A. N. Hello, Central City!!! Welcome to Crazy Bad-Ass Deku! Fair warning, most of this chapter is REALLY heavy. This is NOT an example of how this story is going to go, it is just the necessary to explain why Deku is the Deku he is. You will also note that Deku is a Joker-esque character. That is intentional. He is crazy. That is part of the fun
This chapter, and the next one, are going to be written in a series of first-person views, three per chapter. I will also be doing this for occasional interlude chapters, and sometimes during a chapter, so you can see where the different people are coming from. Sorry if this is hard to read or track, just recognize that a line after a paragraph probably means a POV change. I will generally make it so that you can rapidly tell who we are talking about, but if I don't that is also on purpose.
Also, no OFA for Deku. It ain't going where the story recommends it will go, but it ain't gonna be his either. Probably. Maybe.
Anyway, hope you enjoy.
Fic rec up front this time, and nothing after. In honor of the fact that this fic is very much like that one, I rec Total Command by Epsilon110. Powerful Deku, Fem!Everyone, and still in progress, but all in all it is a very good story, and the perspective and idea both are absolutely brilliant.
Anyway, let's get the story moving.
Deku was laughing. Why the HELL was Deku laughing?!?
Kacchan's life had not been going well in recent years. It was true, he had an amazing quirk, and yeah, he was a smart kid, and a combat GENIUS! It was also true that his quick thinking and careful handling of the whole 'Sludge monster debacle' had netted him personal training with All Might and a promise of potential successorship from the man, but there were other things.
His home-life had been… strained in recent years. His old man was a complete sop, and his mom never really seemed to recognize his greatness. Here he was, being trained by All Might, and all she had to say was "Be back before dark."!!! Didn't she get how amazing he was?!?
No-one did, anymore. Once, everyone knew he was amazing. He had been at the top of his class, had an amazing quirk, and had been on the way to the top! And that was just in elementary school! Then, IT had happened.
Deku, the worthless groupie, had always been watching Kacchan, basking in the greatness that was Katsuki Bakugo. It had been fun at first, but the brat had been WAY to clingy, so he and his friends had started using him as a punching bag. After all, the least the Deku could do was be useful for SOMETHING, right?!? And he could take a beating, too. As a matter of fact, the more time went by, the stronger and tougher Deku got. That was the first issue.
Kacchan had always been… prideful. In fact, his pride was what was driving him to become a hero, so that EVERYONE could know how great he was. It only made sense that his greatness would be shown to the world, right? So when the Deku started to be able to take his beatings, when he had started to be able to hit back, and when, after several years of this, he had gotten so tough that he didn't even flinch when Kacchan used his Nitro Punch on him, Kacchan had to wonder, was he really that great? If a Deku could stand up to him with no issues, what did that make him?
He had completely hated it.
He was the Mighty Kacchan, the future Lord of Heroes! No Deku could stand up to him! So, the beatings got worse. Attacks with small amounts of quirks led to full quirk assaults, punches with bare fists became punches with brass knuckles and hits with bats and pipes, and thrown rocks got a quirk boost or become steel balls launched from slingshots or bb guns. And Deku started to drift away from their group.
Deku never reported them, so it never was too much for him. That was how it worked, right? If you had a problem, you told someone, and Deku barely talked at all, so he must have been fine with it! He didn't even react when he was attacked, keeping that same listless look on his face, AND he was an antisocial loser who didn't even respond to the prettiest girl in the school when she tried to make friends with him, giving her a dead-eyed stare until she got freaked out and ran away. Clearly, he knew a Deku like him had no place talking to someone like her. He even started to hide himself in out-of-the-way places to keep away from others, not that that slowed Kacchan down one bit! Kacchan would always find him.
Of course, the girl had gotten the wrong idea, and had tried to talk to the teachers about 'emotional abuse' and 'bullying', or some such crap. She even thought Deku had 'suicidal tendencies', something Kacchan had had to look up at the time. Really, that nerd trying to kill himself? As if! The teachers had set her straight. She had transferred schools shortly thereafter, and her family had ended up getting rich anyway, so it's not like her opinion mattered. Still, that bugged him. How had the WORTHLESS DEKU gotten her to care? What lies had he told her?
