Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

It took him a while to adjust to the information he’d just been given.

He was sure it would take anyone a while to adjust to that. But him especially. After all that he’d been through, all who he’d been hurt by, he never thought she would be the one to end his short life. Especially with what he came to do for her.

No way. This… this wasn’t happening.

What did he do wrong? He tried to put her back together and she- she tricked him. 

Elizabeth tricked him!

Fuck, he was only fifteen. His birthday was less than a month away. He didn’t want to die, not with his father out there and free, still breathing. 

All he wanted to do was help her. Didn’t she see that he could help her?

But there was no time to think about that, as the scooper began its warning noise. Three consecutive beeps, causing him to freeze with fear, the tiny room too small for him to get away for long even if he had the strength to do so. His father has ensured that for ease of use when looking at corpses of kids the animatronics had managed to capture.

There was a beat of silence, as Mike held his breath, knowing that this would hurt like hell.

There was pain, lots of it. The white hot agony that pierced his very soul, as the scooper went deeper and deeper into his stomach and chests, pulling upwards and not letting him breathe. 

So this is how it ends, huh? Almost fitting for him to die at her hand. Keep all family deaths caused by family members, he thought bitterly. He just hoped Henry could fix this mess, and that Mike had saved his sister and would not die today in vain.

This was it…

The end of everything .

Or at least, that’s what he thought that’s what would happen.

But the universe just never gives him a break, does it?

He didn’t even have time to scream before his body hit the ground with a large thud. It seemed strange that the first feeling that caused him to feel was not pain, but shock. 

Shock dissolved into exhaustion, and exhaustion changed swiftly to confusion. 

“What the hell…?” 

Sitting up, it was pretty apparent that he wasn’t in Kansas anymore, so to speak. 

He wasn’t exactly sure where he was. He scanned his surroundings, seeing that he was in an alleyway surrounded by bins and rubbish. He blinked, it just now registering that he was somehow, someway, alive. Shaking, he felt his face. It Felt alive. Warm. He had survived.

“What… what in the fuck?” He asked himself, scrambling to his feet. “This… this is fucking weird.” He decided. And cautiously took a step forward, before running out of the alleyway only to see…

More color than he’d seen in a very long time. People looked so bright and cheery. Was he at a convention? 

He craned his neck up, and saw what shouldn’t be real. A man was flying. Flying. He swore it!

Startled, he stumbled and fell onto the ground. “What…what’s going on?” He breathed.

Looking over to his right, he could see an old antique store. He hurried over, still believing that this was the lack of oxygen to his brain caused by his soon to be death.

His blue eyes stared brightly back at him in the reflection of the window. He could feel his heart beating in his chest, speeding up rapidly. Typical with aftons, he supposed, “we just don’t fucking die, do we?” He mumbled to himself.

He heard a male voice ask him a question. Turning around, he saw that he was greeted with the face of a green haired boy covered in freckles. “Sorry? I um, I don’t speak Japanese.” He confessed, praying he assumed the language correctly. The boy blinked, his green curly hair falling over his eyes. “Sorry! Um, I asked if you were ok.” He admitted. “Me? Oh! Yeah, sure thing, fellow person who is also here!” He said, laughing awkwardly to himself before face palming. “Sorry, I’m a bit out of it right now.” The boy smiled. “I can sort of tell, do you need help at all? You seem a little lost.” 

Mike blinked. “Yes! Yes, I do. I um, where am I?” 

His new helper looked a little taken-aback. “You’re in Musutafu…” 

“Where?”

He gave Mike a confused look. “…Japan...”

Mike gawked. “What- WHAT? JAPAN?”

The boy seemed very put off by this reaction. Stepping back a bit. “Sorry, I don’t mean to yell, it’s just- are you fucking with me? Last I checked it was 1985 and I was in Hurricane. You know, America.” He deadpanned. The boy tilted his head. “Maybe we should get you to a doctor?” He asked. Mike sighed. “Y-yeah. Maybe? God, I don’t even know what’s happening right now.” The teen sank to the floor, face in hands. The boy stood awkwardly over him, giving him a small smile. “I’m Izuku Midoriya?” He offered, holding out his hand for a hand shake. The teen sighed. “Mike.”

Izuku winced and threw his hand back, grasping it in pain. “Shit! Are- are you ok?” He asked, feeling panicked. Izuku nodded. “I um, yeah! It’s probably just your quirk. It’s healing already, see?” The boy held up his palm to Mike’s face. Surly enough, his hand was healing gradually. “My quirk?” Izuku nodded. “Yeah! You know, your quirk.” No response.

“Your power?”

“My what now?” Izuku blinked. “You’ve never heard of quirks?” He asked, sounding like he was in utter disbelief. “All I know is two minutes ago I could not do that shit.” He said, pointing at Izuku’s hand. Midoriya paused to think for a moment.

“Your quirk must have an emotional connection, or maybe on a time limit, whatever it is, it’s either not permanent or dependent on how you feel about someone.” Mike shook his head, choosing to ignore the surprisingly astute analysis. “Did you hit your head?”

Mike chuckled darkly, images of the scooper flashing in his mind. “…something like that.” 

“You need a coffee, man?” Izuku offered. Mike shrugged. “Got no money, thanks though.” He smiled shakily. The green haired boy sighed. “I have some. And no, I don’t mind. You seem like you could do with a hot drink.”

Once the two placed their coffee orders, Mike grateful he didn’t have to speak any Japanese to the server, they took a seat and began chatting some more.

“And you’re sure it’s 2148. You- you aren’t screwing around?” Midoriya shook his head. “That’s crazy!”

“You said you were from the past. I’m not sure I believe that…” he smiled shyly. The other nodded. “It’s come as a complete surprise to me as well, believe me.” 

“Still, this is weird. Like, really weird.” The greenette mumbled. Mike shrugged. “It’s pretty lucky you know English, isn’t it?” The boy grinned. Mike looked down at his hands. “I think I need to find some gloves to stop me from hurting someone.” Izuku nodded. “That’s a good idea, Mike.”

The two had been talking for a while when they finally found a shop that sold gloves. Izuku kindly purchased them for his cashless and confused friend. “You said something about a “hero school”? Do you guys really have people with magical crime stopping powers and shit here?” He spoke, finding it hard to keep the excitement out of his voice. They had both gone to a nearby park at this point, sitting on a bench together.

“Yeah! I mean, it’s ultimately only the pro hero’s who do it, you’re not really supposed to do that if you don’t have a hero license. Otherwise you could get arrested.” Izuku happily explained to his new friend. Mike nodded thoughtfully. “So, um, if quirks are like a super common thing then what’s your quirk?” He asked, folding his arms over his chest. Izuku paled at that. “Um, I um… don’t have one.” He admitted shyly. Mike blinked. “You don’t? I thought you said everyone did?” Izuku shrugged. “Well, I mean, you’re meant to, but unfortunately I was born quirkless.” He said, head hanging low. Mike scrunched up his nose. “People bully you for it, I'm guessing.” The other teen shrugged. “Ka- I mean, Bakugou does. A lot. We used to be friends but not so much anymore…”

“That’s bullshit, Bakugou should fuck off and pick on someone his own size.” He said angrily. Izuku looked like he was suppressing a smile. “He’s not awful, it’s only a few kicks and punches… and he did tell me to kill myself a month ago I guess… but he doesn’t usually go that far.” Mike looked flawed. Memories of him with Evan flashed in his mind. He shuddered, even if he never went that far he still remembered the fear on his brother’s face.

“Better hope me and him never meet, or I’ll kick his fucking teeth in for you, “quirk” or no. I know how to fight like an actual man, rather than hiding behind a quirk.” He declared. Izuku looked panicked. “Please don’t! You’ll get hurt!” Mike laughed. “Maybe, I’ve been through worse than some arsehole with a big ego. Christ, he sounds like my dad.” His friend tilted his head. “Oh… your dad isn’t very nice if he’s anything like Kacchan.” After a shudder, the British kid leaned back on the bench. “You have no idea, dude.” 

Izuku pulled out a strange device with a screen out of his pocket. “What’s that?” He asked. Midoriya looked confused. “You mean this? It’s my phone…” 

“What? You mean you guys can just carry around phones like nothing now!?” Izuku flinched at his volume. “That’s so cool! Holy shit, the future sounds great.” Izuku laughed at his friend’s joy and fascination. “So, about this school?”

It was then that Izuku launched himself into a huge rambling explanation. Mike was pretty sure he only just caught the gist of it. UA was a school for heroes in training. It only took the best of the best, and it was insanely hard to pass the entrance exam. People could be expelled just by not working hard enough, so the rumors said. “Maybe I’ll try to get in.” Mike said absent mindedly. Izuku looked shocked. “But you just appeared here! You don’t even know how to control your quirk or anything, what if you get hurt?” Mike scoffed. “No way in hell. I’m tough as nails.” He half joked. Izuku laughed. “When’s the exam?” He asked. “Nine months from now. If you want a chance you’re going to have to learn how to read and write Japanese and control your quirk.” Izuku stressed. Mike nodded. “Well, since I’ve been here I’ve learned “hello” and “are you ok”?”

“That’s good, I could teach you?” Mike gave a skeptical look. “You’d do that? Dude, I don’t even fucking know you. Other than your name.” He reasoned. “I know, but not many people are nice to me so, since you are… I guess I could help.”

Mike stared at the innocent yet determined grin on his new friend’s face. His face darkened. “I’m… I'm not nice. Being a hero… I’d get to make it up to someone I badly hurt a while ago.” He admitted, not wanting to get into specifics. Izuku nodded. “Let’s make it up to them, then.” He smiled, and for the first time in a long time…

Mike smiled back.

“Where will you stay?” Izuku asked. Mike paled. “…I have no idea? Homeless shelter probably.” He laughed. Izuku sighed. “Come on.” He said. “What?”

“I said come on. You can stay with me and my mom for a few days”

Mike stepped in front of izuku suddenly. “Terrible idea! You don’t me! Are you deranged? I could be a serial killer, I just told you I’m a time traveler!” He stressed, grabbing a hold of the boy’s shoulders and shaking them. Izuku sighed. “I’m aware. Trust me I was thinking about bolting once I heard you say that. But…” he trailed off.

“But?”

“But you’ve been so kind and you have no where to stay. Just a night, my mom won’t mind, honest!” He swore. Mike eyed him suspiciously. “You swear?” 

“Yes. You look like you could really use a nice place to sleep.” 

Mike blinked. This kid was going to get himself killed if he kept inviting strange time traveling strangers into his home.

Chapter Text

After two months, and the exam just seven months away, Mike had been focusing on three things and three things only;

• Learning Japanese
• Practicing with his quirk
• Adjusting to being in the future. 

Mike had guessed learning a new language would be difficult. But this was on a whole nother level of fuckery. 

He groaned. “But they read as the same sound!” He complained, pointing to two symbols in his textbook. Izuku smiled. “Yeah, no one said it would be easy. But writing is just as important as learning to read.” He smiled. There was a knock at the bedroom door, Inko Midoriya stepping in with a plate of cookies in her hand. “Since you’ve both been working so hard, I figured I’ll give you a treat.” She smiled brightly. Mike sat up excitedly, before remembering where he was and pretending to not care. Inko, picking up on this, simply giggled. “Thanks, Mom!” Izuku grinned. Mike nodded. “I appreciate you letting me study with izuku, mrs.Midoriya.” Mike admitted. The woman nodded happily before carefully shutting the door behind her.

Other than that, his quirk was also… interesting. Izuku had been right to assume it was connected to his emotions. After all, he’d never hurt izuku that badly while sparring. And it was only activated by using the palms of his hands, not his fingers.

His friend had mentioned something about a mentor figure, and that after training he was going to revive a ‘gift’ of some kind to help him get a fair shot at passing the exam. He had no idea what that could mean, but was happy izuku was happy, and to be honest, being happy was a nice change from how he felt when he lived with father.

He hadn’t gotten the chance to test it on someone he really didn’t like yet, and was grateful for that. Hero’s didn’t hurt people. They saved them. He’d been a villain all his life, and when he’d tried to do the right thing and put his sister back together, it had gotten him killed. Mike was so tired of hurting and being hurt. Father called him useless a lot, only good for hurt he’d said. And Mike believed him wholeheartedly.

That didn’t mean he wasn’t going to try and prove them both wrong nonetheless. 

“I want you to hurt me.” Izuku said, snapping him out of his thoughts. Mike’s face went pale. “Excuse me?” Izuku held his hand up in an attempt to calm Micheal down. “Not like, beat the shit out of me.” He laughed a little to himself. “Just, I want to see how powerful your quirk is. So don’t hold back. Just please don’t touch my face.” He half joked. Mike stared at the ground. “No.” He said, plain and simple.

“Huh?” 

“I said no. I’m not gonna hurt you, izuku.” Izuku sighed. “But I’m letting you!” Mike gritted his teeth. “Neither of us know how powerful my quirk is. What if it’s permanent? You want to live with half your arm rotten and in pain forever? I didn’t think you were that stupid.” His words were forceful, cutting like a freshly sharpened blade. But the look on Izuku's face suggested he knew Mike had a point. “I’m not stupid, and I’m not going to just let you attack me either. But just try, I can heal.”

“You don’t know that!” Mike had to stop himself from shouting. Was his friend really this much of a hopeful idiot? “Just trust me. Isn’t it better that we do this now rather than find out when you’re in a fight and really hurt someone?” He asked. Mike sighed. He really wasn’t going to listen, was he? He thought about it for a moment. Then shrugged. If he was asking for it, then who was he to decline, he supposed.

Mike, without warning, lunged at the green haired boy with a punch, izuku immediately blocking his attack. He’d gotten better at that, Mike noted mentally. He didn’t stop to ponder this however, kicking at the boy’s feet in an attempt to sweep him off.

 Izuku attempted to dodge this, but stumbled at the last second. It wasn’t enough for him to fall over, and he swung a punch his way, landing Mike square in the cheek. Mike responded by wiping the spit off of his chin. He grinned, sharp and dangerous as he felt the familiar rush of adrenaline that he always did in fights. Izuku went in for another punch, but Mike dodged this and grabbed him by the waist, pulling him down to the floor. He grunted as he landed, and kicked Mike off of him. Mike fell to his knees. Izuku briefly stopped, looking down with worry. That was until he heard Mike chuckle. “You’re getting better.” He grinned. Izuku beamed at this. “Really!? Well, I’ve been training a lot recently, and sparring with you has really helped!-”

Whoosh!

Mike once again crashed into him, using him being distracted as a chance to attack. “Yeah, really.” Mike grinned as he grabbed izuku’s arm, activating his quirk. Izuku looked like he was biting back a scream, and looked up at Mike with a determined smile. Mike pulled away shortly after that. He surveyed the damage he had left behind. Izuku’s arm was a grim dull purple, the flesh wrinkled and emitting a terrible smell. The smell of death. Mike looked at his work, mortified by what he’d done. “Shit- I, I didn’t mean to! Izuku, are you ok?” He asked, frantic and lending his friend a hand. Izuku looked at his arm, shocked. Nervously, he poked the flesh. Only for the area he poked to fall off of the bone. He let out a shriek. Mike stumbled back, hyperventilating.

“I fucking told you! Now I hurt you and it’s all my fault!” He cried, tears pricking in his eyes. Izuku took a deep shuddery breath. “No! No, don't worry! It doesn’t even hurt anymore.” Mike scanned his friend, he looked like he was telling the truth. “It might be like that forever! And it’s my fucking fault.” He said with a shaking voice. Mike sat down, taking a deep breath. “It might be, It’s probably going to scar.” Mike groaned. “You’re not helping.” Izuku laughed. “No, I mean the flesh might scar, but I don’t mind! All heroes have their battle scars anyway. And I’m honoured that my first is from my best friend.” 

“Best friend?” 

Izuku went blank. “I mean- I didn’t- we’re not friends- I mean we are! I just-”

“You know what? I'm glad I gave it to my best friend too, I guess.” Mike admitted. Izuku beamed, leaping to his feet. “We should probably get my arm patched up, though.” He admitted. Micheal nodded.

It had been a few days after his quirk incident, and Mike hadn’t taken his gloves off since. Even when he was sleeping, which he was barely doing regardless. Inko had been kind enough to let him crash in the guest room until the exam. He could tell it was a combination of maternal instinct and how happy he made izuku. After the exam, he’d insisted that he couldn’t stay and cause her any more trouble, regardless of her insistence on his stay until he could make money and stand on his own two feet. It had been sort of insane that she had just let a stranger stay in her house and let them stay there for nine months. But he’d been grateful. Maybe overly so, cooking dinner for them all despite being inarguably terrible at that, cleaning her house and making the beds. 

As the months went by he had proven himself to be Inko's favorite house guest. Though she had said how much she appreciated him doing his share without complaining. 

“I want you to know that you’re welcome here.” She had said at the beginning. “You make izuku so happy, people are so unkind to him because he doesn’t have a quirk. But you’re different, Mike. To repay you back, the least I can do is give you a place to stay.” She said kindly. Mike was a little embarrassed to admit he got teary eyed at that. Inko had hugged him tightly. “You poor thing. Your quirk must have caused you so much grief.” She lamented. “…you have no idea, mrs. Midoriya.” It was only a half lie, to be fair. All Mike did was hurt those around him.

 Charlie and Jeremy had never seen it that way, however. But Charlie, his best friend, was dead. And he was never going to see Jeremy again.

She hadn’t reacted that badly, Mike thought, when Izuku had admitted Mike scarred his skin. She was angry, rightfully so, but calmed almost immediately once she had realised that izuku basically pushed him into it. She’d told both boys off and sentenced Mike to “stop feeling so guilty” as it wasn’t meant to be permanent. And although she didn’t know he was from the past, Mike had said he’d never practiced his quirk before, and she’d believed him even more now that she saw the damage.

“I want you to use gloves when you spar from now on.” She had stated, her tone suggesting little room to argue. 

“But mom-“ 

“No buts Izuku! It’s a miracle I’m letting either of you spar at all, considering your arm and the fact you chipped Mike's tooth with that punch.” Mike, upon hearing the injury, looked down at the ground. “But, I understand it’s important for hero training. So don’t give me that look. I love you too much for either of my babies to get hurt.” Her tone was firm, but loving. Mike had gone bright red upon hearing Inko call him her “baby.” Christ, he’d really made an impression, hadn’t he?

Nevertheless, the months went by, and both boys got better at training. Mike got better at Japanese too. He was a fast learner, and had switched to speaking that language primarily eight months into his stay at the Midoriya household.

The last month went by in a flash, Izuku coming home exhausted every night. But with enough energy for Mike to somehow manage to find his favorite old movies. Well, maybe not old to him, but over a century old to izuku.

“What’s your hero costume going to be?” Izuku asked Mike while he was practicing Japanese tenses. Mike pondered for a moment, before pulling out a crumpled bit of paper from his pocket. “Like this, I guess?” 

His costume was interesting, izuku had said. It had a fox mask, no sleeves, and tough gloves only exposing his palms to keep his knuckles protected, but allowed his quirk ease of use. His shoes were efficient, and had the word ‘comfortable’ underlined three or four times. It was mostly dark reds and greys. Izuku smiled at the drawing in his hand, looking up at his friend. “We’ll be the best heroes out there, Mike. Just wait!”

And then, finally, it was time for the exam. 

Chapter Text

As the sun shone brightly down on the two boys, the air was crisp and cool. 

Mike stared at the entrance to the school, it stood tall and proud, looming over him like a cat would a mouse. Mike was just there to go through the maze, get the cheese and get out.

He could do this, would do this.

For Elizabeth, for Evan, for Charlie…

For himself 

He had found out, after the incident while sparring with Izuku, that he gained energy by stealing it from others he touched. He didn’t even need to use his palms. He felt a little guilty admittedly, but supposed if he was in a real fight it would serve him well. 

Izuku placed a hand on his shoulder. “Ready?” He asked with a grin. Mike nodded.

The two walked together, izuku’s hands gripped so tightly around his backpack his knuckles were white.

They’d both been lucky enough to pass the written exam, izuku doing marginally better than Mike, but still enough to earn them both decent scores. Although, Mike thought it was a little unfair as he was still learning Japanese. Nevertheless he couldn’t be prouder of izuku and himself. Or maybe he could be, but that’s only because no one matched Inko’s pride for her son and their casual hostage. 

Mike was snapped out of his thoughts by izuku, who had tripped over his own feet the minute he’d taken a step off of the cobblestone and onto the main path. Mike reached a gloved hand out, only for a brunette girl to beat him to it. She touched him lightly on his shoulder, and to his and Mike’s surprise, he began to levitate. “How did you…” Mike began. The girl blushed. “Release!” she said, firmly pressing her fingers together. With that, Izuku ungracefully tumbled to the ground. “Sorry! I should have asked first- it’s just you were falling and tripping and I didn’t want you to get hurt and- I’m rambling! Sorry, I’m uraraka. That was my quirk.” She hastily explained. Mike laughed. “No worries. I’m Mike. It’s nice to meet you, uraraka.” He said kindly, she smiled at the two, offering izuku a hand to get up which he gladly accepted, still a little disoriented from the whole ordeal. 

“I’ve gotta go, but it was nice meeting you, both of you!” She said as she jogged to the school’s front entrance. Mike sighed. “Zooks, man, you gotta breathe. No one’s gonna bite you or scream in your face.” He said as izuku dusted himself off. “I know, I just need to breathe. I’m sure everything will be-”

“Deku!” A voice roared. A voice Midoriya seemed upset to hear, as he closed his eyes tightly at the sound, turning around slowly to face the caller. “K-kachhan. Hey! Fancy, um, fancy seeing you here?” The caller, a blonde boy with spiky hair and an angry expression, stormed up to Izuku, grabbing him by the collar. “How the fuck are you here!? A shitty quirkless brat like you should be off whining somewhere else!” The boy all but screamed. Mike cleared his throat. The boy rolled his eyes. “Go around! I’m having a chat right now and I ain't gonna be interrupted.” He declared. All Mike did was frown. “I’d appreciate it if you'd put my friend down, actually.” He said firmly, his hands itching for a fight. No, he told himself. You’re too old for that shit. What if this is just a misunderstanding?

“Friend? You mean a loser like you found a friend?! I don’t believe it! Did deku fucking pay you?” He growled. “Nah, I just like him. Put him down and we won’t have a problem.” He warned. There was a fiery glint in his eye, like a caged wild animal that had had one too many fingers slipped between its bars, only to be taken away as soon as possible. In other words, he looked cornered and feral. “You wanna have a fight or some shit?” He asked, tightening his grip on izuku’s collar. “Put him the fuck down.” Mike demanded, putting on his best impression of father. The boy briefly flinched, before turning back to izuku and shoving him to the ground, hard. “Don’t get in my way.” He said in a low voice, before turning on his heels at storming away from the two. Izuku breathed a sigh of relief. “That- um, that was Bakugo. The one I told you about?” The greenette said, brushing himself down for the second time today. Mike’s eyes opened marginally wider. “ That’s kacchan? Christ, how old is he, pushing someone like that?” Mike rolled his eyes, swinging an arm over his best friend’s shoulder. “Why did you defend me like that?” Izuku asked, genuinely taken-aback. Mike shrugged. 

“Because that’s what friend’s do? And I’m not allowing that arsehole to bully you for being here when you have a right to? And I love you, you huge fucking dork?” Mike wasn’t sure why he’d ended every sentence just then with a question, but rolled with it anyway, lighting up at Izuku's smile, “I love you too! As um, as a friend!” He hurriedly added on. Mike ruffled his friend's mop of hair with his other hand. “Well, yeah. No offence but I’m with someone. Or, well, I guess I was,” he smiled sadly. “I don’t know if I’ll ever see them again.” He sighed, but shrugged. “Come on! Let’s go show them who’s gonna be the next hero of the century!”

The hall was silent as they sat down for the exam brief. Mike’s heart was beating out of his chest. He looked at his friend, and saw him frantically scribbling down notes. Mike chuckled, nudging him gently with his elbow. “Pay attention, dude! He’s about to start.” He whispered. Blushing from embarrassment, Izuku put down his notebook and looked ahead of them to the center stage.

“ HEY THERE LISTENERS! ” A voice yelled, causing Mike to wince at the volume. When no one spoke, the man at the front who had caused the disturbance cleared his throat awkwardly and continued his speech. Albeit with a few more nerves this time. 

“ So, as you know, there’s a lot riding on your exam today! Are you prepared to do your best? Are you READY?! ” Mike noted that the last sentence was said in English. The hall was quiet once again. Mike did his best not to snicker. He looked over to Izuru, who was furiously mumbling something under his breath. He guessed it had to do with the speaker, as he’d drawn him and scribbled down annotations in Japanese next to him. Mike stifled a chuckle at his friend’s antics.

“ You’ll be defeating robots in our very own city setting, each robot is worth a different set of points. Your goal is to collect as many points as possible! ” The screen showed different outlines of robots with points marked next to them. “ There will also be some zero pointers! But they’re pretty much useless so just try to avoid them! ”

Mike made a mental note of this. He had made lots of mental notes that day, as he was scared shitless. Although he would never say that out loud, Izuku must have sensed it, as he briefly stopped his mumbling and placed a reassuring hand on his friend’s shoulder. Mike smiled as a thank you. 

However, the wholesome moment was cut short by someone standing up in the audience. “Excuse me!” He spoke, his voice sharp. Mike cringed at the volume. Everyone was so loud. It sort of reminded him of all the screaming matches him and father would have constantly. 

“WHAT THE FUCK IS GEOMETRY ANYWAY?! YOU’RE GETTING SO MAD AT ME FOR NOT UNDERSTANDING WHEN YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND YOURSELF!”

“WATCH YOUR LANGUAGE! AND YOU THOUGHT GEOMETRY WAS MEANT TO MAKE SENSE!? IF IT DOESN'T TO ME THEN YOU SURELY CAN'T FIGURE IT OUT!”

Admittedly, that match had been a little funny looking back on it. 

“Additionally, you two!” Oh. The boy who had spoken earlier was still talking. “Us?” Mike asked. “Yes! You’re both mumbling and it’s distracting. Stop it!” Izuku shrank in on himself a little, muttering a small “sorry.” While Mike rolled his eyes, looking at Izuku and shrugging. 

“ THANK YOU FOR THAT, IIDA TENYA. NOW LET'S GET OUT THERE AND DO THIS!”

Mike breathed. He could do this. He had to.

The entrance to the fake city was huge. Unnecessarily so. It was designed to intimidate the contestants. He knew that much. He wasn’t sure how his quirk could help him out here, with it only being able to take energy and rot organic matter (and he certainly wasn’t going to rot anyone.)  He didn't want to take anyone’s energy either. But if it meant him winning…

Let’s just say he’d definitely consider it. For anyone except Izuku and maybe that nice girl who stopped his friend from falling.

“Don’t get in my way.” Bakugo scowled as he harshly shoved passed Mike. Mike, having enough of this, grabbed him by the wrist. “Watch yourself, asshole. And leave Izuku alone.” He said sternly, letting him go after a moment. Mike felt the energy go to his heart, and it apparently didn’t affect Bakugo much, as he promptly stepped close to his face, screaming. His eyes burned with fury.

“IF YOU THINK YOU CAN BEAT ME YOU’VE GOT ANOTHER THING COMING, ASSHOLE!” 

Mike just smirked, staring slightly down at him. Bakugo stormed off in a huff. Izuku looked at Mike with shock. “Mikey… you didn’t.” 

Mike shrugged. “From what you said, he has an insanely powerful quirk. He’ll be alright. I didn’t take that much. Besides, I feel like I could use the edge.” He smiled sharply. Izuku suppressed a smile. “Still, try not to do that.” Mike huffed. “Yeah, yeah…”

“ That’s it, everyone go go go! Heroes don’t wait for a countdown! ” Present Mic said after a second of silence. Everyone looked shocked, before barrelling into each other and rushing into the battlefield.

Mike was shocked when right out the gate, a huge two pointer appeared, destroying a building. Just how much money could UA afford to waste? Looking around, he found some nearby debris. Climbing up in a hurry onto a nearby landing. He took a deep breath, seeing the hulking metallic monster swinging its arms aimlessly as it took more and more things down with it.

Mike threw down the piece of broken building all his might, successfully crashing down onto the robot and knocking it out of commission. With a satisfied grin, he climbed down. Using more and more debris to his advantage, he took down robot after robot, not having a chance to use his quirk.

He saw izuku standing there, everywhere he turned there were only destroyed robots. Mike grimaced. He couldn’t let his best friend have nothing. 

“There’s some to the north!” He yelled at him helpfully. Izuku nodded, but stopped on his way there. Mike squinted his eyes, gasping when he realised why izuku stopped. It was uraraka, she was trapped under the rubble. 

Izuku looked down at her, and then tugged, doing his best to get her free. A huge robot worth zero points was looming over them. Mike sped over hurriedly. 

“get some debris! Destroy it, I’ll help Uraraka!” Mike demanded. Izuku nodded, then looked determinedly at the monster. After mumbling something, he took a run up. 

It seemed like the next moments went in slow motion. Izuku jumped ridiculously high, Mike briefly stopping to look up in shock. The green haired boy pulled back his fist, Landing the robot square in its jaw. The head came clean off.

Then, Izuku was falling, his limbs flailing, clearly broken by the force of the punch. Mike, still reeling from the shock, hurriedly pulled the rest of the broken building off of his new potential friend. She sighed. “Thanks.” She said, and Mike nodded. He got ready to catch his friend. But Uraraka held out her arm, leaving him levitating just before he fell. “Release!” She said, clasping her fingers together. 

“Holy shit, zooks! You broke your fucking legs with a punch?!” Mike asked incredulously. Izuku gave a weak nod. He shuddered. “I don’t… have any points!” Uraraka and her savior looked at eachother, pittiying the boy who’d saved both of their asses. 

“ Time’s up folks! Points will be racked up and sent to you later! ” Present Mic claimed.

Mike held Izuku's head in his hands, worrying about how long it was going to take him to heal. Months probably, maybe a whole year? Two broken legs and a broken arm is certainly a lot to deal with. 

“Excuse me, coming through!” Another new voice. Mike looked up to see a little old woman walking towards the two. “Don’t worry, dears. I have a healing quirk. It’ll take some energy, but it’ll certainly heal him up just fine!” She beamed. Mike realised he was close to crying, nodding in relief that his friend would be ok. “I didn’t even know he could do that.” Mike admitted. And Uraraka gave him a curious look. Although she didn’t say anything. However, it was obvious she wanted to, her eyes glinting with suspicion and worry.

When Izuku was wheeled away on a stretcher and the crowd dispersed, Mike just sighed. He didn’t even get one point, poor guy. 

Then it struck him. What if he could give him some of his points?

It seemed that Uraraka had the same idea, as she turned to him. In sync, they said “I should give him some of my points!” They stopped, giggling. “By the way, what’s his name? I didn’t catch it.” She said, pointing over at an unconscious izuru as he was loaded into the back of an ambulance. “Izuku Midoriya. I’m his friend.” He said with a smile.

The morning after next, with izuku healed and a little depressed with his results, him and Mike decided they would watch their videos separately. 

Mike breathed carefully. He knew he had racked up some points, but had no idea if it was enough to pass the exam, especially with how he had tried to give some to Izuku. Although weirdly, the examiner said not to worry about it.

“Hello Mike!” The presenter beamed. Mike cocked his head. “All might? The hell is he doing here?” 

“Now I know what you’re thinking. “All might? The hell is he doing here?” Well the answer is simple, I’m joining the UA staff!” Mike blanched, “what? Also yes that’s exactly what I was thinking.” He said to himself with mild amusement. 

“You unfortunately did not get quite enough points to pass the practical.” He said with a grin. Mike’s jaw hung low, and he sighed. He supposed he should have expected failure. It was him, after all. He just wished he could be useful for once. The damn written test was hard enough. 

“However!” Mike blinked. There was a however?

“You showed courage and kindness by helping out your fellow students!” A video played of him helping Uraraka and advising Izuku. “Therefore, I award you sixty rescue points! Congratulations, kid! Welcome to your hero academia!” 

He gasped. He got in! He actually succeeded! Wow his luck was really on fire, wasn't it?

Too bad, good things always come to an end.

Chapter Text

It was meant to be a relaxed day. Why for good sake couldn’t he have one fucking day where something didn’t go wrong?

It was not. There were many things wrong with today, so much so that Shigaraki had written a list. 

• He’d lost his progress over an accidental save override
• Kurogiri was refusing to tell him where the rest of the ice cream was, saying having “half a tub” was enough. What a joke.
• Master wasn’t telling him something 

He at first had believed it was something he’d done to piss master off. But that didn’t seem to be the case. “Shigaraki, it’s nothing you could have done. I thought I taught you better patience than this…” he scolded lightly. Shigaraki sighed. “Please, I don’t mean to be impatient. I simply am curious if I can help.” He spoke, resisting the urge to scratch his neck. A chuckle could be heard on the other side of the line.

“There will be someone coming to speak with you in a minute. Be nice, he’s an associate of mine. Do what he says.” Master said, his tone cautionary. Shigaraki itched his neck. “Yes, Master.”

Just then, there was a knock at the door. A man dressed in a dark purple suit, with a red tie and black dress shoes smiled. “I believe you were told of my arrival?” He asked, voice deep. There was a threatening aura around him that even shigaraki couldn’t deny. Not that it bothered him all that much. The brunette, gaunt man gave a toothy smile. “There’s someone I think would really be helpful to your cause, someone you could say I have somewhat of a grudge against.” Shigaraki cocked an eyebrow. “Who? Don’t tell me it’s a hero brat.” He said, rolling his eyes. The man smirked. “Bingo, emphasis on “brat.” And I’d like to be reunited. With him alive for the time being.” Shigaraki hummed. “Can we have a name? Location?” He asked, doing his best not to sound impatient on master’s orders. The man presented a photo to the two of them. 

“Micheal. His name’s Micheal. And I believe he’s currently a UA first year.” He smirked, eyes cold and calculating. 

Shigaraki couldn’t help but notice the similarities between the two. The man began walking away, but stopped once Shigaraki asked him a question. “What’s your relation to him?” There was a dark, deep chuckle. 

“He’s my son.”

——————

There’s no denying Mike's excitement as he practically barrels through the door, jumping up and down on the spot. Izuku followed closely behind him, laughing at his friend’s glee, although it was slightly ironic as he was clearly barely keeping it together himself. 

“Holy shit, I can’t believe I’m in a school for heroes. Heroes zooks! ” He grinned, practically vibrating on the spot. “M-me too!”

They had a chat the other night about izuku’s power, with him finally revealing his tutor was all might.  Mike had to admit it wasn’t what he previously expected, but nothing was what he thought the future would be like in actuality. I mean, come on, real life heroes are a bit of a stretch. And yet, here they are. 

“What class are we in?” Mike asked, Izuku looked at his schedule on his phone. “Class… 1-A? Yeah, 1-A.” Mike nodded. “Maybe Uraraka will be in class with us?” Mike asked, Izumi cocking his eyebrow and tilting his head. “Uraraka?” 

“Yeah, the girl that we saved. Shit, I forgot I didn’t tell you her name.” Mike apologised. Izuku waved him off. “No worries, just glad I won’t embarrass myself.” He smiled. Mike swung his arm over izuku’s shoulder. “Let’s make a good first impression, huh?” He grinned. And his green haired friend gave him a determined smile.

