Chapter Text
“Wonderland” didn’t look like much.
It was a large, rainbow colored tent, bigger than a big camping tent but smaller than a circus tent, in a clearing in the middle of a snowy forest. It could probably fit fifty people inside. The canvas was decorated with neon lights, currently off, with a large LED board above the entrance. There was a sign out front that said “Welcome to Wonderland!,” so it had to be the right place.
It didn’t look like something that would require the Number One Hero’s personal attention.
Supposedly, there were twenty-five civilians trapped inside, with two villains. And ten pro-heroes who had failed to rescue them.
“Remind me why we’re not just blowing the place up?” Kacchan asked. He looked pretty done with the mission already, despite the fact that it hadn’t even started.
Endeavor grunted, arms crossed in front of him. “We don’t know what state the hostages are in. If they could evacuate, they likely would’ve already.”
“And why can’t I freeze it?” Todoroki asked.
“Because they would just be more trapped, snow-brain.”
Endeavor frowned, but didn’t disagree.
“So,” Izuku said, “Our priority is to retrieve the hostages, then?”
“No,” Endeavor said. “ My priority is to retrieve the hostages. You three will wait out here. If you don’t hear from me in fifteen minutes, you call for backup. You will not be entering the tent.”
Kacchan sparked off. “Why the fuck did you bring us if you’re not gonna let us fight, Old Man?! We can handle whatever two C-tier villains can throw at us.”
“The Mochizuki twins are not ‘C-tier’ villains. This is the third time they’ve performed one of these schemes. At each of the previous instances, very, very few pro-heroes sent to apprehend them managed to escape with their lives. They were always changed in some way, if not driven mad and ranting about riches. Even fewer civilians emerge. It’s up to me alone to stop these two. I will not risk three students. You will wait outside and help calm the hostages when I rescue them. This is not a debate. Understood?”
“Yes sir,” they said, Kacchan scowling.
“Good. Fifteen minutes.”
And with that, he entered the tent.
Strange, no light from Endeavor’s fire pierced the dark interior of Wonderland. It was like a black wall was just inside. Tokoyami probably would’ve called it a “Veil of shadows, devouring the brightness of life.”
Or something like that.
“This sucks,” Kacchan said, plopping onto a downed log a few yards away from the entrance.
“I want to help too, Kacchan, but we have to stay here. We can’t just disobey a direct order from the Number One Hero.”
“I disobey him all the time.”
“I think that’s a little bit different, Todoroki…”
“Will you two shut up? I’m trying to listen to something.”
“Wow, Bakugou trying to listen? Maybe this place is magic.”
“I said shut it , Half n’ Half. Listen.”
They paused.
“... I don’t hear anything.”
“Exactly. Besides all the birds and shit being gone, shouldn’t we hear, I dunno, sounds of fighting? Screams for help? Your old man’s not exactly quiet.”
Kacchan was right, the forest was strangely quiet, but that didn’t mean it was unnatural. All the animals were probably scared off by the fire and explosions.
Then, as if on cue, faint music emerged from the tent. If Izuku listened closely, it kind of sounded like-
“Is that… EDM?”
“Why the fuck would it be-” Kacchan stopped. “What the fuck?”
“Remind me what EDM is?” Todoroki asked.
“God, you’ve gotta get out more. Electronic Dance Music.”
“Why would they be playing EDM?” Izuku asked.
“Maybe they’re trying to get us curious enough to go inside.”
“Do they even know we’re out here?”
The LED board above the entrance lit up. “WELCOME TO WONDERLAND” scrolled across it. “WIN: RARE ALL MIGHT MERCH!”
Red neon lights lit around the entrance in the shape of a Torii gate.
“I think they want us to go in.”
“Do they think we’re dumb enough to fall for that shit?”
A scream from inside the tent. A pair of arms wrapped around Izuku’s torso from behind.
He had unconsciously darted forward several feet, and only Todoroki’s reflexes had stopped him.
“It’s a trap, Midoriya.”
“But there are people in there, people who need our help!”
“Endeavor can handle it. It hasn’t been fifteen minutes yet.”
A clang, and a large metal cylinder rolled to a stop in front of them. Izuku knocked everyone backwards away from it.
Was it a bomb?!
Todoroki tensed behind him. “That’s one of Endeavor’s gauntlets…”
If that was Endeavor’s gauntlet, then that meant the flame hero was…
Inapacitated, at best.
“Uh, how long has it been?”
