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 Six: The Queen's Gambit
Izuku calmly walked out of Nedzu's office, walking until she'd reached her dorm room. Then she took her phone out and dialed a familiar number.
"Izuku? Hey, how're things?"
A soft smile, genuine and longing, crossed her face and she sat down on her bed gingerly.
"I'm good, David. I hope you and Melissa are doing well there too," she replied fondly. She traced a finger idly on her bed, listening closely to his breathing and closing her eyes to imagine him.
She tried to imagine him in front of her now, like they were having this conversation face to face.
"We're well," he murmured. "Just like I hope you really are."
She didn't reply to that, keeping silent and breathing along with him, trying to sync up their breathing.
"I miss you too, Izuku," he said gently, like he'd read her mind.
"Yeah," she said and that was all that needed to be said between them.
The next moment, she'd opened her eyes and she let herself slip into another mindset, remembering what she'd originally called him for before she'd gotten sentimental and wishful.
"I hear you've got an island project," she teased, subtly prodding and waiting for him.
He laughed, understanding immediately. "Already almost done with it," his tone was almost wicked. "Want to see the schematics?"
"Most definitely!" she chirped up, glad he read her so well, like always. "Can I ask you questions after I study them?"
"You can keep me on the line and start now, soon as you open up your laptop and take a look," he replied easily.
And for the next few hours until she had to go to her first class, she got started on those plans, intensively digging into the schematics of the island and asking for tiny little 'alterations' to be done for her.
"You know, for the supplies themselves? I won't be able to supply them myself, but Mel's free and can help out. Let me know what else you need, concerning supplies outside of the island plans and details, and I'll pass it on to her."
"Thanks, David," she let herself allow a little fondness to leak through, thanking him for more than just letting her into the island workings.
"Anytime, Izuku."
"Okay, let me get this straight…your former Sidekick —American/college-years Sidekick —knows Izuku and vice versa," Midnight interrogated Toshinori.
Mirai directed his gaze at the blond man, knowing he was probably glaring daggers.
"Yes, that is correct," Toshinori winced.
"How'd they even meet in the first place?" Eraserhead narrowed his eyes at the former Number One.
"And what do you mean by 'intimately acquainted'?" Endeavor asked and Mirai scowled. It was a strange choice of words.
"Just that?" Toshinori weakly answered. "They met at the recent I-Expo. I introduced them."
Mirai inwardly balked and again felt that hurt from earlier resurface.
"You introduced her to him before introducing her to me?" he couldn't help blurting out.
Toshinori looked to him, frowning. He moved closer, murmuring while the others averted their eyes from them. "We weren't on good terms then. Nor were we really speaking. And remember, I did try introducing you two —you were upset at me and adamant I had chosen wrong and that I should meet who you thought would be better suited for OFA. Otherwise, you would have met her first."
Mirai winced, recalling that time and remembering how he had vehemently refused to meet her and insistently argued with Toshinori about his choice of successor. Still, that didn't stop the feeling of being left behind and being excluded. First, it had been the whole thing about One For All 'mutating' and him not knowing or being informed, and then consequently not even being asked to help deal with it or any kind of advisory role. He would've thought that, even if he and Toshinori were still kind of estranged, that Izuku would've asked him about it or at least told him what was happening. Hadn't they managed to grow close enough?
And now it was the notion of Izuku meeting Toshinori's other Sidekick first, long before Izuku and he had crossed paths. Which was made even more balking, because Mirai and her were in the same country! Hell, he was just an hour away from her and yet Toshinori hadn't at least tried to stubbornly have them forced to meet. She would've gotten under his skin long before now and the two of them could've quickly and easily had a camaraderie already.
Toshinori moved away, straightening up as he again addressed the others —all of whom had ignored them as they had their quick private talk.
"Anyway, I'd been offered a Plus One, so I took Izuku along," Toshinori glanced at Nedzu, frown deepening, and Mirai could guess the other man decided he'd drop formalities and let it be known he and his successor were close.
Nedzu certainly didn't mind or care about letting everyone else know about his closeness with Izuku.
"David and she got along immediately," Toshinori shrugged. "They're both extremely intelligent and had conversations that flew over my head. They also really liked each other and ended up having a quick fling while Izuku was on the island. Then we left and that was it —or I thought that was it. I had no idea they were in contact still or that they were close enough to still help each other like this."
