Archive of Our Own

Slam his head into the desk.

“Hey Deku, did you do the homework?  Oh, was it this?  Oops, sorry my quirk just acted up, looks like it’s destroyed; that’s too bad!”

Izuku mentally sighed.  He didn’t exactly expect to get a good grade on it anyway, but having Fingers shred it really made that a moot point.

Break his fingers that he loves so much.

‘Not going to do that,’ he got out his tape as the rest of the class trickled in around him, ignoring his entire existence.

He’s here, this time definitely kill him.

On cue, there were crackles and pops that got closer to his ears.

“Shitty Deku, get out of my way!”

He was in his own seat and his bag was tucked underneath him, but that was a classic.

Trip him.

He blinked.  That was…surprisingly tame?

Trip him into a sharpened pencil, stabbing his eye out.

Ah, there it was.

‘No.’

He deserves it.

Izuku easily ignored the voice from long years of practice.  The first time he had brought the voice in his head to someone’s attention, they had simply told him that everyone had a little voice in their head telling them what to do; it was called your conscience!  But he had looked at word up and the definition was the voice that tells you right from wrong.  And this voice definitely did not do that.

Spill his secrets, show the world he is unfit to be a teacher.  Or blackmail him into giving you fair treatment.

Usually the voice asked for shows of violence, but it grew with him - it never asked for something he didn’t understand, and it got smarter and more creative the more Izuku learned, so to some degree it was still… him?  Maybe?

Notebook 12.4 has his information, you could totally do it and no one would be any the wiser.

‘Either he wouldn’t believe the threats or he would punish me more.  Plus, no one would believe a quirkless person, strong evidence or not.’

You literally have video evidence, though!

‘Footage can be doctored.’

They have software to prove it wasn’t.

‘They’ll see quirkless and not bother.’

The voice grumbled for a bit but dropped it as class officially started and Izuku sighed.  Reasoning with the voice was usually a fruitless endeavor.

Hang him from the roof.

Usually because when logic won out it circled back to violence.

Sometimes he tried to have actual conversations with the voice, asking if it had gender or a preferred name or something, but despite it seeming semi-sentient it never replied to those thoughts, so he just called it an it and didn’t give it a name.  He didn’t want to be disrespectful in case it wasn’t just him and his intrusive thoughts.

Close off the room and fill it with poison, let everyone die.

He sighed and went back to ignoring it.

“Take a swan dive off the roof and pray for a quirk in your next life.”

Izuku flinched hard, not at the words (well, also at the words) but at the vitriol and spitting anger that took over his mind, practically screaming it.

KILL HIM, NO ONE FUCKING SAYS THAT TO US, TEAR HIS HANDS OFF, FILL HIM WITH THERMITE, FLAY HIM ALIVE, BLOOD EAGLE THIS BITCH-

‘Stop!’

The voice instantly quieted, but through his pounding headache he could still feel the simmering rage pulsing in the back of his head.

‘I’m just…going to go home.’

It didn’t usually get this bad.  Sure, his head was constantly full of new ways to murder, torture, or maim practically everyone he interacted with, but it rarely got to the point of a headache and it hurt.

He trudged to the fish pond and dug out his notebook, 13.2.  Luckily it wasn’t 13.0, the master series was harder to replace because it was basically the index for the sub versions that came from all the thoughts he needed to get out.  Each of the master notebooks had up to nine sub books.  It wasn’t always that way, of course; originally he had just used the notebooks for quirk analysis, but as he encountered more people and the voice kept pushing for violence, he simply couldn’t put them all in one notebook, so he has a hero analysis notebook, a villain analysis notebook, a civilian analysis notebook, a blackmail book, a coding book, and a more general knowledge book.  Sure, it was annoying that this series of villain book had gotten burned and waterlogged, but it only had a few in it so far, and he knew which fights they were for so he could probably find newscasts about them to jog his memory.

Soak his hands in gasoline to help him learn to control himself.

‘How would I even do that without him noticing?  If it was douse him in gasoline, sure, that just takes a well timed throw, but soaking?’

Sneak into his house at night and tie bags full of gasoline around his hands.

‘The smell would wake him up.’

Hence the bags.  Or, gloves soaked in it.  Actually, just force gloves on him.  Make it so they can’t come off.

