Friends,
DVD181 presents…
Playing Both Sides
A My Hero Academia Story
Tenko Shimura had always wanted to visit UA High School. Earlier in his life, it was because of a strong desire to be a hero alongside his elder sister Hana, despite the small issue of his Quirklessness. He admired their facilities, their faculty, and their record for producing amazing heroes like All Might. He never thought he'd go, yet now that childhood dream had finally been realized.
"Greetings, you annoyingly heroic children" the white-haired young man said in a raspy tone, increasing the volume on his microphone as a camera drone circled him. "My name is Decay, Field Commander of the League of Villains. On behalf of Prometheus, our Grand Commander, I'd like to welcome you all to today's guest lecture!"
As UA's Hero Class 1-A bunched up behind their homeroom teacher (Eraserhead, no less, one of the few heroes Tenko genuinely admired), the villain leader's gaze zoomed in on one student in particular, whose face bore a look of surprise and fear, but whose eyes exuded confidence and a hint of glee.
"Game's on, little brother. Or perhaps I should address you as…Boss?"
All it takes is one small deviation to change fate. The right person being in the wrong place at the right time can truly make all the difference in the world and change the course of history for once and for all. Perhaps in one world, Izuku Midoriya's story would see him grow up Quirkless and fatherless, eventually to inherit the power of One For All, take All Might's mantle as the Symbol of Peace, and end the generations-long battle of the brothers in a climactic fight against Tomura Shigaraki, the new Symbol of Fear.
This is not that story.
But, just like in that original timeline, our tale begins with a simple spot of bad news.
"I'm sorry, kid, but it's probably not going to happen. You're Quirkless" the bald doctor said, swiveling around in his wheelchair to face his patient.
"Huh?" the green-haired child managed in shock, while his mother's eyes narrowed with a quiet fury at the doctor's dismissive diagnosis.
The man tapped a few commands on a tablet and a nearby screen displayed x-ray images of a human foot. "Listen, young man, most people who have Quirks have developed pinky toes without a joint as a sort of transitional 'streamlining' of human biology as our species evolves. As you can see, the typical human now - a Quirked individual, roughly 80 percent of the population - does not have that toe bone, while your foot does. This test is about 96.23% accurate in determining whether or not you'll develop a Quirk."
"And what about the other 3.77 percent?" Inko demanded, a hint of irritation in her voice from the man's callousness.
"We can do a blood test if you're truly in denial, but it is unlikely to change the outcome significantly. Best you can hope for is something minor and/or invisible" responded the doctor.
Before the increasingly irate green-haired mama bear could voice more of her irritation towards the man, her son pulled on her shirt sleeve. "Izuku?" she asked as he looked up at her.
"I don't want to be here anymore. Let's go home" the toddler said in a strained voice.
Inko acquiesced to her son's request, picking him up off the chair and turning to leave. "Wait, you forgot to schedule your next appointment -" the bald doctor began, only to be cut off by a furious glare from his patient's mother.
"Given your callous behavior in crushing my son's dreams, I will be seeking out a different pediatric doctor" Inko said in a tone of mock sweetness "Thank you for nothing, Doctor Tsubasa."
As the door swung shut behind the green-haired woman, the man inside sighed, turned to his desktop monitor setup, and began typing furiously. "Lord is going to have my head for this unless I can produce some good results on the High-End project…" muttered Doctor Kyudai Garaki, or as he was known at Musutafu District Hospital, Kensei Tsubasa.
Later that evening, Inko Midoriya pushed open the door to her husband's study. Hisashi Midorya, love of her life that he was, was out on a business trip at the moment and so her son was using the guest account on the computer again - probably to watch the same video of All Might's debut that he had added hundreds of views to on his own.
As she did, young Izuku turned around, the voice of All Might continuing to blare a reassuring message from the computer's speakers (they felt more hollow than reassuring to Inko at that moment). Tears filled the boy's eyes as he pointed at the screen, asking his mother the fateful question that he wanted an answer to so badly.
"Can…can I be a hero? A hero just like him?"
At that moment, Inko was overcome with a wave of sorrow, rushing over and embracing her unfortunate son. "I'm sorry…" she sobbed, holding Izuku in her arms. "If only I could be better…if only I could say yes...I truly wish you could live this dream…"
While his sorrowful mother embraced him, Izuku's stare became less teary and more…dead. "It's true…not all men are created equal. This world isn't fair." At that moment, something began to slowly bend inside him. His innocence? Maybe his sense of morality? Whatever it was, the young greenette had one thing he was sure of after this day. "I don't like it."
Little did anyone know what the implications of that change in his mentality would be.
A day later, at preschool, the green-haired boy was confronted during recess by some…acquaintances of his, much to his chagrin.
