Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Aizawa Shouta was tired.

But this was normal for him—in fact, it would be quite concerning if he wasn’t tired.

But this is a different kind of tired. Some might even say exhausted. And yes, he knew what he signed up for when he became a teacher, but he wasn’t expecting this. But maybe he should have been. After all, every strange thing that happens seems to revolve around his number one problem child, Midoriya Izuku.

So when four other Midoriya’s popped into existence in the middle of a training exercise, Shouta wasn’t angry, or confused, just tired.

Naturally, everyone froze and stared at the four Midoriya’s who were the same, but very different. One was wearing a sleeveless hero costume, and coated in way too many weapons for Shouta’s liking. The one next to him was wearing a UA uniform and had a pencil in his mouth? The next was wearing green goggles and seemed to be fidgeting under all the stares. His sweater read ‘if found return to eraserhead’ (and what the fuck?-) and he looked incredibly small compared to the others. The last one wore a black, green, and red costume with a mask that covered the lower half of his face and calculating green eyes. The other Midoriya was staring at his clones in shock, as was everyone else.

Before anyone could gather their barings, the masked Midoriya grabbed a knife from seemingly nowhere and snatched up the nearest student, which happened to be Uraraka, and held the knife to her throat. Shouta panicked, but before he could react, the masked Midoriya spoke. “Nobody moves. Someone explain.” He shifted the knife and a small amount of blood dribbled off of it and down her neck.

Everyone turned to the real (?) Midoriya but he just shrugged, looking just as confused as the rest.

The Midoriya in the hero costume quickly pulled a gun (Why does he have a gun?) from the holster on his side and shot the other in the arms with rubber bullets, causing the knife to clatter to the floor, and Uraraka to run swiftly out of his reach. Shouta didn’t waste anymore time and he wrapped Midoriya up in his capture weapon, now registering the cold glint in his eye.

Everyone turned as the door slid open and in walked Nedzu and All Might because of course, the rat just sensed this. Shouta could feel the headache coming on. He noticed that the Midoriya tied up in his scarf looked at All Might with a hint of confusion and malice before putting the mask back on.

“Each of you, state your name, age, occupation, quirk, and any other relevant information.” Shouta commanded, flashing his quirk for emphasis and pointing at the Midoriya wrapped up in his capture weapon. Something was definitely off about that one.

A cold grin slid onto his face as he spoke, making everyone shiver. “Midoriya Izuku, but you can call me Mastermind. I’m 16 and I’m the number one villain.” The occupants of the room froze, and Midoriya backed up a bit. “I’m serving life in tartarus with no parole for killing All Might, Endeavor, Mt. Lady, Wash, and threatening the Top 50 heroes, among other things. Don’t know why I’m in my villain costume though.”

They stared at Mastermind, dumbstruck and All Might took a large step back. How could their beloved hero fanboy turn into a malicious mass murderer? “We’ll get back to you.” Shouta said, pointedly turning away from the villian and towards the one with the gun. “Midoriya Izuku, 15, but you can call me Deku - my hero name. I’m a hero course student who got in on recommendations and an analyst for underground heroes.” Shouta sighed. At least this one was sane.

He turned towards the one in the Eraserhead sweater, who was still fidgeting uncomfortably. “M-Midoriya Izuku, 13, and I’m in middle school. I’m also the...v-vigilante called Viridian.” The boy then launched into a storm of incoherent mumbles about what he was up to in his ‘other world’ (?) He eventually shut up when the last Midoriya took the pencil out of his mouth and shoved it into Viridian’s. They stared at him, confused.

He just shrugged. “Helps with the mumbling.” Then he took another pencil out of his pocket and started fiddling with it between his fingers. “Midoriya Izuku, 15, I’m in the support course training as an analyst and strategist as Nedzu’s personal student. Call me Cheat Code.” Nedzu seemed to visibly perk up at that, and there was a malicious glint in his eye.

Shouta made a mental note to keep those two apart at all costs. He ran a hand over his face, entirely done with the day already. Alas, he had a job to do, and so he kept the train wreck going. “Why are you guys here?” He questioned.

“That might be my fault.” Viridian spoke in a quiet voice and all eyes turned towards him. He shrunk a little but continued to talk. “I went after the um...the villain factory without Eraserhead and ran into a villain that hit me with some weird quirk right after saying I needed “a different perspective”. S-sorry Eraser.” He looked a bit sheepish, and Shouta fought the urge to roll his eyes. Reckless problem child.

