Archivist of Nyx - Two comments from you? Wow :v Also that's a pretty good summary, although we're striving for a greater degree of grimdark. Much greater.

[Also a chapter a day until I catch up with AO3 releases which shouldn't be long as I have only seven chapters there thus far].

(***)

Villains, typically, tended to do their best to stay hidden. Primarily from the government, but there was no such thing as being selectively hidden. If unrelated villains knew how to find you, so could (theoretically) the government .

In the more enlightened times, Villain Network - the newest iteration of the darknet used by the more established villains - would be enough. Midoriya would simply use his account there to contact his old classmates and arrange a meeting.

He knew that they would agree to that. He was close with most of them. And they didn't see each other for almost a decade, so they would probably agree if only out of sheer curiosity.

But, he had a growing suspicion that the Villain Network was no longer fully secure and he refused to take any chances with that. It wasn't a video game. They couldn't reload a save if anything went wrong. Paranoia was natural for Midoriya for years.

As a result Izuku had to do it in a bit more… unorthodox way. Something that greatly summarized what weird times they were living in.

He decided to ask a god where to find his old classmates. He knew where to find one. Bonus points for one of said classmates serving the god in question. Two birds with one stone and all that.

(***)

The Paranormal Liberation War was a fertile time for cults, with traumatized and scared people looking for answers and hope. A mechanism known throughout the history of Mankind.

The cults that were preying on the gullible too obviously were long gone by now, dismantled by the police and the heroes during the past six years. A handful managed to survive, either by not being abusive or by being elusive enough to hide their true face from the world.

The Ascending Path was somewhere in the middle. It wasn't actively malicious, and did its best to not amass any bad reputation. It was cooperating with the heroes when prompted (didn't happen very often), was doing a lot of community outreach and was fully ready to invite people and journalists to its facilities nationwide.

Mostly because it kept shady stuff contained to a few facilities that nobody knew about. The skeletons hidden in those would be enough to sink the whole cult ten times over if someone ever made them public.

Midoriya himself helped bury one or two in the past. He also knew most of the really scary secrets of the Ascending Path. Of course, they were safe with him.

The talk was a bit too serious for social media, even the villainous ones and even if Midoriya Izuku was ready to trust their security. They had a bit of a code going, but what he wanted to talk about was… a bit too unique to be covered by it. So he arranged a meeting. In one of the official facilities of the cult.

When he arrived at the complex, he was already expected. The cultists (wearing the signature black/navy blue robes of the Ascending Path initiates) were clearly curious about him. The outsider that was granted the honor of meeting Judgment herself in their compound's inner sanctum.

Midoriya wasn't very interested in things like that. His definition of tasteful decor included putting an All Might poster in his bedroom, and maybe a plant or two. The latter mostly because even if he often forgot to water them, Eri never did. But the complex was eye candy even to him.

The temple was surrounded by a large park/garden, with some strategically placed benches, hedges and ponds. Knowing Judgment, the design was subtly tailored to support the defenders in case the heroes realized who she was. Izuku didn't see enough of it on the way to make the decision if that was the case.

The temple itself was… bare. A handful of wooden pews facing an altar. Zero modern materials, mostly wood and stone. Some candles and incense burners, the latter left unused for now. The place was giving him the whole ' antique church at the countryside' vibes, even if it lacked crosses. Probably the whole point of the design.

Few seconds after the cultists left him alone in front of the altar, Judgment arrived. She didn't use doors, of course. Instead she began to materialize above the altar. Slowly and deliberately, giving him quite a spectacle.

A tan-skinned woman of rather voluptuous body built (plus a very noticeable hourglass figure). Significantly bigger than it should be possible, at least five meters tall. She was wearing a flowing black robe and had long hair the color of stars.

Judgment, the unofficial living deity of the Ascending Path. Izuku knew her before that happened. He has a different name for the woman in front of him. One that he wouldn't use in front of her followers. One that he wouldn't use in front of anyone else, because then people would die.

"... you can spare me the special effects." Izuku decides to interrupt the spectacle when the light flashes accompanying the 'divine manifestation' are starting to irritate him. There was a limit to adhering to your chosen aesthetics. "But I admit that you nailed it, Aiko. That's a really godlike entrance."

