Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

3rd person POV

A rat-bear-dog thing is seen sitting at a desk. A furrow is present on his face as he reads the reports of one student. Perfectly placed mistakes seemingly invisible to the normal eye litter the test paper. Complicate answers that take up most of the pages turn out to be wrong. It seems like he's trying too hard, too hard to fail. He reads the teacher's notes that seem oblivious to the student's strategy, whatever this 'strategy' actually is. It seems off, he knows something isn't right, but can't quite put his finger on it. He switches to practical fights, recordings of the student's progress to try and confirm his week old suspicion. Nothing at first glance except an average performance. Why is it that when he looks at the class rankings he feels that someone isn't true to themselves? Why is it that he can't understand this kid's motive? The hope in his eyes shines as bright as ever, but how much of that brightness is actually his? Like the saying goes 'The brightest smiles hide the deepest pain.'. The principal sets aside the papers and leans back in his chair, his paws linger on the desk as he thinks. An idea pops in his mind, a way to force him to give up his mask, a risk indeed. A smile creeps up on his face, impressed that someone managed to fool him. He picks up the mouse and lightly taps the keyboard as he writes an email to the other teachers.

'Game on Izuku Midoriya.'

Chapter Text

He woke up, cold sweat licking his body. The sweet infuriating sound of the alarm was ringing next to him. He turned it off and swung himself out the bed. Tear stains can be seen on his cheeks as he takes a sip of the coffee besides him. Cold as it is from last night it soothes him. A sigh escapes his lips as he heads to the bathroom to get ready for yet another day. Unwrapping his arms he lets some cold water run over his scars, his face not moving a muscle as the stinging pain reaches him. A few seconds later he hops into the shower. It doesn't last long... The water running down his back stops when he turns off the tap. Getting out he wraps a towel around his waist as well as bandage his arms. Midoriya reaches to the broken mirror cabinet and grabs his concealer putting on as much as he needs to cover the dark circles under his eyes. The clock reads 5:36 am. He plops back on his bed slipping a earbud into one ear as he listens to some music, dreading the moment he has to walk out his dorm room. His fingers lightly tap his leg following the rhythm as his dull eyes jump in and out of focus. Izuku pulls on the corners of his mouth warming up a smile and trying to get used to it. The fake life he created came to bite him back. It was supposed to be an illusion that offered hin an escape from reality, a socially accepted image, however he started to hate it. 'It won't be that tiring' but here he is.

()

The music is disrupted by silent shuffling and sounds of doors opening and closing. Knowing that is his cue, he gets up and swiftly changes into his uniform, messing up the tie as usual. With his hand on the handle he draws in a breath and smiles.

The hallways are empty, but you can hear the happy chatting from downstairs. By this point almost everyone is in the common room. Turning the corner he waves and takes his seat among my classmates.

"Deku-kun good morning!"

"Morning, kero."

"Good morning!"  he greets back.

Everyone is lively and he is doing his best to match them.

"I am done!" Mina screams from the kitchen. She made a bet with the 'bakusquad' that she lost and therefore had to make breakfast.

"Ha suck it! I told you I could cook!"

"Racoon eyes the toast is fucking burnt."

"IT'S STILL GOOD!" Mina pouts.

Everyone sits down at the table, but he remains seated on the couch. 'I already ate.' is what he always says. 'I have some food in my room don't worry! I get really hungry in the morning so I eat when I wake up.'

()

UA isn't far from the dorms. Uraraka and Iida walk on his right and Todoroki and Tsu on his left. It's awkward given that he doesn't talk much but it's not like they notice. It's better this way, better for them not to get attached, not like they could get attached to a deku.

Making his way to his seat, he can hear Bakugo plopping his feet onto the desk, much to Iida's dismay.

Class has always been boring. Alone in his thoughts, the voices whisper away and he can hear a soft tune as background music though he can't recognize it. Ectoplasm is teaching but he can't bring himself to care, it's not like he doesn't already know the curriculum. He zones out, his eyes fixed on the board creating the illusion of him paying attention. Midoriya just wants to rest but he can push until the end of the year. It's tiring keeping up the smile, it doesn't feel natural even if he wishes it did, but nobody suspects a thing, so he guesses in the end it's worth it, in the end if nobody notices then they aren't even looking. It's ok, he can rest in his dorm... but then he has to do it all over again, and again... and again.

ring ring ring

With math now done, the first period, the others seem to be passing by quickly, not that he is complaining. Lunch is dreadful, people are talking every direction he turns to. His tomach turns upside-down at the first bite of food that he forces himself to eat. He doesn't show it on his face, he keeps listening to his classmates talk. He gets pulled into the conversation by Uraraka most of the times, her peppy attitude makes him uncomfortable but she's a nice person.

"Deku-kun have you finished the essay Aizawa sensei gave us?" Uraraka asks.

"Yeah I managed to finish it yesterday. Do you need help?"

"No, I don't have much left anyway, though I am not very proud of how it turned out..."

"Even if it sucks there is no point in changing it now, kero"

"Blunt as always." Uraraka says while squinting her eyes.

The lunch break finishes and they head back to class, history of modern arts. It's peaceful... as peaceful as it can be with Midnight and her eccentric attitude. She likes calling on him and Midoriya has a hard time keeping up with his answers. 'Did I mess up the last time... or was it supposed to be this turn?'. Before he knows it Cementoss enters the classroom and starts teaching literature. The day keeps moving on and he feels as if it's leaving him behind. He makes an effort to catch up with it though.

He tries not to bump into people as the screeching of the chair being dragged across the floor filters through his mind. He avoidz nearly bumping shoulders with Bakugo, 'Don't wanna set off that bomb' he tells himself.

"Deku-kun!" Uraraka waves signaling him to come over.

"I heard a new coffee shop opened not to far from UA, I was wondering if any of you want to come?" she said adding a sweet smile at the end.

"As long as our stay doesn't impend our studies I would love to come."

"Sure kero."

"I can pay with my old man's card."

"U-uh I don't think I'll come, I have some homework to catch up on."

"That's admirable, you truly do need to keep up with the courses."

"Haha, yeah, but have fun without me? Maybe I'll go some other time, tell me how it goes." And with a smile he sends them off.

He looks around the classroom, getting out of the way of the door. Seems like the bakusquad is going out as well. 'How did Bakugo manage to make friends? And how am I still stuck? Did it really mean nothing to him? He doesn't even seem affected... what a joke. It's all just a big joke.'

He makes his way through the common room and after a few flights of stairs he opens his dorm's door. The air is suffocating, the window hasn't been open in who knows how long. The curtains are closed and he doesn’t bother opening them neither turning on the lights. He locks himself in the room and throws his backpack next to his dresser. His smile finally drops and a weight is lifted off his shoulders. His legs move towards the bathroom and he finds himself in front of the mirror. His hands move without thinking, starting to take his makeup off. He's been doing this for quite a while there's no point in thinking about it or being there. He opens the cabinet beneath the sink, pushing aside the stacked towels he reaches for a cardboard box, some ointment and bandages. Inside the cardboard box there are an assortment of blades, from shiny to rusty, from bloody to clean, from sharp to blunt. He loves his blades, they were always there for gim. He closes his eyes and lets his hand guide the blade around his wrist. It feels right. The blood leaving him feels right. However that's all he feels. A thin stream of blood carries its way making a puddle on the floor. Something reflects off of it, but it must be just his imagination. he stares ahead, dissasociating while the bloody river creates a calming rhythm.

()

He doesn't know how he ended up at his desk. doing his homework. Midoriya looks around at the darkness surrounding him. '8:49' the clock reads. A stack of notebooks is laying next to his elbow. He flips through the pages. Apparently the home work is done. He gets up putting his pencil aside. Izuku's feet don't make a sound as he enters the bathroom. Grabbing a roll of toilet paper and some rubbing alcohol he kneels down and starts scrubbing away at the dried blood. The bandages are still on the floor. A glance to his wrists tells him that he forgot to bandage them. There is a light trail of blood leading to his desk. 'That'll stain the carpet...'. His long sleeve is soiled and he can't even remember when he put it on.

Finishing everything, after a cold shower he pulls a clean black hoodie over his head and grabs his water bottle heading downstairs to refill it. Giving a warm smile to his classmates he tries to avoid joining any conversations. There are only a few students left at this hour, 'I probably missed dinner not that I would eat. I hope they didn't notice.' Most of them are in their dorms finishing homework. The air is clean here, no iron smell. Hd already misses it.

He powers on his laptop and disconnects it from the school's wireless wifi. Plugging in a cabled connection he switches to incognito and breaks into the police servers. Notebook no.3 is besides him, blank, white pages ready to be filled. Villains are entertaining. Analyzing makes time pass and that's all he needs. His fingers get stained with led and his muttering becomes incoherent. The stars outside his window are begging to trespass into his room and manage to creep in from between the curtains. The night wanders on as he just continues his thing

Chapter Text

Sparing another glance at the clock he notices that he doesn’t have enough time for a quick nap. He gets up from his desk, cracking his back that sounds like a glow stick. Satisfied with his progress he closes his notebook and puts away his pencil.

His feet slightly sting, numb from sitting criss-crossed all night. Walking alone towards class, he is unbothered by the fact that he is late. He is humming a song in his head as he looks around avoiding the rays of the scorching sun. A little pebble is keeping him company by being kicked around. 'You're  just a pebble in my path.'...

()

The hallways are quiet, the hectic sound of the lessons occurring being confined by the school's sound insulation. The boy feels at peace. He takes in subtle deep breathes facing away from the cameras that are being watched by the peculiar principal. His footsteps are emitting a faint 'tap' only heard by his ears as a lifetime of hiding perfected his technique. A high pitched voice emanating from the speakers suddenly interrupts the stillness.

"Attention all students and teachers, please head to the auditorium! I repeat all students and teachers please head to the auditorium!"

Class 1-A's door openes first. A blue haired student can be seen bossing around the others, trying to maintain order. He spots his friend sitting a few steps away.

"Deku-kun? Where were you?" A bubly girl with permanent blush asks.

"A-ah uh my alarm didn't work so I w-woke up l-late!"

"Make sure it doesn't happen again." a homeless looking man says while exiting a bright yellow sleeping bag.

"Yes sensei!"

A few other doors start opening causing a plethora of students to pour out. In as much of an orderly fashion as the teachers (minus the sleepy one) could command, the kids advance towards the auditorium, an innocent look of curiosity on their face.

The room is filled with excited spirits. The teachers are aligned on the podium waiting for the principal. After a few moments of everyone talking amongst themselves a small white rodent shows up on the stage, his confident steps echoing around the now quite room. He is wearing a tailored suit and his most noticeable feature is a scar that runs across his right eye.

"Excuse me for the short notice on which I have called you here. For reasons which I will not disclose I decided to bring back a game!"

Confused looks can be seen being exchanged in the crowd. A few are excited might I say, the teachers are most definitely not. They hope that the email they have received has nothing to do with this, that maybe the rat changed his mind.

"Ideed a game! It's called UA Civil War. In short we will form two teams, heroes and villains. The hero course students will be the only ones able to make up the teams the other courses will be discussed in a minute. First we should draw the leaders for each team respectively." The chimera doesn't waste a second in pulling out a glass sphere that contains 40, to be precise, pieces of paper, each bearing a different name. The teachers look on the verge of a panick attack perhaps from painful memories or an evocation of tales that upperclassmen have passed down to them about this wretched game.

"We will draw for the hero team leader first. Aand the hero team leader will be... Bakugo Katsuki!"

A lot of students uproar at the principal's pick, even non-hero course students.

"Now, now, please calm down. We will be drawing for the villain team leader next."

No one wants to lead the villains, why would they? It would go against all morals, it would portray them in a different light. One individual in particular cares more than he should. The principal's weird behavior doesn't go unnoticed by this person. He hopes the game isn't rigged, and for once hopes for something other than time to rest, he hopes for that 1 out of 38 chance of him being picked not happening, and that, only if the pricipal didn't mess with the choosing system, which at this point seems to be wishful thinking.

The loud announcement almost goes unnoticed by the individual's ears.

"Izuku Midoriya!" the chimera cries.

Looks of pity are directed at the school's cinnamon roll, from his classmates and even teachers, but it doesn't overpower his own emotionless sorrow. 'Has the rat figured it out?' is all he can think. 'Surely it wasn't a coincidence.'.

"Well before we go into detail about the other course's importance we should build the teams. Unlike the leaders the rest of you can choose which side to be on. So hurry up and make the decision. You can't change the team you're in after this!"

Everyone scurries to Bakugo's side, leaving Midoriya with a smile on his face that seems frozen, but the others don't seem to notice.

"Okay the teams have been forme-". Before the chimera can continue a voice can be heard from the hero's side.

"But it's 1 vs 39, it wouldn't be logical to continue with such disproportionate teams." A young girl with a black ponytail says.

"Hmm.. yes you are right. In that case-"

"No." a second voice interrupts the principal a second time. "The teams can remain how they are. I have nothing against it." Everyone is surprised by Midoriya's statement.

"Midoriya, surely you must know that this way-"

"Don't worry Midnight sensei!" he says in a cheerful tone.

Nezu doesn't leave any time for pondering as he continues.

"Now that the teams are set, I want to explain the other course's roll in this exercise. You will act as civilians! Develop businesses, help create a society, it will be of great worth to your knowledge. You are not forced to participate but if you do you will get extra credit."

The students were ecstatic, after all they were finally being included into something. They could also get extra credit, to them it seemed like fun.

"Now that we have disclosed the general information I had to share, these two rule books are to be handed to the leaders. Please read them carefully. Tommorow at 6:00 pm I will be waiting for you in my office if you have any questions." Nezu steps down from the podium and walks over to Bakugo handing him a light book. He does the same for Midoriya.

The green haired teen runs his hand along the cover. Thin cardboard... it makes it easy for his fingers to slide around. He opens it, inside written in font 11.5 are 86 pages. He doesn't start reading them right away. He instead moves his eyes to the spine, he can't wait to crack it, such a satisfying sound.

"After reading them please share the information with your teammates. The next week will be reserved for preparations so there will be no classes. Speaking of preparation, support course students that are willing to help building the rest of the... arena... will be awarded extra credit! If you have any questions please state them now."

There might have been some confused people but no one dared to potentially embarass themselves in front of the principal.

"In that case I wish everyone good luck. If you wish to open up a business for the upcoming exercise please come visit me in two days with a plan. I will be available from 11:00 am to 5:00 pm."

And with that the chimera walks offstage. The teachers are quick to implement order among the bewildered students, even when they are just as disoriented.

For Midoriya the walk back is lonely. The game has unofficially started. He is the enemy therefore must be avoided. People shoot him weird glances, probably because of his impulse decision of speaking up against Nezu, when the chimera wanted to rearrange the teams.

Entering his own personal abyss, he locks the door, contemplating whether he should go to the bathroom or not. It's been a long day and he's tired. He just wants to rest, he doesn't want to participate in any games.

()

Fresh bandages have always felt nice. The slight coldness tingling happily on his skin even if he can not fully feel it. Picking up a pencil he opens the manual, an enjoyable 'crack' escaping the book's spine. He reads the title of the first page: 'HEROES' RULES'. Why does this seem fun? Why does he want to try to actually play?

Chapter Text

Midoriya is confused. Flipping through the stark white pages, reading the intricate rules, brings a somewhat smile to his face, a real one. It is new, he doesn't understand it, he doesn't understand why it feels like it could be fun, why he wants to actually try for once. He knows he can't, it will overthrow his plans, but Midoriya has always thought of others in some way, put them first, maybe this could be the first selfish thing he does.

A few sheets of paper, written front to back, are sitting on the bed at arm's length. The boy flips to page 48, quickly although thoroughly reading the lines, circling anything he finds fishy and developing his ideas on separate pieces of paper.

Green eyes stop in their tracks, another question or rather set of questions popping into his head.

It's 5:37 am, he has plenty of time to weed out the plot holes and he knows it, what he doesn't know is if he has enough to make up his mind. The fact that this makes him even think about the possibility of taking up the opportunity says a lot. Should he pass up the chance to feel something in so long? He weights the pros and cons, while continuing his little assessment of the rules.

()

It's 1:13 pm. 'I shouldn't.'.

His papers are done and set, his book's stark white pages no longer pristine but instead dirtied by smudged graphite. He gets up and pushes open his bathroom door getting ready for a shower. Once in he sits down and lets the warm water flow down his back. Midoriya is tired.

()

Walking down the corridor, the sun filters through UA's big windows and casts faint shadows on the walls. Izuku is absent mindedly scratching his scarred wrist, enveloped once again in fresh bandages. The shadows although bleeding into the background feel like their housing something. Midoriya continues his way to the principal's office.

Nezu is waiting patiently at his desk just like he said he would, his paws placed in front of him. The clock strucks 3:00 pm and he isn't surprised when a young boy with green hair enters his office.

"Good morning Midoriya!"

The mentioned person smiles.

"Good morning principal Nezu!"

The principal is confused, though he doesn't let it show.

"Take a seat so we can begin."

The chairs are cushioned and they feel nice unlike the cheap version he has in his room.

"My, my, what are those?" the rat points at the thin stack of papers.

"Some questions I would like to go through, if u-uh it's allright."

"Of course it is! Continue."

The two have a barely heartfelt conversation. Nezu is both intrigued to know more and impressed that he will find out more of this already intricate sketch of a plan he figured out by listening to the boy's questions, however he can't deny the dissapointment he feels when he looks at Midoriya and knows the boy is hiding something.

"Midoriya I must say I am very impressed, you found all the plot holes I have placed. I expect to see a show no?"

"I will try my best sir!" he says smiling.

"Very well if you have nothing else to say you are free to go."

"Thank you sir!"

As soon as the door closes the principal sighs. 'I believe in you Midoriya.'. And he truly believes in him, even if he knows he only knows the person Midoriya wanted him to know.

Back in his room Izuku takes his place at his desk like he always does. He scatters the now confirmed and approved plot holes on the floor and grabs a red marker. With it he circles the most important ones which he will use to build his plan. A spark of unknown emotion flows through him and he doesn't regret this at all.

After some brainstorming, he grabs a few sheets of vellum and starts sketching what will be a knife.

'Rule #56: The villains are under no circumstances allowed to kill or maim the heroes, injuries that do not have lasting effects are permitted.'

The knife he's creating has a special blade, made from 1095 carbon steel, the blade will be blunt. When a specific amount of pressure is applied a mechanism will be triggered which reveals the edge. The edge will have a small network of thin tubes connected to a refillable reservoir in the handle. The result, when applying pressure the knife will distribute blood.

It's a smiple idea, hence it doesn't take Midoriya long to sketch. He makes sure the lines are clean, and the materials are correct so that the support student he has in mind will not blow up his creation, multiple times. He has a deadline after all.

Midoriya really wants a gun, so he starts to sketch the outlines of one. It uses a special kind of bullet that is filled with a formula that simulates the pain of a real bullet shot wound. The chemical composition isn't difficult to make, he takes a bit of composure from plenty of drugs and some of the more harmless poisons to create a mixture that will be placed in the empty chamber of the 'bullet'.

The next ideas are different designs for grenades. The boy twists his hand around the blue shaded paper crossing over design after design until he settles on one. A nitric acid fume grenade. Nitric acid is a highly corrosive acid, he doesn't intend on killing his classmates, not that he could as the rules of the game are against it, but several weeks of recovery will be needed for those who inhale the gas. He's going to steal the acid from the school's laboratory instead of making the support course student run around for it knowing the teachers wouldn't give her such a substance. The grenade itself has a somewhat bulky design, a cillinder with reinforcement on the inside to stand against the corosivness.

He then tackles the outfit. He's been think about practicality and style, and he has decided that it won't be too hard to fight in a suit.

Black patent leather shoes, black trousers, a white dress shirt, a black vest with golden buttons, a black jacket with red lining and a pair of white gloves. The vest and undershirt are bullet proof for as much protection as possible, the shoes have pads inside so that he can be silent, easily jump from roof to roof and land without breaking his spine, as well as iron tips to reinforce them. He adds requirements for a few hidden pockets on the inside of the jacket and holster for the gun on his trousers.