‘That would limit the use of his quirk if he didn’t want to hurt himself, but making it so they can’t come off would be hard.  They’d need to be skin tight, seamless, and cut-proof, not to mention locked around the wrist.’

Should have looked into support gear more…

‘Too little, too late.  I’ll add it to the rotation though.  Maybe in place of coding this time? They work well together.’

If the voice had been about to respond, it was cut off by the gurgle of the sewers and the scraping of the metal cover being moved, and Izuku was instantly on alert, eyes widening as a mass of dark sludge crawled up.

Things shifted around and two eyes and a wide set of teeth grinned at him.

“Ah, a meatsuit!  Perfect, I need a place to hide; you’re my hero , kid!  Now, hold still, it’ll be over in about 45 seconds-”

And he was swarmed, his headache getting stronger from both the choking lack of air and the violent screaming in his head.

There was a flash of color and sound just as his vision faded, and before he knew it he was being gently slapped awake and looking up into a face he saw all the time for how much it covered his walls.  Was he in his room…?  No, wait, that was aCTUALLY ALL MIGHT HOLY-

“Ah, good, you’re awake,” the Number One Hero said jovially, “I was worried for a second there, young man!”

His notebook, he needed to get out 13.1-

“And I have already autographed your notebook!”

Ah, he autographed the villain one.  Oh well, hopefully he just hadn’t seen too much and thought he was weird or interested in villainy or something.  Speaking of villainy, though, where had the sludge person gone…?

He watched All Might tuck two large soda bottles into his pants pockets and saw a floating eyeball in one of them and had a moment to think, ‘really, he put the villain in soda bottles?’ before he watched All Might tense to lift off and he darted forwards without thinking, latching on.

“Now I love my fans, but this is just too much!  Let go!”

He felt the wind pressure pull his lips back but managed to squeak out, “If I let go, I’ll die!”

All Might seemed to realize this as well and stopped trying to shake him off before landing on a roof, and Izuku gratefully collapsed onto more solid ground, even as the pro hero began to lecture him on his recklessness and professing that he really must be going-

“Wait!  Do you think someone without a quirk can be a hero?”

He stumbled a little over the words, but had managed to curb his muttering habits when they mostly turned into replying to the voice and so just managed to get out the entire, short, powerful, important question before clamping his mouth shut and swallowing heavily around the taste of the slime still in his mouth.

There was a puff of smoke and he barely held back a scream as in the place of All Might there was a sickly skeleton looking man.

“What the-”

“I can assure you,” the man stressed, “I am All Might.  I got in a big fight six years ago that took out a lung and most of my stomach, so I look like this sometimes.  I ask that you keep this a secret young man, this is very important.”

He nodded numbly as he stared at the huge sprawling scar that took up his idol’s entire left side before the man let his shirt fall with a nod.

“As for your question… I cannot, in good conscience, say that you can.  Not when I had a quirk and still got this hurt.  I admire your spirit, but heroics is simply too dangerous for you.  You must be more realistic with your options.  It is plenty noble to be a police officer or a firefighter, or a paramedic.  So no, I do not believe you can be a hero without a quirk.”

With that, Izuku was left almost completely numb and barely noticed as All Might left the rooftop.

Expose him as a fraud.

‘No he… he had a point.  If he got so hurt even with his super strong quirk, what could I do?’

Use your notebooks?

‘To do what?  Ramble at them?’

So now you give up?  After everything, you give up, instead of taking what you deserve?

He was saved having to respond by the sound of a deafening explosion two blocks away, and his head whipped around to the slowly rising pillar of smoke.  There was a distant sound of screaming and he couldn’t help but be drawn to the prospect of a villain fight, even if he had just gotten out of one himself.  He pushed his thoughts away and booked it down the stairs from the roof to the ground and then sped a few streets over, weaving his way to the front of the crowd.

His heart dropped into his feet.

Not only was it the slime villain from before (he had gotten free, how?  Slipped out of All Might’s pockets?  Might have been when Izuku latched on, pockets were on the side of his legs which is the general location of his koala impression-) but worse, he had a victim that he was puppeting around, forcing them to use their explosion quirk-

‘Oh no.’

For once, his voice wasn’t calling for Kacchan’s death and disfigurement; it seemed almost shocked into submission.

