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 Four: A Villain For a Queen
The day came when Class 1-A's semi-final came to be at hand and the whole class was gathering together. Mirai looked over them, trying to find a single student.
"Oh? Sir Nighteye, you're here too?"
Mirai looked over to see both the Number One Hero and Number Two Hero coming his way. He straightened up and nodded back towards them, recognizing that it had been Hawks who'd spoken.
"I received an email from Nedzu about coming here and witnessing the class's semi-final, especially as a way to see my former pupil's progress. I am looking forward to seeing how Midoriya has been."
"She's doing well," Endeavor said plainly and Mirai remembered that the other man was now the one mentoring Izuku. A strange sense of jealousy came up before he mentally shook his head and squashed it. Strange.
"Is she?" he said, feigning nonchalance. "I'm glad. We still talk sometime, but she doesn't talk about her training or how her continued progress has been since she'd moved on from my agency."
Endeavor grunted, looking off to the side. "Yeah, she's good. She came over, having some issues with her Quirk." Issues? "It evolved and mutated into adding some black tentacle thing she was having trouble controlling. But she got it quickly under control after a few pointers."
Mirai nodded, face unchanging but inwardly frowning. Mutation in One For All? Why hadn't she told him about it? Why hadn't Toshinori? He would've been far more qualified to help out and actually knew about One For All over Endeavor. Why did they leave him out?
Admittedly, it rather hurt.
"Do you guys see her?" Hawks asked, looking over the group of students that were gathering. Mirai gave a brief glance over to him, wondering how the other Hero knew Izuku.
"Over there, by Eraserhead," an unexpected voice said and the three of them saw Best Jeanist slowly, carefully walking over to them. He must be still injured. "Izuku-san told me that you were coming, Endeavor-san, but I had no idea Nedzu had invited others."
"I didn't either," Endeavor frowned, looking them all over. "This one I thought was just following me, but he told me on the way that he'd also gotten an invitation."
"I did. Right after I left his office behind, I found an email that said the same information," Hawks informed them.
Mirai hmmed. "I received an email from Nedzu as well."
"Izuku-san told me he's probably just being bored and wanting to change things up for his entertainment," Best Jeanist informed them.
Mirai's eyes drifted over to where Izuku was said to be, and saw that she was indeed by Eraserhead and talking cheerily to him. Only having a quick debate himself, he excused himself to the others and strode over to her, seeing her turn and catch sight of him, looking at first surprised before grinning smugly and walking over to meet him.
He could already feel his eyes rolling and he made to glare at her, before he finally let himself smile slightly once at her side.
"I suppose you want your bragging rights," he said dryly.
"Most definitely," she crowed giddily.
He gave an exaggerated sigh. "I, Sasaki Mirai, concede to Midoriya's vastly 'superior' All Might collection," he said in the driest voice he could muster.
She snickered and preened anyway. However…
"That said," he pushed his glasses up. "Though I will never read them, I have since bought every All Might doujinshi in existence, including some newer family ones of you and him that have come about. I might read those however…"
To his own glee and triumph, she blushed heavily and looked embarrassed, tossing a glare of her own at him and pouting. Too easy (and cute).
"Sasaki-san!" she whined. "Fine, fine. This counts as a separate round and it goes to you then. But you wouldn't have won it if it hadn't been for me goading you into buying those things!"
He would never, ever read most of them. That said, it made his collection much more complete and continue to rival up against his 'competitor'.
"There are really doujin with me and All Might?" she questioned curiously.
"Very lovely, wholesome ones," he told her and kept quiet about the not so wholesome ones that made him twitch and buy two of —ones to reluctantly be part of his collection and never ever see the light of day, and the copies to rip up, burn, and destroy in a fit of scandalized outrage.
He was affronted and would not cater eagerly to seeing two of the five most important people to him (two of three that were extremely important) in such…circumstances.
(He did not take a peek.)
