeat, not a defeat in which he had simply failed to do what he set out to accomplish, he had experienced plenty of those. The defeat he had just suffered was an absolute one, he had just lost a fight in which the price of defeat could very well have been his life. Waking up to that instant realization, caused Deku more pain than any injury could. But only, Deku hadn't died, he was still alive, and he was still breathing, that meant he had been given a second chance, but this time, he would be at the mercy of another.

He opened his eyes, and he began to examine his situation. First he noticed that he was seated in a wooden chair, and had his hands tied behind his back. He also noticed that while his goggles had been removed and his hood had been pulled down, his black and red mask was still affixed to his face. He didn't know why this was, but it was almost like some kind of gesture of respect, his captors clearly wanted to make some kind of deal, and they knew just how to earn a villains respect, that was by showing their power as well as due respect in turn. As he tried to move his arms to test the ropes binding his hands, he felt a pain in his shoulder, and noticed that the wound in his right arm had been wrapped up using one of the bandages he always kept around his arms.

Next he looked around, apparently he was being held in some kind of bar, the whole thing was just bare brick walls. On one of the walls there was an All Might poster that was torn up, whoever lived here had clearly set that poster up just to tear it down, so at least he and them clearly had a mutual hatred of All Might. Also in a corner of the room was some sort of lumpy object, and draped over it was a white sheet, he didn't know exactly what it was, a recliner maybe? No, recliners weren't shaped anything like that.

"At last you're awake, you have a better recovery time than I thought." said the voice of Tomura Shigaraki.

Deku looked over to the bar, and there he saw the grey-haired man, with a severed hand covering his face, slowly standing up from a bar stool with his puppet-like movements. Standing idle behind the bar was a person, dressed like an old-timey bartender, who looked to be completely made of back mist. The mist looked identical to the mist that Shigaraki had somehow conjured during their fight. What was that name Shigaraki had said? Kurogiri? Assuming he remembered correctly, Kurogiri was probably this person's name.

"So, have made your choice yet?" Shigaraki said.

"What are you talking about?" Deku responded, puzzled at what Shigaraki just said.

Frustrated at Deku's confusion, Shigaraki began to scratch his neck so hard that Deku was honestly surprised that he wasn't bleeding already.

"Ughh… The offer… The business proposal!" Shigaraki said, as he began to get angry.

As Shigaraki tried to remind Deku of his "Proposal", Deku remembered their earlier encounter in the alleyway, and how the villain tried to approach him with some kind offer that Deku had refused without even hearing Shigaraki out. Seeing that he wasn't in any position to argue, Deku decided he would hear the other villain out. Odds were that Shigaraki wanted Deku to join forces with him, to either take advantage of his skill, or his growing name, but still, he had given him the courtesy of leaving his mask on, not to mention that these two had the combat potential to take Deku down, so he would at least put some consideration into whatever they said. Of course, their offer would most likely be crap, but if that happened, Deku could always wait for an opportune time to betray them, and leave them with knives in their backs.

"All right, you certainly have my attention." Deku said with mock interest. "Now what is this proposal you keep talking about?"

Hearing that Deku was finally ready to listen, Shigaraki visibly calmed down and rested his hands at his sides.

"Finally, now Deku, how would you like to…" Shigaragki started speaking."...kill All Might!"

That was not what Deku had expected him to say, the torn poster on the wall had shown that they had a clear hatred of All Might. But to think that they had a chance at killing the symbol of peace was just ridiculous, this idiot was certainly not the first thug to think he was capable of such a feat, and would most definitely not be the first to go to jail for such an error. Of course, Shigaraki and his partner were most certainly strong, as they had been able to take Deku down, but Deku was nowhere near the league that All Might was in, but just because they could beat him meant nothing in comparison to the goal that they had set on.

Deku began to laugh mockingly at Shigaraki, part amused at the absurdity of his proclamation, and part angry at the fact that his time was being wasted on bullshit like this.

"Are you some kind of idiot!" Deku kept laughing. "Do you just realize how many times villains like you have tried and failed to kill him!"

