Izuku was feeling a bit nervous.

Kurogiri had left him in an alley near the school, saying that he was still reachable with his phone whenever Izuku wanted to leave, before vanishing.

Izuku had made his way, actually glad to not be moving around in crunches anymore. He arrived in front of the school with a bit of time to spare and sat not far from it. He didn't know this Kirishima guy, he never met him. Kurogiri had described him and his actions when he arrived all those weeks ago. Apparently Izuku was laying lamely on the ground, pale and grim with destroyed clothes. The kids had gotten away, laughing and mocking. Kurogiri had just arrived and had been approaching Izuku when a dark bolt crossed the street and stopped above the greenette. He had checked if Izuku was still breathing fine and had called for help. He seemed extremely distressed, concerned and fear painted his face.

Sensei had sent him a picture of the boy, black hair down his shoulders, sharp teeth and deep red eyes. He hoped to find him when class would end but if not, he would try to go inside the school and look for class 3-C.

The bell rang, and soon enough, teenagers flooded the street. Noise and laughs and chatter made Izuku cringe a little but after some time, the amount of people coming out lessened. Izuku felt a little desperate, afraid to have missed the guy. He had tried to scan the crowd but people were just so eager to leave the school that he found himself unable to discern faces and people. He had never been very good with crowds to begin with, even less so since he left school.

Luckily, which for him happened every blue moon, once the crowd had calmed down and left, Izuku saw the face he was looking for. And he was apparently recognized in return. Kirishima was looking around, saw Izuku and did a double take before his brows rose in shock and he hurried toward the other teen. On his way he slowed down, and his confidence seemed to leave him in a second, leaving him slightly deflated and twitching with anxiety.

Not exactly comfortable either, unused to contact with new people, Izuku lamely waved at the dark haired teen. Once he had come close enough, Izuku tried to smile weakly.

"Kirishima, right?"

"Yeah, hum, you're that kid from that one time, right? You got, hum..."

"Beat up to a pulp? Yeah, someone told me you were the one who called the hospital for me."

"I mean, yes. I just... what they did was so unmanly. They left you there like that, passed out and— you looked bad. I mean, no offense of course, I don't think I would fare much better in the same situation."

"No it's alright. I think 'bad' describes exactly how I was feeling afterward. I, hum, I wanted to thank you, for helping I mean."

Kirishima then looked down to the floor, shame covering his face.

"Don't thank me, I could have done more. I was there, I could have stopped them."

"Probably not, they wouldn't have let you. Better one than two, I'm glad you didn't jump in or they would have tried to do the same with you."

"They wouldn't have been able to. My quirk is just, it's called Hardening, I can turn my skin into rock... i know it's not much but,"

"What? Hardening? That sounds so cool," and here was Izuku, nerding about quirk already, "you can take on damage far better than most, maybe even turn into a weapon if the rock is sharp. No? I mean, it can be very cool if you use it right..."

"But it's not flashy at all, it's a lame quirk."

"Why would quirk have to be flashy?"

"Heroes' quirks are."

Izuku's giddiness and excitement to talk about quirks suddenly vanished.

"So? The whole point of heroes is to help and save people, not look cool."

"I mean... yeah, you're right."

"Do you want to help, Kirishima?"

"Yeah, a lot. But I can't be a hero with my quirk."

"That's just plain dumb. If you want to help people, do it. There are far too many people who want to be heroes for everything but help. It's stupid and if helping is what you want to do, don't let others stop you."

"But I didn't help you at that time."

"Well, that's on you. You can learn to be better if that's what you want. And anyway, I'm telling you, it was better you didn't. You don't know those people. They weren't going to stop just for your quirk."

"Well, they're super unmanly. You look like a nice guy and I don't know why they would do that."

"They're dicks." Izuku shrugged. "If you want to help people, you just have to do that. Your quirk seems very useful. Quirks shouldn't have to be flashy for people to be heroes, that's not the goal. If you want to help, that's all you have to do."

A bright smile rose on the other teen's face, showing off his sharp teeth and eyes full of stars.

" You are super manly. You're right. If I want to help, I just have to do it. Thank you. I think I-"

Kirishima's phone rang and his face fell a little as he searched for his phone. He quickly turned around and responded, a weak 'mom? is everything alright?' coming from him. He turned back toward Izuku and tried to bow weakly.

