A/N:

i wrote this conspiracy in five minutes after seeing the similarities between Mayor McCheese and the Joker's outfits, and now that I've made my friends suffer, you must as well

('Mayor McCheese' is written 18 separate times in this fic. Help.)


"And that's why," Kaminari ends with a smug flourish, "The pre-quirk era song, 'Stacy's Mom,' should forever be regarded as an unsurpassable musical masterpiece, and was far ahead of its time."

Aizawa pinches the bridge of his nose as Kaminari's friends - sans Bakugou, who appears to be regretting all life decisions that had led up to this moment - erupt into raucous applause. "Thank you, Kaminari," he tells the blond, sounding like he's run through the five stages of grief in an instant. "Next up… Any volunteers?"

Todoroki's hand shoots up, and Aizawa stares at him for several seconds before sweeping his gaze around the classroom.

"Anyone?" he asks, almost pleadingly despite his monotone.

Several moments of silence pass before Aizawa lets out a long-suffering sigh. "Todoroki."

"Woo, go Todo!" Mina cheers, high-fiving with Kaminari once he settles back in his seat.

Todoroki shoots up from his seat and offers a solemn, "I will not let you down." He slots his laptop beneath his arm and walks to the front, nodding towards Aizawa - who proceeds to raise his gaze towards the heavens, praying that the teen's presentation is normal , even if he knows it to be a lost cause - before hooking said laptop up to the smartboard.

Aizawa turns, reads the title of his presentation, and promptly downs his entire cup of coffee in one go. He wishes, absently, that he had alcohol instead. "Go ahead," he tells the teen even though he'd rather be anywhere else, and listening to anything else.

Todoroki turns towards the class - most of whom are sharing glances that range between amusement, confusion, exasperation, dread, and in Shinsou's case, sleep-deprived apathy (or perhaps acceptance) - and stands up straight. "My pre-quirk presentation," he begins, "Is about the clear relationship between the men known as 'the Joker' and 'Mayor McCheese' of McDonaldLand. Or rather," he says, clicking to the next slide. "The lack of relationship, considering that they're the same person."

In the middle of the slide is a poorly-cropped photo of the Joker, although with Mayor McCheese's head instead of his own. The slide is marked up with red notes and arrows of varying sizes, all making seemingly nonsensical claims.

"You may or may not have heard the story of the Joker," Todoroki says after a moment, narrowed eyes sweeping over the classroom. "A criminal who, in most iterations, was permanently damaged mentally and/or physically, causing his transformation into the Joker. Well," he says sharply, throwing his hand out and changing the slide with unnecessary force on the arrow key. "Disregard all that you know, for today, I shall reveal the truth ."

Sero barks out an incredulous laugh at the use of comic sans and firetruck red lettering, which read out the very line he'd spoken aloud. Bakugou slams his face into the desk, and Midoriya lets out a startled yelp in response.

Todoroki either doesn't notice or doesn't care. "As mentioned, the story that Big Mac™ has perpetuated throughout these years is blatantly false, if you bother to dig into the facts. As a seeker of the truth, I have done as much."

The next slide appears, which shows a slightly-stretched version of Mayor McCheese. "This, if you were unaware, is the man in question - Mayor McCheese. It is my theory - one that I've created by scrutinizing every last detail that I managed to scrounge up despite Big Mac™'s best attempts to block my (and anyone else's) research - that before the Joker became who he was, he was a McDonalds mascot known as 'Mayor McCheese.'"

Todoroki's expression turns solemn, and Ojiro has a coughing fit when the slide changes just slightly, so that Mayor McCheese has thick, blue tears running down his face - MSPaint style.

"Many years ago," Todoroki continues, unphased, "Mayor McCheese - who was, in fact, a fictional character, as I found out after several hours of scouring the webs - was played by a young man who loved his job as the Mayor of McDonaldLand. However, as things tend to do, he began to age."

The previous screen dissolves - why he only has special effects on one slide, Aizawa doesn't know, and he really doesn't care - and reforms into one that showcases a rotten burger. Somewhere in the room, a student lets out an overexaggerated gagging sound.