“Ugh, so all my other selves are some goody two shoes wannabe heroes.” Mastermind rolled his eyes and sprung up, just as Shouta realized he cut through the capture weapon a second too late. He threw a knife directly at Deku, which he barely dodged but luckily, Asui managed to snatch him up with her tongue. This is getting tiring. Shouta stalked over and carefully set to work disarming the villain. By the time he was done he had a disturbingly large amount of knives lined up on the ground as far away from Mastermind as possible.

He scoffed but didn’t resist any longer and instead allowed himself to have his hands and feet bound together and sat on the floor. Most of the students took large steps away from him and Shouta found himself doing the same. Mastermind stared down Midoriya who was watching his four other selves with wide eyes.

Mastermind then turned his attention towards All Might, “I guess Shiggy couldn’t kill you at the USJ without my help, huh? Shame.”

Shouta pointedly ignored this comment and instead addressed the other, sane Midoriya’s. “You never said your quirks.”

“I’m quirkless.” All four said it in unison which was...interesting. So how come Midoriya has a quirk now?

“Did you guys meet All Might after kacchan was attacked by the sludge villain?” Midoriya asked, seemingly bewildered.

“Before. Told me I couldn’t be a hero without a quirk.” Deku said, surprisingly bitterly before huffing in annoyance and sitting next to his villain counterpart.

“Same.” Viridian said in a quiet voice, now fiddling his fingers to distract himself.

“Me too!” Cheat Code chirped, surprisingly happy about this development and now pulling out a small notebook and jotting something down.

“Crushed our dreams like a stale cracker.” Mastermind snarked. Shouta had the sneaking suspicion that if he hadn’t confiscated those knives, they would be lodged in All Might right now. And he honestly can’t even blame them. What kind of number one hero crushes a kid’s dreams? Shouta shot a pointed glare at All Might, who withered under Shouta’s wrath.

Good. It’s what he deserved.

Still, he steeled himself because he had work to do.

“The villain said he wanted you to have a different perspective?” Nedzu asked. Viridian nodded, now toying with marbles from a pouch in his utility belt.

“So what, they just spill their guts to goggles and they go back to where they came from?” Bakugou barked and the Midoriya’s all had very different reactions. Viridian flinched violently and shrunk in on himself, Mastermind smirked as if daring him to do something, Cheat code ignored him as if he wasn’t even there, and Deku just stared at him, almost surprised.

“Worth a shot,” Cheat code shrugged and sat with the others, Viridian and Midoriya following his lead. Nedzu and All Might walked toward Shouta and the class huddled around the five, still cautious. “We’ll start with you,” Shouta pointed at Deku.

“Start from after the sludge villain incident, since that seems to be a turning point for all of us. We were all on the same path until that day, and we went into five different directions.” Cheat Code supplied, still scribbling frantically in his notebook.

“You are quite smart, Cheat Code. I can see why I took you on as a personal student.” Nedzu remarked, eyes blazing with curiosity. Shouta groaned inwardly, and resisted the urge to face palm. “I’m also your personal student!” Deku chimed in, “We’re running a slander campaign for Endeavor, at the moment.” Shouta blinked slowly.
What.

“We’ll get back to that later.” He supplied, sending a pointed look at Deku's way, which he just matched with the same ferocious intensity and a smug grin. What the hell.

Who are these problem children, and what did they do with Midoriya?

Chapter Text

“So it all started when All Might told me I couldn’t be a hero.” Deku started his spiel, and Shouta was already exhausted. He would have to ask the problem child if that also happened to him — which in hindsight, it probably did — and lecture All Might about how to treat kids.

Deku began his tale by meeting a bunch of underground pros online by submitting his analysis. Helping them with cases and eventually meeting them in person — revealing himself to be a child.

“They actually thought I was an old retired pro!” Deku chirped, which made Mastermind roll his eyes and mumble something vulgar about heroes.

“Anyway, long story short, they all recommended me for UA and then I became a hero in training!”

All? “How many pros recommended you, Problem Child?” Shouta groaned.

“Uh…” Deku seems to contemplate for a moment before speaking. “Mr.Brave, Ms.Joke, Sir Nighteye, you,” he points at Shouta, who tries hard to hide his surprise. “And 11 other pro heroes. Why?” he tilted his head in confusion as if this was a perfectly normal experience. Shouta just sighed again, for the umpteenth time that day, and gazed back at his gaping students.

