Disclaimer: Of course I don't own My Hero Academia, its characters, or the franchise.
Story: As a result of their repeated run-ins with Villains in real life and the expected future encounters, Class 1-A is assigned a revised physical portion of their semi-finals -a simulation game of Heroes vs. Villains. Supposedly a way to give them experience and preparation in a safe, moderated environment, and also a way to just let go and de-stress...Nedzu really just supposes it'll be the perfect way to have Midoriya Izuku unleash entertaining hell. Plus, he would really like for her to utilize that brain of hers to break down everyone without restraint, give them reality and all their weaknesses. The best part is this could finally be the therapy she desperately needed and finally get her well-deserved vengeance! (He, after all, had managed to rain down hell on the humans that scarred him, so why couldn't she?)
Spoilers: Yeah, definitely, post-Endeavor-Agency arc.
Warnings: Age disparity, violence, cursing, maybe sexual situations, criminal matters…
Pairings: Enji/Izuku, Mirai/Izuku, Tsunagu/Izuku, David/Izuku, Keigo/Izuku

Blurred, Faded Lines
Chapter One: Kingmaker

If Shota had more energy, he would have gone to get some coffee first. However, due to some sadistic reason, Nedzu had decided to hold an early morning assembly for Class 1-A and he'd gotten stuck with transporting Nedzu over. He didn't even know what the assembly was about.

God, he hoped Nedzu didn't have anything insane planned. It was too damn early in the morning for it.

Inwardly sighing, he entered his classroom and saw his class chattering to each other while in their seats. He saw his beloved yellow sleeping bag behind his desk and watched it longingly. However, the insistent tugging at his hair from inside his scarf made him grumble quietly and head to the front of the class, gaining his students' attention.

"Alright, kids, we've got an assembly you all need to be there for," he told them tiredly, looking over his class carefully though.

They were all excited and eager-faced, and he pitied them, for there must be some nefarious idea Nedzu had cooked up for them all. Probably unfortunately including him.

"Do we need to head over to somewhere, Sensei?" Yaoyorozu asked and knowing Nedzu was with him, Shota shook his head.

And that's when the Principal popped up from inside his scarf and waved cheerily at the kids.

"Good morning, children! I might be a dog, maybe a mouse, or even a bear…but you know me as Principal Nedzu!"

He moved out of Shota's scarf and hopped down onto the student desk of one inquisitive-looking Midoriya Izuku, Problem Child.

In a class full of problem children, she was the Problem Child (but at least she was his Problem Child).

She was also way too close to Nedzu, who was definitely not supposed to be (allowed to be) near her. The very idea of the two of them just talking for a few seconds was enough to give him a heart attack —two of the most brilliant minds on this earth interacting would most probably lead to world domination.

The chimera straightened up and put his hands behind his back, clasping them as he hmmed loudly. He smiled briefly at Midoriya, which made Shota twitch.

"Class 1-A, you've had such an eventful time! I would like to commend you all for such bravery and endurance during such trying times and, as our school motto says, continue to Plus Ultra your way through it all!"

Shota wondered if he could scoot behind his desk and slip into his sleeping bag…

"And that is why, for your physical portion of your semi-finals, we have decided to create an original, specifically tailored simulation game of Heroes vs. Villains!"

Shota became very awake at that instant.

"Nedzu, you didn't say anything about this to us," he leaned in closer to the animal, muttering. None of the staff had been informed of this at all!

Nedzu's ears twitched and the Principal turned slightly to Shota, smile widening just a bit. It made Shota shiver. Nedzu then returned to focus on the class.

"We will have a Hero team and a Villain team, where you all will receive a folder pertaining to the side you would have chosen. No one will know whose side you've chosen unless you choose to reveal it, with the exception of the Hero leader —the Paragon. On the opposite side, with most situations being that no one knows who they are, so will you all not know who the Villain leader —the Kingpin — is unless they reveal themselves. If the players don't want to make a choice of sides and be recruited by the team leaders, then they also have the option of having a random 'roll of the dice' by Aizawa-sensei here."

Not surprisingly, Yaoyorozu raised her hand again, eyebrows furrowed.