Todoroki checked his phone. “About eight minutes.”
“Right. We should call for backup. Now .”
“Fuck that,” Kacchan said, pushing past Izuku and stomping towards the tent. “We’re backup. C’mon.”
He disappeared through the tent’s entrance. Just like with Endeavor, the shadows swallowed him.
The Torii blinked.
“Kacchan, wait!”
Izuku ran after him, through the tent flap-
And tripped over something squishy, landing flat on his face.
Ow…
There was soft giggling from somewhere ahead of him. He looked up-
And gasped.
There was no sign of a dark interior, or any of the hostages. There was no sign of Endeavor or the villains.
There was light .
Colorful neon signs depicting hearts and crescent moons and cute characters lined the walls of a room much, much larger than what the tent would allow. The floor was covered in LED lights pulsing to EDM that was louder than Izuku’s thoughts. The ceiling, again much higher than it should be, was decorated with twinkling stars and a bright, full moon.
There was a stage in the back of the room, with curtains along the back wall suggesting a backstage area. Izuku had seen the back of the tent, there was no possible back entrance.
A pair of floodlights swept around the room, flashing in Izuku’s eyes as he attempted to rise.
“Welcome young heroes,” Said a voice coming from everywhere at once. “Please put your hands together for your magical hosts, the Mochizuki Twins!”
There, where the floodlights crossed, two figures were silhouetted in an exuberant pose, arms above their heads and out towards the audience. Izuku couldn’t make out much about them, other than that one was wearing a skirt and the other wasn’t.
The floodlights cut. Izuku blinked the spots out of his eyes.
The twins were… not what he expected from supposedly terrible villains, ones that even learn-by-doing Endeavor wouldn’t let them face. They were masked, so he couldn’t tell their age, but they had to be young. They were certainly small, maybe his height. Their clothing fit more on an idol duo than on a criminal team, puffy sleeves and skirt on one, sweater vest and tie on the other, with an array of patterns and colors that somehow didn’t clash. Something swished behind them, and Izuku noticed fox tails, the same iridescent white as their hair. They looked real. Their masks were silver, with white circles for the one in the skirt and black for the one in the tie. Each sported a wide grin-shaped hole, no visible skin underneath.
“Welcome to Wonderland!” said the one in the skirt. “I’m Mochizuki Ayano, you can call me Ayano-sama. This is my brother, you can call him Ayumu-sama. We’re so excited to have you three here with us today!”
“Cut the crap,” Todoroki said, behind Izuku. “We’re not here to play your games. Where are the hostages? Where’s Endeavor?”
Ayumu shook his head. “How incredibly rude. And wrong. You’ve entered Wonderland because you want something. And if you want something from Wonderland, you have to follow our rules.”
“Oh, fuck off!” Kacchan shouted. “I’ll kick your asses right now!” He launched himself towards the stage.
“Oh, you’ll have to try harder than that,” Ayano giggled into Izuku’s ear, and he jumped.
When the hell did she get there?!
But before he could take a swing, she was gone.
Ayumu appeared at Todoroki’s side. “Not even thirty seconds in! Tsk tsk. You three really are the troublemakers of your class. Even Endeavor behaved better, and you all know too well what he’s like.” He snapped a finger, and Kacchan was back where he started, and the twins returned to the stage.
“As you can see, we’re in charge in Wonderland. As long as you’re here, you’ll play nicely, or we’ll get… upset,” Ayano said. “You wouldn’t be very happy if we got upset.”
“And if we don’t?” Izuku asked.
“If you don’t, then you don’t get what you want,” Ayumu said. He sat elegantly on the edge of the stage, one leg crossed over the other. “I assure you, Deku- may I call you Deku? What you want is far more important than pettiness and pride.”
“And what do we want?” Todoroki asked, suspicious.
“Why, the same thing your father and every other hero who waltzed in here wanted.” Ayano giggled, hand up to her mouth. “You want everyone here home, safe and sound. At least, everyone who’s left. You want us defeated.” There was a pout in her voice at that.
“So if we play along, you’ll turn yourselves in?”
Izuku had the sneaking suspicion that it wasn’t going to be that easy.
Ayumu laughed. “If you win, then you can consider us defeated. Of course, this won’t be a walk in the park.” He tilted his head at them. “You three, though, you’re going to be the most interesting challengers we’ve had in weeks.”
