Archivist of Nyx - I don't think that 'trauma' even begins to describe it tbh.
(***)
The next day after the meeting with Hatsume is the day when the official class reunion is supposed to happen. Everyone from their old class that survived to this day is invited. Everyone arrives on time.
"So why are we here?" Yaoyorozu asks. She is wearing some casual clothes and sitting on a couch right next to Todoroki. The latter looks significantly more alive than he was even after Midoriya's treatment.
The third person on the couch, Jirou, is busy playing with her earphone jacks. The scars on her throat, no longer covered by her villain uniform, are rather grizzly. The wound that Magne gave her during the Training Camp Massacre, one that robbed her of voice and almost ended her life.
The opposite couch had only two people. Tokoyami in his more or less human form. Tsuyu in a slightly adorable frog-themed green T-Shirt. Blackwing seemed rather quiet, while the frog girl was eyeing Midoriya curiously.
There were still some tensions between Chameleon and the others. What she did was… a bit too much. Then again, it seemed to be mostly something that Yaoyorozu had problems with. The other two had much less lingering moral concerns.
Todoroki was a mass murderer, even if almost all of his victims were police officers and heroes. Jirou… Jirou was actually worrying Izuku a bit. When killing someone was mentioned near her, she had the same deranged glin in her eyes that he remembered from Entropy.
Yaoyorozu was a crime boss sitting on a couch with a serial killer and a mass murderer. One was her boyfriend, with the other one she probably slept with occasionally (so, kind of a girlfriend?). Was she into bad boys/girls so much? Who would have thought. Certainly not Izuku back then.
Then again, her vice-representative did try to murder someone like few weeks into his first year of a hero. And he ended up becoming a serial killer by his second year. So there might have been a connection. Midoriya probably dodged a bullet when he didn't agree to get elected.
Then again, he was a villainous mastermind that was planning to destroy Japan. So he probably wasn't in a position to judge.
Tokoyami, in the meantime, didn't care. The workings of his mind were absolutely incomprehensible to Midoriya. And there was a fair chance that he was Aiko's eyes and ears at the party.
Well, hopefully they all won't care about what he is about to show.
"There is one more former classmate of ours that's going to work with us." Midoriya says. The eyes are still on him. Years of being trained by All for One and Re-Destro in terms of public appearances and social affairs did help smooth his social anxiety out. But he still, on some deeper level, preferred to avoid those moments. "It might be a bit of a problematic reveal. And I want it behind me when we'll move to the next step of the preparations."
"Something nasty, huh?" Yaoyorozu suddenly looks more curious than analytical. "Show us."
It's THAT nasty, at least not for her. He was more worried about someone else in the room. Oh well. Time to cross that hurdle.
Midoriya claps his hands loudly. Few seconds later the door to his right opens up and a young woman steps in.
The brown hair and the bangs on both sides of her face are unmistakable. The gray hoodie much less. But the smile is still there. Even if he would have probably preferred to see her without it.
"Heya, folks!" Uraraka Ochaco waves to the people in front of her. "It's been a while, huh?"
"Oh." Yaoyorozu blinks a few times. "I didn't expect that." Judging from the looks on the faces of Todoroki and Jirou, she isn't the only one to be shocked.
"We're pleased to see you again." Tokoyami, in the meantime, has absolutely zero fucks to give. The fact his classmate that was pronounced dead years ago just showed up in front of him acting like she returned from a convenience store trip didn't faze him in the slightest.
"Pffft!" Uraraka barely manages to keep the laughter in. "S…sorry, you talk so weird, it's just…"
"We're aware." Tokoyami replies, still unfazed.
Tsuyu is quiet. Her eyes are on Uraraka and Midoriya has no idea how to interpret the look on her face. Their friendship didn't last for long before Uraraka was kidnapped from the Training Camp together with Hagakure.
Neither of them were ever recovered. All Might died trying to do that. After some time passed they were pronounced dead. Their classmates mourned them and then moved over, too focused on their own tragedies to still think about those of others.
Well, it's time to show the really scary part.
"Uraraka, sit next to Tokoyami." Midoriya says. Uraraka moves over obediently.
"It's really been a while." She says. She seems to be trying not to look at Tsuyu. Looks like the situation is hard for her as well. At least there is Tokoyami to separate them. "We really gotta have a moment to just…"
"Uraraka, stand up." Midoriya says and Uraraka stands up from the couch obediently.