“That’s so cool! You must be really smart then.” Kaminari remarked, looking at Deku in awe. Shouta noticed Viridian perk up at the sound of Kaminari’s voice in his peripheral vision, but decided not to say anything about it. Meanwhile, Deku turned red and started spluttering out thanks and deflecting the praise. Shouta rolled his eyes. Well, at least one thing hasn’t changed.

He closes his eyes and wills the five Midoriya’s to just go back to their universes? dimensions? where they came from. He opens them again to find five green-haired problem children staring back at him. It didn’t work. Oh well.

“Moving on.” He gestures towards Viridian who looked up at him with confusion before tuning back into the conversation. “Oh! I um...after the whole— All Might thing, I became a vigilante for...” he looks at Shouta with something akin to guilt or regret before continuing, “reasons...anyways! I work mostly with pros like Eraserhead and Amplifier. Actually, I wouldn’t say work with...they’re trying to arrest me, and Endeavor tried to kill me but I get away most of the time! And we’re investigating the villian factory right now so—“

“Endeavor tried to kill you?” Todoroki interrupts, his blank expression looking slightly enraged. Viridian turns to him, with confusion evident on his features before recognition sets in — probably recognizing Todoroki. He starts flailing his hands in front of his face aggressively while speaking, “Only twice!”

What the hell, Problem Child.

“And one time it didn’t count because that was after he was kidnapped by All For One and modified with a kill order for me specifically ingrained into his brain, and he died anyway, so—“

“What the fuck.” It’s Bakugou who speaks this time, voicing the thoughts of just about everyone in the room.

“That is...quite concerning,” Nedzu says thoughtfully.

“What about the first time he tried to kill you?” Mastermind asks, uncharacteristically curious with venom in his eyes.

“Oh! There was this villian that I was trying to stop who was hyped up on Trigger and then Endeavor came and set the entire building on fire trying to kill the villain and me! But it’s not as bad as it sounds, don't worry, I got everyone out before the building collapsed!” Viridian replied obliviously.

Everyone openly gaped at the vigilante and he started to squirm before Mastermind broke the uncomfortable silence. “So he deserved it.”

Shouta decided to dissect that comment at a later date and instead turned to the hopefully normal Midoriya, or Cheat Code.

“What about you?”

“Oh!” Cheat code exclaimed before taking the pencil out of his mouth. “I applied for the support course learning analysis and strategy under Nedzu! Me and my friend Mei just finished our extra credit assignment of getting Shinsou into the hero course through the sports festival. And then we went on an internship to I-Island.” He explained before popping the pencil back in. Then he leaned over and picked up the one on the floor in front of Viridian and putting it back into his mouth, silencing his mumbling.

“Where’d the name Cheat Code come from?” Hakagure asked.

“USJ.” The atmosphere became grim as they remembered that horrific day. “I was analyzing your class through the cameras — Nedzu gave me access — and I saw what happened. I was able to hack in and get control of the building remotely and help. And I might have…” he winced, “antagonized Shigaraki as ‘Cheat Code’. And Mei helped too! But he doesn’t actually know who I am so it’s fine!”

Mastermind rolled his eyes and Deku stared at Cheat Code in shock.

“Well…” Kirishima mumbled somewhere in the background.

“Hey, Uraraka! Did you get the teleportation under control?” Cheat Code suddenly asked.

Uraraka looks confused. “What?”

“You know...the mutation of your quirk?” he asks hesitantly, and doesn’t that raise questions.

Cheat Code clearly saw the confusion painted on her face and dissolved into a mess of mumbles that were unintelligible to all except the Midoriyas.

“Anyways, tell us your villain backstory!” Ashido chirped, clapping her hands together. Most of the people present in the room whirled around to face her. She frowned a bit. “What? Don’t tell me I’m the only one who wants to know…”

Shouta sighed again and fought off the urge to slam his head into the nearest wall as he said, “Go ahead.”

Mastermind grinned creepily as he explained that All Might told him he couldn’t be a hero and went into an in-depth description of his deep dive into villainy. His first few months completely online, meeting Toga and Giran, and his first in-person meeting. Then...the first job he ever did, his first kill, and the time he almost got caught. It was...dark, to say the least. “So then, I met Kurogiri and Shiggy and they paid me to help them with the USJ attack! The nomu failed, so I got to kill All Might myself.” he smiled as if he was talking about getting ice cream and not murdering the symbol of peace.

“What the hell, SHITTY DEKU!” Bakugou lunged for a literal supervillain palms crackling ominously.