"Yes! I do!" Shigaraki yelled back, clearly annoyed at Deku's outbursts. "But I have something that no one else does, something that will kill him for sure!"

"Oh yeah! And what is this "thing" that you have so much faith in! What's your plan!" Deku, who wasn't even taking Shigaraki seriously at this point, jokingly asked.

"This!" Shigarki answered with pride in his voice, as he moved over to the unidentified object in the corner of the room with the white sheet draped over it. Shigaraki touched the sheet, and it disintegrated within a second revealing the "thing" that had rested beneath it.

It had the rough shape of a human, in a squatting position with the exception of its head that looked like that of a bird's. It's skin was ebony black and was covered in red scars, it's open mouth was full of hideous jagged teeth, and it's brain was completely exposed. Deku stared in confusion that was visible even while he wore his mask, even though it didn't stand at full height he could tell that it was probably just as big as All Might, maybe even bigger.

"What is that thing?" Deku asked in utter shock.

"It's an artificial human, it's called Nomu. Do you like it? It was made with the special purpose of killing All Might." this time it wasn't Shigaraki who spoke, but this mysterious voice came from a television screen fixed just above the bar. As Deku shifted his attention towards it, he saw that on the screen were only the words "AUDIO ONLY".

"Who are you?" asked Deku.

"I am the founder of this organization. You can call me Sensei." answered the mysterious voice. "And we have scouted you because we believe that your reputation precedes you, and that your ability to analyze quirks is most impressive."

Deku was surprised by what this "Sensei" character said to him. He didn't know how he knew about his skills at quirk analysis. Was it that obvious in the way he fought and reacted?

"So what do you say? How would you like to join, The League of Villains?" the man called Sensei repeated the offer.

To this request, Deku put in some genuine consideration. This Nomu creature was certainly impressive, but he didn't know what it's capabilities were for certain, but Sensei believed that it could live up to its task. And Sensei had also mentioned that the Nomu was an artificial human, anyone with the resources and ability to engineer something like this, clearly had some ability to create a plan.

But Deku still had his doubts, no one had been able to kill All Might, if the day when someone did ever came, it would truly be a historic day for Japan, and maybe even the whole world. And Deku knew better than to think that his luck would be so great that he would stumble upon such an opportunity. But he also knew that if he refused he would likely be killed, to prevent information of the attack from getting out, these were villains after all.

Deku took a deep breath, he now knew what he would say, he had made his choice.

"I'm not joining your league." Deku said bluntly.

Hearing this, Shigaraki immediately prepared to dash at the still restrained Deku, but he had more to say however.

"I won't be signing on with you, but I will help you in destroying the symbol of peace. And then, I will make my choice." Deku said, with sudden determination infesting his voice.

"Excellent, most excellent!" Sensei began to laugh. "Even with your back against the wall, you still refuse to surrender yourself to anyone, you truly are a villain down to the very core! I'm so glad that we selected you, Deku!"

At UA…

Over the last couple of days, Katsuki Bakugo hadn't been able to keep his mind off his failure in the UA entrance exam, of course he had scored 41 points in the exam, and that was not at all considered a failure by UA, but he had failed to excel in a challenge that should have been easy, and that was unforgivable in his eyes. When he had received his acceptance letter to UA in the mail, he didn't feel accomplished at all, apparently the person who had gotten first place in the exam, had achieved 80 points, Bakugo had only gotten half of that, and knowing that he had been outshined to such a degree only pissed him off.

For the last few days he had been practicing with his quirk at an abandoned beach, to try and improve. Whenever he was there, he practiced his ability to move through the air with his quirk, as well as his ability to destroy by using the trash that covered the beach as fodder. Sure enough, when he practiced there, he was able to fly, and destroy with ease, but he still didn't feel any better about himself, he still felt like his performance on the beach was only as good as it was because nothing had the strength to fight back. He looked back at his life up until now, and when he did, he found that he couldn't even remember a single point in which anyone had ever fought back against him…

… except, Midoriya. As the face of that annoying brat resurfaced in his mind, Bakugo furiously shook his head. This was supposed to be his new life, that quirkless loser, and all the other side characters that infested his life up until now, were out of the picture. He had left them all behind and he was now at the beginning his heroic legend, which brought him to where he was now.

