Disclaimer: I do not own Hero Academia/Boku No Hero Academia, or any other property in this work that I did not make myself.

Logical Ruse

Chapter three: A fight that's more than just physical

Aizawa, Sekijiro, Hizashi, and Thirteen couldn't believe it; they had all of 1-B at the USJ for some rescue training, but upon getting in, they were ambushed by the appearance of many villains. It was looking like the villains outnumbered them a little more than three times over (there were twenty-four heroes if one counted Sekijiro's students, compared to over seventy-two villains that were now swarming into the USJ).

To make matters worse for the pro heroes, six of the members of the League of Villains were some of the students who were in the 1-A class that Aizawa had expelled from U.A. on the first day of classes. Aizawa had feared, after hearing what Bakugo had ended up doing, that more students than just him would end up falling down the path of villainy. Now the underground hero, as well as the other pro heroes there, were seeing a heartbreaking worry made reality.

"Well now, I think that we ought to try and speed up All Might's arrival here," the hand villain Shigaraki, the leader of the League of Villains, remarked, "Let's see here, hmm..." After pondering for a moment, Shigaraki said, "Aha! Let's kill some of the fledgling hero brats!"

The lizardman villain looked to Bakugo and the others expelled from U.A. who also joined the League of Villains. "Those kids up there are some of your former schoolmates. Are you all sure you will be comfortable fighting them?"

Kyoka scoffed bitterly. "They get to enjoy what the others and I can't because some aloof asshole set his standards way too damn fucking high. Why would any of us care about them?"

"You kids!" Sekijiro cried out, hoping to try to reason with the former 1-A members, "You don't have to do this! Just turn yourselves in and we will try to help you! You all can still-"

"-Be heroes?" Sero said, cutting the Blood Hero off, "Feh. Don't make us laugh, whoever the hell you are." Sero held his arms up at his sides. "We all have villainous history now. Even if we do turn ourselves in like you said, and we somehow do get the help you're talking about, no one out there will ever really accept us."

"The people, or should I say sheeple, that make up the bulk of society have a 'once a villain always a villain' way of thinking that rules how they judge others," Kaminari went on, "They expect all of their heroes to always be flawless saints, which is rather hypocritical of them considering how society is guilty of being the source of how most villains nowadays are minted."

Stepping forward, Mina said, "And you dare to have the nerve to say that Kyoka, the boys, and I can still be heroes. What about that speedy smart boy? The boy with the two-toned hair and that burn mark over and around one of his eyes? That sparkly boy who thought that he was French? That rocky guy? What about Hagakure and Asui?" The pink villainess gave the underground hero a glare. "...Can any of them be heroes?"

The U.A. teachers had no idea what to say, Aizawa especially so. Even more shocking was when Sekijiro's student Reiko stepped forward. "They can't, no. I can see why you guys are upset with the bastard who expelled all of you. I'm upset with him as well, especially since it's his fault that I'm not going to ever get the chance to tell Shoto how..." Reiko let out a sigh. "...How I feel about him."

The expelled U.A. students perked up at that, as did the villain in the dark long coat with elbow length sleeves. "...You speak of Endeavor's son," the coat wearing villain said, his interest piqued.

"Yes, but that's not the point," Reiko went on. To the expelled students who were now villains, Reiko went on, "I'm upset with what had happened as well, but I'm not going to go villain over it! That's not the right answer! It's never the right answer! None of you have to do this!"

Bakugo gently shook his head. "...It's too late for that. It's too late for much of anything. There are some things that we've done that we can't take back." The explosive teen then turned his gaze up at where Aizawa stood. "...There are some things that you have done that you can't take back, you lazy hobo looking bastard."

Aizawa grimaced as he took an emotional punch to the gut. Seeing this, Shigaraki actually started laughing a little. "Wow, I came here expecting to break All Might spiritually, but I wasn't expecting to do the same to the bastard who made the news because of how his act of kicking an entire class out on day one had made the news." The handy villain turned to look at the others around him. "Dabi," Shigaraki said to the coat wearing villain, "You and Spinner stay with me and Nomu during the initial attack."

"Got it," the now identified Dabi replied with a nod. Turning to look at the lizardman villain, Dabi said, "You heard the boss man, Spinner." The now identified Spinner nodded once in reply.

