Chapter One:

Tomura had his headphones in as usual. Sitting behind his desk, he blasted aliens on a computer screen. He didn't notice when the door opened, or when two people entered.

Tapping his protégé on the shoulder, All for One said, "If I'd been a hero, you would be dead."

Shrieking, Tomura decayed his computer mouse. His character died. With a curse, he whirled around in his wheely chair. "Sensei, don't sneak up on me when I'm—who's the brat?"

A green-haired teenager waved. He had freckles and big, cute eyes like a helpless deer. "Hi! My name is Izuku Midoriya, and I'm here to join the League of Villains."

Tomura stared. "What is this thing? Target practice?"

All for One's jaw twitched. "Ha-ha, Tomura, don't tease your little brother." He winked frantically. "You know exactly what I'm talking about so don't you dare tell any jokes that might confuse him."

Tomura frowned. His sensei had an annoying tendency to tell him unimportant matters when Tomura was in the middle of important video games, so it was possible he'd missed an info dump earlier. Also he hadn't checked his email and text messages since this game had been released. "Could you come back after I finish this level? I was about to hit my tenth achievement."

"Izuku, I need a moment with your older brother alone." All for One grabbed Tomura and dragged him away from his current favorite game. The maniac gleam in the villain's eyes kept Tomura from arguing.

Once they were in the bedroom with the door closed, All for One used a quirk that made the room glow blue—an anti-eavesdropping measure. Then he said, "Izuku Midoriya is my son under my civilian identity."

"You have a civilian identity!?" Tomura shrieked.

"I thought you'd be more focused on the son part." All for One rubbed his scarred ears.

"YOU HAVE A SON?!" Tomura screamed.

This time, All for One put his hands over his ears in time. "Don't be difficult about this, I prefer not to deal with other people's emotions."

Up until fairly recently, Tomura would have been spitting with jealousy. But lately he'd met a group of new villain friends online, who he planned to turn into the core of his league. The experience had left him less emotionally dependent on his mentor. He shrugged. "I don't care if you adopted another brat. But why wouldn't you raise the kid as a villain?"

"Izuku is my biological son."

"Huh." Tomura considered. He could see a little resemblance to pre-potato Sensei in the kid's facial structure and hair. "Wouldn't that be even more reason to raise him into a proper villain?"

All for One's eye twitched. "I've come to realize that you're right."

Tomura choked at this completely uncharacteristic admission. He even pinched his arm to make sure he wasn't dreaming.

All for One continued, "While I was busy with my work and rarely at home, my foolish son developed the ambition of becoming a hero."

"That's rough," Tomura said, wondering how much sympathy he needed to fake before he could get back to his video game.

"He even planned to take the U.A. entrance exam while quirkless. I was very upset. Distraught, even. You see, my brother also—never mind." All for One coughed. "I told my son about my little brother. I told him a little too much. Then I had to erase Izuku's memories with a new quirk."

"How did he end up going from a hero wannabe to a villain wannabe?"

"Let's just say I'm making the best of an impulsive decision. I meant to erase the part where I admitted to being a villain to my son—and instead I erased everything except that moment. New quirk problems, ha-ha." All for One twitched harder. Sweat dripped down his forehead. "If my wife finds out that I gave our son amnesia…it doesn't bear thinking about. She believes that Izuku is visiting me in America. The quirk should wear off in a few months, before his supposed return date. Just in case, I'm looking for another quirk to restore his mind, because my wife…she has a very strong arm when swinging a frying pan…"

"Good luck, Sensei, but I can't help you with finding quirks or your marital problems." Tomura gazed longingly in the direction of his computer.

"While my son has amnesia, I need you to teach him the joys of villainy." All for One grabbed Tomura's shoulders. "I told Izuku that he's already a villain. You're a cool, older boy. He'll admire you." All for One spoke as if trying to convince himself, his skeptical eyes raking Tomura's stained sweatshirt. "Izuku is smart and knowledgeable about quirks. He'll be an asset to the League of Villains. And you'll taint his reputation so that he can never, ever become a hero. Why, he might even come to enjoy villainy and stick with it after he gets back his memories. If not, I can erase his memories again."

