Chapter Text
“Plenty of humans were monstrous,
and plenty of monsters knew how to play at being human.”
― Victor Vale, Vicious
Midoriya Izuku has pretended all his life. Pretended to smile. Pretended to be happy. Pretended that heroes were the best thing to happen to the world. Pretended to want to be like the number one hero, All Might. He figured the reason he did that was because he wanted to surpass All Might, to be the best hero. That was not the reason.
When Izuku was ten, he witnessed a fight between All Might, who only came to Japan to visit, and a villain who could pull weapons from his skin. The villain, Miyano Hikaru, one who refused to parade around in masks and silly costumes and did not use an alias, killed nine people in one day, using a mini-gun he made on the spot. He committed the crime in broad daylight and Izuku had been hiding in the convenience store with his mom when All Might came flying in. The villain—Izuku saw the irritated expression, for it was as clear as the glass of the window at their apartment that his mom polished regularly—seemed to realise that All Might would be able to thwart his bullets easily and dropped his mini-gun. The gun did not disappear. The villain skimmed his hands over the bare skin of his arm, from finger to the corner his sleeveless shirt, where a fair bit of muscle rests. Then, the second time he ran his hands down his arm, he stopped, pulling something big out. An RPG.
All Might's eyes widened when he realised that there were still civilians in the building behind him—where Izuku was. It was at that point did Inko pull him behind the shelves to shield him before the horror about to unfold.
The RPG didn't fire. All Might was too fast and had subdued the villain. People held him high. Sang praises for his never wavering, never panicking smile once again. The news showed him for ten minutes. He gave interviews. No one remembers the villain's name. Except Izuku.
All Might had achieved greater achievements than this. But this was the first time Izuku had witnessed it and it was when he realised he didn't want to be like the number one hero. He wanted to beat him. Wanted to surpass him in any way possible while looking down with a smug and satisfied smile. A hero would be the most efficient, but... how was one without a quirk supposed to be a hero? And it was just his luck when Sensei kidnapped him.
He was walking home. Beaten. Bloodied. Bruised. Blue. (damn them alliterations) Fresh out of a one-sided fight with Kacchan. He didn't really know why he put up with the bully. Perhaps he just wanted to keep up the facade of an innocent. Maybe he knew he was too weak to fight and found it less bothersome to just let Kacchan blow off some steam (and smoke). Or he was just simply too lazy to defend himself—after all, he was quirkless. That meant he was useless. He was Deku.
Kurogiri dropped him at the bar, with Sensei on the call. Now, five years later, he didn't really remember how exactly the persuasion went. Though he did remember Sensei offering him a quirk and him taking it. He remembered how Sensei called it one of the most powerful quirks to ever exist. He remembered him asking why Sensei won't use it for himself. He remembered Sensei saying it drives the user insane and that he took the quirk from a mental hospital. He remembered not caring as long as he can beat All Might and his beloved Kacchan—if he keeps the promise of becoming the number one hero.
Now, Midoriya Izuku was not crazy. Even despite the fact that he was a psychopath. Or the time when Sensei said he was. Or the one time he jumped off a ten story building to escape even though Eraserhead had his eyes trained on Izuku's back because he had a sneaking suspicion that the underground hero would not let a kid die, even if they're a villain. Or the time he went to see a fight without a disguise when both the hero and the villain knows his face and he has a high chance of being discovered. Or the time he killed someone before Tomura could. Or the time he let himself get arrested because he found that breaking out of the precinct was more convenient than running away or fighting, even with his quirk. Or the other time when he walked into a building with a bomb strapped to his chest, confident he can just use his quirk to thwart the explosion even though he's never ever tried to use it that way before. No, he was not crazy. Reckless, yes. But not crazy.
One thing he is, though, is lazy. If you say that to his face, he would strongly deny it, claiming he just a big fan of not expending more effort than what it needs pass. He was intelligent, and rather than using that cunning to plan world domination and whatnot, he sat idle, thinking of ways to pass time and of the easiest and most convenient ways to get things done. He knew how to fight, but would rather not to, as his quirk was useful in many areas. On days he felt horrible, he wouldn't even use his quirk.
Today, he rests his chin on his knuckles, eyes darting lazily (like everything he does) across the monopoly board. Tomura sat across from him, restless, and handed him the dice. Izuku rolls, moving his shoe and landing on the chance box.
He picked a card. "Suck it, Tomura." No honourifics. They were like brothers, after all. He threw the card down for his opponent to see, moving as it says to a railroad, passing go and collecting M200.
Tomura was not stupid. Despite his childish attitude, he was almost as intelligent as Izuku, which was already above average. He knew Izuku for five years already. He knows that Izuku is a lazy motherfucker and whenever the green-haired villain moved the pieces physically, warning bells starts to ring in Tomura's head. By now, he figured out that Izuku was cheating. Of course, Izuku can cheat whenever he wants, but just so it was still fun for Tomura, he would usually play seriously.
He called him out on it. Tomura knew that Izuku was a poker genius, he knows that the teen had rigged the chance cards, memorised the order of which they were shuffled, he knew he took more than one card because the card he was meant to take was not in his favour. Either that or Izuku just used his quirk to control the dice because he knew that the card was good.
Usually, Izuku would lie his way out of situations like these. He had a tongue like silver, almost as good as Sensei at manipulation. Bu today, he deemed it not worth the efforts, it seemed.
He mutters a you caught me and spun in the booth to lie down on his back, most likely to take a snooze.
Tomura huffed in frustration. He hasn't had a proper game with Izuku for a while now, and that was boring him
"Stop scratching your neck, Tomura," Kurogiri said from behind the bar. "We know you're quite restless now, but we will attack tomorrow."
"Ku-ro-gi-ri," Izuku piped up in a sing-song voice, "Can I fight the strongest person there?"
Looks of surprised registered the two other villain's faces. Izuku would usually ask for the easy ones so he doesn't have to expend any energy.
"I'm bored." He added to convince the black mist.
Kurogiri was quiet for a moment, before confirming with the teen, "How about Endeavour's son?"
Izuku sat up, grinning from ear to ear, albeit lazily. "That sounds like fun."