"Thanks for what you said, I have to go, I'm sorry, I just- Yes mom, I'm coming back, don't worry, I just-"

He then started to leave before Izuku could add a word.

The teenager disappeared behind the next corner. Izuku hadn't had time to thank him properly for what he did the day Kacchan attacked him.

He himself turned around and went back to his alley and called for Kurogiri.

Something was truly wrong with society if people like Kirishima, kind hearted and hopeful, thought they couldn't help people because of their quirk not behind flashy. It wasn't even a question of power, because he had it, and a useful, strong one. No, it also had to be flashy.

The more time passed, the less Izuku thought of this society as something to save, but more as something to destroy and recreate from nothing.

—

A few days later Izuku was working on La Brava's assignment.

He had finished his school work, his grades were even better than before and he had so much time it was great. And no burns, no bruises, no pain. Life with and without people trying to break you was like a different reality. And perhaps having a villain best friend and a villain sort-of mentor helped define a clear before/after line.

His mother was in the living room, watching a movie as she prepared for work later. She still thought everything was exactly like before, that he wanted to be a hero and that everything was okay. How did she think everything was okay before? No idea. But she barely questioned the new decoration. She had raised a brow at him when he said he sold his All Might merch but he found an excuse about him growing up and having All Might constantly watching from somewhere made him anxious, and he could use the money and... He had stopped at some point, figuring that it was good enough.

What had shocked her more was him refusing to have his monthly hair cut. She usually did it herself, the hairdresser tended to pry about quirks to make small talk and didn't receive the news about quirklessness very well, like everyone really, and it was just easier to do it in their bathroom. She had been surprised but Izuku had remembered Tomura and his comment about Charisma, how great the blue hair of his friend looked and he told her he would like to see the look of it if he grew it out. He didn't yet know what to do with them and started to get annoyed when they got in his eyes and rubbed on his nape. He had adopted clips, his hair was still too short for ties and his life seemed much easier, even if Tenjiro and Giran decided to make fun of him for it. Tomura had shrugged, saying something along the lines of 'it's your character development, do your thing' and La Brava had shown her own support with a smile. Mitsuka obviously didn't show a single emotion but Izuku had learned to not worry about it and pay attention to the tapping that filled the room constantly. Entire conversations, about projects, gossiping, complaints or critics, were constantly taking place in the room, discreet from those who didn't understand it.

Everything was going well and he felt strangely hopeful for his entrance exam in a few months still. He even started to gain some muscle after discovering how hard support building was and how physical.

La Brava's project was really cool. She and Gentle had followed his suggestion and made a video breaking into Endeavor's agency. The Hacker had asked Izuku to create a program good enough for the video to stay on the internet at least 5 days without being completely taken down and he was having fun making sure there were enough security around diverse bots and programs he was preparing. The video was cool, Gentle ever the show figure, and Izuku prepared a few comments to be added when the posting would begin about Endeavor and his work, his ethics and just mean and petty things to say just because he could.

On the side, he was working on something else, for his practical entrance exam. He was going to try it out on one of the nomu-to-be and someone willing later when the Gambit Twins, he secretly called them the Oreos, would be done with their teaching and he could build things himself. He was also working based on videos and ideas from his best friend : the internet.

He planned on making a quirk suppressant handcuffs based on vibrations and ultra-sounds to target the quirk gene and stop momentarily its effect. Those kinds of stuff existed of course, mainly in Tartarus and to apprehend villains, but the secret of their conception was one of the most well kept. If he presented it to the practical exam, with a few flaws just to show that he was here to learn, along with an idea he planned to work on at UA 'because the environment is much more suitable than at home or any other school', he was sure to get in.

His mom knocked on the door and he quickly switched his programming to an English assignment that he had to complete for the next week. She entered, a soft smile on her face as she spotted her child hard at work.

"Can I talk to you darling?"

"Sure. Is everything okay?" He glanced at the time. "Aren't you going to be late for work?"

"Oh, there was some attack nearby, All Might saved the day by the way, I'll show you later, but my boss called and we have the rest of the week free."

Izuku smiled, maybe faking it a little, at his mother who seemed the happiest ever. It was true that she didn't usually have many free days. But he had work to do and leaving the house would be much harder if she was in.

