Beta'd by Greed720 and HardwinPotter

If robot Deku, crazy, paranoid Katsuki and bad decisions galore All Might sounds fun to you, go check out Deku Ex Machina!

Nezu frowned as he sniffed the cup of tea the dapper gentleman had handed him. One sip confirmed his fears. The Gold Tips Imperial was so thoroughly and completely ruined that the delicate and fragrant leaves may as well have been raked off U.A.'s lawn.

"My thanks, Gentle-kun," Nezu said, struggling to keep his voice steady. "But please, never brew tea again."

The mustachioed criminal looked aghast at Nezu as the tea he poured into his own china cup overflowed and spilled onto the table. "Is it not to your liking, Nezu-san? I had gone through great lengths to find the finest tea in Japan."

"It is not the tea that I find dissatisfying, but the way it has been brewed."

"How could it not be perfect? I added the leaves to the water and boiled them. Surely nothing could be simpler than brewing a cup of tea."

Nezu pinched the bridge of his muzzle. "First thing I'm doing after I hire you is locking you in your classroom until you can brew a proper cup."

Gentle bowed low, the teapot in his hand sloshing its contents behind him, and said, "I will do so until the very heavens weep tears of joy at the sight of my tea."

As he eyed the growing puddles on his desk and on the floor, Nezu, for once, could not bring himself to despair at the waste of tea. Nezu said, "After that, I'll teach you to handle tea without spilling a single drop."

Gentle glanced at the mess around him and gave a sheepish smile. "Forgive me. I find I can be a bit over-enthusiastic when it comes to tea."

"Noted." Pushing a button on his intercom, Nezu asked, "How is the equipment? Is everything to your liking?"

"This stuff's incredible!" La Brava said on the other end of the line. "How did you even get service this good all the way down here?"

"Thank the military. Now, for the time being, I'm entrusting this operation to the two of you. Work to infiltrate the MLA and focus on gathering information. I'll let you know when it's time to strike."

"Of course." Gentle twisted his mustache and asked, "How will we contact you?"

"I have it handled," La Brava said. "Encrypted messages, sent through a dozen proxy locations. Completely untraceable. I'll have a flash drive prepared with the encryption key."

"Excellent! I knew I was right in hiring the two of you." Nezu scrunched up his nose. "Aside from your tea-making skills, anyways."

Gentle awkwardly cleared his throat and said, "I hope I'm not overstepping myself, but may I ask why you are leaving so suddenly?"

Nezu glanced at the email from Recovery Girl open on his computer. The update she had given explaining how both hero classes and Sekijiro knew about Izuku's Quirk had nearly driven Nezu to spike his tea or forego tea altogether for something strong enough to peel paint off a wall. After hearing that Midoriya and Bakugo had beaten each other half to death had him packing his bags. It only figured that his plans fell apart within a couple months of leaving the campus. Hearing that Izuku's Quirk foresaw Yaoyorozu's kidnapping, with no details on how or when it happened, added yet more fuel to his raging headache.

"I'm afraid something came up at U.A. while I was away that requires my direct attention. Considering that Stain-san has been kind enough to kill all the heroes I can prove are loyal to the Re-Destro, the MLA is sorely lacking legitimate support. Odds are that my sudden reappearance will be enough to goad Re-Destro into recruiting vigilantes to his cause."

"We won't be involved in anything unsavory, will we?" Gentle asked.

"He needs your record clean for what he intends. Most likely, he will have you continue your exploits, or perhaps offer minor aid to their criminal elements. If they ask something more serious of you, buy time and contact me immediately."

Gentle nodded. La Brava presumably nodded as well, but the intercom in the old bunker didn't have screens.

"Right, that should be everything." Nezu leapt down from his chair. his new leg, which had slowly regrown over the months spent in the bunker, still trembled under his weight. Hiding his new leg's weakness with an exaggerated gait, Nezu strutted out the door. "If you'll excuse me, I better head back before anything else goes disastrously wrong. Good luck!"

Snipe was waiting right outside the door. Nezu stopped just short of him and gave his hat a beady-eyed stare. With an exasperated sigh, Snipe turned his shoulder, giving Nezu a ramp to scurry up his back and settle awkwardly onto his wide-brimmed hat.