"...catch-up." She scratches her cheek a bit. "Izuku has been telling me what you were up to, and…"
"Uraraka, sit down." Midoriya says, and Uraraka sits down obediently. The eyes in the room are moving from Izuku to Ochaco and back.
"... it's rather cool, really." She sighs. "With some exceptions, but I guess it's the times that we're living in, right?"
"What is…" Yaoyorozu was the first to open her mouth. But it was too early. The presentation wasn't over yet.
"Tsuyu, would you kindly leave the couch for a moment and stand behind Yaoyorozu." The frog girl gives him an odd stare, but after a while of thinking it over, she does as he told her.
"Are we really doing this?" Uraraka sighs. "I mean, I get why you're doing this, just… not the class reunion I hoped for." The gravity girl gives him a rather sad look.
Izuku is actually a bit surprised by her complaint. It's… something fairly new. Something unexpected. It DID happen in the past once or twice, but rarely. And never on something he stated to be very important.
"I know, but they deserve to know too." Izuku replies. "Tokoyami, it's not a betrayal, just a presentation. You're free to defend yourself. Even with lethal means, perhaps especially so." The shadow human looks at him oddly. "Uraraka, combat mode three. Kill Tokoyami."
"What are…" Tokoyami attempts to speak. He fails to do so before Uraraka's fingers land on his left leg, making it explode. Or, to be exact, implode under a massive gravity pull that her quirk generated.
He didn't expect that to happen. He didn't expect the complete lack of hesitation on Uraraka's side. But once it happened, he wastes no time. Tokoyami jumps back, his leg regenerating and his arms changing into claws.
He has maybe a second before Uraraka is at him again, her fingers going directly for his head. It's either Midoriya's words or some automatic reaction from the time where he was human and losing his head would kill him, because he goes all out.
The shadowblade moves fast enough to slice her arm off. What would stop a normal person doesn't even slow her down. Tokoyami freaks out and shoves her aside with his shadows, with enough strength to throw her through a wall.
Well. So much about combat mode three. What's the point of telling her to minimize the collateral damage when Tokoyami does it instead? Hopefully they'll be able to move to Overlook soon and the hole in the wall won't be a problem.
"Midoriya, what the f…" Tokoyami tries to speak again. Midoriya ignores it.
He ignores a lot of things happening in the room. The horrified look on Tsuyu's face. The small flames dancing on Todoroki's arm, ready to turn into a firestorm if the fight escalated. Yaoyorozu observing the events with a mixture of curiosity and cold (almost clinical) interest on her face. Jirou's earlobes secretly connected to the sound amplifiers in her boots, her hands on a gun (already drawn, not yet pointed at anything).
He ignores it all. Because the presentation isn't over yet.
Blackwing made the crucial mistake of looking at Midoriya, looking for answers. Thinking that the fight was over. He barely has the time to blink before she has four fingers on his head.
"Wh…" The fifth one falls. His head crunches with enough strength to pull his neck and shoulders after it. The bigger part of his body lunges back, reforming again into Tokoyami, though the process is slightly slower.
He's also looking less human and much more Dark Shadow. Not in a position to waste time and energy on aesthetics.
Uraraka's position shifts, she's about to launch herself at him again. Everyone in the room gets to see the cold, detached look on her face. Her eyes locked onto Tokoyami, ignoring everything around her completely (not quite, though they don't know that yet). Her cut-off arm regenerating with the speed some of them got to witness when Todoroki's ice broke the USJ Noumu in half.
But it's enough.
"Stop." Midoriya says. Uraraka freezes mid-movement. "Disengage." The color returns to her face. She blinks a few times, looking around the room in a slight daze. Her arm is already back in place.
"Damn, fixing that's gonna be a pain." She says towards the hole in the wall, before looking at Tokoyami, who stares back in confusion. "Uhm, sorry for that, Tokoyami."
"Apologies accepted." Blackwing, unfazed as always, replies, before once again looking at Midoriya. "Care to elaborate on what just happened?"
Yaoyorozu probably has a lot of questions about both combatants in that brief skirmish. But instead of vocalizing them, she instead looks at Izuku questioningly.
"Let me introduce to you…" Midoriya says, hoping that they won't start a riot over that. "... Uraraka Ochaco. Also known as a Special-End Noumu under the codename of Singularity."