Deku hadn't answered as Kacchan tried to beat it out of him, just lying on the ground as listless as ever. He had been smart enough to stay away from school for the rest of the year, something about doctors thinking he had fallen from a roof he couldn't have gotten on, and spontaneous combustion, not like anything about him mattered, anyway. Still, it was odd how the little shit had gotten into a severe accident the same day that Kacchan had tried to get answers. AND, he and his boys Yubi and Kubi had had to go to a gym to practice that summer. Fucking Deku. Still, at least his friends were heroes right beside him, so it had worked out.
Then, Aunty Inko had been put in a coma by smoke inhalation from a fire at the Midoriya residence, and she had yet to wake up. The police suspected arson, but there have been no leads in the six years since then. Deku got moved to an orphanage, but his father had already payed for his schooling up to high school, so he kept coming. Bastard didn't even react to that, except for some halfhearted crocodile tears as he had been beat down by Kacchan for his lack of response to his own mother being in a coma. He didn't even cry out, staying as silent as ever. The idiot probably had been the one to start the fire, damn him. Unfortunately, some teachers came across Kacchan as he was beating Deku. They had taken it badly, and they were going to punish him for it, but Deku disappeared, running away like the irresponsible little shit he always was. Not that Kacchan had cared, but he had started getting odd looks from his fellow students and teachers, and his popularity, almost entirely based around his current and future greatness, disappeared like Deku. If Kacchan hadn't know the idea was ludicrous, he would have thought the people around him believed he had offed Deku! As if he would take the effort to do that!
Then, the day of the Exam, he had just… appeared. Kacchan had been a recommendation student, thanks to Dumb Might, but the opportunity to scout this year's picks was too good to pass up, and sure enough, Deku had shown up. He had been… different, however. He had a massive smile, but it seemed unnerving, and his laughing eyes seemed to be desperate for something. He was also built. Like, he was six-foot-six, and his wrists were as thick as the averages pro's biceps.
He was HUGE! Not that it mattered, mind you. A quirkless nobody like him couldn't make it into U.A. without a miracle. So sure was he of that fact, he didn't even care when the cameras hadn't tracked him. That being said, as near as Kacchan could figure, the Rat that ran this school had decided to let him in as a publicity stunt. It was a really dumb publicity stunt, as All Might teaching there had totally overshadowed that bit of showmanship, but maybe the Rat was playing a long game. Still, that 'highest score of all time' crap was taking it a little too far. After all, there was funny, there was clever, and then there was poor taste; and that wasn't funny or clever. Draw your own conclusions.
The assessment test had proved Kacchan right. Sure, Deku did okay, but he had had to convince Eraserhead not to kick him out with some sort of secret conversation right before the test. At least, that had PROBABLY been what they were saying, as they had been whispering, but given Eraserhead's unhappy look and Deku's mediocre performance, that must have been it. The Rat was probably pushing the teachers around to make this happen. That was the only explanation as to why Deku would be being recorded as top of the class. Sure, Kacchan might not be the best anymore, but Rich Bitch should have at least surpassed Deku. Why did she look so familiar? Eh, who cares? She was just another extra.
And that battle trial? What a joke! Of course, Kacchan didn't remember it, but apparently, the Support Department had made a mistake with the shock absorber on his gauntlet so that, when he fired it off, it had smashed into his chin and made him stumble back into Yubi, sending both of them down the stairs. Clearly the Rat defending its 'miracle child', as that was the only way the Deku could have walked away from that with nothing but a destroyed shirt.
And now, as real villains invaded the USJ, Shitty Deku was having a nervous breakdown. That was the only way to explain the laughing he was doing. Kacchan knew it, he had known it all along! This piece of worthlessness was going to drag him and all the other students down with him. Kacchan was about to attack him to clear out the deadweight himself, when the Deku spoke.