"Have you ever given any thought to adding a capture scarf to your arsenal?" Nezu asked.

"As much as I would love to be your personal chauffeur," Snipe drawled, "I reckon that a scarf's too difficult for me to use, don't work with my Quirk, and would ruin my western aesthetic."

"What, you don't think a bright red scarf flapping in the breeze as a tumbleweed drifts by isn't the picture of a good American western?"

Snipe was silent for a moment. "If it ain't firing bullets, I ain't interested."

Nezu chuckled and said, "I'm sure Power Lo- that the support department would take it as a challenge."

The mood was instantly soured. Snipe put a hand on his revolver and said, "Those bastards better pay."

"They have, but there's plenty of credit left on their tab. Rest assured I won't stop until I collect on all of it."

Rikiya trembled with rage as he stared at the picture one of his followers had sent him. Keeping watch over U.A. had almost seemed a waste given the fact Nezu was gone, but evidently, the rat hadn't been as gone as the League of Villains had claimed.

"Those imbeciles!" Rikiya roared, crashing a fist on his desk hard enough to rattle all his stationery. "They said they stabbed him straight through the chest. They even took his foot! How did they screw this up?"

"He must have hidden away until he healed," Skeptic noted. "No one's seen or heard from him for the past few months, the cyber-attacks had stopped completely, and despite how he's trying to hide it, that leg he lost is still a quarter inch shorter and thinner than the other hind leg."

Rikiya scowled at Nezu's image on his screen, as if his hatred would strike him down through the internet. "I don't like the timing of this. All our sympathetic heroes died on Stain's latest killing spree, and now, right when we're looking to take the Yaoyorozu girl, Nezu pops up from the grave. "Are you sure no word has gotten out about their plans?"

"U.A. has stiffened their restrictions on student activity, but it appears to be a general response to this summer's League of Villains attack. Unless any other changes have been made, Hawks should have no trouble taking her."

"About that. Are we certain Hawks hasn't let anything slip?"

"Our contacts in the police have heard nothing, nor has any additional guard been provided for the girl." Skeptic typed into his computer while he thought. "That one Yakuza, didn't he have a truth-compulsion Quirk?"

"I thought about it. Let's wait until after he's handed us the Yaoyorozu girl. Then we'll see if we have any further use for him."

Skeptic grinned. "An excellent idea. And what of our current hero predicament?"

"Oh, I think Nezu has sorely underestimated my hand. I could always lean on agencies to look the other way of our new Yakuza assets, and we could always make use of those vigilantes scurrying around."

"Shall I contact them?"

"At once, Skeptic. Have Curious work with them. If anyone can spin their exploits to our advantage, it'll be her."

"I'm sure she'll be thrilled."

Rikiya poured himself a shot of sake. Looking out his window, he stared in the direction of U.A. and mused aloud, "I wonder, what is Nezu's game?"

"Pardon?" Skeptic asked.

"The Midoriya kid. He's clearly an important piece on the board, but what does Nezu stand to gain by mocking and belittling heroes? It's ticked off the Hero Commission and more people flock to our cause every day. Nezu could have picked anyone with any Quirk to serve as the vanguard of his next batch of heroes, and instead, he chose a cripple."

"He serves as an ideological counterpoint to our own message," Skeptic pointed out.

"And this is a battle for the hearts and minds of the people. Yet, should he fall, he would only prove our point and burn away the last of the faith people place in the institution. Nezu's left himself quite the chink in his armor for the sake of a blunted weapon." Rikiya shrugged and downed his Sake. "Well, he is just an animal. Only natural that a Quirk can't fix that completely."

"Are we going to kill Deku then?"

"When the time's right. Assassinating him would make him a martyr. Killing him on the field means he didn't have what it took to be a hero." Rikiya opened a desk drawer and took out a metal box. A golden dart, laced with the permanent Quirk removal drug, sat next to five empty slots. "Any news from our science team?"

"The Trigger analysis is complete. We've identified the specific compound and drew up the chemical formula for Yaoyorozu. The medical team reports that, aside from a temporary rise in blood pressure, the new Trigger has no side-effects. They recommend that anyone with heart problems shouldn't take it."

