Author's note :
The update will be twice per weeks until I used my backlog
Currently there are 20 chapters, equalling 100k words. So quite a lot.
If you sees passage/villains that seems to come out from Mirrond's fic, it is normal : we are friends and yes, i have his authorization. We often joke I am a mini-he, though with a lesser grammar.
The alien Easter egg is the most crackish not seriously treated things. Honestly, that one is a gag, you can forget it for later.
Anyway, enjoy this chapter and until Monday !
Chapter 2: What happens between boys.
Let us roll back a bit in time.
A few weeks ago,
"Young master, if you don't go outside to meet people, I'm going to throw you outside."
Despite being a bio-engineered nanny for the man-child we all know and love, Kurogiri was done. Tomura somehow stayed 5 days without sleeping and washing, playing games alone in his room.
"I DON'T NEED TO MEET NPCs! I NEED TO KEEP PLAYING!"
The last edition of the monster of Frankenstein narrowed his non-existent eyebrows and did the most logical thing to do. He took Shigaraki's console and threw it in a portal. Shigaraki was looking with stupefaction at his caretaker.
"My… Video Games…" said the boy, who didn't quite handle his own rage yet.
Then Kurogiri threw Tomura through another portal, toward a hot bath. Yes, Tomura still wore his clothes, but the Noumu was quite done with the smell and just wanted it to be done.
"You will get your video games back only when I get a receipt proving you bought something in a store and at least tried to meet people!" Said the black mist man, still angry at the boy for being such a living pile of waste. Tomura having a decaying power wasn't an excuse to rot, especially if his smell was propagating in the bar. It was a respectable establishment and the only thing his former personality liked in this life.
"But Kurogiriiiiiii" Tomura tried to plead weakly to Kurogiri before the cloud looked angrily at his charge.
"No buts. If you don't wash and do what I just said to do, I will directly report to Sensei." The ultimate threat. The ultimate one. Even Tomura became livid at those words and washed quickly.
Then Kurogiri made the Decay boy clean himself a second time as he forgot to take off his clothes the first time. Oh well, at least the clothes were cleaner.
He still had to clean Tomura's room now. Kurogiri wistfully reflected upon the misery of his own existence as he cocked his guns and made sure that the flamethrower was ready. Yes, it was something that Tomura was supposed to be doing. However, Kurogiri was now sure that indigenous life-forms were born from his protegee's trash and now he had a clean-up to do.
"SSSSSSSSShhhh" made a certain creature, looking like a certain alien from a famous franchise.
"Well, as they say, it is time for a tidy-up. Also, I never liked Prometheus." said the battle butler before beginning the purge.
It is said that the battle ended after 5 quite intense days. Yes, Kurogiri took some breaks to make sure Tomura went out as expected, but still. All for One found the footage hilarious to see. He also asked Kurogiri to burn all the corpses, just to be sure that they wouldn't come back. After all, All for One was an evil genius, and he saw the Alien Saga. No way he was going to experiment on that.
Now, back to Tomura.
First, the blue-haired criminal found a place with games, not too sunny and without too many kids running around. This excluded most cybercafes, as they were often the noisiest places in the world. It also excluded him from the possibility of just hanging out in a video game store. Besides, they have banned him from most because of his decaying habits.
It was not his fault if sometimes he couldn't remember to not put his five fingers on something, dammit.
The second thing that was right now maddening him, is the fact he had to hang out in a mall. Kurogiri restrained him inside and took his ID, so he couldn't even try to get wasted. Once again, he had to be reminded of what happened the last time he was drunk: Supposedly, he may have decayed the support beam for a railing at an airport and some dumbass fell to their death.
He was also way younger and his former caretaker before Kurogiri, someone he named "Random NPC n°2", did not know the difference between an apple juice and an apple liquor. That could have happened to anyone!
Still, the young man with the same hygienic habit as a Nurgling had to find a den to restore himself and at least technically complete his task.
The answer appeared. A store that had better days, with a former stylish front but now just tacky, with a wyvern nesting on a pile of goods made of cards and books. The Den of the Drake. Card games were a kind of game, after all. Also, even if he couldn't get drunk, he could still buy a lot of things with Sensei's money.
