Chapter Text
“Don’t move, those are villains!” Aizawa shouted.
There were more screams, students sounding scared and teachers throwing out orders.
Aizawa was leaping forward, sending himself directly into the hoard of villains.
Wait.
Those goggles he’d just put on. The weird scarf thing. His seemingly plain jumpsuit.
That was Eraserhead.
Izuku’s homeroom teacher was Eraserhead, the underground hero who could erase quirks.
Whatever tactical considerations might have been running in Izuku’s head were thrown into complete disarray at the fact that someone who was desperately vital to what Izuku had wanted his entire life had been lying in a sleeping bag at the front of his homeroom and Izuku hadn’t been paying enough attention to even notice.
But before Izuku could truly build up a reaction to this, those tactical considerations were finally catching back up with his conscious thoughts and a series of calculations and analyses were steaming forward. Izuku was thinking about the likelihood that this hero—who specialized in hit-and-run tactics and was best suited for combat against opponents with emitter type quirks—could win against a large group of mutation type quirked villains. It didn’t look good.
Before Izuku could move, Aizawa used his scarf—capture tape—to grab two of the villains and fling them into one another. Then he immediately followed that up with a series of attacks each more fluid and devastating than anything Izuku could have achieved even with his years of training.
Oh.
Nevermind, apparently Eraserhead was a lot more than just an underground hero.
Before Izuku could make a decision about what to do, that warp hero had appeared behind him and his classmates.
“Greetings, we are the league of villains.” He increased in size to hang ominously above them, directly between them and the exit. “Forgive our audacity, but today we’ve come here to end the life of All Might, the symbol of peace.”
Bakugou and the redhead launched themselves in tandem toward the villain, but their combined attack did nothing. Izuku could have told them that. He should have. He was the one with the most information about their attackers, he should be coordinating their defense.
But instead the Warp villain was suddenly there, engulfing both Izuku and their classmates in his quirk. Before Izuku could do so much as bring One for All to bear, the ground beneath him disappeared and he was falling.
He twisted in the air and saw a brief flash of water before he was suddenly submerged in it. He took in a mouthful of water and wasted a valuable few seconds feeling shocked and confused. Then he felt movement around him and frantically kicked and swam until he hit the surface.
He emerged coughing out water and frantically looking around to reorient himself.
“There you are!” someone said from behind. It was a villain—of the fish themed variety. Izuku had barely enough time to register his presence before he was being dragged back under the water.
Izuku finally activated One for All. He needed to move. He needed to be higher. He needed to get back to the main fight. He needed to deal with the villains before they did anything else.
Before he could get back to the surface, his classmate—the frog one—was appearing through the gloom, moving lightning fast through the murky water and sending a two-footed kick directly into the villain’s face. Her tongue launched forward, grabbed Izuku, and sent him flying to the surface. He landed heavily on something solid and flat. He pulled himself up to a crouch. He was on the deck of a boat, it wasn’t huge but it wasn’t one of the little fishing boats he normally navigated around while swimming at the beach. Izuku didn’t know what the right word was when the boat was this size.
They were in the middle of the lake he'd seen just a minute ago from the USJ entrance. The shore wasn’t too far away, but he could see movement in the water around them, which meant it wouldn't be as easy as just swimming there.
Before Izuku could get too much farther, Shinsou was launched onto the deck the same way as Izuku had been a moment before. Before he’d recovered, their classmate pulled herself over the railing.
“I’m Asui Tsuyu,” she said, perching and sending a searching look into the water around them. “It seems we’re in some trouble here.”
“No shit,” Shinsou said, finally pulling himself upright and sputtering for a moment.
“You good?” Izuku asked.
Shinsou had a brief and very complicated reaction to seeing his current company. Izuku spent a moment sure that Shinsou was going to try and hash out emotions or something right here and now, but then his gaze slipped around to assess their situation and Izuku could practically see the compartments locking shut as Shinsou decided that this wasn’t the time.
He sat up, shoving his soaked hair out of his face and said, “I’m fine.”
“Okay,” Izuku had to take a moment to think. “How many other villains are in the water?”
“More than I saw, but I’m sure I spotted at least five,” Asui said.
“Okay, okay,” Izuku said, bringing himself over to the railing and trying to figure out the closest direction to land. But something distracted him, why were they here to kill All Might? He wasn’t even here. Had they assumed he would be? Wait, hadn’t Aizawa said that All Might would be here earlier? So this was either a stroke of good or bad luck, depending on if and when these guys would resort to killing the students of class 1-A.
There were shouts from below him, the aquatic villains were circling the boat.
“Shinsou,” Izuku said, nodding his head toward the water as he did. “This seems like your cue.”
“Why me?” he asked, but appeared at Izuku’s side.
“You send one of them to be a distraction for the rest,” Izuku tilted his head to Asui, who was perched on the railing next to him. “The instant they’re busy, you grab Shinsou and head toward the shore.”
“And you?” she asked. Her eyes were enormous but seemed more alien than endearing in that moment.
