Mastermind

On the way home, still covered in soot and sewage slime, Izuku stopped by the park he and Kacchan used to play at and cried his eyes out.

The tears couldn't stop once he'd started. Originally, he'd drifted into the old park in a state of adrenaline-induced delirium. The park was barely recognizable from his memories; over the years, less children played here when there was a new playground two blocks away, so the park received little maintenance. The swing set was broken and rusted and the bench Izuku sat on was half rotted, overgrown grass reaching his knees. Fitting, Izuku thought, covering his mouth to suppress a hysteric giggle.

Izuku hadn't been here in years and probably never would have seen this place again if not for the events of the day. Getting attacked, getting saved by All Might, trying to save Kacchan, getting saved by All Might again… his poor heart hadn't slowed down since he left school. The panic-fueled shaking slowed down the longer he stayed and finally, the sobs he'd been holding back for hours broke free. Because having his life endangered was nothing compared to what had happened on the roof of that building.

Truthfully, Izuku had known what All Might's answer would be. Even before he'd learned about All Might injury, before they landed on that roof, before All Might had even showed up to save him from the Slime Villain. It was the same answer everyone had given him: his mom, his dad, his teachers, his classmates, Kaachan. These words had been repeated to him over and over again, sorrowfully and mockingly and dismissively, to the point where it might as well be burned into his skin.

"It's not bad to dream, but you also have to consider what is realistic, young man. You should probably give it up."

You can't become a hero.

His stomach rolled and shaky fingers threaded through his hair. Izuku's heart literally ached in his chest. What had he been expecting? That All Might would, what? Allow someone as useless as him out onto the battlefield? How was he shocked by this? How did he feel so betrayed even though All Might had merely repeated what everyone else in Izuku's life had told him?

Lost in his own pain, Izuku jolted when someone sat down beside him and placed a hand on his back. His breath stuttered and he lifted his head up. The woman attached to the hand looked tired, with eye-bags bigger than Izuku's after a night of looking up hero videos to analysis. Her navy blouse was loose across her chest, but tight around her arms, showing off her muscles. Black hair spilled over her shoulders. Izuku cautiously moved out from under her hand. "Can I… help you?"

"Heard you from across the street," the woman said, her voice washing over him like aloe on a sunburn. Izuku calmed at the sound. "You cry loud, kid."

"Ah!" Izuku flushed bright red, embarrassment overcoming his pain for the moment. "I'm very sorry, ma'am!"

She waved the apology away. "It's fine; I wasn't doing anything important anyway. But, you know—" She met his eyes and Izuku's mouth dropped open at her lavender irises, swirling slightly around her pupil. Was it a part of her quirk, he wondered distantly as his breathing started to slow. "—it typically helps if you talk about your problems with people. Someone could be willing to help."

"No one's willing to help me." He spoke without thinking because it was true. No one was willing to help him become a hero; no one wanted to bother with the quirkless loser.

The woman only smiled. "Try me."

So Izuku told her. He told her about his ever-present need to be a hero; about how his dreams shattered when the doctors told him he was quirkless and how no one, not even his mom, supported him in his efforts; about how his dad, a hero he adored with all his might, pulled away from their family and into his work, saying that it was to keep them safe, but Izuku speculated it was because the man was ashamed of him. The words came unwillingly—he shouldn't burden this woman with his problems!—but they came nonetheless, with anger, sadness, and bitterness lacing his tongue. He even told her about his treatment at school, of how Kaachan transformed from his best friend to his worst nightmare, of how he led the other students in the school to hate him, of how the teachers didn't do anything because, in the words of his primary school homeroom teacher, "it wasn't like he wouldn't face the same behavior for the rest of his life."

And the woman listened. It was cathartic; he could rant about the unfairness of it all, and she didn't interrupt him, or scold him, or try and get him to "see the other side." She was quiet and her face didn't move much, but he knew she listened by how her eyes slightly narrowed and how her lips pursed at certain injustices. He even told her a bit about All Might; not about the hero's wound of course, but his response to Izuku asking if a quirkless person could be a hero, how it was Izuku's fault that the slime villain had escaped, and how All Might was probably really angry at him.