Walking up to the 1A classroom, Mike released Izuku from his tight side hug, but not completely letting him go, feeling his own heart start to beat a little faster, the reality finally settling in. He swallowed. He could do this. 

The classroom was bright, kids of all different sizes and mutations sat down, chatting excitedly amongst themselves. The first thing the two noted was bakugo in the corner of the room. “Ignore him, you’re so much better.” Mike whispered to his friend. Izuku nodded, although looked a little uneasy.

“Hey!” A new voice broke Mike out of his thoughts. A blonde with a black streak in his hair had called out to them. “Looks like you guys are in 1-A too? I’m Denki Kaminari!” He grinned. Mike held out his free arm. “My name’s mike. Ready to get your ass kicked in the physical tests?” He said with a big smile. Denki grinned back. “Rivalry type, huh? You got a deal, mikey!” He laughed. “Who’s your friend?” He asked. “Hmm? Oh! This is- well, actually, he can introduce himself.” He said, lightly shoving izuku. “I-I’m Izuku Midoriya! Nice to meet you.” He said. Was it just him, or did Mike notice a faint blush appear on Izuku’s cheeks? He shrugged. But if this was what he thought it was, he was going to be the best wingman. 

“Mike! Izuku!” A girl called out to the two. In unison they both spun around. “Hey, Uraraka!” Izuku said, his face bright red. Mike bit back a laugh. “Hey, you two were such a big help! Thanks.” She beamed. Izuku sputtered. “Oh that? I mean, you were a big help too!” He insisted. Mike nodded. “Yeah, I might have not caught him or broken my arm from the force had it not been for you. Let’s say it was a team effort?” Uraraka smiled. “Are you sure?” Mike nodded, arms folded across his chest. “Duh! Are you fucking kidding me? Not having that bullshit, you better take your share of credit!” He said with mock anger, waving a finger in her face. “Ok ok! Fine, fine.” She rolled her eyes with a grin. Mike found a seat, tapping it to indicate Izuku should sit next to him. However just as he was going to, there was a loud thud outside the door. 

The class went silent for a bit, everyone curiously looking at the source of the noise. Eventually, apparently deciding they’d had enough of this, bakugo stormed up to the door. “What the fuck was that?!” He asked in a volume just a little below a scream. Mike rolled his eyes. He then directed his attention to the doorway, walking over to see what was happening. 

“Huh?” 

“Who’s that?”

“Is someone…sleeping in there?” 

Mike gently pushed past the people in his way, seeing a yellow sleeping bag slowly stand up. “Show yourself, demon!” A pink girl with some kind of quirk mutation declared. The zip was pulled down to reveal a very tired looking man with long black hair, stubble and wearing a grey scarf and a black coat. 

“My name’s Aizawa Shouta, but you’ll call me Mr.Aizawa. I’m your homeroom teacher.

Ah, he’d heard about him. Eraserhead, an underground hero. His quirk, according to Izuku’s notes, was quirk nullification. Just by looking at someone, he could cancel out their quirks. A scary power to have.

Not as terrifying as the thought of rotting someone alive.

“Your lesson starts now, it's practical. Get ready.” 

“A practical?” Uraraka said. “But we’ll miss homeroom!” She whined. Aizawa shrugged. “Homeroom is useless, if you want to be heroes, then don’t waste time. Mike sighed. What good was his quirk in a practical exam? Although he supposed that depended largely on what they were doing.

“Oh, and by the way, the person who comes last will be expelled.” 

What!?

The practicals had been a nightmare. He hadn’t come last in more things, but being unable to use his new found quirk was annoying. Izuku seemed to agree. His only quirk being removed after he almost broke his arm with a throw.

“If you don’t learn how to control your quirk, you can never be a hero.” He had said.

Some of the students shuddered at the telling off. 

With all his might, izuku threw the ball, using his quirk at the last second in only his finger tip. 

Aizawa nodded. But said nothing. 

The scores were pulled up, izuku at the bottom. Mike felt his stomach twist into knots. “You can’t fucking do that!” He yelled without thinking. 

“Hmm? And watch your language, Micheal.” 

Mike cringed at his full name being used, but did his best to keep it under wraps. “You can’t expel him! It’s unfair.” He insisted. Aizawa smirked. “I most definitely can, and I will…” the crushed look on Izuku’s face was enough for him, Mike was just about ready to fight, when Aizawa continued.

“That is if I was serious. This was just a rational deception to show off your quirks.” 

There were many complaints, aizawa just shrugging them off. “You’re dismissed. Mike, stay behind.” Mike blanched. “I- um, ok?”

“You didn’t use your quirk once. Why?” Aizawa said seriously. Mike swallowed, looking down at the floor. Times like this, it was better not to speak. “Micheal, did you not hear me?”

“ Micheal, I asked you a question.”

“I-” his throat was dry, eyes pricking with tears. Aizawa took a step closer, Mike noticeably flinching. “My quirk, it’s weird. It um, it only works on other people. I can take energy at some other things too.” Aizawa sighed. “You don’t need to be so scared, Micheal. I’m not angry.”

“ I’m not angry, Micheal, but I might be if you don’t answer my question soon.”

Mike sniffed. Don’t cry don’t cry don’t cry don’t cry-

He felt a hand firmly on his shoulder. “Micheal, kid, it’s ok. I know, I just wanted to hear it from you.” Aizawa said after a minute. “I’m not upset. And don’t call me Micheal. My name’s Mike.” He mumbled. Aizawa sighed. “Your quirk isn’t bad, ok Mike? Don’t be afraid to use it. You’re free to go.” He reassured. Mike nodded. 

“Hey, all good Mike?” Izuku asked. “Yeah, just about why I didn’t use my quirk.” 

The two continued chatting on the way home. 

“We’ll be great heroes, zooks.” Mike said.

Although he knew deep down that the reassurance was more for himself then Izuku.

Chapter Text

Mike had finally left the Midoriya household.

Inko was very insistent that he stayed, but Mike felt so bad he’d gone anyway, finding places to sleep around the street. However, he was still going to school every day. 

After going to UA for about two weeks now, Mike had mentally put his classmates into four groups:

• Neutral
• Strange
• The fucking worst
• The absolute best

He’d made an effort to learn everyone’s names mainly for this purpose. There was Yuga, Mina, Jirou, Tsuyu, Ochako, Ojiro, Hagakure, Koda, Mina, kirishima, sato, shoji, tokoyami, mineta, momo, Denki, Iida, Todoroki, Bakugo, sero and of course, Izuku.

In terms of the neutral group, meaning he didn’t really have a lot to say about them, he put;

Koda, Shoji, ojiro, sero, sato and momo.

The next group consisted of people he just didn’t get. Some he liked, others he just found confusing;

Yuga, Iida, Mina, todoroki, Kirishima, and tokoyami.

The next group were people he couldn’t stand. It was a short list, but an important one;

Bakugo, and Mineta. The two people in his class that grated on his nerves the most. 

Mineta was a giant pervert, and someone that Izuku had to stop him from hurting every now and again. Resulting in him just giving him a verbal shout-down. 

Bakugo was a bully, and a general asshole. Reminding him too much of father when he’s drunk.

And of his younger self.

Then, it was time for the best list. His absolute favorite people. This included:

Denki, Uraraka, Asui, Hagakure and Izuku.

First was Asui and Hagakure. Asui had a frog quirk while Hagakure was literally invisible. Although they’d only hung out in class and eaten lunch together a few times, he could tell how interesting they were. They were both chipper and kind, and Asui had a serious disdain for Mineta as well. They’d even found out Kirishima thought he sucked balls, and that moved the red head slightly higher up on his list. Only failing to be part of his “the absolute best” group because he was so close with Bakugo.

He’d learned a lot about uraraka over the two weeks he’d known her. Her habits, how she was more observant than most, how she was kind to everyone regardless of their quirk status or age, how she stood up to Bakugo when he’d pick on Izuku or himself. She was simply a joy to be around. In other words, she was just good fun.

She'd taught Mike how to do his nails, and they found out that they both have a love for music. Any kind. Mike had had the pleasure of introducing her to music from his time and vice versa. They’d had dance offs, both looking like morons, and laughed hysterically the whole time. Often they would pull poor izuku into these dance battles, and force him to give it his all. To Mike’ surprise, Izuku said it was the most fun he’d had in ages. 

Denki was a little bit more of a mystery to him, only avoiding the ‘strange’ category because he was just so damn funny and cool. He had the mind of a three year old in a fifteen year old’s body half of the time, and the other half of the time he would say something genuinely profound and insightful that none of the others had thought of. A real enigma. He and Izuku had become very close, and to be honest, Mike kind of liked them together. Platonic or otherwise, as it meant Izuku was socialising with someone other than just Mike and his mum. Of course, he was also getting closer with others, but Denki seemed to be like his other best friend.

Mike had actually gotten very close with him too, the two talking about how much they disliked their quirks and bonding over it. Denki’s quirk, when overused, had a serious temporary effect on his intelligence. It fried his brain for about an hour once used at full capacity. And Mike could seriously hurt someone if he wasn’t careful. So they’d made a deal, that they’d verbally stop each other from going too far if they had a choice. 

And then there was Izuku. The best friend Mike had ever had since Charlie and Jeremy. God, he missed them. He’d known them for years, but he hadn’t seen them in months.

Even longer for Charlie, who he’d failed to save.

He didn’t even know if he’d ever see them again. Which is why he’d gotten so attached to izuku. Not only was he funny, smart and awkward in an endearing way, but he was also kind. He was a good influence on Mike, kept him from hurting others when he didn’t want to. 

Izuku was his best fucking friend. Which is why he hated Bakugo so much.

“What are we doing today?” He had asked Izuku on their way to UA. “No idea, but I know it’ll be something cool.” He said, looking confident.

It was, in fact, something cool.

“Today, you’ll be testing your skills. Remember in the playground where you’d play heroes and villains? It’s like that. You’ll see.” Aizawa spoke as he scribbled down some notes. “Oh, also, your costumes are here.” 

The classroom proceeded to become utter chaos. Holy shit, they were getting their costumes!

Mike remembered what his one looked like, he remembered the colours and fabric and textures. To say he was excited would be an understatement. He was just a little confused as to where he’d find the space for it, having only one box to keep his clothes in. Ah well, he could think about that later. 

Mike’s costume was, in his opinion, the coolest fucking thing he’d ever seen. A dark red sleeveless jumpsuit, with gloves covering only the palms of his hands so he couldn’t accidentally use the more… villainous… side of his quirk.

The suit had matching red boots that were buckled. And a black belt, just because he thought it looked cool. Izuku and him wore matching grins as they pulled out their costumes. Then again, so did everyone in the class.

“The rules are simple! They’ll be two teams: heroes and villains! The villains have planted a bomb inside one of the buildings, and the heroes have to secure it so it doesn’t explode and kill countless civilians.” All might said confidently, waving his hands in the air. “The teams will be picked at random! As will the roles. To win, the good guys have to either catch the evil-doers or recover the weapon. Likewise, the villains win if they can prevent that for the whole time limit or capture the heroes!” The class nodded, a little bit of excited chatter filling the air. “We will choose teams by drawing lots.” 

“First up! Team G will be the heroes and team F will be the villains!” Their teacher continued. Mike looked down at his letter. “I’m first up? team G, huh? Wonder who that’s with…” just then, Mike felt a hand on his shoulder. He spun around, only for a big grin to split across his face. “Denki? Please tell me you got team G.” He said, clasping his hands together and begging. “You betcha! Guess the rivalry isn’t going how we planned.” The blonde laughed. “We got plenty of time. For now, let’s be heroes!” 

The building stood tall, it was the same training facility as used on the entrance exam. “Mike, you nervous?” Denki asked, nudging him with his elbow. “Not really, I don’t particularly know much about Koda or Sato, but I know they use brute force.” Denki smiled. “I’ve got a plan if you’re willing to listen?” He asked. Mike nodded, his smile sharp and calculating. “Alright. Here’s what we’re gonna do…”

As the time limit started, the first thing the two did was walk in as calmly as possible. Currently both were nowhere to be found, and for the plan to work one of them would have to show themselves. Denki spent his time searching the top half of the building while Mike searched down below. He hadn’t realised it at first, but his heart was beating out of his chest from excitement. 

All of a sudden, Denki came running towards Mike at top speed with Sato following close behind, screaming “now!” As he barrelled past him. Mike gave a determined nod, charging into Sato. The teen was a lot stronger than Mike physically thanks to his quirk, but he had no way of knowing their plan. Mike jumped up at the last second, grabbing Sato’s face and throwing him to the ground. He tried to fight Mike off, but got weaker with every passing second. After twenty seconds, he gently let Sato go. “Denki, make a head start.” Me said, earning him a thumbs up from his partner as he sped off, yellow electricity buzzing around him. Mike propped up Sato against a wall, and tied his hands together. “Sorry if that hurt, Sato. I didn’t mean to use that much force.” He apologized awkwardly. The brunette shrugged and smiled. “No worries Mike, that's a cool quirk though.” They praised. Mike shrugged. “I guess.” He said before running after his friend. 

“Denki! I’m right behind you!” Mike shouted. “I can tell! You’re really loud.” He teased lightly. Poor Koda looked scared out of his wits. “Now Mike!” 

Mike lunged forward, throwing Denki in the air as his electricity cackled. He used a mild electrical shock, not enough to fry his brain mind you, to take Koda out of commission (who was very close to grabbing him). Then, he hugged onto the bomb tight. A whistle sounded off. 

They had done it! The heroes had won!

After lending a hand to Koda, and Denki apologising for the shock, Mike threw himself onto Denki, picking him up and spinning him around. “WOOOO!” He cheered. “Mike, let me down.” 

“Never!”

“Mike!”

After carrying Denki out of the building, Mike finally released him on the grass, earning him a look of mock anger. “I can walk asshole!” Mike rolled his eyes. “Talk like that and I’ll carry you everywhere! I’ll shrink you down and put you in my pocket. Then we’ll see who’s laughing.” He grinned evilly. Denki kicked Mike's shoes hard, sending him toppling over and landing on the grass next to him. Both looked at each other, then laughed.

After returning to the others, Mike gave izuku a high-five. 

“Well done Heroes! You both worked amazingly well together! It is truly a well deserved win. Villains? You gave it your all, and that’s what counts! You guys did amazing at your job too!” All Might praised.

All might went on to announce the next teams. Team A as heroes and team D as villains. That’s weird, he could have sworn that was-

Bakugo’s team. His opponent was Midoriya! 

Mike had bitten his nails down to stubs by the time Bakugo and Izuku were duking it out. Bakugo came in hard and aggressive. He couldn’t tell what they were saying, but it looked like some kind of taunt. Some attempt to belittle his best friend. He hated Bakugo so much. Seriously, fuck that guy.

“Mr. All Might? Don’t you think this is getting a little out of hand?” Mina asked, giving him a worried look. “Yeah, I agree. Shouldn’t we wrap this up?” Denki asked. There was mumbles of agreement throughout the room. All Might stayed silent. “Sir, please, he’s gonna get fucking killed.” Mike stressed. All Might gave him a disapproving look. “That’s inappropriate language, young Mike.” 

“And letting this battle continue isn’t inappropriate? Are you kidding me!?” He growled. “I know what I’m doing, kids! Don’t fear, I am here.” All Might said using his catch phrase in a vain attempt to calm the class down. 

Hit after hit, both went down. But unfortunately, Bakugo was clever. His moves were calculated, and done to target specific weak spots on enemies. On Izuku. 

Then, there was a flash.

It took Mike a minute to tell what had happened, but izuku used his quirk and broke his arm to give uraraka some ammunition to use against bakugo’s teammate, Iida. 

They had won. They had won, but izuku was physically destroyed again. Mike glared at All Might. And the pro hero simply gave him an apologetic look. 

Izuku was fine in the end. But that didn't make it ok. As his mentor, All Might should have been more careful. Hell, even as his teacher. Safety was a priority too, wasn’t it? They weren’t fighting real villains, this was an exercise in teamwork and capture.

And it pissed Mike off that the hero just couldn’t get that through his skull.

Chapter Text

After waking up on the side of the road, Mike scooted back in surprise as the face of his teacher looked over him. “Jesus Mr. Aizawa!” He exclaimed. Shota looked unimpressed. 

“What are you doing sleeping out here? I thought you lived with Midoriya.” It wasn’t a question, it was a demand. Mike knew the difference very well. He yawned, rubbing his eyes. “I don’t know, I didn’t want to put her out?” He sighed. “Look, I’m fine here. I’ve got my uniform and I clean it when I can, I eat what the school gives me. I’m ok!” 

“Bullshit. No you’re not.” Mike groaned. He had to be difficult, didn’t he? Aizawa placed a hand on Mike’s shoulder. “Bad situation with your parents?” He asked more gently. Mike nodded. “I guess you could say that. My mum’s been dead for a while and my dad’s a piece of shit. Sorry, language I know. But there’s…”

He hesitated, would he even believe him? 

“There’s something else too. And you’re not gonna believe me when I tell you. Only Zooks knows…” Aizawa sat down on the pavement next to him. “Try me.” 

Mike took a deep breath. “I’m…I’m from the past.”

The look on his teacher’s face spoke volumes. “Specifically 1985. I was about to be killed when I woke up here.” Aizawa stayed silent, a subtle flinch giving away that he’d registered what he’d been told at all. “I know this is insane. Believe me I do. You didn’t think the documents I gave in looked fake?” He laughed. Aizawa sighed. “I admit they looked suspicious. But I hadn’t really figured they were outright forged. You must have been hit with a quirk of some kind.”

“Impossible.” 

“Oh right, the year.” 

Mike shook his head. “No, I mean it’s literally impossible. I was the only… living person in the room with me. I was going to be killed by machinery.” He said, skipping over some key details. Aizawa tilted his head. “What do you mean by living?” He asked. Mike sighed. “It’s a really long story…”

“I’ve got time.”

“Well I don’t, school is starting soon and I-”

Aizawa pushed him backwards. “School doesn’t start for another hour, Mike. Don’t kid yourself. Explain to me what you meant.” The teen lifted his hand in an attempt to shove his teacher, but stopped himself, resorting to looking away instead of acting on his anger like he used to. Aizawa smiled. “You’ve got good control over yourself, Kid. It’ll serve you well. Now tell me this story.”

After another sigh, the teenager cleared his throat.

“My father always had an obsession with animatronics.” He began. “This is important to the story I promise!” Aizawa shrugged. “He loved them, so much so that he and his partner, Henry, made three restaurants with them. But there was something he obsessed over more. And that was life after death.

“I found his plans for his newest restaurant. Circus baby’s pizza world. These animatronics, they’re not normal. They have a capture mechanism.” He shuddered. “A capture mechanism?” Mike nodded. “Yeah, they had different interior designs that allowed them to kill and hold children. That was what he and unknowingly, Henry, had built. The reason was to see if souls could take hold of a vessel, I guess? I never really figured out why he was using kids. But he was. He’d killed others by hand, but animatronic capture devices is hard to prove as the cause of death to the police.

“I went to the cops with the plans, but they didn’t care. They did a half arsed investigation, and when they were done, they blamed me for wasting their time. My sister Elizabeth was killed by one of those things, Mr. Aizawa. And guess what? My father was right.” Aizawa’s eyes widened. “The animatronics were dangerous, so my father installed an electro shock system that went off at the push of a button to keep them inline. I think- I think they could feel it? They screamed.” Mike took a deep breath before continuing, Aizawa staying quiet. 

“The animatronics sometimes have to be scooped for maintenance. A big metal spoon type thing. It takes out their endoskeleton. My sister tricked me into going in there, and I listened because I’m stupid and wanted her alive again, or at the very least at peace… the scooper went off, and I felt it for a while. Then I woke up in an alleyway and bumped into Zooks. That’s pretty much what I meant by me being the only living person there. Liz was there too, as well as some other kids, but they weren’t alive, not anymore. Their endo’s had combined to form this hulking monstrosity of wires and false eyes. It stared at me, and there was nothing but satisfaction and vengeance in those cold, purple eyes.” He finished finally.

“That’s quite a story, can’t say I believe all of it. But you don’t seem to be lying. Your dad was a serial killer then?” Mike nodded. “My whole family is either dead or missing. I highly doubt father planned to stop his killings there, either. People always said we look exactly alike, and that makes me sick.” He spat with venom. Aizawa stood up. “There’s a lot I still haven’t told you. But that’s all I'm willing to say.” He insisted. Aizawa hummed. “Come and stay with me tonight, I'm not having you out on the street anymore.”

“Are you sure?”

“I wouldn’t have offered otherwise.” 

Mike was unable to hide his grin, he would have to tell Izuku the whole story later. Right now? He was just happy he would have a night of warm rest later.

————

Private number: hey man

Private number: guess who got a phone :3

Private number: Sorry, who is this?

Private number: oh yeah, I haven’t said that yet lol

Private number: it’s me, Zooks.

Private number: Mike? Oh sweet! Now we can text!

Private number: yeppers. Wait, one sec

Private number: ?

Private number Changed their name to ‘Number one Bakugo hater’

Number one Bakugo hater changed Private number’s name to ‘All might fanboy’

Number one Bakugo hater: much better 

All might fanboy: that’s a little mean spirited, don’t you think?

Number one Bakugo hater: it’s honest.

All might fanboy: Mike!! 

Number one Bakugo hater: ugh, fine

Number one Bakugo hater: you’re no fun

Number one Bakugo hater changed their name to ‘secretly a fox’

Secretly a fox: fox’s are my favorite animal, fun fact. 

All might fanboy: how about this?

All might fanboy changed secretly a fox’s name to ‘Fighting god daily’

Fighting god daily: perfect.

All might fanboy: where did you get the money to get a phone

Fighting god daily: um…. It’s a secret.

All might fanboy: please tell me the phone isn’t stolen. 

Fighting god daily: what! How low do you think of me L.M.A.O

All might fanboy: sorry! Just a hunch

All might fanboy: also, you don’t have to put dots in between the letters or capitalise it just FYI 

All might fanboy: see? Like I did there. Lol

Fighting god daily: gotcha. The future is weird. 

Fighting god daily: also, Mr.Aizawa gave me this phone

Fighting god daily: said it was necessary for the course. And I wasn’t gonna turn down free shit haha

All might fanboy: a wise choice

All might fanboy: sorry for accusing you of stealing

Fighting god daily: no problem, I’ll see you in class.

Fighting god daily left the conversation 

————

Today was the day they’d be doing rescue training. Mike was, admittedly, a little anxious about the whole thing, what with his quirk not really being the best for rescuing. But nonetheless, he knew how Important it was, and was going to give it his all. 

The hero at the front, named thirteen, was a short, stocky woman dressed in a space suit. She went on to explain how this training facility was made specifically for UA students to practice rescue training in natural disasters. 

Bakugo was grumbling something about how he was going to beat everyone, but he had a strange glint in his eyes. If Mike didn’t know any better, he’d say he looked…uneasy? Frustrated? Not that he particularly cared, but there was something definitely off.

Mike hated to admit it, but he felt off too. Like something terrible was going to happen. That feeling of foreboding, he thought, would leave him after this morning’s encounter with Aizawa.

He was wrong. If anything it had only gotten stronger, tightening in his chest and stomach. He swallowed dryly. He could think about that later. Right now, he had to pay attention.

“Your quirks are hands, but they won’t always be able to help you out. Micheal, for example, your quirk allows you to take energy from any living thing until the point of unconsciousness, or so I've heard.” She said, turning her head in his direction. Mike once again cringed at the use of his full name. Nonetheless, he nodded. “That’s powerful, especially when in combat. But unfortunately it doesn’t help in natural disasters. You’ll have to rely on level headed thinking and teamwork for that. Essentially, you’ll be quirkless in certain situations. You need to learn to be able to rely on your strength and intelligence rather than your quirk all the time.” She explained. 

“Now, if we look at the opposite, kirishima is able to harden himself. This is very useful in almost any situation, but sometimes you’ll need to rely on your quirkless abilities to rescue people. It would be best if you focussed on using your quirk to remove rubble, but get into a habit of using raw strength and communication with other team members to get as many people out of there as soon and as safely as you can.” Kirishima grinned, showing off his sharp teeth and pounding his fists together. “Can do ma’am!”

“If no one has any questions, we’ll get started.” Aizawa said. The class mumbled in agreement. “Very well, thirteen will decide up the teams-”

“What’s happening over there?” Asui said suddenly. The two lecturers turned around to where the girl was pointing. Aizawa flinched. “Shit.” He cursed. There was a giant mass of dark purple and black energy over by the water fountain in the middle of the huge training facility. People began to step out one by one. “Everyone, this isn’t part of the training. I need you to stay calm and stay together.” He said, fixing his hero mask to his face. 

“What’s going on?” Uraraka asked, eyebrows arched in concern. Thirteen look a step back. It was difficult to see her expression through her helmet, but Mike guessed it was one of panic. Aizawa was always calm and collected, but even this had his hands shaking slightly. Whatever was happening must be very bad. 

“These are- they’re villains. Real villains!” Izuku exclaimed. Mike turned to him. “Really? Jesus. Why the hell are they here?” Joining in the conversation, ojiro shrugged. “Beats me, but I think it’s best we do what Mr.Aizawa says.” The other boys nodded, taking a step backwards. 

Out of the portal (or at least, Mike assumed it was a portal.) came a man, lanky and hunched over. A fake (?) hand on his face like a mask. However, his eye was visible through the gaps in the hand’s fingers. 

And his gaze was pointed directly to Mike. 

“Nice to meet you all, where’s all might? Don’t tell me we came all this way for nothing.” His voice was strained and scratchy, almost strangled. Izuku paled. “What do you want with all might?” He asked, doing his best to not look afraid. “Oh? And who might you be? It’s simple really. We’re here to kill that worthless so-called hero.” 

As he said that, one more person stepped out of the portal. 

Only it wasn’t a person, it was a slobbering, huge beast with an exposed brain. Its eyes were unfocused, its raven blue skin twitching and convulsing in ways that weren’t natural. It let out a shriek, so loud that Jirou had to cover her ears from her heightened sense of hearing. “Now then, until he arrives, I guess we’ll kill some time playing with you, Eraserhead.” 

“Stay together, if they attack you have permission to use your quirks against them. Do not engage in combat unless you have to.” He said seriously, jumping off of the ledge that him as the students were on and launching into a fight with the first person he came at him. Thirteen was about to rush in as well, when the man held up his hand.

“I’d be careful leaving the students alone, if I were you.” She filed her head. “Oh yeah?” She asked, voice bitter. “Yes, we are after one of them after all.” He tiled up his head, revealing a menacing grin. Thirteen stepped back, instantly looking defensive. 

“Specifically, we’re looking for Micheal. Your father says hi.” 

What. 

Denki, uraraka and izuku instantly rushed to Mike's side, ready to fight for their friend’s safety. 

But all Mike could do was stand there.

Father was here!? With him?!

Mike felt sick, his own chest feeling as if it was going to cave inwards. If he had thought things were bad back in his time…

He feared that here they were going to get so much worse.

Chapter Text

The battle commenced immediately, Eraser charging in at full speed, effortlessly taking out some of the weaker attackers. It was fascinating to watch a real pro hero in action, Mike thought, briefly distracted by whatever the fuck had just happened to him.

Father was here.

Father was here.

And he was, apparently, looking for him through connections with this crusty hand man. Great. Just what he fucking needed, another headache brought on by his dear old dad.

Behind them, the portal that the villains had jumped through (which was apparently a sentient person, much to everyone’s surprise.) had appeared behind the students. Bakugo and Kirishima, like the idiots they were (although he would have expected Bakugo to think more), jumped in for a punch, and were instead sucked in, along with most other students. Mike yelped, feeling his feet being lifted off of the ground and his body tossed through the air like a ragdoll. 

Upon landing with an unceremonious thud, Mike was quick to get his bearings. He was, by the looks of it, on a rocky terrain built by USJ. He quickly scanned the area, only to sigh in relief when he saw Denki standing, hands in fists as he readied an electrical attack against those who would dare to approach him. Over to his left, he saw Yaoyorozu and Jirou also standing, both sets of feet planted firmly in the ground. “Listen up!” Yaoyorozu shouted, commanding the other’s attention. “I’ll pass out weapons from my skin, everyone take an offensive position and don’t stop fighting.” She advised. “We need to think of a plan.” Jirou mumbled, sounding somewhat annoyed. Or possibly it was just nerves. Whatever it was, it made the girl have a calculating gleam in her eye, seemingly analysing everything around her.  

“We can work on that later! Right now, we’ve got incoming!” Denki cried. Low and behold, several lackeys were slowly approaching with wide, smug smiles on their faces and their quirks activated. Mike looked at Denki and then at the two girls, “Yaoyorozu, if I take their energy, and focus on the smaller ones, you three can cover my back to take out the stronger ones.” Mike suggested. The black haired girl hummed. “Good idea, Mike. But we’re going to have to think more about defense than that.” Jirou nodded. 

“That’s true. Denki, try some long range attacks without going up to full power, if you can do that.” She requested. The blonde nodded, a determined smile gracing his features. “Jirou, why don’t you and I lure a section of thugs to a wider area, I’ll give both of us headphones while you burst their eardrums?” Yaoyorozu offered. “Before we do that, I have a kind of… nasty side to my quirk. I won’t hurt anyone that badly, but if I do go overboard, Denki, I need you to pull me out of that, understand?” The smile faltered for a second, before a hesitant nod was given to the brunette.”Everyone clear on the plan?” The self appointed leader asked. Denki, Mike and Jirou nodded. “Excellent, because they’re here…”

The plan, regardless of the rushed nature, was going well.

Hit after hit, kick after kick, the attacker’s went down. Yaoyorozu’s items she’d created worked wonders. They were tough, and just as strong as something real. Keeping his voltage just on the brink of frying his brain looked tiresome for Denki, but to his credit, he pushed through without complaint. Jirou was doing well in hand to hand combat. Taking them down before temporarily deafening them so they wouldn’t get up again for a while. Mike took as much energy from the strongest attackers as possible. They crashed down to the floor ungraciously, seemingly barely having the strength to move. 

Landing a kick to the side of a meathead's face was Mike’s first mistake. He’d underestimated just how thick his head actually was. The man’s skin turned to spikes that shot out from all over his arms and head, piercing the boy’s forehead and left shoulder. With a grunt, he was knocked to the ground, scrambling backwards as he hurriedly pulled out the spikes. Blood pooled out from the wounds that were much deeper than he would have liked. The man charged at Mike, lifting him by his neck. Tighter, and tighter as the hold, until Mike's vision began to get spotty.

But this wasn’t an attempt to kill him.

After what Mike had seen, he knew what that would look like, what that would feel like. 

————

“You’re the most selfish ungrateful shit I’ve ever had the displeasure of raising, do you know that?” 

Mike stayed silent as father ranted. 

“The bullying, and the fact you didn’t pay attention to the animatronics mechanisms!? How stupid do you have to be!”

“You never told me how they work! I’m only twelve! You never explain anything!”

“BECAUSE YOU’RE JUST SUPPOSED TO KNOW THESE THINGS!” Mike flinched at the raise in volume. Father sighed. “Useless, that’s what you are. your brother is dead, dead! Because of your own stupidity. Not because of me not telling you how my machines work.” Mike began to sniff. “I didn’t mean to! It was meant to be a prank, father! If I had known it was dangerous I swear to god I wouldn’t have done it. Please!”

Smack!

“Oh- you’re- you’re crying now? You, the family murderer, you, the selfish useless falier are crying over your brother’s death. A death YOU fucking caused.” He laughed, his eyes wide and his voice breaking. 

“The family murderer.” Who was even father trying to kid with that one? It had been months of Mike going to the police and showing them the plans, only for the cops to do jackshit about it. Months of ever increasing screaming matches and bruises. Months of hiding his siblings so they wouldn’t get hit with books. The plans for the animatronics were so obvious, but no one gave a shit in this town.

Mike had rarely seen father like this before. So vulnerable. So weak. He wasn’t sure he liked it. It made father volatile, violent and easily set off. The only other time’s he was like this was when he was drunk. 

“You know what? I’ll give you something to cry about.”

The suffocating tightness of his father’s hands around his throat, the burning pain as Mike gasped for air. He kicked and clawed and tried to wriggle free, to no avail. 

“Father!” He choked out. “Father, daddy, please! Dad, stop!” He begged, opening his eyes to look at the man strangling him. Those eyes that had been so cold only a moment ago, those eyes were now filled with tears. He looked hurt.

Then, their eyes met. And the horror of what he was actually doing must have dawned on him, because he instantly let go. Mike choked and coughed, wiping spit off of his mouth, and taking huge breaths of air.

“Oh god, Mike, I’m sorry!” He cried, wrapping Mike in a tight hug. Mike’s breathing began to quicken, confusion and fear settling in where the adrenaline once was. 

“Shhh, don’t cry, it’s ok. I’m so sorry.”

And at that, Mike froze.

Because his father, the cold, uncaring, abusive killer. His father was crying.

Crying over Mike.

————

The basic difference between a choke to kill and a choke to weaken is two things;

• The intent
• And the pressure

The intent could have been death, but the leader had said that his father was looking for him, and they were too. So that ruled that out. 

The pressure was what really gave it away, however. Because everytime Mike began to slip into unconsciousness, the grip would weaken ever so slightly, allowing him to take a short breath and keep himself alive. 

But the meathead obviously hadn’t done research into Mike’s quirk. The energy stealing apparently didn’t have an effect when he was in his spiked form. And he seemed smug about that. Too smug, and that was going to be his downfall. 

Mike dropped his hands from the man’s arm, only to remove his gloves. He would have taken a breath to prepare himself, but that was currently not an option. 

Without warning, the palms of Mike’s hands connected with the meathead’s right arm, the one that was being used to strangle him. There was a smell, a rotten, deathly smell. Like dried blood and spit. 

His arm was going red, then green, then purple. His skin began to fall off the bone, his grip got weaker and weaker until he finally let go, the muscles in his arm dissolving and rotting away. Mike landed on the floor with a thud. He coughed and spluttered, heaving breaths and swallowing spit. He looked at the man, and to his surprise, it was still rotting. 

The arm itself began to lose muscle mass, rapidly decaying quicker and quicker. The man stared down in horror, a scream ripping from his throat. The rot turned his arm pure black, his fingers becoming loose and beginning to break off. The man collapsed to the ground, unconscious from shock. And Mike watched in combined horror and fascination as his arm then fell off.

It fucking fell off. 

Rushing over to check if the meathead was even alive after that, he noticed something. Where the arm had rotten off, it had completely healed the injury and perfectly healed the rotten wound. He checked his pulse, and he was still breathing. Mike sighed in relief.

“Holy shit! What did you do, man!?” Denki called out behind him. He turned around, expecting horror and disgust, expecting him to announce he was evil, useless and he would never be his friend again…

That didn’t happen.

Instead, although the horror was definitely there, it was quickly replaced by fascination and a huge grin. “That’s an awesome quirk!” He exclaimed, zapping a nearby attacker. Mike blinked. “You don’t, think it’s evil?” He asked, and Denki shook his head. “Nah, man! It’s so useful! If a hostage needed an amputation to live you could totally rot the limb away and they’d have a perfectly healed wound!” 

Oh. Mike hadn’t thought of that. He nodded, a smile spreading on his face too.

“Mike! Get under this blanket! It’ll protect us from Denki’s electricity and he can take the others out!” Jirou cried. Nodding, he rushed over there, diving under the blanket and trying to steady his breath. He touched his neck, the skin feeling raw and tender. 

