I now realize that I've forgotten to update this. Enjoy.
It was one thing to pass out because you were bleeding internally in about twenty different places at once due to Ass Might punching you with the same force he would use to annihilate a small building. Repeatedly. After all, Midoriya had been expecting the blessed relief of sleep, or perhaps a nightmare featuring his latest trauma-inducing memory. It would have been amazing to get his brain to switch off for a couple of hours considering how it refused to shut up every second of the day. Of course, he couldn't be that lucky. It was another (extremely odd and awkward) thing to get dragged into your own mindscape against your will and get smothered with concern and affection by a mental remnant of a previous One for All user. He tried not to get too irritated at Shimura-san even as she fussed over him despite not being able to do anything for his wounds, especially considering the fact that she was also muttering about how she wanted to flay her student alive while trapping him in a hug. It was more than a little amusing to listen to the normally calm and smiling woman talk about things that he would rather keep to himself in fear of getting thrown into a mental asylum. After repeatedly assuring her that he was fine, Midoriya had to repress the urge to spontaneously combust when she gave him a lap pillow. Even considering the fact that she was technically dead was almost not enough to stop the repressed hormonal side of him that was very, very uncomfortable being so close to a beautiful woman. One would think that being around Mei for so long would have made him immune to such things. Then again, one would think that years of being Quirkless and constantly beaten up by the world would have turned him into a doormat.
Not wanting to waste any time, especially since he was unable to rest his mind anymore, he decided to talk over the potential new powers he might get due to One for All "synchronising" with his body. It was obvious that one would be Shimura-san's own ability (Float, a power that sounded like a weaker version of Uraraka's Zero Gravity, but considering One for All would probably supercharge it, it would be equivalent to being able to fly with little to no repercussions). He had already acquired Black Whip, and judging from how quickly he had managed to wrangle it under control due to its receptiveness to his emotions, it would be a powerful tool as he continued to get used to his gifted power. The first user of One for All was the reason it had been created in the first place, and the rest were unknown. He had yet to even see them. Still, he questioned Shimura-san about the user before her. For some reason, she was hesitant to talk about him, and internally, Midoriya wondered if the relationships between One for All users were never as good as the one that Shimura-san and Yagi Toshinori had. If that was the case, it was probably for the best. Considering how One for All was an ability practically designed to be passed down before the previous user could die, getting attached would just be equivalent to finding a new family member only to watch them die. Still, he at least got the Quirk of the sixth user (Transmogrify, the ability to modify non-organic objects in a certain radius of the user. Suggested uses: turning the playing field into a trap-ridden battlefield). He was unsure of what order the abilities of the users would turn up in, or if he would ever survive long enough to unlock the true potential of the Quirk. Still, he tried not to dwell on those thoughts. Almost conveniently, the mindscape began falling apart a couple of minutes after their talk ended, and he bid farewell to the kindly woman. On the bright side, he hadn't been forced to kill himself in order to leave like the first time. On the downside, Aizawa-sensei and Shuzenji-san were probably going to kill him as soon as he woke up. Midoriya sighed, flashing a nonchalant salute before his body could finish dematerializing. It was time to rejoin the world of the living.
He woke up in a bed that was quickly becoming familiar to him, but much to his surprise, the room was...packed. Mei was by his side again, fingers interlaced with his, and as welcome as it was to see her again, he felt a pang of guilt for making her worry so much. Brushing a hand through her hair, he looked around and blinked rapidly at the other people he could see. Todoroki was leaning against the side of his bed, an arm slung haphazardly over his own body, almost like he was attempting to protect the green-haired teenager even while he was dozing. Yaoyorozu and Jirou were supporting each other near his legs, a book still propped open on the former's lap while the latter had one of her earjacks plugged into a phone. Shuzenji-san was busy typing away at a keyboard, back to the group of sleeping students. He smirked slightly and used the Eagle Eyes to snap a couple of photos of his three teachers in a dogpile, Aizawa-sensei was cacooned in his sleeping bag, Yamada-sensei's hair was down but he was still in his hero costume, and Kayama-sensei was amusingly undignified. Chuckling softly, the teenager gently slipped out from under Todoroki's arm before extricating his hand from Mei's grasp. Making sure to avoid the other slumbering bodies, he got out of bed and fought down a brief flicker of pain at recently healed ribs acting up. Covering his mouth with his mask in order to smother a yawn, Midoriya traced a precarious path around his friends(?) and reached over to tap Recover Girl on the shoulder. Impressively, she didn't shriek or startle as badly as he expected, moving with a speed that reminded him of Gran Torino to clock him across the head with her syringe-cane. Well, at least try to do so. He managed to move his arm to block the improvised weapon, and the elderly lady relaxed almost immediately. Eyes darting from person to person, she leaned forward to cuff him over the head almost affectionately, and he whispered for her to tell them that he needed to do something. She nodded, and just as he was turning to leave the room, he paused. An idea crossed his mind and he snickered slightly as he pulled a pack of sticky notes and a marker pen from his (once again) ruined costume.