"Woah, woah, woah," Present Mic held up his hands hurriedly, while Mirai's brain froze on Toshinori's last words. "Back it up. Did you say they had a fling?"
Toshinori let out an uncomfortable cough. "Yes, that's right. They basically dated while we were on I-Island."
Nedzu's ensuing laugh was more a cackle then a normal, sane laugh. "My dear Empress! When we were first discussing the game, she'd asked about the island's creation and the designer, and I did admit to David Shield's involvement. At the time, she'd made a thoughtful look after I revealed that, and I'd mistaken it as her trying to remember the familiarity of the name and attributing it to her admiration of you, Yagi. But I was missing this vital information! That she knew Shield personally and that you had already introduced the two, and they were more than close enough that he would —as clearly demonstrated —do workarounds on the island specifically to her tailoring. Ohoho, how cute and admirable! She's already pulled one over on me~"
While the sadist chimera celebrated, a strange sense of burning irritability and jealousy shot through him. He didn't want to hear about any of this.
Though he felt Toshinori's eyes on him, he refused to look back at him, trying to avoid looking through his feelings right then.
"Is David Shield's involvement allowed?" Ectoplasm asked confused. "Is that fair that Midoriya-kun managed to rig the island and have an in within through him?"
"Not fair but allowed," Eraserhead surprisingly answered, looking exasperated, even as he narrowed his eyes at a grinning Nedzu. "As far as we've so far heard and keep hearing, regarding restrictions or 'hard rules', the only non-involvement was relegated to us —the UA staff. Midoriya and Bakugo could've gotten help from anywhere they'd desired, so long as they thought of it. And as luck would have it, Midoriya was the one to figure that out and take advantage of it; as well as having the connections to utilize other resources outside of the school."
"Bakugo-shounen was also able to recruit from the other classes and departments, if he would have chosen to," Toshinori pointed out.
"He just didn't," Power Loader concluded.
"Okay, let's just consider this then," Hawks started. "Who is to say that the Villains on screen…are the only ones Izuku-chan's recruited?"
Everyone looked at each other, unease spreading as they started to understand that maybe Izuku hadn't quite ended her team at 13 members.
"She has 13 members currently that we've seen, 9 who are from Class 1-A itself," Present Mic said shrewdly and Mirai could admit he was a bit surprised at this side of the loud, exuberant man. "3 outside of her class, two from Sekijiro's class and one from Higari's. No, wait, we miscounted! That's 4 outside of 1-A, if there are 13 in total on screen that we've seen and only 9 from 1-A. So outside of Monoma-kun, Tokage-kun, and Hatsume-kun…who's the fourth kid?"
On screen then though, another Villain student stepped into the base, smoothly taking off his headgear and revealing a tired face that was faintly grinning and a head full of wild purple hair.
"Helicopter's ready to go, Lucifer."
"Very good, Livyatan," Izuku smiled of her now usual faint smiles that had no business being on her sweet face.
Mirai inwardly frowned deeply.
Shota wanted to face palm because of course his Problem Child recruited Shinso. And of course Shinso agreed to be on Izuku's team.
"There's our answer," he said wryly. "Hero Course hopeful Shinso Hitoshi."
"Can I interrupt and say that I thought Shinso-kun said something about a helicopter?" Hizashi deadpanned and Shota really did face palm this time.
"I heard it too," Nemuri raised an eyebrow and Nedzu's background laugh made him groan.
"So they've managed to commandeer a helicopter, while they're at it," Best Jeanist said blandly. "I believe that no one's had any grasp on this situation anymore."
"Except, you know, Villains," Hawks added, sounding rather amused by then.
"Specifically Midoriya," Endeavor huffed, looking out of sorts.
The poor man must've really believed Izuku was a true saint before all this.
Still, Shota could understand a bit. He really wouldn't have been able to believe Izuku was Villain material either, but he was biased as her Homeroom teacher. Then again, as her teacher, maybe he should've known best.
"Maybe we can figure out how many is on her team?" Hizashi added. "It looks like she's got a specific theme going on —obviously biblical, if we are going by her codename. If she's Lucifer, that means she's got a 'legion' of 'demons'."
"She called Shinso 'Livyatan'," Shota remembered.
"I'll write it down," Inui volunteered. "As their names come up, I'll make sure to note them and compile a list."
Which was good, because part of Shota thought that knowing at least who was on Izuku's side would give them an idea of what she was thinking or planning.
He hoped so at least.
