Chapter Text
Aizawa-sensei glared at the class, forcing them to pay attention to him for once.
“I know you’re all excited but at least let me explain the rules.” The man sighed.
“Over the course of the next two weeks you’ll be participating in the Hero Class Civil Warfare event alongside Class 1-B. Before the event, however, you each need to write on a piece of paper what team you’d like to be on and hand it to me. We’ll be choosing the Paragon and Kingpin based on the finalized teams. You may not discuss with your peers, as this should be an individual decision.” Aizawa-sensei paused, “though I’m sure you’ve all discussed it before. The official event date is a week from today and the livestream will start once the villains set foot in the city for their hour grace period.”
Izuku tapped his pen on the edge of his desk, softly considering. He wanted to play the villain, not only from how much the vestiges had been encouraging him to go apeshit recently, but also as a way to prove himself.
The villain team had historically always been the underdogs and few ever signed up for it. Simply put, they were bound to lose. It was as it always had been.
Izuku though, if nothing else he might just be able to change that. He did, after all, have the experience of seven war criminals/terrorists, vigilantes, and later even professional heroes living in his head to assist him.
His real concern though was in if anyone would sign up alongside him. He didn’t know 1-B too well but few seemed the hyper ambitious type to try and become villains, not when the hero role came with the possibility of the additional opportunities from being the paragon. That small chance was enough for most.
The kingpin never got any additional advantages, after all, and very rarely won. The last time the villains had won was during Aizawa-sensei’s second year and that was in truth only because more than half of the students had signed up to be on the villain team due to Aizawa-sensei, as kingpin’s clever marketing. They’d forced people to sign up before kingpin and paragon were released ever since.
Izuku took a soft breath, trying as hard as he could not to mutter. His friends would be heroes, he knew it after everything that had happened.
Between Kamino and the training camp, none of them wanted to be seen as even slightly villainous.
On the piece of paper that Aizawa-sensei handed out, he wrote his name and checked the small box to indicate he would be a villain.
He would win either way. He had to.
When Aizawa-sensei came back around, he didn’t even so much as glance at the papers, merely scooping them up. The sorting of names into the pickers for kingpin and paragon would be televised alongside the rest of Nedzu’s assembly, after all.
If Izuku was being honest, holding this type of event after everything that had happened sounded like a clusterfuck in the making, but who was he to judge. U.A. had a reputation to uphold and the HPSC to appease.
After all the papers were collected, Aizawa beckoned the class to follow him and they all got out of their seats, chattering as they did so.
The rest of the dekusquad surrounded him, comparing what they wrote for Midnight’s art history essay due the night before. Izuku, though, largely checked out on the walk, preferring to listen instead to Kudo’s rant about potential strategies based on what he’d observed. They couldn’t set anything in stone, not till they knew what battleground they would be in and who their teammates were, but they could plan.
That was what they were best at, after all.
The class slowly found their seats in the auditorium. The second years were actively competing in their games, but each grade had slightly different rules. In reverse of the sports festival, the third years started first and during their opening day the second years would get their kingpin and paragon and so on, occupying U.A. for a month in total, assuming that the games went on for the full week as planned. It was rare that the villains lasted for long enough to actually make it the week, but it was the thought that counted.
Nedzu clapped his paws at the front of the auditorium, the small sound echoing through the mic and quieting the two classes.
“Hello class 1 and welcome to your first Hero Class Civil Warfare. I’m sure you all already know the rules, but just to refresh, you may not change your team from the one selected and all decisions made today are final. Individual rule books with this year’s additions will be passed out back in your home rooms after this. As the teachers of 1-A and 1-B, respectively, Eraserhead and Vlad King will now sort the teams into the spinners to choose the Paragon and Kingpin.” Nedzu fell silent as Aizawa and Vlad King walked up from the back of the stage and began sorting their individual slips of paper into the containers in front of them.
It didn’t take long, all things considered, but Izuku felt his breath tighten as the moments passed by with each and every slip that was placed into the hero bins. If it weren’t for his own slip he knew was near the end, being no.19 in the class, he would have thought it would be a clean sweep for the heroes. A rare occurrence, sure, but not completely implausible. If it happened they simply wouldn’t have the games that year.
