A Hero's Dirty Work (Villain Deku / Vigilante Deku au)

The Tournament - Pt. 1

Still, Michi knew he'd made some progress. Shoto may still hate and fear his flames, but Michi had managed to help him realize that they were his own. Unfortunately, the rest was probably up to Kacchan.

Shoto and Kacchan had an admittedly strange relationship. Shoto, who had grown up with Endeavor, had initially seen some of his old man in Kacchan, which soured any chance of a friendship immediately. Over the course of the training program Michi had set up, though, he'd realized that Kacchan had a passion that Endeavor lacked. They both strove desperately for the top, showing no mercy to their enemies and openly displaying their unpleasant, unfriendly personalities, but Kacchan's vision of heroism would never allow something as villainous as what Endeavor did to his family.

Katsuki Bakugo had grown a lot, and Michi had conflicting feelings about the fact that a lot of it was probably from Izuku Midoriya's disappearance. On one hand, he was proud to have been important enough to Kacchan to spark such a major change. On the other hand, he'd had to lose his mother, get arrested and picked on for it, and get kidnapped by villains for that change to take place. From what he'd heard, Aldera middle school had been thrown into chaos when the notorious Bakugo had suddenly started protecting students with weak quirks from bullying.

He tried to hide it, but Michi picked up pretty easily on the biggest changes. Before, his abrasive nature had been to shove everyone around him down, ensuring he was at the top with no competition. He'd surrounded himself with cronies that worshipped him, parading himself around as their leader. Now, he used the same personality to keep everyone away. He'd realized that he had always considered Izuku as a friend, and that his treatment was far over the line between rivalry and bullying. He didn't trust himself anymore to be a good friend to anyone, so his solution was to not have friends.

The only issue with that plan was the fact that Kirishima was in his class. And Ochako, apparently. That was an unexpected development to be sure, but it had happened.

Well, it was time for Michi to admit he was not nearly good enough at reading people to figure all that out on his own. He'd managed to figure it out with his new super move: a combination of activating Analysis and Research with all he had, he called it Deep Dive. It was a move he used rarely, since it was sort of creepy to know more about another person than you knew about yourself. Also, it was exhausting and was always followed by an hours-long migraine.

Anyway, the point was that Kacchan and Shoto had developed a real rivalry, something that was more mutual and actually beneficial compared to what he'd had with Izuku. Kacchan was actually surprisingly stalkerish, and Michi knew that he'd overheard enough of their various conversations to figure out that Shoto refused to use his fire because of his father. Michi hoped the new version of his old friend would be able to help Shoto break free of the chains he'd wrapped around himself. Kacchan wanted to be a real hero, now, and Shoto would be the first person he saved.

Michi was snapped out his thoughts abruptly as Mineta, now wrapped in bandages but still sitting with their class, started shouting "encouragement" to the girls in the recreational games. Michi stood up, and Mineta immediately stopped talking with a squeak. Michi folded his arms, leaning menacingly over the now silent student. Mineta looked up at him fearfully, and all of the girls in the class smiled slightly as they relaxed.

"I swear to god, if I hear another word out of you I'm going to punt you again so goddamn hard you'll taste my shoe for a week," he growled. He sat back down without waiting to see the purple turd's reaction, trying to focus on his planning again. He didn't know who he was up against just yet, but he hoped it wasn't Shinso, Shoto, or Bakugo. Not that he was afraid to fight them, he would just rather have all of them get farther than the first round.