The zap went off, and bodies could be heard dropping to the floor. After it stopped, Mike lifted up the blanket to see his friend collapsed on the floor. The unconscious blonde was picked up by another man, one who hadn’t been affected. The man smirked.

“It was a good plan, but unfortunately, you underestimated us.” 

Fuck, this couldn’t be good.

Chapter Text

The next few moments had all gone in a blur. 

“DO NOT FEAR, FOR I AM HERE!”

Mike spun around, to see none other than All Might barge through the doors. His hulking muscular figure waltzed into the room with confidence, but something about his grin was noticeably strained.

The hand covered villain seemed to smile, although it was difficult to tell. Denki was unceremoniously tossed to the floor with a loud thud, as his attacker whipped his head round to see the pro standing over the trainee heroes that were injured down below. All Might’s expression then switched, and he was, for probably the first time Mike had ever seen, not smiling. “You, you evil villain. You would hurt and even attempt to kill these children ?! How vile can one’s actions be!” He roared, enraged. It was comforting to see him taking this seriously, at the very least. The hand-covered main villain with the shaggy blue hair grunted in an annoyed manner. “You heroes are so… hypocritical. The brat nearly killed me with that punch and yet you don’t seem to care. The only difference between us is that violence on your end is seen as righteous, while mine is seen as selfish and cruel. How, pray tell, is that fair?”

All might ball his hands into fists. “Admit it,” he began. “You don’t think that at all! You are only here to cause chaos and take away innocent life.” He growled sternly. Voice unshaken and posture upright, physically looking down on his adversary. The man in question looked a little taken-aback. “I will save these young heroes, and defeat you; the main boss!” He declared with certainty. The villain shook his head and chuckled. “I’m afraid, Mr. All might, that I’m not the main boss at all.” 

A huge, hulking dark navy blue- thing- began confidently strolling towards All Might, its brain exposed and drooling, its eyes bulging either side of its head. 

“This, All Might, Is nomu. He answers to me alone. Multiple quirks. Isn’t that just… exciting?” He asked, his scratchy voice grating on Mike’s nerves. “I’m not only here to kill you, however, I have special orders to carry out against one student in particular as well…” the unkempt villain grinned. Mike cracked his knuckles. If they were going to hurt his friends to get to him, they’d have to go through his fists first. He glanced nervously over to Aizawa, who seemed unconscious. He sighed in relief that he was not still being attacked. 

“Who are you talking about!?”

“Why, Micheal of course, we’re going to kidnap him.” He said flatly. Mike almost laughed at how deadpan the delivery was. But stopped himself upon remembering how serious this situation actually was. “But first, I’d like to see you get through Nomu…” 

Now, as much as Mike wanted to pay attention to the admittedly awesome fight that was about to go down, he had more things to worry about. Such as the man attempting to run away after threatening his friend. “Shit.” He cursed in English. “Hold on!” 

Momo and Jirou gave him a strange look. “Mike, you're already the most at risk here. Don’t put yourself in danger like an idiot.” Momo gave him a look of warning. He swallowed. “I can’t just let that asshole leave!” He insisted, switching once again to Japanese. He stood up and began to chase after the man, but stumbled to the floor almost immediately. He yelped, and looked down at his leg. Jirou had wrapped her earphone Jack around it. Preventing him from running away. 

“Fine! But at least help Denki!” He cried. The two girls nodded as momo jogged over to him.

He could hear Midoriya grunting as he began to fight off enemies. He cringed. Hoping to whatever non-existent god there was, that he would be ok. “At least let me fight! I can help!” 

Both girls shook their heads. Jirou sighed. “You’re at risk. No way will we let you kill yourself over this! We have this covered, Mike.” 

Just then, the previous attackers were beginning to come too, hitting and kicking, using their quirks to try and hurt the four heroes in training. 

Mike growled. “Fine! Like you can stop me.” 

He grabbed a rod Momo had made earlier, and threw it at the head of one of their attackers, hitting them square in the face. Jirou unraveled her Jack and gave him a shocked look. Mike smirked. “I played baseball for a year when I was like- five. Guess I still have some muscle memory from it.” She sighed, lending him a hand to help him up. “Be careful for Christ sake.” He nodded. “I’ll try, no promises. 

Halfway through fighting, most were down. But as Denki began to regain consciousness and awareness, he heard a door bust down, followed by four gunshots. “Shit!” He flinched. And ran over to see the nomu defeated and the main villain on the floor, bleeding out. Wow, he missed like- all of that fight.

The portal villain, kurogiri, he had overheard others call him, grabbed him and promptly disappeared. Taking a moment to breath, he scanned for izuku. 

Once he noticed where he was, he waved. Both boys looking frazzled and tired with cuts and bruises to boot. 

“You good man?”

Izuku grinned shakily with a thumbs up. Mike snorted. 

Once outside, everyone was excitedly talking, out of breath and scared. Mike, however, had bigger things to worry about. He began to approach izuku. If he could confide in anyone about this, it would be him. However, a hand on his shoulder stopped him. “You ok, man? I heard you took some guy’s arm off!” The voice of Kirishima piped up.  “Oh, um… that’s a bit of a long story.” 

“Alright, but you need to tell me! It’s so cool how you kicked bad guy ass like that!” He grinned, playfully punching his arm. Mike shrugged. “Yeah. Totally will, dude.” 

Izuku waved at Mike. Signaling for him to come over. As the British teen obliged, he saw Iida fussing over him and Uraraka, using bandaids to cover some of their more shallow wounds. “Hey.” They greeted, and Mike smiled back. Before swallowing nervously. “Do you think Sho- I mean, Mr. Aizawa is going to be ok? And All Might?” He asked. Izuku smiled. “They might be in recovery for a while, but I’m sure they’ll be ok.”

“Yeah!” Agreed Uraraka. “Don’t worry, Mikey. There’s no reason a broken arm and a couple scratches would take them down.”

He supposed she was right, however, he knew how close the injuries were to his eyes. He sighed. All they could do for now was wait, he guessed. Wait and worry. 

He could bring up what happened to him concerning his father later. 

He would have to. 

Chapter Text

Mike found the whole idea of a sports festival rather boring, if he was being quite honest. He understood why it was being done, but that didn’t stop him from being bored out of his mind by it. The strange thing is that all other students seemed to be absolutely enamored by it. He’d never been one for sports, baseball being something his father had forced him to attend. Still, it was a fantastic opportunity nonetheless. To have an internship was very promising, and could mean he’d prove himself a hero yet. Although, Denki seemed utterly amazed by him ever since he had used his quirk at the villain attack. 

But once he had reluctantly explained to the others what had happened, they seemed almost afraid of him. 

Todoroki had been weird to him, staring at him from across the room and not saying a word. And doing that to izuku too. Bakugo had been even more rude, somehow, and Iida seemed alarmed by him with every movement he made without warning. 

Not Izuku, kirishima, Denki, Momo and Jirou however. The last three had seen the context, and Izuku was his best friend. Kirishima seemed to be a lot smarter than he let on, too. Seemingly viewing what he did as necessary. Which he was grateful for. Earning him the title of “manly.” Which seemed to be a very good thing where kirishima was concerned.

What he wasn't grateful for, was the counseling sessions Aizawa had forced him to attend.

“I’m fine, shouta! Christ- I don’t need a-”

“Listen here, Mike. This isn’t negotiable. You lost your sister, your dad was a serial killer, You died . You traveled through time And I’m sure there’s more you’re not telling me. Plus, after seeing your quirk…” Mike cringed at the mention. “You could do with some therapy from that, too.”

“I’m not telling them anything I haven’t told you. Minus the death stuff.” Aizawa sighed. Folding his arms over his chest. “Just at least give them a session?” Mike swallowed. Worst case scenario was he revealed too much. Then everyone would see what a monster he truly was. And then things would go to shit pretty fast. “You’re not my dad… Why are you doing this for me? Hell, that’s more than he’s ever done.” Mike flinched. Hopefully that hadn’t given too much away. 

“…your dad. I know he was neglectful. But you’d tell me ifhe was abusive, right?” 

Mike’s eyes widened. Was he that obvious?

“No! No, that was um, I probably worded that earlier sentence wrong. Actually he was so good, it was probably the reason why the police didn’t believe me. He was a good dad, I promise. That's why he wants me back. Weird, serial killer but great dad! Haha...” Mike lied through gritted teeth. Aizawa frowned. Then, he sighed once more. “You don’t have to lie to me Mike-”

“I’m not lying! I mean, maybe sort of, but not that much! Would you belive me if I said I was lying earlier about him being a shitty dad?” He ranted, hoping in vein it looked even slightly normal. 

“…but, when you’re ready, I promise you can tell me anything. And I’ll do my best to support you.” It was subtle, extremely so, but Mike could have sworn he saw the smallest glimpse of sorrow flash in his teacher’s eyes. It made his stomach churn. Sympathy, Mike mentally scoffed. The last thing he needed. Nevertheless, he nodded. “Sure.” He said. “I believe you…”

Mike fidgeted nervously in his seat. Izuku was chatting excitedly beside him. Whispering to himself about all the amazing things he’d heard about the sports festival. “You ok there, Zooks?” 

“Hmm?”

“You’ve been muttering to yourself for fifteen minutes now about the sports festival.” He deadpanned with a smile. Izuku went bright red. “I- I have?” Mike snorted. “Yeah, dumbass. You’re such a….” He trailed off. “Such a what?”

“I don’t know how to say it in Japanese?” Izuku nodded. “What are you trying to say?” He asked him. Mike switched to English. “Bloody dork.” Izuku nodded, smiling a little. Explaining to him what he needed to say. Mike gave him a thumbs up in acknowledgment. 

Suddenly, a wave of students all walked by 1A. Going up to the door and chatting excitedly. “Oi! What the fuck are you extras doing here!? Outta my way!” An angry yet familiar voice called out from behind. Mike facepalmed. Iida sputtered. “Bakugo, that is extremely rude!” The blonde boy growled. “Yeah well, I gotta get to class, so fuck off glasses. And you!” He pointed to Mike. Mike rolled his eyes. “What?” 

“You better not go easy on me at the festival. I’m Gonna kick your ass, Brit!” Mike pulled a bewildered expression. Then his eyes widened. “Is my accent that obvious?” His voice squeaked despite himself. Bakugo smirked, while Mike just flipped him off, resulting in more yelling in his general direction. 

“Sad.” An unfamiliar voice called out. The class turned to see a boy with purple messy hair staring at them, disappointedly. Reminding him awkwardly of Shouta when he held his chopsticks wrong. He wasn’t exactly sure how to feel about that. “I was expecting, with all the commotion, that 1A would be filled with interesting faces. Turns out you’re all just a bunch of egomaniacs.” He scoffed. “I was put in general studies. Not good enough I guess. But that doesn’t make me less of a hero. Mark my words, you’ll all be under me after I win the sports festival.” He stated ominously. Iida immediately jumped in, trying to convince the crowd that they weren’t all like bakugo. Soon, everyone and their mother had joined in on that, the seemingly uninterested general studies course and 1B scoffing and walking away.

“Alright class, settle down.” A familiar voice called out. The class jumped as Aizawa appeared at the front, having been apparently sleeping this whole time in the room with them.

“The hell? When did you get here?” Bakugo asked. “Mr. Aizawa, you need to be more careful! You scared us half to death!” Mina laughed. Their teacher shrugged. “Hero’s have to be alert at all times. You never know when things will, as our good friend Mike would put it, “go to absolute shit.” He stated flatly. Mike’s face went chili pepper red despite himself, the class laughing at his call out. 

“Now, as you know, the sports festival is coming up in two months. After the villain attack, we had to put it back an extra two weeks. Which is why it’s two months instead of a month and two weeks. So you guys are lucky. Use those two weeks wisely. You need to train, train your quirks, train your minds and bodies, you won’t get by on quirk alone. Even the ones in this room with the most powerful quirks.” He ranted, giving each student a stern look with every new word.

“You’ll be partaking in various games. And the top performers in the festival, as you may be aware, will be receiving temporary internships with pro heros. An extremely good opportunity. So recognize how important this is…” 

He said, giving Mike alone a look that time after hearing what Mike had said about sports. The boy shrunk in his seat. 

“Lastly, for those of you who won’t be getting internships, don’t feel dejected. There’s more to being a hero then working under one for a week. With all that said, I think it’s good we get on with class for today. I expect all of you to be training outside of lessons. Don’t let me down.” The look in his eyes was one not to be questioned. 

When Mike arrived home to Aizawa’s house, upon walking up to his room, the teacher stopped him. “Where do you think you’re going?” 

“…to put my bag away?” 

“Uh huh. You wouldn’t be going to rest, would you?”

Shaking his head, Mike cracked his knuckles. “You said to train right? That’s what I’ll do.” Aizawa smirked. “Good. I’ll make us some dinner. You train, and after a few hours you’ll be free for the night, ok kid?” He nodded. 

————-

Fighting god daily: hey man

All Might fanboy: Mike! Hey!

Fighting god daily: how ‘r’ ‘u’

All Might fanboy: I’m good. You um, you don’t need to put quotes around them 😭

Fighting god daily: how’d you do that

All Might fanboy: do what?

Fighting god daily: the face

All Might fanboy: oh! The emoji? It’s on your keyboard man. Just press the button that looks like a basketball

Fighting god daily: oh I see

Fighting god daily: 😳😞🥵🙁🥵😖😶🌫️😖😰😥🤥😮💨🤥😮💨🤫🤥😬🤐🤮😦🤢🤧😻🤡😼☠️⁉️💯🔆🚷🔆⛔️❌🇧🇾🇦🇽🇧🇾🇦🇩🇧🇾🇦🇴🇺🇳🇦🇿🚩🇦🇿🤒😸😸🤖🤑😸🌩🌩🌍🌧💫⛅️☄️🌈☁️💫🌧🌍🌩⭐️

Fighting god daily: this is so cool holy shit

All Might fanboy: lmao u really like the future huh?

Fighting god daily: dude it’s so cool! 

All Might fanboy: you don’t miss your family?

Fighting god daily: um

Fighting god daily: next question 

All Might fanboy: sorry, I didn’t mean to offend!

Fighting god daily: it’s ok, it’s just that my family is pretty complicated. Or was, I guess. 

All Might fanboy: what about your dad? How is he even here?

Fighting god daily: I mean, he was kind of a scientist. Maybe that’s why. 

All Might fanboy: you have no idea do you lol

Fighting god daily: nope. 

All Might fanboy: but why would he join the LOV?

Fighting god daily: my dad isn’t exactly a good person. Like, he really sucks

All Might fanboy: does he suck enough for him to join the league?

Fighting god daily: let’s just say my scar isn’t from getting into a fight. 

All Might fanboy: did he ever hit you?

Fighting god daily: you have to promise not to tell anyone

All Might fanboy: promise!

Fighting god daily: He used to drink a lot. He would hit my younger sister with books and I would try to protect her from it. It didn’t usually end well. Sometimes he’d get so angry he’d actually strangle me. He did that twice.

Fighting god daily: I kind of deserved it tho. There’s a lot of fucked up things I’ve done. 

All Might fanboy: no! That’s bullshit! No matter what you did, no kid deserves that. 

All Might fanboy: Especially not my best friend. 

Fighting god daily: thanks man. 

Fighting god daily: fuck why am I crying lmao

All Might fanboy: noooo don’t cryyyy

Fighting god daily: you probably wouldn’t be friends with me if you knew what happened. I’m a bad person, Izuku.

All Might fanboy: let me prove you wrong

All Might fanboy: you can tell me

Fighting god daily: no lol. I really can’t. 

All Might fanboy: yes u can

Fighting god daily: izuku I can’t. You’d fucking hate me. 

Fighting god daily: who says I even want to tell u, who says that you won’t tell everyone else

All Might fanboy: I do! And I promise! 

Fighting god daily: promises are bullshit. You’ll hate me

All Might fanboy: I could never hate you

Fighting god daily: if my own father hated me you would too.

All Might fanboy: well your dad is an asshole. We’ve established that haha

Fighting god daily: izuku I’m not being funny here, what I did was unforgivable

All Might fanboy: well, you’re trying to be a hero now right? To me, that shows you’ve changed. No matter what you did, it doesn’t matter now. Because you’re different.

Fighting god daily: it DOES matter. Don’t you fucking dare say it doesn’t. You don’t know. You weren’t there when it happened! 

All Might fanboy: then tell me!

Fighting god daily: shut up. You weren’t there when he died! You’re just like him too! Stupid and naïve and so sickeningly good! And it’s my fault he’s gone! So shut up. Shut up. I killed him. It’s my fault he’s dead. It doesn’t matter that I was twelve. It doesn’t matter that it was an accident. It doesn’t matter I didn’t know any better. It doesn’t matter because my brother is fucking dead. 

All Might fanboy: what

Fighting god daily: shit. Shit. I’m sorry. You’re not stupid I didn’t mean that I’m sorry. 

All Might fanboy: you killed your brother? Mike… how?

Fighting god daily: it was an accident. 

Fighting god daily: I was at his fifth birthday. My dad made these animatronics. I had absolutely no idea at the time but they were very dangerous. I was so stupid. I used to bully him cause I thought it was funny. I stuck his head in an animatronic cause I thought it was funny. guess what?

Fighting god daily: it wasn’t funny when I heard his head get crushed. 

All Might fanboy: mike… you didn’t. Tell me you’re lying

Fighting god daily: I knew it. You hate me. And you have every right to. Find yourself a better friend. 

All Might fanboy: wait. Mike. 

All Might fanboy: I don’t hate you

All Might fanboy: I promise. I mean that.

Fighting god daily: what?

All Might fanboy: it’s… a lot to take in. But you were twelve! A child! And you had no idea that would happen. Where was your dad? 

Fighting god daily: my dad?

All Might fanboy: yeah! Where was he! I’m surprised no one else was hurt with no supervision. 

Fighting god daily: this is the weirdest reaction I’ve ever gotten to this story.

All Might fanboy: you’re trying to be a hero now. You’re trying to be better! You’re helping those in need. Don’t you dare call yourself a bad person! I love you, you’re my best friend and nothing can change that!

Fighting god daily: you mean that?

Fighting god daily: how can you mean that?

Fighting god daily: I’m not a good person, I have no right to be a hero.

All Might fanboy: anyone can be a hero Mike, all it takes is some motivation and time. And you’ve got the motivation. I think it’s time you heal. 

Fighting god daily: thank you. I don’t deserve you man. You’re the fucking best. 

All Might fanboy: no u r

Fighting god daily: ❤️

All Might fanboy: 😸

Mike smiled at his phone, wiping away the tears in his eyes. “Ok, Mike.” He said to himself. “Let’s see how much you can train. “

The day of the sports festival started off with a huge celebration of the contestants. With one student being chosen to give a speech to present this highly prestigious day. 

Unfortunately, that speech was presented by Bakugo. 

“I’m going to beat every single one of you.” Was all he said into the microphone. Mike cringed, as well as seemingly everyone else. What a way to start things off, he guessed. Izuku’s jaw hung low. “K-Kacchan’s really not holding back…” he swallowed nervously. Uraraka scoffed. “Does he ever?” Mike thought she had a good point. 

“I am gonna win! You nerds won’t even come close to beating me! So don’t even try!” He yelled. The audience booed, seemingly appalled by  the display. And Mike couldn’t blame them. Eventually, he did let up, and got down from the podium, shoving past Izuku harshly, causing Mike to glare daggers at him. “Don’t listen to him, zooks. We’ll kick his ass.” He said confidently before the speaker announced the first activity. An obstacle race. 

“ THREE. TWO. ONE. GO GO GO!”

And off they went, all pushing and shoving inside an extremely cramped and narrow tunnel. Mike swore to god he felt his rib break. 

By the time they were out, all he could see was a sea of robots and dangerous items. If they didn’t have a near super natural healer on board, Mike would have sworn this would be a festival of death. 

Todoroki wasted no time at all getting into action. That should have been expected. But not for Mike, who ended up getting his foot frozen to the ground in a huge ice blast that sent the split color haired boy flying forward. Mike pulled and pulled, but could not get out. 

“Fuck!” He cried. “I’m not losing first. Sorry about this!” He said, as he grabbed a random nearby arm with his finger tips. Suddenly, he felt energy rush through his veins. The ice cracked below until he was finally able to get his foot out and break free. He caught his now unconscious energy source and gently laid her on the ground, hopefully out of harm's way. He began sprinting to catch up with the others. New found energy and speed giving him a slight edge on some of the other contestants. Narrowly passing Izuku from running speed alone. 

That didn’t last long however, as izuku flew forward seemingly out of nowhere. Mike couldn’t afford to pay attention to it, as he went by grabbing the hands of the other contestants, stealing their energy and watching some collapse to the floor in which he hoped wasn’t somewhere he’d get them killed. But izuku was at the front! He couldn’t tell how, but he was riding on some debris from a robot one of the other students had destroyed. 

As the race came to an end, Mike ended up in fifth place. Something he was decidedly not that mad at. Behind Bakugo, Todoroki, Izuku and someone from class 1B. After taking a second to catch his breath, he ran at full speed. Barrelling into izuku and knockin him to the floor like an excited puppy. Wrapping his arms around him tightly. “Holy shit man! You did great!” He squeezed him, being careful not to use all his fingers so as to not tire out his already exhausted friend. Izuku seeming slightly out there, however. As all he did in response was a tired smile and a loopy thumbs up. 

“ IZUKU MIDORIYA WINS! EVERYONE GIVE IT UP FOR THIS YEARS OBSTACLE COURSE WINNER!” Present Mic bellowed.

 “So proud of you man!” Mike squealed. Izuku smiled and hugged him back, stopping upon realizing All Might was smiling down upon him, and tearing up at the sight. Mike playfully punched his arm. “Sap.” He accused, getting a look of mock offense from izuku. 

“ NOW, GOING INTO THE NEXT SET OF CHALLENGES, YOU WILL HAVE TO TEAM UP TO BEAT THE OTHER STUDENTS BY TAGGING THEM! EVERY STUDENT IS WORTH POINTS, BUT MR MIDORIYA IS WORTH A WOPPING 10,000 POINTS!” 

Oh.

Oh no.

Mike couldn’t help but laugh. This wasn’t going to end well for his best friend, was it? Denki called the two boys over. “Hey! You guys did great! How about we team up?” The electro-quirk user suggested. Mike shrugged. “What if I wanna get those points man? OW!” He asked, earning him a punch in the arm from Denki. “No one touches Izuku!” He gripped said boy’s hand protectively. Izuku began to blush. Mike snorted. “Is this how you guys tell me you’ve been dating?” He teased. Denki suddenly went bright red upon noticing what he’d done. Frantically letting go of Izuku’s hand. “No! What’s it matter to you any way, are you homophobic!?” Denki accused a little too defensively. Mike shook his head. “No way man, I’m bi. I even have a boyfriend. Or well, um, had, I guess.” He said a little sadly. 

Jeremy…

He shook his head. It wasn’t time for mourning what could of been now. Now? Now was time to kick some ass!

Chapter Text

As people huddled, discussing their strategies, Mike couldn’t help but feel distracted. His gloves wouldn’t stop itching.

He had first assumed it was the sweat trapped underneath the leather, but for some reason that answer didn’t feel right. The itching kept going on and on, getting stronger and stronger. But he couldn’t risk removing his gloves, not with how much others could get hurt. He began to dig his nails into his skin, sticking his hand under his glove. He scratched and scratched and scratched until he felt something - a part of his skin - sink into his flesh. Warm liquid trickled out, aggravating the itchiness even further. He groaned. Feeling his nails dig into his soft flesh. Too soft flesh. Flesh that was cold. Far colder than it should be after being under sticky hot leather for about half an hour. He removed his hand from under his glove. Only to grimace at the sight of blood under his fingernails. Had he opened a scab or something? No, he hadn’t any injuries on that arm last he checked. He looked down at the hand finally, and gritted his teeth at what he saw. Dark purple spots and markings had begun to appear on his skin. God only knows what it was like underneath and-

“Mike?” Denki asked, snapping the teenager out of his thoughts. “You ok, man?” 

Mike blinked. Taking a deep breath to calm himself. He could worry about that later. “Fine! Yeah, I’m- I'm fine.” He nodded cautiously, not seeming convinced. “Ok, so to check, I’ll be attacking, while Mike steals energy from the other contestants, we’ll carry izuku. Sound good, guys?” Mike shrugged. “I’d prefer not to, but I don’t see what else there is I can do to help.” Izuku frowned. “But we need one more student…” he pondered. Denki nodded. “No way in hell we can win this with just the three of us.” He admitted. 

Suddenly, Izuku snapped his fingers. “I’ve got it! Hey, tokoyami!” He called out to the lone boy seemingly without a team.

Once everyone rallied up, the chase began. With Todoroki’ team charging forward first, straight towards Midoriya. “Any time now Zooks!” Mike called out in a panic. Izuku said nothing, simply showing off a determined glare. After what felt like years, Izuku finally nodded, and Tokoyami’s shadow attacked. The team took this opportunity to bolt away from the others, narrowly avoiding the opposing team. “Christ on Christmas Day that was close! You know what you’re doing, right!?” Mike yelled at his friend. Izuku nodded again. “If we leave it to the last minute, their guards will be down!” He reasoned. Denki snickered. “If you say so, don’t get beat, man!” He playfully warned.

More and more teams attacked, while tokoyami would scare off one with dark shadow, Mike would drain the contestant's energy from another. “No fair!” The teams would yell at him. But Mike simply shrugged. “You haven’t seen anything yet!” He grinned. Fleeing the scene.

It was then that Denki stopped running. Almost causing the others to trip and drop izuku. What a disaster that would have been. “What’s the hold up, Kaminari?” Tokoyami asked with barely masked anxiety. “My fucking shoe! It’s stuck!” He cried. A team with Asui, Mineta and Shoji all charged towards them, Tsu’s tongue almost knocking Mike on his ass. “Is that allowed!?” Izuku asked frantically. Mike nodded in annoyance. “Yeah, it’s his quirk, after all.” Eventually, Denki decided to say “fuck it.” And kick his shoe to the ground. Running awkwardly away from the scene. Charges of electricity shot into the opposing teams, all of them desperately jumping away to avoid it. A few kids getting knocked out in the process. “Careful.” Mike warned. “We need you completely here for us to win! Don’t overdo it!” 

Bakugo charged at them from nowhere, coming extremely close to grabbing their points. However, Tokoyami thought fast, and deflected him with dark shadow. 

For a moment, the team was on the top of the world. But it all changed when Todoroki’s team came along. Iida snatched the headband from right under them without a second thought. The four team members blinked, not knowing what hit them. Mike couldn’t help but mentally curse Iida out for it, but part of him was also very impressed. Well played, asshole. Well played.

“Quick! We need to find something else, or else we’ll have nothing!” Izuku was beginning to panic, Mike could tell. Using all the energy he had stolen, Mike launched the team into Todoroki’s direction, Bakugo coming out of nowhere and dropping in to steal the headband too. They were so close, inches away, when-

“ TIMES UP!”

And Mike fell flat on his face. 

So did Bakugo, apparently. He’d laugh if he wasn’t just as embarrassed. Looking up, he saw the blonde wailing on the floor about not getting first. Kicking and screaming. Scratch that. He thought. Maybe I’m the only embarrassed one here… 

Iida approached him, offering him a hand up with a kind smile. Mike grabbed it, but smirked and pulled him down with him. “That is what you get for stealing the headband!” He laughed. Iida looked appalled. “How dare you! I help you up and this is the thanks I get!?” He yelled as both boys stood to their feet. But Mike grinned. Iida wasn’t being serious, and it was nice to know someone else in the class wasn’t afraid of him. Tokoyami didn’t seem to be either, which was nice. 

“Deku!” Uraraka excitedly ran up to the greenette. “You did so well!” She smiled. Izuku went red with praise. “I did? Thank you! You too!” She laughed kindly. 

At least, Izuku was in a good mood until his team was announced to be fourth. After that, he began to cry. Mike sighed. He did that a lot. “There we go buddy, it’s ok.” He assured, patting his best friend’s back. 

Mike looked up to the stands and smiled at Aizawa, who stuck up his thumb. The audience might have not known why, but Mike did, and it made him grin ear to ear. 

“ WE WILL BE TAKING A SHORT HALF HOUR LUNCH BREAK BEFORE THE AFTERNOON ACTIVITIES TO LET THE STUDENTS EAT AND REST. PLEASE JOIN BACK THEN!” Present Mic called out to the stadium. 

Iida and uraraka caught up, while Izuku tapped Mike and Denki on the shoulder. “Shouto wanted to talk with me, so at lunch I’m going to be there. See you guys after!” He smiled, waving goodbye. Mike folded his arms over his chest. “Woah, mr two tones wants a one on one with our boy. You think he’ll make it out alive?” Mike laughed. Denki shrugged. “No idea man…”

Lunch went over quickly, casual competitive yet friendly chatter from every student in the room filling the air. After finishing the cat patterned bento Aizawa had packed him, Mike stood up and left to go to the bathroom.

After using it and washing his hands, he heard noise coming from outside. Giggling. Usually, he wouldn’t care. But the giggle sounded very familiar. He took a step outside the bathroom, staring down at the voice behind the giggles. 

Mineta. Staring at his phone. Mike could see the little shit was bright red too. He rolled his eyes, it was most likely porn. In public too. Gross. 

Walking past him, Mike tried to ignore it, but was  taken aback when Mineta called him over. 

“Mike! Over here! I got some real nasty stuff!” He cackled. Mike gritted his teeth. “I’m not interested, don’t show me your fucking porn.” He growled as a warning. Mineta shrugged, not seeming to pick up on it. “It’s of 1A girls though!” He grinned. And that stopped Mike dead in his tracks. He turned to him. And, in the coolest voice he could manage, he muttered a “what?”.

“Y-yeah. Up skirt shots of Momo and Tsu!” 

Mike didn’t think it was possible he could ever be this angry, and yet here he was. “Don’t worry, I’m not gonna post ‘Em! I’m not a monster. But wow! The rush, huh?” He elbowed him playfully, like they were fucking friends. Mike smiled. “Let me see.” He said, reaching for the phone. Mineta happily obliged. But his expression turned to horror once Mike snapped his phone clean in half.

“Hey, my phone! What are you doing!? Those were prime pics you can’t just get everyday!” 

“I’ll do a lot worse if you ever mess with the girls again.” He warned, glaring daggers into the smaller boy’s head. “Buy a new phone. And if you say anything about this, I’ll tell the girls what you did, understand?” 

Mineta glared. “I’m not afraid of you! You destroyed my property! What’s your problem!” 

Mike couldn’t help it. He laughed. Laughing broke into a crazed giggle, which broke into a hauntingly empty laugh. “You- you think there’s something wrong with me? You, the school sexual harasser and assaulter? Fuck off, you freak. What, you got a collection of those you sick fuck?” His voice was measured. Calm and collected. Taking slow steps towards the teen, eye twitching. Mineta stayed silent, seemingly recognising how much danger he was really in right now. “I- no- I mean, maybe? But not just 1A! Mostly random girls-”

That was it. 

Before he could stop himself, a hand, his hand, launched at Mineta’s shirt. Tightening his grip, he held him against the wall. The forcefully slammed his head against it, and the boy let out a cry of pain. “You think it’s funny now, huh?” He asked, smiling. “Really? Still funny? Still fuckin funny?” He could feel the energy draining into him from mineta’s body. So small, so pathetic, so easy to kill-

“ Mike! Enough !” Called out a familiar booming voice. Mike felt his quirk drain out of him. Then he realized something. The voice. It was the voice of Aizawa. Mike blinked, dropping Mineta to the floor immediately. The smaller student shirked in pain, head apparently bleeding now. “Mineta… I- I’m sorry, I didn’t mean-”

“He- he tried to kill me!” He accused, shuffling back in tears. “He’s crazy! D-don’t let him near me!!” 

Aizawa crouched down next to Minneta. “You’ll have to go to the nurse. You don’t look too hurt. Can you stand?” The boy shakily nodded. Standing up, and running straight In the direction of the nurse. Mike was staring down at the floor, not moving an inch or saying a word. 

“What. The fuck . Were you doing? Did you break his goddamn phone?” He demanded. His tone leaving no room for argument. Mike sighed. “Check his computer.” Is all he said. Aizawa blinked. “What?”

“I said check his computer. He has non consensual upskirt shots of 1A and other random women on it.” He said, staring at Aizawa.

“You are grounded. For a week.” 

“Oh wow, I’m so sorry.” He rolled his eyes. Aizawa wrapped his capture weapon around Mike, pulling the boy closer to him by force. “You think this is funny? You think this is a game? You assaulted a student based on suspicion alone-”

“He showed me proof. Check his laptop if you’re so sure.” He grinned. “Letting anyone in on the hero course, are we? Even those who sexually assult the girls?” Mike knew he should stop, but he couldn’t, he was too angry. “I’ve seen him grope Tsu. Momo, too. He’s not a hero.”

“And you are?” Aizawa challenged. “You could have taken his phone and come to me about this, or All Might, but no, you went out and attacked a student. What were you thinking, Micheal?” His heart went cold. Mouth going dry, too. He broke free of the capture wepon.

“DON'T CALL ME THAT!” He yelled. “Don’t you ever fucking call me that, how many times do I need to tell you!? Don’t call me that, that’s what… that’s what he called me! You’re not like him! You’re supposed to be better than him! Don’t, don’t ever! Don’t…” he trailed off, collapsing to his knees. Tears stinging his eyes. Aizawa’s expression softened. “Mike? Can you breathe…” he began. 

“No? I don’t know!” He choked. “I’m sorry- I… I thought if I scared him it would fix things! But I just made everything worse.” He sobbed. “Don’t you see? I’m a fucking monster!” He bolted into the bathroom, locking the door behind him. He heard banging on the door outside, Aizawa calling out to him. Telling him he needed to breathe and no one was going to hurt him. Yeah, it wasn’t others he was worried about. It was himself. His breathing turned to hyperventilating, and suddenly he was more dizzy then he’d ever been. Oh god, what if he went to prison? What if he traumatized Mineta? Sure, he hadn’t meant to hit his head against the wall, but it all happens so fast and-

And he liked it.

He liked the feeling of power. over those who would chose to hurt him or others. Over the weak. 

He felt sick. He could taste blood. And it was only when he looked into the mirror and saw his father staring back at him, that he passed out.

Chapter Text

When Mike woke up, he didn’t know where he was. It was bright, too bright. He started hyperventilating once more. Because shit, this was the scooping room. 

He knew it. Someone had turned the lights on. He could see it. Ennard. That thing that had killed him. So it was true… that year and three months he'd been given a super power, made a best friend, and given a new chance at life. 

It was all fake. 

It was fake and he was dying-

“ Mike ?” 

Huh? Who was that? Someone taunting him?

“Mike? Can you hear me, it’s Sh- I mean, it’s Mr. Aizawa.”

He blinked, sitting up quietly. 

Oh. He was in the nurse's office. 

Then, if the past chunk of his life had been real, then…

He groaned, seeing the worried face of the nurse and his mentor beside him. “Is Mineta ok?” Was the first thing to come out of his mouth. The nurse laughed. “Of course! That boy’s gotten worse injuries in the past. He’s just a little shaken up, is all.” She reassured him. He sighed in relief. Then, turned his head to face Aizawa, sheepishly rubbing the back of his neck. “I fucked up- I mean, messed up bad, huh? Am I going to prison?” Aizawa snorted. “God no. Watch your language. Although you’re still grounded, we looked inside Mineta’s laptop as you suggested.”

