Izuku didn’t make a habit of messing with people’s memories.
For one, it was rude, not to mention it was much easier to make it so that there wasn’t anything important to remember. It was harder for people to give information away when they couldn’t recall anything more than bright eyes and freckles, and those could be covered.
The second reason he didn’t use Tailor very often, was because despite how useful it was, there was a cost that needed to be paid.
For every person that he altered the memories, he was forced to live through their worst experience. He would feel every emotion they had, every bit of fear and anger and pain would be imbedded in his own mind, never fading and never forgotten.
Izuku had seen the death of a woman who had been able to fly. He’d seen a monster with a familiar face grind her beneath his heel because she’d inherited a gift he had once given.
Nana’s body had not been pretty. Burned and mutilated in more places than Izuku cared to count, blood seeped out of her as Gran Torino had been forced to watch. The man-younger in the memory but with eyes just as sharp, had made the choice to live to see another day, chose to train All Might instead of giving his life to a dead woman.
The old man didn’t look at him suspiciously anymore, and Izuku couldn’t tell if he was relived or horrified. He had considered trusting him, trusting his mother’s judgement and potentially gaining an ally but-
There had been more than fear in Gran Torino’s gaze, and Izuku knew all too well how far grief could make a person go.
The Hero had decided to take him to Hosu so he could practice fighting different people so he wouldn’t become complacent. If Izuku hadn’t already fought more people than he’d ever given his real name to, it would have been a good idea.
The train ride had been smooth and quiet, which really should have been his first indication that everything was about to go to shit.
He sensed the Nomu an instant before it crashed into the train, jumping to his feet even as Gran Torino zipped past him and ordered that he stay put.
It was a shame that Izuku had never been good at following orders.
The wind whistled through his hair as he fell, ducking into a tight roll to absorb the impact and coming up with a knife in hand.
Hosu was in chaos.
Several Nomu were tearing through the streets, the Hero’s struggling to keep them in check and away from civilians. Izuku rescued a few from fallen debris or trapped spaces, using his Quirks liberally. He doubted many of them would look to closely at the person saving them, especially when his outfit was meant to be forgettable.
It was then, at the edge of his sensing range, did he feel it.
Iida, Todoroki, and an unknown. The former two’s lights flaring and twisting in alarm and fear.
Izuku hopped onto a roof and began running.
…
Shouto wasn’t sure when things had gone downhill, but he suspected it was the moment the Nomu had started attacking.
Ingenium had ordered them to help civilians get to shelters, and for a while they had done that. Shouto’s ice was particularly useful for holding up collapsing structures, and Iida was good at quick grabs.
The Nomu made his skin crawl, but it wasn’t like the U.S.J. where they had been on their own. Here there were already a dozen Hero’s on the scene with more arriving by the minute as backup. They weren’t a bunch of teens scrambling to stay alive.
And then he had appeared.
Neither he nor Iida had sensed the man approaching until it was too late.
A heavily armed dark figure fell from above, knocking Iida to the ground and placing a blade to his throat.
“I’ve caught you, you fake.” The man growled. “You won’t escape me again.”
Shouto shot his ice towards him, forcing the man back for less than a second before he was lunging for him too.
Iida managed to get to his feet, but even with the two of them working together it felt like fighting a monster. No matter how many times Iida kicked him, or Shouto trapped him in ice, he rose again and again like a creature of myth.
He slammed Iida again a wall, knife going deep in the boy’s shoulder before Shouto managed to blast him away with another wave of ice.
Stain grinned and licked his blade.
Iida, who had been slowly backing away from the man with one hand on his shoulder, froze completely. “I-I can’t move.”
Shit.
Shouto took up position slightly behind the boy, and every time Stain got close to Iida, he blasted him away with ice, trying to create distance between them as he attempted to drag the teen in away.
Eventually, Stain stopped being hindered by his ice, busting through it and dodging as though the world was in slow motion compared to him.
Shouto had never primarily trained for close combat, his Quirk more effective at a distance when he had time to build up his ice.
Yet, as Stain reached for him, his blade millimeters away from sinking into the skin of his throat, he wished he had.
"One day, you are going to be in a position where you are hopelessly outclassed. You are going to be afraid for your life and need every single scrap of ability and power at your disposal just to survive.”
Shouto burned.
…
There was an alley full of fire.
Izuku perched on the top of a nearby roof, waiting for the blaze to die down and reveal what he already suspected.
Iida and Todoroki stood side by side as the Hero Killer loomed over them. The man’s light was a hazy red, tightly curling around him as he dropped his now melted sword and drew another one.
“Nothing can stop justice.” Stain hissed. “Not your fire, nor the Blue Devil’s. All attempts to prevent punishment will deem you just as guilty.”
Yeah that’s enough of that.
…
“You know, I’ve followed the news regarding you.”
Chizome paused, attention shifting from his prey to a small figure on the roof whose legs dangled loosely.
“At the beginning, I somewhat understood what you were trying to project to the world. Terrible and ineffective way to convince the masses, but you would gain some followers in the more disillusioned population.” The boy dropped down into the alley, blocking his path to his prey. “Going after well-loved Heroes like Ingenium definitely made your image take a blow.”