"So Deku, your birthday was yesterday. What's your Quirk?" demanded Katsuki Bakugo, the red-eyed blond son of Inko's best friend, Mitsuki. His Quirk, Explosion, allowed him to sweat nitroglycerine from his palms and detonate it at will. Given this Quirk's strength, he had become even more brash, cocky and arrogant over the past several months than he was before.
"Is it Telekinesis like your mom, or Fire Breath like your dad?" asked Hiroki Tsubasa, grandson of the bald doctor that had diagnosed Izuku's condition. His Quirk, Red Wings, was a very visible pterodactyl-wing mutation that allowed him to fly just above the ground - he could probably fly higher if it wasn't for his love of very unhealthy snack foods affecting his physique.
"Maybe it's a combination of both and he can be a firebender!" proposed Soshiro Yubiri, who…actually had no special connection to Midoriya whatsoever and was just there. He was born with a transformative Quirk called Long Fingers, which currently let him stretch them up to 50 centimeters in length.
"I…actually don't have one" Midoriya admitted, which instantly silenced all three other children. After a few moments, Bakugo spoke up again.
"You what."
"Y-You heard me, Kacchan. Tsubasa's grandpa said I have the extra toe joint and I probably won't get one…" the greenette continued, not noticing the hostile silence from the other three toddlers. "But that's not the end of the world; I can still - !"
A small explosion cut him off. "You can still do what, huh? You're Quirkless, which means my nickname for you really was accurate - you are useless!" Bakugo berated him.
"Kacchan, that's mean!" Midoriya retorted, but the other three only laughed.
"Ew, Quirkless? I wonder if that's contagious?" Tsubasa said in disgust. "I'll have to ask grandpa, but I'm sure he'll agree with me."
"Hey, I wonder…does being Quirkless mean that Quirks don't work on him either?" wondered Yubiri aloud. "Maybe we should test that!"
"I don't like where this is going…" Midoriya thought as the other three children turned to him, malicious grins on their faces.
One fairly brutal beatdown later, as he lay on the playground while covered in bruises and small burns, Izuku Midoriya had only one thought as he stared at the sky.
"Kids are cruel…but maybe so is this world."
The years drug on after that, and so did life for young Izuku Midoriya. Preschool became primary school, and new classmates meant new people for Bakugo and company to turn against him for his Quirklessness. As time flew by and the young boy became more aware of the world around him, more observant of his peers, and developed his personal code of ethics, he also became more and more jaded towards society.
"Why is it that I became a communal punching bag for a biological reality that I had no control over?" he wondered, laying face-down in the dirt after being beaten up by Bakugo and his lackeys for protecting one of his classmates from them. The boy in question wasn't even thankful to him afterwards, doing little more than nudging him with his foot to make sure he wasn't dead before running off.
"Why is it that the teachers actively cheer on discriminatory behavior and outright bullying when it's done by the kids with 'heroic' Quirks, but shut down any attempts to fight back by those of us with weak, 'villainous' or no Quirks?" the dark thoughts in the back of Midoriya's mind continued to fester and grow as he watched a girl with a heteromorphic spider Quirk get mercilessly bullied by one with x-ray vision, before he got up to go take the heat off of her by being the "Quirkless wonder" again. "I hate this concept of 'rising stars' and the idea that they need to be protected from any sort of consequences."
"What's wrong with society that we let so-called heroes get away with literal murder if they claim they felt 'threatened' or were busy fighting a villain and caused 'collateral damage'?" he wondered, watching the Sand Hero, Snatch, get a not guilty verdict for suffocating several people to death with his sand while defeating the cannibalistic villain Moonfish. Snatch was lauded for his heroism in doing so by a press release from the Hero Public Safety Commission's head office in Paragon Plaza, something that disgusted the child even more.
"...And can anyone even do anything about it?"
Little did he know that his life was about to be forever changed when he woke up on his eighth birthday.
With all things being relative, Midoriya thought he'd had a pretty good day. He'd woken up early with enough time for a pretty good breakfast, was well-rested, and didn't get caught in any incidents on his way to school. He'd successfully outran Bakugo and his lackeys and met a very friendly cat while hiding in a tree near the back corner of his elementary school's campus - a cat that was very appreciative when he offered it some shrimp from the bento his mother had made him. Then he'd managed to escape being made a fool of by the history teacher, before escaping Bakugo again and having enough time to catch a skirmish between local Musutafu hero Death Arms and a small group of bandits.
Now, having finished his birthday dinner (Inko Midoriya's legendary katsudon) and his dessert (green tea mochi, yum!), the boy was sitting in the living room while his mother finished washing the last of their dishes. Hero Analysis For The Future #6 was in his hands as he pulled up the nightly news, hoping to catch some hero fights to analyze; he was particularly hoping to see a broadcast about someone with a really fascinatingly unique Quirk, like Thirteen or the newly-debuted Skycrawler.