“It’s useless, my quirk can’t do anything!  We’ll have to wait for someone more suited!”

His eyes zeroed in on Death Arms, standing at the side of the crowd with obvious frustration on his face, but not moving to do anything.

Why wasn’t he doing anything?

In fact, not a single hero on the scene was doing anything, just lamenting about how they weren’t fit for this and standing there while Kacchan was drowning.

Kill them?

“Maybe later,” he murmured, locking eyes with his childhood friend turned bully.

Red eyes stared back at him with pleading desperation and in that moment he moved .

Go for the eyes.

He swung his backpack, aiming right for where the sludge’s eyes were and watched with satisfaction as he hit his mark and the villain recoiled before he dug his hands into the texture they had not quite forgotten and pulled.

Kacchan took a great gasping breath of air and coughed and spat up the mucus before turning at him to yell, but he never got the chance.

“SMAAAASH!!!”

Izuku trudged home, exhausted from being yelled at by heroes and Kacchan, when All Might landed in front of him and immediately deflated, coughing up blood.

“Are you ok?!”

He waved him off.  “Side effect of my wound.  Listen, young man, what is your name?”

“Midoriya Izuku…?”

“Young Midoriya!”

He was definitely processing what All Might was saying, talking about the true qualities of a hero and how he moved without thinking, but he pulled up short at his last phrase.

“You are worthy to inherit my quirk!”

It took a few minutes to actually figure out what he meant and to promise to keep yet another national secret, but by the end of it he was getting a quirk and hero training out of it, so suddenly his goal was a lot more attainable.

He wasn’t giving up.

(Even if he had gotten close.)

As he walked home, he ignored the pounding headache to smile.

‘Still want to expose All Might?  Or enact violence on him?’

…He gets a pass for now.

Izuku laughed out loud and was glad the street was relatively empty so no one would think he was crazy.

Or, well, more crazy than usual.

Kill him .

‘I thought we were past this,’ he sighed to himself as the other examinee finished berating him for mumbling to himself about the robots and then immediately turning around to reprimand Present Mic for not talking about all four robots on the pamphlet.

He is disrespecting us.  Plus you weren’t even being that loud.

‘Comforting that my own personal demon that lives in my head didn’t think I was being too loud.’

It didn’t respond to that but he got the distinct impression of rolling eyes and let himself give a tiny smile as it relaxed some of his nerves.

Used to responding to the attentions of his voice on the fly (it seemed to know people were near before he did, if he knew them well enough), as soon as Present Mic called for them to start, he was off like a bullet, heart pounding with adrenaline and nerves at the perceived threat.  It was only when he realized no one else was running that he flushed and tried his very best to ignore the cackling in his head.  Well, he was sorry that he trusted the voice, then!

The support courses he had taken and looked into were really not enough to do more than tell him he was really out of his league fighting robots without a quirk because he still didn’t know how One for All was supposed to work since he had just gotten in that morning and All Might’s advice was not super helpful in the slightest.  He managed a few points, sure, but was mostly running around like a headless chicken and trying to stop people from getting injured due to their own recklessness or that of others.  Quirks were cool, yes, and he would have a lot of new entries in his series 14 notebooks, but people didn’t seem to realize that collateral damage was a thing!

He made it all the way until the zero pointer was released and panicked at the fact that there were maybe two minutes left and he had gotten a grand total of five points, but he heard a cry and stilled, looking to the path of the behemoth robot.

The girl, the one that even the voice hadn’t said anything mean about, who had saved him from falling, was trapped under rubble from the collapsing buildings, directly in the path of the zero pointer.

Kill it, blow it up, PUNCH IT-

So that’s what he did.

Not his best move, he lamented as he started falling back to earth with three whole limbs turned to fine paste, but the rush of power had felt nice, and the zero pointer was no longer a threat.

The girl smacked him and he felt his fall slow and then stop before she murmured a soft “release” and he fell the rest of the way.  Not being a pancake on the pavement was severely underrated, in his opinion, and he made sure to thank her profusely before he blacked right out.

Recovery Girl scolding him didn’t even get threats of violence, which Izuku figured was fair, he had done that to himself, sort of.

Can’t do that again.

‘The saving thing or the breaking all my limbs thing?  Because if it's the saving thing I’m going to have to remind you this was a test to become a hero student and that’s kind of their whole deal.’