The woman sighs loudly… and shrinks. After a few seconds, the star-haired woman changes into a white-haired girl, who promptly sat on the altar. She couldn't be older than seventeen-eighteen years old. Even the flowing robes changed to a black T-Shirt and a short skirt. She is still barefoot, though.

"It's been a while since we met face-to-face, my dearest oniichan." She announces. Her voice is loud and melodious. Way more than it probably should be. When he gives her a stare, she rolls her eyes and continues speaking. This time with a normal volume and tone. "I assume it's something very, very serious."

He can practically feel the unspoken accusation in her voice. Yes, they didn't see each other in quite a while. Yes, it was mostly because of Izuku Midoriya. No, he didn't regret that in the slightest.

"Aiko, we had that talk already." He replies. Aiko gives him a tired stare. "I have serious ethical issues with my younger sister being a head of what's de facto a suicide cult. Also you crossed the line when you tried to convert Eri."

Not like there was a serious chance of succeeding in that. It was more of a matter of principles.

"First of all, oniichan, I deliver on the promises of what comes after abandoning your body." Aiko replies. "So I find you comparing the Path to 'suicide cults' as harmful, incorrect and slightly insulting. What's more, you're free to say no to my proselytizing attempts, and I'm going to respect that and stop. There was no need to make a family drama out of that."

He opens his mouth, but she speaks faster.

"Don't try to pull the 'she's too young' card on me, Izuku." She says, and somehow refuses to falter under his stare. "She's sixteen. In case you forgot already, you were sixteen years old when you decided to end society as we knew it."

Oh no, you don't.

"Something that, we both know, might not have been my smartest decision ever." Midoriya retorts. Aiko doesn't answer. But she knows that she hit him where it hurt. "We're going to have to agree to disagree on your… religion, Judgment. Do what you want, just don't try to pull my family into it."

"It's my family as well, Revenant." She replies. Divine name for a villain name, huh. He hadn't used that name in a while, but he will do it once the war starts again. "But enough about our disagreements. You've come here with something in mind. Something… serious. What is it?"

"The HPSC found one of the Support Network safehouses, killed the head caretaker and took sixteen kids for the Paragon Program." He announces. She opens her mouth to say something, but he doesn't let her. "Including Eri." The mouth closes.

There is silence in the temple for several long seconds. Aiko is probably calculating something in her mind, something that he isn't sure if he wants to gain any insight into. He is almost certain that he can recognize it when she's using one of her intelligence songs, and it seems like one of those moments.

"What's your plan?" She eventually settles up on asking. Despite the intelligence boost and her knowledge of him, she clearly failed to figure even the basics out. Good. It'll be even harder for the heroes.

"I'm going to save her. I'm going to save them all.." He replies. His eyes, on her. Unmoving. Unblinking. "And make sure that the government will never threaten them again. That it will never threaten anyone I care for again. I'm planning to start the second Paranormal Liberation War, Aiko."

She knows him well. She knows that he hit the bottom. She knows that Eri was one of the last few things in his life that made him feel like there was a point in continuing to exist. A point that wasn't a sheer spite for the prime minister and her lackeys. For what the pro-heroes turned into.

She knows she can't hope to change his mind. Stubbornness was always one of his defining traits. Just as staying loyal to the causes that were no longer loyal to him. The best thing she can do is damage control.

"Ambitious." She admits. "Some would even say insane. But if there is someone that can pull it off, it's you. What's the plan? And what's my part in it?"

"I'm currently in the process of building the new League of Villains." He replies. He knows that Aiko is one of the few people that he can trust with that knowledge. Not the whole truth, yes. But at least some of it. "I have Hypothermia, Cloud, Quicksilver and Singularity. But that's not enough. So I'm thinking about organizing a class reunion."

He has no idea what her opinion on that is. Positive? Negative? Neutral? She seems to have learned a few things about staying unreadable recently.

"You want Fumikage." She states.

"To begin with, yeah." He replies. It's at this point that it's clear that her reception of the idea is rather… negative.

"You show up after telling me that I'm supposed to stay out of your life, after not contacting me for months…" She says, slowly and deliberately, with exasperation almost dripping off her tongue. "... and you start by telling me that you want to borrow my High Templar? My most trusted servant? My most valiant protector? Are you actually serious or is this some elaborate joke?"

"I also hoped to get Ragdoll." He admits. The disbelieving stare that he gets grows stronger. "I have no idea how to find the others without her. And I don't think that I can hope to recruit Todoroki without her help."