“Yeah, no,” Kacchan said. “I’m not doing this.” He launched himself at the twins again, and didn’t even make it to the stage before Ayumu snapped and reset him.
“Rule number one,” Ayano scolded, “No attacking your lovely hosts.”
“And the other rules?” Todoroki asked.
“Oh, that’s the big one. It would get annoying if we had to deal with that every few moments. The other ones will be specific to the games.”
Games? Plural?
“Fine,” Izuku said. “How do we play?”
“Why, I’m so glad you asked!” Ayano giggled.
As one unit, the twins raised their hands into the air.
And snapped.
The room swirled around them, music changing until it was something more relaxed, but still with a beat. Izuku blinked, and he was standing before a massive roulette-style wheel, as brightly colored as the rest of the room. Or at least, as it had been. Beyond the spotlight shining on the immediate area, there was blackness. Pure void. Was it a trick of the light, or was there really nothing there? He couldn’t be sure.
Todoroki and Kacchan stood to either side of him, and the twins were seated on an elevated platform at the other side of the wheel.
On second glance, it didn’t look like a standard roulette wheel. It was divided into six sections, with no black or red and no numbers. Instead, each wedge had a symbol engraved on the silver side paneling: an eye, a stick figure, a hand, a pair of crossed swords, a squiggly line, and a skull. There was a crystalline sphere that seemed to be the ball. Izuku didn’t know how roulette wheels worked, but he was pretty sure the numbers were an important part.
Ayumu clapped to get their attention. “Welcome to the Wheel of Sacrifice! The rules here are simple. Spin the wheel, and whatever the ball lands on, we’ll ask you to sacrifice something. Agree, and the game continues. Refuse, and you’ll earn a penalty. Right now, there are three sacrifices needed to move on. Theoretically that’s one for each of you, but you can divide it up however you wish.”
“What do you mean by ‘sacrifice?’” Todoroki asked.
“Exactly as it sounds,” Ayano answered, tail swishing behind her. “If you accept, you won’t have the thing anymore. Like we said, you’re free to say no. Just taking things from you without permission would get old really fast.”
“What’s stopping us from saying no to everything?”
Ayumu tilted his head. “Why, then you wouldn’t move on. And if you don’t move on, you’ll never win. And if you don’t win, nobody goes home to their families. You guys are heroes, right? You don’t want that.”
“Can we stop wasting time now? Let’s get this over with,” Kacchan said before grabbing the wheel and practically ripping it off the stand with how hard he spun.
The five of them had their eyes glued to the wheel as it spun, colors flashing and blending together. Eventually it slowed, and the ball came to rest on the green section.
The eye.
“Now what?” Kacchan demanded.
“What an exciting first spin!” Ayano said. “Now for your sacrifice.”
“He’s not going to have to give up an eye, is he?” Izuku asked.
“Shut it, Deku. I don’t need your help.”
“Goodness, no!” Ayumu said. “Not for your first spin!”
“We like to ease everyone into the game. No need to go all ‘Plus Ultra’ immediately!” Ayano teased.
Immediately. First spin. It sounded like things would get worse later on.
“How about… you have perfect vision. Bakugou Katsuki, we would like to… Ah! For this sacrifice, we’ll make your eyesight worse!”
“What?! How the fuck are you supposed to do that?”
“Uh, magic,” Ayano said. “Duh. Did you not hear the intro?”
“Bullshit. What the fuck are your quirks?”
The twins burst into laughter.
“Yano-chan, the boys want to know our quirks!”
“Oh,” Ayano wheezed, “wouldn’t you like to know!”
“Yes,” Todoroki said, “we would. That’s why he asked.”
The twins laughed even harder.
Something wasn’t right. Well, none of this was right, but this felt important.
They finally calmed down. “Anyway,” Ayumu said, “your eyesight. Do you accept?”
“Fine, yeah, whatever. Do it.”
Ayumu snapped.
Kacchan blinked. And blinked harder.
“What the fuck-? How the fuck did you do that?!”
Ayano cupped her cheek with her hand. “Oh, but that would be telling! Wouldn’t you rather figure it out on your own?”
“No, I want to know what the fuck you did to my fucking eyes!”
Uh oh, Kacchan was freaking out. Kacchan normally was hard to deal with, a freaked out Kacchan was way, way worse.
“Nothing you didn’t agree to,” Ayumu said.
“Yeah but- that was before- argh!” Kacchan rubbed his eyes under his mask so hard that the makeup underneath smeared. “Fuck you!”