“And?”

“You were right. If he knows what’s good for him he won’t say a word. That stuff on there is illegal. He’s the one that’s in serious trouble with the law, not you.” The teacher explained. Mike blinked. “How long was I out for?” The nurse tutted to herself. “Two hours! You’ve missed several one-on-one fights in the sports festival!” Mike sighed. “He brought his laptop with him to school, then?” Aizawa nodded. “Stupid really, I should have seen it. I can’t believe I didn’t…” he trailed off, looking ashamed. “The least I can do is make it right now.” The man sighed, fiddling with his bandages. Mike shrugged. “Adults often don’t catch that. You’re trying now though, so that’s what matters.”

Mike wasn’t sure he believed what he was saying. It was extremely negligent. Of all teachers but especially his favorite. How could he not have noticed? Then again, he supposed no one knew. He reckoned everyone should have really been keeping an eye on the perv. “I’m guessing he’s not coming back to school after this.” Mike snorted. “A hero can’t have that kind of record.” 

“Now, you’re on after this fight. You VS a kid from 1B. Don’t mess up. ‘You ready?” Aizawa offered his hand to his mentee. Which Mike gladly took. “Yeah.” He said in response. “Yeah, I think I am.” 

“ AND NEXT UP, WE HAVE MICHAEL AFTON FROM 1A. QUIRK: ENERGY VAMPIRE! VS KINOKO KOMORI FROM 1B. QUIRK: MUSHROOM! BEGIN!”

After cringing at his full name being announced, Mike shook his head free of all distractions. He needed to focus. The plan was simple; steal her energy while dodging her attacks, and place her out of bounds once unconscious. He was prepared to go all out on her. He wanted to win, of course. But had to make sure he didn’t hurt her. He checked his gloves. They felt tight. He balled his hands into fists. He was ready to fight her. 

The girl grinned, mushrooms beginning to spawn all over her body. She brought out what appeared to be a couple of spray bottles. Mike didn’t have time to quip at how strange it was. He needed to get close to her for his quirk to work. He began charging, but halted once he saw a line of mushrooms. They began piling up on one another. His footsteps ground to a halt. He was being surrounded. 

He began to feel, from just under his skin, mushrooms emerge. He looked at it in fear, seeing the fungus spawn. Only for them to rot away near instantly. Kinoko blinked, although it was hard to tell from under all that hair. 

“ KINOKO STARTS OUT STRONG! HER QUIRK BEING A SIGN OF EXTREME SKILL TO AFFECT HER OPPONENT AND REMOTELY BEING ABLE TO GROW MUSHROOMS ON ANYTHING, EVEN OTHER PEOPLE! BUT WHY ISN’T HER QUIRK AFFECTING MIKE?!”

Mike grinned, he knew how to get the edge on her now. Ripping off his right glove, he began running, charging while using his hand to decay any fungi that would come near him. The girl panicked, using the mushrooms as a wall between her and Mike. But it was a wall Mike could easily tear down. He was hot on her tail, careful to reach out with his gloved hand only. 

“ WHAT'S THIS? MIKE SEEMS TO HAVE ANOTHER QUIRK WE DID NOT ANNOUNCE! LADIES AND GENTLEMEN AND THOSE IN BETWEEN, MIKE’S TRUE QUIRK; DRAIN AND DECAY! WHILE HIS FINGERTIPS DRAW OUT ENERGY FROM HIS OPPONENTS, THE PALMS OF HIS HANDS CAN ROT AWAY ANY ORGANIC MATERIAL! BE CAREFUL FOLKS, IT WORKS ON HUMANS!” Present mic cheered.

He stopped upon looking down at his non gloved hand. Jesus, was that an infection? The skin of his palm was a moldy purple, leaking a strange black fluid and cold to the touch. There wasn’t a doubt in his mind. This… this was rot. His hand was rotting.

A swift kick to the chest shook him out of his thoughts, stumbling backwards, he quickly got up. Only to grab his opponent by the leg and drain her energy. She blinked, struggling in his grasp until she eventually became unconscious. Mike breathed a sigh of relief, gently picking up the sleeping girl and placing her out of bounds. 

It was quiet for a moment. Before cheers erupted from the crowd. “ MIKE WINS!!”

And holy shit, he had to admit. Winning felt pretty great! A win was just what he needed today. 

Sitting amongst the crowd as the fights went on, chatting to Denki and Izuku excitedly. 

When it was time for his next battle. He was admittedly pretty nervous. Momo was extremely smart and resourceful. And her quirk had pretty much limitless potential. So, upon the battlefield, he decided then and there he would give it his all!

That did not go well for the British teenager.

Hit after hit he was hit with artificial weapons, only managing to drain small increments of her energy at a time. Her quirk had him beat. It wasn’t organic matter, and without trying to actually kill her or permanently disfigure her, there wasn’t much the boy could actually do. 

So, after a stray pole hit him in the eye, earring a look of shock from Momo as she clasped her and around her mouth, Mike had had enough. He gripped onto her with gloved hands, tossing her over himself with new found strength. He smirked. “You’re doing well, thanks for the black eye asshole!” He teased, picking up one of her weapons and using it to try and trip her up. Momo easily avoided this with a cool demeanor, only made slightly less cool by the way she stumbled to the ground soon after. “Clever, but not that clever!” She declared as she hopped to her feet. Her thigh produced a rope that she used to wrap around his leg, lassoing him. Without warning, she used it to throw him out of bounds. He hit the ground with a thud. 

“ MIKE IS OUT FOR THE COUNT! THE WINNER IS MOMO YAOYOROZU!”

She gave Mike a smirk, which he returned, chuckling to himself as he untied the rope around his legs. If he had to lose to anyone, he was glad it was someone he respected.

Out for the count, Mike looked next to him. After the whole villain incident, Momo and Jirou seemed like best friends. 

“‘You excited for your next battle?” Jirou asked. Momo grinned, nodding. “Pumped. I'm really feeling like I can win this! I aced the last one.” He’d never seen her this excited before. It was nice to see people happy, people who he considered friends. Momo wasn’t that afraid of him either, it was nice. 

Then, it was time for Todoroki VS Izuku. He really hoped Izuku wouldn’t break his arms again. 

They had battled it out. 

Izuku seemed to take a strange approach to talking to Todoroki, seemingly something he needed. Yelling about using all his quirk. That meant his fire side too.

And holy shit was the fight brilliant. 

Terrifying, too. The blast of ice and fire being so severe Izuku as knocked back. Mike grimaced, seeing Izuku’s arms bent in many different, unnatural ways. Denki glared. “Did he have to go so harsh on him? Asshole…” he muttered quietly. Mike shrugged. “He’s hurt but he seems happy, I think they both talked it out? I’ve got no idea.” 

Suddenly, Iida stood up, checking his phone. “What’s wrong?” Uraraka asked, eyebrows knit together with worry, Iida swallowed dryly. “It’s my brother, hold on. I’m sure he’s fine.” He said, but his expression suggested he thought otherwise. 

Denki stood up too. “I’m going to visit Izuku in hospital. I’m worried about his arms…” Mike nodded. “I’ll tag along.” Bakugo sneered. “It’s his own damn fault, it’s what happens when you play with fire, you’re gonna a get burned. Weak nerd.” Denki rolled his eyes, but Mike couldn’t help but notice he didn’t seem angry at him. More at the situation. He wasn’t mad, just… disappointed? It was supremely strange seeing him show any compassion towards the green haired boy, but hey, anything was better than seeing him berate his friend. So Mike opted to say nothing. Momo walked off, going into her next battle. And with that, the two friends went in the general direction of the nurses office. 

“Knock knock?” Mike said, approaching the bed Izuku was perched on. The boy lit up upon seeing the two there. Denki charged into Izuku, hugging him tightly. He then gripped the teen’s face. “What the hell, man! Are you suicidal?! Be more careful!” He glared. Izuku laughed. “Since when are you careful, Denki? Besides I’m fine. We’re friends now, I think. Me and him. He shared some personal stuff before the battle with me. He’s not as dramatic as he seems.” He smiled. Denki huffed. Mike smirked. “Are you crying, Denki?” He teased. The boy in question looked appalled that he’d even asked. “No! I just have something in my eye! Quit judging!” Snorting, the British teen patted him on the back. “Relax, your boyfriend’s fine, the nurse healed him.” 

“B-boyfriend!?” Both sputtered. Mike cackled at the shocked response as they frantically denied it. They may be able to lie to him about how they really feel, but neither could lie about how red they both turned at the concept.

“We should get back. See the finale battle between Bakugo and Your new buddy?” Izuku nodded. Denki grumbled, aparantly still pissy that Mike would even suggest the two could have feelings for one another. And that made Mike grin. Time to be the best wing man on earth!

————

She could feel him. Feel all of it. All of the souls. They were screaming. Begging for help. 

But he kept her steady. Kept her calm, spoke to her in calm, loving tones. This was what she needed to do. Her electricity quirk swirled around her. She could do this. 

Blinking, she stared at the ceiling. God, this place was massive. Her footsteps echoed throuout the halls. It was almost finished, too. She had made it herself. And he seemed proud of her handy work. 

“Soon, Vanessa.” Was all he had said. She knew she shouldn’t be angry at her beloved, but fuck was it hard when he gave her nothing to go off of apart from images of people of interest and cryptic messages. She sighed, trying not to let her own self doubt get the better of her. 

Her kill list was extremely short. In fact, not a list at all. One name. One of the two that had been following the boy around. Take that one out of the way, the one they had permission to kill, and he’d be more vulnerable. The other boy was for their higher up. All she needed to do was lure them to her, to this place. Lure them in, and them make them suffer. The wolf animatronic for them was ready. A gift her beloved had worked so hard on, to make the little one part of their family.  And it would be perfect. Smiling, the blonde looked down at the list, underlining the name in red pen and chuckling to herself.

A name that read Denki Kaminari. 

Chapter Text

He missed them.

Both of them. 

He missed the way Elizabeth would demand he take her for ice cream after school. The way she would pour him imaginary tea for their tea parties. He missed her ginger hair and her cheeky grin and her little laugh. 

He missed the way Evan would carry around the Fredbear plush with him everywhere, even to school. He missed how he would try to pronounce long words that he couldn’t properly say because he was too young to grasp the context or the meaning. He missed his blue eyes and his missing front tooth and how he was such a crybaby. 

He just missed them.

And now they were gone. Gone for good. And he was to blame for one of them. He blinked, remembering Evan’s tears and agonizing screams as Fredbear destroyed his skull. Like it was nothing. Like it’d bitten into a slice of pizza, or something else chewy and soft. Not a human child’s skull. How izuku was still able to look him in the eye after getting the information out of him, he didn’t know. Not everyone would be so kind. 

He was ninety percent sure Father was responsible for Circus Baby killing Elizabeth. He’d been kind enough to leave out any details about the four children trapped inside those monsters, just enough to describe how the machines themselves actually worked. 

The way his sister had described it, described the scooper, made Mike’s stomach churn in a way he could not describe. At the time he’d been so surprised and terrified he’d barely processed how Elizabeth must have been feeling to drive her to that point. 

How did the souls feel, trapped in a waking nightmare of purgatory? Did they feel their wounds? Were they cold? Could they still talk? Did they look like they did just before they died, bloody and cut open from the animatronic capture weapons breaking their small bodies?

Could they alternate between walking as a spirit and walking in their animatronic bodies? Why were they possessing the robots in the first place, and how? Could they see each other? Were they still conscious? Or were they just remnant, cursed to feel only anger and want vengeance? 

…Did they remember who they were? Or did the memories eventually fade forever?

…Did they feel lonely and did that drive them insane?

Mike shuddered at the thought. Although none of them were partially pleasant, that last one, to him, was the most unbearable. Isolation will do bad things to a person’s psyche, and Mike guessed it worked the same for the dead as it did for the living. Especially when you were a ghost. Shaking his head and snapping himself out of his thoughts, Mike turned to watch the battle unfold down below.

It was ultimately Bakugo who had won, which Mike was surprised to see. Both were extremely tough, so it was interesting to watch the two battle it out. However, he didn’t seem happy. In fact, he seemed pissed . Then again, that seemed to be his constant “sunny” disposition. 

Mike snorted. “Why’s he so pissed?” The others shrugged. Kirishima grimaced. “I think Todoroki ticked him off. Not sure how though. I mean, it is pretty easy to do, but shit, I didn’t expect such a distressing reaction. It ain’t like this is a real fight.” Mike nodded. “I think he’s angry Todoroki didn’t give it his all or something. Man, the guy has serious issues!” Mina suggested. And to her credit, that made a lot of sense. 

As the rankings were announced, Mike lit up upon seeing Momo receive third place. It felt very much earned. At least he was bested by someone who could beat the majority of the competition. Todoroki received second, looking stoic as ever if a little disappointed. And Bakugo received first. 

It was what he wanted. 

But his screams suggested otherwise. 

Mike’s jaw dropped when he saw what they did to him. He was chained up and muzzled. Screaming about how he doesn’t want first and will hurt everyone there. He struggled, yelling at those awarding him. Mike blinked. Damn, someone call eleven year old him, because he just found his whiny twin. 

Still, it felt weird to see his classmate chained up like a rabid dog. Although, he didn’t know if he exactly blamed them with how dangerous the boy could be. 

Iida had come back by that point, Izuku hurriedly approaching him with Uraraka, presumably to ask what was wrong. All he saw was a solemn head shake, and Uraraka go in for a hug. 

He wanted to ask what was going on, but felt it wasn’t really his place. He knew how much privacy in hard times could matter to people. He figured if Iida wanted the class to know he’d tell them. Who was he to pry?

The sports festival eventually came to an end, and the audience cleared off. It had been a long day, he just hoped he worked hard enough for an internship. If not, hey, he could spend his spare time tracking down his father. 

It was the weekend, finally. And Mike felt relieved. But couldn’t get his mind off his hands. The rot was spreading. It wasn’t very noticeable, but still, it was spreading. It seemed to rot to a certain point and stop, but it didn’t seem to be slowing down regardless of that fact, or healing. He’d have to get Recovery Girl to get a look at it. Sighing, he pulled his gloves back on. Only to be distracted by the flashing of his phone. 

All Might fanboy: MIKE

All Might fanboy: MIKE OH MY GODDDDDD

Fighting god daily: what!

All Might fanboy:  look!

All Might fanboy sent a screenshot!

[ 

Pikapika: um, ok, so this is gonna be rly hard to say. And you can absolutely say no, man. But um

Green bean: ?

Pikapika: do you wanna maybe go one a date?

Pikapika: god that was hard to say

Green bean: are you being serious? Like is this a joke?

Pikapika: no. It’s not a joke

Green bean: omg of course dude I’d love to be boyfriends!

Green bean: I mean

Green bean: go on a date

Green bean: shit

Pikapika: YOU WANT TO BE BOYFRIENDS OH MY GOD 

Pikapika sent a gif ‘man_crying_with_joy.GIF’ 

Pikapika : IS THAT STILL AN OPTION 

Green bean: yes?

Pikapika: YES HALLELUJAH! 

Green bean: are we official then? :0

Pikapika: I’d like to be :D

Green bean: that settles it! You’re my boyfriend! Omggggg Denki ur my bfffff

Pikapika: hell yeah I am

Green bean: can I tell Mike?

Pikapika: yeah bro! Oh my god eeeeeeee

]

All Might fanboy: DO YOU SEEEEEEEE

Fighting god daily: OH MY GOD HOLY SHIT CONFRATS

Fighting god daily: that’s so cute ugh

All Might fanboy: he’s so sweet and hot and he is so funny hajsjdhejdifjrnenddijejd

Fighting god daily: I’m glad it’s Denki of all people. He’s a good person. 

All Might fanboy: He’s the BEST person other than my mom and you

All Might fanboy: and All Might and Uraraka and Iida

Fighting god daily: fair.

All Might fanboy: i haven’t stopped giggling he is so charming I could just die

Fighting god daily: I’m showing this to aizawa

All Might fanboy: OUR TEACHER?! NO WHAT

Fighting god daily: oh I forgot to say he took me in, I’ve been living with him for a couple months now

All Might fanboy: shit really? That so cool!

All Might fanboy: but you cannot tell him! 

Fighting god daily: aw man

All Might fanboy: I’m serious Mike!

Fighting god daily: ok ok fineeeeee . Boooorrrriiinnnngggg >:(

Fighting god daily: see I can use fancy future “emojis” too

All Might fanboy: you can and I’m very proud of you.

Fighting god daily: keep me posted 

All Might fanboy: sure!

All Might fanboy: EEEEEEEEE :D

————

Mike grinned to himself. About damn time. 

Chapter Text

Aizawa and Mike had been deciding on ground rules while he was, well, grounded. 

Phones and texting friends were allowed.

Obviously, going to UA was allowed, as well as him staying late to finish training if need be. 

He was free to eat lunch with his friends, too. 

He was not allowed out of the house after school, and could not have any friends over. Wifi was also off at home, leaving him to have to use it at school only. 

They’d lessened the punishment to one week as opposed to two, because Mike was being good. The two spent nights together playing card games and watching tv. Which, while grounded, he only did for about two hours each night. Aizawa’s bandages finally came off, and he had a scar left behind. But he at least seemed happier now to be able to use his quirk without pain again.

By Monday, Mike was in class and grinning to himself. Today was the day where they’d get internships and choose their hero names, as well as any alterations to their costumes if they desired. Mike did love his dark crimson suit, and the detachable gloves were important. But it was basic, boring . He wanted something that felt more like him. And he really believed adjusting the belt’s design was the way to go with that. His quirk wasn’t something he could use on others without touching their bare skin, or something organic. He needed a weapon, the black eye Momo had accidentally given him at the sports festival proved he at least needed a shield for his face. 

So he went with a visor. Silver plating on either side with a gold one way mirror shield over his eyes. He also requested a black strap that went around him, something he could easily use to take out weapons like metal pipes or wooden bats and a Medkit for civilians or fellow team mates. 

He could already easily amputate those around him if the worst happened, something that also appeared to cause no bleeding and no infection, at least no instant infection (what happened to the attacker after he’d removed his arm, he still had no idea.) and ultimately removed dead tissue. To permanently rot something, like Izuku’s skin back in the fight they had almost a year ago now, caused Mike to hold absolutely nothing back and really try to hurt someone. It was a mental ability as much as a physical one, he had realized. 

Along with that, he had added a large gold ‘X’ over the front of his shirt. Just because he thought it looked cool honestly. If there’s one thing Aizawa made feel good about, other than him being himself, it was his artwork. Any small amount of praise from him made his eyes lit up, which in turn got him a smile. He didn’t realize just how much Shouta appreciated them until he walked into his office one day and saw them framed on his wall. 

He would also sit with the boy every night when the sixteen year old had nightmares. Never pushing at what they were about, and making him a hot chocolate if he couldn’t get back to sleep. 

Izuku had just finished saying why ‘deku’ was a great hero name for himself. And man, if Japanese wasn’t confusing enough already, this just made it worse for poor Mike. His brain simply translated it to “the useless who could” which made no sense, but everyone in the room but him and Bakugo seemed to think it was some sort of poetic justice. 

Nevertheless, he could ask his best friend about that later, as he stood up and went to the front of the class. He was certain that his hero name was something really special. So, taking a deep breath, he turned over the page for his class to see. 

“Healing agent.” He said calmly, ignoring that his heart was beating out of his chest. “My new suit carries a med pack, and with my quirk I can actually rot off infections and cleanly amputate without any blood loss if necessary. I want to do some good, and I figured we could do with more healers on the field.” The class was silent for a moment, before they all started nodding. Denki gives him a wide grin and izuku does a double thumbs up. On top of this, Momo and several others give him nods of support. Midnight, who was also in the room with 1A, patted him on the back. “Brilliant! Super hopeful!” She cheered. 

“Now,” Aizawa began. “Internships are next week. I expect all of you to give it your all and be on your best behavior. Don’t mess this up.” Their teacher warned. The students nodded cautiously. Their teacher grinned. “Fantastic. Now, I’m going to hand out the sponsorships. Those of you who have multiple will be given a choice, those with none, like I said, this is not the end of your career. All this is, is a fantastic opportunity for you. The week of the internships, the rest of you will be studying here at UA.”  The man explained. 

Mike looked up as he was handed a piece of paper. Taking it, he flipped of

Ver the cover page to reveal who wanted him.

It was someone he hadn’t seen before. A man dressed the most strangely he’d ever seen in his life. The name read “Best…” and some other Japan word he was unfamiliar with. “Psst. Zooks.” He called, nudging Midoriya with his left elbow. The boy turned to him smiling. “What does this word say? I swear to god those characters don’t go together in any way that makes sense.” He complained. Izuku snorted. “That’s Best Jeanist. He uses fabric threads to attack and capture his enemies. He can manipulate them for any kind of fabric!” He beamed. “So, he’s like the ultimate tailor? Is that why he looks so goofy?” Izuku let out a gasp so dramatic and offended that Mike couldn’t tell if it was genuine or not. 

“His outfit is perfectly designed. He’s the number three hero! It’s interesting he even wants you because you only placed fifth. Not that that isn’t good! But he usually only takes those who win or come second or occasionally third in a competition! So you must be real lucky. He’s gotta see some ultimate plus ultra potential in you! I- I coined that term… “plus ultra potential”… but yeah his battles are extremely successful and I have thousands of words of research on him in one of my journals and-”

“Izuku. Please slow down. My brain can only take so much info.” Mike sighed. Izuku blushed. “Sorry! Sorry! He’s just my fifth favorite pro hero of all time! I supposed I got a little carried away Huh?” Mike shook his head. “It’s not that, it’s just the speed you were talking at, it’s hard to keep up. By all means, tell me the guys zodiac sign and place of birth and mother’s maiden name and laptop password.” He grinned, ruffling his hair. Izuku opened his mouth to continue, but just as he did, Aizawa snapped them all to attention. 

“Yaoyorozu, you may be confused as to why you didn’t get many pro hero requests. A lot of the time people think girls will be a liability to train.” He explained. Momo rolled her eyes and many of the girls muttered angrily. “Sir, that is ridiculous, I came third! I beat most of the boys here, sexism is no excuse not to train me!” She complained. Jirou nodded. “She even beat Mike, how come he got a higher earning hero than her?” Mike cringed and looked away. Aizawa sighed. “I know, but there is one pro hero who was interested. She’s underground. And she’d like to talk to you if you decide on her. On top of this, I also have an opening and would be more than happy for you to train under me. But it is ultimately your decision.” He said firmly. “Prove them wrong, Momo. Show them they’re missing out. And if you get flack, report it.” She nodded. “And, the reason Mike was chosen so high up, is because jeanest had a look through his files and what happened at the villain attack. It’s unfair, and I’m sorry. But I can’t make him give you a shot.”

 Momo sighed solemnly. “It’s ok. I know I’m strong enough. I’ll take the female underground hero I think.” Aizawa smiled. “You’re all going to do well. Girls, make sure you prove them wrong and kick ass. Everyone else, you better do the same. The internships will be in a week. You have till then to decide.” 

Upon leaving the college, Izuku turned to Mike. “It’s um, dendatetoday… ” Mike blinked. “What?” 

“ Denkidatetoday… ” he repeated a little louder. Mike laughed awkwardly. “You, uh, you having a stroke?” 

“IT'S ME AND DENKI’S DATE TODAY SO WISH ME LUCK!” He yelled a little too loudly, earning some strange looks from the gen ed course that was also walking home with them. “…sorry for yelling, I’m nervous.” He said sadly. Mike started giggling, which then dissolved into laughing. “Don’t laugh, that’s mean!” Izuku sulked. Mike continued to laugh regardless, causing Izuku to look more and more like a sad, drenched kitten. Mike gently shoved him. “You’re gonna do great, man! Don’t doubt yourself. Things will be fine!” He said confidently. “If I know Denki, and I do, he’s probably stupidly confident right now and ready to sweep you off you feet, as he should! So stop it.” He teased. 

————

Denki showed up to the restaurant fifteen minutes early. Sweating and wearing a black suit with a yellow tie. The restaurant wasn’t that fancy, it was a sushi place. It wasn’t cheap either to be fair . But goddamn it if he was going to make a bad impression. Even though they already knew each other very well. 

After seeing Mike’s response via a screenshot, Denki had been a little nervous. His good friend, and Izuku’s best friend, had a lot of faith in him, and he didn’t want to let people down, especially Izuku. 

Denki began to panic when Izuku showed up in a sweater, new sneakers, and jeans. Izuku went red when he looked at him. Denki blinked. “I’m overdressed!” He exclaimed. “But hey, um, I look great- I mean you look great! You look so cute! Hot? Um, both? I gotta be honest man, I don't know what I’m doing.” Izuku smiled, waving his hand dismissively. “You’re fine, it’s… the suit. It’s attractive.” 

If Denki could, he would have melted into a puddle right now. Focus! He mentally berated himself. He outstretched his hand to his date. “Shall we?” He grinned, going even more red once Izuku grabbed his hand back in return. 

The two boys chose a seat, and began to order what they wanted. Denki cracking jokes, and Izuku laughing back at them. His laugh was much deeper than how he spoke. It made Denki’s heart flutter a bit. 

Once they got their food, Izuku had taken off his sweater, and Denki had begun stammering. Because shit, izuku was way more ripped than he let on. 

Once they had paid for their food, Denki grabbed his boyfriend’s (that still felt exciting to say) hand. The two went outside and stood under a streetlamp. 

“Today was… it was really good, Denki. Thanks.” Izuku smiled. Denki grinned. “Oh, you better be prepared for a whole lot more! You’ll wanna marry me within a few months.” He boldly declared, half joking. Izuku snorted. “I’ll, um, I’ll hold you to that!” 

“Oh, and one more thing!” Izuku blinked as Denki leaned in to shive Izuku a kiss on the cheek. Izuku stopped dead in his tracks, looking at Denki. Looking completely shocked by what had just happened. Denki felt a pang in his heart. Did he go too far? 

“Sorry, was that too foreword? I didn’t mean to- I just sort of wanted to and- mmf!” 

Izuku planted a firm kiss on his lips. “Stop, you’re like me when I list off pro heroes. You’re fine.” He brushed hair out of Denki’s face gently. 

Denki.EXE has stopped working.

Rebooting system…

Restarting…

Opening file; I just got smooched!

“Hehehehe, yeah, um, god, you’re Awesome man.” He said, rubbing the back of his neck sheepishly. Izuku snorted. 

It was on his way home that he noticed something. He felt a presence on the back of his neck. A burning sensation, a feeling of queasiness and a sense that something horrible would happen…

He shrugged, whatever would happen, he could take it! He could take on whoever.

He was a hero.

And now he had someone he wanted to protect. 

It had always been just him and his mother, so he and Izuku had bonded over that. His dad sent them money, but never visited. His mom was extremely hard working, and the two barely talked during the week. It was only on Sundays that they spent all day together.

 So when he came home to an empty house, he thought nothing of it. But his whole body froze upon seeing the blood. His breathing began to turn into hyperventilating as he slowly approached it. seeing a paper note drenched in the crimson that looked almost black in the moonlight. Swallowing his nerves, he turned over the image. His stomach sank as he read through the words, written in handwriting he did not recognize. 

'hello little wolf. we have who you're looking for. if you're smart, you'll come it this address alone and tell no one. remember, he is always watching. 

-Vanny'

This was insane. Denki felt physically sick. His mother… she couldn’t be safe, her quirk was electricity resistance. If they had any other quirk she could- 

No. He wasn’t going to think of that. It wouldn’t come to that. He wouldn’t let it. 

What choice did he have? He wasn’t going to let his mother be hurt! He was a hero, he didn’t need help! Once he saved her, he could take the note to All Might, and he could help track down the perpetrators. But right now he was on his own.

And so, that night, he changed into his hero costume and took a bus to the address. 

Light switch: hey, Mike? 

Light switch: if anything happens to me tonight, just know I tried. I love you, and I love Izuku. Ok, that’s all. See ya later man. 

He switched off his phone. He could do this. Whatever this was. 

The address led to a huge abandoned building. 

Upon opening the door, Denki realized it was totally, completely pitch black. His electricity cackled as a light source and defense mechanism. He swore he could hear footsteps. He was wandering around almost blindly. His heart beating out of his chest. Every slight movement caused him to flinch. 

This was true fear. And anger. His mother was hurt or worse because of these people. He wasn’t going to let that slide. He refused.

He almost jumped out of his skin when the lights turned on. His electricity fizzled out. 

“Show yourself! Tell me where she is!” He demanded. This is what heros do, right? They’re confident, unafraid, and righteously angry at injustice. They could be scared after the job was done. 

“You really came, little wolf?” A female voice asked him quietly from behind. He spun around, once again preparing himself for battle. “I am Vanessa. But you can call me Vanny. We are friends, after all.” 

The woman in question was short, only about two inches taller than him. She had long blonde hair tied up into a high ponytail, purple eyes and pale skin. She giggled to herself. Like it was a game. Like his mother’s life was something to be mocked. She held a large butcher’s knife in her left hand. It glinted in the artificial lighting. He watched his reflection in the metal, and balled his hands into fists. 

“You did this, you kidnapped her! Tell me where she is!” He demanded, ignoring how sweaty his palms were getting. She smiled, a crazed grin that didn’t quite reach her eyes. Denki watched as purple electricity swirled around her, sparking dangerously and lighting her eyes up. She had such a similar quirk to him, and he felt sick to know it was being used for sickening things like this. 

She lunged at him, pinning him to the floor. He glared, kicking her in the stomach and sending the woman flying off of him. She landed on the ground with a thud. She flashed him another one of her smiles. Something he was getting sick of fast. 

She sent a wave of electricity his way, causing him to collapse, exhausted. He used his quirk to shock the floor with her on it, making sure not to use his limit just yet. 7000 volts for now. She shrieked, falling to her knees. “Son of a bitch!” She cursed, running straight to him. He kicked her round the face, causing blood to pour out of her nose. She grunted, but was still standing. Vanessa punched him in retaliation once, twice, until he lost his balance slightly. she wrapped her right hand around his neck, squeezing as desperately as she could. “This will be easy if you let me do this!” She cried, lifting him into the air as Denki kicked and struggled.

He snarled, using his quirk all throughout his body, causing another shriek of pain and for her to drop him suddenly. He gasped for air. Pulling himself away from the attacker. Getting up to his feet, he sent a shock wave through the building once more, causing Vanessa to cover her ears and grit her teeth. Using her own purple lightning to deflect the worst of his attack. 

He lunged at her with his entire body weight, knocking her to the floor. She was fast, however, and grabbed onto his arm, stabbing her butcher knife into his elbow. He grunted and screamed. Kicking her away from him. He shuffled back, sending another shock wave to keep her away from him, falling to his knees and clutching his arm tightly. 

When the shock wave finished, it put Denki at his limit. He absolutely would not be able to use another. As much as he wanted to. Vanessa stood up, wiping the blood off of her nose. She cackled to herself. “Down already? If your mother was really here, you would have failed.” Denki blinked.

“If? You mean…” 

“I thought it was funny that you didn’t check anything. You poor thing. Now you’re all alone with no one to save. Did you think you could take me on without a plan? Heros do that… They tend to overestimate themselves.” she snickered. Denki growled. Ignoring the pounding of his heart in his chest. He was going to be fine. It couldn’t end here! He was a hero! But she kept approaching him still, without slowing down once. 

Until eventually, she arrived at his feet. And knelt in front of him. She smiled sweetly, and he desperately tried to get the fear out of his eyes. He glared up at her. “Fuck you!” He snarled. And all Vanessa did was smile. The woman stroked his cheek, laughing to herself as he flinched away, before wrapping him in a hug. Putting deliberate pressure on his wounded arm. He gasped in pain, tears streamed down his face as he tried to make sense of which way is up. 

Then his vision flashed white as he felt something cold stab into his lower back. He choked. Blood spilling out of his mouth. Vanny tossed him to the floor like a limp ragdoll. He gasped for air, the wind knocked out of his lungs. He felt like he was drowning. He was dying. He was dying and he couldn’t stop it.

As she laughed at him struggling, Denki figured he had nothing to lose. 

He focused all his energy onto her, and shot out his electricity. She fell to her knees, her nose bleeding once again. She glared at him through the yellow electricity, and without warning, drew her blade across the child’s throat. His throat. 

His vision went dark as he felt his heart completely stop. 

And he breathed no more.

Chapter Text

Pink. 

Pink surrounded the entirety of her room. It always had, so she saw no valid reason why that theme should stop at this point. 

Pink walls, pink carpet, pink picture frames, pink bedding, pink curtains, pink dressers and pink closets-

You get the idea. It was her favorite color, Sue her! 

It was an eyesore for anyone but her, so she had been told, but the different shades made it bearable fun. 

She vaguely picked at the stitches on her wrists. Sighing, she looked in the mirror. Focus, she chided herself. The girl picked up the red lipstick sitting at her side and began to fill in her lips. The last part of the makeup was always slow and methodical. She was a woman now, or so it seemed. She had to make an effort. Mummy always did. she wore her long orange hair in ponytails, and used bright blue eyeshadow and near orange blush on her cheeks. 

She looked so much older. Felt so much older. But all her outfits were tutus and crop tops and stockings and hair bows. It was nice. 

It was really nice.  He liked her to feel like she could express herself. And she was grateful. 

She was also very fucking grateful that he hadn’t found the many packets of cigarettes and beer cans. She hoped it would stay that way forever, or she’d have to talk to him about it.  She shook her head. She really shouldn’t be smoking and drinking, she was only six… teen? Twenty six? Did it matter? 

Now, if you asked the child how she felt age wise, she would say ‘based upon how I look, how my body looks, and how tall I am, 7"9 thank you very much, I would say mid twenties.’

If you asked her how she was supposed to feel. She’d probably say around eight at the oldest. 

A knock at the door interrupted her thoughts. She turned to see it open, and watched as a man stood in the doorway, arms folded over his chest. 

“Elizabeth? You’ve made quite a scene out there.” The familiar voice of her father chastised her, sounding on the verge of a very familiar annoyance. The girl shrugged. He sighed. “You can’t have a tantrum out in public like that. Not in front of those who daddy’s working for, ok?” 

Elizabeth wanted to argue that no, it wasn’t a tantrum. And screaming your head off and breaking someone’s hand when someone hurts your feelings is a perfectly normal response. It had even gotten an amused chuckle out of Mr. Tomura, and she swore he wanted them all to get along. But, to avoid more tears on her end, she huffed and nodded. 

“Will that man be ok?” She asked, not really caring about the answer either way. William smiled rather condescendingly. “I’m sure he will be. Just- for the love of god, my darling Elizabeth.” He began.

“ ACT YOUR FUCKING AGE .” 

The child flinched. Fuck, she just did her makeup a second ago, could he not at least wait for it to dry before he made her cry? Silently, she nodded, doing her best to keep her breathing in check. “If I have to act my age, does that mean I can maybe watch a few movies for big children?” William pinched the bridge of his nose. “No, when I said that, you know what I meant. Don’t be cheeky, it’s not a good look.” He approached her gently, grabbing her hand in reassurance. “Look at me, pumpkin. Afton’s don’t cry. Do not disappoint me again.” He said, beginning to close his grasp over the hand until she felt pain spread throughout it. She tugged lightly, but he didn’t let go. “Ok, Elizabeth?” He asked in that tone. The tone where the only answers could be ‘yes, sir.’ Or ‘no sir’. And depending on what the question was, you better pray you get it right. 