"Bah, what does it matter? The rank and file would never measure up to heroes without it. Keep that side-effect under wraps for now."

Skeptic nodded and opened another report on his laptop. "We're still analyzing the darts, but our scientists say they've just about sequenced the DNA in them."

"DNA? Who is the sample from?"

"No way of knowing without a person on hand to take the samples from, but odds are it was that little girl Hawks took."

Rikiya grinned. "Then we could use her to make more doses, yes?"

"Without Overhaul's Quirk, the process might take decades. Even if Overhaul hadn't altered the gene sequence, finding the specific sequences necessary, extracting them, and packaging them into a virus is beyond our current technology and Quirks."

With a shrug, Rikiya said, "No matter. It's probably for the best that the drug remains out of reach. Aside from ourselves, of course."

"Of course. Is there anything else I can help you with?"

"Set up another meeting with the League of Villains." The skin around Rikiya's eyes darkened as he activated his Quirk. "I need to have a few words with that old fossil and his pet man-child about how to properly kill someone."

All for One tapped his finger on his chair as the screen connecting him to Re-Destro went dark. In his head, he ran through all the Quirks at his disposal to reduce the screen in front of him to a pile of slag. Not that he would, he had better self-control than to throw a temper tantrum.

Shigaraki went a step further. Howling with fury, Shigaraki stomped up to the blank screen and swiped his hand across it. Within seconds, the screen crumbled away into dust.

"Who the hell does that NPC think he is? We miss one objective for a side-quest, and he acts like we're idiots. We should kill him, Dark-Souls his little NPC ass. A couple of Nomu should do it."

"Patience, Shigaraki," All for One said. "The MLA and the Hero Association are nearly at each other's throats. The fallout of such a battle will be the perfect time to move against the victor."

"You keep saying that! Have patience, just wait a little longer. I haven't gotten to do anything!"

"Until All Might tips his hand, we have to play this carefully. We still don't know if he's chosen his successor. Once he does, All Might won't have the strength to stop me."

Toshinori checked his watch. Checked it again. The minute hand stubbornly refused to leap forward five minutes. Standing outside the apartment door, Toshinori debated between knocking and going back downstairs. The climb up had been hard enough on his chest, but he didn't want to put Inko on the spot by showing up early. So, Toshinori stood and waited for the minutes to tick by.

The scrape of the door latch surprised Toshinori. Before he could react, the door swung open. Inko had her hair done up, and she wore a nicer set of clothes that looked a bit too snug for comfort. She started when she saw Toshinori. "Oh, you didn't have to come up, I was just about to head downstairs for you."

Toshinori felt a bead of sweat roll down the back of his neck as he thanked whatever patron deity was watching over him that she hadn't realized he was standing outside her door for the past ten minutes like a creep. "It's alright, my doctor said I should try to get some exercise." Shuzenji had said exactly the opposite, but he couldn't think of anything else to say.

"So…" Inko said awkwardly, "Are you ready to go?"

Toshinori felt himself blushing. He told himself that it didn't mean anything, it was just lunch between acquaintances. Maybe friends. Definitely not anything more than that.

They held hands on the way down the stairs.

Tenya knew talking to Tensei about Midoriya was a bad idea. Yet, when he faced Midoriya in the therapy session, words escaped him. What right did he have to get angry at Midoriya for his mistakes when he did so much to fix his own?

He needed advice. Hound Dog explained what he could of Midoriya's Quirk, but the platitudes of him not having control over his Quirk felt hollow in the face of how precisely Midoriya had saved him.

So, during his weekly visit to his older brother, Tenya asked, "What if there was someone who knew what was going to happen?" Tenya knew he had to phrase the question carefully, so he wouldn't reveal Midoriya's Quirk.

Tensei looked back at him. "Tenya, what's this about?"

"What if someone could have stopped Stain from hurting you?" Tenya asked, his voice shaking. "What if someone could have, but chose not to?"

"There wasn't anyone there, Tenya. It was just me and Stain."

