He spent an hour sitting on a bed in the infirmary talking with Hound Dog.
"I don't know why I'm not upset," Izuku said, crossing his arms. He had recounted the entire fight in lurid detail to the school counselor. "I know..." he still wasn't supposed to talk about his inherited quirk. Perhaps Nedzu would read Hound Dog in after this disaster, but the principal had been too busy running crisis control to think about it that night. Aizawa was the one who had arranged for the counselor to come speak to Izuku.
"It may hit you later," Hound Dog told him with sympathy. "Moonfish was... a very unfortunate and twisted person. You may never feel empathy of any kind for him. That is confusing for you. You feel guilty because you expect to feel terrible for what you have done. The fact that you do not feel as expected is extremely concerning to you."
"Is there something wrong with me?" Izuku asked outright.
"Likely not," Hound Dog told him. "You are clearly capable of feeling empathy for others, friends as well as enemies I expect. The fact that it disturbs you that you do not feel the same for Moonfish is actually a good thing. If you were elated by your ability to kill with impunity, guiltlessly, I would be the one extremely concerned."
"I feel bad for Tsuge," Izuku mumbled. "He died right in front of me but... I just... it doesn't really hurt like I think it should. I feel like I... should feel like I should have done something if that makes sense? I know there wasn't really anything I could have done, not with how quickly it all happened but I should feel like I should have done something..." His mind wasn't working at all the way he expected it to.
"Now that really hasn't hit you yet. It will at some point. If you need to talk to me you know where I will be. For now, if you are half as exhausted as you look it would be best for me to leave you to rest. However, if you find you are unable to sleep, for any reason, do not hesitate to call me or Recovery Girl."
"Thank you."
Endless corridors, all that dirty, cold gray. Flickering lights and things moving in the shadows. Cells, all filled with leering copies of Moonfish. Izuku ran through the hallways and behind him came the firebird. In the manner of dreams, it wasn't consistent between appearances and neither was his knowledge of it consistent. Sometimes, when he caught sight of its blazing feathers as it followed him as incessantly as a lava flow, it was a real bird, a red-feathered hawk. Sometimes it was Hawks. Sometimes it was Dabi. Sometimes it was a twisted amalgamation of all three, one head and three heads at the same time.
He ran. The corridors stretched out to infinity and Moonfish leered and leered, and then Izuku tripped and could not get to his feet no matter how he tried. The floor stuck to flesh and clothes, the hallway flooded with blood, and beside him lay Moonfish, cold and gray as the tiles he lay upon. When Izuku looked again it wasn't Moonfish anymore but Tsuge with his throat ripped open.
The red hawk that was Hawks and Dabi blotted the lights, tainting the whole room a ruddy red so that he could taste the misting iron in the air, and then the talons bit into his shoulder--
Izuku gasped awake, panting frantically. His shoulder ached fiercely where was--ah. Right. Recovery Girl had him stay the night in the infirmary as a cream soaked into the burn. It would help to prevent scaring when she finished healing him the next morning. It was nearly four am now. Perhaps it wasn't worth trying to get more sleep.
A cold creeping dread settled in his chest as the greenette stared up at the ceiling. "He was sentenced to death anyway. Someone was going to do it. It had to be this way. Me or him. Someone had to do it. I barely even thought about it. It was so easy. I had to. Why doesn't it hurt, though? I'm not Tripswitch. I'm not Destro. I'm not any of them," he hissed. "I killed him and I've never killed anyone before. Why aren't I sorry?" He'd already had this conversation with Hound Dog but all those leering Moonfishes... He couldn't let it go.
Was it because Moonfish hadn't felt like a real person to Izuku? Was it because the man was insane and vicious, almost mindless, and seemingly unloved by any living creature? That was sick. Just because--just because--Moonfish was still human! How dare Izuku act like he didn't matter. Still, he couldn't make himself feel guilty as he should. "He was a murderer. He was a cannibal. He was insane and incurable and not someone you could reason with." But that wasn't an excuse not to think. That wasn't an excuse to just pull the trigger like that without... what was it Nedzu said, "full comprehension of the gravity of his actions." He could have easily hit Hawks or Dabi. Would he have felt something if he'd killed Hawks, who might still be a triple agent playing a long game (although the smooching made that seem less likely)? He would have regretted it, wouldn't he? It was just Moonfish's peculiar circumstances that made him react this way. Right?