"After this, there's this Hero auction that'll be open for buyers," she said. "Would you like to come with me, Sasaki-san?"
He blinked, the invite coming as a surprise. Surprising but not unwelcome.
"Yes, I'd love to come," he agreed and was rewarded to a beaming smile that dazed him for a moment.
He mentally shook himself out of it. "How are you? Are you prepared for your semi-final? Do you know what team you're on and who you'll be working with? Are you nervous at all?"
"I'm…okay," she said carefully. She gave him a faint smile. "It's a bit nerve-wracking, I guess. I hope I'm prepared enough, but there are always variables?" He returned her smile with a gentle, encouraging one and she continued. "At least, I do know my team and I know my teammates!" she revealed excitedly and he chuckled.
"I'm glad things seem good and you're confident enough for this," he said and clasped her shoulder. "Good luck. You have this, Izuku."
Oh, he hadn't meant to say her name.
But her shy, happy smile greeted him, so he didn't feel so off about it any more.
"Please watch me carefully, Sasaki-san," she declared and it was almost reminiscent of her new mentor's words.
Except…a strange shadow passed over her face and the look in her eyes sharpened, making her somehow not look like herself at that moment.
"I promise it'll be a play worth watching!" she exclaimed eagerly, just as her normal self, and Mirai thought maybe that had been something his mind might've mistaken.
He squeezed her shoulder one last time. "Do your best, Izuku," he'd already said her name once, so maybe it wasn't as big a deal as they should make of it, "I will see you afterwards."
She nodded and walked to join her regular group of friends and he made to return back to his previous group. Still, he glanced back at her and found it odd that he was feeling worried.
He must be just worried about her in this test and how she'd do.
Keigo wasn't put off by Nighteye abandoning them to head off to Izuku. He would've wanted to do so too, if he'd had been able to. As it was, he of the group had the least reason to march over and talk to her. Not that the others faired any better.
Endeavor was currently her present mentor, but since his son and the loud blond kid was too, it wasn't like he could go to see Izuku without showing favoritism. It would've been less strange if he'd gone to his son, but going to Izuku would've raised eyebrows.
Best Jeanist was another surprise —none of them had known he and Izuku had known each other, much less were on such good terms. He was sure that meant none of her classmates or teachers would know either, and seeing her rather than his old intern (also one of Endeavor's new mentees) would also be strange.
Which left Nighteye, who had no other ties to the group of students than her and so it made sense he'd go over to check in on Izuku.
Still sucks.
"How is she?" Best Jeanist asked the Foresight Hero when he'd returned to them.
"Some nerves," Nighteye glanced over them with his serious eyes. It made Keigo uncomfortable, but he said nothing and inwardly sighed. "At least she has some confidence and she seems in a good mood. We'll see how the proceedings will go in a moment."
"For all his loud blustering, Bakugo should be able to lead the 'Heroes' well enough," Endeavor hnned. "And despite my son's rebellious and strange choice of the opposing team, Midoriya being on Bakugo's side will make it even easier, with her Quirk and her continuous progression with it. That's to say, we're not even talking about that big brain of hers," even Endeavor twitched at that.
Keigo snickered. "Yeah, no. Her mind runs circles around me, I'm not gonna lie. I was there when you had homework night, Endeavor. I'm pretty sure I was going to feel my brain shriveling up when she was teaching the other two how to do their math."
Endeavor mumbled something before he was louder with, "She was helping them with their Trigonometry…Algebra stuff."
"Last I remembered, she was helping my other student with Calculus…and he is in his last year of school," Nighteye added. He winced. "He didn't have to take Calculus actually. She encouraged him to take Pre-Calculus online, so that he could take Calculus after what had happened at the…raid and his Quirk. As I remember, most high school students don't have to go beyond three years of mathematics and Mirio had done so already. Midoriya told him that he could pursue college while he was figuring out what to do with his absent Quirk, and she's been tutoring him ever since."
