Work Text:
“The teachers believe there is a traitor at UA,” Mineta whispered into Uraraka’s ear.
“AH! Where did you come from?” Uraraka squealed, unaware before he spoke that Mineta was even in her vicinity.
“I’m an expert at sneaking up on women, hehe. I overheard a conversation between Midnight and Snipe in the teachers lounge about there being a traitor,” Mineta explained without answering Uraraka’s question.
In truth, Mineta had just come from the med bay in the hopes of seeing an injured girl changing into a medical gown, but Recovery Girl had kicked him out before anyone came in.
“What? Why would they think there’s a traitor?” Uraraka asked, distracted enough by the topic to ignore Mineta’s perviness for the moment.
“It makes sense,” Todoroki said as he walked down the hall towards them, having been listening in to their conversation as he approached. “How else would the villains know that All Might was supposed to teach us at the USJ or where our summer camp was located?”
Everyone in the class knew that Todoroki was a bit of a conspiracy theorist, but Uraraka had to admit that his reasoning made sense. But a traitor at UA? Who could it even be? The teachers were all heroes and she couldn’t see any of her classmates telling secrets to villains. Nobody else could give the villains the information they supposedly acquired other than those two groups, however.
“Deku-kun, what do you think?” Uraraka asked.
Midoriya had been mumbling with his chin in his hand for the past minute, unaware that nobody was paying attention to him anymore. Uraraka thought she heard the words “All Might” and “heroes,” which made sense considering that those two topics seemed to dominate most of Midoriya’s thoughts all day, every day.
“Huh? Oh, um, you said something about a traitor at UA? I don’t know, it doesn’t seem like anybody here would do something like help the League of Villains. We all got hurt by the League too, didn’t we? So doesn’t that clear us of any suspicion?” Midoriya said.
“That’s not really true though,” Todoroki said. “At both the USJ and at the summer camp, Aoyama wasn’t injured at all.
“Are you saying that Aoyama is a traitor?!” Uraraka exclaimed.
“I’m just pointing it out. It’s a theory, that’s all,” Todoroki said with a shrug in response.
Nobody spoke for a moment, but then Iida saw the group and started criticizing the others for loitering in the hallways with his signature dramatic hand movements, so the conversation was dropped and everyone else dispersed.
The conversation was not forgotten, however.
ooOOoo
Midoriya, despite having not been paying attention during the first half of the traitor conversation, couldn’t get Todoroki’s comments about Aoyama out of his mind. It was especially difficult to not think about Aoyama when Midoriya would continue to find cheese on his balcony late at night when everyone else at the dorms were asleep.
Regardless of Aoyama’s intentions, it was suspicious that he was always awake so late at night and apparently sneaking out of his dorm bedroom too.
Midoriya’s stress was starting to make him lose sleep. Some nights, he would fall asleep and yet he would still have no energy in the mornings. It was starting to become noticeable to his friends and affect his hero work too by the time that internships started.
“Midoriya. Your reaction time has slowed significantly,” Todoroki mentioned. “You almost let that villain attack you despite you having a significant advantage in speed and dexterity.”
“SHUT UP ICY HOT! DEKU JUST NEEDS TO KEEP UP,” Bakugo shouted.
Midoriya tried to shake off the embarrassment he felt, but it was no use. What was supposed to be a villain apprehension turned into a disaster when Midoriya failed to notice an ambush and then proceeded to miss every attack he tried to make, sometimes even resulting in the sabotage of his teammates’ efforts. He didn’t think he could’ve done worse in that fight if he was trying to!
Thanks to him, one of the villains got away in what looked suspiciously like one of Kurogiri’s portals. Midoriya tried writing it off as just paranoia, however, because it seemed like too big of a coincidence for the League of Villains to be involved in even these routine internship battles. It already felt like the league had infected every part of Midoriya’s life. He didn’t want his internship with Endeavor to get ruined too.
I just want the League of Villains to be out of my life, Midoriya thought to himself.
ooOOoo
Midoriya awoke suddenly. A quick glance around his dorm room told him that it was still the middle of the night. Another quick glance told him that for some reason, he was already dressed, but not in his school uniform--instead, he was wearing his black joggers and a black hoodie. It was a bit warm for both, so it made no sense for Midoriya to be wearing them at all, much less to be wearing them in his bed.