Before Shouta could blink there was a knife to Bakugou’s gut and Mastermind was the one holding it. He had managed to unbind himself?! And where did he get another knife? “Watch it, kacchan,” he said coldly, a sinister grin creeping onto his face. He said the nickname with a mocking tone to it. Bakugou paled. “I can kill you if I want. Remember that.” Mastermind stepped back and away, tucking the knife into some hidden pocket and sitting back against the wall.

All Might moved closer to the young villain because apparently, he has a goddamn death wish. “Young Mastermind—“

“Touch me and I’ll slit your throat.”

No one made another move towards Mastermind.

He then resumed his story, telling them about the overthrow of the Hero Commission, the takedown of the Meta Liberation Army, and the murder of his father. Everyone had taken multiple steps away from Mastermind during his spiel and there was now a ten-foot radius around where he sat.

Shouta, being the only brave soul, decided to ask the questions. “How did a quirkless teenager evade capture for 2 years?”

Mastermind rolled his eyes again, “I threatened to release the weaknesses and plans to kill the Top 50 heroes. And I also sent the kill order for the hero Wash while he was in police custody. Maybe it would be wise that you don’t underestimate me Eraserhead.” He snarled, a murderous aura surrounding him.

“Are you a part of the league?” Nedzu asked, curious still. The damn rat acted like he wasn’t talking to a mass murderer.

“No, but he is.” Mastermind pointed at the crowd of students? No. Todoroki. Definitely gonna look into that one later.

“He killed Endeavor for his debut.” Mastermind laughed, a cold hard laugh. Todoroki looked sick. The other students were crowding around him, creating a protective barrier between him and the villian.

“You’re lying.” Midoriya growled (that’s new? Shouta could’ve sworn he only spoke as a stuttering blushing mess—) at his villain counterpart who leveled him with a glare. “What reason do I have to lie? I wanna get out of here as much as you do. Even tartarus is better than this place.” he grumbled, slumping back against the wall.

“Can we get him out of here?” Iida demanded with a swift chop, “I don’t think it is wise to keep a villain on school groun—“

“No.” Nedzu said sharply, walking up to Mastermind as if he was a caged animal. “He must stay with his four other selves. The faster we figure this out, the easier it will be to send them all back to their respective universes.”

Shouta nodded, because as much as he hated to admit it, the rat had a point.

“Maybe we try to review events that happened in this timeline, to see if they are similar to yours.” Cheat Code suggested.

There were nods of affirmation around the circle - and a shrug from Mastermind - and so they began.

“Uh…what happened at the USJ for you guys?” Midoriya asked.

“I already told you.” Cheat Code said as he went back to scribbling in his notebook.

“Same.” From Mastermind.

“Wasn't there.”

“I was sent to the shipwreck zone with Mineta and Asui but we escaped. Eraser and Thirteen were hurt bad, but All Might beat the Nomu.” Deku supplied easily.

“So yours is very similar to ours…” All Might noted.

“Did you guys ever meet Stain?” Midoriya asked as he glanced at Cheat Code’s notes over his shoulder.

“Nope!”

“No.”

“Yes.”

“I killed him.”

Everyone turned to Mastermind at that but he just rolled his eyes and sighed heavily, “I’m a villain? What did you expect? He was bitching because I killed All Might. It was him or me. And I saved one of your lives in the process.” He sends a pointed look at the cluster of students, gesturing with a knife.

“Who’s?” Shouta asked, already knowing the answer.

“Little Ingenium.”

So he went after Stain in both worlds. This was giving Shouta a massive headache.

“What about the training camp?” He groaned, not wanting to know what happened that time.

“I got kidnapped!” Deku says cheerily as if it were the most natural thing in the world.

Problem Child.

“Training camp?” Cheat Code asked before dissolving into a fit of mutters, pencil forgotten.

“And I uhm...may have…accidentally turned the league against All For One in the process.” Deku adds sheepishly. What the fuck.

“Well get back to that later,” Shouta sighs, fighting a migraine and gesturing to the other green-haired children.

“I don’t go to UA.” Viridian reminded everyone.

“I helped the League kidnap Shouto and make him turn villain.” Mastermind sighs, with an eternally bored expression on his face as he flipped the knife between his fingers.

The fact that he referred to Todoroki by his first name this whole day has been…unsettling, to say the least. Todoroki didn’t even move, just stared at Mastermind with a cold fury.

“And we’re dating.”

Todoroki burst into flames.

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—“