“I’ve got a few tricks, I’ll be following you,” he said.
“Is that—”
“Izuku’s strong, he’ll be fine,” Shinsou said, giving Izuku a look somewhere between begrudging respect and annoyance, then staring back at the villains surrounding them.
“They guy with the orange fins and the goggles,” Izuku said, not pointing as to keep the villains from guessing their plan. “He’s been giving commands. They’re all optimized for physical combat, so I assume they’ve put the strongest guy in charge. Go for him.”
There was an enormous, deafening sound of shearing metal, then something rent directly through the main hull of the ship, Izuku clamped a hand around the railing to keep his feet as the side of the boat they were on started slipping into the water.
Well that was dumb. He should have aimed that attack at them instead of the boat. Which either meant that villain had a moral compass, specific limitations on his quirk, or was just a poor strategist.
“Asui, you set?”
“Aye.”
“Shinsou, whenever you’re ready,” Izuku said, grabbing him by the back of his costume to keep him steady when he started slipping down the steepening slope of the capsizing boat.
“Why’ve you got goggles?” Shinsou shouted. “I thought you’re a fish? You scared you’ll get some water in your delicate little eyes?”
“You little—” The villain abruptly went still and silent.
“Now, you can’t really like those allies of yours, right?” Shinsou shouted, face twisting into something honestly disturbing, “Attack them!”
The villain was instantly launching himself at his fellows. There were shouts of alarm and offense, but most of all, there were no sounds of reaction when Asui grabbed Shinsou around the waist and launched both of them toward the shore.
Izuku made sure he stood somewhere in plain sight, then jumped to the highest point of the boat.
The villains were still in a free-for-all. The guy Shinsou’d brainwashed was fast, but some of them were realizing it was a distraction and looking back to Izuku.
Izuku crouched, analysing the new strategic situation.
He had a plan, right?
The guy who’d broken the boat in half was raising his arm again, like he was planning another attack. Ah, there it goes.
Izuku hopped to another area, then was jumping to a new place as soon as the villain corrected his arm to aim at him there. There were cries as the clump of villain’s Izuku had put in the line of fire on the other side of the boat were hit with the wave of force.
There, that was another four out. The leader was out and he’d taken down another two. Just…five more people? Izuku could deal with that.
The boat was sinking quickly, which Izuku could use.
He hopped toward the lowest part of the boat which was still above water, eyes flicking from villain to villain. It didn’t take them long to surround him, trying to ensure that there was no way he could just jump out into the water and get past them.
Good.
“What’s the pay, anyway?” Izuku asked amiably, channeling the cheery, absolute confidence of All Might during one of his hero fights. “I hope it’s good if you guys are out here getting your asses kicked. You got a union, at least?”
No less than three of them launched forward, apparently that was a touchy subject.
Izuku danced backwards, forcing them to join him on the precarious surface of the sinking boat.
He lunged forward and grabbed one of them by the arm, swinging her around and sending her flying full speed into the one who’d thought he’d been sneaking up on Izuku. The final one moved much faster than Izuku expected and landed a heavy punch on Izuku’s stomach that sent him tumbling backward. He managed to correct and land in a low crouch, but before he could do much more something grabbed him from behind and pulled him into the water. He spent a moment entirely disoriented and unable to even figure out where the surface was. He was twisted around again and caught sight of his attacker, or at least, saw that what was grabbing him was a tangle of some kind of tentacle octopus—or maybe squid—villain.
He sent a One for All powered kick toward the area with the most tentacles, and was gratified when they loosened enough for him to swim upward and launch himself onto the surface of the boat.
The villain who’d first punched him was there, and Izuku had to launch himself upward to the tallest point of the boat again.
Okay, fighting while outnumbered was way harder than Eraserhead had made it look.
Izuku spent a few moments perched on top of the captain's navigation thing—What were the rooms in boats called again?—shaking his head and letting his helmet drain. It was almost airtight, which meant it kept a little bit of air for him to breathe while underwater, but also brought the underwater with him when he surfaced again. That wasn’t great. He’d have to talk with the support department about it.
When he finally had his breath back, he took stock of who was left.
There was the villain on the boat—which was becoming more submerged by the second—with him, the one in the water, and—
The brainwashed one surfaced some distance away, wrestling with another villain.
Okay, so only the two, great.
The villain on the boat had almost reached him, so Izuku sent himself in a quirk powered leap over him and toward the edge of the deck, faking a stumble as he landed.
Within a few seconds, there were those tentacle things appearing from the water and trying to pull Izuku down again. This time he grabbed what was left of one of the railings, and this time he pulled the villain out of the water. He was so octopus—or squid?—shaped that he might have just been an animal with a quirk, but Izuku didn’t have time to analyze it. Instead, he used one hand to yank the squid guy toward him, and the other to punch him in the face. This resulted in a loud, kind of disgusting, liquid slapping sound, and the villain in question being launched some twenty meters before skipping across the top of the water like a rock.
With that, Izuku turned toward the final guy, who—gratifyingly—took a step back when Izuku shifted into a combat position.