Limbs.

He sighed.  ‘Yeah.  Yeah I need to work on that.’

Kill him.

‘He hasn’t even done anything yet.’

He’s a teacher.  Kill him.  Strangle him with his scarf.

‘Wait.  Doesn’t that look familiar?’

Don’t kill him.

‘Wait, I haven’t figured it out yet, who- oh, Eraserhead!  Oh, that’s so cool!’

He can stay, for now.

‘Glad he has your approval.’

“Bakugo, what was your ball throw in middle school?”

“67 meters.”

“Do it again, but with your quirk.”

“DIE!”

Gasoline gloves.

He didn’t even dignify that with a response.  Besides, he was having trouble with the wrist locking mechanism.

“HAAH?  WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING HERE, DEKU?”

Please let me kill him.

‘You don’t have a body and haven’t been able to puppet mine yet, and we’re going to keep it that way so Midoriya Izuku doesn’t become a mass murderer.’

Aizawa glared at Kacchan and, in a rare moment of a teacher actually disciplining him, threatened him if he attacked another student again.  Score!

He went up to the ball throw, feeling semi-confident in his other tests, and prepared to use One for All.  He still hadn’t figured out how to stop breaking bones, but this was the last test and he could afford to be down an arm.

“Find a way to do it without breaking your arm or you’re expelled.”

Oooor not.

Injuring another student means detention, injuring yourself means expulsion.  I take it back, we’re killing him.

‘Nah, he has a point, I can’t be a liability on the field.  Can’t afford to break my arm every time I want power…  On the other hand…’

Well, not literally the other hand, he grimaced as his finger pulsed, completely broken in many places, but he grinned and clenched his finger, ignoring the grinding bones.

“I can still move, sensei.”

He wasn’t expelled and he let out a private sigh of relief.

Thin ice.

Eh, he’d take it.

“HE WON’T DIE IF HE DODGES!”

But you still will if I ever get hands!

Something is wrong.

‘What?’

Something is wrong.

‘Heard you the first time-’

“Woah, is this like the entrance exam?  Has the training already started?”

Aizawa’s eyes flashed at the dark purple portal spewing out people.  “Those are real villains.  Thirteen, get the students to safety.”

“Wait,” Izuku blurted out, staring between the villains pouring into the central plaza and his teacher, “your fighting style isn’t suited to combat against multiple foes in broad daylight-”

Aizawa smirked and a note of surprise entered his eyes, but he cut him off, “No hero is a one trick pony, Midoriya.  Get out of here, stay safe.”

With that he flung himself down the stairs and into the fray.

Not thirty seconds later after a panicked shuffle for the door did the portal reform into a person, blocking off their escape.

“I’m afraid I can’t let you do that,” he said smoothly, “I am Kurogiri and we are the League of Villains.  We are originally here to kill All Might, but it seems he isn’t here, so-”

Kacchan and Kirishima rushed him and he easily sent them headfirst into a portal to who knows where and effortlessly continued, “-so I suppose we will just have to scatter you instead.  I see some of the UA golden eggs have already gotten a head start on that, very eager and rambunctious they were.  Goodbye, and may you rest in peace.”

Dark purple overtook his vision as the class screamed around him, and he was falling through the air.

Oh, definitely kill that guy.

He couldn’t find it in his heart to disagree.

When I said we should kill Eraserhead, I didn’t mean anyone else could kill him!  Kill that guy!

‘The villain leader covered in hands commanding the hulking beast that has multiple quirks?  Yeah, what a great idea!’

Ok, but you’re going to fight.

‘Duh.’

Oh FUCK that guy.

‘We weren’t even caught in Todoroki’s ice.  Why are you mad at him now?’

Principle.

‘You have none of those?’

If I had a tongue I would be sticking it out at you right now.  Actually, can I have your tongue for a brief moment to really get my feelings across?

‘No.’

Oh, wow, REALLY fuck that guy.

‘Yeah alright freezing the robots was a dick move.’

You should introduce him to blunt force trauma to the head.

‘No!’

So no blunt force trauma to the head, huh?

‘How was I supposed to know that would be my plan?!  Or that I would smack him with the metal plate?!’

Kill Midnight.

‘Still not killing my pro hero teachers.  Besides, it’s a game, as long as I can get a good team we’ll be fine.’

