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

The Tournament - Pt. 2

He glanced at the floor, grinning as he saw tracks glistening where Mina had used her acid to slide. Without warning, he grabbed her by the hand and spun, gaining momentum until he let her go on one of her own tracks. Unable to find any traction, she slid nearly all the way to the boundary line before abruptly hitting solid ground. The sudden stop sent her sprawling, and Michi had thrown her with enough force that she wasn't able to catch herself until she'd crossed out of bounds.

"Ashido is out of bounds! Hamasaki is victorious! And don't think we didn't notice how you avoided hitting her, you sly little boy," Midnight said into the microphone. Michi blushed again, starting to get honestly frustrated. Embarrassment was supposed to be a thing of the past!

He barely managed to avoid throwing a rude gesture at Midnight, trudging off the field while trying to ignore the heat he felt rising in his face. Once he made it off of the field and into some privacy, he found a bench and sat down away from any prying eyes. His foot started tapping rapidly as he buried his face in his hands, trying to remember how he used to cope with stuff like embarrassment. And, well... ah, shit. What should he even call his feelings towards Mina? "In love" sounded too cheesy and intense, a crush sounded too childish... he was afraid.

Yeah, he already had friends that he liked, but All For One would be looking for someone other than Eri to threaten him with. He and All For One both knew even the villain wouldn't intentionally hurt Eri until she was able to heal him with her quirk, which meant someone else had to be the leverage. Even with all the brainwashing, All For One would never be satisfied until he had a concrete way to hurt Midoriya.

Michi was realizing he really liked Mina. Which was awkward, since she really liked someone else that was technically still him, but whatever. The point was that he didn't think he'd be able to keep something like that from All For One, and he was desperate to avoid the villain getting any more power over him than he already had.

He didn't know how long he was sitting there, trying to calm himself down and sort through his thoughts, before he felt a hand on his shoulder. He jumped up, forcing himself back into reality and berating himself for getting distracted enough for someone to get that close without him noticing.

"Michi? Are you okay?" Mina asked, looking concerned. He took a deep breath, plastering on a carefree smile.

"Oh, definitely. Sorry about that, I got distracted," he said, laughing a bit.

Mina smiled back, but it faded quickly. "Michi... was that fight really so easy for you that you avoided hitting me on purpose?" she asked. She tried to sound light and teasing, but Michi could tell she was upset.

"No, Midnight's an idiot," he laughed, rolling his eyes. "I was just trying to limit the physical contact since I was fighting someone with an acid quirk. Just because I knew you wouldn't use it on me doesn't mean I should get careless, right? I've gotta practice for real life."

Mina relaxed slightly, her smile becoming more genuine. "Right. I have to practice for real life too, you know, so you better not have been going easy on me!" she teased, poking him in the chest.

"Oh come one, just because I think you're pretty doesn't mean you'll get all that special treatment," he fired back, trying to keep his mind clear. He was the one teasing her right now, why was he getting embarrassed again? He went to go yell at Izuku in his head, but... strangely, he couldn't find him. 

He was gone. Wrath still simmered there in silence, ready to be released at any time, but Izuku was nowhere to be found.

"Ah... I just forgot something important, sorry," he stammered, hoping it was a good enough excuse for how pale he suddenly went.