Was it Mike who had patched her up last time father’s nails dug into her flesh? And father’s apology was not that at all, but a warning to not repeat the same mistake again, lest she go without dinner? She was pretty sure it was. She scoffed at the thought of her older brother. The favorite.  Never any room for doubt there with the amount of times father had used abusing disciplining her as leverage for Mike to behave and do what he said. At least it worked. The cold fear in his eyes when either of their well beings, hers or Evan’s, were threatened by father, and the medical attention being enough to quell her hatred for how favorably he was viewed. At least at the time.

How badly she wanted to hurt him now. Prove to father Mike was weak, and she was worthy of being the favorite. She could do it. She would do it. 

“Yes, daddy.” She said a little sadly. He released her hand after a final aggressive squeeze, kissing her forehead gently. “Good girl. We’re finally getting to your brother, so try to be at least a little helpful on this? And not… mess everything up.” He waved his hand dismissively at her. 

He closed the door gently behind him as he left. And when Elizabeth was sure she was alone, she had a look at her hand, green and brown bruising already starting to appear on her ghost white skin. It hurt. 

Why wasn’t she ever enough? Why was it always Micheal!?

Why wasn’t she allowed to be an adult now?

She looked into her full length mirror, her disgruntled face staring back at her. Such an ugly, unladylike expression. She punched the mirror at full force, cracking the glass inside and causing blood to trickle down her knuckles. Oh. She had forgotten how strong she was now.

————

Aizawa had really enjoyed spending time with what was essentially his roommate lately. He’d taken off the grounding upon realizing that he may have been too harsh on Mike. After all, the kid seemed to be reacting any way a hero would have. He shouldn’t have faulted him for that.

The whole “this kid is from the past and almost died” thing had been easy to get used to after a few days. Quirks were strange, and it wasn’t like Mike had any answers. He’d grown to care for the kid, and be protective of him. He was currently cooking breakfast for the two of them, and waiting for Mike to get up from his bed. 

He really did like Mike. He was a good kid. Clever, friendly, confident. The class seemed to really like him. Especially Kaminari and Midoriya. The three of them seemed to be the best of friends, of which he was glad. 

So, when the usually smiling and tough teenager came down the stairs in angry tears, Shota put the frying pan to one side and gave Mike a concerned look. “Mike? You ok?” He asked cautiously. Mike opened his mouth, but all that came out was a gasp. Aizawa sighed and turned off the flame on their gas powered hob. Approaching the teen gently and placing a hand atop his shoulder. Mike furiously wiped his eyes, showing the teacher an image of his text messages with Kaminari. 

“He hasn’t texted me back! I’ve called so many goddamn times, he didn’t call Izuku either.” He sounded so small, so fragile right now. Aizawa did his best to stifle any form of shocked reaction when reading the text in question. 

‘ Light switch: if anything happens to me tonight, just know I tried. I love you, and I love Izuku. Ok, that’s all. See ya later man.’ 

“Are you sure this isn’t a prank?” The man asked Mike after a moment of thinking. Mike aggressively shook his head. Aizawa studied the text for a moment more. “You got any idea where he could be?” He asked. Mike shook his head, doing his best to stifle more tears, by the looks of it. Without warning Mike wrapped his arms around Aizawa. Crying into his neck. “I know this is super unheroic but- I just can’t lose anyone else, man.” The older man paused. Not entirely sure how to comfort him. Eventually deciding on wrapping his arms back around the teen. Mike sounded so small, so broken. So much younger, even. And it shattered his heart into millions of pieces. It was very similar to how he had reacted during his panic attack a few days ago, not that Aizawa’s mind had let himself forget how horribly he treated that. 

“Hey, it’ll be ok. I promise.” He reassured them. “We’ll get him home safely. He’s a tough hero, I’m sure it’ll be ok.” He gently rubbed circles into Mike’s back. 

He didn’t know who he was trying to convince more. If something happened to one of his students before they were pros that was within his control, he didn’t know if he would be able to forgive himself.

Later that night, Toshinori and himself had managed to track down the location of Kaminari’s phone. It took about an hour, but technology was effective so he was just relieved it didn’t take longer. It had led to an abandoned warehouse. With a rickety wooden door and trash bags sitting outside. All Might gave him a reassured smile. Although he thought it probably did very little to ease either man’s nerves. Yagi changed into his huge, hulking quirk form, and opened the door quietly. He had wanted to kick it down, yelling about how he was ‘justice incarnate’ and all, but thankfully Shota had convinced his friend that that would be a very bad idea. And it would alert the enemy rather quickly of their presence.

The whole building was pitch black, and incredibly difficult to see in. Carefully the two pro’s maneuvered around the building, getting a good feel for the layout in as little time as possible.  Moving a little further in, they found the lights had turned on. Making both people feel a little more than uneasy.

“Freaky…” Aizawa muttered. Yagi nodding mainly to himself. The older man turned around, and as Aizawa followed his lead, both sets of eyes fell onto a small black circle attached to the wall. A light sensor. “This was deliberate, Eraserhead.” He said quietly. “Designed most likely to catch people off guard.” 

After a few minutes of quiet roaming and visual scanning. They decided that keeping quiet wasn’t doing anything beneficial anymore. The underground hero pulled out his phone, calling Denki’s personal number that he had gotten from Mike and turning his own to vibrate mode. The men listened intently. No sound could be heard. 

Walking through winding hallways, they both discussed how this whole place looked like it was made for children. Black and white tile floors, colorful balloons and confetti, drawings of animals on the wall, advertising a restaurant neither of them recognized. ‘Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza.’

It was after about ten minutes, when Yagi was searching a nearby corridor away from the other man, that Shouta happened upon a hidden door. He had leaned into it, and tripped upon its opening. Cobwebs and dust flying out, causing him to cough. It was completely black, impossible to see into. The first thing that hit him was the smell inside this room. Like a punch to the face it sent home staggering backwards. It caused him to gag.  It was a metallic smell, along with what he assumed was rotten ham and moldy banana. He left the pitch dark room to gasp for air outside. 

Once his stomach had settled, the man slowly reached along the walls of the room, until he felt his hand hit something pointy on the wall. A light switch. It clicked under his palm. The light temporarily dazzling him, causing him to shut his eyes tight. When he finally  felt he could open them again, he did. 

And suddenly, he went completely numb.

Strewn across the floor, drenched in a thick, sticky black and brown liquid, was the body of a yellow haired boy, with a black light night strike through his hair. Wearing a black jacket, a white T-shirt, a choker and some black jeans. He could see from his pale face, black fingertips and sunken eyes, that the kid had been dead for over 24 hours. 

His brain was screaming at him, demanding that he check his pulse, give him CPR, something, anything to make him sit up, and start laughing about how he bought some “really cool Halloween makeup.” How this was an elaborate prank. But all he found himself doing was collapsing to his knees, shakily out reaching a hand to the boy’s head. He looked at his neck. It had been cut. A slit clean across his throat that had drenched his shirt, turning it brown and crimson. A pool of mostly dry blood surrounded him, and Aizawa could feel it sticking to his coat and jeans. Meaning Denki had been stabbed in the back as well. He couldn’t speak, his vision going dark around the edges. 

He gently lifted up the corpse boy, supporting his head as if that would make a difference. He hadn’t realized that tears were beginning to fall. He stood up, surprised that he even could. He felt his body walk out with the boy in his arms, and heard his voice call out to All Might. 

“Yes? did you find-”

He looked into Yagi’s eyes, seeing the man go dead silent. A dangerous aura surrounding him. Tears escaping the larger man’s eyes much the same as his. “Is he…?” Was all All Might asked. Again, Shota felt himself nod.

The police were Immediately called by Toshinori, as well as an ambulance. Aizawa had to be dragged out of the building, still heavily disassociating from the reality of his findings. Yagi, bless his heart, had been comforting the silent man the whole time. Never once asking him to speak, and even shooing away any police that attempted to question him. 

He had failed his student. 

Failed a family. 

Failed a life. 

And now, a child was dead. 

Chapter Text

It’s ok. 

It’s ok to cry, let it out. Let me save you.

I know, it hurts. I can dull the pain, I can help you.

I bring a gift. 

I bring life. 

A gift you must receive.

Please, wake up.

————

Aizawa had to force himself out of bed that morning. He’d come home so late that Mike was already asleep. He sat up, looking at the time on the clock. Mike usually woken up about half an hour from now. What was he going to tell him?

That one of his closest friends was dead? That he’d lost yet another person close to him. Izuku had, too. Hell, the entire class.

That Aizawa had failed?

Denki was a sunshine to the whole class. Everyday he would greet the teacher, and his disruptions were always mild, even making him laugh from time to time. Denki had the best intentions with everyone. He was a sweet kid, starry eyes and ready to do good for the world. Now?

Now he was a cold, lifeless corpse. 

No time reversing quirk or healing quirk would work on the boy, when they found him he’d been dead for too long. All quirks have a limit, as much as it pained him to admit that. There was no bringing back the dead. That idea was merely a fairytale designed to help children to grieve, or scare audiences in cinemas. 

What he wouldn’t give to bring him back. 

But he had an incredibly difficult day ahead of him. He’d have to break the news to everyone but the police, the hospital, and All Might. 

He’d have to watch as his class would inevitably burst into tears, screaming at him how he should have done more, how he should have saved him.

And he wouldn’t be able to blame them because they’d be right. At least in his own eyes.

He’d have to watch as Mike, before school, would most likely storm out of the room, or have a panic attack in the middle of it.

He’d have to watch Izuku become unresponsive for days, refusing to talk and going into a depression. 

He’d have to watch him and Yagi get berated by the staff and his friends and headmaster for failing at his most important job. Keeping his students safe. 

But the person he was most dreading talking to, was Anzu Kaminari. The boy’s mother. He couldn’t even imagine how much hell she was about to go through. 

So, before he left, he woke Mike up. Gently shaking him to disturb his sleep. The boy rolled over. “Hmmm? What is it?” He mumbled, sitting up and rubbing his eyes. “I need to talk to you. It’s incredibly important.” He began, not sure how else to approach the situation. 

“Wait, let me eat something first, geez.” He complained. Aizawa wanted to stop him, but figured he should at least have one more breakfast before his life changed. He nodded, watching as Mike stretched and stepped out of his room once the boy went through his morning routine. 

Twenty minutes later, once was awake, he turned to Aizawa and cleared his throat. “What did you want to tell me?” He asked. “Sit down, please, it’ll help.” He asked. Mike looked wary. “I… ok?” He said, sitting on the black leather sofa. Aizawa gently placed a hand on Mike’s shoulder, looking up at the boy. 

“Last night, me and All Might went out to search for Denki.” He began. Mike nodded. “You said. Did you find him? Is he alright?” Aizawa sensed he was dangerously close to panicking the boy. So he told him to breathe. Once he did that, Aizawa continued. “Well, we were led to a big abandoned warehouse. He was apparently inside. At first we found nothing. But there was a hidden room and-” he stopped to collect himself. “Mike, we found him but… but he wasn’t alive.” 

There’s a feeling that Aizawa felt upon seeing Mike’s face that he just couldn’t name. A painless throbbing and dizziness. A feeling of immense guilt mixed with numbness and a whole lot of heartache. 

He was pretty sure it was a type of grief.

“…what? Is he… that means…” Mike sputtered, tears welling in his eyes. Aizawa sighed. “Mike, when we got there he’d been dead for a while, and there was nothing we could do.” He said finally. “I’m sorry. I wish I could have done more.” 

Mike nodded, now completely silent. Shoulders heaving and face tear-stained. “This… you’re sure?” Aizawa nodded. Mike, however, stayed silent. Shakily he stood up. “Mike, where are you going?” He asked with concern. Mike looked back at him, blinking as tears continued to fall. “I’m going upstairs. I can’t… I’m sorry. Please understand. Right now I need to be alone.”  He finished. Eyes glossy and looking past him. As if he wasn’t quite sure if Aizawa was really there. 

Aizawa grabbed Mike’s hand, and wrapped him in the tightest hug the man could muster. Mike didn’t hug back, simply sobbing into him. The boy’s leg’s gave way and his sobs turned into heaves. “It’s my fault, I’m a horrible person.” 

Mike gritted his teeth.

“I should have seen the message earlier, and then… Denki… why! Why is it always my fault!?” He screamed. “It’s not your fault. It will never be your fault. You understand?” He asked. Mike didn’t respond. He gently pulled the boy off of him. Cupping his face. “No. Look at me. This isn’t your doing, Mike. You could have done nothing to help. And nothing to hinder. You did your damn best. And that’s what a hero does. So don’t give me that. You did nothing wrong.” 

“But- but- what about when Evan died? When I was twelve, and I put him up to the animatronic and it-” he stopped, gasping for air. “My own brother!” He shoved Aizawa away at full force, holding his arms and shaking. “Mike, calm down. What are you talking about?” He glared at Aizawa. 

“What am I talking about? What am I talking about!? I’m talking about how I’m a goddamn murderer! I killed my own brother!” He screamed. And Aizawa’s whole body went cold.

“You what?”

“I was twelve and- I used to pick on him- and- I thought it was funny to shove him into fredbear’s mouth- an an-animatronic-c.” He stuttered. “It- it killed him, it was an accident! It murdered him! It was my fault! I’m a monster, and now Denki’s dead because of me!” He was curled up on the floor now. A pool of tears surrounded him. “I’m sorry, I’m so sorry!” 

 Meanwhile, Aizawa was processing what he just heard. Mike… had he really done that? At twelve? A child doing that to their own brother… That was unthinkable. It was monstrous. 

And it was an accident . 

An accident he clearly regretted. An accident. Something he had no knowledge of prior to the accident happening. 

Aizawa knew monsters. He’d met monsters that claimed to be heros, those who were so desperate to convince themselves they were good, and in the right. He’d also met monsters that knew they were villains, ones that were too far gone to regret their actions. Or if they did, they refused to change or make up for it.

Monsters didn’t cry over something they did four years ago with guilt and begin having a panic attack over it. 

Monsters didn’t desperately apologize to a victim that would never be able to hear it. 

Monsters weren’t this small, broken and helpless. Monsters didn’t want to right their wrongdoings, make friends and help people. 

Aizawa knew monsters well. And Mike wasn’t one of them. Mike was good. His reaction here proved he was anything but an unforgivable, cold and evil monster. Quite the opposite actually. 

Shota gently placed a hand on Mike’s back. 

“You’re not a monster, Mike. You’ve- I’ll admit. What you did was bad, there’s no denying that. But you’re strong. You’ve come out of it a better person. And you know what I think?” 

Mike looked up at Aizawa with fear in his eyes.

“I think monsters don’t act like this. I think what you are is a victim. A victim of guilt. And a victim of abuse. And I think you’re a good person now. And right now is all that will ever matter. You are good, Mike. Your past does not define you. Your present actions and words do. I know you’re good. And nothing that you did as a child on accident is going to make me change my mind, regardless of what that is.” 

Breathing calming ever so slightly, Mike stood up off of the ground. He dried his eyes. He nodded at Aizawa. Before hugging the man once more, letting out a few finale much needed sobs. 

He dreaded how the mother would fare, if this is how Denki’s friend reacted. 

————

He blinked. 

Darkness. Nothing but darkness. It was strange, unnatural and frightening. 

It was silent. 

And everything was agony. His neck burned, his back ached, and there was no one around. Why was he even there? How had he gotten to what he could only assume was hell?

He felt like sobbing. Was he sobbing? He couldn’t tell. He couldn’t hear himself anymore. He had no body. No voice. No way out. Just pain and confusion and fear.

It’s ok.

A voice? 

It’s ok to cry, let it out. Let me save you.

A female voice.

I know, it hurts. I can dull the pain, I can help you.

Can she really stop the pain? Or, well, ‘dull it’ as she put it. 

I bring a gift. 

He reached out his hand. 

I bring life.

He reached out the other arm, too. 

A gift you must receive. 

He felt warmth, he could see a light. Hope was within his very grasp.

Please, wake up.

————

He blinked. His arms felt warm, he could see above him a small girl around his age. She had long black hair, dark brown skin, and had painted blue tear tracks under her eyes. Along with rosy red cheeks. Her fingers were long and thin, like needles. 

“Hello?” She said, voice calm, as if she may startle him. Denki blinked. “You… you rescued me from that place.” He said. The girl nodded. She was a little shorter than him, too. 

“You got a name? Also, where the fuck am I? I thought-”

He blinked. That didn’t…happen, right? Oh god.

He had been killed.

She- that woman, Vanessa, she’d stabbed him in his lower back and cut his throat. 

So, why was he still alive?

He looked up at the girl. Who held up her hands in a placating manner. “It’s alright, lost soul. You’re safe now. My name is Charlie. But you may call me Marionette.” She said in a hushed tone. The boy blinked. 

“How am I alive? I thought… oh god, Mom! Izuku! Mike! Can I see them again?! Can I get my body back?!” He asked, frantic. Charlie simply sighed. “I’m afraid that is well beyond my ability, lost soul. You are a spirit now. It is all I could do. I’m sorry, but you cannot see those you love again. None of us can leave this place…” 

Denki blinked. “This place? Bullshit! Where are we!? Why can’t I see them?!” He growled. “I have to see them! I’m not staying here, I’m not!” The girl took a step back. He paused, sighing. Don’t scare her. Be a hero. “Sorry. I’m sorry, I’m just confused. I thought… I was dead. But now you’re telling me I’m a ghost? This is all too much…” She seemed to relax a bit upon the apology, even smiling.

“It’s alright, lost soul. Many have reacted far worse than that. As to why we cannot leave, your spirit is bound to a vessel. And unless that vessel leaves, you will remain within roughly three hundred meters of that vessel. Going any father will pull you back.” She explained. “Vessel? You mean I’m possessing something right now?” 

Charlie nodded. 

“What am I possessing?” 

She took his hand, gently leading him out of the room they were in and into an open space. He could see it now. They were in his final resting place. The place where Vanny had ended his life. 

She pointed ahead to a slumped over figure. Cautiously, the boy approached it, seeing that it was a kind of animatronic Wolf. Decorated in bright makeup and patterned clothing. Completely with a nasty set of claws and teeth so sharp he was sure that thing was a safety hazard. 

“Why that?” He asked, feeling his voice shake a little. She rested a hand on his shoulder. “Your soul needed something to bond to. This was the only way to get you out of that hell. This body was the only one available. I’m sorry, little soul. There’s nothing else I could have done.” 

Denki felt his breathing pick up speed. 

“I’m…I'm stuck here? Forever? I’ll never see anyone I know ever again?” Charlie did not answer, and Denki felt the tears fall once again. “I can’t… I’m dead. Why can’t I rest!? If there’s no going back, what can I do?” He hiccuped. Weird, he didn’t know it was possible for ghosts to cry. 

Charlie seemed to break away from her stoic façade, wrapping Denki in a tight hug. 

Minutes passed before Denki felt like he could speak again without crying. 

“Why am I here?” He asked her. She frowned. “It was the best option you had.” He shook his head. “No, mean, why am I here, why are you here?” He repeated. She blinked. “I have an incredibly powerful soul. I was able to give myself a new life. As a ghost. I have taken to doing the same unto others who need it. And who I can afford to give it to.” She smiled sadly.

“Denki.” He responded. She looked taken aback. “What? He snickered. “My name, it’s Denki Kaminari.” She nodded in understanding. “There are others. A lot younger than us. Do you want to meet them?” He nodded. Then paused. “Wait. If they’re younger does that mean… someone murdered children?”

He asked, horrified. Charlie didn’t say anything, only giving him a sad, knowing look. 

“We are all in this together. I know this isn’t easy to understand. Trust me, sometimes it eludes me as well. But together, maybe we can make things easier to cope with?” She proposed. 

He nodded. “If… if I’m stuck dead. Stuck like this… at the very least, I’ll do what heros do. 

I’ll protect the innocent and fight the evil.” 

Chapter Text

Izuku had suffered plenty in his lifetime. 

From consistent bullying and abuse from Katsuki to being diagnosed quirkless, to struggling with internalized homophobia to growing up without a father, he’s dealt with a lot. Nothing so flashy that would warrant a fanfare of sorrow and low self esteem, and nothing he would call traumatic, apart from maybe Kacchan’s treatment towards him. But yes, he knew suffering and he knew her well. 

Getting into the hero course in UA was something he always dreamed of. He never imagined that that would lead to him finding a boyfriend and finally getting a real best friend.

Things were going well for him. Sure, they weren’t perfect, nothing ever is.

But he would have taken a thousand more beatings and verbal shout downs from Katsuki, a million more questions as to why his father wasn’t in his life, and an infinite amount of self-inflicted homophobia if it meant the piece of information he’d just been told didn’t happen. 

Tie him down to a table, dissect him while he’s awake and alive, have his open wounded body drenched in Mina’s acid for 24 hours without a break or having it washed off afterwards, force him to die over and over again. He would do anything, anything, to not hear the words that he had just heard. 

“ Denki Kaminari was murdered a few nights ago.”

Impossible. 

He was fine just a few days ago. They- they had gone on their first date, they had kissed under the moonlight. He couldn’t be dead. Death was… well, it was permanent. Impossible to undo.

And murder…

Who could take the life of such a bright soul? Someone who only wanted to give to others and be kind?

Someone so perfect, so amazing?

Izuku Midoriya knew suffering.

But this feeling of agony was uncomfortably unfamiliar.

He didn’t even realize he’d walked out of the classroom until he was already in the hallway. 

————

He swore to god he did not get paid enough for this shit.

It wasn’t even his first choice to live in Japan. His wife had insisted on going back to where she grew up, and Scott wasn’t about to deprive Kaede of that. She’d always been good to him. Loving, sweet, kind and funny. So he was prepared to stay in Musutafu for as long as needed. 

And at first, it was really amazing. Japan was a beautiful country. With friendly people, amazing food, a rich culture, creative entertainment and beautiful scenery and architecture. Not to mention how fascinating he found the history of it all. 

But after the first two months, it was time to get a job. And working in Japan wasn’t the most forgiving thing in the world. That was putting it lightly. He was expected to work many hours overtime, with little to no room for being late. Even when being late couldn’t be helped. Homesickness was also a huge issue for him. 

Then there was the job in question. He’d never seen the manager of the company. Only ever hearing roomers. And nothing substantial at that. He worked as a supervisor at an old kids restaurant chain. Which had recently been rebranded as an animatronic venue. Something along the lines of “fredbears burgers” or some other shit he couldn’t remember. (He was 90% sure it was actually Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza but he did not get paid enough to care.) New ‘state of the art’ robots were to be brought in and set on a stage for the kids to watch them sing and dance. The place he worked at was massive, and he was ready for at least something to change in his life. 

His quirk had always made life awkward for him. He had a simple mutation of a featureless red rotary telephone for a head, and could pick up call signals from up to 1,000 meters away without knowing the phone number and instantly connect to any surrounding devices with him. 

Working the job was tough. He only expected the animatronics to make it even harder with their servos and wiring issues. 

And he knew it would be his neck on the chopping block if he fucked this up.

————

“I must admit, I like your ears.” Charlie said suddenly. Denki looked at her, confused. “My… my ears?” She nodded. Then paused, looking a little startled. “Oh, yes! You haven’t seen them. Here, look in this window.”

Walking over to it, Denki’s reflection came into view. He nearly stumbled backwards from what he saw. He had purple tear tracks now, much like Charlie. Like her as well, one eye was pitch black other than a glowing white pupil. His teeth were sharp. Similar to Kirishima’s actually. And as she had said, he had two fluffy gray wolf ears poking out of his yellow hair. 

“How…” he began. Charlie Chuckled. “You gain certain features of the vessel you posses. It’s bizarre how it works. For example, my vessel, currently where the others are, is a puppet. Hence my hands.” She lifted them up to prove her point. He nodded. Taking a finale look back at his face before eventually moving away. 

“So…. you said there are others, five of them?” Denki asked, still shaken up. Charlie nodded. “Kind of, there are now four. We cannot find the fifth. She’s been missing for a while now. Come, Denki. I will introduce you all.” 

Her cryptic mannerisms seemed to put him on edge. He knew she wasn’t the one to fear, of all people. And he didn’t fear her. But something about what she’d said was still playing in his mind. 

“ Your soul needed something to bond to. This was the only way to get you out of that hell. This body was the only one available. I’m sorry, little soul. There’s nothing else I could have done ”.

She used the word “I” a lot. So it was her doing. How did she even know he was there? He eyed her up and down. 

“Hey so, about that place I was in… what would have happened if you didn’t, you know, soul bond me or whatever to that wolf animatronic over there?” He had to ask, otherwise he’d never be able to let it go. And well, the dead do certainly have a lot of time. She stopped guiding him across the building and sighed. “…I don’t know.” She admitted after a while. Denki blinked. 

“You… what do you mean you ‘don’t know’?” She looked up at him tentatively. Seemingly made uncomfortable by the current conversation. Good. Answer my damn questions. I deserve to know that much. 

“Did you pull me out of purgatory? Pull all the kids out? What if it was just like- a waiting area for heaven or eternal peace?” 

Charlie did not answer.

“Charlie. Why am I really here? Did you really bring me back to help me ?” He did his best to keep calm at the girl, sensing no mal intent. Deception, perhaps. But not mal intent. “It’s not purgatory.” She said eventually. “Then what-”

“Ghosts are what happen when the souls of the dead have unfinished business before they die. Eventually either their business is sorted out by another living soul or they make a choice: to stay vengeful and become a spirit living on earth, or let go and find peace with the fact their biddings will never be carried out. They then finish their business and leave for whatever the afterlife may or may not hold.” She explained. Denki swallowed, taking in the information bit by bit. “So, I would have just come back, even if you didn’t do anything?” The girl nodded. “I barely did much in the grand scheme of things. I mostly gave you hope and guidance. We are a little different. You see, we do not have a choice. Remnant, something that was injected into your corpse after death by your killer, is something that binds your soul to this plane of existence.” 

“Something injected- WAIT WHAT? WHO DID WHAT TO MY CORPSE?!” She sighed again, turning to face him.

 “It happened to all of us. Without my help, you wouldn’t have been able to move on at all. I have given you a chance at vengeance. Use it wisely.” Denki shook his head, panicked. “I don’t want vengeance! If I can’t live my life, I wanna rest, man! I’ll never kill those around me, if you think I will you can get fucked, I’m not like you!” 

Instantly, Denki regretted what he had said. “Charlie… I didn’t mean-”

“You think I don’t want to rest? You think I have not spent who knows how long in this hell with only young, angry, traumatized children for company?” She growled, seething. “I was left out in the cold. I was lured out by a man I thought I could trust. A man my father befriended and I called an uncle. A man whose son I was the best of friends with for the short time I was living. And in return, the snow buried my body and hypothermia took place. I wanted to rest, but I had no choice. My soul was given strength in remnant. And I bonded to the closest vessel I could. No one here can live their lives. Because, like you, our lives were stolen from us. I… I assumed you would understand.” Charlie glared, somehow keeping her tone level. Maybe it was easier for the dead to mask their emotions? With the amount Denki had been sobbing, it seemed unlikely to be true. He blinked, seeing tears prick in the corner of her eyes. 

“Hey- shit. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to say… all of that.” 

“Do not lie to me, Denki. I’ve had enough lies to last me a life time.” She said sorrowfully. He held up his hands in mock surrender. “Ok maybe I meant some of it. But I really didn’t mean to say the “I’m not like you” part.” He sighed. “I get it. ‘We’re all in this together’, as you said... But I’m a hero. I’m not, and never will be a killer. I’ll fight them till they bleed, but I won’t take a life. I just… I can’t do that, Charlie.” 

There was a pause, silence that was almost unbearably loud filling the huge room they stood in. 

“You were a hero to them, now be a hero to us. The only way you can be free is if the one who did this to you is dead, and you have let go. Without one of those you will not be free.” She placed a hand on his shoulder. “I know you can help us. You may not understand now, but they need you. I need you.” The girl pleaded. Denki swallowed. Not liking what he was hearing, but seeing no other option either. 

Would that make him a monster? Taking another life? Did he have a choice anymore?

But the one who killed Charlie how she’d described… couldn’t be a human with morals or compassion. Did he really deserve any?

Did Vanessa deserve any?

Was there such a thing as compassion for anyone living anymore? He shook his head. There was, he knew there was. Mike, Izuku, Mom. The entity of Class 1A. They all mattered to him. He loved them dearly. 

“Show me the others.” He said eventually. “And… I really am sorry I said all that.” She shook her head, blinking away her tears and mustering a small smile. “It’s quite alright. I’d rather you come to terms with it now. It’ll make the future easier to deal with.” 

They eventually found their way into a dining hall. Animatronic models were slumped over and still. They looked futuristic, and had a distinct 1980’s theme. There was a white chicken, a purple bunny, a brown bear and a green alligator. Most noticeably, was Charlie ‘s vessel. A long, very thin puppet with needle like hands and legs, and a white painted porcelain mask. 

He turned to see the middle of the room. Four children sat around, chatting and playing with cards. Each had a feature corresponding to an animatronic. Apart from one child, who’s only noticeable feature was purple tear tracks was an eyepatch. He was standing off to the side, smiling at the other children but not engaging.

“Everyone, this is Denki Kaminari.” Charlie spoke up, introducing him to everyone. They paused and turned to him. Their expressions shifted to distrust. 

“Hey…” was all Denki said, along with an awkward wave. Charlie looked like she was trying to suppress a smile. “He joined us recently. He’s… how old are you?” She asked, trailing off. “15.” She nodded. “Right, he’s my age. So you all have a new friend to play with. He’s soul bound to the wolf animatronic out in the hall. Be nice and introduce yourselves.” Slowly, the group began to approach him. Denki shifted uncomfortably from foot to foot. Still dealing from the shock of all this. 

First, and most confidently, was the only other girl there. She stuck out her hand for a handshake. “I’m Susie! I’m nine and a half and will be your new friend.” She declared, and Denki snorted, shaking her hand. She grinned, freckled cheeks rising up to her blue eyes. Her long blonde curly hair tied back in a pink hair bow, with a tuft of hair at the top that looked like the chicken animatronic’s. She also had one eye completely in black and white. “I’m also the coolest one here.” She grinned. 

“No you’re not.” 

“I am too, Fritz! Shut up meanie!” 

He knelt down to her height. “Yo, if you are, you’re gonna have to show me around, yeah? I want the coolest tour.” She seemed to light up at this. Hopping up and down. “Charlie, can we keep him?” She asked eagerly, earning a soft chuckle from the girl in question and a nod. Denki smiled back at the nine year old. Oh, his bad, he meant nine and a half.

The youngest was next, Jeremy at age 4. Susie explained he could not talk after what they simply called, “the incident.” So he’d have to be patient with him until he understood how he uniquely communicated. She also accompanied this with a protective look of warning. The boy gave a small wave, a green shirt too big for him and overlapping his hand. He had tan skin, and two long rabbit ears sticking out of his short blonde hair, and like Susie, he also had one eye with a black sclera and a white pupil. Denki ruffled his hair, to which he smiled and stepped back. 

“Hey! I’m Gabe!” A little boy greeted him. “I mean you can call me Gabriel, but that’s lame. So call me Gabe! I’m eight and I love playing cards so I expect you to play too!” Denki smiled at the enthusiasm. “Hey gabe. I’m Denki, but you knew that.” He grinned. “ Do you know much about cards?” He asked curiously. He was wearing a black T-shirt and had small bear ears, a slightly lighter shade of brown then the color of his skin. The older boy blinked. “…I have played Daifugo one time? When I was high- ow!” He felt Charlie slap him on the side of his head. She rolled her eyes with a smile. “High? Like high up?” Christ this kid was adorable. Denki stuck his tongue out playfully at Charlie, rubbing the back of his head slightly. “Um, sure, let’s go with that.” He grinned awkwardly. Gabe had a determined look on his face. “Well then, let me teach you!” Denki nodded. “Show me your ways, oh wise one.” He teased, getting a giggle out of the other kids. 

The last to come up was the tallest of the four. He looked Denki up and down. The eyepatch kid. “I’m Fritz. I’m eleven.” He said curtly. Then his expression softened a tad one he stared into Denki’s eyes. “I’m… I’m sorry you are dealing with this. Believe me, I know how much the situation sucks. I hope you can protect us from him. I hope to hell you can end this.” He said sadly. The room drew quiet. Susie scoffed. “You can’t just bring that up like that!” She chastity. He rolled his eyes at her. “Why not?” He asked. Charlie sighed. “Fritz-”

“No. Charlie, I’m sorry, but why is everyone treating this like a happy occasion? Another kid is dead and trapped here. Denki, I'm counting on you to end this with us. If that’s all I needed to say, I’ll be going. Christ, you guys are weird.” Charlie sighed, seemingly used to this. Denki’s chest tightened uncomfortably. These kids… They were all traumatized at such a young age. And it wasn’t fair. 

Looking around, none of them were truly happy. Temporary joys seemed to be all they’d get. It broke his heart to see so much life drained out of their faces, even as spirits. 

Is this why Charlie is so set on vengeance?

Denki was beginning to see why that may be a good idea. 

Chapter Text

The dead were not meant for sleep. 

Denki had learned that rather quickly upon drifting off his first night as a spirit. Closing his eyes only to be greeted with the image of his killer as she drew a blade across his throat. He decided then and there that sleep, unfortunately, was a luxury he’d never have again. He spent the following week awake at all hours.

He’d made a simple mental list of pros and cons to being dead. 

Cons: 

I’m dead

I’m stuck on earth in the place I was murdered

I can’t find peace

My killer is still out there possibly killing more people

I can’t eat 

I can’t see my friends or family anymore 

I can’t sleep

I can’t change my clothes

Pros:

…

He was sure there were some, just maybe none he could think of right at this moment in time.

On the bright side, he and Charlie had been getting along. As well as all the kids. 

They picked fights with each other. A lot. Fights mainly consisting of

“that’s my thing” 

“No it’s my thing”

“Is not!”

“Is too, I’m telling.” 

That was mainly Susie, Fritz and Gabe. Fritz tended to be the most sulky. Susie and Gabe seemed to genuinely enjoy each other's company and love each other however, despite how often they fought. 

Denki was also pretty sure in the last week he’d become a dad. Jeremy had even come up to him and written “I love you dad” on a piece of paper. While Charlie had to gently tell him that Denki wasn’t his father figure and instead more of a sibling, Denki’s lack of a heart had exploded with love. She had acted with great concern when he had doubled over on the floor and held it to his chest for dear life. 

The spirits could pick up objects if they concentrated hard enough. It had taken Denki a few hours to get the hang of it. But when he did, he had managed to flip a table without any assistance. And he was very proud of himself. 

He’d also learned how to possess his vessel. It had to be night, first. No one was really sure why, but the connection seemed to be the strongest between the hours of twelve and six AM. Charlie initially claimed it was because of the stars' alignment, but had later admitted she’d just made that up because he was bombarding her with questions. 

“You’re serious? What the hell, man!” She chuckled. “I am sorry, I do not know every answer to your questions, lost soul.” Denki had huffed. “Yeah but you don’t gotta lie! I’m like- I knew you weren’t telling the truth anyway.” She gave him a skeptical look, and he folded his arms over his chest and rolled his eyes in defeat. Not that he would ever admit that was defeat. 

Him and Charlie often had long conversations together. She hadn’t managed to convince him that he would have to kill to be free yet, but he hated to admit that he wasn’t as opposed to it as when he’d been living. 