Kill Endeavor.  Burn him to death and stew his intestines in a nice gazpacho.

‘Ew, no, what a waste of perfectly good soup.’

That’s not a no on killing him, though?

‘14.4.’

Acceptable.

‘I’m surprised you’re not telling me to kill Shinsou.’

He can’t brainwash you.

‘Good, because I think he’d be an awesome hero and I don’t need you calling for his blood all hours of the day.’

“Hey, um, Midoriya…”

He looked up and beamed.  “Hi Shinsou!  What’s up?”

“Why did your mind swear at me?  And… give me graphic images of my death?  I mean, it’s cool that your brain did anything , usually that doesn’t happen, but…”

Izuku’s expression froze.  “Ah.  You met it.  You know how everyone has a, like, a conscience?  Yeah, mine is very violent.  Sorry.”

Shinsou just frowned.  “No, you misunderstand, most people don’t have bonus content in their heads.  Yours actually spoke.   Like, yeah, you got brainwashed, but whatever ‘it’ is, definitely didn’t.  Your quirk is super strength?”

He blinked.  “Um, yeah?”

“Yeah… no, that voice in your head?  That’s definitely a quirk.  Either that or you have DID, dissociative identity disorder.”

Izuku blinked again.  “Huh.  That’s… huh.  Um, can we rain check that until after the festival?  Super down to help you with your quirk, it’s really cool, but I… might just have had my world turned on my head.”

Shinsou looked just as lost.  “Um, yeah.  Don’t need to work on my quirk though, I know it’s creepy…”

“Shinsou,” he interrupted, “is your quirk a voice in your head that details all the way to pull out people’s teeth and in which order it should be done based on how much it dislikes them?”

“…Alright, fair point.  Maybe you got super strength from denying all those urges to become a serial killer,” he joked, “but damn that sounds… kinda like a pain.  Ok, well, good luck on the rest of the festival, I guess?”

He smiled weakly.  “Thanks!  See you later?”

“Sure.”

‘Um?’

Huh.

‘What do you mean, “huh”?!’

Am I a quirk?

‘Or I have DID.  I’m going to look that up in between matches.’

Nah, that requires trauma.

‘Ah yes, my life is just completely free of trauma!’

From before I showed up?

‘I… huh.  Ok, you might be a quirk.  Wait, but how would One for All have affected you, then?’

I could just be you but like, meaner and more prone to violence.

‘Is it that you’re having actual conversations now?’

No I could always do that I just didn’t want to.

‘Oh.  Oh, fuck you.’

Heh.  Anyway, we’re maiming Todoroki in our fight.

‘What?!  Why?!’

Because.

‘We’re not maiming Todoroki!’

Better hope One for All didn’t let me take the wheel then!

‘Oh my god…’

So you decide to not main Todoroki by… maiming yourself?

“Ugh,” he groaned, “and I just woke up.  Give it a rest.”

Recovery girl tutted.  “You should still be resting, it’s true, but you younguns bounce back quickly.  Unfortunately for you, this isn’t something you can bounce back from.  Of all the reckless things to do, you had to break and rebreak your fingers past the point of no return?  Sonny, I had to do surgery .  Your fingers on your right hand will be crooked for the rest of your life.”

He weakly raised the hand in question and stared impassively at his gnarled and scarred fingers before he smiled.

“I promise I won’t do it again, but I can't say it wasn’t worth it.”

She huffed and rolled her eyes, walking off.

You really need to get a handle on this quirk.

‘Don’t worry, I’ll get right on that.’

Kill - nah, never mind, he’s funny.

‘Oh, so you finally found someone who you don’t want to murder?  And it’s Gran Torino?’

His prank was really funny.

‘I thought you had taken over and killed him!  I was terrified!’

Still can’t do that yet, but also I wouldn’t kill a random person.  You know who the first to die will be.

‘You’re not killing Kacchan.’

Never named names~!

Ok we can kill this one, right?

‘Please don’t mean Iida.’

No I mean Stain.  Iida is already maimed a little, he’s learned his lesson.  Maybe.  Maybe give him a little bit of a kick to make sure it really sinks in that revenge is never the option.

‘Did you really just say that?  You?’

You’re right, let me amend.  Revenge is never an option unless you’re us!  Then it’s a requirement!