"Samael, Livyatan, Triel, over here," Izuku called them over and Hitoshi headed over to their leader with the other two.
She turned to the others, the three of them standing by her as she addressed the team. She smiled and though it was as normal and sweet as it usually was before all this, the air turned cold. Hitoshi glanced over at Todoroki, not putting it passed the other in turning on the cold to help the atmosphere for their leader, but as always the other boy looked too stoic to give off any clues.
"Stygian," Izuku started speaking. "Starting today, we'll let the world see us and they won't stop seeing us."
Hitoshi hid his grin. It was theatrical and reminded him of all the bonding nights this team had had together in preparation for this War Game. Movie Nights, charades, sleepovers…
They wanted to be remembered and they wanted to win, but most of all they wanted to show what they were capable of and push themselves as much as they could, past their limits.
"Mephisto, Belial," she addressed Aoyama and Tokoyami. "Pair up. Light and Dark paves our path to illumination, and soon the Heroes will be enlightened."
Hitoshi couldn't help a quiet snicker. When Izuku had told him and her two Triumphs that she was really going to go all in for this, he hadn't really thought how far she'd take it. But she had also admitted to him outside of her role (the rare times she broke out), that she was having fun with the theatrics and also hence when she and Monoma were having way too much fun together during their 'training sessions.' Theatrics really bonded those two.
Although, sometimes (looking at her and remembering things) he wondered…
"Ramiel and Azazel, I want you two to stay behind with Belphe and do a security overlay of the island and set up our cyber perimeter and all our defenses. Make sure Eyes of God is up and running and let us have Paradiso become ours within an hour."
"Abaddon, Dagan, Meri…you're front and center," Izuku smiled her now rather usual, enigmatic smile and it again brought shivers to Hitoshi.
Sometimes…sometimes it was hard to remember this was all an act, with tinges of the scary, cunning Izuku he'd already known.
Nighteye scrambled about the room, somehow found a dry erase marker and started muttering to himself as he began to write on one of the windows. He wrote down the villain students' names and then began writing down their 'codenames'. Inui caught on and began copying it all down in a notebook.
"You said biblical references, yes?" the verdette pushed up his glasses.
Hizashi nodded. "Yeah, Lucifer as in the fallen angel aka the Devil. Sources vary on that though," the blond man shrugged nonchalantly. "I'm an English teacher and I'm still Japanese, not Western, so I don't know specifics."
Nighteye had his phone out, "As we've observed and know of their names, Izuku, Todoroki and Monoma are the 'Satanic' Triumvirate, though for some reason Izuku chose their fallen angel names rather than their Satanic ones —Triel instead of Beelzebub and Samael instead of Satan."
"That's true," Hizashi blinked, catching onto that.
"It also means those three are the top authorities of Stygian," Nighteye noted and it was a reminder to them all that the group actually picked out a name for themselves.
"Shinso-kun also seems somewhat part of that group, but not quite?" Nemuri noticed.
"That's because the other two are quick and eager to go along with things," Shota huffed. "Shinso is at least keeping an eye on her and trying to keep her somewhat reined in."
"My son, as already been noted, enables her to do whatever," Endeavor reluctantly brought up.
"And Monoma is no better," Sekijiro exasperatedly tacked on, watching the proceedings on screen.
"So Shinso is not part of the trio, but he's still in the 'Inner Circle' at least," Nighteye continued. He scrolled on his phone. "If we follow the theme, after the Triumvirate, Stygian has their 'Seven Princes'. Going by the names we know are attached —"
"We're missing Asmodeus!" Hizashi noted immediately.
Shota glanced at their open door suspiciously. "Are we?" he asked darkly and everyone noticed the direction of his gaze.
"No, you can't mean —!" Yagi vehemently started to deny.
"Why else is she here?" Nemuri pointed out.
"The real question is why is she watching over us?" Hawks spoke out shrewdly. "Unless…unless we're —"
Best Jeanist finished quietly. "…Part of the game."
"No freaking way!" Hizashi's mouth dropped. "That's crazy!"
Then, somehow coincidentally, their entire screen crackled and was replaced by Izuku's face, smiling faintly at them.
"Hello, Heroes. Do you want to play a game?"
Toshinori was flabbergasted. Izuku, on screen, laughed lightly.
"As been said, I cannot involved UA staff and they cannot involve themselves. If they do, game's forfeit, isn't it? And what a waste of time, effort, and money put into this. My…the media would love to hear all about it."