"I'll prove myself now, Eraserhead. Take five, I got this."
Momo Yaoyorozu was not a hero, and she knew it.
Well, to be more accurate, she wasn't a heroine, but that wasn't the point.
Long ago, she had tried to be a heroine, to save a poor little lad who was her classmate, her friend. She had seen what was happening, but the teachers couldn't; so wrapped up in the 'perfect child' that would put their school's name in the history books that they had completely ignored what she had told them.
It hadn't helped that she had no evidence. One of the biggest problems, was that she could never figure out where and when the bullying was happening. But she could still see the signs.
When she had first moved into her elementary school, things were looking good. She had been homeschooled up through second grade due to her parents having to travel around for their jobs as talents scouts for heroes, but she was filled with the hope of friends and fun!
Sadly, it was nothing like that.
The school was grimy and dingy, the food was TERRIBLE, the teachers uninspired, and no-one wanted to hang out with the new kid/nerd. No-one, that is, except Izu.
The boy had been shy, but his green hair was adorable, and he was so sweet to her. He also didn't think she was weird for loving knowledge, sharing with her is own fascination with heroes, their strengths and their weaknesses. They were going to be an unstoppable team when they got older; she the brainy scientist and PR rep, making his gear and dealing with the public, and he was going to be the number one hero! It had taken him two-thirds of the school year to get up the courage to talk to her, but, after he had, things had been… dreamy!
Then, the next school year started.
Momo never found out what happened over the break, but Izu had… changed. He was scared. He was scarred. He never seemed able to join a conversation, and was always looking over his shoulder. Then, during the day he would disappear in the middle of school. Sometimes it would be at lunch, other times it would be during PE, and it would always happen after school. No-one even knew how he got into school. He would just… appear during class. Then, precisely one year after he had first said 'hi', he said 'goodbye'. It hadn't been anything important, just the first time they had hung out in a couple weeks. They had spent the Saturday browsing stores, and she got to tell him about how her quirk and been discovered to be able to make ANYTHING, not just matryoshka dolls. He had looked… stressed the whole day, like he was wrestling with a hard decision, and it had been her telling him about her quirk that had changed that look to one of absolute certainty. Then he walked her home, and just said 'goodbye', nothing more, and nothing less. But the way he said it…
It had physically hurt. Like he was actually saying 'I hope YOU can have a nice life.', or 'you'll be better off without me'. She was…
It had been terrifying. She had payed extra special care, come Monday, to make sure he made it to school. And he had, but he was different. Silent. Sad.
No-one, not even that ^Q#@$^&!!… troll Kacchan that always spent time near him seemed to notice how truly empty he had become. The thing that scared her the most, however, was the neatly-tied collection of 'Hero Analyses for the Future' notebooks that had appeared in her locker, including one whole volume on her power. She had tried to talk to him about it, but he just… couldn't be found. She never was able to catch him with so much as a passing hello in the halls, and it hurt.
Then, the school year ended.
The next year, she was even further away. She never even got within twenty feet. She had tried, oh how hard she had tried! But he was just gone. Like smoke…
Like a ghost.
She ended up having to check the school registry to make sure she wasn't going insane, that he really existed. He had. She checked the security system, and even installed some cameras of her own to track him. She could. She then tried to approach him. It was impossible. Literally, physically impossible.
And the schoolyear passed. She did manage to make a few… acquaintances, but truth be told, she wanted Izu, not them. He was the one she could trust, he was the one who had given her hope, and he was the one who had helped her the most. He was her very first friend. But she couldn't. She tried, but she couldn't.