"I know someone who knew, Tensei. Someone who could have stopped Stain from coming after you. You wouldn't be in this wheelchair, and-"

"Stain didn't come after me." Tensei had a grim expression on his face. He sighed and admitted, "I should have radioed in and followed him at a distance. Instead, I thought I had the perfect chance to take him out and went for it."

Tenya backed away, his head swimming with emotions. "Tensei… what?"

Tensei turned his wheelchair around and stared up at his younger brother. "I don't even think he meant to take me out. I came at him too fast, and he reacted on instinct."

"But Mi-" Tenya cut off when he realized what he had nearly slipped. "He knew! He knew, and he didn't do anything! I don't understand, Tensei!"

As Tenya broke down sobbing and knelt on the hospital floor, Tensei wheeled himself forward and patted him on the back. "What happened to me was my fault. Maybe Stain's, but definitely no one else. I got reckless when I should have called for backup, and I paid the price. But Tenya, I'm not going to let this stop me. Maybe I can't be a Pro Hero anymore, but I can still be a hero. I can work for intel or hero management, host charities, and whatever else that can make the world a better place. I'm alive, Tenya, and as long as I am alive, I'll do whatever I can to make you proud." Tensei clasped Tenya on the shoulder and said in a firm voice, "Just as you make me proud as Ingenium."

Mina glumly picked at her food as she watched Izuku from half a cafeteria away. She knew she should have apologized, told him she screwed up, something during that meeting, but when she walked through that door, her resolve had stayed behind.

Tsuyu sat next to her and said, "Still haven't made up with him yet?"

Mina groaned and said, "Why does this relationship stuff have to be so hard? I just wanted a bit of fun."

"If you want everything to be easy, you're getting into the wrong career."

With a glare, Mina said, "You're mean."

"I'm blunt and say what's on my mind. Relationships are complicated, and we have enough going on with school and hero work. If you really don't want to get involved in a relationship, tell him as much. Explain what you're feeling and let him know it's not his fault."

"It's not like he thinks it's his fault, right? I mean, I'm the one that broke up with him."

Tsuyu gave her an unimpressed look. "For one, breaking up with him usually means it is his fault somehow. Two, he's still avoiding you. And three, it's pretty obvious from his expression when he sees you that he's still hung up over it. I don't think you should get back together, but the least you could do is apologize for how you handled the situation."

Mina sat up straight and slammed her hands on the table. "You know what? You're right. Sitting her moping isn't my style. I'm going to talk to him, get this over with, and feel much better afterwards." She took two steps before locking eyes with Izuku and swerving off course. "Tomorrow. I'll do it tomorrow."

Tsuyu sighed and shook her head as Todoroki sat down next to her. He watched Mina walk away and said, "I heard relationships are supposed to be complicated. Our relationship doesn't seem complicated. Are we not doing it right?"

"Do you want it to be complicated?"

"I guess not."

"Neither do I."

"So, we just keep doing what we're doing?"

Tsuyu leaned against his left side and said, "Sounds like a plan."

As Izuku sketched out the image in his head, the sensation of coloring in the blank screen felt like flexing a muscle he hasn't used for hours, a bit stiff and irritating at first, but heavenly once it gets moving in earnest. This morning, outside the dorms, Koda had a sparrow on his finger. The rising sun radiantly framed Koda's smiling face and the sparrow's inquisitive eyes. Izuku committed the sight to memory and brought out his tablet the first chance he got.

Wiser for his all-nighter, Izuku set an alarm on his phone, ensuring he wouldn't miss his bedtime again. However, it wasn't the phone that interrupted his sketching. As Izuku colored in the sky, a firm, almost stylish knock came at the door.

With no small amount of trepidation, considering the last time someone knocked on his door late at night, Izuku opened the door. The hallway was empty. Confused, Izuku looked to the left and right. Aoyama's door was open, but otherwise, that anyone had knocked on his door.

As Izuku closed the door, he glanced down. A plate covered in cheese slices sat in front of his room. Curious, Izuku picked up the plate and sniffed at it. The cheese had a mild, nutty aroma that made him lick his lips.

"Surprise!"

Izuku nearly leapt out of his skin. The cheese platter teetered as Izuku backpedaled into his room. Aoyama's face went from grinning to apologetic. "Mon ami, I didn't mean to scare you. Are you alright?"