Aizawa-sensei and Vlad King, too, became more and more visibly concerned by the moment.
At last, just as Vlad King finished through his students, having gone slightly faster than Aizawa-sensei, Izuku saw his own slip of paper placed into the villain pool. Mineta, behind him, was yet another hero.
And thus, he was all alone and the shoo in for the Kingpin. How joyous.
From next to him Yoichi was far paler than normal at the sight, a feat considering that the man bore the skin tone of a vampire upon his death. “Izuku, are you sure about this?” The man asked in such a way that only he could hear.
“As much as I can be” Izuku sent back through the void. No point in considering the alternate realities, now.
Yoichi just shrugged and glanced back up at the stage.
It was perhaps more a concern than anything else that he would act too much like his father as Kingpin without anyone to keep him in check. Izuku didn’t want to be like his father, he really didn’t, but the man was effective and ruthless, the two things Izuku would need to be throughout this project.
And, well, the vestiges weren’t exactly the type to try and hold him back. For all his flaws as a mentor, All Might wasn’t either, hence why he would certainly be the teacher Izuku would go through to get his plans signed off on.
If he was being honest, the only one that really would possibly hold him back was Yoichi and even then the man was more like his older brother than he would ever admit. It’d be hypercritical for Yoichi to critique Izuku’s own plans and actions when his own during the quirk wars had been devastating for the sake of their cause.
Nedzu once again stepped forward on the stage as the hero teachers stepped back.
“Well that was certainly interesting, yes?” The rat said in a soft yet threatening tone. “Let us draw for the paragon.”
The rat spun the bingo picker in front of him a few dozen times, watching as the slips of paper spun and tumbled in front of him. With little warning, just paws suddenly shot out and grabbed a piece of paper from between the bars.
Nedzu opened it up with a menacing smile. “Our paragon shall be Monoma Neito of class 1-B. Come up on the stage if you would.”
Monoma scrambled out of his seat and came up on the stage with little composure, ultimately standing to Nedzu’s left.
“And now our Kingpin, and as it would seem the only villain of this year’s games,” The rat opened the sheet of paper, saying the name Izuku was already dreading. “Midoriya Izuku.”
Izuku gave nothing more than a silent and quick nod as he stood up and joined Monoma on the stage.
With Sanzou in his ear, coaching him the whole way, he walked up with ease and a hardened yet not afraid look on his face. He would win this. He had to.
He said nothing as he took his place, simply scanning his gaze over the crowd emotionlessly. The more neutral he could be now, the better for later.
If only the vestiges could possess him without it being super obvious.
Izuku largely tuned the rat out even as he began a longer look into the rule modifications for their year. It’d be in the rule book, anyways. He had scenarios to plan and 7 ghosts to organize.
If he didn’t get any of his peers he sure as hell would be bringing in his ghosts to make up for it. Not that he could leave any of them behind, but it was the thought that counted.
They were technically a part of his quirk anyways. Just the haunted part he normally didn’t talk about.
Even Yagi-san barely knew the extent to which Izuku was ingrained with the vestiges. They were always with him, talking softly in his mind as bits of each of them began to fall into him.
They’d someday become one being, it was a fact all eight of them knew. Even now, their hobbies and skills began to overlap to such a degree that Izuku scarcely knew where his interests started and theirs began.
The ability to shoot a gun definitely wasn’t his though.
He was theirs and they were his. Nothing, not All for One and certainly not Erasure could change that.
They didn’t even disappear when Erasure was used, at least not fully, he could still feel their spirits pulsing near the edges of his soul regardless of their physicality.
One for All had always been all consuming, after all. It is a quirk that takes, not gives, not really. No quirk ever gives.
Any quirk has its drawbacks, its stereotypes, its drastic changes to the user that would have never occurred in a kinder world. That wasn’t to say quirks were necessarily bad, Izuku could never hate the vestiges. They were his family after all and perhaps the only people who truly knew him for who he was, rights and wrongs. And yet, he sometimes had to wonder who he would be without them.
Regardless, though, it was the way of this world.