Turning to look at Bakugo and the others there who were expelled by Aizawa, Shigaraki said, "Explosion boy, you and your friends join in on the fun when I give the cue for everyone to go wild."

Bakugo gave an amused smirk as he cracked his knuckles. "Fine by me."

Shigaraki turned to look at where the heroes all stood. He held a hand up straight, then swung it down as he yelled, "Go get 'em, everyone!" The massive number of villains all cried out in roars and shouts as they charged right in in towards the heroes.

"You kids stay back!" Sekijiro yelled as he, Aizawa, Hizashi, and Thirteen charged at the incoming rush of villains, "The last thing we need is for-"

"Oh please, you simply must let the children in on the action, Vlad King," a shadowy voice said, making everyone turn to see a mass of mist, colored similarly as the portal that brought the villains to the USJ in the first place, hover above the 1-B students. A bump of the mist with yellow eyes on it was at the top edge of the mist mass. "As a matter of fact," the misty villain went on, "I think I'll send the children off to play... heh heh heh..."

The 1-B students were then suddenly surrounded by swirls of mist, swallowing all of them up and making them reappear in various areas of the USJ. Seeing the students getting shuffled around like that made the pro heroes freak out, but with the rush of villains coming right at them, they had no choice but to fight their way through in the hopes of getting to the students in time.

Luckily for Yosetsu, he landed about five feet from Juzo, so the two of them met up with one another. "This is ridiculous, man!" Yosetsu exclaimed, "We're fighting real villains! We've barely got one week of schooling under our belts at this point! How in the name of Odin are we going to get out of this mess alive?!"

"I think our best bet is to go to the center of the USJ," Juzo said, "My quirk can be useful in trapping villains on the way, so we should be able to-"

Juzo was cut off when he and Yosetsu heard some rustling in the nearby bushes. Both of the boys assumed overly dramatic and cheesy kung fu stances, but instantly relaxed when they saw that it was just their classmate Monoma. "Aha! Glad to have found some of you guys!" Monoma remarked, "I say the three of us ought to stick together. Safety in numbers and all of that good jazz."

"I never thought I'd say this but hot damn it's Monoma!" Yosetsu said as he and Juzo went over to their classmate, "So what's the plan?"

"You three make like good hostages and surrender," a female voice called out, making the three boys of 1-B turn to see Mina, Kyoka, Sero, and Kaminari standing there. Mina smirked at the boys as she said, "You all wouldn't want to get hurt, now do you?" The three boys of 1-B could tell that it had been Mina who had called out to them.

Taking a step back with Juzo, Yosetsu said in a tone that made it clear he wanted to try reasoning with the former U.A. students, "Hey guys, let's be reasonable here."

"He's right," Monoma remarked, "There's no need to throw a temper tantrum just because you all had been rightfully expelled by Eraserhead."

"Dude, shut up," Juzo hissed.

But it was too late, as the four former U.A. students all glared right at the boys. "I'm sorry, but did you just say that Eraserhead was right to expel all of us?" Kyoka said, looking fit to tear Monoma a new one.

"I assure you, Monoma does not speak for the three of us," Yosetsu said quickly, "His mouth is often confused for his butthole because crap usually comes out of it."

Turning to look at Yosetsu, Monoma said, "What are you talking about? Of course I speak for the three of us, Yosetsu."

"Shut up, shut up, shut up," Juzo hissed quickly.

The four former U.A. students stepped forward. "Wow, you must really enjoy the view from up on that pedestal that you've placed yourself on, you self righteous prick," Sero snarled as he and the others got closer.

"We are awaiting the day that a cat knocks him off and breaks him, rest assured," Yosetsu replied to the villains, "Hell, we got some in our class already wanting to do that themselves."

"Maybe we ought to speed up the process," Kaminari said, "Hmm?"

Monoma laughed in Kaminari's face. "Oh please, don't make me laugh! You sorry lot should have tried harder to not be terrible excuses for students! If you ask me, you and the rest of your class all got what they deserved!"

"Six of them killed themselves because Eraserhead expelled all of us, you dick!" Kyoka yelled, "Are you saying that they deserved being pushed into that?!"

"In the name of Odin, Monoma," Juzo said, looking like he was about to freak, "Shut the fuck up!"