Izuku didn’t waste time, sending himself flying forward and pulling the same trick as he’d done on Iida. He spun himself upside down while in the air; then he grabbed the villain’s arms and, quite cleanly, transferred his rotational momentum directly into the villain.
Some basic laws of physics did their thing, and Izuku was left at a standstill, while the villain was sent flying off at high speeds and in a completely uncontrolled violent spin.
Izuku landed on the tiny bit of the boat that was left and gave himself thirty seconds to catch his breath.
Then he dived in the direction that Shinsou and Asui had gone.
He was a fast swimmer now, enough that he could feel the wind as he went, but it still took forever to get to the shore of the artificial lake.
When he got there, he realized exactly how badly he’d miscalculated.
He’d assumed that by sending Shinsou and Asui away, he was getting them away from danger, that wasn’t right. If he’d thought about it for a single second he’d have known that wasn’t right.
Because there were villains all across the USJ. Izuku couldn’t have sent them somewhere safe. He should have kept them close to himself. He’d have been able to protect them and keep them from taking stupid risks.
As soon as he saw Asui—and only Asui—standing in the shallows, watching the plaza in front of her in horrified suspense, he knew that this would be bad.
As Izuku finally got near enough to see what was happening at the plaza, it only took him a few moments to work backwards to what must have happened after Izuku had sent Shinsou and Asui away from him.
They’d gotten to the shore of the lake.
They saw Aizawa-sensei in trouble.
Shinsou brainwashed Handy.
Handy escaped, but not without taking offense.
And so Handy sent whatever that brain creature was to capture Shinsou.
So now, as Izuku stepped onto the shore, the creature was holding Shinsou’s head in a single enormous hand. His mouth was covered and he was being held just a hairsbreadth too high for his feet to touch the ground as they violently scrambled for purchase. He was clutching and tearing at the creature's arm with his hands, trying to keep himself from being hanged. His expression was almost what Bakugou’s had been when he’d been held by the sludge villain, but it wasn’t the same. Bakugou’s expression had been asking someone to save him, Shinsou’s wasn’t. His eyes said he knew he was in danger, he knew he had no way to escape, and he didn’t think anyone could save him.
Here was something.
Shinsou hadn’t been wrong the other day when he’d accused Izuku of initially getting to know him just for the sake of having a person there and not because he cared about Shinsou.
He was more right than wrong, actually. Izuku hadn’t cared about him at all, he’d mostly just been a person shaped thing he could interact with—who could spot him in the gym and distract him from what a shit show his life had been in those months after All Might had concluded that One for All hadn’t transferred and abandoned him as a successor.
Then, Shinsou had—cautiously, slowly, scared of being rejected but even more scared of being alone—found a way to creep his way into Izuku’s life. And now, without having ever spent a moment thinking about it before, Izuku couldn’t imagine continuing on without him.
A world where Izuku came back home and it was just him and his mom sitting in the living room, not speaking to one another? A world where Izuku wasn’t pulled away from his laptop by an annoying pest who had questions about some complicated homework problem? A world where he never stayed up until three in the morning watching stupid youtube videos he couldn’t have cared less about?
He couldn’t.
And there was Aizawa, arm bleeding from where it’d been partially dissolved, crouching at some distance, staring at his student and obviously working out a way to get him out safely.
But this was all Izuku’s fault.
He’d known about these villains. He should have warned someone. He should have told All Might everything he knew about them the instant he’d gotten home from that terrible weekend in Kamino. He should have come up with a better plan on the boat. He should have dealt with the villains faster. He should have been taking this seriously.
He should have avoided this.
But he hadn’t.
Which meant it was Izuku’s job to fix it. What had he said to Aizawa the other day? A hero’s job was taking risks so that other people could be safe.
And Izuku would be a hero.
God, this was a stupid thing to do.
He stepped onto the beach, gesturing for Asui not to follow him. Once he was close, he let each step echo loudly and bring the attention of the entire plaza to himself.
“Wow,” he said. His tone was light. Confident. Cheerful. In charge. “You’ve resorted to trying to kill high schoolers on their field trips. I hate to say this, but that’s just kind of pathetic, dude. Good thing I said no, I guess.” He forced himself not to look at Shinsou, still trapped and struggling in the creature's enormous hand. He forced himself to keep his shoulders back, his hands ready, and his breathing calm.
Handy’s one visible eye narrowed behind the hand he’d stuck to his face.
“And who the hell are you?” he asked.
“You don’t remember me?” Izuku asked, cocking his hip and tilting up his chin. He lifted his arm and wiggled his fingers casually. “How’s the hand?”
The villain’s head tilted, oh so slowly, from left to right. Then he straightened, abandoning that slumped, casual posture he’d maintained since entering the USJ. He took a single step forward, hands splayed at his side, twitching madly.
Then, in a voice filled with a kind of dripping, vicious hatred beyond anything Izuku had heard from him, or perhaps anyone in his entire life, the villain said;
“You.”