Nedzu clapped his hands together again, nearly startling Izuku out of his mental rant. “Now I’m sure you’re all very excited to begin your week of preparation. If our two leaders will please follow me, you will each get a private debrief regarding your team’s goals for this particular assignment. All other students may return to their homerooms and wait to be collected by their leader.”
Nedzu turned around quickly and the Izuku followed the rat off of the stage alongside Monoma.
They made it up to Nedzu’s office in absolute silence, waiting for the rat to give them direction and not daring to be the one to speak first.
There was a certain stigma, he supposed, with speaking first when Nedzu held their literal fates in his paws.
Monoma was let into the room first, smirking slightly at Izuku as they left the Kingpin in the hallway.
Without him even asking, Nana floated into the room to listen in on their conversation. Even given quirk advancements, there really wasn’t a good way to detect or block far away quirk usage from taking place, thus also making no location ever truly secure but Izuku supposed that was the tradeoff. He got to take advantage of it at the very least and as far as he knew Nedzu didn’t know about the vestiges.
He’d probably have to reveal them during the games so that they could help him physically with planting and organizing their bomb strikes, but that was a problem for another day.
Nana would surely relay information back to him later once they were in private, as he certainly didn’t want to seem like he was trying to listen in, at least for now. In even so much as responding to her, he had physical tics from speaking in his head that could notify someone was perceptive as in the principal. For now, all he could do was listen to Kudo’s game plans, knowing he could give his own input later, and hope that this wouldn’t be long so that he could get to plotting.
In all honesty, it really wasn’t long but Izuku nonetheless felt slightly nervous just planted outside of Nedzu’s door.
Monoma eventually came out of the room and gave a slight nod of his head to indicate that Izuku should head in.
“Nedzu-sensei,” Izuku greeted calmly as he approached the desk which sat imposingly in the middle of the room. A small cup of tea sat each facing himself and facing Nedzu, the scent not overpowering but smelling just faintly of flowers.
He gave a slight bow before the principal before taking his seat, the principal only analyzing him the entire time.
“Midoriya,” the principal eventually greeted softly. “How are you feeling about this situation?”
Taken a bit aback by the question, as he figured Nedzu would be far from the one to ask, he hesitated for a moment before eventually deciding on what could only be the truth. “Calm but optimistic, sir. I want to show them what I’m capable of.”
“And I suppose that is why you chose the villain team in the first place?”
“In part,” Izuku acknowledged, not giving the rat the satisfaction of his full answer.
The rat simply nodded. “Very well, then. Here’s your rule and objective book for the exam. Please, feel free to pursue it here before you leave so that I may clarify any potential questions.”
Izuku nodded and opened up the first page of the rulebook, looking over it carefully.
General Information
This year’s hero class civil warfare will take place in training grounds E, which is a simulated city.
No person may enter the training grounds with students for the competition other than those directly assigned on the team as pre-determined.
Students may not receive outside assistance during any part of the competition nor exchange information with the outside world as soon as the doors lock inside the city.
The villain team must provide a brief rundown of any plans to one teacher of the Kingpin’s choosing for approval prior to the start of the games. This teacher will not participate in grading the assignment.
Villain Team Objectives
This year there are 4 possible win conditions.
- Gain 15 points and have every alive member escape from the city from one of the designated exits in the last 12 hours of the exam (see Section 3: Gaining Points).
- Gain 15 points and kill over ½ of the designated hero team.
- Kill every member of the hero team.
- Kill over half of the hero team and collapse every skyscraper in the city.
The loss conditions are as follows:
- Every member of the villain team is killed or held captive.
- The Kingpin is held captive for more than 24 hours or killed.
- No win conditions are met at the end of the 7 day assignment.
Gaining Points
There are twenty possible objectives which can be completed, each objective completed is worth one point with the exception of objective 20, which is worth 5 points.
- Rob the central bank and take more than 20 thousand yen.
- Steal 3+ artifacts from the downtown museum without the alarm systems going off.
- Use fire to burn all the trees in central park.
- Kill 3 members of the hero team (objective may be claimed multiple times).
- Convert the mole to the villain team.
- Illegally acquire more than 100 thousand yen.
- Set off explosives in three different parts of the city at the same time.