‘I hate you sometimes.’

I am your rage, Zuks.  Let me have this.

I TAKE BACK EVERY NICE THING I EVER SAID ABOUT ERASERHEAD.

‘Stop yelling, it’s not that bad!  Also you never said anything nice about him.’

It’s fucking him!   Against All Might!  We both know he’s not gonna work with us!

And it was right.  Izuku tried to say they needed a plan and Kacchan backhanded him with his heavy gauntlet and Izuku could taste copper and then he just.

Checked out.

When he came back to reality, he was already in the nurse’s tent with aches and pains and being congratulated by All Might for passing while Recovery Girl was beating the pro hero with her cane for going overboard.

He ignored that he couldn’t remember his finals at all and resolved to really talk to Shinsou soon.

It was probably just dissociation, right?

Oh, this fucker.  Hands off, asshole!

Izuku tried his very best to ignore the vitriol while he tried to stop Shigaraki from turning him into dust.

‘Not mad at Pixiebob?’

It was funny and she’s a cat.  That’s just what cats do; knock things off.

‘Sometimes I really don’t understand you.’

CAN WE KILL THIS ONE?!

Izuku snarled.  “Yes.”

Muscular never stood a chance, and he left him buried in the mountain, broken arms throbbing and Kouta sobbing into his shoulder.

‘I’m not leaving him.’

Of course you aren’t.

‘And you’re not opposed?’

I exist with you.  My opinions are irrelevant.

‘That’s not… no.’

Yes.  If you really want my feelings on this, they’re complicated.  But it boils down to, no one kills him but me.  Get his ass back so I can kick it later.

Izuku suppressed a sigh.  He’d take it.

DON’T TOUCH HIM DON’T GET CLOSE HE’S DANGEROUS DON’T-

They got Kacchan back and Izuku had a pounding headache and a very quiet head.

I wonder if he can still use permeation if his arms are broken.

‘I see no reason why not,’ he mused, ‘but it might make him lose focus, I guess.  D&D concentration rules?’

Sure.  Let’s test it!

‘I’m not maiming my upperclassman!  Plus I don’t even know if I can!’

You could.

‘Whatever, oh sHIT-’

Windy asshole…

‘Yeah he got in a fight with Todoroki, not a reason to kill him.’

You can’t see but I’d be pouting.  Ya know, if I had a mouth.  Oh, wait, you’re pouting, I’m gonna count that-

You should remove his eyes.  And his hands.  And his brain.  Lobotomize Sir Nighteye, bonus points if you can get the entire optical nerve intact.

‘He was mean, but I sort of understand?’

Are you really justifying his treatment of you?

‘Not justifying, no.  I just… I get it.  And while yeah, it’s unprofessional and part of me regrets taking this internship, I’m learning a lot and it isn’t enough to justify a lobotomy.’

Yet.

‘Oh my god, shut up.’

Something small slammed into his legs and his head was quiet as he looked down at the little girl with wide eyes before leaning down and wrapping his arms around her loosely.

“Hi, are you ok?  I’m a hero in training, my name is Deku.  What’s your name?”

“Eri.”

He smiled softly, even if she couldn’t see it, trembling with her head buried in his chest as it was.  It was hard to smile, she wasn’t wearing shoes and had just run out of the alley, her dress was more like a hospital gown and her arms and legs were covered in bandages-

“Ah, you found my daughter.  Thank you.  Let’s go, Eri, we wouldn’t want to bother these heroes, now would we?”

The man in the plague mask tugged at his gloves and within the same moment Izuku’s arms were empty.

He could only watch as she went back to him and they disappeared.

Something is off.

He nodded absently to himself.

Bullets.  Overhaul was using her to make bullets, breaking her down again and again and AGAIN-

Kill?

He clenched his fists and didn’t reply.

“THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT, ERI!  IF YOU COME BACK, I CAN STOP!”

She ran back into the room and Izuku tried his best to stop her but soon enough she was back in Overhaul’s arms, and Izuku took a deep breath.

“I need a moment.  Want to take over?”

The people around him looked at him funny, but the voice purred within his mind.

I thought you’d never ask.