"Nedzu-sensei, is there a reason why this simulation is set for Class 1-A?"

Yes, Shota would like to know that too. Why is this headache his to deal with?

"You see, your class is the one whose had the most experience, and the most harrowing episodes dealing with real life villains. I suspect that will not change. This simulation will hopefully better prepare you for future encounters. And if you, the experienced class, does well? Then we can proceed to utilize this test for the other classes!"

Shota inwardly grimaced, the idea putting a rolling ball of distress in his gut and making him balk. And then he witnessed an odd sight —Midoriya's face shadowed over and her lips firmed in a straight line, before she was smiling widely and then looking down at the Principal practically in her lap, sitting comfortably on her desk and calmly making himself at home. She opened her mouth to say something and —Nope. Not happening.

Shota scooped Nedzu off said student's desk and onto his shoulder and started towards the door.

"Free class period!"

There was, again, no way in hell he was letting these two interact.

Toshinori didn't know what this meeting was about, but gathered from who was in the room, that some sort of staff meeting had been called. And if Nedzu's enthusiastic grin and legs swinging cheerily over the edge of his seat, then he was already feeling bad vibes and chills.

Plus, Aizawa was kind of twitching near the chimera and looking rather disturbed.

"Now, let me start our meeting off by introducing Class 1-A's revised physical semi-final —the Heroes vs. Villains simulation."

There was absolute silence for a moment…before the room erupted into a furor.

As he vaguely listened to the others yelling and arguing about the planned simulation, Toshinori breathed out harshly and felt himself fall back into his chair with a hard thump. What on earth was Nedzu thinking? This couldn't be reasonable.

On the surface, it sounded fine; there had been plenty of similar tests done for the students before. He, in fact, had put pairs of them as Villains or Heroes in his first Heroics class. However, he somehow knew that this was not the same thing and would not be as simple as that one class.

"Now, now, everyone; I would hope everyone will sit down and listen to me or I'll have to make sure there are extra paperwork for teachers to fill out for some reason or other," Nedzu chuckled lightly, though Toshinori shivered and thought it sounded dark to his ears regardless.

But it still managed to shut the room up and the group reluctantly settled down, focusing their attention on Nedzu. Aizawa snorted then and watched their Principal warily.

"Get on with it then. Tell them what you told my class," Aizawa muttered.

And Nedzu gladly did, smugly waiting after. Toshinori? Toshinori felt like his heart was going to be coughed up at this point.

A team of Heroes and Villains, for how many days, realistically fighting each other and acting out their roles? It sounded like a recipe for disaster, especially when it came to these kids.

"I don't know," Kayama started doubtfully. "On one hand, it's nothing new…but on the other hand, it sounds way more expanded and involved than our usual, and these kids are going to actually really get themselves prepared."

"As long as I'm not playing a hostage again," Yamada huffed. "I'm not, am I?"

"And will I need to build something for your simulation, Nedzu?" Ishiyama asked, and Toshinori thought there would be a lot of work for the Hero if Nedzu was going to go through with this crazy venture.

Nedzu chuckled. "No worries, you two; we've been provided a plethora of fully automated, programmed AIs that will fill our makeshift city."

"There's a whole city?" Aizawa questioned. "And we're not using the city model in the USJ?"

"I've had an island commissioned sometime ago and it's been set to be finished in a day or two, with everything in place," Nedzu revealed, causing a wave of disbelief to go through the room. "So no one need do anything. The only thing this staff needs to do is watch the proceedings carefully and make notes. I will hand out copies of the handbooks for both teams to all of you later. Right now, the only other issue is for us to assign the roles of Paragon and Kingpin to the students."

"So Paragon then," Kan crossed his arms, frowning. "Since it's 1-A, shouldn't it be Aizawa's choice?"

"Not necessarily," Kayama answered thoughtfully. "It's good to have other opinions and see differentiating points. While he probably knows them best, we also can interject and point out our own thoughts about the choices. Personally, I would like to see Yaoyorozu-kun in the Paragon role and see how she handles leading the 'Heroes'."