By the end of it all, the woman's hand returned to his shoulder and was rubbing circles on his back. Izuku rubbed his face and his hand came away wet. "Sorry." The word cracked. "I shouldn't have… it's not fair for me to put all this baggage on you."

"It's not fair for you to have to carry all this baggage by yourself," she retorted. "If anything, you should be commended. Sticking to your dream of heroics for so long despite everything that's been thrown against you? It's an inspiration tale for the ages." Izuku blushed. "You mentioned that you have been doing analysis journals to prepare for being a hero. May I see one?"

"You… want to see my analysis?"

"Yes. If you're comfortable…" Her voice seemed to gain an otherworldly quality to it and Izuku found himself nodding without another thought.

"Okay, sure." Izuku dug into the backpack at his feet and gave her Hero Analysis for the Future 13. "Sorry, it kinda smells. It's been a rough day."

Her fingers flipped through the half-dry pages. "I know, kid." She read a few of the pages, Izuku fiddling with his hands. Did she like it? She wasn't saying anything, was that bad? "Kid… this is really impressive."

"Really?"

"Really. Though you might want to branch out into analyzing fighting styles. Still, this is a lot more than most heroes can do." Izuku tilted his head and she continued. "Quirk analysis, particularly in the field, is a skill that can benefit most heroes, but few bother to learn. Like with that group of heroes that were on the scene of the slime villain attack. They were totally willing to let you and that boy die." Izuku flinched. He'd nearly died, twice, but she spoke so causally about it! "They'd had several minutes to consider the situation, but never thought of trying to use the villains quirk against them. He's slime; if they'd have thrown salt on him, he would have dissolved."

Izuku's shoulders fell. "I, I didn't think of that…"

She patted his shoulder. "Not your fault. You came up with the best possible plan you could with only a few seconds. It's a lot better than those half-assed heroes." She shook his notebook. "Still, this isn't the worst skill to base a hero career on."

Izuku froze. "You think… that I can be a hero with my analysis?"

She smiled, a quick quirk of her lips. "Definitely. But, only if you actually want to continue down the hero path. With all the wrongs given to you, you deserve a life that allows you to have revenge against those who've hurt you."

"I've considered it." On his worst days, Izuku has wondered why he even bothered trying anymore, but… "I want to be a hero more than anything. And if I really need revenge… well, I guess the looks on my former classmates' faces will have to be enough."

She laughed. "I guess that can work for you. You need to be more careful with this though," she gestured with the notebook. "It could ruin a lot of heroes lives if a villain found it…

"A villain like me."

Izuku's heart skipped a beat, the ache back, now worse. He must have misheard. He had to have, there's not way that she was—"What did you say?"

Her smiled twisted into a smirk, highlighting a cruel glint in her eyes. She stood. "I said. That I. Am a villain." With her towering over him, Izuku shivered, tears welling in his eyes again. She started walking away. "I have to thank you, kid. This book's going to make my job a whole lot easier. You really are a hero. So do yourself a favor and stay sitting like a good boy."

Her words tried to take hold of him, his mind whispering to obey, but Izuku bounded to his feet. "Hey!" She didn't stop and he raced forward, fist raised. He couldn't let her leave. She'd kill heroes if he let her leave—

She caught his fist easily, twisting it off to the side. "You broke free of my command." She was surprised, the lulling quality that had been in her voice this entire time missing. "Interesting…"

Izuku tried to pull his fist free. "I'm not letting you leave!"

"Did you really think that this would work?" she asked, sounding genuinely curious. "If I'd let that punch land, you would have broken your thumb and fractured your wrist. At least keep your thumb on the outside of your fist when you punch—" Taking her advice, Izuku punched her in the stomach with his free hand. She doubled over, grunting, but kept a hold of his notebook. "Okay," she said, strained. "That was on me. Need to stop teaching during a fight."

She lashed out with her leg and Izuku toppled to the floor, air rushing out of him, but it was alright. He kicked. If he could break her knee, then she—She caught his foot as easily as she did his first punch. She sighed. "Really? Do heroes really mean so much to you?"