The next year rolled around, and her parents had started to get concerned about her. She was getting obsessed with some boy, a boy that almost all of her teachers and classmates could barely remember, and none of them knew anything about him. Her sleep had been bad, and she had been caught trying to hack a national database to find where he lived so she could see him over the summer. Of course, if she had explained things, they would have understood, and even tried to help, but she was so wrapped up in her pursuit, she hadn't even noticed their concern. That schoolyear started out the exact same as the last, only now Izu looked… dead. If he had been a ghost last year, now he was little more than a corpse, and it physically hurt her. She kept having nightmares about him ending up in a coffin. Sometimes it was because he had killed himself, sometimes it was… sometimes it was an explosion. Other times, he slept in one, like it was a bed. She would see him walk away from school, he would go into an empty, COMPLETELY empty house, no furniture, no knickknacks, nothing. He would walk up to a room on the second floor, a room with an empty, plain coffin on the floor, crawl in side and just lie there, staring at the ceiling all night long. In those dreams, she would end up floating above him, staring down at him, looking him right in the eye, and she would try to talk, to get his attention, ANYTHING, but nothing would work.
Finally, she had a really bad dream. She had been at school, it had been a normal day, and, as far as dreams went, it was good, boring, and very realistic. Then, lunch had rolled around. She had gotten her food and was looking for a place to sit, when she saw that Izu was there, sitting at a table, with an empty spot right next to him. She had run over and sat in the empty spot, delighted to FINALLY be with her friend. Then, when she had turned to say hi…
It was a doll. A mannequin. A prop. Izu had been nothing but a… toy.
To an outside observer, such a dream seems… lame. But it was more than enough to make it so that she basically stopped sleeping.
About halfway through the year, however, opportunity knock. Izu actually started sitting at lunch! She had been thrilled, and she practically RAN to sit down across from him. It hadn't ended well.
She had said hi, bright and chipper. He had just stared.
It wasn't like he didn't recognize her. It wasn't that he did. It was as if answering, thinking even, was too much work. She had been studying some psychology to combine with her quirk (based off his analysis) and she instantly recognized that look. That look, meant clinical depression to the point of mind-break. Izu was, for all intents and purposes, gone.
Not dead, though. Oh, no, this was MUCH worse. He was gone. His personality was so damaged, he being so broken, that everything that made him Izu, that made him human, was gone. He could obey, and, in a limited way, could reason, but as a person, he was… no; as a person, he wasn't.
And the teachers thought she was making things up.
She had gone manic and had a mental breakdown when she had heard about his 'accident'. Of course, the two weeks of no sleep, study, and caffeine before that hadn't helped. When her parents read her journal to try and see what was wrong, to decide if she needed a week of bedrest or an asylum, they had found her notes on Izu and Kacchan. She had titled every page of Izu's book with the word patient, and what day of observation she was on, so her parents thought she was obsessively stalking multiple students at her school, all of whom were insane. Her book on Kacchan was just titled 'The Monster', and included her fears, her desires to hurt and destroy him, and her nightmares about him.
She was in the asylum for a full year-and-a-half. It would have been less, but her whole second through fifth months there had been filled with escape attempts. She hadn't been conscious, or at least lucid, for the first month. When she had gotten out, her parents had gotten rich. Apparently, in an effort to make up for what they saw as a failure in parenting on their part, they had used her… no, HIS 'Hero Notebooks' to help multiple pros, including All Might. When she had heard about that, she hadn't known whether to laugh or cry, so instead, she had told them the story.
Appalled, they had rushed to the school, trying to rescue Izu from there at once. It was too late. He had disappeared without a trace. She had told her story to the teachers and the police, but without a body, there was no case, but she had known. She had failed. She couldn't save Izu. Kacchan may not have killed Izu, though she wouldn't have been surprised, but he had certainly destroyed him. She wanted to make him SUFFER!!!
But she couldn't. Izu, that kind, bright boy, always wanted to stay friends with Kacchan. Always wanted what was best for him. He had been her first friend, Kacchan had been his. So, she couldn't.
She had decided, then and there, that she would be the greatest hero, and the greatest scientist. She had failed to keep Izu safe, to help him achieve his dream, so she would achieve both their dreams, for him!
One intense training montage that spanned the next five years, she had shown up for the U.A. entrance exam. She could have gotten a recommendation, but she had known what Izu would have said about that, about how that was not the way he wanted to do it, and how he wanted to prove himself, so she wasn't going to do it either. She would carry both their dreams, not matter what.