"Hello, young man. What are you searching for?" Asked an old vendor, with a beard well taken care of. Maybe it had something to do with the fact he was using it to work on his computer? Tomura pondered the thought a moment before answering.
"Game. Villains Vs Hero. I want a Villain Starter pack."
His demand caused snickering in the shop from the old 'patrons' of the shop… Except they must pay their share, as the shopkeeper, despite their attitude, did nothing. Thus they did what they did best. They snickered.
"Well, there is the "Hero!" game. Nobody plays Villains and most people play different teams of heroes against each other. We recommend the "UA Starter" for beginners."
Either Tomura wasn't terrifying and horrible enough or the shopkeeper was used to seeing creepy guys like him. Even as the criminal stared at him, the man quietly took out an old package with the UA symbol and the Special "Endeavor Valedictorian" edition. Not the rarest as they included it in the package, but most people choose to keep it as it is often their first "Super Rare" card.
Tomura looked at the deck and thought a bit. Pitting heroes against heroes? Tempting. He should see if it was funny.
"No Villains?"
"They have their separate editions, but the HSPC asked for them to be not as "powerful" as the heroes. The Yaoyorozus circumvented it: Either you have an powerful villain unit but they're rare or cost a hefty penny… Or you can play swarm tactics with typical cannon fodder. I recommend a mix of both: one powerful villain such as The Architect, especially as he has passive boosting minions with his type and minions to wear out the heroes. Though I recommend not playing such a deck against an Endeavor/Burnin composition."
Tomura gave a confused look at the man, before looking better at the UA deck and the second villain deck. Indeed, it was minions and villains' bosses were only obtainable via booster. So you needed luck or money before you could use that kind of deck.
"How high are the odds of finding a villain boss in the booster?" Tomura asked, while his game-geared mind calculated things beyond anyone else's comprehension.
"Around 1 in 100 packages, explaining why they'ren't popular." Then, the shopkeeper heard the words that made Tomura nearly untouchable in his shop.
"How many villain booster packs do you have?" Yes, our favorite villain had taken out the black card. The bearded man's eyes turned into yens and took every villain booster he had. It was a hefty quantity.
Tomura continued to get affection points from this charming NPC by telling him he was going to buy often.
That day, Tomura got the UA Deck, as it was the cheaper deck with the rules for it and around ninety villain boosters.
He got his first boss, "Muscular Bloodbath edition" (SSR); he was one of those Villains' bosses without a gang. In fact, his apparition wiped out the field, including allies. However, his strength was equal to the number of units destroyed that way.
That day, Tomura's smile killed five puppies.
That's how the villain gained his place in the shop. The weirdo who would spend a fortune only to play with Villains. If, at first, the other clients laughed at his antics, Tomura taught them to fear, because he used tactics that were just myths before. Minions swarming, boss summoning… He kept improving himself, almost with every game he played.
He became known as "That cheating munchkin with too much money". A name feared in Musutafu's playing community. The Villain domination had begun…
And then, one player arrived. A green-haired guy with a smile just as pure as the blue-haired guy was rotten. One who had just a custom deck, with no logic behind it, like, for example, the Miruko Deck (one of the most recent and, according to a lot, one of the few counters to Tomura Madness Destruction Murder Deck).
"Go easy on me. It's my first time!" Asked Izuku.
Tomura smiled, and the game began. As if mercy existed.
—
Tomure annihilated Izuku. It was pure humiliation. A player receiving such an embarrassing defeat was bound to disappear. Except…
Except that the green bean beamed at his partner.
"Oh my god! That combo was amazing! Was it you being nice?! I can't wait to see what you can do when you play!"
Izuku was so used to being beaten up that losing in a children's card game did not affect his morale in the least. In fact, he loved to make his brain work as much as he was enjoying his daily work-out with Mr. Compress. As the man said, in the show, you need both brains and brawn.
Tomura did not expect such a reaction, but prepared his deck again to face his opponent.
"Well, you're lucky then. I can't go back home until this evening, so I have the time for a few more games if you're up to it."
Izuku was not an opponent within the same league as him, but since all other NPCs were too afraid to continue to grind against him, well… He had to take his fun where he could after all. It was a fun challenge!
Even though Tomura would deny it, that is how he became friends with a kid young enough to be his little brother.