Midoriya sets aside his short pencil and rolls up the vellum. He place them on the bedside table and lays down on his bed. His back is sore from the hunched position he's always sitting in. He lazily swirls a curl of hair around his finger, randomly pulling at it, but then remembering to not go too far. He picks up a pillow and sticks it under his arm, his face devoid of any emotion as he stares ahead. He can finally challenge himself... at the cost of his reputation. It's fine, he can surely say he was just doing his best to fulfill the role of a villain, no, that wouldn't work, he's not supposed to be like that. He closes his eyes and with a sigh drifts off, getting a much needed sleep.

He is suddenly painfully aware of the cold tiles underneath his feet. His fluffy hair is soaked with freezing water, as he didn't think to check the temperature the knob was pointing towards. All he cared was just to wake up. He really does hate sleeping and everything that comes with it.

()

Tying his shoe laces, he braces himself for the fresh air hitting his face. He sees Mineta also exiting his room. The purple fellow gives him a glare which he can only perceive as a failure of trying to be threatening. Point taken he guesses. Midoriya doesn't falter in his steps, keeping on walking. Once in the common room he gets a few weird glances, he presumes because of the amount of vellum and paper he's carrying. His steps eventually lead him in front of class 1H, he knocks and hears a voice telling him to come in.

"Oh Midoriya. Do you need anything?" Power Loader asks.

"Yeah, I was wondering if I can borrow Mei for a second?"

The pink haired girl hears this and tears her eyes off the... he doesn’t even know what that is... that she's trying to build.

"Muscles! Coming right now."

"Uh sure yeah." Power Loader mumbles, knowing Mei would've gone anyway.

"Let's go somewhere a bit more private."

He leads the girl to an adjacent classroom where he starts to unveil his sketches.

"What are those!!" Mei says, eyes glowing.

"I don't want to use school provided weapons for this exercise, so I made my own and I need your help to make them. Are you in it?"

"Isn't this against the rules?"

"N-."

"It's fine I don't care either way. Of course I'll help! So many babies!"

Midoriya starts going over the plans he made, explaining to Mei numerous times on hopes that it will lessen the chance of her blowing everything up.

"You're underestimating me Muscles, I don't blow stuff up all the time." She says with a pout. "Plus I know how important this is for you so I'll give it my best and... not cause explosions, even if they're fun." she mumbles the last part. "Anyway, you can count on me!"

"Thanks Mei."

"I'll have everything ready by the time the game starts, that'sifIskipamealandsleepabout2hourslessbutits'snotthatbigofachangeIalreadydothatwhenIgetabigassigmentso-"

"Mei, Mei.... Mei!" Midoriya hits her on the back of the head.

"Ouch, damn I'm being influenced over here, since when did I start mumbling like you?"

"I'll be going now, if you need help come knock at my door and seriously don't cut sleep hours, just come get me."

"Fine fine, byee!" Mei waves as she dashes by him with all the sketches in her hand.

Izuku subconsciously scratches his wrist as he walks back to the dorms. The school is quite empty save for a few wandering students. Something seems to be lurking in the shadows cast by the windows, but he shakes his head and the feeling disappears. Preoccupied by thinking about making a plan to eliminate class 1A and 1B he continues his way to his room unbothered.

Chapter Text

He didn't think it would be this hard to make a plan, and for Midoriya it shouldn't be, but he wanted it to be perfect. He racked his brain. He liked the stimulation this exercise was bringing him. Midoriya liked the thrill of having to actually think for once.

Outside the quiet dorm room, 1A was having fun in the common room. Kirishima was playing Mario kart with Sero and Kaminari, the girls were talking about the recent sleepover Momo held, Tokoyami was revelring in the dark, Sato was baking some muffins and the rest were chatting.

"Hmm, guys what should we do about this war game?" Uraraka asks.

"We can't go too far, it's not like I doubt Midoriya, but he isn't the best in battle training and it's still 1 vs 39." Todoroki says.

"I don't know what came to him when he denied rearranging the teams." Momo adds shaking her head.

"I agree, it was foolish decision." Iida says while chopping the air.

"I DON'T CARE WHAT THAT NERD CHOSE! HE WON'T STAND A CHANCE AGAINST ME, I'LL FUCKING BEAT HIM UP!!" Bakugo cries.

"Bakubro that doesn't sound very manly."

"Tch."

The students continued discussing, not much about a strategy against Midoriya also know as the cinnamon roll, he was just too hopeful. They agreed to not make him look bad in front of the teachers and group up to end the game. A plan that won't work and not just because Bakugo, the leader, didn't agree with the plan. This was a fatal mistake.

Midoriya's room was a mess. There were papers scattered everywhere, broken pencils, eraser shavings. The wall looked like a conspiracy board. The boy's hair was messy, it never really got like this because he was forced to look somewhat presentable for school but now he couldn't care less. His room was dark, dark enough for darkshadow to slip out of control but that didn't affect him, he liked the darkness, it felt welcoming. He knew he had to get out and go check on Mei but he was too absorbed in his work. The only source of light was the screen of an overheating laptop. The multitude of open tabs were taking a toll on the poor device. The light was refracting in Izuku's green eyes, they were tired but focused. A knock on the door pulled him away from the laptop. He didn't have time to do his makeup, or to care for his hair. He opened the door with a tiring but authentic, at least to them, smile.

"Midoriya! We were wondering if you wanted to go out with us? We're going to this new pizza place." Mina cheerily said.

"A-ah, I don't know if I can sorry! I still have work to do."

"That's understandable, oh and take it easy, you look pretty.. uh.. tired." Mina said as she leaves.

Midoriya closed the door. 'They don't even take me seriously.' 'Hey don't bother trying cause we'll beat you anyway.'.... He stepped towards the laptop and shut it off, grabbing a black empty bag and not bothering with any make-up, he leaved his dorm.

()

Eraserhead was patrolling the hallways when he saw a hooded figure. He threw his scarf and effortlessly catught them. The person didn’t seem to be struggling.

"Aizawa sensei I'm just going to visit a student from Power Loader's class. I don't believe I've done anything wrong." a familiar voice stated relatively emotionless.

The figure turned around reveleaing a few strands of green hair that were poking out of the hood and dull green eyes.

"Midoriya?" Aizawa asked confused. 'I've never seen him like this'.

"Yes." the one in question simply answered.

"Are...you ok?" the teacher asked.

"Don't worry about me", the green headed kid answered flashing a warm fake smile before passing the teacher and turning around a corner.

Aizawa looked back, but ultimately didn’t go after him.

Midoriya entered the workshop. You'd think there were many students working there but the entire area was monopolized by Mei. There was barely any counter space left and tools were aimlessly laying everywhere. Mei looked like she hadn't slept at all, which she probably didn't. Her hair was oily and had some knots in it. She had a slight burn on her arm probably from a mini explosion. However she looked like she was in heaven. There were stars in her eyes and she was smiling.

"MIDORIYA!!" she excitedly screamed. Not letting him enough time to respond she took his hand and dragged him to a desk cluttered by metal objects.

"OKAY SO this is how the grenades will look, I've made about 12 by now but don't worry you'll have more, I think they're pretty close to your design. If you want to know more here is the worksheet for it. Now the knife, as you can see the blade is as thin as it can get, like you asked, given that it needs to be traversed by little dips so the blood can flow from the secret compartiment in the handle to the blade. Again you need to put pressure to activate the flow. This is the worksheet. The scouting drones.. where is it.. ah here, okay so the scouting drones are like this, they are compatible with the app you made just like you asked. There isn't anything that special about them so I didn't make a worksheet, not that you need them you literally made the blueprints but whatever..."

Words continued flowing out of her mouth as she was explaining to Midoriya everything she made. He wasn't surprised, he trusted Mei and she delivered. While she was talking he looked over the worksheets. However he couldn't seem to find the suit.

"Uhm, Mei? Did you not make my suit yet?"

"Huh- OH yeah the suit, well it's the pièce de résistance here let me show you."

She walked over to a black case. When she opened it she pulled out a suit. It looked exactly like the one he described. Inside the coat were small pockets for knives and the smoke and acid grenades. It did have a loop for a gun on the waist that could be hidden by the coat. He wouldn't be bringing his sniper in battles, he will use it for scouting so there's no use to have it hanging on his back. Overall he was happy with his outfit. Mei forced him to go and put it on and giving that Midoriya was in no mood to deal with any bullshit he agreed by nodding his head 'very' energetically with a sigh.

A few minutes passed and Mei was bouncing in her seat. She worked so hard on all of the creations and she hoped he liked them. She noticed Izuku changing, his eyes becoming more lifeless and his personality deteriorating or something like that. She could tell he was trying to look ok but if all of her friends would betray her she would feel the same too. However, unbeknownst to Mei this wasn't the reason of the weight on his shoulders.

As he came out he started smoothing out some wrinkles as he moved his arms around a little checking the elasticity.

"Yeah, it's really good. Thanks a lot you really outdid yourself Mei." He said with a smile.

"I know, it looks really good. Can you believe I finished everything in time?!"

"Almost."

"Almost! I have to make like a few adjustments to the rifle and the grapling hook but that's it."

"Get some rest, you deserve it. You didn't even come to ask me for help like I told you, I'll finish those two."

"Ok sure."

He pushed her out of the way towards the door.

"Go to sleep Mei. And thank you again."

"Bye!" she said as she leaved him with all the gear.

He changed back into his hoodie and in a few hours everything was ready. He swinged the two duffel bags over his shoulder and carried them back to his dorm.

Tommorow the game officially began.

Chapter Text

It wasn't even the break of day when he heard a knock on his door. A muffled voice resonated through the door. Midoriya having already tidied up his bedroom opened the door to a now well-ventilated room.

"I was sent to get you. Do you have everything ready?" Aizawa said.

He had a head start, to settle into the fake city, that much he knew. He will be the first one there, then came the business course students who had set up shops and have built themselves a career. The next ones were the civilians, robots and humans alike and in the end it was the heroes' turn.

"Yes." the boy said picking up his bags.

He was led down the hallways of the 1A Heights Alliance, no footsteps could be heard coming from either of them. The heroes in training were probably soundly sleeping, a last moment of peace. Aizawa was taking a subtle glance towards the quite large bags, 'What could be in those?', he was asking himself, 'Isn't he provided with most of the necessary items?'.

"Ok problem child, first we'll stop by the maintenance room, you'll find supplies there you can take whatever you need."

Midoriya nodded and they eventually arrived. He quickly scooped up some items and shoved them in his bag, as if already having made up his mind about what he wanted. He couldn't have Mei create all his gear, he needed her for the sensitive stuff. He picked up a few normal knives, and a Kevlar vest his size, which believe it or not wasn't small at all. Izuku had a lean body with compact muscles -- unlike people like All Might-- that was still toned. Eraserhead was watching him and his nonchalant expression, he was composed, no emotion betrayed his face. Packing some more rope, duct tape and several bottles of a rack, Izuku zipped up his bag and that was the sign to leave. First, he would have to meet with Nezu on the way to the city to acquire his communication device, then he'd be dropped off to find a base to settle in, preferably before the next set of people arrived.

"Midoriya!" a squeaky voice called.

"Good morning principal."

"I see you are prepared." the creature said looking at his hands. "Here are the comms."

Izuku took the earpiece and put it in, after a quick test with the observation room, Nezu climbed in Aizawa's scarf.

"I wish you good luck!"

"Good luck Midoriya."

And with that, they were off, walking towards the observation tower.

Midoriya burst into the city, with the structure already memorized all he had to do is get to his base. He lifted off a manhole cover and threw his bags first landing on them. Taking a few confusing turns, he found an empty rundown room-like space. The air was humid enough he could get pneumonia or an infection, but at least it wouldn't be as bad as the poor souls that would have nitric acid thrown at them. There are cameras around the whole city, including the underground system, watching his every move. The walls had water stains and old grafitti, the concrete was chipping, and the metal mesh platform was slightly bent. He flipped the bags upside down and started aligning everything on the floor counting once again just to be sure. The canal was dark, save for a few broken lights that somehow still worked... well blinked.

Time to start. Taking his C4s he stuffed them in a plastic bag and began taking turns through the tunnels. He changed in some inconspicuous clothes, a full-body black suit with his iron soles shoes. He had a harness that held a few knives and his pants had more pockets than he could count. His hoodie was soft and the hood was pulled over his green straight hair, he didn't bother curling his hair in the mornings anymore, it did fit the personality he created better but that one was gone by now, he would give it his all and then-- perhaps as a blessing in disguise-- will do it sooner than he thought he would. It was overall a cheap suit he improved after buying it from outside the school. Eventually he reached a manhole cover. Lifting it up he was met with a different sight. The underground system sure was useful, it connected all the import places right to his base. Right now he was at the hospital. He entered through the front doors, not bothering as there wasn't anyone there. 'They could've made this harder.' he thought. He placed 3 C4s in points of weak structure and set off to the next building, the police headquarters.

Before he could step out of the canal, he heard the siren going off, announcing that the first batch of students had just arrived. Things got interesting. From now on the CCTV in the whole city was at the disposal of the leaders and could be rewinded at their heart's desire, except the underground part of course that was only for teachers surveying the villains. 'Looks like I'll have to use the vents, it's more fun that way anyway.'

His route had to change now, in order to find a place to exit and have a vent right next to it so he could crawl in.

()

The police department was spacious, especially with the lack of people mingling. Midoriya reached for a screen hiding under his sleeve. He powered it and suddenly everything became seemingly unreadable, uncomprehensible, but not for him. It took a few minutes but he managed to freeze the footage, if you looked hard enough you could deduce that someone had meddled, but he was sure nobody would pay it any mind, it's not like they took this seriously at all.

He exited the shadows and dropped down fluidly. All the walls looked essentially the same, he had however memorized the building's architectural plans. There were a few support beams that would blow up quickly after the C4 detonated. Izuku rapidly unscrewed the bolts of another vent with his pocket knife, and started making his way towards the supposed hero agency. Technically he shouldn't have known where the heroes would settle, it wasn't exactly a secret but it could have been part of the challenge. Part of the challenge if the heroes would live in any other tower other the the biggest and most well placed building. He didn't want to blow up the whole tower, but planting a few C4s in the supply room would surely bring their morale down when it eventually exploded. It would be much more satisfying and enjoying watching them crawl like vermins after they would loose their food and water, especially if he's going to detonate it after Yaoyorozu is out of the game.

The heroes were surprisingly quiet through all of his endeavors so far. You'd think they would at least say something regarding a kid ready to blow up all the buildings in the city. Right as he took a turn he heard it.

Another alram blared and he could hear the steps above him even through the thick cement layer. Civilians and civilain bots were released into the city.

()

The firefighter station was fairly simple to navigate, given the quirks that were on the hero team however, it wouldn't be needed as much, or so everyone thought. The massive amount of buildings he will explode at a given time will most certainly overwhelm them. It wasn't just public service buildings he was planning on attacking, he was aiming for total destruction. They wanted a villain? Well he would be absolutely vile.

()

Walking towards the middle school it somehow felt cathartic, cathartic to know it would be blown to smithens. It reminded him too much of Aldera, except the cleaner and newer look. That school was his own personal hell that changed him as a person. He couldn't lie and say he didn't have thoughts of ending everyone, hardly so, he sometimes fantasized about it. Now in this controlled environment he could let himself be free, of the burden weighing on his shoulders, of the scars that felt the phantom pain of sizzling, free of the desire to destroy everyone and create a world where he would be accepted. But no, this wasn't real life, and he wasn't destroying in order to create, so he could go hard with it.

He crawled quietly in the vents since there were security cameras in the school, working ones unlike Aldera's. Finding the support beam, near the janitor's closet, he placed his final C4 that he had on him. Now it was just a matter of making it back to a manhole cover.

Midoriya retreated back into his lair and quickly opened his bags to grab a suit unlike his villain outfit. It was plain, and simple enough you could hide in crowds among other business men. He dressed himself in a corner he hoped the heroes wouldn't see, but he knew better. Smoothing out his suit he picked up his brief case. Right as he came out of the underground and left the shady alley he exited at, he heared the alarm. The heroes were now in.

"Ok, let's get this started."

()

"This will be so easy! I kinda feel bad." said Darkshadow, Tokoyami looked embarrassed and shielded his sentient friend from the rest of the students. No one corrected him though, because yeah, it would be easy, this was Midoriya they were talking about, their sweet cinnamon roll that unfortunately got locked into a villain's position. It's practically guaranteed that they'd win.

Bakugo didn't even bother giving orders before he took off shouting "DEKU I'LL FUCKING KILL YOU!"

Momo sighed and rested her head in her hands.

"Alright I guess, we should prepare ourselves, we need to let him keep a bit of his dignity so we'll finish this later I suppose, let's settle into our base."

"I don't see why we can't just find him and eliminate him. It's his fault after all, for declining the chance of having teammates. I for one don't want to keep playing this game for longer than I need. Perhaps class 1A is so afraid of looking bad next to 1B?" Monoma said finishing with his usual crazed laugh. It didn't take long for Kendou to neck chop him.

"Sorry for him." Kendou bowed.

"Sure we can give him some time, but won't it also make us look bad, like how could we have taken so long to catch one villain?" asked Tokage.

"Please, we're only asking for a few hours, I don't want Deku-kun to feel betrayed." She pleaded. "Plus even if it's one person, it'll look like we know how to prepare for a fight and not underestimate a dangerous situation!"... quite ironic.

They all came of accord, after all it wasn't really Midoriya's fault, he just got extremely unlucky, and if checking out their base and making a primitive plan was also worth in their scores than it was a win-win situation.

()

Their base was modern and huge, but given that it was housing 39 people that's the way it should be. As soon as they arrived  they split into little groups to explore the tower. Some went to check out the bedrooms, others checked their food supplies and others went to the control room, where everyone gathered in the end.

They all started chatting until Bakugo burst in the room, sweat rolling down his arms.

"Got heated up already?" said Pony in her thick accent.

"Shut the fuck up horns. I checked through the whole city, fucking Deku is nowhere to be found he's probably hiding like a coward."

"Deku-kun IS NOT a coward! What is he supposed to do in a 1 vs 39 match?!"

"Guys, guys stop for a second. Bakubro... is that Midoriya?"

At the mention of the grenette's name everyone turned to look at the screens. Kirishima was pointing to an enlarged live video footage of just outside the main city park. A man in a black tailored suit was sitting on a bench looking on his phone. His hair being straight was the only mild shock the kids had, well aside from the fact that he just offered himself on a silver platter.

"Oh, well is that really him?" Kuroiro asked.

Jirou took a step closer to the flat screens. "Yeah its him alright, he just changed his hair."

Bakugo stormed out immediately. Everyone struggling to follow before Iida stopped them and suggested 2 people follow Bakugo as they did not want to make a scene.

Kirishima and Shouji rushed after tye explosive blonde leaving the rest if them behind.

"It couldn't be that easy they said... it's that easy." Shoda commented.

"Well we can say goodbye to our plan of making both sides look good." Kodai said.

"This could have been so fun if there were actual teams!" Komori cried puffing up her cheeks in obvious disappointment.

()

As soon as the doors to the tower busted open a few civilians turned their heads and watched 3 heroes borderline attack a 'random' guy on a bench. Bakugo went straight for the punch which the receptor (Midoriya) didn't even bother dodging. This resulted in a slightly fractured cheekbone. He turned his head imitating freakishly accurate depiction of bafflement.

"Excuse me?! Did I do anything to deserve that?" he asked in a low tone.

Bakugo grabbed him by the collar and shouted "You knew you were so weak you decides to turn yourself in haha, truly pathetic, you're coming with us."

Kirishima was actively trying to pull Bakugo away from Midoriya as some of the public pulled out their phones and started recording, but the boy was quick in pulling him up. Midoriya harshly pulled back his hand steeling his face.

"Im just a humble citizen, what gives you the idea you can assault me in plain sight, the audacity of today's heroes."

All three boys blanched at that, and Midoriya had his confirmation that they didn't read the rules book, not that he had any hope they would have read it anyway.

"Midobro what do you mean? You're the only villain and we've got you."

"Midobro?" the Midoriya said as if testing the name on his tongue. "You must have mistaken me, my name is Saigai Owari."

"What bullshit are you fucking talking abo-" Bakugo was interrupted by Midoriya shoving an ID card in front of his face.

"You must have mistaken me." he said steeling his voice.

"Uh can't we put you in a cell or something?" Kirishima panickingly asked Shouji. As neither had heared the rules which was Baguko's job as a leader to do so, they were completely lost. Fortunately they were saved by Momo running towards them and asking Midoriya politely to follow her back to the police station for a short detainment as there had been a misunderstanding.