"That's great! You'll be able to rest. Do you have anything in mind?"

"I thought we could watch some movie this afternoon?"

He had to see La Brava. But he couldn't just say no. Bonus assignment: make sure to send the program safely.

He nodded and showed his screen. "I'll finish this and I'll come, okay?"

"Sure. I'm ordering, do you want anything in particular."

"Nope. Just take the vegetarian menu for me."

"Are you okay, darling? You've been asking for no meat for a while already."

Oh, he didn't really want to go into that ; she wouldn't take well that his childhood friend and best friend's son and hero wanna-be had burned him so badly that he felt sick just by seeing meat. Fish sometimes was a little off when they ate it raw, but still better than any kind of meat, but Izuku discovered a new passion for eggs and tofu as protein and was only sad to miss his old katsudon.

"I'm trying something new. I heard we don't need as much meat as we eat and it's bad for the environment and stuff like that. If I want to be a hero, I want to be the best version of myself."

He would have to tell her one day that he decided to go for support instead, but that wouldn't be today.

He saw her nod and smile, she told him to come when he could and left the room.

Izuku then texted Tomura and Giran about not being able to come this afternoon and maybe not until Monday. Tomura would be pissed because they were working on a game together and he would have to wait. Giran on the other hand could tell it to his different teachers, since he still didn't have the actual contact infos of the Oreos (Tenjiro promised he would have it when he would manage his first invention all by himself) and La Brava would know once Izuku sent her the program.

After that, he went to work.

—

For four days in a row, he wasn't able to leave the house, afraid to be caught by his mother who spent the most of her day on the couch, binge watching shows and movies now that she had some time.

That didn't stop everyone from messaging him and giving more work than he would have done if he was there. Even the Doctor, through Kurogiri, made him work on one for the lesser-nomus project like Johnny was.

Izuku, proud to be capable of doing so, had been able to protect his cellphone and safely call Tomura. His friend was bored now that Izuku couldn't come anymore. It wasn't safe to be in contact with anyone from the league with anything but his computer but using discord couldn't hurt much if Izuku made sure to protect his data and Tomura's. He doubted that anyone would ever come and question him. A poor, quirkless, helpless boy like him would never know anything about villainy after all.

He had listened and chatted with the guy about their mutual dislike, if not hatred for heroes and it had been quite the experience. Aside from the first day, when Izuku had admitted that heroes were disappointing, they tended to avoid the subject.

Izukud wasn't sure of his friend's reasons. His was the fact that, at first, he had been second guessing his decision to join Sensei on this self-inflicted justice. His guilt was so loud that he sometimes hadn't been able to fall asleep and talking badly about the people he used to look up to felt like a betrayal, like he would get punished for it. He had grown out of it. Understanding that heroes were more than a little flawed, with little to no example of selfless heroes who simply wanted to help ( Izuku really didn't care about motives like money, but if they weren't competent enough to help...) , it made it easier to feel vindicated in his decision. Having to work for Sensei, to make research about diverse people and heroes, stories hidden from the public's eye and truth forgotten, he was feeling less and less sorry for joining the bad side.

Was it really the bad side when the 'good' one abandoned children like Tomura? Like Izuku?

At least he would now be able to do it, what others were too afraid to do. He would become Guidance, and the heroes who knowingly worked with the society, who turned a blind eye on bad situations because it might need too much work, too much time, make bad publicity if people saw them in bad places, etc, they would regret it.

He was now proud of what happened to Chronos. Even if he never had one while alive, the internet and most media had given a trial to the man, publicly shaming him. Few people now dared to talk about the ex-hero in any positive way.

And Izuku liked that.

He was happy to know that he held some power. His analysis had done that and it would be so much worse. Heroes would come crashing down like dead flies all around the country, the world if Izuku had his way. He wasn't stupid enough to think this was only in Japan. He knew what kind of war was going on in the world, what kind of experiment to make weapons, and on who they were made.

At least Izuku did it on cadavers. Might not be very ethical but science was science and he wasn't there for philosophy. He was there for power, revenge, help the forgotten and perhaps even spite. How nice it would feel to show Kacchan, and really the rest of the world actually, that he wasn't as weak as they all believed. That he was actually better than him.