When the seven sleeping individuals finally woke up due to an obnoxiously loud air horn, they would unanimously agree to not speak of the rather embarrassing states that they had been left in, and to get back at the infuriating member of class 1-A who had slipped out like a ghost while still finding the opportunity to play a prank on them. Of course, they pointedly avoided the fact that Recovery Girl had participated, for no one wanted to incur the wrath of the school nurse.
While Aizawa-sensei was being all logical and cryptic about whether or not he passed the shitshow that was the final examination, Yamada-sensei and Kayama-sensei accidentally spilled the beans during his whole lecture in the group chat on how teachers and students needed to maintain a professional relationship by spamming Iida-san in order to invite him to "celebrate our green bean beating the shit out of the Number One Hero", which had been more amusing than it should have been(the next day saw a particularly crabby homeless mothman knockoff and his friends treating him like he was a bomb waiting to go off). Mei had gifted him with the device she had been working on(the secret project) when he had visited her a second time, and through the combined peer pressure of her father and aunt, Midoriya was forced into staying over. He had been contemplating escape via one of the open windows before Mei had turned her annoyingly effective puppy eyes on him and he relented. The ragtag family had smothered him with affection after he had accidentally let slip that he hadn't seen his mother in close to a month, and it had been a pretty peaceful day afterwards, ending with the four of them squeezed onto a couch, watching old movies from the Pre-Quirk Era. While he wouldn't admit it(although he had a sneaking suspicion Mei understood what he was getting at), he was using the various movies to come up with better ideas for gadgets and techniques, while subtly fiddling with Mei's latest baby. It was a multi-purpose piece of armour that stretched from his shoulder to upper arm, with an additional plate that would slide out in case he required something to protect his forearm, but would probably be retracted considering his forearms were more often than not bound with the bandages he used like Aizawa-sensei's capture weapon. Several other panels contained things that he would need in battle, including additional clips for his guns, a couple of syringes (including adrenaline which was probably illegal and a modified version of Trigger that was definitely illegal), a spare combat knife and batteries. It was designed to fit in with his hero suit, but still looked like it was part of a long sleeve in case he was (definitely) going to wear it around like his more subtle gear.
It turned out that the Hatsume's were all part of his illegal activities in one way or another, and he left the next day freshly rested, with new ideas in his head, new weapons in his pockets and the knowledge that he would always have a place with the family. A quick stop to get the mail from his house(and to trash the mail addressed to his mother) revealed that he had been invited to the I-Island Expo ahead of time, which was affirmed a couple hours later as he was pinning a serial killer to a wall with a metal pipe by a text from Yagi Toshinori that he was getting an invite from the Number One Hero as well because he was the ninth inheritor of One for All. Mulling over it briefly, he managed to subtly pressure All Might into turning his invite into one for Mei before accepting the one sent to him as the winner of the Sports Festival. He fought back a smile when he delivered the message to his partner via text and immediately got keysmashes in return before returning to his unofficial job as Cheshire. Normally he wouldn't be out and about until late at night, where only the underground heroes patrolled while their daylight counterparts called it a day and started making plans for how to gain more popularity tomorrow. However, with his hectic lifestyle as part of the "cursed class" of UA and his more...illegal activities, he had developed an unhealthy liking for the adrenaline rush that came with a good fight. He spent so much time just trying to fine tune the plan he had been constructing, ensuring that his lies didn't fall over each other and switching masks according to the different people he was around that sometimes he stared in the mirror and didn't recognize the person looking back. It should terrify him. But he just felt empty. Basic emotions were hard to come by except around Mei and her family, and even then he had to make an effort to take a mental step back, give control of his thought processes back to the last bit of humanity inside of the deep recesses of his head and smile. Almost absentmindedly, Midoriya wondered if he was any different from the scum he hunted down. From Shigaraki Tomura and Kurogiri, from the League of Villains who had been willing to tear children apart just for a chance to kill the Symbol of Peace himself. Diving into the underworld meant understanding that this society wasn't split cleanly into black and white, good and evil. Everyone, from the pickpocket he helped escape from Endeavour to the middle-aged businessman he basically beat to death in an alleyway, had motivations. Dreams and hopes and things they would live and die for. Yet, they all fit within the machine he was trying his best to destroy. What did that make him?
In a dystopian society, his various faces would be hailed as heroes, beacons of hope for those that fought against their evil overlords. But as much as he hated the world that he lived in, this place couldn't be called dystopian in any way, shape or form. In that case, he would be considered a terrorist(and he guessed that at least half the police force thought of him as such), a rule breaker, someone who destroyed simply because they could not fit in. Worldbreaker. He smiled to himself. A fitting name.