When Kurogiri heard his charge talk about needing a new tactic to fight Zuzu, the Cloud Noumu thought he was speaking of a new boss. He was surprised and cried some tears after learning that Tomura was speaking about another human being.
—-
"They are quite cute."
As they couldn't keep burning expensive heroes cards (not to mention that it would kill Izuku by mistake), Mr. Compress had the simple idea to use a tarot card for Izuku.
A normal one, that you could find in pretty much all markets. So, to start, they used the weakest card on the deck, and now faceless humanoids surrounded both of them.
The only thing differentiating them was the number on their face and a mark on their white torso. Izuku could summon around all 3's cards and all 4's before his nose bled. Which was a good way to measure his limits.
Yes, Atsuhiro made Izuku do a brain scan when the nose bled for the first time. Best way to see if his marvelous brain was affected. According to the test, the bleeding was the signal to not push more than what he had already done.
So they did not. Instead, Atsuhiro took a malicious pleasure in making Izuku work his body to his utter limit. He brought him on his back more than once. The fact he was seeing Inko during those moments was a plus, yes. No, he was not expecting her kind smile every time he arrived at her house. He also asked Mitsuki for Inko's favorite flowers only as a reward for her kindness and her delicious cooking. She even made him a few meals in a bento for the week, so he did not have to cook.
Mitsuki, for her help, got some rare fabrics that Mr. Compress found for her. It was not a bribe to avoid the constant teasing.
It was quite fun to make Izuku more flexible. The boy was so nervous that he was quite rigid. Inko's regimen could do wonders in a situation like that. The magician remembered his old P.E. teacher telling him he had never seen someone that straight.
Atsuhiro smiled while he was reading the various exercises described inside of it, how it had been fun to practice with her… And how she stopped coming because she found someone.
Stop. That was a bad spiral. Instead, it was funnier to torture/train Izuku. Also, it was pleasant to just speak with her again when Izuku went to sleep.
"Kiddo! If you'ren't able to touch your toes with your hands, you're gonna lift that dishwasher to the truck!"
The threat was quite effective as the boy was even more inspired to complete the exercise: touching his feet, while being suspended in the air, head upside down. Flexibility and abs with the little addition of endurance. Aaaah. Being a teacher was quite fun.
"Atsuhiro-sensei! I did it!" said a happy Izuku, before seeing his teacher grabbing a paintball gun. The modified kind with a lot of bullets.
"Good! Now, run! It's time for the painball!"
Izuku almost asked for details before seeing the smile of his teacher. The greenette promised himself to ask his mother what the hell was in the notebook, as he ran into the junkyard as fast as he could.
Short answer: Inko wanted to create the most dangerous yet safe condition to train while making you fear for your life. Add to that, her minor telekinesis and Mr. Compress learned how to dodge bullets in front of him.
Also, yes. She called this specific training "the painball" because she removed the "T".
Meanwhile, Inko was preparing dinner for three at home, making special katsudon for her son as she knew what he was going through with his trigger-happy/traumatized teacher, who had an outlet. Boys… It was so fun. Now all she had to do was to get Atsuhiro to stay to sleep… just one night. Then he would belong to her.
Izuku wondered a bit why his mom had an evil laugh.
—-
It had been three months since Atsuhiro began Izuku's training.
Katsuki was running in the morning alongside Deku while wearing weight on his ankles. To be fair, he did that after seeing Izuku doing the same and even keeping them at school. While the blonde explosive living boy would never admit it to his friend, he had a begrudging respect for the hellish training Izuku went through.
Respect, because the nerd understood that a big brain alone would never make him a hero. Well, it could, but Izuku was analysis smart, not mad-science mad. Even then, Katsuki would have not been as hard on him as he had been if the broccoli had said he would become a support/analyst hero.
Hell, Katsuki would have even encouraged him and asked him to be his sidekick. Izuku was quite crazy in his analysis despite what everyone thought.
But no, Midoriya insisted on being a fighting hero. The kind that FIGHT VILLAINS. Auntie would have never forgiven him if villains killed Izuku on the field. So yeah. Sometimes he went heavy on Deku, such as that time with the "swan dive". Not his proudest moment. As for the notebook… well, it was harsh but necessary… Right?
Deku may have found a letter on his windows with an SSR "Ryukyu" with his apologies.
Katsuki would deny it in public.