"I have work you know, and I was planning on going to the hospital too." he said gesturing to his face. "But oh, very well, I can only hope that heroes will eventually learn how to behave."

"Thank you sir!" Momo said and started walking. She seemed to have remembered something and turned around. "Boys ask the others in the room about this.".

The trio watched them walk away, Bakugo screaming profanities at the poor civilian.

()

"What the fuck happened?" Bakugo demanded.

"While you were out ruining our reputation, Yaomomo found a rule book and quickly skimmed through it. It seems that unless we have proof we cannot arrest Midoriya." Kendo said.

"It doesn't even matter anyway, he'll have to show up as a villain soon, we can catch him then." Kaibara said.

"Yeah let's just hope they don't dock out too many points for this." Mina said.

They all turned around as Ojiro played the camera feed in the police station on full screen and turned the audio on.

In walked Bakugo and Iida who had quickly run after Momo the moment they got their explications. She stayed behind the one way glass.

"Owari-san we have verified your ID and everything is alright. But unfortunately you can not go as your stay here has to be 6 hours. We deeply apologize for the discomfort caused because our negligence." Iida said and bowed.

Midoriya smiled in his head, the TV seemed to flicker. All of a sudden the lights went off. The entire police station was up in a second. Iida's first instinct was to grab ahold of the already cuffed Midoriya. Then in a flash, a weird video started playing in the whole city.

It was a countdown starting from number 10. It felt agonizingly slow as no one dared to move. The atmosphere felt suffocating and just like that they snapped out of their trance when they heared an explosion. Everyone instinctually flinched and looked at Midoriya who was imitating a face of surprise.

"My what just happened!"

"Stay here!"

"We need to move!"

Everyone was in chaos, some still not understanding what had transpired.

Midoriya was quickly ushered into a blank cell room with a random person sitting as guard. He sat on the metal bench and layed down closing his eyes.

()

The orange hues of the sunset mixed with the roaring fire. All heroes were dispatched and soon had it under control.

"How, what happened here?"

The search party returned from the ruins of the hospital having discovered that apparently someone blew up tye building with C4s.

The heroes all looked at eachother unsettled. It was clear no one other than Midoriya could have done something like this but they just couldn't picture it. They lost 292 people the first day. Every single person or robot-- but they counted as people-- that was inside had 'died', it was a sort of wake up call. The media went berserk over the incident. Apparently the  fire was trending number 1, right behind it being a video where three heroes could be seen pressing a civilian, that even got slapped. It took one day for their hero images to shake.

Coming back to the tower covered in soot and dirt, their morals had plunged quite a bit. They all looked eachother in the eyes. Yaoyorozu, Kendou, Shiozaki and Iida had to prepare themselves for an interview with the press. They were all extremely tired and night had already settled. Walking up the stairs for a quick shower, the four had vanished. The heroes were now all sitting in the so called 'common room'.

"I can't believe that just happened."

"There weren't any traces left by Midoriya."

"Deku-kun, how could he do something like this." Uraraka said gently holding her stomach from quirk exertion.

"That fucker is going to die when I see him again."

They all knew Midoriya was out of jail by now, his time had expired, and they realized that they played right into his trap. He was quietly sitting in a cell room while there was a whole inferno outside. They would have even more trouble finding incriminating evidence now. Frustrated they claimed they'd talk the next morning.

"All right, all of you get some sleep." Bakugo said. He was the only one that remained downstairs waiting for the other four to return.

From outside the tower you could see all the lights turning off. Midoriya was sitting at the edge of an alleyway, a manhole cover 5 meters away from him. It had been a productive first day, now he needs to break them one by one, slowly.

Chapter Text

Aizawa was weirdly unsettled by the decisiveness and confidence coming from Midoriya. The boy knew exactly what to do as if he planned the day to the second.  When he and Nezu entered the observation room, everyone had made themselves comfortable, it was afterall going to be a long week.

"Aizawa are you entering the pool?" Cementoss asked.

"So far the highest bid was Vlad King, who bet Midoriya is going to loose in the first eight hours after the heroes enter." Said Midnight. "I bet Midoriya will last a day and a half."

"Alright, he said, I'll enter."

All heads swerved to him that moment.

"With what occasion Aizawa? I mean he's your student you know him best, are you gonna bet for 2 days or something like that?" Vlad King said laughing.

"I'm betting 100000 yen Midoriya will win."

Chatter instantly died, even Nezu could have been heard whispering "Interesting" which briefly made the heroes shiver.

"Are you insane Shota?" Presenr Mic asked.

"Quiet down, the game has started." a squeaky voice said.

They watched Midoriya expertly navigate through the underground passage.

"Has he memorized the layout or something?"

"I don't know, but does he even have a goal? Or is he just aimlessly running."

"He wouldn't run if he was looking for a place."

"I'm surprised he got into the sewers, I thought he would run into the forest or hide in a small apartment."

The conversation carried on, every hero squinting to try and tell what weapons Midoriya just spilt from his duffel bag. He seemed to be counting them. After shuffling his belongings around he picked up several C4s. All heads turned towards Snipe.

"I haven't trained him!" he said just as confused and scared.

"There is no need, Midoriya showed me his weapon license in person."

"The kid has a weapon license?!" Midnight said surprised. "The green cinnamon roll?"

They were watching while Midoriya ran through the whole city using his underground system that he monopolized. There were traps he was leaving behind him, thin strings and moving sensors. His first stop was the hospital.

The heroes were silent throughout. They were quite terrified they underestimated the kid, hell even Nezu was on his side. Midoriya barely looked like himself anymore, his face was blank, devoid of any emotion, but it looked so natural, much more natural than his daily smile which they only now realized.

Midoriya knew how to be silent, how to slither himslef into tiny gaps, it showed an innate talent that none of teachers ever saw. Aizawa was impressed with his kid, the same way everyone was impressed at his show of power.

As soon as the heroes got in, Vlad started sweating. Midoriya changed himself into a basic business man suit took his briefcase and left, making the bold move of taking a seat right in front of thehero tower.

"Oh no." Ectoplasm said.

"How much do we bet that the heroes didn't read the rules?" Mic raised his voice.

The altercation that followed leaved a sour impression on the observers. Bakugo's reputation might as well had gone down the drain, and he was the leader. Assaulting a civilian in full day wasn't the smartest move. Points were deducted when it was clear that the heroes didn't read the rules. Momo was as always the one to save the situation, offering free hospital service and apologizing for a 'misunderstanding'. That way they'll be able to keep the villain locked under key while supervising him. Unfortunately Midoriya was ahead of them.

His civilain acting was impressive, and all heroes came to an accord that the kid would shine in secret missions and infiltrations.

All the lights suddenly went out. It must have been the work of Midoriya who casually assembled a workstation in his base. Nezu was impressed of how he managed to isolate the observer's communication and electrical lines over the lines connected to the fake city and specifically under the hands of the heroes.

A creepy screen countdown followed and when it hit zero, the heroes too held their breaths. Out of nowhere, there was a loud boom sound. The heroes looked over their screen and say the hospital had been exploded. They had to be prepared after seeing the villain install those himslef, but none of them thought he would start the game in such a dramatic way.

During the hero's rescue work, they abandoned monitoring Midoriya in favour of grading the bunch. They did plenty things well, like how Uraraka's role was huge, and her quirk was an invaluable resource, how Todoroki used his ice to prop heavy beams. Bakugo's leadership was better than they had expected, but nowhere near an ideal one. Although they all gave their very best, no life was saved. Midoriya managed to kill 292 people in his first day, and only they knew that there were more from where this one was coming. All their stomachs twisted uncomfortably.

Midoriya didn't stay locked up for long, the police station allowed him to leave by himself. He blended in the crowd and managed to stop by a shady alley, where he could see a manhole cover a few meters away from him. They saw him smooth his suit and casually walk towards the canal enterance, while in parallel the heroes were trying to wrap their head around their classmate. They didn't sleep that night, not well.

"This is going to be a game unlike any others before." All could agree with Ectoplasm.

Chapter Text

He woke up in cold sweat. The flickering neons burning into his retina. Midoriya subtly looked at the cameras set up around his base. The clock read 5:39 am, his only source of keeping track of time. He groaned getting out of his makeshift bed. It was time to dress up, he would use Mei's suit for the first time.

Fixing his tie and neatly putting on his coat, he slid a couple knives in the designated pockets, leaving his guns untouched for now, and set off.

The darkness of the canal was somehow welcoming, the air was humid, and cool on his face, he was lucky this was a fake city otherwise it would be unpleasant at best. The sound of his shoes stepping on cold tiles resonated within the corridors and mingled with the sound of water running. As he saw the exit he climbed up the ladder and exited into the night.

It was pitch black outside and the streets were quiet despite being able to see a robot or two walk every blue moon. Midoriya casually strolled till he was in front of the hero tower. He passed by, not minding the cameras and entered. No one was out sitting for watch, it seems they thought they would be untouchable in their 'home'. Even better now that he was going to demolish that illusion. The floor plan was designed by being split into two main parts, the boys' rooms and the girls'. There was a reception at the enterance, like any ordinary agency has, but walking past it after disabling the alarms he was met with a common room of sorts. There were big and dramatic stairs in the corners of the room. He chose to go right, into the girls' wing. He held his breath as he erased his presence and entered the third door he saw. Sleeping on their separate beds were Shiozaki and Kodai. Kodai's quirk was crucial to transport, but Shiozaki's was flexible. The smart choice would be to consider the pros and cons and choose to eliminate the stronger opponent, the one who's absence would hit the heroes harder and Midoriya was smart, but instead he chose to flip a coin. Heads for Shiozaki and tails for Kodai. He threw the coin and it silently landed on the back of his hand. Heads it is. He grabbed his knife from his harness and put a hand over the girl's mouth. She immediately woke up staring into Midoriyas eyes with unadulterated fear. Knowing her beliefs he placed his special knife on her throat and whispered: "May your god save you cause I won't", his toxic eyes glistened and he sliced her skin. Immediately a red line appeared and being close to her, he could hear Vlad King say "Shiozaki you have been eliminated.". She didn't play dead the way she was supposed to, in fact she seemed frozen. He brought a finger to his lips and lightly smiled leaving behind a terrified hero.

Walking downstairs he stopped to look at the blank walls. A last minute idea struck him. What if he left a message? He looked around for paint or something of the sorts, not managing to find any. He borrowed a knife from the kitchen and rolled over his shirt. Holding it at ninety degrees he punctured his wrist and then inclined it at forty-five degrees, slicing through his forearm and exiting again at ninety. Blood began to furiously flow out so he collected it in a plastic cup and started painting a message. By the end, his bleeding arm was forgotten and the cup was almost filled to the brim. The message read "You're only alive because I haven't killed you yet." it was a direct threat to let them known they weren't safe, they didn't have the upper hand even with their strength in numbers. It was all a game after all, why should he not have some fun?

Taking out a little device he wiped out his dna so they couldn't track him and shattered the door behind him. (author here, don't ask me how, I just realized that he couldn't paint with his blood bc of DNA and said fuck that and introduced this)

()

When the heroes woke up they were not expecting to hear a scream. The boys ran downstairs to make a loop and get to the girls' wing, but they stopped in their tracks when they saw the message on the wall. They heared a scream once again, but they couldn't tear their eyes away. The glass door could be seen by peeking over the corner, glass seemed to have been scattered everywhere. The girls came running downthe stairs. In the panic they didn't notice the bloody message.

"Shi- Shiozaki w-was killed!"

Everyone snapped out of their trance and processed the opposite's party issue. After a regroup they all looked sick. Ectoplasm announced through their coms that he will pick up the body. Seeing him leave with the girl's 'corpse' felt so real. They had actually thought at first that she was dead, her throat was covered in blood and she wasn't moving. She looked pale but they soon understood that it was from fear, the same one they were feeling at the moment. They could hear Bakugo mumble out curses under his breath.

"All right, how did the nerd enter? Go check the cameras!" he yelled.

Kirishima scurried into the CCTV room, Kaminari and Mina shakingly following him. They returned with bitter news.

"We didn't see anything."

"He probably froze the footage." Momo thought out loud.

"From now on were taking turns sleeping." he ordered. "There won't be a repeat of this. We need to start the patrol. Group 1 go."

Jirou, Tesutetsu and Monoma all left out the broken door, being already dressed in their suits.

"Is this even Deku-kun?" Uraraka asked with an indescribable emotion in her eyes.

"Uraraka..." Hagakure said. "Let's get you some water first."

"Alright I'll just clean this up." said Fukidashi gesturing to the blood.

()

Izuku was once again in his civilian look. He was on the streets heading for his flat he rented from Karasuna, a business course student. Getting the papers signed and completed took out most of his afternoon. In his backpack and briefcase combined there were plenty of his weapons. He was planning on setting up a sniper on his 8th floor apartment. He weaved through the public when he bumped into someone. He recognized him immediately, Shinsou Hitoshi, from general studies. Shinsou made a move to scream his eyes immediately widening. Midoriya quickly grabbed his hand and pulled him, all the while giving him a death glare. Shinsou moved on instinct alone. They soon reached a shady corner housed in a dark alleyway. He then realized that he was the one making the alley shady.

"Hi Shinsou-kun." he said with a predatory smile. It immediately dropped off his face

"Were you about to scream right there? Unfortunately for that wouldn't have worked so really your best choice was to say sorry and move on. Pity."

"Look I have nothing against you but this is a game and-"

"-and? Wouldn't you profit more from staying here longer? Anyway, you would make a certainly good hostage. Let me explain this to you so you understand your situation."

()

Shinsou was not happy to be tied to chair, nor to be so close to a rooftop's edge. Sure from his shitty ass past you could expect him to be suicidal but he still wanted to live thank you very much. He knew Midoriya from brief gossip he caught while on his way to the school's gym. 'a cinnamon roll', 'UA's sunshine child', he would love to meet that person right now. Sure he had his doubts that Midoriya being quirkless (which he also learned from toxic gossip at the start of the year) couldn't have been an ideal situation for the kid nor facilitate a good upbringing, so the image of the person he heared about wasn't the same one with the one he tried creating, the bullying he went through was hellish at best, he couldn't imagine what he would have done if he was quirkless. He was suddenly very glad he had one. But even so, he didn't expect the guy to be a psychopath. Yeah it was a game and yes he was embracing his villain persona, but he could see that those were Midoriya's actual actions if not a bit more destructive, with a bit more emotion than he saw on the kid's face, he was practically emotionless, unless he wanted to scare the shit out of someone and make himself laugh or smile.

Anyway back to the situation at hand. He could see the sun slowly descend on the sky, it was creating an orange-blue painting that contrasted his hair colour. Midoriya was silently sitting behind him. He could hear the faint 'click-click' of a keyboard.

"Are you ready?" He asked.

Shinsou was shaking in his boots, but despite that nodded, not trusting his voice.

"You know what to do, don't disappoint me."

The big screens scattered throughout the city all went static, just like the other day. In an instant a live video was displayed. Thankfully Midoriya had time to change in order to appear in his villain suit. He came from behind Shinsou and looked at the camera.

"Welcome to today's show." his voice was eerie. The wind was whipping his face and gently flowing through his hair. He spread his arms as if welcoming home a family member. "Let's all play a game. This is the tallest building in the city with drop of more than 100 meters. I'll give the heroes 10 minutes to get here. For every minute that passes I will blow up one building. The show ends with Shinsou's death. The buidlings would have either been all exploded or mostly untouched."

"Hurry up heroes." he said, irony palpable in his voice.

()

The screens went black and the heroes were now in panic. Stumbling to the conference room they quickly located the building Midoriya was on. They bolted out the door, 38 heroes running at full speed across the streets. People made way for them like the Red Sea had parted for Moise. The buidling was a good 30 minutes away, most used their quirks in full bursts of energy which is why they would likely end up overexerting themselves later. Yaoyorozu created a sort of skateboard that she gave to the others whose quirks weren't built for speed. At this pace they would likely be able to cut half of the time so 15 minutes, but they were confident in eachother.

"The nerd said that Purple Fuck is going to die either way, our objective is to get there as fast as we can, not to save him unless we are prepared. Heared that?!" he yelled while sweat was dripping on his face.

They were all startled when Bakugo said that they weren't going for the purple haired kid first. Tha would be a hero's instinct wouldn't it be? To save someone in danger.

Not even 1 second passed for the heroes when they heared an explosion. Stopping to a halt Bakugo quickly barked some orders.

"Round face, Manga bastard, Soy sauce face, Half'n half, Weld guy, Solid air freak, Metal shitty hair you're up for rescue, split up when needed. Go!"

The ones named immediately dispersed. The buildings set to explode were scattered so it was hard to get to them in time.

Every time they heared a resounding 'boom' they flinched. At the 7 minute mark they were hyperventilating from stress and from the effort they were putting in, but they finally arrived.

Looking up they could see two blobs of colour. Having known they finally came, the black screens began speaking.

"Well well, here are our mascots. In that case you won heroes! Didn't you?"

Hearing the word 'won' while simultaneously loosing a good couple hundred civilians, burned their throats like acid.

"The game has ended, what an unforgettable experience!"

And so, the feed was cut.

()

Bakugo and a few others were furiously running climbing the stairs with what little stamina they had left. There was no means of escape and Midoriya didn't come down.  They threw open the door to find the same scene that was presented to them on the screens. This was their first time seeing Midoriya's villain suit and it fit the boy horridly well.

"I was expecting company today. Did you like my little gift today?"

"Fuck you Deku, you piece of shit you better surrender before I kill you!"

"How threatening." he said unimpressed putting a hand on his heart.

The heroes were in fighting position ready to take him down, unfortunately for them they now knew not to underestimate him and hesitated.

Midoriya circled around Shinsou ending up behind his and propping a hand on the boy's shoulder.

"Please help me!" Shinsou screamed.

Shishida immediately responded by comforting him. "Don't worry you'll be fine." First mistake.

Shinsou took action commanding "Attack your teammates and throw them off the roof."  he then looked to Midoriya who ripped him off the chair and jumped letting himself free fall of the building while holding Hitoshi. Sure to say, he was terrified. He doesn't know what the fuck Midoriya did to maneuver himself but they somehow ended up alive and on the first few floors. 'Is this kid really quirkless?' Shinsou asked in his mind followed by a 'What the fuck just happened.'

In his comms Midoriya heared "Shoda has died.", "Kamakiri has died". Right off the bat he took out two powerfull quirks. Twin impact was a quirk you really had to think about when going against it. Sure it being in the hands of a child made it predictable, but it was a pretty wild variable in a fight. Kamakiri's quirk Razor sharp was also a pretty powerful combat quirk.

Pulling Shinsou along with him he made his way to the base, effectively working through the confusing canal network. During their walk Hitoshi was silent. When he entered the room he gestured for him to settle in a corner, where there was a second mattress. He took off his mask, Hitoshi knowing that this was either a sign of trust or of threat... Threat he supposed when he saw Midoriya come with cuffs towards him.

"Just for safety measurements, you surely understand." he said.

Shinsou was now cuffed to the wall on top of a shitty mattress that might have been just a tad bit cleaner than Midoriya's, look at that he was living in luxury.

Even with the absence of a window he knew that it must have already darkened outside so he set himslef comfortable, too awkward to ask anything, maybe he'd get some confidence over night.

He saw Midoriya pick up some bags and leave the room. He did have to set the snipers he was planning to after all.

()

The heroes were at a loss obviously. With 7 buildings destroyed, over 450 injured, 300 dead and 2 colleagues killed they were pretty much hitting rock bottom. Shishida snapped out of his trance after he had thrown the other two off the building (there were safety nets but they fainted from fear anyway). Bakugo was understandably pissed, they had no plan and it was becoming clear that Midoriya was resourceful and much more powerfull then they anticipated. They had no time to sleep when they came in late, going straight to the conference room. They had to ambush him, they had to not fall in his twisted games that were all for fun and show. They'd be the predators from now on.

Chapter Text

Shinsou woke up in the middle of the night, again. Midoriya was nowhere to be seen, at least from his point of view , which was stuck to a wall in the corner of his 'base'. A canal, that was an interesting choice on Midoriya's part, but no really now, he would have never thought of such a place. Pretty far away from him he could see a couple of bags that looked like they could burst at the seams. The fabric bended in some suspicious ways in a place or two. The mattress Midoriya slept on, or so he hopes because the boy looked like he hasn't seen slept in ages, was dirtied and looked old. He probably grabbed it from the fake city, from the back of an alley. When he opened his eyes out of the blue he saw Midoriya walk in, he didn't even hear the boy.