She pinches the bridge of her nose. Wow. He must have really thrown her out of her comfort zone for her to react like that.

"Unbelievable." She finally says. "You're unbelievable. What even made you think that I'm going to agree to that?" He knows that he's on thin ice. But he truly and honestly believes that he has enough arguments to win it.

"Because I might be Eri's adoptive father, but you're her adoptive auntie." Midoriya replies. Aiko's face remains unchanged. "You want her to be safe as well. And because with some luck we might be able to take revenge for what happened to mom. And, last but not least…" Their eyes meet. Hers grow narrow. "... because I think that you're going to at least relay my question to them. And I sincerely hope that they'll both agree, even if for entirely different reasons altogether."

Once again, there is silence in the temple. The living deity is weighing options in her mind. Eventually, she arrives at a destination.

"No, Izuku." She shakes her head. "The answer is no."

Oh. Despite everything that happened between them, he didn't expect that to happen. He didn't expect the betrayal to hurt him so much. He really thought that she would get over their issues and… shit. This threw a wrench into his plans. He could still try to find the others, but it was going to take much more time. His original timetable would have to be…

"Oniiiichan." She says and that wakes him up. "Could you at least let me finish before going so deep into your thoughts? It's impolite, especially when you are a guest of mine. And a petitioner in front of a god."

She added the last part to stick a needle in his side, didn't she? Time to put a brave face, despite a lot of things just collapsing on him.

"As I said, I'm not going to give you Tokoyami." She adds. "I'm also not going to let you borrow him. Borrowing Ragdoll is on the table, but… there is another option." She sighs. "I think it's time not just for a class reunion, but also for a family one. Won't you agree?"

"... what?" It's not often that Midoriya Izuku finds himself shocked by someone. It's even rarer when it's someone that was really close to him. He tends to have those figured out well enough.

"Judgment, the living deity of the Ascending Path, can't help you… probably." Aiko replies calmly. "I know that we are in the end a villain organization, if only due to the world failing to understand us. Sooner or later the government will try to destroy us. Destroying it beforehand makes sense, but… I have way too many followers unaware of our true selves, and I do not wish to turn them into enemies of the world. So, Judgment is out for now. Apocrypha: the Magical Girl Villain, in the meantime…"

She pauses. Izuku finds himself staring at her in shock.

"Apocrypha?" He blinks a few times. "You mean, your name, powers and aesthetics from the time when you wanted to be a hero? Are you… are you serious right now?" She shrugs.

"Times change, dummy brother of mine." Aiko announces. "I no longer want to be a hero. I look much more favorable on painting the streets with their blood nowadays. But no one can connect Apocrypha to Judgment. And so I'll be able to be by your side without endangering anyone I care for."

"Aiko…"

"It hurt me, brother." She interrupts him before he can get anywhere. "Our argument. The separation. You were the closest person to me back then. All for One might have been my sperm donor, but it was you who was always there for me. Who helped me figure out my quirk. Who played with me when my intelligence songs scared off all the kids in my class. Now that you showed up in my life again, did you really think that I'd just let you go?"

She is right. He just… He honestly didn't expect her to still think of him as her brother. Not after what happened. Not after the words that were thrown around. Deep inside, he is still looking down on himself.

"I'm… I'm honored." He replies. "I really thought that…" She silences him with a swipe of her hand.

"Don't say those words." She says, at least slightly angered. She always reacted that way whenever he tried to say something even remotely self-depreciating. "Family stays together, no matter what."

"Someone should have told that to Hana." He replies. Aiko gives him a suddenly tired stare. But she doesn't elaborate. "I'm currently building up the new League of Villains, do you plan to join it or…"

Considering her strength, he isn't comfortable with ordering her around. Hypothermia is incredibly powerful, Judgment/Apocrypha though… There are some tricks to her quirk, but for as long as her opponent didn't figure those out, she could battle All for One and All Might like an equal.

Managing her was going to be the real problem here. She probably had at least one or two personal goals in this whole affair, and he was yet to discern them.

"Let's consider the Ascending Path to be a satellite organization… on probation, so to say. And under different rules." Of course she realized what his plan was about. At least the early stage of it. "Keep it a secret for now. Treat me as an organization head. You'll also get both Ragdoll and Tokoyami by extension."