She had even mostly healed from her little… lapse in sanity. She still frequently had the nightmares, and she had to take medication to avoid going into a nervous breakdown; the occasional panic attack reared its head, especially around explosions of ANY sort, and she occasionally hallucinated that she had seen Izu, or mistook someone for him, like the Lead Workman at the Forge, or a student that showed up for the exam (who might have actually been the Lead Workman, or at least a relative of his), but other than that, she was fine. Those were fading slowly, as well, except the nightmares. Overall, she had been ready. And she had done well. She was on her way!
Then, the first day of class started, and HE was there. The monster. The nightmare. The BEAST who had TAKEN HER IZU AWAY!!! Him, a hero? Yeah, right! She would eat her own arm to see hum exposed, and she wouldn't care AT ALL! She would be happy to do it, too! Except…
Izu's little 'accident'.
She still remembered that day. The report of his injuries, the examination to see if he had tried to kill himself. She… she didn't know if she could survive that.
Rage and fear coursed through her so bad, and oscillated back and forth so frequently, she didn't even know which way was up. She missed the introduction of her teacher, had to be pulled along to the locker room, and she couldn't stop shaking. It had hurt, badly.
She had been so shaken when she went home, she had taken double medication, and she HATED to do that. She was allowed to, in times of severe stress, but it made her loopy, and she saw the pills as evidence of her own weakness, a testimony to her failure to Izu. Things were bad, though. Things hadn't gotten better. She didn't talk in class, unless she was called on, she did the bare minimum, and she couldn't stop shaking. She was considering dropping out, just to get away from him.
Now, here they were, in the USJ. Real villains were approaching, and she was more scared of her 'ally' then she would ever be of them. Then, some sort of scuffle happened, where the Izu-alike put his hand on the teacher's shoulder and said something that had gotten him angry. She feared for the kid, and she wanted to protect him, just as she had failed with Izu, but she couldn't pull herself forward. She couldn't move. He was there.
Then, he spoke. It… what did it mean?
"Fucking Deku, how will a worthless, quirkless DEKU like you prove yourself here?"
Deku? That was what he had called… No, it must be a mistake! He must be confused by the look-alike nature of the kid. That, or it is just a common insult for… quirkless? What is a quirkless kid doing her? She loved quirkless, since he… had… been…
No. It must be a mistake!
Is it?
"He's right, Midoriya. I'm the teacher. I'm the pro. Let me deal with it!"
…He…said…Midoriya.
Her head turned slowly, and for the first time, she really LOOKED at him. It was the same face, the same build she always saw at the Forge, the Lead Workman who always spoke to her father whenever they had work there, or when she was brought in to help with a request. But there was something else.
Green hair? Check. Kind face? Check. Sorrowful eyes? Check.
It was him.
He was alive.
He was here!
He was talking to her class, to HER!
"Don't worry, guys, I'm on it! Sit back, teach, I'm on the job!"
He was okay!!! He was HUGE?! He was… heading towards the villains?
"Izu?" she asked, hope and fear in her voice. She was going to go after him, but He was there. She would have to go right past Him was his hands were sparking and popping in rage. He was leaving her again, going away, going into danger, and she couldn't protect him. And it was all His fault.
Slowly, the fear began to fade; and she knew, as the rage began to grow, if he didn't come back, He would finally be dealt with once and for all.
Izuku Midoriya was having an AWESOME day!
Actually, the last few years had been awesome! He had had a REALLY bad time of it for a while there, but now things were looking up!
To be sure, a lot of that was just a change of perspective. For example, most people would say his job sucked. The pay wasn't regular, the Forge was ridiculously hot (like, hot as the surface of the sun), and it involved a huge amount of very heavy labor.
To most people, anyway.
To Izuku, it was barely uncomfortable, the work was manageable, and, when you when you were as good as he was, the pay was AWESOME! Barely a pro alive didn't carry some of his stuff.
Of course, he lived on the streets, so money didn't matter too much to him, but he had it. You know, if he wanted it.