"Are we being blackmailed?" Yamada's voice went slightly high.
"We're being blackmailed," Aizawa said grimly.
"However, it wouldn't be that way if our dear staff…was no longer staff," she goaded, even though her voice stayed pleasant. "And well…don't we have some non-staff Pros to play with?" she smiled widely.
The screen went to static before returning to their normal views, Hero class looking over a map and trying to suss out the Villain base, while the Villains themselves (minus Izuku) were focusing on their assigned tasks and getting ready for something.
"I feel like I've just been ambushed," Snipe muttered.
Hawks pushed the speaker button and they waited with bated breath. Melissa was quick to appear at their doorway and seeing them all, her smile turned into a smirk, making Toshinori lose his breath and feel wobbly.
"Are you Asmodeus?" Endeavor accused and she giggled.
"Technically, sometimes I share that name…but no. I'm Berith, Secretary of Stygian."
"W-Wait, is that even okay?!" Vlad interrupted in alarm. "I know we got that outside help was fine, but recruiting them as members?!"
"It's not against the rules," Melissa point-blank stated. "It's just —"
"UA staff," the staff said tiredly in unison.
Melissa chuckled. "That's right. As a reminder though, if you do wish to participate, UA staff, you must resign from your posts first."
"Melissa," Toshinori started weakly, reaching out.
The tips of his fingers grazed the open entryway right before an energy shield visibly lit up while his fingers got stung. It was quiet and they all stared at her.
She gazed back stone-faced.
"As Lucifer ordered, you are stuck here. It's up to the participants to find a way out."
She turned and left a shocked audience behind.
Suddenly and out of character, Nighteye grabbed a chair and threw it at the windows. The shield lit up again and the group burst into furor.
"Holy shit, we're trapped!" Hizashi's voice went shrill and yet his Quirk didn't activate. He was stared at.
They all tried their Quirks in a panic, quickly figuring out only the 'outside' Heroes were able to do so.
"Non-UA staff," Power Loader grumbled. "Of course."
"Quite ingenious!" Nedzu was excited, quite obviously not at all upset by the new development.
Enji rolled his eyes. The rat wouldn't be helping any time soon, with or without a Quirk. He was too busy enjoying the chaos that he probably willingly endorsed.
"How did she manage to do this?" Hound Dog asked uneasily, tapping a pencil against the notebook he'd been writing in. "While we know there was that Quirk-canceling formula that Overhaul created," everyone shivered there, "how was she able to replicate it, if that's what she even used on us? If she didn't replicate it, then how did she get her hands on a usable copy? Or how did we ingest it?"
"Why would she even use it on us?" Ectoplasm frowned. "Is it temporary?"
Nighteye narrowed his eyes at the entrance and strode over to it, peering out of the room. "While our food choices would vary and some of use might not have even had any of the food, we've all probably had some of the coffee this morning to wake up —"
"Ahem."
Nighteye barely gave a disdainful glance over at the smirking Nedzu, before he was continuing on with his thought process.
"We all probably had some coffee."
"That doesn't explain why you four still have your Quirks and we don't," Power Loader brought up. "If we all drank some, then that would mean you four would also be unable to use them."
Enji thought on it too, even as Nighteye mumbled something on his breath and went to his window, writing down about the Quirk problem. He kept thinking about David Shield and how Izuku knew the man, and it aggravated him a little —
"Hey," he called attention to himself. "I know she's smart, but can Izuku really figure out that Quirk-canceling formula on her own?"
Nighteye's eyes widened and he was glad that someone else could confirm the thought.
"It's already been established that David Shield has helped her out with the island workings," Nighteye said to the group. "So who's to say that was all he helped her with?"
All Might sighed and ran a hand down his gaunt face. "I wouldn't put it pass him to help her with whatever she needed."
Enji gritted his teeth. "If his daughter was recruited in as part of the team, who the hell says that that bastard hadn't managed to be recruited in?"
Cementoss sighed as well. "Given how much he's contributed and how it seems he's very involved, I wouldn't put it past him to be in Midoriya's Villain team."
"Forget him being in her team, Shield's probably in her Inner Circle," Eraserhead brought up immediately and it caused everyone to pause in silence.
"Wait, that would mean he's —"
"Asmodeus," Nighteye finished Present Mic's thought grimly.
Melissa hummed, handing over a new juice box to the cute girl.
"Thanks very much, Onee-san!" Eri smiled toothily at her. "Okaa-san is doing really good, isn't she?"