Tomura considered. "If I babysit your brat, then will you buy me a new gaming system?"

"Yes, of course."

"You caused me to decay my favorite high-end luxury gaming mouse."

"Here." All for One handed over his credit card. "Money is no object, as long as Izuku becomes a villain."

"Deal." Tomura pocketed the card, then went out to meet his new little brother.

After dumping the kid, All for One departed, muttering something about how Izuku's current innocence reminded him too much of someone named Yoichi to bear. Tomura didn't pay attention. He plopped Izuku down in front of the TV and put on a bunch of movies with criminal protagonists: Robin Hood, John Wick, Zorro, and V for Vendetta. Although Tomura had not seen these movies, the main characters on front usually wore black so he assumed they were very evil. Fiction seemed like a great way to slowly dip the brat's toes into villainy. Izuku listened to anything Tomura said like a small child. His gaze held an uncanny blankness. He was glued to the screen when Tomura left. It would probably be fine to leave him alone.

The League of Villains gathered in front of a hotpot restaurant. This was only the third time they'd all met in-person. They'd originally been part of a fantasy MMORPG team together, but when Tomura had realized all his teammates had criminal origins, naturally he'd recruited them to work for him. They were way better than the cheap criminals his sensei had gathered. (Which, admittedly, didn't say much. Sensei had found some real bots.)

Tomura flashed a credit card at his friends. "All for One will be paying for our dinners from now on. In return, we just need to help his kid become a villain." Tomura didn't explain about Izuku's amnesia or his hero dreams. He trusted his friends, but they weren't all the best liars.

Compress' eyes tracked the card. Tomura pocketed it before it got stolen.

Toga asked, "Is he cute?"

"Like an adorable puppy," Tomura said. "But if you stab him, you're dead. That's my little brother."

Dabi stuck his hands in his pockets and mumbled about not needing more younger siblings to look after.

Twisting his hands, Spinner said, "I'm inexperienced dealing with kids, but I'll do my best."

Twice said, "This will be fun," then "The boss' spoiled son? Ugh, I bet he's insufferable."

Grinning, Magne slapped Twice on the back. "Cheer up, we're getting free food."

The League trooped into the restaurant, ate until their stomachs felt ready to explode, and made their plans to attack U.A. and kill All Might during the U.S.J. training exercise.

Tomura had been fired up about U.S.J. until Izuku tipped him off that All Might wouldn't be there. (Apparently Izuku had some detailed All Might tracking system on his phone. Tomura could only assume pre-amnesia Izuku had hated All Might too.) Then there had barely been any purpose. Killing a few NPCs wouldn't make a proper villain debut. Tomura ordered his inner circle to look for All Might, while he sent the lower-level villains whose names he couldn't remember to attack the hero brats.

Izuku tugged on Tomura's sleeve. "I saw the news. Shouldn't we hurry to U.S.J.?" Izuku had clearly modeled his villain costume after the movie Zorro: a black mask over his eyes, a cape, and a black flat-brimmed hat. His dark green jumpsuit had a belt full of weapons.

Tomura looked up from texting. "Kurogiri still hasn't found All Might."

"We can't wait for All Might!" Izuku cried. "The students might be dying."

Good point. What if everyone died before Tomura got in a single kill? That would be embarrassing. His friends would give him such a hard time. "Fine, I'm calling Kurogiri over." Tomura stood up. He didn't see any reason to take the All Might-murdering Nomu, because All Might wouldn't be there. He could handle a few NPCs on his own.

When Kurogiri sent Izuku and Tomura through the portal, they arrived to a scene of heated battle between hero students and villains.

"We have to save them!" Izuku shouted.

"Eh, our side seems to be doing fine." Tomura blinked in surprise as Izuku shoved him straight at a villain with needle hair who'd been about to kill a frog girl. He accidentally grabbed her and decayed her. "Oops."

She hadn't been one of his real friends, so Tomura didn't mind too much. However, he minded when Izuku grabbed his hand and pushed him at another villain. Tomura's deadly touch accidentally decayed this one, too. "Hey! Little brother!"