Most of it went to his mom. Half of the rest went to… charity.
After all, he knew what it was like to suffer. He was more than willing to help those in need!
Anyway, here he was at UA! His dream was coming true!
Of course, they were here as well. She looked… okay. He had found out she had had some sort of mental breakdown that she was still getting over, but she was getting better. And she had set out to be a hero! He was glad.
She deserved to be happy.
Of course, Deku was tempted to introduce HIM to the Forge and Hammers, just to see the little shit sweat that one off. But that would be unheroic, so… he ignored him.
It was for the best.
Damn it! Two years of soft living, and a couple faces from the past get him all sappy and nostalgic-like! Well, since he was doing it, he might as well go full flashback-mode, to the day after Kacchan had gotten caught.
He had had it. For most of that schoolyear he had felt… dead inside. No-one SHOULD want to be near him. He was… poison. Doom. He was a bad apple, and anyone who spent time near him in anything like a friendly way was destined to fall. It was true. He knew it.
Momo had been a real friend, but… he just couldn't drag her down. His dream was foolish. He would never amount to anything, and he had to see to it that she didn't get caught on the shipwreck that was his life. Sadly, it had been easy to avoid her. His stealth skills were second only to someone with a stealth-based quirk, so she never caught up. But she had kept trying, until he had stopped caring. Then, she got pulled from school. Psychosis, if the teachers could be believed. She had probably believed that he could be a hero, or that he had a quirk, and had been locked in a rubber room for it. It was, for SURE, his fault. He knew, 'cause Kacchan told him so, and Kacchan always told the truth.
Now, there was a hero. Kacchan knew that a Deku like him needed beaten down. Kacchan knew that he needed his bubble popped, so Kacchan did what needed to be done. He hated it, but Kacchan saw to Deku's needs. He even remembered to punish Deku for failing to show his care for his mother's position. Deku knew he had done his mother wrong. He needed to leave before he did her more wrong. So, he had. He had run away.
After several months of stowing away and sneaking around, he had ended up in Africa. Where in Africa, he couldn't tell you to this day, but it had been hot. He had ended up enslaved at a salt mine, of all clichés. It was a good place for a Deku to die. Oddly, that didn't happen. It was here, that his life began to turn around for the better, if you can believe it.
It had started small. A supervisor had said "Deku," that had been the name he had given them, "Deku, you are our best worker. Keep it up!!" then had proceeded to give him his nightly beating (it was a big tradition. No, no-one knows why it was a tradition. Yes, every slave-manned illegal salt mine does it.).
It had shocked him so BAD!!! He was doing… well? Then he had realized. He had been here for a year! He had lasted here for a FULL YEAR!!! No-one survived here that long! In fact, he had ended up here following a crass explosion user (almost twice as strong as Kacchan, and he had had a quirk that let him use his mind to cause an explosion ANYWHERE, as opposed to Kacchan, who could only make them from his hands), they had both been enslaved the same day, and the bomb-boy had been dead for the last nine months!
That meant… he was stronger than Kacchan.
Utterly unable to believe this, he had looked down at himself. The reason that no-one survived out here, was that no-one was allowed heat protection who didn't run the mines. This meant, that while you were likely to die, you were actually fed quite well. Twelve months of beating, mining, good meals, decent sleep, and intense heat had left him… HUGE. He was massively muscular, bronzed like a god, and was taller than all but a quarter of the people there.
In utter confusion, he had left that night. The guard of the slave pens had a strength-based quirk that made it so the more sunlight he received, the stronger he got, and he had been living out here in the sun for the last ten years, making him capable of moving buildings with his bare hands. Deku had one-punch-outed him.
Completely bewildered, he ended up making his way to England, again, purely by chance, and had wandered the back alleys until he had been picked up by a gang of thieves. There, he had done it again. This time, however, he ended up becoming the greatest thief, in the greatest GUILD of thieves, that England had, or had ever seen. Sadly, pride kills more men than humility, and he had gotten caught.