Still, Deku went through an even harder training than what Kacchan could imagine himself. Despite what everyone thought of him, Katsuki wasn't just talented, he also put in a lot of effort, trying new moves and failing head-on.
This, in retrospect, may have been the second reason he was hard on Deku.
Katsuki made a lot of effort to become a hero. Deku seemed to wait for it to come from Heaven as if All-Might would descend from it, offering Izuku training and a quirk.
Who the hell did he think he was, to look down on Katsuki's effort despite not having a quirk? He could have become a quirkless hero! Sure, someone like that didn't exist in Japan, but he was fairly sure that the n°1 Hero French team had a quirkless fighter specialized in surprise takedowns like Eraserhead!
You could do that quirkless.
However, now? Well, even Katsuki had to admit that Izuku was training harder than him hoping to realize their dream. Which was quite necessary, as Izuku had a lot to catch up with. At least he knew he had to work harder to have a chance.
At least that was his thought as he saw Deku sprint in front of him and the usual bullets from his insane coach were coming from behind with insane accuracy. Running and dodging. Katsuki felt almost bad for him. However, he would lie if he did not find it funny as hell, too.
Also, he did not miss the part where Izuku was still training his hand with a deck of cards. Even while running and dodging.
Something was up with that. The explosive boy was sure of it and will ask him about it later that day. Notably, Katsuki paid more attention to what people thought and noticed an important thing.
The deck that Deku was using was also incomplete. Deku would never allow that.
—-
Katsuki was searching for his "not-friend", in the middle of the afternoon break, when he heard the usual sound of something being hit. Well, the sound of someone being hit, should he say?
Another reason he was angry. The adults in Aldera were useless and Katsuki had to make the law instead of them. The boy was also pretty sure of who was hit.
Grumbling that Deku was a pain in the ass, Katsuki sprinted to see… an unexpected spectacle.
Deku, standing above two bullies (Kacchan knew them as Extra 3 and Extra 4), and a girl with snake hair. Katsuki was already pretty sure of what happened but had trouble processing certain parts. The part where Deku won a fight against someone who had a minor telekinesis quirk and the other had an excellent leg strength thanks to his sprung legs.
"... Deku? The fuck?"
The dumbass looked at him with that damn bright smile and he even had the gall to look ashamed. HE HAD WON THE SMILE FOR FUCK'S SAKE. IZUKU HAD THE VICTOR'S BRAGGING RIGHTS!
"Well… How to explain…"
—-
A month ago
"Today Izuku, no strength training!" Sako-san said with happiness in his tone. He was now coming to the Midoriya house at least three days per week. Mitsuki was having the time of her life teasing Inko about the fact that her childhood celibate friend was already a step-dad for Izuku. Inko was blushing more and more at the idea and Atsuhiro wasn't sure if she should tell Mitsuki to stop embarrassing her or thank her for doing that.
"Oh, thank god!" Said an overjoyed kid, with way too many bruises on his body and the narrator swears, it was not only the beating his bullies gave him… Well depending if you choose or not to call Mr. Compress' training bullying.
"Instead, it will be battle training!" Said the man, cracking his hands with a certain delight.
"OH FUDGE '' cried our hero, feeling the pain to come… and also a bit of excitement.
"We will also work on your vocabulary." Because, it was an important point to address. If Deku was to become a hero, he had to have sass.
"We will learn today how to dislocate, as it is one of the most important parts of the Fabulous Compress Style!" said the Magician before putting his hand on his own arm… and dislocating with a menacing sound. The spectacle was shocking to the greenette student who almost fainted before Compress put it back in place. The limp arm was quite the thing to see, and it looked terrible at first.
"See your reaction? This is why dislocating is an effective move. Let's be honest, Izuku." said Mr. Compress, with a gentle smile. "Neither of us are power-house. While I'm quite agile and you become faster and more flexible, you'ren't as strong as the weakest mutant quirk. To be fair, most of them would be stronger than me. So how do we fight? By being smart and technical. The right push in the wrong place. We will break kneecaps, we will break joints, and we will fuck up their shoulders."
The warmth in the voice of Compress was alarming and Izuku stared at him, trying to plan a question. "Yes, it is your mother who created it this way for me. However, I spent years honing my skills. I'm also going to teach you how to dislocate your own limb. Why? Because it will save your life if you ever get captured and when we will get into the "vanishing act" part of your training."