Bouncing off two walls facing each other, he quickly made his way to one of the other shrines he had found, checking for any drop offs. When none were found, he marked it both on his HUD and with the spray he had built into one of the SnapDragons in the event that he forgot and to confirm with any members of his network that he had picked up anything that had been left even though nothing was. Catching a familiar flaming bastard out of the corner of his eye, he looked for the nearest water source (a fire hydrant) and rigged it with a proximity mine. Leading the Number Two Hero to the site was almost pathetically easy minus the occasional burst of fire that made him repress memories of a cone of incoming death and the desperation he felt when he realized there were other people going to be caught by the blast. Laughing as loudly as he dared without falling off the lamppost he was perched on, he made sure to send Shouto a couple of photos before turning into a back alley and cloaking just to be safe. Walking at a more sedate pace just so that he could listen to the angered cries of someone that he would kill if he wasn't a good hero(but the furthest thing from a good person), Midoriya only managed to get a block or two away before something small and white collided with him and bounced off with an oof. Blinking in surprise, his eyes widened at the small child rubbing her forehead before hurriedly decloaking and removing his mask. Crouching down to her eye level, Midoriya murmured an apology, glancing around discreetly for any caretaker even as he took in the general condition of the horned kid. Bandages around arms, definitely not fifty percent aesthetic like his were, wearing something disturbingly similar to a medical gown and eyes wide with panic and fear. His lips twisted briefly into a frown before smoothing into a straight line in order to not freak out the small child. He contacted Mei and the group chat of heroes, sending a location pin and a request for back-up just as footsteps began to enter the range of his hearing. Glancing up, he activated the identification feature of the Eagle Eyes and felt the cold anger in his stomach start to heat up.
Chisaki Kai, known in the underworld community as the leader of the Eight Precepts of Death. Dubbed himself Overhaul after his own Quirk, the ability to deconstruct and reconstruct anything he touched. A versatile Quirk, one that would be incredibly suited for saving lives, or just any scenario with the right amount of imagination. Yet, he had dirtied his hands with the manufacturing and selling of drugs such as Trigger, and if his sources were correct, he was working on an experimental Quirk-cancelling one that would work similar to Quirk suppressants. Why he wanted to create a knock-off of Quirk suppressants was hypothetical at best, but Midoriya had learned to trust his hunches. The clean freak with disdain for Quirks frequently preached about how the world was better off without them. Past Midoriya would have found this fascinating. Present Midoriya still did, but it was tinged with disgust considering how he was so feared due to the powerful ability he possessed. A hypocrite. One that was apparently fine with experimenting on children. Pretending to listen attentively to Overhaul's spiel about how he was thankful for someone finding his runaway daughter, Midoriya slowly wrapped an arm around the trembling child while the other one pulled five of the concussion grenades he held. There was no kill like overkill. And when facing someone who could probably reduce him to dust in an instance, he wouldn't have held back even if he had been in front of someone else he knew. Leaning down, he whispered for Eri to hold on even as he pulled the pins.
Showtime.
His mask hissed and unfolded back into the facade of Cheshire, a face that was clearly familiar to Overhaul judging from how his eyes widened. Or maybe it was because of the grenades bouncing off the walls and rolling across the floor. The first one detonated with a flash of bright light and a sound like thunder, causing the older man to reflexively close his eyes and clasp his hands over his ears. Good. Still, that was only the first one. Sight removed. Quirk removed. Four more, would detonate and leave his ears ringing and destabilize him. Throw knives, take out movement. Draw railgun, highest setting. Three shots. Both kneecaps and through the neck. If he was lucky, the spine would be severed. If not, he has bought time. Escape or fight? He shakes his head as Eri screams with the cacophony of noise. He needed to get her out first. Switch spray to alcohol. Douse. Incendiary grenade. He'll be lucky to survive. Run. Eraserhead arrives in five, Mei has not yet picked up. Send second message to ensure that they are careful and notify police. Get as far away as possible. Move. Now. Do not use Quirk to prevent usage laws from applying. Proximity mine on way out. Check cameras while running, locate Endeavour. Close enough, appears to still be chasing in retaliation for earlier. Slap a noisemaker down to attract attention. Ignore screams. Eri is top priority.
He forcefully kicks the rest of his brain back into gear as his mask disengages once more. Slipping into the crowd, he shadows a group of teenagers while whispering words of comfort to his newly acquired child. Her eyes are dazed, probably a result of being in close proximity to far too many lights and sounds at once. Even with the help of his equipment, his eyes water and burn as he attempts to blink away the glare. He has a sneaking suspicion his eardrums have been damaged. Irrelevant for now, cause he still needs to put as much distance between himself and the knock-off plague doctor as he possibly could. He hasn't had to abuse the Eagle Eyes this much since the fiasco that was the UA Sports Festival, and his head pounds with each step he takes. Still, Midoriya grits his teeth and continues moving. His mask is much less intimidating when it's only concealing the lower half of his face, but he still tries to keep his head down so that he doesn't draw too many looks from the people walking along the same path as he was. God(s) know(s) that he was getting enough questioning stares just because he was carrying a child that looked like she had been through the ringer. Eri was awfully quiet, but that was understandable considering that she had just been rescued from her tormentor with an absurd number of grenades. Silently messaging the group chat once more to confirm that he was safe and out of trouble(also to give a new location for them to meet up), he managed to take the two of them a decent distance before the ground began to rumble. Casually glancing back even as he picked up speed, Midoriya's eyes widened in both intrigue and a slight bit of awe when giant spikes shot into the sky. As he continued to watch, an equally large burst of flames appeared like a flare (if it had been magnified by maybe a thousand times) disintegrated the growths. He smiled slightly at the fact that his plan was working, but something in his gut churned unpleasantly at the thought of the number of people that might have been caught up in the range of the villain and hero.
