When Midoriya got back to the League of Villains headquarters, he sighed and collapsed to lounge on a couch. "There's no place like evil lair," he announced.
"I never should have let you watch that movie," Tomura growled from where he was reading a newspaper. "What took you so long?"
"Talking about costume improvements. Actually it got me thinking that I should get some sort of costume for my vigilante work, too. What do you think? Offensive stuff is so hard when—"
Shigaraki cut him off. "You can worry about your non-lethal attack gadgets at school, you dumbass. This is vigilante work, just take a gun."
"Oh, you're right," Midoriya acknowledged. "Am I good with guns? I can't remember what all my training was."
"You're a hell of a lot better with guns than you are with hand-to-hand, I can tell you that. Anyway, we've been waiting for you. Tomorrow we're raiding U.A. and—"
"What?" Midoriya asked. "Since when? Why didn't I know about this? Am I supposed to be a hero or am I with you guys? Are we throwing away all that effort to get into U.A. in the first place?" Why—"
"Would you shut up?" Tomura snarled. "As I was saying, we're going to raid U.A., and we'll disguise it with all the media attention the school will be getting tomorrow, asking about All Might as a teacher. We'll break in, take the school plans, and plan our next attack. In all the chaos, your job will be to get caught by the media but make it look like an accident. While everyone's cameras and attention are on you, we'll take care of the rest."
"Do we have any idea what the next plan might be, so I don't get blindsided next time?" Midoriya asked, annoyed. "If I'm gonna be a key player in this, I need to be in the loop!"
"You're a key player behind enemy lines, idiot. We can't risk telling you everything, someone might figure out how to get our secrets from you. Besides, the less you know, the easier you can claim innocence if you're caught."
Midoriya gritted his teeth, bouncing his leg in frustration. "Okay. Yeah. But, when your real attack happens, I'll be playing on the hero side, right? If you manage to somehow kill All Might that's not my problem, but I like most of my classmates. If you try to kill any of them, I'll be protecting them."
"Well, that was fast! I thought you didn't want to be there in the first place," Tomura teased. "Did those wannabe heroes win you over so quickly?"
"Well, I did already make some friends. Some of them I don't really care for, but I figure that I don't want you guys knowing which ones I like more than the others. All For One will target them. Also, if I go ahead and save everyone's lives, that'll get everyone's attention on me as their star hero, which is following Boss's orders."
"Fine, fine," Shigaraki said, waving his hand dismissively. "Mostly we'll be using a bunch of low-level thugs to scatter and distract the students. They'll probably be pretty ruthless if they somehow manage to get the better of your classmates, but if your friends are any good they should be fine."
"Good," Midoriya said shortly, still annoyed. If he didn't somehow break through All For One's brainwashing, he would end up betraying everyone he was getting attached to. As of now, he couldn't do anything about it.
He shifted into the persona of the Savior, his hair shorter and darker as his height decreased and his face changed. He threw on the dark cloak that he'd been using as a costume so far, and he equipped several knives and firearms on his person. Tonight, he was very frustrated, so he wanted to be extra prepared for when he inevitably got himself into a rough situation.
Perched on the roof of a nearby building several minutes later, he closed his eyes and listened to the sounds of the city below. The occasional scuffle, the yelling of street hawkers trying to draw attention to their shops. The city had a rhythm, a heartbeat that he was finding easier and easier to tap into. He felt himself somehow start to resonated with that heartbeat, and as always, something was wrong near the headquarters of the Eight Precepts of Death, or as they were more officially known, Shie Hassaikai.
It was like a sickness, some sort of disease or cancer that was rotting away the humanity of everyone in that section. And, in the middle, he could still hear that crying, but it was fainter and more hopeless than before. Whoever it was that was calling, he would answer and he needed to do it soon.
He jumped from rooftop to rooftop, going directly towards the source of the disease and the cry. He'd been trying to find out where it was and how he could get to it for a bit more than a week. While that wasn't really even that long, it felt like an eternity. He was tired of skirting around the issue to gather more information; it was time to dive headfirst into the fray.
Soon enough, he was staring down at a walled-off mansion that was patrolled by several men in strange, plague doctor masks. Midoriya watched as a stocky man with brown hair walked out, and he decided to take the chance. He dropped to the floor in an alleyway, and when the man walked by, muttering to himself about something, Midoriya yanked him out of sight and pinned him against the wall.