The four former U.A. students glared at the 1-B boys, before they all charged at them. Crouching down quickly, Juzo made the ground soft around the former students, making them sink a bit into the ground and effectively trapping them. "Let's get out of here!" Yosetsu yelled as he and Juzo, the latter grabbing Monoma by the left forearm, turned tail and ran away, with Kyoka yelling after the three of them.

As he fled with Yosetsu and Monoma, Juzo snapped at the latter of the two, "Why the hell did you keep trying to antagonize them?!"

Monoma, with a curious and confused look on his face, replied, "I was antagonizing them?"

Elsewhere in the USJ, Itsuka was hiding with Pony and Kinoko. "Wait, we aren't going to try to fight any of the villains, Itsuka?" Kinoko asked, looking concerned.

Itsuka gently shook her head in the negative. "Technically, Sekijiro-sensei didn't give us the okay to use our quirks. We'd be fine if we used them solely with the intent to get away, but-"

"This is clearly an emergency situation, and the law does excuse quirk usage in emergency situations," Pony pointed out, "We ought to-"

"Sit down and shut up." The three girls all turned to see who it was, and saw Bakugo with Kirishima behind him walking up to them. "Well now, none of you three are that aloof asshole who thought it was a funny joke expelling all of my class on the first day," Bakugo said, "Hell, he probably went home that day after he finished ruining the lives of twenty teenagers, laughed about it, made a nice meal for himself, then went to bed."

The girls watched in nervous trepidation as Bakugo gently shook his head. "...But I digress. None of you are Eraserhead, but you'll make for some good warm-up for when I do find him." Bakugo held a hand up, let out an explosion from it. "...Care to dance, ladies?"

Itsuka, nervous about having to fight even with a numbers advantage (three to two), decided to try reasoning with Bakugo first. "You don't have to do this, Bakugo," Itsuka said.

"Oh?" Bakugo replied, "Then what is it that I have to do then, hmm? What is it that all of us who got booted from U.A. by Eraserhead have to do?"

"You... we can get you guys help," Itsuka said, "The senseis have a point on how we can help you and the others in the League of Villains turn your lives around. All you have to do is-"

"Surrender?" Bakugo questioned, "And just what is it that you think heroes do with the villains that they capture? They throw them into Tartarus and throw the key out. Out of sight, out of mind."

Realizing that she and the girls weren't going to be successful in reasoning with the boys, Itsuka said, "Girls, we need to try to book it. Pony, you can fire your horns at them to pin their clothes to other objects to trap them, that'll let us get out of here."

Pony, with a nervous look on her face, took a step back as she gently shook her head. "...I ...I'm not sure if I can fight. I mean... I mean they're villains. This is really scary..."

Similarly, Kinoko took a step back as well, clearly frightened "...I'm... I'm not sure I can bring myself to fight them either."

Itsuka scowled; she just realized that Pony and Kinoko were too scared to effectively fight back right now. That made things even harder for them. Looking around, Itsuka saw that the ground was fairly dusty with dirt, so she made her hands big, waved them around to create a gust of wind, and sent a blinding cloud of dirt dust at the boys.

The plan worked, making the boys cry out in surprise, as well as afford Itsuka time to return her hands to normal before taking Pony and Kinoko with her and running away. Even with the numbers advantage, Itsuka could tell it was a fight she and the girls would greatly struggle with, so running away was essentially their only option that they had.

Elsewhere in the USJ, Reiko had the unfortunate luck of running into two villains while she was on her own; in this case, she had run into Dabi and Spinner. "What... what do you villains want?" Reiko asked, worried about what the two guys before her might try to pull.

Dabi stepped forward, a curious look on his face. "You're the girl who voiced interest in sharing her feelings with Endeavor's late son Shoto." His upper eyelids lowered very slightly, but enough to show that he was being serious. "Shoto Todoroki's suicide has upset you."

Reiko was surprised that a villain of all people was more or less trying to interview her on how she feels about Todoroki taking his own life. "...Why are you so interested in how I'm never going to get the chance to tell Shoto that I love him?"

"Would you believe me if I told you that Eraserhead's act of expelling Endeavor's son wasn't, on its own, the trigger of your crush's suicide?" Dabi asked, arching a wry eyebrow.

The ghost girl of 1-B looked surprised at that. "...What are you talking about, villain?"

