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

The Tournament - Pt. 2

"Oh, okay," Mina said, blinking in surprise. He gave her a strained smile and turned to walk away.

"I'll find you in the stands a bit later, okay? I need to make a private call."

As soon as he was out of sight, he started to run. He needed to find somewhere. What was wrong with him? He knew he wasn't a good person, he was just a surface personality created to protect what he used to be. Izuku. The kind, hopeful, emotional boy that he was supposed to be, the one that was fucking missing, what happens now, he's just an imposter living in someone else's body, what happened to him, what happened—

He knocked into someone hard, stumbling back and falling on his butt. He blinked and refocussed, looking up to see Iida still recovering from the impact. The kid looked even worse for wear emotionally than Michi felt, and he reflexively stood up and helped Tenya to his feet.

"Are you okay, Iida?" Michi asked. "You look unwell."

"I'm fine," Iida said tersely. He brushed himself off. "I'll be going now."

Michi blinked in bewilderment as Iida stalked past him quickly, glaring ahead without acknowledging his surroundings. What happened to him?

"Now that you're done with your panic attack, could you listen to me?" Izuku's voice said in his head, sounding faint and weak. Michi immediately tuned out his surroundings, focusing completely on the voice. "

"You're not gone!" Michi cheered. "Holy shit, you scared me."

You do know we're not supposed to be multiple personalities, right? You're getting your emotions and insecurities back, and I'm fading as a distinct personality," Izuku explained. "You'll probably start muttering more and all that, and you'll have to watch out for any memorable mannerisms that might tip off Kacchan, but really it's hard to tell since I haven't studied any of this. It's kind of hard to study what goes on in the mind of a trauma victim with multiple personalities, not to mention how unethical it would be to treat them like an experiment just to try and understand—"

"Right, I get it," Michi said, feeling a wave of relief hit him like a physical blow. He staggered over to a seat and sat down again, getting control over his breathing. "So, what's happening?"

"We're finally healing," Izuku said, sounding like he was on the verge of tears. He probably was, to be honest, it didn't take much to make him start bawling. "You're not just a defense mechanism, you're the ideal of the kind of hero I want to be someday. As we heal, you'll become more like me, and I'll become more like you. It's a win-win."

"If I start crying every time anything remotely emotional happens, I'm asking All For One to beat me until we split again," Michi muttered, but he couldn't help smiling.

Get fucked All For One, he thought just to himself. As if I would just stay broken like a good little abuse victim. This isn't the only plan of yours that's about to come crumbling down around you.

*                *                *

Katsuki Bakugo rolled his neck, bouncing from foot to foot with a grin on his face. Ochako was his opponent for the first match, and he was honestly excited. She'd shown impressive creativity and resilience on that first day when they'd fought, during the combat training, but after all the extra practice they'd been doing—which was an amazing idea and shockingly well-implemented and organized, though he'd never tell Michi that—she'd become a formidable fighter.