To be fair, he had been chased down and arrested, along with the rest of the gang, because he had stolen ALL of the Queen's cars, dogs, and furniture, so it was SO worth it, but he had been busted all the same. Six months of top-secret work for Brittan, and they had let him, and all his old friends from the thief guild, go with clean records, as long as he left England and never snuck back in. He had agreed, moved back home, and turned his hobby of smithing (learned at the mine, and perfected in England) into his job by joining up with the Japanese chapter of the Forge.
Yes, he really had been good enough to join them. And he had even jumped straight to journeyman, too!!
Eighteen months later, he had been old enough to try and enter UA. On a whim, he decided to try out for it. After all, it would be hilarious if you could be a pro without a quirk. And why not? He was integral to the hero business, he was stronger than many people with strength quirks, faster than all but the top 25% of speed quirks, and stealthier than anyone who couldn't go invisible or enter alternate dimensions! Yeah, he was certifiable, but so were, like, 90% of pros. He'd fit right in, right?
Of course, it had been a shock to see her there. He… he had missed her. And, truth be told, he still felt guilty for what he had done to her, the damage he had caused her. Still, she looked… pretty good. Of course, due to his and her parents' jobs, they had 'seen' each other before, and she had always been the Forge's number one source of exotic, rare, or regulated materials, but this had been the first time he had seen her up close in… gosh, almost seven years. It had… stung, a little, but he was happy for her. Not that she appeared to recognize him AT ALL, other than from the Forge.
Ah, well. She would be better off without him. Maybe, if she recognizes him, he would apologize for all the harm he had done her. If she didn't hate him, anyway.
That, and HIM being here, had been the only downsides to being a hero.
But that was unimportant. What was, were the villains invading the USJ. On the day of the quirk assessment test, he had told Eraserhead that he would prove himself to him some other time in order to get the man's agreement to let him hold back. After all, he wanted to build at least a small rapport with his classmates before he revealed how crazy he was. The battle trial had been far to ridiculous a performance to count, so this would have to do.
"I'll prove myself now, Eraserhead. Take five, I got this. Don't worry, guys, I'm on it! Sit back, teach, I'm on the job!"
With these words of… wisdom… he made his way down the stairs at a leisurely stroll. Honestly, there was nothing to worry about! It was barely more than a hundred villains and such.
Reaching the bottom of the stairs, he put his plan into motion.
"Hey, Hal. Hey, Ji. How ya'll doing?"
The taller of the two aggressors in question looked up with a start. "Midoriya? Is that you? Ah, man, I'm sorry! If we'd've known this was your turf, we'd ah never shown up!"
"No biggie. Hey, Ji? You got what it takes to make me a boba? I would KILL for a good boba, and yours are always the best."
"Sorry, man," the shorter one replied, "This was a speed run where we got tapped at the last minute to put bodies on the field. You don't attack us and let us go join the defended, and I'll treat you to as many as you want for the next month!"
"Deal." With that being said, Izuku shook hands with the two, and they made their way over to the students, sitting down and mildly chatting with them.
"Gonda, Reik, Masura; is that you I see? Please tell me that I didn't send one of my own teams against me?"
The three on question, easily some of the more intimidating and professional of the set, looked downright sheepish. "Sorry boss," the leader of the triad said, "the paperwork said it was an infiltration and escort mission. Turns out, these bozos are here to kill All Might!"
Izuku blinked. "Yup, that's dumb all right. Parameter change: since this is obviously against the law, and we do NOT break the law, stand down. In order for you to receive payment from the company, you must complete the infiltration and escort parts of the mission, regardless of its success. The primary is here (infiltration), and you went with him (escort). Mission complete! Did you bring any specials with you?"
"Just Dead Air to take out any sensors. He is Mole, though, so you will need to find him in person."
Upon hearing this, the green-haired Adonis's shoulders slumped. "Fine. I'll deal with that later. Ya'll clear off."
The three nodded in sink, and with a single motion, they all drew specialized three-inch knifes from wrist holsters and cut in between their first and second finger. One flash of light later, and they were gone.