"No time, we need to rescue everyone." With surprising strength, Izuku swung Tomura around by his ankles like a club. Tomura wailed as he was used as a living weapon.

By the time Tomura recovered from his dizziness enough to scream for Kurogiri to take him away, the villains had been defeated and the hero students stared at him and his little brother with confused eyes.

When they landed back in Tomura's room, he screamed, "What the hell were you doing?"

Izuku blinked like a cow gazing at the headlights of a train. "Saving the hero students, like we came to do."

Awkwardly, Tomura realized he'd never actually explained the quest to his little brother. "We are villains! What do you think villains do?"

"Villains save people and fight unjust governments," Izuku said. "Just like in the movies."

Tomura was loathe to admit he hadn't actually seen any of the movies. "But the guys on the front of the movie covers wore black."

Izuku patted Tomura's shoulder. "I'm sorry for using you as a club, big brother. It seemed like an urgent situation, and you froze up."

Tomura choked. Froze? He'd been enjoying watching a hero student about to die! "Excuse me, I did not freeze."

"Mmm, I'm sure you didn't." Izuku hugged Tomura. "It's all right. I'm here."

Tomura froze in shock. He hadn't gotten a hug since the day his sensei first saved him from the streets. His brain overloaded. His eyes looked in all directions. His fingers twitched, afraid to accidentally touch.

"We've gotta get you some gloves," Izuku said, then kissed Tomura's cheek.

Tomura's brain returned a 404 error.

While eating dinner, Tomura watched the news. He was horrified to learn that the media had mistaken him and Izuku for rather violent vigilantes. Although the police had demanded for them to turn themselves in, they had widespread public support. The family of the girl he'd saved had publicly thanked him. Tomura felt ill.

After dinner, All for One called Tomura. "How did Izuku do at U.S.J.?"

"Wonderfully," Tomura lied. He would rather decay his own computer without backing up any of his save slots than admit he'd been labeled a vigilante during his villain debut. "The news is talking all about the League of Villains and their terrible attack." That part was true. It was just no one believed Tomura to be the leader of the villains he'd helped destroy.

With uncharacteristic anxiety, All for One asked, "How did Izuku react to his first kill?"

"He doesn't seem to have the tiniest bit of remorse," Tomura said. "If anything, he's proud."

"Excellent!" All for One cried. "The amnesia left him a blank slate, free of social constraints. Even when he remembers, he'll never be able to go back to the heroes. You've done well, Tomura. I'll have your new gaming system and mouse shipped tomorrow."

Clearly lying had been a great decision. Tomura could always build up a villainous reputation later. Then the lie would become true. Sensei would never have to find out.

For the last five minutes, Katsuki Bakugo had been staring at the classroom wall and trying to rewrite his own memories. He'd heard the shorter vigilante speak at U.S.J.—but he could not believe his own ears. The vigilante had just ignored Katsuki, as if he was nothing except a speck of dust. Therefore he could not possibly be someone who Katsuki knew. If he believed that hard enough, it would become true.

In the corner, Tsuyu chattered with a couple other girls. "That kid who saved me was cool! He looked about our age, don't you think?" A blush appeared on her cheeks. "Is it strange to be interested in a vigilante even though I'm a hero student?"

Mina laughed. "You'll have plenty of competition! I think half the class has a crush on the short vigilante. Kirishima was talking yesterday about how manly he was."

In a shy voice, Kirishima said, "I just said that he was my hero…not…anything else…" He couldn't meet her eyes.

"Then you don't mind if I shoot my shot?" Toru asked.

Katsuki started banging his head against his desk in an attempt to give himself amnesia. He would rather pretend he hadn't recognized that voice than admit his childhood friend / bullying target had somehow turned into an insanely competent vigilante, saved his life, and become the target of crushes from half the class.

The inner circle of the League of Villains gathered around the living room, spreading across the couch and three arm chairs. Tomura waved his hand. "This is my younger brother, Izuku Midoriya. He hasn't picked a villain name yet."

Toga unleashed a squeal that could shatter glass. "He's adorable!" She leapt off the sofa and skipped over. "You were my boyfriend before you lost your memories."