"So… it is going to hurt, right?" Said Izuku. He was resigned to his fate now, while still thinking he shouldn't have blackmailed his teacher.
"... Yes. But see it this way: if you had not asked, I wouldn't have to teach you that. Another lesson: Karma is a bitch." So he was still salty about being "blackmailed by a kid young enough to be his son."… Who he wanted as his son. Well, it was not a reason to hold back, right?
A few moments later,
"The hell is your problem?! I never saw someone popping their bones like that without even crying!"
"... My school?" Offered with a timid smile our favorite broccoli.
"... I'm putting it on my personal shitlist." The heir of the king of thieves answered. His ancestor wouldn't have tolerated such a thing and he wouldn't either. He was the thief of justice, after all!
Why did he think that? Izuku just dislocated his own left arm, with way too much ease for it to be pure talent, before putting it back on for his first time. Same thing for his leg. While it hurt the young man, Izuku never cried during the process.
It was the pain tolerance Mr. Compress expected to have to build inside him. For Izuku to have it… Atsuhiro felt his teeth grinding. He spent so much time as "Mr. Compress", that he had almost forgotten how it was to be quirkless.
The exhilarating sensation of having the world in his palm, the fact he was feared and admired, his fame.
That almost made him forget why he was donating so much. Seeing Izuku be like this… It made him beyond angry. Maybe his next action should be to bring some light on the Quirkless issues?
Izuku seemed to have felt his pain too, and he gave a sad smile to his teacher.
"Hey, don't worry. This isn't as bad as it seems. It's bad only when Kacchan isn't there to "punish" me."
Kacchan. Atsuhiro groaned at his name. He could see why Izuku still thought of him as a friend, but the boy was way too abrasive. And there were better ways to protect people than being an angry ball of spite. It was an Endeavor 2.0 in the making.
Still. He was indeed making sure that Izuku wasn't being hurt too much when he could and giving Izuku protection, overt protection, would just paint against his back for those wanting to hurt Katsuki through him.
"Izuku? I will give you an assignment. In the next two months, I want you to put the fear of you inside at least two bullies. Don't worry about the consequences. I can guarantee you the UA won't look at it." Nedzu owed him a few favors for some jobs against the HPSC. Time to cash them.
"How can you be so sure?" Izuku was suspicious before his master reminded him of the first rule of any good magician.
"Ah ah ah. A good magician…"
"Never reveal their secrets, yes, I know. Rule number 1."
There were other rules, but Izuku was a slow learner of some of them. Like Mr. Compress's favorite: "Sanity is boring. Embrace the truth and free yourself of normality". Izuku still had a problem with this one. It also showed this in his analysis, as he was too straight-laced. Mr. Compress was extremely looking forward to what ideas a mad Izuku could unleash.
The magician thought Nedzu would look the other way about the violence Atsuhiro just asked Izuku to commit and will put Izuku on the stoat's watch list. Yes, he was one of the few knowing what Nedzu was, because he helped him take back his file from the HPSC and left behind a nasty virus.
However, if the young man wanted to be a hero, he needed to learn what Katsuki had understood (maybe a bit too well). A hero should put the fear of him into the criminal so they don't act… However, he had a singular feeling about that.
"Yes… Well… Master? Atsuhiro? I know I will have to be violent. However, I don't want to be that kind of hero."
"Oh? Then, please. Tell me, what kind of hero you want to be?"
"I… I don't know. I often discuss heroics with a friend. He is… Well… It is very interesting because he hates heroes, but he has arguments about that, even if he needs help to say it.
The fame, the money… I get a hero will get those, but he's right when he says that too many of them are only in it because they want that. They are violent and they get to be icons.
Not to mention all those who are just looking for a badge and the right to be violent. I mean, it isn't like you don't expose some of them each week." His teacher nodded as Izuku spoke. He continued his job like the one exposing corruption, though it was not enough.
The lack of reaction from the HPSC was the reason that this fellow Stain was becoming ruthless, advocating for a more permanent way of disabling fakes.
Mr. Compress had cut ties with him, but he could understand the frustration the Hero Killer got. At least, he was only using the list Atsuhiro found, and he was letting some of them live.