Izuku couldn’t explain what happened next. A black mist came out of Kacchan’s mouth as he cursed at the twins. It faded away quickly, but he was sure it was real.
“Goodness,” Ayano said, “if that’s how he reacted to the very first spin, then this is going to be so much fun!” Her tail swished in excitement.
“Fuck you!” Kacchan said again. More black smoke appeared.
“Let’s keep it moving, shall we?” Ayumu said. “We don’t want to keep our other parties waiting too long.”
Hesitantly, Izuku approached the wheel. If that was the sacrifice for eye, then what the hell would they have to give for, say, skull?! He didn’t want to find out.
He grabbed one of the spikes poking out of the top of the wheel and spun it as hard as he dared.
Around and around it went, until it landed on… hand.
Ayano squealed and clapped. “Oh, perfect, perfect! I love this one for you! Let’s see, let’s see, what should we do…”
Izuku flexed his fingers where they clutched his arm. Alright, Kacchan landed on eye, and they made his eyes worse. Izuku’s right hand was already messed up, so they would probably either make it worse or do something to his left.
“Y’know, there’s something poetic here,” Ayumu said. “How about we make them match? Midoriya Izuku, if you take this sacrifice, your left hand will be exactly the same as your right. Do you accept it?”
Just as predicted, though it didn’t seem to mean much. He still had to go through with it if he didn’t want to risk the penalty.
It wasn’t like his hand was that bad, right? Yeah it was harder to grip stuff like pens and chopsticks, and it got achy sometimes, and it freaked people out to look at it-
It wouldn’t affect his hero work, probably. He could always grab things with black whip, and he wore gloves so no one had to see.
“Okay. I accept.”
Ayumu snapped.
Oh. Ow. Going from zero to, like, six on the pain scale was not fun. He forgot what a big difference it actually was.
The skin on his left hand felt tighter, probably from the scar tissue that was now hidden under his glove. His muscles twitched as he tried to make more delicate movements.
This sucked.
Black fog came out of his mouth and disappeared, just like with Kacchan. It had to mean something, he just couldn’t figure out what.
“I guess this means we’re the ‘hand-crushers’ now!” Ayano giggled.
Wait-
“How do you know about that?” Todoroki demanded. “Have you been spying on us?”
Ayumu tilted his head. “How would we have spied on you? We didn’t know anything about you until you stepped into Wonderland.”
“That’s a damn lie. I made that statement after- after our work studies. We were completely alone in that room. What else do you know?”
Ayano leaned back on her hands, kicking her leg out. “Oh, you know. Certain police cover ups, certain childhood events.” She looked straight at Izuku. “Certain… acronyms.”
Izuku’s blood turned to ice.
No. No, they couldn’t possibly know. Their quirks were- well, he didn’t know what they were, but he was pretty sure omniscience wasn’t part of it.
“Don’t worry, Deku,” Ayumu said. “We don’t want it. It’s not quite our style. Plus, you’d never give it up.”
Somehow, for some strange reason, this was not comforting.
“Enough about that, though,” Ayano said with a yawn, as if she didn’t hold one of the most important secrets in Japan, “who’s ready to spin! That! Wheel! Todoroki, I think it’s your turn, unless someone wants to go again?”
Todoroki grabbed the wheel and spun, no hesitation, no grandeur.
It landed on the squiggly line.
“Oh! Oh! Brain!” Ayano said. “I love brain!”
…that was supposed to be a brain? He could kind of see one, if he tilted his head and squinted.
“Todoroki Shouto. You have a distinct memory of when you were, say, five years old. It’s one of your earliest memories, isn’t it? It’s wintertime, and you were actually allowed outside to play. Your sister showed you how to make snow angels. Your brothers had a snowball fight. And after all that, when the four of you were soaked and shivering, your mother made you all hot chocolate. It’s one of your favorite memories, a time where you could pretend that you did have a happy family, at least once. Todoroki Shouto, if you take this sacrifice, you will lose that memory. Forever. Do you accept?”
“Wait, hold on!” Izuku said.
“What the fuck?!” Kacchan yelled.
Black fog came out of both of their mouths, but they ignored it.
“Guys, it’s fine,” Shouto said. “You both just gave up parts of yourselves. I can handle this.”
“This feels really different! They’re messing with your brain, Todoroki! That’s not okay!”
“None of this is okay. I’ll be fine.” Todoroki turned to Ayumu. “I accept.”