Keigo's jaw dropped. "W-wait, what's her math level then?"
Best Jeanist coughed. "Sometimes, while she's visiting, she has her homework out and I've seen it. I asked her once and she idly answered about it being Math 55. I looked it up."
Nighteye inhaled sharply. "That's a math course at Harvard."
"And considered the most complex math level in existence?" Best Jeanist raised an eyebrow. "Yes, I know. I also had the 'Am I stupid?' thought process before I realized —"
"That Midoriya is just goddamn smart," Endeavor interrupted bluntly. He snorted. "Geez, why am I not surprised? Have you even seen those fucking analysis books she makes? She's been doing those forever and they're —"
"Amazing," the group of them, funnily enough, said in unison.
Not that Keigo would say any different anyway. He had glimpsed one of them and it made him want to seize one and pour all over it intently, maybe have her help him out on a few people who needed a closer look at…
He looked over the chattering Class 1-A, looking for Izuku, who was with her usual group of friends. She looked over then and saw him before she smiled widely and gave a small, shy wave. He chuckled under his breath.
Man, that Bakugo and those Heroes are lucky they have her.
After two separate helicopters carrying the students in one and the UA staff and the Pro-Heroes in the other, Shota decided a nap was in order and he would goddamn get it before this madness started.
The invited Pros were already gathered together and whispering amongst themselves, and the other staff members were either talking as well or nodding off like Shota was wishing he could. Yagi looked ill and overly anxious, and he could bet the other man was worrying over the Problem Child, especially since they knew what the other students and the Pros did not.
The Problem Child was the Villain leader.
It was a cause for concern actually and he'd taken to watching Midoriya all morning, feeling anxious himself. Outwardly he remained calm and tired as always, but inwardly he'd worried about her and how she occasionally seemed lost in thought. She spent most of the morning with her usual friends, smiling and looking normal, but that didn't reassure him at all. In fact, it made him feel worse —she hadn't come to see him at all in the time before the day of this horrid simulation; and though he knew how intelligent she was, he wasn't sure if she was really prepared. She hadn't asked him any questions, he had no idea who she (if she had managed to) recruited, and she hadn't been seen doing anything but her regular classwork.
His anxiety had been through the roof for her this entire time before today, and now it was reaching its peak.
"We're here!" Nedzu announced with an enthusiastic cheer that made Shota rather homicidal. "Our helicopter will send us to another building on I-Island," oh, they were near there? "And the children will be sent to the actual island where they can start, after they've had a rest."
Shota looked out the helicopter and saw it was dark, and realized the flight must've been a long while and it was now dark enough to be probably nighttime. Their group had long separated from the students and they were greeted by a blonde girl with oval glasses, after their helicopter had landed and they'd settled on the ground.
"Hello, I'm Melissa!" she said cheerily. "I'll lead you to where you'll be staying and watching."
He saw her watch over the group, aqua blue eyes alighting on Yagi and her smile widened just a bit. Ah, so those two must know each other.
He said nothing though and followed after her, where they were let into a nice, medium-sized building on a hill that they didn't have to trek up on (they thankfully had motorized vehicles). Inside the building though, and where they were all going to stay…
"This is a nice room and it's perfectly large and all…but why do I feel like I'm staying in a hostel?!" Nemuri said aghast and Shota agreed with a mental cringe.
A large screen was on one side of the room's entire wall, but on either side of the room, bunk beds were lined up against the semi-circled walls. There was one door that he could see that led to a bathroom and the door they entered into that room from and was close to the building's entrance.
"Now, now," Nedzu started calmly and too cheery for his own good, "let's all just start resting to be ready for tomorrow. I'll get the screen up now, so it'll be ready and set without us hurrying."
Not that Shota was in any hurry for tomorrow or for this whole shitty thing.
"Please, for the love of any god, let's hurry up and get our place set up so we can sleep and get ready for whatever the hell happens tomorrow." Because Shota was sure that it wasn't going to be a relaxing affair at all.
