Newsworthy

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Bakugo had never paid super close attention to the news, but that had changed over the last ten months. Deku was still missing, and they had absolutely no leads on where he could have gone. Bakugo himself was the only reason the investigation hadn't been dropped; he'd found one of Deku's notebooks in his backpack and shown it to the police, convincing them he would be a real danger if left in enemy hands.

Still, though the search yielded no results. The news had been quiet and uninteresting, until last night. A new vigilante had suddenly appeared near Sir Nighteye's hero agency, taking out some thugs before getting into a scuffle with Nighteye himself. Although they tried to paint him in a negative light, the people he'd saved were gushing about his heroism in their interviews. It was obvious that the public already loved him. The most surprising part was that he'd gotten away.

The new vigilante didn't bother hiding his face, and it was obviously not Deku, but still... something about the situation reeked of his convoluted plans and excessive thinking. Bakugo had no idea how it could possibly be related, but watching the events on camera, he just felt in his gut that Deku was somehow involved.

Unfortunately, he didn't have time to look into it yet; the U.A. entrance exam was coming up just the day after tomorrow, and he was going to crush it.

*                *                *

Midoriya still wasn't quite sure how, but he'd gotten away with it. He'd gotten the information All For One needed, so he wasn't punished, but he also came into direct contact with Sir Nighteye successfully. During the encounter, Midoriya had dropped hints during his taunting, subtle enough that anyone other than that particular hero would have most likely missed it.

He'd shown hints of his possession of multiple quirks, vaguely referencing that he served a powerful boss while giving him meaningful looks. He intentionally got close enough for hand-to-hand combat and looked into his eyes, allowing Sir Nighteye to use his quirk on him before letting him go. The hero had done it incredibly skillfully, making it look as though Midoriya had really gotten the better of him, but Midoriya was nearly positive that the pro-hero could have stopped him if he'd wanted to.

All For One didn't trust Midoriya completely, not yet, but he did have confidence in himself to a fault. The leader of the villains was so sure of himself and his skills, he often overlooked small details and mistakes. Due to his raw power, he'd never had to worry about it before, but then again, he'd never had to deal with anyone like Izuku Midoriya before either.

Small details and mistakes. Mistakes like explicitly forbidding Midoriya from helping the heroes fight against him. Mistakes like explicitly forbidding Midoriya from killing him when he got the chance. Those mistakes would catch up to him eventually, Midoriya knew.

When he'd come back, All For One had been wearing a grim smile, like this was exactly what he'd been going for. Midoriya, fully aware that Sir Nighteye's quirk allowed him to see everything he did—and also aware that the man's morality would stop him from looking further than what he needed to know about All For One—made sure to avoid contact with Tomura and Kurogiri until the next day. He still didn't know why he felt a certain fondness for them, but until he figured it out, he only wanted to betray All For One, not the whole team.

A life of vigilantism where he was allowed to save people to his heart's content, as long as he also expanded the League's power in the criminal underworld, was something he could get used to while he developed his plan to kill All For One. Unfortunately, that wasn't the life he was going to get.

"You want me to what?" he said, his voice a disgruntled mix between incredulous and completely done. He had to work to keep Wrath quiet enough to hear All For One's words over his own internal screaming.

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