"... you're kidding." Tokoyami says to him, before looking at Uraraka. The girl shrugged, looking almost apologetic.
"Midoriya. Ribbit." Tsuyu looks at him from behind Yaoyorozu and Midoriya understands immediately that he'd do best to explain himself right now. Because if he fails to, he might just end up dead.
"Not my idea." He replies. Painfully conscious of the murder intent in Tsuyu's eyes. "All for One had a fucked up idea of giving her to me as a 'gift'. One of the many reasons why he was among the people that I didn't mourn after Deika. She was shaped into a perfect bodyguard. Unfailingly obedient, ready to kill at an order, but also capable of blending in and acting natural, if needed."
Didn't mourn for, heh. A good one. Less than ten people knew what exactly happened to All for One, and he planned to keep it that way. From the present members of the Paranormal Liberation Front, only Aiko, Tenko and Ochaco knew the whole truth.
Aiko and Tenko knew because they witnessed it. Ochaco knew, because she simply wasn't a security threat. And sometimes, Izuku just wanted to vent to someone. Someone who wouldn't betray him, who wouldn't use that knowledge to anything nefarious. Even if in that particular case it was barely better than speaking to his own reflection in the mirror.
He was willing to leave the past buried. Only the future mattered.
"So she…" Yaoyorozu says, before visibly biting her tongue. "So you have to follow his orders?" Uraraka takes a look at Midoriya who nods before answering.
"Yup!" She replies. She doesn't look very concerned with that fact. "I don't even get to choose, really. My body moves on its own. And if he tells me to think something or feel somehow about something, I do. Though he doesn't really do that."
At least she mentioned that part. Not doing that would make Midoriya look more like a villain than he already did. Then again, they can't be sure that he didn't order her to describe it that way.
"She's also going to play the role of Entropy during our first attack. Even the outfit will be similar." Midoriya adds. Only Yaoyorozu realizes the significance of what she just heard. Because she knows what's going to be the first target of an attack.
He didn't tell her. She figured it out from the deadline he gave her. And was appropriately shocked.
"And… Hagakure?" Tokoyami asks. Did they manage to befriend each other back then, during the brief period of time between when they started attending school and the Training Camp? Izuku isn't sure. It was so long ago.
"If Deika happened later, the police would probably realize who was responsible for the series of mysterious deaths among the governmental officials and heroes." Midoriya replies. "Honestly speaking, her being in Deika when the bomb fell was a fluke that probably prolonged the existence of the hero society for at least a few years. The combination of quirks she got was… terrifying."
Her natural perfect invisibility (rather than chameleon-like stuff that was easy to spot when someone moved). Suppression of sound. Rewind of physical objects allowing her to leave no evidence behind. So if she broke the window to enter, it'd unbreak itself in a few heartbeats.
Add heightened sense of smell to track your victims, weaker version of regeneration and a variant of Gigantomachia's Energy Saver quirk that allowed her to wait in ambush for days if needed, without moving at all.
Singularity's quirk combo was different, but it included a re-awakened version of her own quirk. And some additional, interesting things.
Special-End Noumus were incredibly rare. Midoriya only knew about seven. Each of them was created with a special role in mind, with multiple quirks and still human-like appearance and intellect.
Two were made to create perfect warping quirk - namely, Kurogiri and Cloud, both of which technically had only a single quirk. However in both cases their quirk was something created from a perfect merger of multiple quirks, existing in perfect harmony and synergy.
Then were Singularity and Reaper, both his former classmates, transformed probably out of sheer spite that All for One had for All Might. One a perfect bodyguard, one a perfect assassin. There was one more noumu in that category that he was probably going to use during their initial attack, unrelated to their class (small mercy).
Hagakure and Uraraka ended up there because they were All Might students. Even if he didn't get to witness that. But All for One probably told him what his plans for them were during the fight in Kamino. Just as he did about many other secrets that could harm The Symbol of Peace.
And, finally, the third category. The one that Midoriya believed was best left buried. Even at the peak of the first Paranormal Liberation War, his desire for victory didn't reach the point where he believed deploying them to be a good idea.
Garaki and All for One had many horrible things in their labs. Most of them they failed to mass-produce before Deika happened. And then Overhaul picked the torch, only to once again fail at deploying things in sufficient numbers to win the war.