"Slept well?" the grenette asked.

He was unafraid of speaking to him because he had already broken out of Shinsou's quirk back at the sports festival. He could hold him under for 10 seconds at best, which wasnt enough to make the villain turn himself in.

"Yeah..." he responded. "Why are you keeping me here? Isn't my job finished?"

"I did tell you the more you stay the more beneficial it would be to you. Isn't the general education's job to last as long as they can? You'll get your credits and I get you."

"Do you plan on using me again?"

"Perhaps."

"So... you'll just keep me locked here?"

Midoriya didn't respond for a good minute.

"It's actually just so you don't turn me in, but a victim's witness isn't enough to put me in." he sighed. "I guess you could go."

"What if... what if I want to help you?"

Midoriya turned to look at his face, he was determined and stared back.

"I don't take to having teammates, buy if you want to impress them, train your body, your quirk while being powerful isn't something you could rely on."

"You think my quirk is powerful?" he said hopeful.

"Ah, the classic villain finger pointing? Yeah I do...I would have done anything for a quirk like yours. Now, let me walk you back and if want to gain some... hero points let's call them, put yourself in good light with Miko, from the business course" Midoriya passed him a piece of paper.

()

After Shinsou left he was alone again. He managed to set up his apartment over the night and got there uninterrupted.

The view was overseeing the whole central park and therefore had a clear path towards the hero base. It was towering over his meek 8th floor room, but he had a spacious and inconspicuous balcony.

His next mission was three steers over. He needed money for some... investments, and robbing the bank was an opportunity to also confront the heroes, so a bank heist. He needed to wait for the night, the heroes will most likely think he's gone into hiding, but a night show awaited them.

To be honest, he hadn't slept much the past few days, being too preoccupied with refining his plan and haunted by nightmares, but being so tired he supposed they wouldn't show up this time, so plopping onto an actual bed he dozed off, his mind unfortunately blackening again.

()

It was 4pm and nothing had happened. The heroes were kept on their toes, but their patrols had been uneventful. They were all gathered around a table, each having their heads lowered looking at their hands.

"So, how do we capture him?" Kendo said determined.

"He killed hundreds of people and didn't even bat an eye!" Pony said appalled. "Uraraka is in the hospital wing to recover from quirk exertion and she is his friend, but he doesn't care?!" she was mad.

"Where could he be hiding? He disappears from the footage every time after an appearance."

"If I had to guess where his base could be if say it could be in the rundown part of the city, like how the League was occupying a bar. He probably moves by staying in the camera's blind spots." Momo said.

"We have patrolled the city, we have searched houses, he couldn't be here with us. An he surely cant just hide as his civilian persona because we haven't seen him around anymore."

"He couldn't be here with us..." Yanagi mumbled. "What if he is hiding under us."

"Huh?" multiple heads turned being confused.

"Don't we have this file that said the canal burst a few years ago and they had to send a team over. That means there's an actual network down there. What if he is underground?"

"Underground .." Tokoyami mumbled.

"That's, that's viable."

"What a coward hiding down there." Bakugo said.

"I've heard while patrolling that there is a drug ring taking action in a few days. They've already expanded their influence and they plan to debut" Kuroiro said.

"Maybe we can trade some information, kero?"

"Yeah, we can make a trade, but what could it be about?" Ojiro asked.

"Well the only thing that pops up in my mind is instead of taking them down we let them function for a week and they get to keep 40% of the profit."

"We can't let drugs get on the market, do you know how many points they'll dock for that?!"

"We need a lead for Midoriya's location."

"We can just wait for him, he can't kill us all subtlety like that. It isn’t worth it."

"We have THREE goddamn days left." Bakugo shouted.

"And he's only killed THREE of us." Monoma said. "Sure they'll dock points from us because so many 'people died' on our watch but we still fucking win, he can't exterminate us all."

"I'm with Monoma in this one."

"I'll fucking kill the nerd the next time I see him."

()

Night rolled around and Midoriya woke up gasping for air, he hated looking weak in front of the cameras. His sweat rolled down his back and he felt shivers go up his spine. Getting out of bed-- even if he wished he didn't have to-- he walked towards the table in the living room. His computer displayed the floorplan of the fake city bank. The safe was underground isolated by thick concrete all along the room's walls. The only enterance was the main one, down the elevator shaft. He didn't plan to go incognito, instead it would be a show of bravado. He loaded his weapons onto his suit, rolling his shoulders to get himself comfortable. Walking to the balcony, he positioned the sniper to aim at a random bot's head and he took his shot. Everyone immediately panicked especially when three others dropped. Among the four civilians one was a student, a message meant to show he didn't care. From such a long distance the fake bullet must have hurt like hell. This shooting was meant to draw the heroes away. He knew Bakugo enough to predict who he was going to send: Kuroiro, Pony, Yaoyorozu and Sero. Two immobilization units, Momo for media and crowd management and Kuroiro for spying and environmental awareness.

He waited until the heroes arrived to line up his shot. If he concentrated hard enough he could see moving shadows through his scope, courtesy to Kuroiro. Yaoyorozu immediately went into action, ordering the cops around and separating the crowd. Everyone was frantically looking around for the killer. Meanwhile he comfortably laid on his stomach on his balcony. He moved the sniper to the left a couple millimeters. Right next to the weapon was a switch, prepared for the perfect moment. He took aim and shot, the bullet hitting Momo right in the temporal lobe. She fell to the ground from the impact, passing out. Hopefully he didn't give her brain damage. The comms rang out with Aizawa's voice "Yaoyorozu has died.". Sero and Pony fell to their knees shaking her for a few seconds. They shot up and screamed something, probably to Kuroiro in order to alert him. Right as Aizawa finished his intrusion and Izuku made sure everybody was aware and had processed it, he flipped the switch, a sound propagating all throughout the city. He had just exploded the heroes' food and water supplies.

()

As soon as they heard Momo was out they all jumped to their feet. They barely had time to understand what happened before a force threw the to the ground making their ears ring. Running downstairs everyone was met with the sight of their supply room reduced to soot and ash. They soon realized that with Momo gone they couldn't replenish anything. Outside they faintly registered the sound of the firefighters and police cars.

()

Now that the first phase was done he strapped his grappling hook and took a running start before jumping out the window... very inconspicuous he was aware. Running through the alleyways he reached the bank. The entrance was grand, with big stairs made of what he hoped was a marble imitation because if not UA just threw hundreds of thousands yen down the drain. He confidently walked up, gun in hand and burst through the door. At such an odd hour there weren't many people, but he could spot a few 'elderly' bots, a bot with a little one next to it, one or two students who paled just by seeing him. He took a metal bar he picked up from an alley and stuck it in the door handles. He brought the gun and aimed it towards the ceiling shooting 3 times. Screams rang around the room and the students at the counters cowered and raised their arms having had just enough time to press the emergency button. Just what he wanted.

"You." he pointed to a business course student with his gun. "Start emptying the safe and bring the money here. Nobody moves or I shoot." he said in a tone of voice matching his toxic eyes.

In a few minutes the three guys (the other two got roped in) managed to bring over 300000000 yen.

"All of you take care of my money, I'll be back in a few minutes. Don't. try anything." he squinted. Everyone shakily nodded. He was about to go out and greet the heroes before an idea popped up. He snatched the child robot away from his mother's hand. She cried his name but shut up at the threat of his gun.

Exiting the bank he could feel the wind on his face, it was refreshing. He held the robot by one of his arms, dangling him around as if it was a cat toy.

"Welcome heroes!"

Bakugo was in front, leading his team. Not everyone was present, deciding to split up and surprise him maybe, or just solve the theft problem.

"Leave the child alone!" Komori gasped and shouted. "Release him or you'll be sorry."

"Really? Sorry for threatening a life, not for taking hundreds?"

Komori bristled at that.

"Fine, have it your way." He released the kid which started running towards the heroes. As soon as it touched Komori's arms, ready to be shielded, Midoriya shot him and the mushroom girl watched in fear as she caught a lifeless piece of metal.

"Time was up." he shrugged.

Just as he said that he had to dodge if he didn't want to be killed. Bakugo performed his signature move, howitzer impact.

"DEKU DIEE!" Bakugo cried speeding towards him. The entire team mobilized itself and started attacking and performing combos.

"I wonder who this Deku you're speaking of is", my name is Tennoshi." ((author here if you want to know the meaning it's shi= death and tenno= emperor, I mean i hope, I got this out of Google translate))

With his daggers he easily maneuvered and dodged the attacks. Picking Mina by her arm, he made her pirouette right into his blade, which stabbed her stomach 'lethally'. He used the acid left around to skate and pick up speed.

Pulling his gun he jumped into the air and spun before shooting and killing Satou. He was a bit disappointed as in real life the bullet would have killed Ojirou as well, who was right behind him. The bullet should have exited Satou's head and hit Ojiro's  but Aizawa only announced the 'death' of Satou.

He took off running inside the bank. The heroes were all surprised to see Midoriya corner himself. Bakugo ordered his subordinates to surround the building giving Midoriya just enough time to throw the money bags in the vents. Seeing as a hero spotted him he ran towards the elevator and made it look as if he went inside when he actually jumped to the ceiling, holding himself like a starfish by applying pressure with his hands and feet. Testutesu entered the shaft and it was too late by the time the elevator closed its door. Midoriya opened the door and cut the strings. The elevator started falling down the bottomless pit. Luckily the hero hardened himself on impact which protected him from actual death, he still heared the 'Tesutesu has died' message from Vlad King.

He climbed through the side vent carefully making his way to the place he stored the money. He could hear the heroes scream through the thin walls which were also his downfall. Right as he somehow managed to clasp the bags to himself he got hit. The wall crumbled and the broken metal panels of the vent system got bent. A decently big hole was made perfect for dragging someone out of it. Midoriya felt hands grab his suit and the next thing he knew he was slammed into a wall. He landed in something soft, seeing as the ground was now mush he searched for Honenuki and once he spotted his head he threw his dagger which collapsed into itself and adhered itself to Honenuki's torso looking as if he'd been stabbed. "Honenuki has died." The ground returned to normal but Bakugo finally reached him. They developed the fight into sort of a dance, a dance that started with Bakugo's not surprising right hook. His bags were still tied to him so he had a good few kilograms weighing him down and majorly slowing him. Yanagi was constantly throwing debris at him. He managed to catch a bigger rock which he first had to use to hit Bakugo over the face. He spun around and launched back at the girl who tripped over herself when she dodged. Her suit wasn't advantageous, it restricted her too much but Izuku wasn't going to complain. He shot her in the head and she was out. "Yanagi has died". He felt a hand slap his face and saw the other heroes arrived for reinforcements. Tokage was the one that detached her hand and hit him. He was already breathing hard from the fight with Bakugo, which was still going on, when he felt something spawn in his throat. He backflipped away from a fiery punch and kicked Komori who was hiding behind a wall. But that didn't stop the growth in his throat. So the only possible variant was that Monoma was the one using his quirk and he sacrificed his classmate for the event of surprise, which came quicker then he imagined because out of nowhere both Kuroiro and Monoma joined the fight. Distantly he could hear Todorki arguing with the others on their roles. Undoubtedly sooner than later he'd have Todoroki on his tail as well. At this point he had to leave so fishing it out of his suit he threw a grenade. It exploded on impact but Izuku was facing away and started running. The nitric acid quickly spread through the air making everyone couch violently as their skin and throat were burning. Monoma dropped the control over Komori's quirk and the villain's throat cleared up. He heared Bakugo shout and scream bloody murder behind as he ran out of the bank. Now he had to come face to face with the reinforcements who quickly followed on his trail.

"Give up villain you cannot escape us." the voice of Iida sounded. Ice was about to envelop his feet but he jumped right in time taking the opportunity to turn around and shoot the first person in his field of view, Shouji.

"Shouji has died." is what he heared through his comms.

Picking up speed despite carrying two duffle bags he jumped down a manhole cover knowing a part of them would follow.

Tokoyami, Hagakure, Jirou, Asui, Tsunorori, Manga and Todoroki all decided to go under while the rest split into two groups: the ones who went to check on the others and the ones pursuing from above. First team Aoyama, Ojiro, Awase, Kendo, Kodai, Kouda, Kaminari and Bondo. Second team: Iida, Uraraka, Kirishima, Sero, Tsuburaba, Rin, Shishida, Kaibara.

Dark Shadow immediately manifested, Tokoyami fighting hard to keep him under control.

"I guess if he evaded underground that his base really is here." Jirou mumbled listening into the walls with her earphone jacks. "To the left."

The party took a left turn. Continuing to run they didn't notice the strings attached paralel to the floor. They all fell excluding Asui who was running on all fours. While their face was close to the ground acid poured down from some makeshift sprinklers. It rained down and burned their skin, fortunately the costumes prevented the worse of the damage on the parts of their body that were not covered. They all ran back to the manhole they jumped down, and climbed up, nursing their arms or their faces that have been exposed. They had to go back to the first team to group up. Telling the ones who chose to follow from above that it proved to be fruitless they all met back at the bank where the ambulances were.

Todoroki was gasping, his left part of the face bandaged as his scar tissue reacted with the nitric acid and it corroded further. They helped the paramedics carry the others to the ambulance. When Kirishima got back though, he came empty handed.

Shakingly he said "Guys... B-Bakugo is gone. There's this note left."

The note looked like a piece of paper ripped from a notebook. All it had was a signature, "Tennoshi".

"That's why it was quiet." Jirou mumbled. "He came back" her eyes were wide.

No one had heard the message that Bakugo died so it only meant one thing. He had been kidnapped.

()

Finally back to his base Midoriya stretched his back. Thankfully Bakugo was still knocked out, he had a lot of potential plans with this one being in his grasp.

"What a productive day." he said out loud sitting on the mattress.

Bakugo was in the same spot Shinsou was that morning, chained to the wall.

Chapter Text

They were all talking amongst each other when a scream resonated through the room. Jumping out of their seats they saw one of the screams blink with a red light.

"Midoriya woke up." Midnight observed.

The boy was sitting up and looking as if he needed more air. His head turned towards the clock and groaned as he got out of bed.

"Did he have a nightmare?" Present Mic asked.

"With what these kids have been through it be weird if they didn't have them." Cementoss said.

"We need to put them through mandatory therapy."

"I'll look into it Aizawa." said Nezu.

Midoriya began to change himself into his villain suit. The teachers were excited to see what he would look like.

"A suit, can he even fight in that thing?" Snipe said.

"That must be so uncomfortable."

"He looks so handsome!" she gushed.

"Midnight please...:

"I do love the aesthetics of it." Nezu commented.

They watched the grenette swipe a few knives from his bag.

"Why is he only taking the knives? Those are not enough, he'd be at such a disadvantage against long rangers."

"I suppose he doesn't plan to fight them then." Nezu tried to restore Midoriya's image. They were all underestimating him, but he knew that soon their opinion would change.

"It's always good to be prepared."

"Maybe he just wants to feel light, like he's going to stealth." Thriteen said.

"Quite indeed."

Midoriya began navigating the canal, the cameras had nightvision but Midoriya was in pitch blackness.

"That's impressive! How does he know when that turn, he can't see anything!" Midnight said.

"It's a very early start to the day. Does he want to ambush them?"

"With only knives?"

Soon he was in front of the hero tower. He clicked a few times on a watch on his arm. The heroes were all surprised surprised see him casually waltz in.

"The cameras can see him can they not?"

"Did he forget?"

"That would be incredibly foolish."

"I think he just doesn't care." said Aizawa. "Maybe he wants to be seen."

"What do you mean?"

"He wants to inspire fear and let them know he can do whatever he wants."

"That would be clever if it's the case."

"Yeah... plus you can't see his face so it works."

"Oh look he went in the girls' wing."

They watched him take the stairs. His hand was touching the rest wall gliding along it. He entered the third door.

"That's Shiozaki and Kodai's room is it not?"

"It is."

"Is he really gonna flip a coin?!" Mic exclaimed.

"That's a unique way to choose."

They couldn't quite see what the face that the coin landed on was but they saw Midoriya approach Shiozaki.

"Uhm, what is he going to do?"

The heroes settled into an uncomfortable atmosphere. They watched Midoriya lean over the girl and put a hand over her mouth. Shiozaki immediately opened he r eyes wide, they could feel her fear through the screen as she noticed what was happening. Midoriya grabbed a knife from his vest and whispered to her "May your god save you cause I won't." Their skin bristled at that. Izuku slid the knife against her throat, the heroes jumping out of their seats when they saw blood.

"STOP THE GAME!"

"HE SLIT HER THROAT!"

Nezu had to calm them and explain that it was fake blood. The tension in the air didn't dissipate. Vlad King approached the mic a little too late to be announcing the death, but nonetheless reported the first one "Shiozaki you have been eliminated." he said to her only, as he couldn't wake up the others, not with Midoriya still there on a stealth mission. The boy heard the message through the girl's comms as he was only a centimeter away from her.

He exited the room and vegan walking downstairs.

"That's it? He could kill a few more, hell, he could kill the whole team."

"I don't think that's what he wants." said Thirteen who surprisingly understood the boy so far.

"What do you mean, the goal is to eliminate all of them."

"He wants to drag the game, don't you feel his determination? Haven't you noticed how different he's been behaving? Something is up with him and hopefully we'll find out but for know he did this as a message."

"Indeed Thirteen. I wont hide it away from you anymore, I started this game specifically because of Midoriya.

"Wait, so you rigged the teams?!" Vlad King cried.

"Only the leaders of each one. Midoriya has been pulling himself back quite a lot, I wanted to give him this opportunity for me to be able to spot the true him, as at school it seems like he's wearing a facade, and a well crafted one at that."

Everyone was quiet still processing what the principal had said.

"There are a lot of holes in his government profile and there are a lot of things to talk about, but for know let's just enjoy the game and try to find out as much as we can."

They all silently agreed.

When they turned back to the monitor they were too late. They saw Midoriya with a slit wrist paint a message on the wall in his own blood. Their eyebrows went up and their eyes widened. Aizawa reached for the microphone but a paw stopped him.

"We can't stop him now, look at his eyes." They were slightly glossed over, Midoriya didn't seem to perceive the outside world, he was in his own head executing his task.

The heroes were unsettled, because of the night vision they could see under the long gash freshly made a multitude of small scars. They all documented this in their heads feeling like they wanted to throw up. None spoke of this out loud, but they knew that each of their colleagues had seen it.

"I think the boy needs help we never thought he will need." Hound Dog said.

They could now that it was more than just the League weighing on Midoriya's shoulders.

They watched him erase his DNA with a device explained to them by Power Loader, the unfortunate human who got to be the professor of a certain pink haired girl.

All Midoriya had to do to shatter the glass door was to punch it. The heroes cringed at the sound not understand how that didn't wake up anyone. The grenette went back to his base.

()

A couple hours later a shrill scream came from the girls and it woke up everyone. The boys were frozen on the ground floor not being able to make it to the girls' wing because of the message.

Even if it was the second time seeing it, the heroes observing couldn't help the small instinctual fear that traced down their spines. If this wouldn't have been a game the murderous aura of the message would have frozen everyone including them, even if they had experience in this domain.

Not even two minutes later the girls all ran downstairs not noticing the message and instead telling them that one of their teammates is out of the game. Cue another round of frozen people once the girls noticed the bloody mess.

Bakugo ordered the others around trying to see how the villain had entered. Surprisingly the cameras showed nothing. Momo's explanation came at a great time, it seemed Midoriya's watch was digitalized and he hacked the CCTV.

"Okay, we were close, he still did it with the intention of inducing fear and being mysterious." said Midnight.

They all watched the heroes doubt Midoriya.

()

"Isn't that the student with the mind control quirk Aizawa is training?"

"Poor kid is getting traumatized, I'd be too."

Aizawa sighed at his 'protégé'.

"It's not his fault, Midoriya is just playing his role perfectly."

"Shouu! Did you use the word perfectly, ON A STUDent!?" Aizawa had to activate his quirk mid sentence.

"It is only logical, he's putting in effort for this."

"But are we sure this is just a role?" Cementoss asked bringing black the shitty atmosphere.

()

Power Loader was almost having a panic attack. "He's too close to the edge!"