Aizawa immediately noticed the shift in his student.  Nothing changed in his appearance, but his stance shifted and there was an immediate oppressive air that swamped the destroyed space.  He (or whatever passed as his student now) curled and uncurled his fingers and grinned up at Overhaul.

It was not a nice smile.

“Well, well, well,” he purred, “Overhaul, so nice to be speaking face to face!  I’ve been given blanket permission to tear you limb from limb!”

And then he moved.

As soon as Overhaul was in custody and everyone injured was in the hospital (this included Overhaul, they would be surprised if he could ever use his hands again), Aizawa wrapped Midoriya up in his capture scarf and dragged him forward, eyes blazing red.

His student gave a crooked grin.  “Interesting.  Thought for sure that would snap him back.”

“Who,” he growled, “are you, and what have you done with my student?  I would say Toga, but we saw her after the fact and I know my quirk works on her.  So who the hell are you and why isn’t my quirk working?”

He shrugged as best as he could wrapped up as tight as he was.

“Sure you want to do this in the middle of the street?  I might have mitigated damage but I’m almost certain standard procedure is to send combatants to the hospital if they took as many hits as I did, even if Eri got rid of them.”

“Answer the damn question before I send you right to Tartarus after Overhaul.”

He sneered, and it looked so wrong on his student’s face that he reflexively tightened the scarf and flared his quirk again.

“Zuks is fine,” he grumbled, “he’s just busy screaming into the void.  He’s not used to being the one to get pissed so he let me take over.  It’s new.”

“And who exactly are you?”

He grinned.  “It’s weird, I never really needed a name before, since I could only talk to one person…  Let’s see, he tried giving me a name a few times, what did he say… right, the one Inko might have named him… call me Yamikumo!”

Aizawa grimaced.  “Fine.  I’m escorting you to the hospital where you will be kept under strict observation until my student is back.”

Yamikumo shrugged.  “That’s assuming he can’t just take back control when he feels like it.  Like I said, he can’t come to the phone right now, he’s busy.  All you get is lil ol me!  Oh, by the way, tell Shinsou I said hi!”

Aizawa resolutely did not look at the person using his student’s face.

He was still Yamikumo two hours later once all the checks had been run and he was cleared from the hospital, and Aizawa practically dragged Tsukauchi into his room.

The boy grinned.  “Aw, really?  Just for me?  Flatterer!”

Tsukauchi also looked a little shell shocked at the imposter and Aizawa hadn’t even wanted to be the one to tell Yagi about his kid when he was already stressing about his old sidekick’s horrific injury.

“Detective Tsukauchi, I am recording this conversation and have to inform you that my quirk is Lie Detector.  Let’s start with the basics.  What is your name?”

“Yamikumo!  He/it, I’ve decided.”

“True.  Why are you in the body of Midoriya Izuku?”

“Because I always am.”

“…True.  Why are you currently in control of the body of Midoriya Izuku?”

“He let me.”

“…True.  Why did he let you?”

“He was pissed and didn’t know how to deal with it, I think?  I mean, come on, you must have noticed he takes everything with a smile, pretty much?”

“True.  What was he mad about?”

“A lot of things, but mostly Eri and Overhaul.  As soon as we found out what he was doing to her, he was a ticking time bomb.  He didn’t say no when I said we should kill him!”

They both tensed and Aizawa put his hand on his capture scarf.

Yamikumo rolled his eyes. “Relax.  I might be largely amoral, but Zuks is mine, I wouldn’t do something to hurt him.  Everyone else?  Yes!  I definitely paid attention when we were going over the legality of certain actions to see what I could get away with if I ever had hands.”

“True.  How long have you been in control?”

“Three hours, ish.”

“True.  Have you ever been in control before?”

“…Yes.”

Aizawa grimaced.  “When?”

Yamikumo tilted his head, expression serious.  “Final exams.  That’s the first time.  When we fought Muscular, we were both out, since our goals and thoughts aligned.”

“True.  Sort of.  Elaborate on the Muscular thing?”

“He was pissed, Muscular was threatening the squirt.  Zuks didn’t like that.  Muscular reminded me of the worst sort of bullies.  I didn’t like that.  So, for once, we were in perfect agreement.  If Zuks hadn’t needed a breather, that probably would have happened here, too.  Can’t say I mind, though.”

“I watched your final,” Aizawa narrowed his eyes, “and didn’t see anything abnormal.  When did you take over?”