"People mean a lot to me," he spat back. "I want to protect people. It doesn't matter to me if they're civilians or heroes or even villains like you! So that's why I'm not going to let you kill anyone!" He jerked his foot out of her hand and lunged.

An arm caught him around his neck and a rag was shoved over his mouth. Izuku tried not to breath as he felt her breath on his ear. "What an interesting answer, kid. I guess that's why you were on the list." The arm squeezed his neck and his lungs burned. "Just take a breath and let this day be over, alright? Nice and easy…"

His lungs gave out and Izuku gasped a breath, inhaling a sharp chemical scent. His head immediately went dizzy. He managed to force out "What did you…?"

"Go to sleep, kid. Things will be better when you wake."

His vision swam and cut to black, his mind sinking into a drugged slumber.

oOo

Silent had barely sat down at her desk to complete Midoriya Izuku's paperwork when Jagged Seer burst into her office. The large, muscular man would have been intimidating if he wasn't wearing a sweater vest. His dark buzzcut somehow managed to hold a pink bow. "Silent! What the hell is this about, making me go out and kidnap a new kid so close to school beginning!"

She sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose. "It's exactly as the memo said, Seer. Bakugou Katsuki doesn't meet our requirements for attending. Did you get on the train looking like that?"

"Yes? What's wrong with how I look?"

"Bow."

Seer ran his hands over his head and found the bow, unclipping it. "That child's been covering everything in the house with bows, I swear. At least it's only one this time… Anyway, Hyperstar said that they were the one to scout him and that he'd be perfect fit. What happened?"

"Hyperstar clearly can't look past a powerful quirk and a bad attitude. Bakugou's a bully—"

"We can deal with bullies. Hell, I was one—"

"But Bakugou wants to win, more than anything else. I could see that easy, even after only half a day of watching. So unless villains start winning on a scale that can rival All Might's wins, convincing that kid he should learn from a villain school would be impossible." She grabbed a cherry hard candy from a bowl on her desk and popped it in her mouth. "Plus, AVVM couldn't pay me enough to deal with that kid's inferiority/superiority complex. Just this past day's been a headache and a half."

The television perched in the corner of the room switched on and AVVM's avatar—a green head with a huge smile and no eyes—popped up. "Which is saying something, considering how much I am already paying you, Silent-san!" And with that, the virtual principal was gone.

Silent and Seer, far too used to the principal eavesdropping on other's conversations, ignored them. "So, who am I supposed to pick up, then?" Seer asked, crossing his arms. "Without Bakugou, we're a kid short."

Reaching into her desk, Silent gave him a fairly thick file. "Todoroki Shouto."

He grabbed the file. "Todoroki? Didn't we just have a Todoroki?"

"Yes, his brother. That's why he was lower on list than Bakugou was. But he's still technically a legacy, and Endeavor's such a piece of shit that he'll definitely want to remain here rather than go home."

"Alright then. You're the boss." They both ignored AVVM's declaration that they were actually the boss. "Guess that means I'm not going to make it to Blood's 'Last Day Before School' party."

"If Blood Creature has time to throw a party, she has time to get a lesson plan on my desk."

"You know, she throws these parties in hope that one day you'll remove the stick from your ass and let her fuck you." Seer snorted. "Like that's ever going to happen."

Silent rubbed hand over her face. Like she'd never heard that one before. "As I've said before, my duty is to our students. If Blood Creature can't handle that, then she shouldn't have become a teacher to begin with." Time to get back on track. They were wasting sunset. "When you retrieve Todoroki, use a dart gun to knock him out and have Port warp him to the Level 0 barracks. We don't have time for mistakes."

Seer waved off her concern and left, leaving her alone. Well, as alone as she could be, considering how the principal of LIVE was a rogue AI living inside all electronics.

Speaking of which… Silent flipped through tv channels until she found the live security footage of the Level 0 barracks. On the screen, 5 teenagers were trapped in drugged slumber and soon Todoroki would join them, giving her a full class to work on. Silent cracked her knuckles.

Tomorrow would be the dawn of a new year of villain academia for the Learning Institute of Villainous Excellence.