Rage curled in Chizome’s chest at being stalled from his goal, but he would take the time to explain things to this ignorant fool.
“They are fakes.” He hissed. “Heroes are supposed to be inspirations, great and pure. They should not be posers who worship money.”
The boy tilted his head. “You do realize, that being Hero is a job. It’s like being a police officer or firefighter with a few extra perks. How else are those men and women supposed to feed themselves if they’re not paid?” He snorted. “Yeah, ask them to risk their life everyday without being able to get revenue to survive. That’ll work.”
The dual-tone haired boy glanced nervously between Chizome and the boy. “Midoriya-” he began, before cutting himself off.
The greenette didn’t so much as glance behind him. “And you do realize that All Might gets paid as well, don’t you? The man who you hold up to be ‘the one true Hero’. He gets paid more than anyone else.” He took a step forward. “So you know what I think?”
Chizome regarded him disdainfully. “I care not what you think. You are blinded from the truth by the propaganda the world spews.”
The boy ignored him. “I think that you just like killing people and dress it up as a moral crusade. You’ve never gone after anyone too powerful or too high in the rankings, despite the fact that they would have the most influence.” The boy grinned. “So really you’re just a coward pretending to have a cause.”
…
Tenya had never imagined how loud horrified silence could be.
Midoriya’s back was to him, but he could hear every word the greenette spoke, every casual dismissal of the convictions of a man who had killed more than a dozen Heroes.
His tone was calm. Relaxed.
Fear did not seem to affect him as he stood before a murderer who was more than willing to repeat his actions.
Todoroki seemed just as frozen, surprise and a hint of something Tenya couldn’t name reflected in his heterochromatic eyes.
“We need to get out of here.”
Tenya blinked, unsure if he should take his eyes off the stare down between Stain and Midoriya.
“What about…” he gestured helplessly towards the two.
Todoroki’s expression was grim. “You remember the Sports Festival? We’ll just get in his way. And I don’t know about you, but I do not want to be in the blast radius.”
That…was actually a very good point.
Suddenly, Tenya’s limbs were his own once again, and he was able to slowly back away with Todoroki, the boy sealing off the alley with a blockade of ice.
…
Stain’s Quirk was lighter than Izuku had assumed, and taking it seemed to have reversed Iida’s paralysation. The other two boys had backed out of the alley, leaving him alone with the Hero Killer.
Good. That way he didn’t have to worry about uncomfortable questions. He didn’t want to have to use Tailor so soon after Gran Torino.
“I’m going to enjoy killing you.” Stain said, blades readying.
Izuku grinned.
…
Tensei wasn’t sure what to expect when he got an SOS message from his little brother, but it hadn’t been three teenagers casually standing around what looked to be the body of…was that the Hero Killer?!
“Tensei!” Tenya called out as he finally noticed him. “I mean Ingenium. We-”
“Found the Hero Killer unconscious in this alley.” The green haired boy interrupted. “Looks like someone beat him pretty badly.”
That was an understatement. The man’s fingers were mangled and his left knee was pointing the wrong direction. More than a little blood coated his dark outfit and…had someone ripped out part of his tongue?
The other two boys stared at him incredulously, but the freckled teen’s expression didn’t so much as shift. It was…unsettlingly genuine, and if it weren’t for the other two Tensei would have been inclined to believe him.
“…Right.” He said with forced cheer. “I’ll send the message out to the containment unit. Their hands are pretty full with the Nomu at the moment, but I’ll let them know the situation is serious.”
Todoroki glanced at the unconscious man. “He’ll probably be down for a while.” He said calmly. “If anything, I’d call an ambulance.”
Which reminded Tensei, “Speaking of which, are any of you injured? There’s blood on the ground and-”
SCREECH!
One of the flying Nomu’s zipped past Tensei, claws extended towards the greenette-
Who promptly grabbed one of its feet and slammed it into the concrete with devastating force. When the creature attempted to rise, the teen stomped the heel of his boot into its head, splattering brains and blood onto the ground.
“Nasty little bugger, aren’t you?” The boy mused.
Tensei needed a drink.
…
Shota was in the middle of marking essays when he got the phone call.
“Emi?” He questioned, glad for the distraction from Kaminari’s attempt at explaining his reasoning. “What are you calling me for?”
“It’s about the kid you sent me.” Her tone was enough to make him sit straighter. She was rarely this serious; the last time she’d sounded like that it had been because she’s suspected one of her intern’s of being a rampant serial killer.
She’d been right.
“What about him?”
Emi’s next words made Shota go cold.
“I think his household is abusive.”
“Explain.” He demanded, tone sharper than he intended.
Thankfully, she was willing to let it slide to focus on the subject at hand. “We were training the other day and when I went in for a high-five, he acted as though he expected me to hit him. I started watching him closer after that and he’s showing a lot of the signs.”
Emi had been in the Underground Hero game for as long he had. She’d seen the grime and grit they delt with and witnessed the scum of the earth and their followers. As much as he hated to admit it, she was reliable and smarter than most people gave her credit for.
And she wasn’t often wrong, not about things like this.
Shit.
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