"All right. I now see 23, 24, 25… 31 total members of the Bayside Brutes. You are now on territory guarded by a member of Dragas Corp. Clear off or face retaliations and sanctions!"
The instant these words left his mouth, exactly thirty of the remaining crowd RAN for the portals, disappearing at frankly ridiculous speeds. The remaining member only stayed long enough to explain that there were another forty of them scattered throughout the area, and that he would be sending a retreat notice, before he, too, bolted like the devil was after him. Shortly thereafter, a dozen members of the Scrapyard Snipers were similarly leaving, stating that they had not intended to breach the treaty either, and apologizing profusely for trespassing, all while promising that they would spread the word that all UA facilities were under the auspices of the Red Queen, the Black King, and the White Knight, promising to keep the fact that the Piebald Joker was there a secret. Izuku thanked them, and accepted their apologies.
This cut the visible attacking force down from near a hundred, to about half that. At least half of the remaining member looked ready to have an accident, and just about all of them threw down their weapons and lay face down, unmoving, on the floor at a literal GLANCE from the solitary attacker. The rest, it seemed would be die hard.
"What the hell is this? Are you some kind of anti-summoner? Just because you think you are a big-shot doesn't mean you have what it takes to beat us!!!" The hand-covered man-child in the back whined out, shocking the remaining villains out of their torpor, making them circle around the kid in front of them. After all, sure he was tough, and he might be a UA student, but he was just a kid. Right?
"I would be more careful of that boy, Tomura." The cloud of mist directly behind this whine brat said. "He is known as the Piebald Joker, the Lead Workman of the Forge, and there are few in this city his equal. Even your master has been exceedingly cautious of him; and, although he has singlehandedly bested over two HUNDRED opponents of note, people that the League has considered as potential general-class material or those of an equal level in the MLA, no-one has any idea of what his quirk is."
"So, what, he's a boss-level? Well, then, let's see what he thinks of our Final Boss. Nomu, go see what he is made of."
At his words, a nine-foot giant with unusual purple-black skin, scars all over his body, and an exposed brain made his way to directly in front of Izuku and started to stare him down. Not one to be daunted, Izuku stared back.
The creature positioned itself menacingly, every muscle flexed to be more intimidating. In response, Izuku flexed hard enough to rip his shirt to rags showing of his equally muscled, and equally scared, form. Then, the two just stood there, waiting of the other to make the first move.
For, like, five minutes. Finally, the man named Tomura face-palmed. "Nomu, I meant you were supposed to attack him, not try and figure out what he is actually MADE of!"
At that the tension disappeared as everyone realized that Nomu had not been trying to intimidate Izuku, but had, instead, been involved is attempting to structurally analyze him, something he was, in fact not equipped for. Izuku felt dumb.
Not for long, however. Barely a heartbeat later, Izuku was five feet away from where he had been standing, where Nomu's fist now was. The creature in question removed his fist, straightened back up and… went back to contemplating the middle distance.
Tomura face-palmed again, something Izuku found funny, given there was a… palm… already on… ya know, his face! So, he wasn't actually facepalming, he was smacking the palm attached to his…
Never mind. Tomura started rating at Nomu (a real pair of rocket scientists, those two) about how he was supposed to KEEP attacking, but Deku had had his fun for the day, so he did the natural, logical thing. He walked up to the Nomu while it was still processing the new order…
…and kicked it in the berries.
The VERY audible crunch that sounded out made every male in a ten-mile radius wince, and every male in the USJ (Except Izuku) get phantom pains bad enough to give them trouble walking. Nomu grunted, wheezed, and collapsed pretty much instantly.
Tomura looked sick. "Kurogiri, lets get out of here. We'll try this again another day. I need an ice pack."
With nods of agreement from every male in the room (except Izuku, who was fine, and Nomu, who wasn't moving) the villains all disappeared in a swirl of mist. All except Nomu, who, well…
"NO! this is my souvenir!!! You can't have him, stupid mist!"
…Izuku happened to.