Izuku had tried very hard to kill the ice wielder and that... he'd been furious with that man, and not even because the enemy had killed poor Tsuge, but because the frost bringer said such stupid, bigoted, insulting things and dragged Fossa's friends' from the MLA into it, using their names to
justify something they would have despised. That frosty creep was a modern cult leader, only paying attention to the cherry picked parts of his holy book that justified what he was going to do anyway.
It was all sick. Izuku was crazy, too, wasn't he? Crazy, mad, cruel, a killer without a drop of remorse, a doll without a shred of empathy. He'd snatched Tsuge's weapon away before the man was even dead, fired it without a thought, moved through the battle as if in an unfeeling dream. What kind of monster could do that? Hound Dog was wrong. All For One was right. His blood might be warm but his heart was cold as ice. Too much. He'd seen too much violence and now he couldn't react normally to it anymore. He couldn't care about people right. Damaged goods.
He rolled over and sobbed into his pillow, wallowing in the nauseous ache that permeated his chest.
There. This at least was right. Familiar. He ought to cry about something at least, even if he couldn't cry about the right things.
He did fall asleep again and Tsuge was in his dreams, begging again and again for Izuku to help him as he slowly bled out from his wound, begging as Moonfish leered from a neighboring cell.
It was deja vu as the greenette walked into homeroom to find all his peers glued to their phones and indulging in their preferred nervous behaviors. It looked just like the start of the HPSC scandal. Uraraka bit her nails. Sero drummed fingers on his desk. Todoroki repeatedly pulled on his hair... which he had styled into a Mohawk, apparently on a late night whim.
Katsuki's hair seemed to be standing straighter than usual, too. The look of absolute fury on his face was concerning; was it possible for humans to spontaneously combust from the force of their rage? "Nerd," Kacchan complained to him, waving about his phone which displayed the headline, "Tartarus Breakout." "Nerd why are you like this?"
"I don't know," Izuku replied miserably. Kacchan just snarled at his device, fuming.
Hawks was free. Kacchan certainly didn't blame Izuku or, well, probably not--the blonde wasn't usually irrational like that, even when he was burning with anger. Regardless, interacting civilly with Katsuki wasn't going to be possible today, not for the greenette or for anyone. Something (or someone) was going to end up blown to smithereens before classes ended. Izuku would keep his distance and his silence.
Shouji glanced up at him as the greenette took his seat. "I presume that Bakugou is correct in his presumption that you were the UA student visiting the facility at the time of the prison break?"
"Yeah," the greenette sighed. There was no point in trying to keep that a secret. "Yeah, that was me. Does that article have any information about how they actually managed to make this escape work?"
"One maximum security guard is unaccounted for and their partner on duty was killed, apparently by the missing guard's quirk, before the League arrived," Ojiro read from Izuku's left. "It's been suggested that he took massive bribes to turn traitor. One of the wardens was found dead in his home. It's unclear from the article whether they paid him for information or tortured his access
codes out of him. Apparently Toga from the League impersonated the man. It's pretty rare to have civilians down on the maximum security levels. They... looks like compromised Tartarus communications and made it sound like more contractors were being brought in to help with the interrogation because progress was being made... Apparently they had already turned off a couple security systems and cross checks because they have to when they bring civilians down on the supermax levels." So it was Izuku's fault, sort of. Maybe Katsuki would blame him, after all.
"The details there are pretty sketchy," Shouji broke in. "They don't want to tell us exactly what the problems with the procedures were that the League took advantage of. They just keep insisting everything's been fixed."
"Fighting their way out was probably always the the League's plan," Ojiro took over again. "With communications down they didn't expect much resistance... a hundred or so inmates from the upper levels are still at large."
Izuku sighed. "What a mess," he mumbled.
"Are you alright?" Uraraka of all people asked him.
"Recovery Girl fixed up the burn for me," Izuku shrugged. "I wasn't hurt, not badly." Present Mic had stopped by that morning to help him cut his hair, removing the singed bits without subjecting the greenette to the buzz cut that his bodysnatcher had once imposed on him. It was greatly appreciated.
"Who burned you?" Uraraka asked, eyes wide.
"Dabi from the League of Villains," the greenette shrugged. Todoroki whipped his head towards them, staring. "He only grazed me," Izuku waved the chaotic teen off. "It was just second degree and you can barely see it now. I didn't need skin grafts." Todoroki nodded grudgingly, fingers grazing over his own scar, then returned his attention to his phone.
"Are you sure you're okay?" Uraraka asked the greenette again. "Fine," Izuku repeated. It was true enough.