"Chill, it's like you're there not Shinsou-kun." Midnight replied.

The boy in question was tied to a chair at the edge of the tallest building in the fake city.

"What does Midoriya need that laptop for?"

"It seems he's trying to connect to the media channel." said Nezu.

The big screens scattered throughout the city all went static, just like the other day. In an instant a live video was displayed.

"That's a lovely live stream." said Midnight ironically.

Midoriya's voice sounded from the speakers. "(...)Let's all play a game. This is the tallest building in the city with a a drop of more than 100 meters. I'll give the heroes 10 minutes to get here. for every minute that passes I will blow up one building. The show ends with Shinsou's death. The buildings would have either been all exploded or mostly untouched."

"Jesus that's brutal." said Snipe.

"They can't possibly have enough time to get there."

They all watched amazed as the heroes managed to shorten a 30 minute distance into a 7 minute one.

"What are you teaching those kids in the hero courses?" asked Mic surprised.

All breaths were hold when they saw Shinsou successfully brainwash a hero only to be a second later free-falling off the building in someone else's arms.

"Wait so he won't kill Shinsou?"

"Maybe it was just a strategy I don't know."

In the time Midoriya was running to his base, Shishida had eliminated two of his teammates, Vlad King announcing their death through the comms.

They watched as Midoriya chained Shinsou to the wall, Aizawa having to put a hand over Midnight's mouth in order to prevent any comments she sure had.

Midoriya left his base and started walking god knows where.

The damage the city had sustained was mind boggling. The heroes cringed at the high number of deaths, but were at a lost for ways it could have gone better. If it would have been them maybe they could have saved a hundred people more due to better rescue cooperation, but it would have been a catastrophe either way.

Those in the hero team were all at a loss. Their morale had been shaken and the 'deaths' and 'injuries' of hundreds were heavy on their hearts.

They didn't have exited to rest as they had to hold conferences and do damage control. It was a long night to come.

()

This time the one who drew their attention to the monitor was Shinsou not Midoriya.

"Everyone's having nightmares." Hound Dog sighed. "That's it, therapy for everyone."

"Slept well?" Midoriya asked.

"I wouldn't have." said Ectoplasm.

They were happy Shinsou was released and instead not traumatized for more hours than he already was, what concerned them was that Midoriya gave Shinsou, the student in gen Ed, a way to earn what he called 'hero points' by just giving his a number. Present Mic knew of this Miko, she was a normal student student didn't stand out in any school subjects, maintaining an all time average. As far as they were aware Miko hadn't done anything except open a small shoe shop which wasn't a front for anything.

()

Midoriya was back at his apartment. The way the boy had planned everything in advance impressed the heroes. They all sighed of relief when they saw that he sat on an actual bed to take a much needed nap.

Around 4pm that watched the hero team's conference.

It was impressive how Yaoyorozu managed to make a parallel to the League's choice of base. Yanagi hit the nail on its head with her assumption that Midoriya is hiding underground.

Kuroiro's insight led to the discovery of a drug ring. What shocked them was that they had no idea someone was building up a ring in the city.

"What?" Vlad King said.

"Interesting. I have to admit I wasn't paying that much attention, but it's still impressive how well they managed to conceal it." Nezu said.

()

"Nightmares again for greenie." Midnight said switching to his cameras.

"Poor kid." Thriteen said.

"Poor kid and all that but what the hell is his computer displaying." Powerloader said.

"It's the... bank's... floorplan. Oh no." said Ectoplasm.

"Wow he looks so hot in his villain suit."

"Midnight please!" pleaded Mic.

"What numer is this offence?"

"I've lost count principal." said Cementoss.

"Wait is he shooting someone?!"

They all turned at Mic's voice to see Midoriya snipe a random robot. Panic followed in which he waited for the perfect time to take out a massively skilled opponent, Yaoyorozu. Her role was important enough that she was the highest priority on the take out 'list'. He didn’t even leave everyone some time to adjust to the change before he followed with the explosion of the heroes's supply room.

Aizawa had to announce: "Yaoyorozu has died." in a dry voice.

They gasped when Midoriya-- after he was done with the first phase of his plan-- jumped out the window, with nothing but a grappling hook and they choked when Midoriya threatened the civilians with a gun. The boy on the screen was completely different to the one they came to know. The three gunshots resonated through the city, people staring to cower. Luckily for the heroes, the three students at the counter managed to sound the alarm.

"Start emptying the safe and bring the money here. Nobody moves or I shoot.". His voice was cold and harsh.

Midnight whistled seeing the cash, "Damn that's a lot of money".

Seeing the child being taken from its mother and dangled around made the heroes feel their students helplessness, especially when Komori was so close but instead caught a corpse.

The fight then started. It was inevitable and in the observer's opinion the third day was too late for a fight, but this was an unconventional game from the start.

When they heared Midoriya announce his name they all felt it fully fit the game, it was a smart choice of words.

"Mina has died." Aizawa announced.

"That must've hurt. Who the hell made his weapons?"

Power Loader looked up, misery on his face "Did you really not figure it out? He and Hatsume together are a nightmare that I don't wanna see."

"Satou has died."

"That pirouette was amazing. The fella is good with a gun." Snipe remarked.

Seeing as there were many deaths to follow, the heroes brought in Recovery Girl in order for the assessments to be more precise.

The fact that Midoriya ran straight inside the Bank confused most of them, why would he trap himself like that. His strategy only made sense after a surprising show of balance and strength, when he almost literally killed Tetsutetsu.

"Tetsutetsu has died."

"Good like pulling that one out Ectoplasm." Mic smiled.

The walls were too thin and as a result the heroes could hear Midoriya who was in the vents. He was lucky, or skilled more precisely, because he escaped a particularly serious wound he could have gotten.

"Honenuki has died." Vlad King announced.

"He didn't have time to dodge Vyvanse he was concentrating too much on using this quirk." Ectoplasm tsked.

"Ok but like how is he moving with those bags strapped to him? What the hell."

Using the boulder he caught from Yanagi he redirected it so it hit her instead. The girl tripped and bashed her head against a curb giving her an irl wound that even Recovery Girl cringed at. He continued by shooting her and taking her out.

"Yanagi has died."

Komori was the next problem, or so Midoriya thought. The observers could see Monoma around the corner. It was a smart setup from the heroes. Monoma had to join the fight after Midoriya figured it out. He joined at the same time as Kuroiro did, giving him the chance to use a copy of his classmate's quirk.

"Wait is that a grenad-"

Recovery Girl immediately disagreed explaining the corrosive effects of nitric acid.

"Nezu how could you allow something like this?" she said appalled.

"It's in the rule book. as long as it does not leave permanent damage, then it's allowed."

"I cannot believe you!" said the youthful heroine.

The chase continues as the reinforcements picked it up from where it was left.

"Shouji has died."

He jumped down in the canal and the heroes split up in three parties. Being Midoriya's territory the heroes obviously emerged out a few minutes later with serious burns on their skin.

Midnight had her hand on her mouth, the burns looked very painful.

Recovery Girl tsk-ed and the rest of the heroes all looked highly concerned.

"I'm going there tonight." she said.

"No Chiyo. They have to make due on their own."

"They don't have any supplies left Nezu! you can't be that cruel."

"It's simply a game."

"A game that will leave them scarred for life!"

"You can't go Chiyo."

"Fine, this talk isn't finished!"

"Look at the screen." Hound Dog said.

"He came back?

"Oh no."

Bakugo was cleanly knocked out with a hit to the neck. He didn't feel anything as he was dragged away, and by the time the heroes noticed their leader was missing, Midoriya had already made it back to his base, having carried Bakugo while running at full speed.

"What a productive day." came an emotionless voice from the screens.

Bakugo was placed on the exact same mattress Shinsou had been on, and chained to the wall.

"That mattress is so dirty."

"That can't be the thing you're thinking about."

Chapter Text

He had to tear away his gaze from his laptop screen when he heard the chains clanking. Bakugo tiredly woke up rubbing at his eyes, noticing how his hands felt heavier.

"What the fuck?" he grogily whispered.

This was Midoriya's first time he saw Bakugo be quiet. What a fascinating moment.

"Morning windblume."

"HAH?" Bakugo suddenly screamed. He tugged hard on the chains.

"WHAT THE FUCK. DEKUUU RELEASE ME!"

"Tennoshi." he corrected him. "My my, kidnapping you will just give away my position, what an awful move for me." he said a syringe in hand.

Bakugo minutely flinched back.

"YOU'RE FUCKING DEAD WHEN I GET OUT OF THIS YOU HEAR ME. HUH?" the end of his speech ended in confusion.

"A little detail, you can't use your quirk. Suppressant cuffs, have you heard of them?" He filled the syringe with a clear solution squinting at the markings to make sure the dose is corect.

"Hold still."

"In you fucking dreams."

Midoriya delivered a kick to Bakugo's head. His nose started bleeding and he couldn't reach it to wipe the blood running down his face. The hero only let out a grunt not wanting to give any satisfaction. Midoriya grabbed him by the hair and forced his head up.

"You look pitiful, do you know how entertaining it is to see you like this?"

Bakugo spit on his face. "The fucking teachers won't allow this, you're fucked up in the head. What, did you grow some balls thinking you could win? Thinking quirkless little Deku could win? he mocked.

Midoirya wiped the spit off his face and headbutted him into the wall.

"Watch how you talk to your captor." He gathered momentum before plunging the needle in Bakugo's arm. His eyes went comically wide and frightened for one glorious second.

"What the fuck is in that." he said in a low voice.

"Why should I tell you? All you need to know is that this won't allow you to pass out, it'll keep you on adrenaline in order for you to last through the whole... session while also feeling all the pain, it honestly is a simple drug, wasn't hard to invent."

"You're bluffing." he smiled. "Those fuckers watching would never allow something like this."

"Let's see shall we? Maybe it only works on those who deserve it."

"What do you mean."

Midoriya laughed. It was crazed and incredulous and it sent the rats underground scurrying away.

"Do you think you are a Saint? After everything you've put me through? Aha ha hahahaha. Or maybe you thought what you did was charity, getting rid of uselessly used space. You actually still think that don't you? That your ashes will be turned to gold. What a good citizen, doing community work by bullying the person who doesn't deserve to exist, who messes up everything. What a good citizen, maintaining the natural hierarchical pyramid. What... a good... citizen slowly killing off others that were already living in the remaining shadows."

Throughout the speech Bakugo was going paler and paler, was this the effect of the drug? He felt like he was sweating.

"How someone like you got in UA, and is standing amongst others and most importantly me, is beyond me. Maybe you did the same thing you had to do for English class in middle school." it was Bakugo's turn to laugh mockingly. "Did you shake your ass in front of them too-"

A hard punch echoed. Midoriya's eyes were covered by his hair. Bakugo's jaw was dislocated stopping the words he wanted to say out loud in his throat. The villain put his hand over his mouth and silently giggled.

"I've always been pathetic haven't I? You know, Saguya sensei as well as all the others always marked my work wrong, because how could the quirkless kid be better than the quirked students. English was a tough class, not because of the studying, I'm actually fluent you know? But because the teacher was a stubborn mule. Yeah, it was a fucked up decision, taking up what he offered me, but weren't the rumors enough payment for my 'cheating'? It was the only way to assure my enterance would even pass the screening at UA. Were you aware that besides your little bully group all our classmates would pick up the pace every day you were more lax with me? You weren't the only 'savior' of this world, everyone in that school was one too. I have no dignity remained, but I'd say I'd do everything the same if I was to live again, if this was the only chance or method of getting to see you like this. Countless sleepless nights, countless days filled with pain that I couldn't feel anymore, all worth it for what I am going to do to you now."

The world seemed to have stopped, perhaps the green haired boy forgot this was a game, it was a dangerous territory. There were suddenly no teachers observing their move, no cameras watching, no people judging.

Baguko was slightly shaken.

"What the fuck is wrong with you? All of a sudden bringing back things that were left in the past? WE GOT OVER IT. STOP SPEAKING, QUIT IT." he said covering his ears the best he could. The truth hurt especially when he wanted to believe a lie.

"Quit living? That's a way of stopping the pain, yes. I just wanted, for some bullshit reason, to pay a homage to my dream. It died young, I wanted to prove something to myself, even if I don't even know what that something is."

Walking over back to his mattress he picked up his laptop and set it on an old chair. The leather was peeled back and one of the legs was shorter so it inclined the whole thing. The metal was rusted like anything else in the base.

"How about we take a look at the news."

As soon as the browser opened there were countless articles about the leader of the heroes having gone missing. There were assumptions of murder and of torture as people have reported seeing or hearing him. They were far fetched Bakugo was doing amazing.

"They care so much about you. Perfect quirk, perfect hero, what a simple mindset. Look how many conferences they have to attend, all without their captain."

"You're not going to win this." Bakugo left a pause in his speech. "You can't kill all of us and you can't prove anything, you're playing unfairly and frankly on the psychopathic side." His nose was still bleeding.

Mjdoriya sighed. "Alright let's start."

"Start what?"

Midoriya came back with a cutter in his hand, bit soon realized he couldn't quite approach Bakugo as the boy was constantly kicking, like a broken windmill.

"Stay put or I'm cutting more than just skin."

"WHAT?"

"At first I wanted to cut out a whole hand, to leave you unable to use your quirk, for some reason I can't....I can't quite remember why."

"Because this is A FUCKING GAME AND I DONT UNDERSTAND WHY THOSE FUCKING TEACHERS AREN'T SAIYNG ANYTHING!"

'Game...' Midoriya thought confused. 'Right.'

Bakugo pressed himslef to the wall even more but Midoriya managed to grab his arm and hold it still. It seemed like he was stronger than Bakugo. Marking a little piece of skin with a known scar he sunk the knife into the soft skin and cut out a big patch one centimeter thick. He then wrapped his new wound with fresh gauze. Grabbing a blindfold the tied it around the hero's eyes.

"You fucking piece of shit. Let me go!"

"This helps you focus on the pain more."

Then he grabbed a metal bat. The pain that followed documented itself in flowering bruises.

"Why can't you just eliminate me, is this all about your grudge?"

"No, it's more than that. Killing their leader would be like killing their morale. I don't want to do that, not too soon, let's just strip it apart layer after layer."

The bat ended up bloody, specks of blood on it from Bakugo's mouth. He made sure to not hit any important places, he was... after all... in a game. Yeah he didn't want Revovery Girl on his trail.

Bakugo was heaving, his chest rising and lowering furiously. His shirt was ripped up in places, from his own grip or from Midoriya's, perhaps both.

"You can't have this weak of a resolve. Try acting lively, it gets easier each time I promise, after all, I've been through it."

He went and switched the weapon grabbing a whip with small razors in it.

Bakugo's back felt raw. His shirt was sliced into little pieces connecting between themselves like a twisted macramé. Every so often Bakugo let out a scream, emptying himself so he could concentrate. Inside his head he was trying to distract himself, trying to be professional and try finding out things he never would have known, but every attempt at collecting information ended up failing. He couldn't help but feel sorry for everything he'd done to his ex-bestfirend. It was his and the rest of society's fault, they failed him.

()

The heroes were all beat, from patrols to conferences they barely had time for a small lunch they bought with the agency's money.

"What are we going to do without Bakugo?" Kaminari said.

The whole team felt a sense of hopelessness. They were sitting in silence when Kendo burst through the door (which was recently repaired, also from the agency's money).

"I was at the police station when this package arrived, you need to see what's inside." She said looking a little bit green.

They all came around together and Kirishima opened the lid. Inside there was a piece of flesh, some scarred tissue.

"What in the... is that real?" Fukidashi exclaimed.

Mina chose to poke it. "EEH, it's definitely real!"

"Wait I know that scar. Isn't that a part of Bakugos forearm? He has this pattern from overexertion."

Everyone paused at the share of news, their mind immediately darkening.

"What the fuck is wrong with that guy." Monoma said, too creeped out..

"There's a note under the piece of.. skin." Ojiro said.

'Hello heroes. Take this package as a gift for your failing efforts. Bakugo has been a great joy to be around, I can only hope others will get to experience the same joy I am at least once in their lives. Keep your eyes wandering and alert, because danger is just around the corner. Now by the time you're reading this note you should have 10, 9, 8, 7 (...).'

"What is he talking about?" asked Hagakure.

"RUN!" Kendo cried.

On instinct they all bolted, unfortunately too late for some, Bondo, Kodai and Sero having 'died' in the wake of the explosion. Tokoyami was lucky with Dark Shadow protecting him and Kuroiro was lucky that he could easily escape into an umbra.

They all coughed up the debris stick in their respiratory system.

"Bondo has died."

"Kodai has died."

"Sero has died."

"NO, GOD DAMMIT." Komori hardly thumped her foot against the ground.

"What's with this guy and explosives?!"

"Wait I just realized, we didn't get a message about Bakugo having died!" said Awase.

"Yeah, let's all have some hope." Pony said trying to smile.

"But don't you remember Shiozaki wasn't announced either?" Koda was shyly twisting his fingers around.

"Ah.." said everyone.

"Okay for now let's go back inside and observe the damage, we need to inform the police of our thoughts and we need to try tracking Bakugo. Who here knows computers well?" Kendo asked.

Surprisingly Kaminari's hand was up.

They all turned to look doubtful at the boy.

"My quirk literally has to do with electricity." he deadpaned.

"Alright, Kaminari you need to try and hack into Bakugo's comms and trace his signal. You, you and you, will contact a building agency, we need to clean up this mess. You, look into the agency's funds we may not have a lot left. Try to also get some rest everybody, today we're planning on catching him once and for all."

()

The canal was like a maze. They were all thankful Kaminari had managed to find a map of the underground somewhere in the hero files. He said it had been too easy, so maybe it had been a resource available to them at all time and they just didn't know. Aware of the fact that traps layed mostly everywhere, they advanced the space step by step. With a map in hand it was going slow, they should have memorized it but they had no time.

The whole team was under, all fifteen of them. After a good hour of searching around they found they were lost.

"How did we get lost with a map? Shishida said facepalming.

"No worries, let's just turn here." Kendou (the naturally proclaimed temporary leader) said, even if it was obvious she didn't know what she was doing. That's when she stepped on a pressure plate, she could feel in slow motion her mistake and tried to back out. It didn't work, fake blood exploded from the underneath and covered her whole body in it. She slowly turned towards her teammates and after an awkward second layed down.

"Kendou has died."

"We were already careful what is even happening?"

"Why did we choose to fight in his territory again?"

"We need to be the predators this time!" Uraraka said determined.

"I don't think that role suits you." an eerie voice bounced off the damp walls.

All fourteen heroes froze.

"Formation 1 go!"

The fight immediately took off once Tennoshi walked out of his hiding spot. Todoroki froze the water so the 'playing' room had a bigger surface area. Uraraka stood in the back using her quirk on Iida, and Todorki. The half and half boy worked well with Kirishima as a tank of sorts, while also being able to do impressive attacks. They soon realized the small constructed place was a disadvantage for them not Midoriya.

Tennoshi jumped over Todoroki's ice swiftly parkouring towards the back where he ripped off a horn from Pony, the girl letting out a scream, and stabbed a blood pack he placed over her heart (in order to not actually kill her)

"Pony has died."

Four hands grabbed Midoriya from the back sending him flying into a wall. It seemd like Monoma had copied Tokage's quirk. Kaibara and Aoyama came charging. He dodged Aoyama's laser but got scratched by grazing Kaibara's drills. He unsheathed his knives and stabbed Kaibara who was the closest to him. Aoyama who was already running away, got away 'alive' as Kouda jumped in front.

"Kaibara has died."

"Kouda has died."

Darkshadow came out of nowhere working with Kuroiro. Kuroiro was difficult do deal with, he molded with the shadows and therefore could hide in Darkshadow. Jirou was was unleashing her sonic blasts making him loose his footing. Spotting her protected by Ojiro he jumped on Hagakure's back, surprising the people that thought he couldn't see her, and sliced her.

"Jirou has died."

The 'corpses' laying around proved to be difficult to maneuver around, he even stepped on a few of them hearing and 'oomf' and sometimes curses.

Ojiro being in front of Jirou also got a knife in the lungs.

"Ojiro has died."

Next he needed to find Kaminari, the boy was too smart to be left alive after this fight. Simultaneously still battling with the shadows, he threw a dagger that landed in his liver, not a critical wound. The downside to this game was you didn't really feel pain. If it was real even if it wasn't lethal the wound would have impeded Kaminari greatly, unfortunately it was just a game and Kaminari continued fighting, somehow getting to electrocute him.