"I was?" Izuku blinked, looking around uncertainly.

"Yup!" Toga glared at everyone else, daring them to contradict her. All smiles, she grabbed Izuku's arm and dragged him onto the couch next to her. "We're super lovey-dovey."

A blush spread down Izuku's face. He fidgeted. "Um." His voice rose a pitch. "P-please look after me. A-all of you, I-I mean."

Spinner inclined his head. "Nice to meet you."

"Nice to meet you," said Twice. "Terrible to meet you."

Magne patted him on the head. "What a cute kid."

Izuku said, "I'm excited to be included in my first villain planning meeting. How will we distribute our money among the poor? Who will we save next?"

Dabi snorted. "That's not what we—"

Nodding, Compress interrupted, "You are completely right. Want to help me rob a corrupt government official of stolen tax dollars?"

Izuku beamed. "Whoa, how exciting! Are we also going to take revenge on heroes who have harmed people?"

"Actually, yes." Dabi started to smile.

Tomura pinched his forehead. "Noobs, shut it. First we need to repair my reputation after that disaster at U.S.J. Also, Sensei wants me to recruit Stain."

Spinner beamed and fingered his scarf. "What a wonderful idea. Oh, it would be a dream come true to work with Stain."

Tomura grunted. He didn't feel the same, but he needed to kill some heroes to make up for the embarrassment of saving a bunch of them. Stain seemed good at killing heroes. "Little brother, put those analytic abilities of yours to work and find Noseless."

Izuku frowned. "Are you sure? Stain seems too violent for our team. The heroes he's attacked aren't all corrupt."

Tomura stared wearily. "Did your game screen glitch? Because I don't recall saying I cared."

Izuku pointed out, "Stain might immediately try to kill us. He's always worked alone. He does not consider himself a villain."

That was a more valid point. Tomura shrugged. "Eh, then we'll destroy him if he's a problem." The answer seemed to satisfy Izuku, although it launched a debate among the rest of the League. Entirely too many of them stanned Stain.

Tomura crept out the door while Izuku and Mr. Compress started planning their heist. When given the mission of corrupting his new little brother, Tomura had asked himself, what would Sensei do? And Sensei had shafted the task off on Tomura, then run off. Therefore Tomura should arrange for Izuku to spend the next couple days with other League of Villains members while he finished his latest video game.

Ochaco was grocery shopping when a green-haired boy walked up to her. He said, "Excuse me, I see that you're looking at the discounted bread shelf. Most of that is expired. Would you like the money to buy fresh food?"

"Well, yes." Ochaco squinted, wary of a pyramid scheme. "If you're inviting me to join an MLM, I'm not interested."

"Here, free money." The boy handed her a pile of thousand-yen bills, then ran off.

Ochaco gaped. With trembling hands, she flipped through the bills. They were real, not Monopoly money. She stuffed them into her purse. Who had been that handsome, heroic boy? Forget about the vigilante her classmates were all going ga-ga over. Ochaco's new crush was the first boy who had given her money.

A man in a magician's top hat pursued the boy down the grocery aisle, screaming, "Stop! We're not supposed to give all of it away! Even Robin Hood takes a percentage."

Izuku opened the restaurant door for Toga. "After you."

"Such a gentleman," she giggled, skipping inside. "Why did you pick this restaurant? Who do we want to kill here?"

"No one?" Izuku looked confused. "It's a new Italian place. I looked it up online, it got great reviews."

"Oh. So I suppose you don't want to get thrown out before we have time to eat." Toga stuck her knife back up her sleeve.

After they'd been seated, Toga asked, "Why was Mr. Compress crying in the hallway?"

"I'm not sure. We had a very successful Robin Hood mission. I had trouble finding enough people to give away all the money to, so I started giving it to charities. The local pet shelter and food bank were very grateful." Izuku smiled. "So I also made some donations using my dad's credit card. I stole it from Mr. Compress, who stole it from my brother. Dinner is on me."

"Aw, how sweet." She perused the menu. "What are your thoughts on blood?"

"That it belongs inside the body?"

