A lone man sat perched atop a tower, torn scarves flying as he surveyed the next city he had planned to spread his "Justice" to. His face was covered by a mask and his nose was missing, making him resemble ninja Voldemort. 

A movement in an alley close by caught his attention. He turned his face to look at the darkened streets, to find a hero on patrol as usual. He identified the costume to be of Ingenium, a well known hero. He was all alone in the alley.

A perfect chance for his examination.

A few blows and minutes later, the Hero Killer made his way back from his recent "sacrifice", tracking blood.

A dying pro hero lay on the pavement in a pool of blood, behind him, with his career ruined. 

A few minutes later his sidekicks would arrive, but by then, he would have lost all hope.

And would be looking at a confined future.

A flash of white hair with blue and yellow streaks could be seen around the corner. 

The Hero Killer attempted to chase it, but was only met up with an empty space in a different alley. He gritted his teeth, not letting go of his katanas, anticipating an attack, an intruder on his way of Justice.

Or perhaps a fake hero who sought him for the glory and money alone.

Which is why, he jumped and immediately slashed at the purple cloud when it appeared in front of him. His blades met thin air, however as a well dressed man of mist calmly kept dodging his blows until his mind made the connection to who the person was. 

He bared his teeth as he stopped slashing wildly, seeing that there wasn't much to cut, much less draw blood from.

"I am Kurogiri," the man said calmly, "And I wish to talk." 

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Izuku and Shinso faced each other, ready for their first battle. Shinso was sure that he would win, for his ability hadn't been revealed yet.

Izuku warily gauged him, not knowing what his Quirk was. He knew that he had teamed up with the Reaper, Axel and Mei Hatsume, but he wasn't aware of his Quirk. He gauged his opponent. He wasn't showing any fighting stance, so his Quirk probably wasn't of a close combat type. So was it emitter type like Todoroki-kun? No wait, with his relaxed posture, an emitter type Quirk would have to be powerful, and considering that he wasn't in the Hero Class but in General Studies, he assumed that his Quirk wasn't much useful against things like robots. So emitter type was out of the equation, along with close range ones. So what was it?

"....and START!"

Midnight finishing the countdown snapped him out of his thoughts and he immediately felt his heart start to race like crazy as he felt all the eyes of the audience fall on him and Shinso, the latter of who looked as bored as usual. Well he looked slightly malicious now, but that was basically most of the people facing Izuku.

He hadn't realised that he had started muttering until Shinso snapped,

"What the fuck are you mumbling from that type? You can hear me, right?"

"Sorry—," he began to say as he felt his entire body go numb. 

He couldn't move a single finger, it was as if his mind was detached from his physical self, watching it like one would watch a person in a movie, except in this case, this person was him.

And the movie was bordering on his defeat. 

"AND WHAT'S THIS, IZUKU MIDORIYA HAS FROZEN JUST LIKE THAT? OH NO, WHAT SHOULD HE DO NOW?"

He heard Present Mic yell, but it was too loud, as usual. The gazes on his back intensified even more as he felt tears of shame prickling at his eyes, except his physical self wasn't crying.

I am sorry All Might. I am sorry Mom. 

He tried to desperately regain control of his body, but he might as well be yelling to a tree, for it seemed that it no longer obeyed his mind. 

It rather seemed to obey the mind of his opponent, a very distinguished individual, Hitoshi Shinso.

"—QUIRK BEING BRAINWASHING SEEMS LIKE A SIMPLE HOMERUN."

Why couldn't things filter normally into his deplorable mind instead of bits and pieces, half being overwritten by his anxiety yelling incoherently? 

"Turn around and walk out of the ring."

Shinso's command was firm, the beginnings of a lazy smile on his face as he basked in his apparently assured victory.

Izuku Midoriya saw his body obey that command and start to walk out of the ring, even as he begged it to not do so.

Desperately.

He saw a darkness in the corridor where he had his "talk" with Todoroki-kun.

It seemed like there were people there, with glowing eyes.

They were discussing something.

Presently, they appeared to have come to a conclusion, and he kept the control over his body lift for a milisecond.

The power of One For All at 100% rushed to his fingertips which made his finger break.

As the haze lifted entirely for real and he was able to control his actions once again.

He turned around to see an incredibly furious Shinso.