"Who are you, and what do you do for Shie Hassaikai?" he demanded, his voice low and gritty. He activated Research and Analysis, trying to read his emotions and to some extent his thoughts.
The man was trembling. "You're the Savior," he managed, taking in Midoriya's dark robe and his unmasked face, which had been taking up a significant portion of most newspapers recently. Midoriya didn't answer, just increasing the pressure on his throat. "Why are you attacking us? What did we ever do to you?" he gasped.
"My personal history doesn't matter. What matters is the fact you don't understand why treating other humans as a commodity is a problem. Now tell me—who are you, and what do you do for Shie Hassaikai?"
"I'm a fucking expendable, that's what I am," he snarled. "Killing me won't affect Overhaul in any way other than making it so he doesn't have to do it himself." Midoriya was monitoring his thoughts, though, and even though it wasn't very precise, he did manage to pick up the word "babysitter" and the phrase "he's gonna kill me".
"I'm after someone who needs my help, someone trapped in your headquarters," Midoriya said, and the man paled. "Humans treated as commodities. That is what you're guilty of."
"Don't take the kid," the man begged. "Please, he'll kill me. I'll tell you whatever you want, just don't go after her." Midoriya, with his two mental quirks still active, received a blurry mental image of an underground room, with a small girl trembling on a big bed. The way to the room was through a secret passage, and he managed to pry a four digit code from the man's mind.
"That's all I needed," Midoriya said darkly. In his head, Izuku was still trying to figure out how they could help the captive, and for the first time in a while, Wrath was fighting him for control. In a very risky move, Midoriya stepped aside. Wrath may not quite be a full personality, but he was fully capable of taking the wheel.
Wrath grinned as the man trapped against the wall was immediately paralyzed in fear; whenever he took control, he knew his eyes burned with a terrifying rage, and he seemed to be able to direct his rage to specific targets and victims. "Goodbye," he rasped. In consideration for Izuku, Wrath didn't kill the man. He did, however, take great pleasure in beating him bloody and leaving him unconscious on the street.
Midoriya took control once again, and Wrath reluctantly backed down. He stripped the man of his clothes, shifted to look exactly like him, and dressed himself up as the mobster. Luckily, none of his blood had stained the clothing. He straightened, checked his appearance, tied up the man, and simply walked into the Shie Hassaikai headquarters, which in hindsight was probably a bad idea.
He could barely keep himself steady; shifting into an adult was a serious size change, and he was nearly out of energy already. The only reason he hadn't passed out was because of his practice shifting to Michi every day.
"Did you find something already?" one of the guards asked. Everyone that was staring at him had a look in their eyes akin to pity, which put Midoriya on edge. What did they feel so bad for him about?
"I just had an idea," he said vaguely, imitating the man's voice. The guards nodded and let him through, which left Midoriya an uncertain time limit to find someone that needed help and get them out. Yeah, this was definitely a bad idea.
He followed the path he'd pried from the thug's mind, using the four-digit code on a pad underneath a small display statue. The wall opened up, and he started on his way down a cold, cement set of stairs. The vague directions he'd gotten using Research, though, were not nearly detailed enough to know which door he was looking for.
Luckily for him, the soft sound of crying let him know exactly where he needed to go. He gently opened the door, and the small form of a trembling girl flinched from where she sat on a large bed, just like he'd seen earlier. Now, though, he could see much more clearly the bandages on her arms, the fear in her eyes, and the small horn on her head.
"Hey," he said gently, and when she just cowered back further away from him, he decided to take another huge risk that might end badly for him. First, he closed the door behind him and checked the room for anyone that might overhear. Then, he shifted back into his Savior persona, stumbling a bit from the energy it took.
"Who are you?" the little girl asked in a trembling voice. Midoriya smiled.
"You can call me Midoriya. I came here to help you," he said, taking a step forward. The poor girl looked so uncertain and afraid, but she didn't cower back again. "What's your name?"
"My name is Eri," she murmured. Midoriya made his way to the bed, and she let him scoop her up in his arms.