It took about five more minutes for a car to come screeching to a halt on the road next to where he was walking, and by then he had somehow managed to turn Eri's panicked state into something relatively calm. Eyeing the horn on her head that had been starting to spark when she had briefly dissolved into hysterics and the unpleasant ideas formulating in his mind, he pulled down his mask in order to properly greet his concerned teachers. Even as he was reporting the incident to them(excluding the things he had done to Overhaul to escape), Midoriya was keeping an eye on the fight with any security cameras that had somehow managed to survive the changing terrain and the onslaught of hellfire. With Endeavour being a relatively long ranged fighter, Overhaul was hard pressed to keep up even with his ability to regenerate and manipulate the battlefield to his advantage. Any of the more close ranged heroes would be at risk of a single lucky tap reducing them to atoms. Still, he doubted that the villain was in the right state of mind to actually think of such a strategy. He had his sight and hearing taken away, followed by a couple of high-powered metal bars to the knee caps and neck, with a taste of how it was like to get set on fire to top it all off. Considering the man still had gloves on because Midoriya hadn't let him finish with his pathetically easy to see through speech about how Eri was being a rebellious child, the man would have had to deconstruct and reconstruct himself after fighting through the pain and taking off at least one glove. So that was...perhaps ten seconds of burning alive? Then there was the proximity mine and Endeavour. One does not simply recover from fire related trauma when the (probably)most powerful fire user was hot on your heels. Still, the pit in his stomach widened when he caught sight of all the destruction around the two, with civilians running away before they could get incinerated or impaled. Sighing, he whispered several apologies to Eri and a promise to come back soon before handing her over to Aizawa-sensei. The big softy would take care of her. Bidding farewell before they could ask anything more, he fired up enough of One for All to run back to the scene of the fight without showing that he was using a Quirk.
His mask unfolded once more into the visage of his darker alter ego and before he reentered the fight, Midoriya did a quick check of the equipment he still retained. Most of his less destructive grenades had been spent on escaping, those left included three incendiary grenades, a single concussion grenade and two proximity mines. His railguns were adequately loaded, and both his Quirks thrummed beneath his flesh in anticipation. Weighing the pros and cons of showing up as Cheshire to a fight he had just left, he decided that it was best to not interfere. Not unless it was absolutely necessary. Cloaking just so that neither party would see him, Midoriya bounced around the carnage, searching for anyone trapped by rubble. With each person he managed to rescue, the knot in his stomach loosened just a little more even though bile burned the back of his throat. He did this to them in the first place. It was after his third loop of the ever-expanding area of destruction that he chanced upon the first corpse. Almost hidden underneath a collapsed wall was a slack hand. Ignoring the way his bones screamed in protest, he fired up One for All and threw off the rubble to find a woman in her twenties, mouth still frozen in a scream. Her lower body looked oddly flat, and with the cover gone, the spreading bloodstain surrounding her body was much more obvious. Reaching forward with a trembling hand, he felt for a pulse despite the logical side of him knowing that he would never find one. This was his fault. Staggering to his feet, like a giant weight had been placed onto his shoulders, the green-haired teenager turned back to the villain and hero as their attacks grew even larger. His instincts told him that this wasn't going to finish any time soon. He gazed around at the wreckage, eyes involuntarily zooming in on traces of blood and civilians barely scrambling out of the way of the next wall of fire or barrage of spikes. And, for the first time in a while, another part of him snapped.
The teenager's hands slowly stilled, and if someone could peer underneath his mask, they would notice the way his eyes had turned a sickly gold. His mind was completely blank, minus the single objective he had decided to give himself. He had caused all of this by running away. By clinging to the last bit of his morality, unwilling to cross the line even after all the things he had done. All the lives he had ruined. His entire quest was simply one of revenge, driven by fury and spite and yet he still refused to treat villains the same way they had treated them. Like how Shigaraki had been willing to kill Tsu just because he wanted to leave a message for the Number One Hero. His hands were already stained.
"No more." he whispered to himself. There was no reason for him to hold back.
Objective: Destroy Chisaki Kai
Aizawa Shouta watched the shaky footage with rapt attention, and for once, his friends were silent. The girl on his lap was still muttering to herself, trembling like a leaf and softly calling out for her saviour. The fight between Overhaul and Endeavour had lasted fifteen minutes before a hooded figure appeared, with a mask born from the imagination of someone who saw the world in nightmares. He struggled to believe that Midoriya was the same person as this masked monster. Still, everything added up. The recent appearance of a vigilante that toed the line between villainy and misguided heroics, one who shielded their face with an awfully technologically advanced mask, one that looked remarkably similar to that of a certain Problem Child's. They even shared the same strategies. Stealth-based takedowns, involving moving around so quickly that your opponent was unable to react. As new as "Cheshire" was, the underground had already developed a healthy respect(read:fear) of the ghost, who was rumoured to hunt down anyone who dared commit crimes in their territory, no matter the time of day and no matter the place. One of his contacts had described Cheshire as "the freaky brat with a thousand eyes and ears", revealing that they had constructed a network of informers who frequently reported back to him. The common consensus was that the new vigilante was some sort of eldritch being who had no need for sleep and no fear of the government. They were the person to turn to if you needed help and couldn't get it from the proper sources, but didn't want to plunge your hands into muck by dealing with criminals. With a cold feeling of realization, he was already beginning to note the vast number of similarities between Midoriya "Demon" Izuku and his apparent alter ego.