Yamikumo pursed his lips.  “I’ve figured out two ways to take control,” he said instead of answering, “one is, as you see here, when our goals align and he lets me out.  The second is when he is awake, but mentally not there.”

“Dissociation.”

He nodded.  “In the exams, when Bakugo backhanded him, he checked out and I found myself in the driver’s seat.  Very disconcerting when I’ve never had a body before, I can assure you.  You probably saw it as him shaking off the blow, but that’s when I stepped up.  And sure, I wanted to kill the bastard for all the hell he’d put Zuks through, but we had an exam to pass.  So.”

Aizawa slowly forced himself to relax as Tsukauchi went on to the other questions.

“Are you a villain or working with villains?”

“Nope.”

“Do you have malicious intent towards Midoriya Izuku?”

“That would be dumb.  No.”

“Do you have malicious intent towards anyone in UA?”

“Yeah that’s like, my whole deal.”

Immediately tense again.

Yamikumo rolled his eyes.  “For the longest time my only dialogue with Zuks was ways to maim and murder people around him that were dicks.  Drove him up the wall.  If it makes you feel better, I’m never going to act on it unless I get explicit permission, and even then only if it can’t be traced back to Zuks in a legal fashion.”

“True.  That… isn’t comforting.”

He shrugged.  “Never gonna stop hating people.  Take what you can get.  Ah, might want to wrap up your questions, the screaming is dying down.”

Aizawa startled at the idea that his student would soon be returned to him and he could question him as well, and Tsukauchi hurried on.

“Are you the UA traitor?”

“Nah but I have a few guesses.”

“Who?”

He blinked a few times and Aizawa knew that Midoriya was back when he instantly paled.

“Oh nooo,” he whined, “oh no.”

Aizawa raised an eyebrow.  “Welcome back, Problem Child,” he drawled, “so, Yamikumo.”

He put his head in his hands.  “He bastardized the name.  It was supposed to just be Mikumo.  Not that it had a name before this, I didn’t want to assign one in case it didn’t like it.  Did he say something weird?  I was checked out.”

“Yeah we got that,” Aizawa sighed, “what don’t you tell us about your friend.  Start from the beginning.”

He swallowed and smiled weakly.  “As long as I can remember, since I’ve been able to think, I’ve had this voice in my head.  People always said it was my conscience, but I figured that couldn’t be true…”

Despite the Problem Child letting his close friends know about the situation, Yamikumo was formally introduced to the class when Bakugo blew up on Midoriya one day for no reason and he sighed and said, “no, not dealing with this, your turn,” and he shifted.

The more animal of their classmates felt a sense of unease overcome them, and everyone took a step back when Midoriya’s face erupted into a grin.

“Well, you done fucked up, Blasty!  Zuks really just handed you to me on a silver platter, didn’t he?”

“WHO THE HELL ARE YOU?!  WHERE THE FUCK DID DEKU GO?”

He tilted his head.  “Sorry,” he said, voice all poisoned honey, “Izuku can’t come to the phone right now!  You get Yamikumo, his personal demon!”

Shinsou sighed.  “Oh.  That explains a few things.  Beat his ass, Yami.”

Yamikumo grinned in a mockery of the smile that was usually seen on that same face, and Aizawa merely shrugged.

“Ok, onto sparring, Yamikumo, you’re partnered with Bakugo.”

“Oh, good, you’re enabling me!”

“If you send him to Recovery Girl you get detention.”

He cocked his head.  “Don’t you mean Zuks gets detention?”

“No.  Just because you generally share a brain doesn’t mean he gets punished for your actions.”

Yamikumo slowly lit up in a grin.  “So, I send him to Recovery Girl, and I get detention?  How many pieces does she need him to be in?”

Aizawa sighed as the class erupted into confused shock.

He was not paid enough to deal with a headspace monster.

Shinsou sidled up to the demon.  “So, did you figure out if it was a quirk or not?”

“Nah, Aizawa tried erasing it but I didn’t snap back.  If it’s a quirk, it’s a mutation.  And DID is off the table because I’ve been around since he was born.  Not that I remember that.”

Shinsou stared at him.  “Then… what are you?”

It shrugged.  “I’m his conscience!”

The chorus was unmistakable.

“NO YOU’RE NOT!”