Braving the internet at last, Izuku scrolled through headlines listlessly. "Huh," he said, "we are officially a failed state."
"What gave it away?" Kirishima asked with a raised eyebrow.
Izuku turned his phone around. Kirishima squinted at the photo. "What are those?"
The picture showed a half dozen men and women of all ages, ethnicities and quirk statuses in camouflage tactical gear, heavy weapons of various models slung across their shoulders. All prominently bore a badge, a short railroad segment outlined in blue with the white, English letters "I" and "S" on either side. There were only eight operatives visible in the photo. The other four were too stealthy to be spotted. "That is an Isomorph assault team," Izuku told Kirishima dryly. "They are... Isomorph is supposed to be banned from operating in Japan but it seems we've gotten to the point where they don't consider our government to be... actually in charge of the country and no longer care what we think." Something caught his eye and Izuku scrutinized the image of the group's leader. Her rank insignia marked her as the chief conductor. Even in this blurry photo, even with a clear visor and respirator mask covering much of her face... she looked familiar.
Aizawa walked into the room abruptly and Izuku stowed his phone.
"Good morning everyone," their teacher said dryly. "As many of you may know, Midoriya and I are both having a very bad week." Every article mentioned that a UA heroics teacher and his second year student had been on the maximum security level and involved in the prison break response. Likely the majority of heroics students at UA knew that the teacher was Aizawa and the student was Izuku. The greenette had left UA openly with Eraserhead to go speak with All For One and returned openly in the evening before vanishing into the nurse's office for the night.
Kaminari, Sero and a handful of others snickered softly. Aizawa shot them a withering glare beneath which they wilted like dying cherry blossoms. "Nedzu has asked me to remind everyone that leaking confidential information about students or teachers is not only against school policy but a criminal offense. I do not want to see any of you spreading information about any of this online, understood?" Students nodded mutely.
"Good." Aizawa continued. "Tartarus' official statements have been heavily augmented by speculation and third hand accounts," Aizawa continued. "Much of what you have likely read in the news is not true. This is always the case for large disasters like this."
Ashido raised her hand tentatively. "Yes?" their teacher called on her.
"Did Midoriya really kill Moonfish?" she asked rather tactlessly. "Or is that made up?"
Aizawa glanced at the greenette. Izuku nodded ever so slightly. This... it wasn't something he would try to keep secret, even if it were possible to keep it secret. "Yes, Midoriya shot and killed Moonfish during the prison break."
One by one, heads turned towards him. Some of his classmates were horrified--Yaoyorozu, Kaminari, Ashido, Kirishima, Sero, Sato--others seemed merely concerned. Tsu and Ojiro looked at the greenette primarily with pity. Todoroki cocked his head, more confused and sad than pitying. Katsuki's expression of murderous rage did not change in the slightest. The blonde may not have even processed what he heard.
Kaminari spluttered, "but, like, is that even legal?"
"Yes it's legal," Aizawa scoffed. "Midoriya was alone in a hallway with S and triple-S villains," Aizawa told them plainly. "He had a fraction of a second to come up with a way to keep them from killing him. Many of you will have to make similar decisions in your careers." Several people gulped. "You will not ask Midoriya anything about this unless he volunteers the information. Do you understand?" The class nodded as one again and grew very quiet.
"In the meantime... we have some things to talk about. First off, most frontline, underground, and undercover heroes who have been working more than a year or two--and many rescue heroes--have killed villains during their careers, either accidentally during a fight or purposefully because it was the only way to save other lives." The class grew quieter still.
"We usually cover this unit a bit later, but timetables have been moved up," because of Izuku and Moonfish. "This week we are going to discuss the legal and moral questions involved in one of the most unpleasant parts of professional heroics. Most of you may have thought long and hard about the certainty of finding a dead civilian victim, or witnessing the death of a victim, during your careers."
Several students nodded, even unexpected ones like Ashido and Mineta. "I suspect that many of you have never seriously considered taking a life yourselves, though. You think you're above that, that there will always be another way, that you are special and it won't happen to you." He stared into every pair of eyes in turn and continued quietly. "You are not special. There is not always
another way. It will happen to you."
Uraraka raised her hand tentatively and the teacher motioned for her to speak. "Have you... then...?"