She talked about her dad, Henry Emily. How he was best friends with her killer. How he owned an animatronic business with him. How that man absolutely had to be behind all of this, including how the spirits were in the future somehow. They were all pieces of a puzzle to him, apparently. Pawns in a game of chess. 

“Then why me? Why am I here with you? Why bring me back?” She shrugged. “That much I am unaware of. I can only guess that as a hero you were somehow in their way. Maybe he believes you shall be a strong spirit? I am unsure.” Charlie paused for a moment, deep in thought. “All I can suggest is you may know someone related to him. I wonder… no, no that’s nothing.” She trailed off. Denki snorted. “Um, Char? You’re doing the cryptic thing again.” She blinked. “Hmm? Oh, yes, I apologize. It’s just…” 

“Just what?”

The girl sighed. “Something you brought up bothers me a fair amount. A name.” She said finally. Denki nodded. “Go on…”

“My best friend. His name… it was Mike, too. Do you happen to know the last name? It’s very important.” Denki swallowed. “…I-”

“Please, lost soul. This could answer a few questions.” He contemplated for a moment, then nodded, feeling like there was nothing to lose at this point. “Afton. His last name is Afton.” 

He hadn’t expected her to cry. 

But here she was, sobbing. It was very uncharacteristic of her to do so. Usually stoic and calm. Collected and serious. To see her so… so hurt. So broken. It didn’t sit right with the blonde at all. 

After a moment, and some sobbed explanations on how she was just happy he was alive, Denki enveloped her in a tight hug. It took less than a second for her to hug back. 

“I’m so tired.” She whispered. “It hurts so much. But he’s here and-” he rubbed circles into her back. “Hey, it’s ok. You can cry, alright? Just… let yourself breathe.”

He’d also found out that if a spirit was angry enough, they would automatically connect with their vessel. He could even use his quirk when he was possessing Roxy. A name he’d found out by testing out prerecorded voice lines. He had to admit, it was very strange to hear a woman’s voice come out of him when he talked. He’d als found out If it wasn’t at the prime hours of possession, they could only remain in control of their vessel for approximately twenty five minutes. It was also possible to trap a spirit in their vessel, but Charlie admitted she wasn’t quite sure how or why that worked. A working theory she had was that if someone either knew mechanics well enough to reprogram an animatronic, or could somehow commune with spirits, they would have the ability to somehow do what she called “soul locking.” 

Everyone had been soul locked before, and none of them spoke particularly fondly of it. Luckily, if it reached the hours where possession was easiest, you could break free from it. This typically involved some poor technicians getting their heads ripped off or having their bodies stuffed into a spare animatronic body. Most of the kids said it was impossible to keep their cool after being soul locked. 

“Imagine you’re in that sleep paralysis thingy, except your body will do and say whatever the ones working on your servos ask you to. Do your best not to freak out if it happens to you. Its usual over shortly” Fritz had explained, shivering. “It felt like… I dunno, man. There’s a word for it… vi- vio- violating? You know, like they’re prodding and poking you without your say.” Denki nodded. 

There was a pause. An awkward air to the conversation that felt as if vines were wrapping around Denki’s throat. 

Currently he had been giving Susie shoulder rides. Spirits couldn’t really float, to Denki’s surprise. But they could phase through walls. So he had gotten into a habit of charging at shut doors and drywall at full speed, only for Susie to scream every single time with glee. “‘You ever gonna get bored of this?” He asked once. She shook her head. “No way, go again!” He winced at her volume, but smiled anyway. 

Gabe, he had learned, could pretty much beat him at cards every single time they played. The kid was a natural, and he wasn’t even snarky about it! He’d made a promise upon Gabe’s request to beat him at snap one time (he didn’t know you could win at snap). And so began his daily playing sessions with the kid. 

Fritz was talking to him a lot. Ways to get out of here, ways to help the others, all sorts. He expected a lot from Denki. And Denki didn’t know how to tell him he didn’t want to kill anyone. He was a good kid, but was clearly extremely depressed. Not that Denki could blame him. He was pretty sure all the kids were. 

“Hello.” Charlie greeted him. He turned to her with a smile. “Hey, Charlie! Me and Gabe were just about to start another game of snap, did you wanna join?” Charlie smiled. “I really shouldn't. You two appear to be having fun.” She said a little sadly. Denki blinked. “Nonsense. You want her here, right Gabe?” The child nodded. “C’mon Charlie, play a few rounds with us!” He asked. She shook her head. “I don’t know- hey!” She yelped as Denki grabbed her hand, pulling her down to the floor. He glared at her. 

“You are going to have fun with us and like it!” She blinked, caught off guard. “You’re always stressed. Take a break! Besides, I might actually win this time!” Gabe giggled. “That’s the spirit. C’mon Charlie, you never play with us anymore!” He pouted. She sighed. “Oh alright, fine. One game could not hurt I suppose.” 

A couple of rounds in and a few different games later, everyone had joined in. Gabe had a way of doing that, making the others interested in his activities. Susie had won a few times, and very dramatically called herself the best. Everyone took turns letting Jeremy win now and again, as he was a little too young to understand the rules of Cribbage, the game they had settled on. They did not, however, let Denki win, despite him being very bad at seemingly all card games. Much to his dismay. Dead and bad at card games? How much more can your ‘life’ suck?

Their game was interrupted by the noise of a door opening. “…did you guys hear that?” Asked Fritz. Susie shrugged, then listened more intently. “Oh wait, yeah! Those are voices!” 

Denki gave Charlie a worried look. Then blinked. He could feel himself getting dizzy. She looked at him curiously, before seeing him fade away. His vision got darker until all he saw was blackness. 

When he woke up, he finally understood what the fuck “soul locking” felt like. 

And it was a nightmare, As a group of villains were staring right in front of him, and he was forced to sit still, unable to speak or move even the slightest amount. 

————

William was a strange man. Dabi wasn’t entirely sure if he understood what his deal was. He seemed pleasant enough, and had shown his loyalty in numerous ways. He definitely had what it took to be part of the vanguard. 

But he just got such an ick factor from the guy. 

Dabi was not an easily frightened man. His father had drilled fear out of him through the years of abuse he’d inflicted upon him. He’d stolen, killed, burned down buildings and many other crimes others would consider to be heinous. 

But he’d never hurt kids. 

Hero brats were different, of course. They were older than twelve, they’d made a choice and they knew better. He had no qualms with giving them a quick death. But something about what William had done to the kid with an electricity quirk…

It seemed too far. Unfair. The kid signed up to die, he didn’t sign up to be tortured from beyond the grave. Forced to live without being at peace after a gruesome death. It just seemed very unfair.

Not that the fire user had said anything, of course. 

But he certainly had his issues with William. 

With how much he talked about children and their souls, he’d initially thought of him as a creep. But before he beat the shit out of him and upon hearing him out, he discovered that couldn’t be farther from the truth.

William was not like that. Not in any way, shape or form. He just detested the little brats. Which Dabi could admittedly relate to. 

That did not mean he was on board with the current plan. 

Dabi and Spinner both had their doubts. Hell, in a moment of clarity, even Toga of all people had said she wasn’t sure she liked what they were doing.

Also, no one had any idea what the guy’s quirk was. 

He had an idea. It was either drain and decay like his son, the hero kid. Or something relating to his daughter. Speaking of which. 

There was the issue of Elizabeth. Shigaraki seemed to have taken a liking to her. After all, she liked video games and also wanted the destruction of life itself, what a fitting pair…

But she was unstable. Unpredictable. She craved praise and approval of William. Who everyone had pretty quickly figured out was her father. She was bizarre, too. Hell, their whole relationship was strange. He talked to her like an adult, but treated her like a child. She had to be in her mid twenties at least. She was taller than all of them, her body was that of a woman, her face was that of a woman. He knew for a fact she smoked and drinked, but she asked William permission for everything “big kids” did. It was disturbing. She’d mentioned in passing that he painted her room and designed all her clothes. 

He didn’t think anyone was particularly fond of her. But Dabi could tell there was more going on. She creeped him out, but he at least liked how she went behind William’s back. 

Her quirk was also bizarre. A mind control quirk. She could sing, and anyone younger than 17 without blood relation to her would be drawn to her. And be more inclined to do what she said. It messed with Toga’s head upon demonstration, and for the next ten minutes Himiko was making everyone their favorite drinks upon Elizabeth’s request. Chatting and acting as if nothing was wrong. After it fizzled out, Toga had a nosebleed and a terrible migraine for the next hour. 

Today, the group were entering an old animatronic venue. Where Denki and some of his other victims were. 

“What’s the deal with animatronics?” He’d asked in passing on their way there. William smiled. “They're excellent vessels for remnant. And it makes sense given what I do on the side.” Dabi gave him a strange look. He chuckled. “I’m a resterauntere under the name Dave Miller.” The man nodded. 

The building was huge, their footsteps echoing throughout. Shigaraki had been on edge the whole time, Dabi could tell by his muttering. It wasn’t like him to be creeped out. He smirked. “‘You scared of ghosts?” He snickered. Tomura scoffed at him. 

“Yeah, shiggy! Do you think it’ll be spooky? Oooooooo!” Toga giggled, imitating cliché ghost noises she’d heard in old movies on the TV. The man shoved her in response, careful not to use his fingers. The lizardman sighed. “The animatronic possession thing is important because…?”

“Because! That’s part of the plan!” Elizabeth chimed in. “What plan?” Spinner asked. She rolled her eyes and huffed. “We already told Shigaraki. Try to keep up!” Spinner flipped her off, earring him an affronted look. “It’s simple, really.” Shigaraki began. “We have a front for animatronics where they’re being mass produced now. Weapons we can use thanks to William. An entire processing line that no one suspects. All William does is mess with their coding and we’ll have an army.”

“So… what does that have to do with the dead kids?” Dabi asked bluntly. William paused, turning to face him with a smile that did not quite reach his eyes along with a subtle flinch. “I've said this before, Dabi.” He began, as if scolding a child who disobeyed one too many times. “It's remnant. Children under the age of eighteen have stronger souls, the younger the easier to get and stronger. I have to harvest it, then inject it into the animatronics to get them to attack living beings. Like Shigaraki said, It’s simple, really.” He snarked. A fake look of charisma plastered onto his tired face. His blue eyes dull and lifeless like his ghost white skin. Forehead wrinkles and crow's feet from what was most likely decades of stress. Nevertheless, Dabi begrudgingly nodded. Not feeling that bothered to fight the man right now. 

When they got to the actual animatronic in question, Dabi shuddered despite himself. There was a cold, unnatural air to the entire place. The hall they were out in was just outside a huge room with several other animatronics slumped over against the wall. The one they were looking at, however, was the wolf animatronic. A huge, hulking robot that certainly didn’t look possessed on a glance. “All right.” Willaim began. “Come help me move it.” 

Once out into the back of the van, William had insisted they chain her up, saying she would “attack without prejudice and with intent to kill” if otherwise. She stared at them with cold, unfeeling eyes. Her blue eyes blinked as she recited various preprogrammed voice lines. “I designed her myself.” William said proudly. 

“Cool, but what’s the use? How do we know it’s actually possessed?” Dabi asked. William’s mood instantly soured. “Fine, be impatient. Some people… aha! There we go. Look! Look, look, look! The eyes. See?” He pointed over. With a blink, they turned to yellow. There was a subtle shift in demeanor, too. Stiffer. Eyes frantically scanning the room and each individual face. William laughed. “Amazing, isn’t it? Now, while it’s not between the hours of six and twelve am, she’ll, or rather, he’ll, do what we say. The remnant giving her the ability to go against code safe guardings. After that, well. We’re on our own.” 

Elizabeth approached “Denki” tentatively. “Hello, Kaminari.” She began. “I can’t wait to work with you.”

Dabi’s eyes widened and all the others took a step back in shock. Elizabeth’s face… half of it had opened up to reveal exposed bloody muscle and tissue. Glistening and dripping down her nose and neck. “I hope you know you’re stuck with us…” 

Yeah. This girl definitely had some issues. That much was for sure. 

Chapter Text

Chapter Text

The pro heroes only gave them a week to mourn the loss of their classmate before they were pushing their underlings for internships. 

Kaminari’s mother had apparently requested to keep it quiet. Not announce his death, but simply state he’d enrolled in a new college to anyone that asks, other than the students. 

They’d had a memorial in the school gym for Denki. And Mike was pretty sure that is part of the reason he took a full week off school. 

Mike thought he’d been taking it pretty well. The first two days he stayed up in his room, only leaving to use the bathroom, with no motivation to do anything but cry. Aizawa was worried, so he had brought up food to his room and left it for him to pick at. On the third day, however, he was more numb than anything else, too exhausted from crying to cry anymore. He managed to force himself to message Izuku, knowing he’d need his support now more than ever before.

Fighting god daily: hey

Fighting god daily: I don’t know if I can actually find it in me to be there for you today, or tomorrow. But give me a few days and I’ll support you 100%

Fighting god daily: I love you, man. Don’t forget that, Izuku. 

There had been no response.

The HPSC had been pulling Aizawa away day in and day out, for what Mike assumed were legal issues and questions of his leadership as a teacher. He’d been too emotionally exhausted to ask. So he slept all the way through till the fifth day. 

On that day, Aizawa had gently nudged him awake. “You slept all day yesterday.” He frowned. Mike sighed, sitting up and rubbing the sleep from his eyes. “I’m hungry…” 

Shota sighed. “You and Izuku have both been off school for the entire week now. It’s all we allow hero students off for mourning unless it was a family member who passed.” Mike blinked. “Oh. That seems… unfair.” He said sadly. Shota nodded. “It is. Luckily I’ve finally sorted things out with the goddamn HPSC.” He snorted. “And it’s your last day off. So guess what?” He grinned. A grin Mike had only seen on rare occasions when Shota had a plan he was most likely going to force people to carry out with or for him. “What?” Mike finally asked. 

“We are spending the day together. Out of bed.” He declared, pulling off the sheets. Mike groaned. “Doing what?” Aizawa grinned. “‘You ever made gyudon?”

Cooking with Aizawa turned out to be much less stressful than you’d think. With how harsh he is on students for training and how much pressure he put on Mike for studying, Mike thought he’d have to become the next top chef in all of Japan. He was pleasantly surprised but extremely caught off guard when he found out the man was the most gentle and thorough teacher when it came to cooking. Gyudon was a beef rice bowl. Mike distinction remembered Inko serving him it a few times, but he’d never made it himself. 

God, he really should pay Izuku and Inko a visit. How long had it been since he’d popped over to say hi? Months. Too many months. He shook off the feeling of guilt in his chest. Later. He could visit Inko later. Right now? He was making gyudon. And he’d be damned if it wasn’t going to be his best work. 

“I also went to UA, y’know?” Shota piped up. Mike paused, turning to him. “Yeah?” He nodded. “I’ve wanted to be a hero for a long time. I had two best friends.” He smiled fondly. “Oboro and Hizashi.” Mike blinked. “Hizashi? Wow, you’ve known Present Mic for a while then, huh?” He smiled. Shota nodded. “Yeah. Since I was around your age. Opposites attract.”

It was silent for a while as Mike continued cooking. Then, Shota spoke up once more. “Oboro always wanted us to be friends forever and be pro heros. I really believed that we’d all get out into the business together but…” Mike frowned. “What happened?” 

“…there was a villain attack in training, and he was killed .” 

Mike stopped dead in his tracks. Heartbeat racing and throat becoming dry. “You… are you serious?” Aizawa nodded. “Shota… I’m so sorry.” The older man smiled at Mike, placing a gentle hand on his shoulder. “He died a hero, you know? Everything happens for a reason. Mike… what happened. You couldn’t have helped it.” Mike stayed silent for a moment. “…so you’ve said…” his teacher sighed. 

“I blamed myself for Oboro’s death too. He was one of my two best friends. Both of us loved Him.” He swallowed. “You loved- I mean, you love Denki, right?” He asked quietly. Mike felt his face skrunch upon dismay. “What kind of question is that? Of course I do! He was one of my closest friends!” Aizawa chuckled. “I know. That’s because you’re a kid with a good heart. But do you think that goofball would want you to be this upset over him? Really?” Mike did not answer. Shota’s expression grew serious.

“There is good and bad in this world. Sometimes the good will happen to the bad and the bad will happen to the good. But good will triumph. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. It just might take a while and that’s ok.” 

He crouched down slightly to Mike’s height. “If you don’t prove to them, the ones who took Denki from you, that you can move on and make a name for yourself and honor his memory, then no one else will. So kid. Please, if you need to be sad and alone for a while? That’s fine. But don’t do it for too long. People need Health Agent on the battlefield performing the best medical assistance possible. They need someone capable and smart, like you. ‘You think Denki would wanna take that away from you?” Mike sputtered, feeling tears prick in the corners of his eyes. Without warning he threw his arms around Shota and hugged him tightly. “…thank you.” 

Aizawa hugged Mike back. “The gyudon looks pretty good. You wanna show me a movie from the 80’s after?” The boy lit up. “Hell yeah!”

They spent a while binging them, though Mike was very sad that some of his favorite slasher movies were unavailable due to how old they now were. 

Then, Mike nudged Aizawa’s shoulder. “I… could we go see Izuku? I haven’t seen Inko in a few months. I sent her flowers as a thank you but I haven’t gone round in a while.” He said, ignoring a sting of guilt in his chest. Aizawa nodded. “Give me a minute, send Izuku a text to let him know we’re coming over.”

Knocking on Inko’s door, Mike stood to the side and watched Aizawa stand there patiently. The door opened, revealing Inko standing there.  She smiled at Shota. “Yes, is everything ok?” 

“My name is Shota Aizawa, I'm Izuku’s homeroom teacher?” Her smile turned to a worried frown. “Oh, is this about him missing the last few days? I promise he’s coming in next week! It’s just-”

“Ma’am, I promise I’m not here about that. Mourning takes a long time. A week off is more than ok.” He assured her. She nodded. “I’m actually here with someone who wanted to see both of you…” she quirked an eyebrow at the man as he stood to the side. Then gasped and launched herself out the door, knocking Aizawa over and wrapping her arms around Mike tightly.

 “You! Oh my goodness where have you been?! Months and all I was sent were flowers and chocolates?! I don’t care about those I wanted to see my boy! I’m so happy to see you!” She exclaimed, words going a million miles per hour. Mike choked as she began to crush his ribs. “Izuku told me how much of a good friend you’ve been to him, I cannot believe it! You send me small gifts and don’t see me like I wouldn’t miss you!?” She pulled him out of the hug, cupping his face with both of her hands and squishing it together. “You need to see me every weekend, young man!” She had tears in her eyes. Mike nodded and she let him go, drying her face. 

“I’m sorry.” He sighed, sheepishly rubbing the back of his neck. “I got so caught up in hero work I didn’t even visit. I’m not used to people wanting to see me after I imposed on them.” He chuckled sadly. Inko huffed. “Nonsense! God, I was so worried after I heard those villains targeted you in an attack. Stop saying silly things and visit me.” She chastised. He nodded and laughed. “I think you knocked Aizawa over…” she had a shocked expression on her face. “Oh! Oh no, I’m so sorry!” Aizawa waved her off. “Don’t worry. I’ve had more difficult attacks from villains before. Although… I really hope I don’t get on your bad side. You attack hard.” He laughed. 

Turns out Izuku was doing about as well as he possibly could. He’d been severely depressed, but made an effort to come down and communicate now that Mike was here. He was quieter than usual, more subdued and sad, but he was responsive. And that was all they could really hope for right now. They’d been chatting, and Mike had made them all tea, despite Inko’s protests. He’d claimed that she needed a break, something he believed wholeheartedly. She looked just as exhausted as her son, so Mike guessed she must have been worried sick. 

But it was nice, the four of them, all gathered round. They were sharing stories of Denki and how he made them all laugh. Izuku managed to only cry once, and they’d even gotten into an old board game. 

That was when there was a knock at the door. 

“Who’s that? Should I get it?” Mike asked. Izuku and Inko shared a look. “Mom, was anyone scheduled to come over?” He asked. Inko shook her head. “These ones weren’t either. My, you are Mr. Popular.” She laughed. “I mean, we both could get it?” Izuku asked Mike in the middle of his turn. The teen shrugged. “Ok.”

Mike was the first to open the door. 

And as he opened it, his jaw dropped. 

“All Might!? The hell?” All Might blinked. “M- mr. Afton!? I did not expect to see you here! This isn’t your house.” Was it just him or was the hero sweating?

“Please, don’t call me that. Also… yeah it’s not. I’m visiting Inko and Izuku. I stayed with Inko for a year before UA and Izuku’s my best friend. Aizawa’s here too. You… you alright, Mr. All Might? You’re kind of… nervous looking.” The hero laughed a horribly fake laugh. “Nervous? My boy! The number one Pro doesn’t get nervous! I just, um, ran all the way here! That’s why I’m sweaty!” He declared. Mike eyed him up and down. “…right. Sure.” 

Izuku, meanwhile, was staring at the number one in awe. “Mom! Mom oh my god, All Might is here!” He sounded giddy. Mike chuckled, opening the door to let the hero in. “What!?” He heard Inko call out from the other room. Once she scurried in, her jaw dropped. “Oh my goodness, The number one in my house!” She cried. All Might laughed a tad more genuinely, seemingly grateful for the reaction. “Your son is an incredibly tough, smart, and kind young man, I am very proud of him. I understand he is suffering from loss, so I brought him a care package!” He declared, handing Mike’s green haired friend a woven basket of various goodies. 

Izuku looked like he was still reeling from the shock of it all. Mike patted him on the back. Aizawa had joined them in the hall way too by this point. He rolled his eyes, mumbling “I see how it is. I don’t get any fanfare, ay, izuku?” He asked teasingly. Izuku blinked out of his stupor. “Sorry! I, um, I’m very excited to see you too!” He burned red with embarrassment. Mike snorted. “Hey, what about me? I feel left out.” He grinned. Izuku buried his face in his hands and made a noise of distress, causing Inko to smile and gently pet his hair. “It’s alright Izu, they’re just teasing.” 

Suddenly, the laughter stopped, causing Mike to spin around. He stared with a jaw agape. “WHAT HAPPENED TO ALL MIGHT!?”

So that had been an awkward explanation. 

‘His friend had mentioned something about a mentor figure, and that after training he was going to revive a ‘gift’ of some kind to help him get a fair shot at passing the exam. He had no idea what that could mean, but was happy izuku was happy, and to be honest, being happy was a nice change from how he felt when he lived with father.’

A gift… his quirk… it made sense in retrospect, but man, the whole story was crazy. 

“Your secret's safe with me.” Mike said after a moment. “I don’t care, to be perfectly honest.” He sighed. “Honestly at first I didn’t like you. I was kind of wary of you.” He admitted. Aizawa gave him a look of warning. He shrugged. “It’s the truth.” All Might blinked. “Wary? What do you mean?” Mike paused, then shrugged. “You can be a little bit… headstrong, I clashed with you. But seeing how caring you are and how good you’ve been to Izuk. It’s definitely reassuring.” He turned away from his tea to face the man. “You’re a good person, dude. And if you’ve helped Izuku this much so far, then maybe I was wrong about you. Especially since you’ve gone and fucking given him a basket with all his favorite sweets.”

“Language.” Shota cautioned with no real bite. Mike shrugged. “Sorry, but anyway. I think you deserve your title as number one. And… I’m sorry for misjudging you. You’re definitely not perfect, but you’re a good man.” It was difficult to admit he was wrong without going down a guilt spiral. But he thought he was doing alright at that at the moment. 

One look at All Might and you could tell he’d never really had this type of conversation before. He looked flawed and a little bit unsure of himself. After a moment of silence, he smiled brightly. “I’m no Angel. I never have been. But I’ve always done my best to help those in need. Izuku was in need. Just how everyone is at that age. I would be a pretty bad mentor if I didn’t help him, especially at this point in time.” His expression turned serious. “Thank you for being honest with me. I am grateful to have your trust. You’ll make a fine hero, Mike. I truly, truly believe both of you shall do great things.”

Mike could only hope he was right. 

But with his father a huge threat in this world, he had no idea how far he would get before that man caught up to him. 

Chapter Text

The next few weeks were a blur until training camp.

The internship with Best Jeanist rolled around before he was ready. 

Not only was he still in mourning, but Best Jeanist was getting him out of bed at weird hours of the morning to go patrolling. 

That, and he was stuck with Bakugou. Joy . 

Mike was willing to actually talk to Bakugou, but so far every attempt was met with failure because he was Zook’s friend. He was just thankful Bakugo didn’t bring up Denki, he seemed to be decent enough to at least not do that. 

The rot was also getting worse. Now covering his entire left hand and forearm. It was cold, but it worked like a normal hand just the same, and he was still able to use his quirk just fine. It just seemed… rotten now. It was the most bizarre thing. He figured he’d tell Shouta when he got back from the internship, as this was starting to worry him a little. 

On the last day,  when Mike began talking casually to one of the other interns at lunch and saw Bakugou approaching him.  And he figured he might have to do something. Because, strangely enough, he was the one calling Mike to talk. Mike shrugged, apologizing to who he was talking to and following Bakugou out into the garden. 

Mike stared at him expectantly, leaning slanted back pressed to the wall with his hands in his hero suit pockets. “Well?” He asked. “Hope you didn’t bring me out here for nothing, it’s fuckin cold and for some reason, i didn’t give m ysuit any sleeves.” He snorted. Half joking in an attempt to bury how awkward he was finding this whole situation was quickly starting to become. 

“…what do you see in the damn nerd?” He asked eventually. Mike blinked. “Excuse me?”

“You heard me. You follow each other around like you’re glued to the hip when you both suck. Your dad’s a villain, and he’s a quirkless nobody. He’s useless. A Deku. The idiot even chose that as his hero name. So why do you bother, mullet?”

“…was ‘mullet’ really the best nickname you could come up with? Cause if so I think i’d prefer you just call me an extra.” Mike joked. Which seemed to make everything worse. 

“Answer the fucking question! You’re strong right? You should hate him if you wanna get to the top! Useless bastards like him are bound to get themselves hurt.” Mike sighed. “You know, he really looks up to you. I'd go as far as to say he admires you. And I just really don’t get the appeal.” He said, standing up straight and turning his boy to fully face the blonde. Bakugou twitched. “The appeal? The appeal is I’m gonna beat everyone, including you, and be number one. That’s the fucking appeal.” He glared, voice sounding strained like he was preventing himself from yelling. 

“Hey, can I ask you a question?” Mike smiled. The other scoffed. “You didn’t answer mine!” The taller boy laughed. “Well, your answer should kind of answer my question.” He explained. Bakugou frowned. “What.”

“Izuku kind of told me how you used to treat him. Reminds me a lot of how I used to pick on my brother when I was a kid. Sometimes I see Evan in his face. So, my question to you, what would you have done if Izuku took your advice?” Bakugo paused. “What would I have done? Wait, what advice are we talking about here?” He seemed less angry and more confused. Which was perfect. Just the right amount for Mike to get under his skin and stop him from doing this. 

“Your advice. You know, to kill himself. I’m asking what you would have done if he took it and jumped off the roof?” He said in as much of a flat tone as he could muster. Bakugou paused, stiffening. “…he told you about that?” Mike rolled his eyes. “Yea, obviously. You know, I used to be just as angry as you. But, shit man, when I overstepped a line like that someone lost their fucking life. “‘Was an accident, ‘may have been twelve, doesn’t matter. My point is that your words and actions have consequences. And if Izuku had killed himself, the blood would really be on your hands.” He smiled.

“You could be number one one day, in fact I think you might be, and I’m sure you would have earned it. But I think your life will be shitty. You’ll regret treating Izuku this way, and every time you look in the mirror you’ll hate yourself a bit more. But you are just like me, and I can’t fucking stand the sight of you.” He smirked. Bakugou said nothing. “I don’t think you’re irredeemable garbage or anything. Just- you need to be careful. And that’s not really friendly advice.”

“And to answer your question, I’m glued to Izuku because I like him. And he’s funny and kind. He’s a lot nicer than you, so unless you’re gonna give my best friend an apology, I’m not interested in talking like this unless we have to.” He concluded. Bakugou blinked. “…He’ll drag you down.” He said finally. Mike shrugged. “If I go down I’d be happy if it was because of him.”

It took a few days before Izuku, Iida and Todoroki explained what happened. By the looks on their faces they weren’t telling the whole truth, but he was just glad they were ok. Izuku was a little quiet for the next few days, but texted Mike later that he was just tired from their runnin with the Hero killer. Mike was just glad that madman was behind bars now. 

Currently, Mike was on his way home from UA. The final exams were coming up, and he wanted to be ready for them. 

“Mike, may I speak with you?” Todoroki had asked him suddenly. Mike nodded. “Sure, what’s up?” Todoroki paused. “Your father. He’s a villain, correct?” He asked so bluntly that Mike almost didn’t register what he had said. He quirked an eyebrow. “…yeah?” 

“I can imagine what that’s like.” He said after a while. Mike didn’t speak, sensing Todoroki was about to go on a long spiel. “My father treated my mother terribly, which caused her to take the abuse out on me and pour scalding water over my eye, thus leaving me this scar.”

“…jesus Christ-”

“He would train me to exhaustion. None of my siblings or mother could stop him. He would beat me as well. And it was like hell on earth. So I understand.”

The way he said that was strange. It wasn’t like a comfort, no, more like he’d figured out a piece of a complicated puzzle and was informing the picture in the puzzle. “I’m, um, wow. I’m really sorry. That must suck man, but, um, you randomly told me this because…?” 

“We are the same.” He said after a moment. Mike sighed. 

“I’m sorry your dad is so shit man. And I’m sorry your mum did that. That all sucks. You think we are the same?” Todoroki nodded. “At least, our experience with bad fathers relate to one another.” Mike snorted. “Dad’s, huh?” The red and white haired boy nodded once again. “Shit, are we sharing stories?” Mike asked slightly jokingly. Shouto’s expression remained unchanging. Only to look deep in thought for a moment. “I suppose, that may be a good idea.” 

“…do you want to be friends?” 

This made Todoroki freeze up a little. “Are we not already? Last time I made a friend it was Izuku and all I had to do was explain my past to him then battle him. I thought that’s what we’d do next if I’m honest.” Mike’s jaw hung agape. “Oh that’s why you’re telling me this! Do you really- dude, how did you make friends before Midoriya? Because this is not a healthy way of doing so.” He chuckled. 

“Is it not?”

“No! Oh my god you do not trauma dump then beat up your friends, what the hell. Besides, if I fought you I’d instantly lose!” He laughed. “It’s fine though. Yes, you’re my friend.  And as your friend I’m telling you to stop making friends like that.”

“Then… how do you do it?” He asked, looking a little panicked. And if he was being honest, Mike thought it was adorable. “Hey, it’s fine. Zook’s is weird, he probably thought your punch to his face meant eternal platonic soulmateship or something. Just… go up to someone you like, someone around your own age, and introduce yourself. Compliment their outfit or a book they’re reading, or something to that effect. You wanna sit with me, Izuku, Uraraka and Iida at lunch?” A nod. “Great, there, boom I just gave you two new friends.” The fire and ice user’s eyes widened. “It’s that easy?! ” 

It was bizarre, that was the first time he’d ever heard the teen’s tone change. He nudged him playfully. “You gotta be ok with people saying ‘no’ to your friendship too. Just be yourself and the right person who likes it will come along.” Wordlessly, Shouto gave Mike a thumbs up. 

Mike felt pretty good about that conversation. 

Unknown number : hello

Mike: hello?? Who are you lol

Unknown number: sorry, I am shouto. I have your number from Izuku.

Mike: oh! Oh hey :D

Unknown number: thank you for accepting my friendship proposal

Mike: dude you’re making it sound like a corporate marketing scheme lmao

Unknown number: oh. 

Unknown number: sorry

Mike: is chill, just relax. I’m ur friend, not your employer 

Mike changed ‘unknown number’’s name to “mr white/green Christmas”

Mike changed ‘Mike’’s name to “eggs Benedict.” 

Eggs Benedict: new names

mr white/green Christmas: what do they mean

mr white/green Christmas: not names I know what names are

mr white/green Christmas: I don’t get the reference. 

Eggs Benedict: ok for mine you definitely wouldn’t it’s an inside joke an old friend and I have. Or well had lol

Eggs Benedict: and yours is a very old Christmas song reference. Goes like “I’m mr white Christmas, I’m mr snow. I’m mr icicle, I’m mr ten below” and then after the chorusy bit (shouto don’t ask me specifics I’m not a music nerd) the other guy is like “I’m mr green Christmas I’m mr Sun. I’m mr heat blister, I’m mr 101*” 

mr white/green Christmas: I see. Thank you for explaining. I still don’t get it.

Eggs Benedict: …it’s a reference to your quirks, man.

mr white/green Christmas: oh

mr white/green Christmas: oh! Ok that does make a little more sense. I like that, it's creative. 

Eggs Benedict: :D

————

“They’re going on a trip soon, by the looks of it.” Spinner said casually. “Training camp.” 

Currently, they were all lazing around the bar. Kurogiri was cleaning out some glasses as the others chatted to each other. Shigaraki nodded. “And… Do we have enough animatronics for backup? Our team is strong but if we run out of XP we’ll need some NPC allies.” He asked. William put his hand to his chin in thought. “Give me three days. There’s some things I have to do.” Dabi scoffed. “‘You always this cryptic?” William barked out a surprised laugh. “I’m cryptic? Strange, I’ve been called many things, but I’ve never been called that before.” He smirked. Spinner shuddered despite himself. William was really starting to freak him out, and since everyone else seemed to be more or less on board with the whole “imprisoning spirits” bullshit, he wondered if he was really with the right group of people.

“The one who killed the hero brat,” Shigaraki began. “Is she going to be helping us kidnap Bakugou?” William nodded. “Vanny will be more than ready to provide help. I don’t really see a way our plan can fail. Unless someone messes it up, of course.” His eyes flickered over to Elizabeth. He grimaced. Why be so mean spirited to your own daughter? She was strange, sure. Definitely fucked in the head. But she was clever too. More than she let on. The way she got around shigaraki in video games despite him forcing her to play a weaker character because he wanted the strongest one, how she’d completely ace fake niceness. She must have gotten it from William. They didn’t look at all similar, but their personalities, at least on a surface level, were hard to distinguish between. 

She was a brilliant actor, no doubt about it. But she was spoiled. Or at least, acted like it. Entitled and simultaneously forcing her achievements into conversations she was partaking in, in a way that just screamed insecurity. 

However, despite his words being a very clear jab at her, Elizabeth said nothing, merely glaring across the room at nothing. Hands tightly gripping the hem of her skirt. “Dabi, keep your fire away from the animatronics. It’s not an 100% killer, but it weakens remnant’s hold on a vessel. Allows them a small opportunity for freedom.” He advised. “Things have also changed with my son.” William began, alerting the room. 

“I don’t care if he’s dead or alive, I just need his body in one piece. Death might even be easier, it’s something I can fix.” Like he’d thought, Spinner was most likely with the wrong crowd. But he didn’t miss the way Dabi looked at William. It was brief, fleeting, but it was undeniably there. 

An expression akin to slight disgust. Almost as if what he said was personal. 

He also didn’t miss how Elizabeth’s expression changed upon hearing the news.

Absolute unfiltered joy.

————

Mike had been paired up with Mina for the final exam battles. He was admittedly shaken up upon finding out he’d be fighting. Nezu was certainly a mysterious foe to have, but both had destructive quirks. Perhaps they could use that to their advantage.