As he finally found a channel displaying a hero fight - some villain with a short-range teleportation Quirk against Endeavor (yuck) - he noticed something drip onto his notebook, a droplet of sort of odd black fluid. Wondering if there was a leak in their apartment (something to let his dad know about as soon as he called from California to wish Izuku a happy birthday), he looked upwards…and immediately gasped in surprise.
A small orb of viscous black liquid was forming in midair in the middle of their living room and rapidly expanding in size and turbulence. "Mom…you should probably come see this" he said, raising his voice in alarm.
"One moment, Izuku honey" Inko called back, drying the last dishes. She entered the room just in time to notice the enormous orb of what looked like very thick ink directly in front of her son…right before it exploded, covering much of the room in a liquid that smelled like burnt rubber while revealing a figure inside it.
The man in the orb was tall - probably just over two full meters in height - and impeccably dressed in a formal black business suit with a white undershirt (and no necktie). What was most concerning, aside from the fact that he had just warped into the Midoriya family's living room, was the fact that the upper half of his face was one giant open wound. The man had no nose, eyes, forehead or hair, just a wound dripping blood all over Inko's carpet.
Before the woman could act in violent self-defense and rip the heart out of his chest, he spoke in an all-too familiar voice. "Izuku? Inko?". The green-haired woman almost felt her own heart stop as she realized this was none other than her own husband, Hisashi Midoriya.
"Dad? What happened to you?!" Izuku shouted in shock.
"Can't…lie my way out…" the man chuckled bitterly. "All Might…tried to…lobotomize me. With…his fist."
"What do you mean, 'All Might tried to lobotomize me with his fist'?!" Inko demanded.
Hisashi's injuries had by that point caught up with him enough to force him to drop to his knees. "I'll…contact…when…stable" he gasped out, before looking towards where he'd last heard his son. "Happy…Birthday…Izuku. Love…you."
Then, the man was engulfed in black fluid again, disappearing as quickly as he'd arrived. Iuku dropped his notebook on the floor in stunned surprise, while his mother did the only sensible thing that can be done when your husband warps into your living room, says that he picked a fight with All Might and lost, then leaves.
She fainted.
Three weeks later…
"So tell me the truth, Hisashi - if that even is your name" Inko said in a mildly irate tone as she sat down in the chair by her husband's bedside. The man had an ungodly number of life support devices plugged into his arms, head and throat, all of them beeping, buzzing or dripping away. "Who are you really?"
Hisashi sighed as best he could. "I knew I'd have to explain this to you one day…I just didn't think it would be so soon" he said. "I did not lie about my name; it really is and always has been Hisashi Shigaraki. I was never really fond of that surname though, which is why I took your last name when we married."
"As you've probably figured out, I'm not a salaryman accountant working overseas for the Silverstein Baggs hedge fund in San Francisco. I am, put simply, a businessman" he said. When Inko leveled a glare at him that he could practically feel, even if he couldn't see it, he withered slightly. "Fine, I'm…a villain. Technically the villain."
Inko gasped slightly, before fixing her face with a look of determination. "Define 'the villain'."
Hisashi bit his lip slightly - one of the few facial features he had left - before continuing. "Have you ever heard a bedtime story about a boogeyman who can take your Quirk?"
Inko nodded numbly. "I have. But even if he was real, and not just a story to scare naughty children, wouldn't he be long-dead by now?" A moment later, she connected the dots. "You-! The boogeyman…I'm married to him, aren't I?"
Hisashi nodded as best he could. "Correct. I am just over 130 years old thanks to an immortality Quirk that I gathered from an associate of mine when I was around 40. I am - or, I guess I was - ruler of Japan's underworld, with a trans-Pacific criminal empire that had tendrils in Hong Kong, Korea, Australia, Indonesia, Chile, Mexico and the western United States."
"And All Might…what did you do to provoke him?" Inko pressed.
"It's personal for him. I can't go fully into detail, but…about 40 years ago, I killed his mentor" Hisashi said. "He's been after me with what I can't describe as anything other than a murder-boner since then, and this fight saw him nearly get his wish."
"Does he know you survived?" the green-haired woman asked.
"I don't think so. He doesn't know that I had enough regeneration Quirks to keep myself alive even after a hit like that, and when I was retreating, I used a Body Double Quirk and caused a massive explosion to fake my own death" the ancient supervillain elaborated. "Now, I just have to cover my tracks for good."
Sitting up in bed, the eyeless man looked as best he could at his wife. "I'm stable for now, but once I am able to move and operate again, I will begin dismantling several of my largest criminal operations. I have enough wealth squirreled for us to live off for centuries if necessary, and could probably build an unassailable fortress for us to hide in if the world figures out who I am-!" he said, before being cut off by his wife.