"Believe it or not, but I was able to do a little bit of recon on the Todoroki household," Dabi began to explain, "Endeavor, upon hearing of his son's expulsion from U.A., went into total doting and comforting father mode. That behavior out of his father scared Shoto to the point that it had added to what drove him to take his own life."

"Because if you knew how Endeavor really acted away from the public eye," Spinner said, "How he acts at home, you'd understand why the Todoroki boy thought that his father had gone mad and snapped. The out of character acting from Endeavor scared his son that much."

Holding his arms out at his sides, Dabi went on, "Which is why my vendetta against Endeavor has strengthened at least ten fold. I already had him in my sights to begin with, but after hearing how him making his youngest child freak out helped to drive said child into committing suicide, I like to think that I'll be making the world a better place after I kill Endeavor."

"I thought that you villains came here to kill All Might," Reiko remarked.

Shrugging, Dabi said, "That's the ultimate goal of our job here, yes. But my own personal goal will be seeing the number two hero get what he has coming to him."

Reiko had no idea what to say; these villains in front of her were part of an effort to kill All Might, and the one called Dabi even declared he had a personal vendetta against the number two hero as well. But... but she had a feeling that what Dabi was saying about Endeavor having some manner of connection to why her crush Todoroki had committed suicide had some validity to it. And she was a little surprised the villains hadn't tried harming her yet.

Gulping nervously, Reiko asked Dabi and Spinner why they haven't made any moves against her yet. Shrugging, Dabi replied, "To be honest, your admitting to having feelings for Endeavor's late son Shoto is what has stayed my hand thus far. As for Spinner I asked him to hold back because I was interested in asking you about it."

The reason that she was given by the villains took Reiko by surprise. "...The love I had for Shoto is why you two haven't attacked me yet?"

"Here's the thing," Spinner said, "Originally, Dabi's plan was to break Endeavor emotionally as much as possible before finally killing him. This would include going after Endeavor's family, such as his now late son Shoto."

"...You were going to harm him," Reiko said.

Dabi nodded in confirmation. "Maybe even kill him. But that's in the past now, especially since I've learned what I've uncovered in the time since Shoto Todoroki's suicide." The villain growled a bit, but looked sad and resigned. "...To think that I would have even killed someone who suffered similarly as I have. Endeavor's late son Shoto and I had a surprising amount of things in common with one another." Dabi gently shook his head. "My path of avenging the suicide of Endeavor's youngest will see me murder Endeavor himself. Knowing that, will you try stopping me?"

Reiko was nervous, let out a shaky sigh. "...Although I also would like to see something done to avenge the suicide of the boy who had stolen my heart, murder isn't the solution. Trying to solve a death by causing more death is like trying to put out a campfire by dumping gasoline on it." She looked at the two villains. "...Isn't there another way?"

"Endeavor has to die either way," Spinner said, "He is the worst example of what it means to be a hero. The great visionary Stain the Hero Killer aims to purify hero society by purging all who are not true heroes, so that only those truly worthy, those who want to be a hero in order to do the right thing, are the heroes we have. Fakes such as Endeavor have no place polluting hero society, even more so as he's apparently at least partly responsible for driving his own son into killing himself."

The ghost girl of 1-B had no idea what she was going to do; she was alone against two seemingly skilled villains, and to make things worse she found that she was actually at least partly agreeing with the villains about how Endeavor needed to go. Instead, she relaxed her stance, backed up a step. "...There is no way I'd stand a chance of doing anything here, all things considered," Reiko said, "So assuming you'll let me, I'm going to go run and hide."

Dabi nodded in understanding. "I won't hold it against you, young lady." With that cue, Reiko turned around and began running, but stopped short when Dabi called out, "Wait!" Reiko was surprised to find herself stopping, then turned around to look back at the two villains. "...If it counts for anything," Dabi said, "I bet that you would have made for an excellent couple with Endeavor's late son." Reiko was once again surprised, finding herself nodding in acknowledgement to Dabi before turning back around and continuing to run.

Back out in the main area of the USJ, Aizawa and the other pro heroes were still fighting the mass of fodder villains as Shigaraki and the Nomu watched. "Just how many of these guys are there?!" Hizashi yelled after shouting a villain away.

"I don't know, but we gotta take them all out fast!" Thirteen called out, "The longer we wait, the more danger Sekijiro's students will be in!"