- Acquire the passwords to the city hall’s system.
- Find and steal 2 of the hidden marked objects throughout the city (5 total - An additional point will be gained for finding and stealing all 5).
- Bribe 2 different public officials.
- Poison the food or water supply for the heroes .
- Kill every civilian bot in the city.
- Use a sniper rifle to kill at least one member of the hero team.
- Hack at least one public database of the city (please don’t hack the HPSC again…).
- Deploy the biological weapon located in the city’s vaults without alerting the police.
- Kill the mole.
- Block the hero comms and prevent contact for at least 3 hours.
- Perform a 5 minute villainous monologue in front of at least one hero without being interrupted or captured.
- Establish a hidden stronghold in the city which remains undiscovered by the heroes.
- Kill the Paragon and their second in command.
Additional rules and regulations
- The mole will not be permitted to reveal themselves or approach the villain team until the exercise has begun. The mole will not have a copy of the villain's objectives.
- Students may not be killed or seriously maimed by the exercise. Kills for the purposes of the exam will be declared by Cementoss and provided via individual student’s earpieces.
- Earpieces may not be removed during the exam. Earpieces may only be blocked from contacting the other heroes, not the staff.
- Students should remain in place after being “killed” and pretend as though they are dead.
- Only reasonably fatal hits or situations will allow for a student to be marked as “dead”.
- While explosives may be used, they may not be detonated within a deadly radius directly to a student.
Izuku hummed softly as he read. “How far down do the skyscrapers need to be to be considered rubble?”
“Less than two stories of the building remaining,” Nedzu answered easily.
“And what do the markers on the objects for objective 9 look like?”
“They’re hot pink sticky notes.
He nodded, carefully considering the loopholes in the text while also listening to the vestiges’ possible questions. “How will the mole be informed that they are the mole?”
“It will be contained within their information packet which was just handed out in class.”
“That’s all my questions for today.”
Nedzu nodded, and gave Izuku a bold grin. “Best of luck, then. May the odds ever be in your favor.”
Izuku responded only with a sharp nod, attempting to keep his emotions in check as he left the room without a word, making a beeline back to his dorm room. The less people he could tip off in regards to his plans the better.
They wouldn’t need him for the rest of the day and besides, he had plans to make.
All Might certainly wasn’t going to try and stop him, not given that Nana was pushing her support through the quirk. He was too desperate for his late mentor's approval to even dare go against her word.
This would go his way. It had to.
Meanwhile on twatter:
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Hey so what the fuck was that #brokenbonekid #solovillainyear #hesscrewed
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Replying to @allmightisking I have faith he's going to go #plusultra |
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Replying to @allmight all might responded to my post??? #gonnadienow |
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Does anyone else think that kid looked like suspiciously confident going up on stage all alone? #brokenbonekid
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Replying to @jackolantern27 For my own sanity I'm trying not to think about it #brokenbonekid |
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What's this kid's hero name again? #brokenbonekid
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Replying to @fuckendeavor The People’s Hero: Deku, he’s the one that fought Overhaul a few months ago #herodeku #dekuisscary |
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Replying to @quirklessblooddrinker HE’S THE ONE THAT FOUGHT OVERHAUL?!?! #heroteamisdonefor #brokenbonekid #herodeku |
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Does anyone else think that this kid is going to go absolutely feral #ifear #brokenbonekid #herodeku
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Replying to @ruolumen I’m sure that young Midoriya is going to do all he must #herodeku #1styearHCCW |
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Replying to @allmight Idk if I should be more concerned because he’s strong or because All Might is in the tags cheering this kid on #herodeku |
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Replying to @jackolantern27 both are r equally concerning I fear |
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why are they actually letting this kid fight 39 other kids solo?? #brokenbonekid #1styearHCCW
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Replying to @sunny.angel what else are they gonna do it was livestreamed and they all picked their teams already #herodeku |
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I feel like this is either gonna go really good or really bad, no in between #1styearHCCW
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Replying to @zoppzoop frrr |
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Trending now:
1: #brokenbonekid
2: #herodeku
3: #2ndyearHCCW
4: #1styearHCCW
5: #PlusUltra