He couldn't wait to be in UA and destroy Kacchan from within the school. Little by little, showing the true nature of the explosion quirked kid, what he'd done, what he could do. He couldn't wait to see his face when they would expel him, angry, sick with it actually. His one true dream, to be the number one hero, thrown into the trash as Izuku's had been, like he had tried to do for their whole childhood. Maybe Kacchan would actually try and turn to villainy as well. That would be fun, he had the exact profile of what people expected of villains. And Izuku would destroy that for him as well. Izuku would surely have enough connection then, enough power, because he wasn't about to just be in someone else's shadow, he would be an ally, he would be Guidance, he would bring hope to those who needed it, and he would crush the people like Kacchan like annoying mosquitoes. And he would have fun doing it.

It was sad, really. He could have gotten along so well with Kacchan, that's all he ever wanted. Such a strong quirk, such a strong mind. They'd been friends, they could have stayed so. But society destroyed Kacchan. A different kind of destruction than Izuku's. It had used the boy's tendencies to think of himself as someone powerful, to push it toward the point where Kacchan was the only strong person and everyone else was a stepping stone. Teachers hadn't said a word, encouraging him to become the best, children followed him with bright eyes, telling him he was going to be the best and already was. Everyone had built the Kacchan that Izuku knew today. The teen wasn't exempt of faults, of course, but if Izuku was going to take revenge on society, one of his first would be his childhood friend. He would be the thing he hated the most : a stepping stone, forgotten by history as Tomura and Izuku would make it.

Now the little voice in Izuku's head who had pleaded for forgiveness was long gone, silenced by what he saw everyday and by what he ignored until now: the state of the country, the shadows in the street victims of the same discrimination as him, and his own power.

So now the two friends didn't hesitate to talk about their plans, their wishes.

Tomura was so excited to kill All Might, to get rid of the Symbol of Peace, to weaken the world and shake it to its core, to show people that no, they weren't safe, they had never been, and that was how the people who couldn't show their faces because of their quirks had been filling since the beginning. It was their time to shine.

He wanted to recruit more people into his League. To be in a league with two people and a half (Izuku didn't know if the half was him or Kurogiri) was simply sad. But socializing wasn't his strong point. He actually relied heavily on Izuku to work on connections later, when he would at UA, if not before. And Izuku was already planning on that.

He wanted to show the underworlds, the slums and the people who lived in it that they had someone to rely on now. Their own hero if they wanted him. No one had claimed the murder of Chronos and it was a bit late for it now but Izuku had prepared enough work to strike down whenever he wanted and show for the first time his name to those who looked for it. Guidance. He sometimes laughed at the name because it sounded far from one for a villain. But maybe it would be easier to trust him this way.

One of his goals was to meet the Hero Killer at some point. He was a shadow but they worked with similar interests in mind, and maybe they could use each other. Stain was less of a figurehead, he really wanted to be the blade, willing to stain himself for a better world because someone had to do it. He still was popular when you know where to look for and Izuku wanted to use that. To show the right people that he was going to do more than just killing the 'fake' heroes.

Izuku was 96% sure that Giran was in contact with the man, whoever he was. He couldn't go to the man and ask him for Stain's contact though, but he would do it some other way. The only problem would be his adoration for the one 'true' hero : All Might. This would end up a very difficult, if not dangerous, conversation. But the idea was too good to be given up on.

On another front of this long and complex preparation, Izuku was working on getting to know Sensei's quirk better. He knew it permitted him to steal and give quirks from others, and that it was a key component in the nomus creation.

Izuku didn't like that. He didn't want to rely on anyone for this creation but science and his brain (and the doctor's lab). He was trying to figure out one thing, one that could end up helping several projects.

He wanted to discover in the DNA the exact gene that gave quirk and how to figure out, with a simple sample of it, how the quirk worked. He could then try and copy it, giving it or annihilate it just with the right technology.

This would help Tomura's skin, which he was already trying to work psychologically on, he had been surprised to see that Sensei didn't try to stop the destructive tendencies of his own son. It would also help his quirk-canceling handcuffs and finally the nomus.

It was all very interesting and Izuku was glad he could truly let go of himself in his project, not stopped by school and stupid teachers.

Maybe Izuku was turning a bit into a mad scientist, but he couldn't help but feel glad of this change.