Midoriya stood up and decided to go on a walk to clear his head. He didn’t really know what else to do; his options seemed to be this or going back to sleep, but Midoriya strangely wasn’t tired for once. He felt as if his mind had finally woken up from a long nap.
“Izuku, there you are,” a voice said sweetly just as Midoriya reached the hallway.
Midoriya spun around to see the source of his nightmares, the true leader of the League of Villains, standing before him. How had All for One escaped Tartarus?! And why was he here?
“Ah, I see that your memories are still not complete. I knew I shouldn’t have allowed Garaki to handle the hypnotism--my quirks would’ve worked so much better and we wouldn’t be experiencing these side effects as you return to your true mind,” All for One said casually.
Midoriya fought the urge to scream and wake up the entire dorm. If he did that, he would likely only be endangering them. Not even the teachers were a match against All for One without All Might there to fight. Midoriya didn’t know what All for One wanted yet, but he was determined to do whatever he could to prevent anyone from getting injured.
“Sensei, I’m bored. Can we go now?” a new voice said. This one was even more recognizable to Midoriya and a figure covered in severed hands entering the hallway just confirmed Midoriya’s suspicions.
How had the League of Villains infiltrated the UA dorms without raising any alarms? Nedzu said this place was impenetrable! Midoriya panicked internally.
“Hmm, I must agree. This is getting a bit tiresome. Izuku, let’s jump start this little recovery process now, shall we?” All for One drawled.
With that, All for One placed a hand on Midoriya’s head before he could react, and then all of a sudden, memories flooded Midoriya’s mind. His memories.
Midoriya, handing class schedules over to the League of Villains.
Midoriya, turning on his location tracker on his phone before heading to the summer camp, knowing that it would be monitored by the villains.
Midoriya, purposely letting Kurogiri portal away a villain during his internship with Endeavour to protect League interests.
Midoriya, smiling and looking up at the faces of his parents--of Inko and Hisashi Midoriya.
Midoriya, gazing upon All for One’s face with an emotion that couldn't be described as anything other than reverence.
Midoriya, the traitor.
“No, it can’t be,” Midoriya whispered, but he felt that what he had seen was the truth. It was only buried so that his infiltration mission could succeed. He knew this, and yet…
“I suppose it was my mistake for leaving you in here for so long. It seems as if you’ve brainwashed yourself into truly believing that you want to be a hero instead of my successor, my dear boy. Worry not, after a few weeks back home with your father, you’ll be back to normal,” All for One said kindly.
The word ‘kindly’ didn’t feel like it belonged in any sentence mentioning All for One. Neither did the word ‘father,’ for that matter.
“I… I don’t want to go with you,” Midoriya said shakily.
“Oh, Izuku. What other choice do you have? Do you really think the heroes will let you continue to stay here at UA when they realize what you’ve done?” All for One said.
“What I’ve… done?” Midoriya repeated weakly before the memories flooded back.
“Your final mission at UA is to completely cripple it’s reputation. And what better way to damage their reputation is there than succeeding at what we failed to do at Kamino? We will take all of the students hostage, but this time, there will be no one left alive for the heroes to save.”
“As you wish, Father. UA will be prepared for your arrival. Permission to use the sleeping gas?”
“Permission granted.”
“No,” Midoriya whispered, but it felt redundant at this point. What had he done?
“Worry not, my child. Today is a good day. It is the day I can finally crown you my successor. You will be known as the Prince of Shadows beside me and we can rule this world together, reshaping it into whatever we desire. Consider this your coronation day,” All for One said.
Midoriya didn’t know what to say. He had just been crowned the prince of the kingdom of darkness that All for One ruled, but what did that even mean? Was it something that he really wanted?
Slowly, Midoriya could feel a new presence emerge alongside his memories. With each passing second, he could feel himself regaining clarity and understanding. This was the part of his mind that had finally woken up, Midoriya realized.
This newly awakened Midoriya was the one who replied.
“As you wish, Father. The world will be ours.”