"Lame."

"Would you like to go to an amusement park after this?" Izuku asked.

"Also lame. I prefer my thrills to be real." Toga's eyes lit up. "Ooo, they have steak. I like mine rare."

When the food arrived, Toga made the mistake of asking Izuku about his interests, and got a long rant about hero statistics. Even worse, he seemed to have entirely missed the point of villainy and thought it was about helping people in illegal but ethically justifiable ways. When the waiter arrived with the check, Toga tensed, waiting for the murder to finally begin. Instead, Izuku handed over a credit card.

"Psst, what are you doing?" Toga hissed, watching the waiter's retreating back. "He's getting away."

Izuku blinked. "Paying for our meal? I said that dinner was on me."

"I thought you mean that stabbing the waiter was on you. Then we dine and dash."

Izuku recoiled. "That doesn't sound like a good date."

"Why are you no fun?" Toga collapsed with her head on the table. "Ugh, I should have gone after one of the hero students, even they would probably break more rules."

"Hmm. We're not actually dating, are we?" Izuku assessed her with his gaze. "Oh, well, it was nice of you ask me out, even though this doesn't seem to be working."

"I agree about the part where we don't work," Toga grumbled into the tablecloth. She made one failed attempt to stab the waiter before Izuku dragged her back home.

Izuku held up a map. "This is why I'm reasonably certain that Stain will attack Native tonight."

The paper was covered with a lot of numbers Tomura didn't understand, but he trusted the kid's analysis. He'd played several strategy games with his new little brother by now and developed a healthy respect. Tomura ruffled Izuku's hair. "Good job. Let's head out."

"Should we gather the rest of the League of Villains?" Izuku asked.

"And watch them fanboy over Stain? Hell no." Tomura rolled his eyes. "We don't need more than the two of us for a recruitment mission."

"Indeed, the others could be a liability if this goes south," Izuku said. Once again, Tomura got the impression they might not quite be on the same page. However, Izuku left to find Kurogiri and Tomura got distracted by the game he was playing. He'd nearly become the first person to unlock every achievement.

Tomura emerged from Kurogiri's portal in a very bad mood, because he'd just died three times in a row in his game. Stain's dark figure loomed in an alleyway. Tomura stepped forward, accidentally kicking some glasses-wearing hero student out of the way.

Stain's sword thumped harmlessly into the wall above the hero brat's head. Tomura stuck a pamphlet in his face. "League recruitment materials. Loads of my friends are big fans of you." LOV was in big red letters on top of the paper. He frowned as he saw Steal from the Rich and Give to the Poor listed as their number one activity. "Hey, this is slander. Who wrote this? Was it you, little brother?"

In Tomura's distraction, Stain took advantage to nick his neck and paralyze him. As the pamphlet tumbled from his fingers, he growled, "Fine, no more mister nice guy. Little Brother?"

Izuku leapt through the portal, holding a bottle of hairspray and a lighter. His smile as he lit his handmade flamethrower was positively villainous.

Mournfully, Tenya said, "I didn't even see the face of the vigilante who saved me. But I haven't been able to stop thinking about him ever since…"

Mina nudged Tsuyu. "Looks like you have more competition for your crush. The League of Vigilantes are cool."

Jirou sighed dreamily. "His flamethrower has a musical rhythm."

Momo admitted, "I love boys who create their own weapons."

Ochaco gazed at the search results on her phone, smug that her own crush was not being chased by the entire class but annoyed she hadn't been able to find him.

Loudly, Shouto Todoroki declared, "The vigilante is all mine! He humiliated my father by releasing proof that he defeated Stain. The HPSC had already officially given credit to Endeavor, leaving them utterly humiliated. My father has been stomping around flaming all day. It's the Todoroki family creed that we must date whoever would annoy our dad the most."

Aizawa grumbled, "If all of my students must develop a crush on the same criminal, then at least I wish you would stop making me listen to it. Also, Bakugo, stop hitting you head against your desk. If you break school property, you pay for it."