The pain wasn't knew, he'd been electrocuted before. Flashbacks ran through his brain like a movie, but fortunately Asui brought him back by flinging him into the ceiling.

He landed on his back feeling something crack, and grabbed the foot of the person next to him, slamming him headfirst into the ground.

"Aoyama has died."

Reaching for Asui's tongue he forcefully dragged her before pulling hard enough her face came in contact with his fist. He quickly stabbed her in he heart.

"Asui has died."

A gust of wind flew by him and Iida grabbed him by his vest. He was brought straight into one of Todoroki's ice spikes, feeling blood flow from his abdomen. He shot Iida over his own shoulder.

"Iida has died."

Midoriya heard Uraraka scream. Fukidashi propelled her with some onomatopoeia and she landed on his back. Uraraka touched him and made him float up where Darkshadow slammed him back down. Funny how the villain 'killed' them using fake knives that barely hurt and bullets that did hurt (but that's not the point) and how the heroes constantly slammed him into concrete and even actually stabbed him in the stomach.

Taking a round ball from his pocket he threw it down the corridor. Immediately he heard people scream, what nice music. The nitric acid inside the unventilated room had a higher corrosive effect.

Tokoyami couldn't breath anymore, therefore Darkshadow started to dissipate. Kuroiro fell out with not enough time to camouflage within a different shadow. Midoriya managed to shoot both of them.

"Tokoyami has died."

"Kuroiro has died."

He found himself stuck to the ground when he realized he was welded down. An unattached leg kicked him in the face and he felt blood run down behind his mask. Shishida took a running start and lunched him so hard he got unstuck and even skid back a few meters. Komori's mushrooms that were freely growing around took a hit from the acid and started to decompose. The girl tried to run away but Midoriya grabbed her by her leg warmers and she broke her nose falling face first. Fukidashi tried to help her by propelling her out but Midoriya caught her by sticking his knife in her spine.

"Komori has died."

"Kaminari has died."

Everyone was confused by that for a second when Midoriya realized he was still trying to fight even after getting stabbed. He must have 'bled out' by know because he didn't get treated for his 'wound'.

Trying to put some distance between him and everyone he ran into an air wall. Being trapped Todorkoki unleashed his fire. Bad idea. The fire reacted with the nitric acid and burned hotter and hotter. Having already burns on them the heroes all screamed. Midoriya held it in feeling sweat rolling down under his clothes. His stomach wound might as well have been cauterized by then. He was lucky he had full coverage otherwise he'd seriously be burned. Tsuburaba being the closest to the fire source got burnt the worst.

"Tsuburaba has died."

Shishida's hair was all burnt but he managed to run away. Todoroki was safe due to having increased fire resistance but Midoriya could still see raw flesh on his hands.

Everyone ran away, Midoirya hearing a distant "RETREAT!" in what he thought was Monoma's voice.

At the last second he faintly heared through his comms.

"Rin has died."

Why? He didn't know, he was probably the last to run away.

()

Arriving back at his base Bakugo immediately began screaming.

"WHAT THE FUCK HAPPENED OVER THERE?"

Midoriya ignored him, walking the best he could towards his duffel bags. He grabbed a sandwich and a bottle of water and shoved them in Bakugo's arms.

"What the fuck is this shit?" he said throwing the sandwich in Midoriya's face.

"Food and water so you ungrateful shit don't die while I'm away." he threw the sandwich back.

"You're leaving?" he asked breathing heavily from his bleeding wounds.

"Not for long, don't enjoy it too much."

As Midoriya almost limped out the door, he turned around suddenly and shot seemingly nothing.

"Hagakure has died."

He silently walked away like nothing had happened.

Bakugo was left dumbfounded.

Later, he saw Ectoplasm casually enter and pick up Hagakure's 'body' not saying anything about him even after Bakugo started insulting the crap out of him. He only got a look of mild pity.

()

It was pitch black by the time he arrived at Miko's place. He saw an abandoned garage door. Knocking a rhythm of two two three one, a voice sounded from behind.

"Cecilia?"

He responded. "Qingxin."

The door opened, but he waited for the six latches to be undone first.

Behind the door a blue haired girl with black accents and horns on her head peeked her head out.

"Tennoshi?" she exclaimed quietly.

An arm popped out and whisked him inside. He was placed on a couch just as old as his mattress but somehow cleaner, leave it to Miko to find better things in the city than him.

"I didn't expect you to actually come to me, you're usually a lone wolf. How bad is the wound?"

"Do you want your couch to be stained by blood?"

"I can't believe you, how did you get in such a shape, you're better than this!"

"It was fifteen versus one, Miko you think too highly of me."

"No, you think too lowly of yourself. Shirt off."

The wound was much worse than anyone expected, including Midoriya.

"How are you still standing? How are you still conscious?"

He laid on the couch face up, not really hearing Miko, his eyes were glazed over and looked dull. The girl looked at him sadly, realizing he should be left alone for a minute or two.

"Shinsou!" she yelled. "Bring me the medical kit please!"

A purple haired boy appeared from the other room.

"Midoriya!?" He was surprised to actually see him.

"Yes, yes." She said stretching her arm.

Miko silently worked on Midoirya who was completely dissociated. Shinsou stood next to her the entire time, seeing the perosn who helped like this made his saliva stick to his throat.

"Will he be ok?"

"He'll always be ok unless the wound is caused by himself. Trust me, he's a beast." she said smiling tring to lift up the mood.

The moon outside hung high. Miko was entirely tired and wanted nothing more than to sleep, but it'd be worth it when she gets her money... and when Midoriya will be alright.

Chapter Text

He woke up clawing at his throat. His airways were collapsing. Midoriya felt something grip his back, in a sort of soothing way. Through the barage of noises and static he heared two different voices talking shushedly. He opened his eyes (when did he close them?) to see a blurry image. His eyes were dry and it hurt to blink, thank god he didn't cry from nightmares anymore, that would have been pathetic, especially with all the camera's on him.

"You're awake!" a silky voice sounded.

He almost found himself vomiting at the sweetness of her tone.

"Miko." he said. His voice was husky from sleeping.

When his eyes focused further he noticed Shinsou was there too.

"So you actually took my advice, good for you. Has Miko been teaching you valuable things or has she just used you as one of her lackeys?"

"If by valuable you mean how to commit crimes and get under the radar, then yes she's been teaching me well." He fiddled further. "This won't get me in trouble right?"

"Why would it, it's a game after all."

"A game." Miko puffed. "Yeah a fucking game in which they stabbed you."

"Miko I did worse."

"No you didn't. Look I don't know much about what you're doing but the worse thing I got from Mei is that she built you some bombs you filled with some sort of acid. Boohoo they got a bit burnt, while you got STABBED, in the stomach may I add. If you wouldn't have gotten here in time, or if you chose to treat the wound alone you could have died." Worry shone in her eyes. "This is serious."

"My death coming sooner than it should? Is it my birthday?"

Miko stilled at that.

"Maybe I would have laughed if I knew that was a joke."

"If I can interrupt, how did you meet? I never saw you two sit together at lunch?"

"We met right before this exercise. I had heard of Miko through some gossip and we set an alliance. She comes to me if she needs anything and I go to her if I need anything."

"Obviously I didn't expect him to actually come, he looked scarily introverted even with all I heard about him."

"Wait so the bank heist was to support the drug ring?"

"Yes I needed more money, he does pay for my support."

"Do you pay for his support too?"

"Well the drug ring is 60% his involvement."

"You're part of the drug ring?"

"Yeah, it is a good side business."

"But then why did you need more money?"

"Becaus I gave her all the rights to the drug ring, I don't get money from it, I get diversions and secrets."

"That's so complicated."

"I know." "It's really not." said Miko and Midoriya at the same time.

"Well anyway, YOU are not fighting today."

"You're joking" he said standing up, his aura felt like it increased. "It's the final day, I'm ending this."

"Then blow up the city or something, they're bound to die."

"That's not how it works."

"You plan to fight in this state?"

"I've lived through worse."

Miko knew she couldn't hold him back so she looked pleadingly at Shinsou.

"I barely know him" he whispered back.

"Anyway, Miko thanks for the help I guess."

"He guesses." she mocked under her breath.

"I'll give the money to one of your goons."

And like that, he was out the door.

"He's going to get hurt again."

"Isn't it inevitable in a game like this?"

"That doesn't mean it makes me feel better, he's the only one who took my idea seriously."

"Yeah, he did that for me too."

"Tsk."

()

Midoriya walked back in the canal. The frozen water had melted back to its original form and he could hear drips of water dribble along the stony walls.
He limped back onto his mesh platform, the first thing being hearing Bakugo scream.

"WHERE THE FUCK WERE YOU?"

Blood was caked on his face and his torn shirt displayed wounds that didn't get the chance to heal. The razors left ugly marks.

"None of your business." he didn't know why he was responding, really he shouldn't kneel down to Bakugo's level.

He did his best to keep him from seeing the state he was in.

The sandwich Midoriya had given him laid besides his hand. Bakugo was probably too scared to throw it away further in case he really did leave for longer. It seemed as the boy had forgotten about the 5 day limit too.

"Also what the fuck did you give me? I couldn't even close my eyes."

He ignored that question.

"OI DON'T IGNORE ME."

"You think you can talk to me that way after everything? You should learn to keep your mouth shut." he said grabbing fistful of Bakugo's shirt and squinting down at him.

Midoriya walked back to his bag and grabbed a fresh shirt and a new suit in order to replace his shredded one.

((author here I completely forgot he had a Kevlar vest fml, pretend he still had one, (cause he's not stupid to not wear one) but somehow still got stabbed by Todoroki's spike))

Everything seemed quiet. His usual fuzziness never went away from when he woke up. He felt weird, doing his tasks on autopilot when he knew he had to keep his head in the game. He tuned out Bakugo's courageous barkings and took off his shirt. Underneath his stomach was bandaged and his countless scars shone in the dim light now that they weren't covered with concealer.

"What..." Bakugo said. "What happened dipshit? Don't ignore me!"

He sighed feeling a part of his soul escape.

"Your teammates."

"I mean the scars." he growled.

"Your lackeys. The school?" he responded. "Like I said, everyone was a Saint there."

Lines criss-crossed along his back and his upper torso was covered by two big patches caused by a particular explosion quirk. If you looked hard enough you could see a handprint behind them.

"You've been covering them?" Bakugo said trying to ignore his bandaged forearms.

"Should I have displayed them like I was at a zoo?"

He fell quiet.

"Alright, come, we're going for a walk."

"WHAT?"

"Shut it or I'm delaying it, and you can't withstand another round can you?"

()

The heroes were all sitting in the common room. Todoroki's face was a different kind of cold and layers of cool air floated away from him.

"This is the last day we can do this. We'll surely beat him, we won't play around." Tokage said.

"What is the plan? We need to rescue Bakubro too, we can't leave him in the villain's hands and say we won the game!"

"We'll beat Deku-kun and show him we are strong, that's what he wants too probably!"

The others tried not to look at Uraraka, she really was doing everything in her power to preserve Midoriya's image the way he was from the start.

"Todoroki you create and maintain a ring of ice, make high walls, we need to box him, stay towards the back out of the way, if needed spike him. Uraraka you lighten me and Tokage, our limbs will be easier to control and we'll gain speed. Shishida you go headfirst, distract him so he keeps his eyes on you. Kirishima you help Shishida, you're both tanks. Fukidashi, try to confuse him as much as possible, play with him. Awase, you need to weld our limbs to Midoriya so he can't escape. Once he is down we run damage control and you Kirishima can go look for Bakugo in the sewer system, that's the only place he could be at. Did everyone understand?"

A small chorus of 'yes' rang out.

"Well team, let's enjoy the peace we have, we'll make the others proud of us." said Tokage.

They all clancked together some glasses with orange juice. It was the cheap kind from the store around the corner, Ojiro had to wear a disguise in order to not be seen at such a place.

Uraraka scrunched her face, the juice tasting bitter on her tongue from residue toothpaste, not a good omen.

Monoma looked at the glass thoughtful, for some reason while making his speech he felt a sort of dread. He remained comfortable, because there was nothing to worry about, they wouldn't underestimate him again.

Right as he was about to put the glass down, the windows shattered. The sound was so garish, all of their hands flew to their ears. Looking at eachother for a split second, they all ran downstairs. On the way out, Todoroki spilled his glass of juice, the others laying forgotten on the shard covered table.

()

They were in the back of a van. Midoriya was sitting on a bench with Bakugo asleep next to him and sporting new bleeding gashes. The goon in front belonged to Miko, they struck another deal and Midoriya got free transport to the central park.

They arrived in a few minutes, with several red light trespasses. The dosage expired at the perfect time and Bakugo woke up tied to a chair in the middle of the vacant park.

He learned to shut up after another injection with the 'mystery' fluid.

"Relax." Midoriya said threatening him with his eyes. The green of his irises almost seemed radioactive.

Walking closer, the villain velcroed a strap on, it was heavy causing Bakugo to lean forward. Then out of nowhere he pulled out a gun and started shooting the windows of the hero tower.

The sound of glass shattering echoed around, bouncing off the evergreen trees and swimming with the wind. He heard screams, those belonging to the heroes. In no more than 5 minutes, the few remaining pedestrians were evacuated and in front of him stood the 8 people left.

"BAKUBRO!" Kirishima yelled.

"BAKUGO!" they all screamed.

His mouth was gagged but he still struggled in his binds looking feral and pitiful at the same time. They all watched him tear at the ropes, staring in disbelief at the state he was in.

Why the heroes didn't attack him the moment their eyes landed upon him he couldn't understand. Deciding to go along he started monologuing.

"The last standing, what an honor it must be."

10.

"Give up, this is our last warning! We'll take you on!". In the group cry he could hear Uraraka's determined voice, it felt shaky however.

9.

He subtly shuffled back.

"When have you ever kept your promise heroes? This world is rotten and I'll rebuild the proper way." his tone was eerie. It sent snakes down their spines and made them realize they really are just children.

They didn't realize Midoriya was standing on top of a manhole.

8.

"Aren't you going to move? How do you plan on taking me down?"

7.

A dome of ice was instantly created. The chill in the air increased exponentially and suddenly a three piece suit with a Kevlar vest wasn't enough for the cold, it's good he had practice from when he was a kid and got thrown out of the house.

Monoma and Tokage disappeared from his field of view and all he saw was Shishida charge at him with Kirishima on his back.

6.

The red haired hero backflipped off and tried to punch him, the punch having been stopped. It was hand to hand combat, or more actually hand to knife as Midoriya brought out his daggers. He slashed at Kirishima's only weak points, joints. There was soft skin on his elbow which immediately got decorated with a gaping red line. He heard the boy hiss as he turned around to let the other have a go.

5.

The beast managed to jump him when Midoriya lost his balance from one of Fukidashi's sounds.

"SLAM!"

His stomach wound didn't appreciate the ribs folding in of themselves.

4.

He jumped back up avoiding a hand that was just about to get welded to him. Getting tired of the buffoonery he fished his gun and shot Shishida in the middle of the forehead. He twisted his body and managed to catch Tokage's chest, which got sent back from the force of the bullet.

"Shishida has died."

"Tokage has died."

With their plan changing, Monoma now had the pressure on him.

3.

A sudden spike of ice got sent. Having experience from the first one, Midoriya barely managed to dodge it.

Monoma didn't have a chance to approach as he felt a dagger 'imbed' itself in his eye. Midoriya had pirouetted and landed a hit mid air. Even if the knife didn't pierce the eye thanks to its technology, he still let out a scream. He'd probably be blind in one eye for a few days.

"Monoma has died."

2.

As a last resort Kirishima dashed towards Bakugo, but Tennoshi grabbed one of his costume straps and pulled him into the blade, which perforated his lungs.

"Kirishima has died."

1.

Midoriya ran back to the manhole cover just in time to flip it open and jump underground.

0.

Everything exploded. The apartment buidlings, the remainings of the hero tower, the shops, the very ground. It beautifully created a domino effect. Thw radius stretched and kept stretching. The dome around the heroes still standing started rapidly melting, they were safe while watching the world crumble. Nothing could beat the helplessness that reflected in their glassy eyes. Their pupils went wide and their hair was blown all over the place from the pressure in the wind.

0.

Red burst everywhere. The source was Bakugo. The velcro unstuck from the stress and the bomb strapped to him reached its final tick.

"Bakugo has died."

"Uraraka has died."

"Todoroki has died."

"Awase has died."

"Fukidashi has died."

...

Midoriya appeared again, climbing from the collapsed underground. Looking around it seemed funny, his faces shifted, and a smile rested on it. It wasn't crazed, but everything around changed. His aura was pressing, shifting the atmosphere around. The actually alive people had their eyes wide open. They were standing up despite being 'dead', covered in the iron smell of what they couldn't believe was fake blood.

The city was in shambles, the observers' screen registering all the new civilain deaths. It almost lagged the super computer. People were at the very least injured, most were dead.

He won and it was such a simple ending. It really showed them that all the fights were for show, that Midoriya could have ended this from day one. The place looked worse than hell, you could hear screams from across, of robots stuck under buildings. Pity he had to notify Nezu what he was going to do in order to pull out the actual humans.

He stood in the middle of the panoramic view silent as all tye others. Soot layed in his messy hair that he stroked with one hand.

A blaring AI voice sounded over the city.

"The excerice has been completed. All participants please gather on the field."

He left it all behind, his friends and the city. Time to deal with the consequences of his joy, as always.

Chapter Text

The heroes had to tear away their gaze from the board game they were playing when they heard the sound of chains clanking together.

"What the fuck?" Bakugo whispered.

"Oh no, here starts th show." said Present Mic, a fan of monopoly money resting in his hand.

"I've never heard Bakugo be so quiet before!" Midnight looked in wonder.

"Morning windblume." Midoriya said.

A few smiled at that. The smile disappeared the moment Bakugo shouted and started calling him names.

"Tennoshi." they heard Midoriya correct the explosive blonde. He turned around and grabbed something from his bag.

"What is in that syringe?" Ectoplasm said hesitantly.

"Oh please do not worry, it's just a saline solution, whatever Midoriya will say it's just to make Bakugo experience the placebo effect."

"I don't really agree with this." said Hound Dog spotting Bakugo flinch back.

"You shouldn't agree with ANY of THIS being a psychiatrist." said Cementoss.

"Wait where did he get suppressant cuffs?"

Power Loader sighed, a heartbreaking sound. "Mei." is all he said.

The verbal fight continued especially from Bakugo's side. All the heroes cringed back when they saw Midoriya deliver a kick to his head.

"That's bound to leave at the very least a concussion. Nezu you need to chide the boy." said Recovery Girl.

The person in question chose to remain quiet.

Midoriya's voice went quiet, he didn't need to yell to cause a goose bump inducing experienece. "(...) do you know how entertaining it is to see you like this?"

Crickets could be heard.

"Is it like a... kink or something?"

"Midnight please stop ruining the moment!"

"Oh my god Midnight..."

"The moment was already ruined!" she defended herself.

They watched Bakugo mock "The fucking teachers won't allow this, you're fucked up in the head. What, did you grow some balls thinking you could win? Thinking quirkless little Deku could win?"

"Ok ok let's take them piece by piece." said Hound Dog.

"The teachers won't allow this." Midnight repeated. "Yeah that's not going well for you buddy. I mean it's not like he did anything that needs our involvement."

"Other than so far psychological manipulation?" Hound Dog raised an eyebrow. "And the day has barely started?"

"Pfft details." she said waving her hand. "Those experiences will harden him, and hopefully silence him in my class too." she smiled at the end.

"Ok ok next. 'You're fucked up in the head'... Midoriya... really? Thirteen said.

"Like I said before, Midoriya is playing his role surprisingly well that's it, the boy couldn'thurt a fly." said Aizawa. There would be an ugly realization later.

"And the quirkless part?"

The room fell somewhat silent.

"Perhaps he was a late bloomer? Aizawa you should know, what does it say in his file?" Power Loader asked.

"Oh you don't know Shou. He doesn't read the student's profiles. He likes to judge them of first impressions only."

"I could fetch the file, in fact, all the students who are participating have had their files stored here a week in preparation. Check the top drawer."