Mike was pretty sure he did well on the written test. Aizawa’s tutoring made him certain he’d at least get a 50%. After all, that man did not let up when it came to both physical and mental studies. He was ruthless. But Mike kind of needed ruthlessness at the moment. 

Now, however, he and Mina needed a strategy. They were completely unaware of his quirk, which really didn’t help. He may have been tiny, sure, but that didn’t stop the rumors of what he could do being terrifying. 

“You got any idea what the fight will be like?” Mike asked in passing. They were located in an old mock city, plenty of buildings and debris everywhere. Mina shrugged. “No idea, but he’s tiny! It can’t be that bad, right?” Mike shrugged. “I’d be careful. Chihuahuas are more aggressive than labradors, you know?” Mine paused. “I guess you’re right. What should our plan be?” Mike thought for a moment. “Try to see what his quirk is. If we can’t, then we just try to get to the exit on time.” The girl nodded. Then paused. “I have an idea.”

Mike looked at her expectantly. “Yeah, what is it?” Mine cracked her knuckles. I’ll be constantly making escape routes with my acid, if you see him, distract him, yeah?” He nodded. “Good thinking. We’ve got this!”

They did not , in fact, have that.

The buildings all around them began to collapse. The principal didn’t even show himself once. All of Mina’s exists got completely destroyed, and Mike’s quirk just couldn’t be used if there was no enemy to use them on. He would have even used his short term rot to freak him out and throw him off, and try to escape as he healed. But unfortunately, they were never given that opportunity. Because the principal was in a fucking Crain the whole goddamn time. Unfair.

“Hey, you did good, I couldn’t really do a lot without seeing him.” He pat Mina on the back.she sighed. “Thanks. Sucks that we failed, though.” Mike shrugged. “‘Can’t win ‘em all.” 

The training camp was in a few days. And Mike had to admit, he was feeling pumped. 

At least, he was until the day everyone went to the mall. He was with Izuku a Minute ago, but turned around to see him gone. He blinked. “Zooks?” Shrugging, he decided to look around for him, before bumping into Mina and Kirishima. “Hey bro!” Eijiro greeted with a fist bump. Mike returned it with a smile. “You alright? You seem a little shaken up?” Mina asked with mild concern. Mike shook his head. 

“I’m fine, really. Zook’s just kind of disappeared is all. Sort of freaked me out. I’ve um, I’ve been a lot more protective after what happened.” He admitted sadly. Kirishima dropped his smile and Mina gave him a sympathetic look. “God damn bro. That care for your bro? So manly.” Kirishima declared, causing Mike to smile. Mina looked deep in thought for a moment. “We can split up and look for him. In the meantime, try texting or calling him on your phone.” He nodded. 

It was roughly six minutes later that he had found Izuku. He was sitting on the edge of the mall water fountain. Uraraka was there, too. More disturbingly, sitting right next to him was a man with a black hoodie. A man that had a hand around Izuku’s neck. 

“Get your hands off him.” He heard Uraraka say, voice strong and unwavering. She was kind of frightening when she used such forceful words. 

The man looked at her strangely, before shrugging and letting go of Izuku’s neck. “Ah, you have a friend with you? Sorry! I’ll have to catch you later… don’t follow me.” He stood up, about to make his leave. 

“Wait, Shigaraki.” Izuku called after him. 

Shigaraki…

‘Holy shit, that’s the guy who attacked UA!’ Mike thought in a panic. ‘ The one with the disintegration quirk! He works with Afton!’

“What are you and All for One planning?” 

All for one, now there’s a name he didn’t recognize. But one that made him irrationally feel fear. 

Shigaraki chuckled dangerously. Mike, who had decidedly had enough, stepped in.

“Everything ok here?” He asked, not taking his eyes off of the attacker. Shigaraki shrugged. He walked away, not looking back once. Mike rushed over to Izuku, who was currently coughing and spluttering. The green haired boy looked up at Uraraka. 

“Call the police. Tell them to sh-shut down the mall.” He ordered. And the girl nodded, pulling out her phone. Mike rubbed Izuku’s back.

Inko was not happy to hear the news. For Mike and Uraraka, but especially for Izuku. She’d hugged him, crying. Mike sighed, turning to Uraraka. He smiled. “You’re pretty intimidating when you want to be, you know?” He said suddenly. She blinked, going red. “I- I am?!” He chuckled. “Yeah, you were really scary when you told Shigaraki to get his hands off of Zooks. Don’t worry, it’s a very good thing. Villains will fear you.” She rolled her eyes, but smiled nonetheless.

A few days later it was time to start the training. On the bus, on the way there, they stopped for a bathroom break. Izuku had fallen asleep on Mike’s shoulder throughout the trip, and Mike spent most of the time gazing out the window and feeling carsick. 

“Hey, where’s 1B?” Someone asked. Mike shrugged. “No idea. That’s a little weird…” he trailed off, then looked at Shota. 

Shota had a large grin on his face. 

Shit, that couldn’t be good. 

Not long after, three girls and a large man emerged from seemingly out of nowhere. Mike jumped at the sudden noise of them all. 

“ WE ARE THE WILD, WILD PUSSYCATS!” They announced in unison as they came together, posing at different angles. Mike blinked. “Huh… didn’t really expect that…” 

“Mandalay, pixie-Bob, ragdoll and tiger! We’re here to put you through your paces and push you all to your limits!”

It was just then he saw a little boy, sulking next to one of the girls. The brunette girl blinked. “Oh! Sorry, I haven’t introduced him yet! This is Kota! He’ll be with us during this trip.” She winked. 

“Hold on, what the hell do you mean “push us to our limits”? Who are you!?” Bakugou asked, looking more confused than angry for once. Weirdly, or perhaps somewhat unsurprisingly, it was Izuku that answered him. “The wild wild pussycats are awesome!” He cried. “They’ve got twelve years or rescue experience, saved countless lives, and their cat theme is super cute! With the members' ages being-” 

But poor izuku was cut off with a hand, or rather, paw to the face by member pixie Bob. “You weren’t gonna say thirty, right?” She asked, furious and with gritted teeth. Izuku, still blinded by the hand, did his best to shake his head no. 

“But anyway, there’s a beast down in the forest below, so you might want to go defeat him!” One member suggested. 

“What? A beast?” Momo asked, sounding a tad bit alarmed. The girl nodded. Try to be at the main area before half twelve, or no lunch. Good luck!” She cheered. Mike looked around at everyone else, who began to freak out, running to the vans. But suddenly, the frowned cracked open, and the students were flung into the air and down below. 

Chapter Text

Well that had been exhausting. 

Eight hours. Eight hours. And they were finally able to rest, bathe and eat. 

Mike, however, was still pumped to a degree. The trainees and trainers actually liked him for one, and for two, he could get as aggressive as he liked without playing dirty. 

“How are you so excited, dude!?” Kirishima had asked him, upon finding him doing push ups on the boys dorm floor. Sero sighed. “Yeah, my arms can't stop aching after yesterday. And you were the one rotting the bottom of that thing considering it was Organic matter. How are you not exhausted?” Mike laughed. “I used to-48! Do this-49! All the time-50!” He explained, finally standing up. “My dad took me to different places to train when I was young.” 

Upon seeing their concerned faces and remembering his father was essentially a supervillain now, he waved his hands dismissively. “No, like- to the gym or Karate. Honestly, father was a pretty normal guy until a few years ago. Shit dad, but not like- crazy.” He rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly. Hey, it wasn’t technically a lie. It had been roughly six years now since the man began to change. He sighed. “But, he sort of disappeared from my life for like- a few years. So Imagine my surprise when he’s a fucking villain now.” 

It was more than a little awkward, but he needed the trust of his classmates. More than anything he needed them to view him as a team player, and not a threat. 

But after a moment, Sero just nodded. “Family’s weird man. Can’t help who you're related to.” Kirishima hummed in agreement. “The others are eating breakfast, we should get going.” Mike mentioned. 

The three boys left the room and traveled down the stairs into the cafeteria. Mike immediately spotted Todoroki, Iida, and Uraraka eating together at the same table. “Zooks!” Mike called. Izuku turned to him and grinned widely as the taller teen sat beside him. “Hey Mike. You ready for another day?” He asked. “Hell yeah! What do you think we’re doing today?” A shrug. “Well, the pussycat’s typically do rescue missions involving natural disasters or hiking and mountain climbing incidents. Something like USJ would be good, considering how we never finished that.” He shrugged. 

“That’s not a bad call, Midoriya.” Todoroki admitted. “Maybe a fake rescue situation? Mike, you’re the class healer when it comes to extreme injuries. You could do with the rescue training, right?” 

“Yeah, after training camp, I've signed up for summer lessons on first aid. I already know the basics but I need a license to be a medic on the field as well as a hero license.” He sighed. “Man, my summer is gonna be packed.” Iida smiled. “I’m happy you’re taking such initiative, Mike! Truly splendid that you are so invested in your chosen hero role.” The teen snorted. “Chill, I only mentioned it to my gardien a little while ago, and he said we’d begin working soon. Besides, if I hadn’t said anything, I’d be kind of taking the piss.” Midoriya smiled. “I feel like you’re doing really great, Mike. I wonder what your ultimate move will be.” He said thoughtfully. Mike paused. “…I guess I hadn’t really thought of that…”

“ALRIGHT LISTEN UP!” Tiger’s voice boomed throughout the cafeteria hall. “Today you will be testing yourself to your limits. So I want to see everything you’ve got. We’ll start with a simple practical.” He declared. 

“Everyone, make sure you eat all your breakfast and lunch. Without food you won’t be at top performance and you’ll most likely feel weaker and more emotionally unbalanced. Meet me and Ragdoll at the front in 15!”

The practical seemed to be very similar to the practice exam Aizawa made them take at the start of the year. Bakugou stepped up to the grass field. The game, or rather challenge, was shotput. Fairly simple, and a good test of ability.

What shocked the majority of students was that he’d barely improved. “Just as I suspected.” Shota said. “Your strength, stamina and mental skills have all vastly improved. However, your quirk usage is pretty much the same. You’ll be pushing yourselves to your limits today.”

Bakugou was sputtering about how unfair it was and how Aizawa had lied. But everyone else seemed to be on board with it. “Mr. Aizawa?” Tsu spoke up. “How are we going to do that exactly? There isn’t enough mentors per student.” She deduced. Mike nodded. “Tsu’s right, is there going to be different ways of training?”

His guardian’s wicked grin told him all he needed to know. 

The idea as to push each of them to their limits. Some students would train against eachother while others would practice using things that could really push them.

Mike’s challenge was to see just how strong his emotional connection to his quirk was. Usually with plants, he couldn’t control how much rot he’d cause them. At least, that was the case when he battled that girl at the sports festival. 

He had to concentrate, and see if his rot could effect only the parts he needed it to. He really didn’t want a repeat of the villain attack at USJ when he’d ripped a villain’s arm off. That needed to be for absolutely dire situations. Which he supposed since he was at risk of being kidnapped at the time. 

But still, it wasn’t life or death, and he really didn’t want to make random civilians amputatees while trying to pull them from abandoned buildings if his gloves ever weren’t enough. 

He sat on the ground, infront of a box of tulips. He tried to grab ahold of a flower, without his gloves, but all that happened was a relatively quick rot, causing it to die near instantly. He sighed. Ragdoll, the one who was helping him, smiled kindly. 

“It’s tough, right?” She asked him. He groaned. “I’m really fucking trying! It just- I can’t seem to do it without killing it. Doesn’t exactly inspire confidence in a field medic, does it?” Mike smiled sadly. Ragdoll sat down next to him. 

“My quirk, as you know, is search. So it’s always been pretty handy and not really dangerous. So I can’t say I understand. It must have been really hard for you as a kid, huh?” She asked. Mike internally panicked. Think of a lie think of a lie think of a lie think of a lie-

“Well, um, yeah. But it’s an emotional connection. It was only when I got into a fight with another kid that I found out my rot could permanently damage someone.” He grinned in a way he hoped wasn’t too suspicious. The pro hero nodded to his relief. “I see. You must feel guilty.” She said sympathetically. He looked at the dead flower in his hand. The head had fallen off. 

“Every day.” 

“Well, let’s change that, huh? You only really want to use that power if you have to.” He nodded. “Here, hold my wrist.” He blinked. “You want me to? It’s gonna hurt, a lot from what I hear.” She smiled. “Trust me.” 

He watched as the green, to purple rot spread across her arm. She winced. “Sorry! It hurts, I’ll stop-”

“No, keep going, see how much you can do, try to rot my entire body. If it’s temporary, nothing bad would happen.” She smiled, although it seemed strained. He shook his head. “It isn’t safe.” She smiled, holding his hand in place. “Quirks aren’t, that’s why you need to know your limits.” 

He watched in horror as the rot spread through her entire body and face, until Ragdoll was a deep purple, her eyes sunken and skin peeling. Was she insane? How was she this trusting of a kid she didn’t even know? She yelped in pain, and Mike yanked his hand away. 

Sure enough, the rot slowly faded out of her body. She grinned. “It’s a good fear tactic if you have to fight a villain. Use it. People aren’t on the top of their game when they’re afraid.”

Mike smiled. His quirk had gotten stronger.

“You ok Izuku?” He asked, seeing his friend lying on the floor. “I’m… exhausted.” He said. “Tiger really put me through my paces. What about you?” Mike shrugged. “Psychological advancements. With the connection being emotional and all I need to be able to target what to rot specifically, even if I can’t see it or touch it. Tryna get to the point I just need to touch one part of them, you know?” He lent a hand out to Izuku. Who gladly took it and stood up. 

“The guys are gonna head to the jacuzzi. Wanna come with?” Mike asked. Izuku nodded. “Yeah… I have a cramp in my back anyway.” He grinned, throwing his arm around Izuku and dragging him to the hot tub.

Day three rolled around pretty fast. It was the evening now, and pixie Bob had announced the “test of courage”. The rules were simple. 1B would be the scarers while 1A will be the Scaries. The idea is the class that scares the other the most will win. They switch every fifteen minutes and it’ll be played in the forest. 

Someone tapped him on the shoulder, causing him to face them. It was Shouto. “Did you want to pair up?” He asked. Mike nodded. “Sure. No way we’ll get freaked out.”

The two spent a while walking through the forest, 1B’s occasionally jumping out at them or using their quirks to mess with them, causing Mike to flinch despite himself. Todoroki seemed ok, but he was oddly quiet. Even for him. Mike tilted his head at the teen. “You ok, man?” He shrugged. “I have an… off feeling.” He mentioned. Mike chuckled. “You scared?” He teased, and Todoroki rolled his eyes. “No, at least not from 1B. More… uneasy. Maybe we should alert the teachers?” The brunette shook his head. “You’re just paranoid. I’m sure it’s fine-”

There were footsteps. Shouto froze.

“…chill, 1B is trying to scare us, remember? “ Mike squeezes the other’s shoulder. He nodded with uncertainty. They ignored the noise and continued to walk. Mike not admitting how he was starting to feel uneasy too. 

Then, Mike was kicked, sent flying and landed ungracefully on the ground. He grunted, vision going dark for a moment. He sat up suddenly, opening his eyes and wincing as he felt a sting in his side. He looked up to see what had happened. Shouto was looking at him with a panicked expression, he stared up a little higher and saw a woman standing over him. Wearing a hoodie with rabbit ears and wielding a butcher’s knife.

 “Hello, Micheal. My name is Vanny… I’m with your father. Things have changed. We just need your body, dead or alive.” She grinned, swinging downwards at him. Mike yelped, throwing himself to the side to avoid the blade. Todoroki called out his name, sending a blast of ice which the woman dodged, stumbling at the end and falling over. She laughed, jumping to stand up. Purple electricity swirled around her fingers, sending shock waves over to Todoroki who put up ice walls to block the attacks. While distracted, Mike charged at her, punching her square in the face. She stumbled back, laughing again. He threw another punch, this one being dodged. She leaped onto him, plunging a knife into his shoulder. Mike screamed in pain, yanking the blonde’s hair and pulling her off of him. 

He ripped off his glove, taking out the knife with a scream and using the rot to heal the area. Shouto grabbed his hand, pulling him to his feet. The two ran. 

The two had gotten quite far, when another villain had blocked their path. Bakugou was there, fighting them. But he was losing, looking exhausted. Todoroki sent a fire blast to the man, catching him off guard and causing him to stumble. 

But as Mike was about to join in, when he felt someone pull him to the floor by his shirt. He spun around, to see Shigaraki smiling at him. Behind him, Vanny came up, a knife now pressed to his neck. He could feel his breathing getting more and more panicked. 

“You know, I think I’ll enjoy killing you.” He grinned. “You heroes are disgusting.” He spat. Mike glared at him. “Woah, Shigaraki. We need his body, remember?” Vanny reminded him. Mike started to struggle, stopping when he felt the knife press deeper into his skin. 

“Who cares! I’m pissed off that this little shit is so integral. Accidents happen.” He scoffed, grabbing Mike’s hand with all five fingers. Mike yelped in pain, tugging it. He wouldn’t let go. 

Shit. This was going to kill him, wasn't it? 

The pain spread throughout his arm. 

Then, he had an idea. Absolutely insane, though it might be. 

He elbowed Vanny in the stomach with his free arm. She winced and dropped her knife. He caught it mid air. Fuck. This was going to hurt. But he knew the damage was done. And if he didn’t do this, his whole body would turn to dust. 

With one clean chop, he sliced into his own arm, causing Shigaraki to stumble back in surprise. He hacked it one more time, causing the arm to come clean off. White hot agony masked only by adrenaline shot through him, he felt dizzy. After several long breaths, he gripped the stump of where his arm used to be. He glared up at Shigaraki with as much hate as he could muster. 

“You owe me an arm, Shigaraki.”

He tore off his other glove with his mouth. And fixed the wound. His arm formed a sort of awkward stump. He grunted in pain. 

“You’re gonna have to try harder than that to kill me.” He declared. Shigaraki smirked. “Very well.” 

————

They were everywhere. Robots. Animatronics. They were hurting them. Hurting her friends!

Momo glared. It was time to fight. 

Chapter Text

They came from underground. Hands disrupting the soil like zombies rising from their graves. Uraraka initially believed it was 1B trying to mess with her and Tsu. But that all changed when she saw huge metal bodies arise from their dirt covered hiding places. Strained, deep, distorted roars carried out through the forest, causing her to wince and cover her ears. “Tell me you saw and heard that.” She whispered to Tsu. The frog girl nodded. 

“I definitely did. And I don’t think it was the other class. We should get moving.” 

But as Uraraka turned to face her partner, she froze. 

Standing ominously behind her friend was a seven foot tall animatronic, a red fox with an eyepatch and a hook. It’s emotionless eyes burning holes into hers. It was clearly mostly broken. A gash in its chest and bits of coating and fabric town off after what she assumed was years of use. She stared at it with an odd mix of disgust, fear, and curiosity. All overshadowed by worry for Asui. 

“Tsu! Behind you!” The brunette called out. The fox roared, causing Tsu to flinch and spin around. Her eyes widened at the site, and she quickly hopped out of the way when the animatronics’ hook swung down at her. It charged at her, gnashing teeth and swinging hook aiming for any part of her it could get its hands on. Asui skilfully used her tongue to wrap around the fox’s leg and hurled it away from the two girls, sending it flying into a tree with a loud thud. But it didn’t stop there. Slowly, the gigantic fox robot pulled itself to its feet. 

Uraraka felt herself stumble and a stinging pain in her arm. She looked up. A blonde girl around her age wielding a knife stood over her, smiling brightly. Thinking fast, she used her entire body weight to throw the girl on the ground. She grunted, and began giggling. 

“What’s your name? I’m Toga Himiko!” She greeted cheerfully, awkwardly getting to her feet and swinging her knife at the girl once again. Uraraka jumped out of the way, glaring at her attacker who continued to attempt to cut her. Swing after swing the brunette winced, the blade coming dangerously close to her face. She threw a kick to the attacker’s side and caused the girl, toga, to gasp out in pain. She rushed over to Tsu, who was currently dodging the robot’s attacks, looking exhausted. 

“Are you alright?” She asked, panicked. Her green haired friend nodded. “Use your powers to get this robot out of here. It should break when you drop it!” They suggested. Uraraka nodded, storming at the thing at full force. Its teeth gnash at her violently. 

She took a B-line for the trees behind the animatronic. “Hey! Over here, ugly!” She jeered. It paused momentarily, studying her moves. Then, it came at her quicker than before. Uraraka tripped once she was there, bracing herself with her hands. The fox grabbed her by the leg, holding so tightly she could not break free. It lifted her up into the air as she screamed, free leg kicking it with as much force as she could muster. The fox didn’t seem to care, however, as it’s jaw unhinged and chomped down onto her calf. 

Her vision went spotty as she felt warm liquid drip up her leg. The dizziness from being healed upside down not helping in the least. She shrieked in agony, finding it hard to breathe. Uraraka choked on her own spit through her screams. The fox roared, leaning in to take another bite. She’d had enough. 

She leaned in to touch it with what little strength she had left, the blood loss and pain making it hard to think. She landed an extremely firm kick to its face, causing it to let go as she fell to the ground, breathing heavily. She looked up to see how high it had gotten. She took a deep breath and pressed her hands together. “Release!” 

It rocketed to the ground, breaking on impact. Its head coming clean off. The fox twitched, not moving ever again. Through blurred vision from what she assumed was tears of pain, she saw Tsu throwing punches and tongue throws at Toga. She had clearly landed a few, but so had the other girl, with Asui bleeding from her left cheek and right forearm. Toga leaped on top of her, pinning her to the floor and holding her down by her neck. Uraraka had to help. Grunting, she hesitantly took a look at the wound, shutting her eyes tightly when she saw exposed muscle and bone poke through the bloody sinews and tissue. She tried to stand, but the agony was far too much, causing her to shriek. Tsu and toga turned their attention to Uraraka. Her face went pale, extreme concern visible in her expression. 

“Uraraka! Oh my god!” She cried, Toga using this distraction to elbow the girl in the face, causing her to yell out in pain. Toga smiled and waved at the brunette with her free hand. “You guys are so cute! And you’re both bleeding, how lovely! Say, do you mind if I get some of your blood, Uraraka?” The teen villain asked. The other’s eyes widened, and she gave a look of horror to the other girl. 

Because standing behind her was the exact same fox animatronic as the one lying on the ground. And it looked ready to attack. 

————

Denki had no idea where he was. It looked like a forest? He wasn’t sure. But he knew he was soul locked. Elizabeth loomed over him. 

“Ok Denki, are you ready? You need to attack and murder the heroes. All except Bakugou.” She said gently. “Can you do that for me?” Denki would have blinked if it was an option. Was she crazy? He’d never hurt heros! That would be awful!

And yet, despite his best efforts, the wolf nodded. 

No…

“Good. We’re all counting on you.” She mentioned with a smile. He felt the wolf arise and begin walking. 

No!!

He did everything he could to plant his feet in the ground. He could feel the vessel slowing down…

And after a few seconds, she charged out of the forest at full speed. 

Once he reached a clearing, he saw many animatronics around him. Were they possessed and soul locked, like him? Or made purposely to kill? He hoped it was the second one, but something in his gut made him feel. Uncertain of that fact. He could see heroes and villains alike, the heroes fighting both villains and animatronics. His vessel charged at a group of heroes he did not recognize. They threw attack after attack on him, and he felt the wolf robot stumble. She didn’t seem very graceful. 

“Roxy, we’re fine here! Go hunt the students.” One villain he hasn’t seen before, a tall woman in sunglasses and a red shirt, called out. Before he had time to wonder who Roxy was, his vessel sped off into the forest again. 

Wait, I’m Roxy? Like, the animatronic is called Roxy?

He came across a group of 1B students. His body lunged at them, claws swiping and jaw hanging low. They shrieked in terror, all banding together to fend him off.

Please! Please, get out of here! I don’t wanna hurt you! He mentally begged the group, agonizing over the fact they could not hear him. 

One of the boys, blonde, shrieked as Denki- no, Roxy shoved him hard into a tree, screaming in his face and swiping his claws across it. He looked at his hand as it dripped with blood. 

Denki had never felt helpless before. Sure, when he was a kid and wanted to help his mom in the kitchen, he felt sad he could do nothing. Or when his brain used to get fried from using his quirk and everyone laughed at him while he didn’t know what was going on. But that wasn’t helplessness. No. That feeling was frustration. The difference?

The difference was hope. Hope that when he was older he’d be able to reach the high shelves and ingredients on the spice rack. Hope that he’d get a hold of his quirk even if it took a while. 

But there was no hope now. 

Because there is no hope for the dead. Especially once you’ve crossed over into being a trapped spirit.

Denki had never felt helpless before. But seeing the child in front of him, bloody and shivering in fear because of him despite him trying and failing to stop himself …

He thought he’d gotten pretty close to that feeling tonight.

The group used their quirks to attack him, but barely any made so much as a dent. His vision locked onto one girl with orange hair. She blew up her hand to an enormous size and used it to grab him and throw him into a new part of the forest where he violently landed. 

He shakily got up. When was it gonna be twelve am?! He didn't know the time to begin with.

He then heard footsteps behind him.

“What the fuck…” said a voice, small and frightened. He turned around. He imagined if he still had one, his stomach would have dropped. 

He stared at the boy in front of him. A boy who he loved more than anything. His face… full of concern. He looked afraid, certain Denki would hurt him. Hurt Izuku. The one person he could never even attempt to hurt. His arm was purple, bent in a direction that didn’t make sense. He internally winced. It was broken, poor Midoriya did that a lot.

He felt his arm reach out. 

He was going to kill him. He couldn’t stop himself. He was going to kill him. He couldn’t stop himself. He was going to kill him. He couldn’t stop himself. He was going to kill him. He couldn’t stop himself. He was going to kill him. He couldn’t stop himself. He was going to kill him. He couldn’t stop himself. He was going to kill him. He couldn’t stop himself. He was going to kill him. He couldn’t stop himself-

And placed it gently on Izuku’s head. 

I- I stopped it!

“What… who are you?” He asked. It was clear he was trying his best to keep his voice level and unafraid.

“ It’s me…”

Izuku looked confused. Then, he winced, covering his ears tightly. Denki looked over at the boy in concern. What was happening?

Then, he heard it. 

Singing, a woman’s voice distantly in the background. 

Izuku dropped to his knees. The music clearly affecting him. To Izuku’s surprise, Denki scooped him up. He bridal carried him out of that forest clearing, running all the way back to the clearing with the heroes in it that he had first seen.

When he made it, he could see the villains were still going strong, even if the heroes had leveled the playing field a little. 

He gently placed Izuku down.

And then ran as fast as he could away from the fight. 

————

Shigaraki was fast, and with one arm it was hard to keep his balance. But Mike found his strongest weapon other than his quirk was his legs. His kicks were very powerful. But he was fighting two enemies. He didn’t know if it was even possible to win. Shigaraki could dodge very well, too. 

Then there was the issue of vanny, who was constantly trying to stab him. Dodging her attacks were even harder as she was from behind, and also wielding a knife as opposed to just her hands like Shigaraki. She had skill with the knife, too.

“Feeling worn out yet?” She taunted. Mike growled, throwing another punch her way, only for her to dodge it effortlessly. He had to concentrate and-

Was that…singing? Who the hell was singing? He couldn’t quite make out the words. He shrugged, whoever it was sure was creeping him out. 

“We don’t want to risk any more loss of limbs. Just kill him with your stupid knife already, he’s only got one arm, he’s at half health!” The blue haired man growled, scratching his neck. Vanny sighed, narrowly avoiding one of Mike’s kicks. 

“I would if he’d stop moving!” She complained, swinging the knife at him so close it caused him to fall. Thinking fast, he kicked Vanny in the shin, causing her to Yelp in pain, and made a run for where he saw Todoroki last. But when he got there, he saw the strangest sight. 

“Shouto! Where are-…you. What?” 

“WE HAVE FOUND TWO OF THE VILLAIN’S TARGETS. ‘KACHAN’ AND ‘MIKEY’. STUDENT’S KACHAN AND MIKEY, PLEASE AVOID COMBAT AND STAY INSIDE! YOU ARE AT RISK!”

Mike felt himself sweat at the telepathic information that had just been given to him. And if that wasn’t bad enough, Bakugou and Shouto were both lying on the ground, completely unconscious. A villain across from them bleeding too. Thank god he wasn’t a current threat. 

“Shit… no, fuck, this isn’t good.” Mike cursed in English. “Come on, get up!” He yelled. He ran over to shake Todoroki. “Can you hear me? Wake up!” He begged, shaking his shoulder. The boy did not wake. 

“Come on! Please! They’re coming and I’ve only got one arm! Please!” He grabbed Todoroki’s hand in desperation. “Please! Get up!” 

And as if by miracle, Shouto opened his eyes. “M- Mike?” He asked. “Ugh! The singing!” He winced, shutting them once more and covering his ears. Mike quickly looked at Shouto’s hand. He wasn’t wearing his gloves. 

Pain must have woken him up. 

“It’s not bothering me, I don’t know why.” He admitted. He helped Shouto to his feet. “It should be better the further away we get, so let’s wake up Bakugou and get out of here. Two villains were attacking me and they’re hot on our tail.” He said with urgency. Todoroki nodded, slowly opening his eyes. “…Mike…” 

Mike was bent over Bakugou, trying to use a painful shock to wake him. “What?” He asked, not really in the mood for conversation. “Y-your- your arm…” Mike froze. The boy turned to Todoroki, hoisting a sleeping Bakugou over his shoulder and running with the split haired boy as far away from the music as possible.

“Shigaraki- the guy with the disintegration quirk- he held onto my arm long enough that my whole body would turn to dust. Another villain had a knife to my neck. The only thing I could do was get rid of my arm and use my quirk to heal the wound.” Todoroki’s eyes widened.

“You cut off your own arm?!” 

“Trust me, wouldn’t recommend, probably still only awake because of adrenaline, also, the healing is temporary. Funny thing about my rot is that while it’s good for closing off wounds, I have a feeling it will become infected if not removed.” He gave him a shaky grin. Shouto nodded wearily. “How’s the music?” 

Todoroki scrunched up his nose. “Annoying, but better. I think I just have a headache now. It has to be a mind control quirk. I felt like I heard a voice telling me to sleep and I just couldn’t stop… but pain woke me up. Unfortunately, it seems like that doesn’t work for everyone.” He said, glancing at a still unconscious Bakugou. 

The three stopped dead in their tracks upon seeing a man spawn in front of them. He was wearing a striped mask and had a top hat.

“Hello, my name is Mr. Compress…My! What happened to you?” He asked Mike, aghast. The boy glared up at him. “…Shigaraki owes me an arm…” 

He said, doing his best to ignore the stinging that was coming from the arm in question. The man laughed. “I see. Sadly, you and the boy on your back have to come with me. I won’t ask nicely again. It’s amazing you can even still stand with a missing arm.” He… complimented? Mike wasn’t entirely sure. 

Todoroki took a protective step in front of him. 

“You’ll have to go through me.” He declared. 

“And you’ll have to get through them.” He said with what the teen assumed was a smirk. As the masked man took a step to the side, Mike and Shouto saw three large animatronic robots twitching.

Including Ballora. 

“Shouto! Watch out!” He yelled as they charged in his direction, the boy expertly putting up ice walls to defend himself, spearing the head of one animatronic purple hippo. 

Mike began to breathe heavily. Ballora… how could she be there? It had to be a replica, it had too. There’s no way. It had been too long. Something about this just didn’t make sense. Him, his father, and now Ballora? 

Why did he just appear here? 

Why did the universe throw him into this place?

Things like that don’t just happen. There had to be more. There had to be.

He lost his grip over Bakugou suddenly, the adrenaline fading as he collapsed. The dulling of his arm pain from the rot finally fading away into white hot agony. Mike felt a firm hand on his shoulder. “Goodnight.” He heard Mr. Compress whisper. 

Mike watched helplessly as the world went dark. 

Surprisingly, the fox was not attacking Toga. Only Asui and Uraraka. “Foxy, only one can die! I still need a coverup for later!” She giggled. The fox animatronic looked at her strangely, then nodded. It lunged after Tsu who leaped out of the way easily. Swinging its hook like the other model had done before. Uraraka pulled herself to the side of a tree, hesitantly looking one more time at the wound before trying once again to stand. She grunted, wiping away any more tears that fell. 

She was powerless to help her friend. And that sucked. Expecially with poor Tsu was fighting for her life alone. But the agony of her leg caused her too much pain to even think about standing up. 

She could of sworn that she heard faint music, an invitation to sleep. Something subtle, a gentle lullaby.

But her leg injury stopped sleep from taking it’s hold.

“Hey, Uraraka?” A sickly sweet voice called from behind her. “You’ve lost a lot of delicious blood. Let’s suck up the rest before it’s too late, hmmm?” Toga snickered. Uraraka growled. “Don’t come near me!” She snapped. Toga shrugged and stuck a needle into her arm. Causing her to wince from the pain. “You and me are the same. We’ve got the same sent. You’re in love, no?”

Uraraka had to get the needle out of her, but she was too weak from her wounds to do so. “When you love someone, don’t you want to become that person? You start wearing their clothes and trying to smell like them, but soon that isn’t enough. You need to be them in every way, huh?” She grinned wickedly. “I know that feeling. We’re very similar, you and I.” Toga smiled.

But her smile fell when the brunette’s hand wrapped around her throat. 

“Take that out of me.” She demanded, doing her best not to start crying from her leg pain. Toga scoffed, ripping out the needle. Uraraka let go, strength almost gone. Just in time to see Asui use her tongue to decapitate the animatronic attacking her. Toga looked over, shocked at the site.

“…amazing. You’re both so strong!” She said in apparent awe. Asui fell to her knees in exhaustion. Uraraka glared at Toga, who smiled teasingly back at her. 

“I like you.” She happily declared, causing Uraraka to feel unnerved. She then stood up, running away from both girls into the forest. 

“I like both of you, I don’t want to kill either of you. So, bye-bye.” She said with a frown, speeding off into the woods. 

“Uraraka, are you- oh my god, your leg!” She heard the familiar voice of Izuku scream. She turned to him, seeing him being carried by Shoji on his back. “Did you break your arms?!” The girl cried. Asui sped over, lifting Uraraka up bridal style, to which she was very grateful for thanks to the pressure no longer being on her leg. Midoriya gave a sheepish look. “I overdid my quirk. Shoji’s carrying me around. How about you guys, what the hell happend!” 

“It’s the animatronics, they attacked us along with this other girl, Toga.” Tsu explained. Izuku blinked. “Attacked you? I saw one and it helped he out…” 

“What? That’s crazy! Look what one did to my leg.” She cried. Izuku paused for a moment to think. “I belive you. Maybe it’s a glitch? The one that rescued me was a wolf.” Izuku clarified. Uraraka gave a concerned look, wincing as a new spike of pain shot up her leg. “Let’s just find Mike and Bakugou and get everyone to safety.” She said. Midoriya nodded. “Ah! God, fuck, it hurts” the brunette cried out as more blood began to pour out from the wound. She saw her friends since. “Us two will head back to camp. She needs urgent medical care. You two, hunt down Bakugou and Mike, and be careful. Your arms are broken.” Asui ribbited, hopping away with Uraraka in her arms. 

————

He was so close. 

Shoji was running at top speed, attempting to catch up to the man that had Midoriya’s best friend and childhood bully.

Izuku screamed after them. 

But he knew that while they were inside those marbles they couldn’t hear him. 