Once again, everything had gone wrong for Tomura. He'd been completely on-board with defeating Stain—something about that guy just annoyed him. Also, he'd been furious when Endeavor had claimed credit for defeating Stain and agreed with Izuku's plan to release a video clip showing they had done it.

How could Tomura have known they would get credit for saving Native and some nameless hero student? He hadn't even been paying attention to who was in the alleyway. Due to some mud on his fallen pamphlet, the word Villain had been obscured, and people had mistaken them for the League of Vigilantes. They'd been praised by the public for heroically saving hero students twice. People were calling them Class 1-A's guardian angels. Even worse, the media had mistaken Izuku for the leader of the League of Vigilantes! Tomura was considered his own little brother's sidekick. It was just plain humiliating.

Tomura texted his Sensei: Everything is going great. Izuku loves being a villain. We've been getting a lot of media attention. P.S. There is no need for you to check the news. Just take my word for it.

OMAKE TIME!

Omake: Zero Self-Awareness

All for One: Tomura, where do you learn to dodge responsibility in favor of pleasure?

Kurogiri: Where do you think, master? Think long and hard about this.

All for One: I see. Kurogiri must have been a terrible influence as a former hero student.

#

Omake: A Spark of Interest

Dabi: So your little brother has amnesia? Does it work on other little brothers? Asking for a friend.

Tomura: Dabi, you don't have friends besides us.

#

Omake: Who is Brainwashing Who?

Dabi: Kid, I'm supposed to teach you to be evil but I don't really care.

Izuku: What if we take theatre lessons?

Dabi: I'm not sure why…whoa, this is fun.

Izuku: Tomura, would you like a corgi?

#

Omake: Izuku's Ongoing Attempts to Give the League Therapy

Izuku: Haven't you noticed the League isn't too good at this noble revolutionary thing? Or the noble thief thing? Our caper was the first time you stole anything.

Compress: You have a point but I'm too annoyed at you for giving away my money to acknowledge it.

Izuku: I've been improving the League's reputation as legitimate agents of change. We have supporters. I'm starting a discord server. There may even be endorsements.

Compress: Endorsements? As in people giving us money to use their free stuff? Keep talking…

#

Omake: Conspiracies

Shouto: I have theorized that the green vigilante is Tomura Shigaraki's secret brother. When they called each other "brother," that kind of gave it away.

Tomura: I wouldn't put it past my father to cheat on my mother. However, my entire family was dead when Izuku was born, so you're barking up the wrong tree. Come up with a theory about someone else being a secret brother, like Dabi.

Dabi: Shhhhhhhhhhhh!

#

Omake: The AU Where Izuku Had Already Met All Might Pre-Amnesia

Izuku: Why am I developing green sparks and superstrength?

Tomura: Uhh…would you believe that All Might is our deadbeat dad? That's why we totally need to kill him!

#

Omake: Dekubowl

Toga: Maybe I'll pick a hero student to stalk. That girl with the bob looked cute.

Ochaco: Sorry, I already have a crush on Izuku and so does my entire class. Except maybe Bakugo, we're not sure if he hates Izuku or if he's a tsundere.

Toga: There's no one left? How did the AU where my crush became a villain somehow screw me over the most?

#

Omake: The Real Reason

Tomura: Sensei, I still don't understand why you can't help me train your son to be evil. You're better at corrupting people than me.

All for One: Let's just say it turns out the patricide instinct survives even amnesia.

Izuku: It's true. I don't even know why I'm trying to kill All for One—the knife just keeps accidentally ending up in his back.

Author's Note: Thank you to freakyanimegal for this hilarious prompt. Also many thanks to Gentrychild and Gfan97 for brainstorming ideas.

FYI, I have a new collab with Zyla_SweetBean on Archive of Our Own, science-fiction story with a Humans are Space Orcs theme. The title is "How (NOT) to Survive Your Pet Death Worlder" and the summary is: Humans are known across the galaxy for being terrifying, relentless, and savage monsters. Naturally the alien warlord All for One must have one as a pet. The unfortunate alien abduction victim Izuku Midoriya is determined to make his captor regret it.

Delete the spaces to get the link:

archiveofourown.

org/

works/49984948/chapters/126204133