The Apex Hero: Bioterror

Chapter 22

Before Bakugou can respond, a tornado tears up the streets, destroying buildings and sidewalks, creating a kind of pseudo hallways with All Might at the at, exuding an aura of dominance and power. "That's my cue." Izuku quickly shifts into a cockroach, slinking into a sewer drain. 'All Might is good, but not even he can find a single roach in a giant city.'

Due to his smaller size, it took Izuku a while to reach the gate, and there were a few close calls where an explosion or a punch tore up the ground and he had to skitter to cover, but he managed to get through the gate with seconds to spare.

In class, the people who failed the practical were in complete despair. Izuku comforted them. "Don't worry, I guarantee that Aizawa is gonna come in here and say it's a logical ruse."
Kaminari gave him a look. "You really think our teacher would use the same cheap trick twice?"
"100 yen says he does."
"...alright I'll take that bet."
Ashido chimes in. "Make it a double. I'll get myself some McDonald's as a consolation prize to make myself feel better."

Yaoyorozu pipes up. "I actually managed to catch some of the footage from your exam after I finished mine. Why'd you abandon Bakugou to fight All Might by himself?"
"I didn't abandon him, I used him as bait."
"HAH!?"

"I knew he wasn't going to cooperate, so I played to his strengths. He likes fighting and he wanted to win, so I let him fight. Meanwhile I managed to get to the gate completely unseen. He actually lasted longer than I expected, I kept hearing explosions until the last second."
Yaoyorozu rubs her chin in thought. "I see, since you couldn't plan WITH him you planned AROUND him."
"I'm sitting right here, Ponytail! And the damned nerd didn't plan shit, he just ran away like a little bitch!"

Aizawa suddenly enters and it's as if everyone suddenly teleports to their seats. "About the results of your end of term exams. I'm sorry to say some of you have failed, and as such... everyone is going to the forest lodge!"
Izuku silently smirks and holds a hand out behind him, Ashido and Kaminari grumbling as they give him their money.

"The lodge is a boot camp, so the people who failed are the ones who need it the most. It was a logical ruse!"
"He even said the same thing as last time!?"
"Of course, you'll still be taking remedial classes on top of the normal training, so prepare to feel like you're dying."

In order to prepare for the camp, the class all went to the mall to buy supplies. Iida of course told everyone to use hand sanitiser. "Many people have touched everything you see and it's better to be safe than sorry, especially when we're about to go to camp soon."
"Actually that's not a great idea. My body doesn't react well to water, but anything resembling a cleaning product is even worse."
Iida adjusts his glasses. "What do you mean?"

Izuku takes the pocket sanitiser that Iida brought with him and squirts a bit onto his palm, his skin sizzling and bubbling as it smokes. "Oh my god, Midoriya! Are you ok?!"
"That's gnarly."
Izuku shakes his hand to get some of the sanitiser off. "Yeah, it's gross. Kinda stings a little."
"Midoriya, your hand is melting, that goes beyond "stinging a little"."
Izuku shrugs. "It'll be fine. You all go shop around while I find somewhere to get this stuff off me before I decide to just grow a new hand."

Izuku moves away from the group and rinses his hand off in the fountain, the sanitiser being washed off along with a thin layer of flaking biomass. "Hey, you're that UA kid who destroyed the sports festival." Izuku turns to see a hooded guy walking closer. "I'm a big fan." The hooded guy slings an arm over Izuku's shoulder. "Can I get an autograph?"
Ignoring the question, Izuku sniffed the air. "You smell familiar. Have we met?"

"I suppose we have." Four fingers curl around his neck. "Back the USJ."
"Tomura Shigaraki." If what he heard is correct, this guy's quirk was some form of complete cellular decay. Theoretically, he could be one of the very few people in the world who could permanently kill a Blacklight host. It wasn't a theory he planned on testing.
"I want to have a little chat."

Izuku looks around. A lot of civilians. Even if he called for backup, a lot of people could get hurt. "Alright. Why don't we sit down here on this fountain and you can say what you came here to say."
Shigaraki chuckles. "Good sport."

They both sat down. "To tell you the truth, I hate basically everything. But what I hate most right now has gotta be that damned Hero Killer. The USJ, the Nomu I released on Hosu, all of its being upstaged by that guy. We both destroy things we don't like, so what makes him so different from me?"

Izuku crosses a leg over his knee and rests his head in a hand. "An interesting question. I suppose it all comes down to "why". For Stain, he wanted to make a world where more heroes were on the same moral level as someone like All Might. His methods were blatantly wrong, but his philosophy gets people talking, people can relate or even agree with his views. But you, you don't have a "why". You don't fight FOR anything and you don't believe in anything. You have nothing substantial for people to talk about."

"Ah I see... It's because of All Might."
"You didn't register a thing I just said, did you?"
Shigaraki ignores him in favour of mumbling. "The reason people like you and Stain all piss me off is because of All Might. The reason all these NPCs can smile and laugh is because All Might is too, like there's no one he ever failed to save. Thank you for this little chat."

Izuku smiles. "Oh, don't thank me, I learned just as much from you as you did from me. Your quirk needs all five fingers in order to activate, so next time we meet on the battlefield, I'll just lob one off and you'll be completely harmless."
"Hmph. How unheroic."

"Midoriya?" They both look up to see Uraraka. "Who's that?"
Izuku smiles, keeping his body language natural and relaxed. "Sorry Uraraka, I got a little sidetracked by a fan and we had a brief philosophical debate. It was very engaging." He gives Shigaraki a side eye. "You got everything you need?"
Shigaraki releases him with a smile of his own. "Oh yeah. I actually feel rather... enlightened."

As Shigaraki disappears into the crowd, Uraraka gives him a weird look. "That guy was creepy."
"Oh, that was Shigaraki."
"...he was WHAT?!"