There was a reason why Midoriya didn't care about mad science when planning his war. And it wasn't just his personal dislike towards it. He preferred things that were available right now. Mad science - like what inherited from Overhaul and whatever Hatsume could cook-up in her lab - were a bonus. To be used, but not be relied upon.
"And… Tokoyami?" Yaoyorozu decided to get all the intel she can out of it. And she certainly had a lot of questions right now. Fumikage Tokoyami she knew couldn't just walk off a decapitation.
"We have followed in the footsteps of Lady Judgment, proudly walking the Ascending Path until we've received a gift of apotheosis." Tokoyami replies. "We're no longer human beings, merely a spiritual being pretending to be ones."
Yaoyorozu, Todoroki, Jirou and Asui look at Midoriya for answers.
"For once, it's not him being dramatic." Izuku replies. "That's exactly what happened." Yes, some additional explanations will probably be needed.
(***)
"So let me summarize it." Yaoyorozu looks like she suddenly got ten years older. "Daughter of All for One has a quirk that basically makes her into something akin to a deity of quirks. And she organized what's a borderline suicide cult, dedicated to herself, except she can actually deliver on the promises of what comes after."
"Yes." Midoriya nods. He really prefers that part to be out. He isn't comfortable about what Aiko is doing nowadays. "She has also joined the Paranormal Liberation Front under the villain name of Apocrypha. While adhering to the general aesthetics of dark magical girls."
"... and she does that because you're her favorite oniichan." Yaoyorozu adds. There is a bit of a misdirection in that part, one that they all fail to spot. They think that his relation with her started much later than it really did. "Despite her being, what, seventeen years old?" He nods. She did start her villain business early. Her dad would be proud of her.
Yaoyorozu sighs loudly before pulling a bottle of whiskey out of her cleavage.
Big mood.
(***)
In the end, Midoriya's about 90% sure that the improvised class reunion party started because Yaoyorozu wanted to test if Dark Shadow in its current form can get drunk. Which would give her at least some intel on potential ways of dealing with it if need arises.
She was a bit like that. Midoriya wasn't the only villainous mastermind in the room, even if he believed himself to be playing in a higher league than she was.
The hole in the wall was generally ignored.
Izuku gave Uraraka an order that pretty much gave her a free reign over herself for the duration of the party. She took advantage of that to have some quiet discussion with Tsuyu in the corner.
He didn't care what it was about. Her 'free reign over herself' didn't include the ability to betray him. That option was entirely written out of her during the conversion process. He couldn't even allow her to betray him. So whatever the talk was about, it didn't concern him.
He ended up drinking responsibly alongside Yaoyorozu, while playing cards and chatting with her about various unimportant things. She was probably still digesting the news about Uraraka and Tokoyami.
Todoroki and Jirou were busy having a drinking competition. She didn't have a lot of bodymass, he was still weak after his ordeal at Tartarus. Honestly, it was a cripple fight. Midoriya was surprised they managed to hold on for so long, but it was clear that the fight was about to end.
Tokoyami was busy brooding in the corner. He seemed reasonably satisfied with that arrangement.
It felt like the class party they had before the Training Camp. Except they were much older, were missing much more classmates, and… well, they were adults now. Hence, the alcohol and the large bodycount of everyone in the room.
And the stakes of the drinking competition.
"You do know what they are fighting over, yes?" Midoriya decided to ask Yaomomo. It did include some parts of her body.
"They've been at it since Shoto got back." She replies, her eyes on her cards. "You learn to tune it out."
Cons of being popular, he decides.
(***)
When Uraraka shows up in the morning with a bottle of water and a selection of painkillers, Midoriya is grateful. Despite the 'responsible' part of drinking, he still got rather wasted yesterday.
"Thank you." He replies once he finally starts returning to his more or less normal mode of operations. Uraraka gives him an encouraging smile (like she always does, and the gut-wrenching feeling is there as well).
At least she doesn't have to hide anymore. Everyone knows about her now. That's good.
He eats breakfast with the others (it's Tokoyami's turn in the kitchen, and he is actually quite good at it), then he secretes himself into his office. Sifting through reports and other things about the war he is trying to organize.
He is already focusing on planning the next step of the recruitment drive. He has the League of Villains more or less completed. He has the special task force of Hatsume Industries work on cleaning and supplying the Overlook. Aiko is still doing whatever it is she is doing with the Ascending Path - probably preparing it to go full villainous if needed.