"Hisashi."
After a few moments of silence, the man sighed. "Are you mad at me?"
Inko cleared her throat. "I'm going to be perfectly honest, Hisashi. I am furious with you right now."
"Uh-oh" thought All For One, the Dark Emperor, Scourge of the Pacific, Man of a Thousand Quirks, and Grand Regent to several budding villain groups started or co-opted by his subordinates.
"If you weren't tied to this life support system, I would have you sleeping on the couch for the next ten years" Inko continued, seemingly unaware of her husband's internal terror. "But with that being said…I'm not entirely surprised."
"What?" Hisashi wondered aloud, his shock genuine this time - perhaps even more so than when All Might charged him with his innards dangling out of the hole in his stomach.
"Look," Inko began, looking her husband right where his eyes used to be before they were surgically removed via fist. "I knew from the moment I met you in that conbini that you were lying about something. Well…maybe not lying so much as telling half-truths. If I hadn't been okay with that anyway, I wouldn't have agreed to date you. I wouldn't have married you, I wouldn't have had a son with you, I wouldn't have cried on the phone with you over Izuku's diagnosis, and most of all…I wouldn't have fallen in love with you."
As the mostly-faceless villain gaped in shock over his wife's passionate monologue, the woman continued on anyway, a fierce look burning in her eyes. "So if you think I'm leaving you, that I want a divorce, that I never want to see you again…you're dead wrong." Bending down until her face was just inches from his. "'Til death do us part, right?"
Inko Midoriya walked out of the underground hospital ward her husband was being kept in, making her way over to the side office she left her son in with one of his analysis notebooks and a live feed of several different hero fights. As she entered the office, Izuku turned to her, having just finished a new entry on the Edgelord Hero, Odd Eye. "Is Dad going to be alright?" he asked.
Inko smiled softly. "It's going to be a very long time before he's healthy again, but he'll be alright," she said, taking a business card Hisashi had given her moments before out of her pocket. "Oboro's Back-Alley Tavern?" she wondered, flipping the card over. On the back was a number and a short note. "Call this number and ask for Kurogiri; he knows the full story." Pulling her phone out, Inko dialed the number and waited for it to ring through.
"Oboro's Back-Alley Tavern, this is Oboro. How can I help you?" asked a baritone voice on the other end of the phone.
"H-Hello. My name is Inko Midoriya; I'm looking for Kurogiri" the woman said, a hint of uncertainty in her voice.
"One moment please" the voice said, before a sound like pressurized air being released was heard over the phone. "That would be me. Am I to presume that my Lord has explained the situation to you fully?" This time, the voice had come back slightly deeper and more distorted, almost as if it was echoing through a fog bank.
"T-That's right" Inko replied, still curious about the change in voice.
"I will be with you in just one moment" came the response. The phone then hung up, and before Inko could say anything more, a cloud of dark purplish mist coalesced in front of her and her son. Two yellow eyes appeared in the mist, which then took on a vaguely humanoid form. "I am Kurogiri. Please, step through this portal and do not be alarmed."
The elder Midoriya gulped slightly as a hole in reality opened, revealing a dimly-lit bar on the other side; in one corner, a preteen with light blue hair played video games, mumbling to himself in irritation. Taking her son's hand in her own, Inko stepped forward towards an uncertain future. As soon as they had both passed through the gate, the dark mist collapsed in upon itself, leaving no trace that they had ever stood in the dimly-lit underworld hospital.
Notes:
Welcome, one and all, to my new project (that I hopefully won't forget about and stop updating). This is Playing Both Sides, an alternate universe where our plucky protagonist is a little less plucky and a lot more disillusioned with society. As you can see, we're one chapter in and already have Dad For One and elder brother Tomura, so if those aren't your jam, I don't entirely recommend this fic…though it could surprise you.
Unlike literally any of my other fics, I actually have this one planned out from start to finish, with enough of a difference from canon that I truthfully don't care very much where Horikoshi takes the rest of the series (unlike with Luck of the Draw, Redesign Rebuild Reclaim, and all my other unpublished works). So, to recap differences thus far…
- Izuku knows that AFO is his dad, and is also a lot less okay with the screwed-up parts of society
- Inko is in the know about her husband's activities, and is still in love with him despite how pissed she is about his "side hustle"
- Bakugo is already a pain in the ass
- All Might and his allies think AFO is dead, and so do AFO's acolytes, including Doctor Garaki (that last one is definitely not important at all, nuh-uh, no way)
Anyway, next time we'll see Izuku and Tomura meet for the first time, as our future hero student who moonlights as a villainous mastermind collects the first of his League's future members.
Tally ho, lads and lasses!
~ DVD181