"Hm, good choice," Snipe said but then shrugged. "But I don't know if she's ready to take on the role. She's good at thinking ahead and strategizing. But she hasn't been able to take point or have the confidence to lead yet, and she's still pretty unsure of herself."

"This could be her chance to gain that experience," Kayama pointed out.

"I agree with both of you with many points that were said," Maijima interjected. "Kayama is correct in what she suggested, but ultimately Yaoyorozu-kun is definitely not yet able to lead a team with her current self. I actually think that Iida-kun would be a good leader —he is already the Class President for 1-A, isn't he?"

"He's very high-strung," Aizawa reluctantly entered the conversation. "He'd be very by-the-book. He'd have trouble leading the team without picking at little details, and miss the point of the entire thing. This would help him loosen up a little…but not in the position of the Paragon. Honestly, I think Todoroki or even Tokoyami would be good choices to lead the Hero team. Both are strong and can lead and work with others, have a good head on their shoulders and have shown to do well thinking on their feet."

Toshinori had to speak up. "What about Midoriya-shoujo? She's very charismatic and friendly, good traits to lead and recruit others. She's amazingly smart and she's definitely strong. She's done well working with others and can most definitely think quickly!"

Aizawa cringed for some reason. "I would really like to not have my Problem Child get any ideas in her head."

Toshinori protested loudly in his head. Izuku was his child, thank you very much! Er, well, not biologically…but still!

"How about Bakugo-kun?" Nedzu threw out there, smiling innocently. Toshinori eyed him at that though. "He has had the spotlight on him before and perhaps needs a way to be shown how to lead and be an active Hero in real life, as an example to continue to curb his aggressive behavior and show him the ins and outs of Hero life that he's had a very brief taste of. He's led before; successfully, even if he doesn't work well with others. That's debatable, I suppose."

"More like others work well with him, despite his attitude," Kan rolled his eyes.

"Yes, despite his attitude, he's proven to be a capable leader and isn't lacking brains," Kayama agreed.

"He's pretty good with planning, especially on the field, if he doesn't lose his head," Yamada tacked on.

"I suppose he wouldn't do too bad as Paragon," Aizawa hmmed.

Perhaps…even if Young Bakugo was still too much of a hothead at times…

"I'm glad we can agree on that!" Nedzu enthused. "Now for the Kingpin —I've already had someone in mind and really, I'm adamant and won't change them."

Toshinori blinked. What?

"I declare Midoriya Izuku as Kingpin, leader of the Villains!"

Utter chaos erupted then.

Quiet humming echoed in the hallway as Izuku traversed it, fingers tapping idly on the wall as she let them trail across it as she walked. It was pretty late and all, but she was thinking about what had happened earlier and the semi-finals her class had to complete.

She wondered who would go where and who would be the leaders. It'd be interesting to be one of them, but honestly this seemed fun. Mostly, it seemed practical and could be very useful, especially against the Villains that were determined to keep popping up to keep antagonizing them.

It would also inject a dose of reality and experience into her classmates, and at least in a safe and monitored environment…

She reached her door and stepped inside. But at the sight of the black notebook sitting innocently on her desk, made her pause by her door and eye it warily.

She briefly closed her eyes, the image of a black box with chains around it and heavy locks to prevent it from ever being open being all that she saw. It rattled and drew her and the hesitation to approach it filled her.

The sounds of chains, the clink!clink!clink! and echoes of locks unlocking…

But then she opened her eyes and reality settled in.

Izuku walked slowly towards the notebook, face slowly becoming less bright and more sharp and thoughtful, and she lay the tips of her fingers onto the notebook carefully.

"'There's no Hero without a Villain,'" she quoted in a murmur and she gently trailed her fingers down the cover and picked it up. Her lips quirked up in a small smile.

And she made her choice.

Started 7/28 or 29/22 — Completed 8/2/22

A/n: Ah well, I decided to take a crack at one of these. There's a lot of good ones, not all of them finished, but also not a lot of fem!Izuku ones. Hope you all enjoy, because so far it's looking to be one heck of a ride from my end XD

Quick Points:

1. Skip Beat! Fam~ Recognize that chained box? Izuku's got one too ;D