"Yes," Todoroki says, shaking his head. "But it happens to all of us, eventually. Even someone as strong as All Might eventually faced the consequences of time."

Jirou covers her mouth as she snorts, while Mina has no such reservations and freely lets out a high-pitched laugh. The worst part, Midoriya thinks, is that Todoroki didn't seem like he'd intended to insult the man at all.

"As I was saying, though," Todoroki says, getting back on topic - if there even is one, in this situation. "As the years went by, the man playing Mayor McCheese was treated more coldly by his peers until, one day, it was decided that he was 'too old,' and was fired because of this. Why do I think this?" he asks rhetorically. "Well, we'll get to that in a moment."

The slide changes once again, showing the Joker, this time.

"Mayor McCheese, rightly, found this unjust. So he took inspiration from his long-time friend, Ronald McDonald, and became a fun-loving clown in order to appeal to the public. But nobody saw it that way. No," Todoroki says grimly, "They saw him as a criminal. And when his only friend, Ronald, turned his back on him, he eventually succumbed to the pressures of Society™ and became a villain known as 'the Joker.'"

"Did he just say ™?" Uraraka whispers incredulously. Iida shushes her, though looks no less confused himself.

"Now," Todoroki says, changing the slide to one with Ronald McDonald and the Joker side-by-side. "Onto the evidence."

"Dear lord," Sato murmurs with a sort of horrified fascination.

"First off, the clown parallels. As mentioned before, the Joker persona was clearly sourced from somewhere - and where else than from Ronald McDonald himself, who Mayor McCheese had interacted with for years before that point?" Todoroki asks, voice rising even though his tone remains flat. "Not to mention his simple desire to have fun in the face of a world that expects too much from adults. A clown, a species—" " Species?! " Yaoyorozu blurts out, "—that is known for being 'goofy' and free, is the perfect way to attempt to once again channel this childish energy. Unfortunately, he didn't fall in line with what Society™ expected of him, and so he was villainized."

Todoroki takes a breath and throws out his hand dramatically - face blank as always, of course - when a new image of the Joker appears alongside Mayor McCheese.

"He didn't even try to hide it," Todoroki claims. "Anyone with eyes can see the similarities between the outfits. The pink suit? The orange waistcoat. The flower on his lapel?" He taps the screen again, and a different image of the Joker appears. "Another one of his outfits even shared the striped pants!"

"Damn," Kaminari says, awe filling his voice. "You're so right, dude."

Bakugou groans out something that sounds like, " Goddamn it, Icy Hot ." Aizawa, meanwhile, mourns the last vestiges of his sanity that he can feel slipping away with every moment that passes.

With a nod and pursed lips, Todoroki clicks onto the next slide, which shows an image of McDonaldLand. "Into the later hours of my search, it also became clear to me that many people don't know who Mayor McCheese is - even those who were alive during his time. Because of this, I've concluded that McDonalds purposefully attempted to wipe MayorMcCheese from the public consciousness by closing McDonaldLand and hiding all and any pertinent information about him in order to cover up the truth."

The final slide is swapped in, and Todoroki's sweeping gaze once again becomes solemn. "In conclusion," he says, addressing the class, "Not only are Mayor McCheese and the Joker the same person, but this fact was covered up in order to prevent the truth from being uncovered, so McDonald's brand would be protected. Thank you for your time."

There's a brief moment of stunned silence before Kaminari cups his hands around his mouth and shouts, "Justice for Mayor McCheese!" and like that, the room explodes into chaos.

Todoroki watches over the classroom with a slightly smug smile on his face, glad that he'd finally revealed one of the biggest cover-ups of all time. But, of course, his job would never be done.

He had many more truths to expose in the future; he was just getting started.


A/N:

if you want to see what Todoroki's (I'm) on about, look up 'Joker pink and orange outfit' and 'Mayor McCheese'
youre welcome

anyway
Thanks for reading!