Meaning it was not killing for killing yet. If it ever came to that, Atsuhiro made it clear to Stain that when they would meet again, only one would walk out of the alley.
Izuku then continued.
"I don't think I can become a new All-Might. He is just… too much. No one can live up to him… but he said something a while ago. That an authentic hero should find a cause, a reason to fight. So… I don't want it to be as petty as scaring my bullies." This is an actual good point.
Still. It was interesting to see that Izuku was, while still a ball of sunshine, asking himself some good questions.
"Kiddo? You have years in front of you to decide what kind of hero you want to be. As long as you don't become a destructive hero or a corrupt one, you know I will be proud of you." Said his mentor with a little smile, helping his almost-stepson to get back up. "But now let's help you focus on the present!"
It is said that during the month, they could hear a green ghost crying. Well, harder than usual, that is. If the Izuku from the main universe could see what his counterpart had to suffer, maybe he would have found All-Might training easy, because if OG Izuku followed the American Dream… Here, it was more the Highway to Hell. Either you become strong or you abandon all hope and become strong.
His teacher actually beat into him our dear Izuku, how to fight.
Now, let us go back almost to the present. As in, a few minutes before, Katsuki arrives to see Izuku apologetic for the unconscious body of his bullies.
See, there were more than a few theories that Aldera as part of the Meta Liberation Army or at least a Destro sympathizer.
It was just stupidity and ignorance.
Yet, in the social pyramid, if Izuku, as a quirkless, was quite at the bottom of the school, people with villainous quirks were a close second. Ophidia, the girl with the snake hair, was the daughter of a Lamia mutant Quirk and her father could manipulate hair and be making a killing in hairdressing. However, the young girl was still someone who had hair and would hiss at you and try to bite you. As for why her name is not Japanese, it was because she had origins in Europe and not because the author is lazy and liked the name.
Despite having a loving family, she was a close second to Izuku on the social ladder. Since Izuku also avoided more and more of his bullies, he was agile enough to just outrun them.
On this day, Izuku also learned a lesson Atsuhiro couldn't have taught him: You can run away from your problem. The'ssue is they become the problem of someone else.
"Don't look us in the eyes, monster!"
"Yes, she's going to turn us into stone!"
"Shut up! That isn't how my quirk works, and you all know it!"
Now, two things kids learn quickly are those who say that explaining why you'ren't okay with things people say or just ignore them… Well, those who say that are very tall and strong or liars.
The girl was now being held in a corner by the pyro and the spring boy, Izuku, just above them as he was going down for the next period. Our green boy heard everything, and as he felt for one instant, his shoes became steel. As if they were lead, heavy.
—-
"All-Might, what do you think makes a great hero?"
"Well, as far as I know, every hero I respect had a similar story. One day, they heard someone asking for help and they bolted. That attitude? The fact of just moving to help others? This is the fabric of a true hero."
—-
Izuku was mid-drop kicking the telekinetic boy when he stopped to think about All-Might's interview.
To the merit of the spring-legged boy, he tried to attack Izuku the moment he knocked out his friend. Unfortunately for him, his attacks were quite previsible for an Izuku who just spent an entire month in a battle against an S Rank Villain with a sadistic streak.
So, when the first high kick came, Izuku referenced a cult scene from Matrix by dodging the kick by falling almost against the ground. Almost being the keyword. The hit went into the wall as Izuku got back up.
"Oh shit! That must have hurt!"
"Oh fuck you, man!"
He then got bitten several times by Ophidia on his back because, well… She could and she was clearly not alone. Also, it was nice to have an outlet and let her snakes bite some dumbass. She did not have any venom (yet), but it was quite nasty. It was when the bitten boy tried to punch her again that Izuku caught his arm, before popping it out of his joint, making the bully cry before Kacchan arrived.
Izuku then panicked and dislocated his good leg when Spring boy tried to kick him. Only then did the shock make him pass out, too.
—-
Kacchan was pinching his nose as Izuku stopped his tales, and Ophidia was nodding beside him.
"And so that is why I need you to help me hide them, Kacchan!"
"GODDAMNIT IZU… NO, DEKU. YOU DID NOT LEVEL UP FROM DEKU." Katsuki screamed in his rage at his idiotic friend.