Chapter Text
Chapter 1
Announcement
The first year final exam was steadily nearing. They had already finished the written portion. It was the practical they were worrying about, especially since the written portion had been held a week earlier than usual.
The students were still recovering from the war. They were far too young and unprepared to have taken part in such a battle, and they only hoped they could take it easy for a while.
All of the first year classes, A, B, F, G, and H, were gathered in the auditorium and were now chatting among themselves, waiting for Nedzu. Why did he have to call them on a Sunday?
"Am I a mouse, a rat or a bear? It doesn't matter, because I'm the principal!" The principal announced from the podium.
'This is going to be fun.' thought Midoriya Izuku.
He was as clueless as his classmates about the specifics. Nedzu never spoiled his own surprises, but he knew the chimera well enough to read the particular brightness in those beady eyes. Whatever this was, Nedzu had been looking forward to it for a long time. That alone was enough to make Izuku's pulse tick up with something he hadn't felt in a while. Anticipation.
"We are holding the UA Civil War this year for the first year final exams!" He exclaimed, beady eyes shining as they swept across the auditorium, pausing just a beat too long on Midoriya.
Oh. Izuku sat up a little straighter.
"Now, before I explain the role of the support course, I shall explain the rules and guidelines for the hero course." Nedzu pulled out a booklet and opened it, propping it up on the podium.
"Now, there will be two teams, one villain and one hero. Only the leaders of the two teams will be predetermined; it's up to the students to decide which team they wish to join." It was obvious to most of the students that they'd choose the hero team. After all, who'd want to be a villain? Even if it was just for a game.
"I'll announce the leaders at the end, to keep the suspense going." He chortled happily. "The heroes' only objective is to capture the villains alive." He put emphasis on the word alive, his gaze flicking to a few students in quiet reminder. "They will also have to run their agency as normal, paperwork and patrols included." He looked back at the students to make sure they understood. "The heroes will win if all the villains are captured."
He flipped the page. "Now! Onto the villains. Your only goal is to 'kill' every single hero." Nedzu looked up at the outraged looks on the students' faces. "Now it would do you good to remember that the villains are only there to prepare you for the real world. The worse they do now, the more prepared you will be in the future." He smiled, trying to appear comforting, but the smile showed too many teeth to be considered normal. "Also, they will only be simulating your death. They will be using fake weapons and the teachers will be determining whether the student dies or not. Other than that, any amount of psychological damage is allowed." He glanced up at them again.
"It is very important for the hero team to remember that what the villain team will do is only for your benefit. Similarly, I want the villain team to give their all so that your fellow classmates don't die on the field."
All the students looked grim but understanding. This seemed to please Nedzu, and he moved on cheerfully.
"Both teams shall have exactly a week to prepare, starting tomorrow. The exam begins next Monday. I shall give the team leaders a binder with the additional rules and regulations; they must go through it today and meet the teachers for questions tomorrow morning during homeroom." He smiled at the students again. They were nervous, and that was inevitable. Nedzu had designed this to unsettle them, and from the looks on their faces, it was working beautifully. Izuku was starting to understand why. Especially with Midoriya Izuku as the villain leader.
"Moving onto the support course, they will operate as support companies. It's up to you all if you want to group up or not. The hero course will have to recruit you and hire you as their support technicians, but that's up to them. The villain team can also recruit support technicians. It's up to all of you if you want to participate, but do remember that you get extra credit for participating. Even if you aren't recruited and have a functioning company, you shall still get the extra credit."
The support course seemed excited at that, most of all the chaos gremlin of 1H.
"Now without further ado, the leaders of the teams!" The hushed whispering immediately stopped as everyone's eyes became glued onto the screen above Nedzu. The picture under the hero team label was flicking through all of the hero course students, faces blurring past one by one. It slowly came to a stop, only to reveal Bakugo Katsuki's feral face.
"Hell yeah! You extras will finally bow down to me!" He yelled. Groans echoed all over the auditorium, which seemed to energise Bakugo even more.
Izuku barely heard it. His eyes were already on the screen, watching it cycle through for the villain team slot. His fingers had gone still against his knee. This was the part Nedzu had been looking forward to. This was it.
The screen slowed.
Stopped.