"I - I'm fine. You just startled me, that's all." He looked down at the cheese still in his hands and asked, "Did you leave this out there!"

"Yep! Koda-san mentioned earlier to avoid surprising you since you're not used to them. So, I thought, why not give you a pleasant surprise? That way, you'll be able to handle any other kind of surprise, no?"

Izuku felt a warm, fuzzy sensation in his chest, and a smile spread across his face. "Thank you. That was really nice."

"Well?"

Izuku's mind went blank. "Well what?"

"Aren't you going to try the cheese?"

"Oh! Sure, I'll have some." Izuku took the tiny fork on the plate, speared a slice, and ate it. A rich, creamy flavor, punctuated by crunchy salt crystals, filled his tongue with hum-inducing bliss. "This cheese is amazing! What kind is it?"

"Parmesan Reggiano, a sheep's-milk cheese aged three months and imported from Italy." Aoyama flipped his hair and said, "Tres bien, no?"

"You didn't have to do all this for me," Izuku said, fighting back tears.

"You've seemed really down lately, and I wanted to do something to cheer you up. Did it work?"

"It did. Thank you, Aoyama-san. I should get back to work, it's getting late." Izuku held out the platter and said, "You can have the rest."

"Keep it. I could tell how much you enjoyed it." With a twinkling smile, Aoyama said, "I'll let everyone else know to give you pleasant surprises as well."

"T-thank you." With a forced grin, Izuku added, "I'll try not to expect them."

Izuku closed the door as quickly as he could without appearing rude. Once he was out of sight, he sobbed into his sleeve and held the cheese away from him so he wouldn't get it wet. It felt so good to cry, so right, but a nagging sense of guilt needled him for crying after Aoyama did something so nice for him.

If it hadn't been for that alarm he had set, Izuku suspected that he would have stayed up crying all night.

Aoyama had spread word more quickly than Izuku had expected. At breakfast, Sato had surprised him with an entire coffee cake. Tsuyu found him alone in a hallway and gave him a surprise hug. When Todoroki passed him ten minutes later, Izuku got surprised by another hug. It felt stiff and awkward, but hearing Shoto over-explain how Tsuyu told him to hug Izuku made him chuckle. Jirou, blushing furiously, invited him to listen to a new rock album she just got, Koda ambushed him with his pet rabbit, and Ochako had left a bento box floating outside his room.

Over the course of the next couple months, between all the kindness his classmates had shown him and all the progress he had made in fighting and drawing blind, Izuku realized why his Quirk stopped showing him almost everything. He wanted to live this way.

A/N: I feel as though this story has too many irons in the fire. Kinda happens when I write without an outline to keep me from doing whatever tickles my fancy. Originally had Hawks get Eri plopped onto his lap by the commission, but I scrapped that when I realized that would literally go nowhere. Ah well. This chapter's mainly to touch on those metaphorical irons. From now on, I'm focusing on tying everything up and drawing both the plot and character arcs to as satisfying a conclusion as I can make. After that, I'll start a new story with a solid outline to keep the next story more tightly written.

Got some new glasses! They weren't cheap, even with insurance, but I can tell the difference. Thanks to COVID, it's been a few years since I got my prescription updated, and I knew I needed a new pair. Made Cajun catfish, roasted cauliflower, and cornbread yesterday, and boy howdy, was that delicious. Easily one of my best dishes.

Making Deku Ex Machina was definitely the right call. Those drabbles are a lot of fun to make, and the reception's been positive so far.

Last chapter got a ton of reviews, so thanks for that! It's a mixed bag of critique and praise, both of which I'll take. I'd like to go through them, but I have to leave for work in a bit. The main jist of it is some people like the introspective, character-heavy stuff, some don't. In-depth character work is out of my comfort zone, to be honest, but I decided that I wanted to tackle it anyways and see how it went. Knowing what I know now, I wouldn't change that approach, but I would have tried to integrate it earlier into the story. I won't be rewriting this. Instead, I'll take these lessons with me to the next story. If you still like it, then great, and if not, there's tens of thousands of other stories out there. I'm sure you'll find one more to your fancy. Or heck, write it yourself.

That's all for now. See you next week!