Currently Katsuki was sitting back in his desk in the class 1-A classroom, his head was resting back in his hands as he kept his feet up on the desk. All this was in an attempt to drown out the ceaseless chattering of the other student's in the classroom, who were droning on about some pointless bullshit, that he didn't have the time or patience for.

"Excuse me! Fellow classmate, would you mind removing your feet from your desk! Do you realize the lack of respect that you're showing to your peers!" said an authoritative voice coming from Bakugo's left.

As he looked over to the source of the annoyance, he saw a boy on the taller side, with dark blue hair and glasses.

"Get lost four-eyes, who the hell do you think you are, you lame extra!" Bakugo snapped back.

The boy took in a deep breath from his nose and started again.

"I believe we got off on the wrong foot!" he said as he tried to introduce himself. "My name is Ida Tenya, and I come from Soumei Junior High School!"

"SOUMEI! So you must be some kind of snob! I guess I might have some kind of reason to put you in the ground after all!" Bakugo said as he began to smile cruelly.

"Put me in the ground?!" Ida gasped in utter shock. "Someone like you wants to be a hero of all things?!"

As Ida realized that any further continuation of this conversation would end in disaster, he looked over to the door and noticed that a new student had walked in. It was a girl who had unkempt shoulder length brown hair, and eyes of a matching color with dark circles around them, she held her head low, and wore a downtrodden expression on her face.

"Hello, my name Ida Tenya, it's nice to meet you!" Ida said as he held out a hand to the newcomer. "Hey, aren't you the girl who scored first place in the entrance exam?"

As Ida made his introduction, the girl turned to face his direction, but did not meet his eyes.

"Could you please stop blocking my path, I just want to go to my desk." she said in a quiet, monotone voice.

However things did not get easier for her as more students flocked around her, all wanting to talk to the girl who managed to get first place in the entrance exam.

"Hey aren't you the one who got 80 points?" a boy with weird elbows asked.

"Do you want to sit with me at lunch?" asked a floating school uniform.

"Can I have your autograph?!" a girl with pink hair and skin asked.

As she was berated by other students, the glum looking girl had had enough, and simply walked through the small crowd, silencing everyone, like there was a rain cloud floating above her, following her every move.

Back in Kamino…

Only recently, Deku had been released from the League of Villains hideout, to move around on his own before the attack on All Might would occur and he was currently out of costume, in his plain grey hoodie and walking along a sidewalk. After accepting the proposal to join in on their attack, Deku inquired further with Sensei, and Shigaraki about the other details. Apparently, the attack would be on UA High School, where All Might was employed as a teacher, at the schools Unforeseen Simulation Joint. Since Deku had about a week until the attack, he decided that it would be wise to try and find information on the students that would be caught in crossfire, and likely become obstacles.

As Deku was walking past an alleyway, he suddenly heard some kind of giggling noise that gave him the chills. He looked over into the alley to investigate, and he didn't see anything, so he began to walk away, but then he heard it again. As Deku walked into the alley to find the source of the disturbance, at first he saw nothing, but then he heard something behind him.

"HI DEKU! IT'S SO NICE TO MEET YOU!" yelled a voice from behind.

As he swiftly turned around, he saw an ash blonde schoolgirl running towards him with a knife. With his right arm Deku pulled a knife from his pocket, and attempted to parry her attack, a decision which he instantly regretted. His right arm, which had recently been stabbed, failed to deflect his assailant's knife, and Deku instead suffered a nasty cut to his left side, as the girl cut him and ran past.

As Deku clutched his new wound in pain, he turned his head back to try and located whoever had just attacked him, but he saw nothing but the continuation of a dark alleyway, the girl had disappeared from sight.

"Who the hell was that?" although he asked the question, he was pretty sure he knew exactly who she was. That girl was the imposter who had been killing people and using his calling card to taint the name of "Deku". Of that, he had no doubt.