Vigilant: Part 2 - An MHA AU Story

Chapter 9: Atlas Tales

Izuku's eyes burned green with hatred as his fingers wrapped around the man's throat. His only remaining sense of humanity, and the audible pleading from his friends in the room kept him from squeezing.

"Izuku!" Mei begged.

"...You have thirty seconds to explain yourself before I rip you apart!" He couldn't even find mercy in his heart. Maeko Hatsume, the man who murdered his friends, was standing there defenseless.

"I-Izuku Midoriya." He choked. "P-Please let me g-go!"

"Why should I?!" Izuku hissed.

"C-Can't breathe, idiot!"

Mei quickly raised her arm, activating a hidden wrist blaster. "Release your grip or I'll shoot you! We didn't come all this way just to do this!"

"Deku... I think he's Markus Handsaw. Let him go." Katsuki said rather calmly. His eyes were narrowed and stern.

Izuku bared his teeth as his fingers loosened on Maeko's throat. Immediately, he pulled away and coughed for air.

Mei lowered her weapon.

"Talk." Izuku demanded. Katsuki folded his arms and faced the ex-villain.

"Look..." Maeko sighed as he straightened up. "I know you're not going to believe me but I need you to hear the full story. And no, it's not going to justify my actions. I don't expect you to change your mind about me."

The two heroes glared at him in less-than-patient silence.

"Did you know about him?" Izuku asked, turning to Mei.

She shook her head. "I'm fully aware of what he's done but I want to give him a chance. You should too."

Maeko nodded in gratitude to his sister then bowed in respect to the heroes. "This whole thing is about what's in my head. Or...what was."

"Damn right." Katsuki said.

"I'm serious." Maeko stated. "When I was younger, I wanted to be an inventor like Mei. But I was diagnosed with schizophrenia. Despite acing everything and having the chance to go to places like I-Island, I was ultimately rejected for my unstable mind. So I attempted to use my Quirk to create artificial intelligence. A code that would help me just to focus..."

"I'm going to stop you there." Izuku waved his arm. "You killed my friends. Why did the government hire you?!" More and more emotion cracked his voice than before.

"They didn't hire me! Atlas Tech did!" Maeko answered.

"Who what now?" Katsuki asked.

"Atlas Tech! An American-based corporation that specializes in Quirk tech used to help control unstable and-"

"I got it." Izuku stopped him. "Go on."

"Atlas have a team of lawyers that appeared before the United Nations two years ago and presented the case for the Accords to pass. They gathered up as much evidence as they could find where heroes abused their powers and it cost lives. All they needed was a big catastrophe from someone like you." The pink-haired young man explained.

"Which you caused." Izuku hissed. His eyes glowed bright green.

"Atlas has been pulling the strings the entire time! They brought me to you and to your friends and they patched up my reputation for the Japanese government!"

"So what does this have to do with the AI in your head?" Mei asked.

"I thought my AI code would only help me control my thoughts...but it only corrupted them. Like a rubber ball bouncing from one stretchy surface to the other, building in intensity. My thoughts and the AI both became the source for my mental descent."