"Well, Eri, have you ever heard of that guy that everyone is calling the Savior?" he said. The name still left a bad taste in his mouth, and he couldn't believe he was using it to refer to himself.
Hesitantly, she nodded. "Overhaul sometimes talks about him," she said quietly. "He hates the savior, and he really wants to kill him. I hope he gets away, but Overhaul always wins in the end."
"I don't know about that," Midoriya said, picking her up. "I think the Savior always wins the end, too. Overhaul isn't going to get him."
"How do you know?" Eri asked, looking up at him with wide eyes. Midoriya smiled at her.
"Because the Savior is me, and I'm already winning. Now, if you want me to get away, we should get going!" Eri gasped as Midoriya pushed open the door and carried her out. He didn't have a whole lot of time before his energy ran out, but luckily the halls were mostly empty. He definitely didn't have the energy to shift back into the man he was impersonating before, so he'd have to rely on his equipment and his skill to get out with Eri.
He broke into a run; it's not like he could avoid suspicion by walking, not when he was easily recognizable as the Savior and carrying Eri. Several people gasped in surprise as he flew by them, and luckily they were shocked enough that it took them several seconds to sound the alarm.
He grinned. Several seconds was all he needed. He dug several of his smoke bombs from his belt and threw them as he kicked open the front door, obscuring the entire front of the property and spreading confusion and panic. He'd memorized the layout before, and he listened carefully so he could avoid guards running around and trying to find out what was going on. The chaos was drawing attention from people passing by.
"I've been wanting to kill you for a little while now," a voice said just as he broke through the smoke screen and burst onto the street. Midoriya cursed silently; Overhaul and two of his cronies were waiting for him, and Eri started trembling as Overhaul began to take off his gloves. "Come on now, Eri. Maybe I won't kill him if you just come back to me now."
She immediately started squirming in Midoriya's grasp, but he didn't let her go. "I'd rather die than let her go back to being tortured by you," he snarled. Wrath was thrashing around in his head again, and Midoriya once again let him take control. Wrath started to laugh as Overhaul's confident demeanor stuttered for a moment, and he shifted Eri to one side in order to give himself more room to use at least one arm.
"Are you sure about that? Just look at her," Overhaul said. "She obviously doesn't want you to save her, she's desperately trying to get away. You would hurt her more by letting your death be on her hands?"
Unfortunately for Overhaul, Wrath didn't like to banter during his fights like Midoriya did. "Bullshit," was all he said before he started sprinting towards him with Eri still in his arms. He could tell Overhaul was thrown off by his complete lack of fear, and he grinned.
When Wrath was close enough, Overhaul simply lifted an arm. Wrath had no idea what his quirk was, but he didn't particularly care. He channeled his fury into his eyes, and the villain hesitated again. The man probably didn't know what it was like to feel fear, and he couldn't fathom why he'd felt it twice during his brief encounter with the vigilante. Wrath slapped the man's hand away with his own, and right at the moment of contact, his arm disappeared in a splash of blood.
Eri started to cry and Overhaul began to regain his confidence, but Wrath didn't even falter. He may have lost his arm—temporarily, thanks to his Regeneration quirk—but the act allowed him to slip past Overhaul and continue down the street. However much he wanted to kill the man, getting Eri to safety was more important right now. After so much shifting, he could barely see straight anyway. He knew when to fight and when to run.
He had to wait several seconds while his arm grew back, but eventually he dropped the rest of his smoke bombs to hide his retreat and fired backwards blindly with one of his guns. Overhaul was screaming in frustration and yelling at his cronies to hunt him down, and Eri was staring in awe at Wrath's newly Regenerated arm.
"See that?" he said. "I told you I always win."
Midoriya had to leave Wrath in control, as it was only his all-consuming hatred and anger that was keeping him conscious. He stumbled through the streets in a haze, somehow dodging Overhaul's searching and making it back to the League of Villains headquarters. He shouldered the door open and staggered up the stairs, not even close to conscious enough to answer Kurogiri and Shigaraki's questions. He gently put Eri down on his bed, took a couple blankets and a pillow, and collapsed to the floor.
He distantly hoped that Overhaul might be powerful enough to give All For One some trouble; he'd love it if the two people he currently hated most managed to become thorns in each other's sides.
With that final thought, the world faded to black.