His jaw clenched when the Problem Child stopped searching for people, getting to his feet like a reflection of the way he had lifted himself up during the Sports Festival. His gloved hands were stained with blood. Black tendrils shifted and curled around his appendages, forming some sort of makeshift armour as he turned, locking onto the amalgamation that Overhaul had become. His posture was loose, almost relaxed, but that didn't fool the teacher. He had seen the way Midoriya had acted when he had called him out on a Quirk he had just begun to start using. The distorted smile despite how non-confrontational his body language was, a smile that caused Aizawa's honed instincts to scream in warning. The kid he had come to see as family relied so much on lies and deception that sometimes he wanted to shake him by the shoulders and demand the names of everyone who had ever hurt him. The cameraperson had zoomed in on him, so small and insignificant in comparison to the two titans that were clashing, and yet just as dangerous as them. The camera picked up a slight shifting of Midoriya's feet before he vanished from view. The camera swung around, frantically searching for the boy before a cry of terror caused it to turn towards the many-limbed beast. And there he was.
Midoriya had buried a knife into one of the many arms, and as the person continued to livestream the fight, he dodged and weaved like a dancer, sinking more knives into each appendage as the monster tried to swat him out of the air like a bug. When the final limb had a knife buried in it, he kicked off an arm as thick as a tree trunk, a tendril extending from his outstretched hand to anchor into a nearby wall and reel him away from the danger. Then came the explosions. Each knife practically disintegrated in a flash of light, one that bore an eerie resemblance to what occurred when thermite was activated. As gruesome as the whole thing was, Aizawa couldn't help but marvel at the efficiency. Overhaul's Quirk relied on his arms, more specifically his hands. Remove them and the man would be Quirkless. Grotesque limbs flopped to the ground, holes blown in them, some even looking like they had begun to melt. Even as the monstrosity shrieked in agony and probably anger, Midoriya reappeared above his head, akin to a falling star. In his hands was a long piece of rebar, jagged and warped like it had been torn from its source with his bare hands. Aizawa cursed slightly, praying that he wasn't about to cross the line of no return.
It was with no small sense of relief that he slumped back into his chair as the makeshift spear was used to pin the abomination to the ground through the chest rather than the head. Not pausing for a moment, he vanished once more, and the camera caught a fleeting glimpse of the teenager disappearing over a rooftop before returning to the villain squirming like a moth pinned to a wall by a pin. Aizawa sighed, rubbing the bridge of his nose even as he exited the livestream. The hero in him wanted to find the Problem Child, arrest him for vigilantism and whatever other crimes he had committed as Cheshire. The teacher in him was already formulating plans on how to channel that lethal efficiency into something more productive. Looking at his two friends, he saw his conflicting thoughts mirrored on their faces. Taking a deep breath, he slipped his phone back into his pocket.
"If anyone asks, the Problem Child was with us the whole time." Hizashi and Nemuri shared a look of surprise, but nodded almost immediately. He turned his attention back to the road, stepping on the gas pedal.
Still, he would have words with his student. In all his years of teaching, he had not seen someone brimming with so much potential. He might not be the next Symbol of Peace, but he would make an excellent hero, one that inspired fear in his enemies, someone who you could trust to have your back.
Or a villain on par with the one that All Might had supposedly defeated about half a decade ago. Rather than hold fear through influence and Quirks, however, he would be described as "Big Brother". An all seeing god that could see all, hear all, and most importantly, know all. Aizawa sometimes wondered what would happen if his class took things one step too far, if Midoriya was finally pushed over the edge.
He tried not to think about it too much.
Midoriya whistled to himself, kicking his legs back and forth even as Mei darted from place to place. All the while, All Might watched the two of them with a strained smile. It had taken several hours of continuous texting and him turning up to the "secret" house of the Number One Hero to extract a compromise from the stubborn man. One would think that the Symbol of Peace would have a larger support network than the police officer in his pocket, a retired Pro-Hero, another known for being the most hypocritical asshole in existence and probably the staff of UA. He could understand hiding the secret of a scrawny form developed from a life-threatening injury, Still, had he not considered what would happen if the buff titan of a man just...deflated in the middle of a fight? Wouldn't it be simpler to let the world down slowly? The idea of a single pillar holding up an entire world was bad in general(and you didn't need to be good with politics, just structural soundness). Midoriya added that thought to his mental journal of "why the world needs change", and absentmindedly, he wondered whether he would ever make a significant difference in society.