"I've gotten our screen and the feeds set up," Nedzu announced, probably easily putting it all together within a minute. "I'll leave it on while the beds are chosen and rearranged if needed."
"The rest of the building is equipped with staff, so if you need refreshments or anything else, just tap this button and speak into this speaker —it'll be heard straight into the staff room and you'll be taken cared of," Melissa informed them kindly before she excused herself after allowing a more personal smile for Yagi, that was returned with just as much fondness.
"That was Melissa Shield," Yagi revealed. "David Shield's daughter. He must've sent her over to help out."
That incurred some murmuring, but most of them were splitting up and choosing their bunk of choice. Endeavor and Hawks chose the farthest bunk to the left of the room, with Best Jeanist and Sir Nighteye bunking together in the bunk bed closer to them but close enough to the UA staff. So the invited Pros were going to stick together. Made sense —they weren't fully informed of the proceedings and Shota doubted Nedzu told them much of anything, aside from dragging them into this whole affair for some reason. Probably more entertainment for the Rat Lord.
Shota found himself bunking with Yagi, who traded looks with his old Sidekick (who oddly seemed to look upset back? Then again, Nighteye had a tendency to always look glaringly serious). It made it easier for them to converse, if needed, but still kept separate by their new positions and apparent 'personal separation' as well.
Nemuri and Hizashi bunked together next to his and Yagi's bunks, and after them were Sekijiro and Snipe, with Ectoplasm and Higari taking the bunks after them. The rest of the faculty took up the last two paired bunks, with Inui taking one by himself. Nedzu would've taken the one other bed with him, but apparently the Principal is just happily minding his own business and scrounging around (likely intending not to sleep through this entire thing).
"Ah, here it is!" Nedzu exclaimed, digging out something from his bag. Turned out it was several somethings and the chimera placed them on the floor beside him. Shota's eyebrows furrowed.
"Nedzu, what are those?" Yagi asked for the rest of them and Nedzu answered while excitedly looking between the four small boxes and single cannister he'd apparently brought along.
"My newest supply of tea," he explained nonchalantly. "Alternatives to coffee that I'm excited to try! This chicoriccino was recommended, but there's this mocha nut mate that sounds delicious mixed in with chocolate. The aribica mocha might be a good taste, but I see she'd added in this matcha mocha that might be fun to sample…"
Nedzu started muttering to himself, going back and forth between the tea samples, and Shota thought that this was just too much for the night.
"That's it, it's bedtime," he grumbled and chose the top bunk without asking his bunkmate. He'd even gotten comfortable and settled in bed when Nemuri's dumbfounded "What in the world?" caught his attention.
He turned his body in bed and wiggled closer to the edge to peer over it at her. Her gaze was towards the screen and he looked that way and nearly tumbled over as he stretched out over the bed to gaze in shock at the screen.
"Those have got to be the Villains!" Hizashi jolted forward to gape at the screen, seeing one side of it showing the darkened room where the apparent 'Heroes' had been left behind to sleep (and the darkness hiding just who they were) and the other side viewing the group that were slinking out of the hotel the students had been staying in, piling into a dark van that had been idling in front of the hotel and seemingly waiting for them.
"W-wait, I thought the game didn't start until the morning?" Nemuri asked, words taken right out of Shota's brain.
Nedzu straightened up, gently pushing his boxes from him. "You're mistaken. What I said earlier, right as we were arriving, was that the children could start after they'd rested. Obviously, the Villain team has forgone their rest —or rested enough beforehand —to instead get the ball rolling," he smiled widely. "Now, for us at least, we should rest ourselves. It seems like we'll be in for quite the show."
That sadistic, bored animal of a principal…
"I agree," Yagi surprised everyone, though by the look on his face, he seemed worn out and exhausted by this whole thing already. Shota wondered if they'd brought enough tissues for the man, or if they were going to have to mop up a floor full of blood everyday while they stayed there…
"Sleep sounds like a fine idea," Nighteye threw in his support, unsurprisingly, but Yagi seemed surprised nonetheless and the old friends were again exchanging quiet glances.