The face of Midoriya Izuku smiled out at the auditorium.
The silence lasted exactly one second before the gasps tore through the room, sharp and overlapping, the kind only melodramatic teenagers were capable of. Izuku felt the shift in the air like a change in pressure. Slowly, he let out a breath, and with it came something warm and loose and deeply, deeply satisfied. He had not smiled this genuinely in months.
"But, principal! Deku can't possibly take charge of the villains!" Uraraka complained loudly.
Perfect.
"Rest assured, Uraraka-san, Midoriya-san is more capable than you give him credit for. Do trust in your classmate and future colleague." She sat back down, unconvinced.
"You want me to fight that quirkless nerd! Hah! Who will even join him! This is going to be too easy."
"Let's hear you say that after the competition ends. Now, will the two leaders please come up to the stage."
The two walked up confidently, Bakugo smirking and Midoriya smiling serenely.
'Uraraka and all the others need to learn not to be so quirkist.' Midoriya thought as he took his place behind the box labelled villain, standing shoulder to shoulder with Bakugo. He scanned the auditorium from the stage. All those faces looking back at him, most of them already certain they knew how this would go.
"The support course can stay back to watch the selection. The hero course can come forward one by one and drop their names in whichever team they wish to choose. Do please remember that you can't change your choice."
All the students lined up, a chit of their names clutched in their hands.
Izuku watched them come, quiet and unhurried, cataloguing each face as they passed. One by one they peeled off toward Bakugo's box without so much as a sideways glance.
Uraraka reached the front. She looked up at him, her expression all twisted guilt, the apology written plainly across her face even though she couldn't bring herself to say it out loud. Izuku met her eyes for just a moment, warm, unbothered, giving nothing away, and watched her drop her name in Bakugo's box. Iida went next, stiff-backed and deliberate. Neither of them knew that every person who walked past him was handing him an advantage.
He was going to have so much fun.
When the hero team line was halfway down, a tired insomniac finally approached and slipped his name into the villain team box. "I can't wait to cause chaos with you." Shinsou gave a small smile to the green-haired boy, who returned it with a genuine one.
Shinsou walked off, and another loud blonde stood up. "As expected of class 1A! Other than one person, everyone's abandoned the nicest person in their class. Well, not to worry, Midoriya, I shall join you. I don't understand those who would willingly work with Bakugo." Monoma dramatically waved his hand as he approached Midoriya.
"Thanks, Neito." Midoriya said softly, only for their ears.
Two people. Out of the entire auditorium, two people had walked toward him. He looked out at the rows of students who had chosen safety in numbers, chosen the obvious team, chosen the boy who shouted loudest, and felt the particular pleasure of someone who had just been handed exactly what they needed.
He stood on the stage, smiling emptily at the audience. Unbeknownst to the others, he was making eye contact with one Hatsume Mei.
She was already grinning, pink eyes bright with the exact same energy buzzing under Izuku's ribs. He held her gaze for half a second and felt the last of his composure threaten to crack into something delighted. He schooled it back down. There would be time for that later.
The four had become fast friends since the sports festival and were now inseparable. They all had their own secrets, their own reasons to put up a front in front of others. That was exactly why they cherished each other's company.
Once all the students had finished selecting a team, Nedzu took to the stage again.
"Bakugo, would you like to say anything to the participants?" He glanced at Bakugo, who moved to stand at the podium in place of Nedzu.
"Shitty Deku, just watch me pummel you into the ground. I'm going to win!" He exclaimed, keeping eye contact with Midoriya. Izuku held it easily, the way you held eye contact with something that didn't scare you at all.
"Midoriya, if you would." Nedzu welcomed.
"Thank you, Nedzu. I would like to thank those who joined my team. I won't let you down." He made eye contact with his closest friends, then turned to face the rest of the students.
"To those on the hero team, I hope you remember that all I'm going to do is purely for your sake. I wouldn't want any of you to die on the field because I didn't give my all. I have a few secrets about my personal life that none of you know, and they will be revealed in the game. I hope you don't see me any differently after you do find out." He nodded and stepped back for Nedzu to take the podium again.
He hadn't told them to take him seriously for a reason. He wanted to be underestimated.