The aftermath of the Overhaul versus Endeavour fight was grisly. Couple millions in property damage. About two and a half blocks destroyed. Two deaths, eleven in critical condition and another thirty four injured. Hundreds, perhaps even thousands of lives changed forever. Aizawa-sensei had immediately arranged a meeting afterwards, one that had been delayed briefly by Eri's situation. She was currently living with his hobo of a homeroom teacher, and after seeing the state of his apartment, Midoriya had taken it upon himself to...procure a proper place for them to stay. And upon seeing that Kayama-sensei and Yamada-sensei had basically moved into his homeroom teacher's apartment(which explained how filthy it was), he had ensured that the apartment was big enough for seven. They didn't need to know that it was originally the base for a cell of people surveilling the surrounding area (and people themselves), people belonging to an organization that he still didn't have the name of. He was guessing it was either the Public Safety Commission or some villain group that wasn't in the limelight. Still, he hadn't felt guilty when he had thrown two out a window and pinned the third to a wall with a knife. The cops had gotten them, and then he had ownership of a relatively big apartment with plenty of equipment he could take apart, reuse and just give to Mei for her next brainchild. He and his three teachers had conducted a very awkward talk that had somehow gone from his identity as Cheshire to the state of his mental health. Not exactly the most comfortable topic, especially when he was still trying to adjust to his new normal, trying to figure out what the new shards had come from and whether he needed to attempt to put them back together. They had agreed that Cheshire would continue to operate, minus all the maiming and near-killing he had done. Just to give his teachers peace of mind, the teenager had agreed to their terms.
Of course, there were plenty of loopholes to abuse. As healthy of a respect Aizawa-sensei had for him, there were plenty of things the shrewd teacher still didn't know about his student. There was a reason Nedzu hadn't found a way to incriminate him at the beginning of the year. Rather than attack his targets in person, he began to build and use an assortment of traps. And old fashioned blackmail never ceased to get him what he wanted. Once upon a time, his worst habit was rambling. Mumbling. The information in his head spilled out his mouth, for all to hear. Perhaps, if people had paid more attention to the Quirkless child's "inane ramblings", they would have caught snatches of knowledge that shouldn't have originated from a kid's mind. Over the years, he had simply gone silent, but his head was still as loud as ever. Disgustingly loud. It was the main reason he couldn't handle the silence of the night, when he was alone. The only way to drown out sound was with more sound, after all. He was a person running from their problems, and the day he stopped running was the day he stopped living. And in his silence, he noticed things. Ticks, gossip, things that other people told their friends, glorious information. When you were the quietest individual in the room, you understood plenty. The same rules applied to life. In his crusade, some would call him a villain. But he didn't deal with lives. Well, not directly at least. He dealt with information, information that allowed him to dismantle people, organisations before they could grow all from the comfort of a bed.
Overhaul would never recover from the things he had done to him. Aizawa-sensei had granted him the mercy of an erased Quirk just to make sure he wasn't stuck in that mutated form forever. The former leader of the Eight Precepts of Death had his Quirk factor located in his arms, and Midoriya had made sure that each and every limb was destroyed and the stump cauterized. It was expensive to replace all the makeshift breach charges that he had used in order to do so, but he couldn't find any form of regret inside his body. Minus the panic he felt when he realized that Mei was going to experiment on him forever due to the way he had thrown himself back into the limelight. Cheshire had gone from the one whispered about in the underground to the one guy everyone was talking about, the cryptid who had shown up and rained swift justice on the villain. Of course, with how tightly kept of a secret his other identity was, even in the bowels of society, no one really knew who he was. Of course, that led to him getting the alias "Fallen Angel" by the media, something to do with his mask and the fact that he had switched from saving people to ending the fight. He didn't really care. On the bright side, Endeavour had gotten plenty of flak for not being able to defeat Overhaul. He found that particularly amusing.
He was brought back from his inner monologuing by the kickback one associated with an airplane taking off. Sucking in a sharp breath of air in order to replace the oxygen that had been stolen from his lungs, he waited patiently for the plane to even out before unbuckling his seatbelt. Mei was already tinkering with her next baby, a pair of goggles that weren't there before over her eyes. He made sure to keep an eye on her considering she had managed to coerce All Might into allowing her to bring on board her toolbox. He approved of course, there were plenty of things that could be used as improved weapons (and a few actual weapons) in the wondrous box of wonders. It would prove handy in case there was any scenario in which either of them were caught without weapons (unlikely, for he lived within a trap-ridden safehouse and he made sure that Mei's house security was on-par with his own), but he was rather worried that she was going to use the plasma torch in a very fragile place. Small Might was already out of his hero form and sitting in his own private section of the jet. Originally, his "mentor" wanted the teenager to ditch Mei and sit with him, but Midoriya managed to spin things around to make it seem like the logical decision was for him to keep an eye on the one member of the plane who didn't know about Yagi Toshinori. He wisely kept his anger to himself, and also the fact that Mei had already been in on the whole secret since the beginning. Before he had closed the door to his mentor's own private portion of the jet, he had left a camera equipped with cloaking technology, constantly streaming to his left eye. So far, it appeared that the man was just taking a nap. Pulling one of his own contraptions from his pocket, he twirled the coin-like object between his fingers, only stopping when his partner asked him if he knew why his eyes had gold dust in them. Midoriya hesitated, slipping the not-coin back where it came from before replying that it probably had something to do with either the extensive use of the Eagle Eyes or his gifted Quirk. Mei hummed, hands stilling briefly as she set her project aside in order to get to her feet.