I am sorry, Shinso-kun.

~~~~~~~~~~~

"Well, when it comes to evil, you are like, the boss here," Tomura Shigaraki rasped in a lazy tone, "Hero Killer: Stain." 

Immature. Doesn't have a conviction. Kills without a reason.

"And your goals?" He asked, summoning all the calm that he could. 

"Well you see I want to kill All Might," Tomura said lazily, drumming his fingers on the table, "And I also want to destroy things that I don't like. So that's that." 

Stain's eyes flashed and he took out his katanas.

"You are the kind of people who I hate," he growled, "Bloodlust without conviction is meaningless."

He looked downright murderous.

"As if I would go along with some man child in his childish killing spree," he spoke, as if giving his murders a theme made them "Noble sacrifices to Justice". 

"Shouldn't we stop them?" Kurogiri asked worriedly, "Sensei?"

"No," the staticky voice from the television spoke, "There's no point in education if we just tell him the answer before he has the opportunity to learn for himself."

And all hell broke loose.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Upon hearing the Quirk name, Izuku had deduced that it was a psychic ability, which probably required a condition for activation. He charted all the actions he had done before the Quirk had taken control over him, not managing to arrive at a conclusive result in his panic and the incredible pain on his finger.

Throwing caution to the wind, he blindly charged at Shinso, tackling him to the ground and out of the bounds as the purple haired boy kept yelling and trying to goad him into speaking.

His Quirk most probably requires a voice activation of sorts, probably an answer from the other person.

"DAMNIT," Shinso yelled at last, "You—, you have no clue, do you, being born with such a strong Quirk, huh? Getting to follow your dreams and what you want to be, to do." 

"Your Quirk would be useful for a villain," they said, already having classified him, using their prejudiced mindsets to determine his fate before they even knew him.

Bitter.

That's a feeling he had felt for a long time. 

He still did. 

Which is why, he had a burning passion to become a hero, to prove the haters wrong.

However now, yelling in a futile manner at the face of his defeat, he felt pathetic.

And hopeless.

It appears that even after all this....I cannot be a hero, huh.

"IZUKU MIDORIYA MOVES OVER TO THE SECOND ROUND," Present Mic announced.

Tears prickled at Shinso's eyes.

They bowed at each other, a mere formality.

"Why...why do you want to be a hero," Izuku could not help but ask.

"We cannot choose the things we naturally admire," Shinso said brashly, turning around to go back to his shameful place, with all dreams and hopes crushed.

Leaving Izuku to feel helpless, for as much as he sorely wished to reach out, to tell Shinso that he understood him, he couldn't. 

For that would be betraying the trust of All Might.

And if a few tears dropped down, mixing with the dirt on his face, no one was the wiser. 

"SHINSO, YOU WERE AMAZING OUT THERE!!"

His own classmate's shouts captured Shinso's attention. He looked up in shock, seeing them praise him, commend him for his pitiful performance, as if he had performed a deed worthy of All Might.

So unlike his previous ones.....

He felt like he was seeing them clearer now, and they seemed...nice.

There were mutterings between the heroes.

"This Quirk would be so useful"

"I would totally recruit him if I could."

"Why the heck is this kid not in the hero course??" 

Shinso felt like some of the hope had returned to his deflated self.

"They will consider transfer to the hero course based on the Sports Festival results. Never forget that.

Maybe this time I have lost...but next time, I will show them who's the real deal."

That was what he proclaimed as he returned to the stands, leaving Izuku standing in the dust. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Tomura Shigaraki found himself in a really dangerous position.

On the floor, with two katanas stabbing his shoulders, cutting the recent bullet wounds, making it bleed and hurt like hell.

While his body refused to move.

"Aw, so scary, Kurogiri quickly send him away," he whined like a petulant child asking a parent for a candy. 

"I can't move. Must be an effect of his Quirk," Kurogiri said, unable to move as well. 

Yes, I fucking got that, but bastard lemme GO—

"You lack conviction," Stain was reaching the end of his monologue, "Which is why...you are about to die."

Tomura was pretty sure that he would die from brain damage first, after hearing to that incredible amount of nonsense which his noseless man was spouting like a cultist. 

"The word "Hero" has lost its meaning," the self proclaimed Messiah droned on, "In a society rife with fakers and scammers. Villains who throw around their weight too, you all are the subjects of my Purge."

Ah yes, the OG witch Hunter.

Tomura saw Stain start to bury his katana deeper into his left arm.

"Hold on," he began, "Not this one."

His red eyes flashed.

"I will kill you."

The blade turned to dust in front of a shocked Hero Killer.

Tomura resisted the urge to cackle.

"You sure love talking about your convictions. Well, I have got nothing as grand as that." 

His tone was lazy and unaffected, carrying an undercurrent of wrath which made Stain stop in his tracks.

"But I will tell you one thing. If there's anything that drives me, it's All Might. The piece of garbage that stands on the top and the society that worships him. I wanna crush them into dust. That's my conviction."

Oh what offal is Rome, to illuminate such a vile a thing as Caesar.

As the effects of Bloodcurdle wore off, Tomura jumped up, causing Stain to jump back. 

He was wearing an odd sort of smile. 

"My wounds from last time had just healed," Tomura scolded, "We don't exactly have a healer in our party, y'see? Next time take some responsibility, will ya?"

However Stain had evidently stopped listening after "conviction". 

"Our goals couldn't be further apart," Stain began, "But we share a common part, that is, to destroy the status quo. You have a twisted conviction—"

Tomura conveniently zoned out his speech. If he was going to be ignored and then attacked at his own place, then it was only fair for him to return the same treatment.

He said something about joining forces where Kurogiri tried to play the mediator as Tomura firmly continued to oppose the idea of being in the same room as the man any more than necessary.

As Stain turned to leave, the staticky voice of Sensei filled the room again. 

"What might you, Hero Killer Stain, know of....the Vigilante Hack?" 

"I choose not to answer," the man in question growled and stormed out of Kurogiri's portal. His anger this time seemed different somehow. Almost...guilty. 

Tomura narrowed his eyes.

What was Sensei's continued interest.....in her of all people. 

And what's Stain...hiding.