"Yes," Aizawa replied. "I was still a student at the time. The villain in question was attempting to strangle one of my friends to death. The attacker had a strength enhancement and weighed as if he were made out solid rock. I tripped the villain. He fell off the edge of a freeway bridge and broke his neck." All of this was said emotionlessly in the same tone Izuku had used to give his report to the warden the day before. "I don't remember anything else that happened that day, or the next day for that matter." This, too, was stated perfectly plainly. "Some people will be emotionally destroyed by these events, not just the first time but every time. Others may feel very little. The end of any life is a tragedy, but everyone responds differently to tragedies. There is no such thing as a right or wrong response."
Everyone kept saying that, saying that Izuku wasn't wrong. It didn't seem true, though.
"I do not think I need to tell any of you this, but no matter how angry you are, or how depraved your enemy is, maiming or killing out of anger or in the name of revenge is never acceptable, legally or morally. Keep in mind that undercover heroes exist." Todoroki, Ashido, Aoyama, Ojiro, Shouji, and presumably Hagakure glanced towards Izuku. "For all you know, one of the villains is on your side and if you let your anger get the better of you, you might kill one of our own."
Izuku managed to avoid everyone--even Katsuki--for the rest of the day. Well, avoiding Katsuki wasn't that hard, and some people might be avoiding Izuku which made the maneuver easier.
Hawks' escape had infuriated Katsuki almost too much to have a rational conversation. Nedzu was probably right; the blonde would have charged straight at Hawks and Dabi and likely been incinerated or slashed to death had he been in Fossa's place during the Tartarus escape.
Meanwhile, high ranking heroes across Japan chased after the Paranormal Liberation Front, the news having finally caught on to the new name. Lower ranking heroes chased after the less dangerous villains that had escaped from the above ground facilities at Tartarus when the PLF broke through. The Isomorph assault team that had earlier appeared in the news stormed a former HPSC facility on a northern island, left with several trucks full of people or items, then methodically incinerated the entire building leaving not a single scrap of paper behind. Their chief conductor--appearing in another blurry photo--definitely looked familiar.
What were the odds that this team's leader was the woman Nedzu had mentioned, Shriker? Izuku pulled up the first available photo of her. He stared at the screen, rubbed his eyes, and finally spotted enough differences in facial structure to convince himself that Shriker was not Bit Weasel. "You're the spitting image of your ancestor," Izuku muttered. How exactly was Isomorph's most ferocious and successful strike team leader related to the MLA general? With that level of resemblance and the similar quirks Shriker just had to be a direct descendant, right? "Which would imply that Bit Weasel really did survive the war because she certainly didn't have a child during the conflict."
Reading the history of Shriker was like reading a novel about a swashbuckling pirate queen. Her
first appearance on the international scene involved actual piracy; she and her team seized a container ship traveling between China and Australia. It turned out that more than a hundred people were being smuggled aboard that ship, some willingly... others not. Shriker's second appearance was three years later in Uruguay of all places. It wasn't entirely clear what had happened there, but lots of people had been dead before she arrived and more were dead after she left; the statements from all involved parties denied "everything" without stating what that "everything" was, but, reading between the lines, Izuku could practically hear the Isomorph agents and bystanders alike saying, "well, someone had to do it."
What were the odds Shriker was involved in Izuku's situation after all? Hard to say. As Nedzu pointed out, she had no reason to recruit a quirkless child off the street, not given her other resources, unless... well, maybe she had really needed someone quirkless? No, his shoulder-sitter's motivation and quirk didn't quite seem to match Shriker's. The greenette managed to find a brief video of an Al Jazeera reporter interviewing her. Shriker's voice was sharp, fiery and blunt as a boulder. She was definitely not the one who had borrowed Izuku, but could still be involved somehow. Maybe.
The rest of Nedzu's list of individuals who could have stood up to All For One kept the greenette's mind busy for the remainder of the day. There was no chance of focusing on homework, nor was there much assigned, so looking up information about the most powerful and fierce people on the planet seemed a good use of his time.
Izuku could not find any information about an individual called Asterisk. Whoever Nedzu believed killed the cartel leader Crown, they flew so far below the radar they must be subterranean. The other members of the list were not so hard to research. Izuku already knew quite a bit about Sekhmet. Crown, too, was legendary.
The only image Izuku found of Black Ice was a blur not unlike the image of Aizawa that had appeared in the press after Eraserhead took down Stain. Black Ice was credited with dozens of kills every year, making him one of the most feared mercenary assassin in the world. He had likely trained as an in house operative for Russian intelligence services before beginning his solo career. "How many invisible, terrifying people like this are there out there?" Izuku muttered. "Was Nedzu's list comprehensive or just scratching the surface?"