Chapter Text
There was an undetermined length of awkward silence as Todoroki put his fire out where everyone shifted around awkwardly, not really knowing what to say. Mastermind seemed to find it all amusing, smiling to himself as he stared intensely at Todoroki.
To put everyone, including himself, out of their misery, Shouta decides to bulldoze right over that comment. "Exactly how many students turned villain in your world?" Even from his peripheral, Shouta can see how Todoroki practically deflates from relief now that the attention is off of him.
Mastermind turns toward the hero, giving him a calculating look before finally answering. "I have my ways of receiving information, even in Tartarus, but some of it might not be completely accurate. As I know of, Shouto became a villain and joined the league after his kidnapping, Bakugou murdered someone as a morally grey vigilante and was expelled, and then Tokoyami was pushed out of the class and defaulted to the League."
"What do you mean, pushed out?" Shouta asks, ignoring the stunned gasps.
Another eye roll from the green haired villain, "I mean, that since his mentor, Hawks, joined the league, everyone in the school outcasted him and framed him as a traitor until he broke."
"Oh." Midoriya says. Yeah. Oh.
"That's horrible," Uraraka whispers, horrified, sending Tokoyami a sympathetic look.
Mastermind's smile is cold when he speaks, "Funny how the ones you trust the most will turn on you so quickly the second you take so much as a toe out of line."
Shouta hates how he's right. All it takes is one little rumor, one little spark of mistrust between peers to have everyone turning on each other. There doesn't even need to be substantial evidence, as long as the message comes from a person who is trusted, or a person of power, people will believe anything. Sadly, that's the way it's always been when the people's opinions can be shifted so quickly, and he doesn't really think that will ever change.
Soon enough, multiple people have surrounded Tokoyami into a small group hug, and Shouta looks away to give his students a bit of privacy, only to find Mastermind flipping the knife between his fingers leisurely as he watches on.
"Aw," he coos at them, but his tone is nothing but mocking or condescending. "Isn't that so cute, Eraserhead? They're like a little family," he holds the eye contact with Shouta as he tosses the knife across the room, flying directly next to the students and grazing Todoroki's cheek before imbedding itself into the wall. "It really would be a shame if something bad were to happen to them all."
He's across the room in an instant, wrapping the villain up in his capture scarf and holding him up. Mastermind doesn't even try to fight it, looking relaxed even as the other Midoriya's shout in alarm, scrambling out of the way of Shouta's wrath. "Don't you even think about touching my students, or so help me god I will kill you where you stand." The words are whispered quietly, so much so that only the two of them can hear it, even in the silence of the room.
"My, my, my," Mastermind tilts his head a bit, but his smirk is smug and ever-present. "That's not very heroic of you, Eraserhead."
He effortlessly slips out of the bindings and leaves the scarf in tatters, moving to lean back against the wall as before. Yagi placing a comforting yet strong hand on his shoulder is the only reason Shouta didn't pounce, and even then it's a close thing.
"Watch yourself," Shouta glares at the young villain who only smiles cruelly in return.
"Right back at you, hero."
Shouta turns away then, examining the curious expressions on the students' faces before sighing loudly and attempting to steer the conversation back on track.
"Deku," he calls out, and the quirkless hero-in-training snaps to attention. "What was this about turning the League against themselves?"
"Oh!" he startles, before understanding dawns on his face, "To put it simply, they all found out All For One kidnapped and groomed Shigaraki, and then they were like 'we'll murder someone any day but child abuse is crossing the line' and then they went to the warehouse, and Shigaraki decayed his life support while Dabi burned the whole building down, so—"
"Alright," Shouta holds his hand up as an implication to stop and Deku snaps his head up to look around sheepishly when he's met with the gaping faces of class 1-A. "That's—that's enough of that."
"Wow.” Someone said and—surprise!—its Mastermind again. Shouta needs a raise.
“So Shiggy actually just has raging daddy issues? Damn.” That one actually gets a few chortles out of the kids.
“I still don’t get why we’re here, though.” Viridian adds in quietly, turning the attention towards himself once more. “You guys have told me all about your lives and nothing changed.”
And that’s the main issue really. Shouta for the life of him can’t figure out how to send these troublesome Midoriya’s back where they came from.
“Hold on a second,” Cheat Code suddenly says as he takes the pencil out of his mouth with a thoughtful expression. “Principal Nedzu has access to the police database and quirk registry, surely he can figure out the parameters we need to go back home?”
There’s a laugh from the far side of the room and everyone turns to see Nedzu, smiling sharply as he taps away on a tablet. “You’re quite right Cheat Code, I could have ended this a long time ago. I simply found your interactions entertaining, and wanted it to go on for a bit longer.”
Of course he did, Shouta sighs. Rat.
“All you have to do is touch each-other at the same time, for example, holding hands in a circle.”
“Of course it was that simple, we should have thought of it sooner,” Deku comments as all the Midoriya’s stand up, and even Mastermind reluctantly grabs two hands.
At first, nothing happens, but soon enough all of them start to glow slightly, the brightness getting stronger as the seconds pass.
“Hey, I forgot to ask,” Deku says, addressing the original Midoriya. “How’s Himiko?”
“Himiko, like Himiko Toga?” Midoriya tilts his head, perplexed. “The villain?”
“Villain?” Deku asks this time, confused. “Wasn’t she adopted by Vlad King though?”
A collective, “WHAT?!” can be heard around the room, but sadly, no one gets an answer to the question because the quirk takes that moment to make the alternate Midoriya’s disappear in a flash of light, leaving only the shell shocked original in their wake.
Shouta shrugs, deciding not to worry about it since it’s really not his problem anymore. “Now that that’s over with, I want a raise.”
Nedzu chuckles before turning to walk out of the gym, dragging a significantly cowed All Might with him. “I wouldn’t expect any less, Aizawa.”
And with that he’s gone, and Shouta turns back to his class, only to see Kaminari and Ashido running around the gym, chasing each other with Mastermind’s knives.
Shouta’s eye twitches, as he resigns himself to spending the rest of the day keeping these idiotic hero students from impaling someone, most likely themselves.
When this day is over, Shouta’s going to collect his bonus for dealing with this train wreck, and then he’s going to sleep for a week.
“KAMINARI NO! KNIVES DON’T GO IN ELECTRICAL SOCKETS—!”
”GODDAMNIT—“