Oh. Oh dear, so that's how she's going to play it. First a refusal to shake him up, then an offer to give him everything he wants - in exchange for everything she wants. Smart Aiko, smart.

"What happened to the 'I won't let you borrow my High Templar'" part?" He decides to ask. Aiko smirks a bit.

"I'm not going to let you borrow him, of course." She replies, the smirk growing wider. "But since he's working for me, and I'm going to be working for you, it'll be well within your prerogatives to make him operate as a part of the League of Villains. Am I right?"

Izuku chuckles at that. It does make perfect sense. She got him good.

"I guess there is no point in trying to fight you here." Midoriya admits. "And… sorry for what happened back then. I…"

"A lot of stress, you being sliiightly overprotective of Eri, I get it." She sighs. "I've been running a religion for years now, and my understanding of human nature has improved by a lot. I'm a qualified, if a bit inexperienced, psychologist now. Can you believe it?"

"Those online courses are getting weirder by the day, I swear." Midoriya replies. Then they both laugh. "We're going to have to spend a while catching up, in the meantime…"

"I know, I know." She scratches the side of her head. "Tokoyami and Ragdoll are in one of our secret facilities. Give me a moment and I'll send you the coordinates for Cloud to pick them up. I'll tell them not to freak out when they see a Kurogiri-like warpgate opening up, but you're going to have to explain the rest to them on your own. As for myself… "

She sighs. Midoriya gives her a questioning stare.

"I have things to do." She replies. "As a head of the Ascending Path. Focus on establishing the League of Villains. I'll drop by for some long and teary family reunion once you move over to trying to return the satellites back into the fold."

And boy if it's going to be clusterfuck. Meta-Liberation Army, Quirkless Liberation Front and the Creature Rejection Clan were shadows of their former selves. The Inhuman Supremacy Party was dead and gone.

One thing at a time, Izuku.

"Looking forward to that, Aiko." He replies. He got more than he planned to from that talk.

Almost three hours later, the phone on Midoriya's desk rings. It's Cloud. The guests are downstairs. He tells her to send them up and prepares mentally for the talk. It's… it's probably going to be an adventure.

They changed a lot, Midoriya realized immediately. Or, to be honest, they changed less than he expected. And that alone told him more than he had to know.

Ragdoll, for example, hasn't aged a day since her death during the Kamino Ward disaster.

She was wearing a slightly loose-fitting spaghetti-strap sundress that ended right above her knees. The dress was in navy blue color, a small shootout to the Ascending Path's robes, most likely.

The emerald green hair and big, round yellow eyes remained the same. Although the smile that he associated her with felt much more reserved than he remembered from the Training Camp.

Tokoyami, unlike her, did age a bit. Less than Midoriya expected, but it was also understandable. The pitch-black aesthetic didn't change at all, nor did the familiar bird head - some things stay the same even when you stop being human.

"It's been a while." Midoriya says while standing from behind the desk. "Tokoyami, Ragdoll." He bows his head a bit.

"Midoriya." Tokoyami replies first. His voice is alien, as if Fumikage Tokoyami and Dark Shadow were speaking in unison. "We're pleased to see you in good health after all those years."

Ragdoll is giving him an inquisitive stare in the meantime. Aiko probably didn't elaborate on what he wanted them for. She was like that sometimes. Then again, if he knew her, she probably wanted to know how he was going to introduce them to the cause.

Midoriya was… curious. Fascinated. His interest in quirks was still there, even after all those years. He was just standing in front of two sapient quirks, both carrying their past selves' memories and personality, yet requiring no physical body to manifest themselves.

Aiko's quirk, once she trained it enough, opened up some… incredible options. Some could even say 'divine'.

But it wasn't the time for it.

"Likewise, Tokoyami." Midoriya replies. "We haven't seen each other since the Training Camp Massacre, but I did keep tabs on my former classmates. One of the few that lasted until the third year… I must say that I didn't expect you to switch to the Path afterwards."

Tokoyami raised his (their?) hand. In a heartbeat it transformed into Dark Shadow's claws.

"The Path had… interesting theological arguments." They (Midoriya decided to use that pronoun until he figures out a better option) announce. "And unlike most, it didn't care about our looks or the peculiarities of our quirk. What about you? We haven't heard of you for years." His claws morph back into a hand.