Mr Compress’s laughter filled his head as he desperately called after the two. 

The portal the villains were from opened, and the animatronics that were still standing marched inside. The kidnapper released the two boys. Izuku almost doing a double take when he noticed Mike’s arm was missing. 

Dabi’s hand was around both of their necks.

“MIKEY, KACCHAN!” He screamed. 

But the portal closed.

And izuku was left alone. 

Chapter Text

When someone gets the feeling something isn’t quite right, it’s usually followed up by one of two things;

The conformation that everything is ok

Or proof of the fact something is indeed very wrong. 

Mike had the unfortunate fate of it being the second option. 

Because Mike was currently strapped to a table. 

He felt his breathing grow labored and heart begin to race, his arm still sending shooting pain signals to his brain. Turns out, rotting was definitely a temporary solution for injuries. At that exact moment in time, Mike wanted nothing more than for him to be back at home with Aizawa or hanging out with Izuku whilst having both of his arms. Unfortunately for him, however, that was currently not an option right now.

As a small mercy, however, the lights did turn on. Mike sighed with relief.

Until he heard a voice. 

“Mike… it’s me…” it said. And Mike paused because there was no way in hell she could be here.

“I know what you’re thinking. And I know you’re confused. But it really is me.” Footsteps were heard as a face loomed over him. The face of Circus Baby. Except… different. More human. A strange amalgamation of his baby sister’s facial features and the animatronic’s cold, unforgiving ones. The thing that told him it was in fact his sister though, was her eyes. That bright emerald green that had lost their life oh so long ago. Now carrying a look of disdain and smugness, or hurt at anger.

A look of someone wanting to kill.

“Liz… how-”

“-am I here?” She cut off, glaring at him. “Oh, I know why we’re both here actually! Because I stuck with the family. You fucking traitor.” The redhead hissed. Mike cringed at her volume and sighed. “So I’m guessing you’re with him now then, huh?” She nodded firmly. “I was the one singing last night! I thought I did well. Gotta say, that arm can’t feel good.” The girl taunted. Mike shuddered, mentally taking note of the fact he’d been out for a night already. “It doesn’t. Blame Shigaraki, he’s technically the cause.” There was a pause.

“…you killed me.” 

“I remember.”

“Why?” He asked, biting back any anger. Calm. He reminded himself. You don’t know what she’s been through. Elizabeth scowled. “You know why! We needed to escape! You wanted to put me back together. Only difference is daddy succeeded where you failed. He made me beautiful. All you did was kill Evan and get yourself killed.” Mike shut his eyes tight, guilt creeping up on him. 

“You know that was an accident. I was twelve years old.”

“Yeah? Evan was four. You should have guessed the animatronics were dangerous, but no. You were stupid. And it’s all your fault.” Hissing once more, Liz began to giggle. “Not that that really matters to me. You’re the favorite currently. And when daddy sees how useless you are and how good I can be, it’ll be me in his good books. Do you understand, Mike?” The teen glared back at her. “What did he do to you this time? You know he isn’t going to change! He isn’t a good person, Liz!” He yelled. Elizabeth flinched, then scoffed. “No one in our family is. When you’ve accepted that, maybe you’ll understand.” The girl said flatly. “You're pathetic. You can’t be better, Micheal. It’s in your blood. No matter how hard a bird without wings tries to fly, it will always fail. No matter how hard you try to avenge a death you caused, you will always fail. You should stop trying. Because watching you struggle makes me feel almost sorry for you.” 

With that, Mike felt the room grow cold. His extremities were far more cold than before. Freezing, even. His body felt nauseous, like he had seen something he shouldn't have. He let out a shaky exhale. Then, he looked up at the girl (woman?) looming over him. 

“I’ve made my peace with the fact I fucked up. But last night you hurt a lot of good people. And for what? For a man who’s just gonna hurt you over and over again? I may be pathetic, but you are one hell of a suck up.” 

He was caught off guard by the redhead’s hands slamming loudly down onto the table he was strapped into. 

“ DADDY LOVES ME! He adores me. He is a good man who put me back together! What have you ever done for me, huh!? Took me to school, played dolls a few times, bought me ice cream?” The girl screamed. 

“Protected you from him? Cleaned up your wounds, from him?”  He growled. She was seething at this point, glaring at him as if she could shoot lasers through her pupils. He sighed. “Also Liz…I never said he didn’t love you.”

Liz gasped, covering her mouth. Before spinning on her heel and storming out of the room, slamming a door behind her.

————

How dare he.

How DARE he?

He knew nothing about their father, not really. He was the favorite. The special one. The one who got everything. She growled. Did it matter if he was hit a few times? If he was called stupid and useless? Big deal! Join the goddamn club! At least he knew father before he changed. He got years of a good dad. A good life. Wasn’t she entitled to the same?

But no. It was anyway him. Micheal was all daddy ever talked about, and she was sick to fucking death of it. He didn’t deserve his love, his admiration, his time and energy. It was her that did. Elizabeth. The girl who would do anything for him while Mike didn’t even appreciate his gifts! How ungrateful! 

Storming out of the building Mike was trapped in, she began muttering to herself. 

“Elizabeth.” Came a foreboding voice from behind, stopping her dead in her tracks.” 

“Daddy…”

“I could hear you talking to your brother, you know.” He sighed. She turned around to see him pinching the bridge of his nose. “At the attack- sleeping? Really? You couldn’t have asked them to attack each other or something useful?” Elizabeth’s gaze fell to the floor. “Father… pain would break the ‘spell’. You know that-”

“Do not talk back to me.” His voice was full of barely contained anger, the girl flinching on instinct. “You know not to talk back to me. Just… Christ, can you listen for once?” He pleaded.

“I’m sorry.”

“Good! Learn this lesson, be better. Maybe fight next time!” She felt her breathing become heavy. Refusing to look the man in the eyes in case tears would threaten to spill. “I love you, sweetheart, but you are beyond stupid sometimes. Now, I have to tend to your brother.” He replied, sighing. Elizabeth snarled. “What use is him? I could be so much better-”

“…are you questioning me?” He asked, tone dangerously tense. At this point, Elizabeth did look up. Eyes wide with fear. William stepped toward her, grabbing her jaw firmly.

SMACK

“You do NOT question me!” He yelled, holding her face firmly in place. “I know what I am doing. Leave your brother out of this. You are so selfish!” He huffed. The redhead stood there in shock, mouth agape and cheek stinging. He sighed deeply. “You made me hit your beautiful face, darling.” He cooed, stroking her injured cheek. 

“Don’t make me do it again.” 

With that, he harshly ripped his hand from her jaw and walked off.

Elizabeth felt the tears begin to fall, silently thanking god that father wasn’t around to see it. 

————

“I understand you’re confused.”

That voice. He knew that voice.

“But everything should become very clear very soon, Micheal.” He swallowed, throat dry and tight. The voice alone made him feel physically ill. Focus. Be strong. “…Elizabeth. She’s here. How?” His only response from the man he still could not see was a deep, menacing chuckle. “Confused? I would be in your position too. But fortunately I am not.” He heard footsteps approaching as the man leaned over him. 

“I have to say, I didn’t particularly believe ‘hero’ would be your first choice of career. You never do fail to surprise me.” Mike stayed silent. Doing his best to calm his own breathing. “Not feeling particularly talkative, huh? Don’t worry. I don’t need you to talk. Your body is rotting, yes? I can already see the effects taking place.” He had walked away now, picking up an item from a table that Mike could not see. “Hold still.” He said, Mike’s eyes flickering to his left to get a better view of the man. In his hands he could see a syringe. 

“This will hurt, I’m afraid.” He smiled. Mike felt a sudden adrenaline rush, shaking and thrashing in his bindings, desperate to stay as far away from the man as possible. “W-what’s in that? Stay the fuck away from me!” He demanded, tugging at the straps to no avail. William laughed. “My boy, this is an artificial form of remnant. I want to see if you can take the effects before I try the real deal.” Shit. He’d heard his father talking about remnant before in one of his drunken rants. He finally understood what he meant by that now.

He felt a cold, rough hand on his forehead. “No. No, father, stop. Fucking stop!” Mike pleaded, blinking away any tears. “Hush, you’re going to be fine. I promise.” 

“You’re deranged! What the fuck is wrong with you! Monster!” He yelled, writhing under the restraints, but with no give in the slightest, he was practically helpless. And he despised that fact. William suddenly removed his hand and took a step back. 

“Monster? Monster!? I’m doing this for you! I do it all for you, and this is how you thank me?” He spat, glaring at him. “I can show you a monster, if you really want.”

Something was wrong, he wasn’t like this when he last saw him, he had gotten worse. 

[

William grabbed an item from the table, Mike couldn’t see what. After some clattering and banging, he heard footsteps approaching him once again. His eyes widened. In his hand was a pair of pliers. William harshly grabbed Mike’s nose, twisting it until he was forced to open it to breathe. Without warning, he shoved the pliers inside, and he felt them get a firm hold on his back molar. Mike’s muffled screams were only aggravated by William’s crazed smile. 

He tugged hard. Once, twice, three times, until the tooth came loose. With a final pull, he yanked it out, Mike yelling in pain, sobbing at this point.

“Think you can handle one more?” He grinned. Mike screamed, spitting out as much blood as he could. He felt it land on one of his front teeth this time. Mike began heaving, the world around him going white as he felt that tooth give and eventually be ripped away. His cries were hysterical now, more blood pouring out of his mouth. 

]

“…that was a monster, Michael. But I’m not one. So I won’t do that to you. Not anymore. Teeth can be replaced.” He smiled, wiping the boy’s tears away. “Now,” he began. “Let’s try out the remnant.” 

Mike let out a final scream before he felt a needle go inside his bicep. 

Then everything went dark as he felt his body light on fire.

————

Imagine Scott’s utter and complete shock when two heroes came knocking on his door. 

Heroes. Real pro’s! To any kid it would be like Christmas, but to Scott, it felt like the devil was paying him a visit. 

“Can I help you?” He greeted. It was late, so he was, rather embarrassingly, in his PJs. The pro hero Eraserrhead, and the pro hero Midnight were standing, looking stressed and angry. 

“Hello Mr Smith. I am the pro hero-”

“I know who you both are. Sorry, it’s late. Do you think you could cut to the chase?” He asked, barely keeping the annoyance out of his tired voice. The woman nodded and the man spoke up. “We understand you work for Freddy’s.” He said bluntly. And boy oh boy was that never a good start to a conversation.

“You’re not in trouble, we just have a question relating to the whereabouts of your boss.” Eraser said flatly. Scott sighed in relief. Thank god they weren’t here about the company’s tax fraud. Because although Scott wasn’t upper management, he was still high up in the Japanese Fazbear company hierarchy, and he would definitely have been arrested for having a helping hand in the coverup. “Mr. Miller?” He asked. “Honestly I have no idea. He rarely comes to visit our restaurant. Why?” 

“We have reason to suspect he is working with a villain association and using your manufactures as a way to weaponize the animatronics. This happened last night.” Midnight clarified. If Scott had eyes, they would have widened. “That’s… shit, that’s horrible. All I can give you is the company’s warehouse location I’m afraid.” He said truthfully. The two exchanged a glance and nodded. “Thank you Mr. Smith, you’ve been a huge help.”

————

The remnant had finally worn off. William commented it took two hours. Two hours before Mike could finally breathe, his mouth uncomfortable and bloody thanks to the lack of his molar and left front tooth. 

Two hours and no sign of the pros. Where were they?

“Remarkable.” His father chuckled. “Now, I think the real deal is in order, don’t you?” The rhetorical question put a sour taste in his mouth. “…go to hell.” Mike spat out, exhausted and sweaty. William snickered. 

“I’ve been. Don’t fancy going back. Let’s get this over with-”

BANG

Mike saw from the corner of his eye the door come flying off its hinges. In came a man dressed all in black, his scarf covering half his face. 

“Eraser!” Mike cheered. The man’s gaze flickered to him, then back to his father, quirk now activated. William rolled his eyes. “Just as the fun started.” He sighed. Eraser glared dangerously at the man. 

“What did you do to Health Agent?” His tone conveyed rage, and Mike shuddered.

“…I was helping him. That’s all. I love my son, Shota Aizawa. Please do not get that twisted around.” Aizawa clearly looked surprised by his full name being dropped, but he stood his ground regardless, barely even flinching. Without warning, his capture weapon wrapped around William’s arm and flung him into a wall, knocking him unconscious. Eraser instantly sped over to Mike, undoing his restraints. “All Might is upstairs rescuing Bakugou. I checked down here to be safe, and thank god I did.” He explained as Mike sat up. Then paused, gasping. 

“What the hell did he do to your arm?!” The man yelled. Mike shook his head. “That was Shigaraki, if I hadn’t cut it off I would have turned to dust.”

“…you cut off your own arm?”

“I had to!” 

Aizawa glared at him, then wrapped his arms around him in a tight hug, Mike eventually hugging back. “…I’m sorry I didn’t get here sooner.” He said, voice muffled because of the clothing. Mike smiled, signing in relief. “You’re here now. It’s ok.” 

The man gently pulled back. “Did he take out your teeth? He asked. Mike nodded, mouth still bloody and painful. “Just two.” Aizawa sighed, helping Mike to his feet. “That bastard.” 

Then, Aizawa gasped in pain. Mike felt himself begin to panic. “Eraser!?” He looked down to see William injecting a syringe of purple liquid into his calf. Mike kicked his father hard in the face, causing him to jerk back and scramble to his feet. Aizawa whipped his capture weapon in his general direction, narrowly missing and giving William just enough time to bolt down the hallway. Mike held Aizawa’s arm. “You ok?” He asked. Aizawa nodded. “I’m fine… I don’t feel any different.” He blinked. “Let’s get out of here. We need to capture your father and get you to safety.” The teen nodded as the two ran out of the torture room.

Mike couldn’t get the feeling that something awful was going to happen once they left that room.

Looking back, he wished he’d been wrong about that. 

Chapter Text

They’d reached the surface after several long winding corridors. Up the stairs and out the front door. Aizawa looked over to his son Mike, to see how he was holding up. He had begun to look more and more tired, grunting and gripping his severed arm tightly. He had healed it with his rot but that didn’t really seem to be massively effective in the long run. Definitely more of a temporary fix, he mentally noted. “‘You ok?” The hero questioned, keeping his tone calm and level. Mike nodded with a stern expression. “Yeah. We should keep going, father most likely has a plan.” 

The two at this point had come to some rescue heroes, fussing over Mike’s arm or lack thereof. Reacting with great shock when he explained the story in full. Aizawa turned to see MT. Lady collapsed to the floor, injured. He balled his hand into a fist. “Mike, ‘you good to stay here? I really need to help out.” He asked. Once again, there was a nod. “I’m fine. Go help them! And be careful!”

Jumping into action, Aizawa used his capture weapon to pull down a villain by the leg. Twice, he thought his name was, although he was unsure. The man quickly jumped to his feet, sending out an army of clones to attack the heroes. “You can’t defeat me! Yes you can. ” He taunted confusingly. Eraser shrugged, kicking a clone in the face, causing it to melt. Clone after clone, they all went down, several other pros helping him out with the ones behind him. 

Then, he saw a blur out of the corner of his eye. He spun around only to be greeted with the face of a green lizard-man. 

Then, he felt a sharp sting in his chest, right where his heart was. He staggered back, coughing up a thick warm liquid. He took a glance down at himself just in time to see a sharp blade be pulled out of him. He collapsed to the floor, breathing heavily. 

“Eraser!” He heard someone yell. 

But he couldn’t tell who, as his vision went dark and he felt his heart stop. 

Then, he opened his eyes, being held in the lap of Hizashi, who was sobbing over him. “Pr-present Mic?” He stuttered. The man instantly stopped his tears, looking at him in complete and utter shock. “Eraser?!” 

“Yeah, I-it’s ok. I’m fine. I don’t even feel injured.” He clarified, wiping the blood off of his chin. “You were stabbed in the heart!” He exclaimed. Aizawa sat up despite the man’s protests. “Yeah, I know. It doesn’t even hurt.” He blinked, turning to him. “I’m fine.”

“Woah! Your eyes!” He exclaimed. Aizawa winced at his friend’s volume, then cocked his head. “What about them?” 

“They’re weird! Completely black with white pupils!” Present Mic yelled. Eraserhead furrowed his brow. “Let me see.” He demanded, causing his best friend to pull out his phone’s camera. Sure enough, his typically dark brown eyes were now completely black. The only colour being two white dots in the center of each. He suddenly gasped. “My quirk.”

Mic put a hand on his shoulder. “Try it on me.” He asked. As Mic broke into a yell, Eraser activated his quirk, and sure enough, he went quiet. He sighed in relife. His friend laughed. “It’s all good! You’re just a freaky ghost man now!” 

But he could see his friend shaking with relife. Wordlessly, he wrapped Hizashi in a tight hug. “I’m fine. I’m alive. Let’s get Bakugou and Mic to safety.”

The rest of the fight was primarily between All Might and All For One. With All Might revealing his weak form to the entire world. He had to admit, he was proud of his friend for doing that. For defeating an age old enemy, even if the other villains got away. 

Later, Mike and Aizawa had been brought to recovery girl. She gasped upon seeing them, Immediately berating them for not takin better care of themselves. “Cutting off your own arm?! If it wasn’t to save your life, then I’d call you an idiot!” She chastised. Earning a snicker from his guardian. “I’ll get to you in a minute!” Recovery Girl glared, waving a finger at Shota. 

“We’ll have to cut off this rot, and get you a prosthetic arm. It will take two weeks to ship in. No more lost limbs!” She said, smacking him on the head with her clip board. Mike let out a yell, nodding with an upset expression. Which only made Aizawa grin more. 

After a quick operation, the rot was removed, bandages wrapped tightly around his arm and a very strict instruction to do no strenuous activity until the arm arrives other than basic work outs. Safe to say, he was not happy about that. 

“Now, Eraser, let’s look at you.” She began, asking him to remove his shirt. As he did, he heard a gasp. “Oh my god! You’re going to need heart surgery immediately! How are you even alive!?” She cried as the man pulled his shirt back over his head. “For the record, I’m fine.” He said flatly. She shook her head. “You can’t be! There’s a hole in your chest!” 

Hurrying over, she grabbed a stethoscope, putting it to his wrist. Aizawa froze when she became deathly silent. Hurriedly, she grabbed his other wrist. She looked up at him, an expression of pure horror that was strange on her small face. “Shota… you have no pulse .” 

“What? What do you mean?”

“I mean that your heart isn’t beating! Most likely hasn’t been since your injury! You- you should be…” 

“Dead…” 

Mike gasped. “Shit, your eyes… I know what my father injected you with.” He said, swallowing hard. “Injected? Good god, what was it?” Recovery Girl muttered quietly. Mike took a deep breath.

“Remnant.” Upon seeing their confused expressions, he elaborated. “It’s sort of like- the essence of a human soul. My dad found away to harvest it. You have a child’s soul inside you right now, that and your own soul are keeping you alive. Aizawa you… you are dead. A corpse. Meaning your body, Um, it’s most likely going to rot.”

It took a lot to truly unsettle Shota Aizawa. He was a tough man, hardened by years of battles and trauma. But this, knowing he was a dead man walking…

It shook him right to his core. 

“How- how fast?” He asked, voice cracking despite himself. Mike gave him a look of pity, voice shaking much like Aizawa’s. “As long as it takes a normal corpse to decompose, most likely. So I’m not sure.”

Chiyo cut him off. “With the exposure to the elements, I’d say… if this is true… you have at most a week before your skin rots and things start to, Christ, fall off.” 

Shit .

He had to tell off some students for going against his rules to rescue Bakugou, but secretly patted them on the back for doing a good job. Once they all went, Aizawa noticed Izuku, upset. 

“Hey, Midoriya.” He spoke up, causing the other to pause and turn around. “Yes sir?” 

“You’re upset.” 

The boy blinked. “Oh um, no! I’m happy! Kacchan and Mikey are safe so… heh…” he smiled, although it was clearly strained. He sighed, kneeling on one knee and putting his hand on his shoulder. “You’ve been through a lot, huh problem child?” He asked, smirking when Izuku stuttered at the nickname. “You’re allowed to be upset, don’t push your emotions down. They’ll impede you in battle. Let yourself process this. You almost lost someone really special today. Two people, in fact.” He sighed. Izuku nodded. “You did too.”

“Still, you need to tell me if things get too much, ok? I can set up hound dog for you. You’re a tough kid. A good kid. So don’t beat yourself up. You did good today.” He praised, ruffling his hair. Izuku nodded, smiling brightly. “Thank you sir! I hope you feel better soon!” Eraser sighed. That kid, honestly. He vaguely rubbed the hole in his chest. Thinking back to what Recovery Girl had said.

“ Shota… you have no pulse ...”

That made his skin crawl. 

Maybe they were wrong. Yeah. There’s no way he’d rot. That’s impossible, not when he’s still walking!

It was a day before the rigamortis began to set in. His joints seezing up. He’d noticed once he got out of his bed the next morning, and that was definitely not normal. 

He’d thrown up twice over the coming days. Almost once more when he saw what had came up. 

Internal organs.

So, so much blood. His body was rejecting his own organs. 

He heard footsteps behind him. 

“Aizawa? Your students said you ran in here suddenly. Is everything quite alright?” Asked the familiar voice of Nedzu. Shit. Anyone but him. 

“Fine. I just felt sick.” He responded, trying to keep the annoyance out of his voice. Nedzu laughed. “I know you’re decomposing. It’s quite remarkable really.” Aizawa froze, then sighed. “I don’t know what to do.” He said finally. Nedzu chuckled sympathetically as Shota stepped out of the bathroom stall. He had covered himself in bandages from head to toe, his skin now a sickly green purple. “You have no idea how difficult it is to stop the smell.” He shuddered. “Not to mention how hot showers just make the skin come off. God, that was horrifying.” 

“Are you still able to fight?” 

Shota nodded. He’d been practicing. Although his muscle has decayed, seemingly his strength hadn’t. It didn’t rip the joints or skin either. It was strange.

“Take a week off. I have a feeling it’ll stop by then. Not reverse unfortunately, but stop.” Aizawa blinked. “How can you be so sure?” The mouse man shrugged. “Just a thought.” He winked, earning him a restrained glare.

He had fallen asleep on the couch in front of the tv, so waking up was a surprise when he noticed Mike snuggled up next to him, snoring heavily on the dead man’s chest. Seemingly not minding. Almost like he knew what it was like. Almost like it was personal. Shrugging off a strong sense of deja vú, Aizawa smiled as he stroked Mike’s hair, happily closing his eyes.

Only to wake up soon after, gasping for air. The image of Spinner piercing his heart playing on loop in his mind. He shook his head, doing his best not to move as to not disturb Mike’s sleep. “Brat.” He smiled, laying back down again, but refusing to close his eyes this time. 

He couldn’t stop thinking about the warehouse. No one had gotten anymore update’s on Kaminari’s murder. It was ridiculous at this point. He’d have to go back himself soon. He decided it was the only way he could give him justice. The key to solving the killing was in that place, maybe there was a clue the police had missed? They may have taken all the evidence, but he swore there was more to that place they hadn’t seen. There had to be.

There had to be.

And when the next day rolled around, he realised that because he was off from work, he had enough time to check it out. 

————

He couldn’t belive it was actually working. On someone who wasn’t exposed to the remnant prototype no less! 

Sure, the rot and decomposition was a major downside, but those were just some kinks he needed to work out. Soon, it would all be up for grabs. Immortality was wishing William’s reach. He felt it right then and there! He needed to keep a close eye on the man, and test it out on one more person to confirm it worked. He had the most perfect subject too! And a very strong soul. One that could actually communicate with its host. 

One he loved very dearly. 

He just needed to get the host in question. The boy was ready and waiting, he just needed to corner him. Who cares if Shigaraki wanted him dead? Izuku Midoriya was perfect for the second experiment and he wasn’t going to let that opportunity go to waste!

 He chuckled to himself. “My goodness, Eraser, you sure are interesting…”

Chapter Text

Cassidy had been missing for approximately two weeks now. 

Two weeks. No noise, no visions, no movements from golden Freddy. Nothing. It was like she simply didn’t exist anymore. And it chilled Charlie to the bone

Charlie loved her kids deeply. They were her kids, after all. She’d been crying after the first two days that Cassidy hadn’t turned up, running millions of possible scenarios inside her brain. None of which made any sense to her. She had the same killer as all the rest, afterall. Things were tough without her. And Charlie wished she could hug her again, tell her how much she missed her.

She didn’t want to worry Denki, as he had enough on his plate already, but telling Gabe, Susie, and Jeremy that she was just hiding because she needed time alone was not only hurting her heart, but beginning to lose its believability. They were a family. And if one was missing, it hurt everyone. 

Fritz hadn’t believed it for a second. Thankfully keeping his mouth shut until he and Charlie were on their own. Maybe it was because he was older, but he seemed to catch on easily to lies and false information like that. Knowing when to shut his mouth.

“You good, Char Char?” A familiar voice came from behind. She jumped, not expecting it. “Denki… yes, I am fine. Just… thinking.” She sighed. “How have you been holding up? I know the soul locking was partially traumatic. I’ve never heard of it going on for that long and with so many people… I am just relieved they left me out of it.” Denki shrugged. “I scarred a kid’s face. I’m not proud. But my body went off on its own.” He made a zombie motion with his hands. “I couldn’t do anything.” Charlie smiled sadly. 

“They must possess a mechanism to force a soul to do their bidding. It’s the only way I can see them causing such a prolonged soul lock.” The girl pondered. “Beats me, I’m just tired.” He sighed, slumping down onto the floor. Charlie sat herself next to him. “I know a lot has happened to you in such a short period of time, but please remember you are not alone.” She placed her hand on his shoulder firmly. “As your friend, I am here to support you. So do not fear.” He nodded, sighing. “This whole ‘ghost’ thing is really… I don’t know, tiring? I guess? I just find it takes so much energy to do basic things, even when I don’t need to do most basic things anymore like eat or sleep or use the bathroom.” He sighed. “I miss eating…”

Charlie snorted. “I do not remember food well, but I do remember it fondly.” 

A comfortable silence stretching many minutes followed their conversation.

God, she hoped Cassidy was ok. 

————

Eraser was quickly learning that being dead, when all was said and done, was undeniably more difficult than he’d initially anticipated. Although his fighting wasn’t impeded, thank god, it was the aftermath that was tough. When he let himself rest for more than a second, every joint became stiff and his now green-purple skin would easily tear. He was yet to tell his students, other than Mike who knew just because he was there when Aizawa himself found out. They had suspicions, but he refused to confirm anything just yet.

He’d also been hallucinating. 

Every now and again, a little girl appeared in the corner of his vision. 

Perks of being dead, he supposed. 

He would try to get antipsychotics through therapy, which he most likely needed, but as his brain had rotted to the point of pouring out of his ears a few nights ago, he doubted they’d really do anything. How lovely that was to wake up to.

On the bright side, Mike's new arm had come in. it was chrome, and he found it difficult to adjust to. But Aizawa would not have his fighting impeded. he did an incredibly brave thing, and he refused to let him suffer because of that.

Today was his penultimate day off. He was preparing to go back to the warehouse tonight. There had been many missing children’s cases all throughout Musutafu recently, including rather disturbingly some of those children turning up dead, suspected murders. A.though murder was not uncommon in the city due to villain attacks, child murder was. This was something Tsukauchi was currently looking into, with a pretty good idea on who was doing it thanks to what Mike had said. Aizawa of course didn’t give them the whole truth, but enough to give them a lead. It was tough 

The rotting seemed to be stopping, just as Nedzu had said. Which freaked him out. The mouse man was often correct, but about this? How would he even know about this in the first place? Shaking his head, he sat up. Stretching, he went over to his closet to put on his clothes, bandages and scarf. 

“Oh I see, you’re dead. Aren’t you?” 

Aizawa froze, imagining if his heart was still working it would be beating out of his chest. Slowly, he turned around to where the mystery voice sounded like it was coming from. 

And there he saw her. The little East Asian girl that had been following him around. Straight black hair in pigtails and red pinafore covered in butterfly patterns. He blinked a few times, but she did not go away. “I’m real, by the way. You can see me because I’m part of you. The other soul inside you. I am helping you stay alive.” She said, smiling. The man began to breathe heavily, taking a step back. “Who…are you? Tell me your name.”

“My name? Well, considering we’re in this together, we might as well introduce ourselves.” The little girl agreed thoughtfully. “I’m Cassidy. You?” Shota sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. “…Aizawa Shota. I’m a pro hero. You- god. You’re the spirit that’s helping me?” He asked in mild disbelief. Cassidy nodded. “Why? Expecting someone else?” She grinned teasingly. “I was originally somewhere different. But somehow I was taken from there, you're my new vessel now, I guess.”

“Vessel?”

“Yeah. You know, like a body or object a spirit possesses?” Shota slowly nodded, doing his best to keep himself calm. “So, let me get this straight, you’re a dead child’s spirit who possesses me and you’re keeping me alive by doing so?” Aizawa asked. Cassidy nodded. “Allow me to explain how some of this works…”

————

He really hadn’t meant to come across her. Of all people, she was not who he’d expected to see. 

But there she was, eating lunch outside of a cafe. Wearing a hoodie and jeans, lit cigarette in hand. She was browsing her phone, eyes glued to the screen. Mike stared at her for a moment, trying to get the courage to speak up. She looked… sad. Upset. About what, he had a pretty good guess. 

He had to force his legs to move in the general direction towards her, eyes not leaving her for one second. Mike sighed, not really knowing the best way to start the conversation. He took his final few steps in front of her. Swallowing, he cleared his throat, causing her to look up.

“…Liz?”

All the color drained from her face as her expression shifted into a snarl. “You.” She spat. “What do you want?” 

The boy shrugged, smiling sadly. “Take a guess. ‘Wanna talk, that’s all. Can I sit?” He asked. She rolled her eyes, sneering, but shifted to the side slightly regardless. The teen took this as an invitation to seat himself beside her. She focussed on her fries, shoving handfuls into her mouth without looking at him. Mike turned to her, smirking. “I didn’t know you smoked.” Elizabeth shrugged. 

“Daddy doesn’t know, I’m not meant to. But it makes things easier. An outlet, I guess.” 

There was a pause.

“Why does he even care? Aren’t you an adult?” He asked her. She scoffed. “You tell me.” Mike blinked. “I mean, you look like you’re in your mid twenties but… last time I saw you, um, alive, or I suppose time before last, you were only six years old.” He could see a small smile creep up on her face.

 “I have the same dilemma. Daddy calls me an adult and tells me to act my age, but I've only been 26 for almost two years now. Not to mention he still likes to treat me like a child.” The woman confessed, taking a puff of her cigarette. Mike scrunched up his face. “You just- appeared here? In an adult body?” Elizabeth shook her head. “Not quite. You’ll figure it out I’m sure…” he pondered what she could mean for a moment, before filing that thought under “things to worry about later”. 

“I’m not a child though. I got six years of that before things went to shit. Because of you.” Mike flinched, guilt creating a knot in his stomach. “It was an accident. I’m sorry, I can’t apologize anymore than I already have. I just want to make it up to him.” Liz turned to him, face twisting into an ugly, bitter expression. “It’s not him I’m talking about. It’s you! Christ, you’re so self centered I-” she paused, taking a breath. 

“I don’t care about that anymore! I did for a while, but you were young and I forgave you! You don’t fucking get it. What really hurts, in here.” She jabbed a finger harshly at her chest, roughly where her heart would be. “You’re the favorite. You’re all he fucking talks about! How much potential you have, how clever you are, how much better you are than me !” She stood up, turning to face him, yelling at this point despite the stares from the people surrounding them both. 

“I have to do everything twice as good as you for any praise, I have to work tirelessly. I can’t speak back, question him, do anything he wouldn’t like or else you know what he does!” Elizabeth used her sleeve to wipe away her tears, smudging her face paint. “So congratulations, you won. You won a prize you don’t even want!” The girl spat, breathing getting heavier and more erratic, looking up at a stunned Mike with tears streaming down her face. “I was supposed to win that prize. But what do I get? I get slapped and called stupid.” She closed her eyes, volume lowering.

“I get no credit. Nothing. So you know what, Micheal ?” Once again, his full name made him freeze up, flashes of his angry father in his mind. “I hope you die! Or hell, that we both die! I can’t take this shit anymore…” she panted, breaking down into sobs. Mike stood up quickly, outstretching an arm over to his sister. But she swatted it away. Glaring at him. 

“ WHY WONT YOU DIE! ?” The girl screamed, punching Mike square in the jaw. Mike staggered back, pain making his ears ring.

He heard panicked footsteps, looking up only to see that his sister was gone. Rubbing his chin, he blinked, surprised to feel a wet mark on his cheek. 

Tears were falling. 

He looked down at the seat where his sister had left.

And saw a note with an address written on it. 

————

The warehouse seemed somehow bigger than Aizawa remembered. The little girl had been weirdly insistent once he told her where he was going. 

Apparently, she could take control of his body and speech if she really wanted to for a while, but it was exhausting both mentally and physically, she chose not to.

The thought alone terrified him. 

Nevertheless, he was nice to the kid, who was clearly traumatized to a degree. He had asked what year she had died, but her only response seemed to be “so long ago”, which wasn’t that helpful at all quite frankly. But he did not push, knowing first hand that death and being dead is a tricky subject.

Being dead was difficult to put into words. After the first week of decomposition, just like Nedzu had said, he had stopped rotting. It was freaky how the mouse man knew the timeframe in which the rot would stop. He might have to ask him about that later. Damned creature. 

“You ever gonna tell me why you’re so insistent that we visit this place? I mean, I am too, but we both know my reasoning.” Cassidy smiled. “You’ll see!” She giggled, skipping alongside him. He sighed. This kid liked being cryptic, didn't she? 

Eventually reaching the door to the warehouse, Aizawa pushed it open. Good, it was just as dark and creepy inside as he remembered. Turning on his hand held torch, Aizawa breathed a heavy sigh. Too many bad memories were linked to this god forsaken place. He had an incling that Cassidy knew more than she should, but he supposed when you’re dead, there are secrets you learn that you aren’t exactly eager to tell. 

Entering the building, the man shuddered to himself, thinking it odd he still did that given what had happened to him recently. Cassidy had stepped in rather carefully too, before looking at him with a grin and running down a hallway. “Wait!” He called, holding out his hand. He grumbled, jogging to catch up with her with the idea that she was leading him somewhere. She giggled, speeding up only to phase right through a wall. The hero sighed. Why was this kid such a hassle?

“Cassidy? Where are you?” He called out. “Cass!” Groaning, he pushed past the door to the room that the child went into.

And completely froze when he saw who was inside.

————

“So, why are we here again?” Todoroki asked curiously. Momo nodded. “You haven’t told us anything. And what were you doing all weekend?”

Mike smirked, absentmindedly rubbing the bruise on his chin. “I was finding this. Now, I chose you two for this for your quirks. I’m planning on telling ‘Zooks later, he’s got homework right now.” He said. “You two are the strongest people I know that I trust with this. Don’t be fooled by its appearance, I genuinely think that this could be a key to stopping my dad.”

“But it’s just a ball pit?” Momo questioned. The British teen’s expression turned serious. “Oh, trust me, this is so much more.” 

Chapter Text

HELLO ALL! Just to say this is completely discontinued and getting a far better rewrite! It’s called “hero of the dead; future tense”. Hope you enjoy!