Confetti rained from the ceiling.
“Hurray!” Ayano cheered. “Three spins and three sacrifices. What a successful round!”
“Playing with heroes is always different than playing with normies, but you three sure are giving ,” Ayumu said, hand raised to his chin. “Like seriously, you guys barely even thought about it. We’re gonna have to make things harder.”
Oh.
His left hand throbbed.
Joy.
“We played your stupid game. Aren’t you assholes supposed to be defeated?” Kacchan asked.
“Oh, no, you guys haven't won yet,” Ayano said. “You have more games ahead. Your Wonderland experience is just beginning!”
“Great. Let’s fucking move on then.” Kacchan glared at the wheel. Or maybe he was squinting because he couldn’t see.
“I couldn’t have said it better myself,” Ayumu laughed, “except I would’ve left out the swearing.”
“Nobody gives a shit.”
The twins raised their hands again.
And snapped.
The room swirled again, music changing to something cheesy and quiz-show like, like it was trying to build suspense. The walls were littered with more neon signs, all in the shape of question marks.
There were two huge buttons on a pedestal in front of them, one pink with a smiley face and the other blue with a frowny face, both covered in an unhealthy amount of glitter.
“Welcome to Trust or Forsake! This game is fairly simple. Do you guys know the Prisoner’s Dilemma?” Ayano asked.
That sounded familiar, but Izuku couldn’t remember what it was off the top of his head.
“Basically,” Ayumu explained, “Another party is playing this game with you. You both have two options. You can choose to trust that the other team will also pick trust, and hit the pink button. Best case scenario, you play the next game at normal difficulty. You can also hit forsake, and say ‘screw the other team.’ Best case scenario, you don’t have to play the next game at all.”
“What’s the catch?” Izuku asked. There had to be a catch.
“Well,” Ayano said, “If one party chooses trust and the other chooses forsake, things are not gonna go well for the party who picked trust. They have to play the next game on super hard mode, and the other team won’t have to play at all.”
“And if both teams choose forsake?”
Ayumu shrugged. “Then you both play, and the game is harder than it would be if both teams chose trust, but not nearly as bad as if the teams didn’t match.”
Well, it sounded simple. Kind of. It felt like one of Aizawa-sensei’s logical ruses.
Ayano tapped her chin. “I think the one to choose should be… Deku! Go ahead, Deku, trust or forsake?”
It was disturbing how much Ayano sounded like Uraraka when she said his name like that.
But either way, it was a dumb question.
He hit trust. He couldn’t not hit trust.
“Well,” Ayumu said, “that was pretty fast. Usually players take more time to decide. You guys sure are trusting. Either that or stupid.”
Ayano giggled. “Yumu-kun, don't be mean! Oh! The other team made their choice! Here’s the results.”
An LED board lit up in front of them.
YOU CHOSE: trust
THEY CHOSE: forsake
Black confetti rained down from the sky.
“Great,” Kacchan grumbled. “Fucking fantastic.”
Ayumu clapped. “Hard mode it is! We’ve got something super cool waiting for you, I think you’ll like it!”
The twins snapped.
- - -
They did not, in fact, like it.
The battle– not a game, a battle– was against a formless gray being that threw their attacks back at them.
Izuku had tried punching it. It was worse than punching the USJ nomu. That had just absorbed his attacks. This thing returned it.
He was pretty sure his arm was fractured, which set the “Days Since Deku Broke a Bone” counter back to zero.
He tied off the bandage holding the splint on his arm. It was sloppier than he would’ve liked, thanks to the decreased dexterity in his left hand. Thank god he always carried a small first-aid kit.
He looked over to where Kacchan was helping Todoroki. He’d had the bright idea to simply freeze the monster in place. Great in theory, very bad in actuality. The ice had exploded.
Exploded.
Todoroki got impaled by his own ice. It wasn’t too deep, and it didn’t seem to hit anywhere vital, but it bled a lot.
It was over. Surely, they’d beaten Wonderland.
The twins appeared.
“Great job, everyone! Wave hello to the other party!” Ayano said.
Izuku looked up at the screen that Ayano had manifested. On it were two surly looking business men, both rather roughed up themselves.
Izuku tried to smile. It wasn’t their fault, they were in the same crappy situation that he was. They were just trying to stay safe.
Kacchan flipped them off.
Ayumu clapped. “Now that everyone’s no longer in mortal danger… Who’s ready for round two?”