She leaned down to his eye level, cupping his face as the targeting reticle-like images on her eyes began increasing and decreasing in size and he could see the ideas surfacing in her head. He met Mei's gaze unflinchingly even when it started to feel like she was staring into his soul like he was an open book. Somehow, Izuku felt exposed, more exposed than he had felt in a long time. It was always Mei that managed to bring the more human side of him back to the surface. He was toying with the idea of snapping her out of her reverie when a small, genuine smile graced her face. He sensed that something wasn't quite right when that smile curved into a smirk, and in a surprising display of dexterity, she hopped onto his lap, still facing him as her thighs pressed into the side of his legs and he instinctively shifted so that she had enough space. His brain stuttered when he realized that Mei was practically straddling him. Izuku struggled to form words, while Mei just stayed silent, seemingly enjoying how flustered she was making him. Just as he was about to reboot his brain via a couple of hard smacks to the side of his skull, his pink-haired partner pressed her lips against his in a chaste kiss. The action was so sudden that the part of him struggling to crawl back into the driver's seat just tumbled back down to the depths of his head while screaming. For the next few seconds, he gave no physical reaction, Mei's smile dimmed slightly, and she was beginning to murmur an apology when he finally snapped himself out of his daze in order to kiss her. Unlike the first one, however, this one lasted much longer.
Distantly, Izuku noted that her lips tasted sweet, with a hint of the bitterness that came with repeated coffee drinking. That information was pushed to the back of his head in favour of just relishing the sensation. He once thought that the occasional romance novel he skimmed through, or the dramas that his mother used to watch heavily romanticize how kissing worked, but it appeared that he was wrong. When they separated, there was a heavy flush on Mei's cheeks, one that was probably mirrored on his. Huffing, she pouted and turned around, leaning against him. He laughed softly, pulling her into an embrace and tucking her head underneath his chin. She spluttered, but quickly recovered in order to poke fun at how quickly his mental state had been reduced to shambles earlier. He took no offence, knowing that she was doing it just to cover up for her own embarrassed state.
He didn't know what he would do without her.
Unsurprisingly, especially considering the fact that Mei had been working on his armplate for many sleepless nights, she fell asleep halfway through a conversation on the next neurological implant on their list. At this point, both of them could probably be considered cyborgs. His Eagle Eyes were the ones he used the most, but there were at least three other he was keeping for a rainy day. Mei had implanted something similar into her own eyes, but simpler and designed to be used in conjunction with her Quirk. He had a sneaking suspicion that she had at least one laser in her body somewhere. Sooner or later, they were probably going to upgrade to more major augmentations, but for now they had to make do with slight adjustments to their five senses. Anything more would be dangerous since they didn't have the right technological know-how. In any case, they would probably be able to get a sizable amount of data from their trip to I-Island, where the supposedly "greatest minds" in the world worked on their own private island in order to make sure that no one killed them or used them for villainy. He paused as Mei shifted in her sleep, and squeezed her hand lightly until her breathing evened out once more. Smiling softly, he leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes, rifling through his head for his next objective. Logically, he could use this "vacation" in order to pilfer some of the technology that was apparently so good it needed its own island with a security system rivalling that of Tartarus, the prison that totally didn't exist. Considering he had been able to break into the "impenetrable" fortress during his latest mental breakdown with the help of his new gear and escape with Stain, he would take whatever nonsense people spouted about I-Island being the safest place in the world with a grain of salt. Considering he managed to get one of the few people excellent at Quirkless combat out of a maximum security prison, he wouldn't be surprised if he was able to get next-gen technology from this maximum security island.
When the plane started its descent, he attempted to wake Mei up, only to falter when she swatted at his chest in her sleep, muttering about something he couldn't really catch and sighed. Knocking on the door separating Yagi Toshinori from them, he mentioned that his partner was asleep and he could come out. The door opened just a crack to reveal an electric blue eye and then fully opened to reveal the Number One Hero's skeletal form. He thanked Midoriya for taking the time to tell him and stepped past in order to get to the door. The green-haired teen plastered on a fake smile, inching behind the man in order to extend a hand and activate the magnet in his hand to grab the camera from its hiding spot and slipped it back into his pocket. Perks of having a network of people who were totally loyal to you was that there were a variety of useful Quirks at his fingertips. In exchange for an easy job with a high-paying salary, he had commissioned a set of clothes that morphed based on his own preferences. It meant that he could switch from sleepwear to combat gear in an instant, and included a near infinite number of pockets(he ignored the flush he felt creeping up his spine at the memory of fanboying over the versatile Quirk). Anything smaller than his wallet would meld into the pockets that he could generate and dismiss at will, and with some effort, he had managed to hide five multitools and a couple of grenades despite the fact that they shouldn't have fit. The woman who had helped him in the creation of his clothes suggested that it was probably the Quirk bending to his will or evolving because of how many things he had crammed into his pockets. He tried not to seem too flattered by the insinuation that his willpower was enough to make a Quirk that bent reality more powerful. When the door hissed open, he hung back in order to let Smiley Face do his job, waiting for the clamour to die down before he stepped out of the plane. The crowd had dissipated, but for some reason there was a blonde bouncing towards them on a pogo stick. He watched, half expecting her to disappear considering how often his mind conjured up hallucinations. His nerves were still frayed from the encounter from Overhaul and he wouldn't be surprised that his brain was playing tricks on himself. Still, he allowed himself a brief moment of surprise when her mode of transport morphed into a wristband and the blonde tackled All Might in a hug. He fought down the instinctive urge to curl his lips in disdain. The only people he knew shared the same hatred of the Number One Hero as he did were villains and Mei.
