A Tarnished Hero

Izuku stomped through the hallways, the empty corridors echoing his footsteps. Despite the event being held in the giant stadium a short walk away from the main building, Nezu stayed in his office for the majority of the event. Unless his presence was required, one only needed to look for him in his office to have a chance of meeting him.

That is, if one could even set foot in this building that was completely off-limits to non-students or non-staff, much more so during this time where anybody and everybody could enter the campus because of the Sports Festival.

From what he's heard, they didn't want a repeat of the last time they were infiltrated, with the press of all people being the distraction. It's why they were a bit spooked when both Blaidd and Patches suddenly popped in because of teleportation, the same method used to attack the students during the USJ.

Now that he thought of it, what would the teleportation used by the villains feel like as opposed to the one that brought him back? He could remember it as clear as day. The vertigo that swept across him as he sailed through the unending expanse of the void. The feeling of clear nothingness as darkness crept all around him.

Would the villain's teleportation be something different than that? Would it at least feel like going through a kaleidoscopic version of it? Izuku would rather take a bunch of colors assaulting his senses than pure darkness… Maybe not, that was just too annoying.

Sighing, Izuku's feet stopped, and he laid his hand on the door leading to Nezu's office. Knocking on it, he heard the rat's voice telling him to come in and he twisted open the door.

"Ah, Midoriya. Quite a surprise to see you here this early." Nezu smiled as he gestured for the couch. "I assumed you would have spent the entire day enjoying the festivities rather than come meet boring me. So, tell me…" Nezu's smile faded. "What is the concern?"

"You know the thing that brought me, Patches, and Blaidd here?" Nezu slowly nodded. "I think it's coming back to get us again."

At that, Nezu grew alarmed. If a normal person were to see the rat now, they would probably think that he wasn't fazed, but Izuku knew better. He could see the rat's fur stand up on edge ever so slightly, his eyes never leaving Izuku as he took a deep breath. Closing them, Nezu let out a deep sigh as he placed his paw on his forehead.

"I assume that with this revelation, you and your entourage would be missing from our campus for the foreseeable future?" Izuku nodded at Nezu's question, the rat sighing deeply once more. "Fortunately, I've already had plans in case that whatever brought you here would likely bring you back. You've already told me about some parts of this land you've been traversing, and I can already tell that you have no plausible way back unless the being that brought you here does the same again, and I doubt that our efforts would help even a smidge in reclaiming you."

"That's pretty much it." Izuku rubbed the back of his head, a sheepish smile floating up his face for but a moment before it was replaced by a determined look. "I also have some… unfinished business in the Lands Between, and I'd wager it'd take quite a while before I finish them all."

"… A shame." Nezu sighed and looked at his laptop. "Despite your methods with teaching the students, there is no doubt that they had tremendous growth during their time under you."

Turning it around, Nezu showed what was being streamed on his screen. Students of all classes, duking it out in a giant urban city, with a ring of light slowly surrounding them. This was one of Izuku's suggested events, a battle royale.

Nights of surfing the web and he came upon this lost relic of an event, but instead of a small arena, it was an entire city. And how do you restrict players? By simply adding a condition that if you cross the ring and do not manage to get back after five seconds, then you're out.

As for how they determined the winners, the event will stop once 42 students remains. Those 42 will be advancing to the next event, an event to which Izuku wasn't privy to. He just suggested mechanics and themes, and Principal Nezu and his staff were the ones to finalize it.

Aside from the main mechanics of the event, Izuku let out a low whistle, his eyes widening slightly as he saw students… His students… Fight like there was no tomorrow. Both hero classes were, to be frank, stomping the other classes he wasn't given supervision of.

The purple midget, one that Melina had a major distaste of, managed to outsmart another student by luring him into his traps. The yells of frustration coming after that was pure bliss to his ears.

That wasn't all. If they weren't lured into them, he made do by outfighting them, using his quirk as tactically as possible to ensure that the one fighting him couldn't do anything but be helpless against the onslaught of the tiny pervert. Hell, some of them even tried to team up against him since the hero class students were obviously separated from each other to give the other classes a fighting chance, but they still weren't able to take him down. Get a few hits here and there? Yes. Knock him on his ass? No.

If one of the weakest of the hero classes was this menacing, then what say the others who were stronger than him?