Aizawa pulled out a manilla folder with a tag that read 'Midoriya Izuku'. Midnight quickly snatched it out of his hands.

"Let's see, it says... quirk manifested at.. 9."

"That's quite late!" Mic exclaimed leaning in to read it himself.

"In the conditions it manifested section it says it activated when he had to dodge a car."

"Seemes feasible."

"It is only a bit of agility, it's not that strong of a quirk when not trained, maybe he had it but didn't realize it?"

"Poor kid having to live like the quirkless for 6 years of his life. I'm surprised he is.. the way he is..." said Mic, his sentence dizolving towards the end. Everyone's mind hung up to that ending and they started pondering to themselves.

They knew what being quirkless entailed in today's society, suddenly his actions and words during the exercise felt more fitting, the animosity he held towards heroes, figures of society that a quirkless kid would hate. Arbitrary speaking, this personality Midoriya used during the exercise felt more real given the circumstances in which he has lived. A wretched truth swam in everyone's minds, but surely no one would be able to fake it for so long, right?

"Does that mean... that, their relationship is not that of rivals?" Midnight asked, putting the pieces together.

They all stilled at that.

"Maybe it only works on those who deserve it." came Midoriyas voice from the speakers. It did nothing more than make the heroes tense further.

When they heard his laugh, their minds went wandering to battles they had with actual A even S class villains.

"(...) After everything you've put me through? Aha ha hahahaha. Or maybe you thought what you did was charity. (...) What... a good... citizen slowly killing off others that were already living in the remaining shadows."

His speech cut deep. Nezu's beady eyes were focused on the screen, he could see they way Bakugo slightly curled into himself.

They weren't expecting the next sentence.

"(...) Did you shake your ass in front of them too-"

Their eyes bulged even before Midoriya punched Bakugo to smithereens.

Midnight chocked on her saliva and Mic recoiled back.

Bakugo's jaw had dislocated.

"I've always been pathetic haven't I? You know, Saguya sensei as well as all the others always marked my work wrong, because how could the quirkless kid be better than the quirked students. English was a tough class, not because of the studying, I'm actually fluent you know? But because the teacher was a stubborn mule. Yeah, it was a fucked up decision, taking up what he offered me, but weren't the rumors enough payment for my 'cheating'?"

They felt a little green. Midnight had her mouth open like she wanted to say something.

"What the absolute fuck." whispered Power Loader.

"This can't be true." Thriteen said wobbly.

"It was the only way to assure my enterance would even pass the screening at UA. (...) You weren't the only 'savior' of this world, everyone in that school was one too. I have no dignity remained, but I'd say I'd do everything the same if I was to live again, if this was the only chance or method of getting to see you like this. Countless sleepless nights, countless days filled with pain that I couldn't feel anymore, all worth it for what I am going to do to you now."

Midoriya's voice darkened in the end. The heroes stilled, still barely getting over the first inplication, not even mentioning the others.

"That couldn't be right, right?" Midnight's voice shook, ending with a little laugh.

Aizawa was stuck looking at the screen.

"I'll be launching an investigation on Aldera Middle school." Nezu said reading the school's name from Midoriya's profile.

"(...)WE GOT OVER IT. (...) QUIT IT." They saw Bakugo struggle to detach himslef from the person he was in middle school.

"I'll need to talk to both of them." Hound Dog said. It was pretty clear to whom the counseler's coldness was directed at.

They watched the feed much more distracted than before but in a way that let them have an ear out for any surprises.

"(...) Perfect quirk, perfect hero, what a simple mindset.(...)."

They all heard this philosophy from many villains before. It was frightening to see Midoriya say it with such belief. It wasn't an act anymore, not when it came to Bakugo. To be honest, not when it came to anyone, but they didn't know that yet.

"Alright let's start."

"Start what?"

"Start?" Ectoplasm wondered to himslef.

"Stay put or I'm cutting more than just skin."

They watched horrified as Midoriya skinned a portion of Bakugo's arm. The boy had been screaming that the heroes wouldn't allow it from the beginning and throughout. They couldn't stop this. It wasn't lethal, and Recovery Girl's quirk went a long way. The arm would be healed with nothing more than a scar remaining-- but that didn't mean it would be the only scar. Bakugo seemed thoroughly terrified in his own way, and they could only watch. The boy will have nightmares about this.

"We have to pull him out!" Hound Dog cried.

"Stay put, it is not against the rules." Nezu replied.

"Sure sure, it's not lethal but who's fault is it that mental sanity got overlooked?"

If people would know Nezu they would realize the rat actually mildly enjoyed this. Bakugo had reminded him of the scientists who experimented on him, ever since they saw his true colours, not even five minutes before. He watched his own torturers get sentenced to death and now he watched a person just as bad feel pain that he deserved. Of course the boy was still his student and he would not let this go too far. But too far might be too late.

The heroes watched Midoriya as he slammed a metal bat onto Bakugo's hands. He clearly targeted them, the motif already known by all without it having been comunicated.

"Killing their leader would be like killing their morale. (...) Let's just strip it apart layer after layer."

"Is this even an impersonation anymore..." Midnight said, her voice thick.

"Try acting lively, it gets easier each time I promise, after all, I've been through it."

The sentence hit hard, each of them picturing Midoriya's trademark smile.

When Midoriya grabbed a whip they all pinched the footage so it looked closer. The whip seemed to have razors attached to it and the method Midoriya used was brutal. He wrapped the whip around Bakugo's torso, once, twice, thrice, sometimes four times and pulled on the end so it unraveled itself. On the way back into Midoriya's hand the whip would slice Bakugo's skin open. Ugly marks were left behind.

()

"The morale is definitely down, Midoriya accomplished what he was after, without destroying them in one blow." Cementoss commented.

They were watching the heroes' meeting when everything went wrong. Nobody was expecting the package containing Bakugo's patch of skin (they all felt sick from that) to explode. Vlad King and Aizawa had to painfully announce the death of three participants.

"Bondo has died. Kodai has died." Vlad King said first.

"Sero has died."

Off mic Aizawa mentioned "I need to get them to work on speed and awareness, because they have none."

()

"Isn't it suicidal to go into the vilalin's territory, especially when it's like a maze?" Thirteen said.

"I mean at least they have a map." said Present Mic."

"I'll give Kaminari extra points for the hacking."

"Aren't you being biased Aizawa?"

"No I'm not."

Not even five minutes later they watched the heroes walk in circles.

"Don't tell me they got lost with a map." Ectoplam said.

All of a sudden blood exploded all over Kendou, it was clear it was meant to simulate the girl stepping on a pressure plate tied to a bomb.

Vlad King sighed and turned on the mic.

"Kendou has died."

"We need to be the predators this time!" they heard Uraraka exclaim determined completely disregarding Kendou's death.

"Honey he's right behind you." Midnight facepalmed.

"Formation 1 go!"

The heroes lunged in the plan headfirst.

"Freezing the water is a good move made by Todorki."  commented Ectoplasm.

Midoriya was expertly dodging the array of attacks, when he ripped out a horn from Pony's head. The girl screamed from the pain from her scalp.

Pony's death made them jump a bit, but they relaxed once they saw the blood pack.

"Pony has died."

"It seems like Monoma copied Tokage's quirk. He's handling it very well and is in sync with the real quirk user. Quite commendable, they must have practiced."

When Kaibara and Aoyama made a run between Monoma and Tokage's attack you could hear their sensei groan. It was uncoordinated and a mistake. The only thing that saved Aoyama from elimination was Kouda jumping to shield him.

"No, why did Kouda jump in front!" exclaimed Midnight.

"Kaibara has died."

"Kouda has died."

Jirou was poorly covered by Ojiro, they were probably hoping that Midoriya would focus on the dark quirk pair.

"Jirou should be more aware of her surroundings." Aizawa murmured before hitting the mic button.

"Jirou has died."

"Ojirou has died."

Midoriya missed his target and hit Kaminari's liver instead of his heart, quite a big margin, you could see the dissatisfaction on his face.

"Kaminari got a serious wound, he better get to a hospital or in a few minutes he'll 'bleed out'" said Revovery Girl.

"Noted." responded Nezu.

"Oof Kaminari got a hit on him and used his quirk."

"It seems like he's disregarding the fact that he got hit, did he forget we keep track of 'injuries'?" Cementoss said.

"Look he's getting thrown around like a rag doll by Asui."

"What a wake up from Kaminari's shock."

"That's a lethal head wound. Eliminate Aoyama."

"Oh he got lucky with his position there."

"Aoyama has died."

And right after by a stab in the heart Asui fell too.

"Asui has died."

A gust of wind flew by and they watched as Iida picked him up and launched him right in one of Todoroki's ice spikes.

"Woah woAH! TODOROKI STabbed him!" said Present Mic.

"That's an actual lethal wound, Nezu pull him out he needs to go to the hospital!" Recovery Girl rushed out.

"Not yet Chiyo he is not on his deathbed yet."

"And you want to wait for that?!" she said angrily, pointing at him with her syringe.

"Those are the rules."

"At least let me see him."

"No, he cannot get help from outside."

"You're insufferable, the boy might die!" she accentuated the last word.

"Iida has died."

Those two were indifferent to what happened outised their talk.

"Nezu if something happens to my problem child I'm resigning." Aizawa said threateningly.

"They keep slamming him into walls or into the ground."

"That must hurt like hell, he really needs to get out of there with his bleeding stomach and most possibly cracked ribs."

"Ah there it is." Ectoplasm drily said when he saw the nitric acid grenades.

Because of the nitric acid, the dark pair, Tokoyami and Kuroiro, disbanded and they each landed on the floor vulnerable. Right as Midoriya's bullets hit their heads they were announced dead.

"Tokoyami has died."

"Kuroiro has died."

The fight wasn't done yet as Midoriya was seen welded to the ground. He got kicked in the face which probably caused a nose bleed. The attack was followed by Shishida who skid a few meters while pushing around the grenette. Truly a display of strength. Unfortunately for Komori, she did her best in trying turn the environment hostile, but Midoriya managed to grab her by her leg warmers and followed with a stab in the back.

"What a show, I wouldn't believe he was injured if I hadn't seen it."

"Komori has died."

Recovery Girl sighed. "Aizawa announce Kaminari's death, he might as well be dead by now, not even considering the pain he's not feeling because it was fake."

"Kaminari has died."

"Oh no not the fire, you'd think he learned to think about it first from the sports festival." Cementoss grumbled when he saw Todorki activate his fire.

"3rd degree wound at least. Tsuburaba should be out."

"Tsuburaba has died."

"RETREAT!" they saw Monoma scream.

"Good idea kid." said Vlad shaking his head and after a second "Ah goddammit!" he said looking at Rin who fell behind. Sharing a glance with Recovery Girl he talked into the mic.

"Rin has died."

()

"WHAT THE FUCK HAPPENED OVER THERE?"

"Come to think of it, why didn't Bakugo scream for help?" Midnight asked.

"Maybe he didn't want to deter them?"

Midoriya shoved a water bottle and a sandwich and they all agreed throwing it away was stupid, even if the sandwich had been poisoned, you could just check. Thankfully Midoriya was generous and handed it again.

"You're leaving?"

"Not for long, don't enjoy it too much."

Miroriya started walking out.

"Wait, why did he sto-" Midnight said when she was interrupted by a gunshot.

"Hagakure has died." sighed Aizawa.

"How the fuck did he notice her there, I didn't see anything."

"Alright Ecto, time to collect the bodies."

The man spread into multiple copies, each heading for one body. When he reached the room with Hagakure he could barely look the kid who cried for them to save him in the eyes. He pitied him, but those were the rules. Just wounds weren't worse than Midoriya's for comparative, however the damage down to his mental would prove to be detrimental.

He arrived back in the observation room just in time to see Midoriya knock a pattern on some old garage door. A latch opened and he whispered a code.

"Tennoshi?" she exclaimed quietly.

"Wait somebody in the game knows him?" Midnight commented as if she was watching a drama.

Fortunately the garage had a meagle camera with which they could see inside. It was the first time they switched on the shabby channel.

They watched as the girl and Midoriya conversed.

"Wait that's Miko." said Mic. "The person who Midoriya recommended to Shinsou, the person I said was plain and didn't stand out?"

"Yeah you're right."

"How are you still standing? How are you still conscious?" cried the blue haired girl.

She gently pushed his on the couch and called for someone.

All of a sudden Shinsou appeared. Everyone including Aizawa was surprised to see him.

Miko and Shinsou rapidly bandaged Midoriya up. Recovery Girl and the other all let out a sigh of relief.

"Will he be ok?" Shinsou asked.

"He'll always be ok unless the wound is caused by himself. Trust me, he's a beast." the girl tried to lift the mood. Too bad the hidden message reared its ugly head in.

"They're all sleeping, time to wait for their sleep to end. Wanna continue that game of Monopoly?" Cementoss said.

"Yeah sure." Midnight said.

They were all shaken by today. Hopefully the end would finish so they could start the much needed investigations. It was going to be a short night, they already knew they will drop the game in a few hours, when Midoriya awoke from his nightmares.

()

It was the final day. It started like they all predicted. They heard shallow breaths from the monitor and saw Midoriya wake up from a nightmare. The boy was clawing at his throat. Fortunately Miko rushed from her workspace and called him down. It was scary to think that even without someone being there Midoriya would have calmed himslef down just as fast. The boy's experience was showing, which only made them more impossibly worried.

"So you actually took my advice. Has Miko been teaching you valuable things or has she just user you as one of her lackeys?" the boy asked.

"If by valuable you mean how to commit crimes and get under the radar, then yes she's been teaching me well." Shinsou said.

The heroes all laughed when they heard him ask if it would get him in trouble, as if Midoriya wasn't acting as a terrorist, serial killer and psychopath for the past 5 days.

"Why would it, it's a game after all." Midoriya said.

Some weird feeling resounded from that sentence.

Miko then began ranting about how Midoriya was stabbed in a school supervized exercise.

"Miko I did worse."

"No you didn't. Look I don't know much about what you're doing but the worse thing I got from Mei is that she built you some bombs you filled with some sort of acid. Boohoo they got a bit burnt, while you got STABBED, in the stomach may I add. If you wouldn't have gotten here in time, or if you chose to treat the wound alone you could have died." Worry shone in her eyes. "This is serious."

Midoriya had actually done worse from a morale point of view, but it was clear that the girl was on his side and wouldn't change her mind.

"My death coming sooner than it should? Is it my birthday?"

The joke was not funny at all, especially when the heroes were dealing with the latest news about Midoriya being a completely different person from the image he created.

Shinsou asked how the two met and they explained how it was a symbiosis relationship.

"Wait so the drug ring that's been bothering the hero team is actually following Midoriya's commands transmitted through Miko?"

"You're joking, what the hell!"

"So this is why we couldn't track the drug ring, Midoriya helped." Nezu said, his eyes gleaming.

"Well anyway, YOU are not fighting today." the girl said.

Cue the expected talk about how he's feeling fine and how he needs to end the exercise. The heroes believed Miko knew she wouldn't be able to get through him, but at least wanted to try.

"Your planning to fight in this state?"

"I've lived through worse."

"Well... at least his stomach wound got cauterized by the fire?" Mic said.

The observers watched the girl and Shinsou be left behind as Midoriya left.

"This doesn't mean it makes me feel better, he's the only one who took my idea seriously." whispered Miko.

"Yeah, he did that for me too." they heard the quiet voices.

()

"The placebo effect seems to be working perfectly." Hound Dog said watching Bakugo relate the effects he thought it had given him.

"Look, he didn't throw away the sandwich a second time."

"He must have been scared Midoriya wouldn't come back."

Midnight clenched her teeth "Ironic how he longed for the arrival of his captor. Shouldn't we.. punish Midoriya for this? I am heartbroken for the boy, with how much we found out, but this isn't... this is an actual villain! A mentally ill person and we cant let him continue like this! I understand Nezu that the point of this exercise was to bring to surface some things and let Midoriya off the leash, but this was a mistake, do you realize what will happen after?" she said.

The all had the initiative to agree with her. As broken as the boy was this didn't mean he had the freedom to become a villain.

"This is the role we've given him. As long as he doesn't try to murder his classmates outside of the game he will not be punished." Nezu sighed. "I realize most things will change, and frankly that's what I was hoping for. Midoriya desperately needs help, and we don't know for how much longer he's going to be here in order for us to offer it." The heroes flinched. "This boy can become so much more than what he's been showing us, all he needs is guidance and I will stand by that. It pains me to say it but Bakugo will be receiving help as well. As well as everyone else. Hound Dog's door is always open after all."

"Pains?" Aizawa asked.

"Yes, I can confidently say that I dislike Bakugo Katsuki and he should have never had the chance to attend UA if life was fair and his misdeeds ended up on is record while he was a student. Unfortunately the League is after any crumb we leave behind, so the most I can do to Bakugo is knock him down to Gen Ed, which i will do after his sessions with Hound Dog have started."

Nobody had a comment for that.

While they were talking about what the future held, Midoriya and Bakugo were discussing their pasts. The observers barely caught on at the end of the conversation.

"You've been covering them?" Bakugo asked.

"Is this... about the scars?" Cementoss was shocked.

A myriad of scars covered Midoriya's torso. They have never seen things of the sort other than on tortured dead bodies, or serious cases of abuse." Those were rare in of themselves but for their student to be this disfigured, it came as a shock.

"Should I have displayed them like I was at  a zoo?"

Bakugo didn't know to shut up so the following session of... well, torture was his fault in the entirety of it.

()

The heroes had finally gathered and worked a plan beyond just the first phase of it. The plan was actually incredibly well thought out and had bits that could be adjusted if needed. The teams that were made, were strong pairs and they even trained for the last fight.

The observers were too focused on discussing and debating the hero team that they didn't check up on Midoriya.

They heroes all clincked a glass of orange juice together but the moment was short lived when everyone turned their head to the windows that got blown to pieces. The heroes that had all increased their reaction time bolted downstairs. The final fight was about to begin.

()

Midoriya was standing outside next to a chair that Bakugo was tied to. The boy had a small contraption tied to his chest. They were contemplating what it could be when Nezu got the signal that everything was about to blow up. The heroes' hearts dropped.

They watched as the team arrived in the front of the hero tower making sure the place was cleaned of civillain bots. The streets were devoid of any human life, but they didn't notice such a detail.

"The last standing, what an honor it must be." Midoriya said spreading his arms as if welcoming them.

"Give up, this is our last warning! We'll take you on!"

"Less talking more fighting, move problem children." Aizawa said.

"When have you ever kept your promise heroes? This world is rotten and I'll rebuild the proper way." his tone was eerie. They could see how the team shivered lightly.

"Aren't you going to move? How do you plan on taking me down?"

"Move." Midnight cheered silently. They haven't forgotten about their bets from the start of the game, Aizawa was close to winning, but he had one more fight to get over.

Everyone burst into action. Todoroki created a dome of ice, an arena of sorts, his role was to maintain it and to trip Midoriya with his ice spikes. The fight was fast paced and the heroes were doing well. Monoma and Tokage had kept to their plan and disappeared from his sight letting Shishida and Kirishima take over. Midoriya stopped Kirishima's hardened fist and brought out his daggers, which he aimed at Kirishima's weak points, his joints. Fukidashi threw him off with an onomatopoeia and Shishida managed to knock him over. The observers could practically hear his ribs cracking. Midoriya jumped back avoiding Awase's quirk, that's when he pulled out his gun. Two people died instantly.

"Shishida has died."

"Tokage has died."

"God, Monoma has lost his other pair now its all on him." Midnight gasped.

"He got lucky with that dodge." Vlad King said watching Midoriya avoid Todoroki.

"Oh god!" Mic cringed. "It got imbedded in his eye.

"Actually it most likely got stuck to his eyelid." Recovery Girl said. "He's out."

"Monoma has died."

Dashing back towards his preffered spot Midoriya also shot Kirishima while running.

"Kirishima is out."

The fight couldn't have lasted for more than ten seconds.

"Damn that boy has a good aim!" exclaimed Snipe. "I wanna test him back at the school."

"You'll have the occasion." Nezu said. "I want to test him too."

Shivers ran on every teacher's back.

Right as Midoriya dived underground everything exploded. The sky became a dark grey from all the smoke and the hot air melted the glass dome that Todorki forgot about. Yellows and oranges decorated all the buildings in a 6 kilometer radius.