Making sure that Mei was safely secure on his back despite already knowing that she was awake(the pinkette was muttering about what she could do with compressing technology), he stepped out of the plane and glanced around, taking in the sights. All Might introduced him to the girl (Melissa Shield, daughter of David Shield, the man who had created his nigh impenetrable suit despite it being skintight), and he managed to offer her a semi-charming smile and shook her hand. Melissa started some small talk as they walked, which he answered to the best of his ability. Seeing the way her eyes flickered to the girl on his back and the gloves on his hands, he poked Mei's cheek to get her attention and introduced the two of them to each other. Soon enough, they were chattering about support items, terms that he understood and didn't understand getting tossed around with each sentence. Smiling to himself at the way the two of them had immediately bonded(and grateful that there was one more person who could keep up with his eccentric partner), he made sure to match Melissa's pace, leaving All Might in the dust. Soon enough, he managed to ask why such a brilliant individual wouldn't attempt to go into the hero industry, expecting something along the lines of her Quirk wasn't suited for heroism.
Which was why it felt like he had been slapped in the face when she revealed, with an awkward smile, that she was Quirkless. He tried his best not to react to the discovery of someone who might have experienced a fraction of what he had(unlikely, I-Island was focused on intellect rather than might), merely nodding along when she said that she had given up on being a hero, deciding that she would become someone who could support the heroes like her father. A good goal, and it indicated that she was willing to continue fighting despite her "disability". Still, her tone and the flickering of the light in her eyes indicated that as fine as she appeared to be with her decision. And, of course, the words she used. "Being more realistic." They triggered unpleasant memories of his first meeting with his idol. So, as All Might had a not-so-heartwarming reunion with David Shield, he glanced over to the smiling blonde and asked her if she really was happy with her decision. Melissa blinked, a strange grimace crossing her face before she reassured him that she was comfortable with her choice. He nodded, keeping quiet about the fact that neither of them believed the words coming out of her mouth.
She gave the two of them a tour of her lab, something that Mei was very happy about. Midoriya watched, more than a little amused at the way his partner was subtly prodding the blonde for information about I-Island's technology even as he infected the systems located in the room with the virus Mei had come up with all those months ago. It would take about an hour, but that was a remarkably short amount of time considering it would give him a backdoor into the security system of the entire facility, and unless they were actively looking for the virus, no one would be able to track it. His attention returned to the two girls when Melissa shyly asked for his arm. Confused, he extended it, watching with mild interest when she strapped a red wristband to it. Tapping it gave him a makeshift gauntlet that didn't interfere with his SnapDragon, vaguely resembling the reinforced bandages currently wrapped around his arms underneath his sleeves. She called it the Full Gauntlet, stating that it was able to tank three of All Might's full powered punches before being irreversibly destroyed. He blinked, impressed at the coincidence before asking why she had given it to him. Melissa smiled, indicating the faint scars on his fingers from the times he had been forced to use One for All at maximum output and mentioned that he had made a pretty big splash during the UA Sports Festival. Softly, she muttered about how it had reminded her of more hopeful times, but clammed up when he prodded her for more info. He could take a guess anyway. He had beaten everyone in the Sports Festival without a Quirk after all. He thanked her while retracting the Full Guantlet, making a mental note to give it to Mei after they got back to Japan and hesitated, already seeing a new path open up with this meeting. He traded a look with his partner, exchanging a few seconds of wordless conversation before she inclined her head in agreement.
Midoriya swallowed, taking a deep breath before rolling up his sleeves to reveal the medical bandages. Unwrapping them, he revealed some of the starburst scars that Bakugou had branded him with over the years. Melissa's eyes widened in shock, reaching out to touch them before second guessing herself. Mei leaned back against a table while he found a seat on top of another. Following their example, Melissa drew up a chair, looking at him almost expectantly. Midoriya took a deep breath once more, wondering how he was supposed to begin his story. Rifling through the memories in his head, he closed his eyes and started talking.
"I was four when I learned that all men were not created equal…"
And that's a wrap. I actually wanted to cover the entire I-Island incident in this one, but one thing led to another and suddenly we have Eri. Oops. Well, Melissa's finally entered the scene. I haven't watched the movie nor have I read the manga adaptation, so most of my information comes from research and the BNHA wiki. Bear with me. Leave a comment or something. I hope you enjoyed this chapter.