He has bases, supplies and a personal strike force. What he lacks is the grunts. Foot soldiers, lieutenants, cannonfodder and the people to hold the ground once the heavy-hitters secured it.
He knows where to find them, but doing so will certainly take him a while.
Paranormal Liberation Front used to be composed of the League of Villains and four other groups that (temporarily) casted aside their incompatible ideologies in the name of taking the fight to the heroes together.
Even its symbol reflected that. Black rhombus in the middle symbolizing the League. Above it (but connected) a purple one for the Meta-Liberation Army (Re-Destro probably read about the meaning of colors in heraldry as the only person back then, and had a lot of laughs over it). To the right, a red one for the Inhuman Supremacy Party. Beneath, a blue one for the Quirkless Liberation Front. To the left - white one, for the Creature Rejection Clan.
In Midoriya's opinion, the symbol was rather ugly. But symbolic enough. He needed the four musketeers back in the party if he wanted to get anywhere. He knew where to start, but it was going to be a lot of work to locate what's left of them and get their leadership to have serious accession talks with the new Paranormal Liberation Front.
He was going to start with the Meta-Liberation Army. A matter of personal preferences, except whoever was running it today was a sneaky bastard. Before he could narrow down their location, something unexpected happened.
(***)
Midoriya had just returned from another day of hard work to his house and was about to retire for the night, when he heard knocking on his door.
That was… a potentially problematic thing. Not because of potential assassination or anything, but.. some parts of his quarters had rather questionable things stored there. He really didn't want someone to see his collection of All Might memorabilia.
Old habits die hard.
"Check who that is." He says and Uraraka obediently leaves her place in the corner of the room.
He got used to them living together at this point. He tried to avoid making her do a lot of things other than bodyguarding, but… that was still, in a way, the same Uraraka he met before the Entrance Exam. She refused to just sit down doing nothing.
He felt guilty. Both over what happened to Uraraka (despite not being responsible in the slightest) and because after a few years together he practically treated her as a multi-purpose humanoid roomba.
He had a walking, talking corpse of his first crush acting as his full time bodyguard slash maid. Talk about awkward living arrangements. And about All for One's atrocious understanding of the concept of 'birthday presents'.
Uraraka looked through the visor.
"It's Tsu-chan!" She seemed very happy about that, for some reason. The two of them seemed to chat rather often nowadays. Did they try to rekindle their friendship? It would be rather nice, in Midoriya's opinion. She really looked happier than average nowadays.
"Let her in, then." Few seconds later, Tsuyu was in his living room. Looking… Well, she felt oddly determined, but he had no idea about what exactly. She was also wearing her civilian clothes. They were rather… greeny.
"Tsu is here!" Uraraka does some sort of salute towards Midoriya.
"Could we talk in private for a bit, ribbit?" Tsuyu says to Izuku before quickly looking at Uraraka. "Ochaco-chan, I…"
"No worries!" Uraraka doesn't seem hurt by it in the slightest. "Is it about the thing we talked about?" Tsu nods. "Finally! So, uhm…?" She looks at Midoriya questioningly.
"You may go." It's almost certainly not an assassination. And Uraraka actually wanting something for herself that isn't basic necessities was… rare. He welcomes moments like these. It's as if she was still there.
Uraraka leaves the room in a hurry.
"Tea, Tsuyu?" That's how his mom started serious talks. And for some reason, that one feels serious.
"Yes please." The eyes are still on him, and he can't get any reading on her. It's unnerving.
(***)
Exact combination of quirks that Uraraka has are going to be revealed... eventually. And so is Aiko's quirk. The next chapter is going to conclude the Class Reunion Arc, with a confrontation between the Tsuyu and Midoriya probably getting to decide if they won't be missing one more student. It's going to reveal what exactly happened to All for One.
Whom exactly Tenya ended up killing (as he is referred in this fic as a serial killer)? Who's the sneaky breaky in charge of the MLA remnants? Time will tell. All I can say is that the MLA's leadership includes two canon characters, one of which you probably do not expect to see there :P [and no, it's not Eraserhead, despite his lines during the quirk apprehension test making him sound like MLA mole - in fact, let me throw you a bone, neither of them were UA students or teachers).
As for Uraraka, well, let's just say that there is going to be character development in this fic as well.