"That's all for today, all other students may be excused. I request the team leaders to stay behind for a minute."
The students walked out, chattering excitedly, some looking guilty and others looking happy.
"I expect you two to take a close look at the rules today and come prepared with questions tomorrow." Nedzu's eyes were shining as he glanced at the two boys in front of him. When his gaze settled on Midoriya, the pleasantly neutral expression dropped away for just a moment, and what looked back at Izuku was sharp, knowing, and thoroughly pleased with itself. It was the look of someone who had set a very interesting game in motion and was already enjoying the outcome. The two shared a small smirk.
Both boys accepted the booklet of information.
"Thank you, principal Nedzu."
"You shouldn't expect anything from this quirkless loser." Bakugo huffed.
You are dismissed." Both ignored the angry blonde's comments.
Midoriya turned on his heels, book clutched to his chest as he half-ran out the door. Bakugo was not far behind him, skimming the pages of the book rather than paying attention to the boy he called useless. He didn't notice Midoriya meet up with his friends outside the doors and walk towards the support labs.
"Izu, what did you mean by secrets being revealed during the game?" Neito asked once they were settled in Mei's support lab. It was supposed to be shared, but no one wanted to share a room with her, so she got a private room.
"I can tell you right now, if you want. I'll understand if you don't want to be friends with me anymore, but you will be forced by the rules to still stay on my team." Izuku hummed. He knew these friends wouldn't betray him.
"We'll stick by your side no matter what! No one understands my babies like you do!" Mei exclaimed, and Hitoshi hummed in agreement.
Izuku smiled. He was sitting in a beanbag next to Hitoshi, who was lying face up on the floor, and Neito, who was sitting in a chair with a notebook on the desk. He was tapping the back of his pen on the notebook in a rhythmic pattern. Mei was sitting at her station, tinkering away.
"You know the scourge of Kamino, right?" It was a rhetorical question. Everyone knew the villain who had taken down All Might. They all knew the villain they had fought against in the war.
A shiver went down their spines as they remembered the monster.
"Yeah, what about him?" Neito asked.
"That would be my dear old dad." Izuku hummed, his gaze shifting between the three to gauge their reactions. They only seemed shocked, not upset or disgusted. Good.
"What!?" Hitoshi exclaimed from his place on the floor.
Izuku snorted. "Horrible, horrible man, I know that. Hell, I helped put him in jail and build a place strong enough to make sure he stays there." There was a sadness in his voice. "But he was a great father. He wanted me to follow my dreams." Izuku smiled sadly. "He wanted me to be a true hero. He wanted me to change the world my way. Even if we disagreed, he still supported me no matter what."
Hitoshi placed a comforting hand on his thigh, only possible because of his ridiculously long arms.
"Wow." Mei breathed out.
"Yeah." Izuku snorted again. "One of the reasons the war wasn't as devastating as it could have been is because Tomu-nii wasn't trained to take over from dad; he was supposed to be my right hand."
"Hold up. Shigaraki Tomura is your brother!!" Neito yelled, abandoning all pretenses of poise.
Izuku scrunched up his nose in disgust. "He's adopted."
Hitoshi snorted and Mei wheezed in laughter.
"Oh my god, so you were supposed to be his successor." Mei asked once they had exhausted their laughter.
"Yup. Why do you think there are 21 students in class 1A? I wasn't meant to be here. They couldn't exactly throw someone out to let me in, and if they didn't let me in they would be facing me." Izuku grinned an evil grin. "And no one wanted to go against me."
A shiver ran down their spines.
"I can't tell you how happy I am that you are a hero, Izu." Neito exclaimed.
"Yeah, no shit. If Izu was on the villain's side, none of us would have survived that war." Hitoshi added.
Midoriya Izuku's contribution wasn't known to the general public, but he couldn't really hide it from his closest friends.
Izuku smiled at them. "Thanks, guys." He returned to flipping through the rule book, marking things as he went.
"Is that why you were chosen as the villain team leader?" Mei asked.
"Yeah, they want to give the students a taste of real organized crime. Of course they'd choose the person who was raised to rule a criminal empire."
"Somehow, you get scarier every single time I talk to you." Hitoshi groaned.
Izuku smiled at him. "Thank you."