Ah, yes. The hardest question.

"I… joined the Paranormal Liberation Front." He announces. Ragdoll seems to be the only one who clearly dislikes that fact. But she doesn't speak.

"We aren't surprised." Tokoyami admits. "Not after Kamino. The road we took was different, but we have enough blood on our claws for any complaints from our side to be hypocrisy. What about you?" He looks at his companion.

"I hate it." Ragdoll replies. "I lost too much to the PLF to be cool with that. Even if I can't exactly blame you for defecting." She sighs. "What they've done to you after Kamino was a disgrace."

"Yes, that it was." Midoriya agrees. Almost ten years, and that particular wound still hurts."You might change your mind about this… initiative once you hear what it is about."

"Really?" Ragdoll's brow raises. "Try me." She really changed after All for One killed her, didn't she?

"After the war ended, I decided to change my line of work. From political terrorism to… I guess you could say 'privatized branch of the underground heroics'." Midoriya says. The stare he gets is rather hostile. Does she think he was mocking the underground heroes now? "I've been helping people on the government's shitlist. The quirkless, the complex mutants, the villainous quirk bearers, potential Paragon' candidates, this sort of thing. Support, false quirk registration, evacuation overseas, etcetera."

"Oh." Ragdoll clearly didn't expect that. "Well… that does sound more like the hero trainee I knew back then. Though I have a strange feeling that a lot of people died in the process." Maybe a few dozen over the years. You can't kill hundreds and hope to remain undetected, after all.

"I mean, can you blame me?" Midoriya shoots back. Tokoyami appears faintly amused, but doesn't elaborate. "I didn't picture you as a fan of what heroics have become nowadays."

After a three seconds of emotionless stare, Ragdoll sighs painfully.

"You do have a point in that." She admits. "I still dislike killing. Call it my old rescue hero instincts still being there, but I just… deaths are nasty. I know that from an autopsy, so to speak."

Midoriya has no idea if he is supposed to laugh at that or not. It's incredibly confusing to him.

"So why did you ask Judgment for us?" She decides to continue the talk. Midoriya still doesn't know if it was a joke or not. "You need help in your business?" She looks faintly interested in that. Tokoyami looks that way as well.

"There have been some… setbacks." Midoriya replies. "HPSC kidnapped sixteen kids for the Paragon Program. Including my adoptive daughter." Ragdoll opens her mouth, but he doesn't let her utter whatever words she had on her mind. "I'm going to get her back. Get them all back. And, while at it, overthrow the government that's permitting the Program to exist."

"Second Paranormal Liberation War?" Tokoyami asks. Midoriya nods. The smile that blooms on Fumikage's face is very Dark Shadow-like. And rather bloodthirsty. "What a mad banquet of darkness, Midoriya. I think that we're interested in partaking in it."

Oh, yeah. Aiko mentioned that they enjoyed fighting strong opponents. Especially to death. That sounded very in-character for the new Fumikage Tokoyami. Or Blackwing, as their unofficial villain name was.

Was it Dark Shadow's trait? It was always rather bloodthirsty, especially in the dark. How much Dark Shadow and how much of Fumikage Tokoyami was in Blackwing? Midoriya found himself growing more and more fascinated.

"I have some really mixed feelings about it." Ragdoll admits after a few seconds of thinking it over. "But I guess I'm pissed off enough over what the country has turned into nowadays… the same country that my best friends died for. Don't expect me to kill people left and right." She sighs. "Leave that to Tokoyami, he's an expert."

Blackwing grins widely. One thing that Midoriya never expected to see on Tokoyami's face. It's way too wide, as if they forgot to keep the human pretense for a moment.

"Well, then." Midoriya smiles. "Welcome to the new League of Villains." Three members of the Cursed Class in, four more to go.

(***)

... first classmate is here. The religious zealot of questionable degree of humanity. Do you think that I'm going to elaborate on Aiko's quirk? Oh, please. We don't do that here. You're going to have to wait for TTB's eventual reveal to discover the full truth. In the meantime, you only have some additional (if rather shocking) tidbits of knowledge about her quirk.

Somehow reading this chapter is giving me some very odd feelings when you read it after the recent chapters of Ties that Bind. Where Aiko's religion is played for the laughs. Ehhh.

Next 1-A recruit: The war criminal. Who might that be, I wonder?