The blonde smiled back and patted her head. "Yes, she is. She's so brilliant, isn't she? Our Izuku."
Eri nodded enthusiastically. "Uh huh! She's the best! Right, Mirio-oniisan?"
Melissa glanced at her uneasy fellow blond, who gave both girls a small smile. Tamaki patted his shoulder in commiseration, while Nejire was rolling with things, enjoying all this. Melissa quite liked her.
"Don't worry, things will be fine and you all will be safe here. And treated well," she added, though two of the three looked at her in disbelief.
It's not like she kidnapped them or anything.
She glanced at her vibrating watch, seeing it light up with a message from one of the building's staff. "I'll be back," she said distractedly. She left them to head towards the room holding the Heroes "hostage", standing in front of the entryway while the energy shield was fully on.
Izuku and Mirio's mentor stood there, glaring at her. From behind him, the others were also glaring in her direction from their spots in the room.
"Is your father the 7th Prince?" Sir Nighteye demanded. "Is he Asmodeus?"
She blinked. Ah, they figured it out. She laughed and clapped.
"Oh good! You were able to find out about my dad! Yes, he's the 7th Prince, though like I said, the two of us sometimes share the role when needed. Normally, I'm just part of the Council though. Berith's the name, remember?" she playfully bowed.
Sir's eyes narrowed behind his glasses. "I didn't think those outside UA student age range were recruitable."
Melissa gave one huge smile at that. "Just one hard rule, wasn't it? No UA staff."
"Fuck," she heard someone say and her smile grew. Then again, the sooner they accepted and kept to that, the less they were going to question just how outside of the perimeters set things were going to be.
David hummed as he tapped his finger on the back of his phone to a random beat. There was a few more dial tones before he was answered.
"Hey there, Lucifer," he greeted fondly. "Everything's good?"
"Yes, thank you so much, Asmodeus," her sweet voice replied to him.
"Belphe's got access to the island's mainframe. I can code her into the climate system too, if you want?"
"Hm, it's okay. I want her focus here. Would you mind keeping control of that too?"
"No problem," he reassured her, already separating a screen and delegating it to that. "I can do that. Your Heroes are on edge though," he told her in amusement, glancing on that screen at the gathered Heroes.
"Are they?" she echoed his amusement.
"Mmhm. It's dawned on them that they're more or less being held captive. Toshinori looked absolutely heartbroken," he deliberately added.
"All's still well then," she just said dismissively.
For a moment, a slither of unease finally got into him, before he banished it. Izuku needed him to be on his game and he had to focus. Even with old friendships aside and the knowledge that Izuku deeply cared and loved Toshinori too, not only was she seriously playing a Villain, but he also knew there might be just a tiny deep-seated seed of resentment for the once infallible mentor. She never told him about it, but Toshinori told David about the rooftop incident. Not only had David been surprised, but —having a Quirkless daughter —he'd gotten upset about it and gotten disappointed in his old friend.
So this? Whatever all this is, he could get behind and not even ask too many questions. It hadn't been too hard signing his soul over to Izuku after all.
That had been a done deal long before this game, all the way back to when they'd first met.
Started 9/13/22 — Completed 9/21/22?
A/n: Oh my, I had too much fun this chapter XD Also, the whole thing with the Heroes was something I'd planned from almost the beginning and had been eagerly looking forward to adding in here somehow. Enjoy the chaos, y'all.
A/n: (11/23) Ho crap guys, I forgot I never uploaded this on FFN. Whoops.
Quick Points:
1. Mirai has regrets, so many regrets. And he's hurt. I like that hurt :D
2. Nedzu ain't even mad, yo~
3. References abound :3
4. David Shield is the ultimate cheat code.
Villain Team:
Seven Princes *(Izuku's Inner Circle)
Lucifer - Pride - Izuku
Belphegor - Sloth - Mei
Mammon - Greed - Momo
Beelzebub - Gluttony - Monoma
Satan - Wrath - Shoto
Livyatan - Envy - Hitoshi
Asmodeus - Lust - David (Bonus)
Princes of Hell
Merihem - Lust - Mina
Mephistopheles - Pride (also Wrath) - Aoyama
Dagan - Envy - Shoji
Azazel - Vanity (also Lust) - Tokage
Belial - Sloth (also Wrath) - Tokoyami
Ramiel - Pride - Jiro
Abaddon - Sloth (also Wrath and Discord) - Koda