Chapter Text
Cold dread ran through Midoriya’s veins whilst his friends celebrated around him. They were seen. They were seen! He had never accounted for this. He had a plan for everything and anything, but not this.
Jishi warmly embraced him, whispering, “Thank you.”
He barely returned the hug. “Guys, wait—”
“There you are!” Midoriya jumped back to see Kurogiri entering the hallway where they stood. “We are holding an emergency executive meeting in the office. You must come with me.”
“Hold on!” Midoriya protested. His eyes darted between each person and the door. “I just need to finish up here. I’ll be upstairs in a minute.”
“I insist that you come with me now. I have learned of Shigaraki-kun’s unacceptable behavior, and it is prudent that we confront him.” Kurogiri innocently tilted his head. “Unless… something is amiss? Why are you wearing Jishi’s clothing?”
“It’s a long story, but, uh, nope. Nope, everything is fine. I guess I’ll just… go.” He shot Yoshida and Jishi a look of warning, gesturing his head to the door as subtly as he could. They appeared confused. Mentally cursing the fact that they weren’t telepaths, he reluctantly followed his boss up to the dormitories. As they made the final stretch up to the attic, Midoriya's mind raced. He should be scared of Shigaraki right now. He definitely was going to kill him. However, he was far more scared of the man on the roof. That man was there for them and them only.
Gorgeous sunlight streamed through the windows, casting a golden light on Shigaraki. The villain sat slouched in his desk chair, busy on a gaming console. He gagged at their presence, grumbling,“Fuckin’ Christ, what do you want?”
“I want you to apologize to Midoriya,” Kurogiri replied like a disappointed mother. “Your actions were unwarranted. That is no way to treat a friend.”
“He’s not my fucking friend.”
“Then apologize for me.”
“You’re not my friend either.”
Kurogiri blinked in surprise. “What do you mean by that? Of course I am!”
“Oh, are you now, backstabber ?” Shigaraki spat. “You know what? Fuck it. I’m sorry, Midoriya. I’m sorry that Kurogiri turned you against me.”
“I did not!”
“Yeah, you did! Everything was perfectly fine until you made him your fucking therapist. This is all your fault, and you would know that if you took your head out of your ass.”
“Please do not speak to me so rudely. You fail once more to treat me as an equal—”
“Because you aren’t my fucking equal!” Shigaraki’s expression burned with pure hatred, his lips snarling like a lion. “I’m the leader here, not you, so stop fucking acting like it!”
“We are co-leaders.”
“ Co-leaders . Bitch, that doesn’t even make sense! All for One chose me , he gave the League to me , and he supports me . Midoriya’s on thin ice, but you don’t even deserve to be here.”
Shigaraki’s words settled in the room as if it were ash. Kurogiri swayed. When he finally spoke, his voice wavered. “Incredible. After everything I have done for you, after years of fighting by your side, I still mean nothing.”
“Uh, yeah!” Shigaraki said, already picking up his game where he left off. “Keep up.”
Kurogiri stood shellshocked in utter disbelief. His eyes were wide, his smoke oddly shaking from side to side. He was visibly hurt, angry, sad, all at once. Midoriya just felt conflicted. This was literally what he wanted. He wanted them to trust him. He wanted them to fight. He wanted them to split up. This was according to plan, but seeing Kurogiri so broken made him regret it. The guy was a straight-up villain who had probably killed somebody at this point. And yet, part of Midoriya wondered if he could have accomplished this differently.
God, why do you have to go and make things so COMPLICATED?! he internally screamed.
“This is yours now,” Kurogiri mourned, handing over a small ring of keys. “All that you need is located in my desk. The password to my computer is written down. If you have any questions, do not hesitate to contact me.”
“Kurogiri,” Midoriya pleaded. The keys seared into in his palm. “Please.”
“I no longer have a place in the League. It is an honor to have known you, Midoriya. I trust that you will finish what I have started.” Kurogiri embraced him, his smoke chilling his body like dry ice. “Thank you.”
They looked at Shigaraki in the hopes that he would say anything, anything at all. When he remained silent, Kurogiri left in tears.
Midoriya’s body was stone. Was this real? Was he dreaming? How could today go to the shits in a matter of minutes?
Oh, God. What will Kurogiri do now? Where will he go? He’d never mentioned having anybody on the outside. He had no money, no food, no home, and no papers. Officially, he didn’t exist. How was he supposed to return to society after spending his whole life in the League?
Wait a minute.
How was he supposed to return to society after spending his whole life in the League?
“What have you done?” he said aloud without even trying to. He felt Shigaraki’s eyes fall on him, but he refused to look that monster in the face.
“I did the right thing,” he replied nonchalantly.
No. No, you didn’t. “What are you gonna do to him?”
“Why do you care?”
“ What are you gonna do to him ?” Midoriya cried in near hysterics. “Tell me!”
“Midoriya. Midoriya, listen to me. I did this for us ,” he cooed. “Kurogiri was holding you back. You and I both know that you’re capable of far more than he ever will be. Calm down. Now, you’re gonna forget about him. Everything he told you was a lie. He saw your kindness and took advantage of it. He never cared about you. He only wanted to control you. Don’t let him win.
“Study up. We’ve got work to do, and I’ve got some… scores to settle.”
Terrorism is bad. Duh, but judging by the contents of Kurogiri’s computer, not everybody agreed. Midoriya had so many tabs open that the PC’s fan was going into overdrive, but he couldn’t close any of them. There was so much to process, too much to process. He stared at a PDF document, innocuously named something inconsequential as if it didn’t detail the reanimation of mutilated human corpses.
Overwhelmed, he pressed his cold hands into his feverish skin. What the fuck was he thinking when he signed up for this? What did he think hero work was? An action movie? Not when Yoshida and Jishi’s lives were on the line. Not when Kurogiri risked everything for him. And his mother… Bile flooded his mouth at the memory of the texts. He couldn’t keep hurting her.
This ends now.
He rifled through the desks in search of an envelope, finding none. He turned his attention to a decrepit filing cabinet in the corner. The drawer he pulled was surprisingly heavy. It was stacked with full manila folders, each labeled with a name. He grabbed his own and dumped its contents. Surely, nobody would miss it.
Back in his room, he pried his notebook from its hiding place and tore out an empty page. His hand shook as he wrote. Though he was never one for essays, for once, the words came naturally.
A loud creak startled him out of his tunneling vision. He whipped around to find Yoshida standing just inside the doorway.
“Sign this,” he said before she could even open her mouth.
“What?” She slowly shut the door behind her and approached the desk. “What is it? Mido, you can’t be real.”
“It’s a letter. Sign it with me. We’re in this together, right?”
“You’re the one who figured this all out. I can’t take credit for that.”
Midoriya held his pen out to her. “You can when you helped me.”
Reluctantly, she accepted the pen, staring at the paper as if it was the most daunting task she had ever taken on. Her teeth worried at her bottom lip. After a long minute of deep thought, she carefully signed below Midoriya’s name.
“Great, now where’s Jishi?”
Midoriya donned Jishi’s jacket, the hood and a mask as he had done before. The night air did little to cool his feverish skin. Behind him, the side door clicked shut. He stepped forward into the alleyway, gravel crunching under his sneakers. Almost like an apparition, the man materialized back on the roof. He was crouched, peering over the gutter just enough to watch below. Midoriya fully turned his face up. The pair locked knowing gazes. Without breaking eye contact, Midoriya laid the folder down in the middle of the space. He walked backwards to the bar and disappeared.
Newly alone, Aizawa Shota leapt down from the rooftop, shocked to see that the folder was already addressed to him.