Outwardly, he didn't show anything, but inwardly, he pitied those he didn't teach. Maybe Nezu could give him a chance to teach them as well. He's taken to liking teaching students. It made him feel like he was doing something that would, in the long-run, benefit hero society as a whole. Increase the job floor, that way, the profession wouldn't be in such a sorry state as it is now, with glory-hounds all looking for their next big break, forgetting those helpless that fall into obscurement.

Maybe they could prevent a tragedy such as his in the future, which the heroes of today failed in doing so. He was lucky that he was brought to the Lands Between to get a second chance, even if that place was a brand of hell all the same, but what about those that didn't have a chance?

They were either a tragedy, or just a statistic on a board.

"Quite a show, isn't it?" Nezu spoke up once the silence got too deep. "Your students have improved leaps and bounds, and nothing makes me giddier than seeing future heroes thrive in a cutthroat environment, despite your spartan regiment."

"Who's gonna hold their hands after they graduate?" Izuku snarked back, causing Nezu to chuckle along. "Certainly not me, and certainly not you either."

"… True." Nezu turned the laptop back around and pushed it to the side, his attention solely focused on Izuku. "Enough about our students, we have three years to teach them all the ins and outs of the hero industry and with your teaching, no matter how brief, they'll be ready once graduation rears its head." Nezu's eyes looked directly into Izuku's own, as if staring into his own soul. "But you, I'm afraid, will be gone soon, with no way to get in touch once you're taken back."

"… Yeah…" Izuku slumped back, only to feel a weight on his shoulders. He didn't react to it, though, just embracing the warmth coming from the hand of the spectral girl right behind him, unseen to the calculating gaze of the rat on his high throne. For a girl without a body, at least from what she has shown, she was considerably warm, like a living, breathing person. "In that case, what's your plan once I'm gone?"

"Why, continue as normal, while simultaneously making sure that your absence is known, but not to the extent that a cosmic, extraterrestrial being whisked you away to do their bidding."

Izuku fell silent at that. Now that he thought about it, did the Greater Will bring him back here for a reason? What else could explain the site of grace just in his house's basement.

But it could also be something else, and the Greater Will wanted him to have some kind of connection to the Lands Between so that it could bring him back after creating counter measures to ensure it doesn't happen again…

Or maybe that was just him rationalizing the actions and thought processes of being far beyond his understanding… Maybe he should just go with the flow when it came to beings such as them… Yeah, maybe he should. He didn't want to lose his remaining sanity pondering about the things that went into the minds of those kinds of beings… or whatever constituted as thoughts to them.

As silence fell upon the room once more, someone suddenly knocked on the door.

"Izuku, I'm here, and I've brought Patches along." Blaidd's voice came from behind and Nezu allowed them entry. The door twisted open and in came the two, the latter of which scowling. Maybe because his business was cut short because of their impending return to the Lands Between.

"Ah, take a seat, we were just talking about possible hypotheticals when it came to beings with the power to rip a tear through the fabric of space and time." Nezu gestured for the seat, while both Blaidd and Patches stared at the rat like he gained a second head.

"Oh… Alright…" Blaidd cleared his throat and took a seat, while it took a hot second before Patched gathered his thoughts and snorted, a light chuckle coming from his lips as he greedily took the comfiest spot on the couch.

"Here I thought you couldn't get any more interesting." Patches slouched his back and grinned at Nezu. "I mean, really, theorizing about those bastards in the sky? Good luck with that. You'd sooner get a more reliable input from the Finger Crone Readers than trusting your tiny little brain."

"… Indeed." Nezu smiled, but Izuku could feel the silent rage bubbling from within the tiny creature. He was the smartest being in the country, quite possibly the world, so for a man such as Patches to belittle him so must've struck a nerve. "However, that is beside the point. Other than poking holes into theories and hypotheses about cosmic beings that could wipe us out in just a blink of an eye, what about your plans for when you're all taken back to the Lands Between?"

"Apologies, but I'm afraid my business is of my own." Blaidd was quick to speak up just to get the ball rolling. "But no worries, I doubt it will affect you in any way. The same goes for this slimy rat here, no offense to you, principal."

"None taken." Nezu waved him off. "Well, with that all settled, I believe it is imperative to prepare for your inevitable departure. Please close the door on your way out."

The three of them stood from their seat and headed out. Looking back, Izuku saw Nezu staring intently at him, before sighing and going back to fiddling with his laptop. Beside him, Melina placed a hand on his shoulder again, letting him know that even with an uncontrollable fate that he had, he wasn't going to go through them alone.

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Katsuki grinned, the shiny gold medal sitting pretty right at the palm of his hand. Turning and tossing it around, he pocketed it after a few seconds of playing around with the shiny thing that signified his win of the Sports Festival.