"If that's all, then I'm out for the night," Shota announced and was thankfully unbothered after that.
He was quick to pass out for blessed sleep then, knowing rest was going to be a thing of the past in the coming days.
Tsunagu stretched out on his bunk, wincing at the kinks he'd gained. He withheld a groan and awkwardly climbed his long-limbed body out of the bed and climbed the ladder down. He could only imagine how Nighteye felt in these beds, being even taller and just as long-limbed as Tsunagu.
"Coffee has been lined out just outside the hall, as well as breakfast," Nighteye spoke up suddenly, startling Tsunagu, who just noticed the man was already up and sitting cross-leggedly on his bed and leaning back against the wall while he had a cup of coffee in hand and some papers in the other.
"Thank you," he replied back, ignoring how (though Nighteye didn't express his discomfort) awkward the tall man looked on the bunk bed.
"You're welcome," was the short reply and then Nighteye focused on his papers and sipped at his mug.
Tsunagu went out of the room, only noticing that most of the others were still sleeping, minus Endeavor and Nedzu, with the bigger man uncomfortably sitting with the animal principal and being instructed on piling some chairs into the room. Only Nedzu would be comfortable and gleeful in ordering around the current Number One into doing manual labor.
Just outside of the room, as Nighteye told him, there was one of those long, folding tables where one side had coffee and drinks and the rest of the space had breakfast choices. Snagging a yogurt and a few blueberries to mix into it (not like he could currently eat much right now, or even ever again…), he had a cup of water and went back into the room, just as others were stirring up. Endeavor had also already begun with the chairs, and Hound Dog, Cementoss, and Vlad King were also helping out.
"Hero team is waking up too, guys," Hawks noticed, pointing out to them. Tsunagu looked at the screen and indeed noticed they were waking.
"H-hey, guys? Why is this room suddenly so empty?" the red-headed student, Kirishima he thought he remembered Izuku pointing out to him before (in one of her class photos), noticed in shock.
That woke up Katsuki, who glanced around and cursed in fury.
"Fuck, shit! Those were the fucking Villains!"
If the missing were the Villains, which students were currently gone —
The 'Villain' side of the screen crackled before showing a shocking face, just as the Hero side showed the Hero students watching their TVs as all the screens in the city were shown on that side having been hijacked and now broadcasting one familiar girl.
"Hello, Kacchan," Izuku smiled sweetly and she looked just like the darling girl Tsunagu had come to know, only she didn't either.
"I want to say you must be confused, but I know. You're just angry."
She laughed lightly and it was as pretty as always, but there was also something just wrong with it too.
Izuku looked at them through the screens and kept that small, strange smile on her face.
"I'm a monster. But I am the monster you created. Now you all can face the consequences."
She slowly brought her hands up and clapped gently twice, simply and elegantly like she was applauding a show.
Then the top of the hotel the Hero team was still in exploded and the 'Heroes' screamed in shock and confusion.
"The fuck just happened?" Hawks aptly cursed out.
Tsunagu agreed on that.
Started 8/28/22 — Completed 9/6/22
A/n: Ohohoho! Looks like it's heating up and chaos has just erupted (then again maybe it's been there all along?). That said, the response to this continues to be amazing. Thanks to you all and I hope you're going to enjoy this mess :D
Quick Points:
1. They're jelly and they don't even know it~ Oblivious idiots. (Also, Heroes and their assumptions…)
2. Yes, Nighteye went there. (As to what I mean by that, you readers can interpret however you'd like XD *cackles*)
3. And Shota knows nothing like Jon Snow knows nothing.
4. Melissa makes an appearance! Whoooo!
5. Again, Izuku is a genius, y'all~ (And Math 55 is the math course…)