The heroes watched helplessly as they realized they are nothing in the eye of the villain that had played them like a fiddle. The whole time the 'game' could have ended at any time. Uraraka's eyes started watering.

Not even a second later red burst everywhere. The bomb strapped to Bakugo exploded and killed everyone.

"Bakugo has died."

"Uraraka has died."

"Todoroki has died." Aizawa finished his part.

"Awase has died." Vlad King picked up.

"Fukidashi has died."

Climbing back from the canal, Midoriya stood up. He was the only clean one around the fake blood covered heroes, who in their shock were still watching the city burn.

"We're having a problem." said Power Loader. "The system can't handle the massive amounts of deaths entered.

Nezu began laughing spilling his tea all over. Everyone backed up by a few centimeters.

"It is time fellow colleagues." he said composing himself.

They tore their gaze away from the computer which rested its view on Midoriya's stance in front of the loosing hero team.

Power Loader pressed a button and the AI voice could be heard all over the city.

"The excerice has been completed. All participants please gather on the field."

They all straightened their clothes and made themselves look presentable. The door opened and they walked put one after the other, Nezu resting in Aizawa's scarf who was the first in line.

It could be said that this wasn't the end, but the start to everything that was to come. The only constant variable in this world, is after all, change.

Chapter Text

The field everyone was supposed to gather at was blown up. The concrete was uneven from the cracks in the ground even if it had Todoroki's ice dome as a cover at first, therefore the teachers led the fallen heroes, that had access to the main camera feeds as well (such as the park ones), to UA's auditorium, the place where it all started. Ectoplasm was the one who was tasked with bringing the players in the fake city to where the others gathered.

Midoriya was walking in front, with the heroes following like lost puppies. Red blood dripped off of them and their skin itched. Bakugo was quiet keeping his arms close to his wounded body. When they enetered the auditorium every head turned towards them. The crowd parted for him, just like it did when he got selected as the villain 'team' leader. There were so many deja-vus flashing on front of his eyes.

"We have gathered here to discuss the events of the Civil War. I know you must all be tired, but please bear with this as we all have important comments to make. We'll start with the hero team. Aizawa-san, Sekijiro-san please."

"The hero team was unorganized and underestimated their foe. They started making plans too late and even then lost due to not synchronizing well enough. The leader didn't even communicate the rules to his team and was unable to properly lead them like he should have, when he was present." Aizawa said.

"It disappointed me to see my class get killed off one by one. You were all taken by surprise by the first catastrophe and lost your composure. You attacked recklessly and let down your guard, it was obvious that you didn't spend your preparation days figting together, creating teams and getting to know each other's work styles in order to better the way you acted during the exercise." Vlad King said.

"You were all given a week to prepare and you spent it carelessly. I spotted the way that as people were eliminated you became more brutal. But that brutality didn't mean efficiency. Todorki-kun, your act of stabbing the villain was close to win the game on the heroes' side. I however trusted that Midoriya-kun would be able to reach a safe place in time, because other wise he would have died in the real world as well."

They all blanched at that. Todoroki's pale skin turned at the very least a lighter shade of white.

"Shouldn't we have won then?! It was a lethal hit!" Monoma screamed from the back. Kendou tried to lower his head and whispered something aggressively in his ear.

"It was not a lethal hit until Midoriya would have died. As you can all see he's still with us, which I'd say is a good thing. Monoma-kun, real lethal wounds would have been outside of the rules and would have gotten Todoroki-kun into several trouble."

"But there were some real wounds he gave us that didn’t kill us but we were counted out." Aoyama said referencing how he got slammed headfirst into concrete and was counted out but didn't actually die.

"That's because Midoriya-kun was obviously controlling his strength, it wasn't a situation where he couldn't have hit harder, he deliberately targeted you with a weaker strike. Todoroki on the other side hit a non-lethal wound, he had to wait for Midoriya-kun to bleed out which he almost did. It's funny how if Todoroki-kun wouldn't have unleashed his fire at the wrong time-- when it reacted with the nitric acid and gave everyone severe burns-- Midoriya-kun would have bled out, as his wound wouldn't have been cauterized. Moving on however, whats important is that no real deaths followed. Wouldn't you agree Todoroki-kun?"

Todoroki shakily gave a nod, the other looked at him pitifully, Momo reaching to put a supportive hand on his shoulder as the rest of the class gave the boy some space. It must have shocked him, to know that he almost killed his first friend, the one who helped him the most and taught him he is not his father.

"The hero team however, did manage towards the end to get their heads in the game and actually made a good plan despite having so little time to work with." Vlad King complimented them.

"The hero team handled the bombardment of the buildings in an organized fashion and executed the rescues by the book, even if no civilain managed to be saved. That was unfortunately inevitable given the placement of the bombs." Aizawa said. "Each of you will be given a portfolio you'll need to go through on your own. It will contain an evaluation of your actions and hopefully you'll be able to improve."

"Thank you very much. Now I'd like to talk about the villain team." Nezu started. "Midoriya executed the exercise in an exemplary way, I must say that in the history of UA's Civil War the villain team never won before. This is a new record." he said smiling. "Midoriya was able to comprehend the rule book to its very core and played a fantastic game. He used the hours before the hero team arrived in order to place bombs throughout the city, action which he repeated a second time in preparation for the finale. He struck the heroes' morale and successfully embraced his persona. He adapted quickly to all of the plans the heroes made and turned them around, always managing to reap an opponent or two. He made sure to have alliances that backed him up and he inspired fear into society, successfully destroying the trust they put in their heroes."

"You're kidding me!" Bakugo interrupted the principal. "HE DID NOTHING WRONG! Did you even watch the same game we played?" he said all the while glancing at Midoriya apprehensively.

"He did not break the rules. His only fault was that he played a villain. The role we all agreed upon."

Bakugo reeled back. You could see the students struggling to accept it.

"He will not be punished for playing a good game. Midoriya you too will be given a folder where your actions will be dissected, make sure to read it. And before I go I must tell all of you, that this school has an excellent therapist and psychiatrist that will always have his door open. Please seek him if you ever need to talk about something. I did not say this wasn't a traumatic event for you. You are all still children and are here to learn, this excerice belive it or not has already prepared you for a lot. Have a good day, and please rest!"

()

Midoriya was alone in the conference room with the teachers. A student would normally never get to see the room. It was three days after the excerice ended, two more and then it'll be normal school again.

"Midoriya you got your folder, what did you think of it?"

He smiled but it was like 4 years of acting were wiped once he returned from his villain role. That's to say even at eleven years old, nobody was able to spot a difference other than himself.

"It was very insightful, I'll keep track of the dangers of leaving your ideas in someone else's hands, but I must add that I trusted Miko and I consider to have a good judge of character." his eyes glowed for a second.

"Of course, of course. However the reason we brought you here today is to discuss some things we were able to find out. You see, I sent Aizawa-san to your old middle school after we overheard your conversation with Bakugo."

It was like the memory of it completely disappeared from his brain until Nezu refreshed it. He had no idea of how to pull himself out of the bottomless lake he was in.

"Hmm?" he said innocently tilting his head.

"After analyzing footage we came to the conclusion that you were treated horribly at your old school. Are you aware of that?"

"Yes, I am, why bring up the past?"

"Because if any of this was fairly added to Bakugo's record he would have not passed the screening, and that is an extensive overlook from the educational system. Because you had to go through things I will not mention to get where you would have gotten easily if you were treated decently like a human being."

"You want to expel Kacchan?" the nickname felt like vomit in his throat but he had to keep the appearance. He was expectedly happy at the thought.

"We unfortunately can not, but I assure you fair punishment will be given, and for starters we'll be transferring him to Gen Ed."

They all watched as a hawk to see his reaction.

"Ah, well thank you!" he politely said.

"Midoriya, that isn't the only reason we brought you here, you can drop the act."

He gave a second of thought before his smile slipped off his face. He ran a hand through his straight hair.

"Ah, the game really fucked everything up didn't it? You won the game before it even started Nezu."

They were all shocked to see him act anything but his cinammonroll persona face to face and not behind a screen.

"I did!" Nezu exclaimed happily. The principal looked unbelievably squishy and cute, the teachers were weirded put to see him like this.

"We tried contacting your mother to find out more but we couldn't." Nezu said his eyes slowly darkening. "Do you have any explication?"

"You already know don't you?" he said matching his tone. The others were so out of the conversation.

"I don't know the details, I just know the conclusion I came up with."

"She's dead."

Everyone except the two had a whiplash.

"What!" Midnight cried.

"Kid that can't be right, she's your first contact in case of emergencies, and your only guardian" Aizawa said.

Everyone muttered on their own.

"I killed her." All the muttering died down.

"What did you do?" Aizawa said inching closer.

"I never thought it'd come to that, I don't even remember the day well, it was self defense mostly, I stopped the knife with my hand." he showed his hand that didn't have any concealer on. A long gash went through his pain and exited inwards. "Then I pulled it out and stabbed her. To get rid of all the evidence I chopped her body up and cremated it along with everything else in the bathtub."

Heroes were normally required to have a  strong stomach, but nobody could blame Thriteen when she vomited, neither could anybody reprimand the others for the sickened look on their faces.

"How, how did nobody find out?" Aizawa asked sharply.

"I hacked into her government profile and meddled around in there. Honestly by this point I think you already figured it out but... I'm quirkless, my quirk never manifested, I just changed my profile." Cue pressured silence.

The heroes didn't know what to do. Drag him to a mental hospital? Slam a pair of cuffs on him?

"Midoriya... I  think you understand that from now in things will change." Nezu said slowly. "You won't be able to leave the campus, you won't be able to have the same freedom as before, I'm also thinking of making you attend several mandatory sessions with Hound Dog."

The man in question already looked like he needed a therapist of his own after everything that happened so far.

"You will be a UA ward but you must understand the severity of what you just told us."

"I don't feel any guilt and I'd do it again principal."

Aizawa put a hand of his shoulders. "Midoriya how about you go into your dorm room and rest right now."

He nodded expressionless and in two steps he was out. Present Mic had his hand brought to his mouth. "What the fuck." He whispered.

"That kid isn't sane Nezu." said Recovery Girl. " I don't think what he needs right now is school and meager repercussions. He needs to be in a mental ward!"

"He needs normality, he's a bright kid and I'm not letting him go because he survived when society repeatedly told him not to. We won't discuss this further. Don't act like he's unstable and will kill you at any given moment. You saw his bright mind, I'll help this child."

"It will backfire, if you teach him what you know it will only bring disaster."

"You heard him, he is a good judge of character, if anything he will rebuild society under my guidance."

()

The sky outside was already dark. The teachers dissipated to their own rooms. Midoriya laid locked in his room, away from his flinching classmates and fooled friends. He was reading the folder Nezu had given him. "Your psychopathic tendencies aren't welcomed outside of your vilalin role." said one of the comments. He rolled on his back. "Torturing Bakugo is a sign of sadism, don't show it often." He sighed, his chest feeling heavy. If he had tears he would shed them, he ruined his life before he could take it, he had lost from the very start and would now pay the consequences. He was a fool. He got up and walked to the bathroom. Filling up the tub he took a handful of pills. He left his shorts and hoodie on, they felt comfortable and soft against his skin. Midoriya layed down with his head fuzzy and grabbed a blade. It made long beautiful red lines across his arms. Even with his head swimming he could still feel the stinging pain. Consequences, consequences, he didn't manage to convince himself he could go through one year of UA. This game all proved he could not get a moment of piece in his life. Consequences, consequences he now had to die earlier, but was this such a bad thing? He wouldn't have been able to go on for longer after the game anyways. Consequences, consequences his eyes drooped close and he started feeling cold, even while bathing in hot water. He at least manged to unleash himself before he left, it was a once in a lifetime opportunity right? So was he the one who won in the end?

Everything went black, it was cozier than falling asleep could ever be.

Chapter Text

The common room was quiet outside from the drama playing on TV. They were all seated, spread across the room. Nobody had seen Midoriya after they left the auditorium, so they all froze when he passed right by them. Nobody heard him until they say green in the corner of their eyes. Uraraka reached to say something but thought better and her hand fell limp. He disappeared put the glass doors. Doors that imitated those in the hero tower perfectly. The association raised their heartbeats, and they almost jumped him, not to say they would have successfully done it, Midoriya would have shaken them off just as easily as he did in the fake city.

()

Some went back to their rooms with a quick 'goodbye' and others chose to retreat outside to go for a walk. The remaining people weren't paying much attention to their surroundings so they missed when Midoriya came back at a late hour. All except Todorki. The boy contemplated whether to go after him or not and ultimately chose to not disturb him.

A good hour passed and he started feeling his stomach turn. He felt something was wrong and looked around the room. Uraraka was lying on the couch face down, the girl had probably cried herself to sleep, she was exhausted, they all were. Jirou was listening to music in a corner and Kaminari was writing something at the kitchen island. He wondered how those in 1B were doing, they haven't seen eachother in those 3 days at all.

He looked towards the stairs and his gut feeling intensified, ah, it must be his consciousness berating him. He was weak, he couldn't face Midoriya, not after he realized he can't tell his friend's fabricated lies aside from the real him. Not when he almost killed him. So he waited more.

Another hour must have passed, he tried to avert his eyes everytime he scanned the room. Uraraka was still sleeping, he had the mind to move the girl to her room, but then realized she would wake up screaming. Jirou had her eyes closed. He didn't know whether she was sleeping or not. He also didn't know if she listened to the same playlist the nth time over, or if she had a 100 hour playlist. Both were absolutely viable. Iida had returned from his run sweaty and ran to the showers before locking himslef in his room. The other person locked in his room was Bakugo. The boy never went out for anything, he didn't know whether he was starving or had food inside, but from what he heard, Midoriya held him in some deplorable conditions so sleeping in his room probably felt the most comfortable. Kirishima knocked on his door once a day anyways. He didn't answer.

()

He was the oy one left. Uraraka woke up and walked up to her room with puffy eyes. Jirou had fallen asleep but woke up because her headphones fell off. Todoroki took another glace at the stairs. No... Midoriya would be sleeping by now anyway. He fidgeted in his seat a few more minutes and go tup with a newfound burst of energy.

Midoriya was on the final floor, with his door the furthest back. Todorki walked with small unsure steps. Hand in front to the door, he knocked twice.

No response.

He knocked twice.

No response.

'See he's sleeping idiot.' he thought to himself.

Just for the sake of trying, he reached down and pushed the door handle. He want expecting it to be open.

The first thing that hit him was the smell. The iron flooded his nose and he suddenly got flashbacks from the end of the game, he felt as if he was covered in red once again. But he was clean, he realized after a few seconds. The door to the bathroom was open. The window was closed and Midoriya wasn't resting on his bed. he inched closer and felt his heart stop. Midoriya was laying in a bathtub. He was a transparently sick shade of white. The water was read and there was a bottle of pills spilled over on the floor. The pills had mostly dizolved and they turned mushy. He fell to his knees quickly gathering Midoriya's arms, which were cut from the wrist up to the elbow. The boy was still bleeding. Loosing himslef, he felt tears wet his cheek. In a slight moment of clarity he ripped off his shirt and ties hai arms together tight. He took off running, not caring about leaving ice behind. He bolted towards the teachers dorms and on his way heard the alarm blare as curfew had long passed. Blasting the door open (it didn't break) he cried.

"AIZAWA-SENSEI!"

Said man flinched along with the other teachers who were ready to get up and inspect the alarm.

When they noticed Todoroki, out of everyone, be so disheveled they all blanched.

Aizawa came forth and grabbed his shoulders. "Speak." he said calmly.

"M-Midoriya." was all he was able to get out. The teachers all shared a frightened look.

"Did he hurt anyone?" Midnight hurriedly asked.

Todorki didn't look like he even heard the question.

"Midnight stay here with him, don't ask questions!"

Everyone raced out ready to apprehend the boy.

When they threw open the door they were met with silence.

"Where is he?" Ectoplasm asked already splitting into three copies.

There was no blood, no destruction.

"Where is his dormroom?"

"On the last floor."

They made their way, stopping at every floor to make sure the crime wasn't committed in a different place than the one they expected.

The door to the grenette's room was open.

"I'll go first." Aizawa said, capture scarf at the ready.

The bloody smell reached the hallways and they all tensed.

Aizawa walked inside, seeing the room cleaned out. The bathroom door was open. He inched closer and once he entered his lungs felt like they couldn't draw any air anymore.

He threw himself and grabbed Midoriya's arms. They were already bandaged, probably Todoroki's attempt. The boy was cold and his skin was almost see though.

Aizawa had seen suicide cases before, they never got any easier, but to see his own student, it was like he forgot all protocol. He pulled Midoiya in his arms and ran out meeting the wide eyes of the others. Ectoplasm took the boy from the unstable teacher and rushed to Recovery Girl's Med Bay screaming after the others to follow him.

Aizawa felt his legs go out, but he was caught by Hizashi. At the noise, Tokoyami peeked out the door panicking when he saw his teacher bloody. Present Mic made a gesture and the boy noded shoving Darkshadow back in the room and closing the door.

Aizawa couldn't feel the lost weight of his capture weapon on his shoulders, he was a little lost. They accused Midoriya that he was a danger to others, when he was first and foremost a greater danger to himself.

It was their time to pay. Why did the game ruin everything?

...

But did it ruin it, or did it surface what was already planned to happen? Maybe they were always meant to loose, everyone, but out of all of them Midoriya had the most right to win. It would have never happened either way, the boy was robbed of his chance.

Chapter Text

There was a constant beeping sound, cutting through the muffled static noise surrounding it. His body felt heavy, so heavy he couldn't lift any of his limbs. His eyes were glued together-- they had to be-- they wouldn't open. There was a new type of noise all of the sudden, some shuffling, of clothes perhaps. It was right next next his ear and he wanted to flinch away. With great effort he tore his eyes open, which was a mistake because of the blinding light that followed. Even while lost in his pain he couldn't not hear the gasp of the woman next to him. It seemd like there were more people around, because several shocked intakes of breath occurred one after the other.

"Do not swarm him!" an elderly voice said, he still held his eyes closed, his eyelids were twitching.

Memories flooded his head and he realized that waking up was the worst that could've happened. He got the urge to just stab himself with the nearest syringe or something. Dreading what was to come, he untangled his eyelashes. His gaze met Aizawa's. The man looked unbelievably gentle, really nobody would belive him if he were to tell someone. He felt drained of his energy, ironically it meant he felt the same as before.

"Hi." he rasped.

Midnight couldn't help the wet snort that came. She turned away for privacy and wiped her eyes.

"Hi problem child."

"Hello Midoriya dear." said the elderly woman. Recovery Girl moved to mess with his IV flow.

He tried to get up but Present Mic immediately came forth and pushed his shoulders down gently.

"You should rest little listener."

"How long have I been out?" he asked right off the bat.

"Nine days."

"School started?"

"Yes, but don't worry Nezu was planning to pull you out anyways." Ectoplasm said.

Midnight slapped his back. "That sounds so bad! What he means is that Nezu has been planning to take you on as his personal student, so school right now shouldn't be your worry." she warmly smiled.

They were all kind looking, but he couldn't help but shatter while looking at them and simultaneously playing with the metal cuffs that binded him to the hospital bed.

"What is going to happen now." he knew he was blunt.

They all shared a look with eachother.

"All right, all of you out! My patient needs some rest!" Recovery Girl scolded.

Aizawa patted his hand and stood up from the chair, walking out with the others.

He was left staring at the ceiling.

()

It was the third day and he was still stuck in the bright white bed. Everyone told him he'd get visited by Nezu soon. The rat  finally manged to get some clearance in his schedule and he enetered the room.

"Ah Midoriya, it's good to see you."

He nodded.

"I'm sure you must have a lot of questions. Well, how about we talk over a cup of tea?" The principal pulled out a tea set out of thin air and smoothly set it down. He poured two cups and handed one to Midoriya, who was sitting up with his back leaning on the soft hospital pillow. He couldn't move his arms enough to bring the tea cup to his mouth. Nezu didn't seem to notice, but it was more plausible that he just didn't care.

"Are you going to ignore or change the subject once we get to my questions?"

"Not at all. To make this more interesting how about we do a quid pro quo?"

Midoriya tilted his head thinking silently. "All right."

"We do have all the time time the world to talk." Nezu smiled, his animalistic features coming through for once. He really never felt comfortable enough to act instinctually around others.

Midoriya looked at the broken clock, he didn't even know what day it was. "Yeah, we do."