It was hard fought, with his classmates fighting tooth and nail for that spot. The first event was the hard, but that didn't compare to the second event. Battle Royale? Ha! Try a disaster zone rescue simulation.

It was fucking chaos, with all 42 students, him included, scrambling to and fro through burning buildings, sinking ships, crumbling buildings, landslides, sinking buildings, blizzards, buried buildings… There were a lot of buildings…

They were all grouped into teams, members at their discretion, and were then shuttled off by All Might, showcasing again why he was called the number one hero of Japan, in just a few minutes.

What could have taken hours to prepare, just became a few minutes of finding teammates and a few minutes of being transported by All fucking Might.

The final event was a cakewalk after what they all had to go through in the second event. Cheeks was a fucking menace in that event, making most of the problems go away with her anti-gravity quirk. In contrast, his explosion quirk had to be used sparingly, and only in specific scenarios, otherwise things would just get worse.

Well, whatevs. They advanced to the final event, and all things considered, fighting one on one with his classmates, something he had done a lot of times either with quirks or no quirks under De- Izuku's tutelage — and god, was that a fucking thing he had to get used to — the moment he started teaching.

It showed him a lot of things he did wrong, things he did right, and things that just didn't work, no matter how hard he tried to do it. No matter what anyone says, he was grateful for showing him these things, even if he was still extremely guilty for what had happened.

He clutched at his chest… Maybe… Maybe now was the time. To show him how much he'd grown. It was just… Seeking validation from the person who he had wronged in the past felt like it could lift the burden hanging over his shoulders. It might or might not work, but he wanted to try.

The stadium was just filling out, and most of his classmates were already on their way home. Glasses also had to go home early because of a family emergency. Hopefully, nothing too bad happens.

Now then, where the fuck did Izuku live here again? He was sure that the rat gave him a house within campus, but he didn't bother to look for it during the weeks he stayed there. Probably because his past self was a self-loathing prick and a fucking asshole that didn't want to face his fears.

As he walked through the nearly empty campus, he came across a bald man cleaning up his… What the fuck even is that? Did U.A. really allow him to set up a stall here? It looked like fucking shit!

Setting that aside, that bald man was someone who stuck close to Izuku, so maybe if he followed him, he could maybe see where Izuku lived. So, with a plan in mind, he set to stalking the man. It made him feel like shit, but he was at his wits end, and he was fearful that the high of winning the entire Sports Festival would disappear and he would be once again a pussy to try and apologize to Izuku.

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Minutes of following later, and they finally came upon a house, with people already in them. He could see a man with a mutation quirk that made him look like a halfwolf, and finally, Izuku.

Heart steeled, he step out of his hiding spot and approached them. Izuku side-eyed him, not even bothered by his sudden appearance. Maybe because he already knew he was there. Fucker had a sixth sense when it came to people hiding.

"So, what do you want? It's getting late." Izuku said, not even looking at him as he stared fixated at the box he always had on him.

"… I want to apologize." Katsuki started, the words coming out of his mouth like grinding stones. Izuku raised his eyebrow at the mention, his face finally facing towards him.

"Really?" Izuku tilted his head. "Took you long enough… Okay then, let's hear it."

This… wasn't how he thought Izuku would react. He predicted there would be screaming, and maybe even some punching, but amusement and acceptance was something he didn't even think of.

"… I…" Katsuki's chest felt heavy. His saliva felt like it was clogging his throat, and something had dropped right into his gut. "I…"

Shit, why was this hard? It's just a few fucking words!

"Well? I'm waiting?" The halfwolf beside him, and also the bald man who he had followed, looked at him with a curious gaze and a shit-eating expression respectively.

"… I… fuck…" Katsuki's eyes twitched, the words stuck in his throat and refusing to come out. Breathing in deep, he gathered his resolve and let it loose. "I'm…! WHAT THE FUCK!?"

Above them, a swirling portal appeared. It was huge, very different from the warpgate during the USJ. He felt himself fly into the air, the suction from the portal too great.

Looking at the three people with him, he couldn't help but gape at their looks. Why were they so accepting of this? Hell, even Izuku looked like he was excited. And then their eyes met, and untold horror flickered across his eyes.

The next moment, everything he knew was darkness.

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A/N: Vermintide 2 went on sale for like a dollar. Been playing it ever since. Damn, it's addicting. FOR SIGMAAAAARRR!!!

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