"GRRRRRRR!" Sekijiro growled loudly and clearly angry as he shoved his foot into a fodder villain and push-kicked him away, sending him flying right at Shigaraki in the process. The fodder villain ended up colliding right into the leader of the attack on the USJ, making him cry out in annoyance as someone had flown into him.

"Go to hell, you trash!" Shigaraki yelled as he placed his bare hand on the fodder villain's face, "No one touches me like that!" Suddenly, the fodder villain had cracks appear all over him as he grayed up and crumbled away, as if he was turning to dust which he actually was. After the fodder villain was gone, the heroes who saw it were partly alarmed now.

"...No... no way," Aizawa said, "That's his quirk? And he used it on his own minion..." Suddenly, the underground hero saw that Shigaraki's face was uncovered, as the hand over it must have been knocked off when the fodder villain flew into him. "So that's what your face looks like!"

Shigaraki's eyes widened upon hearing that, then felt his face with his actual hands. "Ah! It fell off!" Looking around, Shigaraki saw where the hand that was originally covering his face had fell, so he went over to retrieve it. However, to his surprise, the hand began sinking into the ground; similarly, Shigaraki himself, along with the Nomu, were also sinking. "What the hell is this?!" exclaimed the handy villain, "It's like we're sinking in quicksand!"

The pro hero teachers looked over and saw the trio of Juzo, Yosetsu, and Monoma near the edge of the battlefield, with Juzo crouching down to touch the ground with his hands so he could spread the power of his quirk to make Shigaraki sink into the ground. As Shigaraki sank, Monoma ran right on over to the leader of the villain attack on the USJ. "I saw what your quirk can do, villain!" Monoma yelled, "It's far too dangerous to allow to go on!"

"Monoma, what are you doing?!" Sekijiro yelled, but by then it was too late. Monoma, with his quirk Copy, made contact with Shigaraki and copied his Decay quirk, then used it on Shigaraki himself. To the surprised horror of the handy villain, he began crumbling away.

"AHHHHHHH!" Shigaraki yelled, realizing his fate was sealed here, "H-How is this possible?! I can't die on the first level like this!"

Monoma, with a pained and mildly sweating smug look on his face, replied, "Well too bad, villain. It's game over for you."

Shigaraki, as the decay spread to his face, smirked right back. "...Heh. At least I'll die knowing that I took the bastard who did me in out with me." The pro hero teachers, all looking horrified, saw that Shigaraki's right hand was plastered right over Monoma's left side, and that the copy boy of 1-B was also decaying away into gray ashy dust.

As Monoma and Shigaraki were decaying one another, Dabi and Spinner appeared near the edge of the battlefield. "Yo! Is the boss man actually decaying?!" Spinner exclaimed, "I thought he couldn't do that to himself since he was immune to his own Decay!"

"Our classmate copied the handy villain's quirk," Yosetsu said, sounding horrified as he and Juzo were both bearing witness to the death of a classmate, "And then used it on the villain. But he got himself hit by that evil quirk in the process."

Dabi grimaced bitterly at that notion. "...So while the boss man was immune to his own stuff, if someone else had it as well and used it on him, it would work." By that point, all that remained of Monoma and Shigaraki were parts of the former's feet and the ends of the latter's limbs that were stuck in the sinking ground Juzo had softened up around Shigaraki and the Nomu.

Neito Monoma of U.A.'s class 1-B had died a truly heroic death, taking out a sinister and dangerous villain in the process.

END, CHAPTER THREE

Author's notes;

Here we see the USJ attack go on in earnest, with Bakugo and his squad having moments with some of the 1-B students, as well as a scene with Reiko talking to Dabi and Spinner; and before I hear any complaints on the matter, yes Toga will be showing up, I just didn't want to put her here as I felt it would have clogged things up with notable specific villians. One other point here is the fact that Monoma died taking Shigaraki out with him; there are multiple reasons for this, as you'll see later in the story. Anyway, peace out.

EDIT: Seeing complaints about the 'rushed crushes' in the comments, I removed the subplot of Pony and Kinoko crushing on Bakugo and Kirishima. I can't exactly remove the one of Reiko on Todoroki, partly because it's too integrated into the story. I'm sorry about this, but I WILL try to work it out over the course of future chapters.